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Atta (the scary looking ringleader) had previously been arrested in
Israel for being a terrorist. He was relesed as part of Bill Clinton's
mideast "peace" initiative, but was still on various US gov't list of terrorists_

Urban legend.

Hmm, this looked interesting, explains differently from what I learned in physics class.

Urban legends expl. of bridge

If you can't see that you're holding up traffic, you're either inconsiderate or blind; either way, you shouldn't be allowed to drive. As George Carlin purportedly said, "I think if you are in the passing lane, and not passing, your license should be revoked, and you should be forced to ride the bus until you promise to never delay the rest of us again."

I wonder if it is a coincidence? The poster of this article. There is a Dave Cutler at Microsoft who used to be the lead designer of NT who used to be the lead designer of VMS. There is an interesting Urban Legend about that too.

Okay, I'll bite, but how do you end up with "dripping" panes in very old windows?

If you mean clear glass thicker at the bottom than the top, sometimes found in old English buildings, the Glass Flow page page at the Urban Legends page someone posted earlier says this is also an artifact of the way early clear glass panes were made. The slabs are uneven, and the builders install them with the thickest portion at the bottom to avoid unbalancing the panes.

If you still think glass is a liquid, tell me why Cartaginian glass, made thousands of years ago, are not puddles, and why obsidian shards milions of years old still have sharp edges.

Gates didn't say that
And as the article said "just enough to get to the jack on the wall". I don't think we can accuse the standards body that created 802.11b of thinking that nobody would ever be more than 100 meters from anybody else.

Splish-splash. Please, come into the memepool... The water is warm.

This is an urban myth. It keeps getting bandied back and forth. I always wonder if people
ever bother to look up the facts. I guess not.

Hell, there was even a Slashdot story about this myth.

Here's another link for you if you want to know: Urban Legends.

.

This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future. - Adolph Hitler 1935

This quotation, often seen without any date or citation at all, suffers from several credibility problems, the most significant of which is that the date given (*in alternate versions, the words "This year..." are replaced by "1935...") has no correlation with any legislative effort by the Nazis for gun registration, nor would there have been a need for the Nazis to pass such a law, since gun registration laws passed by the Weimar government (in part to address street violence between Nazis and Communists!) were already in effect.

More: hitler gun control

I wonder if a reactionary right-wing puke like yourself will allow the truth to get in the way of your use of this bogus pro-gun quote. I doubt it. With your type, the ends always justify the means.

we still don't use most of our brains

It seems to be just an urban legend.

reference 1

reference 2

reference 3, mentioning your movie

He did, in 1981.

There are no snuff films

Hey, this one actually looks legit: Urban Legends Piece on the topic.

Collated by Drs. David B. Busch and James R. Starling, Madison, Wis.

The surgical management of two patients presenting with incarcerated, apparently self-inserted foreign bodies is reported. The large volume of prior literature on this subject is reviewed, with tabulation of 182 previous cases by type and number of objects recovered and with a discussion of patients' age distribution, history, complications and prognosis.

Table I Previously reported recovered foreign bodies:

[ed. note: list has been appended to reflect recently found documentation.]

Object Number Recovered

Glass or ceramic
Bottle or jar 31
Bottle with attached rope 1
Glass or cup12
Light bulb 7
Tube 6
Food
Apple 1
Banana 2
Carrot 4
Cucumber 3
Onion 2
Parsnip 1
Plantain (with condom) 1
Potato 1
Salami 1
Turnip 1
Zucchini 2
Wooden
Ax handle 1
Stick or broom handle 10
Miscellaneous or unspecified 3
Sexual Device
Vibrator23*
Dildo 15
Kitchen device
Dull knife 1
Ice pick 1
Knife sharpener 1
Mortar pestle2
Spatula (plastic) 1
Spoon 1
Tin cup 1
Miscellaneous tools
Candle 1
Curling Iron 1
Flashlight 3
Iron rod 1
Pen 2
Rubber tube 1
Screwdriver 1
Toothbrush 1
Wire spring 1
Inflated device
Balloon 1
Balloon attached to cylinder 1
Condom 1
Ball
Baseball 2
Tennis ball 1
Pool cue ball1
Miscellaneous containers
Baby powder can 1
Candle box 1
Shampoo Bottle 1
Snuff box 1
Miscellaneous
Bottle cap **1
Cattle horn 3
Chain (gold) 1
Frozen pig's tail 1
'Kangaroo tumor' # 1
Hair Mousse Cap 1
Plastic rod 1
Stone 2
Toothbrush holder 1
Toothbrush package 1
Whip handle2*
Collections (one case of each)
2 Glass tubes
72 1/2 Jeweler's saw
Oil can with potato stopper
Piece of wood, peanut
Umbrella handle and enema tubing
2 Glasses
Phosphorus match ends (homicide)
402 Stones
Toolbox ##
2 Bars soap
Beer glass and preserving pot
Lemon and cold cream jar
2 Apples
Spectacles, suitcase key, tobacco pouch, and magazine
total of 14 collections, with approximately 500 objects

