Hoax Museum Blog: Urban Legends

Fire From Saltwater — Inventor John Kanzius claims that he has discovered a way to make saltwater burn. This discovery could eventually lead, he suggests, to cars that run on saltwater. This suggestion places Kanzius in a long tradition of inventors (and con artists) who have claimed to have found ways to use water as fuel, reducing his credibility right away. But as always with these things, once is tempted to think that maybe this time the guy is really onto something.

Check out the video about his discovery on YouTube (below). Kanzius explains that he was originally searching for a way to cure cancer. He reasoned that if he injected tiny amounts of metal, such as gold, into cancer patients, that these metal bits would be attracted to the cancer cells, and he could then use radio waves to heat up the metal and destroy the cancer cells.

Fortuitously, Kanzius then discovered that these same radio waves would also heat saltwater and make it burn. He has yet to reveal the exact mechanism of his radio transmitter, but he has demonstrated the process.

Assuming the guy isn't totally lying (which is not necessarily a good assumption), then it would appear on the surface that Kanzius has discovered an interesting new phenomenon. But whether this phenomenon can be used to power vehicles is another question altogether. For instance, how much power is the radio transmitter using to ignite the saltwater? Somehow inventions like this always seem great at first, but they never seem to amount to anything.

There are more videos about Kanzius collected at magistrala.cz.

Fake Tree Doctors — Residents of Ashford, England have been warned of a nefarious scam being practiced in the area. A "bogus caller" claiming to be a tree surgeon will knock on a person's door. The caller tells the person they have a problem tree in their yard that needs some work. Borough tree officer Mark Symonds warns that, "Sadly, some have been taken in and had prize trees ruined by shoddy workmanship. No reputable local tree surgeon would call unannounced in the hope of finding work.” The Kent News reports: Frankly, I had no clue there even was such a thing as a "Borough tree officer." And if someone had come to my door offering to work on my trees, I might have been totally taken in. Now I'll know better.

Two Senior Pranks — In recent weeks, seniors at high schools throughout America have once again been busy dreaming up pranks. Here are two that have made their way to YouTube.

The Portland Peace Sign: Students at Wilson High School in Portland, Oregon planted $600 worth of marigolds in the shape of a peace sign on the front lawn of the school. That actually seems like quite a nice gesture. A prank that creates something positive instead of being merely destructive or obnoxious. But in a display of a complete lack of humor, school officials are holding one senior solely responsible for the prank and insisting that she pay up to $1,000 for the removal of the flowers. Her mistake was admitting to a local TV news crew that she participated in the prank. The school has turned down offers by parents who were willing to remove the flowers free of charge. The Oregonian has a brief article about it, and a video on YouTube shows a brief view of the peace sign.

The Foothills Streaker: In a more traditional prank, Cameron Blazevich, a student at Catalina Foothills High School, streaked across the field during graduation wearing only a jock strap and sneakers. YouTube has the footage.

Quick Links: Belly Dancer Has Half Her Bottom Removed, etc. — Belly Dancer Has Half Her Bottom Removed
German belly dancer Julia 'Cleopatra' Meyer went to a private clinic to get liposuction on her thighs. Unfortunately, the surgeon removed fat from her right buttock instead. She was awarded the equivalent of £12,000 - twice what she had asked for in compensation.
(Thanks, Sophie.)

Imposter at Stanford
For eight months, Azia Kim lived on campus, studied with friends, and ate in the cafeteria. Trouble is, she wasn't actually a student there.

Swedish TV Apologises to Prime Minister Over Water Prank
STV have announced that they "deeply apologise" after one of their reporters sprayed the Swedish Prime Minister with water from a fake microphone at the premiere of the Pirates of the Caribbean film.

Chad’s UFO — Chad wrote to the website of Coast to Coast with George Noory to talk about his experience with a UFO.

In April, Chad and his wife were on a walk when they saw the UFO for the first time. A few days later, he and a friend took a camera and found the craft again.

