Friday, August 31, 2012

Chinese Restaurant Serves Dog Meat (Worthing, UK)


http://www.worthingherald.co.uk/news/business/worthing-restaurant-manager-hits-out-at-dog-meat-rumours-1-4212222

Worthing Herald [UK]
31 August 2012


A RESTAURANT manager in Worthing has quashed rumours that the food he serves is made using dog meat.

Simon Cheung manages Interwok, in Chapel Road, and has had people calling him and asking him if they have been closed down because of dog being found in their meals.

Mr Cheung said every time he asks one of his customers where they have heard this, they tell him through friends or on the internet. [...]

Camel Spiders


Rolling Stone, 21 September 1978, p. 44

Ethiopia After the Revolution
Vultures Return to the Land of Sheba

By Donald R. Katz

[...] An American mercenary, an old African hand, once told me that in Ethiopia there is a spider that eats only living flesh. It's called the camel spider and is equipped with a prong on its back that emits a local anaesthetic. He told me that at night the camel spider descends while you sleep, gives you a shot, and eats your lips. I slept with my hand over my mouth. [...]

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Sleepers Will Die (India)


http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mischievous-phone-call-triggers-panic-in-parts-of-andhra-pradesh/1/214432.html

India Today
23 August 2012


By A Srinivasa Rao

Hyderabad

At a time when rumours of attacks have triggered large scale exodus of North-Easterners from different parts of the country to their home states, a mischievous phone call kept thousands of people in several districts of Andhra Pradesh awake on Wednesday night.

The rumour was that anyone who slept in the night would die in their sleep and never wake up the next morning. This bizarre incident was witnessed not only in the rural parts of Anantapur, Nizamabad, Kurnool, Mahbubnagar, Medak and Ranga Reddy, but also in Old City of Hyderabad, where people came out of their houses and spent the whole night on the streets discussing about the mysterious phone call that forced them to undergo a sleepless night. [...]


http://twocircles.net/2012aug23/losing_sleep_over_rumors_hyderabad.html

TwoCircles.net [Cambridge, MA]
23 August 2012


By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net

Hyderabad: Rumor rampage ones again stole away the sleep of Muslims in Hyderabad. Yesterday night when a rumor of girl born with ‘four hands and four legs’ and an illogical prediction made by her spread like a wild a fire in old city. According to the rumors a baby girl in Shaheen nagar area in the suburb of the city was born with pecuniary [sic -- bc] features, started speaking and gave a warning that every child from 1 to 11 years of age will die if he or she slept before 2:a.m in the night. [...]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/article3815185.ece

The Hindu [India]
24 August 2012


Asif Yar Khan

Panic prevailed in parts of the old city on Wednesday night after a rumour of possible death of children if they sleep in night started making rounds. Anxious parents woke up their children and rushed out of their houses to prevent them from sleeping. [...]

Carried away by the rumours a large crowd gathered near the St. Ann’s hospital, popularly known as ‘Gudi-ka-dawakhana’ in Jahanuma, after rumours of the girl who predicted it being admitted here. Driven by curiosity, hundreds of people gathered here leading to tension in the area. The handful of policemen who reached here faced tough time dispersing the public.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/south/divine-baby-talk-makes-parents-keep-kids-awake-839
Deccan Chronicle [India]
24 August 2012
By Mohammed Shareef M.P. 


http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2012/August/international_August813.xml&section=international&col=
Khaleej Times
25 August 2012
P S Jayaram


http://ibnlive.in.com/news/infants-talk-triggers-coconut-smashing-ritual/285303-60-118.html

IBN Live [India]
27 August 2012


S Kaththasami | ENS

Rumours about a bad omen befalling new born babies prompted several parents to break coconuts at different places in the knit city of Tirupur on Friday hoping to ward off evil. [...]

