poshua

Josh at A&M
2004-04-29 16:31:10 (UTC)

Don't flash your high beams at oncoming cars...

I was talking witha friend yesterday, and she mentioned that at a
recpetion she just went to for the Residence Hall Association, they
asked Hall Council members and RAs to warn their residents
about possible injury or death at the hands of a gang if they
flashed their brights at someone on the road. That's a long-ass
sentence.
Apparently, the gang initiation is back despite all knowledge of its
urban legend origin. The claim is that some students were shot at
an intersection off-campus for warning a car that its lights were not
on. For their concern, they were run down and killed. Really? Am
I the only one who doesn't want to take this at face value? It would
not surprise me to hear that someone was shot if I was back in
New Orleans in the uptown area, but we're in College Station. It
isn't that we don't have some crime here, but there has been no
mention in our campus newspaper, the local paper, or the local
police department about such a case. Am I too critical to want to
question such claims? Not only was she told by RHA, but there
were people in the coffee house last night discussing it as well. It's
so easy to look it up.
I am used to the email hoaxes now since my grandpa sends me
some every now and then, but I thought our society has gotten
skeptical enough where we might check this out ourselves before
passing it on as proven fact.
It reminds me of cell phone use while filling up gas. I know just
about everyone has received that email. Plus, there are signs up
at gas stations because that is how out of hand that rumor got. It
took me 10 minutes to find out that there has not been one
documented case of a fire caused by the spark of a cell phone.
(Check here for more http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-
cellphone-gas-fires.htm). Most of such fires were caused by static
electricity with people getting back into their cars while pumping
and not touching metal after getting back out to discharge it. Even
then, the chances of such an instance are lower than winning he
lottery or being struck by lightning.




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