ABC Brainteaser
If I give you the following, what comes next?

A EF HI
BCD G

The answer is:
A EF HI KLMN T
BCD G J 0PQRS

So what was the logical sequence. At first you might have thought that the bottom row were the stress syllables for the ABC song but the real logical sequence is that letters made up of straight lines were on the top and those with curves were on the bottom

Urban Legend:Crying Baby Killer Ploy
There is an email circulating abouts that details that if one should hear a crying baby outside their door that they should not open it because it could be a serial killer who is using a recorded baby cry to lure his victims outside. Insert ominous music here.
We've heard a load of these kind of stories when we were younger but not that the internet has allowed communication to so many in so little time, no one bothers to do any research into whether this stuff is a load of bunk. Here is the truth:

Snopes: Crying Wolf about the Crying Baby
Urban Legends: Cry me a Baby

URBAN LEGEND: QUIRKY QWERTY DESIGNED TO SLOW
FALSE - QWERTY keyboards named for the top row of letters on the left side were thought for a long time to be a result of failed engineering and a workaround. The legend says that the original keyboards were hard to use because anything faster then a hunt and peck would jam the typewriter and the QWERTY was created to alleviate this mess by slowing down the typist. It continues with saying that by the time engineering had improved, people were just used to the QWERTY keyboard. Untrue says this article from the University of Texas and even Cecil Adams from Straight Dope has sought to issue a retraction of his old information to free his mind of the guilt of helping to spread an urban legend.

TELL ME A STORY: Mouse Deer meets the ScareCrow
TELL ME A STORY
Mouse Deer meets the Scarecrow
(Adapted from a Vietnamese legend)
Amy Friedman

Mouse Deer was tiny, oh yes, but he was smart, too. All the creatures knew the saucy little fellow had tricks up his sleeve. There he was, scampering through the forest, singing his song, while the other forest creatures talked among themselves.
"He is a smart little fellow," the monkeys chattered. "Did you hear the story about the day Mouse Deer wanted to cross the river to reach that island over there?" one of them asked.

The others shook their heads, so the monkey told the tale about the way Mouse Deer convinced the crocodiles that the king had demanded that they be counted. The crocodiles, proud that the king wished to know more about them, quickly lined up beside each other in the river. "Mouse Deer just walked across their backs, counting as he went," Monkey said, "and after he was finished eating island fruit, he walked right back, and those crocodiles never knew they had been tricked."

The monkeys howled with laughter. Then one of the monkeys chuckled, "What about the time he fooled Tiger?" and the others howled again because they remembered the day Tiger thought he was going to eat Mouse Deer. That time Mouse Deer convinced Tiger that he was guarding the king's pudding, and Tiger's mouth began to water. He begged Mouse Deer to let him eat that big pudding, so sure enough, Mouse Deer shrugged and ran away. Tiger leaped upon the pudding -- but it was, in truth, no pudding at all. Tiger ate a mud puddle!

Oh, how the monkeys laughed. They remembered Tiger's face, covered in mud.

Mouse Deer was passing by as they laughed, and he sang, "I am the smartest forest fellow! Nobody can catch me! And now I shall eat all the farmer's vegetables!"

"Watch out," the monkeys called, because they had heard about the farmer's plan, but Mouse Deer was singing too loudly to hear their warnings.

So Mouse Deer approached the farmer's fields, and he laughed and laughed when he saw the scarecrow the farmer had put in the middle of his sweet potato field. "Ha!" he scoffed, "as if that can stop me. I'm not afraid of any old scarecrow." And to show what he thought of the thing, he gave it a kick.

But oh, was he in for a surprise. The scarecrow was covered with rubber tree sap, and Mouse Deer's foot stuck. He tried to pull himself free with his front legs, but when he did, they stuck, too. Now, in desperation, he pushed with his last leg, and naturally the fourth leg stuck as well.

He pulled and pulled, and twisted and turned, but nothing could free him. When the farmer saw he had captured Mouse Deer, he ran out in triumph to his sweet potato field.

"Ha ha, I've finally caught you, Mouse Deer," the farmer said, and he pulled Mouse Deer off the scarecrow and carried him to the chicken coop. The chickens surrounded him and cackled madly. "Tomorrow you shall be supper, Mouse Deer," the farmer said happily, and he shut Mouse Deer inside.

Now the monkeys had seen all this, and besides, they knew it was coming, and while they chattered about the events, Dog passed by. "Oh, those noisy monkeys," he growled. "They make almost as much racket as the chickens."

"Speaking of the chickens," one of the monkeys said, "did you hear Mouse Deer is locked up in your master's chicken coop?"

When Dog heard this, he hurried home and ran to the chicken coop door. "Ah ha," Dog called through the bamboo cage. "So my master caught you at last!"

