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For those not reading the article (and to provide a little background), last year a hoax circulated throughout both the UK and Australia that if enough people marked "Jedi" on their census form, that it would become a nationally recognized religion. This was never true.

What made some people believe that it was true was that, in Britain, it was eventually revealed that "Jedi" was getting a specific response code assigned to it (e.g., people who wrote in "Jedi" as their response were getting assigned a value such as "746" for their religion). The fact that the "Jedi" responses were being recorded made some people believe that the hoax was true.

However, in many surveys, responses that pass a certain numerical threshold are often assigned a distinct numerical code. This doesn't actually mean anything; it's simply to aid in the tabulation of the results. For analysis purposes, "Jedi" was always going to be grouped into "N/A" or "Other" or "Refused to Answer" (I'm not realy sure which; depends upon how they want to deal with it).

All the details can be found here.

Seems like there's been a bunch coming out of the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up dept today.

Of course, sometimes it is possible to make similar things up.

Yellow #5's rumors can be debunked here. Seriously, just keep reading Snopes and you'll be a few degrees smarter than everyone you know.

Yellow #5's rumors can be debunked here. Seriously, just keep reading Snopes and you'll be a few degrees smarter than everyone you know.

The idea that Yellow #5 is a spermicidal is a fairly prevalent urban legend. Snopes, as always, has the real story.

I don't know if you are aware of this, but the zero gravity pen story is a common urban legend, debunked at snopes.com

spam is annoying
but can this magic haiku
stop the snakehead fish

>> It all started when "The Madness of King George II" was renamed simply "The Madness of King
>> George" lest people should think it were a sequel.

That is incorrect.

FWIW, the George III story isn't quite true. Check out.:

http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/george.htm

-D

No you twit, this isn't entraptment

I intented the internet!! Pants, too! Give me money NOW

No, Al Gore invented the internet.

Yes, I know that's not really what he said but it's become a canard.

1. Use an existing, well established "link story" that everyone knows is true. Insects bite people. Bill Gates talks about computers. People have had their ashes taken up on the Space Shuttle.

2. Put a "twist" in the tale that makes the average listener smile, and raise their eyebrows. Some insects lay things in you when they bite. Bill Gates said we'll only ever need 640K. Ashes don't only go on the shuttle (link left as an exercise for the reader).

3. Get a website. These days this is free (as in beer).

Ah bugger the lesson, I think you lot saw my point 4 paragraphs ago. I'll be happy to wager with anyone on how long it takes before this is credibly and totally debunked. I'm betting 72 hours.

Or that Al Gore claimed to have invented the internet

Reminds me of this Urban Legend about radar guns and fighter aircraft.

that sounds a lot like the (true!) urban legend about Disney filmmakers forcing lemmings to jump off a cliff. Contrary to popular belief, lemmings do not commit suicide en masse or leap from cliffs. However, Disney did not want reality to prevent a good movie.

JanneM is completely right--Ken Lay _never_ stayed overnight at the Clinton White House.

For those of you who believe the parent jackass, snopes has a great writeup on the numerous lies being spread about Clinton's supposed ties to Ken Lay.

Clinton did many, many things wrong--he was not a faithful husband, and he let down both his wife and his daughter with his philandering; however, he is _not_ an evil man. Why people blame him for everything from 9-11 to corporate scandals is simply beyond my understanding.

Not a Sop to Drink (February 6, 2001)
Water - the myth of 8 glasses (February 13, 2001)
How much water do we really need? (May 24, 2002)

If it isn't already, 1G ought to be standardized at 10.0 m/s2, to simplify calculations.

Yeah, I heard that one too

The rice would expand with water in the bird's stomach and also make them explode as far as I know.

There should be a -1 propagating urban legend moderation. I wasted a mod point by responding, but somtimes you need to set the record straight.

see here

Sounds like urban myth piled upon urban myth...

About two years ago, I read an article from the Washington Post by a Dr. Cindy Williams of MIT, formerly of the Congressional Budget Office, who stated that she felt that military personnel were adequately compensated -- and in many cases overpaid -- for the jobs they do. The Post included her e-mail address, so I decided to write a response to that. At the time, I was in the Air Force myself, and the son of a 26-year Air Force veteran, so what she said understandably got my dander up a bit.

