Popular conspiracy theories the latest evidence and thinking

 Conspiracy Theories You can believe

Warning! This entry contains some information that will be offensive to some readers.  

This entry was prompted by recent experiences in hearing, reading, and scrolling past the claims, questions, and shouts, of people on many social media platforms.  These entries, posts, reels, and statements have rambled forth from folks across the planets, however, most of them are promoted by U.S. citizens.  The 4 theories highlighted here are popular and possible and that is the nature of most conspiracy theories.  Are they true?  That’s up to you to decide.  Some of these are “historic”… coming from times in the past and some are current.   Some are far more serious for many people than others.  Okay…let’s get started.

1. A Small Group of People Conspire to Make Most of the Decisions About How our World Should be Ruled

This “conspiracy” has always been confusing as people claim it as something that’s a dark mystery.  Any reading of recorded history tells us civilization—the masses—have always been ruled by a small minority of individuals be they known as kings, emperors, popes, dictators etc. and these people have almost always either been related by blood or by some other means.  Why do millions of Catholics stay away from eating meat on Fridays during lent?  A small group of people secreted away in a room decided that was the way to prepare for Easter.  Did the masses of Catholics know what was being decided?  Was their a vote on the fish thing?  Personally many of us might have voted to stop eating onions or Hostess cupcakes, or maybe beef jerky?  Now driving through for a Big Mac can get you an eternal date with the prince of darkness?  If you believe this you are not alone, however, consider this.  Some of the people in the No Meat” group probably talked about this with some of the fish market folks prior to the meeting so it seems to be reasonable to think that there are groups of people meeting to talk about important things  that will change some lives without most of us knowing about it.  In most of our families people are making decisions that will impact our lives in big ways and we don’t know it.  Most of the humans on the planet  were probably not planned by a committee and some of these people have had a great impact on the lives of everyone living today.   

So the question is…. (See below)

Conspiracy 2.  The World is Really Flat

Most of modern astronomy astrophysics, and space exploration would seem to say “I don’t think so”, but let’s hold off for a minute and ask the real important question—So What?  Would there be any more hate in the world if it were a triangle? Would we understand how to grow better relationships, stronger family and community ties etc. if the world were an equilateral  parallelogram?At one point some significant portion of people claimed that the sun was a god racing a chariot of fire across the sky. Did it make it any less warm and where did the chariot park at night?  There is a lot of stuff on the planet that needs to be disposed of.  There are a lot of greedy people involved in Waste Management.   It would seem that some of these people would be charging  the rest of us to put this trash into a boat or onto a ship and hauling it to the edge to throw out—right? And if not can someone point out the edge because I have a half dozen amazon boxes every month and some potato peels that have to go!

True or false?  (See below)

3. We really didn’t send people to the moon and land there.

Again… science says so, however let’s look at a few things those who disagree bring to the table.  We didn’t have the technology to relay audio/video from the moon to the Earth.  Would someone born in 1890 believe that they could step in a metal tube, sit in a chair, and get from Chicago to Los Angeles in about 4 hours?  Would somebody born in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1955 imagine that yesterday they would be speaking  in a joint vocal/audio conversation with someone from canada, someone from Manchester UK, and someone from Denmark?  Less than thirty years ago most people couldn’t dream of that oh yes and not only that it was done virtually free or for fractions  of pennies.  Yes there might have been a delay in the broadcast… so were the Earthlings seeing it live?  Maybe people didn’t walk on the moon, however, aren’t people trying to get there now?  If you doubt it would you be willing to step onto the next scheduled space flight to see where it really goes?  Have you ever known someone who didn’t like veggies as a kid but eats them now?  