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Christians Crucified (Egypt)



http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/08/22/jonathan-kay-how-egypts-crucifixion-hoax-became-a-classic-internet-urban-legend/

National Post [Toronto, Canada]
22 August 2012


Jonathan Kay

Have you heard the one about how Christians are being nailed up on crucifixes and left to die in front of the Egyptian presidential place? [palace -- bc] It's a story worth dissecting - not because it's true (it isn't), but because it is a textbook example of how the Internet, once thought to be the perfect medium of truth-seeking, has been hijacked by culture warriors to fire up the naive masses with lies and urban legends. [...]


http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/08/24/jonathan-kay-more-on-the-debunked-egyptian-crucifixion-hoax-and-its-2009-precedent/

National Post [Toronto, Canada]
24 August 2012


By Jonathan Kay

Earlier this week, I debunked the story -- spreading like wildfire on WorldNetDaily and other Internet sites -- that Christians were being crucified by the Muslim Brotherhood in front of Egypt’s presidential palace. As I noted, the story was based on nothing more than a social-media rumor that had been posted for a few minutes on the Web site of Sky News Arabic, before an alert Sky editor deleted it. [...]

Over the last day or so, I have had an ongoing email correspondence with Michael Carl, the WND reporter who wrote the crucifixion article. He tells me he is sticking by his story. When I asked him if he has “any information from any of the tens of thousands of people who would have seen an actual ‘crucifixion’ if one really did take place in front of the presidential palace,” he told me that he had. Tantalized, I pressed him for details. Alas, he refused to divulge any of the evidence to me -- or anyone else. If he did, he explained, the Muslim Brotherhood “would kill my sources.” And so ended our correspondence. [...]

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Henna Use Leads to Infections, Death (India)


http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=772606

Outlook India
20 August 2012


PTI

A girl who applied mehendi on her hand on the occasion of Ramzan fainted on being told by some persons that she would get skin allergy and was hospitalised, where doctors dispelled her fears. [...]

http://truthdive.com/2012/08/21/yet-another-rumour-in-chennai-made-muslim-women-rush-towards-hospital.html

TruthDive


Posted by P Rajeshwari on August 21, 2012 in Chennai

Chennai, Aug 21 (TruthDive): The exodus of the N-E people that was undoubtedly caused by rumour-mongers who want to create panic in the minds of the people has not yet healed that, Muslim women and children in large numbers rushed to hospitals on Eid eve after rumors were spread that two women lost their lives after applying mehendhi on their hands and a girl lost her limbs. However police are looking for the person who sent a text message that went viral on Monday night. [...]

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/rumour-mills-target-women-doctors-say-henna-is-safe/283980-60-118.html

IBN Live [India]
21 August 2012


[...] Hundreds of women thronged various hospitals in Chennai, Vellore, Coimbatore and many other places in the State in the wee hours of Monday after rumours spread that mehendi, which they applied on their body on the festival day, has led to the death of two persons in Bangalore. [...]

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/tn-midnight-mehendi-rush-at-hospitals/283991-60-120.html

IBN Live [India]
21 August 2012


The mehendi rumours that did the rounds on Sunday night left scores of women thronging government hospitals across the State. [...]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Rumours-over-mehendi-create-panic-in-Chennai/articleshow/15578887.cms

Times of India
21 August 2012


CHENNAI: Hundreds of Muslim women and children flocked to hospitals late on Eid eve after rumours spread that two women had died after applying mehendi on their hands and a girl had lost her limbs. Police are on the lookout for the person, who sent a text message that went viral on Monday night

Muslim women wear mehendi during Eid. Several government hospitals received women and children with mehendi on their hands, with complaints of itching and irritation after they heard the rumours. Doctors said many of them were because of psychological reasons.

The mischievous text went like this: "A girl applied Mehandi (sic) called red cone ... her hands and legs got infected, so doctors suggested to cut off her hands and legs..." Police and doctors said the message was totally baseless and intended to create panic among people. [...]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article3800211.ece

The Hindu [India]

20 August 2012


S. Vijay Kumar
Arita Sarkar

[...] “The message actually emanated from Facebook and spread via chain-mails and SMS. It stated that a girl who used one particular brand of cone mehndi had developed serious skin allergy, which resulted in her death. There was another SMS which said four people had died in Bangalore. This is completely baseless…we have identified one mobile number involved in the rumour. The Cyber Crime Police have been entrusted with the probe,” a top police official told The Hindu. [...]

