Tampered Treats (Halloween, 2009)

http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=11411508

WLBT-TV [Jackson, MS]
30 October 2009

Mid-South father found blades in bag of candy

CORDOVA, TN (WMC-TV) - A Mid-South father says he thought it was just an urban myth before he found razor blades inside a package of Kit Kat bars purchased at Wal-mart.

Zach Bourneman says his son wanted to dip into the Halloween candy a little early. But Bourneman received a scare when he opened the bag of treats. Inside the bag of miniature Kit Kat bars, he found two box-cutter blades wrapped in cellophane tape. [...]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/parents-find-razor-blades-needle-in-halloween-loot/article1347150/

Globe and Mail [Toronto, ON]
1 November 2009

Parents find razor blades, needle in Halloween loot
Toronto — Globe and Mail Update and The Canadian Press

Toronto Police are warning parents to take a closer look at their child's Halloween treats after a North York family discovered a razor blade in a loot bag. [...]

http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/622568

The Record [Cambridge, ON]
1 November 2009

Syringe found in Halloween bag in Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE — Parents are being asked to check through Halloween candy after a girl brought home a syringe in her trick-or-treat bag. [...]

http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/139079

newsdurhamregion.com [ON]
1 November 2009

Needle found in Halloween candy
WHITBY -- Halloween was a lot scarier for a local family after a parent found a needle in a piece of Halloween candy last night. [...]

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/139413/group/home/

Grand Forks Herald [ND]
1 November 2009

GF resident reports needle in Halloween candy

By: Herald Staff Report, Grand Forks Herald

An officer from the Grand Forks Police Department took a complaint today from a citizen who said he was stuck by a sewing needle when eating his child’s Halloween candy, according to a news release. [...]

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/9013857.html

The Chronicle-Herald [Halifax, NS]
1 November 2009

N.S. mom finds razor blade in applePolice warn parents to inspect candy
By THE CANADIAN PRESS

MELVERN SQUARE — RCMP are reminding parents to inspect their children's Halloween loot after a Nova Scotia woman discovered a scary surprise in her child's treats.

The Annapolis County woman told police she found a razor blade hidden within an apple that her child received Saturday night. [...]

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2009/10/31/story_candy_warning.html?sid=102

WBNS-TV [Columbus, OH]
31 October 2009

Pill Found In Child's Halloween Candy
ALEXANDRIA, Ohio — A parent reported to police that she found a prescription pill after her child went trick-or-treating, 10TV's Brittany Westbrook reported. [...]

The family claimed that the pill was pressed inside the cream-filled center. [...]

http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2157223

The Sudbury Star [ON]
2 November 2009

Halloween treat in New Sudbury contained a piece of glass
Greater Sudbury Police are asking the public to double check their kids' Halloween treats after a piece of glass turned up in a treat bag in New Sudbury Saturday night. [...]

http://granitebaypt.com/detail/134002.html?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=&user_id=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&event_ts_to=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=1&sub_type=&town_id=

Granite Bay View [CA]
3 November 2009

Hypodermic needle found in kid's candy bag
Police investigating incident
Nathan Donato-Weinstein

[...] Roseville residents in one neighborhood are being urged to check their children's Halloween candy after a trick-or-treater reportedly found a hypodermic needle in his bag of loot. [...]

http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-news-tack-candy-story,0,2845963.story

KFOR-TV [Oklahoma City]
3 November 2009

Tack in candy
Russell Carter Reporting

EDMOND, OK -- An Edmond woman is upset after her eight-year-old nephew made a shocking discovery inside of his Halloween candy. According to Amy Gullett, someone stuffed a full size tack inside of a candy pumpkin and then placed it in her nephew's bag. Luckily he didn't eat it. [...]

http://www.metronews.ca/halifax/local/article/358626--cape-breton-police-investigating-after-pin-found-in-kid-s-halloween-candy-bar

Metronews.ca [Halifax, NS]
3 November 2009

Cape Breton Police investigating after pin found in kid's Halloween candy bar

Helicopters Carrying Taliban Fighters (Afghanistan)

http://www.iwpr.net/?p=arr&s=f&o=356886&apc_state=henh

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Helicopter Rumour Refuses to Die
Many Afghans believe foreign forces providing support for insurgents in the north.