Chad claims that the craft is almost silent, but when neared, it seems to make crackling or humming noises - "almost like when you are near very large power lines." It usually moves slowly, but then will suddenly move off very quickly. It's also said to change direction abruptly.

Chad is worried that the UFO is causing the headaches and fatigue that he and his wife are experiencing (although it should be noted that his wife is pregnant, and her doctor says that would explain her symptoms).

As for the photographs, there are a number of questionable aspects to them. The size of the craft seems to be somewhat variable in comparison to the scenery around it. The lighting doesn't appear to match the lighting on the trees. I also have the personal problem that the UFO reminds me of a kitchen implement.

I can't identify the text on the wing(?). It reminds me of Klingon, but doesn't seem to actually be Klingon. If anyone recognises the text, do let us know.

What is the world record for staying awake? — The London Times reports that Tony Wright of Cornwall recently stayed awake for 266 hours. He was attempting to break the world record of 264 hours awake set by Randy Gardner of San Diego in 1964. Wright was also attempting to demonstrate that, thanks to his "caveman diet" of raw food, he was able to "train his mind in such a way as to stay awake for 11 days and remain coherent and aware of what was going on around him."

The Times then goes on to report the bad news. Gardner didn't actually hold the world record for staying awake. Gardner's record had long since been surpassed by others. So Wright didn't set a new record.

The Times reports that: "The Guinness previous record was for 11½ days, or 276 hours, and was set by Toimi Soini in Hamina, Finland, between February 5 to 15, 1964." However, Soini's record was removed from the Guinness Book of Records in 1989. "It was deleted on the grounds that it could encourage records harmful to health and was unverifiable because of the claims of insomnia sufferers."

Actually, the question of who holds the world record for staying awake is a little more complicated than that, which I know because Gardner's sleep deprivation experiment is one of the experiments I discuss in Elephants On Acid: and Other Bizarre Experiments. I even interviewed Randy Gardner, who still lives in San Diego.

Gardner set his record on January 8, 1964. Two weeks later newspapers reported that Jim Thomas, a student at Fresno State College, beat Gardner's record by staying awake for 266.5 hours. And a month later Soini set the new record. 1964 was a banner year for sleep-deprivation trials.

However, subsequent issues of the Guinness Book of Records report far longer periods of sleep deprivation. The 1978 edition, for instance, states that: Ironically, I don't believe Randy Gardner's record ever did make it into Guinness. Gardner reports that "I did not get listed in Guiness as I missed the publication date." However, Gardner's record is the most frequently cited because it was (and probably still is) the most scientifically rigorous long-term human sleep-deprivation study, since Gardner was monitored by Dr. William Dement of Stanford University.

The overall problem with determining the record for the longest a person has stayed awake is that people take "microsleeps" without being aware of it. To really determine if a person has been constantly awake you'd need to record their brainwaves throughout the experiment. As far as I know, such a study has never been done.

The Return of Hogzilla — Quite a few people have emailed me about this. An eleven-year-old Alabama boy claims to have killed a wild hog that's even bigger than Hogzilla. Hogzilla weighed 800lbs and measured 8-feet. Hogzilla II apparently weighs 1050lbs and measures 9-feet-4. Since Hogzilla turned out to be real, I'm a little hesitant to be skeptical of Hogzilla II. After all, hogs can get big. The boy's father has created a website, monsterpig.com, about the hog.

The fact that the boy is fairly small, being only eleven-years-old, may exaggerate the hog's size in the photo, but I wouldn't call this an intentional attempt to deceive. Overall my hunch is that this is not a hoax.

Best of the Forum – 25th May 07 — As some people receive Museum updates via RSS feed, or just don't frequent the forum, we have decided to round up some of the most interesting threads each week for all to see.