What’s the important question here?  (See below)

4. There is a special mechanism built into modern washers and dryers that disintegrates  and disposes of socks but has a limiter than ensures only one sock from each pair is impacted…

Who hasn’t had a sock disappear?  When we had to knit our own and hall them to the river to beat them against a rock, did they vanish?  Do socks either those in modern times and those in earlier times have the capacity to fly, slide, hop, moonwalk, dance, or belly crawl on their own?  Can they call an Uber  or take the subway?  Yet… every third time you do the laundry are you really shocked when the pair  you are trying to sort doesn’t have a partner.  Didn’t you take them to the washing machine along with those jeans that you hope last just one more time?  Didn’t you toss in a dryer sheet so that you don’t light up like Tesla when you tough the bathroom doorknob on the dry winter  days?  So you were there during the whole process and never saw  the great tube sock transporter kick in and energize  your argyles up to the Enterprise.  

So what’s the Seeking Peace and Joy Conspiracy Here?

Do a small number of people sometimes meet  and have a great influence on your life without you having a say or much control?  The answer is yes  after all two people  in some way got together  or at least their biology did and had a great deal to do with where you started life, what your body might look like, where you might live in your youth and the list goes on and on .. Yep these people  just happened to be your parents and then you can add in your family, your best friends.. etc.. The two actually important questions here (or maybe three) are Now that you’ve been granted this life, how much control over it do you expect and need to be the best self you can be?  How many other people will you need to be independent from and interdependent with? And When will you grow up? … or another words what will you do when the control you think you need is not. The control you think you have?  Trying to take responsibility matching the control you have is difficult however making the effort is important in seeking peace and joy.  

Is the Earth Flat?  No… Human beings by nature  and especially now tend to push things to the extreme.   We have not seen, felt, or experienced the edge.  Is it possible for us to accept the shape of the planet in any given form when we haven’t really tackled the issue of accepting other shapes and forms  of humans?  We judge, we covet, we alter, we put wigs on, and spend time tanning the bodies we are presented with.  Even when we like. Ours we find a lot wrong with other people or we fear them, or we want to be like them.  Why worry about the shape of the planet when we don’t seem to understand the shape of our accountant?  Let’s work on that first shall we?  If we come to a peaceful accepting place with that.. we might find some joy and connection with many shapes and sizes of joyful folks

3. Did we land on the moon?  

We don’t even know where we left our car in the parking lot so judging where someone else is, has, been, or will be, can’t really be something to argue about.  This argument is about trust more than science and the difference between what is happening and what “the government” tells us?  The question we must ask is “who is the government?” And maybe “what will it take for us to trust “them”.  Do we trust (most of the time) drivers to stop at ed lights and stop signs?  The government put those signs there.  When you see a sign saying “bridge out ahead” do you just floor it thinking that’s probably a government conspiracy to keep the next section of road from wearing out?  Maybe in order to find peace and any Joy we all need to figure out what proof  we really need to believe most things and find ways to express that to others so that trust is possible or at least a lot more probable.  If we can’t get to the place where we understand what it takes to trust one another then how can we work on things that are simply good ideas now?  Finding the lines where you can hang on to and say… I trust this…is a very important step in seeking peace and joy…until then ask yourself “did I ever step onto an elevator that I couldn’t see the mechanics of?  Did I ever eat a sandwich I didn’t see someone make?  Did I ever drink a beer I didn’t brew myself?… We can find ways to trust..we do it all the time.

The Washer and dryer “eats socks” You are on your own there… 

Peace and Joy can happen when we find  out what level of control we need to feel secure.  Seeking peace and joy can happen if we choose  the essential questions to ask ourselves and others and then are brave enough to help each other discover what is true for us and them.  If we wish to seek peace and joy it seems we must go places we haven’t been, see things we haven’t seen, agree with some others about what the new experiences were and what they might mean and understand that doing this is worth it.   All of these things seem possible…. 

The sock thing?  Buy only two colors of socks one white and one solid… Then wish your socks well on whatever journey they may be on and while you are doing that accept whatever color and shape your fellow travelers are and wish them well on their journey too. 

How mighty is the pen? It’s fatal.