By Ahmad Kawoosh in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 343, 26-Oct-09)

Persistent accounts of western forces in Afghanistan using their helicopters to ferry Taleban fighters, strongly denied by the military, is feeding mistrust of the forces that are supposed to be bringing order to the country. [...]

Animal Shelter Mass Euthanasia

http://www.27east.com/story_detail.cfm?id=242198&town=Southampton&n=Animal%20shelter%20supervisor%20dispels%20rumors%2C%20focuses%20on%20adoptions

The Southampton Press [NY]
27 October 2009

Animal shelter supervisor dispels rumors, focuses on adoptions

By Bryan Finlayson

The Town of Southampton Animal Shelter was deluged with phone calls last Thursday following the spread of an internet rumor that the facility was going to euthanize all of its 130 cats and 30 dogs within seven days. [...]

[The shelter's assistant supervisor complained that of the hundreds of people who called expressing concern about the rumor, not one was willing to adopt an animal.]

Baby Boom: Missouri, 2009

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1581881.html

Southeast Missourian
27 October 2009

Baby boom?: Winter ice storm might be causing uptick in births in coming weeks

By Michelle Felter - Standard Democrat

SIKESTON, Mo. -- It's been nine months since ice storms crippled Southeast Missouri, leaving many without electricity for days.

But things were apparently still heating up in some homes, as local hospitals are expecting an increase in births over the next few weeks. [...]

Golf Ball Crisps

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8322513.stm

BBC News Magazine
23 October 2009

In praise of scepticism

Clive James

[In his essay on skepticism and gullibility, James reveals that sometimes errant golf balls, mechanically harvested along with potatoes, are turned into potato crisps (or chips, as we say in North America).

[...] Apparently a golf ball yields precisely 18 slices. All 18 slices of the golf ball, along with the thousands of slices of potato, go into the cooking process and emerge at the other end as something hard to distinguish, visually, from crisps. [...]

Korans Desecrated (Afghanistan)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan-koran26-2009oct26,0,2243260.story

Los Angeles Times
25 October 2009

Afghans protest rumored desecration of Koran by U.S. troops

By Laura King

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan - Hundreds of angry protesters in Afghanistan's capital today burned an effigy of President Obama, acting on rumors that American troops had desecrated the Koran.

U.S. military officials emphatically denied that any copies of the Muslim holy book had been mishandled, and accused the Taliban of spreading falsehoods to incite hatred against Western forces. [...]

Cannibal Rumors (South Africa)

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global%5B_id%5D=29886

The Witness [South Africa]
24 October 2009

E-mail causes ‘cannibal’ scare

Sharlene Packree

CANNIBALS, missing people, decomposing bodies with missing organs … While this sounds like a good horror movie, these are in fact the contents of a hoax e-mail that is causing hysteria among residents in Phoenix and Verulam, north of Durban. [...]

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article164479.ece#

Times Live [South Africa]
24 October 2009

'Cannibals' rumour sparks fear in Durbs

By Corrinne Louw

Hundreds of concerned Phoenix, Verulam and Inanda residents were conned this week by a hoax e-mail and reports of a "black magic cannibal".

News of a "half-human, half-animal thing" circulated in schools, shops and businesses after hundreds of people descended on the Amaoti police station in Inanda last Sunday to enquire about two alleged cannibals. [...]

Platypus

Sydney Morning Herald

20 October 2009

Column 8

''Reading your paragraph giving the derivation of platypus as 'flat foot' took me back to Canberra in the 1960s,'' writes Laurie Malone, of Bilgola (Column 8, Friday). ''With the opening of Lake Burley Griffin, the ACT police decided they should have water police like all the other police forces. So a water police station was set up, water police appointed and a water police boat purchased. The police authorities decided the boat should have an appropriate name. So they approached a professor of classics at ANU for a name. They were a little surprised and a little disappointed when he suggested 'Platypus'. They were expecting a more classical name but accepted, thinking that the name of an Australian water-loving animal was OK, if a little pedestrian. It was many years before the penny finally dropped.'' [...]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Canberra Times

20 April 2004

Flat chat on course for a boat's name

IT'S 40 YEARS this month since April showers swelled the hitherto modestly babbling Molonglo into a river big enough to fill Lake Burley Griffin for the first time. A reader who read last weekend's Our Great Lake supplement in this paper with its story about the Water Police is reminded of another tale. The Water Police story mentioned the first police launch, the Platypus.

