Dont answer the phone it may kill you

[CptStern]

Nigeria's authorities have been forced to reassure the public that a mobile phone number cannot kill, after rumours were spread by text messages.

Viral text messages had warned that several people had died when they answered calls with the ID 09141.

The text messages gave conflicting accounts of the number of people killed when they answered the call - some put the death toll at seven while others put it at 10.

"Technically, it is not possible for such a thing to happen. It is therefore unimaginable that somebody will die while receiving a call," commission spokesman Reuben Muoka said.

"It is only very gullible people that will believe such a rumour."

riiiight

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14938984

 

[Lobster]

I hope that deposed prince managed to get out before this happened.. otherwise I am in some serious financial trouble.

 

[Eejit]

It's probably immoral in some way to laugh at the gullible and uneducated in Africa, but sometimes they're so goddamn hilarious.

 

[Robbo]

Hundreds of angry Malawians hounded a senior political figure from his house and stoned him late Wednesday, accusing him of harboring vampires.

Reminds me of this, it's a little less ridiculous but still made me laugh

 

[Unfocused]

It's true! Proof:

 

[Remus]

Reminds me of this, it's a little less ridiculous but still made me laugh

Less ridiculous? Stoning people to death because you think they are vampires is less ridiculous than thinking a phone call will kill you? OK...

Also what the hell is a Malawian?

 

[Stylo]

Also what the hell is a Malawian?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malawi

KNOW YOUR GEOGRAPHIEZ

 

[sixteenth]

 

[Krynn72]

Less ridiculous? Stoning people to death because you think they are vampires is less ridiculous than thinking a phone call will kill you? OK...

A phone is an inanimate object. A Vampire actively tries to kill people. Believing a phone will kill is indeed more ridiculous than believing someone is a vampire who will try to kill you. Whats more ridiculous? A kid who believes there's a monster in his closet, or a kid who believes a bottle of Elmer's Glue will melt off the hands of anybody who touches it? Its the same kind of thing.

 

[Remus]

But, but, cellphones give you brain cancer mang!

 

[Escaep]

My mom went to a mental hospital during med school and studied a woman who believed Reagan was spreading AIDS through the telephone and plotted to assassinate him.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

But, but, cellphones give you brain cancer mang!

This still may very well be true, haha

:v oh well.

 

[ríomhaire]

Don't be silly the kill-system isn't planned until the iPhone 6.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

I had a dream last night that I moved to Africa.

Spoiler

There were black people, and they were nice

 

[Ennui]

There was a rumor / joke in the phone phreaking world about a specific box (the phreaking definition of box) that you could wire into a phone box in a neighborhood and it would cause nearby landline phones to ring and overload upon answering, electrocuting the person picking it up... not real obviously but that's what this made me think of. The idea that it could be done through a mobile phone is even more ridiculous, but this is Nigeria where they have witch hunts and shit...

 

[Kadayi]

The idea that it could be done through a mobile phone is even more ridiculous, but this is Nigeria where they have witch hunts and shit...

Exactly. It's all very easy for people to scoff at these things, but plain truth of the matter is when you exist in cultures that have these sorts of superstitions ingrained (and there are quite a few of them in Africa still) it's all too easy for people to get swept up in it. Without education people are extremely gullible and inclined to take what they hear at face value. It's not a unique phenomena to Africa either, as the burgeoning number of tea partiers demonstrates.

 

[Stylo]

No more stupid than Western society believing that The Great Wall of China is the only man-made thing visible from space and that humans evolved from monkeys.

 

[Remus]

and that humans evolved from monkeys.

Oh boy, here we go...

 

[Shem]

Before the debate about evolution begins, I'd like to point out that it's quite normal to hear of such a superstition in a place like Africa.

 

[Stylo]

Oh boy, here we go...

This is exactly what I mean ^

I assume you're not religious, yes? Then take the time to actually understand that the evolution of humans from other species is based on the principles that we share a common ancestor with monkeys, not that we evolved from them.

Christ. You probably also thought Christopher Columbus believed the Earth was flat.

 

[Raziaar]

A phone is an inanimate object. A Vampire actively tries to kill people. Believing a phone will kill is indeed more ridiculous than believing someone is a vampire who will try to kill you. Whats more ridiculous? A kid who believes there's a monster in his closet, or a kid who believes a bottle of Elmer's Glue will melt off the hands of anybody who touches it? Its the same kind of thing.

I don't know about the glue, but the floor is made of lava.

This is exactly what I mean ^

I assume you're not religious, yes? Then take the time to actually understand that the evolution of humans from other species is based on the principles that we share a common ancestor with monkeys, not that we evolved from them.

Christ. You probably also thought Christopher Columbus believed the Earth was flat.

I think you're setting up a straw man here, cause nobody I know who is actually knowledgeable about evolution believes we evolved from monkeys as we know the species today.

 

[Remus]

Then take the time to actually understand that the evolution of humans from other species is based on the principles that we share a common ancestor with monkeys, not that we evolved from them.

I know that Sherlock. But I thought you didn't, hence the facepalm reaction.

"Durrr, but if we evolved from monkeys how come we still have monkeys? Dur hur hur"

 

[Absinthe]

No more stupid than Western society believing that The Great Wall of China is the only man-made thing visible from space and that humans evolved from monkeys.

No, I would still say vampires and killer cell phones trump those things in a stupid contest.

Really don't see the equivalence here.