Monday, 20 May 2013 01:51

New Research Reveals Why People Are Getting Ruder

As anyone who has been in any public place lately knows, narcissism and rudeness are up, and empathy, manners and caring about other human beings is down.  In fact, empathy among college students is now at an all time low and is dropping fast.  According to Scientific American:

The research, led by Sara H. Konrath of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and published online in August in Personality and Social Psychology Review, found that college students’ self-reported empathy has declined since 1980, with an especially steep drop in the past 10 years. To make matters worse, during this same period students’ self-reported narcissism has reached new heights, according to research by Jean M. Twenge, a psychologist at San Diego State University.

The work of Konrath and Twenge, Scientific American points out, indicates that "the American personality is shifting in an ominous direction."

Why is all this narcissistic behaviour happening? Because people are not reading. Specifically they are not reading fiction:

The types of information we consume have also shifted in recent decades; specifically, Americans have abandoned reading in droves. The number of adults who read literature for pleasure sank below 50 percent for the first time ever in the past 10 years, with the decrease occurring most sharply among college-age adults. And reading may be linked to empathy. In a study published earlier this year psychologist Raymond A. Mar of York University in Toronto and others demonstrated that the number of stories preschoolers read predicts their ability to understand the emotions of others. Mar has also shown that adults who read less fiction report themselves to be less empathic.

So there it is you rude mother &%$!s. Proof that rudeness is related to your selfish illiterate bastard selves. So start reading more books before someone shoves one up your....I won't say it, that would be rude.

Monday, 20 May 2013 01:51

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we can return to the rumors of modern-day decapitation that appear to be on the rise. We previously shared this story about the Chinese man who decapitated a fellow passenger on a bus, then eats his intestines:

In a show of power, a Chinese man stabs a white male on a bus 50 times. The bus had over 30 passengers but it was filled with cowards as no one helped the slain victim. As a show of power the Chinese man held up the head of the white victim and roared at the crowd. To power up he recharged by gobbling up the intestines.  As he devoured the victim like a Tiger finishing off his prey, the crowd's jaw dropped in astonishment.

Urban Myth reader Barbara K. sends this news item with a very similar story about a bus ride that ended with a bloody stabbing and a vicious decapitation.  Barbara writes:

Unfortunately,  there might be some truth in this one.  Here is a bit of a news story from July of 2008.  It was real.  Very very real.

If it makes our Canadian readers feel any better, unlike the Chinese man, at least the Canadian killer didn't eat the victim.

40-year-old suspect held in gruesome Manitoba bus killing--CBC News

Passenger decapitated, witnesses say; story contains graphic details

Passenger Cody Olmstead, 21, told CBC News he had smoked a cigarette earlier in the trip with the victim, whom he described as a man in his late teens or early 20s. The victim got on the bus in Edmonton, he said.

"I never took the time to know him, but he seemed to be OK, right, just a kid," said Olmstead, a Nova Scotia man who had been taking the bus from Alberta to Montreal.

"He just said he was going to Winnipeg … going home, that's where he was from."

Garnet Caton, who was sitting in the seat in front of the victim, said he saw the attacker stab his seatmate, a young man sleeping with his headphones on.

Caton said he heard a "blood-curdling scream" and turned around to see the attacker holding a large "Rambo" hunting knife above the victim, "continually stabbing him in the chest area."

"He must have stabbed him 50 times or 60 times," said Caton.

"Like, just everywhere, arms, legs, neck, chest, guts, wherever he could swing it, he got it," said Olmstead.

"It looked kind of like a scuffle or an argument, you know, and then somebody's, like, 'Knife! Knife! Run!' so I was running up the alleyway, slapping people telling them to get going, move, get off the bus. I got pushed over, some lady got pushed over, I was just making sure everybody was OK, and we all got off the bus," said Olmstead

As panicked passengers fled the bus, "the attacker was over top of the victim … continually cutting him. I think the victim was gone at that point," Caton said.

Trio tried to check on victim

Caton, the driver and a trucker who had stopped at the scene later boarded the vehicle to see if the victim was still alive.

"When we came back on the bus, it was visible at the end of the bus he was cutting the guy's head off and pretty much gutting him up," said Caton.

The attacker ran at them, Caton said, and they ran out of the bus, holding the door shut as he tried to slash at the trio.

When the attacker tried to drive the bus away, the driver disabled the vehicle, Caton said.

"While we were watching the door, he calmly walks up to the front with the head in his hand and the knife and just calmly stares at us and drops the head right in front of us," said Caton.

Monday, 20 May 2013 01:51

Some stories are even better than an urban myth.  Steven Slater, that JetBlue Flight attendant who blew his stack at a passenger (an "I'm mad as hell" moment that will go down in history, (pun intended) was arrested at home, in bed with his boyfriend.  First he blew his stack at a passenger, then he went home and blew...well, you get the picture!

via the NY Daily News:

The plane had just landed, but he was ready to take off.

A JetBlue flight attendant blew his top, grabbed some beer and bolted out an emergency slide at Kennedy Airport Monday - then headed home to have sex with his boyfriend.

After he was bonked in the head by a bag, Steven Slater stunned passengers by spewing profanity and ranting about quitting as the flight from Pittsburgh pulled up to the gate about noon.

"To the f-----g a--hole who told me to f--k off, it's been a good 28 years," Slater, 38, purred, cops said. "I've had it. That's it," he added, a passenger said.

The mad-as-hell steward grabbed a couple of brewskis and popped one open before activating the emergency exit, witnesses told airport employees.

After tossing his two carry-on bags on the slide, he followed them to the tarmac.

Slater - who actually first started working for airlines 20 years ago, not 28 - then walked to the AirTrain, stripped off his company tie and flung it off as bemused passengers watched.

Monday, 20 May 2013 01:51

Many people believe wishing at 11:11 helps make their wishes come true.

But does wishing at 11:11 help?

Numerologists believe that events linked to the time 11:11 appear more often than chance or coincidence. This belief is related to the concept of synchronicity. Other authors believe it is an auspicious sign, and others that it signals a spirit presence. The belief that it has mystical powers has been adopted by believers in New Age philosophies.

So is there something special about 11:11?  Many people automatically look at a clock or see this number Uri Geller noticed this phenomenon and explains:

11:11 explained by URI GELLER

If your attention has been drawn to clocks and watches at exactly 11:11, then read the following:

I started experiencing this rather bizarre occurrence when I was forty years old, at first I thought they were coincidences, I would stand with my back to a digital clock and something made me turn around and I would notice that the time would be 11:11. These incidents intensified I would be checked into hotel rooms on floor 11 room 1111. I started noticing these digits on computers, microwave ovens, cars, documents, etc. I decided to write about it on my website. I was immediately inundated by hundreds of emails from all around the world. Individuals were telling me their own 11:11 stories, almost always saying “I thought it only happened to me”. It is difficult for me to decipher what this is all about but my intuition tells me its positive.

When I see the number 1111: I pray for sick children and world peace, the prayer takes a moment but it's very powerful. Please if you can do the same I believe it helps!!!!

I believe that people who have constant contact with the 1111 phenomena have some type of a positive mission to accomplish. It is still a mystery to me what it is that we all have to do or why are we all being gathered and connected together, but it is very real and tangible, I feel that it is immensely positive, almost like there is a thinking entity sending us these physical and visual signs from the universe. In me, it activates the power of prayer, love and determination to some how help the world. Some day I suspect we will find out the true meaning behind this puzzling phenomenon. It could start happening to you too after reading my website.