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Mods know too much about the [Conspiracy Theories] thread

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Posts

  • Capt HowdyCapt Howdy Registered User regular
    Funny part was he thought Clinton was directing Air America in Viet Nam.

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  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    https://ocsaledger.com/5108/op-ed/have-you-seen-a-bird-since-the-shutdown/

    Have you seen a bird since the government shutdown? No, because the CIA avian surveillance network is considered nonessential and birds aren't real.

  • RchanenRchanen Registered User regular
    Hevach wrote: »
    https://ocsaledger.com/5108/op-ed/have-you-seen-a-bird-since-the-shutdown/

    Have you seen a bird since the government shutdown? No, because the CIA avian surveillance network is considered nonessential and birds aren't real.

    I thought the bird program was on the cheep.

  • MegafrostMegafrost Leader of the Decepticons Registered User regular
    Rchanen wrote: »
    Hevach wrote: »
    https://ocsaledger.com/5108/op-ed/have-you-seen-a-bird-since-the-shutdown/

    Have you seen a bird since the government shutdown? No, because the CIA avian surveillance network is considered nonessential and birds aren't real.

    I thought the bird program was on the cheep.

    Only because the government won't pay the bill.

  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    Rchanen wrote: »
    Hevach wrote: »
    https://ocsaledger.com/5108/op-ed/have-you-seen-a-bird-since-the-shutdown/

    Have you seen a bird since the government shutdown? No, because the CIA avian surveillance network is considered nonessential and birds aren't real.

    I thought the bird program was on the cheep.
    This is certain to ruffle a lot of feathers. We should be watching this like a hawk.

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  • Mild ConfusionMild Confusion Smash All Things Registered User regular
    I am not emused by these puns. They are very hawkward. But toucan play that game. We should tweet this fowl play.

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  • davidsdurionsdavidsdurions Your Trusty Meatshield Panhandle NebraskaRegistered User regular
    Bunch of silly geese in this thread.

  • TastyfishTastyfish Registered User regular
    edited January 2019
    Hahnsoo1 wrote: »
    Rchanen wrote: »
    Hevach wrote: »
    https://ocsaledger.com/5108/op-ed/have-you-seen-a-bird-since-the-shutdown/

    Have you seen a bird since the government shutdown? No, because the CIA avian surveillance network is considered nonessential and birds aren't real.

    I thought the bird program was on the cheep.
    This is certain to ruffle a lot of feathers. We should be watching this like a hawk.

    Robin us of our natural heritpartridge.

    [Edit]Ok, that last one was a reachbird

    Tastyfish on
  • FryFry Registered User regular
    Tastyfish wrote: »
    Hahnsoo1 wrote: »
    Rchanen wrote: »
    Hevach wrote: »
    https://ocsaledger.com/5108/op-ed/have-you-seen-a-bird-since-the-shutdown/

    Have you seen a bird since the government shutdown? No, because the CIA avian surveillance network is considered nonessential and birds aren't real.

    I thought the bird program was on the cheep.
    This is certain to ruffle a lot of feathers. We should be watching this like a hawk.

    Robin us of our natural heritpartridge.

    [Edit]Ok, that last one was a reachbird

    Don't chicken out, we can still tern this around!

  • autono-wally, erotibot300autono-wally, erotibot300 love machine Registered User regular
    These puns are hard to swallow

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  • I ZimbraI Zimbra Worst song, played on ugliest guitar Registered User regular
    These puns are hard to swallow

    They're really gut wren-ching.

  • ZibblsnrtZibblsnrt Registered User regular
    Youtube's modifying that blackbox witchery known as their recommendation algorithms with the goal of sidelining the conspiracy theorist stuff that shows up almost regardless of what you try to watch these days (unless you're actively watching/subscribing to those in the first place).

    They specifically mention quack medicine videos, flat-Earthers and 9/11 truthers as the types of videos that will be harder to find.

    I like the idea of maybe one day being able to look at astrophotography videos without Youtube assuming I don't believe telescopes exist..

