Tunnels Under Jackson Hole, Wyoming

http://www.planetjh.com/news/A_107074.aspx

JH Weekly [Jackson Hole, WY]
23 February 2011

Tunnel Hunting

By Benjamin R. Bombard

[...] Over the course of several weeks, in a quest to prove or disprove the myth of Jackson’s tunnels, I was granted access to the basements of numerous downtown businesses and conducted dozens of interviews with business owners, employees and longtime residents. [...]

Cafe Bans TSA Agents

[This is a popular story among bloggers which originates, I think, from Elliott's blog. Unlike rumors of businesses refusing to service uniformed military personnel, this report isn't generating patriotic outrage. On the contrary, most of the comments on the blogs I've looked at support the unnamed cafe owner and vilify the Transportation Security Administration. -- bc]

http://www.elliott.org/blog/why-does-everyone-hate-the-tsa-lets-count-the-reasons/

elliott.org [Blog by Christopher Elliott]

Business bans TSA agents - will more follow?

February 19, 2011

KC McLawson works for a cafe near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and since the body-scan and patdown controversy last November, her boss has taken extraordinary measures to ensure the TSA knows of his displeasure.

"We have posted signs on our doors basically saying that they aren't allowed to come into our business," she says. "We have the right to refuse service to anyone." [...]

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/02/sea-tac_anti_tsa_cafe_story_so.php#
Seattle Weekly [WA]
23 February 2011
Sea-Tac "Anti-TSA Cafe" Story Sounds Like a Hoax
By Curtis Cartier

Solar-powered Houses Endanger Firefighters

http://www.cfs.sa.gov.au/site/home.jsp

South Australian Country Fire Service

[Page links to pdf of the following media release. -- bc]

Fire services dispel solar power myth

Wednesday, 16 February 2011

South Australia’s fire services have moved to correct a growing assumption about house fires at properties where solar power is installed.

An urban myth has evolved, with many members of the public showing concern that fire services might allow houses with solar power supply to burn to the ground due to a risk to firefighters. [...]

Women Kidnapped by Gangs (UAE)

http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/kidnapping-rumours-untrue-al-mazina-2011-02-15-1.356507

Emirates 24/7 [Dubai, UAE]
15 February 2011

Kidnapping rumours untrue: Al Mazina

By Staff

Dubai Police has rejected rumours of kidnapping women in UAE in general and in Dubai in particular.

Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazina, Deputy Commander-In-Chief of Dubai Police, denied rumours circulated via mobile phones and BlackBerry, claiming that there is a gang kidnapping women and exploiting them. [...]

Child Abduction Rumor (Kuwait)

http://www.arabtimesonline.com/NewsDetails/tabid/96/smid/414/ArticleID/165536/t/Police-reject-%E2%80%98rumours%E2%80%99-woman-expert-in-abductions-on-streets/Default.aspx

Arab Times [Kuwait]
13 February 2011

Police reject ‘rumours’ woman expert in abductions on streets

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 12: Rumors about an Egyptian woman in her 50s who allegedly escaped from a prison in Egypt and arrived in Kuwait were doing rounds over the past few days, but a security source said they are just baseless rumors, reports Al-Anba daily.

Owners of BlackBerry sets were receiving these rumors as text messages. The messages said the woman specialized in kidnapping children and came to Kuwait to carry out her business. [...]

Mexican Gangs Robbing Walmart Shoppers

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/02/11/2053533/attention-shoppers-that-e-mail.html#

The Charlotte Observer [NC]
11 February 2011

Attention shoppers: That e-mail is a hoax

BY MANDY LOCKE
Staff Writer

RALEIGH Rumors spread by e-mail can be like gnats: When you try to swat them away, more seem to appear.

Raleigh police have been swatting all week, trying to quell an e-mail hoax that "gangs from Mexico" have been robbing shoppers by gunpoint in Walmart parking lots across Raleigh. [...]

[...] To many, the e-mail messages apparently seemed plausible. The original note, signed by a woman named Linda McDaniel, described a church friend's robbery at gunpoint at a Walmart on New Hope Church Road. She then shared more information and tips from the Raleigh police officer who allegedly responded.

