I can’t begin to understand how people could think this conspiracy theory was true

https://gizmodo.com/no-earth-wont-lose-gravity-for-7-seconds-on-august-12-nasa-says-2000711970?fbclid=IwdGRjcAPcpGNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEehrTBUqGLZGFofgeantDjZutdIdMMTgKc9DcSJiTWwr-FCBs1DLQvLpEOmE0_aem_HrwYsNQzUCA1gDyknQ6IGg

The claim:

“In November 2024, a secret NASA document titled “Project Anchor” leaked online. The project’s budget is $89 billion, and its goal is to survive a 7-second gravitational anomaly expected on August 12, 2026, at 14:33 UTC [10:33 a.m. ET].”

“The text went on to claim that the anomaly would result from the intersection of two gravitational waves from black holes, predicted by NASA in 2019 with a probability of 94.7%. It also claimed the agency is “building underground bunkers” to provide refuge for government leaders, scientists, military personnel, and “selected citizens with genetic diversity” during the event.”

“When Snopes contacted NASA about the rumor, a spokesperson said exactly what we’re all thinking: That’s not how gravity works.”

I saw that on FB as well lmao. Lot of hoaxes floating around lately. Naturally I had to comment its falsehood on the FB post I came across

Edited Tuesday at 09:23 PM3 days by Mordred

8 minutes ago, swansont said:

I can’t begin to understand how people could think this conspiracy theory was true

https://gizmodo.com/no-earth-wont-lose-gravity-for-7-seconds-on-august-12-nasa-says-2000711970?fbclid=IwdGRjcAPcpGNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEehrTBUqGLZGFofgeantDjZutdIdMMTgKc9DcSJiTWwr-FCBs1DLQvLpEOmE0_aem_HrwYsNQzUCA1gDyknQ6IGg

The claim:

“In November 2024, a secret NASA document titled “Project Anchor” leaked online. The project’s budget is $89 billion, and its goal is to survive a 7-second gravitational anomaly expected on August 12, 2026, at 14:33 UTC [10:33 a.m. ET].”

“The text went on to claim that the anomaly would result from the intersection of two gravitational waves from black holes, predicted by NASA in 2019 with a probability of 94.7%. It also claimed the agency is “building underground bunkers” to provide refuge for government leaders, scientists, military personnel, and “selected citizens with genetic diversity” during the event.”

“When Snopes contacted NASA about the rumor, a spokesperson said exactly what we’re all thinking: That’s not how gravity works.”

Shame they couldn't capture one particular political pimple on the N American continent and deposit it somewhere really GALACTIC without anyone noticing.

Someone at NASA thought they had to say something about it, like they should take it seriously? Especially with a nonsense 'prediction' that will come around soon and be demonstrated as nonsense all by itself. 'Gravity doesn't work like that' would have been a more than adequate response if responding at all was necessary. I'd be tempted to derision or parody or mockery which wouldn't help either.

The urge to inform and educate is a good one but even granting this a response gives the claim a level of credulousness it does not rightfully deserve.

Edited Tuesday at 10:14 PM3 days by Ken Fabian

Hmm, Project Anchor. Missing W perhaps?😁

People have believed much more weird ideas.

Even that an egotistical, but insecure moron can be voted in as President, and he will do what's best for the country.

Most people know nothing about how gravity works or doesn't work and thus they don't have any way to know that this conspiracy theory is not true.

4 hours ago, swansont said:

I can’t begin to understand how people could think this conspiracy theory was true

And I don't understand how you don't understand that. To put it bluntly, no matter what biased statistics show (because they are based (biased ;) on, for example, the number of Nobel Prize winners, or the number of peer-reviewed documents produced yearly by universities, etc. nonsense), the average American education system is simply poor.

How can it be good if you choose what you go to school for? What you choose is what you are interested in. So, from what you are not interested in, you start to deviate even more from the average.

In our country, students don't choose which classes to attend or not to attend, which means that after graduating from high school, everyone is more or less at the same average level. Choosing your classes is something you do in university.

Physics, chemistry, mathematics, world history, world geography—these are things that are universal to the whole world. Only the native language, the history of the homeland, and the specialized geography of the homeland are things that are specific to a given country.

Imagine that the average citizen of my country who finished high school after 1990 knows the geography of the USA better than the average American. What does that say about Americans?

If someone didn't attend physics classes in elementary and high school, how are they supposed to not be susceptible to such nonsense?

ps. Yes, we have physics and chemistry in elementary school. In most cases, “boring theory”. 2 years.

ps2. I never had, for example, cutting up dead frogs—something you see all the time in movies for teenagers in biology classes in the US. No wonder you have so many serial killers—maybe someone liked those exercises... ;)

1 hour ago, Genady said:

Most people know nothing about how gravity works or doesn't work and thus they don't have any way to know that this conspiracy theory is not true.

