WARNING TO PARENTS !!!!

[JanusAscending]

I received an email from my daughter today that I found very shocking. I don't know if anyone of you have heard of this yet, but I thought I should make you all aware of the potential DANGER. I don't have a link, but I was able to verify the information by going to Google. Look up "Safety of BALL PENS in fast food places. The second item down titled "Randomness YUCK" will satisfy any doubts. Two toddlers have died after playing in these "fun" indoor playgrounds. They have found feces, vomit, rotten food, and dirty diapers at the bottom of the pits. One child died after having been bitten multiple times by a nest of copperheads that was found at the bottom. The other child died as a result of being jabbed with a hypodermic needle containing heroin!!!! Next time you are in one of these places with your kids, ask the manager how often they clean them out!! Otherwise the article in Google will back up this story. I know my grandson will never be allowed to play in one of these filthy "pits" I hope this may save someone out there the grief of losing a child!!!

[Fridays Child]

1. That's an urban legend.

Not true. But I doubt if those ball pits are the cleanest places in the world.

[JanusAscending]

12. Urban legend????

Did you read the google articals? Would you want to risk your child's life? I suggest you read it.

[ulysses]

2. snopes

http://www.snopes.com/critters/snakes/ballpit.asp

[LoZoccolo]

3. The thing about the snakes is an urban legend.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/snakes/ballpit.asp

[fortyfeetunder]

44. Snakes in a playpen!

I'd better not hear any kids say get those #*$()$&#&*$ snakes out of that #*$###$# playpen!

[Gold Metal Flake]

4. Snopes sez...

Snakes:

http://www.snopes.com/critters/snakes/ballpit.asp

Smack:

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/archer.asp

[baldguy]

5. Snopes

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/archer.asp

[hedgehog]

6. I've heard that Merck is leaving syringes of Guardasil in

Ball pits!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. ...

:spray:

[ret5hd]

23. THose bastids!!!

[judaspriestess]

38. now this is a DU duzy

Hilarious!!

[Warren DeMontague]

53. Anything to get youths to fornicate.

After all, you know that big pharma makes money off sin-laden birth control, too.


It's not a coincidence that the words "pharma" and "satan" have the same number of letters.


...Or, almost the same number of letters!!!

[fed-up]

7. I'm more worried about our troops over in Iraq/Afghan-they ARE DYING nt

[JanusAscending]

20. Are you as worried as I, a grandmother with two grandaughters over there???

I also worry about my young grandchildren here at home too!

[bicentennial_baby]

8. not so discerning, eh?

:rofl:

[JanusAscending]

17. Thanks for that!

It was so very kind of you to ridicule someone who is not up on all the urban "legend" I just won't bother next time. It was wasted concern on my part. I hate to tell ya, but, I am very discerning. At least enough to know a "put down" from a fellow DU member when I see it! I wish there were an icon for the "Italian salute" is you get my drift!

[ret5hd]

19. Well, let's see that Google link that verifies everything!

[JanusAscending]

24. Look....

I'm 68 yrs. young, and I'm just not as computer savvy as some of you out there. I said at the beginning of my post that there was no link. I looked it up on google. If there were a link, I wouldn't know how to post it! So KILL ME OK?

[JanusAscending]

39. Can't you read?

Or do you just need to go have another drink? Go back and read my previous posts, if you can still see!!

[Bigmack]

37. I sure don't want to be seen as a....

voice of moderation, but everybody needs to take a breath here.

Discerning, you need to learn to love snopes.com. I'm in my mid sixties, but I'm the "kid" in one particular email circle. If I had a nickle for every time I've sent the snopes debunking to guys in that circle, I'd be rich. It takes a cynical and miserable bastard to make up the crap that gets sent around these days, and we have to check snopes to keep those bastards from causing our friends further discomfort.

Put snopes.com on your Favorites/Bookmarks, and every time you get an email with anything even mildly shocking in it, check with snopes.

To the posters who need to feel superior... just wait.... nobody is cool forever.

[JanusAscending]

41. Thank you for the voice of reason!

You are my hero!:hug:

[SlowDownFast]

48. Well said.

[fed-up]

10. or they were referring to what is REALLY in FAST FOOD-read Fast Food Nation nt

[karlrschneider]

11. Wow, that's almost as bad as Sunday School...

:eyes:

[Laurier]

13. If I had a dollar for every time someone sent along a frantic email

along these lines without doing any fact checking before providing such frantic warnings, I'd be rich.

