MARY ALEXANDER • 30 APRIL 2024
Published by Africa Check on 3 May 2024

“On the same day of the Solar Eclipse ( 8th of Apr 2024), The powers that be have chosen to re – activate the CERN hydron collider,” reads a post on a Facebook group page in Uganda.*

It adds: “This hydron collider does not only collide atomic particles but it also opens portals to the demonic realm.”

As proof of its claim, the post links to a TikTok clip from footage of a performance that includes dancers, a military band and a huge video display.

The clip is headed “GOTHARD TUNNEL OPENING CEREMONY”. Text below reads: “OPENING THE GATES OF HELL?”

Under that is the logo of Cern, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, with an equal sign connecting it to 666. This is the “number of the beast”, taken from the Christian bible’s book of Revelation and associated with the antichrist and the devil.

The performance is peculiar, but a voiceover tries to explain. It says the display shows the “opening of some kind of portal”. A dancer wearing what looks like a goat’s head with long curved horns is “the goat man, or Satan”.

This and other videos of the performance have been circulating on social media in South Africa, Nigeria and elsewhere in April 2024, with similar claims. They include:

• CERN is where Science meets magic meets religion meets satanism.
• Just so you can see the satanic agenda … with them planning on switching CERN on this April 8th …
• CERN is owned and controlled by Zionist Jews.
• Why would they perform a “bride of Baphomet” séance while opening a scientific lab machine that tries to recreate the “God particle”?

The claim can also be seen here, here, here and here.

What is Cern?

Cern is a multinational physics organisation that straddles the border of France and Switzerland in Meyrin near Geneva, the Swiss capital. It was set up in 1954 to look into the fundamental particles that make up the universe. Its focus is pure science, research that looks into the reasons for things without any immediate real-world application.

One of its projects is the Large Hadron (not hydron) Collider (LHC), the world’s biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. Inside this 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets, two beams of particles travelling in opposite directions are brought close to the speed of light. They then collide, releasing other particles for scientists to study.

Cern’s most famous achievement is the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, the mass-giving field that allowed stars and planets to form in the early universe. It’s known as the “god particle”.

This has made Cern a target of religious conspiracy theorists. And the huge collider is by necessity underground. This has led some to conclude it’s an entrance to hell.

But is the performance in the viral clips really proof that Cern is “satanic” and a way to hell?

Opening ceremony for railway tunnel through Swiss Alps

A reverse image search of frames from the footage reveals it has nothing to do with Cern.

Instead, it shows the opening ceremony for the Gotthard Base Tunnel through the Swiss Alps mountain range on 1 June 2016. The tunnel cuts through the base of the Gotthard massif chain of mountains in the Alps.

At the time, the US$12-billion, 57-kilometre tunnel was said to be the longest conventional railway tunnel in the world.

The opening ceremony was held at the Rynaecht fairground near the northern entrance to the tunnel in Erstfeld, a town in central Switzerland. Erstfeld is about 207 kilometres in a straight line and 308 kilometres by road from Cern’s headquarters in Meyrin.

The 30-minute performance – seen here, here and here – was created by German theatre director Volker Hesse. Media reports have described it as odd, bizarre, creepy and absolutely insane.

But it was only intended as a celebration of the Gotthard tunnel and the Alps above. The “goat man, or Satan”, for example, was meant to represent the alpine ibex, a wild mountain goat native to the region.

And Cern did not “reactivate” the LHC on 8 April 2024, the day of the total solar eclipse over parts of North America.

Instead, the collider’s 2024 science season started in mid-February after a winter maintenance break. On 8 March, a month before the eclipse, it achieved its first stable particle beams.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

The post ‘Absolutely insane’ performance at Swiss railway tunnel opening – not satanism at Cern appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 21 April 2024
Published by Africa Check on 25 April 2024

The April 2024 total solar eclipse over North America has sparked many myths, false claims and conspiracy theories.

One is a warning that, “tonight”, “cosmic light rays” will “pass near” Earth, causing us “harmful effects of radiation”.*

A total solar eclipse happens when the moon, in its orbit around our planet, briefly covers the entire face of the sun. This cuts off sunlight, turning day to night.