Here, people learn physics, starting with Hooke's law, Newtonian gravity, and the laws of motion at the age of 12-13, and study it for two years. Adding two or more vectors is our elementary level for children.

"Physics in elementary school

usually begins in grades 7-8, building on knowledge from natural science, focusing on motion (speed, distance, mass), forces, energy, heat, electricity, magnetism, and optics, with an emphasis on practical observations and simple experiments, introducing students to the basic laws of nature and scientific methods. Students learn physical concepts and quantities, solve simple problems, and make observations, preparing them for more formal learning. "

Edited Wednesday at 01:51 AM3 days by Sensei

Better safe than sorry. When out, I will be carrying pitons and climbing rope with me that day, so I can secure myself to the ground if needed. Hopefully that patch of ground won't detach itself in seven seconds. Backup: fire extinguisher to whip out and provide downward thrust if needed. I'm still working on hurricane ties, shear transfer ties and angle iron struts for the house and soft encasement for glassware and ceramics. Still undecided on the old chimney - would it help the anchoring or just wreak more destruction as it resettles? Don't get me started on the litter boxes and commodes - I can only handle so much. (Cling wrap right before the event, maybe?)

Also, and please don't mock me with your stifling scientific orthodoxy, but there are many mule deer in the wild area next to our block. If they happen to be leaping when the grav cuts out....I mean, those guys could get pretty far up there in seven seconds on leg thrust....will the G resume full strength right away or slowly turn on like with a dimmer switch? If the former, they will come down on us like 150-250 pound meat bombs. I know some might find this laughable, but they laughed at Fermi and Einstein and that guy with the bongo drums right up until they climbed into the Enola Gay and destroyed Bankok. Or Korea. Or wherever it was - it was someplace where people wore bathrobes all day.

8 hours ago, Sensei said:

And I don't understand how you don't understand that. To put it bluntly, no matter what biased statistics show (because they are based (biased ;) on, for example, the number of Nobel Prize winners, or the number of peer-reviewed documents produced yearly by universities, etc. nonsense), the average American education system is simply poor.

How can it be good if you choose what you go to school for? What you choose is what you are interested in. So, from what you are not interested in, you start to deviate even more from the average.

In our country, students don't choose which classes to attend or not to attend, which means that after graduating from high school, everyone is more or less at the same average level. Choosing your classes is something you do in university.

Physics, chemistry, mathematics, world history, world geography—these are things that are universal to the whole world. Only the native language, the history of the homeland, and the specialized geography of the homeland are things that are specific to a given country.

Imagine that the average citizen of my country who finished high school after 1990 knows the geography of the USA better than the average American. What does that say about Americans?

Your education curriculum must be severely limited.

Tbere would just not be enough hours in the week to teach all available subjects to all pupils in aUK high scho

I would never have been even an average art or music student no matter how long I remained at high school.

9 hours ago, Sensei said:

And I don't understand how you don't understand that. To put it bluntly, no matter what biased statistics show (because they are based (biased ;) on, for example, the number of Nobel Prize winners, or the number of peer-reviewed documents produced yearly by universities, etc. nonsense), the average American education system is simply poor.

I’m sure you have evidence that only Americans believed the hoax. Otherwise you’re just American-bashing. Again.

 

Quality of education is not protection against conspiracy theories anyway. Canada and Japan have very highly-rated systems, and yet they latch on to them.

https://thewalrus.ca/conspiracy-theories-canada/

https://www.bpb.de/themen/medien-journalismus/facts-contexts/facts-contexts-en/trail-of-rumours/552773/conspiracy-theories-and-their-believers-in-contemporary-japan/

Education level does correlate with belief. But it seems that certain personality traits are a big indicator

https://theconversation.com/why-do-educated-people-fall-for-conspiracy-theories-it-could-be-narcissism-270169

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2023/06/why-people-believe-conspiracy-theories

2 hours ago, swansont said:

Education level does correlate with belief. But it seems that certain personality traits are a big indicator

I had noticed (as per the article in The Conversation) that conspiracy theorists like to believe that they're somehow superior to experts, that they are privy to special knowledge due to an unusual degree of insight and intuition. Thinking of that well-known American narcissist who is always telling his followers how his "gut" is amazing and he prefers to listen to that over, y'know, a buncha pencil-necked eggheads.

The 7 second zero G theory is perfect for the MAGAnids who like to both hate "elites" and really be part of one.

