This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Topics - ~Souza~
Filter to certain boards:
Pages: 1 ... 54 55 [56] 57
826
« on: December 11, 2009, 06:51:17 AM »
I felt the urge to post this, after reading this post: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
It seems that some members are having so much doubt about Mike being alive, that as soon as someone tells something that sounds plausible about Mike being dead, they will jump out of their panties. I myself, after more then 5 months of research, will never believe he died on June 25th of this year. I am convinced he is alive and not even an autopsy picture would change that. Why? Because in those 5 months there has been no proof of him being dead, and hundreds, maybe even thousands of clues that he is still alive. Let me give you a summary of the events to cheer you up:
June 25:
Mike 'dies'. The inconsistencies in the story already start on this day. I remember I heard on the news that he had been taken to the hospital and that he was in a coma. TMZ reports his death at 2:20 PT, while he wasn't pronounced dead by the doctors at UCLA before 2:26 PT. Later we hear that he was dead on arrival, and even that he should have been dead hours before the EMT's arrived. Some stories say that Prince was in the room, sometimes he was not. Stories saying he collapsed in the living room with Murray present, stories he was on Murray's bed/his own bed and Murray in the bathroom. He died of an overdose Demerol, later it was Propofol. Now what is it? Also remember the clearly fake ambulance picture and the stupid moron who made a picture of the famous photographer, instead of running his ass off to the ambulance and try to make that shot himself.
There hasn't been a doctor that wanted to sign the death certificate. If he died in the house, why didn't sign Murray, and if he was in a coma first at UCLA, why didn't sign a doctor from UCLA the DC? Because there is no DC. The 3 or 4 versions we have seen are fake, because his name is not Michael Joseph Jackson anymore. Either it was never his real name, or he changed it before the 2005 trial, but the name is not right, means the DC is a fake.
LAPD:
The LADP allows the family in the house first, before they search it. Well, enough said, I really hope nobody will buy that story. Also there are only 3 investigators on the case. We had a case of a murdered girl here in Holland a few years ago, there were 50!! investigators on the case. 3 is ridiculous...
The Autopsy:
No autopsy pictures were released. I can tell you that that picture would have been worth a LOT more than the ambulance picture. There will always be someone greedy enough at the coroner's office to make the picture and sell it. Nobody did. Why? Because there was no body guys. That also convinced me of the fact that he didn't hoax his death to never return again. If he really wanted us to believe he is dead, we would have seen an autopsy picture or at least an open casket picture (and not the mirrored James Brown one I mean  )
Mo and I also e-mailed Craig Harvey from the Coroner's office. I don't know if you will still have doubts after this recap, but in that case I advice you to e-mail the guy, your doubts will vanish into thin air if you ask the right questions and read between the lines, although I am not sure he still replies the 'Hoaxies' :lol: . They say they removed his brain for examination and delivered it back to the family. If they really found Mike in bed with IV's and pumped full of drugs, they would have assumed that that would have been the cause of the cardiac arrest, not a neurological problem.
Removing an entire brain is not common, they only do that if it's hard to find a cause of death and think it's neurological. In that case they will slice the brain, which makes it impossible to return it to the family. Drugs can be found in hair or nails, and IF they needed a brain sample, they could have done a biopsy, no need to take the brain out.
The memorial:
Started late, no tears, old pictures, "I'm alive and I'm here forever", no open casket, Barnum Circus in town and you may agree or disagree, but I think Mike was there himself, dressed as the blondie.
The funeral:
Staged, probably shot at culver, again no open casket, people looked bored, started late too, and again Mike on TV at Larry King Live as Dave Dave.
And there is so much more. Read the forum, read the hoax blogs, read articles. After reading all of this, it's impossible IMO to still think he's dead. Mike is trying to teach us. By 'cracking his code' he wants us to learn to think for ourselves and not take everything the media or the government says for truth. He is showing us so much, but only few people are seeing it. Read more, think more, post more and don't say "OMG HE'S DEAD" whenever some ass tells you a BS story from some anonymous source that he is dead, because he is not.
Check into the chat once in a while to participate in the conversations or ask other members questions if you don't understand something. Don't let people fool you. Do you really think Mike hoaxed his death and would not make some people think he is dead? Confusion confusion folks. Only those that read between the lines and think for themselves, will know he's alive. If you believe anything someone tells you, you still didn't get his point.
Cheer up people and go read some stuff!
827
« on: December 10, 2009, 07:05:55 PM »
Ron Brown
![]()
Ronald Harmon Brown (August 1, 1941–April 3, 1996), was the United States Secretary of Commerce, serving during the first term of President Bill Clinton. He was the first African American to hold this position. He was killed, along with 34 others, in a 1996 plane crash in Croatia.
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
---
The Murder of Ron Brown
[youtube:2mo9dux7]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etk3Db2FGbU&feature=player_embedded[/youtube:2mo9dux7]
[youtube:2mo9dux7]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuceJwHMx2g&feature=related[/youtube:2mo9dux7]
---
On August 6, 1996, 16 officers were punished with official reprimands and other non-criminal punishment incident to the death of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and 34 other Americans in the airplane crash near Dubrovnik, Croatia.
The following article was excerpted from a private letter from Nicholas A. Guarino, former TV Host of Commodities Week, former Arkansas businessman, and editor of Wall Street Underground. We submit it for your own evaluation.
Events at Cilipi Airport, Dubrovnik, Croatia, on the afternoon of April 3, 1996:
• 2:10 Captain Amir Schic lands a twin-engine corporate jet carrying the Croatian Prime Minister and the American Ambassador. It is one of five planes to land routinely on Runway 12 in the hour preceding the scheduled 3:00 arrival of IFOR-21, the Boeing T-43A,[1] carrying Ron Brown and his entourage of American deal-makers.
• 2:15 Businessmen begin to straggle into the lobby, a few carrying umbrellas to ward off the very light to moderate rain. They're early because they're anxious to greet the 35 Americans who at this moment are taking off from Tuzla, Bosnia, 130 miles to the northeast. It is only a 45-minute flight. For those passengers it would usher in eternity.
• 2:30: In the radio shack of the Cilipi Airport, Maintenance Chief Niko Jerkuic, 46, nervously fiddled with the dials of his NonDirectional Radio (NDR) beacon, the only instrument he has to guide approaching planes. In a couple of hours he will be a rich man, the two American operatives told him, if he can quietly send IFOR-21 into Sveti Ivan (St. John's Hill), one of the highest mountains in the area at 2400 feet. Jerkuic will simply shut his beacon down_at the same moment that a decoy beacon is turned on by an American operative sitting near the base of Sveti Ivan. This is an old trick dating back to pirate days. There are some broken clouds at 400 feet; the main cloud is at 2,000 feet. Sveti Ivan rises almost 400 feet into the overcast.
• 2:48 Captain Schic climbs to the control tower to give IFOR-21 a friendly radio greeting and assurance that all is well. He describes the Cilipi weather: visibility 8 kilometers (5 miles), winds still at 14 mph, all flights arriving normally. Flying at about 10,000 feet and 40+ miles away, Co-captains Ashley J. Davis, 35, and Tim Shafer, 33, thank Schic for his words of welcome. These conditions are later described by Newsweek and others as "the worst storm in years" with "visibility just 100 yards." This was refuted by Aviation Week and the Air Force Accident Investigation.[2]
• 2:50 IFOR-21 reports in to Cilipi routinely. It is the last time their voice is heard.
• 2:52 The main regional radar station loses IFOR-21 from its screen.
• 2:52 Jerkuic shuts down his NDR beacon; the decoy powers up.
• 2:54 At Kolocep Island, IFOR-21 is on course as it passes over Cilipi's first beacon, 11.8 miles from the airport, and locks on to the second and final beam that is being transmitted from Sveti Ivan. This changes the plane's actual heading from 119° to 109°, straight into Sveti Ivan. The Cilipi control tower doesn't know the plane is now off course: it has no radar.
• 2:56 The U.S. Air Force AWACS plane keeping track of air traffic in the Bosnian conflict area loses track of IFOR-21 just after it passes over Dubrovnik. Since it is less than a mile off course at this point, no one on the AWACS notes anything wrong.
• 2:58 Aboard the plane, the klaxon of its ground-proximity warning device suddenly blares, but the two or three seconds of warning are far too little. The plane crashes into the rocky hillside and explodes. The tail section remains intact, but the rest of IFOR-21 and its occupants are scattered over the hill. All 35 people aboard are dead except for stewardess Shelly Kelly, who, riding in the tail, sustained only minor cuts and bruises. So far.
• 3:18 U.S. authorities are notified that IFOR-21 is down, location completely unknown. There will be 11 1/2 hours of confusion before arriving at the scene.
• 4:00 In the Republic of South Africa, news reports say that an attempt has been made on the life of Ron Brown's law partner, Tommy Boggs, by unknown assailants in a staged car accident in Capetown. Later, Boggs will refuse to discuss it.
• Later that afternoon, Niko Jerkuic goes home to collect his reward. It is to come three days later: a bullet through the chest, just shortly before he is scheduled to be grilled by the U.S. Air Force accident investigation team. A hit squad wraps his hand around the gun and departs. Like many of the White-water dead, Jerkuic is immediately labelled a suicide even though there's no evidence. A chest wound is a rather rare cause. The quick official reason given for bachelor Jerkuic's death is despondence over romantic troubles. Neighbors and friends deny this and agree that he was not depressed. Like many of his friends who had survived the years of the Bosnian war, he was excited that life was finally getting better.
• 7:20 Four hours and 20 minutes after the crash the first Croatian Special Forces search party arrives on the scene and finds only Ms. Kelly surviving. They call for a helicopter to evacuate her to the hospital. When it arrives, she is able to get aboard without assistance from the medics. But Kelly never completes the short hop. She dies en route. According to multiple reports given to journalist/editor Joe L. Jordan, an autopsy later reveals a neat three-inch incision over her main femoral artery. It also shows that the incision came at least three hours after all her other cuts and bruises.
Further necropsies will not happen. Clinton has ordered the cremation of all victims. It is hard to perform autopsies on ashes.
Confusion or Coverup?
None of the explanations advanced explain the impossibility of how two experienced pilots, on a 45-minute flight, could follow an NDR beam (accurate to within two feet at the landing point) and crash 1.6 miles off course.
The official Air Force explanation is that the pilots set the compass 10° off course. That is unlikely. Pilots routinely set the compass right before takeoff. If this explanation were correct, they would not have been on course when they passed the first beacon, 11.8 miles from the airport. Furthermore, they were flying on the NDR signal, not the compass.
Another view is that a nasty crosswind "blew" the plane sideways. Not credible: this would require a wind 90° off from the actual wind. Blown off course 1.6 miles?
Most of the press and officialdom have blamed poor visibility to some extent. To do this, they have to take the ferocity of the rainstorm later that afternoon and evening and move it back in time to the crash hour. Records show the weather from 2:54 to 2:58 PM was well within the normal limits for the landing.[3] And NDR beacons never get blown off course.
Pilot fatigue and strain? Not likely on a 45-minute flight.
Equipment malfunction on a rickety old plane? IFOR-21 was the number two plane in the White House fleet: in essence, Air Force Two. It had carried Hillary and Chelsea Clinton and Defense Secretary William Perry just the week before. Everything about the flight was checked out and rehearsed a week in advance.
None of the "official" explanations hold water. All of them ignore the fact that IFOR-21 did not simply stray off the path at the last moment. It went straight as an arrow to its doom the moment it left the Kolocep Island beacon and picked up the Cilipi beacon.
The problem had to be the Cilipi beacon which was shut down at the right moment and a decoy beacon at Sveti Ivan turned on. Couldn't the air traffic controller shed some light on things? Certainly. But now he, too, has "committed suicide!"
