10 of the Most Bizarre Declassified Government Documents

Some people are really into conspiracy theories – or more prone to believing that the government is hiding certain truths from us, maybe – and still others have just watched too many episodes of The X-Files to trust that we’re being told every last detail.

But if these 10, slightly terrifying declassified documents are any indication, people are definitely right to ask questions, because the truth is often buried behind miles of red tape.

10. Okay so this needs to be a movie, if it isn’t.

In East Germany a committed freedom fighter and her husband had dealt with having her home raided while she was away, being arrested on the way to protests and all sorts of state sponsored harassment. After the wall fell she was able to read the documents the Stasi had kept on her and found out her own husband was an undercover agent and had written many reports on her activities with a bloodless banality.

9. Everything about the Challenger explosion is horrible.

When the space shuttle Challenger was destroyed, it was reported that all 7 astronauts were killed instantly. It was revealed decades later that some, if not all of the astronauts survived the initial explosion, as the cockpit cabin had enough protection to not be breached. For 2 minutes and 45 seconds, they were awake and aware, as they plummeted toward the Atlantic Ocean.

Understandably, NASA knew that the news of their terrifying death would have crippled the space program even more than it already was.

8. Evil people sometimes have security clearance.

Canadian here… The Somalia Affair Not sure if it was ever classified but definitely a horrific scandal. A now disbanded division of the Canadian military torturing a kid to death in the 90s, and taking hero pics with him while doing it… I think it’s important to remember when your country does something shitty – it’s not always the “bad guys” who can be fucking evil.

7. This seems awfully small and petty when, you know, actual life should scare people enough.

Devil Eyes

The plan after 9/11 to make figurines that look like Osama Bin Laden and give them to kids in South Asia. After it’s left in the sun for a certain amount of time, it’s face would peel off to reveal a “demon-like visage with red skin, green eyes, and black markings,” basically a demon. The objective was to scare kids and their parents so Bin Laden and Al Qaeda would lose support.

6. This idea was actually floated, so what’s not possible?

Operation Northwoods; A plan for a false flag operation that came from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Department of Defense in 1962 and given to JFK who turned it down. The plan called for the CIA to commit terrorist actions against US Civilians across the United States and frame Cuba, allowing us the right to invade and depose Castro and the communist government there. It was declassified and can be found online at the JFK Library. Terrifying that no one knows or seems to care that this was suggested by our government to the President.

5. We have to prepare for all contingencies.

The Nixon Administration had a speech prepared for if the moon landing had failed, and it’s chilling.

You can read it here

4. The Manhattan Project was terrifying from the ground up.

My hometown was littered woth radioactive waste by the federal government as part of the Manhattan project. https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/01/nyregion/big-atom-waste-site-reported-found-near-buffalo.html

then we wonder why cancer and thyroid conditions thereare the norm.

3. It really seems likely that we’re going to wipe ourselves out on accident.

There are over 50 mishaps with nuclear weapons by the US Airforce in the 1950s alone.

2. So as you can see, we’ve never been a society that puts children first.

They tested Iodine on “retarded children” as well. In that time, oftentimes orphans and children who were behind in school ended up at these institutions.

The US government also inserted radioactive material into a man after a motorcycle crash and didn’t tell him.

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/03/us/panel-urges-us-to-apologize-for-radiation-testing-and-pay-damages.html

1. Drug testing on clueless citizens. That’s not scary.

Operation Midnight Climax

The government hired sex workers to dose “johns” with LSD for research purposes so to speak

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Midnight_Climax

Some of these going to haunt my thoughts for weeks, and you know…the truth is out there, y’all.

Are you into conspiracy theories? Do these documents tickle your sixth sense? Let us know!

The post 10 of the Most Bizarre Declassified Government Documents appeared first on UberFacts.

September 9, 2019

At the subatomic level…

At the subatomic level, space is never truly empty. It is filled with a writhing, active population of “Virtual Particles” that pop in and out of existence. Physicists call this “quantum foam”. Physicists theorize fluctuations from this field of energy may have given rise to the Universe.

September 6, 2019

A Dad Asked the Internet for Fun Facts to Share with His Four-Year-Old Daughter

If you have young kids, then you know that their thirst for knowledge is basically unquenchable. They ask “why” countless times a day and want to know how everything works (and why) and ask questions from dawn until dusk…

It’s kind of exhausting.

This dad found that his four-year-old daughter was no different from anyone else’s, and every night at bedtime, she asked for a new and interesting fact.

He quickly ran out of ideas on his own and turned to Reddit, who totally delivered.

What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime? from AskReddit

If you’re a fan of all sorts of facts, you’re going to love these 15 as much as his daughter probably did!