 The Pen is? Mightier Than Some Swords

So nearly all of us have had the experience of scrambling around to find a pen to quickly sign something or scrawl a number down on a post-it note that we will about half the time find 13 months later wondering “what’s this password for my neighbor’s Netflix account doing in my sock drawer/—and where’s the matching sock for this green and white striped argyle?  But in the process of doing this, the first pen we grab won’t work and instead of walking immediately to the trash and throwing it away..it lives in the pile of stuff on your counter to strike again another day.  

So we find another pen and get thee job done and it’s only slightly stressful, however, we all know that stress kills.  Most heart attacks happen on Mondays and it might not be a coincidence that the added stress of searching for the pen only to have it fail combined with the fact that the pen had the weekend to let the ink dry that last little bit and BAMM!!!

So you say that’s all just random bad luck…well maybe, however, how much do we really know about pens?

Historical accounts vary with regard to where and when pens first became a writing tool for humans.  Most sources say they originated in Ancient Egypt…some say in about 3,000 and others say 5,000 B.C.  How would we know?   Before pens only Cyrus with the tablet carving tools was around to record history or some dude in China could record things so everything was invented in ancient China or Egypt because they were the first to write stuff down. Nonetheless, and None-the -More either these first pens were a strong reed that spread “ink” made of soot and bees wax.  How do we know that?  Well Ancient Chinese symbols showed that there were these soot and bees wax droppings on the lambs wool pocket protectors dating back to the Ming Dynasty.  Okay maybe not… we’re just fooling with chatGPT.   

Okaymoving forward it would appear that these types of devices were used until about 700 A.D. when the “quill” pen came into vogue.  This type of pen is the “feather” type and pen came from a longer word in greek that stood for feather but since ink was hard to come by they shortened it to pen—again just fooling with ChatGPT.  Well it was about 700 and this type of pen (feather) was quite useful.  Swan feathers were the best, however, goose feathers were far easier to come by—Swans are pretty, but they are nasty and don’t give up their feathers easily).  It was in the late 1880’s when a Paton was issued for the instrument we might call a ballpoint today.  Evidence suggests that there were a number of pens like that prior to 1888 where some dude named Lord made his mark.  

Yet, some other thins had to happen to make the pens work better.  There needed to be the evolution  of quicker drying ink as people writing left handed were constantly dragging there hand through the ink and smearing it all over their pages and their puffy sleeves.  

The major advance in pens came late in the 1940’s when the “Bic” pen came into existence. Here was a pen that didn’t require ink wells, would write an estimate of 45,000 words without needed a new one and if you were of a mind to you could draw straight line of over a mile without stopping which one should note makes it even more upsetting when one doesn’t. Write on demand on Monday when you need to get this darn paperwork off your desk while you chug down your second energy drink to get your body up to speed. 

Yet it’s not only the stress that kills.  Year after year about 100 people dieter swallowing pen caps.  Although it adds to the cost of production BIC now manufactures their caps with a hole in them so when swallowed some air can pass through.  Since most major lottery jackpots pay out less than weekly simple math tells us that your chance of dying by the pen are probably at least twice as good as winning the lottery.  

So what does any of this have to do with seeking peace and joy?  

Well journalling is often an activity suggested by therapists and creative writing teachers.  The claims are that it helps to improve or lessen anxiety.  Maybe that’s because if you don’t choke to death on the cap you prove to yourself that you want to and have survived a potentially dangerous event?   Seriously, writing is good  and using your favorite pen can add to the small pleasure of doing that.—unless you try to do that with the world’s largest ballpoint which stands around 18 feet tall and weighs around 180 pounds… Rumor has it they have a giant  being paid slave labor to use that pen to sign all the checks for golf tournaments.  

Of course this is jest, they pay the golfers in tickets they can use to buy those fuzzy dice and huge slinky  toys at the counter before they leave —unless you are the big champ you can buy a CD player for the 24 million tickets you won.  

