MetaFilter posts tagged with rumors

Blog cost Apple $4B, for a little while

blahblahblah — Wed, 16 May 2007 23:35:44 -0800

Engadget briefly cost Apple $4 billion today when they posted a fake email about the iPhone being delayed, causing Apple's stock to plunge. While competing gadget blog Gizmodo avoids gloating, there is evidence that some investors made a lot of money from the mistake. Are we seeing the early days of sophisticated stock hacking on the web, as has (incorrectly) been alleged before? Certainly the old pump-and-dump methods are no longer working like they did.

The scandalous tale of Kate Mosque

laz-e-boy — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 09:34:18 -0800

It's on the Internet, so it must be true. Are hundreds of Muslims in the East Village infuriated by a topless poster of Kate Moss across the street? See what happens when one blog says so, and various media around the world (1, 2, 3... you get the idea) take the meme and run with it. Trouble is, it didn't really happen.

Rumors of deaths greatly exaggerated - 6 bodies found at Dome; 4 at Convention Center

y2karl — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 13:17:02 -0800

"I've got a report of 200 bodies in the Dome," Beron recalls the doctor saying. The real total was six, Beron said. Of those, four died of natural causes, one overdosed and another jumped to his death in an apparent suicide, said Beron, who personally oversaw the turning over of bodies from a Dome freezer, where they lay atop melting bags of ice. State health department officials in charge of body recovery put the official death count at the Dome at 10, but Beron said the other four bodies were found in the street near the Dome, not inside it. Both sources said no one had been killed inside. At the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, just four bodies were recovered, despites reports of corpses piled inside the building. Only one of the dead appeared to have been slain, said health and law enforcement officials.
Widely reported attacks false or unsubstantiated

No word on chopped off ring fingers, either

hackly_fracture — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 14:43:48 -0800

Rape rumors false? No word on turnstyle jumping or wearing of heavy coats . . . (via)

Is it college yet?

pieoverdone — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 15:02:44 -0800

A student asked the Master, "What is the nature of the Unofficial Daria Movie Rumor Page?" The Master repiled, "The Page is a long, confusing story told backwards. It is lies and half-truths, yet it is the greater truth. It is a mirror, a puppet show, a morality tale, a fiction which is real life, an homage yet the reverse of an homage. It is the future, set in the present, retelling the past. It is the present, set in the present, retelling the present." The student said, "Huh?" The Master continued, "If all else fails, look at the very bottom of the Page, past the links and the Web rings." The student, not understanding, did as the Master told him. It was then that he was enlightened.

A Gay ol' Time in Texas?

amberglow — Sat, 21 Feb 2004 10:07:35 -0800

RumorFilter: Gov. Perry of Texas in bed with his Sec. of State --for real! More on this brewing scandal here, here, here, here, and here. Perry in 2002 called Texas' then-existing/now-illegal sodomy laws "appropriate." And here's a rundown on the rumor and non-response (from the kos link)

umm, whose women? and who are

troutfishing — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 09:22:42 -0800

Rumors of rape fan anti-American flames "They are raping our women!" - This is the eternal tribalistic cry and lament, often all too true but also often used as a baseless or exaggerated claim for war propaganda, to incite to hatred of a "barbaric" enemy who commits unspeakable acts ( see The "Rape of Kuwait"). The history of Rape in Warfare is long and may be instinctually driven, at least in part. Now, mass rumors spreading through Turkey - which seem to have inspired a recent indigenous Turkish terrorist car bombing - allege mass rapes of Iraqi women by American troops. "There are more than 4000 rape events on the record" claimed the Turkish journal Yeni Safak, on October 22, "citing" (though the purported supporting citation contains nothing about such atrocities) internet sex therapist Dr. Susan Block's piece on the metaphorical "Rape of Iraq"[ Warning : preceding link is NSFW ! Here's the work-safe CounterPunch version]. Having more or less invented modern PR and propaganda techniques (see Ed. Bernays, Ivy Lee) - handy during both w a r and peace - Americans are now on the receiving end of Propaganda's use of the shameless lie. (identification of "mystery meat" links inside)

