True or not, this is an inspiring bit of sabotage.

Citroën Sabotaged Wartime Nazi Truck Production in a Simple and Brilliant Way
by Jason Torchinsky
Jalopnik.com
July 24, 2019

In case you forgot to change the batteries in your calendar, you may not be aware that this year is the 100th anniversary of Citroën. We’ve been shooting a Jason Drives special mini-series for this centenary, and while doing some research I happened to stumble upon a fascinating bit of wartime Citroën lore. It involves screwing with Nazis in a genuinely clever and subtle way that nevertheless had big repercussions. I’ll explain.

So, when France was occupied by the Germans in 1940, major French factories like Citroën were forced to produce equipment for the Nazis. Citroën president Pierre-Jules Boulanger knew he couldn’t just refuse to produce anything, but he also knew there’s no way in hell he’s going to just roll over and build trucks for a bunch of filthy Nazis. Pierre had a plan.

John Reynolds’ book Citroën 2CV describes Boulanger’s sabotage efforts. Of course, he instructed workers to set a nice, leisurely pace when building trucks (likely Citroën T45 trucks) for the Wermacht, but that’s fairly obvious. What was brilliant was Boulanger’s idea to move the little notch on the trucks’ oil dipsticks that indicated the proper level of oil down just a bit lower.

By moving the notch down, the trucks would not have enough oil, but German mechanics would have no idea, because, hey, the little notch on the dipstick says its just fine. Then, after the truck has been used for a while and is out deployed somewhere crucial, whammo, the engine seizes up, and you’ve got a lot of angry, stranded, vulnerable Nazis, balling up their little fists and redly barking curses in German.

It’s such a fantastic act of sabotage: it’s extremely cheap to implement, it’s subtle, there’s no way to see something amiss is happening as the trucks are being built, and it delivers its blow away from the site of the sabotage and when it will cause the most inconvenience and trouble.

I suppose it could be apocryphal, but this is one of those cases where I’m going to choose to believe.

That’s some mighty good sabotaging, Pierre.

Whether or not the Momo Challenge exists, just the thought of it is perceived as dangerous. Read more about it on Snopes.com.

Viral Momo Hoax Makes Schools Across the Country Ban YouTube
by Kelly Weill
March 4, 2019

Kim Kardashian fell for a hoax last week, now schools are falling for it too.

Momo—the stringy-haired, bird-faced puppet lady taunting children—is an overhyped hoax, but no one seems to have told schools, which are banning YouTube in response.

In the so-called “Momo Challenge,” the creepy figure allegedly tells children to complete increasingly dangerous stunts, such as leaving a stove on, supposedly ending with suicide. But the videos are an urban legend, and YouTube says it has no evidence of the trend on its site aside from some obviously staged hoax videos.

Nevertheless, Florida’s Palm Beach County School District blocked YouTube for its 193,000 students last week, out of fear that children would see Momo. Stockton, California’s Lincoln Unified School District went on a similar digital lockdown Thursday. The same day, Arkansas’ Jacksonville North Pulaski School District blocked YouTube searches for “Momo” on school computers.

Palm Beach County sent a district-wide email to the principals of a hundred-plus schools on Friday, announcing a temporary YouTube ban on school computers, WPTV first reported. The email reportedly claimed students had seen Momo appear while they watched educational videos.

A modern urban legend, the Momo panic has spread through unconfirmed rumors like these. (more…)

Snopes sheds light on the origins of another beloved Christmas myth: “The story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer… was developed for commercial purposes by a Montgomery Ward copywriter at the specific request of his employer…”

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Snopes.com

Was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer created to bring comfort to a girl whose mother was dying of cancer?

CLAIM
The character ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ was created by a father to bring comfort to his daughter as her mother was dying of cancer.

WHAT’S TRUE
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created by a man whose wife was dying of cancer.

WHAT’S FALSE
The story of Rudolph was created by a father to bring comfort to his daughter as her mother lay dying of cancer.

ORIGIN
To most of us, the character of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, immortalized in song and a popular holiday television special, has always been an essential part of our Christmas folklore, but Rudolph is in fact a mid-twentieth century invention whose creation can be traced to a specific time and person

Read the whole story here.

The mystery of Mingering Mike: the soul legend who never existed
by Jon Ronson
The Guardian
11 February 2015

When a “˜crate-digger”™ found a massive vinyl collection at a flea market, he couldn”™t understand how a soul star who”™d released over 100 records could just disappear. But the truth turned out to be even stranger. Jon Ronson goes in search of Mingering Mike

Intensely shy … Mingering Mike at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Photograph: Jocelyn Augustino for the Guardian

This story begins with a record collector unearthing something extraordinary at a flea market one dawn in 2003. His name is Dori Hadar. He worked as a criminal investigator for a law firm in Washington DC and he”™d been up all night with a client at the jail next door.

“It”™s a miserable place to be, the DC jail,” Hadar tells me. “It”™s stuffy and muggy and everything”™s old and decaying.”