Ok.. yes if you like the physical motion of writing a pen can unleash the thoughts that will make you feel like you can engage  more fully in life and that is very powerful stuff which can provide you with peace, joy, and a sense of meeting some of the purposes in your life.  What you write can give a message that someone in the future can read and understand how the crazy path of history brought the family to this town etc.   It’s called a legacy and most people want to know that their stroll on this planet had some meaning and if you can’t figure it out..then maybe this writing can provide some clues that the future dwellers can use to figure out why you were here?  For that reason alone pens are very mighty and unless you swallow the cap are a great valuable thing to have because everyone has a story a set of adventures including lessons learned and some triumphs that lift the spirits of people around them.  

So grab a pen or a keyboard  —or use auto-dictate …but read that first… and tell your powerful story..reduce your stress and bring a smile to the face of someone.  Oh and for goodness sake keep the cap out of your mouth if you happen to pull it off the pen.

Either or Rich or poor

 

You may scoff or just ignore

Swear you’ve heard this song before

Hide your soul and slam its door

When the time comes to explore

Make another row your oar

To plant your flag and claim the shore

If seeking cash becomes your chore

Stack it up you’ll still be poor

Rethinking Before the Sand Runs Out

 New facts? Not a Hoax—A reason to Keep Learning!

So just a few days ago some information from a book (from a legitimate publisher) informed this blog that there were approximately 100 million stars in “our galaxy.”  From that number and a pretty good estimate about how long it would take to count to a million this blog put out that it would take around five years to count, not all the stars in the sky, but just the ones in our stellar neighborhood.  But then…. New information was collected and it’s more recent and legitimate.  This information was produced using a new lens (technically a new telescope’s capacity to gather information along with further proof from some space probes.  Is this new telescope more accurate?  Don’t freak out because it is pointed  into space, however, the most correct description of the capabilities  of this spy glass is that it can detect/see something the size of a human hair from about 400 miles away.  So… if this thing worked here on the planet and I’m standing somewhere in western Nebraska, the lawmakers wiping their  backsides near the Golden Dome in des Moines had better keep the shades pulled down.   Okay… so using this new tool the estimate of stars in our galaxy was. Revised and now the number has jumped from 100 million to about 1.3 billion or about 13 times as many.  Well that means counting  would now take about 65years.  What else does it change?

Stars in the Sky vs. sand on the Beach?  

Of course, now that we can see more stars, we can definitely state that there are more stars in the heavens than sand on the beach in fact there seems to be 10,000 stars for every grain of sand even those you find in unmentioned places after you notice an uncomfortable itch.  Oh and although there isn’t as much sand, we shouldn’t ignore it.   In fact, some scientists are starting to become concerned because we are “harvesting” sand and using it to make concrete and some other sand products like glass and computer chips at a rate faster than the Earth can make more sand.  Due to the need to track such things, scientists now have the ability to examine grains of sand and determine when they were formed and where on Earth they originated.  Now that may seem a bit extreme, however, due to the impact of climate factors and weather events the changing impact of less sand is being noticed.   This has led to a more interesting and somewhat shocking discovery.  

Because sand is becoming a more limited resource illegal gathering and sales of sand has become a real. Thing. In fact, there is something that can be named with accuracy a sand mafia .. Yep you read that right Guido … There are cartel like enterprises complete with bribing of local governments —read about this in Scientific American—and it stems primarily from the use of sand to make concrete.   Who uses the most concrete?  Well…. We’re aren’t pointing fingers on the root cause of this grainy grift, but reliable data indicate that China used more concrete for construction between the years of 2011 and 2013 than the U.S. used in the entire 20th century and that  is even when you allow for whatever happened to Jimmy Hoffa.   

So what does all this have to do with Seeking Peace and Joy?  

First, when you get new information is really okay to take a couple minutes and rethink rather than deny.  Second, as time goes by we can develop wisdom and experience that might allow us to see things differently  and with a good deal more clarity.  It doesn’t mean we were stupid before and it doesn’t mean that anyone or everyone who still uses other lenses is stupid or to be shared or laughed at.  Share what you now know and how you learned it and use the way the new information allows you to change to take action remembering that the world around us usually learns more from our example than our opinions.  Also it might be good to understand that we can learn a lot about the universe and the people in it by paying attention to something as big as a star and as small as a grain of sand.  … and so it is with peace and joy.   Moments of Peace can be captured in a single breath and the seeds of joy can be planted with the wink of an eye or a nod, or a quick little smile.  

