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10 Crazy AI Controversies… So Far
10 Fictional Plagues We’re Glad Aren’t Real
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10 Famous People You Didn’t Know Killed Someone
!0 American Politicians Who Have Served Time in Prison
10 Stories Far Ahead of Their Time
Yet Another 10 Conspiracy Theories
I think from the previous two lists it is obvious that I love conspiracy theories. This contributed list looks at 10 more. It includes two things we have previously discussed on the site but gives a much more indepth explanation for them. The items are longer than usual but it is Sunday after all and the extra information is very interesting and worth keeping.
Go to any genealogy website and you can track down any family line that has been entered into the database. Yours, Tom Cruise’s, or Obama’s. Some purport to show a logical progression of names from President Barack Obama to the Merovingian Dynasty of ancient France.
The Merovingian Dynasty was founded by Merovech, aka Merovius I (410-459 AD). This line of royalty leads directly to the Carolingian Dynasty, founded by Charles “the Hammer” Martel, whose grandson was Charlemagne. I will not bother with a detailed bloodline, according to any of these sites. You can check them out. The weak point of this theory is that most of the sites are user-created and –edited, like Wikipedia, which means you should take what you read with a grain of salt until you can corroborate it with another source, preferably a more reputable one.
But the strong point of the theory is extremely intriguing. The fact is that Obama’s bloodline is truly laid out, without any gaps, all the way back to Merovech. Believers of this theory commonly believe the Jesus bloodline theory, which states that Jesus, through his daughter, leads directly to the Merovingian Dynasty, and from there to Obama.
It gets MUCH better. From the Merovingian Dynasty, not only is a direct path traceable to Jesus, but all the way back to Adam and Eve, but by a different line: this site has some very thorough databases, even if they might contain some errors, which trace Merovech directly back to High King Priam of Troy (the one from Homer’s Iliad), and from Priam to Judah, son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. And from Abraham to Adam.
Some believers of this conspiracy theory believe that this strengthens the possibility that President Obama is Satan or the Antichrist. In this context, according to the theory, the Priory of Sion (which actually doesn’t exist except in Dan Brown’s imagination – see here, item 6), of which you are sure to have heard, has bribed, cajoled, assassinated minor figures, including JFK, Jr., coerced, threatened, framed, including Ted Kennedy, by means of the Chappaquiddick incident, and blackmailed various political figures throughout the last third of the 20th Century, all in order to set up the Presidential reign of Barack Obama. But why? The Priory of Sion is said to be the official guard of the truth about the Jesus bloodline. Well, they also believe in the Revelation’s depiction of the End Days, in which case, hastening the Antichrist’s reign will hasten the (more or less) happy ending.
This one has a lot in common with the Montauk Project, and I would not have known to include it, had someone not drawn it to my attention. There is a top-secret military Air Force base built under Mount Archuleta, a mesa, northwest of the town of Dulce, New Mexico, which has, since as early as 1969, been conducting genetic research of a horrific nature.
The area around the town is notorious for cattle mutilations, and many of the residents, and conspiracy theorists, believe that extra-terrestrials are frequently present in the area for a very frightening reason. They are working in cooperation with the U. S. government to create a race of hybrid human-animal monsters, for use as weapons in war. This raises the question, are they currently being employed in Iraq or Afghanistan? No sightings have been published.
But the livestock known to have been mutilated since the 1970s are primarily cows, bulls, and horses. This means that the underground facility is creating centaurs, minotaurs, and possibly other hybrids. But based on the state of the cattle carcasses that have been found on the sides of highways, and in fields, over the years, these hybrids must be monstrously horrible, gory, stitched together like something out of “Frankenstein.”
The theory states that the base has several levels. No one knows how many, but either the 6th or 7th level is where the very worst, freakish experiments in genetic manipulation and mutation are carried out, primarily by the aliens, as the humans are in charge of the upper half or so of the base. This extra-terrestrial-controlled level is nicknamed “Nightmare Hall.”