“Do you remember what your client had been accused of?” I ask.

Hadar shakes his head. “It”™s basically drugs, guns and murders. Mainly.”

Hadar finally left the jail at 5am, just as a nearby flea market was setting up. He was a regular there – a “crate-digger” – for ever rifling through boxes of secondhand soul and funk albums, hunting for rarities. “It”™s very competitive, the crate-digger world,” Hadar says. “People guard their boxes, they don”™t want you to see, they pull the records out really fast.”

But Hadar had never been at the flea market at 5am before, and was thrilled to find no other crate-digger in sight. “And suddenly this enormous collection turned up. There must have been 15 boxes of albums.”

“As a crate-digger, that must be “¦”

“It”™s the dream.”

All artworks courtesy the artist/Smithsonian American Art Museum

Hadar was a true soul aficionado, with an encyclopaedic knowledge and 10,000 records at home. Which is why he was so amazed to discover 38 albums by a soul singer he had never heard of. His name was Mingering Mike. Hadar stared at the record covers. He read the liner notes. There was Mingering Mike”™s 1968″™s debut, Sit”™tin by the Window. The cover art was a painting of a young man in a green T-shirt, good-looking, serious. The comedian Jack Benny had written the liner notes, calling him “a bright and intelligent young man with a great, exciting future awaiting him”.

So it transpired. There were greatest hits collections and a Bruce Lee concept album and movie soundtracks – including one for an action film called Stake Out. And there were live albums, like 1972″™s Live from Paris, The Mingering Mike Review: “˜Their biggest show ever,”™ read the liner notes. “˜What a night that was.”™

Most of the song titles were upbeat and optimistic, like There”™s Nothing Wrong With You Baby and Play It Cool, Don”™t Be No Fool, Get Your Thing Together and Go Back to School. But other records had darker themes, like The Drug Store and Mama Takes Dope. Some were still wrapped in their original cellophane, price tags intact.

Hadar pulled out a few discs to see what condition they were in. Which was when he discovered to his enormous surprise that they weren”™t vinyl. They were black-painted cardboard, with fake labels and hand-drawn grooves.

What had begun to dawn on Hadar was now totally apparent: Mingering Mike did not exist. He was somebody”™s hugely detailed fantasy.

Read the whole story here.

Mingering Mike’s prodigious album collection is on exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2nd floor South, 8th and F Streets, N.W., February 27, 2015 – August 2, 2015

From W.J. Elvin III: With Scotland about to vote on independence, the Loch Ness monster has fled to a more monster-friendly environment

Scots Referendum: Has the Loch Ness monster just left Scotland?
by Dave Snelling
DailyStar.co.uk
11th September 2014

Hi-tech camera spots sea creature in English lake, and it looks a lot like Nessie

Scotland will decide on independence next week, but it seems one of the country’s most famous animals might have already made up its mind.

A creature, looking similar to the Loch Ness monster, has been spotted taking a dip in the Lake District.

The image was snapped on a hi-tech Autographer life camera, which automatically takes snaps throughout the day. Read the rest of this article here.

While performing with the Tiny Top Circus during the Perform Chinatown: Chaos Reigns festival in LA on July 26, 2014, BIGFOOT once again escaped. The $10 million dollar reward, which had been rescinded when he returned from his sojourn in New York, has been reinstated. Everyone is warned to approach with caution, as BIGFOOT can be extremely flatulent.

Watch the video:

photo: AP/ibnlive.in.com

Watch the movie:

Tiny Top Circus Cast & Crew: Proprietor & Ringmaster: Joey Skaggs; Barker: Sarah Farrell; Performers: BIGFOOT, Justin Blaser, a.k.a. Stitch the Geek, Ian Harvey, a.k.a. Trick, the Bastard; Army Special Forces: Tom Tenney, Felipe Ribeiro; Clowns: Rev Jen Miller; Joe Heaps Nelson; Marc Slanger; Miranda Torn; Strongman: Andrew Carr; Sign Carriers: Matt Lucas, Bobby Savage, Norman Savage; Himalayas Band: Welf Dorr, Matthew Fass, Nina Geiger, Jennifer Harris, Sandra Koponen, Jocelyn Selene Perry, Robyn Siwula, Kenny Wollesen

Production: Producer & Still Photographer: Judy Drosd; Cinematography & Editing: Kate McCamy; Additional Camera: Tony Torn; Music & Sound Effects: Colby Johnson; Cage & Costume construction: Ivy Drechney, Troy Suite; Graphics & Signage: Paula Sharpe

Special Thanks: Tony Barsha, Katryn Beckwith, Doris Deither, Iliya Fridman, Akim Fridman, Francis “Faceboy” Hall, Dr. Larry Herbert , Albert Kahn, Valentina Kvasova, Jim Monroe, Naomi Pitcairn, Libby Reed, Erin Rogers, Dorothy Skaggs, Jon Truskey, Nancy Weber, Henry Zemel

From Joe King: Unfortunately the gravity shift is a hoax:

Jan. 4, 2014: “˜Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity”™ Allowing People to Float is an Old Hoax
by Jack Phillips
Epoch Times
December 30, 2013

A rumor from the News-Hound.net blog is claiming there”™s a “zero-G day” at 9:47 a.m. on January 4, 2014, that will decrease gravity allowing people to float for five minutes due to an “extraordinary astronomical event.” But it”™s not real as it was a hoax perpetrated by astronomer Sir Patrick Moore four decades ago.