Oh and beware if someone with a dumbstruck  is riding around your sandbox muttering “here’s and offer you can’t refuse.

Thank Your Lucky Stars

 Count your Lucky Stars

In the last entry the moon was the star…so to speak.. and on earth we have only one moon and in “our solar system”==as if humans can claim ownership over a solar system?  After all, we live here on earth and yet we claim it all?  Isn’t that like living in a shed somewhere  in Eastern Alabama and claiming New York City is yours?  Oh well… back to thanking some stars…. Okay which stars should we thank and how many should we thank just to make sure we get the lucky ones?  After all we wouldn’t want to thank some that really don’t deserve it by mistake you know.  So where to begin?  

Well in “our solar system” there is one star so MR. Sunshine—-thank you.  All in all with the exception of that causing cancer thing you do..we appreciate the fact. That you help all the plants grow, provide pretty much. All the light we get outside, and once we get the whole solar panel thing figured out you might keep us from fighting over  who gets rich from extracting fossil fuels from the ground. 

Now let’s expand a bit to”our galaxy.”  Again we claim to own it as ours and that’s like that’s like a fry cook at McDonald’s claiming to be a chef at the Four Seasons… but forgiving that let’s just move on to the stary night in the Milky Way.   Some estimates say there are a hundred million or so stars in the Milky Way.   Has anybody ever counted? Think about it… If we count 1,2,3,4…. About 1 count per second and do that for 16 hours a day—gotta have time to eat and sleep… it would take about 16 days to count a million.  If that’s accurate and your phone didn’t go off reminding you of your teeth cleaning and causing you to have to start over, it would take just a bit short of five years to count to the 100 million mark.  

So five years from now when you’ve got them all counted how do you choose which ones are lucky?  Oh and let’s say we had some way of picking the lucky ones right when we started counting.  Just because they are lucky for us are they lucky for everybody?  Oh and even if star number 17,345,789  was lucky when we counted it can we guarantee that it is still lucky and deserving of thanks when 89,034,142 comes into view?  How do we know?  Of course, we don’t even want to wonder  about the accuracy of our count when we didn’t clean that little piece of a fire fly that drifted onto our lens and might have been counted sometime in the third year?  

So where does that leave us if we want to thank our lucky stars?  Well…here’s a proposition related to seeking peace and joy.  Let’s accept that each of these stars is providing us something to be curious about and that is a fortunate thing—so say thanks for that.  Let’s say some of these stars “fall” and they aren’t really stars… but we call them that and these falling stars give us something to tie a wish to and keep our spirits up so… thanks for that.  Ancient mariners (no not really old Seattle baseball players) used groups of these. Stars to navigate the. Planet and some did it better than others didn’t they mr. Columbus?   Nonetheless… we used them to get from here to there…so thanks for that.  So you see there are a lot of reasons to be thankful for almost any star might be helpful for something at some time or another and being ready to say thanks seems like a reasonable stance.  Oh.. and when we think of it aren’t a lot of people sort of like stars…you know providing a little help in unexpected ways at somewhat unexpected times.  Hasn’t someone said “hey your shoe is untied.”  Hasn’t somebody pointed to your tire and said… wow that looks like it might be flat?”  Do your servers ever say.. “careful that’s hot” when they bring your food out?   You see… our lucky stars/people  might be all around and since there are so. Many of them let’s start counting… 1..2..3… see you in 2029?

Another Full Moon? Only One?

 Is the sky the Limit? (When it comes to the Moon?