The whole base was initiated by the CIA, first as an investigation into the UFO sightings so prevalent in the area. When the CIA discovered that aliens are really here, and mutilating cattle to study them, the CIA brokered a treaty of some sort between them and us, whereby we will work together in peace and learn from each other, at the expense of the poor cattle, and whatever humans are caught up as guinea pigs. The theory claims these are most likely people who will not be missed: vagabonds, street scum, homeless children, etc.
There are plenty of witness accounts and photographs documenting strange lights in the night sky around Dulce, as well as many daytime sightings of the infamous “Black Helicopters” swarming around Mount Archuleta.
The theory dates from the 1980s, and a single source, Paul Bennewitz, who claimed to work at the base as a physicist, until he discovered the horrors of Nightmare Hall. He then resigned, and the CIA did not brainwash him, evidently expecting that no one would believe such a fantastic story. Bennewitz died in 2005. Theorists claim he was quietly assassinated.
It is a fact, however, that the CIA and Air Force conducted an elaborate smear campaign to discredit Bennewitz as a deranged lunatic, and they forced him to go to mental hospitals at least three times. This seems to imply that they are apprehensive about what Bennewitz had to say.
In the late 1980s, Bennewitz provided aerial photographs to New Mexican newspapers of what he claimed was an alien aircraft that crashed near the alleged Dulce Base. An alien craft was never found at the suspected crash site.
Investigators did find evidence that something crashed in the area, but they were never able, or never chose, to confirm the story by Bennewitz. The photos he took have notes attached to them in his handwriting, claiming that certain objects in the photos are extra-terrestrial beings, and aircraft wreckage. These objects are difficult to view and do not provide enough detail to verify or deny the story.
In 1947, President Harry Truman supposedly gave an order for a secret committee of world-renowned scientists, generals, and politicians—12 people—to investigate the Roswell Incident. The committee concluded that the Incident truly was an extra-terrestrial spacecraft, which crash-landed, killing all occupants, typically numbered at 3 or 4.
M-12, for short, suggested an executive order to create a military installation solely to contain and study the aliens and their spacecraft, thus resulting in Area 51. Plenty of images of government correspondence relating directly to this organization are circulating the Internet, including the famous 1947 letter from President Truman, authorizing the CIA to create M-12. Skeptics argue that the letter is utterly forged.
This theory is based primarily on such documentation, all of which may be forged, or non-existent, beginning in 1978. One excerpt:
“The official US Government policy and results of Project Aquarius is [sic] still classified TOP SECRET with no dissemination outside channels and with access restricted to ‘MJ TWELVE.’”
The most convincing evidence, however, believed even by many skeptics to be authentic, is a document currently housed in the National Archives in Washington, D. C., which is headed: “Memorandum for General Twining, from Robert Cutler, Special Assistant to the President, Subject: “NSC/MJ-12 Special Studies Project.” “NSC” stands for National Security Council.
MJ-12 has made it into popular sci-fi culture, including “The X-Files,” and is usually imagined as a round-table discussion of twelve experts in what to do concerning the proof of the existence of extra-terrestrials, primarily how to keep the public in the dark. People accused of being members of MJ-12, at one time or another, include Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Robert Cutler, Omond Solandt, Robert Sarbacher, John von Neumann (directly involved with the Philadelphia Experiment), Karl Compton, General Nathan Twining and Eric Walker.
This theory claims that there are warnings encoded in the Judeo-Christian Bible, which concern future catastrophes, including the assassinations of Lincoln and JFK, 9/11, the end of the world, the identity of the Antichrist, the location from which the Antichrist will rise to prominence, etc.
The code is based on equidistant letters in the Hebrew translation of the Old and the Koine Greek translation of the New Testaments. The most impressive support for it is that the Bible Code was suggested by Sir Isaac Newton himself. He hypothesized the equidistant letters, and attempted to decipher some prophecies using the Hebrew Bible, but had to begin at random places throughout the book. But the letters have proven to be encoded so far apart that Newton could not decipher any meaningful messages.
Newton was not the first. No history of the code has been found prior to Bachya ben Asher, a 1200s Spanish rabbi, who came up with one 4-letter example, which stated the zero point of the Hebrew calendar.
