A BoingBoing pal living in Beijing sends this surreal bit of local news involving rural SMS rumors, SARS, and talking babies.
The ideas stemmed from a rumor about a baby who
purportedly spoke immediately after birth and said
firecrackers and "green bean soup" could prevent
infection, said an official at Anhui Provincial Public
Security Bureau.Hundreds of thousands of people in the province,
including the capital, Hefei, received the rumor via
text messages on their cell phones, the official said.Different variations of the story, told in areas as
far-flung as Guangdong and the northern region of
Inner Mongolia, say the baby said the soup had to be
consumed by midnight on May 7 and that he died after
delivering the message, according to newspapers.The rumor caused sales of mung beans and firecrackers
to skyrocket in Guangdong, Fujian and Guizhou.
Update: Link to Beijing-based AP correspondent Audra Ang's story.
Discuss (Thanks, John)