• * number may be larger (text unclear)
  ** cannot exclude ingestion
  # unique case of pedunculated perianal skin tumor habitually
  inserted into rectum
  ## inside a convict; contained saws and other items usable
  in escape attempts.

CASE REPORTS

Case 1. A 39-year-old married white male lawyer presented with a self- inserted perfume bottle in his rectum that he was unable to remove using various objects, including a back scratcher. He had inserted this bottle on previous occasions. Edema of the rectum and sigmoid colon precluded the successful manual removal of the object in the emergency room. A pelvic x-ray film showed the object to be lodged 12 cm proximal to the dentate line. The 3 by 17 cm object, 'Impulse Body Spray,' was removed manually after a spinal anesthetic. The patient was discharged on the second postoperative day. He refused psychologic counseling.

Case 2. A 39-year-old white male was admitted to the University Hospital psychiatric service for evaluation of a 2-week history of bloody diarrhea and auditory hallucinations. Rectal examination revealed a foreign body approximately 3 cm above the anal verge. An x- ray film showed that it was 20 cm in length. The object could not be removed by manual or endoscopic means. The patient consented to extraction of the dildo under general anesthetic. Biopsy specimens of the hemorrhagic rectal mucosa were performed and were negative on Ziehl-Neelson stains for mycobacterial or cryptosporidium infection. The patient was discharged without complications the following day.

More infomation can be found at http://www.urbanlegends.com/language/eskimo_words_ for_snow_derby.html

- Sam

They're a species of toad [google.com], introduced to Australia in the '30s as a failed attempt at pest control. They're named after sugarcane, which was the crop they were originally intended to protect.

It also introduced the concept of Toad Licking to the Austrailian youth.

http://www.urbanlegends.com/celebrities/bill.gates /gates_memory.html

Has anyone worked out the mass of a lunar transfer and landing vehicle that would take off from the highest orbit the shuttle can reach? I'm assuming the shuttle would not tag along. Or even better, with a Soyuz tagging along as an Earth re-entry vehicle? The Soyuz was designed to go to the moon and it's still being built.

I fully agree that many (most?) sites are economically unviable. But to say that we have start paying a penny for every "page" (never mind that they don't fully understand the difference between a "page" and a "server hit") is about as silly as those US government to tax E-mail" hoaxes floating around the net.

And don't even get me started about Hanta virus....

Allow me.

http://www.urbanlegends.com/ulz/xraturine.html

It's the only way I can get friends and family to stop forwarding their junk mail to me. I tell them as soon as they see "please send to as many people as you know" that's a sign to delete it. If they continue to send their crap to me, I track down the urban legends link to their bullshit story and sent it back to them. It usually takes just 2 or 3 mailings before they stop forwarding me garbage.

Most of the time they just take me off their spam list, so I'm not helping the Internet as a whole, just cleaning up my little corner of it.

Yes, that is a common belief. However, it's just an urban legend that that rhyme has anything to do with the plague.

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

Its not an argument. Its the reason behind the QWERTY design. Its not like they just put the keys were just thrown on a table and some guy said "this is how it will be laid out." Call that fact an argument is like saying "well, we made the tires on a car round because rubber comes in circles."

It's not an argument. It's an urban legend .