In the hoax, the writer describes more than 100 such robberies at a single Walmart in Raleigh and dozens more at another location. She said police didn't alert people because that "would be racial profiling." [...]

Poisoned Food Served to Students (Nigeria)

http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/front-page-news/17445-commotion-in-ibadan-over-rumour-of-laced-akara-for-students-it-is-baseless-govt

Nigerian Tribune
11 February 2011

Commotion in Ibadan over rumour of laced akara for students
It is baseless – Govt

Written by Tolu Olamiriki, Adebayo Waheed and Abiodun Awolaja

IBADAN, the Oyo State capital, was, on Thursday, thrown into confusion following the rumour that some politicians in the state had served pieces of bean cake (akara), noodles and cooked rice allegedly laced with juju to some students in public schools in the city.

The rumour confused parents and guardians in the city, as they stormed a majority of the schools to make sure that their children and wards were safe. [...]

http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/news/27582.html

The Nation [Nigeria]
11 February 2011

Akala’s men accused of serving suspected poisoned food

Bisi Oladele and Tayo Johnson, Ibadan

There was panic in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital yesterday, following the death of a pupil after allegedly eating poisoned bean cake (akara).

Parents rushed to their children’s school to fetch them following the rumour.

The food was alleged to have been served by agents of Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala. [...]

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/02/food-poisoning-scare-causes-stampede-in-ibadan/#

Vanguard [Nigeria]
10 February 2011

Food poisoning scare causes stampede in Ibadan

BY OLA AJAYI

IBADAN — THERE was stampede in some parts of Ibadan metropolis Thursday, over rumours of poisoned food being distributed to some pupils. [...]

http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/news/27695.html

The Nation [Nigeria]
12 February 2011

Eight arrested over food poison scare in Ibadan

Bisi Oladele, Ibadan

Eight men were on Thursday arrested in Ogbere Onilanta area of Ibadan, Oyo State capital, in connection with the stampede caused by the rumour of poisoned food allegedly served by agents of Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala to school children.

Although residents of the community protested at the palace of the Olubadan of Ibadan on Thursday evening, alleging that policemen raided their children at Elekuro High School, Ogbere, the Commissioner of Police, Mr Adisa Bolanta, said eight adults were arrested for vandalising a car belonging to a woman conveying food to a school to serve teachers at a meeting. [...]

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/02/25-students-protest-alleged-food-poison-arrested/#
Vanguard [Nigeria]
12 February 2011
25 students protest alleged food poison, arrested
By Ola Ajayi

http://www.independentngonline.com/DailyIndependent/Article.aspx?id=28714

Daily Independent [Nigeria]
11 February 2011

Poison scare: Oyo bans food vendors in schools

By Oladele Ogunsola Correspondent, Ibadan

Following Thursday’s wild allegation of food poisoning in public schools that rocked the entire Ibadan, Oyo State capital, the state government on Friday came down heavily on food vendors and promotional activities by food companies as it placed an indefinite ban on their activities in the state. [...]

http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/news/27876.html
The Nation [Nigeria]
14 February 2011
Oyo NUT urges parents to ignore ritual food rumour
Oseheye Okwuofu, Ibadan

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/02/how-food-poisoning-caused-chaos-in-ibadan/#

Vanguard [Nigeria]
15 February 2011

How food poisoning caused chaos in Ibadan

BY OLA AJAYI

[...] Further investigation revealed that there was a film entitled ”Asiri Nla” (Top secret) being sold, where somebody claimed a former president and a governor in the South-West in pursuit of political victory in April 2011 were asked to provide 200 people for sacrifice.

This film was the one that actually fuelled the fear of many parents thinking that the ritualists were at work to get those people for the politicians. [...]

http://www.independentngonline.com/DailyIndependent/Article.aspx?id=29048
Daily Independent [Nigeria]
17 February 2011
Food poison scare in Ibadan (1)
By Oladele Ogunsola, Correspondent, Ibadan

Electrical Bananas

In John McMillan's Smoking Typewriters: The Sixties Underground Press and the Rise of Alternative Media in America (Oxford University Press, 2011), there is a chapter called " 'Electrical Bananas': The Underground Press and the Great Banana Hoax of 1967"(pp. 66-81), which examines the belief that one could get stoned by smoking dried banana peels. His original article on this topic in The Believer can be viewed at or downloaded from McMillan's website .

