• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Modern Urban Legends?

Mythopoeika said:
I have a glass-topped coffee table.
Just sayin'.
Click to expand...

Screen Shot 2018-09-20 at 03.07.05.png
 
I only ever use it for books, drinks and a fan. Honest!
 
Have you ever lain under a glass topped coffee table whilst a cat does that 'tucked in paws' sitting thing on top? That's weird.

And yes, I said *sitting*.
 
Cochise said:
Where I grew up, the razor blades were supposedly in the big slide. (The local playground had two, a normal one and a larger one with a kind of hut at the top where the bullies hung out)

Instant sliced long pig :shock:
Click to expand...

Actual razor blades found on a children's slide.

Scalpel and razor blades have been found taped to the sides of a slide in a children's play area.

They were found stuck to play equipment at the Winifred Lane play area in Aughton, near Ormskirk, Lancashire Police said on Facebook. Doreen Stephenson, a councillor for Aughton Park, labelled the culprits a "disgrace", adding: "It's quite frightening to think what the consequences could be." Police urged "everyone to be vigilant".

Ms Stephenson said: "I can't believe anybody would stoop so low to do something like this in a public children's play area. It's an absolute disgrace."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-46411533
 
This is a new one on me, I'm not vouching for its veracity though. My niece told me a story concerning her friend visiting the ArcelorMittal Orbit in Stratford (big red helter-skelter outside the London 2012 Olympic Park which the Sculpturer claimed wasn't a helter-skelter - but is now). The friend was queuing behind a Special Needs kid whose Carer had decided to stayed at the bottom of the slide. There was some kind of excitement or altercation concerning the kid and Staff when she got to the top (nerves ?), resulting in the kid disappearing down the helter-skelter and the Staff immediately shutting the ride down. Twenty seconds later the Carer picked up a somewhat traumatised kid at the bottom.
According to my niece's friend overhearing the Staff, the average time of descent is 42 seconds, the Staff have all tried to shave the record to under 40 seconds, the kid did it in 20 seconds and too distressed to explain the circumstances/how ?
 
I don't think I get this - what is the story trying to suggest?

Do kids with special needs have better accelleration than the non-special variety?
 
OneWingedBird said:
I don't think I get this - what is the story trying to suggest?

Do kids with special needs have better accelleration than the non-special variety?
Click to expand...

She was the only one who experienced the seemingly impossible, but was not able to coherently explain the circumstances.
 
@Bad Bungle - from a physics perspective, to me surely the only way in which someone could've fallen faster than the 'average' faller (and let's take that as being on a steeper-than-friction-compensated slope) is if they added additional downwards forces to their descent.

If the child was able to flail with all limbs in such a way that they were able to exert repeated 'paddle pressure' as they fell (think of them being like a swimmer through a conductive solid) I could imagine them being able to fall faster than just their angle-mitigated acceleration due to gravity. This was not free-fall through the air...they could've instinctively push-pulled themselves downhill.

WAIT: I'm over-thinking this.

If they (again instinctively) curled-up into a ball for protection, their surface-area would be minimal in comparison to a supine adult's body. Therefore they'd fall down the angled slope much faster. Yes. That's it. Surely?

Rolled-up child falls like a ball, whereas bendy adults take more time to be 'birthed' down the tube. Case proven.

<Now I smugly light a metaphorical cigar, and cough-up large imaginary tracts of phlem whilst staring pensively at the far horizon through the bars of my prison cell>
 
Anome said:
We had the old "man lying on the backseat of lady's car" one go round at work. Specific details relating to the petrol station, etc, making it local. I pointed them to the Snopes page as well.
Click to expand...

If you mean the Snopes “Killer in the Backseat” page, l can assure you via an impeccable source that such things do happen.

My wife and I are both former police officers. Unfortunately l’ll have to mung the following details severely, for reasons that must be obvious. Read on:

A woman was alone in her car in the hours of darkness when it ran short of petrol. She pulled into a convenient filling station in a large city, topped up and paid at the kiosk. She hadn’t locked the car when she left to pay.

She drove off, only to have the horrifying experience of seeing a man sit up on the rear seat.

She managed to convince the suspect that she was going to be sick and parked the car opposite another business. She fled to that building, blurted out the story and the police attended and arrested the suspect.

My wife was personally involved in this case. The offender was a young man who was not in any way “on the radar” of the police. His motive was never made clear.

He went to court for the incident (offence charged and case disposition not known).

I note with wry amusement that the left-leaning Snopes website turns this “UL” into a diatribe about sexism:

“Even as a horror legend, this one is sexist to the core. As mentioned earlier, the prey is always female and both the evil fiend and the rescuer are male — there are no exceptions to this typecasting (even though men are far more often the victims of killing by strangers than women are). Both male figures are seen as powerful: the fiend for his evilness and mad intent, the rescuer for his coolness...The woman, by contrast, is portrayed as completely and irredeemably ineffective.”