  • JusticeforPlutoJusticeforPluto Registered User regular
    I saw a bird today.

  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    I saw a bird today.

    CIA's jumping the gun there.

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  • lazegamerlazegamer The magnanimous cyberspaceRegistered User regular
    Zibblsnrt wrote: »
    Youtube's modifying that blackbox witchery known as their recommendation algorithms with the goal of sidelining the conspiracy theorist stuff that shows up almost regardless of what you try to watch these days (unless you're actively watching/subscribing to those in the first place).

    They specifically mention quack medicine videos, flat-Earthers and 9/11 truthers as the types of videos that will be harder to find.

    I like the idea of maybe one day being able to look at astrophotography videos without Youtube assuming I don't believe telescopes exist..

    I don't have a lot of faith in Google's (or anyone else's) ability to create machine learning models that accurately identify whether a video is a conspiracy video or a takedown of a conspiracy theory. Nevermind other controversial topics that might get flagged by volunteers. I guess its worth trying, but I expect that a lot of babies are going out with the bathwater.

    I would download a car.
  • mrondeaumrondeau Montréal, CanadaRegistered User regular
    I expect that it would be possible to detect common conspiracy theories. They should have a large number of distinguishing features. The main false positives would be videos debunking those theory.

    This would not make the problem disappear, but it should reduce the volume significantly.

  • ArbitraryDescriptorArbitraryDescriptor changed Registered User regular
    mrondeau wrote: »
    I expect that it would be possible to detect common conspiracy theories. They should have a large number of distinguishing features. The main false positives would be videos debunking those theory.

    This would not make the problem disappear, but it should reduce the volume significantly.

    Even those wouldn't matter. Their goal here is to not recommend "conspiracy" content, not remove it.

    If you're watching space videos, a Flat Earth debunking video isn't any more relevant than one supporting it.

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    So what qualifies as a "conspiracy theory," exactly? Somehow I doubt it's going to flag white supremacists peddling racist lies and MRAs talking about the feminist war on culture.

  • DoodmannDoodmann Registered User regular
    Zibblsnrt wrote: »
    Youtube's modifying that blackbox witchery known as their recommendation algorithms with the goal of sidelining the conspiracy theorist stuff that shows up almost regardless of what you try to watch these days (unless you're actively watching/subscribing to those in the first place).

    They specifically mention quack medicine videos, flat-Earthers and 9/11 truthers as the types of videos that will be harder to find.

    I like the idea of maybe one day being able to look at astrophotography videos without Youtube assuming I don't believe telescopes exist..

    By linking to this article your feed will now be flooded with Jordan Peterson videos. I'm sorry.

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  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    Doodmann wrote: »
    Zibblsnrt wrote: »
    Youtube's modifying that blackbox witchery known as their recommendation algorithms with the goal of sidelining the conspiracy theorist stuff that shows up almost regardless of what you try to watch these days (unless you're actively watching/subscribing to those in the first place).

    They specifically mention quack medicine videos, flat-Earthers and 9/11 truthers as the types of videos that will be harder to find.

    I like the idea of maybe one day being able to look at astrophotography videos without Youtube assuming I don't believe telescopes exist..

    By linking to this article your feed will now be flooded with Jordan Peterson videos. I'm sorry.

    You get Jordan Peterson videos recommended after listening to electronic soundscapes. He's ubiquitous.

  • CelestialBadgerCelestialBadger Registered User regular
    The mighty algorithm needs to figure out what is political and hate speech and what is positive content, and not link them. If you search one Jordan Peterson video, you should *probably* see more (free speech etc), but if you watch a My Little Pony episode you should see cute cartoon recs not hateful political screeds.

  • NitsuaNitsua Gloucester, VARegistered User regular
    A very popular conspiracy theory seems to be gaining ground lately, but I can't find any news stories on this from reputable outlets.

