Tag Archives: news

Spider Lies on Facebook

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I am terribly afraid of spiders, so I was a bit squeamish about debunking a few of the false spider-related posts on Facebook.

I Used to be an Adventurer Like You
Until I Took a Spider to the Butt

One of the popular Facebook posts involves a two-striped spider that likes to hide in airplane bathrooms and bite people on the butt. That story is entirely fictional, fortunately for the entire human race and especially those of us who do not like creepity-crawly things.

Now if you’re in an outdoor toilet, checking below the seat for critters (including arachnids) might be a wise idea. Doing it before you’ve taken your pants down, so that you can run away screaming if you need to, is an even wiser idea.

The Reclusive Brown Recluse

Another Facebook post I’ve seen involves the Brown Recluse spider, one of the few North American spiders with a dangerous bite. The problem with the post is that some parts of it are true, and some aren’t. (Warning: Very Icky Pictures! Not for the squeamish! Seriously, you’ll regret it!)

The pictures shown are from 2003, and the person in them isn’t even sure he was really bitten by a Brown Recluse. He did have MRSA, (Warning: Another icky picture. Ew!) which is serious and a half.

Brown Recluse bites can be dangerous, but apparently, the biggest danger is getting an infection after being bitten, not the venom from the bite itself. It’s kind of an important distinction, because you’re not going to fall down and die ten seconds after the spider bites you, but if you scratch the bite, don’t keep the wound clean and don’t get treated if it does get infected, you could be in some serious trouble.

That said, most Brown Recluse bites heal on their own in 2-3 months, and a doctor who specializes in Brown Recluse spiders said there has never been a verified death from a Brown Recluse bite. (Deaths have been discussed in journals but none were “convincing,” according to the specialist.)

Now I’m a Nervous Nellie and I have health insurance, so I’d probably go get checked out if I thought I’d been bitten by a Brown Recluse, or if I had any kind of bite that wasn’t healing. Caution is a very good idea, and the bites can certainly be serious if they get infected.

However, panicking over your imminent death (which is highly, highly unlikely) isn’t constructive, and that’s why this Facebook post isn’t the best.

Lies about the Boston Bombing

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Conspiracy theories about the Boston bombing continue to be posted today.

Please don’t be gullible enough to fall for this stuff, folks–anyone who claims to know what happened at this point is not being truthful.

Many of these claims are ridiculous and easily debunked. Others aren’t as obviously false, but still don’t pass the smell test –a claim about an eight-year-old supposedly running a marathon in which children are not allowed to run, for example, or a picture of a woman killed at Sandy Hook that’s been manipulated by a photo program and incorrectly labelled as a Boston bombing survivor.

If something seems fishy, just don’t pass it on until you are sure, especially if it comes from an unknown or an single-agenda-driven source.

Please do not spread lies.

Here are five viral stories about the bombing that are not true. In any event like this you are going to get untrue stories, partly because initial reports later turn out to be untrue. That’s normal. Just make sure you read the followup reports, too.

Evil, Good, and the Boston Bombing

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I realize that I’m about to anger a lot of people right now, but I saw a few things about the Boston bombing last night on social media that were upsetting, not just to me, but to others as well.

And these are just my opinions. They don’t reflect anyone else’s, nor my company’s opinions.

Also, I must note, anybody is allowed to say whatever they want. Freedom of speech is important. However, just because you can say something does not mean you should, especially not in the immediate wake of a horrific event. Why not wait a day or two?

People were saying these things long before the death toll was known and long before others could find out if their loved ones were still alive, with intact limbs. They could have waited 24 hours for families to be notified of death and maimings.

Why not wait a day or two? Think it over from the victims’ point of view, and then if you still think it’s important enough to post, and unlikely to hurt someone, post it then.

1. It is totally inappropriate to immediately use the bombing to make snide remarks about guns, whether you are pro-gun or anti-gun or in between and ambivalent.

In the immediate wake of a massive epidemic of ebola that killed three people, you wouldn’t be posting things about how “Well this goes to show that measles is/is not totally harmless,” would you? (It isn’t, by the way. Measles can and does kill and maim people on a fairly regular basis. But that’s beside the point.)

2. It is totally inappropriate to immediately be claiming these people were actors, or that the government did it, or any other conspiracy theory about the bombing.