Aside from that example, there are almost no known decryptions of biblical text before the mid-20th Century. Newton gave up, and the theory dwindled until the advent of the supercomputer. Computers can decipher the messages using brute force, and it is a fact that messages exist in random places, using random letter distances, throughout the Bible. Skeptics cannot deny this, but that have denied that the messages mean anything relevant to reality.
The sheer presence of even one of these coded messages seems to prove that the theory is sound, but no good conspiracy theory is ever proved or disproved so easily. There are documented decryptions of very detailed 9/11 prophecies, including phrases such as “twin towers,” “destroyed,” “airplanes,” “two,” “bin Laden,” “al-Qaeda,” “Pentagon,” even “Shanksville,” and the exact date, “11 September 2001.” Rumors that the times, to the minute, of the airplanes’ impact into the WTC are so far unsubstantiated.
But there are similarly detailed decryptions of Lincoln’s and JFK’s assassinations, including Booth and Oswald, respectively, the locations, “gunshot,” “from above,” and even “conspiracy.”
The primary criticism of the Bible Code’s authenticity is the fact that no future events have so far been decrypted, thus leading to an attempted prevention. The argument against this is that no one would have known to look for 9/11 prophecies without knowing it would occur.
But the most damning criticism is the argument that the Bible Code is an excellent example of “information theory,” which states that if a brute force search is performed on a finite grid of letters, sooner or later, it will turn up patterns that spell out information. This was tested on Moby Dick, chosen at random, which succeeded in prophesying the assassinations of both Yitzhak Rabin and Anwar al Sadat.
Believers of the conspiracy theory argue that brute force will turn up information, but that the probability that this information, in so small a space, would be patterned into any meaningful context is just too minute. The Moby Dick example has thus been criticized as not being as detailed as any of the Bible Code decryptions, and this is true.
If the Bible Code is ever proved to be true, believers declare, it will prove the existence of the Judeo-Christian God, as no committee of humans could perform such a literary feat.
This one is based on concrete fact. Tesla did patent and invent a device he called an “electromechanical oscillator.” He hypothesized that, as all material in the Universe possesses a “resonance frequency” unique to itself, this property can be manipulated. His device was meant to produce a mechanical resonance matching that of any object.
The events surrounding this invention are legendary among conspiracy theorists. Tesla built a laboratory at 46 East Houston St., in Manhattan, and one day while experimenting with his mechanical oscillator, he allegedly matched it to the resonance frequency of the building he was in. All the nearby buildings were made of the same materials, mostly brick and wood, and much less sturdy than modern steel and concrete structures. The machine got stuck in the On position, and while he tried to turn it off, the buildings all around 46 E. Houston began to shake, more and more violently, until residents called the police to report an earthquake. Some were near enough to hear the machine and tracked down its bass, vibrating noise to a room, kicked in the door, and found Tesla banging away at the machine with a sledgehammer, frantically trying to destroy it. He succeeded just as they reached him, the noise stopped, the shaking stopped, and the buildings stilled.
The machine had yet to cause damage to any of them, but Tesla wrote letters to various business interests declaring that had he left it on for another minute or so, the walls would have started to crack, and the buildings would have collapsed.
This anecdote may not be true. Tesla claims it to be in writings, but skeptics doubt whether he was telling the truth, or whether the writings are forgeries. This conspiracy theory became so prominent that it made it onto an episode of “Mythbusters.” The machine was built according to Tesla’s specifications, switched on and used to try to bring down a bridge. The mechanical resonance theory proved true: an “I” beam began to oscillate until it was waving like a pendulum, 16 feet with each oscillation, but the bridge did not appear to weaken or shake violently, and no damage was reported. But the experiment failed to consider the building materials of Tesla’s day.
This theory has a magnificent corroboration in the destruction of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, in 1940. It was filmed and well documented by many witnesses, that on November 7, the Bridge began to wave and sway so violently that it resembled the slithering of a snake. No vibrating sound was heard, and the wind was blamed by scientists for blowing over and under the Bridge at the Bridge’s precise mechanical resonance. What happened is legendary: the film of the Bridge collapsing can be found on YouTube, among other websites. The whole structure snapped apart and plummeted in pieces into Puget Sound. Architects and engineers are taught this lesson around the world, now.