John McMillan, "Electrical Bananas: An Epistemological Inquiry into the Great Banana Hoax of 1967." The Believer (June/July 2005), 18-26.

"No one can predict a flying cow"

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/magazine/16Drilling-t.html

New York Times Magazine
16 January 2011

The Will to Drill

By BENJAMIN WALLACE-WELLS

[...] There is an element of uncertainty in every complicated engineering endeavor. “In July 2003, in the Pacific, a Japanese fishing boat was sunk by a flying cow,” Robert Bea told me. Bea is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a leading scholar of risk; he also spent many years working in research and management at Shell. The cow, it turned out, was part of an illegal cattle shipment bound from Anchorage to Russia; as the plane approached its destination the smugglers became nervous about their cargo and began shoving it out of the plane. “No risk analysis can ever be complete. No one can predict a flying cow.” [...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/pageoneplus/corrections.html

New York Times
5 February 2011

Corrections

An article on Jan. 16 about drilling for oil off the coast of Angola erroneously reported a story about cows falling from planes, as an example of risks in any engineering endeavor. No cows, smuggled or otherwise, ever fell from a plane into a Japanese fishing rig. The story is an urban legend, and versions of it have been reported in Scotland, Germany, Russia and other locations.

Super Bowl Whores

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/super-bowl/local/20100801-Prostitutes-will-invade-Dallas-Fort-Worth-1545.ece

Dallas Morning News [Texas]
1 August 2010

Prostitutes will invade Dallas-Fort Worth for Super Bowl

By Scott Goldstein/Dallas Morning News

Editor's note this story first appeared Nov. 4, 2009

Dallas police say they expect the number of prostitutes in the region to sharply rise for the 2011 Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

At the National Prostitute Diversion Conference in November, Sgt. Louis Felini said between 50,000 and 100,000 prostitutes could be in the metroplex for the Super Bowl. Felini noted that there is no way to truly predict the number of women who will come to the area for the purpose of prostitution. [...]

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-01-27/news/the-super-bowl-prostitute-myth-100-000-hookers-won-t-be-showing-up-in-dallas/#

Dallas Observer [Texas]
27 January 2011

The Super Bowl Prostitute Myth: 100,000 Hookers Won't Be Showing Up in Dallas

By Pete Kotz

The alarm bells reached peak decibel in November, when Dallas Police Sergeant Louis Felini told the The Dallas Morning News that between 50,000 and 100,000 prostitutes could descend on the metroplex for the Super Bowl. The call to outrage had sounded.

His estimate was astonishing. At the higher figure, it meant that every man, woman and child holding a ticket would have their own personal hooker, from the vice presidential wing of FedEx to Little Timmy from Green Bay. [...]

Food Poisoning Scare (Nigeria)

http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/16725--25-yr-old-graduate-dies-in-benue-after-eating-carrots

Nigerian Tribune
27 January 2011

25-yr-old graduate dies in Benue after eating carrots

Written by John Akpodovhan, Makurdi

Residents of Kanshio village, a suburb of Makurdi, were gripped by confusion when they learnt of the death of a 25-year-old graduate of Sociology from the Benue State University, Michael Adzor Adzor, who died after eating carrots. [...]

http://www.leadershipeditors.com/ns/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24056:fear-of-poisoned-foodstuffs-spreads&catid=51:cover-stories&Itemid=101

Leadership [Nigeria]
27 January 2011

Fear of Poisoned Foodstuffs Spreads

Nnamdi Mbawike, Enugu and Joseph Wantu, Makurdi

Man dies after eating carrot There is palpable fear in some parts of the country following rumours making the rounds that some unidentified persons have poisoned foodstuffs and fruits brought to other parts of the country from strife torn Plateau State.