The QWERTY keyboard was not in any way designed to slow down your typing, but it was designed to make it less likely that any 2 letters typed would be adjacent to each other on the keyboard. The problems with keyboard jamming happened to be when the typist typed 2 key's adjacent on the keyboard in rapid succession. Instead of designing a slower keyboard, it was decided to design a keyboard that would have commonly used successive keys spread apart on the keyboard.

The sick sad reality is there is no better keyboard design in the world than QWERTY. There may be keyboard designs that are equal in convience as the QWERTY keyboard (like the Dvorak), but no keyboard offers such grand improvments that it's worth changing the current huge install base of keyboards (not to mention the logistics and lost time of retraining everyone).

Now, inevitably a vehement Dvorak enthusiast will reply and tell me how poor the QWERTY design is at keeping adjacent keys from being typed. I will respond in advance by saying: I never said the QWERTY keyboard was perfect at what it was designed to do, however, there is no longer a need to worry about keyboard jamming, so the question still remains.. Why go through a massive change?

The ancients were smarter than you think. Only our arrogance makes us think the other way. The ancient Indians (of Asia) have ancient documents describing the building of airplanes, an entire book on aeronautical sciences as this articles on Vimanas tends to show. As regarding metallurgy, the Ashoka Pillar is a marvellous example, existent today in the monsoon climate of India. It is analysed as nearly 99.9% iron, but doesnot have a bit of rust.

I take it by 'subtle', you mean 'totally non existant'? http://www.urbanlegends.com/misc/cd/marking_cds.ht ml for some discussion on the subject.

This is more true than the average Perl acolyte knows. The devout Perl monk has as many nuances on the $ as the eskimo has words for snow. To the uninitiated, they all look the same, but let me open your eyes.

• $i is a faithful servant, to whom you entrust the results of your most elaborate calculation.
• $i is an ignoramus who can do little more than count to 10.
• $i is steadfast and will never change value.
• $i is liable to disappear, and can only be counted on when you're nearby.
• $i is a conniving back-stabber, who will change values in defiance of all laws of logic and program flow.

TPJ, to its credit, has commissioned fonts for dozens of variants and pays a premium to the printer. They are pressing for inclusion into Unicode; but if they don't make it, Perl 6 will specify them in the Unicode private-use range, so everyone can use them in programs.

The superior format was VHS, because it initially was able to offer the magical two hours of recording (over Beta's one hour). Beta never recovered from this initial disadvantage (IMO).

http://www.urbanlegends.com/products/beta_vs_vhs.h tml

BTW, I grew up with Beta (which were very popular in Hawaii), and had to switch to VHS when we moved to California. I also bought an Amiga then, and loved it. But everyone else eventually caught up (mostly)...

That's very contraversal. The only test which showed improvement with the Dvorak format was organised by ... Dvorak.

...if memory serves me correctly, then QWERTY was actually developed to SLOW down the human typists because the physical typing machines couldn't keep up and kept jamming. Unfortunately, for almost a hundred years now we've been stuck using this piece of crap language format. IMHO, it's time to redesign with an emphasis on speed since it's now the humans that can't input fast enough.

Actually, this is a common urband legend, the QWERTY keyboard was designed to make keyboards wear out less quickly because the typing load was balanced over each hand. The Dvorak keyboard is shrouded in false legend, in the fact that people seem to think that 'tests' prove that the keyboard is better than a QWERTY keyboard. The tests that are cited happen to be tests that Dvorak himself conducted to prove that his product was better. In fact there is much indication that his product proved inferior, so he falsified much of the data to make it appear the keyboards are better. A good account of this can be read at this link (leads to urbanlegends.com).

...if memory serves me correctly, then QWERTY was actually developed to SLOW down the human typists because the physical typing machines couldn't keep up and kept jamming. Unfortunately, for almost a hundred years now we've been stuck using this piece of crap language format. IMHO, it's time to redesign with an emphasis on speed since it's now the humans that can't input fast enough.