    Seems that, for some reason, a group of lawyers have gotten the federal government to convene a grand jury over the 9/11 WTC collapse being a controlled demolition. I keep seeing it on Facebook being espoused by people that, until they stated this, I respect their opinions and see them as level headed. Tons of links, but all of them are on conspiracy sites. They all seem to point to this YouTube video:
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=emqrI1I1tNY

    I haven't seen it stated here yet and you all seem to be pretty knowledgeable about all of this. Any truth to this at all?

  • mrondeaumrondeau Montréal, CanadaRegistered User regular
    Nitsua wrote: »
    A very popular conspiracy theory seems to be gaining ground lately, but I can't find any news stories on this from reputable outlets.

    Seems that, for some reason, a group of lawyers have gotten the federal government to convene a grand jury over the 9/11 WTC collapse being a controlled demolition. I keep seeing it on Facebook being espoused by people that, until they stated this, I respect their opinions and see them as level headed. Tons of links, but all of them are on conspiracy sites. They all seem to point to this YouTube video:
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=emqrI1I1tNY

    I haven't seen it stated here yet and you all seem to be pretty knowledgeable about all of this. Any truth to this at all?

    No.

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    All you have to do is look at the Youtube account's self-bio page, and then look at the titles of the other videos it has uploaded, and if you don't experience an ever-increasing sensation of "oh... oh... this account is bad" then you've probably already drank too much of the kool-aid.

  • NitsuaNitsua Gloucester, VARegistered User regular
    That's what I thought. This guy was acting like it was some revelation and finally the truth was being heard. After my own search didn't pull up major news sites talking about this, and they'll talk about anything with little provocation, I just wanted to be sure.

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    edited January 2019
    9/11 conspiracy theories are all houses of cards, though. They spiral into all sorts of crazy explanations for what really happened and who really did it, but they start with the same initial belief: that there's no way a plane crash could actually bring the building down. Once you understand that jet fuel doesn't have to melt steel beams because steel loses like 90% of its structural integrity when heated to a temperature lower than that caused by exposure to burning jet fuel, well...

    DarkPrimus on
  • chrisnlchrisnl Registered User regular
    I've always found this video pretty persuasive in debunking any sort of jet fuel vs steel beams theory.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzF1KySHmUA

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  • Caulk Bite 6Caulk Bite 6 One of the multitude of Dans infesting this place Registered User regular
    Finding out about annealing was huge, for me. Just wish I knew back when i had a smug conspiracy loving coworker.

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  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    9/11 was unprecedented in just so many ways, it's hard to wrap your head around it as anything except a unique anomaly in the grand scheme of the universe.

    It was the first time a plane was hijacked with the intention of destroying it. Previously hijackings were to divert, rob, or ransom the plane and passengers, wholesale slaughter was unheard of, let alone crashing into buildings.

    It was by a huge margin the largest plane to ever hit a building. The previous largest was a bomber that hit the Empire State Building. That plane's maximum takeoff weight (and it was flying with no payload and low fuel) was far lower than just the fuel in the 9/11 planes.

    It was the most aggressive accelerant fueled high rise fire ever, and the first major one in that specific type of "tube-in-tube" building.

    It was the biggest total loss the insurance industry ever had to deal with outside of natural disasters and turned out to be a pretty sour deal for both insurer and insured.

    Financially, politically, militarily, economically, literally no part of 9/11 had a point of reference. There's conspiracy theories about everything, but 9/11 is uniquely fertile ground (another way it was unprecedented).

  • Kipling217Kipling217 Registered User regular
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    9/11 conspiracy theories are all houses of cards, though. They spiral into all sorts of crazy explanations for what really happened and who really did it, but they all spiral out of some of the same initial belief: that there's no way a plane crash could actually bring the building down. Once you understand that jet fuel doesn't have to melt steel beams because steel loses like 90% of its structural integrity when heated to a temperature lower than that caused by exposure to burning jet fuel, well...

    This one claim was the cause of so much frustration to me in the early aughts.

    How do you explain Basic Molecular physics to people that refuse to learn how to spell Molecular(or even use auto correct to spell it right). Like the concept that heating up a piece of iron makes it so that you can bend it much easier then if it was cold is beyond these people.

