|  |  | Hoaxes and Urban Legends: A tale of Japanese Lizards and Love
The following story has been passed around for a few years because it touches people's hearts. Yet it is unlikely to be true. 
 
The lifespan of lizards varies largely by size. There are some medium size and large lizards that do live 10 years and more, but small lizards like the Japanese 'tokage' (Eumeces japonicus) do not live to this ripe age (even when they are not nailed to a wall as this poor creature in the email was supposed to have been).
 
Known email hoaxes:The AOL/Microsoft money giveaway hoax
 The "809" area code hoax
 The burned baby hoax
 Amy Bruce / Make A Wish hoax
 The "Invitation" virus hoax
 The "Life is beautiful" virus hoax
 The Oliver North / Osama bin Ladin / Al Gore hoax
 Send spam to the South African police to save children
 Exxon/Mobile gas boycott
 Bush IQ report / Lovenstein Institute hoax
 Monkeyman935 warning hoax
 Kidney Theft urban legend
 Ashley Flores, 13 (missing child hoax)
 How to detect a two-way mirror
 $50 call-back spam
 Cooking an egg with cell phones
 "Osama captured" / "Osama hanged" virus
 A tale of Japanese Lizards and Love
 The $5 killer
 Audi A8 made out of silver
 ATM PIN code entered in reverse will call the police
 Mars spectacularly close to Earth on August 27
 "An old lady walked into a Grocery Store..."
 "Allah or the Lord Jesus Christ?"
 "PDA+GSM Palm Treo 650 dan Treo 680 dan Treo 750"
 Bayer drug contains HIV
 Forward or lose your Hotmail account
 Chinese "fix" jet engine with seatbelts
 AOL will donate five cents for baby's brain cancer operation
 Ericsson distributing free laptops
 Art Bell Filipino hate letter
 Hypodermic needles on gas pump handles
 "Through a rapist's eyes" / Crying Baby theory
 Sheryl Crow / John Hopkins Cancer update about plastic bottles
 Children buried alive in Egypt, saved by Jesus
 Missing child - Regina George Muñoz
 Papaya Juice - (NOT!) A Cure for Dengue
 Hiroshima 64 years later (is actually Yokohama)
 Lou Dobbs video on Immigration/Amnesty bill (dead since 2007)
 
 
 
Example chain letter:
 
 
This is a true story that happened in Japan.
 In order to renovate the house, someone in Japan
breaks open the wall.
 
 Japanese houses normally have a hollow space between
the wooden walls.
 
 When tearing down the walls, he found that there
was a lizard stuck there
because a nail from outside hammered into one of its
feet. He sees this,
feels pity, and at the same time curious, as when he
checked the nail, it
was nailed 10 years ago when the house was! first
built.
 
 What happened?
 
 The lizard has survived in such position for 10
years! In a dark wall
partition for 10 years without moving, it is
impossible and mind-boggling.
 Then he wondered how this lizard survived for 10
years! without moving a single step--since its foot
was nailed!
 
 So he stopped his work and observed the lizard, what
it has been doing,
and what and how it has been eating. Later, not
knowing from where it
came, appears another lizard, with food in its
mouth. Ah! He was stunned
and touched deeply. For the lizard that was stuck by
nail, another lizard
has been feeding it for the past 10 years...
 
 Imagine? it has been doing that untiringly for 10
long years, without
giving up hope on its partner.
 
 Think, will u do that to your partner?
 
 Think that will you do it to your Mom,
 
 Who brought you after a big struggle of Nine long
months ?
 
 Or at least to your Dad, Friends, Co-workers,
brothers and Sisters?
 
 Imagine what a small creature can do that a creature
blessed with a
brilliant mind can't.
 
 As information and communication technology
advances, our access to
information becomes faster and faster. But the
distance between human
beings . . . is it getting closer as well?
 
 ...Please never abandon your loved ones
 
 
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