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http://www.snopes2.com/radiotv/tv/gaymupp.htm

Snopes has a link to an MSNBC/Newsweek article that says that's what Dubya said.

The Chevy remained on the straight highway for approximately 2.6 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied the brakes, completely melting them, blowing the tires, and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface. The vehicle then became airborne for an additional 1.3 miles, impacted the cliff face at a height of 125 feet, and left a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock.

Jenny 867.5309

The ashes are of witches burned at the stake. Another wonderful children's rhyme. Or so I thought (read it somewhere), but these people think its a much later little poem that was created due to a ban on dancing:
the best written article on ring-aroud-the-rosie
more Ring-a-round the rosie info
more rosie info

This is an urban legend, and like almost all of them, false. Snopes and Arthur Goldstuck both have pages debunking the story.

If someone creates a web site with objectionable material - say, praising last week's terrorist actions - and plasters those Microsoft web controls all over the page, people who read that page will see Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft everywhere they look. Someone will call the news media, and the next thing you know, there are reports that Microsoft supports terrorism. If you think that's ridiculous, just think back to the wingdings episode, which I see has been revived again due to last week's events. You still think people wouldn't stoop to spreading ridiculous, out-of-context, warped FUD like that? See this link.

If you step back from the legalese that inevitably accompanies a document like a license agreement and ask yourself, "What are they TRYING to say?", it's obvious that they're not trying to restrict the types of content that people may produce. All they're trying to do is prevent implied endorsement of objectionable content by use of Microsoft-branded controls. Any attempt to read it differently probably demonstrates an over-active paranoia at work.

The footage of Palestinians dancing in the street is not faked. See the Snopes commentary.

a radio network circulated a list of songs that would be problematic to play

I'm sick of seeing this blown out of proportion over and over again. It's not an infringement of our civil liberties. It's just a radio network making recommendations to its stations on how not to offend the fuck out of their listeners the day after five thousand people were murdered. As far as I can tell that's just good business sense combined with a little sensitivity.

Actually, that's an urban legend.

Extra text to beat the @#$! postercomment compression filter. Taco, learn to code, OK?

Snopes (Urban Legends Reference Pages) Tells All

Summary: Clear Channel Communications has not just banned songs. It has released a memo listing songs stations might want to think about not playing. It's a suggestion, not a policy.

Just to clear that all up.

Sheesh! Doesn't anyone visit snopes anymore?

Sinclair Editorial

From that page: "On June 5 1973, Canadian radio commentator Gordon Sinclair decided he'd had enough of the stream of criticism and negative press recently directed at the United States of America by foreign journalists (primarily over America's long military involvement in Vietnam, which had ended with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords six months earlier). When he arrived at radio station CFRB in Toronto that morning, he spent twenty minutes dashing off a two-page editorial defending the USA against its carping critics which he then delivered in a defiant, indignant tone during his "Let's Be Personal" spot at 11:45 AM that day."

Helevius

This is true- Gordon Sinclair actually did deliver this commentary over the radio, but he did it almost 30 years ago in 1973. No wonder "recent" coverage has been so spotty...

Snopes has more info

"Legal tender" only applies to "payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal law mandating that a person or organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services."

read the full explanation

You gotta start activating that bullshit filter, friend.

Actually, you should give it less credence. It's a hoax. Details here, but in summary, there is no such institute, the IQ's listed are unreasonably high, and the method of estimating IQ would be very dodgy. They don't mention that IQ isn't a very useful indicator of anything except ability to do IQ tests.

There are some fun examples that tell a different story of course but wether they are practical I guess is open for discussion

For Example:
On 18 January 1961, in Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania), the Afro-Shirazi Party won the general elections by a single seat, after the seat of Chake-Chake on Pemba Island was won by a single vote.

And:
In 1839, Marcus "Landslide" Morton was elected governor of Massachusetts by one vote. Of the 102,066 votes cast by the good people of that state, he received exactly 51,034. Had his count been 51,033, the election would have been thrown into the Legislature, where he probably would not have won.
"Landslide" also made the record books in 1842 when he won the same office again by one vote, this time in the Legislature. (In those days, Massachusetts governors were elected for terms of one year.)

