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Urban Legends

Urban Legend Alert!
Wait a minute- what's an urban legend anyway?
Peter van der Linden and Terry Chan seem to think in their alt.folklore.urban FAQ: "An urban legend:

  1. appears mysteriously and spreads spontaneously in varying forms
  2. contains elements of humor or horror (the horror often "punishes" someone who flouts society's conventions).
  3. makes good storytelling.
  4. does NOT have to be false, although most are. ULs often have a basis in fact, but it's their life after-the-fact (particularly in reference to the second and third points) that gives them particular interest."

What's so bad about urban legends, then?
Believing in urban legends is a waste of time, because they were made up by someone who wanted to play a trick on people. They are falsehoods and more likely than not spiteful attacks on our good nature. They can be misleading, and in the case of medical and safety information, downright dangerous. If you fall for an urban legend, you might spread the disease even further.
Well, what should I look out for?
Look for anything that is too strange or has an element of excessive pathos or revenge. Keep an open mind, but try to verify stories that suggest the fantastic, disastrous, or overly emotional. If it is something true, more likely than not there is already a web site about it. Use a search engine to corroborate (or, more likely, refute) any wild tales.
And what does an Urban Legend look like?
A few interesting urban legends have come bouncing across the threshold. Both have been disclaimed by their alleged sources so the case for Urban Legendhood is pretty strong.
Our first entry plays upon the disgust over black spots on bananas. What if those black spots were really bad for you? Or better yet, really, really bad? The CDC has debunked this email on their web site and have even issued a press release about it (!).
Subject: FW: Bananas
>
> I don't know how true this is but read on.....
>
>
> Dear Friend,
>
> Please forward to everyone you love!!
>
> This is VALIDATED FROM THE CDC. (center for disease control in atlanta
> georgia)
>
> Warning:
>
> Several shipments of bananas from Costa Rica have been infected
> with necrotizing fasciitis, otherwise known as flesh eating bacteria.
> Recently this disease has decimated the monkey population in Costa Rica.
> We are now just learning that the disease has been able to graft itself
> to the skin of fruits in the region, most notably the Banana which is
> Costa Rica's largest export. Until this finding, scientists were not sure
> how
> the infection was being transmitted. It is advised not to purchase Bananas
> for the next three weeks as this is the period of time for which bananas
> that
> have been shipped to the US with the possibility of carrying this disease.
> If you have eaten a banana in the last 2-3 days and come down with a
> fever followed by a skin infection seek "Medical Attention"!!!
> The skin infection from necrotizing fasciitis is very painful and
> eats two to three centimeters of flesh per hour. Amputation is likely,
> death is possible. If you are more than an hour from a medical center
> burning the flesh ahead of the infected area is advised to help slow the
> spread of the infection. The FDA has been reluctant to issue a country
> wide warning because of fear nationwide panic. They have secretly admitted
> that they feel upwards of 15,000 Americans will be affected by this
> but that these are acceptable numbers.
>
> Please forward this to as many people you care about
> as possible as we do not feel 15,000 people is an acceptable
> number.
>
> Manheim Research Institute
> Center for Disease Control
> Atlanta Georgia>
And now for something a little closer to my own heart. Or your heart. But don't take it from me, see the supposed source: Rochester General Hospital- they should know. This one has had it's formatting messed up from being forwarded.
How to save yourself.

Let's say it's 6:17 p.m. and you're driving home (alone of
course)after an unusually hard day on the job. Not only was the
workload
extraordinarily heavy, you also had a disagreement with your boss,
and no matter how hard you tried he just wouldn't see your side of the
situation.
> > > You're really upset and the more you think about it the more
uptight you become.
All of a sudden you start experiencing severe pain in your chest
that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw.
You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home,
unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far.
What can you do?
> > >> >
You've been trained in CPR but the guy that taught the course
> neglected to tell you how to perform it on yourself.

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE Many people are alone when
they suffer a heart attack, what can you do?
Without help a person whose heart stops beating properly begins to
feel faint and has about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.
However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly
and very vigorously.
A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must
deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the
chest.
A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds
without let up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be
beating
normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements
squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing
pressure on
the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack
victims can get to a phone and, between breaths, call for help. You'll
be
giving yourself CPR with this technique.
> > >> > Tell as many other people as possible about this, it could save
their life!

> > >> > The above was taken from Health Cares, Rochester General Hospital
via Chapter 240's newsletter AND THE BEAT GOES ON... publication, Heart
Response)