Hoax Forum

General Movie Discussion

2008-04-16T21:17:26-08:00

I was going to make this thread specific to this one movie, but I figured the conversation will probably evolve. And there are some much-anticipated movies, some must-see movies and some just darn fun-looking movies coming out this summer. But they don’t all need their own thread, so discuss any of the summer movies here.

First up is trailer two for Hellboy 2: the Golden Army. (Trailer one has been out for a while and is a teaser. Trailer two kicks it up a few notches and makes it look even better.)

I enjoyed Hellboy so much. It was a really fun movie. And, having never read the comics/graphic novels, there wasn’t any potential disappointment from preconceived notions for me. And this movie looks like it will be just as good and as much fun. If not more so.

Fake President of Brazil interviewed.

2009-11-07T20:49:49-08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8348882.stm

Hoaxer impersonates Brazil leader

A hoaxer pretending to be Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was interviewed by Portuguese-language radio stations before being found out.

An interview he did with Angolan state radio was broadcast on air for a few days before the hoax was discovered.

The impersonator discussed the 2016 Olympics - due to be hosted by Rio de Janeiro - in the interviews.

A local Brazilian radio station seeking content for a comedy slot is believed to be behind the hoax.

BBC regional analyst Leonardo Rocha says the impersonator convincingly imitated President Lula’s husky voice and informal style.

Radio stations that broadcast in Portuguese received an e-mail a few days ago saying President Lula was willing to be interviewed about the 2016 Olympics.

Editors at Angola’s national radio were said to be in a state of shock.

In the interview, the impersonator praises Angola for its good work ahead of the African Cup of Nations, which it will host in two month’s time.

The impersonator also said: “We know we have a huge Brazilian diaspora in Australia and we’re very honoured to be getting in touch with our people around the world.”

But a sound engineer at Australia’s SBS radio station became suspicious that the president would be giving interviews on a poor telephone line, and not from a studio in the capital Brasilia.

The Australian station has demanded the authorities open an investigation into the prank.

Detectives launch £20,000 murder inquiry after bogus tip-off from mystics

2009-11-07T04:14:07-08:00

Police spent £20,000 scouring the country for a lion, a horse and a Mr Fox following a tip off they were told had come from the ghost of murdered man.

But after spending weeks on the inquiry, detectives discovered that the messages from beyond the grave suggesting that Carlos Assaf had been killed by gangsters were bogus.

Detectives initially suspected that Mr Assaf, a 32-year-old fitness enthusiast, had hanged himself in his flat. However they revised their opinion and began a murder hunt when a tantalising new line of inquiry emerged.

A group of psychics got in touch claiming a spirit has told them that Mr Assaf had been strangled after being forced to drink petrol and bleach, an inquest into the death was told.

They reported seeing “a lion, a horse and the name Tony Fox in their visions”.

As part of their investigation, detectives interviewed the mediums and visited more than a dozen pubs called the Red Lion and Black Horse in the west Wales area, where Mr Assaf lived.

They tracked down a known criminal called Tony Fox who was immediately eliminated from the inquiry, and they searched an area of Manchester after mediums suggested a possible link.

A second post mortem was carried out on Mr Assaf, the father of a four year-old boy, from Lampeter. But no bleach or petrol was found in his digestive tract.

Sgt Mark Webb, of Dyfed Powys Police, told the hearing officers found the information supplied by the mediums was “far from conclusive”.

But detectives conducted the investigation because they “wanted to be absolutely satisfied there was no third party involved.”

The inquest heard conclusive evidence that Mr Assaf, a baker, had hanged himself from a weight training bench after a row with his girlfriend in March this year.

He had developed “bouts of anger” after becoming addicted to amphetamines.

The Ceredigion coroner, Peter Brunton, recorded a suicide verdict and commented that a “great deal of effort” was expended in following up the spiritualists’ claims.

After the inquest Mr Assaf’s family said they were “grateful” to the police for investigating the information.

His mother, Shirley, said: “There is no doubt in my mind now that my son took his own life. The moral of the story is: `Do not take drugs’. If it had not been for the amphetamines, then my grandson would still have a father.”

A spokesman for Dyfed Powys Police said: “The revelations of the mystics were brought to our attention via the family and these were followed to reassure the family that the full circumstances of the death were as they appeared.

“Police have a responsibility to the deceased, their family and the public to investigate all deaths thoroughly.”

In recent years, a number of people have claimed they have psychic abilities which could help police in solving kidnapping and murder cases.

Last year, psychic investigators from a popular American television programme Haunting Evidence flew to Portugal in an attempt to solve the mystery of missing Madeleine McCann.

An American television drama series, Medium, is based on the experiences of a self-proclaimed spiritual medium Allison Dubois who claims to have worked with law enforcement agencies across America in criminal investigations.

Many police forces have felt the need to declare that they do not regard information derived from such sources as useful or credible on cases. In 2006, 28 British forces were reported to have said they did not and have never used psychics.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Fans storm out of Britney Spears concert

2009-11-06T09:08:42-08:00

Story on news.com.au. November 07, 2009 12:01am

IT was not the triumphant return Britney Spears had hoped for.

Disgruntled fans stormed out of last night’s Australian debut of The Circus concert in Perth upset by the star’s miming and “appalling” performance on stage.

They began walking out after the first three songs, some having paid $1500 to see Spears perform.

So who actually plans these sort of concerts? Surely they ought to know what they are doing by now?

I’m just glad I wasn’t there.

Dude travels to a parallel universe where the Beatles never broke up!

2009-11-06T06:37:31-08:00

Long story short: Man chases his dog in the desert, trips in a rabbit hole, knocks himself unconscious until he wakes up in a parallel universe where he steals a Beatles cassette tape, builds a website about his experience and puts the music on there as proof.
(the music is pretty good though, if you like the Beatles)

http://www.thebeatlesneverbrokeup.com/

Muslims upset over calling God “Allah”?

