Top 5 Lists – Page 3

5 Most Notorious Secret Societies

Who really controls the world? The real history of 5 secret organizations like the Illuminati thought to control global affairs…

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5 Most Notorious Secret Societies

5 Most Notorious Secret Societies_00040.jpg
Freemasons

The group likely started as a guild of medieval stone workers who wanted to protect the secrets behind their ability to intricately carve softer stone known as "freestone."
Freemasons

They founded lodges where they could discuss their trade and developed secret handshakes and symbols to distinguish themselves from "rough masons."
Freemasons

The modern form of Freemasonry emerged by the 1700s as the organization emphasized intellectual discourse and recruited aristocrats and artists.
Freemasons

Among their ranks are some of the most powerful men in history, including George Washington and 13 other presidents, Mozart, Churchill, and Henry Ford...
Freemasons

...leading many to believe that Order is involved in murderous plots to control the world's governments, industries, and financial institutions.
Freemasons

5 Most Notorious Secret Societies
Knights Templar

The Knights Templar was an order of monastic knights formed in 1120 to protect Christian pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem.
Knights Templar

The group was given a headquarters on the Temple Mount where they were rumored to acquire relics such as the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant.
Knights Templar

The group amassed great wealth after it began receiving donations from Europe's wealthiest families, and the Vatican exempted it from local laws and taxes...
Knights Templar

They began to take on an increased financial role in Europe by managing the estates of Crusaders and by setting up and early banking system for pilgrims.
Knights Templar

The Order protected the Holy Land for nearly 20 years but fell out of favor after Jerusalem was recaptured by the Muslims.
Knights Templar

King Philip IV of France, who was heavily in debt to the Knights, ordered the arrest of all Templars in 1307, and Pope Clement V dissolved the Order in 1312.
Knights Templar

5 Most Notorious Secret Societies
Illuminati

The Illuminati was founded in 1776 by German university professor Adam Weishaupt.
Illuminati

The movement advocated free thought, liberalism, and gender equality while opposing state abuses of power and the Catholic Church's domination over the government.
Illuminati

Influential intellectuals and politicians were recruited from Masonic lodges, with members taking a vow of secrecy and pledging obedience to their superiors.
Illuminati

The group was broken up and suppressed by government agents in 1785...
Illuminati

...but some say the group survived to mastermind the French Revolution and later infiltrate positions of power in government and business.
Illuminati

5 Most Notorious Secret Societies
Bilderberg Group

The Bilderberg Group is an annual conference attended by 120-140 of the most powerful and influential people in government, politics, finance, and industry.
Bilderberg Group

The conference was first organized in 1954 at the Hotel de Bilderberg in the Netherlands by Polish activist Jozef Retinger...
Bilderberg Group

...who wanted to foster cooperation between the United States and Western Europe on political, economic, and defense issues.
Bilderberg Group

Former attendees include US president Bill Clinton, businessman David Rockefeller, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, and US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
Bilderberg Group

The group's annual meetings are held in complete secrecy...
Bilderberg Group

...inviting many conspiracy theories that say the group controls and profits from major world events like the credit crisis...
Bilderberg Group

5 Most Notorious Secret Societies
Opus Dei

Opus Dei is a Roman Catholic institution founded in Spain in 1928 by Catholic priest St. Josemaria Escriva...
Opus Dei

The group, which was officially approved by the Vatican in 1950, promotes a return to conservative Catholic values and personal sacrifice to God.
Opus Dei

Opus Dei is known for its secretive nature, with members using secret greetings and being barred form revealing their membership.
Opus Dei

Members are expected to wear a cilice, a small spiked chain, around their upper thigh for two hours each day, and the flail themselves weekly.
Opus Dei

Many believe the group has infiltrated global politics and business, with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and formed FBI head Louis Free thought to be members...
Opus Dei

But are they just conservative Catholics on a mission from God or part of a greater worldwide conspiracy...?
Opus Dei

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5 Shocking Attempts to Control the Weather

HAARP, weather warfare and cloud seeding… are these to blame for extreme weather events like hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding and landslides?

