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...A robber once successfully sued a homeowner because he fell out of a window and broke his leg while escaping after a heist.

Citation, please. If you can't provide one, I'm going to have to agree with Snopes in that it's likely an urban legend.

Except New Coke wasn't a marketing ploy.

just comparing a search for the (alleged) GB qoute with a search for another misqoute, it seems the latter returns mostly pages explaining it's not an exact qoute, and has been taken out of context and such, while the first hardly shows anyone doubting the validity of the quote.

Besides, The source of all information about bullshit doesn't even mention this quote.

All in all, I wasn't there, I can't be sure, but my money is on true

However, just as many fuel saving engines may have been quietly put away in dusty little closets in the back of some big-manufacturer's back room,

Ooh! Ooh! Urban Legend! Urban Legend!

Official debunk on Snopes.com

Wow, the chinese invented the lawn chair stunt

This just goes to show how biased american reports are, trying to make it out like the US invented everything. First the TV and now this.

• The Yorktown lost control of its propulsion system because its computers were unable to divide by the number zero

"Unable to"? God damn it, Congress should pass a law to enable it. This is the USA! While they're at it, they could round off PI to 3.

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

Well, no he should not shut up!

You excuse making Al Gore apologists should just run along and admit that your favorite snake-oil man tried to pull another fast one that did not work. It was not badly chosen words, it was MS style marketing, playing on the technical ignorance of the general viewing audience.

The same way that same dolt from Washington, D.C. (NOT TN) challenged only counties in Florida that he won, thus securing himself an electorial college loss in the last election.

Get over it, YOU are wrong!

[sigh]

http://www.snopes2.com/quotes/internet.htm

http://www.mids.org/mn/904/vcerf.html

Will you please shut up now?

Has anyone actually been able to prove that this works? I'm not talking about anecdotal evidence, I mean, has any geek with /.'s general communal respect actually taken a stack of CDs, tried to rip them, gotten errors, marked the CDs up, and then got them to rip with no errors?

And then documented the crap out of it?

This all smells too much like the audiophile tricks of the 80's where coloring the outside rim of a CD was supposed to "trap stray laser radiation and improve the [clarity | transparency | imaging | other-nonsense-claptrap] of the music." (see the snopes entry on this one).

I ask because I'm really curious what the scientific explanation for this would be. It was my understanding that they (the infamous "they") did something to the actual track of the CD, with bad physical spacing, introduced errors, or something like that, but did it *throughout* the CD. How on earth would marking the inside of the CD fix that?

[okay, I just actually *read* the article. :) But I'd swear that an earlier posting talked about marking the inside, not outside, of the CD. Anyway, my question still holds -- any geek-written report on this, or do we only have the mainstream press to trust as to whether this actually works, and for which CDs?]

Old Urban Legend, debunked by Snopes.

Regulate Disney!

http://www.snopes2.com/disney/parks/deaths.htm

deaths at Disney!

It is a movie, not a religion

It is a religion.

In fact, it's even listed as a religion on Britian's national census. Because over 10,000 fans listed "Jedi Knight" as their religion on the 2001 census, the government cannot consider it statistically insignificant.

Lest I get heavily flamed, let me just acknowledge that this fact does not grant the Jedi any legal religious status.

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe." - Dan Quayle

Here's a link:
A recent study concluded the London Underground was unspeakably unsanitary

That is an urban legend. Bzzt. Thanks for playing.

The reason the media got so quiet on Enron is because the Bush Administration did nothing to help bail them out, while there is an incredible amount of evidence of Enron getting special favors from the CLINTON Administration.

The Media is just protecting their boy Clinton.

HTH with the irrational obsession. HAND. And watch out for the black helicopters.

Which reminds me of the aprocryphal story about Gerber sending baby food to the third world with the traditional picture of the Gerber baby on the jar. Apparently, it didn't go over very well, since custom on the continent was to display a picture of the contents on the can . . . Of course, it's an urban legend.

Sorry, but that isn't true: It is an urban legend. It makes sense too, there are already hundreds if not thousands of strips in the country, why do we need thousands more?

He's the guy who worked for Disney for a few hours. Wah wah wah wahhhh. Basically he's the John Romero of SF.

Yet another piece of thouroughly debunked right wing bullshit, as you can see in this Snopes (Anti-)Urban Legend Article

There's just got to be some way to bitch-slap people who mod trolls like this up. Single meta-mods just don't cut it.

Here's a link about the handcuff story, for those interested.

Urban legend it is:

Barometer

...the ice cream bug!

So many people believed the Onion story was true that Snopes had to debunk it!

Would be great, if it wasn't an urban legend.

Cite that 90%.