15. One more reason to be jealous of otters.

Comment from discussion CryoWreck’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

14. Mind blown.

Comment from discussion Delica’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

13. I definitely needed to know this.

Comment from discussion The_First_Viking’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

12. Still waiting for its first birthday.

Comment from discussion gruenoms’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

11. New bucket list item.

Comment from discussion Dickcheese_McDoogles’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

10. Dogs are amazing.

Comment from discussion babiferari’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

9. So much fun.

Comment from discussion calibrateichabod’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

8. I have actually always wondered this.

Comment from discussion MudSlappers’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

7. Bend the bee’s knee.

Comment from discussion SinusMonstrum’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

6. I’m jealous of the pink milk.

Comment from discussion phillybookwoman’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

5. Crazy to think about, right?

Comment from discussion arcant12’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

4. So we couldn’t tell if they shaved?

Comment from discussion lovealwayscharlie666’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

3. Those crazy cows.

Comment from discussion Canucklehead_Esq’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

2. That actually explains a lot.

Comment from discussion WhiteKnightWhiteRice’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

1. DIY custard.

Comment from discussion Faithwolf’s comment from discussion "What mind-blowing (but simple) facts would satisfy a 4-year old daughter’s daily request for 1 fact before bedtime?".

Here’s to knowledge!

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August 22, 2019

Check out These 5 Ancient Legends Based on Real Events

A lot of kids go through a phase when they’re fascinated by the legends and myths that have wound their way through the centuries. Whether Robin Hood, Arthur and Lancelot, the antics of the gods of old, or creatures like a unicorn or a vampire, it’s fun to imagine that the world might have once been more magical than it is today.

And these 5 legends, which are rooted in reality, suggest that just maybe…it was.

5. Atlantis

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Kart over Atlantis' påståtte beliggenhet (sør er opp, nord er ned) fra boken Mundus Subterraneus (1669). Det mytiske kontinentet Atlantis nevnes for første gang av Platon. Ingen har noensinne funnet beviser for at Atlantis har eksistert, men Thor Heyerdahl mente at Alantis kan ha vært sivilasjonens vugge. Mer om dette finner du i boka "Thor Heyerdahl og jakten på Atlantis" som utgis 20. august. #thorheyerdahl #jaktenpåatlantis #humanistforlag #atlantis #boktips

A post shared by Humanist forlag (@humanist_forlag) on Aug 7, 2019 at 6:41am PDT

Greek philosopher Plato was the first to describe a beautiful, advanced civilization that once disappeared beneath the sea, never to be seen or heard from again – but he was far from the last to re-tell one of the most well-known myths in human history.

Now, many archaeologists think he was describing the collapse of the Minoan empire after a volcanic eruption rocked Thera (modern-day Santorini). The core of the island collapsed in the aftermath, creating a tsunami that flooded the island and left it completely under water, sending it to a grave from which it never arose.

4. The Ape-Men Army of Sri Lanka

Indian Sanskrit epic the Ramayana features a classic kidnapping plot, in which Sita, the wife of god Rama, is stolen away to the Demon Kingdom on Lanka. To rescue her, Rama banded with an army of ape-like men to build a floating bridge between India and Lanka that they used to defeat the demon king, Ravana.

The tale, of course, is just good storytelling, but the bridge still exists – aerial surveys show a 30-mile-long stretch of limestone shoals under the sea that reaches between India and Sri Lanka.

Experts believe it was above the water until a 15th-century cyclone brought a huge storm surge into the channel.

3. Thunderbird and the Whale

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The Thunderbird awaits you.

A post shared by Janet Hartmann (@12janets) on May 13, 2017 at 7:21pm PDT

Native American lore tells of a benevolent, supernatural being called a Thunderbird, which once swooped over the sea to snatch a killer whale that was stealing resources from the Quileute tribe.

The bird prevailed, dropping the whale on dry land to die with a thud that shook the ground, and many natives died during the battle and ensuing chaos.

Back in the 1980s, geologists discovered that a powerful earthquake occurred in the area in 1700, one that would have been powerful enough to cause a tsunami. It would have hit the coast where the tribe lived, generating the tales to explain the giant shaking of the earth.

As far as the Thunderbird, many scientists believe it’s based on the Aiornis, a prehistoric giant bird that co-existed thousands of years ago with early North America settlers. The bird had a wingspan of up to 16 feet and used to feast on whales washed up on the beaches.

2. The Guest Star

In 1006, people looking at the sky all over the world described seeing a “guest star.” Persian scholar Ibn Sina was particularly intrigued, however, explaining how the star hung in the sky for months, changing color and eventually emitting sparks before fading away.

We now know that Sina was describing a supernova that took place 7200 years ago and whose dying remnants can still be detected by powerful NASA technology.