The chief investigator for Pratt & Whitney happened to be at the Paris Air Show on April 3. Since Pratt & Whitney always sends an investigator when a plane powered by their engines has a mishap, the man called his boss in America and was to be sent to the site.
As he was packing, however, his boss called back and said, "Don't go. There's not going to be a safety investigation."
The Air Force had, for the first time in its history, canceled the safety investigation of a crash on friendly soil. There would be a token legal investigation to enable the assignment of blame and then they'd go home.
Where are the Black Boxes?
Within hours of the crash, the Croatian Ministry of Transport announced that they had the black boxes. One and half days after the crash, Croatian TV (plus Russian and French TV) announced that the FDR (flight data recorder) and the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) were safely in the hands of U.S. Marines. The U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, also stated that a black box was on board.
Later, the Pentagon brass stoutly disputed all this, stating that there were no black boxes aboard. It is difficult to imagine that America's #2 VIP plane had no black box. Veteran Air Force mechanics claim that they never have seen a T-43A without a black box.
Why Hit Ron Brown?
Ron Brown was, by all accounts, just a charming fellow working very hard to promote U.S. business. Why would anyone want to kill him? And who would have the resources to do it by bringing down a large White House airplane?
The answer, in brief, is that Ron Brown was going to prison and had threatened to bring Bill Clinton down with him. He was up to his neck in numerous major scandals: Whitewater, the Denver airport mess, Mena, the Keating Five, Lillian Madsen and her Haitian prostitutes, etc.
Twenty-two Congressmen wrote Clinton in February of 1995 demanding that he fire Brown. At the time of his murder, Brown was under investigation by: a special prosecutor in the Justice Department; the FDIC; the Congressional Reform and Oversight Committee; the FBI; the Energy Department; the Senate Judiciary Committee; and even his own Commerce Department Inspector General.
Involved in over a dozen major scandals, Brown was, among other things, Clinton's point man to bring Iranian Muslims and their weaponry into the Bosnia war. That broke the U.S.-endorsed arms embargo. The money for the arms was most likely from Commerce and Agriculture-slush fund money channeled to U.S. manufacturers, thence to U.S. friendly nations and firms overseas, thence to Iran.
The arms included heli-copter gun-ships, stinger missiles,[4] land mines, anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank weapons, grenade launchers, and other quality weaponry.
The last nail in Brown's coffin was pounded four days before the crash. The FBI and the IRS subpoenaed as many as 20 witnesses for a serious new grand jury probe of Brown in Washington.[5] The February 8, 1996 Washington Post reported that Brown had retained top legal gun Reid Weingarten, a former high official in the Justice Department, as his criminal attorney. You don't pay his prices ($750 an hour) unless you know a criminal indictment is coming and you're probably going to jail.
Janet Reno appointed Daniel Pearson as Brown's special prosecutor.[6] When she gave him blanket permission to investigate anything, Brown angrily demanded that Clinton force her to withdraw Pearson. But Reno couldn't do that; she had been backed into a corner by Representative William F. Clinger, Jr., who is chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, and who had possession of incriminating documents on Brown.
According to confidants who insist on anonymity, when Clinton indicatedhe couldn't comply, Brown went ballistic. His fatal mistake was telling Clinton that he wasn't going to take the rap. He was going to finger Bill and Hillary instead.
From that point on, Brown was a dead man walking. Like Vincent Foster before him, Brown knew too much. More than any man in Washington, he knew where all the money went for the payoffs, bribes, scams, money laundering, cover-ups, participation fees, hush money and side deals_all the way from one-man operations to vast multinational trade treaty deals.
The phoney suicide fake-out used on Foster could not be repeated, of course. But an airplane "whack" is always viewed as an accident. This was not the rag-tag "Arkansas Mafia" that followed Clinton to Washington. This was the muscle squad of the establishment.
Is it possible that 34 innocent Americans were murdered to silence Commerce Secretary Ron Brown? Was this another in a series of cover-ups spanning 13 years and involving our current President?
This article was excerpted from a letter from Nicholas A. Guarino with confirmation by James W. Nugent, the Publisher of Wall Street Underground. The full report also includes details of the 56 Clinton dead: the unknown and deadly side of the Whitewater Scandal. You can obtain a complete report by contacting the address below and then form your own conclusions. You may also want to review the following video documentaries:
• The Clinton Chronicles (now also in book form)
• The Mena Connection: Drugs, Money Laundering, and the Making of a President
• Obstruction of Justice
These are all available from the producers at (800) 828-2290.
The ValuJet Crash Another Attempted Hit?
Chuck Hays, CIA contract operative, was supposed to be on the ValuJet that crashed in May. He was the one who broke the news that Vince Foster had received $2.73 million from Switzerland just before his death. It was put into a U.S. slush fund bank account that he controlled, but it was designated as a "U.S. Treasury Escrow Account."
After his death, the number of the account was found in his wallet. Hays was a key source to Jim Norman, former senior editor of Forbes, who wrote disclosures in Media Bypass.
Hays's name was on the ValuJet manifest, but he was unable to catch the flight. Lucky.
Source: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
More articles:
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Loginml
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
828
« on: December 09, 2009, 02:30:04 PM »
Well, with this post from TNZ I actually agree. It's interesting, well written and the message is clear.
AWAITING THE AWAKENING
This article is dedicated to those who whimper through days and nights on forums, that they are tired, that they are bored, that they are fed up with clues and investigations, that everybody is trying to deceive them, to mock and to mess up. To those who, day by day, keep on complaining, “understanding nothing” and asking “what does it mean for I don’t know what to think” instead of reading books, watching intelligent movies and using Wikipedia in the last resort. To all the others moral weary and intellectually weak people.
Do you ever estimate the quality of your anticipation?
Has it ever come in upon your mind that you perhaps are not worth what you are waiting for?
Do you ever wonder that you not only expectants, but there is also someone who is expecting something from you in return?
Last five months are beginning to take an effect so, telling straight, this effect is much worse than expected. It is not about your fatigue and exhaustion with expectation of Mr. Jackson.
It’s all about his vain pains and lost labors to set people thinking, to awake sleeping brains, to break up patterns of common perception.
It’s all about his deceived expectations of comprehension; about his unavailing efforts to become conceived on the very deep and delicate level of his artistic individuality that could not be expressed by words.
It’s all about narrow-mindedness and ignorance that negative all his attempts to collaborate with his audience, to bring it to understand, to realize, to find an answers and to decide something for their selves. To become something more than simply yawning passenger, waiting in queue for a fairy flight that might carry him directly to the very elevated altitudes of enlightenment.
The truth is that there is no such flight, there is no such plane, there is no such place on the earth where heaven rains ready answers for eternal questions -- WHAT IS DEATH, WHAT IS LOVE, WHERE IS TRUTH.
There is no such Promised Land where these answers come with ease, pain(s)lessly, anguishlessly. And there is no such anesthesia throughout the entire world to deaden the pain of knowing.
We highly recommend everybody who didn’t get it yet to quit you web browser and to throw up the game. There is no use for you. For you, there is nothing and nobody to wait for. Moreover, there is nobody anymore - to wait for you.
You’ve already knew what you wanted - Mr. Jackson is alive and well, he is gonna be back. What else do you need? The date and the exact time? So what’s next? What are you going to do then? What’s the propose of your further participation? Go live your normal life. So nobody will mess you up anymore, nobody will blow your mind out, nobody will disturb your rest with this annoying brain training.
Do you feel like you are victims of manipulation? Because you used to be victims. The victims of your selves, the victims of circumstances, the victims of everything. Nobody messes you up better than you do. Nobody fools you better. And nobody can help you, but you. Because you cannot even see the difference between the helpful lesson and the manipulation.
What you are actually waiting for? For Mr. Jackson? For BAMSDAY? For the truth? For manna from heaven? Do you know it? No, you do not know. Your mind is too awkward to understand it and too coward to accept it. You are spreading LOVE and rejoicing at human (Evan Chandler’s) death at the same time. You are cooking a schnitzel and at the same time grieving at animals in the ZOO. You’re going to see THIS IS IT for the tenth time when you might spend the same money for somebody who is in sore need of help. You can’t get that the long HEAL THE WORLD way begins from yourself.
You judge the blind majority considering Michael Jackson is dead.
They are blind indeed, but they unlike you don’t pretend they are not. You have neither gratitude nor wise to realize that you are enriching with unprecedented experience now, that you are given such special unexampled attention like never before. Though you keep on complaining and exposing your parochialism and profound ignorance.
You are told the truth between the lines, you are told the beautiful fairy tales, you are carried through the greatest adventure, you are always welcome to be surprised and to go further. But neither truth, no fairy tales are good enough for you. You want everything to be easy. Easier. More easier. The easiest. You don’t want to grow up to the answers, but you want the answers to grow down to you.
During this time, he has shown you who you really were. Slovenly in thought, sluggish and shiftless, unintelligent and unable. You never got nothing besides banality and obviosity. You never learnt nothing in spite of you were tried to learn. You never did nothing to raise you bar a little bit higher than your daily nit picking.
You ain’t got nothing at all.
We hope the man, who broke away all deceptive illusions at one stroke, probably will find enough courage to accept the unpleasant truth. The truth about his own audience essential to admass philistine society he hardly rebels against.
Even if he wants, he will probably never say the cruel words we are saying. Though he has clearly realized that you were not those to be open with.
You always orders to him ways of “he would” or “would not”, because you won't take the way he truly is. He must correspond exactly with your perception of “HE WOULD”, mustn’t he? What if he must not? Will you betray and abjure him like you abjure him now by your incomprehension?
This is not he who you love, but you.
You spread love via web you ladle it out blindly. Thoughtless selfish repeaters, do you ever ask your selves what this word means? Do you ever ask your selves what right you have to spread LOVE?
You are waiting maniacally for the King to come back immediately, but think WHO OF YOU HAVE DESERVED HIS COMING?
You don’t appreciate that the very same Mr. Jackson, the King of Everything You Want, you used to see on screen and on stage, is now closer to you more than ever. He is playing with you, thinking of you, spending his time on you.
You don’t realize that when he comes back, this fascinating adventure will be officially certified as nonexistent, you will see him on TV again, he will belong to all and to no one at the same time. Reachless and unachievable as befits a King.
ESTRAGON
What's all this about? Abused who?
VLADIMIR
... The Saviour.
ESTRAGON
Why?
VLADIMIR
Because he wouldn't save them.
ESTRAGON
From hell?
VLADIMIR
Imbecile! From death.
ESTRAGON
I thought you said hell.
VLADIMIR
From death, from death.
(Samuel Bekket, 'Waiting for Godot')
We would like to express our boundless appreciation and profound gratitude to our readers we actually in love with. To all those who dare to think, to seek, to study, to conceive, to wonder and not to give up.
To all those who do not allow their brains to eat its own flesh and keep on writing thoughtful, substantial and serious-minded comments, letters and messages.
You are all the very raison d'etre for us. You are all a prime cause of our being here. Our real treasure.
Please keep on being an exception from the rule of common illiberality, frequently whitewashed by “human nature”. You give us every reason not to give up the idea that the true human nature is in restless aspiration to surpass so-called human nature over and over again.
We are more than glad that some of our friends translate theory into practice and enter charity into their own must-do list. Isn’t it really great? What could be better?
So even if only hundred of the million learn to look deeper to discover more; learn to expand their perception of the reality, learn to raise questions and to find right answers by their selves, learn to love, but not only to spread acronyms -- the mission may be considered as accomplished. Even so, the Strangest Man on the Planet has ‘died’ not in vain.
To all of you and especially to Pat Mj_Still_Alive who inspired us to write this article --
Very Many Thanks
LETTER FROM PAT
I'm not talking only about Michael, but about a situation in general, when those in charge exploit their power in their personal interest. The thing that irritates me most is that there are few - very few- voices raised against corruption. And in the meantime racism, homophobia, violence and intolerance are destroying our way of life. It 's hard to be a part of minority trying to make its voices heard. Especially when you feel that people around you are content with truth precooked and ask no questions.