13 hours ago, TheVat said:

Better safe than sorry. When out, I will be carrying pitons and climbing rope with me that day, so I can secure myself to the ground if needed. Hopefully that patch of ground won't detach itself in seven seconds. Backup: fire extinguisher to whip out and provide downward thrust if needed. I'm still working on hurricane ties, shear transfer ties and angle iron struts for the house and soft encasement for glassware and ceramics. Still undecided on the old chimney - would it help the anchoring or just wreak more destruction as it resettles? Don't get me started on the litter boxes and commodes - I can only handle so much. (Cling wrap right before the event, maybe?)

Also, and please don't mock me with your stifling scientific orthodoxy, but there are many mule deer in the wild area next to our block. If they happen to be leaping when the grav cuts out....I mean, those guys could get pretty far up there in seven seconds on leg thrust....will the G resume full strength right away or slowly turn on like with a dimmer switch? If the former, they will come down on us like 150-250 pound meat bombs. I know some might find this laughable, but they laughed at Fermi and Einstein and that guy with the bongo drums right up until they climbed into the Enola Gay and destroyed Bankok. Or Korea. Or wherever it was - it was someplace where people wore bathrobes all day.

Brilliant. 😆

14 hours ago, Sensei said:

And I don't understand how you don't understand that. To put it bluntly, no matter what biased statistics show (because they are based (biased ;) on, for example, the number of Nobel Prize winners, or the number of peer-reviewed documents produced yearly by universities, etc. nonsense), the average American education system is simply poor.

How can it be good if you choose what you go to school for? What you choose is what you are interested in. So, from what you are not interested in, you start to deviate even more from the average.

In our country, students don't choose which classes to attend or not to attend, which means that after graduating from high school, everyone is more or less at the same average level. Choosing your classes is something you do in university.

This is a non-factor. In many European countries highschools have electives. As others pointed out, it is not a matter of education. Nor is the increase in conspiracy theories an exclusively American thing. That being said, I do think that a lot is American-centric for an entirely different reason: internet culture and platforms. Many of these originated and/or are dominated by Americans and a lot of things spread and/or are amplified from there. Add to that a strong cultural dominance of America in Western culture and you get a result that feels very America, regardless of where you are.

I will also add that even in the educated section and before social media, most folks who are not specialists wouldn't understand or were able to derive even slightly complex principles outside of their field of expertise. What existed, however, was trust in expertise outside of their own.

7 hours ago, studiot said:

I would never have been even an average art or music student no matter how long I remained at high school.

I didn't have music classes in high school. They are compulsory in elementary school. They last for 4 years, from ages 10 to 14 or so. 32 weeks x 1 lesson per week x 4 years = 128 lessons.

Didn't they teach you how to read music from a staff?

I imagine that nowadays it can be done much better and easier than several decades ago. As long as you want to make it easier. I would use a touchscreen that displays hints about which piano keys to press in a given song. When learning to draw, the touchscreen can show you what movements you can make to draw something a few seconds before the movement.

After several dozen such drawings or songs with support, you would draw and play like a pro. You can buy electronic pianos that have built-in key backlighting.

7 hours ago, swansont said:

Quality of education is not protection against conspiracy theories anyway. Canada and Japan have very highly-rated systems, and yet they latch on to them.

You are making a mistake by lumping all conspiracy theories together, scientific and non-scientific, when your opening post was about breaking the laws of physics. It is impossible to e.g. verify whether the mafia killed Kennedy or not. And to verify your conspiracy theory about gravity, all you had to do was attend physics classes at school. If you didn't have physics lessons at school, you are at risk of drinking the Kool-Aid.

2 hours ago, CharonY said:

I will also add that even in the educated section and before social media, most folks who are not specialists wouldn't understand or were able to derive even slightly complex principles outside of their field of expertise. What existed, however, was trust in expertise outside of their own.

I have to agree with that. That is why elementary education in every field is so important, so that you can distinguish stupidity and falsehood. Otherwise, you have to rely on others. The better that elementary education is, the harder it is for falsehood to break through.

1 hour ago, Sensei said:

I imagine that nowadays it can be done much better and easier than several decades ago. As long as you want to make it easier. I would use a touchscreen that displays hints about which piano keys to press in a given song.

That's how to get a noise out of a Casio with one finger. Not how to become a musician.

1 hour ago, Sensei said:

You are making a mistake by lumping all conspiracy theories together, scientific and non-scientific, when your opening post was about breaking the laws of physics.

You didn’t make a distinction in your objection; I’m not sure why science conspiracies should be treated differently.

And if you read the Japan article, one of them is about earthquakes being induced artificially.

1 hour ago, Sensei said:

It is impossible to e.g. verify whether the mafia killed Kennedy or not.

Which is the conspiracy approach, rather than the critical thinking approach, much like the scientific one, which is to require evidence.