But Mouse Deer, thinking fast, said, "Caught me? Oh, no, you're wrong. I'm in here tonight awaiting your master's preparations. He's holding a dinner tomorrow night in my honor."

"What?" Dog asked. "In your honor? Why, that's not fair. I am his loyal companion. I am his sidekick, his buddy, his pal. I'm always there for him. Why doesn't he honor me?"

Mouse Deer smiled, for this was turning out just as he'd planned. "Oh, Dog, I agree. You have been loyal, haven't you? You should be the guest who is honored. Why don't you take my place in here?"

Now Dog's heart swelled in anticipation. How he would love to be a guest of honor! "Are you sure that's all right, Mouse Deer?" he asked, and Mouse Deer said, "Oh, of course." So with his snout, Dog lifted the latch of the chicken coop. He'd long ago learned to do that. And Mouse Deer stepped daintily outside.

"Thank you, thank you," Dog said to Mouse Deer, and Mouse Deer bowed to him. "My pleasure," he said, and then he scampered into the forest, free once more.

The next night the monkeys had lots to chatter about, for the farmer had punished Dog severely when he discovered how his loyal friend had let Mouse Deer escape. "That Mouse Deer is a clever one," the monkeys agreed.

And all the forest creatures had to agree.

Virus Hoax: JDBMGR.EXE or The Teddy Bear Virus
There is an email passing around that looks something like this

Hello everyone, I received this message about the "little bear" virus that affects primarily Hotmail users. The virus is called jdbgmgr.exe and spreads via msn messenger and email address books. The virus is not detected by McAfee or Norton Antivirus and may be in your computer for 14 days before causing any harm. It can be erased before eliminating your computers' files. To eliminate the virus, follow these steps: 1. Got to Start and click on "Find" 2. Search under "Files and Folders" and enter jdbgmgr.exe 3. Make sure you are looking in the "C" drive. 4. Click on "Find Now" 5. If the virus appears (the icon is a little bear with the name jdbgmgr.exe) DO NOT OPEN IT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES 6. Highlight the virus (do NOT double click) and press SHIFT + DELETE and it will be erased from your computer. IF YOU FIND THIS VIRUS IN YOUR COMPUTER, SEND THIS MESSAGE TO ALL THOSE LISTED IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK SO THAT IT WILL NOT DO ANY HARM TO THEIR COMPUTERS.

Do not do what this e-mail says. JDBMGR.EXE, although not critical for your operating system, is a legitimate part of your operating system and should not be deleted. It does in fact have a teddy bear for its icon and it is supposed to be there. People come upon it thinking that they have found something and aren't they the astute one, can't wait to pass it on to your friends. Wait! Don't send it without checking one of the sites listed on the link bar to verify validity.

Want to know more: Symantec: JDBMGR.EXE HOAX

Get Sorted

be sorted @ nimbo.net

Greek Mythology: Pygmalion & Galatea (IN A NUTSHELL)
Pygmalion's story is the stuff on which hormonely active geeks would thrive. Pygmalion was a masoginist who opted for confirmed bachelor status then hook up with any of the women that were around him. He was a kick-ass sculptor who ironically enough had created a hottie out of ivory and named it Galatea. This statue was almost life like and the aching in his groin wished it was alive. He got all weird with it caressing it, talking to it, kissing it treating the statue as if it was real, ultimately the dude flipped and was straight whipped by an ivory chick who was everything he ever wanted in a woman except alive. Ah the tortured artist. Pyggy perfected everything about the statue until there wasn't really anything to perfect. At a rave in honor of the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite, he pleads for a woman like his statue. Aphrodite hears this fool but is kind of impressed by his love affair with a piece of ivory so she grants his wish. He goes back to his crib, touches his statue, like usual but not like usual feels that it is warm to his touch. He starts to experiment with the kissing and her lips are soft. It gets kinda hot and heavy but needless to say he's thanking Aphrodite and she is even present at their union. Now the only thing really solid belongs on Pygmalion.

Urban Legend: Tommy Hilfiger is a racist
FALSE - Tommy Hilfiger never said anything defamatory or incendiary about minorities that wear his clothing. He never was even on the talk shows that he is purported to have said this on. Please people, stop spreading this as if it had to be true. Even Oprah came out trying to stop the vicious slander against the man. It just never happened. And when I say never, I mean not even something that was said and possibly misconstrued. NEVER HAPPENED.
To get the full scoop:

