Urban Legends Hoax
From LoveToKnow Paranormal
Would you be surprised to learn that many of the common superstitions and popular stories that people believe in today are nothing more than an urban legends hoax? Read on to learn how some of the most common contemporary beliefs and shared stories are false.
Exposing the Urban Legends Hoax
Every day, many people receive emails or hear stories from other people about terrifying, grotesque or otherwise disturbing news about people who fell ill, were injured, or died in some mysterious and strange way. The Internet has only served as a breeding ground for the distribution of the urban legends hoax, so there's little hope that these stories will decrease in number or frequency. The following stories are a few of the more famous false urban legends that many people still believe.
Harvested Organs
The central theme of this story that was distributed with different variations is basically about a traveler who goes to the hotel lounge to relax, and meets a person who offers him a drink. In some stories the person is a woman who lures the traveler to the hotel room first, before offering the drink. In all the stories, the traveler eventually passes out, only to wake up in a tub full of ice with a note nearby advising the person not to move and to call 911. When the person calls 911, the operator is familiar with the scenario and advises the person, in one way or another, that they've just had their kidneys harvested.
Fortunately, this story is quite false. Experts traced the very examples of when this story surfaced to a particular Mardis Gras celebration. The New Orleans police department was eventually overwhelmed with so many phone calls asking about the rumor that they published a web site explaining that the story was a hoax. Unfortunately, many people today still believe it.
Nostradamus Predicted 9/11
In a nod to the king of clairvoyance himself, many people immediately started comparing Nostradamus' quatrains (sections of his writing) to the 9/11 catastrophe. While such comparisons have been very common ever since Nostradamus' work was published, the 9/11 attacks were especially busy with claims that the most significant terrorist attacks in U.S. history was predicted by Nostradamus. A couple of examples of the claimed quatrains that proved this prediction included this one.
In the City of God there will be a great thunder,
Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures,
The great leader will succumb,
The third big war will begin when the big city is burning - Nostradamus 1654
Nostradamus died in 1566 and never wrote the quatrain above. It was written by Neil Marshall, a college student, in 1966 as part of his college essay. Neil even admits to inventing the passage simply to show how Nostradamus passages are so cryptic as to allow whatever interpretation one would like to apply. Another alleged quatrain that was distributed to prove the "Nostradamus 9/11 prediction" was this one:
Two steel birds will fall from the sky on the Metropolis. The sky will burn at forty-five degrees latitude. Fire approaches the great new city (New York City lies between 40-45 degrees). Immediately a huge, scattered flame leaps up. Within months, rivers will flow with blood. The undead will roam earth for little time.
Unfortunately, the original quatrain stated nothing of the sort. The real passage was written by Nostradamus as follows.
The sky will burn at forty-five degrees latitude,
Fire approaches the great new city,
Immediately a huge, scattered flame leaps up,
When they want to have verification from the Normans.
Taco Bell Roaches
Taco Bell has always gotten the bad end of the stick when it comes to urban legends. One of the earliest, popular urban legends regarding Taco Bell involved a story about a person who ate at a local Taco Bell, and the next day had swollen gums (in other versions, the cheeks swelled). When she visited a dentist, the dentist discovered cockroach eggs in her gums (or cheeks). Once the authorities were notified, they carefully inspected the restaurant and found cockroaches all throughout the meat used in the tacos. Different versions of this story include spider eggs as well.
Most experts agree that this story is patently false for two important reasons. In order for such eggs or larvae to survive, they would need to withstand temps exceeding 140 degrees F during cooking, and they would need to withstand the digestive enzymes within the human body. And finally, the fact that different versions of the story have it taking place in hundreds of locations around the U.S. make it very clear that this is yet another hoaxed urban legend.
Final Words
These are only a few examples of the sort of hoaxed urban legends that often surface on email lists and on the Internet. However, you can avoid falling for such hoaxes but doing some very basic research of your own. Often, simply going to Google and typing in a search for the story will turn out a number of websites that have completely and thoroughly debunked it. Make sure to forward the link to the friend who sent you the chain letter, informing them that they've been "hoaxed".
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This page has been accessed 379 times. This page was last modified 21:20, 1 August 2009.
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