Ljubljana — Sun, 29 Sep 2002 23:38:03 -0800

Did perfume from a dress make T.S. Eliot so digress? Or was it the scent of other men? A rash of biographies this year claim to have found closet homosexuals just about everywhere; Adolf Hitler, G.F. Handel, Friedrich Nietzsche and T.S. Eliot are all suspected – largely without substantial evidence – of being gay. [more inside]

bittennails — Wed, 06 Feb 2002 10:33:52 -0800

The War on Iraq Will Be Launched in September... or so a russian journalist says based on russian military intelligence. If any of this bears out it seems a lot like global domination vis-a-vis installing controllable pro-western leaders...what say the rest of you?

onthestereo — Mon, 10 Dec 2001 14:52:03 -0800

televised suicide: the goofiest bin laden rumor yet? good lord. the story claims bin laden is going to kill himself on tv to trigger attacks on monuments around the world. even the tabloids have been staying away from the attacks, for the most part. but when this story went by on a ticker while i was surfing, i just had to look. what's the strangest post-attack rumor you've heard so far? i want obscure, here, people, not anything about malls on halloween.

toddshot — Wed, 17 Oct 2001 17:24:20 -0800

Apple Computer will introduce a 'breakthrough device' next week. Will this be the long-rumored Apple PDA that Newton fanatics have been asking for? A device for wirelessly streaming your mp3 collection through your stereo? Your basic portable mp3 player? Or something that hasn't shown up on any of the rumor sites at all? Whatever it ends up being, my curiousity is officially piqued.

cps — Sun, 07 Oct 2001 16:21:22 -0800

The picture on the site for the upcoming movie K-Pax makes me want to add "...that Kevin Spacey's gay?" to that tagline. Not, of course, that there would be anything wrong with that. Actually, the one page of celebrity rumors I mostly buy, even if many are humdrum (drug/alcohol problems? say it ain't so!) claims he is, although who cares. David Duchovny, pothead, pr0n collector; Macy Gray, functioning heroin addict -- now that's what I wanna hear! (The page seems to have disappeared, so I've linked to the google's cached one, which unfortunately only goes halfway down the alphabet. Anybody have a better link?)

krisjohn — Thu, 13 Sep 2001 22:02:01 -0800

10 police officers found. I hope this isn't another mistake, but "A report just in says ten police officers missing since the collapse of the World Trade Centre buildings have been found alive under the rubble." Post details as you find them.

swell — Mon, 14 May 2001 12:27:52 -0800

Jeb Bush did not have sex with that woman. No, not that one, this one.

lia — Sun, 21 Jan 2001 07:51:28 -0800

From the Bad-Rumors-That-Unfortunately-Turn-Out-To-Be-True Department:
Britney Spears confirms duet with Madonna. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

(I admire Madonna's knack for perpetual self-reinvention and surprising everyone with what she's cooked up next, but really, this is something I'm sure I'd be quite happy to live without.)

andre_111 — Wed, 03 Jan 2001 13:09:33 -0800

Rumours about Saddam Hussein's health. According to a report from Sky News, the Iraqi dictator may have suffered a major stroke or may be dead.

ookamaka — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 22:42:10 -0800

Is it me, or does MacOS Rumors really really suck nowadays? I used to read it religiously, but it rarely even posts rumors, assuming it posts at all. As an alternative, I've been reading As the Apple Turns lately, and at the very least it's funny and pretty tongue-in-cheek. Thank god.

Brilliantcrank — Fri, 08 Dec 2000 09:42:35 -0800

Apple Cubebook?! Sounds like Apple is working their ass off to get new products out to show in January. The Cubebook sounds cool and I am sure there would be pictures if MacOS Rumors wasn't in Apple's back pocket.

nikzhowz — Thu, 28 Sep 2000 08:50:08 -0800

As conspiracy rumors go, this is a doozy: World Oil Magazine is hearing from its Mid East sources that the Arab states are so angry with Gore's choice of a Jewish running mate that they're going to cut back production in the hopes of swinging the election to Bush. I'm sure the Gore team gave plenty of thought as to how Lieberman would play in Peoria, but I wonder if they considered how much he would antagonize Damascus?