T he guy pouring my beer in Anchorage told me that he knew there was no truth to decades-old rumors about a research facility 200 miles to the northeast. Nobody was up there talking to aliens or controlling people’s minds. “They just do the aurora,” he said, cheerfully, while tearing up pieces of mint. The comment didn’t surprise me. Many people who don’t believe one conspiracy theory about that station—known as the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP—believe another. A