2009-11-04T17:14:55-08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8343626.stm

Malaysia withholds ‘Allah Bibles’

The Malaysian government has refused to release 10,000 Bibles which it seized because they contained the word Allah to refer to God.

The government, which is dominated by Muslim Malays, claims that the word Allah is Islamic and that its use in Bibles could upset Muslims.

The Roman Catholic Church is challenging the ban in court.

Religion has become highly sensitive in Malaysia, where about two-thirds of the population is Muslim.

Religious minorities have accused the government of undermining their rights.

The government has impounded Bibles before, intercepting 5,000 in March as they were imported from Indonesia.

Church officials say that although the word Allah originated in Arabic, Malays have used it for centuries to refer generally to God, and Arabic-speaking Christians used it before Islam was founded.

The Christian Federation of Malaysia said the religious freedom guaranteed by the Malaysian constitution was meaningless if people were denied Bibles which used their own language.

Pensioner gears up for 772nd driving test

2009-02-05T04:03:53-08:00

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/05/korea.driving.license/index.html

One could say she has the determination ... but lacks the drive.

A 68-year-old South Korean woman this week signed up to take her driving test once again—after failing to earn a license the first 771 times.

The woman, identified only as Cha, first took the written portion of the exam in April 2005, said Choi Young-cheol of the Driver’s License Agency in the southwestern city of Jeonju.

At the time, she made her living selling goods door-to-door and figured she would need a car to help her get around, Choi told CNN.

She failed the test. She retook the test the next day and failed again. And again. And again.

“You have to get at least 60 points to pass the written part,” said Kim Rahn, who wrote about the unflappable woman in the Korea Times, an English-language daily. “She usually gets under 50.”

In the beginning, Cha went to the license office almost every day. Now, she no longer works but still turns up once a week, Choi said.

The office estimates she has spent more than 4 million won ($2,888) in exam fees.

Cha’s last failed attempt was Monday.

She tries for the 772nd time either Thursday or Friday.

Colonel Sanders Appears at UN to Seek Membership for Grilled Nation

2009-11-05T14:29:43-08:00

He really does look like Colonel Sanders.

Real articles on it:-
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/10/28/2009-10-28_colonel_sanders_impersonator_sneaks_into_united_nations_for_kfc_grilled_chicken_.html

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/10/27/steven-edwards-sneaking-into-the-un-is-finger-lickin-easy.aspx

Humourous article on it(exert copied below)
http://www.loweringthebar.net/2009/11/col-sanders-appears-at-united-nations.html

United Nations officials in New York said they were “still trying to find out exactly what happened” to enable a man dressed as Colonel Harlan Sanders to get past security and into the UN building on October 22. Reports suggested that a UN security guard and apparent Sanders sympathizer had personally escorted the Colonel past security barriers and into the General Assembly.

A spokesman for the current President of the General Assembly, Dr. Ali A. Treki, denied rumors that the president had actually met with Sanders, though that statement seemed to be undermined by this photo:

The spokesman stuck to his guns. “I wouldn’t call that a meeting,” he said. “No appointment [was] scheduled.” He eventually conceded, though, that Sanders did experience “a brief encounter with the president of the General Assembly.” That was getting a little too close to “romantic interlude” for my comfort, but the spokesman then clarified that Treki just shook hands in order to be polite.

.... cont

Inmates come to guard’s aid in jail attack (VIDEO surveillance tape)

2009-11-05T03:26:27-08:00

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/04/florida.jail.attack/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn
Inmates come to guard’s aid in jail attack (VIDEO surveilance tape)

Actually I’m not too surprised. The officer was well liked by the inmates most likely because he didn’t treat these men like animals (many officers do and seem to enjoy the power they hold). While working as a correctional officer I was advised by a few inmates that ‘Officer Hulit, if anything ever happens here, a fight or a riot, please get down and we’ll protect you’. I worked at an institution for the criminally insane, those incarcerated for multiple murders. And yes, I believed what they told me and I still do.

“The reason these things come to the surface is they float.”

2008-02-19T10:24:16-08:00

A third severed foot has washed up on a Gulf Island. All three are right feet, and all were in sneakers.

“It is unusual,” RCMP Const. Annie Linteau said yesterday. “We are in the preliminary stages of this particular investigation, and, of course, we will not enter into speculation.”

The latest foot was found Friday on the east side of Valdes Island, south of Gabriola Island.

The first foot was found last August on nearby Jedidiah Island. The second was found a week later on Gabriola.

Nanaimo coroner Dave Sherstone said all three feet have been sent to Vancouver for forensic study. “They’ll try to extract DNA,” said Sherstone.

He said it’s impossible to say where the feet may have originated or if they came from a single source such as an accident. “It’s all current and tidal action, it could come from anywhere,” he said. “The reason these things come to the surface is they float.”

Police said DNA from the first two feet did not match DNA in police databases.

Jeff Dolen, B.C.‘s assistant deputy chief coroner, said although it is somewhat common to find individual body parts, this is “the first instance of three such similar remains being discovered” in such proximity. “We’ll be using pathology examinations and anthropology examinations to garner as much information as we possibly can about the remains,” he said.

A body in the ocean will first sink, and then, depending on the depth, float back to the surface as it becomes bloated with gas.

It is common for hands, feet and the head to detach as a body decomposes, said

Gail Anderson, a forensic entomologist from Simon Fraser University who has submerged pigs in the ocean to study decomposition.

Generally, she said, those limbs do not float.

“Obviously there’s some sort of current picking up light items and washing them to those particular areas,” said Anderson.

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