Believables

My legendary daughter, http://nicki-ez.livejournal.com/, presented me an iPod upon her return from Japan. The iPod has an urban legend attached to it. As we know, the best urban legends are dramatic, unbelievable and told with such frequency that recipients assume they have to be true. There are the historic "URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL" lucrative business proposals from deposed Nigerian leaders,the envied Khairy Jamaluddin, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khairy_Jamaluddin , said to amass RM62 billion worth of government projects, the existence of Big Foot in the jungles of Johore that even attracted foreign scientists, even the myriad of tea brands all claiming to boost the male power and the all convincing existence of G-spot that bring hope to unfulfilled women.

I'm yet to believe claims that mobile phones emit some form of harmful radiation. But here's one that I believed: Last year I received an RSS feed titled, "iPods Attract Lightning", describing cases of men wearing iPods being struck by lightning. Their injuries - ruptured eardrums, hearing loss and burns - matched the pathway of the headphone cord. The news was carried by many online media. Much later, read that the doctors did not say that the iPod acted as a lightning rod, though. But as we know it, eardrum perforation is the norm in lightning-related injury, and I believe is not a sign of any special effect due to an iPod.

Now, that mother-of-all urban legends of the century: The Y2K Bug Will Destroy Life As We Know It. The media frenzy leading up to 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2000, was more intense than the public interest in a combined Paris Hilton DWI, Britney Spears meltdown and all the news stunts. What was supposed to have been the end of the computer-networked civilization (which would surely have led to an all-out assault on IT departments everywhere - "Why, oh why couldn't you just have used FOUR digits in the year field?!") turned into one of the biggest non-events in history. Did we really buy into all of that hype? Yup, and I did.

Lately, a close friend told me of rumours circulating about me - that I'm separated and my family is broken. Amazing how urban legends are built up. And how much truths, half-truths and outright untruths get published in print media. You think only facts get published in print media? How about the horoscopes? With the current Opposition bashing frenzy by the media leading up to the next General Election, everything is only just believable.