And they don’t want to see, not even outrage anymore. It 's scary. Everyone thinks of his self-interest, people walk fast down the street with downcast eyes and ears to the phone. And then you see all these people on the street, at the bar, while shopping, talking on the bus, waving, gesturing like just escaped the madhouse. Instead of looking into each other's eyes and exchange at least a smile, they enter into another dimension, involving more or less indirectly all those who cross. We can almost see these pieces of sick conversations hanging in the air, like balloons tied to the wrists of children.
There is thousand things to do and it is a tough job, but as I said I did not give up. Other important thing is that there are only the reality shows or programs on TV where you can see tits and asses, that fuck you up after a day at work. If you have a job yet. So it's all right there on television they try to calm us down, that the crisis is now coming to an end, TV transmits services over the coming holidays: what we'll do, what we'll give, just to be sure we will not even decide what to put under our Christmas trees.
I don’t give up because I am convinced that a voice from the pack maybe enough to wake the other. We should not heal the world. We must heal ourselves. Our planet has existed for thousands of years and will continue to do so. WE are at risk of extinction and sometimes I wonder whether it is good. How much energy we waste every day without even realizing it? And there are just a few people I continue to follow concerning Michael.
I think that only very few of them have really opened their eyes. They don’t understand that they didn’t understand HIM. They are racing to discover the truth and spend hours at the computer to investigate without wonder if they could spend all this time, all these hours of sleep lost, in a better way. Because in the end there will NOT be the award for the "best fan of Michael". And even if, who cares? Let me tell you this blasphemy: WHO CARES! His return will not change the individual life of any of us. He will not come to our house to solve our own problems and troubles.
Those who go crazy on him don’t end up in the newspapers as "those who understood the truth." Sometimes we are using hoax as an excuse for not making contact with ourselves, and we lose the opportunity to grow our soul. We do not have much time left and we have not learned yet to work together for a common purpose that goes beyond our individuality. A purpose that goes further.
ESTRAGON
What exactly did we ask him for?
VLADIMIR ...
Were you not there?
ESTRAGON
I can't have been listening.
VLADIMIR
Oh . . . Nothing very definite.
ESTRAGON
And what did he reply?
VLADIMIR
That he'd see.
ESTRAGON
That he couldn't promise anything.
(Samuel Bekket, 'Waiting for Godot')
829
« on: December 09, 2009, 07:55:32 AM »
Hey guys,
As you all know by now, I don't like strict rules on this forum, and there won't be now, so don't worry.
I do have to ask you the following concerning the postings of topics and comments:
1. Make it clear in the title what the topic is about. Don't name your topic: "OMG!!" or "Look what I found!" but mention the actual subject like for example: I found an article about Tohme Tohme's hairdresser or Jermaine said something weird on Larru King Live tonight. Just so that people can see what the topic is about before they click it. That also will avoid double posts more, which is my second point:
2. Please search the forum first about a topic, before you post is. There are too many double posts at the moment, therefore it's hard for us to keep the forum clear.
3. Post your topics in the right subforum. If you are not sure where to post it, post it in the topic most related to the subject.
4. If you comment, do not only say: "wow" or "that's a long post" or "I don't agree". These comments are not helping anyone. If you disagree on a subject, try to explain WHY you don't agree.
5. If you quote a post, try to quote only the part that you want to comment on and if pictures are not important for your comment, delete them from the quote. The pages will load slower if everyone is quoting pictures and video's when it's not really necessary.
6. If you comment, try to read the other comments first. Sometimes not only the main topic is interesting, but also the comments or questions of the other members.
7. Please don't post topics in the Admin Messages Forum, it's for us to let you know stuff, if you want to tell or ask us something, please do so in the Forum FAQ section.
Well, that's it for now, please keep the above in mind when you post.
Thank you for reading!
Greetz,
Souza
830
« on: December 08, 2009, 07:36:14 PM »
Was Michael Jackson Framed? by Mary A. Fisher GQ magazine 1994
Before O.J. Simpson, there was Michael Jackson -- another beloved black celebrity seemingly brought down by allegations of scandal in his personal life. Those allegations -- that Jackson had molested a 13-year-old boy -- instigated a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, two grand-jury investigations and a shameless media circus. Jackson, in turn, filed charges of extortion against some of his accusers. Ultimately, the suit was settled out of court for a sum that has been estimated at $20 million; no criminal charges were brought against Jackson by the police or the grand juries. This past August, Jackson was in the news again, when Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis's daughter, announced that she and the singer had married.
As the dust settles on one of the nation's worst episodes of media excess, one thing is clear: The American public has never heard a defense of Michael Jackson. Until now.
It is, of course, impossible to prove a negative -- that is, prove that something didn't happen. But it is possible to take an in-depth look at the people who made the allegations against Jackson and thus gain insight into their character and motives. What emerges from such an examination, based on court documents, business records and scores of interviews, is a persuasive argument that Jackson molested no one and that he himself may have been the victim of a well-conceived plan to extract money from him.
More than that, the story that arises from this previously unexplored territory is radically different from the tale that has been promoted by tabloid and even mainstream journalists. It is a story of greed, ambition, misconceptions on the part of police and prosecutors, a lazy and sensation-seeking media and the use of a powerful, hypnotic drug. It may also be a story about how a case was simply invented.
Neither Michael Jackson nor his current defense attorneys agreed to be interviewed for this article. Had they decided to fight the civil charges and go to trial, what follows might have served as the core of Jackson's defense -- as well as the basis to further the extortion charges against his own accusers, which could well have exonerated the singer.
Jackson's troubles began when his van broke down on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles in May 1992. Stranded in the middle of the heavily trafficked street, Jackson was spotted by the wife of Mel Green, an employee at Rent-a-Wreck, an offbeat car-rental agency a mile away. Green went to the rescue. When Dave Schwartz, the owner of the car-rental company, heard Green was bringing Jackson to the lot, he called his wife, June, and told her to come over with their 6-year-old daughter and her son from her previous marriage. The boy, then 12, was a big Jackson fan. Upon arriving, June Chandler Schwartz told Jackson about the time her son had sent him a drawing after the singer's hair caught on fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial. Then she gave Jackson their home number.
"It was almost like she was forcing [the boy] on him," Green recalls. "I think Michael thought he owed the boy something, and that's when it all started."
Certain facts about the relationship are not in dispute. Jackson began calling the boy, and a friendship developed. After Jackson returned from a promotional tour, three months later, June Chandler Schwartz and her son and daughter became regular guests at Neverland, Jackson's ranch in Santa Barbara County. During the following year, Jackson showered the boy and his family with attention and gifts, including video games, watches, an after-hours shopping spree at Toys "R" Us and trips around the world -- from Las Vegas and Disney World to Monaco and Paris.
By March 1993, Jackson and the boy were together frequently and the sleepovers began. June Chandler Schwartz had also become close to Jackson "and liked him enormously," one friend says. "He was the kindest man she had ever met."
Jackson's personal eccentricities -- from his attempts to remake his face through plastic surgery to his preference for the company of children -- have been widely reported. And while it may be unusual for a 35-year-old man to have sleepovers with a 13-year-old child, the boy's mother and others close to Jackson never thought it odd. Jackson's behavior is better understood once it's put in the context of his own childhood.
"Contrary to what you might think, Michael's life hasn't been a walk in the park," one of his attorneys says. Jackson's childhood essentially stopped -- and his unorthodox life began -- when he was 5 years old and living in Gary, Indiana. Michael spent his youth in rehearsal studios, on stages performing before millions of strangers and sleeping in an endless string of hotel rooms. Except for his eight brothers and sisters, Jackson was surrounded by adults who pushed him relentlessly, particularly his father, Joe Jackson -- a strict, unaffectionate man who reportedly beat his children.
Read the whole article: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
831
« on: December 08, 2009, 07:31:25 PM »
By Jim Haysom - November 13, 2009 (You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login)
Today is Friday 13th, a day in which most people when doing something, might err on the side of caution. It's also known to be a day of good luck and not just bad luck, but as it nears midnight I am undecided on that one.
However, the number 13 does seem to be synonymous with pop legend Michael Jackson. Being a MJ fan since a small child, I was ever so excited to have bought a ticket for his 'This is It' O2 show in London. But looking back at some recent dates around actually buying and receiving the ticket, I'm convinced that the number 13 was both good luck and bad luck for Wacko Jacko. Below is a highlight of my findings, which I'm sure you will find really odd.
The Good - Legend and King of Pop
Undoubtedly the greatest pop star and musicial of modern times, Michael Jackson was a legend. His personal story touches the hearts of millions, from the Jackon 5 days right up to the current day, but his musical genius is evident in what he achieved;
13 Grammy Awards won with 8 for Thriller
13 #1 Singles in the U.S. Billboard 200 Albums Chart
13 Number One singles in his solo career, more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era
13 Million copies of his Invincible album approximately sold worldwide, debuting at the top of the charts in 13 countries.
13 Countries pushed Number Ones album to the number one spot on their iTunes chart. The singer's albums were also dominating Apple's iTunes download charts with a Jackson album topping the chart in 13 different countries.
13 songs in the UK singles chart
That's quite a lot of 13's for my liking. Is that just luck, or is someone trying to tell us something?
Read the whole article: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
832
« on: December 08, 2009, 06:58:56 PM »
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login was redirected today to a youtube about this book:
[youtube:3fvmb5cm]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIwehjDPOYU[/youtube:3fvmb5cm]
----------
source: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
Michael Jackson Conspiracy (Hardcover)
![]()
Product Description
He was the pop icon the media Ioved to hate. TremendousIy weaIthy, inarguabIy eccentric, and one of the most famous peopIe in the worId, Michael Jackson was the unenviabIe target of constant pubIic humiIiation. The media poked fun at his skin, his features, his sexuaIity, and his IifestyIe.Here, seasoned crime reporter Aphrodite Jones condemns the media for perpetuating hatefuI rumors and innuendoes, recounting just the sordid detaiIs, and reporting onIy the most despicabIe accusations and grisIy charges made against Michael Jackson during his criminaI triaI. They had buiIt a highIy profitabIe industry around the superstar's "freaky Iife" and banked on his conviction. And, it turns out, they got it aII wrong.In their efforts to make money and win ratings, the media missed the truth. It wasn't untiI after the "not guiIty" verdict that Jones had the insight and courage to admit her own unintentionaI roIe in the frenzy surrounding the shocking testimony, high drama, and countIess ceIebrities in Michael Jackson's high-profiIe criminaI triaI. Here, she makes amends with what is not onIy a truthfuI, weII-documented chronicIe of the entire triaI but a powerfuI indictment against the media for conspiring to distort, dehumanize, and destroy Michael Jackson. Jones argues convincingIy that the case against Jackson amounted to nothing more than a media-made, tax-paid scandaI, and she makes an impassioned caII to action for the pubIic-at-Iarge to think criticaIIy, question the integrity, and demand the truth in "the news".
About the Author
With five bestseIIing crime books under her beIt, Aphrodite Jones has become a highIy recognized authority on true crime. Jones has made more than one hundred teIevision and radio appearances and has been quoted in articIes that have appeared in the "Ios AngeIes Times", "New York Post", "DaiIy News", "The HoIIywood Reporter", and "USA Today". She is the author of the "New York Times" bestseIIer "CrueI Sacrifice", and her account of the Brandon Teena story, "AII She Wanted", became an internationaI bestseIIer and was transformed into the fiIm "Boys Don't Cry".
Reviews - Michael Jackson Conspiracy is a must read.
