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Topic: Post your random news stories here
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John Wilson
Film God
Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 10-13-2009 09:03 PM
Link to original letter.
Prankster David Thorne behind McDonald's hoax
By Andrew Ramadge, Technology Reporter
news.com.au
October 14, 2009 09:45am
A FAKE memo claiming McDonald's stores deliberately rip off customers has been revealed to be the work of the same prankster behind an infamous email about a seven-legged spider.
The document, mocked-up with an official McDonald's Australia letterhead and signed by fictitious managing director "Robert Trugabe", outlines a secret plan to save money by leaving items out of drive-through orders.
"If the girls leave one item out of every second or third order, this adds up to several thousand dollars per week revenue," it says.
"We need to work out if there is a way of making this a procedure without making it documented."
The memo became a viral hit, making its way to email boxes and consumer blogs around the world and prompting an official response from the fast food company.
The front page of McDonald's Australia's website currently features a customer alert denouncing the fake memo as an "email scam".
"Robert Trugabe is not, and has never been, a McDonald's Australia employee. The contents of the letter are also completely fabricated," it says.
"McDonald's practices the highest standards of consumer ethics and would never encourage employees to act in a way that undermines our core customer values."
Now South Australian prankster David Thorne, famous for an email exchange in which he attempted to pay a bill with a drawing of a spider, has admitted to the hoax.
"It took me five minutes in Photoshop," he told news.com.au this week.
Something smells Filet-O-Fishy...
Rumour-busting websites including Hoax Slayer had already cottoned on to the prank after becoming suspicious of "Robert Trugabe" – a play on the name of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
In fact the signature at the bottom of the memo is actually a scan of Mr Mugabe's, taken from Wikipedia.
Of creating the hoax, Mr Thorne said: "Paper background and logo courtesy of Google Images. Signature courtesy of the Robert Mugabe page on Wikipedia. Address courtesy of Google Maps. Content courtesy of being ripped off by McDonald's several times."
The memo had appeared on Mr Thorne's website earlier in the year as part of a prank email exchange about test-riding a motorcycle.
External Link See the memo in its original context »
Two weeks ago Mr Thorne altered the image by adding a circle around the drive-through comments and the words "I knew it!" before posting it to social network Reddit.
"The fastest and easiest way to feed anything, true or stupid, to the internet machine is through Reddit," he said.
"I posted it on there under a constructed name and within the day it went viral."
Mr Thorne, who has previously told news.com.au he believes the internet should be a playground, said he was surprised by the reaction.
"People who have seen the original on my website knew and emailed me that it had been posted on several websites as evidence that McDonald's commits fraud," he said.
"I would have thought that the thinly disguised signature and name gave away the fact that it was a joke, but I guess it was a vague context."
Internet pranks have been a thorny subject for journalists in recent years, with several high-profile publications falling prey to elaborate hoaxes.
Last month an Australian TV program fooled several outlets into publishing the results of a fictitious study that found Sydneysiders were the nation's "most gullible" residents.
More recently, news.com.au published an article about a controversial performance art installation that was revealed to be a fake.
Link to story
Screen shot of the main alert page @ McDonalds Australia.
McDonald's Australia
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Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 11-08-2009 08:02 PM
How sad...
Guttenberg, Danson, Selleck Reuniting for 'Three Men and a Bride'
quote:
Tom Selleck, Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg are reuniting for a new Three Men and a Baby sequel -- nearly 20 years after the last installment.
The trio played bachelor friends forced to raise a baby together after she's left on their doorstep by desperate mom Nancy Travis in the 1987 original.
They reteamed three years later for the follow-up, 3 Men and a Little Lady.
Now, 19 years later, studio bosses at Disney are planning to reunite the trio for their movie daughter's wedding.
Breaking the news to WENN, an excited Guttenberg says, "Disney's developing Three Men and a Bride. That's going to be a smash. A smash hit. They're bringing everybody back for that.
“Nobody knows about it. I'm the first to talk about it.”
And Guttenberg's not settling for just one sequel -- he wants to bring back all the franchises that helped him find fame in the 1980s.
He adds, "It's definitely time for another Police Academy. And I think they could make another Cocoon.
"They're surefire hits and I think they're good for the world. They make the world a better place and that's what it's all about."
They make the world a better place? Did he REALLY say that???
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John Wilson
Film God
Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 12-15-2009 05:33 PM
'SPEED' for real (without the bomb bit)
Link to story
------------------
A terrified 22-year-old driver thought he was going to die when a jammed cruise control trapped him in his four-wheel drive for half an hour as it raced along the Eastern Freeway.