They believe the color changes he described were due to the merger of two white dwarfs, which astronomers say would create a supernova bursting with color. What Sina did, essentially, was provide details for modern scientists that would otherwise have been lost to time.

1. The Great Flood

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#Haida #thegreatflood #raven #northwestcoast #southeastalaska #oraltradition #yaahl #ancient #ancienttimes

A post shared by Janine Gibbons (@janine_gibbons) on Jul 24, 2019 at 10:49pm PDT

There are stories from around the world that join the biblical account of a great flood that covered most of the earth, wiping out almost all of mankind in the process – so most think it makes sense to assume this event took place in our human past in some way, shape, or form.

Geological records show that around 11,500 years ago, glacier meltwater melted into the North Sea, causing the Black Sea to dry up while the Mediterranean Basin refilled with seawater from the Atlantic Ocean. Between them was dry land, but eventually the Mediterranean overflowed into the Black Sea, forcing the barrier between them to all but disappear.

The result would have been a waterfall 200x the volume of Niagara Falls and covering an area double the size of Manhattan in a single day.

That said, the worst flood of the last 10 millennia took place along the Yellow River in China at a date that coincides with ancient texts.

This is the next best thing to actually being a kid again!

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August 17, 2019

15 Amazing Photos of What Mars Looks Like

It’s just like in Total Recall! Kind of…

The Curiosity Rover on Mars sends photos back from the red planet daily. And they are MINDBLOWING.

Photo Credit: NASA

15. Science rocks!

Photo Credit: NASA

Be sure to follow NASA’s progress on Mars, it gets more fascinating by the day!

The post 15 Amazing Photos of What Mars Looks Like appeared first on UberFacts.

August 13, 2019

Photo Credit: NASA/U.S. Customs and Border Patrol

Just like anyone coming off a long trip—for work no less—the men of Apollo 11 were probably ready for a beer and a nice steak dinner. Instead, a brief interaction with the local, friendly customs agent was in order.

The astronauts declared moon rock, moon dust and other moon samples on the form as they entered the United States through Honolulu Airport, Hawaii, after landing in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969. Their ocean splash-down was the end of their historic voyage to the moon.

All three crewmen—Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin—signed the form. Their point of departure was recorded as Cape Kennedy, Florida, with a stopover on the moon before arrival in Honolulu.

Photo Credit: NASA

Website Space.com found the customs form on the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol site, where it went up as a commemoration for the 40th anniversary of the moon visit. NASA verified that, yes, the form is real. But it was all done in fun.

The actual return to earth happened about 920 miles southwest of Hawaii and only 12 miles from the USS Hornet, the navy ship deployed to pick up the astronauts. The trip to Honolulu would take an additional two days.

As for the declaration of health, Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin were all quarantined inside a NASA trailer on board the USS Hornet to prevent the spread of any moon diseases. They even had to wear special biohazard suits while on deck after getting pulled from the seas.

Photo Credit: NASA

The astronauts, trailer and all, were taken to Houston. Then, three weeks later they were allowed to leave isolation and go to all the parties and parades they were due.

Present day astronauts don’t have to sit in isolation. When they return from the International Space Station, they receive a quick medical checkup before they are free to move about the earth. But whenever they return, they—like the rest of us earthlings—have to go through customs.

The post The Apollo 11 Astronauts Had to Go Through Customs When They Came Back from the Moon appeared first on UberFacts.

August 7, 2019

The Apollo 11 Astronauts Were Honored with Butter Sculptures at the Ohio State Fair

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing, the three astronauts on that mission are being honored with life-sized sculptures made out of butter at the Ohio State Fair.

How do Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin like to eat their ice cream? In floats! Your time is waning to come to the @OhioStateFair to enjoy Velvet Ice Cream and see the three astronauts commemorated in butter. #Apollo50th #OSF19 pic.twitter.com/cx7dgAEraL

— ADA Mideast (@adamideast) July 31, 2019

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins landed on the moon and changed the course of history. The state of Ohio has a strong kinship with space travel: Neil Armstrong was an Ohio native and so was John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. Ohio also has a long history of dairy production. Combine all those factors together and you get the magnificent butter display at this year’s Ohio State Fair.

If you are lucky enough to be able to go to the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, don’t miss the traditional “cow made out of…

Posted by Suellen Brady-Nugent on Thursday, July 25, 2019

Dairy farmers donated over 2,000 pounds of butter to help create the sculptures. An artist from Cincinnati named Paul Brooke and a team of sculptors spent 400-500 hours creating the buttery tributes in a cooler set at 46 degrees to prevent the pieces from melting.