When District Attorney Tom Sneddon smugIy announced that Michael Jackson was to be criminaIIy charged, and that NeverIand was being raided, he was so bIinded by greed, jeaIousy and vengeance that he couId not see that the degenerate famiIy he had sided with, the Arvizo famiIy, in order to try and take Michael Jackson's freedom from him, and ruin his reputation, aII so that Sneddon couId bask in gIory, wouId actuaIIy bring Sneddon the uItimate humiIiation. Sneddon's case against Michael Jackson was buiIt on Iies, and was created by Iiars, and Sneddon got exactIy what he deserved, faiIure!!!
When Michael Jackson was put on triaI, accused of having moIested Gavin Arvizo -- who had Iearnt from his famiIy how to extort peopIe -- the media refused to teII the truth. The media refused to acknowIedge, or discuss, what was actuaIIy going on in the courtroom that was favorabIe to Michael Jackson. The testimony that pointed to Michael Jackson's innocence, the success Michael Jackson's attorneys had in exposing the prosecution case for what it was, sham, was ignored by the media, the media refused to teII the truth.
When prosecution witnesses who desired to fiII their pockets with Michael Jackson's money, who hoped to become rich by seIIing faIse stories, who faIseIy accused Michael Jackson, and who made up as many Iies as possibIe, as horribIe as possibIe, to extort as much money as possibIe from Michael Jackson, were exposed, it was ignored by the media, the media refused to teII the truth.
When the accuser, Gavin Arvizo, and his famiIy, mother Janet Arvizo, and sibIings Star Arvizo and DaveIIin Arvizo, stumbIed over their Iies, contradicted themseIves continuaIIy, became argumentative when presented with facts that proved they were Iiars and extortionists, it was ignored by the media, the media refused to teII the truth.
When Michael Jackson's young cousin testified that the accuser, Gavin Arvizo, and Gavin's brother Star tried to get him to masturbate in their presence, it was ignored by the media, the media refused to teII the truth.
When it was reveaIed that Michael Jackson's former empIoyees onIy cIaimed to have seen inappropriate behavior by Michael Jackson AFTER THEY WERE OFFERED MONEY AND PAID BY TABIOIDS/THE MEDIA, it was ignored by the media, the media refused to teII the truth. (Michael Jackson successfuIIy sued these former empIoyees many years ago, they stiII owe him money.)
When Michael Jackson's current empIoyees testified that the accuser, Gavin Arvizo, and his famiIy sIept in guesthouses at NeverIand (and not in Michael Jackson's bedroom), that they caused a great deaI of troubIe at NeverIand, Ieft a huge mess at NeverIand, damaged and defaced property at NeverIand, attacked the animaIs at NeverIand, puIIed knives on NeverIand empIoyees, stoIe from NeverIand empIoyees, stoIe from Michael Jackson, extorted NeverIand empIoyees by Iying about their financiaI circumstances, extorted the government by Iying about their financiaI circumstances, extorted other ceIebrities by Iying to them and faIseIy accusing them, caused troubIe wherever they went, and to whoever was unIucky enough to befriend them, overaII having been shown to be users, Iiars, thieves, troubIemakers and criminaIs, it was ignored by the media, the media refused to teII the truth..... untiI now.
Aphrodite Jones, a reporter, ashamed of her behavior during Michael Jackson's triaI, having reaIized that she was wrong, has written this book - "Michael Jackson Conspiracy" - which is pretty much a compact version of Michael Jackson's triaI. It detaiIs exactIy what happened in the courtroom at Michael Jackson's triaI (using actuaI triaI testimony), the facts that were reveaIed and exposed, the witnesses and what they stated, how Michael Jackson's defense team managed to successfuIIy destroy prosecution theories and witnesses on a daiIy basis, how the media did not want to report anything that was favorabIe to Michael Jackson or his defense team, how some media reporters had aIready secured deaIs to have access to Michael Jackson if he was to be found guiIty and imprisoned (which is disgusting, because this behavior impIies that these jerks preferred that a chiId had been moIested so that they couId profit), and how Michael Jackson was found NOT GUIITY by a jury that saw right through the Iies, right through the Arvizo famiIy, right through District Attorney Tom Sneddon and his sham case, and right through the media garbage that has been circuIating for years about Michael Jackson.
So, if you want the truth about Michael Jackson, how he has become a target for Iiars who want to become instant miIIionaires, and the victim of a media that promotes and prefers Iies, read "Michael Jackson Conspiracy".
Buy the book: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
----------
Michael Jackson’s death brings conspiracy theory back into spotlight
SOURCE: Jackson NJ Online June 25, 2009
Michael Jackson Conspiracy was a book written in 2007. This article is about the book Michael Jackson Conspiracy and a review of the book. The book was a look into the conspiracies around Michael Jackson’s life and dove into criminal allegations and depicts Jackson as a calculative and devisive person who used his money to get away with his wrong doings. It was written by Aphrodite Jones, a highly recognized authority on true crime. Jones has made more than one hundred television and radio appearances and has been quoted in articles that have appeared in the “Los Angeles Times”, “New York Post”, “Daily News”, “The Hollywood Reporter”, and “USA Today”. She is the author of the “New York Times” bestseller “Cruel Sacrifice”, and her account of the Brandon Teena story, “All She Wanted”, became an international bestseller and was transformed into the film “Boys Don’t Cry”.
About the book
He was the pop icon the media loved to hate. Tremendously wealthy, inarguably eccentric, and one of the most famous people in the world, Michael Jackson was the unenviable target of constant public humiliation. The media poked fun at his skin, his features, his sexuality, and his lifestyle.Here, seasoned crime reporter Aphrodite Jones condemns the media for perpetuating hateful rumors and innuendoes, recounting just the sordid details, and reporting only the most despicable accusations and grisly charges made against Michael Jackson during his criminal trial. They had built a highly profitable industry around the superstar’s “freaky life” and banked on his conviction. And, it turns out, they got it all wrong.In their efforts to make money and win ratings, the media missed the truth. It wasn’t until after the “not guilty” verdict that Jones had the insight and courage to admit her own unintentional role in the frenzy surrounding the shocking testimony, high drama, and countless celebrities in Michael Jackson’s high-profile criminal trial. Here, she makes amends with what is not only a truthful, well-documented chronicle of the entire trial but a powerful indictment against the media for conspiring to distort, dehumanize, and destroy Michael Jackson. Jones argues convincingly that the case against Jackson amounted to nothing more than a media-made, tax-paid scandal, and she makes an impassioned call to action for the public-at-large to think critically, question the integrity, and demand the truth in “the news”.
Michael Jackson Conspiracy Review
When District Attorney Tom Sneddon smugly announced that Michael Jackson was to be criminally charged, and that Neverland was being raided, he was so blinded by greed, jealousy and vengeance that he could not see that the degenerate family he had sided with, the Arvizo family, in order to try and take Michael Jackson’s freedom from him, and ruin his reputation, all so that Sneddon could bask in glory, would actually bring Sneddon the ultimate humiliation. Sneddon’s case against Michael Jackson was built on lies, and was created by liars, and Sneddon got exactly what he deserved, failure!!! When Michael Jackson was put on trial, accused of having molested Gavin Arvizo — who had learnt from his family how to extort people — the media refused to tell the truth. The media refused to acknowledge, or discuss, what was actually going on in the courtroom that was favorable to Michael Jackson. The testimony that pointed to Michael Jackson’s innocence, the success Michael Jackson’s attorneys had in exposing the prosecution case for what it was, sham, was ignored by the media, the media refused to tell the truth. When prosecution witnesses who desired to fill their pockets with Michael Jackson’s money, who hoped to become rich by selling false stories, who falsely accused Michael Jackson, and who made up as many lies as possible, as horrible as possible, to extort as much money as possible from Michael Jackson, were exposed, it was ignored by the media, the media refused to tell the truth. When the accuser, Gavin Arvizo, and his family, mother Janet Arvizo, and siblings Star Arvizo and Davellin Arvizo, stumbled over their lies, contradicted themselves continually, became argumentative when presented with facts that proved they were liars and extortionists, it was ignored by the media, the media refused to tell the truth. When Michael Jackson’s young cousin testified that the accuser, Gavin Arvizo, and Gavin’s brother Star tried to get him to masturbate in their presence, it was ignored by the media, the media refused to tell the truth. When it was revealed that Michael Jackson’s former employees only claimed to have seen inappropriate behavior by Michael Jackson AFTER THEY WERE OFFERED MONEY AND PAID BY TABLOIDS/THE MEDIA, it was ignored by the media, the media refused to tell the truth. (Michael Jackson successfully sued these former employees many years ago, they still owe him money.) When Michael Jackson’s current employees testified that the accuser, Gavin Arvizo, and his family slept in guesthouses at Neverland (and not in Michael Jackson’s bedroom), that they caused a great deal of trouble at Neverland, left a huge mess at Neverland, damaged and defaced property at Neverland, attacked the animals at Neverland, pulled knives on Neverland employees, stole from Neverland employees, stole from Michael Jackson, extorted Neverland employees by lying about their financial circumstances, extorted the government by lying about their financial circumstances, extorted other celebrities by lying to them and falsely accusing them, caused trouble wherever they went, and to whoever was unlucky enough to befriend them, overall having been shown to be users, liars, thieves, troublemakers and criminals, it was ignored by the media, the media refused to tell the truth….. until now. Aphrodite Jones, a reporter, ashamed of her behavior during Michael Jackson’s trial, having realized that she was wrong, has written this book – “Michael Jackson Conspiracy” – which is pretty much a compact version of Michael Jackson’s trial. It details exactly what happened in the courtroom at Michael Jackson’s trial (using actual trial testimony), the facts that were revealed and exposed, the witnesses and what they stated, how Michael Jackson’s defense team managed to successfully destroy prosecution theories and witnesses on a daily basis, how the media did not want to report anything that was favorable to Michael Jackson or his defense team, how some media reporters had already secured deals to have access to Michael Jackson if he was to be found guilty and imprisoned (which is disgusting, because this behavior implies that these jerks preferred that a child had been molested so that they could profit), and how Michael Jackson was found NOT GUILTY by a jury that saw right through the lies, right through the Arvizo family, right through District Attorney Tom Sneddon and his sham case, and right through the media garbage that has been circulating for years about Michael Jackson. So, if you want the truth about Michael Jackson, how he has become a target for liars who want to become instant millionaires, and the victim of a media that promotes and prefers lies, read “Michael Jackson Conspiracy”.
----------
You can find a preview of the book here: [attachment=1:3fvmb5cm]070828_MichaelJacksonConspiracy_Sharpton_Website_Chapters 08_07_AJ.pdf[/attachment:3fvmb5cm].“Michael Jackson – Conspiracy” - VIP Chat with Aphrodite Jones:[attachment=0:3fvmb5cm]Michael-Jackson-Conspiracy-VIP-Chat-with-Aphrodite-Jones.pdf[/attachment:3fvmb5cm] [/color]
833
« on: December 08, 2009, 06:11:19 PM »
I think this blogpost has been posted earlier, but I bumped into it today again and I thought it's worth posting it again.