    If it is one thing that I like about these last few years is that its become much more acceptable to tell these people to fuck off. Early aughts was the time where you had to debate them... with actual facts against their insane Troll Logic. And they would always win because its not about the Facts, its about who can keep talking the longest and Insane Trolls love to hear themselves talk.

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  • ZibblsnrtZibblsnrt Registered User regular
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    All you have to do is look at the Youtube account's self-bio page, and then look at the titles of the other videos it has uploaded, and if you don't experience an ever-increasing sensation of "oh... oh... this account is bad" then you've probably already drank too much of the kool-aid.

    Just skimming his videos' titles, we've got 9/11 trutherism, deep state stuff, Qanon stuff, The Jews(tm), Agenda 21 conspiracies, electric universe kookery - the last three in the same video! - Bart Sibrel being taken seriously, Pizzagate, "the Vatican NWO," and oh God I'm only four months into his updates-every-couple-of-days archive and these keep going by the score but I can't stop exploring the scope of the trainwreck.

    I dunno about you guys, but I'm thinking maybe we should approach this gentleman's statements about the world with a certain amount of measured skepticism.

    (Your suggestion to look at a Youtuber's other video titles is pretty important, anyway. If someone's making Huge Claims in a video and is a prolific uploader you can just about always tell what kind of person they are by the rest of their offerings.)

  • RedTideRedTide Registered User regular
    Kipling217 wrote: »
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    9/11 conspiracy theories are all houses of cards, though. They spiral into all sorts of crazy explanations for what really happened and who really did it, but they all spiral out of some of the same initial belief: that there's no way a plane crash could actually bring the building down. Once you understand that jet fuel doesn't have to melt steel beams because steel loses like 90% of its structural integrity when heated to a temperature lower than that caused by exposure to burning jet fuel, well...

    This one claim was the cause of so much frustration to me in the early aughts.

    How do you explain Basic Molecular physics to people that refuse to learn how to spell Molecular(or even use auto correct to spell it right). Like the concept that heating up a piece of iron makes it so that you can bend it much easier then if it was cold is beyond these people.

    If it is one thing that I like about these last few years is that its become much more acceptable to tell these people to fuck off. Early aughts was the time where you had to debate them... with actual facts against their insane Troll Logic. And they would always win because its not about the Facts, its about who can keep talking the longest and Insane Trolls love to hear themselves talk.

    Steel like many things also progressively expands as heated. Fire codes which call for things like fire cuts in roof joists in lightweight steel structures, take this property into consideration when buildings are being engineered.

    In large structures, concrete and materials like spray insulation offer steel a resistance to fire that mitigates some of the danger from having very exactly engineered buildings have large fires therein. Sprinklers offer further detection by curbing the intensity of the fire.

    When the fire is preceded by a huge fuck off trauma that damages concrete, severs the sprinkler standpipe and introduces a fire load that the building simply was not engineered for... Yeah that building may fall down quickly.

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  • Mild ConfusionMild Confusion Smash All Things Registered User regular
    Speaking of Qanon, they are losing their fucking minds on Twitter over Trump capitulating on the shutdown.

    Not gonna link it cause fuck em, but it’s on Twitter if you wanna check it out. Gist is that Trump is playing some advanced 12d chess and blah blah other bullshit.

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  • Caulk Bite 6Caulk Bite 6 One of the multitude of Dans infesting this place Registered User regular
    Speaking of Qanon, they are losing their fucking minds on Twitter over Trump capitulating on the shutdown.

    Not gonna link it cause fuck em, but it’s on Twitter if you wanna check it out. Gist is that Trump is playing some advanced 12d chess and blah blah other bullshit.

    If it wasn’t for the (near) fact that all this is probably going to end with someone taking matters into their own hands, like that pizzagate guy, I’d find this a lot funnier than it already is.