For backup and many untrue rumours of other one vote wins check out The Urban Legends Reference.

Will this myth never end?

or George Bush the First's amazement a infrared scanner at the grocery store late in his term (he hadn't been to a grocery store in years). Welcome to Everybody Else's America, judge!

I'm no fan of George Sr., but this story isn't true.

Berkeley's a good school, you must be a smart kid. So why are you spreading apocryphal stories?

Photoshop and Coke weren't words already, Illustrator was.

coke certainly was: here's why

"I should say So, Massa Tom!" added the colored man. "I done did prognosticate dat some day de combustible material of which dat shed am composed would conflaggrate--"

This type of language and attitude is endemic in the Tom Swift series. I remember being shocked a couple years ago when I reread one of my old copies.

As an additional exercise, try and find a copy of Disney's "Song of the South" on VHS.

Just FYI... the urban legends web site seems to say that this never really happened.. at least not in great quanitities.... http://www.snopes2.com/radiotv/tv/seizure.htm

*cough* Urban Legend *cough*

Actually, I now find that it is just that - a story

See http://www.snopes2.com/business/genius/spacepen.ht m

You would think that Slashdot readers would be better people than to spread around urban legends.

But then, after all, this is an AC post.

A good summary of Larry Walter's lawn chair flight is available at Snopes.

No, but there was a rumor that the hoverboards were real
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This message brought to you by Colin Davis

I wonder if you were to watch that fateful episode of Pokemon with one of these lighting systems in the room if it would flash blue and red lights in the same sequence causing even a greater chance of seizures in epileptics?

Actually, something like this burned some people with an airline promotion some time back. ...IIRC, what happened was that there was a deal where if you went somewhere on business, you got to take your spouse for free. Some people took their girlfriends instead, but in their wife's name. Later, the airline sent out a thank-you letter addressed to the spouse...

It should be true, but it's an Urban Legend: details.

That's not exactly true... Here is more information at Snopes.

"Pull a nova" sounds like a good catch phrase to sneak into the language.

Snopes has the true story of the space pen. Interesting story, it's nice to know the truth.
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Snopes had a page on this not too long ago, and I'be been watching it ever since... There are a goodly number of groups that are trying to fight this. All of them are fucking ridiculous, but what can you do.

If you want a place to troll the fuck out of, I highly suggest This message board, a group devoted to the love of kitties, and how bonzaikitten.com is evil, how would they like to be stuffed in jars, etc...

It's fucking ridiculous. It's exactly what was said in Farenheit 451... Society got to the point where we couldn't offend anyone, the Irish, Jewish, Cat-lovers, Dog-lovers, etc, etc... Until finally, we had to censor everything, and everything had to turn to tapioca bullshit just to make everyone happy.

Fuck that. This site is fucking hilarious, and needs to stay.

The only thing i can think of that fits most or all of the description is...

Women

But I'm biased. I like women. A lot.

Then again Clara Bow, once considered Hollywood's 'bad girl' was known as the "IT" girl.

Clara Bow:
Servicing the USC football team?
She looks like a girl I knew in high school. I wasn't impressed then either.

Micropayments are an outgrowth of the push for creator's rights. Having full control over one's work is really what McCloud is asking for, isn't he? He wants to cut out the middleman and deliver artistic content over the web, but he's complaining that he doesn't make enough money doing it.

McCloud steps right on the main issue with the Napster reference. The value of something is tied directly to its availability. Just as I wouldn't join any Porn-o-the-Month clubs because I can get the crusty scrapings of those sites for free at their affiliates' sites, I seriously doubt that people will pay even miniscule amounts for what can be had for free. Why buy e-music when you can get it from Napster or Gnutella for free? Why pay for porn when sites like Persian Kitty list hundreds of free sites? Why pay a quarter to read something that I've already read?

The argument can be made, of course, that people do in fact sign up for porn site memberships, and it is perhaps the most profitable industry on the web. The response to this is that porn is PORN . It is an anomolous industry that thrives on personal privacy, whereas comic books or e-books (e.g. The Plant) are not things that people are reluctant to buy in person.

McCloud is dreaming if he thinks users will pay for content. Even a micropayment is a micro too much. I'll be glad to be proven wrong, though

Dancin Santa