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5 Shocking Attempts to Control the Weather

5 Shocking Attempts to Control the Weather
Operation Popeye

Normally used to scout war time weather conditions, the US 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron took on a special role during the Vietnam War.
Operation Popeye

As part of Operation Popeye, the Squadron began a secret experiment to increase the amount of rainfall and slow enemy movement.
Operation Popeye

Starting in March 1967 and continuing through every monsoon season until 1972...
Operation Popeye

...three C-130 Hercules aircraft and two F-4C Phantoms seeded cloud formation over Laos with silver iodine twice per day...
Operation Popeye

...extending the rainy season over the targets areas an average of 30 to 45 days.
Operation Popeye

5 Shocking Attempts to Control the Weather
Esso Oil

In the 1960s, the Esso Oil company proposed a plan to cover 20 square miles of Venezuela's Paraguana Peninsula with asphalt....
Esso Oil

...theorizing that the heat from the black asphalt would create a "thermal mountain" of rising air...
Esso Oil

...and encourage the formation of rain-producing Cumulus clouds.
Esso Oil

The project was eventually blocked by the Venezuelan government...
Esso Oil

...which suspected that the plan was a trick to get rid of the asphalt - a by-product of Esso's oil refineries - without paying export taxes.
Esso Oil

5 Shocking Attempts to Control the Weather
Project Cirrus

The first ever attempt to modify a hurricane was launched in October 1947 as a collaboration between General Electric, the US Army, the US Navy, and the US Air Force.
Project Cirrus

Irving Langmuir, a scientist at GE, theorized that seeding the eyewall of a hurricane with dry ice or silver iodine would cause it to weaken.
Project Cirrus

To test the theory, a naval B-17 bomber dropped 80 pounds of crushed dry ice into a hurricane headed away from the coast of Florida.
Project Cirrus

The hurricane unexpectedly strengthened and changed direction, making landfall in Savannah Georgia where it caused $34 million in damages.
Project Cirrus

Though it is unlikely that Project Cirrus had any impact on the hurricane, the threat of lawsuits put further research on hold for 11 years.
Project Cirrus

5 Shocking Attempts to Control the Weather
Sonic Booms

In 1998 a professor at the University of Akron at Ohio patented a method for breaking up hurricanes using sonic booms.
Sonic Booms

The method called for two F-4 fighter jets to fly around the eye of a hurricane at Mach 1.5...
Sonic Booms

...creating supersonic booms to counter the rotation of the hurricane...
Sonic Booms

...and disrupt the upward flow of warm air feeding it.
Sonic Booms

The method has yet to be tested, but one prominent weather scientist doubts the idea will work, likening it to "shouting in the wind."
Sonic Booms

5 Shocking Attempts to Control the Weather
HAARP

Though not an official weather modification program, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program is central to many weather conspiracy theories...
HAARP

...which blame it for everything from tornadoes and hurricanes to earthquakes and tsunamis.
HAARP

The program, jointly run by the US Air Force, US Navy, the University of Alaska and the infamous DARPA, consists of 180 antennas covering 33 acres...
HAARP

...which direct high-frequency radio signals into the Earth's ionosphere to investigate ionospheric radio and surveillance technology.
HAARP

But does it have a secret mission? The European Union called the project a global concern and passed a resolution calling for more information on its risks...
HAARP

Seek more knowledge:

More info on weather warfare: http://bit.ly/18z58vt
Supersonic hurricane neutraliser: http://bit.ly/1dpnUuA

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5 Experiments that Could have Destroyed the World

We’re better off with the knowledge gained from experiments like the Large Hadron Collider and the Trinity and Starfish Prime atomic bomb explosions, but what if they had gone wrong?