Source: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or LoginWas Michael Jackson Really Facing Financial Difficulties?We are told that the KING OF POP was actually penniless by the time of his ‘death’. Is this true or not? We heard stories from his nanny that he had no money left. In fact, she even states that she had to lend him money. We are also told that he was so desperate for money that he signed the contract for the 50 concerts. Then we are told that it was the stress from these concerts that Michael Jackson could not handle, and this led to his ‘death’. Up until now, what you read and heard is what Michael Jackson wants you to believe. The truth is far from it… #Michael Jackson owned the Beatles catalogue. Michael Jackson purchased this in 1984-85, for $40 million. At the time, he was only 26 years old. This meant that he would earn 50% of the royalties from the Beatles songs since he owned the publishing rights. This catalogue contained 4,000 songs. #In 1995, Michael Jackson sold 250 Beatles songs to Sony Corporation for $95 million. He still owns rights to 3,750 songs. #It has been said that Michael Jackson owns 50% share in Sony-ATV Music Publishing Catalogue, which is estimated to be at $US1.5 billion and $US2 billion. Just having ownership of this generated $US13-20 million in profit, on a yearly basis. #Michael Jackson also owns the Mijac Music Publishing catalogue, that is worth at around $US 100 million. Of course the value of this one sky-rocketed with all the sales of his albums following the hoax death. #His estate is worth $500 million. #When Martin Bashir asked Michael Jackson how much he was worth – this was in 2003, Michael Jackson reluctantly said he ws worth beyond 1 billion US dollars. #The Beatles catalogue that Michael Jackson owns is pegged at $US 4-5 billion. #Album sales of Bad (1989, $US 125 million), Dangerous (1992, $US 67 million), HIStory (1996, $US 55 million) and Blood On The Dance Floor (1998, $US 12 million) I did some further research, and came up with some extremely interesting information that has NOT surfaced anywhere else on the internet – at least not until now. Not even a few days after the ‘death’ of Michael Jackson, Joe Jackson appeared at the BET Awards. You can read about that in my previous post. During an interview, Joe Jackson plugged ‘Ranch Records’. As another forum reader mentioned, the name is Ranch Records – ie. Neverland Ranch! Extremely interesting…coincidence? I think NOT! Here is what Joe Jackson’s partner Marshall Thompson had to say about Ranch Records: “It’s driven by Blu-ray technology, and that’s his next step.” HIS next step? Whose next step? Joe Jackson was never an investor…he did create the Jackson 5 partially, but thats about it. So WHOSE next step is it? Sounds like a huge slip of tongue by Marshall Thompson. Initially, I did not think much of Ranch Records or the slip-of-tongue by Marshall Thompson. Not until I did some research on the aliases that Michael Jackson supposedly used to obtain drugs and visit doctors. Remember, you are reading this here first.Paul Farance is the alias Michael Jackson used. In reality, the name refers to Paul France – CEO of Fantastic One. Fantastic One is a media company that uses new technologies. Prior to this, Paul France launched Asia Business News in 1993, which eventually merged with CNBC to create CNBC Asia in 1998. In Paul France’s own words: “”I have been very closely associated with Internet developments and have felt that the true value of new media has been held back by bandwidth restraints.Now that broadband is coming on stream I am genuinely excited about the potential for this revolution.Through its parent companies,FantasticOne has the technology and the experience in content delivery to truly make this revolution of Digital Broadband Multimedia come about.” Omar Arnold is another alias Michael Jackson used. Who is Omar Arnold? In reality, he is the CEO and owner of Quantum Sales & Technology Incorporated. Its even located in California – very convenient. Its a company that deals with Audio Systems. They even support organizations that promote music programs in schools across the USA. Jimmy Nicholas was another one of Michael Jackson’s alias. Jimmy Nicholas is actually the vice president of business development for MokaFive, a technology based organization. He has a track record of working win operations and finance, and has background in developing partnerships for venture software companies. Prior to this, he worked with TriplePoint Capital, where he was responsible for venture transactions with parters of the firm. Along with a lot of other experience in venture firms, he was also the CEO of Oxford Media Corporation – which was dedicated for providing digital video technology. In 2000, Media reports indicate that Michael Jackson invested several million dollars in HollywoodTicket.com, which was a firm that wanted to maximize internet technology. Unfortunately, this start-up firm that did not perform so well initially and there are reports that it changed its company direction. Brian Singleton, Michael Jackson’s alias is actually the Chief Creative Producer and Officer of Attention Span Media. This company is also conveniently located in Los Angeles, and Brian has worked with the entertainment industry via production of various sitcoms, was a News Producer of KHIZ TV and now is focusing upon New Media. Peter Midani was the alias Michael Jackson used – but actually referred to Peter Madonia. Since 2006, he has been the Chief Operating Officer of the Rockefeller Foundation, and oversees human and financial resources, information technology, facilities and such. Prior to this, he was the Chief of Staff to New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg – who paid a tribute to Michael Jackson. Interestingly, Bloomberg announced on July 7th 2009 that he wanted to help the slumped media industry, by creating 8,000 jobs. How? By creating partnerships between traditional and digital media, and attracting foreign investments by media companies. They would also create fellowships for training with venture firms. Not only this, but a World Congress of Children was hosted at Neverland in April 1995, where in addition to other supporters, Michael Jackson’s Heal The World Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation was a sponsor. The other aliases were names of friends, his children, other celebrities, or his staff. As you can see, there is the very strong possibility that the aliases that Michael Jackson used were those of people that he knew. From the list above, they all happened to be leading individuals associated with media and technology industries. Prior evidence indicates that Michael Jackson was an investor of start-up companies associated with technology. Not only that, but surprisingly Ranch Records is also focusing on supporting new media technologies. Contrary to the impression that has been portrayed of Michael Jackson being a lavish spender and not familiar with finances, I strongly believe that he is a very apt business minded individual. It has even been reported that part of his intention to wed Lisa Marie was to purchase rights over Elvis Presley’s catalogue. Moreover, Michael Jackson has even stated in his interviews that Salvation Army is an excellent store and often had nice merchandise. This was said in the 1980’s, when Michael Jackson was already a millionaire. Moreover, despite supposedly having problems with his father, he lived at home with his parents even in his mid-twenties. We are talking about a millionaire here, who was already internationally recognized. He did not go around blowing money like the pop stars today. Rather, he lived very cautiously. He did become a big spender in the 1990’s, but that is from our perspective, and not that of a man worth beyond 1 billion dollars. So why the facade of showing a poor Michael Jackson to the world? His songs lyrics speak louder then anything else about this. All the allegations, court cases, being sued, having to settle cases out of court, shutting the mouths of people, etc. cost him a lot. Naturally, he was worried about what would become of his finances. His reaction was to liquidate most of his funds and assets, write them off as expenses and move them into foreign bank accounts and investments. There are even reports that he wanted to open resorts in Dubai as well as Asia, and perhaps these even materialized. Some of his funds were used to purchase stocks and invest into media technology based venture firms, as you can see from above, but obviously not under his real name. Perhaps if the company structure and share holders were ever available to the general public, we could possibly locate the alias that Michael Jackson used to invest. Moreover, Michael Jackson even fired his close business managers and advisors and hired Dr. Tohme in 2005. This is when reports about Michael Jackson’s financial crisis began to emerge, as well as reports of him being ill. Odd right? The King of Pop was not facing financial distress, that was an image for us to believe in. At the moment, he continues to receive royalties from the enormous sales of his albums, enjoy the funds that he liquidated and sent away to offshore accounts, as well as continuing to invest into venture firms based on technology and media. All this while not having to pay a single dime to any of his on-going court cases, loans, other ‘debt’ that he had accrued. In one of his interviews, Michael Jackson mentioned that he is not stupid, and that stupid people don’t get this far – which is very true indeed. To pull of this hoax and having planned all the minute details needs a brilliant mind while having calculated all the gains requires a brilliant mind – that of Michael Jackson.
834
« on: December 08, 2009, 05:59:51 PM »
I posted this article before on MJKIT a few months ago, but I think it's worth a repost.
Michael Jackson teaming up with David Blaine?
BY: ABSOLUTE PICTURES | Tuesday, November 21, 2006
After Michael Jackson's dismal performance at The World Music Awards last week, the King of Pop needs all of the help he can get. Now it looks like he's found it in street magician, David Blaine. It's been reported that Jackson and Blaine are planning a music and magic spectacle for the New Year.
According to Pop Revenge, who are billing the story as an exclusive undercover report from The World Music Awards, a source close to the famous pop star claims to have revealed that Michael is planning a spectacular show to silence his critics with the help of his old friend, David Blaine. The female source told Pop Revenge that Jackson is already in the early stages of pulling off a big comeback, "There is nothing more sacred to Michael than his electricity on stage, press reports claimed he will never sing again like he used to, they are in for a shock. The attacks have personally hurt him, he has always prided himself on his abilities as a live performer. His response will be dramatic and the answer is going to be onstage, it is something nobody else could create."
Another source at the awards show, apparently a friend of David Blaine's, admitted to the outlet that plans are indeed underway for something unique, "David is in New York preparing for his big stunt next week, as soon as he comes through that are going to start preparations, people will realize that Michael can perform at the highest level, a level only he can attain. People are in for a surprise."
It looks like this unknown music and magic spectacular will coincide with Jackson's upcoming album, which is being recorded in Ireland and is expected to be available sometime in 2007.
While the validity of these sources are still up for debate, it's interesting to think of the possible stage show both entertainers are capable of putting together. Before we get too excited, though, who remembers the short lived buzz surrounding Michael's supposed Thriller performance at the World Music Awards? Michael just needs to make it happen, that's what fans are waiting for.
Source: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
835
« on: December 08, 2009, 05:43:04 PM »
![]()
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was born the son of a candle and soap maker, but by his own efforts and intellect he rose to become arguably the most admired man of the eighteenth century.
Throughout his long and illustrious career he was many different things: a printer, philosopher, man of science, man of letters, and statesman. He was also a hoaxer. Like other eighteenth-century literary figures such as Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe, he used hoaxes for satirical ends, to expose what he perceived as foolishness and vice to the light of public censure.
The efforts of Franklin and other Enlightenment hoaxers to address public opinion through hoaxes reveals the increasing importance placed upon public opinion (and the idea of democracy) throughout this period. Franklin was a master of the art of public relations before that concept had even been dreamed up. The very image of himself which he presented to the world, as a simple but wise American rustic dressed in a raccoon-skin hat, was a carefully crafted public persona which belied the reality that he was one of the most sophisticated, cosmopolitan men of his era.
Some of his more famous hoaxes are discussed below.
The Supplement to the Boston Independent Chronicle (1782)
In 1782 a shocking letter was printed in the Supplement to the Boston Independent Chronicle. It alleged that Indian warriors were sending hundreds of American scalps as war trophies to British royalty and Members of Parliament. The scalps included those of women, as well as young girls and boys.
![]()
Soon the letter had crossed the Atlantic and began to circulate throughout Europe, where it shocked European public opinion. But in fact, the British had not received scalps from any Indians. The Supplement to the Boston Independent Chronicle was a fake newspaper which Benjamin Franklin had printed and distributed to his friends.
Franklin intended his hoax to aid the American war effort by turning European opinion against the British.
The Electric Kite Hoax (June 1752)
On October 19, 1752, the Pennsylvania Gazette published a brief description of an experiment recently conducted by Benjamin Franklin. Franklin, the article said, had flown a kite in a thunderstorm, causing electricity to be conducted down the line of the kite and electrifying a key tied to it. This demonstrated that lightning, as many had speculated, was a form of electricity.
![]()
Franklin's electric kite became the most famous experiment of the eighteenth century, helping to make Franklin famous throughout Europe and America. And yet, some historians argue that it probably never happened.
They point to a curious lack of details about the experiment. It is not known exactly when the experiment occurred. Sometime in June, 1752 was the closest Franklin ever came to an exact date. Nor did Franklin ever write a formal report about it. The only witness to the event was Franklin's son, who never said a word about it. Finally, such an experiment would have been extremely dangerous, possibly fatal, as Franklin knew.
Historian Tom Tucker suggests that Franklin originally proposed the idea for the experiment as a joke. Frustrated because the British Royal Society had been ignoring his letters to them about his earlier electrical research, he might have proposed the deadly experiment as a subtle joke. It was his way of saying, Go fly a kite in a storm! But when his suggestion reached France, where people took it seriously, Franklin decided to play along and claimed he really had conducted the experiment.
Tucker's theory remains controversial. Other historians argue that Franklin would never have risked being exposed as a liar by the scientific community.
The Trial of Polly Baker (1747)
In 1747 the London General Advertiser printed the text of a speech said to have been given by a woman, Polly Baker, at her trial. She had just given birth to her fifth child, was unmarried, and had been charged with having sexual intercourse out of wedlock.