A text message sent to residents of Enugu State purportedly warned people of the South East to shun foodstuffs and fruits, alleging that some people from the northern part of the country had poisoned the items as a reprisal attack over the Jos crisis that has claimed many lives.

In Benue State, the death of a 25- year old graduate of Sociology from Benue State University who was said to have died after eating carrots he bought from a street hawker has caused panic among residents of Makurdi, the state capital. [...]

Spitfires Buried in Queensland

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/fact-or-fable-hunt-is-on-for-buried-spitfires/story-e6frg95x-1225995654752

The Australian
28 January 2011

Fact or fable: hunt is on for buried Spitfires

Ted Strugnell

IT'S the Lasseter's Reef of warbirds -- a rumoured stash of mint-condition Spitfires hidden underground in rural Queensland.

Many have searched for the legendary British fighters, reportedly still in their crates and hidden since the end of the World War II around the Queensland town of Oakey, but so far nobody has been able to lay claim to what would be a multi-million-dollar find. [...]

Adopted Haitian Baby Killed for Insurance Money

http://www.counterpunch.org/boadiba01252011.html

Counterpunch
25 January 2011

Haiti Quake Journal
Where Urban Legends Come to Life

By BOADIBA

[...] Urban legends also are flying on the breeze. From mouth to mouth:

The US soldiers sent en masse right after the quake went into the rubble only twice to remove safes at Citibank and Caribbean Market. (This must come from the memory of the American occupation which started in 1916 and ended in 1935 with marines withdrawing the safes containing the nation’s entire gold reserve. It now sleeps in vaults in New York or D.C.) [...]

Some camps are well organized, but not the one across from the police station in Petionville.

At the restaurant across from the police station and the refugee camp, on the terrace overlooking the pool, foreign correspondents sit with their video cams. Two women are eating and talking at a table next to us. “Two women adopted a baby here in Haiti and took him back to New York. There, in the middle of winter, they left him locked up in a car and he died of pneumonia. Afterwards they got the insurance money. They would have gotten away with it if they hadn’t come back some time later to adopt another baby and try the same thing. The second baby was strong and didn’t die. The insurance company got suspicious and investigated. They got arrested.” [...]

Stolen Cremains Snorted

http://www.ocala.com/article/20101220/ARTICLES/101229974/1439

Ocala Star-Banner [FL]
20 December 2010

Cremated remains of father, dogs stolen during burglary

By Fred Hiers
Staff writer

Holli Tencza had started to put the loss of her two Great Danes behind her. A robbery last week in her new Silver Springs Shores home changed all that.

Stolen from the home were a television and computer, but also the cremated remains of Tencza's father, stored in a box, and the ashes of both dogs, stored in separate containers. [...]

http://www.ocala.com/article/20110118/ARTICLES/110119714/1439?p=all&tc=pgall

Ocala Star-Banner [FL]
18 January 2011

Deputies: Burglars tasted, snorted human and canine ashes

By Austin L. Miller
Staff writer

Three young men have been arrested in connection with a Silver Springs Shores burglary last month in which the remains of a woman's father and the ashes of her two pet great Danes were stolen. [...]

Adding two odd twists to the story, detectives say the burglars told them they thought the containers they stole contained crushed pills and began tasting and snorting them. [...]

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/snorted-ashes?page=0
Marion County Sherriff's Office
Supplemental Incident Report

Infant Seat Ruse

http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2937939

Northumberland Today [Ontario, Canada]
20 January 2011

Baby seat e-mail a hoax

By TED AMSDEN NORTHUMBERLAND TODAY

PORT HOPE -An e-mail was circulated to dozens of Port Hope residents, mainly women, recently warning drivers not to stop if they see an infant car seat on the side of the road. The e-mail is, in fact, a hoax. [...]

The Port Hope businessman who sent the e-mail to many local residents believing he was doing a good deed says seeing a baby seat could lead unsuspecting drivers to become victims. He says a friend was the victim of the infant seat ruse years ago in Stuttgart, Germany.

His friend stopped to check out the seat, was accosted by four men and was brutally beaten. His car was stolen, too. [...]