The plain fact is, at this time no reputable information has been released about who did it, and much of the other conspiracy talk is actually garbage, easily debunked for those who take 10 seconds to check Snopes.com.

I do think it is particularly awful to accuse actual victims of being actors. I talked to several people who were either there themselves or had relatives there yesterday. They’re real people and they were really frightened. And real people have lost their lives or their limbs to this bombing.

3. People were also posting graphic images on Facebook, of blood-strewn streets. That’s fine with me, but it’s not fine with everybody–there are some very squeamish people out there, and again, this was long before everyone knew their relatives were safe. And the phones were shut down for a long time too, so they couldn’t necessarily check.

How would you like to be looking at a photo of a bloody street and wondering if that blood or limb is your daughter’s or husband’s? It doesn’t sound too appealing, does it?

All that said, there’s a nice Mr. Rogers meme going around Facebook right now about how whenever something terrible happens, people try to help, and that you will always find helpers. I’ve seen a few stories about the helpers already, and will be collecting them here.

Boston Marathon explosions attract an outpouring of help from city’s residents

Overwhelming kindness follows Boston Marathon blast

The good outnumber you

How A Decade Of Disasters Helped Boston Hospitals Handle The Marathon Bombings

IRS extends tax deadline for Boston bombing victims

Canadian runners lace up to show support for victims of Boston Marathon bombings

Athletes Going the Extra Mile to Support Boston Marathon Bombing Victims

How to help after Boston Marathon bombing: Relief funds spring up

Facebook Fear Factor: Cake and Pancake Mixes

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What the warning (incorrectly) says: When they get old cake mixes grow spores that can kill you, which is why it’s so important to throw out your expired cake mix — it is toxic.

What the warning leaves out: Cake mix does not develop spores over time, but cake mix that isn’t sealed (like lots of other things left unsealed) can get moldy if exposed to mold spores. People who are allergic to mold can have serious reactions in the presence of mold. But old cake mix is itself not toxic.

Very important thing: If you are allergic to mold, you can have a severe reaction to eating anything with mold in it. And if you do not seal your cake mix, your cake mix can get mold in it.

Therefore, if you’re allergic to mold, you should take precautions and make sure your cake mix doesn’t get mold in it. Usually it comes in a sealed plastic bag anyway. Pancake mix might be a bit trickier–maybe mold-sensitive people could put it in a sealable plastic or glass canister immediately, or simply buy small packages and make and eat it quickly.

More information: Snopes.com.

Scare Tactics on Facebook: BVO

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Lately it seems like Facebook is trying to scare us all to death with ominous warnings about brominated vegetable oil, deadly cake mix, killer brown recluse spiders and child-abducting men in silver cars, or cops who beat up civilians and might get their jobs back.

Then there’s the “fun facts” type posts about the main ingredients of WD-40.

The problem? All the stories about these things are only partially true at best. Each one leaves out vital pieces of information or includes vast swathes of incorrect information.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t repost information when you get it or when you see it on Facebook, but please take the 30 seconds it requires to check it out on snopes.com or otherwise verify it.

Don’t add to the vast array of bad “information” out there. Don’t help make the world a little more ignorant. It only takes a moment to determine some of these things are not accurate.

Brominated Vegetable Oil

What the warning says: I’ve seen two warnings about this substance, which is found in Mountain Dew. One of them attempted to terrify people by asking “Do you feed your children flame retardants?” To which the answer is, of course, “Yes,” because water is a very effective flame retardant, and it is required to keep the human body functioning.

The other warning calls BVO a “poisonous, corrosive chemical.” The same can just as accurately be said about water: it can act as a poison in large enough quantities and its corrosive action is easy to see if you leave an iron object in the water for a while. And of course, everything is made out of chemicals, from good old H20 (water) to the oxygen we breathe, O2. (Oh, and that oxygen is explosive, by the way.)

What the warning leaves out: No studies have shown serious health issues caused by moderate consumption of beverages containing BVO at the concentrations typically used in those products.

That said: there have indeed been cases in which people have suffered ill effects from BVO in soft drinks, so there’s a grain of truth in the fear-mongering. However, those people were drinking 2-8 liters of soda in a day.

