Conspiracy Theory Reloaded

[French jurist]

Strange... 10 years + 1 day after the Madrid bombings (that occured 911 days after 9/11), explosions shook NYC (buildings affected are not really symbolical though). Coincidence?

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

Yep.

 

[thorsten]

One of the most fascinating aspects of the human brain is its ability to detect patterns - even if they don't exist ;-)

 

[French jurist]

One of the most fascinating aspects of the human brain is its ability to detect patterns - even if they don't exist ;-)

Except it was likely on purpose for the Madrid bombings. Here it seems there was a gas smell

 

[internationalguy]

There definetely was a correlation when it came to the Madrid bombings. This one though looks like just a bad accident. Some gas leak.

However, detecting patterns alone does not constitute a conspiracy theory. There has to be an ACTUAL THEORY attached to the pattern detection.

 

[thorsten]

The problem with many of those conspiracy theories is that you can create a lot of patterns after the events happened and it seems it makes sense. For instance, here the time between the dates was 911 days, which makes some people believe there is a pattern because the number is "relevant" in some way. However, imagine an incident happened 89 days later - then it would be a difference of exactly 1000 days - seems not random, right? How about 88 days later, so the difference is 999 days - too regular to be random too. Or if it would be again on the 9/11 or maybe on 11/9...
I can really recommend a book about this topic: Fooled by randomness by Taleb (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fooled_by_Randomness). It shows how often we tend to fail in constructing casual relationships because we did not develop a good perception for the concept of randomness.

 

[internationalguy]

Thorsten, you may have a point, however all I can say is, not everything is a coincidence, of course the opposite is true, not everything is a conspiracy. You need critical judgement and common sense. You can't just dismiss ALL theories about strange things THAT DO HAPPEN. Of course the government isn't trying to control our minds with fluoride, HOWEVER, terrorist attacks carry highly symbolic meanings. I wouldn't dismiss the idea that within the message terrorists want to convey there's something in the numbers, After all numerology is one of the oldest "sciences" known to mankind.

Either way that was mentioned in frenchie's first post was not at all a conspiracy theory. Just the detection of a pattern.

 

[thorsten]

Yes, I totally agree. My point was not saying it's all random, but to say many patterns we observe can also occur as an effect of randomness.

 

[Don Alberto]

All terrorbombs occur between 183 days before and 183 days after Christmas - think about it!

 

[Caliexpat]

Of course the government isn't trying to control our minds with fluoride

But I think it's safe to say that flouride should not be in our water, especially since you cannot regulate how much water a person drinks thus what amount of flouride they are consuming.

Also, you're right about using common sense and thinking critically about any situation. For me, too many things just don't add up with the 9/11 attack. For example, none of the 4 black boxes survived the attack yet they managed to salvage a paper passport from one of the terrorists. Or how about the Bin Laden family being immediately flown out of the country.

Then you have the issue with the insider trading on American Airlines stock.

SEC: Government Destroyed Documents Regarding Pre-9/11 Put Options
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/06/sec-government-destroyed-documents-regarding-pre-911-put-options.html

Or the Marvin Bush connection.

Bush-Linked Company Handled Security for the WTC, Dulles and United
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0204-06.htm

Obviously, there are many other legitimate items as well as dead ends but perhaps the most interesting is Building 7, which was the third tower to fall that day in NY, something most people have never heard of. It's difficult to imagine how a steel structured building that was not stuck by any airplane could free fall 7 seconds into its own footprint.

Compiled Footage of Building 7's Collapse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWorDrTC0Qg