1 hour ago, Sensei said:

And to verify your conspiracy theory about gravity, all you had to do was attend physics classes at school. If you didn't have physics lessons at school, you are at risk of drinking the Kool-Aid.

A common element in conspiracy is mistrust of authority, so this does not follow. You could take a physics class and reject the teaching based on that mistrust. Similar to crackpottery, which we see around here quite a bit.

4 minutes ago, swansont said:

A common element in conspiracy is mistrust of authority, so this does not follow. You could take a physics class and reject the teaching based on that mistrust. Similar to crackpottery, which we see around here quite a bit.

I think this is the key element. It is much less about education, but rather mistrust and distrust in sources of information.

1 hour ago, Sensei said:

he better that elementary education is, the harder it is for falsehood to break through.

And yet, if parents and the internet (which is likely going to be the dominant source of information) casts sufficient doubts regarding what you hear at school, it wipes out all benefits. I think you are still thinking in the old system. This is an understandable mistake, but if you work with young folks, you would be shocked how much mistrust there are in institutions (and textbooks) and how dominant sources such as podcasts, youtube and tiktok videos have become. And again, it is not an American phenomenon. The rate is different and the US might be leading (to some extent, at least), but we see it happening all over. It is a matter of fact that the rate of mis- and disinformation is increasing and institutional safeguards are crumbling everywhere.

I would suggest that rather pointing at education, it makes more sense to scrutinize the media landscape and the fact that companies are in fact getting rich by taking away our ability to focus and think.

I recall my high school physics, it basically covered rudimentary SR. They certainly didn't cover gravity waves let alone GR.

Lol several of us had better knowledge of GR than the instructors.

7 hours ago, CharonY said:

It is much less about education, but rather mistrust and distrust in sources of information.

I think it goes even deeper - it’s about the wish to reduce an increasingly complex world that inherently operates in shades of grey, to a simple and easy to understand world view that has just black and white. We are more comfortable with what we can emotionally understand. This is why all conspiracies, without exception, are based on “us the good guys” vs “THEM”.

9 hours ago, Markus Hanke said:

I think it goes even deeper - it’s about the wish to reduce an increasingly complex world that inherently operates in shades of grey, to a simple and easy to understand world view that has just black and white.

I think that was always the case to some degree. But all the tools available now designed to amplify emotional responses and blunting rational or intellectual engagement.

20 hours ago, Sensei said:

I didn't have music classes in high school. They are compulsory in elementary school. They last for 4 years, from ages 10 to 14 or so. 32 weeks x 1 lesson per week x 4 years = 128 lessons.

Didn't they teach you how to read music from a staff?

19 hours ago, Sensei said:

I have to agree with that. That is why elementary education in every field is so important, so that you can distinguish stupidity and falsehood. Otherwise, you have to rely on others. The better that elementary education is, the harder it is for falsehood to break through.

Whilst I agree with you that one purpose of education is to impart a level of knowledge and capability to avoid the pitfalls you mention education has several other purposes, especially in elementary school.

Not least is to develop the ability to interact well with other people.
Particulary worrying as children are becoming more and more isolated from others, behind screens, computers, phones etc.

Equally, stuffing the early curriculum with Science doesn't shield anyone from a pushy and persuasive used car salesman.

You also seem to have missed my main point that there are just too many subjects to to cover them all.

Traditional Uk primary school concentrates on what are known as "The 3 Rrs" - "Reading, Riting and Rithmetic"

supplemented with craftwork, painting and drawing, singing and perhaps dancing (once called music and movement), gardening, cooking, needlework, sport, telling the time, reading a timetable, a bit of history, geography, poetry, general knowledge.

So no, I was not taught formal music.

Furthermore your age range ( 10 - 14) runs at least 2 years into UK secondary education (high school).

In that time basic STEM subjects would be introduced, along with foreign languages, woodwork, metalwork, religous educatio9n, music and formal instrument instruction.

This is only a sample of the total list which again I stress makes it impossible to teach everything to everybody.

On 1/21/2026 at 3:13 PM, sethoflagos said:

That's how to get a noise out of a Casio with one finger. Not how to become a musician.

Music is not an instrument; it is a composition.
You would be surprised what a former member of Depeche Mode could do with a Casio in 1982, along with Alison Moyet.

And then, 40 years later, with an orchestra ...

On 1/21/2026 at 8:13 PM, sethoflagos said:

That's how to get a noise out of a Casio with one finger. Not how to become a musician.

Music is the art and can be expressed in any form. You don't have to be an artisan/craftsman with some instrument to make music. A person that can create perfect copies is not an artist, even though their skill may be immense; s/he is a technician. Skill alone does not make an artist.