Dose makes the poison, and there are no toxic substances, only toxic doses. In sufficient amounts, water is a poison too, and excessive amounts of vitamin D can be very harmful. And drinking 2-8 liters of soda in a day is probably not a good idea anyway, BVO or no BVO. Caution and moderation is definitely called for; pouring out all your Mountain Dew really isn’t.

More information: snopes.com, wikipedia.org

The New Oz Movie

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Well, after 28 years they’ve finally come out with a new Oz movie, and the critics already seem to be jumping all over it with hobnailed boots.

Fair enough. I haven’t seen it yet, so I have no idea whether it’s any good.

What I do question is the critics’ seeming universal claim that the original movie was an unparalleled classic of American movie-making, and the unspoken premise that it should be enshrined forever because it’s awesome, period.

I like “Wizard of Oz,” don’t get me wrong. It is a classic. It has some neat images (the colorchanging horse! The Art Deco Emerald City!) and a couple of good songs. It’s a fairytale quest flick, which I always appreciate, too.

… but.

But Judy Garland was in her late teens when she filmed this movie, and her dialogue would be better suited to an eight-year-old. But the Dorothy character doesn’t actually do a whole lot during the movie–she reacts to situations, sure, but mostly things seem to happen to her. And the characterizations are mostly paper-thin.

It’s a good movie, sure, but I’d argue that its strongest point is its setting, or perhaps the music– certainly not the characters, the plot or the script. Think about it: The yellow brick road. The Emerald City. The color-shifting horse, the angry trees, the flying monkeys, the dark forest and the field of poppies. All that is part of the setting.

And if the setting is great, why not revisit it and expand it?

I’m not saying the new movie is any good–I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know. I am saying that if you do see it, it’s probably best to view it as a standalone movie, or at least try not to remember the first flick through the rose-colored glasses of childhood.

Unless you’re seeing the new movie while you’re still a child as well, you’re not going to be making a fair comparison that way.

Bad Love (Songs)

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What are the worst love songs of all time?

Well, this list on Yahoo! is a good start, but it barely scratches the surface of love songs that leave something to be desired, such as “love,” or in some cases, “song.”

Along with Billy Joel’s “She’s Always a Woman,” noted here for describing the sociopathic, needlessly cruel behavior of the woman in question, there should be a couple more. Let’s start with the Beatles’ “Girl,” another chronicle of an abusive woman, and “When a Man Loves a Woman.”

This Worst Wedding Songs list has the ever-creepy “Run For Your Life” from the Beatles, along with Sting’s stalkery “Every Breath You Take.” Both of these songs are stalker anthems.

How about “Close to You”? “Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?” Isn’t that an Alfred Hitchcock movie?

Then again, I have to admit I do like Elton John’s “Your Song,” even though it’s apparently written from the point of view of a guy with ADHD who’s trying to write a song but keeps interrupting himself, leading to a totally incoherent tune that’s somehow sincere and sweet anyway.

Other Things That Are Not Romantic, many of which I’ve noted before:

  • “Phantom of the Opera.” It seems very romantic when you’re 15 years old (I know I thought so). It’s only later that you think it through and realize the play is about a man who literally kidnaps a woman and drags her into a basement, where he wants her to stay. Forever. That’s not romantic, that’s criminal.
  • Flowers. I love you, therefore I’m giving you the severed reproductive organs of plants. Better toe the line or you’re next.
  • “Twilight.” Elderly man creeps into a high school girl’s room and watches her while she sleeps. Yikes!
  • “Titanic.” I have to admit, I had to stifle a giggle when they were on the raft at the end of the movie, she says “I’ll never let go” and then almost immediately shoves her love’s corpse off the raft. It’s all about timing, am I right?

Headaches and Other Brain Drains

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My brain decided to spontaneously explode on Sunday night.

As it’s a brain, and not a keg of dynamite with a fuse and a match, it didn’t do a very good job of it, and as the blizzard sailed in like the Flying Dutchman, my headache got worse and worse.

Though it’s far from lethal, there’s nothing quite like an ordinary, garden-variety sinus headache. I don’t know how you folks who get migraines deal with it, I really don’t. The infinitely-less-powerful sinus headaches I occasionally get are quite enough.