In a scene reminiscent of thriller blockbuster Speed, the Ford Explorer’s cruise control got stuck at 80km/h as he tried to take the Burke Road exit in Melbourne’s north-east about 12.40pm.
Chase Weir today told Radio 3AW of his frantic calls to Ford and police after discovering he could not switch off the large vehicle, which was hitting speeds of more than 80km/h.
‘‘The person I spoke to at Ford service said the key wasn’t moving because it was driving in the wrong gear,’’ Mr Weir told 3AW.
‘‘At first he said ‘don’t drive the car because it’s dangerous’ and I said ‘well, that’s kind of the problem - I’m actually in the car and I cannot stop it’.’’
As the traffic got heavier, Mr Weir hung up and called Triple-O, where a police sergeant helped calm the scared motorist as the Ford sped along the freeway.
‘‘She asked me to again try turning the ignition off, put the car in neutral, put your whole body weight on the footbrake,’’ he told 3AW.
‘‘When I did that the car slowed to 80km/h but then the footbrake just became stiff, it wouldn’t go any further. So it was like I had no brakes,’’ he said.
‘‘The police sergeant told me to straight away put my hazards on and stay in the emergency lane.
‘‘It was a bit scary because every now and then you’d come up to someone sitting in the emergency lane talking on their mobile.’’
Police arrived quickly, with two cars under sirens and lights driving ahead of the tearaway four-wheel-drive to clear traffic.
‘‘Pretty much that’s all they could do until I reached Frankston and that’s just when I saw three or four lanes of traffic that wasn’t moving very fast and I’m doing 100 and I just said to her 'I’m going to die'.
‘‘And I just put all my weight on that footbrake, swerved on the wrong side of the road to avoid running into the back of everyone including other police cars, went over the concrete road island, bounced a bit.’’
Mr Weir also pulled on the handbrake, bringing the car to a halt outside the Monash University Peninsula campus - and just half a metre away from a head-on collision.
The 22-year-old, who is now recovering in Frankston Hospital, said he suffered some whiplash, and shock.
Police have taken the Ford for inspection.
‘‘Which I’m fine with,’’ Mr Weir laughed.
Ford Australia public relations manager Sinead McAlary said Ford had not experienced anything like this before.
‘‘We will be making contact with the driver as soon as possible to learn more about what took place and then get access to his vehicle to investigate the matter further," she said.
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Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 12-26-2009 04:42 PM
TSA desperate to compete with babies on plane instigate new rules to achieve top ratings for annoyance
quote:
Airlines: New rules keep passengers in seats
By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Some airlines were telling passengers on Saturday that new government security regulations prohibit them from leaving their seats beginning an hour before landing
The regulations are a response to a suspected terrorism incident on Christmas Day.
Air Canada said in a statement that new rules imposed by the Transportation Security Administration limit on-board activities by passengers and crew in U.S. airspace. The airline said that during the final hour of flight passengers must remain seated. They won't be allowed access to carryon baggage or to have any items on their laps.
Flight attendants on some domestic flights are informing passengers of similar rules. Passengers on a flight from New York to Tampa Saturday morning were also told they must remain in their seats and couldn't have items in their laps, including laptops and pillows.
The TSA issued a security directive for U.S.-bound flights from overseas, according to a transportation security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly.
The official said passengers traveling internationally could see increased security screening at gates and when they check their bags, as well as additional measures on flights such as stowing carryons and personal items before the plane lands.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement Saturday that passengers flying to the U.S. from overseas may notice extra security, but she said the measures "are designed to be unpredictable, so passengers should not expect to see the same thing everywhere."
A Nigerian passenger on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam allegedly attempted to start a fire as the plane prepared to land in Detroit on Friday, according to authorities. The incident has sparked a major international terrorism investigation.
Air Canada said it was limiting passengers to one carryon bag in response to a request from the U.S. and Canadian governments.
The airline advised U.S.-bound passengers to restrict their carryon item to "the absolute minimum" or to not carry any bag on board at all.
"Carriage of any carryon item will result in lengthy security delays for the customer," the airline said.
U.S.-bound flights on all airlines are experiencing significant delays, said Duncan Dee, Air Canada's executive vice president and chief operating officer.
A spokeswoman with Infraero, a Brazilian government agency that oversees airport infrastructure, said that airlines had been asked by federal authorities to add another layer of security for international flights originating in the country after the attempted attack in the U.S.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss the matter, said that passengers would face an extra screening that would take place just before they boarded planes. She would give no more details, citing security concerns.
David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, said the domestic airline industry has been in close coordination with the security administration since Friday's incident and there will be increased scrutiny of passengers. He declined to comment on whether new regulations have been put in place.
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