The Suicide Portrait

A few years back, an internet rumor surfaced about the suicide of a young Japanese girl. Shortly before killing herself, the teen had drawn a self-portrait, which she then posted online. Curious to see this slice of suicide memorabilia, a number of Korean forums picked up the image and began re-posting it. That’s where things got weird.

Users had a hard time looking away from this melancholy picture. Some began re-posting it time and time again, saying that its eyes were drawing them in. Others noticed that if you stared at the picture for any length of time, it began to alter subtly—the faintest trace of a smile surfacing around the dead girl’s mouth. Yet others reported feelings of intense sadness after seeing it. It’s said that one or two even killed themselves.

It’s now thought that anyone who spends too long looking at the image runs the risk of falling into this same deadly obsession. At least it would be, if the original artist hadn’t found out about this rumor and posted a fed-up message on his website, debunking the whole thing. Still, you’ll forgive us if we decline to spend too long looking into those creepy eyes.

Source: http://listverse.com/2014/03/01/10-creepy-urban-legends-of-madness-and-suicide-draft-2/

False Photo of Injured Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson

A photo showing the injuries of Ferguson, Mo. police officer, Darren Wilson, from his encounter with Michael Brown Jr. shortly before Brown’s death on August 9, 2014 is a hoax. The image is being circulated under false pretenses and does not depict Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson MO Police Department. The facebook post includes the following text:

"Why aren’t the media releasing the photos of Police Officer Darren Wilson’s injuries after he was assaulted by “the unarmed black teenager”? He was punched in the face before he emptied his weapon into the drugged “unarmed teenager”—here is what a broken eye socket looks like”

Another Version

“Since it’s unlikely the controlled left-extremist media will show you this photo, here it is. Look what that 18 year old did to this police officer, but I guess Holder and Sharpton forgot to mention this. He was slammed repeatedly in the face before he emptied his weapon into the drugged “unarmed teenager” when the thug approached to hit him some more—here is what a broken eye socket looks like:”

The photo actually shows injured motocross driver Jim McNeil, who broke several bones in his face during a practice ride with a friend and was taken in 2006. Posted on this site in 2010: http://etnies.com/blog/2006/10/10/jim-mcneil-face-plants-ouch/

The false photo above began circulating as a mislabeled pic of Darren Wilson, on or about September 2, 2014.

Source: http://urbanlegendsonline.com/false-photo-injured-ferguson-police-officer-darren-wilson/

Computer Security Scam (Infosis.net and 00C04FD7D062)

I spent an exciting twenty minutes on the telephone this morning with a guy claiming to know my computer had all sorts of malware on it, that hackers had taken control of it, and it was generally full of bad juju (my words, not his).

I spent the time because I wanted to see where this all went and how good he was (I was also bored). I acted dumb, and never told him I have a doctorate in computer science and did computer security.

The call came from a “Private Number” with no caller ID to my home phone. I never really understood the caller’s name; he had a very pronounced Indian/Pakistani accent and always mumbled when saying his name. For simplicity, I will call him Tabaqui (before you look it up, Tabaqui is the jackal in The Jungle Book who ate scraps the other animals left).

Tabaqui claimed to be from Microsoft’s outsourced computer security support center, and that the Microsoft security server had been getting all sorts of malware alerts from my computer. He was calling because the malware on my computer would intercept any corrections they sent, so he was calling to put this right in person.