Conspiracy theorists have also questioned whether the Mythbusters show designed the device correctly. The fact that no one is busy building the device and using it for the purpose of terrorism is cause to believe that although the patent exists, and there are schematics available for free on the Internet, the U. S. government must have hoarded Tesla’s invention at his death, when the FBI broke into his NY apartment and stole all his work from his safe. This is true, and the FBI still refuses to publish any of these works. The electromechanical oscillator is sure to be among them.
This apparently started as Republican/Conservative petulance, once it appeared that Obama might actually win the Presidency. Thus, it came across as a smear campaign trying to discredit him. But now that he is in the Oval Office for the duration, the theory still hasn’t gone away, and even former skeptics and Independent Party members have joined the accusation that Obama is not a natural-born American citizen.
The Constitution is clear that no one may be elected President of the United States America who is not born in one of those states. Obama’s birth is officially credited as occurring at Kapi’olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. This qualifies as a natural born citizen, but the theory claims that his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, a white woman from Wichita, Kansas, was actually born to a British father, who was not an American citizen, and that her birth occurred somewhere in eastern, sub-Saharan Africa, probably Kenya, Tanzania, or South Africa.
S. Ann Dunham never applied for American citizenship, the theory continues, but grew up in Kansas, California, Texas, and other places, gave birth to Obama in either Kenya or Tanzania, and died in Honolulu, in 1995. If these details of her birth, and Obama’s birth, are true, he is not a natural-born American citizen. Dunham had a Ph.D. in Anthropology, and characteristically traveled the world studying various cultures.
The most convincing evidence that there is, at least, something worth investigating on this subject is the absence of Obama’s true, official birth certificate. A copy of it should be on file in the Honolulu hospital, another via Honolulu’s City Hall. There should certainly be a third copy somewhere in Washington, D. C., but the theory states that the only one that has turned up is currently in the Honolulu hospital, and is a forgery. It is true that the other two hardcopies, and any others that should be floating around, are nowhere to be found. It is easy to Google an image of it, but the theory claims these images are all copies of the one in the Honolulu hospital.
Virtually all Roman Catholic conspiracy theories connect to the Vatican’s Secret Archives. The archives are housed in a section of the Vatican Library, adjacent to the Vatican Museum, at the northern boundary of Vatican City. The Archives have their own website, operated by the Vatican, which states that the documents housed inside pertain to such boring matters as papal expenditure accounts, state correspondence, individual correspondence, including original letters written by Michelangelo Buonarroti to Pope Julius II and other Catholic authorities.
The conspiracy theory, however, is interested in more mysterious matters. Given that the Archives are estimated to house 53 miles of books, there are sure to be some intriguing finds inside. But why would an institution as powerful as the Roman Catholic Church feel the need to keep these documents secret? Are they afraid of what might happen if the public should learn of certain information? That is what the conspiracy theorists believe.
Some of the more broadly sweeping theories claim documentation of the Jesus bloodline; secular historical proof of Jesus’s existence, in the form of correspondence between Saint Paul and Emperor Nero; secular historical proof via the same correspondence that Jesus did not exist; contemporary depictions of Jesus (that is to say, formal portraits of Jesus made by people who actually saw and depicted him in real life, whereas the earliest known depictions of Jesus, which clearly intended to represent him directly, date from the late 2nd Century AD).
This line of the theory can go on ad infinitum, and has accused the Church of hiding proof in the Archives of the existence of various Biblical relics, either the relics themselves, or reliable documentation as to their whereabouts, including the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, the True Cross, the truth about the Shroud of Turin, and many others.
Absolutely no one is allowed into the Archives, not even Cardinals. It is not well explained, on the Archives’ website, whether the Pope is allowed to go in or not. Anyone who wants to see a document from the Archives must ask in advance, and thus, must know in advance if such a document even exists. The only four people on earth known to have access to the Archives are Cardinals Raffaele Farina (the Archivist, or Librarian), Jorge Maria Mejia and Luigi Poggi (Archivists Emeriti), and Prefect of the Secret Archives Sergio Pagano. There is only one entrance into the Archives: from the main library, go by way of Porta Angelica, through Porta di Santa Anna. The Vatican Swiss Guard patrols this entrance at all times. It should be noted that contrary to the beliefs of those who hold to this theory, the documents in the Vatican archives which relate to Popes who reigned 75 years earlier are made available to the public. This most recently happened in 2006 when Pope Benedict XVI gave permission for the viewing of all documents relating to the reign of Pope Pius XI. This theory is likely to gain in popularity with the release of yet another completely erroneous film based on the book Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.