[CoffeeCat]

18. It's become my pet peeve...

...I hate to be such a Grumpy Gus, but I find myself thinking "Are you a complete idiot?" when
I get emails like this.

Usually, the title of the email is, "You guys have to read this!!!! It's true!!!!!1."

There's the email that tells you to watch out for the guy spraying perfume on women in the
Walmart parking lot. There's the email telling you to forward emails an email and a dying
child will rec'v a contribution from the Make A Wish program. There's the email telling
you to watch out for the guy who tries to make you roll down your window to give you a
$5 bill--and he's a serial killer.

There's so many of them.

I find myself in a quandary when I get these ridiculous emails. Do I let them go and delete, or
do I "reply all" and let everyone know that the story is fake--and provide a snopes.com link.

It's amazing that people keep forwarding these emails. Snopes is your friend!

[BlackVelvet04]

22. And the virus emails....

nobody ever seems to check for hoaxes. I always reply to all with a link to the site that tracks virus hoaxes.

[Laurier]

26. Also agreed. Those drive me crazy, too.

And I do the same thing - hit "reply all" and send along a note with a link to the hoax tracking site, usually symantec.com or similar.

[Laurier]

25. I agree. I find it really annoying. I usually respond by

hitting "reply all" and sending a link to the snopes page that has long debunked the story, etc. with a kind note explaining that it's not true and that the sender really should do some fact checking before spreading the story around. It works. The friend who sent it in the first place learns to do some fact checking, and so does everyone else that the friend has sent the nonsense to.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JanusAscending]

30. Where have I lied?

but they say it takes one to know one,so I guess that makes me a liar, big time!!

[SlowDownFast]

49. Ass.

[Little Wing]

15. That Hamburglar suit really messed up KSM's hair, but it was worth it!

[Pugee]

16. The fast food places around here have all gotten rid of the ball pits

But it was because they are high maintenance. They would take all the balls out weekly and run them thru the car wash in a bag in the back of a truck to clean all the pee and whatever out of them. I am sure that the urban legends just made it worse, also.

[mudesi]

21. EVERYBODY PANIC!

lol
:rofl:

[JanusAscending]

27. Thanks a bunch.

I really need that!

[BlackVelvet04]

28. Just how did you verify it in Google?

I check the links and I don't find anything to verify....quite the contrary. I've clicked on quite a few of those links they were all saying that it was BS.

[JanusAscending]

31. Just exactly as I posted it up link!

[melody]

29. You acted in good faith

Most of the posters were just pointing out Snopes, I think, but a couple were rather caustic about it.

Thank you for your good intentions and for caring enough to reach out.

[JanusAscending]

32. Thank you,

and you.......are very welcome. It will be a cold day in hell before I post another one though. I appreciate the Snopes referral, but why is it still listed on google???

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. Because Google has no quality control

It just picks up references on the Web, whether they are true or not.

What were you looking for when you found this?

[JanusAscending]

40. My daughter emailed it to me,

because she read it from her friends who have small children too. I suspected it might be untrue,so I checked Google before I posted. I knew everyone would want to see a thread for verification. I DON"T KNOW HOW TO POST A THREAD from another site, therefore in my origional post I gave directions to how I found it on Google. I really don't want to discuss it any further, as too many of my "fellow DUers" seem to be having a good laugh at my expense.

[patrice]

42. Don't let the hostility get to you discerning christian.

I feel embarassed for DU at times like this. It really isn't a very friendly place. I honestly think some people come here in order to give the place a bad reputation. I hope you don't let the rudeness with which you have been treated change you for the worse.

It's okay not to know everything about links and such. PM me sometime and I can help you with a few things.

Sorry for how you were treated here.

:hug:

[Pirate Smile]

33. It's OK, discerning christian. Don't let the thread upset you too much.

Snopes is great for these e-mails that get sent everywhere.

Frankly, the part about the feces, vomit and rotten food is probably accurate.

We know there is a concerted disinformation effort by e-mail regarding politicians. The Republicans are experts at that under the radar crap. This kind of stuff - I don't know if it is started by well-meaning people or people who like to freak others out.

Live and learn.

:hug:

[alcibiades_mystery]

35. Apart from this all being false, why would you take kids to a fast food place anyway?

Never mind the snakes and heroin. Stop poisoning your kids.