Rabbit-Headed Cat (Smerk)
Two carcasses discovered in 1988 and 1993 are thought to be a new species – rabbit-headed wildcats. These Kellas cats seem to be rare, and investigators are urging landowners and gamekeepers to help them discover more. Sadly, the rabbit-like ears aren’t as impressive as I’d hoped.

Get your free virus now! (Accipiter)
“Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here!”
409 people decided to click the text advertisement that Finnish IT security expert Didier Stevens had placed on Google’s Adword. Stevens’s experiment was aiming to show that such advertisements could be used with malicious intent. There was, of course, no virus.

June 6, Théopolis World Contact with Aliens (Antoll MA)
On June 6th, the annual gathering to officially ask the alien gods to visit will take place in Théopolis.

Boost Car Remote With Your Skull (Tah)
This video (not suitable for work, due to the type of adverts on the site) demonstrates how, by placing your car remote under your chin and opening your mouth, you can boost the range of the remote. Apparently it uses your oral cavity to amplify the signal. The video doesn’t actually show the remote being used at the same time as showing the car react, so it could be faked. There’s really no way of telling. A couple of forum members have tried it, with mixed results.

Tims Don’t Look Like Bobs (Tah)
A new study reveals that the more a person ‘resembles’ their name, the more likely it is that others will remember it.

The Legend of Deerman — A series of articles by Dave Clarke of the Star Courier has revived interest in the legend of the Deerman. The legend is local to Kewanee, Illinois. It tells of a creature, with the upper body of a deer and the lower body of a man, that lurks in the woods, occasionally popping up to scare lovers parked on moonlit nights or people wandering around alone. Supposedly if you see Deerman three times you die.

Clarke credits Jerry Moriarity, the editor and publisher of the Star Courier during the '50s and '60s, with popularizing the legend of the Deerman in his column "Mostly Malarkey."

Half-human/half-animal creatures are a staple of local legends. Some of the other famous ones that I know about are Mothman of West Virginia, the Owlman of Cornwall, the Goatman of Maryland, and the Lizard Man of South Carolina. I'm sure there must be many others. (Thanks, Joe)

Whac-a-mole vs. Guacamole — I came across an interesting question asked to a reporter in the Charlotte Observer. Actually, I initially thought it was a really stupid question, but part of the answer surprised me. The question was: Like I said, I thought it was a stupid question. Just because the two words end in "mole," that doesn't mean they have anything to do with each other. And sure enough, the reporter, Jeff Elder, confirmed that the name "Whac-a-mole" is not, in any way, derived from the word guacamole. He called up Michael Lane, chief financial officer of Bob's Space Racers of Daytona Beach, Fla., makers of Whac-a-Mole. Lane said, "The name origin in English is a short way to describe the action of play."

But the weird part of the answer is that Guaca-mole is a trademarked name for the game in Spain, Mexico, and other Spanish-speaking countries. "The reason for this name, Lane says, is that pronunciation in Spanish is very similar for Whac-a-Mole and Guaca-Mole." So the two words are linked, in a roundabout way.

I say Whac-a-mole with three syllables and Guacamole with four syllables (pronouncing the "e" on the end), but I'm guessing Spanish speakers must pronounce Whac-a-mole with four syllables. And if you say it in this way, it can sound a lot like Guacamole.

Chinese Winged Cat — Ananova reports a case of a cat in China that has grown wings. The owner of the cat, Granny Feng, says, ""At first, they were just two bumps, but they started to grow quickly, and after a month there were two wings."

Ananova isn't the most reliable of sources, but I don't see any reason to doubt this story. Winged cats are a rare, but entirely possible phenomena. I could have sworn they'd been covered on the MoH before, but apparently not (at least I can't find any mention of them after doing a search).

Messybeast.com offers the best discussion of winged cats, explaining that the "wings" are typically mats of fur, or the result of either a congenital deformity or a skin condition. (Thanks, Kathy)

Quick Links: Dolls! —
Robber holds up bank using baby doll
A 25-year-old man attempted to hold up a bank in Karachi, brandishing a baby doll and a blood pressure pump. He said the doll was a bomb and the pump was a grenade. The police were called and arrested the man. The bomb disposal team then discovered the doll was stuffed with harmless wires. The would-be robber "said that he had earlier tried to rob the same bank on Saturday, but had been foiled because it was closed."