Here’s a cool time-lapse video of the butter being sculpted:

Legen-DAIRY: This year's Ohio State Fair butter sculpture honors the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon mission, and we're over the MOO-n about it!
MORE: https://t.co/8xQiZavTrx pic.twitter.com/NkrJ7eDGDd

— WTOL 11 (@WTOL11Toledo) July 23, 2019

Alexander Balz, one of the artists, said, “The space suits were a real challenge, to be honest. It’s easy to sculpt things that you know. When you sculpt a human being you memorize it, so this was a challenge.”

This Ohio State Fair butter sculpture shows the three Apollo 11 astronauts — Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin — standing next to the lunar module Eagle.

Armstrong saluting the American flag and the footprint on the moon are also recreated. https://t.co/vHwWkunXw3 pic.twitter.com/FkBD0l74Ie

— CNN (@CNN) July 25, 2019

Roughly 500,000 people are expected to have attended the State Fair in late July and early August. Here’s a video with some great footage of the display.

What a unique and cool way to honor a pivotal event in American, and human, history!

And, by the way, I’m really hoping that this butter sculpting catches on more widely because it is fabulous.

The post The Apollo 11 Astronauts Were Honored with Butter Sculptures at the Ohio State Fair appeared first on UberFacts.

July 17, 2019

Scientists Discovered a Giant Structure Under the Surface of the Moon

Space keeps getting less and less mysterious every day, doesn’t it?

This most recent discovery concerns the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon, one of the largest preserved impact craters in the Solar System. The US and China, among others, have been particularly interested in the area, and now NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission has discovered something truly massive beneath it.

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The Moon : "I'm coming out ⁣ I want the world to know⁣ Got to let it show! " ⁣ ⁣ Stepping out on the world stage tonight is the final & brightest #supermoon for 2019. Just in time for the first day of spring, venture outside and look up to the night's sky for one of our favorite celestial neighbors. In this photo, a plane is seen flying in front of the second full moon for the month of July on Friday, July 31, 2015 in Arlington, Va. Photo Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

A post shared by NASA (@nasa) on Mar 20, 2019 at 4:28pm PDT

The structure weighs 2.18 billion kilograms and stretches more than 186 miles deep, suggesting that it might be leftover from the asteroid that formed the crater, says lead author Peter B. James.

“Imagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground. That’s roughly how much unexpected mass we detected.”

The mission was out to measure subtle changes in the gravitational field of the moon, then use the observations to study the moon’s internal composition, but what they discovered was a surprise to everyone involved.

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“The vast loneliness up here of the Moon is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth. The Earth from here is a grand oasis to the big vastness of space.” — Apollo 8 astronaut Jim Lovell Fifty years ago today, this iconic 'Earthrise' photo was taken aboard Apollo 8 by Bill Anders. Before humanity ventured to the Moon, our view of our home planet consisted of what we could see from horizon to horizon. It was not until this stunning photo (along with many others) came back to Earth with the three Apollo 8 astronauts in December 1968 that we saw Earth as a vibrant, delicate, blue and white globe framed by the velvety blackness of space. This iconic picture shows Earth peeking out from beyond the lunar surface as the first crewed spacecraft circumnavigated the Moon. Image credit: NASA #space #earth #nasa #earthrise #moon #lunar #earth #iconic #picoftheday #1968 #apollo8 #apollo #astronaut #astronomy #planet #science

A post shared by NASA (@nasa) on Dec 24, 2018 at 9:31am PST

“When we combined that [data] with lunar topography data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, we discovered the unexpectedly large amount of mass hundreds of miles underneath the South Pole-Aitken basin. One of the explanations of this extra mass is that the metal from the asteroid that formed this crater is still embedded in the Moon’s mantle.”

The team isn’t sure exactly what they’ve found at this point, though computer simulations indicate it is possible that when an asteroid hit the moon roughly 4 billion years ago it embedded itself in the mantle, never sinking into the moon’s core.

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Happy #NationalMoonDay! To celebrate the 49th anniversary of #Apollo11 Moon landing, we present you with “Moonlight,” a video by one of our @NASAGoddard Visualizers set to Debussy’s Clair de Lune. The visualization was compiled using 9 years of topographic and visual data from our Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to create a stunning portrait of one lunar cycle. Make sure to turn the sound on! Credit: NASA/Ernie Wright #nasa #space #moon #lro #blue #pictureoftheday #science #solarsystem #universe #wow #beautiful #moonlight #clairdelune #apollo11

A post shared by NASA (@nasa) on Jul 20, 2018 at 11:45am PDT

Another theory is that the mass formed when the moon was still solidifying – as the magma of the moon cooled and hardened, perhaps a concentration of oxides may have developed.

More research will follow, but anything we learn from the unique basin should help scientists understand how and when the moon formed, as well as give us an idea as to how it might weather an impact from an asteroid in the future.

And when it comes to space, the more information we have, the better.

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