…and they conducted them anyways. We’re better off with the knowledge gained from experiments like the Large Hadron Collider and the Trinity and Starfish Prime atomic bomb explosions, but what if they had gone wrong?

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5 Experiments that Could have Destroyed the World

5 Experiments that Could have Destroyed the World
Kola Superdeep Borehole

Located within the Arctic Circle in the far Northwest corner of Russia is the deepest hole ever drilled in to the Earth.
Kola Superdeep Borehole

Soviet scientists began drilling the hole in 1970, eventually reaching a depth of 40,230 ft (12,262 m) in 1989.
Kola Superdeep Borehole

The Soviets wanted to bore through the Earth's crust and into the upper mantle, though no one knew what would happen.
Kola Superdeep Borehole

Fears of unleashing seismic disaster upon the world or even demons from hell proved to be unfounded...
Kola Superdeep Borehole

...and the project was abandoned due to temperatures in excess of 350F (177C) which allowed rock to flow back into the borehole.
Kola Superdeep Borehole

5 Experiments that Could have Destroyed the World
Trinity Test

Conducted as part of the Manhattan Project by the US Army on July 16, 1945, the Trinity Test was the first ever detonation of a nuclear device.
Trinity Test

The bomb's initial development was slowed by fears of project scientist Edward Teller...
Trinity Test

...who speculated that a fission bomb might ignite the Earth's atmosphere with a self-sustaining fusion reaction of Nitrogen nuclei.
Trinity Test

Further calculations showed that the odds of such a reaction were incredibly small, and development continued.
Trinity Test

The resulting bomb produced the explosive power of 21 kilotons of TNT, prompting project scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer to recall a line of Hindu scripture:
Trinity Test

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
Trinity Test

5 Experiments that Could have Destroyed the World
Large Hadron Collider

When it went live on September 10, 2008, some though the Large Hadron Collider would end the world.
Large Hadron Collider

The $6 billion particle accelerator was designed to accelerate proton beams around a 17 mile loop before crashing them together...
Large Hadron Collider

...to simulate the microscopic black holes that were formed during the Big Bang.
Large Hadron Collider

Some though these black holes would grow to consume the Earth...
Large Hadron Collider

...but Scientists dismissed this idea, calculating that any black holes formed would evaporate due to a phenomenon know as Hawking Radiation.
Large Hadron Collider

5 Experiments that Could have Destroyed the World
Starfish Prime

Earth's magnetosphere is an important layer of charged particles that protects the atmosphere from solar wind.
Starfish Prime

So what would happen if a large nuclear bomb was detonated there? The United States decided to find out in 1962.
Starfish Prime

Seeking to disrupt Soviet missile systems, a thermonuclear warhead was detonated 250 miles above Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean.
Starfish Prime

The 1.4 megaton explosion could be seen 900 miles (1459 km) away in Hawaii where the electromagnetic pulse damaged streetlights and phone lines.
Starfish Prime

And an artificial radiation belt was created around the Earth which lasted for 5 years an crippled one-third of all satellites in low Earth orbit.
Starfish Prime

5 Experiments that Could have Destroyed the World
SETI

The "search for extraterrestrial intelligence" is the collective name for a number of activities searching for intelligent extraterrestrial life.
SETI

As early as 1896, Nikola Tesla theorized that radio could be used to contact alien life. In 1899 he observed signals though to be from Mars...
SETI

...and the US declared a "National Radio Day" between August 21 and 23, 1924 to allow scientists to listen for transmissions from the red planet.
SETI

Current studies involve ground and space-based telescopes, large radio telescope arrays and distributed computing.
SETI

But some are wary of the efforts, and worry that we may alert hostile alien civilization to our existence...
SETI

...like Stephen Hawking who cites mankind's own history of harsh treatment when encountering civilizations with a significant technology gap.
SETI

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5 Most Haunted Places on Earth

The creepiest and most haunted places in the world where you might find ghosts, unexplained events, and other weird, mysterious and disturbing things…