Mount Yamantaw is, at 5,381 feet, the tallest mountain in Russia’s southern Ural range. The U. S. government is on record as stating that it strongly believes in the existence of a massive stockpile of nuclear weapons hidden in this mountain. The Russians have built two “closed cities,” or permanent military installations with civilian populations, all of which are employed in work of a nuclear nature (similar to the Manhattan Project), just southeast of the mountain. You can find all of this on Google Earth.
The cities are named Beloretsk-15 and 16, and are believed to be built on top of a massive underground facility, which houses thousands of nuclear warheads. Russia has been questioned about this repeatedly by the U. S. government, and its explanations are absurdly inconsistent. Russia has, in various instances, said that it is a mining site, a repository for Russian treasures, a food storage area, and a bunker for leaders in case of nuclear war. Any of these is believable. Why haven’t they picked one and stuck to it?
On a diplomatic trip to Russia, former Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA) asked about the mountain. “I went to Moscow and spoke with the deputy interior minister who was in charge of mining. I asked him if there was any mining activity there. He just shook his head and said he had never heard of it. So I mentioned the other name the Russians use for it: Mezhgorye. He said he hadn’t heard of that either. Then he sent an aide out to check. Twenty minutes later, the aide came back, visibly shaken. He said they couldn’t say anything about it.”
The conspiracy theory goes further, claiming that not only is the mountain hiding a stockpile of nukes, but that some or all of these nukes are connected to a gigantic supercomputer which cannot be turned off or altered in any way by anyone. The computer is programmed to detonate the nukes if it detects any nuclear warhead striking anywhere in Russia. These nukes have been surrounded by an extremely poisonous isotope of cobalt, rendering them a colossal “dirty bomb.”
The radioactive cloud would encircle Earth and blanket all land vegetation with radioactive cobalt, which would immediately kill all plant life, without which all animal life would die within a few months. This is popularly known as “the Doomsday Device.” If you’ve seen the film “Dr. Strangelove,” you’re familiar with it.
The scariest part of this theory is that the blanketing of any plant life with radioactive cobalt would truly kill the plant life, in which case it is feasible for the human race to destroy all land life. It is not known what would happen to ocean life, but it would probably be fairly unaffected. This does not mean that the human race can destroy the world. Earth will still be here. And given enough time, life would resume.
But the Doomsday Device is feasible, very easy, in fact, to manufacture.
It is not known whether Tesla’s most infamous invention has ever been invented. But the FBI may have the ability to invent it at anytime. Tesla believed strongly that it would do what he said. In 1957, the National Inventors Council did, in fact, issue a request for a death ray to be invented, for use as a weapon. Tesla was already dead (maybe), but he had made outrageous claims about the abilities of such a weapon. He claimed that the idea of one is not so far-fetched, as it is merely a matter of controlling a bolt of lightning.
Tesla wrote a letter, dated 29 November 1934, to J. P. Morgan’s son, seeking financial backing for a revolutionary invention.
“I have made recent discoveries of inestimable value.…The flying machine has completely demoralized the world, so much that in some cities, as London and Paris, people are in mortal fear from aerial bombing. The new means I have perfected afford absolute protection against this and other forms of attack. … These new discoveries, which I have carried out experimentally on a limited scale, have created a profound impression. One of the most pressing problems seems to be the protection of London and I am writing to some influential friends in England hoping that my plan will be adopted without delay. The Russians are very anxious to render their borders safe against Japanese invasion and I have made them a proposal which is being seriously considered.”
Elsewhere, he wrote, “My invention requires a large plant, but once it is established it will be possible to destroy anything, men or machines, approaching within a radius of 200 miles. It will, so to speak, provide a wall of power offering an insuperable obstacle against any effective aggression.”