Lost Child Leads to Rape by Gang

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_17134606?source=most_viewed

El Paso Times [Texas]
19 January 2011

Sheriff's Office warns of lost child hoax

By Adriana M. Chávez / El Paso Times

El Paso County Sheriff's deputies are warning area residents about a hoax text circulating locally that claims to have originated from the sheriff's office.

The text warns recipients that if they come across a lost child asking for a ride home, to take that child to the nearest police station; and if the driver takes the child to the address he or she is requesting to be taken to, the driver will be raped by members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang. The text also claims the information has been verified by CNN and Fox News. [...]

Toy Dog Swears

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3356693/Four-letter-outburst-by-babys-cuddly-sing-song-puppy.html

The Sun [UK]

18 January 2011

Swear of the Dog

By Jamie Pyatt

MUM Leigh McPherson bought a singing toy puppy for her baby daughter - and was horrified when it started swearing.

The cuddly My Pal Violet turned the air blue when Leigh pressed its paw to trigger its first song.

It sang: "If you're happy and you know it f*** with me, if you're happy and you know it f**k with me, if you're happy and you know it and you really want to show it f*** with me!" [...]

Queensland Floods

http://www.cabinet.qld.gov.au/MMS/StatementDisplaySingle.aspx?id=73283

Queensland Government

Ministerial Media Statements

Premier and Minister for the Arts
The Honourable Anna Bligh
Thursday, January 13, 2011

TRANSCRIPT - PRESS CONFERENCE - 11:30AM THURSDAY

[...] JOURNALIST: There are a number of hoaxes surfacing on social networking sites and things like Wivenhoe Dam’s about to breach …What’s your advice to people who read those things and are becoming distressed by them?

PREMIER: Unfortunately when events like this happen rumours can escalate very, very quickly and they can do a lot of damage. These events can be quite scary and I know that the best thing that we can do is give you regular, updated, accurate information. That’s why we are holding these briefings every two hours. If you hear or read on social networking sites rumours or statements, if they’re not confirmed in these meetings, if you don’t hear them out of my mouth or out of the police commissioner or deputy commissioner then it’s very unlikely to be true. So yes I’ve heard some of the wildest rumours in the last couple of days. Can I assure you the Wivenhoe Dam is absolutely secure, in fact any danger to it has completely passed with the passing of this water through it. So there will be inevitably people who…there’ll be a bit of Chinese whispers and it’ll grow into a bit of gossip and then it’ll become a full-scale rumour. And I think some of the social networking technology we have has been of enormous assistance during this flood event. It’s helped us to alert people and people are using it to find friends and loved ones, people are using it to tell each other what’s going on and that’s all terrific. The downside of it is if a piece of wrong information gets out or a rumour it can spread like wildfire much quicker than it ever would have. So please there is a bit of a wild speculation out there. the reason we’re going to continue for as long as necessary doing these regular updates is so that everything people need to know, even if it is bad news or frightening news, we will tell you here. [...]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/weather/discovery-of-bodies-hasnt-been-reported-to-us-police-20110118-19uj5.html

Brisbane Times
18 January 2011

Discovery of bodies hasn't been reported to us: police

Police say they haven't been contacted about the reported discovery of two bodies in a house near Brisbane.

Ipswich councillor Paul Tully told AAP this morning the bodies of two women were located by a young volunteer in a residence that had been flooded, in the Ipswich suburb of Goodna, late yesterday. [...]

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=161307130583974

Facebook

Police appeal to the community not to spread rumours

by Queensland Police Service on Monday, January 17, 2011 at 6:42pm

The Queensland Police Service can confirm that reports of two bodies being found in a house in Goodna are not accurate. [...]

http://www.thechronicle.com.au/story/2011/01/18/police-quash-dead-body-rumours-toowoomba-floods/

The Chronicle [Toowoomba]
18 January 2011

Police quash dead body rumours

POLICE today quashed rumours that dead bodies were being secretly stored in the region’s morgues after last week’s devastating floods. [...]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/weather/rumour-has-it-wrong-in-flood-crisis-20110118-19v9h.html

Brisbane Times
19 January 2011

Rumour has it wrong in flood crisis

Cameron Atfield

Misinformation spread during Queensland's flood crisis could have had dire consequences, according to a disaster management expert.