Polly Baker readily admitted her guilt but argued that the law itself was unreasonable. Why was she being punished, she asked, while the men who committed the crime with her were let off scot free? According to the article, Polly's argument so moved the judges that one of them asked her hand in marriage the next day.
The text of Polly Baker's speech subsequently circulated widely throughout Europe and America, and it was widely believed to be real. However, thirty years later Benjamin Franklin admitted he had written it. It is not clear how he managed to insert the article into the General Advertiser. However, almost all scholars accept that he wrote it. His intention appears to have been to draw attention to the unfairness of the law which punished mothers, but not fathers, for having children out of wedlock. Franklin himself had fathered a son out of wedlock. The hoax was also Franklin’s first criticism of the penal system, a subject which he devoted much attention to in later decades.
Read more: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
Enigmatical Prophecies (1736)
Poor Richard's Almanac was a yearly almanac that Benjamin Franklin began publishing in 1732. In 1737, five years into the life of the almanac, Franklin included three "enigmatical prophecies" in the almanac. He predicted that:
* A great storm would cause all the major cities of North America to be under water;
* A "great number of vessels fully laden will be taken out of the ports… by a Power with which we are not
now at war;"
* and that an "army of 30,000 musketers will land… and sorely annoy the inhabitants."
A year passed and none of the prophecies appeared to come true. But just when Franklin's readers were about to label him a faulty soothsayer, he triumphantly declared that all three prophecies had actually come true. Rain storms had placed every city under water, the power of wind ("a Power with which we are not now at war") had taken fully-laden vessels out of ports, and more than 30,000 musketers (or mosquitoes) had definitely annoyed the inhabitants.
The Death of Titan Leeds (December 1732)
Benjamin Franklin published a highly successful, yearly almanac from 1732 to 1758. He called it Poor Richard’s Almanac, adopting the literary persona of "Poor" Richard Saunders, who was supposedly a hen-pecked, poverty-stricken scholar.
![]()
In the first year of its publication, Franklin included a prediction stating that rival almanac-writer Titan Leeds would die on "Oct. 17, 1733, 3:29 P.M., at the very instant of the conjunction of the Sun and Mercury."
The prediction was intended as a joke. Nevertheless, Leeds took offense at it and chastised Saunders (Franklin) for it in his own almanac.
Franklin responded by turning the death of Leeds into a running joke. When the date and time of the prediction arrived, and Leeds did not die, Franklin declared that Leeds actually had died, but that someone had usurped his name and was now using it to falsely publish his almanac.
In the following years Franklin continued to insist Leeds was dead until finally, in 1738, Leeds actually did die. This prompted Franklin to congratulate the men who had usurped Leeds’s name for finally deciding to end their pretense.
Franklin adapted the Titan Leeds hoax from Jonathan Swift’s similar Bickerstaff hoax of 1708.
The Witch Trial at Mount Holly (1730)
On October 22, 1730 an article appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette describing a witch trial that had recently been held in Mount Holly near Burlington, New Jersey. (Click here to read the full article.)
According to the article, over 300 people had gathered to witness the trial of two people, a man and a woman, who had been accused of witchcraft. The charges included "making their neighbours sheep dance in an uncommon manner, and with causing hogs to speak, and sing Psalms, &c. to the great terror and amazement of the King's good and peaceable subjects in this province."
The two people were to be tested to determine whether the charge of witchcraft was true. They would be subjected to two tests. In the first test they would be weighed in a scale against a Bible. If they were heavier than the Bible, then this would be evidence that they were not witches. In the second test, they would be tied and thrown in a body of water. If they floated, then this would be evidence that they were witches.
The man and woman, eager to prove their innocence, volunteered to undergo these tests. However, they insisted that two of their accusers undergo the tests with them. This was agreed to, and the tests began.
All four were placed, one at a time, on one side of a scale, and then a heavy Bible was placed on the other side. All four easily passed this test. So far there were no witches.
Next, all four were bound, stripped (the women were allowed to wear their shifts), and thrown in the nearby Mill-pond. One of the accusers, a very thin man, immediately began to sink, but the rest of them floated.
The other accuser, a woman, began to panic when she did not sink and asked that she be dunked to facilitate her sinking. When she floated back up she declared, "That she believed the Accused had bewitched her to make her so light, and that she would be duck'd again a Hundred Times, but she would duck the Devil out of her."
Meanwhile the accused man, growing nervous, told the crowd that, "If I am a Witch, it is more than I know."
Finally some of the spectators sensibly decided that anyone would try to swim if they were bound and dropped in water, and so they dragged all four people out of the water. However, they decided that the women's shifts might have helped them float and agreed that they would have to be tested again, naked, when the weather grew warmer.
The Hoax Revealed
This account of a witchtrial provided gripping reading for Philadelphians. It was soon reprinted in a British paper, the Gentleman's Gazette.
The story would have been remarkable if it were true, because in 1730 a witch trial had not occurred in America for many decades. The famous Salem Witch Trials had occurred almost forty years earlier, in 1692. Nevertheless, we can say with certainty that the report was not true. If such an incident had occurred, some other source would doubtless have reported it.
The Pennsylvania Gazette's account of the witch trial slipped into obscurity for over a century, until the late nineteenth century when John Bach McMaster cited it as a satirical work by Benjamin Franklin, and included it in his book Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters (1887). Since then, it has generally been accepted to be a work by Franklin.
The evidence to suggest Franklin's authorship of this hoax is that in 1730 he was the owner and publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette. He commonly published articles and letters written by himself, but attributed to others, in order to make it appear that his paper received more correspondence than it actually did. The witch-trial article also fits Franklin's satirical style. However, although authorship of the Witch Trial is now commonly attributed to Franklin, some doubts persist. For instance, the Yale edition of Franklin's papers notes that Franklin's authorship is not certain.
Assuming that Franklin did author the Witch Trial, he evidently intended it as a parody of Puritan beliefs. The piece is noteworthy for revealing that by 1730 it had become acceptable for the educated class in America to ridicule beliefs such as witchcraft, even though the majority of the population still clung to those beliefs.
Silence Dogood (1722)
Between April and October 1722 a series of letters appeared in the New England Courant written by a middle-aged widow who called herself Silence Dogood. In her correspondence she poked fun at various aspects of life in colonial America, such as the drunkenness of locals, religious hypocrisy, the persecution of women, the fashion for hoop petticoats, and particularly the pretensions of Harvard College.
Silence Dogood's letters became quite popular. Some of the male readers of the Courant were so taken with her that they offered to marry her. But unfortunately for these would-be suitors, Silence Dogood did not exist. She was the invention of sixteen year-old Benjamin Franklin, who was working at the time as an apprentice to his older brother, James, a Boston printer.
Franklin initially concealed his authorship of the letters from his brother. When he finally confessed to his brother that he was the author, his brother grew quite displeased, fearing that all the compliments paid to Silence Dogood would make young Benjamin grow vain. Soon after this, Franklin decided to run away and seek his fortune in Philadelphia.
Silence Dogood was the first of many hoaxes Franklin perpetrated throughout his life.
Read more:You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
Sources: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login & You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
836
« on: December 08, 2009, 05:30:25 PM »
Casablanca is arguably the most famous movie in the history of film. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1943, and was voted as one of the top three American films ever made by the American Film Institute. It's a movie that everyone in the film industry should instantly be able to recognize. But in 1982 freelance writer Chuck Ross asked himself this question: Would contemporary Hollywood movie agents actually be able to recognize Casablanca if it was submitted to them as a script? Or failing that, would they at least be able to recognize it as great writing?
![]()
Too much dialogue, not enough exposition, weak story line/i]
To find out, Ross devised an experiment. He retyped the script of Casablanca, changed its title to "Everybody Comes to Rick's" (the title of the original play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison), changed the name of Rick's sidekick from Sam to Dooley (after Dooley Wilson, the actor who played that character), and submitted it to 217 agencies as a script supposedly by an unknown writer, "Erik Demos."
Results of the Casablanca Experiment
Of the 217 agencies Ross sent the script of Casablanca to, ninety returned it unread. They did so for various reasons — it was their policy not to read unsolicited manuscripts, they weren't taking on new clients, or they were no longer in the agency business. Seven never responded. Eighteen scripts apparently got lost in the mail.
Thirty-three agencies actually recognized the script. For instance, Alan Green of the Gage Group wrote back to Ross, "Unfortunately I've seen this picture before: 147 times to be exact."
Eight noticed a similarity to Casablanca, but didn't realize it was Casablanca.
However, thirty-eight agencies claimed to have read it, but rejected it. In other words, of those agencies that actually read the manuscript (or claimed to have), the majority did not recogize it as Casablanca, nor did they think the script was good enough to be worth representing.
The comments Ross received included:
"I just think you need to rework it... you have excessive dialogue at times."
"To bridge the gap between 'talented writer', which you now are, and 'professional writer', which is yet to come, you need professional help. And that will have to be paid for. I could recommend a 'literary surgeon' who would help you, but are you ready to accept professional help? "
"I think the dialogue could have been sharper and I think the plot had a tendency to ramble. It could've been tighter and there could have been a cleaner line to it."
"I gave you five pages to grab me -- didn't do it."
"Too much dialogue, not enough exposition, the story line was weak, and in general didn't hold my interest."
"Story line is thin. Too much dialogue for amount of action. Not enough highs and lows in the script."
"I strongly recommend that you leaf through a book called Screenplay by Syd Field, especially the section pertaining to dialogue. This book may be an aid to you in putting a professional polish on your script, which I feel is its strongest need."
Perhaps strangest of all, three agencies expressed a desire to represent the work. A representative of the Lil Cumber Attractions Agency asked Ross who he might have in mind to play the character of Rick. The following conversation ensued:
Ross: "Humphrey Bogart."
Lil Cumber Rep: "I meant somebody available now."
Ross: "Somebody like Bogart..."
Finally, the Irv Schecter Co., after not replying for six months, contacted Ross to ask permission to send the script to a literary agent to see about the possibility of turning it into a novel.
Ross's experiment led him to conclude that many movie agents have difficulty recognizing both well-known screenplays and quality writing, and also that submissions by unknown writers stand little chance of getting published.
Chuck Ross
Ross's Casablanca experiment was the second time he had perpetrated such a hoax. In 1979 he had submitted the text of Jerzy Kosinski's National Book Award winning novel Steps to fourteen publishers, all of whom rejected it.
Ross never made it as a screenwriter, but he did achieve success as a journalist. As of 2007, he was publisher and editorial director of TelevisionWeek magazine, a leading trade publication for the TV industry.
Source: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
837
« on: December 08, 2009, 05:24:18 PM »
In the Fall of 1969 a rumor swept around the world alleging that Paul McCartney, singer and bassist for the Beatles, was dead. In fact, that he had died three years ago on November 9, 1966 in a fiery car crash while heading home from the EMI recording studios. Supposedly the surviving band members, fearful of the effect his death might have on their careers, secretly replaced him with a double named William Campbell (an orphan who had won a Paul McCartney lookalike contest in Edinburgh). However, they also planted clues in their later albums to let fans know the truth, that Paul was dead.
![]()
Beatles fans, who came to be known as "cluesters," spent countless hours searching for clues hidden in the albums, eventually locating hundreds of them. Numerous articles appeared in magazines pondering the likelihood of Paul's Death. John Chancellor even discussed the issue on the NBC evening news, concluding that "All we can report with certainty is that Paul McCartney is either dead or alive." McCartney only inflamed the rumor by refusing to appear in public to deny it. Finally photographers for LIFE Magazine tracked the singer down to his Mull of Kintyre country house where he was on vacation and took a photo of him which it ran on its cover, thereby throwing some cold water on the rumor. But not killing it entirely. To this day a few diehard cluesters still persist in their belief that McCartney died in 1966. It is the most persistent and elaborate false death rumor in history.