Unfortunately, no national military bought his plan. It seemed too much like science fiction. It still seems so, really, and became a popular sci-fi comic book plot device.
Tesla continued working on the invention to his death, upon which the FBI broke into his home and stole all his documents from his safe. They couldn’t find his key, so they had to blowtorch the door off. Someone must have been very interested in the papers inside. These papers are known to have contained schematics for inventions, patents, etc., as this was Tesla’s work procedure.
J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI head at the time, is on record as saying, “that Serb is the most dangerous genius I’ve ever heard of.”
The FBI refuses to release any of Tesla’s papers to the public. But many conspiracy theorists believe that his death ray has already been invented and is currently being implemented.
On another list of conspiracy theories, one entry is of HAARP. This is claimed by many to be a particle beam weapon, using the same technology Tesla dreamed up and wrote about. The theorists even argue that HAARP caused the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, either by accident, or to hide something.
This one is becoming very popular via the Internet, and certainly seems alarming. There have been several TV programs devoted to it, and all the paranoia centers around “the Mayan Long Count Calendar.” This calendar is one of the most accurate ever devised, much more accurate than the Julian calendar, which all of Europe used until 1582. The Julian was revised to account for Leap Years, and became the Gregorian calendar, which most of the world uses today.
The Mayan Long Count, however, was invented, or so scholars believe, on August 11, 3114 BC, in Gregorian terms. It is based on the movement of the earth and sun, relative to the Milky Way galaxy. Thus it is extremely accurate. A very impressive feat, too. But according to it, we are currently living in the fourth age. And the numbers of the Long Count calendar are about to reset. They will do so on December 21, 2012, the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.
The previous age ended on a long count of 12.19.19.17.19. Another 12.19.19.17.19 will occur on December 20, 2012, followed by the start of the fourteenth b’ak’tun, 13.0.0.0.0, on December 21, 2012. Conspiracy theorists are burning up the Internet claiming that this means the world will end. Their proof lies in the “Popol Vuh,” a Mayan book which compiles creation accounts known to the K’iche’ Maya people, and which states that this fourth age is the gods’ first successful attempt to create humans, after 3 failed attempts. Thus, the world as the Mayans viewed it, and as we live in it, is perfect, and there need not be a fifth age.
Given that they based their calendar on geometry involving the sun and the Milky Way, they must have seen some catastrophic end coming for Earth. This means an asteroid or meteor or comet, which is destined to strike Earth and wipe everything out on December 21, 2012. This is no immature claim. NASA is grossly outmatched by the night sky. All the foreign bodies floating around out there that have been sighted have been confirmed as no threat. But NASA calculates this is as a percentage so small, compared to the rest which we don’t know about, that the percentage is practically meaningless. It is 10 to an extremely negative exponent. There are many potential Earth impactors out there that no one has seen or knows about. Any one of them could have our name on it.
Or what about a massive solar flare? NASA expects a solar maximum from 2010 to 2012, a time during which the sun’s activity will be very busy. Flares are absolutely impossible to anticipate. They are bursts of light and heat, and thus cannot be seen before they arrive, because they travel at the speed of light. We will have no warning until we are walking outside and the sky explodes into brilliant light. And then Earth and everything on it and in it will be incinerated. Gamma radiation will penetrate to a mile in the crust and irradiate anything trying to hide.
There is also a theory amongst fundamentalist Christians which combines the Mayan Long Count with the “rapture”. According to the rapture theory (invented in the 1700s by protestant fundamentalist Cotton Matther who started the Salem witch trial hysteria), Christians are spared the Tribulation. But the Tribulation will last for 7 years, after half of which the Antichrist will rise to absolute power, and 3.5 years later, Jesus will return with all the dead who died in him, and the battle of Armageddon begins.
This means that if the Mayan Long Count is correct, then December 21, 2012 marks the beginning of the first or second half of the Tribulation. If it is the first, then anyone who believes he or she will be raptured up to heaven has a little more than 3 years left to pack a suitcase. If, however, December 21, 2012 marks the beginning of the second half of the Tribulation, when God wreaks all the really terrible stuff upon the earth, then those, who believe they will be raptured, will be raptured less than three months from the time this list is posted.