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German city offers $1.1M to whoever proves it doesn’t exist

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21–30 of 52 posts

Re: German city offers $1.1M to whoever proves it doesn’t exist

#21

Here's the basic problem: They gave a month deadline. That's not enough time to get permission for time off from work, book a ticket, take photos to show there is no city there, and submit, at least with the required degree of integrity (e.g. confirming GPS coordinates in some temper-proof way, etc. -- they'll just say you took the photos elsewhere). There is no city there. Pretending it's a fake conspiracy seems to…

Poppycock! :) You can’t cry wolf for 25 years and then say you didn’t have time to collect evidence. This was the thing to do before making the claim.

After ~25 years of this running conspiracy if none of the evidence was collected we can call it evidence that the conspiracy theory is indeed fake.

Re: German city offers $1.1M to whoever proves it doesn’t exist

#23
post #20

In Italy we have an entire region (Molise) that doesn't exist. Do other countries have their own non-existent places too?

In Spain, we have Teruel. Even IKEA did a commercial on the topic called "Teruel does exist!"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxBvvQ2GeEc

Re: German city offers $1.1M to whoever proves it doesn’t exist

#26
post #20

In Italy we have an entire region (Molise) that doesn't exist. Do other countries have their own non-existent places too?

There is a weak meme that the US state North Dakota doesn't exist, but it's not widely known and might be inspired by Bielefeld.

Re: German city offers $1.1M to whoever proves it doesn’t exist

#27

Here's the basic problem: They gave a month deadline. That's not enough time to get permission for time off from work, book a ticket, take photos to show there is no city there, and submit, at least with the required degree of integrity (e.g. confirming GPS coordinates in some temper-proof way, etc. -- they'll just say you took the photos elsewhere). There is no city there. Pretending it's a fake conspiracy seems to…

Presumably there's plenty of people nearby, even if you are not.

The fundamental tenet of conspiracy theory is that anyone who gives eyewitness testimony in contradiction of the conspiracy is, by definition, part of the conspiracy. One can only trust testimony if it's formed as a pseudoscientific lecture on Youtube and leads back to biblical numerology.

Re: German city offers $1.1M to whoever proves it doesn’t exist

#28
post #18

Pet peeve: converting currencies from the original makes for awkward headlines, as well as making the article future-incompatible (because of exchange rate fluctuations). They should keep the original €1M in the title. It is what they offered.

The problem is that you and I may know the rough exchange rates for Euros, pounds, and dollars (and the fact that we can more or less treat them as equivalent at this level). But a lot of US readers won't.

I probably wouldn't have any idea if this were some other European non-Euro currency.

I'd agree with you if they didn't have Euros in the article but the headline is really just there to entice readers. And it doesn't really do that with a number that's essentially meaningless to the reader. "Germany city offers 50 zorkmids to whoever..." ADDED: If you don't want a conversion then just say offers reward.

Re: German city offers $1.1M to whoever proves it doesn’t exist

#30
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Bielefeld native here Impostor clearly

I heard anyone whose documentation shows they're from Bielefeld is actually an undercover BND agent.

That's what THEY want you to think anyway...
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