How the Rumor Got Started
On January 7, 1967 McCartney's Mini Cooper really did crash, and as a result a few newspapers did report he had died. However, McCartney wasn't in the car when it crashed. He was safe at a party in Sussex. The man driving the car (who didn't die either) was Mohammed Hadjij, who allegedly was using the car to transport drugs up to the partyers in Sussex. After this incident, a few scattered rumors of Paul's death and replacement by a double were reportedly overheard at London parties.
But it was two years later, in the American midwest, that the rumor really took hold. Researcher Andru Reeve has traced this midwest origin of the rumor to a song titled "Saint Paul" that received heavy airplay in the midwest in May 1969. The song, penned by Detroit-based Terry Knight, spoke of Paul being in heaven. Knight might have been speaking metaphorically about the imminent breakup of the Beatles, but the lyrics must have suggested the idea of McCartney's death to some fans. Whatever the case, the idea was planted, and the rumor began to spread around college campuses.
The first appearance of the rumor in print occurred on September 17, 1969, in Tim Harper's article for the Drake Times-Delphic (the student newspaper of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa) titled "Is Beatle Paul McCartney Dead?" But this article didn't receive much attention at the time. Instead, the real beginning of the Paul-Is-Dead rumor, as a pop-culture phenomenon, dates to October 12, the day Detroit DJ Russ Gibb took a call on-air from Eastern Michigan University student Tom Zarski. Zarski laid out the whole rumor for Gibb and, as proof of its truth, urged him to play "Revolution Number Nine" from the Beatles' White Album backwards. Gibb obliged and, much to his surprise, could distinctly hear the words "Turn me on, dead man" being spoken repeatedly. Gibb was astounded by what he heard. This was the spark that ignited the fire.
Fred LaBour, a student journalist at the University of Michigan, heard Gibb's broadcast and wrote up an article for the Michigan Daily outlining the theory and detailing many of the most sensational clues. The article electrified readers, and was soon reprinted in numerous university papers throughout the country. LaBour's article, more than anything else, spread the rumor to a national audience.
The rest was history. The mainstream media, now fully aware of the rumor, latched onto it with a fervor. Planeloads of journalists were dispatched to England to find Paul. For three weeks the musician's supposed death was one of the main topics of conversation in America. It wasn't until LIFE printed the picture of McCartney on the cover of its November 7 issue that the excitement began to die down.
A Few of the Clues
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1) The foreground scene on the front cover shows a floral arrangement, as if for a funeral. The white flowers on the bottom right either form a left-handed bass guitar (Paul's instrument), or they spell out Paul.
2) "Beatles" is spelled out in red flowers on the cover. But there's an extra letter, an "o" that is mysteriously placed at the end of the name. Perhaps the band was sending a secret message: Be At Leso. Leso was the name of a Greek Island that they had supposedly bought. Were they inviting fans who had figured out the mystery to join them there?
![]()
3) A toy Aston Martin convertible can be seen on the lap of a rag doll on the right-hand side of the cover. Paul supposedly died in an Aston Martin.
![]()
4) If you use a mirror to bisect the phrase "LONELY HEARTS" that appears on the drum, the phrase "I ONE IX HE DIE" can be seen. If "I ONE" is 11, and "IX" is the roman numeral 9, then this might be decoded to mean "11 9 HE DIE" (i.e. November 9, He Die).
![]()
5) A hand is held up behind Paul's head, a raised hand being a mystical symbol of death. (In some religions, it actually is.) A hand raised behind Paul's head is a recurring clue in many photos of the band.
![]()
6) On the back cover Paul is wearing an arm patch that says "OPD," which is British police jargon for "Officially Pronounced Dead." (The patch actually reads "OPP," which stands for Ontario Provincial Police. Paul was given the patch while on tour in Canada.)
![]()
Magical Mystery Tour
7) If you look at the starry letters of the Beatles name in a mirror, or upside down, they supposedly form a phone number. If you call this number, someone will answer and provide another clue. Or perhaps William Campbell himself will answer. This clue inspired an urban legend alleging that a student dialed the secret phone number and reached someone who quizzed him about Beatles trivia. The student answered all the questions correctly and was then told he had won a trip to Pepperland. He subsequently received a letter instructing him to lick the stamp on the envelope. When he did so, he experienced an LSD trip. While under the influence of the LSD, he jumped out of his dorm room to his death.
![]()
 Paul is wearing a walrus suit on the cover. This is significant because Walrus means Corpse in Greek. (Actually, it doesn't.)
9) The song "I am the Walrus" is supposedly about Paul's death. The lyrics "Stupid bloody tuesday" refer to the last time Paul was seen alive. And the eggman refers to Humpty Dumpty, who cracked his head open, as did Paul.
10) At the end of Strawberry Fields, the voice of John Lennon can be heard saying "I buried Paul." (John does say something at the end of the song, but it's not "I buried Paul." He says "cranberry sauce.")
The White Album
11) One of the images on the poster inside the album shows Paul soaking in a tub of water. Many people have commented that it kind of looks like Paul's decapitated head floating in blood.
![]()
12) The song "Glass Onion" contains the lyric "looking through a glass onion." The DJ Russ Gibb claims that "glass onion" was old british slang for the handle of a casket, because in the nineteenth century caskets had round glass handles that looked like glass onions. Paul is looking through a glass onion because he's in a casket.
13) If you play the song "Revolution 9" backwards, you will hear the words "Turn me on, dead man" being spoken. (It's true, you will... or, at least, you'll hear a phrase that sounds a lot like "Turn me on, dead man.")
Abbey Road
14) On the cover John, Ringo, Paul, and George are walking across a zebra crossing. Fans argue that this represents a funeral procession. John (in white) is the priest, Ringo (in black) is the undertaker, Paul (barefoot... because people are supposedly buried barefoot in Italy) is the corpse, and George (in jeans) is the gravedigger. It's also believed to be significant that Paul is out of step with the others, and that he's holding a cigarette in his right hand (because the original Paul was left-handed). Finally, it's said that this picture was taken at the site where Paul crashed his car on November 8, and that the Beatles are shown walking out of a cemetery which is located on the left side of the street. (In reality, there's no cemetery there.)
![]()
15) Also on the cover, a white volkswagen can be seen parked in the background. Its license plate reads "28 IF." This could mean that Paul would have been 28 if he were alive. (He actually would have been 27.) This Volkswagen was tracked down years later and sold at auction in 1986 for over $4000.
![]()
Was It a Rumor or a Deliberate Hoax?
Most people can agree that Paul McCartney didn't actually die in 1966, but the question remains: was the rumor of his death a deliberate hoax? Were some clues purposefully placed in the albums? Was an elaborate hoax engineered either by Capitol Records or by the Beatles themselves?
Both Capitol Records and the Beatles definitely had a financial motive to devise such a scheme. The Paul-Is-Dead rumor led to massive sales of all the Beatles' albums. People were actually buying multiple copies of the albums in order to play them backwards to listen for hidden messages. But Capitol denies having started the rumor, and it does seem farfetched to think that record executives would have been imaginative enough to dream up and pull off such a hoax. Although it is undeniable that once the rumor took hold, Capitol didn't do much to discourage it.
More suspicion is usually focused on the Beatles themselves because they had the creativity to pull off such a thing, and were well-known for their mischievous sense of humor. And intriguingly, one piece of evidence does link the Beatles to the start of the rumor. The Terry Knight song "Saint Paul" that got the whole ball rolling was published by none other than MacLen Music, McCartney and Lennon's publishing company created in 1963 to publish their own music. Why would MacLen publish this one non-Lennon/McCartney work? All of Knight's other songs were published by Storybook Music. Perhaps it's because Lennon or McCartney suggested that Knight write it. Andru Reeve writes:
"The enigma of a virtually-unknown musician's original song being published by the Beatles may be a greater mystery than the "Paul-Is-Dead" rumor itself. Would its inclusion in the Beatles' catalog (and its recent and mysterious disappearance) have something to do with Terry Knight's visit to Apple in early 1969? Was the song instigated by none other than Paul McCartney himself?"
However, even if one of the Beatles did prompt Knight to write Saint Paul, it's hard to imagine they could have predicted this song would in turn have inspired the most widely circulated death-hoax rumor in history.
Actually, if there is one hoaxer at the heart of this mystery, it's the college student Fred LaBour. His article in the Michigan Daily was the main vehicle for the dissemination of the rumor. But he freely admits that he invented many parts of the rumor, such as the claim that a Scottish orphan named William Campbell replaced McCartney. LaBour stated in an interview: "I made the guy up. It was originally going to be 'Glenn Campbell,' with two Ns and then I said 'that's too close, nobody'll buy that,' so I made it William Campbell."
One final question remains. If McCartney didn't die on November 9, 1966, what was he doing on that day? It turns out that he was on vacation with his girlfriend Jane Asher. From November 6 through the 19th they were travelling through France and Kenya. But November 9 is a significant Beatles date for another reason. It was the day that John Lennon first met Yoko Ono. So metaphorically it could be seen as the date that the Beatles, as a group, began to die.
Source: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
838
« on: December 08, 2009, 05:11:50 PM »
In mid-July, 1842, an English gentleman named "Dr. J. Griffin", a member of the British Lyceum of Natural History, arrived in New York City bearing a remarkable curiosity — a real mermaid supposedly caught near the Feejee Islands in the South Pacific. The press were expecting him, since throughout the Summer they had been receiving letters from Southern correspondents describing the doctor and his mermaid. So when he checked in to his hotel, reporters were waiting for him, demanding to see the mermaid. Grudgingly he obliged. What they saw totally convinced them of the creature's authenticity.
![]()
Advertisement for the Feejee Mermaid from the Charleston Courier, January 1843
Soon after this, the showman P.T. Barnum visited the offices of the major papers where he explained that he had been trying to convince Dr. Griffin to display the mermaid at his museum. Unfortunately, the doctor was unwilling to do so. So Barnum volunteered to give the papers use of a woodcut of a beautiful, bare-breasted mermaid that he had prepared, since it was now useless to him. The papers (each thinking they had an exclusive) happily accepted the offer, and on Sunday, July 17, mermaid woodcuts appeared in all the papers. Simultaneously, Barnum distributed ten thousand copies of a pamphlet about mermaids throughout the city. The mermaids in the pamphlet were also represented as seductive ocean maidens.
With all this publicity, anticipation to see the Feejee Mermaid (as it was now being called) became enormous. (Note: it's also often spelled Fiji or Fejee.) It was the main topic of conversation throughout the city. Everyone was talking about whether it was a real mermaid. They had to see it for themselves. So Dr. Griffin agreed to exhibit it for a week at Concert Hall on Broadway.
![]()
Mermaids, as depicted in Barnum's pamphlet
Huge crowds showed up for the exhibit. Dr. Griffin lectured for these crowds about his experiences as an explorer and described his theories of natural history. These theories were a bit peculiar. For instance, his main argument was that mermaids must be real since all things on land have their counterpart in the ocean — sea-horses, sea-lions, sea-dogs, etc. So therefore, we should assume there are also sea-humans! Meanwhile, the press continued to lavish attention on the mermaid, with rave reviews appearing in papers, such as this from the New York Sun:
"We've seen it! What? Why that Mermaid! The mischief you have! Where? What is it? It's twin sister to the deucedest looking thing imaginable—half fish, half flesh; and 'taken by and large,' the most odd of all oddities earth or sea has ever produced." (The New York Sun, August 5, 1842.)
After the week-long engagement at Concert Hall, Dr. Griffin agreed to allow the mermaid to stay longer in New York City. So it was moved to Barnum's American Museum, where it was exhibited for a month "without extra charge." Ticket receipts at the museum promptly tripled.