For all of recorded history even some we didn’t record and post to “Tick-Tock” (not spelled that way  I know  or YouTube or as a reel on the Gram, humans have been gazing into the night sky and particularly at the Moon.  We “Earthlings” have sent some people up there to get some rocks, take a modified golf cart for a spin, and, of course smack a few chip shots.  Oh, and let’s not forget posing for MTV which no longer shows music videos which again is a little odd since “Music” and Video” are two of the words “MTV” stands for.  However, let’s not get all wound up about that since the cereal Grape Nuts has been around longer than MTV and it has never had grapes or nuts in it.  

Okay Back to the Moon

…and that’s exactly where it seems we want to send people and a whole lot of stuff because from there we think we can get to Mars.  That could be since two of the richest persons on Earth have. Decided to spend money and get a little more from the government of the U.S. to work toward that.It is sort of a cool idea and since the U.S. is racing china to get back to the moon first it will probably happen, yet recent history and attempts have shown us it”ain’t easy pal.”   The unmanned or “un-pronoun—ed “ lander finding the moon tipped over because it sort of landed with one foot in a hole and since we didn’t build it like one of those clowns you can punch and it never falls down there it sits like the brand new bike somebody didn’t put the kickstand on.  So we went 25,000 miles and didn’t stick the landing.  That’s not all…. The “new” launch and booster rockets we want to use to send large payloads to the moon haven’t done so hot either.  Both significant tests have ended in….. love this phrase so read it carefully….

“Rapid unscheduled disassembly”  

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out they took off and then blew up. 

To say the least it’s not guaranteed that this all happens like we have planned and that brings us to the “Seeking Peace and Joy of it all”

As a human race we are going to invest a lot of time, energy, dreaming, and money to get back to the moon. When we think about it, of course, we would.  Some folks would say go for it because we want to see if Pink Floyd gave us the definitive  treatise on “the dark side of the moon, or is there a store of riches left to be uncovered?  Also, there are a lot of folks very afraid that we are pretty much wrecking the Earth and we need unescape plan.  So the moon has both fear and curiosity going for it.  One might wonder if the super rich really need their names connected with all this because the billions and billions used to do this surely couldn’t be used to insure better shelter,  food, education, transportation, oh and even recreation for the folks here on this planet? The let’s shoot the moon crowd might argue that “it’s about the future man” and it is a human thing to focus on and worry  about what could happen because what’s happening here and now can get a little intense. Having said that, if people get joy from working toward the hope of knowing the moon, and if that is a dream that let’s them explore a purpose for mankind and. Not just for themselves, well that's a worthy enterprise—you see how I built in that “Trek” word?

It’s a balancing act when we dream about a future and try to stay in the moment.  It’s probably a good thing our focus on “the moon” is being played out from earth which only has one moon.  After all the solar system has 292 or so discovered moons and if we were launching from Mars we’d have to decide between 2. Moons and if from Jupiter or Saturn it would be a choice of over 90 and in that case there might always be “a bad moon rising?” 

To sum up… well heading to the moon is the literal definition of shooting at something in the dark and yet using our best guesses and for that let’s strap some brave souls to thousands of tons of explosives and lightt’em up.  We can also take a moment to figure out how to balance dreams for far away with dreams for right now and right here.  Go outside tonight and think about what the world will be like  when there repeople out there looking back here wondering about you and then maybe we will finally understand that the greatest mysteries almost always emerge from the universe within?  

  

Give me a 2nd—Okay

 

Early this morning the flags were unfurled

My hair has gone limp and it needs to be curled

Off in the distance the frat boys have hurled

They wish to be knighted  but they just wound up “Earled”

I checked for my pistol it’s handle was pearled

These aren’t the things I need in my world 

I want umbrellas  and canes that are twirled

And a big ice cream cone with a top that’s been swirled

If you want a rainbow you have to have some rain

If you want to break some bread you’ll have to plant some grain

If you want to share a view have the guts not to obstain

If something’s needs  repeating sing out that refrain

Every Street you travel doesn’t need to be the Main 

Can’t carry all your worries let some go down the drain

Others need not lose just for some to gain

Understand that life is messy we’re bound to leave a stain