This time, prompted by atmospheric pressure changes that brought snow to apparently every single person on social media ever, my headache was impervious to my old reliable weapons, Aleve and Claritin. Advil did nothing. And the nausea was bad enough that I didn’t dare lie down and risk putting pressure on any internal organs.

But, as most headaches do, it eventually vanished, leaving me bored, because I couldn’t concentrate on anything more complicated than “OGG SMASH WITH ROCK,” and tired, because I hadn’t been able to sleep what with the throbbin’ noggin (which may be a good name for a band) and all.

Still, it was just a headache, and not even a migraine at that. No big deal.

Real Klingons Wear Pink in Star Trek: The Animated Series

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Star Trek: The Animated Series

Star Trek: The Animated Series

Giant pink tribbles. Spock casting magic spells. The crew turning into babies, growing gills, or shrinking. Is there no weirdness that failed to occur on Star Trek: The Animated Series?

No. No, there isn’t. And that’s why the show, which ran from 1973-74, is pure, unadulterated awesome.

Though it occupies a dubious position in Trekkie canon, The Animated Series is a must-see for fans, who will be treated to a succession of wacky events involving the almost the entire cast of The Original Series.

Inexplicably, Chekov is gone. Equally inexplicably, every single alien being sounds suspiciPink Tribbles?ously like Scotty, Nurse Chapel or Uhura. Actually, the explanation was saving money by not hiring extra voice actors or Chekov’s actor, Walter Koenig.

But this enabled them to do something the Original Series could never do, by crewing the Enterprise with more aliens. Foremost among them are the six-limbed Arex, who occupies Chekov’s seat most of the time, and M’Ress, a cat-woman communications officer.

At the time of the Original Series, I don’t think it would have been possible to have shown a guy with an extra arm and leg, like Arex had, and M’Ress would have had a somewhat wooden expression if she’d been a real person with a face covered with fur.

And then there’s the fact that one of the people working on the show was colorblind.

As a result, Klingons wear pink and purple, and Klingons in Orchid?the Kzinti, who are supposed to be terrifying telepathic cat-wolverine-people, do too.

Plus there are pink tribbles. Giant pink tribbles. If there were a way to market these to 12-year-old girls Earth would be drowned in tribbles in a matter of hours. Talk about weapons of mass destruction!

Then there’s the elevator-music theme song, which definitely is worse than the theme song from Star Trek: Enterprise, no matter what anybody says, although the animated Enterprise is so darn cute it’s easy to forgive the tune.

If you have Netflix and loved Original Series Star Trek, or just want to kill a few hours watching pure, undiluted insanity in the form of the loopiest plots ever seen in any flavor of Star Trek, check out Star Trek: The Animated Series.

For more information, check out Memory Alpha, the go-to place for online information on Star Trek, and also the source of every picture above.

Advice Columnist Practice Letter

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I’ve often thought it would be fun to become an advice columnist, though I have to admit that it would also be a responsibility. What if someone took my advice and something terrible happened?

Then again, maybe my readers can give great advice, too!

So I thought I’d do a practice test. I’ve written a letter based on comments I’ve seen on some health websites, in which people advocating for quack remedies try to convince scientists and doctors that they are all wrong. Some of these folks believe having an enema will solve most health problems.

Dear Helpful Adviser,

I need help convincing people online that they should agree with me. I have tried absolutely everything I can think of to get them to listen to my position, including calling them morons, explaining why they are stupid in great detail. I have employed animal imagery, comparing them to snakes, weasels and pigs at a trough.

I have used tenuous connections to show they are part of a vast global conspiracy of very evil people who want to suppress The Truth. I’ve even told them that clearly they hate their children, other people’s children, old people and puppies, and noted that they are drinking the koolaid, even though the culprit at Jonestown was actually cyanide (and other stuff) in Flavor Aid, not koolaid. I have told them they are sinners and murderers.

I have even compared them to Hitler and the Nazis, multiple times, yet they still don’t agree with me. I can’t understand it! Why can’t I convince people I’m right?

Sincerely,
Confused

And here would be my practice answer to these folks, who again, believe enemas and happy thoughts can cure everything. What do you think, should I try an advice column?

Dear Confused,

I can’t imagine why not.

Sincerely,
Adviser