STOP before you Forward!
"Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear." - Dinah Mulock Craik
Chain letters have become extremely popular thanks to Myspace, Youtube and the all powerful Google! By the time you read this, hordes more are being pasted on blogs and forwarded via email.
These hoaxes some consider to be the black plague of the internet. Wasting bandwidth while spreading a pandemic of misinformation!
While a cure for aids or the common cold will likely be invented before a solution is presented to this problem, there is something you can do about! A little wisdom will go a long way. These hoaxes usually spin off something that happened in mainstream media and most always tickle your emotions enough to make you want to immediately forward the message so you can save all the women in the parking lots across America!
Before you forward that message; slow down-breath-exhale. Do a little research on the same internet that spawned this tidbit of information. There is a tool that you can use to quickly confirm or (most always) rule out the validity of the message. The tool is in the form of a website called Snopes.com. Snopes is ran by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson who dedicate insane amounts of time sniffing out the truth about urban legends, Internet rumors, email forwards.
Most of the time you can take the subject line and paste that into the search engine over at Snopes to find out whether or not you and your unknowing sender need to pull the wool down! Occasionally you may need to take out excerpts from the message to search with and on even rarer occasion you may have to google your copied text.
Don't feel bad if you have been duped! I know you thought you could trust the source of the message but then again so did they and so on. It's okay, but now that you know, what are you going to do? As much as you may want to reply back with a barrage of insults that will only be hurting someone who was duped just like you were. So instead reply back with a polite message such as this:
Wow, that is an amazing story. I researched to find out more information and discovered that someone made this up! I can't believe it. You can read more about it here: snopes link
Easter Egg
Listed below are several widespread internet messages. One of the messages is TRUE!Can you tell which one?
Two Moons on August 27
http://www.snopes.com/science/mars.asp
FW: Two moonsMARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THIS
** Two moon on 27 August ***
27th Aug the Whole World is waiting for.............
Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky Starting August.
It will look as large as the full moon to the naked Eye. This will happen On Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth. Be sure to watch The sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am. It will look like the earth has 2 moons. The Next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.
Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY Will ever see it again.
Top 10 Urban Legends
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byMR. CLEAN MAGIC ERASERS....STOP!
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/eraser.asp
Subject: IF YOU ARE USING MR. CLEAN MAGIC ERASERS....STOP!IF YOU ARE USING MR. CLEAN MAGIC ERASERS....STOP!
HI EVERYONE,
JUST WANTED TO LET YOU ALL KNOW THAT I AM A HUGE FAN OF MAGIC ERASERS..... HOWEVER, I HAVE A FRIEND THAT TOOK ENGINEERING IN SCHOOL AND HE NOW WORKS FOR A HUGE COMPANY IN HALIFAX AND THEY GET THE HEADS UP ABOUT PRODUCTS BEFORE ANYONE ELSE. WELL HE CALLED ME LAST NIGHT AND SAID THAT I HAVE TO STOP USING THE MAGIC ERASERS AND THAT THEY ARE SLOWLY BEING BANNED FROM ALL STORES BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN THE INGREDIENT FORMALDEHYDE. YES THE CHEMICAL THEY USE TO PRESERVE DEAD PEOPLE. IT IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS TO YOUNG CHILDREN AND CAN BE HARMFUL TO YOURSELF, SO PLEASE IF YOU ARE USING THEM, THROW THEM AWAY, DON'T BUY THEM ANYMORE AND PLEASE SEND THIS ON TO ANYONE WHOM YOU THINK MIGHT USE THEM, ESPECIALLY WITH YOUNG CHILDREN.
THANKS
PS- SORRY FOR THE BAD NEWS, I WAS DISAPPOINTED TOO!
YouTube Urban Legends
Barack Obama Is a Muslim
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
Subject: ObamaThis is the "dude" that some people want to be the next President of the United States. Scary isn't it???????
Speaking bluntly, in a real presidential election, no one in their right mind would vote for Obama. That would be like voting for the guy who just moved in down the street from you, that you wave to from time to time but don't know a thing about. That's Obama. He's been a US Senator for about 100 days, give or take a week. Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim while admitting that he was once a Muslim, mitigating that damning information by saying that, for two years, he also attended a Catholic school. Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was a radical Muslim who migrated from Kenya to Jakarta, Indonesia. He met Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, a white atheist from Wichita, Kansas at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Obama, Sr. and Dunham divorced when Barack, Jr. was two. Obama's spinmeisters are now attempting to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam came from his father and that influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya immediately following the divorce and never again had any direct influence over his son's education. Dunham married another Muslim, Lolo Soetoro who educated his stepson as a good Muslim by enrolling him in one of Jakarta's Wahabbi schools. Wahabbism is the radical teaching that created the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad on the industrialized world. Since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when you are seeking political office in the United States, Obama joined the United Church of Christ to help purge any notion that he is still a Muslim, which, ideologically, he remains today.
Books on Urban Legends
The Shadows (Vampire Huntress Legends)
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 07/19/2008)
Used Price: $8.75
Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile
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Used Price: $4.49
Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 07/19/2008)
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Debunked!: Conspiracy Theories, Urban Legends, and Evil Plots of the 21st Century
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 07/19/2008)
Used Price: $11.27
Minion (Vampire Huntress Legends)
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 07/19/2008)
Used Price: $1.25
Jell-O is made from bones and hides!
http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/jello.asp
Sometimes the most innocuous of foodstuffs contains constituents whose orgins are less than appetizing. Such is the case with Jell-O, a dessert that has graced millions of dinner tables since its 1897 debut.Underneath Jell-O's jiggly wholesomeness lurks a secret many consumers are disconcarted to learn: Jell-O is made from gelatin, an animal product rendered from the hides and bones of animals.
