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Yes, the perpetrator of this fraud deserves to face the consequences - but the victims deserve some blame for failing to exercise basic common sense. I mean, mammograms by satellite? There's gullible, and then there's gullible...

Nonny
 
I've heard similar stories with serious consquences. Women have been induced to mutilate themselves by callers who claim to have kidnapped their children.

I can't understand why the telephone has such power over people. If someone rings me and I don't like what they're saying I put the phone down.

I suppose it comes down to gullibility.
 
Why shouldn't escargot answer the phone?

I had a friend who found it funny to ring strangers pretending to be from BT and get them to look for a special button underneath the phone. We Brits sometimes call a button a 'knob' which also means 'penis' so my pal would have the poor victim searching high and low for his knob and declaring that he couldn't find his knob but he was sure it was there somewhere.

He also liked to find people in the phone book with unusual names and taunt them. People called Mycock were mercilessly persecuted. As I remember, a Rev. Mycock lived in the Stoke on Trent area and was treated to, 'Mr Mycock? Mycock? No, it's your cock....' and so on.

I wonder if anyone tracked him down and punched him.
 
UrbanDruid said:
Why shouldn't escargot answer the phone?

Don't you have telemarketers in the UK? It must be paradise there.
 
escargot said:
I've heard similar stories with serious consquences. Women have been induced to mutilate themselves by callers who claim to have kidnapped their children.

Yes, I am always amazed by those stories. The one that particularly remember for being mind-boggling was the woman who was persuaded to do something awful (iirc, it was sticking pins in her breasts) by a caller who convinced her that her daughter was being held hostage. Despite the fact that her daughter was visibly and audibly in the adjoining room, watching TV.

I can't understand why the telephone has such power over people. If someone rings me and I don't like what they're saying I put the phone down.

I suppose it comes down to gullibility.

Sometimes, yes -- but in cases like the above, I sometimes wonder if some people are especially susceptible to hypnosis. Perhaps the VLF noise in the background of telephone calls enhances this susceptibility. Myself, I always need a bowel movement after a phone call of ten minutes or more, and have often wondered if VLF noise is the reason. No shit. If you, er, see what I mean.
 
Ogopogo said:
Don't you have telemarketers in the UK? It must be paradise there.

Just about the only thing we get is people trying to sell us double glazing, if you tell them you just rent the house and aren't responsible for the windows they leave you alone:D

I'm not sure paradise should be this rainy in July:(
 
Myself, I always need a bowel movement after a phone call of ten minutes or more, and have often wondered if VLF noise is the reason. No shit. If you, er, see what I mean. [/B][/QUOTE]

I get that too. I also have that problem using computers, particularly older ones.
 
daftbugger said:
I get that too. I also have that problem using computers, particularly older ones.

I feel a new thread coming on ... will you do it, or shall I?

Stop sniggering at the back, there!
 
Forced HOW?

One of them told the website: "I complained because the woman who called made us do a very shameful thing, and I am quite angry." [/B][/QUOTE]

Made?

Stupidity knows few bounds, and it ain't making a list for us any time soon.
 
Hoaxes and PK

This is from http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/

April Fool's Day, 1976

Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity
British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at exactly 9:47 a.m. the planet Pluto would pass behind the planet Jupiter, and that this alignment of the planets would result in a stronger gravitational pull from Jupiter, counteracting the Earth's own gravity and making people momentarily weigh less. He told listeners that they could experience this phenomenon for themselves by jumping in the air at 9:47. If they did so, he said, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 a.m. arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of calls from listeners who claimed that they had felt the sensation. One woman claimed that she had been seated around a table with eleven friends, and that all of them, including the table, had begun to float around the room. Another caller complained that she had risen from the ground so rapidly that she had hit her head on the ceiling.


-----

I found this hilarious but also interesting in a Fortean way - could All of these people have been lying? Maybe a need to be part of something make them pretend they'd experienced it? Or did some of them have overactive imaginations?

OR - did it actually occur for some people? There is evidence that unconcious PK tests can result in more "hits" than if the person is aware of being tested for any kind of ESP.
So I'm thinking, maybe the people believed it so much they unconciously exercised PK and made themselves float?

Thoughts, anyone?
 
Fascinating stuff, Pinkle! I hadn't heard this one before.

But I suspect that it's probably down to Barnum's comment that "There's one born every minute"....