Since my father forwarded me a copy of the article, I figured I'd send him a copy of my response as well. This was a mistake; he actually liked what I wrote and forwarded it to some of his friends, who sent it to their friends, and so on ad nauseum.

Now it's been archived on a number of different websites, and I have no control over my own words. There are two glaring changes that have been made to what I wrote, and someone added to the message that Dr. Cindy Williams is the same Cindy Williams from "Laverne and Shirley." That's landed me on all the urban legend websites, like Snopes, About.com, and Truthminers. I don't own those websites, so anyone can go to them and discover that I was dumb enough not to keep my fool mouth shut in spring of 2000.

If you're really interested in finding the letter (which means you're either mentally ill or have a lot of free time on your hands), do a Google search for "A1C Michael Bragg". Ugh.

FWIW, while these cookies are mmmm tasty good, the provenance of the recipe is questionable. Here's what Neiman Marcus has to say about it.

Just a link, because I'm in a hurry: http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.htm

Please, please stop perpetuating the annoying rumor that Vonnegut wrote that speech.

When you think that NASA spent countless $$$ to come up with a pen that would work in space (in a zero grav environment) to come up with a very expensive system (involving ink being put under pression) where each pen would cost over $10,000.

When the obvious solution (used by the Russians) was to use a pencil...

This is an urban legend, according to Snopes.

The famous "write with pencils in zero G" thing is a good example (we spent millions coming up with pens which could write in a microgravity environment).

That's an urban legend.

There's quite a good debunking that puts the entire thing in context - essentially a second reading of this list of horrors actually shows it's mostly innuendo and cheap showmanship.

Check out Snopes, the Urban Legends Reference for more on this and other urban legends.

Try Snopes for all your urban legend needs.

Try Snopes for all your urban legend needs.

Eisner is sweating bullets that someone will access Walt's medical data and find out that he was scheduled for revival in 2001

Myth Busters! Walter Elias Disney wasn't frozen but instead cremated two days after he died.

They'll take away my Dew when they pry it from my cold, dead, still-shaking hands.

Besides, Mountain Dew reduces your sperm count, so it keeps those bastard children away!

Anyone have the real etymology for this word?

Snopes has a page about this.

It's amazing what you can find on some grave stones

hate to dispel YOUR illusions, but coca cola didn't invent santa claus. it didn't even invent the stereotypical fat, red-clothed santa claus. see here for more details.

You think this is bad, I've been reading about the Reagan-era flunkies who pushed aspartame on the market.

By the way, just for the record, there is nothing wrong with Aspartame. Yes, I've read some of the bull that's been going around the internet. It's all urban legend nonsense.

A fun rumor, but not a true one. http://www.snopes.com/science/nobel.htm

Actually, there haven't.

It's not.

867-5309. Here's a good link:


http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/8675309.htm

That is a terrible example. Snopes has a good article explaining the problems with using pencils (the inhalation and electrical problems, as well as fire hazards in a pure oxygen environment made wood pencils problematic). It also explains that NASA never paid for the R&D, both Americans and Russians used graphite pencils in the beginning and both Americans and Russians switched to Fisher Space Pens. Also it gives the cost of 400 pens NASA initially bought: $2.95 each (granted that was in 1967 dollars).

Do yourself a favor and spend twenty minutes with Google over this.

Or you can ignore all the ravings of web lunatics, and read this page which gives some useful information and links about this crapola.

They didn't. The phrase is used as a parable about how the ends don't justify the means, but it's an urban legend that they really accomplished anything more than shooting anyone who complained too loudly about how trains still didn't run on time.

Nope.

Perhaps this "Afghani" sent you a picture he got, too, right? It looks like this, right?

I tell my mother when she gets emails like the one you have, katz, is to first check snopes, then check the local news (if it isn't on the news, then it isn't real, usually).

Think about it. A computer geek in afghanastan finally gets his computer (commodore, mind you), and whats one of the first people he emails? Jon Katz? Hmmm....

Sorry, but I'm waaay to skeptic for this (and I'm religious...)

Here's what Snopes has to say about this. It is an urban legend.

This is a myth, one of the first WTC myths you find on Snopes under the Rumors of War section. You can't find anything more original than that, fool?