FReeper Canteen~ Camel Spiders Found in Iraq , Urban Legends and Folklore ~Sept.21,2006

[fatima]

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Camel Spiders Found in Iraq , Urban Legends and Folklore Urban Legends:Subject: FW: Camel Spider found in Iraq--This is a huge spider!!!! Yuck. I sure am glad we don't have these here. Although we probably will after this war..... This picture is a perfect example of why you don't want to go to the desert. These are 2 of the biggest I've ever seen. With a vertical leap that would make a pro basketball player weep with envy (they have to be able to jump up on to a camels stomach after all), these spiders latch on and inject you with a local anesthesia so you can't feel it feeding on you. They eat flesh, not just suck out your juices like a normal spider. Comments: The photo appears to be authentic. Fortunately for all of us — especially the guys in the picture — the same cannot be said of the accompanying text, which merely repeats false rumors circulating since the start of the Iraq war. This scary-looking creature (actually, it's a pair of scary-looking creatures dangling end-to-end) is indeed commonly called a camel spider, but it is found in arid locales all over the world — including the southwestern United States — not just in the Gulf region. A typical specimen can grow to about the size of a child's hand, but, though they are known for being vicious predators, camel spiders are neither venomous nor a threat to human beings. They don't eat camels, either.

World's Tallest Woman Netlore Archive: Emailed photos purport to show the tallest woman in the world Description: Emailed photos Circulating since: 2002 Status: False

The Giant Grizzly Bear Not quite a world record In real life, the big grizzly in the first two photographs measured 10' 6" from nose to tail and weighed an estimated 1,000 to 1,200 pounds — unusually large for the vicinity in which it was found, says the USDA Forest Service, but not quite a world record, nor even a record for Alaska. It was killed on October 14, 2001 by U.S. Air Force Airman Theodore Winnen on Hinchinbrook Island, Prince William Sound. The photos were taken by his hunting partner, Staff Sgt. James Urban. Both were stationed at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks at the time. Though the bear was within 10 yards of the hunters' position and moving towards them when he fired the first shot, Winnen says, it did not charge them, contrary to what the email claims. "I don't know if the wind was in our favor or what," he told the Anchorage Daily News. "We were dressed in camouflage. He might not have seen us." Winnen's weapon was a 338-caliber Winchester Magnum, not a 7mm semi-automatic as alleged. The first bullet pierced the bear's brain but left it standing; five more in the chest brought it down.

[SoldierDad]

Afternoon to you, tomkow6. No news from the front yet. Anxiety level keeps rising.

[fatima]

We prayed on the air yesterday and today.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good afternoon, Mrs.N....I go real fast past the spiders. Yucky!!! LOL!

[fatima]

Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity
In 1976 the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.

[tongue-tied]

Okay 2 things:

1) Thanks for the thread.

2) If I see one of those spiders coming at me, I'm going to need to change my skivvies. Call me a sissy, I don't care. That isn't a spider, it/they are the size of lobsters!

PS--Still no good connection, but I'm clicking on a page and then going to do other things while it loads. I MAY make it through a few pages.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good afternoon to you, Meg....(HUGS))...more rain?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good grief!!! LOL!!

[fatima]

Darn,it shows a lot of footage of pet spiders.My granddaughter used to see them all the time.She said they don't bother you and they are not really spiders:)

[Kathy in Alaska]

tt....((HUGS))....good for you for your perseverence.
Too strange that they haven't figured out what is wrong yet.

Image your Reese's guy posted here! LOL!!

[fatima]

The Eruption of Mount Edgecumbe
In 1974 residents of Sitka, Alaska were alarmed when the long-dormant volcano neighboring them, Mount Edgecumbe, suddenly began to belch out billows of black smoke. People spilled out of their homes onto the streets to gaze up at the volcano, terrified that it was active again and might soon erupt. Luckily it turned out that man, not nature, was responsible for the smoke. A local practical joker named Porky Bickar had flown hundreds of old tires into the volcano's crater and then lit them on fire, all in a (successful) attempt to fool the city dwellers into believing that the volcano was stirring to life. According to local legend, when Mount St. Helens erupted six years later, a Sitka resident wrote to Bickar to tell him, "This time you've gone too far!"

[Kathy in Alaska]

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Look what you’ve done. LOL!

[Kathy in Alaska]

[fatima]

This was an April Fools Joke:
The Case of the Interfering Brassieres
In 1982 the Daily Mail reported that a local manufacturer had sold 10,000 "rogue bras" that were causing a unique and unprecedented problem, not to the wearers but to the public at large. Apparently the support wire in these bras had been made out of a kind of copper originally designed for use in fire alarms. When this copper came into contact with nylon and body heat, it produced static electricity which, in turn, was interfering with local television and radio broadcasts. The chief engineer of British Telecom, upon reading the article, immediately ordered that all his female laboratory employees disclose what type of bra they were wearing.

[tongue-tied]

Wait, wait, wait. You have a shower? In your room?!

Your setup sounds nice. Durned civilians...LOL

Enjoy the time home!

[blackie]

Afternoon, Tomkow!

[blackie]

Thanks Ms Feather. :)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Some more sandstorm pics....all I can say is WOW!

[fatima]

Head for the hills.Thanks Kathy.

[txradioguy]

Howdy tom!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Mt Edgecumbe in Sitka, AK.