) The story is considered an urban legend.

Less illustrious uses refer to folklore and urban legend and a variety of explanatory narratives which are constructed with methodological flaws or biases.

This story was later confirmed to be an urban legend by the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

If a story is found to be untrue, it is disqualified, but particularly amusing ones are placed in the urban legend section of the archives.

Contemporary narratives common in the Western world include the urban legend.

An urban legend has it that the phrase refers to an old English law under which a man could legally beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb ( though no such law ever existed ).

Groucho was the subject of an urban legend about a supposed response to a contestant who had nine children which supposedly brought down the house.

Candyman, for example, examined the link between an invented urban legend and the realistic horror of the racism that produced its villain.

Thus, freethinkers strive to build their opinions on the basis of facts, scientific inquiry, and logical principles, independent of any logical fallacies or intellectually limiting effects of authority, confirmation bias, cognitive bias, conventional wisdom, popular culture, prejudice, sectarianism, tradition, urban legend, and all other dogmas.

* Kosher tax, an urban legend and antisemitic conspiracy theory

A widely disseminated urban legend tells of a radio conversation between a U. S. or British naval vessel and what is believed to be another ship on a collision course.

Further, modern mythopoeia such as fantasy novels, manga, and urban legend, with many competing artificial mythoi acknowledged as fiction, supports the idea of myth as ongoing social practice.

An urban legend claims Dolophine was named for Adolf Hitler.

There is also an urban legend that the first game of polo in America was played in Boerne, Texas at retired British officer Captain Glynn Turquand's famous Balcones Ranch.

* Paul Is Dead, a 1960s urban legend that Paul McCartney was dead

These ersatz tales — which included the notion that Prince Albert invented the piercing that shares his name in order to tame the appearance of his large penis in tight trousers — are widely circulated as urban legend.

The existence of for-profit snuff films is generally considered an urban legend.

The original story of Sweeney Todd was quite possibly based on an older urban legend, originally based on dubious pie-fillings.

A late ( 1890s ) reference to the urban legend of the murdering barber can be found in the poem by the Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson — The Man from Ironbark.

It was something of a success, and the story spread by word of mouth and took on the quality of an urban legend.

An urban legend claims that the doomed tank might have been overfilled in late 1918 so that the owners could produce as much rum as possible before Prohibition came into effect.

While an urban legend, a 1999 television documentary, part of the Modern Marvels ' Engineering Disasters sub-series, argued that — even if there was no specific plan to make alcohol to beat Prohibition — there may have been some general idea of increasing the volume at the last minute so as to prepare in case total alcohol prohibition might occur.

Despite this, the identification of the tarot cards with the Egyptian Book of Thoth was already firmly established in occult practice and continues in modern urban legend to the present day.

An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true.

The mystery became the subject of numerous urban myths in Australia, including persistent claims that he was kidnapped ( or rescued ) by a Chinese submarine, or that he had been abducted by a UFO.

A common urban legend claims that duck quacks do not echo ; however, this has been shown to be false.

This interpretation argues that any large urban center in Mesoamerica could be referred to as " Tollan " and its inhabitants as Toltecs — and that it was common practice among ruling lineages in Postclassic Mesoamerica to strengthen claims to power by claiming Toltec ancestry.

An urban legend amongst Cambridge students claims that Trinity pays an undisclosed sum to the college annually with the condition that it will never build the fourth side of the square, so that Trinity may maintain the distinction of having the largest enclosed court of all colleges of Cambridge.

An urban legend claims this was the origin of the band's name, but according to band member Jorma Kaukonen, the name was invented by his friend Steve Talbot as a parody of blues names such as Blind Lemon Jefferson.

A common urban legend claims that Twinkies have an infinite shelf life or can last unspoiled for a relatively long time of ten, fifty, or one hundred years due to chemicals used in production.

Michael Lydon, in defense of Dreiser, claims that his patience and powers of observation created accurate depictions of the urban world and the desires and ambitions of the people of the time.

Maffesoli claims that punks are a typical example of an " urban tribe ".

* The Colombian armed conflict ( 1964 – present ) is a complex perpetual war between the following three factions: ( 1 ) the Colombian government, which is the formal nation of Colombia represented by the vast majority of its society ( rural and urban, poor and rich ), the Colombian politicians, business interests, and military ; ( 2 ) the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which in Spanish is " Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia ", is abbreviated FARC, and claims to represent rural poor Colombian people, especially by appealing to Marxism – Leninism ; and ( 3 ) the National Liberation Army, which in Spanish is " Ejército de Liberación Nacional ", is abbreviated ELN, and, like FARC, also claims to be representing rural poor people, but unlike FARC, emphasizes Liberation theology more than Marxist — Leninism.

In other words, he claims pastorals lyrics have both pastoral and not pastoral characteristics, perhaps like in the comparisons between urban and rural, but they always give importance to and enhance on the pastoral.

Other defenses seek to attribute the criminal act to the society in which the defendant lives rather than his or her own choices ; the pornography defense asserts that the proliferation of pornography causes men to commit acts of sexual violence, and urban survival syndrome claims that violent conditions in a city or neighborhood may justify violent actions by a particular individual.

As a justification defense, the " urban survival syndrome " is offered to bolster self-defense claims in which a defendant argues that he or she should not be held criminally responsible for actions which broke the law, as the defendant was objectively reasonable in believing his or her lethal actions were necessary for survival.

Proponents of development may accuse locals of elitism, parochialism, drawbridge mentality, racism and opposition to diversity, the inevitability of criticism, and misguided or unrealistic claims of prevention of urban sprawl.

An urban legend claims that Knotts served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, serving as a drill instructor at Parris Island.

Westminster council claims that they are simply part of an initiative against urban noise, and will not " be used to snoop ", but comments from a council spokesman appear to imply that they have been deliberately designed to capture an audio stream alongside the video stream, rather than simply reporting noise levels.

Formed in 1926 by Sir Patrick Abercrombie to limit urban sprawl and ribbon development, the CPRE ( until the 1960s the Council for the Preservation of Rural England and from then until 2003 the Council for the Protection of Rural England ) claims to be one of the longest running environmental groups.

There have also been ( disputed ) claims that this antenna is comparatively insensitive to man-made radio interference, making it useful in urban environments, where a low noise floor is often more beneficial than high received signal strength.

Radio Cumbria claims to be listened to by one third of the county's population despite having to face the challenge of an area which is sparsely populated and predominantly rural, with the biggest urban areas around its perimeter.

Lloyd has been the subject of a persistent urban legend which claims that he had been invited to a dinner party at the home of Sharon Tate on the night that she was murdered by followers of Charles Manson.

An urban legend claims that the bridge was originally painted green, but that the weather ( or some say the sun ) turned the bridge blue.

There is an urban legend in Turkey which claims Sebottendorff and Şefik Hüsnü were actually the same people, but this claim has no backing.