Actually, this is a common urband legend, the QWERTY keyboard was designed to make keyboards wear out less quickly because the typing load was balanced over each hand. The Dvorak keyboard is shrouded in false legend, in the fact that people seem to think that 'tests' prove that the keyboard is better than a QWERTY keyboard. The tests that are cited happen to be tests that Dvorak himself conducted to prove that his product was better. In fact there is much indication that his product proved inferior, so he falsified much of the data to make it appear the keyboards are better. A good account of this can be read at this link (leads to urbanlegends.com).

Why did VHS survive over beta?

Two major factors to adoption of a standard include open licensing and first post. DOS and Windows became a standard because they were more open than the Macintosh and UNIX® systems of the time and because Windows had a half-usable GUI before any of the popular Free Software operating systems did. There wasn't much difference between VHS's reproduction quality and Betamax's on consumer TV sets; instead, VHS beat Betamax because of VHS's longer capacity (timeshifting HBO anyone?) and because it was the first to offer adult entertainment.

Digital Betacam, on the other hand, is still in use.

Nope: urbanlegends.com rebuttal.
/.

Please don't, because no one ever said any such thing.

Rather, let us apply a more appropriate Carl Sagan quote: "The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition." It may be that the physical laws we have discovered actually represent limits to what we can do.

how long will it be before the glass is distorted enough that they cannot be read?

My favorite quote: "A materials scientist pointed out that, under its own weight, the changed thickness from glass flow would be unmeasurable after 10,000 years."

The story of Scientology being formed on a bet between Heinlein and Hubbard makes for a great story, but it's not so clear-cut. Several people of the science fiction community witnessed comments by Hubbard to the effect of "the way to make real money is to form a religion", so I have no doubt of Hubbard's aims. Still yet, it's unlikely that the bet occurred between the two. You may want to read the full write-up at:

http://www.urbanlegends.com/religion/hubbard_heinl ein_bet.html

New York - are you kidding? The robots had better be pretty well-armed to deal with the Alligators in the Sewers. On the other hand, simply using alligators might do the job. Or alligator-shaped robots.

Mine sounded ten times better after I cracked the hard drive open, and drew a ring around the outside of the platter with my green magic marker.

Although usually it's barber's poles rather than park benches. Has a Fb (false but...) in the AFU FAQ. Other sightings include Caltech, Harvard, and MIT. (many of the pages are quite long, search for "barber").

Try this site. It mentions that this was once considered an urban legend, but also contains references to proof - such as a Wall Street Journal article and a court case - showing that it is actually true.

Man, gotta love Google.

Actually the chevy nova story is an urban legend

Look at http://www.urbanlegends.com They have an answer to this.

My problems with Canada are largely sexual. For the details, you can see this page at urbanlegends.com (a site which every net.head should be familiar with by now) which explains. The short form, however, is that it's actually illegal for two or more persons to ejaculate on another person at the same time.

Now, I realize that this is a peculiar issue on which to take a stand, but it seems to be indicative of the opinions of the government (or other powers that be) in general. Again, there are further examples at the bottom of the page which I cite:

• Art Show Banned

The Victoria Eaton Centre withdrew exhibition space for the art show "Goddesses". It was to be part of The Works art festival in Victoria, from July 15-Aug 28/94. Linda Wedman, art show executive producer, stated that it would be shown at another venue in Victoria. The Victoria Eaton Centre apparently based their ban on the exhibition's sexual content.

• Man Fined for Selling Videos

A man from London, Ontario was fined $2000 last April, after he sold 4 videotapes to an undercover police officer on Feb 4/93. Judge Douglas Walker of Ontario Court's Provincial Division ruled the tapes to be obscene. The officer, Det. Frank Goldschmidt, is a part of Project Pornography (joint Metropolitan Toronto and Ontario Provincial Police unit.)

• OFRB Chair Considers Plans to Rate Video Games

The new chair of the Ontario Film Review Board, Leslie Anne Adams, is looking into the Board's classification of video games on the basis of sex and violence. However, issues of the Board's jurisdiction in this matter have yet to be resolved.

Presumably this would be used in the same way as sodomy laws in the US; I'm not aware of anyone convicted and sentenced for having consensual anal sex (or oral sex, which for some reason falls under sodomy) with another willing partner, but it's an additional charge which you can add on in case of rape or molestation (same thing.) But in the US we're gradually overturning sodomy laws because we don't really need them, and yet Canada actually bothered to pass a new law in the same vein.