[Technical note - I haven't checked this in my Dic of Quotes, so feel free to correct. :) ]

EDIT: Can you give the URL of this story please? It's not in their gallery entry for years up to '76 (which surprisingly only goes up to '71...)
 
Here's the link - it's in the "April fools" gallery at the bottom of the page, not the main hoaxes gallery, which fooled me too for a while!

Some of the people who reported feeling this effect could actually have got the joke and decided to join in the fun; some could simply be lying for whatever reason and, yes, a few may actually have experienced a form of PK.

Interesting idea, Pinkle.

Jane.
 
what the GOM (Grand Old Man) was trying to prove was that you can fool some of the people all of the time
and he suceeded, obviously.
 
I heard this on the radio at the time. Peeps were ringing in by the dozen to to tell how they'd been floating round the room.

I assumed that the callers were either stooges or just funny people who'd decided to join in the joke.

My mother heard it too and and was astonished to learn that it was a joke- it had been on Radio 2, and a CLEVER MAN had said it.
 
2D child, April fools joke!?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/30037.html

Got this link yesterday, and I wondered if there are any other interesting on-line pranks going about, or any stories about April fools going wrong/getting out of hand?
Note, the That's Life "spaghetti plant" should not be mentioned, ok?;)
 
Re: 2D child, April fools joke!?

Seaweed said:
Note, the That's Life "spaghetti plant" should not be mentioned, ok?;)
OK I wouldn't mention it, but 'm pretty sure it wasn't That's Life. Sorry if I upset you. ;)
 
Re: Re: 2D child, April fools joke!?

beakboo said:
OK I wouldn't mention it, but 'm pretty sure it wasn't That's Life. Sorry if I upset you. ;)

Might have been look north or some regional news prog! I knew I shouldn't have mentioned it, the thread will descend into utter silliness within minutes!!!!! (Don't blame I guv'nor):rolleyes:
 
Sorry, but this one (from that link) makes me laugh...

#37: Dutch Elm Disease Infects Redheads
In 1973 BBC Radio broadcast an interview with an elderly academic, Dr. Clothier, who discoursed on the government's efforts to stop the spread of Dutch Elm Disease. Dr. Clothier described some startling discoveries that had been made about the tree disease. For instance, he referred to the research of Dr. Emily Lang of the London School of Pathological and Environmental Medicine. Dr. Lang had apparently found that exposure to Dutch Elm Disease immunized people to the common cold. Unfortunately, there was a side effect. Exposure to the disease also caused red hair to turn yellow and eventually fall out. This was attributed to a similarity between the blood count of redheads and the soil conditions in which affected trees grew. Therefore, redheads were advised to stay away from forests for the foreseeable future. Dr. Clothier was in reality the comedian Spike Milligan.
 
:D Cheers Beakboo, that is a fantastic way to spend a day at work...Must.Leave.Computer.Eyesight.Failing.:blah:
 
We had an April fools day prank on the local news about a fairy's skeleton found fossilised in a stone on Dartmoor. It was kind of cute actually. :)
 
Spooky angel said:
We had an April fools day prank on the local news about a fairy's skeleton found fossilised in a stone on Dartmoor. It was kind of cute actually. :)

You can buy "fossilized Faeries" on t'internet and places, very cool!!!:cool:
 
One person i know mailed a friend to tell thm she had realised she was transexual.

Well I found it hilarious:

'I'm more like a man than a woman. I watch Jackass and always look at a hanky when I blow my nose.'

Priceless.

:rofl:
 
Steak trees!

Tree That Give Meat Instead Of Fruit!
MANCHESTER, England -- Here's some good news that vegetarians can really sink their teeth into: Researchers have developed genetically engineered fruit trees that bear real meat!

Fruit from the new Meat Trees, developed by British scientists using gene-splicing technology, closely resembles ordinary grapefruit. But when you peel the large fruit open, inside is fresh beef.

"Our trees may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but it's really a simple, down-to-earth idea whose time has come," declares Dr. Vincent Tartley, director of agricultural bioengineering research for the UltraModAgri Group, which created the amazing trees.


At least it's note quorn.
 
Reminds me of a joke..............
 
Taras:
Good eye! Yahoo should really stop doing that.

The details seemed kind of spotty, but I just put that up to journalistic incompetence in science. As for myself, I'm going to plead that we live in an age of wonders, so it's understandable that I took the report at face value.

I'm sure there's an object lesson in all of this.
 
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