''Mine is a tale which certainly had currency in ANU circles at the time, though whether or not apocryphal I cannot say,'' the reader writes. ''The then ACT Police Commissioner or other some such exalted officer was casting around for an appropriate name for the first police launch and, encountering at a function one night the then Master of University House, the erudite Emeritus Professor A.D. Trendall, sought his assistance. Trendall suggested the name Platypus. With occasional sightings of this creature in the Molonglo, so recently replaced by the lake, the name seemed eminently suitable and so was adopted for the vessel and for its successor.

''The commissioner may not have realised at the time that, before his appointment as Master, Dale Trendall was a much respected Greek scholar and with something of a sense of humour - 'platypus' derives from the Greek, 'platypous', meaning flat-footed.'' [...]

http://www.afp.gov.au/about/customs_and_traditions/afp_emblem.html
Australian Federal Police
AFP Emblem – The platypus

Unverified Mountain Lion Sightings

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125554858267385473.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Wall Street Journal
15 October 2009, p. A1

There's Nothing So Rare as a Cougar in Missouri
Still, Many Sightings Reported; Mistaking Tabby for a Mountain Lion

By JUSTIN SCHECK

[...] Apocryphal big cats, on the other hand, are infesting the heartland faster than ever, thanks to a combination of mistaken sightings and deliberate hoaxes -- and the tendency of the Internet to magnify assertions. [...]

Gang Initiation: Killing Women

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/text_messages_sent_to_elizabet.html

The Star-Ledger [NJ]
15 October 2009

Text messages sent to Elizabeth, Newark students about rumored gang initiation considered a hoax

By James Queally/The Star-Ledger

The ominous text message recently sent to dozens of high school students in Newark and Elizabeth sounded plausible -- as well as deadly.

"Oct. 21st starts gang initiation week they are rumored to try to kill 140 Woman.PLZ FORWARD This can save our women!" reads the foreboding text.

The fear-mongering messages convincingly refer to a gang initiation rite called "Red October," when prospective Bloods kill to earn their gang stripes. [...]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/10/20/2009-10-20_cops_vigilant_for_potential_gang_slashings.html

New York Daily News
20 October 2009

Cops vigilant for potential gang slashings

BY Rocco Parascandola

Cops across the city are on alert for a Bloods initiation drive that calls for 145 slashings, police sources said Monday. [...]

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/gang.threat.hoax.2.1262220.html

CBS2 [Chicago]
21 October 2009

Police: Gang Threat Against Woman Is E-Mail Hoax
Similar Hoaxes About Gang Initiation Have Been Around For Decades

CHICAGO (CBS) ― An e-mail claiming that Chicago gang members plan to kill women as a part of initiation is a hoax, police say.

The e-mail, which has been circulating for at least the past week, claims that gang initiation starts on Wednesday, Oct. 21. The e-mail claims that gang members plan to kill 140 women in total, and that women will be targeted around the Chicago area. [...]

http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-hartford-hoax1029oct29,0,3725495.story

The Hartford Courant [CT]
28 October 2009

Hartford Police Chief Says Gang Text Messages Are A Hoax

By JEFFREY B. COHEN

The Hartford Courant

HARTFORD - Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts says that recent e-mails, text messages and tweets regarding "a nationwide gang initiation" that targets 140 women are a "hoax." [...]

Cape Town's Passion Gap

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/6268127/Cape-Towns-passion-gap-sexual-myth-or-fashion-victimhood.html

Daily Telegraph [UK]
7 October 2009

Cape Town's passion gap: sexual myth or fashion victimhood?

Dental modification is a teenage rite of passage for some in Cape Town - one that has been around for 60 years.

By Fran Blandy in Cape Town

[...] One of the most enduring images of mixed-race South Africans known as coloureds is the frequent absence of their front teeth, a mystery to many but popularly believed to facilitate oral sex.

This sexual myth - not borne out by research - has seen the trend referred to as the "Passion Gap" or the "Cape Flats smile", after a populous neighbourhood. [...]

Organ Theft Rumors (Uzbekistan)

http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&sub=hot&cid=4&nid=11525

UZNEWS.NET
9 October 2009

Hunt for children’s organs rumours dreading Tashkent

Uznews.net – Rumours about the killings of children by a group of unidentified individuals in residential areas to remove their organs have been dreading residents of Tashkent for the past two weeks. [...]

