Frozen Urine

History is full of weird, unexplained happenings and spooky, strange coincidences.  With all this 'truth is stranger than fiction' fodder to explore, it always amazes that people still try passing off completely fictitious stories and photos as the real deal.  Some have said that social media has ruined the paranormal field---for me, CreepyPasta has ruined the paranormal field!  (I actually love CreepyPasta, but there are just too many folks out there who cannot distinguish fact from fiction, and are constantly posting CreepyPasta works as truth.) But its not just CreepyPasta stories that keep getting passed around as real....

I've written about several false infographics---photos with a little bit of text---before on Theresa's Haunted History, and now its time for another!  This photo shows a very unfortunate accident involving a woman in England who was killed when a large spear of frozen urine leaked from an airplane and impaled her from above.  Just by looking at the photo, we can already see that things aren't quite right.  Wouldn't the urine spear have melted by the time she was found? Judging by the angle of the spear, she would have already been lying down on the ground when it hit her.  Oh, and isn't that stuff that leaks out of planes usually BLUE?

A tad of authenticity seems to go along with this tall tale, which may be why people are so quick to believe it.  While to date no one has been killed (except in various television shows, movies, and other pop culture references) it IS possible to be hit by a chunk of ice falling from an airplane. Even MythBusters said that part was true!  But, does that mean this photo is proof of such?  Of course not...and all it took was a 3-minute Google search.

This image comes from a satirical news story featured on the comedic (and completely made up) news broadcast, The Day Today.  Airing in 1994, The Day Today is a series of six half-hour episodes full of utter hilarity.  Hosted by Chris Morris, the show has long been off the air, originally being shown on BBC2, but all six episodes can be found on Youtube!  In fact, if you'd like to see this story as it aired, you can find it in Episode One, about 23 minutes and 24 seconds into the 'broadcast!'