Sorry, but they're just a little too conservative up there for me.

All of that said, there's still your second paragraph to comment on:

If I left Vancouver, it is highly unlikely I'd move to the US. I'd probably make a break for Copenhagen, London, or Hamburg instead.. those Europeans are much more enlightened in the ways of what Truly Matters in Life than us North Americans.

I have to agree. The only down side is the relatively high rate of taxation, but if you make six figures (in USD) and live in, say, California, you end up spending about the same amount. On top of all this, the Germans really know how to build highways and I could get a Skyline or Silvia much more cheaply there.

My problems with Canada are largely sexual. For the details, you can see this page at urbanlegends.com (a site which every net.head should be familiar with by now) which explains. The short form, however, is that it's actually illegal for two or more persons to ejaculate on another person at the same time.

Now, I realize that this is a peculiar issue on which to take a stand, but it seems to be indicative of the opinions of the government (or other powers that be) in general. Again, there are further examples at the bottom of the page which I cite:

• Art Show Banned

The Victoria Eaton Centre withdrew exhibition space for the art show "Goddesses". It was to be part of The Works art festival in Victoria, from July 15-Aug 28/94. Linda Wedman, art show executive producer, stated that it would be shown at another venue in Victoria. The Victoria Eaton Centre apparently based their ban on the exhibition's sexual content.

• Man Fined for Selling Videos

A man from London, Ontario was fined $2000 last April, after he sold 4 videotapes to an undercover police officer on Feb 4/93. Judge Douglas Walker of Ontario Court's Provincial Division ruled the tapes to be obscene. The officer, Det. Frank Goldschmidt, is a part of Project Pornography (joint Metropolitan Toronto and Ontario Provincial Police unit.)

• OFRB Chair Considers Plans to Rate Video Games

The new chair of the Ontario Film Review Board, Leslie Anne Adams, is looking into the Board's classification of video games on the basis of sex and violence. However, issues of the Board's jurisdiction in this matter have yet to be resolved.

Presumably this would be used in the same way as sodomy laws in the US; I'm not aware of anyone convicted and sentenced for having consensual anal sex (or oral sex, which for some reason falls under sodomy) with another willing partner, but it's an additional charge which you can add on in case of rape or molestation (same thing.) But in the US we're gradually overturning sodomy laws because we don't really need them, and yet Canada actually bothered to pass a new law in the same vein.

Sorry, but they're just a little too conservative up there for me.

All of that said, there's still your second paragraph to comment on:

If I left Vancouver, it is highly unlikely I'd move to the US. I'd probably make a break for Copenhagen, London, or Hamburg instead.. those Europeans are much more enlightened in the ways of what Truly Matters in Life than us North Americans.

I have to agree. The only down side is the relatively high rate of taxation, but if you make six figures (in USD) and live in, say, California, you end up spending about the same amount. On top of all this, the Germans really know how to build highways and I could get a Skyline or Silvia much more cheaply there.

The Dvorak keyboard study was a hoax. There are no advantages to the Dvorak keyboard.

--

The QWERTY keyboard was not designed for inefficiency, and the Dvorak keyboard is not clearly superior.

The myth of the Dvorak keyboard will probably outlive us all, but ya gotta keep trying.

--

The part about Shakespeare comes from a parody of numerology in Scientific American years ago - Shakespeare had nothing to do with the King James translation.

In any case, this doesn't affect religious views on creation any more than existing knowledge did -- pushing fossils back another billion years doesn't make the case for a strict Biblical interpretation any more flimsy. Besides, this is evidence for early terrestrial life. There was life in the oceans well before that.

Urban Legend or not, it still is an interesting idea..

Your Working Boy,

> In either event, I don't quite remember what happened to him after that.

More info on the infamous "posture photos" here, though I can't vouch for the site's veracity.

Interesting is the comment that the tobacco industry did a study using the male photos to try to detect a link between smoking and, uhm, "manliness".

I have heard elsewhere that some very famous women in US politics were photographed under the system; I don't see a link right off.