I've heard that NASA spent 2 years developing a pen capable of writing in 0g. The russians used a pencil. Cite that 90%.

A lot of people have heard that. It's wrong.

That's exactly the point, don't just start acting, try the simplicity, haven't we learned anything with the fight Windows vs. Unix?

What does Win v. *nix have to do with removing CO2 from the atmosphere?

In case you missed it, Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide is rising exponentially, seaweed is limited in where it can grow, and growth is held in balance with the animals the eat it. Oh, something interesting about seaweed.

Simplicity is much better, try preserving seaweeds instead of build expensive CO2 extractors and planting trees.

Nature is NOT simple. Have a look at how simple glucose metabolism is, and then consider it's one of the most basic processes for the majority of animal life.

Oh, and don't forget about the Hydrogen-cells engine, now a days it can be produced, but due to financial problems it is not as popular as it should be.

It's called a "fuel cell", and it's not extremely simple, either.

I'll give you credit and say, "There's one more troll sated."

woof.

I'll bet his answer to the Middle East situation is situation is, "If you guys would simply stop fighting, everyone will be happier."
The world is not a simple place, despite being filled with simple people.

I've heard that NASA spent 2 years developing a pen capable of writing in 0g. The russians used a pencil.

You heard wrong; The Write Stuff

Ha ha ha!! Facts? Check this out for one of his lies. There are literally hundreds more.

so sorry SNOPES I hate it when these guys wreck a good story.

NASA developed no such space pen. That is an urban legend.

That bill is dead serious.

See
http://www.snopes2.com/legal/kentucky.htm.

In short, it's not a bill, it's a resolution (so passing it wouldn't mean anything if it were passed), and the legislature didn't take it seriously. Don't you think there would be just a wee bit of a problem if Kentucky actually started sinking riverboats? (Think about stuff like Federal control over interstate commerce and due process of law before killing someone or destroying their property.)

Even though you're offtopic, you really need to be set straight. Yes, this is a popular myth, and somebody as innocent and reliable as your high school English teacher may have told it to you (mine tried to), but you're wrong. Even just thinking for a second about 'fuck' coming from an acronym, you can see that married couples would not 'fornicate,' nor would the King really have any interest in giving out fucking licenses. The other popular myth, "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" can be ruled out because it's a poorly-formed acronym, and also the word 'fuck' predates the time of the popular story by a few centuries.

The word most likely comes down from a Germanic tongue, but finding a precise lineage is difficult - there are many possible options. For more information, do a google search for something like "fuck etymology," or go here.

new coke

Unfortunately, the link they gave on their page doesn't work. How about this one instead.

You might want to give a tip-off to these people: Amusement park abductions The details of the stories they claim are myth match pretty closely with what you said.

Here in the UK, we had the horrific case of 3 year old Jamie Bulger a few years ago who was snatched from a shopping centre by a couple of bored fourteen year olds and tied to a railway track "for fun".

This is what angers me most about sensational media coverage of the news. Okay, so one kid was kidnapped, tortured, and killed by "bored 14 year olds" (more like demented 10-year olds; hate to correct you but the story is so old I don't remember seeing it in the American press, so I did some Google research). That fact does not mean that the millions of other Brittish children are in danger of being kidnapped and tied to railway tracks by their "bored" peers-- compare the number of such incidents to the number of children in the UK, and you can see that this is a statisically insignificant event.

This device could well have prevented that.

Don't make me laugh. From what I found, the kidnappers "brutally tortured" their victim and killed him to cover up that crime. Those actions suggest that they aren't stupid but immorral / amoral. So a GPS wristwatch on Jamie might have saved his life, but presumably at the expense of another; likewise, I fail to see how GPS watches on the perpetrators would have stopped this crime. The only way this could be prevented would be if every child (i.e. not a legal adult) wore a GPS watch.

All talk of emotional stunting from such an act aside, children and criminals have human rights too (though perhaps fewer and weaker than proper adults; that's a different debate). I feel that this device is a denial of some of the most important of those rights (like privacy, but that's going into the emotional stunting again). The question comes down to: does the rights of one million children (just a big number) outweigh the life of one? I would answer yes (for it is only through the exercise of those rights that the life can be valued by the one who counts the most-- the "owner").

• An archive of Nigerian scam letters at the Quatloos! financial scam website.
• The Urban Legens Reference Pages article on Nigerian scams.

The Madness of Richard III

The editing process is a very creative one, and one that is as crucial to the content as the writing and producing (o ye of little memory, can't you recall the videos of partying arabs shown after September 11 that had a date stamp of 1994?)

False.

Okay, before anyone mods this down, a little further down I get back to the "body image" notions brought up in the linked journals.

