Urban Legends

There are many urban legends out there.  Some of these legends have their reality based in some factual event that has happened in the past.  Some are grotesque metamorphoses of science fact.  Some are just the vivid imagination of someone with too much time on their hands.  Often, these urban legends are told from person to person just like oral history used to be told.  The lines between the legend of the story and the reality of life sometimes becomes blurred.  And with today's technology, email and texting have hastened the flow of these legends, with people often believing the legends as fact because they're finding out from the internet, which is they believe is never wrong. The problem is, the internet is often wrong. Don't believe me?  Fine, I said the internet is often wrong, therefore, since you're reading this on the internet, it must be true, ergo, the internet must often be wrong because you read it on the internet.  No, not buying it?  No problem, just read this article from ABC News. That's a reputable news source that millions of Americans trust and follow every day.  Oh, and in case you're too lazy to follow the link, here's an excerpt paragraph, with a few words italicized for emphasis.  The article is about illegal drug websites on the internet:

               A study in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine found that popular Internet search engines

               tend to direct users to sites that appear to promote drug use and provide incorrect and even dangerous

               information.

But, this is about ILLEGAL drug use, so yeah, I wouldn't trust what I read on the internet about something illegal.  So what about places like Wikipedia? As a teacher, I often encourage my students to find sources outside of the mega-online-encyclopedia.  But the reality is that I often use it to get my facts straight.  It is fairly reliable, but even the moderators of Wikipedia realize and understand that their product has inherent flaws that they must regularly check for accuracy. Thus, they created a web page devoted to the topic.  Again, here's an excerpt from that page:

               The Wikipedia model allows anyone to edit, and relies on a large number of well-intentioned editors to

               overcome issues raised by a smaller number of problematic editors. It is inherent in Wikipedia's editing 

               model that misleading information can be added, but over time quality is anticipated to improve in a
               form of group learning as editors reach consensus, so that substandard edits will very rapidly be removed. 

               This assumption is still being tested, and its limitations and reliability are not yet a settled matter.

So, I always tell my students to find another source to corroborate the information they find on the website, preferably from a book.

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman have no problem disproving
the myth that cell phones cause gas station explosions.

What point am I trying to make here?  Something besides the fallibility of internet, of course.  Something that has become an urban legend, mostly because of the internet.  Back in the early 90's as cell phones became popular and readily available to anyone, there was a thought that went around that using your cell phone at a gas station could cause the vapors from the gas to combust causing an explosion.  This idea was spread through the use of emails and later text messages.  The idea was so popular that you often read signs at gas stations asking you to turn off your cellular device so you didn't blow up the gas station!  Well, as we progressed and learned about cell phones, we determined that this just wasn't the case.  Then, on Discovery Channel's show Mythbusters, the two men responsible for the scientifically tested myths disproved the possibility of a cell phone igniting a fire at a gas station.  This episode aired on October 3, 2003.  (Editor's note: I got that date from Wikipedia, which sourced the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters website. It was easier than looking through my DVD collection)

So, you can imagine my surprise last week, while filling up at a 7-11 gas station, I saw this sign, which I have edited to highlight my points of interest:

Point #1 (in GREEN) circles the aforementioned urban legend.  One would think that 10 years after this legend was put to bed, that rational thinking people wouldn't bother with this.  I even checked the Arco gas station that I filled up at today, to see if they had a similar sign.  Nope, no sign intimating that if they made a phone call they'd blow up in a fiery ball of gasoline.  I mean, "NO SMOKING!" I understand.  I get the "Stop Engine" argument.  The fifth point down about not re-entering your vehicle is valid as that could lead to a static electricity discharge at the nozzle, causing the nozzle to catch on fire.  That one's been proven true.  And the last five points, surrounding the "Static Sparks Can Cause a Fire" box are all important to know and follow.  But you DO NOT need to turn off your cell phone. Make a call, text away (it's safer than texting while driving!), take a picture like I did, send an email, or surf the web at your leisure.  You could even watch the video of Adam and Jamie disproving the myth of a cell phone exploding a gas station on your phone while you're filling up.

Point #2 (in BLUE) is just a scary thought.  This thought is that someone said "I have an idea.  Lets put the button that immediately stops the flow of gasoline to the pump as far away from the pump as possible.  That way, when someone does set the nozzle on fire they have to leave the burning nozzle and run inside the store and have someone hit the button, allowing the fire to burn unchecked for at least 10-20 seconds.  Great idea!"  Now I get why they do that.  They don't want anyone to accidentally/intentionally push the button when it's not needed.  But as I said, that's just a scary thought.  But it might just be scarier that urban legends that we know are not true persist in our collective consciousness.  I only hope that we can overcome those lies that invade our lives.  Now you'll have to excuse me.  I need to search the black market for my kidney.  It disappeared last week at a party.  I know because I found a note telling me to look it up on the internet after waking up in a bathtub of ice water...