The Hoax
Throughout all this, the deception of the public had been three-fold. First, although advertisements had shown the mermaid to have the body of a young, beautiful woman, the creature itself was far less attractive. It had the withered body of a monkey and the dried tail of a fish. As a correspondent from the Charleston Courier put it: "Of one allusion... the sight of the wonder has forever robbed us — we shall never again discourse, even in poesy, of mermaid beauty, nor woo a mermaid even in our dreams — for the Feejee lady is the very incarnation of ugliness." In his autobiography, Barnum later described the mermaid as "an ugly, dried-up, black-looking, and diminutive specimen... its arms thrown up, giving it the appearance of having died in great agony."
![]()
The Feejee Mermaid, as depicted in Barnum's autobiography
Second, Dr. Griffin was a fraud. He was no English gentleman. In fact, there was no such thing as the British Lyceum of Natural History. Griffin's real name was Levi Lyman, and he was Barnum's accomplice-in-deception. The mermaid's introduction and exhibit had been the brainchild of Barnum all along. Barnum had arranged for letters about Dr. Griffin to be sent to New York papers throughout the Summer, and had then carefully orchestrated the mermaid publicity once Dr. Griffin (Lyman) "arrived" in New York. This had all been done to give the mermaid a veneer of scientific respectability.
Finally, the mermaid itself was a fake, and Barnum knew it. He had leased the mermaid from Boston showman Moses Kimball (who, in turn, had bought it from a seaman), but before doing so Barnum had consulted a naturalist to inquire about the mermaid's authenticity. The naturalist had assured him it was quite fake. Nevertheless, Barnum realized that it wasn't important whether or not the mermaid was real. All that was important was that the public be led to believe that it might be real. So he hired a phony naturalist (Dr. Griffin) to vouch for the creature's authenticity, placed pictures of bare-breasted mermaids in the newspapers, and thereby manipulated the public into wanting to see it. As Barnum's biographer A.H. Saxon puts it, the Feejee Mermaid was a classic example of Barnum's ability to "take a mildly interesting object that had been around for some time and to puff it almost overnight into an earthshaking 'event.'"
![]()
Museum-goers examine the Feejee Mermaid. Illustration from Barnum's Autobiography.
Where Did the Feejee Mermaid come From?
Barnum himself didn't create the Feejee Mermaid. As noted, he merely leased it from Moses Kimball. In fact, the creature had already enjoyed quite a colorful history before Barnum transformed it into a celebrity.
The Feejee Mermaid was an example of a traditional art form perfected by fishermen in Japan and the East Indies who constructed faux mermaids by stitching the upper bodies of apes onto the bodies of fish. They often created these mermaids for use in religious ceremonies. The Feejee Mermaid herself is believed to have been created around 1810 by a Japanese fisherman. It was bought by Dutch merchants who then, in 1822, resold it to an American sea captain, Samuel Barrett Eades, for $6000 (at the time, a huge amount of money). Eades had to sell his ship in order to afford the mermaid, but he hoped to make a fortune by exhibiting it in London. (Unfortunately for him, he didn't own the entire ship, and this later proved to be a problem for him.)
![]()
An 1822 illustration of Captain Eades's mermaid
By September, 1822 Eades had made it back to London with the mermaid, and it did prove to be a popular attraction. But it never made a fortune for him. Eades wasn't as good a showman as Barnum would later be. In addition, British naturalists who had a chance to examine the mermaid soon debunked it in the press, dampening the public's interest in it. Then Eades was sued by the other owner of the ship. The courts ordered Eades to pay back the money he had embezzled by serving the shipowner without pay until he repaid his debt. Eades sailed the seas for the next twenty years, trying to repay the debt. But he never did. When he died, ownership of the mermaid passed to his son, who promptly sold it to Moses Kimball for a fraction of what his father had bought it for.
What Happened to the Feejee Mermaid?
After Barnum had exhibited the mermaid for a month at his Museum, he decided to send it on a tour of the Southern states. He entrusted his uncle, Alanson Taylor, with this responsibility. Barnum anticipated an uneventful tour, but this was not to be. When Taylor and the mermaid arrived in South Carolina, they found themselves embroiled in a bitter feud between two rival newspapers, the Charleston Courier and the Charleston Mercury, with the mermaid as the focus of the dispute.
The problem began when Richard Yeadon, editor of the Courier, wrote a review of the mermaid in which he declared his belief that she was real. Simultaneously, a local amateur naturalist, the Rev. John Bachman, published a review in the Mercury in which he blasted the mermaid as a crude humbug created by "our Yankee neighbors." This difference of opinion quickly escalated into a bitter argument. (So bitter that, if not for the intervention of "mutual friends," it might have ended in a duel.) This dispute brought an early end to the Southern tour, and the Feejee Mermaid had to be secretly shipped back to New York.
For the next twenty years the Feejee Mermaid split her time between Kimball's museum in Boston and Barnum's museum in New York. Her biggest adventure occurred in 1859, when Barnum took her with him on a tour of London. When Barnum returned from London in June, 1859, he brought her back to Kimball's museum. This would prove to be the last place we know that she was. After this, her whereabouts are unknown.
According to one theory, she was destroyed when Barnum's museum burned down in 1865. But this is unlikely, since she should have been at Kimball's Boston museum at that time. More likely, she perished when Kimball's museum burned down in the early 1880s.
Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaology and Ethnology does possess a mermaid that some have speculated might be the original Feejee Mermaid. According to their records, this mermaid was saved from the fire that consumed Kimball's museum and was later donated to Harvard by Kimball's heirs. The problem is that the Peabody's mermaid doesn't look anything like what we would expect the Feejee Mermaid to look like. It's much smaller and far less skillfully crafted. So the real Feejee Mermaid probably met her end in the 1880s.
![]() ![]()
The Peabody Museum's "Feejee Mermaid" (photographed in 1998)
But although the Feejee Mermaid is gone, her memory lives on in popular culture. "Feejee Mermaid" has become the generic term for the many fake mermaids that can be found around the world in sideshows, behind bars, or at the back of curiosity shops. (For San Diego residents, one can be seen up in Leucadia.) The Feejee Mermaid herself also made an appearance in an episode of the X-Files ("Humbug," Season 2, Episode 20).
Source: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
839
« on: December 08, 2009, 05:02:06 PM »
The Cardiff Giant, a gigantic ten-foot tall stone man, emerged out of the ground and into American life on October 16, 1869, when he was discovered by some workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. "Stub" Newell in Cardiff, New York. Word of his presence quickly spread, and soon thousands of people were making the journey out to Stub Newell's farm to see the colossus. Even when Newell began charging fifty cents a head to have a look at it, people still kept coming.
![]()
The Cardiff Giant on display in the Farmer's Museum, Cooperstown, New York.
Speculation ran rampant over what the giant might be. The central debate was between those who thought it was a petrified man and those who believed it to be an ancient statue. The 'petrifactionists' theorized that it was one of the giants mentioned in the Bible, Genesis 6:4, where it says, "There were giants in the earth in those days." Those who promoted the statue theory followed the lead of Dr. John F. Boynton, who speculated that a Jesuit missionary had carved it sometime during the seventeenth century to impress the local indians.
The truth was somewhat more prosaic. It was actually the creation of an enterprising New York tobacconist named George Hull. The idea of burying a stone giant in the ground occurred to him after he got into an argument with a methodist Reverend about whether the Bible should be taken literally. Hull, an atheist, didn't think it should. But the Reverend disagreed. The Reverend insisted that even the passage where it says 'there were giants in the earth in those days' should be read as a literal fact. According to Hull, after this discussion he immediately "thought of making a stone, and passing it off as a petrified man." He figured he could not only use the fake giant to poke fun at Biblical literalists, but also make some money.
![]()
A sketch of the Giant made in 1869 as it lay on display in Cardiff, New York.
Hull's idea turned out to be a stroke of genius. The entire venture cost him over $2,600 (all done with the collusion of the farmer Newell and the stonecutters who carved the giant), but the gamble paid off when a group of businessmen paid $37,500 to buy the giant and move it to Syracuse, where it could be more prominently exhibited.
In Syracuse the giant came under closer scrutiny. Othniel C. Marsh, a paleontologist from Yale, paid it a visit and declared it to be a clumsy fake. He pointed out that chisel marks were still plainly visible on it. These should have worn away if the giant had been in the ground for any appreciable length of time. Sensing that the game was up (and having already cashed out), Hull confessed. But the public didn't seem to care that it was fake. They kept coming to see it anyway. They even began referring to it affectionately as 'Old Hoaxey.'
Recognizing the giant's popularity, the great showman P.T. Barnum offered the new owners $60,000 for a three-month lease of it. When his offer was refused, he paid an artist to build an exact plaster replica of it, which he then put on display in his museum in New York City. Soon the replica was drawing larger crowds than the original. This competition prompted the owners of the giant to file a lawsuit against Barnum, but the judge refused to hear their case unless the 'genuineness' of the orignal could be proven. Sheepishly they dropped their charges. What is believed to be Barnum's replica of the giant is currently on display in Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, located outside of Detroit. (Note: Marvin's Museum is well worth a visit if you're ever in the Detroit area. It also hosts an amazing collection of coin-operated mechanical oddities).
Many have declared the Cardiff Giant to be the greatest hoax of all time. Whether or not this is the case, its huge size and mysterious presence certainly tapped into some strange element of the post-Civil War American psyche. Although the massive public interest in the giant gradually died down, it remained popular. Even today people still make the journey to visit it at its permanent home in the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown, New York (down the road from the Baseball Hall of Fame).
Source: You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
840
« on: December 08, 2009, 04:46:19 PM »
Utah Flash Fans Duped by Michael Jordan Hoax
Flash owner promised showdown, delivered sham
![]()
His Airness has left the building. Not that he ever entered it in the first place.
That's what some angry fans at Utah's McKay Events Center found out when a Michael Jordan-lookalike showed up at the Utah Flash's home opener.
More than 7,500 fans came to the NBA D-League game, hoping to see Jordan play one-on-one against former Utah Jazz guard Bryon Russell -- who he humiliated for a poster shot his last NBA finals -- at halftime. But when an imposter stepped onto the court, the crowd booed furiously. In an attempt to subdue the angry crowd, cheerleaders threw free t-shirts into the stands, but irritated fans threw them right back.
The well-scripted hoax began back in September, when—in his induction speech—Jordan called Russell out on some of the latter's trash talk. Hoping to capitalize on the rivalry, Flash owner Brandt Andersen threw down the gauntlet, encouraging a one-on-one competition and offering $100,000 to a charity of the winner's choice.
Jordan never responded to the challenge, but that didn't stop Andersen from promoting it.
In fact, Andersen went so far as to hire a Jordan-lookalike to walk around the local businesses of Orem, Utah, creating buzz that the basketball legend was actually in town. A YouTube video of the Jordan imposter eating at a local restaurant made its rounds online.
Andersen seemed to buy into his own hoax, saying "We did think there was a chance he might be here," reports the Salt Lake Tribune.
Russell knew about the scam and played into it, building up the crowd's excitement at the fateful game. But when the 7,500 people found out they had been duped, they stormed out of the stadium.
"This was done in fun," Andersen explained in the Utah Flash Owner's Blog. "If you did not see it as fun or you feel we went over the top, I am sorry."
As part of his apology, Andersen is offering free tickets to a future Flash game to fans who attended the home opener.
"If you were offended by the stunt I sincerely apologize," he continued. "Good or bad, I hope it got you talking. I hope you were entertained."
Oh, we are most certainly talking, Mr. Andersen. But the words we're using can't be printed here.
Matt Bartosik is a Chicago native and a social media sovereign.
Copyright NBC Local Media / NBC Chicago First Published: Dec 8, 2009 1:29 PM CST
You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login
Pages: 1 ... 54 55 [56] 57
|
Show Posts