SNOPES.com: The Case of the Mislabeled Designer

Top Ten Mormon Urban Legends
Taken from a post by Elder Paul Dunn Harvey - Church Historian on 08/10/2002
We Mormons are fond of spreading "faith-promoting rumors." We want so badly for the church to be true, in the absence of any evidence we are prone to grab on to anything that might help promote that belief. Then that rumor gets repeated and embellished to the point where most actually believe it to be true. Here are my top ten, yours may differ.
1- The Smithsonian Institute uses the Book of Mormon in its research. This one started over a hundred years ago and just won't die. Periodically the Smithsonian Institute (and the National Geographical Society) sends notices to the church saying "please, please tell your people to stop calling us. We have never found any connection with your book and any archeology discovered in the Americas. In fact the evidence is contradictory to it."
2- Polygamy was needed in the early church because there was an overabundance of single women who needed husbands. Not so! A check of every census record of Illinois and Utah, from 1840 through 1900 reveals that (like all western frontier locations) men outnumbered the women by a good margin.
3- The LDS church has no paid ministry. This in true only at the local level through the stake presidency. The top 85 or 90 leaders (General Authorities) do quite well. They receive a salary, allowances, and also are paid as board members for the vast number of church-owned corporations. In the early history of the church, Joseph had a revelation that God desired "he should not labor" and in an act of nepotism, he named his dad the "patriarch," authorizing him to charge a dollar a blessing. (today's patriarchs receive no compensation)
4- The LDS church is the fastest growing church in the world. It's certainly fast growing, but if you are talking raw numbers, the Catholic church is probably growing fifty times as fast, simply from the birth rate alone. If you are talking percentages, the Assembly of God in Brazil went from almost zero to ten million in only four years! It took the LDS over 160 years to reach that level. Recently, church growth has slowed considerably, some wards have even been dissolved in several US cities.
5- The reason the original LDS temple ceremony and the Masonic ritual were virtually identical was that they were both the original ceremonies of Solomon's Temple. Completely untrue! Secret ceremonies weren't practiced in Solomon's Temple, it was open. Masonic leaders will explain that when Masonry originated in the 16th century, few people could read or write, so it designed a ritual of skits and symbolism to convey its members status in the masons guild through grips, signs and tokens. Within a few days after Joseph Smith became a Master Mason, Joseph simply copied the ceremony for the Mormon Church. The first Temple was called Joseph's Lodge and approximately 50% of the church were prior Masons.
6- The church name, "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," is divinely inspired. If it is, God sure fumbled around a good while before doling out a little inspiration. The original church name in 1830 was "Church of Christ." In 1834 it was changed to "Church of the Latter Day Saints." Then four years later, in 1838 it was again changed to its present name.
7- Joseph Smith made a great prophecy in 1842, the Rocky Mountain prophecy, by predicting the Mormons would come to the Rocky Mountains and become a mighty people. Church historian Dean Jessee produced the original manuscript from History of the Church showing the authorship was in 1845, after Smith's death. Then years later, after the Saints were in Utah, someone penciled "Rocky Mountains" into the document. Jessee was chastised for revealing this historical tidbit.
8- After Joseph Smith was killed, the apostles knew Brigham Young was the successor by his "transformation" into the image of Joseph. All the apostles were requested to keep diaries, which are now historical documents. On this Aug. 8, 1844 meeting not a single one recorded it. It didn't pop up as a folk legend until about twenty years later.
9- In the first year of the Mormon settlement in Utah, a plague of locusts (Mormon crickets) threatened to wipe out their crops. God responded with a "miracle", sending an army of seagulls to devour the insects. This one is true -- however the miracle part is somewhat embellished. The locusts have a seven-year hibernation cycle, and unfortunately the early settlers hit it on the end of the seventh year. For mutual protection, they had made the mistake of planting all their fields together. Therefore, the locust attack was concentrated in one spot in the valley. And the seagulls, which by their fossil remains have been at the Great Salt Lake for over 2,000 years, simply enjoyed their every-seven-year feast. They still do -- only now it's spread over thousands of square miles. (2001 was a bad year, 2008 is next).
10- Magic Underwear.And for the last one, I want to collectively group thousands of "magic underwear" tales. You've undoubtedly heard some of these! When any true believing Mormon survives any accident, calamity, or near miss, the reason is always attributed to his/her wearing the holy drawers.
The reality is that safety records, medical records, and the observations of safety experts, paramedics and hospital emergency room personnel all show that Mormons have the same percentages of accidents per capita, and the same injury/death ratios as anybody else in the general population. But the imagined protection continues to make good fodder for monthly Testimony Meetings.
Yours in faith!

Medical Myth: You can get flu from a flu shot
FALSE - Its a dead virus inside that influenza vaccine, therefore by definition it can't cause the flu. What it can do is help your body form antibodies to fight off flu infection. Doctors recommend it as one of the best ways to safeguard yourself through the flu season. It is good to note that some peoply may have adverse reactions especially if you are a person who is allergic to eggs.