Stupid myths....

[Ginger Tea]

If I was Winston Churchil and someone at Bletchley park game me an enigma decoded message saying that the Germans were talking about Japan planning an attack (specified or not) I would consign all knowledge to the official secrets act and let it happen
we had possession of the enigma before the war and had it cracked before pearl harbour, so it is a possibility we knew of avoidable catastrophies but had to let them happen or a sudden reported evacuation of a target location by an enemy spy would alert them that the enigma was broken and we would be back to square one.

[Rageaholic]

Yeah, but they make the best entertainment, especially when their theories (for lack of a better term. delusional paranoia maybe?) are easily countered and they either dismiss the proof that discredits them or come up with new bullshit explanations to explain it.

A personal favorite is the super thermite one for why the North tower collapsed. Their "proof" behind it? They found on some chunks of rocks traces of aluminum and iron oxide and videos of thermite reactions occurring. When countered with the concept that an ALUMINUM FRAMED plane hitting an IRON supported building and burning at an excessive temperature would make a hell of a lot more sense, they simply say that it proves nothing.

I have one coworker in particular, you can never sway from political gabble, no matter how hard you try. He is always going on and on about the government.

You're quite right, it's so entertaining. But I often wonder, even question, the mental health of people who are so adament about our government and these crazy conspiracy theories.

I remember hearing one theory from some website. He believed the government planned 9/11 so they could some treasure burried underneath. He also thought they were trying to kill him. And don't even get me started on those New World Order nuts. I may have some libertarian beliefs, and I would be lying if I didn't believe there was some corruption, but I think some of these people watch way too much 24. Conspiracies make great fiction, but unless you have something tangible to base your claim on, shut the hell up.

[Plaidman]

I remember hearing one theory from some website. He believed the government planned 9/11 so they could some treasure burried underneath.

Uh oh. Don't let him read this story.

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-07-15/u...-zero?_s=PM:US

About a 300 year old ship ruins found at ground zero.

[Racket_Man]

we had possession of the enigma before the war and had it cracked before pearl harbour, so it is a possibility we knew of avoidable catastrophies but had to let them happen or a sudden reported evacuation of a target location by an enemy spy would alert them that the enigma was broken and we would be back to square one.

if memory servers I believe that Polish cryptologists cracked Enigma before the Nazi's attacked Poland. they tried to warn the British but were rejected. the British did not really "crack" the German Enigma per se but were held back trying to figure out the daily rotation of the settings

the US had cracked a few of the Janpnese encoding machines before they attacked Peral Habor. the most known was the "Purple" diplomatic code. the US indepentantly re=created the machine in 1940

[KellyHabersham]

I think the best (and definitely most amusing) conspiracy theory/myth I've heard was from a guy whom I knew from a music-related messageboard. It's been awhile, so I don't recall the exact details, but it had something to do with the grocery store he shopped at, and their supposedly discontinuing a specific brand of bagels because of employee union interests.

[Ginger Tea]

I know the Poles managed to get hold of an enigma before the war, it was meant to be a safe banking system and eventually ended up in british hands, regarding their cracking of the original version I cant comment without looking up info and ive not so long got back from the pub
from what i read the biggest leap in the war time version of the enigma was some units started their messages with the same word twice eg "hello hello" and that was the break they needed, that and the ability to read german to hope what they broke was legible and not germanesque babble

[KabeRinnaul]

This is my favorite conspiracy theory.