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5 Most Haunted Places on Earth

5 Most Haunted Places on Earth
Diplomat Hotel, Philippines

The former Diplomat Hotel sits atop a hill overlooking Baguio City in the Philippines.
Diplomat Hotel, Philippines

Originally a seminary built by Dominican priests in 1915...
Diplomat Hotel, Philippines

...the building was bombed and taken over by invading Japanese soldiers during World War II.
Diplomat Hotel, Philippines

The now abandoned building was later converted to a hotel, where guests would report seeing ghosts...
Diplomat Hotel, Philippines

...of the nuns and priests who were beheaded by Japanese soldiers.
Diplomat Hotel, Philippines

5 Most Haunted Places on Earth
Ruins of Bhangarh, India

Situated between Jaipur and Delhi in India is the city of Bhangarh which has laid abandoned for nearly 400 years.
Ruins of Bhangarh, India

At the city's prime, a local magician created a love potion to win the heart of the beautiful princess Ratnavati...
Ruins of Bhangarh, India

...but he was crushed by a boulder when his potion backfired, leading him to curse the city and its people with his dying breath.
Ruins of Bhangarh, India

The ruins of which are now largely untouched due to their reputation for being haunted...
Ruins of Bhangarh, India

...and the government has installed signs forbidding people from stayin in the area after sunset.
Ruins of Bhangarh, India

5 Most Haunted Places on Earth
Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic

Also known as the Church of Bones, the Sedlec Ossuary is a Roman Catholic chapel in the Czech Repuclic estimated to contain the bones of 40-70,000 people...
Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic

...many of which are used to decorate the building's interior.
Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic

Built atop a medieval cemetary, mass graves were unearthed during the chapel's construction and the builders began to stack the bones within.
Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic

Today, the chapel contains large mounds of bones, along with an enormous chandelier containing at least one of every bone in the human body.
Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic

5 Most Haunted Places on Earth
Gettysburg, United States

Gettysburg Battlefield was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War...
Gettysburg, United States

...with nearly 8,000 soldiers killed as 94,000 Union troops clashed with 72,000 Confederate soldiers between July 1 and July 3, 1863.
Gettysburg, United States

The sounds of gun and cannon fire are still heard around the battlefield, and numerous ghost sightings have been reported...
Gettysburg, United States

...including the ghost of Jeannie Wade, who became the only civilian casualty of the battle when a musketball smashed through her home...
Gettysburg, United States

...and the ghosts of soldiers that still wander the battlefield.
Gettysburg, United States

5 Most Haunted Places on Earth_00415.jpg
Tower of London, UK

Established by William the Conqueror in 1066, the Tower was a fortification "against the restlessness of the huge and brutal populace" of London.
Tower of London, UK

Used as a prison between 1100 and 1952, the central White Tower of the castle became a symbol of oppression...
Tower of London, UK

...and it developed a cruel and bloody history of murder, torture and execution.
Tower of London, UK

Many of the ghosts said to haunt the tower are those of famous political prisoners such as Sir Walter Raleigh, an English explorer executed to appease the Spanish...
Tower of London, UK

...and Anne Boleyn, the former Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII, who was beheaded in 1536.
Tower of London, UK

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5 Ancient Curses Still Haunting People Today

Do you believe in curses? Dare to cross these 5 ancient curses, and you will regret it… if you survive…

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5 Ancient Curses Still Haunting People Today

5 Ancient Curses Still Haunting People Today
Pharaoh's Curse

It is believed that anyone who disturbs the mummy of an Egyptian pharaoh is placed under a curse resulting in bad luck, illness or death.
Pharaoh's Curse

Belief in the curse was popularized by the 1922 discovery of the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamen by English archaeologist Howard Carter.
Pharaoh's Curse

Strange things began to happen the day the tomb was opened, with a cobra, a symbol of Eygptian royalty, breaking into Carter's home and eating his pet canary.
Pharaoh's Curse