An official of the Uzbek Prosecutor-General’s Office who asked not to name him said that a group of criminals had been killing people to take their organs in the capital. They sell these organs in Western countries, he suggested. [...]

Blimp Spies on Women (Afghanistan)

http://www.canada.com/Giant+blimp+Kandaharis+edge/2082348/story.html

Canada.com
7 October 2009

Giant blimp has Kandaharis on edge.

By Bruce Ward, Canwest News Service

KANDAHAR CITY, Afghanistan - There's a giant blimp, white with three tail fins, hanging over the city these days and it's causing a stir among Kandaharis who believe the Americans are using it to spy on them.

And it could be they're right.

``Many people believe it's a spy blimp that can see through walls to look at our women,'' said Ghulam Ghami, a local fixer attuned to the buzz in coffee shops and kebab stands. [...]

American Tourist Takes Stamps Overseas

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/column-8/column-8-20091008-gne2.html

Sydney Morning Herald
8 October 2009

Column 8

[...] "When my wife and I were on a Danube cruise from Germany to Romania a few years ago," writes Jim Hunt of Running Stream, "we would spend time in a series of countries for a day or so. One of our American fellow travellers observed that she knew from past experience the hassle of changing money into the local currency to buy postcards and stamps to send home. However, on this trip she had overcome the problem 'by bringing plenty of American stamps from home'." [...]

Stolen Hair Used in Axis Bomb-Sights (1942 Rumor)

Theo Paijmans, "The Phantom Barber of Pascagoula." Fortean Times #254 (November 2009), pp. 30-1.

[In 1942 citizens of Pascagoula, Mississippi, were alarmed by reports that an unknown assailant was breaking into homes and cutting the hair of the occupants while they slept. Some people suggested that the "phantom barber" was actually a "Fifth Columnist, working to collect hair for Axis bomb-sights" ("Steals Their Hair While They Sleep[:] Strange Exploits of the Phantom Barber," San Antonio (Texas) Light, 30 August 1942). A man arrested for using an iron bar to batter a couple in their bedroom was also accused of being the phantom barber, which he may have very well been. He also happened to have a connection to Germany. -- bc]

Evening Tribune (Marysville, Ohio), 14 August 1942, pp. 1, 3.

"Phantom Barber" Caught After Intensive Search

PASCAGOULA, Miss., Aug. 14 -- Police Chief A. W. Ezell claimed today that "the phantom barber" who broke into at least 10 homes to cut the hair of the sleeping occupants is William A. Dolan, 57, a German educated chemist.

Dolan, Ezell announced, has been in jail for three weeks and is charged with attempted murder. His motivation, Ezell charged, was to impair the morale of war workers. [...]

Ezell and Morris Talley, Pinkerton detective who was worked on the case for six weeks, said several persons had signed statements that Dolan had expressed sympathy for Germany.

Child Abduction Rumors (Northern Ireland)

http://www.ballymenatimes.com/news/Attempted-child-abduction-urban-myth.5664834.jp

Ballymena Times [Northern Ireland]
22 September 2009

Attempted child abduction 'urban myth' - say police

By Staff reporter

RIFE rumours that a little girl had been abducted recently in a Ballymena supermarket were completely unfounded, a local police officer has said.

The circulating speculation included a rumour that the young victim had been led into shop toilets where she was put into boys’ clothes and even given a shaved head to mask her identity by her phantom abductors. [...]

http://u.tv/News/Abduction-story-is-NI-urban-legend/0c4b7b69-386b-488f-ad04-c3722aa7aa5a

UTV [UK]
28 September 2009

Abduction story is NI 'urban legend'

The PSNI have refuted rumours of attempted child abductions at various supermarkets throughout Northern Ireland. [...]

Preserved Bodies on the Bottom of Lake Tahoe

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aiL0u94iIizc

Bloomberg
28 September 2009

Corpses, Hungry Bears Embellish Lake Tahoe Non-Casino Pleasures

By Peter J. Brennan

[...] “The world isn’t ready for what’s down there,” is the apocryphal quote attributed to the late marine explorer Jacques Yves Cousteau in the 1980s and repeated to us by our white-water rafting guide on the Truckee River. [...]