Rumours that spread at the height of the crisis included that public transport would grind to a halt at 2pm last Tuesday; that Brisbane Airport was set to close; that the CBD was being evacuated; and that a makeshift morgue had been set up in Toowoomba.

And yesterday, Ipswich councillor Paul Tully fuelled rumours that two bodies had been found in a Goodna house, which Premier Anna Bligh declared "probably the most irresponsible act by any politician of any political persuasion" she had seen. [...]

http://www.gattonstar.com.au/story/2011/01/18/animals-left-behind-as-owners-evacuate/

Gatton Star [Australia]
18 January 2011

Animals left after owners evacuate

THE sick, injured and lost animals that survived the devastating Lockyer Valley flood found refuge at The University of Queensland's (UQ) Veterinary Medical Centre at the Gatton campus. [...]

Lockyer Valley Regional Council Animal Control Team Leader, Darryl Simpson, said rumours that all animals not claimed by the end of January would be euthanised, was false. [...]

Don Tyson's Cadillac

The Washington Post Magazine
July 12, 1992

An Arkansas State of Mind

By James Morgan

[...] Don Tyson -- This bantam-sized chicken magnate, provider of the much-maligned free airplane rides and accused polluter extraordinaire of the White River in northwest Arkansas, runs Tyson Foods, the state's largest private employer, from an egg-shaped office in the company headquarters in Springdale. [...] If you come to Arkansas, it won't be long before somebody tells you The Don Tyson Story, which goes like this: One day his wife saw his expensive new Cadillac convertible parked out in front of some other woman's house. The wife called a cement company and had a truck come over and fill his car with concrete. Everyone who tells the story swears they know somebody who saw the whole thing. When I called Tyson headquarters and asked the company PR man if this story is true, he chuckled wearily and said he'd been hearing the same story for 20 years. He assured me it's apocryphal. " [...]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2011/01/the-chicken-king-of-arkansas.html
The Washington Post
7 January 2011
Post Mortem [Blog]
The Chicken King of Arkansas
By T. Rees Shapiro

Vulture Is a Mossad Spy

http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/saudi-arabia-nabbed-israeli-tagged-vulture-for-being-mossad-spy-1.335171

Haaretz [Israel]
4 January 2011

Saudi Arabia 'nabbed Israeli-tagged vulture for being Mossad spy'

Vulture used as part of bird migration research was reportedly captured in rural area of Saudi Arabia.

By Haaretz Service

A vulture tagged by scientists at Tel Aviv University has strayed into Saudi Arabian territory, where it was promptly arrested on suspicion of being a Mossad spy, Israeli and Saudi media reported Tuesday. [...]

http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/saudis-to-free-israeli-vulture-2011-01-09-1.339781

Emirates 24/7 [Dubai]

9 January 2011

Saudis to free Israeli vulture

By Staff

Saudi Arabia intends to free an Israeli vulture captured by a local hunter this week on the grounds it has nothing to do with espionage, the head of the Gulf kingdom’s wildlife agency was quoted on Sunday as saying.

Prince Bandar bin Saud Al Saud said tests showed the vulture is a “bald eagle” which was fitted with systems for pure scientific purposes.

“The reports that this bird is equipped with Israeli spy systems arsenal are incorrect…the system tied to its feet is traceable by satellites to know birds’ emigration movements and how they feed with the aim of conducting scientific research on these birds,” he said, quoted by local newspapers. [...]

"Baker Street" Saxophonist

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12120809

BBC News Magazine
5 January 2011

Why do we think Bob Holness was the Baker Street saxophonist?

As the nation mourns the sad passing of singer Gerry Rafferty, the myth involving his famous song Baker Street and a certain quiz show host has received a fresh airing. So how, asks the Magazine, did it come about? [...]

Bob Geldof: "Give us your fucking money"

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2010/12/27/the-urban-myth-of-sir-bob-geldof-s-legendary-live-aid-outburst-115875-22809066/

The Daily Mirror [UK]
27 December 2010

The urban myth of Sir Bob Geldof's legendary Live Aid outburst

by David Hepworth, Daily Mirror

ON July 13, 1985 I was at Wembley Stadium working for the BBC as one of the presenters of its coverage of Live Aid. [...]