Shortly thereafter, members of Carter's team and prominent visitors to the tomb began to die under mysterious circumstances...
Pharaoh's Curse

...including Cater's financier Lord Carnarvon, who died of rare blood poisoning only months after being the first person to open the tomb's inner door.
Pharaoh's Curse

5 Ancient Curses Still Haunting People Today
Otzi the Iceman

Otzi the Iceman is Europe's oldest mummy. He succumbed to an arrow wound and head injury before being frozen in the Otzal Alps.
Otzi the Iceman

The 5,300 year-old remains were discovered frozen in a glacier on the border between Austria and Italy by two German hikers in 1991.
Otzi the Iceman

Possibly influenced by the Egyptian Pharaoh's curse, many believe the mummy of Otzi to be cursed...
Otzi the Iceman

...a conclusion seemingly validated by the viloent deaths of seven people associated with the Iceman and his discovery...
Otzi the Iceman

...such as Rainer Henn, a forensic pathologist who moved the mummy with his bare hands and later dies in a car accident on the way to a conference to discuss his research.
Otzi the Iceman

5 Ancient Curses Still Haunting People Today
The Cursed Ring of Silvanius

Dating to the 4th or 5th century, the gold ring of Silvanius was discovered just outside a former Roman settlement in England in 1785.
The Cursed Ring of Silvanius

The large ring bears an image of the goddess Venus and the Latin phrase "Senicianus vivas in Deo" meaning "Senicianus lives in God."
The Cursed Ring of Silvanius

The ring would be largely unremarkable if not for a lead Roman curse tablet unearthed in the temple of a neighboring village in 1805.
The Cursed Ring of Silvanius

The tablet calls for the deity Nodens to inflict sickness on a man named Senicianus if he does not return a ring lost by Silvanius to the temple.
The Cursed Ring of Silvanius

The ring, thought to be an inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," was likely never returned as the Latin word "redivivia" was added to the end of the tablet to renew the curse.
The Cursed Ring of Silvanius

5 Ancient Curses Still Haunting People Today
Hope Diamond

The Hope Diamond is one of the world's greatest treasures, awash in a deep blue color due to the presence of boron in its crystal structure.
Hope Diamond

According to legend, the gem was plucked from the eye of a statue of the Hindu goddess Sita by a French merchant named Jean Baptiste Tavernier.
Hope Diamond

Soon after, Tavernier was mauled to death by a pack of wolves, with the diamond passing to French king Louis XIV...
Hope Diamond

...who later died of gangrene. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette then inherited the diamond, only to be beheaded during the French Revolution.
Hope Diamond

Tragedy and misfortune continued to befall those associated with the diamond, all the way up to its eventual donation to the Smithsonian Museum...
Hope Diamond

...with the mailman who delivered the diamond to the museum suffering a series of bizarre accidents shortly thereafter.
Hope Diamond

5 Ancient Curses Still Haunting People Today
Bjorketorp Runestone

One of the tallest runestones in the world, the Bjorketorp Runestone in Blekinge, Sweden dates to 500-700 AD.
Bjorketorp Runestone

The 4.2 meter tall stone is part of a stone circle believed to be an ancient memorial or grave marker.
Bjorketorp Runestone

The translated runes read "I, master of the runes conceal here runes of power. Incessantly plagues by maleficence, doomed to insideous death is he who breaks this monument."
Bjorketorp Runestone

A farmer once tested this curse by building a fire around the runestone in order the heat it up so that it could be cracked and removed.
Bjorketorp Runestone

Despite the calm weather, a great gust of wind blew the flames away from the runestone, causing them to consume the farmer.
Bjorketorp Runestone

Dare you be the next to tempt a curse?
5 Ancient Curses Still Haunting People Today

Seek more knowledge:

Egypt’s “King Tut Curse” Caused by Tomb Toxins?: http://bit.ly/1500HeI
10 Victims of the Hope Diamond Curse: http://bit.ly/18oH1Gr
History and myth: JRR Tolkien, a Roman temple and a ring: http://bit.ly/12xuN6s
Björketorp Runestone Curse: http://bit.ly/12xuOXU
Otzi The Iceman Suffered Head Blow Before Death: http://huff.to/17mjfWN

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5 Sci-fi Weapons that Actually Exist

Once existing only in the mysterious realm of science fiction, here are 5 formerly top secret sci-fi weapons that actually exist…

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5 Sci-fi Weapons that Actually Exist

Seek more knowledge:

Navy Deploying Laser Weapon Prototype Near Iran: http://nyti.ms/155DLK4
Japan’s WWII Monster Sub: http://bit.ly/1brQkEi
The Active Denial System: the weapon that’s a hot topic: http://bit.ly/155EcE5
US Military’s Robot Space Plane Settles Into Mystery Mission: http://bit.ly/155Es5W

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5 Strangest Paranormal Military Projects

5 strange military projects involving UFOs, time travel, psychic powers, a mysterious crash at Roswell and the paranormal…

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Top 5 Strangest Paranormal Military Projects

Top 5 Strangest Paranormal Military Projects
Project Bluebook

Top 5 Strangest Paranormal Military Projects
From 1947 to 1969, the Air Force investigated Unidentified Flying Objects under Project Blue Book.

Top 5 Strangest Paranormal Military Projects

Seek more knowledge:

Project Blue Book: http://bit.ly/1cOAnWx
Operation Paperclip: http://1.usa.gov/14OuxkS
Project Stargate: http://bit.ly/14M8SKm

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5 Intriguing Facts about the NSA

What don’t you know about the government agency that spies on you?

We may not know the full extent of the NSA’s domestic spying under programs like XKeyscore, ECHELON and PRISM revealed by leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden, but here are 5 intriguing facts that we do know about the National Security Agency…

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5 Intriguing Facts about the NSA

Seek more knowledge:

NSA FAQ. http://1.usa.gov/1c0Kk2z
No Such Nickname: “Inside the Agency Watching You.” http://on-msn.com/15nWuPt
Blast Zone: “The Move or How NSA Came to Fort Meade.” http://1.usa.gov/105uhhJ
Now Hiring: “The Grueling Application Process To Land A Job At The NSA.” http://read.bi/17qcMy8
Open Window: “NSA’s involvement in producing Windows Vista.” http://1.usa.gov/10B9jcZ
Utah Power Trip: “Welcome to Utah, the NSA’s desert home for eavesdropping on America.” http://bit.ly/13VUhNn

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5 Extinct Animals That May Still Roam the Earth

5 mysterious animals thought to be extinct, but are they?

5 mysterious animals thought to be extinct… but are they?

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5 Extinct Animals That May Still Roam the Earth

Seek more knowledge:

Woolly Mammoth: “Consensus dating of mammoth remains from Wrangel Island”. Radiocarbon, North America. March 2006. http://bit.ly/ZPfW8Y
Thylacine ( Tasmanian Tiger): “Tasmania’s Threatened Fauna Handbook”. Threatened Species Unit, Parks and Wildlife Service, Tasmania. 1999. http://bit.ly/144wqKg
“Thylacines”. Grant Museum of Zoology. April 2012. http://bit.ly/11FrXvn
Passenger Pigeon: “The Passenger Pigeon”. Encyclopedia Smithsonian. Smithsonian Institution. March 2001. http://bit.ly/ZPi8xw
“Cloning: Can it resurrect extinct species?”. BBC News. February 2012. http://bit.ly/17MuICD
Honshu Wolf: “Man continues 40-year search for extinct Japanese wolf”. The Asahi Shimbum. January 2013. http://bit.ly/11N1Tl2
Mokele-mbembe: “The hunt for Mokele-mbembe: Congo’s Loch Ness Monster”. BBC News Magazine. December 2011. http://bbc.in/11lhEwI

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