The lake rumor is that dozens if not hundreds of bodies, including Mafia victims, are perfectly preserved near the bottom. Our rafting guide theorized that bodies cannot float in such cold, fresh water and there aren’t enough bacteria at the bottom to dispose of the remains. [...]

The Dismantled Plane

Bill Kaysing, We Never Went to the Moon (Cornville, AZ.: Desert Publications, 1981), p. 186.

THE DISMANTLED PLANE

While in Las Vegas in 1976, I met a man who told me the following story which he claimed was true. It seems a doctor and his family accidentally flew over the secret DOE (formerly NTS) base north of Vegas. The base is definitely off-limits to both air and surface travel. It is also the region that I claim was used for "lunar" photography. The doctor's plane was forced down by USAF fighter planes and was totally dismantled...evidently searching for a hidden camera. The doctor and his family were questioned at great length and finally released. The plane was shipped back to the doctor in pieces.

Heavy Petting in Hot Tub Leads to Pregnancy

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehumancondition/archive/2009/09/24/attention-_2700_glee_2700_-fans-a-hot-tub-cannot-get-you-pregnant.aspx

Newsweek

THE HUMAN CONDITION [Blog]
24 September 2009

Attention 'Glee' Fans: A Hot Tub Cannot Get You Pregnant

Kate Dailey

[...] The most preposterous thing in last night's episode of Glee [...] was sweet, hot, dumb jock Finn believing that he got his girlfriend pregnant by kissing in a hot tub.

They didn't even take off their swimsuits! Finn sputters, though in fairness there was some premature ejaculation. No matter, cheerleader Quinn shrugs. "A hot tub is the perfect temperature for sperm," she says. "It helps them swim faster."

Of course, it's later shown that Quinn, president of the chastity club, got a little action on the side and was just trying to protect her rep and her relationship. [...]

DNR Secretly Releasing Mountain Lions

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/article/id/100011912/group/News/

Bemidji Pioneer [MN]
24 September 2009

Mountain lion backlash

By: Molly Miron, Bemidji Pioneer

[...] The other rumor going around is that the DNR has imported and released mountain lions to cut down the whitetail deer overpopulation. I have asked more than one DNR officials about the claim. They told me the DNR has released grouse or prairie chickens in western Minnesota and, many years ago, reintroduced fishers in Itasca State Park to control porcupines. No mountain lions. One specialist said a radio-collared mountain lion was spotted in this area some time ago, but the animal had been collared in the Black Hills of South Dakota and had wandered here from out West.

I talked to someone today who said a DNR official had told him/her 15 mountain lions had been released near here, but that the DNR doesn't want people to know. I asked for a written affidavit from this official who reported the releases before I would consider the claim. The response was that officials don't want to put it in writing, but the caller would see about getting written testimony. [...]

Montgomery Animal Massacre

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/09/montgomery_officials_flooded_w.html

New Jersey Real-Time News

Rumors about Montgomery animal shelter closing flood officials with phone calls

By New Jersey Local News Service
September 23, 2009, 1:41PM

MONTGOMERY -- If you want to bombard a township with calls from angry people, start a rumor that cats and dogs are going to die.

That's exactly what happened Tuesday and today, when an Internet rumor claiming the local animal shelter in Montgomery was going to close and all cats and dogs remaining there would be euthanized.

And it happened across the country, too, as a viral rumor with countless incarnations made similar claims about shelters in communities named Montgomery. Only one shelter, located in a Texas County by the same name, is closing and its operator was working to find homes for all the pets, according to a local newspaper there. [...]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/60651872.html

Philadelphia Inquirer
23 September 2009

Local shelter closing, dooming pets? No way

By Peter Mucha

Talk about news getting twisted until it loses the truth: No animals face death today because of the closing of a Montgomery County Animal Shelter. [...]

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20090923/NEWS01/90923006

The Leaf Chronicle [TN]
23 September 2009

Local animal shelter staying open

By ANN WALLACE

Misinformation posted on Facebook over the weekend has launched a wave of concerned phone calls and e-mails to the local animal shelter and county mayor’s office.

