#factchecking
Claim: Crystal pyramids have been located on the floor of the “Bermuda Triangle”.
Verdict: FALSE
The screenshot of the purported pyramid originates from a video on MSN, which cites the tablod Weekly World News as its source. The Weekly World News, the paper that brought the world Batboy, invents all of its stories. The article cited is from a 1991 issue.
Meanwhile, the link provided goes to EndAllDisease.com, which seems to have removed the page on “crystal pyramids”. It seems to be an alternative medicine site with a conspiratorial bent, praising countries and cities that ban GMOs and fluoridation.
However, what about the story itself? Claims of Crystal Pyramids originate in the 70s with Dr. Ray Brown. In this clip from the 70s series In Search Of…, he talks about his claimed discovery of the pyramids. Conveniently, his camera was destroyed during a storm just before he discovered the pyramid leaving no visual evidence. The only physical evidence he left is a mysterious crystal sphere he claims possessed magical properties…but he never allowed these properties to be scientifically tested.
As the names of this alleged French and American scientists are unknown, the video covering their “amazing” find cites a false tabloid, and given the lack of any photographic or physical evidence of the journey undertaken by Ray Brown, that until any additional evidence presents itself it can be said safely that there are no crystal pyramids hidden under the waters of the so-called “Bermuda Triangle”.
Sources:This thread on Skeptics Stackexchange and the answer by Beofett; Snopes.com
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Vergil singeth of Rumor, “malum qua non aliud velocius ullum,” that evil which nothing exceedeth in swiftness, and this age in which we are all the wizards of Romance, able to speak to a companion halfway across the world with a thought hath done nothing but give Rumor swifter wings. We read, and because what we read hath the seeming of the credible, we believe.
I do not say, gentle reader, that thou art credulous. Thou art human; and thou readest tumblr, and it is, for the most part, leisure, and so the critical faculty is less engaged than it is when thou readest for learning, or for a cause. And there are many things like the things Odysseus says, that are not truth but seem like truth; and there are things that, as my countryman Bruno sayeth, “Se non son vero, son molto ben trovato” if they are not true, they are well told. For often the possibility of the photo is kinder than the reality: the sweetness of a pictured wild cat is falsified by the photographer, or captivity has done it ill – but would it not be a better world if it weretrue?
But we owe Truth our time. If there is a source, we must evaluate it: for just as there are people of our acquaintance whom we know to be untrustworthy, so are there sources which often lie or distort the truth. I do not say “check everything.” But certainly check a source before basing argument on it: for Virtue needs the armor of Verity.
