Urban Legends: 999 Phone Charging

Photo By Randy Lu

In 2012 rumor was spread around in the BlackBerry forums that if you call 999 it charges the battery. 999 is the emergency number in the United Kingdom. So those who believed it would make lots of false calls to law enforcement. It was so bad that in 2013 Derbyshire Constabulary had a press release telling the public that calling 999 doesn't charge your phone, but in fact wastes law enforcement time and help for those who need it. If there were calls with quick hangups or left in silence police would have to try to get in contact with the cell phone user to make sure there was no emergency. It was illegal for them to misuse the number. 

Whoever posted this in forums probably thought of it as a joke and likely didn't think people would be dumb enough to do it. 

SOURCES:

Urban Legendpedia

Wikipedia

The Topless Woman In Disney's The Rescuers

Screenshot of the topless woman

On June 22, 1977 Disney released their film "The Rescuers". It's Disney's 23rd  animated feature film. The film was based on the series of books by Margery Sharp. Mostly was taken from her books The Rescuers (1959) and Miss Biana (1962). 

The Rescuers follow two agents of the Rescue Aid Society. It's an international mouse organization headquartered in New York City. The organization helps abductions victims from all around the world. Jittery Bernard and Elegant Miss Biana set out to rescue Penny, a young orphan girl, who was abducted by Madam Medusa. Where she is being held hostage at the Devil's bayou.

The film went into development in 1962 but Walt Disney put it on the back burner due to the political overtones in it. In the 1970s the film was picked up again and was supposed to be done by younger animators, but it was taken over by the senior animation staff. There was a positive reception for the film, and this would lead to the first animated sequel Rescuers Down Under.

The Rescuers would premiere on VHS and LaserDisc on September 18, 1992, as part of the Walt Disney Classic Series. On Jan. 5, 1999, the film would be re-released on VHS as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. Three days later this film would be recalled. It was found in this release there was an image of a topless woman twice in non-consecutive frames during the scene where Bernard and Miss Bianca were flying on Orville's back in New York City. It's not noticeable during an ordinary viewing as the film moved at 24 frames per second. In 3 short days, the topless woman was seen. 

It's unknown who placed the nude woman in the film or who she is. It's believed that it was a prank done by a staff member as it was intentionally placed in the scene. This VHS release was from the original 1977 theatrical version and so the prank was not noticed till it was accidentally re-released on VHS. Disney maintained that picture was not placed there by animators, but by someone inserting it in the post-production process. Disney never outright stated whether or not they found the person behind the picture. 

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Snopes

IMDB