The complex interplay of Earth’s rotation, the moon’s orbit around Earth, and the orbit of the two around the sun means total solar eclipses are rare and only occur over small parts of the planet. The highly anticipated 8 April eclipse was only seen in a tight diagonal across parts of Canada, Mexico and the contiguous United States.

This video explains more:

The “cosmic light rays” warning appeared on social media in several African countries – including Nigeria, Liberia, Rwanda, Sudan and South Sudan – in early April, with a peak just before, during and after the day of the North American eclipse.

It’s long and repetitive, but these are the basics:

Tonight between 12:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. … turn off your cell phone, laptop, etc. and keep it away from your body … our earth will face the highest radiation. Cosmic light rays will pass near the earth … it will cause us harmful effects of radiation. You can see it on google and NASA and BBC news.

Nasa is the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the BBC is the British Broadcasting Corporation.

The warning adds: “Share this message with other people who are important to your family, friends, friends and even your wife.”

Many instances of the warning associate it with the 2024 solar eclipse, with comments such as “thankfully not in Africa” and “Only In The Parts Of North America Bruh”.

It spread widely in Sudan and South Sudan. On 8 April, the day of the eclipse, it was posted on AKOKA TV, a Facebook page based in Juba, South Sudan’s capital. The post includes four photos of a solar eclipse.

But the warning is old, and false. Here’s why.

Understanding cosmic radiation

First, there’s no such scientific term as “cosmic light rays”. Cosmic rays, instead, is an old term coined in 1925 for what’s now more commonly known as cosmic radiation. And it doesn’t just “pass near” Earth. It washes over the planet all the time.

But it’s not the radiation we associate with nuclear power. Radiation exists in many forms and is an everyday thing. Our radios and microwave ovens, for example, are powered by radiation.

Cosmic radiation comes from stars, as atoms violently ejected from a star are stripped to their subatomic particles and hurtled into space.

Some of the cosmic rays that hit Earth are from collapsed stars known as black holes and the old explosions of other stars, all many trillions and quadrillions of kilometres away.

But most of it comes from the sun, our closest star. Cosmic radiation from the sun has also been called the solar wind, which causes the northern and southern lights. These stunning swirls of colour in the sky – the aurora borealis in the far northern hemisphere and the aurora australis in the far south – show the solar wind interacting with Earth’s magnetic field.

And that’s key. Earth has a strong magnetic field – a magnetosphere – created by its rotating molten iron core. Mars and Venus, Earth’s neighbours in the solar system and planets made of the same rocky stuff, don’t have a strong magnetosphere. And no life has been detected on them.

Earth’s magnetosphere, as well as its atmosphere – the thick layer of gas that covers the planet – protects us from cosmic radiation. Life here has flourished for billions of years, all the time swept by cosmic rays.

In fact, the regions of Earth under the moon’s shadow during a total solar eclipse get a vastly reduced amount of cosmic radiation.

Africa Check could find no warning by Nasa or the BBC that “cosmic light rays” were about the “pass near” Earth.

‘Zombie’ claim that just won’t die

Different versions of the claim have been circulating online since at least January 2010 – more than 14 years ago.

At the time, the claim was that the cosmic rays would be coming from Mars. Here’s an example:

Tonight btw 12.30 – 0300am cosmic rays entering earth from mars. So all r advised to put off cellphones courtesy NASA BBC news. Its causes cancer…(if u believe dat switch ur phone off, if u dont ..keep it movin..u dig?)

Mars is a planet, not a star. It doesn’t emit cosmic radiation.

In June 2023 Africa Check fact-checked a similar claim, that “Today around 12am to 3am Cosmic rays will pass near earth so make sure you switch off your phones nd put it far away from you guys its dangerous it might hurt youtell others.”

It’s just one example of a “zombie” claim that, despite repeated debunks, just won’t die.

Then, as now, the claim is false.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

The post North American solar eclipse triggers bogus warning of ‘cosmic light rays’ over Africa appeared first on South Africa Gateway.