Here Be Treasures

Paranoia—Hide Your Data

Thursday, April 9th, 2009 | conspiracy, technology | No Comments

The truly paranoid amongst us not only back up our data, we secret it in hidden places around our house. Here’s an example of a hidden USB data stick.

Urban Camouflage

Friday, April 3rd, 2009 | conspiracy | No Comments

Soldiers of the future will have to wear urban camouflage.

Urban Legends, and How to Debunk Them

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 | conspiracy, shocking | No Comments

We all grew up with one or another urban legend stuck in our mind that was burst by some smart arse who proved that we were just thinking bull. So to prevent this happening again, if you come across something that you find a little too incredible to believe, you can verify your suspicions at Snopes, where you can allay all your fears.

Haven’t I Seen That Ad Before?

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 | art, conspiracy | No Comments

If you sometimes experience a strange sense of Deja Vu when you see an advert, maybe there’s something to it. The two adverts above both promote teeth whitening products, the one on the left is Orbit, from 2002, and the one on the right is Dr Sedoc, from 2008.

Joe La Pompe has made it his mission to expose these copycat advertisers, and has a huge collection of faxsimile ads for your viewing pleasure. What’s not surprising is that two ad agencies would both create a similar campaign, but what is surprising is just how similar two adverts can be. So, are great minds thinking alike, or is it more like Picasso said, “Bad artists copy. Great artists steal”.

Airport Security

Monday, October 20th, 2008 | conspiracy | No Comments

Jeffery Goldberg, writing in the November 2008 issue of The Atlantic, describes how he evaded US airport security time and again with fake boarding passes, box cutters, and way too much liquid. He even took onboard an inflatable Yasir Arafat doll.

In Case You’re Paranoid

Sunday, October 19th, 2008 | conspiracy | 1 Comment

Most people would like a private room, with a secret entrance. This Australian took out the power tools and made himself a secret entrance to a small room hidden behind a book-shelf. The killer is the method of entry: tilt one of the books out.

Chemtrails

Saturday, October 11th, 2008 | conspiracy | No Comments

Now, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy a good conspiracy theory as much as the next man, but sometimes they enter the ‘tin-foil hat’ realm, being so daft that you can only laugh at those who believe in them. And that’s the cue to introduce the Chemtrails conspiracy. The gist of the conspiracy is that those trails that you see left behind by airplanes aren’t as innocuous as they seem. You’ve been told that they’re ice particles forming due to the sublimation of the hot air that’s passed through the jet engine, but NO! They’re NOT! They’re a top secret concoction of deadly chemicals that are being laced in the sky to create a massive super-conductive layer in the sky for a super-electromagnetic weapon, or for control of population.

Anyway, go give it a read. It’s a laugh really.

Spiekermann Proves A Conspiracy

Thursday, October 9th, 2008 | conspiracy | 1 Comment

Noted typographer Erik Spiekermann creeps us out a little with this blog entry, proving that color printer manufacturers have complied with a US government request to embed profile data onto printed sheets. One of Speikermann’s employees, Paul Weihe, printed and scanned a page, and showed that there was indeed a matrix of data printed in the yellow ink. The matrix includes the exact time of printing and the serial number of the machine used.