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Metabunk
Mick West (born 1967) is a British-American science writer, skeptical investigator, and retired video game programmer. He is the creator of the websites ''Contrail Science'' and ''Metabunk'', and he investigates and debunks pseudoscientific claims and conspiracy theories such as chemtrails and UFOs. His first book is ''Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect'' (2018)''.'' West has appeared in various media including ''The New York Times'', CBS, the BBC, CNN, NewsNation, ''New York'' Magazine, Radio New Zealand, ''Popular Mechanics'' and ''Scientific American'' as an expert conspiracy analyst and science communicator. He has twice been a speaker at the conference of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and in 2020 was elected a fellow of the organization. Early life West grew up in the small town of Bingley, West Yorkshire, on the outskirts of Bradford, England. As a child he was fascinated by the paranormal, UFOs and storie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Debunking
A debunker is a person or organization that exposes or discredits claims believed to be false, exaggerated, or pretentious. "to expose or excoriate (a claim, assertion, sentiment, etc.) as being pretentious, false, or exaggerated: to debunk advertising slogans." The term is often associated with skeptical investigation of controversial topics such as UFOs, claimed paranormal phenomena, cryptids, conspiracy theories, alternative medicine, religion, exploratory or fringe areas of scientific, or pseudoscientific research. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, to "debunk" is defined as: "to expose the sham or falseness of." The ''New Oxford American Dictionary'' defines "debunk" as "expose the falseness or hollowness of (a myth, idea, or belief)". If debunkers are not careful, their communications may backfire – increasing an audience's long-term belief in myths. Backfire effects can occur if a message spends too much time on the negative case, if it is too comple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bradford
Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdom, city status has belonged to the larger City of Bradford metropolitan borough. It had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 Census for England and Wales, 2011 census, making it the second-largest subdivision of the West Yorkshire Built-up Area after Leeds, which is approximately to the east. The borough had a population of , making it the List of English districts by population, most populous district in England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city grew in the 19th century as an international centre of Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, textile manufacture, particularly wool. It was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, and amongst the earliest Industrialisation, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
9/11 Conspiracy Theories
There are various Conspiracy theory, conspiracy theories that attribute the preparation and execution of the September 11 attacks against the United States to parties other than, or in addition to, al-Qaeda. These include the theory that high-level government officials had September 11 attacks advance-knowledge conspiracy theories, advance knowledge of the attacks. Government investigations and independent reviews have rejected these theories. Proponents of these theories assert that there are inconsistencies in the commonly accepted version, or that there exists evidence that was ignored, concealed, or overlooked. The most prominent conspiracy theory is that the Collapse of the World Trade Center, collapse of the Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center (1987–2001), 7 World Trade Center were the World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theories, result of controlled demolitions rather than structural failure due to impact and fire. Another prominent belief is that th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contrails
Contrails (; short for "condensation trails") or vapour trails are line-shaped clouds produced by aircraft engine exhaust or changes in air pressure, typically at aircraft cruising altitudes several kilometres/miles above the Earth's surface. They are composed primarily of water, in the form of ice crystals. The combination of water vapor in aircraft engine exhaust and the low ambient temperatures at high altitudes causes the trails' formation. Impurities in the engine exhaust from the fuel, including soot and sulfur compounds (0.05% by weight in jet fuel) provide some of the particles that serve as cloud condensation nuclei for water droplet growth in the exhaust. If water droplets form, they can freeze to form ice particles that compose a contrail. Their formation can also be triggered by changes in air pressure in wingtip vortices, or in the air over the entire wing surface. Contrails, and other clouds caused directly by human activity, are called ''homogenitus''. The vapor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chemtrail Conspiracy Theory
The chemtrail conspiracy theory is the erroneous belief that long-lasting condensation trails left in the sky by high-flying aircraft are actually "chemtrails" consisting of chemical or biological agents, sprayed for nefarious purposes undisclosed to the general public. Believers in this conspiracy theory say that while normal contrails dissipate relatively quickly, contrails that linger must contain additional substances. Those who subscribe to the theory speculate that the purpose of the chemical release may be solar radiation management, weather modification, psychological manipulation, human population control, biological or chemical warfare, or testing of biological or chemical agents on a population, and that the trails are causing respiratory illnesses and other health problems. The claim has been dismissed by the scientific community. There is no evidence that purported chemtrails differ from normal water-based contrails routinely left by high-flying aircraft un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morgellons
Morgellons () is the informal name of a self-diagnosed, scientifically unsubstantiated skin condition in which individuals have sores that they believe contain fibrous material. Morgellons is not well understood, but the general medical consensus is that it is a form of delusional parasitosis, on the psychiatric spectrum. The sores are typically the result of compulsive scratching, and the fibers, when analysed, are consistently found to have originated from cotton and other textiles. The condition was named in 2002 by Mary Leitao, a mother who rejected the medical diagnosis of her son's delusional parasitosis. She chose the name from a letter written by a mid-17th-century physician. Leitao and others involved in her Morgellons Research Foundation successfully lobbied members of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to investigate the condition in 2006. CDC researchers issued the results of their multi-year study in January 2012, indic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giant Bomb
''Giant Bomb'' is an American video game website and wiki that includes personality-driven gaming videos, commentary, news and reviews, created by former ''GameSpot'' editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis. The website was voted by ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine as one of the Top 50 websites of 2011. In 2018 Variety (magazine), Variety Magazine said that Giant Bomb had "redefined what it meant to be a video game website." Originally part of Whiskey Media, the website was acquired by CBS Interactive in March 2012 before being sold to Red Ventures in 2020, then to Fandom (website), Fandom in 2022. As of 2025, the site is independently owned by its staff. After being terminated from his position as editorial director of ''GameSpot'', Gerstmann began working with a team of web engineers to create a new video game website. His intent was to create "a fun video game website" that would not heavily cover the business side of the game industry. The site's core editorial staff consis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016. The company was founded as Activision, Inc. on October 1, 1979, in Sunnyvale, California, by former Atari, Inc., Atari game developers upset at their treatment by Atari in order to develop their own games for the popular Atari 2600 home video game console. Activision was the first independent, third-party, console video game developer. The video game crash of 1983, in part created by too many new companies trying to follow in Activision's footsteps without the experience of Activision's founders, hurt Activision's position in console games and forced the company to diversify into games for home computers, including the acquisition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guitar Hero
''Guitar Hero'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead guitar, lead, bass guitar, bass, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Players match notes that scroll on-screen to colored fret buttons on the controller, strumming the controller in time to the music in order to score points, and keep the virtual audience excited. The games attempt to mimic many features of playing a real guitar, including the use of fast-fingering hammer-ons and pull-offs and the use of the whammy bar to alter the pitch of notes. Most games support single player modes, typically a Career mode to play through all the songs in the game, as well as competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes. With the introduction of ''Guitar Hero World Tour'' in 2008, the game includes support for a four-player band including vocals and drums. The series initially used mostly cover versions of songs created by WaveGroup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
