Updated reports of the words the Brown University killer screamed out are unclear. Some students thought they heard “Allah,” and others thought they heard “Ella.” The first person murdered was conservative activist, Ella Cook. She arranged for the review last Saturday, and was the first person shot. Some reports say the killer came up to […] The post Brown University Murders: Did the Killer Yell, “Allah” or “Ella”? appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

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On Sunday, Egyptian authorities unveiled the completed restoration works on two colossal alabaster statues of a notable Egyptian king. Located in Luxor, and standing over 30 feet tall, the two statues were destroyed in an earthquake 1,200 years ago, making their reconstitution an awfully long time coming. King Amenhotep III (spellings may vary) ruled between […] The post Colossal Statues of Ancient Pharoah Stand Again in Luxor After 30 Years of Work appeared first on Good News Network.

Books reading recommendations Five Scary Short Stories That Read Like Urban Legends When dark rumors, local legends, and disturbing memes suddenly become all too real… By Lorna Wallace | Published on December 18, 2025 Photo by William Nettmann [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo by William Nettmann [via Unsplash] The first time I ever heard an urban legend, I was about 5 or 6 years old. My older brother and I each had a few friends staying over and while we sat in the dark, one of his friends told us a story called “Humans Can Lick Too.” It’s about a woman who lets her dog lick her hand for comfort when she hears a creepy dripping noise in the night. If you’ve not heard it before, I’m sure you can guess how it ends based on the title. It was one of my earliest experiences of horror and while I was suitably terrified, I was also captivated. In that spirit, here are five spooky short stories that manage to perfectly capture the creepily compelling feel of an urban legend… “each thing i show you is a piece of my death” (2009) by Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer Although urban legends are often most effective when they’re whispered between friends or shared aloud with a gathering (maybe at a sleepover), “each thing i show you is a piece of my death” is perfectly suited to being read because it unfolds through articles, emails, chat logs, and interviews. The mixed media story kicks off with an article explaining an urban legend known as “Background Man.” Essentially, a naked man keeps popping up in the background of obscure movies. Originally “Background Man” was thought to be a hoax, but the unclothed figure has been appearing more prominently in an ever-increasing number of films, TV shows, and music videos, leading to the legend being taken more seriously. Experimental filmmakers Soraya Mousch and Max Holborn find themselves caught up in the mystery surrounding “Background Man.” But although they’re treated as suspects by the police, they’re just as haunted by the unsettling phenomenon as everyone else. This story was first published in Clockwork Phoenix 2: More Tales of Beauty and Strangeness (2009), but can also be found online at the link above, in The Cutting Room: Dark Reflections of the Silver Screen (2014), and in Dark Is Better (2023). “Thirteen” (2013) by Stephen Graham Jones The teenage protagonist of “Thirteen” lives in a small town that’s home to an urban legend surrounding the Big Chief Theater. According to local lore, at that cinema there’s a trick to thinning the veil between the world of the movie and the real world, allowing fiction to bleed into reality. All you have to do is close your eyes during the scariest part of the film—this trick is said to be exclusive to horror movies—and then hold your breath for two minutes. It’s a simple idea pulled from childhood—I’m sure most of us were told at some point that we had to hold our breath passing a graveyard or going under a bridge for whatever superstitious reason—but in Stephen Graham Jones’ hands it becomes something far more creative and sinister. An audio version of this story read by Jones himself is available online at the link above, but if you’d prefer to read it with your own eyes then you can find it in Halloween: Magic, Mystery, and the Macabre (2013) and After the People Lights Have Gone Off (2014). “Only Unity Saves the Damned” (2014) by Nadia Bulkin Bay, Roz, and Lark are three outcasts who have big plans to get out of their small—and, in their eyes, dead-end—hometown. They decide to shoot a video at Goose Lake which supposedly catches Raggedy Annie—an alleged witch who was hanged by the townspeople hundreds of years earlier—on film. Tales of Raggedy Annie haunting the town and the lake have been circulating for years and many people are convinced that this footage finally proves that the stories are real. But while the three friends should be enjoying their viral moment, their