This production of gelatin starts with the boiling of bones and skins, and hides of cows and pigs, a prosess that releases the protion-rich collagon from animal tissues. The collagon is boiled and filtered numerous times, dried, and ground to a power. Because the collagon is prosessedextensively, the final product is not categorized as a meat or animal productby the federal goverment. Very strict vegetarians avoid gelatin entirely, but more permissive vegetarians have no problem including Jell-O in thier diet!
Whats on your mind?
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mulberry
This was a fun read! Posted May 16, 2008 |
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Dalwani
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Dalwani
I like I like! I think readers of this lens would appreciate the following article on urban legends called The 5 Creepiest Urban Legends (That Happen to be True) Posted February 11, 2008 |
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New US Presidential Coins Omit "In God We Trust"
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/dollarcoin.asp
Since the 1950's, "In God We Trust" has been our National Motto, and has been inscribed on the front of all coins and the back of all paper currency.This new coin came out this month. The U.S. Mint hopes the redesigned $1 coin will win acceptance with consumers.
It does not have "In God We Trust" on it. Here's another way of phasing God out of America.
Send this on and let consumers to decide if it will win acceptance or not.
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PLEEEEEEASE READ!!!! it was on the news!
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/microsoft-aol.asp
THIS TOOK TWO PAGES OF THE TUESDAY USATODAY - IT IS FOR REALSubject: PLEEEEEEASE READ!!!! it was on the news!
!!!! It was on the news! Kathy South Alcoa - EHS Maintenance Coordinator
Phone: 765/771 - 3547 Pager : 765/420 - 6575
To all of my friends, I do not usually forward messages, But this is from my
good friend Pearlas Sandborn and she really is an attorney.
If she says that this will work - It will work. After all, What have you got
to lose? SORRY EVERYBODY.. JUST HAD TO TAKE THE CHANCE!!! I'm an attorney,
And I know the law. This thing is for real. Rest assured AOL and Intel will
follow through with their promises for fear of facing a multimillion-dollar
class action suit similar to the one filed by PepsiCo against General
Electric not too long ago.
Dear Friends; Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates sharing
his fortune. If you ignore this, You will repent later. Microsoft and AOL
are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that
Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL
are running an e-mail beta test.
When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it ( If
you are a Microsoft Windows user) For a two weeks time period.
For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you
$245.00 For every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft
will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, You will
be paid $241.00. Within two weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your
address and then send you a check.
Regards. Charles S Bailey General Manager Field Operations
1-800-842-2332 Ext. 1085 or 904-1085 or RNX
292-1085 Charles_Bailey at csx.com Charles_bailey at csx.com
I thought this was a scam myself, But two weeks after receiving this e-mail
and forwarding it on. Microsoft contacted me for my address and withindays,
I receive a check for $24,800.00. You need to respond before the beta
testing is over. If anyone can affoard this, Bill gates is the man.
It's all marketing expense to him. Please forward this to as many people as
possible. You are bound to get at least $10,000.00. We're not going to help
them out with their e-mail beta test without getting a little something for
our time. My brother's girlfriend got in on this a few months ago. When i
went to visit him for the Baylor/UT game. She showed me her check. blah...
Top 10 NEW Urban Legends
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byNeedle in a Ball Pit at McDonald's kills boy!
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/archer.asp
VERY IMPORTANT...FOR YOUR CHILDREN...PLEASE READ!!!!!!I always said, if I had children, I wouldn't want them to play in those public areas, for the basic reason, they could get so many germs....
But, this is much worse...because it caused a death.
Hi, My name is Lauren Archer, my son Kevin and I lived in Sugarland, TX.
On October 2nd, 1994 I took my only son to McDonald's for his 3rd birthday.
After he finished lunch, I allowed him to play in the ball pit. When he started whining later on, I asked him what was wrong, he pointed to the back of his pull-up and simply said "Mommy, it hurts." But I couldn't find anything wrong with him at that time. I bathed him when we got home, and it was at that point when I found a welt on his left buttock. Upon investigating, it seemed as if there was something like a splinter under the welt. I made an appointment to have it taken out the next day, but soon he started vomiting and shaking, then his eyes rolled back into his head. From there, we went to the emergency room. He died later that night.
It turned out that the welt on his buttock was the tip of a hypodermic needle that had broken off inside.
The autopsy revealed that Kevin had died from heroine overdose. The next week, the police removed the balls from the ball pit and lo and behold. There was rotten food, several hypodermic needles: some full; some used; knives, half-eaten candy, diapers, feces, and the stench of urine. If a child is not safe in a child's play area then where?
You can find the article on Kevin Archer in the October 10, 1994 issue of the Houston Chronicle.
Wow! They are good!
Lifehouse's Everything Skit
www.hagnos.org has a High Res version of Lifehouse's Everthing skit performed by "The Mission" at the Smokey Mountain Winterfest Saturday 2006. This video is amazingly simple yet amazingly powerful without even a word spoken!
Runtime: 5:33
24518 views
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