David Emery's Urban Legends Blog

Contrary to fast-spreading rumors planted by pranksters on Digg.com and Wikipedia, 15-year-old Miley Cyrus, pop singer and star of the Disney Channel's Hannah Montana TV series, did not die in a car crash on Friday, September 5.

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The viral email of the hour is a lengthy screed lambasting Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's record as a small-town mayor and Governor of Alaska. It was signed by one Anne Kilkenny, who claims she is longtime resident of Wasilla, Alaska and was able to observe Sarah Palin's governing style firsthand.

Did she really write it? Yes, she did. Does she really live in Wasilla? Yes, she does. And, in case you hadn't already guessed, she's a Democrat.

Anne Kilkenny on Sarah Palin

A personal email sent to a small circle of family and friends by a Maryland accountant calls Joe Biden's character into question, claiming the Democratic vice-presidential candidate "stiffed" him on debts accrued during past and present political campaigns.

"Joe Biden is a liar and a cheat," Bruce Riddle writes in the message -- which to his chagrin ended up being forwarded to thousands of other people. "I know it firsthand. Character is what life is all about. Joe Biden is a man of bad character and sets a bad example for America."

Not that he's changed his tune, exactly, but when I contacted the author to authenticate the story, Mr. Riddle replied that the Biden campaign has since "paid in full."

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If Internet search traffic is any indication, Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin is the hottest thing going -- in more senses than one. Time.com blogger Bill Tancer reports that the search term "sarah palin" generated more hits in a mere two days than any other political figure in the past three years. Right this second, the keyword phrase "sarah palin hot pictures" is one of the top-ranking entries on Google's constantly updated list of top search trends.

The irony is that the "hot pictures" everyone is frantically searching for are mostly fakes. As I reported yesterday, a widely disseminated image of Palin wearing an American-flag bikini and holding a rifle was created by Photoshopping the Alaska Governor's head onto someone else's body. The same is true of another photo (see thumbnail at right) purportedly showing Palin in a sexy miniskirt -- that's her face, all right, but not her miniskirt.

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I have been asked to weigh in on the authenticity of this photo of John McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

The vice-presidential contender is shown wielding a rifle while posing in an American flag bikini.

Palin is, after all, a former beauty queen, avid hunter, and staunch advocate of gun ownership rights. So it all adds up, right?

Wrong.

Sarah Palin announced today that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol Palin, is now about five months pregnant, effectively rebutting Internet rumors speculating that the Republican vice-presidential candidate's fifth child, whose birth was announced last April, actually belonged to her daughter. Bristol will keep the child, says Palin, and intends to marry the father, as yet unnamed.

Read more about it:
• To Rebut Rumors, Palin Says Daughter, 17, Pregnant - Reuters
• Palin Pregnancy Rocks Political World - ABC News

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On Saturday I was emailed a copy of a rumor making the rounds since John McCain's announcement of Sarah Palin as his running mate, to wit:

Palin's faked "pregnancy"? Covering for teen daughter?

Okay, I just have to diary about this, although in many ways this falls into the "none of our business category".

But it appears that Pallin's [sic] last child, a baby with Down's syndrome, may not be hers. It may be that of her teenage daughter.

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BBC News and other sources are reporting that a half-a-foot-long predatory bug popularly known as a "camel spider" apparently hitched a ride from Afghanistan in the luggage of a British paratrooper and frightened the soldier's family into fleeing their Colchester, England home.

Which is believable, given the creature's forbidding appearance and its Internet reputation as a high-jumping carnivore famed for attacking full-grown camels and eating their flesh (that last bit is untrue, by the way). Known to entomologists as a solpugid, the organism -- a member of the arachnid family but not really a spider at all -- is typically found in dry, desert regions, including Afghanistan.

What I'm skeptical of, however, is the family's stated belief that the camel spider killed their dog. Read more...

If you haven't heard of the medical scourge known as "fan death," you're not from South Korea. Or Canada, for that matter, where isolated rumblings about the dangers of running an electric fan in a closed room have apparently begun to surface as well.

As reported in the Toronto Star, an English teacher at the University of New Brunswick described a bewildering experience she had last winter after telling students she planned to bring an electric fan into the unventilated classroom to alleviate the stuffiness caused by keeping the windows closed during freezing weather.

If you do that, a Korean student warned, it will lower your body temperature, and you'll die. Some other Korean immigrants interviewed by The Star echoed the sentiment. Read more...

The closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing were barely over when a missive arrived in my inbox sporting a list of 10 on-air bloopers allegedly made by NBC sports commentators.

"He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it," one announcer supposedly said. "In fact you can see it all over their faces."

"Julian Dicks is everywhere," another was quoted as saying. "It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field."

Nevermind that Julian Dicks is a British soccer player who retired some years ago and never played in any Olympic Games, let alone in 2008. It's the punchline that counts.

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