Poisoned Milk (India)


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Rumours-of-adulterated-Nandini-milk-causes-panic/articleshow/15568670.cms

Times of India
20 August 2012


Jaideep Shenoy, TNN

MANGALORE: After preying on the battered psyche of students from the North-East, rumour mongers had a field day targeting consumers of Nandini milk processed and marketed by Dakshina Kannada Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd (DKMUL) on Monday. A rumour that Nandini milk delivered to agents across Dakshina Kannada and neighbouring Kasargod was adulterated (read poisoned) that spread as wildfire was enough to cause panic. [...]

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/273046/rumours-poison-milk-trigger-panic.html

Deccan Herald [India]
20 August 2012


Mangalore: DH News Service

Rumours of poison in Nandini milk triggered panic in the coastal district on Monday. People woke up to phone calls from friends and relatives and news on the television that their milk was poisoned.

Initially rumours spread via SMSes that some people had died and a few more were hospitalised after consuming Nandini milk in various parts of Dakshina Kannada. [...]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Rumours-of-poisoned-milk-and-toxic-henna-rock-state/articleshow/15578728.cms

Times of India
21 August 2012


TNN

[...] In Chikmagalur town, a vehicle went around the streets with a microphone asking people not to buy milk, vegetables, curds, mehndi or perfume, saying they had been laced with poison. According to witnesses, the announcement was made in Urdu and in Kannada.

Chikmagalur district police chief Shashi Kumar said some mosques in Chikmagalur asked the community members to be cautious while using mehndi and perfume, but did not include milk, curd or vegetables in the list.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Bob Dylan on Columbia Records


Rolling Stone, 10 February 1977, pp. 68, 70

Backstage at the Creation

By Al Kooper with Ben Edmonds

[In this excerpt from Kooper's memoir, Backstage Passes (Stein & Day, 1977), he recounts an incident that occurred during Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde recording sessions.]

I was sitting in the control booth while Dylan was in the studio unmoving, writing again. Al Grossman had made a habit of pitching quarters into the soundproofed ceiling, and now everyone was doing it. I just knew when we left town, some engineer was gonna turn up a bass track all the way and all them fuckin' quarters was gonna rain down on the control room like a Las Vegas jackpot.

Anyway, me and Grossman and Johnston are pitchin' quarters, and this local newspaperman had somehow got in. He was in there about an hour and a half just staring at the motionless Dylan through the glass when he finally said, "Damn! What's he on, anyhow?"

Grossman, not wanting the facts to get distorted in this guy's potential scoop, tells him, "Columbia Records, sir." The guy is ushered out shortly thereafter.

[In Kooper's liner notes to No Direction Home (Columbia Records, 2005), a collection of Dylan outtakes, demos, and live versions, he claims the obtuse journalist made two visits:]

Bob would arrive, go to the piano in the studio and start changing a lyric. Sometimes he would be in there for four or five hour stretches. The band took it in good humor and played pool and ping pong, watched TV and catnapped. One night a journalist somehow slipped in with a friend and was asked to come back later as Bob was writing. He returned four hours later and Bob appeared to be in the exact same position at the piano as when the journalist was originally expelled.

"Man...what is he ON?" the reporter asked no one in particular in a loud voice.

"Columbia Records," Albert Grossman, Bob's manager, replied as he showed the gentleman to the door (p. 42).

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Graham Greene's Waiter

Graham Greene, Yours etc. Letters to the Press, Christopher Hawtree, ed. (London: Reinhardt Books, 1989), p. 8.