There was a typo in the Internet article about an animal shelter in Montgomery County, Texas needing to close because of lack of funding, said Elizabeth Black, public information officer for Montgomery County, Tn. [...]

http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2009/09/23/conroe_courier/news/web_animal0924.txt

The Courier of Montgomery County [Texas]
23 September 2009

Rumor Mongrels: Confusion leads to flurry of pet adoptions at animal shelters

By Brad Meyer

Unsubstantiated rumors that dogs and cats would be euthanized when the Humane Society of Montgomery County ceased operations in Conroe last weekend resulted in traffic jams and a rush to adopt pets. [...]

Henna Poisoning Rumors (India)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Rumours-spoil-festive-mood/articleshow/5039979.cms

Times of India
22 September 2009

Rumours spoil festive mood

RANCHI: Eid celebrations on Monday were marred by rumours of henna causing severe allergic reactions among women and children in Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa. Traditionally, women apply henna after the sighting of the Eid moon. Khurshid Hassan Rumi of Anjuman Islamia said the rumours were generated by mischief-mongers.

It isn’t clear where the first rumours originated, but in no time there were long queues of ‘patients’ in front of hospitals on Sunday night. As announcements were made from mosques warning people not to use henna, women rushed to hospitals complaining of severe burning sensation on their palms. [...]

http://www.patnadaily.com/news2009/sept/092209/menhdi_poisoning_in_bihar.html

Patna Daily
22 September 2009

Thousands Taken Ill after Using Henna; Probe Ordered

A day after panic over poisoned henna ensued in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday, ordered a high-level probe in the complaints saying the whole thing was a conspiracy to foment communal unrest in the state when the Muslims were engaged in celebrating Eid in the state. [...]

http://bihartimes.com/Newsbihar/2009/Sep/Newsbihar21Sep3.html

Bihar Times
21 September 2009

Eid turns sour as women, girls taken ill after applying artificial mehndi

[...] It appears that the people actually fell ill by applying mehndi. But since they could not realize as to how can a person be poisoned by mehndi they thought that milk may be the cause of the illness. So in suspicion they threw tonnes of milk in the drain.
The loudspeakers of the mosques were used in the wee hours of the Eid day to appeal to the people not to use artificial mehndi and Sudha milk. [...]

http://bihartimes.com/Newsbihar/2009/Sep/Newsbihar22Sep6.html
Bihar Times

22 September 2009
Mehndi, milk mania: Nitish sees conspiracy, orders probe

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090924/jsp/nation/story_11532821.jsp

Calcutta Telegraph
24 September 2009

State bans mehndi

OUR CORRESPONDENT

[...] Bhadrak, Balasore, Padampur, Sambalpur, Khurda and Bhubaneswar drug inspectors today swung into action, raiding shops and collecting samples. It was found that two brands, Dulhan Purohit and Mila, caused the reaction. [...]

Suicidal Engineer (John Edward Schwitzer)

http://www.prairiepost.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4110&Itemid=27

Prairie Post West [Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada]
17 September 2009

High Level Bridge has an interesting history

By Alisha Sims
Southern Alberta Newspapers

Lethbridge -- The High Level Bridge was an engineering failure, John Edward Schwitzer concluded.

Weeks prior to the final pieces of steel being laid on the 5,327.625 feet (1.6 kilometres) long and 314 feet (96 metres) high structure, the senior engineer on Canadian Pacific Railway’s Western lines realized the project would never work.

Humiliated by his miscalculations that would result in a whopping $1,334,525 failure and determined to prevent a single train from crossing the tracks of what many newspapers of the day were calling “one of the wonders of the world,” Schwitzer walked across the nearly completed structure, turned to the side and stepped off, his body plummeting to the earth below. [...]

While researching stories about the Lethbridge landmark on and off for about a month, [Belinda] Crowson came across another myth regarding Schwitzer’s death. Story has it while he was in charge of engineering the famous spiral tunnels in the Rocky Mountains, he realized a week before the tunnels were finished that his mathematical calculations were off and they’d never meet in the middle. He entered one of the tunnels and shot himself in the head. A week later, the tunnels were completed and met in the middle as Schwitzer had calculated and he took his own life for nothing. [...]

Bees & Wasps Repelled by Bags of Water

http://blogs.ajc.com/better-health/2009/09/16/people%E2%80%99s-pharmacy-bounce-bees-with-bags-of-water/?cxntfid=blogs_better_health

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
16 September 2009

PEOPLE’S PHARMACY: Bounce bees with bags of water?