[JanusAscending]

43. I personally don't.

But what about those that do? Just because they are stupid does that mean thier kids should be endangered if this had been true? Some poor people find it the only fun outing they can afford for their family, and the kids love it!!

[alcibiades_mystery]

57. "Some poor people..."

Ay yay yay.

[Nutmegger]

36. Some of the comments here are inappropriate.

Not everybody is "up and up" when it comes to stories such as these.

Thank you DC. Ignore the stupid comments. :hi:

[LoZoccolo]

45. I remember when I was a kid there was a pool of balls at Showbiz Pizza Place and...

...you'd find game tokens that fell out of other kids' pockets at the bottom of the pool! :woohoo:

[nebenaube]

46. one thing to think about...

If a given government or terrorist group wanted to use a biological agent against its/the populace and
if the incubation period (time for symptoms to occur) for said biological agent was of sufficient duration; say long enough to ensure that the infective source materials had been disposed of... Then why not combine the attack with the concurrent dissemination of enough "urban legend" type material spread about to debunk the attack?

After all, doing so would serve to thwart any reports from victims, as in "dude, don't you know that was a hoax" as well as rule out any chance of a true investigation.

[Trajan]

47. awwwww .... You innocently care about your grandkids, that is clear ....

It is also clear that some here really dont cut much slack for their fellow Liberals ....

This Atheist understands your concerns, and is glad you care so much about such things, even if they turned out to be urban myths .... Perhaps you learned TWO things today ....

1) Careful what you hear on 'the internets'; it is perhaps untrue ...

2) Careful what you say at DU, since some wont forgive such naivite ... (THAT is no myth)

I would recommend spending some time reading at the 'snopes' website; it will be an eye-opener for you ....

(PS: Some of the things mentioned were admitted to be true ....)

[Vektor]

50. Ok, guys, I know Discerning Christian, and she is not a reactionary...

nor is she a troll or a rabble rouser.

I realize this story may sound a little far-fetched, and I personally have not googled it nor tried to verify its validity.

But I know DC would not post this if she didn't believe it were true, or had reason to believe it. She's a very nice person who I am sure posted this because she was concerned about the possibility of it being true.

DC - for future reference, DUers are a selective bunch - they really like like links and proof to back up claims at the time that the claims are posted. I have made the lethal mistake of posting my version of a story which outraged me, heavy on the emotion, but minus a link. I got torn a new chute. Promptly.

I love you tons, and that's why I'm suggesting - LOVINGLY - to try to include a reliable link or credible a news source when posting stories.

I learned the hard way, too. :hug:

Edited to add: I am sure that fast food ball pens and public playgrounds can be really unsanitary, and that bio-hazardous materials have been found in such areas. Chances are, it has happened. As DC stated up-thread, she's 68 years young :-) and isn't yet as tech savvy as she'd like to be, and maybe wasn't aware of all the DU etiquette surrounding posting news stories. Please try to cut her a break. She is a grandmother who reacted with concern when she heard a story about kids in danger. I feel she meant no harm.

[REP]

51. I Understand Falling For a Hoax, But What Does Age Have To Do With It?

My mother is older than DC, and knows how to research and post links. It isn't a matter of age, but of knowledge of how to use the internets™ and how to post links. Please don't use ageism ("old people just don't know how to use technology!") as an excuse when someone falls for a hoax. People of all ages fall for them; people of all ages lack experience with computers and the internet.

I know she meant no harm - we see freaky posts here all the time on all manner of subjects, all posted in good faith - but her age has nothing to do with it!

[Vektor]

52. She was the one...

who mentioned her age, and how it was relative (for her) to her not being tech savvy.

I'm far from ageist. I merely echoed DC's own point.

[REP]

55. Well, She Needs To Whap Herself Then!

Not being tech-savvy has nothing to do with age - and she should know that! WHAP!

[Vektor]

56. Sometimes...

I feel like I'm far less tech savvy than the teens these days. They teach HTML and all manner of other computer classes in the high schools now...When I need help putting graphics on my site I call my neighbor's 15 year old daughter to help me.

I definitely think that school age kids are getting a lot more info about technology than I did at that age.

(Whaps self.)

:spank:

[Warren DeMontague]

54. Let the thread die.

OP fell for some internet baloney. Happens to the best of us.

[Moderator]

58. locking.....

This is flamebait and an urban legend.