Former as in still in her early 20s former. 5'9, 110 pounds, a body that puts Kate Moss' at the top of her career a few years ago to shame because it still has all the right curves to it. And, only a profesional call girl could be so skilled in the arts of sex. ;-) Best $250 an hour full service "physical therapy" you can get...

You can find any type of girl you want at lots of different price points and service levels at thebigdoggie.net. Just click on the board for the city or state you want, and read up. The message boards can be searched for past reviews of a girl once you get an idea of who you might want. A small membership fee gets access to "members' boards" and a review database, but I've never gotten a membership because once you learn the ropes you can find all you need on the public boards. Obviously, if you're in or near a big city you're in luck, but if you live in the boon docks or the Midwest you may have no one great nearby. There are a ton of escort ads on Eros Guides, but you need to research the girls on TBD first to see who's legitimate because many are scammers.

I do a lot of travelling and the best cities for finding terrific escorts are either of the big cities in California, any big Florida city, DC, and Chicago. New York City's top escorts are usually more expensive, which is why I usually don't visit them. I've also been to the Moonlite BunnyRanch in Nevada, where it's legal, and it was way overpriced. My favorite city to stay in on business is DC, because they have a lot of beautiful young escorts down there at generally lower rates--if you ever visit there, you must visit Samantha or Eve at Tori's Secret. I was in DC a month ago, and saw both of them. Eve is also a former runway model, and all the girls look better than their pics at Tori's because their photographer is an idiot.

I've never understood why prostitution should be illegal if it's conducted safely and discreetly, like escorting is. Streetwalking is a public nuisance--but some low-key ads and some internet websites used to bring consenting adults together isn't harming anyone; it's a public service, making for happier, healthier people. Even Bonobo monkeys engage in the trade of resources for sex. It's natural. Sex independent of interpersonal relationships can be a fungible service just like any other.

I'm a big fat geek who's traded long hours of work and his formerly less ample figure for copious amounts of money, and I use that money to really enjoy my life. I don't mind being fat. It isn't keeping me from doing anything I'd enjoy otherwise, and I'm not either wasting my time (subjective judgement, of course--some enjoy exercise) doing a lot of exercise (more work IMHO), or cutting out my cigars and fattening foods and alcohols, just to lose a few pounds and keep it lost.

Some people have to be thin to feel okay about themselves, but I'm here to say: bollocks. I like my fat white body. I love how it feels to my hands and the hands of others. I love how my fat jiggles when I'm getting a really good fucking with the girl on top. Why should I care if some people don't think I look good? Ideas of beauty have been mutable for most of human history. The Greeks and Romans loved hard bodies, and so do we. But a couple centuries ago in Europe being pale and flabby was considered beautiful because it was a sign of wealth and class, and in prehistory fertility idols were made in the shape of really big fat women. Rubens' women would be considered fat today. Marilyn Monroe was considered the hottest woman alive forty or fifty years ago, but she wore about a size 12, which today would make her a bit on the chunky side.

So, I'm not missing out on anything. I've got all of life's pleasures and enjoy them guilt-free, no petty worries about calories or weight or whatnot. Whenever I'm single I just buy sex the same way one buys any other service, and whenever I find a girl I like who's interested in a lot more than current notions of what most people think "looks good" that's great too. To quote *Pulp Fiction*, "It's unfortunate what we find pleasing to the touch and pleasing to the eye are seldom the same."

Love your fat geeky bodies, guys. They may not look how a lot of people think they should look, but that's just modern jock-driven elitist aesthetics. They feel good, and that's what really matters.

Sorry, but that's an urban myth. See this for more information.

All right, this is off-topic (unless we also believe the rumors that L. Ron Hubbard has been put on ice himself) but Walt Disney was not cryogenically frozen. He was cremated. Here is the link to his death certificate.

All right, this is off-topic (unless we also believe the rumors that L. Ron Hubbard has been put on ice himself) but Walt Disney was not cryogenically frozen. He was cremated. Here is the link to his death certificate.

Cakes and Ale

That has to be the most persistent of all urban legends. For more information, see here, here (next to last paragraph) or here. You can view his death certificate here.

'nuff said!

That has to be the most persistent of all urban legends. For more information, see here, here (next to last paragraph) or here. You can view his death certificate here.

'nuff said!

You may be thinking of Mussolini, whose efficiency through terror was fictional anyway.

I liked how the Chevy Nova wasn't selling in South America. Eventually they figured out what "No Va" means in Spanish.

This story is not true. "Nova" and "no va" are distinct in Spanish, and the Nova sold well in spanish-speaking countries. Please do not repeat this story as true again.

Kinda puts the whole Chevy Nova thing in perspective doesn't it? :P