Q: I was at a child’s birthday party, and wasps and bees were flying all over while the food was out. Someone said to get self-sealing plastic bags (sandwich-size is fine), fill them with water and put them on the table. The wasps disappeared. If I hadn’t seen this with my own eyes, I never would have believed it. [...]

Perfume Attacks (St Helens, UK)

http://www.sthelensreporter.co.uk/st-helens-news/A-real-stinker-police-probe.5651001.jp

St Helens Reporter [UK]
16 September 2009

A real stinker: police probe fable of crooked perfume salesman

By Chris Amery

It may be a tale as old as the hills - but the story of a dodgy perfume salesman drugging and robbing unsuspecting female shoppers has been given new life in St Helens.

Stories circulating that the elaborate scam is being operated outside Asda's popular Kirkland Street store have even prompted police to investigate and local councillors to issue warnings in their official minutes. [...]

Phone Masts Could Poison Food (Bahrain)

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/newsdetails.aspx?srch=1&storyid=258745

Gulf Daily News [Bahrain]
2 September 2009

Row over illegal phone masts

By MOHAMMED AL A'ALI

MUNICIPAL councillors will vote today whether to seek an urgent court order to remove illegal phone masts on rooftops in Muharraq, which have caused violent clashes between neighbours.

Muharraq Municipal Council has been bombarded with calls from residents complaining about neighbours, who are paid by telecommunication companies to set up masts at their homes or buildings.

There have been violent clashes between neighbours amid rumours that emissions from the masts could poison food. [...]

Jelly Bracelets, Shag Bands, etc.

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_13312346

Daily Camera [Boulder, CO]
10 September 2009

Lafayette middle school discourages jelly bracelets, citing sexual meanings

By Vanessa Miller
Camera Staff Writer

The principal of Lafayette's Angevine Middle School is asking parents to discourage their children from wearing colored jelly bracelets to school because of rumors that they carry sexual meanings. [...]

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Sex-band-outrage.5641787.jp

The Star [UK]
12 September 2009

Sex band outrage

By Kate Lahive

AN OUTRAGED South Yorkshire mum has hit out at a sexually-explicit children's fashion craze which is sweeping the nation.

Youngsters up and down the country are sporting so-called 'shag bands' - bendy plastic wrist bangles which look just like innocent friendship bracelets and come in an array of trendy neon colours.

But the idea behind them is the wearer twists two of the bands together - and then jokingly agrees to sleep with whoever gets close enough to snap the bands apart. [...]

http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/headlines/Childrens-shag-band-fashion-craze.5644199.jp
Sheffield Telegraph [UK]
14 September 2009
Children's 'shag band' fashion craze outrage

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1215712/Thousands-young-children-buying-coloured-wristbands-week-But-parents-idea-true-disturbing-meaning-.html
Daily Mail [UK]
24 September 2009
Thousands of young children are buying coloured wristbands every week. But parents have no idea of their true disturbing meaning...
By Sadie Nicholas

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/09/25/band-them-115875-21698898/
Daily Mirror [UK]
25 September 2009
Fury over 'sex' bracelets sold to school children
By Euan Stretch

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/features/Jayne-Dowle-Why-my-boy.5682529.jp
Yorkshire Post [UK]
27 September 2009
Jayne Dowle: Why my boy in the bands doesn't need a slap on the wrist
By Jayne Dowle

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26131516-1248,00.html
The Courier-Mail [Australia]
27 September 2009
Shag bands a parent's worst nightmare
By Carly Hennessy

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/2658958/Bracelet-which-means-your-child-is-having-SEX.html
The Sun [UK]
29 September 2009
Bracelet which means your child is having SEX
By Dulcie Pearce

[As a bonus, the Sun article also contains a warning about rainbow parties.]

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Pressure-growing-to-ban-sex.5693898.jp

The Star [South Yorkshire, UK]

1 October 2009

Pressure growing to ban sex bands

By Kate Lahive

PRESSURE is growing for a ban on a sexually explicit children's fashion craze sweeping the nation - after The Star highlighted the playground trend that has horrified parents. [...]