[Bob Geldof] climbed into our little studio and demanded to make an appeal. In a break between acts I sat next to him and talked him through it.

He made his case as to why people should put hands in their pockets to help the starving.

“Fine,” I said and then, because I knew what order the captions would come up in, I added to camera: “Here’s the address...”

“F*** the address,” interjected Geldof. “Go to the phone number!” [...]

In the years that followed I’ve been engaged in that same conversation all over the world. The people who are convinced that Geldof said “Give us your f***ing money” range from those who claim to have watched every second of the broadcast to people not even born at the time. [...]

Christmas Tree Vendor Legends

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/12/selling_christm.php#

The Village Voice [NY]
23 December 2010

Tales From a Greenpoint Christmas Tree Vendor

By Jen Doll

[...] Stories tend to accumulate over the years, told from vendor to vendor, some of them real, some of them with the trappings of urban legend. "There's one I heard from a tree guy," [tree vendor Charlie Poekel] said. "Someone new was selling trees late one night. A good-looking girl came around, talked to him for 30 minutes or so, got him to sneak away, and gave him head in a nearby alley. When he came back, the story goes, every tree was gone."

In another tale, "This woman sold a tree to a drunk guy three nights in a row. The first two nights the tree apparently didn't make it home." [...]

Keith Richards

Keith Richards with James Fox, Life (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2010), p. 209.

There was the thing of course of Marianne. Hard day on acid, she had taken a bath upstairs, just finished, and I had this huge fur rug, made of pelts of some kind, rabbit, and she just wrapped herself up in that. I think she had a towel around her too and was lying back on the couch after a nice bath. How the Mars bar got into the story I don't know. There was one on the table -- there were a couple, because on acid suddenly you get sugar lack and you're munching away. And so she's stuck forever with the story of where the police found that Mars bar. And you have to say she wears it well. But how that connotation came about and how the press managed to make a Mars bar on a table and Marianne wrapped in a fur rug into a myth is a kind of classic. In fact, Marianne was quite chastely attired for once. Usually when first you said hi to Marianne you started talking to the cleavage. And she knew she was thrusting it. A naughty lady, bless her heart. She was more dressed in this fur bedspread than she'd been all day. So they had a woman police officer who took her upstairs and made her drop the rug. What else do you want to see? From there -- it shows you what's in people's minds -- the evening paper headlines are "Naked Girl at Stones Party." Info directly from the police. But the Mars bar as a dildo? That's rather a large leap. The weird thing about these myths is that they stick when they're so obviously false. Perhaps the idea is that it's so outlandish or crude or prurient that it can't have been invented.

Keith Richards with James Fox, Life (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2010), p. 546.

Bert had died in 2002, but his memory was revived a few weeks before Doris died in a big press story generated by a journalist reporting that I'd claimed to have snorted some of my father's ashes along with a line of bump. There were headlines, editorials, there were op-eds on cannibalism, there was some of the old flavor of Street of Shame indignation at the Stones. John Humphrys on prime-time radio was heard to ask, "Do you think Keith Richards has gone too far this time?" What did he mean this time? There were also articles saying this is a perfectly normal thing, it goes back to ancient times, the ingestion of your ancestor. So there were two schools of thought. Old pro that I am, I said it was taken out of context. No denying, no admitting. "The truth of the matter" -- to read my memo to [his manager] Jane Rose when the story threatened to get out of hand -- "is that after having Dad's ashes in a black box for six years, because I really couldn't bring myself to scatter him to the winds, I finally planted a sturdy English oak to spread him around. And as I took the lid off the box, a fine spray of his ashes blew out onto the table. I couldn't just brush him off, so I wiped my finger over it and snorted the residue. Ashes to ashes, father to son. He is now growing oak trees and would love me for it."