News Chronicle/15 March 1948

Incident in Prague

-- I have received a press cutting of 'John Bouverie's Journal'
for 27 February and for pure curiosity I should like to know
whether this Journal comes under the heading of fiction [the
story also appeared in the Daily Herald's 'Chanticleer'
column]. Under the heading Czech-mate there is a paragraph
dealing with me of which the only accurate statement is that
I happened to be staying in the Alcron Hotel. As far as I know
the Alcron did not pass from private into public ownership, I
am certainly unaware of ever having been served by a
Communist waiter who had been appointed national
administrator, and I was not lecturing for the British Council.
Do satisfy my curiosity about this Journal.

Bouverie had written, 'A guest in Prague's most ambitious hotel, the Alcron, when it passed yesterday from private into public ownership, was novelist Graham Greene, who is in Prague at the moment to lecture for the British Council. He looked for  his Communist waiter. He had been appointed national administrator.'

Friday, August 10, 2012

Rock Music & Unwed Mothers


http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AJguAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nqEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3375,332568&dq=boykin+pregnant+984+pregnant+music&hl=en

The Montreal Gazette, 2 December 1975, p. 21

Rock music damned for 'appeal to flesh'

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Damning rock music for it's "appeal to the flesh," a Baptist church here has begun a campaign to put the torch to records by Elton John, the Rolling Stones and other rock stars.

About $2,200 worth of records were tossed into a bonfire this week after church officials labelled the music immoral.

Rev. Charles Boykin, associate pastor and youth director at the Lakewood Baptist Church, said he has seen statistics which show that "of 1,000 girls who became pregnant out of wedlock, 984 committed fornication while rock music was being played."

He could not, however, remember the source of the statistics. [...]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19751205&id=A5guAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nqEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2959,1207873

The Montreal Gazette, 5 December 1975, p. 39

Syncopated sinners beware: It's that old devil rock music

By Mike Royko
Chicago Daily News

[...] I decided to get further details from Rev. Boykin. I phoned him and we had the following interview:

Where did that statistic come from, the one about all those girls getting pregnant while listening to rock music?

"I want to be accurate, so let me correct you. They didn't all listen to it DURING the sex act. I was speaking of listening to it as a prelude to fornication, as well as during."

I see. But rock music was involved in all but 14 pregnancies out of 1,000 cases?

"That's right. It was sort of like a Gallup Poll of unwed mothers."

And who provided the statistics?

"This man. He's from West Virginia. He stopped in our church one day and gave us the statistics."

He's a professional poll taker?

"Uh, no. He's an evangelist. He travels all the time." [...]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19751208&id=y_EvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Sl8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6430,6787826

St. Petersburg Times [FL], 8 December 1975, p. B1

A presentation against rock music has brought more fame than flame

Dudley Clendinen

TALLAHASSEE -- Brother Charlie Boykin is an earnest young man under fire, and he sure hopes that his spiritual brother, Bob Combe, of the Hyles-Anderson College in Hammond, Indiana, can locate the source of those figures for him. [...]

Brother Charlie has telephoned twice out to Hammond, India to ask about it. The first time, Brother Bob said he couldn't exactly remember where they'd come from, he'd have to look through his files. The second time, Brother Bob had gone off to deliver The Message, and Brother Charlie hopes he gets back soon, and finds the source of those figures for him.

Brother Charlie wishes everyone hadn't picked up so hard on the figures to begin with. "That's not our main argument," he says again, so you'll understand. [...]

But people are after him about those figures, and if he's going to be giving the Presentation again, Brother Charlie wants to be able to quote the source, because a lot of people don't believe he knew what he was talking about when he said it.

"Of 1,000 girls who became pregnant out of wedlock, 984 committed fornication while Rock music was being played." That was what Brother Charlie said as part of his Presentation. It was after that the kids at Lakewood Baptist Church decided to burn their Rock records. [...]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HnZfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ci8MAAAAIBAJ&pg=5784,3364683&dq=boykin+pregnant+984+pregnant+music&hl=en

Lewiston Morning Tribune, 11 December 1975, p. 6A

Minister links music immorality

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (UPI) -- [...] The 25-year-old minister has studied effects of pop music on youths for almost four years and says his survey of high schools in north Florida supports a 1968 poll which he says revealed that 984 out of a sampling of 1,000 girls who became pregnant out of wedlock were listening to rock music during fornication. [...]