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/10/11/should-these-shag-bands-be-banned-91466-24899641/

Wales on Sunday
11 October 2009

Should these ‘shag bands’ be banned?

by Clare Hutchinson, Wales On Sunday

CHILDREN as young as SIX are wearing bracelets advertising their sexual availability.

The brightly-coloured rubber bands – known as shag bands – are the latest craze to sweep playgrounds across Wales. [...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/8274178.stm

BBC News [UK]
25 September 2009

MP calls for 'sex bracelet' ban

[...] Wakefield MP Mary Creagh, who was elected in May 2005, wants under 16s banned from buying the items. [...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/8285754.stm

BBC News [UK]
2 October 2009

County schools ban 'sex' bracelet

Coloured plastic bracelets claimed to encourage promiscuity among youngsters will be banned from a county's schools.

Carmarthenshire council said it was the first in Wales to stop pupils wearing the bands around their wrists. [...]

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article6910040.ece

The Times [UK]
10 November 2009

Would you let your daughter wear a "shag band"?

Chloe Lambert

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/localnews/4752676.Call_for__sex_bracelets__to_be_banned/
Dorset Echo [UK]
21 November 2009
Call for 'sex bracelets' to be banned
By Miriam Phillips

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/4756002.Parents__horror_over__sex_bands__at_Weymouth_and_Portland_schools/
Dorset Echo [UK]
24 November 2009
Parents' horror over 'sex bands' at Weymouth and Portland schools
By Laura Kitching and Miriam Phillips

http://www.lep.co.uk/news/39Sex-act39-wristbands-withdrawn-from.5868550.jp
Lancashire Evening Post [UK]
30 November 2009
'Sex act' wristbands withdrawn from toy shops
By Melanie Wallwork

http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/Sex-bracelets-concern.5880657.jp
Wigan Today [UK]
3 December 2009
'Sex' bracelets concern
By Natalie Walker

Who Is Worse Than John Mellencamp?

http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/music/int/2003/06/30/mellencamp/index.html

Salon

30 June 2003

Ain't that America?

By Eric Boehlert

[...] [John Mellencamp:] When the song first came out I was in the car one day and we were driving to the airport and I had my kids with me and a radio station was playing "To Washington" and having callers call in. Some guy comes on and says, "I don't know who I hate the most, John Mellencamp or Osama bin Laden." My kids heard that and my 9-year-old said, "Dad, are they talking about you? Why are people mad at you?" [...]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41894-2004Dec6.html

The Washington Post

7 December 2004, p. C01

The Blue in Blue-Collar
Despite Backlash, John Mellencamp Continues to Fight Authority

By Sean Daly
Washington Post Staff Writer

[...] He leans forward, his voice a whisper: "I got so much [bleepin' stuff] over that song. I was in the car going to the airport with my boys and my wife, and they were playing the record on the radio. As soon as the song was over, they took callers, like they were rating the record on Dick Clark. The first call was some hillbilly going, 'I don't know who I hate the worse now, John Mellencamp or Saddam Hussein.' My kids heard that!" [...]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[I've no reason to doubt Mellencamp's anecdote, even though he can't decide if he was compared to Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden. -- bc]

Dumb Tourist Questions (Banff, Alberta)

http://www.calgaryherald.com/travel/dumb+Questions/1941644/story.html

Calgary Herald [Alberta, Canada]
29 August 2009

20 dumb Questions

At what elevation do deer turn into elk? That's just one of the many silly questions Banff tour operators hear on the job

By Lisa Monforton, Calgary Herald

The Body in the Farmer's Pickling Box

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/57354722.html?elr=KArksUUUycaEacyU

Star Tribune [Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN]
7 September 2009

What really happened to Clell Miller's body?

By PEG MEIER, Special to the Star Tribune

[In 1876 medical student Henry Wheeler shot dead bank robber Clell Miller, then got possession of his cadaver for his medical school. But before the body was shipped to the University of Michigan, the story goes, it was stored temporarily in a farmer's pickling box.]

[...] Soon after, a young Swedish immigrant who had worked for the farmer that summer showed up to collect his wages. The farmer explained that no one -- repeat, no one -- was paid until the wheat crop was marketed. The young man was persistent. Again, he demanded his pay.

So the farmer took the hired man out to the barn. He pulled an old horse blanket off the top of the pickling box, pointed to Miller's decaying corpse and said, "That is the last man who asked me for his pay before he was entitled to it."