“At exactly 9:47 am, the planet Pluto will pass directly behind Jupiter, in relation to the Earth. This rare alignment will mean that the combined gravitational force of the two planets would exert a stronger tidal pull, temporarily counteracting the Earth”™s own gravity and making people weigh less. Moore calls this the Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect,” reads the blog that has hundreds of thousands of “likes” and shares on Facebook, saying that the “theory” was attributed to astronomer Sir Patrick Moore.

However, the whole thing was a hoax created several decades ago by Moore but websites and blogs kept passing it along every year, saying it will happen a few days after New Year”™s Day.

Moore, who was the BBC Radio 2 astronomer, said the event would happen as part of an April Fools Day prank in 1976.

(more…)

From Joe King: Apparently the python-swallows-drunk tale has appeared in various permutations here there and everywhere

“˜Python Eats Drunk Man in India”™ Most Likely a Hoax; Media Outlets Fooled
by Jack Phillips
Epoch Times
November 28, 2013

An article titled “Python Eats Drunk Man in India” is a hoax, according to a report.

David Emery with About.com wrote that the photo, which shows a python with a large object inside of it as people stand nearby, has been around for at least two years.

“Depending on which version of the story you read, the overstuffed python above swallowed a drunk guy in India, an unknown woman in South Africa, an unknown man in Qujing, China, a person of unknown gender in Indonesia, or a 4-year-old child in Malaysia,” he wrote. (more…)

Woolly Mammoth Video From Siberia Faces Credibility Issues
Huffington Post
February 9, 2012

A woolly mammoth has reportedly been seen and videotaped in Siberia, offering irrefutable proof that the giant hairy prehistoric elephants — believed to have gone extinct thousands of years ago — still exist.

That is, of course, if this new video shows an actual mammoth crossing a Siberian river. According to The Sun, a government engineer, conducting a survey for a potential new road last summer, saw the beast in question in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug region of Siberia.

He supposedly filmed the creature. And here is where so many questions come to mind: (more…)

Submitted by W.J. Elvin III as seen in the LA Times:

The Road to Area 51
by Annie Jacobsen
LA Times
April 5, 2009

After decades of denying the facility’s existence, five former insiders speak out

Area 51. It’s the most famous military institution in the world that doesn’t officially exist. If it did, it would be found about 100 miles outside Las Vegas in Nevada’s high desert, tucked between an Air Force base and an abandoned nuclear testing ground.

Then again, maybe not– the U.S. government refuses to say. You can’t drive anywhere close to it, and until recently, the airspace overhead was restricted–all the way to outer space. Any mention of Area 51 gets redacted from official documents, even those that have been declassified for decades.

It has become the holy grail for conspiracy theorists, with UFOlogists positing that the Pentagon reverse engineers flying saucers and keeps extraterrestrial beings stored in freezers. Urban legend has it that Area 51 is connected by underground tunnels and trains to other secret facilities around the country. (more…)

From About.com: Urban Legends by David Emery:

Netlore Archive: The Bristol Zoo Parking Attendant

Email tale about a ‘very pleasant attendant’ who, for 25 years running, showed up every day at Bristol Zoo and collected parking fees from visitors, then one day simply disappeared with all the cash. Turns out no one had ever officially hired a car park attendant for the zoo. The man now lives in a villa in Spain.





Description: Email joke / Urban legend
Circulating since: April 2007
Status: False

Email example contributed by Kenneth D., July 6, 2009:

Fw: A well-planned retirement

From The London Times:

Outside the Bristol Zoo, in England, there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 coaches, or buses.

It was manned by a very pleasant attendant with a ticket machine charging cars 1 pound (about $1.40) and coaches 5 (about $7).

This parking attendant worked there solid for all of 25 years. Then, one day, he just didn’t turn up for work. (more…)

Mars will be NOT be huge this August
NewsTimes.com
May 29, 2009

Can an urban myth be galactic in its silliness?

Meet the story of giant Mars, coming this August to a night sky near you.

The myth appears in an e-mail that is circulating around the Internet like a comet. It promises that on Aug. 27, Mars will be so close to Earth it will look as big as the full moon. It will be the night of two moons — one white and one red.

“Share this with your children and grandchildren,” the e-mail message says. “NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN.”

Astronomers, hearing this or reading this, can only sigh. They’re confronting the celestial version of the story of how Mikey of the Life cereal ads exploded after eating Pop Rocks and drinking soda. It’s an urban legend. (more…)