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  • Typhoid MannyTyphoid Manny Registered User regular
    chrisnl wrote: »
    I've always found this video pretty persuasive in debunking any sort of jet fuel vs steel beams theory.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzF1KySHmUA

    allow me to go into a little bit more depth with this

    it is 100% true that the temperatures involved when the towers fell down didn't need to be hot enough to melt steel (which for the mild steel used for structural stuff is in the neighborhood of 2500F), but it's also possible that the fires did actually push those temperatures

    when people say that jet fuel can't melt steel beams, generally what they mean is that if you fill a coffee can with jet fuel, light it up and throw a chunk of steel in there, the steel won't melt. this is true, but it's not really an accurate picture of what happens when a fully-fueled 747 crashes into the top half of a very tall building. in each of the towers there was at least one elevator shaft that ran the entire height of the building, which would've allowed an unbelievable amount of air to be pulled up from ground level to feed the fires higher up. under those circumstances it's entirely possible that the burning fuel could in fact get hot enough to liquefy steel

    however! steel doesn't really melt the way we usually think of metals as melting, it kinda half melts half burns, and you get this semi-liquid globby shit rather than completely liquid metal like you'd see with aluminum or copper alloys. this is why when you're welding you need flux or a gas shield to keep the weld from getting porous, and it's also why those photos of puddles of melted metal that truthers use to show that the steel was melted are almost certainly not steel

    this doesn't really have any bearing on anything, i'm just a big ol' nerd about ferrous metallurgy

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  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    zepherin wrote: »
    And here is where I mention I know very little about pool maintenance, outside of “chlorine goes in... somewhere”.

    The water, silly.

    One tablet per 1,000 gallons; just make sure you leave them in their extended-release wrappers.

    Yes, the water, but I guess I thought there was a specific point/mechanism in the filtration system or what have you.

    I have never been in the position to care for a pool, mine or someone else’s.

    Yeah Chlorine pools are way simpler than salt water. That being said I saw a life guard accidentally blast himself full in the face with Chlorine gas and puke his guts up when my cousin and myself were setting up the pool for a swim meet. My Cousin had an ambulance on the way but he recovered and didn't want to go, so we called them off.

    Also you do need to clean or change the water at times for pools... I was at a hotel resort where they just kept making the water more chlorinated instead of filtering it and it essentially gave me burn damage on my dick that took weeks to heal.

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  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    Most of those pictures are just fire, distorted something - personal digital cameras and cheap film cameras weren't great, better film pictures weren't always well digitized, and lots of pictures have gotten copied and resaved so many times that artifacts have killed fine details. Many of the molten steel pictures can be matched with nearby or older copies of the same to show plain fire instead.

  • chrisnlchrisnl Registered User regular
    Honk wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    And here is where I mention I know very little about pool maintenance, outside of “chlorine goes in... somewhere”.

    The water, silly.

    One tablet per 1,000 gallons; just make sure you leave them in their extended-release wrappers.

    Yes, the water, but I guess I thought there was a specific point/mechanism in the filtration system or what have you.

    I have never been in the position to care for a pool, mine or someone else’s.

    Yeah Chlorine pools are way simpler than salt water. That being said I saw a life guard accidentally blast himself full in the face with Chlorine gas and puke his guts up when my cousin and myself were setting up the pool for a swim meet. My Cousin had an ambulance on the way but he recovered and didn't want to go, so we called them off.

    Also you do need to clean or change the water at times for pools... I was at a hotel resort where they just kept making the water more chlorinated instead of filtering it and it essentially gave me burn damage on my dick that took weeks to heal.

    Just another pool tidbit to add onto this, you may have noticed that some pool areas have much stronger chlorine smells than others. What this usually means is that large amounts of the chlorine has been reacting in order to keep the pool relatively clean. What has that chlorine been reacting to? Probably urine. So yeah, public pools especially have this issue, as apparently people think it's fine to pee in the pool. A private pool where people don't do that? A lot less likely to end up over-chlorinated.

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  • chrisnlchrisnl Registered User regular
    Is he looking directly at the security cameras? Why would he do that?

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This discussion has been closed.