lives take an unfortunate turn for the genuinely creepy. Maybe it’s not Raggedy Annie they should be looking out for, though… This story was first published in Letters to Lovecraft: Eighteen Whispers to the Darkness (2014), but it can also be found in Nadia Bulkin’s collection She Said Destroy (2017) and online at the link above. “You Know How the Story Goes” (2018) by Thomas Olde Heuvelt There are many urban legends about picking up hitchhikers in the dead of night (essentially, don’t do it!), but Thomas Olde Heuvelt flips the script in “You Know How the Story Goes” by having the hitchhiker be the protagonist. Our main character is drinking at a bar and decides not to get a lift home with his friend—the designated driver—in the hopes of spending the night with a pretty girl. He fails. Faced with a long and cold walk home, he decides to try his hand at hitchhiking. The first lift he gets goes off without a hitch, but the strange woman who picks him up for the next leg of the journey takes him on the most terrifying ride of his life. The English version of this scary supernatural story can be read right here at Reactor (link above!). “The DEATH/GRIP Challenge” (2020) by Johnny Compton As a lover of movies that are so-bad-they’re-good, I deeply wish that I could watch DEATH/GRIP—the fictional film that kicks off the events of this story. Teenager Alicia and her dad Benito bond over their shared enjoyment of not only the movie, but also of the meme challenge that it spawns. All people need to do is taken a picture of one of their hands restraining the other while reaching for something funny and add some text to accompany it, always ending with a quote from the movie: “IT’S NOT ME, IT’S THE DEATH/GRIP!” When Benito gets a job at his brother’s office—which is not a working environment that he’s used to, being more of a hard hat kind of guy—he starts sharing increasing numbers of DEATH/GRIP Challenge memes to get through the day. It doesn’t take long for Alicia to start getting seriously worried about his growing obsession with the memes. There’s a good amount of humor in this short story thanks to the memes themselves, but that doesn’t take away from the horror, which really ramps up towards the end.As well as at the link above, you can also find this story in Johnny Compton’s collection Midnight Somewhere (2025). Have you got any recommendations of short stories that feel like urban legends? Whether it’s a new spin on a classic tale or an original story that has that happened-to-a-friend-of-a-friend feel to it, I’d love to hear your suggestions below![end-mark] The post Five Scary Short Stories That Read Like Urban Legends appeared first on Reactor.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has openly celebrated his government’s reshaping of speech laws, arguing that restrictions on expression are a necessary part of combating hate. Speaking with Sky News Australia host Sharri Markson, Minns said he wants “a situation where hate speech is not allowed and illegal in NSW and those who practice it are prosecuted,” adding that the state “does not have the same free speech laws that they have in the United States.” The Premier repeatedly linked speech regulation to public safety, connecting online discussion and public protest to the Bondi Beach terror attack. According to Minns, “hate speech, antisemitism” begins with chants at marches, “then it migrates online to a tweet or some kind of post,” leading to property damage and arson, and finally, “then you see this horrible, horrible crime.” He insisted that authorities “need to attack it at every single level,” a statement that positions censorship as part of the government’s crime prevention strategy. Minns described the Crimes Amendment (Inciting Racial Hatred) Bill 2025 as “absolutely vital” and called for “prosecutions of people” under it. That sequence of events has become a flashpoint, with civil rights lawyers warning that a law born from misinformation risks turning into a tool for political and social control rather than public protection. During the interview, Minns bristled at those who have questioned the law’s legitimacy or its impact on open debate. Minns went further, leaving the door open for expanding the legislation, stating, “I’m going to be judged on outcomes here, and if the law’s not fit for purpose, we’ll look at it again.” Minns also took personal credit for reshaping what he called “free speech laws” in the state. By asking the public to “give time” for the new rules to take effect, Minns is effectively telling citizens to get used to narrower speech boundaries. It’s not a pause; it’s a conditioning period. The longer these powers stay in place, the easier it becomes for “hate” to mean whatever the government needs it to mean at a given moment. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Chris Minns Defends NSW “Hate Speech” Laws Linking Censorship to Terror Prevention appeared first on Reclaim The Net.