Rolling Stone, 12 February 1976, p. 15

Fahrenheit 250: Florida Minister, Flock, Fire Rock

By Michael Bane

[...] What's wrong with [those records], according to Brother Charlie, is their appeal to the flesh; a sensuous, slithering quality that apparently sends youngsters scrambling for the bedroom. In fact, he adds, of 1000 girls who became pregnant out of wedlock, 984 committed fornication while rock music was being played. Brother Charlie cites a 1968 issue of Time magazine as his source, but neither the magazine nor Frank Garlock, the Bob Jones University teacher who inspired Brother Charlie while he was still a student at Tennessee Temple College in Chattanooga, can document the elusive reference. "I never heard of it before," says Garlock over the telephone, gently but firmly extricating himself from the ministry of Charlie Boykin. "I try to steer away from sensational things like that statistic." [...]

Linda Martin and Kerry Segrave, Anti-Rock: The Opposition to Rock 'n' Roll (Da Capo Press, 1993), p. 284.

Perhaps, however, Boykin got the pregnancy theory, if not the actual statistics, from the Population Institute in New York City. In 1975 this organization felt there was a link between rock lyrics and the rise in the number of unwed mothers. The institute started a project to "raise the consciousness of the record industry" even though they admitted there was "no statistical evidence linking any one song to the sharp increase in the number of U.S. teenagers having pregnancies outside wedlock."

http://newspaperarchive.com/lowell-sun/1975-04-15/page-27/

Lowell Sun [MA], 15 April 1975, p. 27

Campaign underway to clean up some rock lyrics

By David T. Cook
Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON -- A campaign has begun to clean up the lyrics of popular songs that glorify childbearing outside a formal family setting to a largely teen-age audience.

More responsible rock record lyrics could play a part in solving the rapidly rising number of unmarried teen-age mothers, some population experts say.

The Population Institute, a New York City-based organization supplying information on population matters recently started a three-year project to "raise the consciousness of the record industry," says Norman Fleishman, West Coast director of the Institute.

The Population Institute admits that it has no statistical evidence linking any one song to the sharp increase in the number of U.S. teenagers having pregnancies outside of wedlock. [...]

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Tunnels Under North Bend, Oregon


http://theworldlink.com/news/local/what-s-going-on-under-north-bend/article_af6b1714-e0b9-11e1-a59d-001a4bcf887a.html

The World [Coos Bay, OR]
7 August 2012

Is there really a secret tunnel system? What is the city finding?

By Jessie Higgins

NORTH BEND -- Imagine downtown North Bend around 1910: Wooden planks lined Sherman Avenue, horses and horseless carriages shared the streets and upstairs from the saloon that is now Roger's Zoo was a brothel.

Legend has it, a tunnel ran from the saloon’s basement beneath Sherman and connected with the Humbolt Building. That way, men could enter the whorehouse discretely. [...]

Monday, August 6, 2012

Deadly Oranges (Nigeria)


http://dailytimes.com.ng/article/lagos-police-debunk-rumours-deadly-oranges

Daily Times [Nigeria]
6 August 2012

Spokesperson warns residents against spreading panic

By Patience Ogbo

The Lagos State Police Command has debunked claims that 13 persons died in the state after taking oranges.

A statement released by the Command on Sunday, and signed by its spokesperson, Ngozi Braide, described the news making the rounds on social networks as false.

"The Commissioner of Police considers this rumour false, as none of the Divisional or Area Command Headquarters in Lagos have received any complaint with regards to such, from the public," the statement read.

The news about deadly oranges led to some apprehension in the state, with the information warning people to stay away from oranges.

One of such information being passed round says: "Please stop taking orange! The Nigeria Police has announced this morning that they have confirmed 13 people dead in Lagos, and the orange is spreading faster. Please inform others. Send this to all your friends and family if you love them." [...]