Hidden Tunnels, Bugs, and Bigamy: A Strange and True D.C. Story: "Reports indicated that the tunnels were long and extensive – that they may have reached as far as Rock Creek Park. Some electric lighting was discovered inside. For days, wild theories abounded – was it a Confederate soldier hideout? A stop on the Underground Railroad? A liquor depot for bootleggers? A counterfeiter’s lair? Or maybe a secret laboratory for 'Dr. Otto von Golph’s' experiments?
None of the above."
[more inside]
posted by codacorolla
on Jul 8, 2011 -
41 comments
Broken Secrets is all about things you may not know but might find useful. These secrets are not things you shouldn’t know; more likely, they’re just interesting things you might not know yet.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on Jul 18, 2010 -
19 comments
Beyond even the outrageously broad "state secrets" privilege invented by the Bush administration and now embraced fully by the Obama administration, the Obama DOJ has now invented a brand new claim of government immunity, one which literally asserts that the U.S. Government is free to intercept all of your communications (calls, emails and the like) and -- even if what they're doing is blatantly illegal and they know it's illegal -- you are barred from suing them unless they "willfully disclose" to the public what they have learned. -
Glenn Greenwald.
[more inside]
posted by Joe Beese
on Apr 7, 2009 -
102 comments
Underground bases [you decide]
This is a list of known or suspected U.S. Underground Bases, the purpose of each (hey, I'm just passing on the reports...), how they're set up and any other info known about them. Although most of these are supposed to be a secret, this list is culled from publicly available records (is that good or bad?) and of course people who worked in them, live by them or those who have retired and offer info. Some wish to remain anonymous. Some have written to me with stories that have been terrifying - just to tell me things - not meaning for me to put them up.
posted by Postroad
on Jul 21, 2006 -
64 comments
SPOILER ALERT: There's a movie out now that, like
The Crying Game, depends for much of its impact on a plot twist. Are critics honor-bound not to blab that development to readers?
(More Inside, including, duh, spoilers)
posted by soyjoy
on Feb 8, 2005 -
65 comments
Post Secret is a group confessional, where the site admin solicits deep, dark secrets from anyone that sends theirs in via postcard, then scans them in, and hijinks/hilarity/psychosis ensues. Kinda like
grouphug, but more visual and has a bit of a barrier to entry.
posted by mathowie
on Jan 25, 2005 -
25 comments
Once, i had a secret lovelife.... The urge to act out an entirely different persona is widely shared across cultures as well, social scientists say, and may be motivated by curiosity, mischief or earnest soul-searching. Certainly, it is a familiar tug in the breast of almost anyone who has stepped out of his or her daily life for a time, whether for vacation, for business or to live in another country. On secret lives, for good and bad. We're in this too:
"I think what people are doing on the Internet now," she said, "has deep psychological meaning in terms of how they're using identities to express problems and potentially solve them in what is a relatively consequence-free zone."
Yet out in the world, a consequence-rich zone, studies find that most people find it mentally exhausting to hold onto inflammatory secrets - much less lives - for long. (NYT, reg.req.)
posted by amberglow
on Jan 11, 2005 -
36 comments
Tricks of the Trade . In an article in
The Morning News,
Defective Yeti asked readers to reveal the secrets of their profession:
Attorney:
Do whatever it takes to fit your contracts onto a single page. Even sophisticated negotiators can be charmed by the lack of a staple.
Auto Mechanic:
Always put copper grease on the battery terminals after servicing a car. The performance benefit is negligible, but when customers look under the hood they will immediately see that something’s changed and thus feel happy to pay you.
Handyman:
If you have to change a light bulb where the glass is broken, you can press a potato into the metal base to unscrew the remains of the bulb from the fixture.
Got any secrets to success or even just survival in your racket?
posted by planetkyoto
on Aug 24, 2004 -
130 comments
Operation Info-Scrub In another example of the administration's predilection for secrecy, President Bush recently signed an executive order to "delay the release of millions of historical documents for more than three years and make it easier to reclassify information considered damaging to national security," the Associated Press reported. The 25-page executive order was signed three weeks prior to an April 17 deadline which would have lifted the veil off millions of documents 25 years old or older.
posted by Niahmas
on Apr 3, 2003 -
4 comments
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. Charismatic and controversial, infamous for introducing the
enneagram, claimed by the
Sufis, linked to the little known
Yezidis, (More
here),
Gurdjieff--and his
school--have their detractors, whether
religious or
skeptic. His ideas can be
difficult , abstruse and are ultimately beside the point. His thesis can be reduced to
this: We are asleep, mere machines, acting from habit rather than volition. The goal then is to wake up and stay awake. And that is where the
Work comes in. ( A bit more within)
posted by y2karl
on Aug 6, 2002 -
20 comments
Low Brow is really fun. Sit there and hit the reload button to hear people's tales of woe, misery and wild times. Some pretty funny tales there.
posted by milnak
on Jul 19, 2001 -
8 comments
