[pabianice]

Tinfoil spelunking helmet alert...

[Junior]

No tinfoil involved. This is real stuff, not whacked out conspiracy theories. Of course, an asbestos helmet might be appropriate ...

[pabianice]

Right after Mt. St. Helens exploded, two DJs on a Boston radio station pulled a prank. They started broadcasting "bulletins" that the local Blue Hills ski area was erupting. Blue Hills is a small hill of about 2,000 feet near Norwood-Boston. It has zero volcanic properties. Yet, hundreds of thousands of Boston's stupid-but-over-educated tree-huggers and ozone-hole watchers heard the joke, took it seriously, and freaked out. The roads were clogged with accidents by paniced drivers who had thrown their families and a few suitcases in their cars and were barreling down the highway to escape the "raining death" from the "volcano." It took days to get things back to normal. The DJs were fired. The radio station apologized.