I’m sure that the female in the incident above would have preferred to (in my unsubstantiated personal theory) be abducted, raped and murdered in an empowered, diverse, non-sexist atmosphere. :rolleyes:

People - especially ladies - lock your ****ing doors!

maximus otter
 
Last edited:
Ermintruder said:
@Bad Bungle
If they (again instinctively) curled-up into a ball for protection, their surface-area would be minimal in comparison to a supine adult's body. Therefore they'd fall down the angled slope much faster. Yes. That's it. Surely?

Rolled-up child falls like a ball, whereas bendy adults take more time to be 'birthed' down the tube. Case proven.
Click to expand...

You have something there - when I signed up to 20 laps at Brands Hatch on a souped-up v4 motorbike, the mechanic graphically explained to me that if you come off at 60 mph and instinctively curl into a ball to stop bits falling off, you will hit the barriers at 59 mph. To slow down you have to lie on your back with the arms out to increase surface area and pray your leathers can cope with the friction.
 
Last edited:
OneWingedBird said:
Maybe they got a vigorous push at the top to SEND them down the slide faster?
Click to expand...

If an adult takes 42 seconds to complete the ride at a top speed of 15 mph, then the kid must had a hell of a push to get down in 20 seconds. Maybe that's why the story wasn't reported in the papers because the Staff didn't want the Police or Social Services or the Press involved.
What you have here are all the ingredients to a successful urban-legend - an incredible action in a credible setting with witnesses fearing for their jobs if the 'truth' came out and the only person with the whole story unable to relate it.
 
Bad Bungle said:
You have something there - when I signed up to 20 laps at Brands Hatch on a souped-up v4 motorbike, the mechanic graphically explained to me that if you come off at 60 mph and instinctively curl into a ball to stop bits falling off, you will hit the barriers at 59 mph. To slow down you have to lie on your back with the arms out to increase surface area and pray your leathers can cope with the friction.
Click to expand...
Now, I can buy the physics involved in this, but - and I speak as someone who's held a full bike licence for 25+ years - I simply can't imagine having the presence of mind to actually attempt any conscious action under such circumstances. How on Earth do you develop the necessary habits?
 
maximus otter said:
I’m sure that the female in the incident above would have preferred to (in my unsubstantiated personal theory) be abducted, raped and murdered in an empowered, diverse non-sexist atmosphere. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I don't understand. You have your instance. It doesn't mean any of the others are other than ULs does it? Maybe the only connection is a copycat? Or there is no connection? If Snopes didn't write their debunk based on your experience, wholly or in part, then I'm not getting it.

If you realise later that you were triggered by this but it wasn't a real instance, does it continue to be counted as an example of the feminist conspiracy, or does your internal counter ratchet back one?

My father was totally convinced that people talked down to him all the time, that he was being patronised and would (to everyone else's view of things) randomly snarl and shout at people minding their own business - check out assistants, the window cleaner, family members... the list is endless :( Sorry rambling. Anyway, even if you talked it through with him afterwards, even if he admitted or stated or whatever that his fury had been misplace, the next time he was ranting about how the world mistreated him and He Would Show Us All.... the incident he had discounted would be used to justify his world view. Rinse and repeat.

so my question: as humans do we ever "reset" properly? or do the emotions surrounding something continue to be felt even once they have been shown to be groundless?

And yes. If I am going to be abducted, raped and murdered then better in an empowered, diverse non-sexist atmosphere. I may be permanently out of it after the event but I'm not so screwed up as to wish pain upon other people when it would make no difference to me! :rollingw:
 
Krepostnoi said:
How on Earth do you develop the necessary habits?
Click to expand...

On the one occasion that it's been relevant, the Time Slows Down thing happened and I had time to anticipate what was going to happen to to consciously try to spread out. Forgot to lift my head though and so was juddered into unconsciousness before I slithered to a halt And so spread out naturally! :rollingw:
 
Frideswide said:
On the one occasion that it's been relevant, the Time Slows Down thing happened and I had time to anticipate what was going to happen to to consciously try to spread out. Forgot to lift my head though and so was juddered into unconsciousness before I slithered to a halt And so spread out naturally! :rollingw:
Click to expand...

I don't know if there's more stability and therefore warning when coming off a motorbike? certainly on an electric bike or pushbike whenever I've come off that bad it's been a very fast flip sideways and you're straight down while still on the bike.

Not sure anyone got the SEND pun? :bish:
 
Krepostnoi said:
I simply can't imagine having the presence of mind to actually attempt any conscious action under such circumstances. How on Earth do you develop the necessary habits?
Click to expand...

As the advice was given by a Brands Hatch Pit mechanic, I'm assuming the necessary habits are learned as part and parcel of Circuit racing. I agree that coming off your bike in road traffic may not be comparable.

https://video.eurosport.co.uk/briti...g-20ft-high-into-fence_vid1109243/video.shtml
 
Last edited:
Bad Bungle said:
As the advice was given by a Brands Hatch Pit mechanic, I'm assuming the necessary habits are learned as part and parcel of Curcuit racing.
Click to expand...
Yes, actually, now you mention it, that makes a lot of sense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top