Paris Hilton Jail Edition Doll on eBay
"Comes with jail accessories like - jail window, handcuffs, LA County number sign, mugshot wall, and ball & chain. Also comes with a matching purse, and tinkerbell chihuahua"

Tiny Pocket People
The perfect gift for someone who has everything -- but you! Give them a miniaturized, doll-version of yourself. "At TinyPocketPeople, we create an unique, personalized miniature you, based on your uploaded digital photograph. And just like you, are each and every TinyPocketPeople doll unique."

Taiwanese Political Fights — Taiwanese politics can get quite violent at times. According to a recent Reuters article: But according to the same article, these fights are all staged for the benefit of the media: I guess this would be the Jerry-Springer-Show model of government.

Well, at least staged fights make political debates more interesting. It would certainly liven up American politics to put all the candidates in a ring and let them duke it out.

Of course, there have been some scuffles in Congress, such as when, in 1798, Roger Griswold attacked Matthew Lyon with a stick. And in 1856 Preston Brooks attacked Sen. Charles Sumner with a cane. But those fights weren't staged. (Thanks, Joe)

Pop Band For Sale — A Swedish pop band called Rednex is up for sale on eBay for $1.5 million. An accompanying website, popbandforsale.com, details what you get when you buy the band: At first I wondered whether this was even a real band, never having heard of Rednex before, but apparently it is real. On the band's website, they claim to have sold over 10 million records. Their heyday was back in 1994 when they had a hit song called Cotton Eye Joe. They never matched that success again, though they have had a few lesser hits since then.

Still, I wasn't sure if the sale offer was legitimate. The website popbandforsale.com looks extremely amateurish. Not what you'd expect if they really were courting a buyer willing to pay $1.5 million. The site even has google ads on it, because I guess they really need the few bucks they'll get from those ads, despite the money they're hoping to get from the sale. Also, the band doesn't mention the sale offer anywhere that I can find on their own website. Nevertheless, the sale has been widely reported in the news, so if the offer wasn't genuine, I assume the band would have said so by now.

The question is, is the band really worth $1.5 million? Maybe someone will think so, but I suspect the band doesn't really expect any serious offers. They've probably dreamed this up as a publicity stunt to get themselves in the news. And so far, it's worked.

Quick Links: Pranks and Robbers — Prank Bathroom Signs Backfire
If you ever go to McGuire's Irish Pub in Destin, Florida, it pays to read the fine print, especially when going to the bathroom. For years McGuire's has played a joke on its customers. The fine print on the "Ladies" sign explains that it's actually the men's room, and vice versa for the "Mens" sign. But recently, "A father filed a complaint, after his daughter was interrupted by a man in what she thought was the ladies room. Now, state regulators are threatening to close the pub because of the lack of proper signs." McGuire's general manager says that it was merely intended to be an "Irish joke."

Fake Hostage Situation at Bank
If you ever decide to blindfold and kidnap one of your co-workers as a joke, don't stop at the local bank to make a deposit. People might get the wrong idea: "Squad cars swarmed into Westfield Valencia Town Center around noon and a California Highway Patrol plane scoped out the streets for the suspected robber, who was gone from the bank by the time they arrived. There was a catch: It wasn't a robbery. The man had "kidnapped" his co-worker and was taking her to a birthday lunch, and had stopped at the SCV Bank branch on Town Center Drive to make a quick deposit. "I would say he could have made a better decision than to go into a bank," said Deputy Greg Hutt."