Vanishing Genitals (Ghana)

http://news.peacefmonline.com/social/201012/119661.php

Peace FM Online [Ghana]
22 December 2010

Man 'Jailed' Over Missing Penis

A Tamale Circuit Court has remanded 48-year-old Alex Ikege, a man suspected of making some persons’ genitals disappear, into police custody to re-appear on December 23, 2010. [...]

Attempted Abduction at Toledo Shopping Mall

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101215/NEWS16/101219594

Toledo Blade [OH]
15 December 2010

Police: Westfield Franklin Park abduction story untrue

BLADE STAFF

A persistent and startling story about the alleged attempted abduction of a young girl from the bathroom of a local shopping mall is untrue and has circulated widely through e-mail, authorities said Wednesday. [...]

The tall tale involves a teenage girl whose mother screamed to alert mall security when she saw the girl unresponsive and being carried out by two men from the food court bathroom at Westfield Franklin Park.

In most variations of the rumor, the girl's hair was disguised in some way by being shaved, dyed, or covered with a wig. [...]

Armenian Children Kidnapped, Organs Taken

http://armenianow.com/social/26472/yerevan_children_kidnapping_transplant_scare

ArmeniaNow
14 December 2010

Kidnapping scare: Armenian Police say abduction cases are case of urban myth

By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Parents in Yerevan have been increasingly worried about their children’s safety in recent weeks as rumors have circulated that children have been abducted. [...]

Stories of horrific cases have circulated, usually including talk of “foreigners” coming into Armenia and kidnapping boys and girls to sell them for organ transplants. [...]

Roundabout Plan = Cup Stain on Blueprint

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2010/12/10/hignfy-telford-roundabout-jokes-ring-of-truth/

The Shropshire Star [UK]
10 December 2010

HIGNFY Telford roundabout joke’s ‘ring of truth’

Millions of TV viewers heard how rings left on a blueprint by a dirty coffee cup were supposedly mistaken by planners in Telford for proposed roundabouts.

The mark was said to have led to the myriad of islands being built, even though they had never featured in the architects’ minds.

The alleged stain on Telford’s character was aired last night on hit satirical panel show Have I Got News For You. It left the audience reeling with laughter. [...]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-11971965
BBC News
10 December 2010
Telford roundabout TV claim 'is urban myth'

Koro Outbreak (Nigeria)

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/12/two-persons-lynched-over-%E2%80%98missing%E2%80%99-genitals-in-plateau/

The Vanguard [Nigeria]
7 December 2010

Two persons lynched over ‘missing’ genitals in Plateau

By Taye Obateru & Samuel Olaniran

At least two people have been lynched in Plateau State for being allegedly responsible for the disappearance of the genitals of other citizens in different parts of the state.

A man was stoned to death in Mikang Local Government Area while two others were set ablaze in Shendam Local Government Area of the state over the allegations. [...]

Shark Attacks an Israeli Plot

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/1343/Egypt/Politics-/Experts-shoot-down-theory-that-Israel-is-behind-sh.aspx

Ahram Online [Egypt]
6 December 2010

Expert shoots down conspiracy theory blaming Israel for shark attacks

Yasmine Fathi

A Sharm El Sheikh marine biologist slammed the conspiracy theory circulating around the country that last week's shark attacks off the South Sinai resort of Sharm El-Sheikh were part of an Israeli conspiracy, but the South Sinai governor supports it. [...]

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=198286&R=R1

The Jerusalem Post
6 December 2010

Egypt: Sinai shark attacks could be Israeli plot

By ARIEH O'SULLIVAN / THE MEDIA LINE

Israel rejects the notion as "too ludicrous" for comment; German woman killed near Sharm e-Sheikh, Russian tourists also mauled.

Egyptian officials say they have not ruled out the possibility that a fatal shark attack in Sinai on Sunday could have been a plot by the Mossad. [...]

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE6B52OE20101206

Reuters Africa
6 December 2010

Egypt puzzled after string of Red Sea shark attacks

By Mohamed Zaki

SHARM EL-SHEIKH (Reuters) - Shark attacks on tourists in the Red Sea have triggered a flurry of speculation as to what could have caused them, with suggestions ranging from overfishing to an Israeli plot to harm Egyptian tourism. [...]