Robbers Disguised as Jehovah's Witnesses
A Swedish newspaper, The Local, reports that "Police in the Dalarna region are on the lookout for two well-dressed young men following an unusual burglary in Orsa on Sunday evening. The men, aged between 20 and 30, managed to gain entry to an elderly woman's apartment after dressing up as Jehovah's Witnesses. 'Once inside the apartment, they pulled out a knife and forced her to hand over jewellery and money,' said police spokesman Tore Strand." Hmm. So how do they know the robbers were merely "dressing up" as Jehovah's Witnesses. Maybe they were a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses gone bad.

Urban Parrot Phenomena — Is it true that large flocks of wild parrots can be found in cities such as Los Angeles, New York, and San Diego? When I first heard this I doubted it, since I live in San Diego and I've never seen wild parrots flying around (though I've seen plenty of other strange birds in my backyard.) But apparently parrots are adapting very well to urban environments, and many can now be found living wild in cities throughout the world. It's called Urban Parrot Phenomena. (Actually, I don't know if it's widely referred to as that, but I like the term.)

An article from the IPS News Agency discusses San Diego's urban parrots and their possible origins: Roelant Jonker and Grace Innemee are Dutch biologists who have been studying the phenomena of urban parrots for a while and have a lot of info about the subject on their website, cityparrots.org. You can also view a short clip that Channel 10 news here in San Diego did about the city's parrots. My wife told me that the parrots here in San Diego speak with a Mexican accent, but I think she was pulling my leg.

Killer Mobile Phone Virus — I'm a bit late with this, but I see (via Fortean Times) that last month Reuters reported that rumors were spreading around Pakistan and Afghanistan alleging that: The local phone companies were trying to calm people down, assuring them that it's impossible to contract a killer virus simply by answering your mobile phone.

This is not the first time such a rumor has been reported. The first time I saw it pop up was back in July 2004, when it was spreading around Nigeria. The rumor then was that a phone call from one of two numbers, either 0802 311 1999 or 0802 222 5999, would cause instant death. An Agence France Presse reporter bravely dialed both numbers, but survived.

Next the rumor surfaced in India in 2006. The rumor now warned of "devil calls" which, when received, would cause mobile phones to explode like bombs, killing their owners.

Of course, the real danger is not a killer phone virus. Instead, it's the relentless spread of the unstoppable gullibility virus.

Panty-Clad Robber — Here's a recent case of a man who is obviously not cut out for a life of crime: The guy was later picked up and arrested. He had the underwear with him. He's being held on $31,500 bail.

Whiskey Floats on Water — This YouTube video demonstrates a physics trick right out of high-school science -- how to take a glass of water and a glass of whiskey and swap their contents, without using a third glass. It relies on the principle that whiskey is lighter than water and will float on top of it. The funny part is not the video, which is fairly straightforward, but rather the comments left by YouTube viewers, many of whom seem to think the video must have been faked. I guess they weren't paying attention in high-school science. I had a bottle of cheap whiskey on hand (Rebel Yell), so I tried the experiment myself, and I can attest that it definitely works. You just have to make sure not to allow the whiskey and water to mix too quickly, otherwise they'll combine together and you'll end up with two glasses of watered-down whiskey.

Quick Links: Fake Zebras, etc. —
Fake Zebras
A zoo in China is charging a small fee for posing beside horses painted with zebra stripes. The zoo assures the customers that it is 'just for fun'.

Dressed Up Dead Fawn Left By Theatre
"The police log entry said it all: "Deceased fawn was dressed up like an infant and abandoned at the Pantages Theater."
The police have no idea who left the fawn or why, but they believe that the fawn had been stillborn and had died some time previously.

Woman Pretends to be Pregnant - Wastes Police Time
A Rhode Island woman has been given probation for a year after claiming her boyfriend had taken their child. Several months previously, Roxann Lacey falsely told her boyfriend that she was pregnant.
At the beginning of this month, she contacted the police, telling them that she had given birth at home, but her boyfriend had taken the child after an argument.
Medical examination found that she had not given birth, and she pleaded no contest to filing a false police report.