NASA Moons Crowd of Skeptics
Buzz Aldrin treats moon-landing skeptics to a little chin music, but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is having a harder time dealing with the growing wave of displaced Capricorn 1 fans who tuned in to Fox's Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land On the Moon? AP's Marcia Dunn, explains how NASA budgeted $15,000 for a book debunking moon landing hoax theories, but has since canceled the project. (Be sure to check out MSNBC's video clip when you read the story; it features not only footage of Aldrin's sock on the jaw but Dan Abrams dripping with even more sarcasm than he usually drips with.) Disappointingly, the book cancellation came because of objections from don't-dignify-this-with-an-answer prigs, rather than because the author discovered the landing really was faked. Next they'll be telling us the whole tracking Santa's sleigh bit is a put-on too.
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Phil Plait, the guy who runs badastronomy.com is one of the talking heads in that MSNBC video clip. He seemed to be making his point pretty well, but Dan Abrams comes on so smugly against the conspiracy folks that I ended up wanting to believe them. (And a tv talk show is not the ideal medium for examining evidence of blast craters, exposure times, and the infamous “radiation belt.”)
You should check out the website badastronomy.com to see a detailed discussion of the book incident and a genreally good debunking of the whole “we didn’t go to the moon” conspiracy.
Gee, Tim, maybe it’s because the “moon hoax” protagonists are complete idiots? Would you say that someone who was being sarcastic about (say) “flat earth” beliefs should impel you to believe that the earth is really flat?
I am grateful to “NC” for mentioning http://www.badastronomy.com. Or maybe a touch jealous, since I was going to. {grin} Frankly that site hands you, in a nutshell, all you need to know about this alleged “conspiracy”.
The only proof here is of the abysmally poor knowlege of basic science in the world today…
I’m not exactly sure if it’s scientific ignorance that’s driving loons like Sibrel and his ilk. Yes, their claims are easily destroyed by anyone who is willing to learn little about the physics of space flight. However, why do they make the claim in the first place and why are they so vehement to defend it after all these years?
Somehow, someway, the notion that humans have landed on the moon sticks in their collective craw. Somehow, the moon landings aggravate their cynical view that humanity is simply too stupid or otherwise incapable of such an accomplishment. I once heard some UFO-nut proclaim that humanity gained knowledge of everything from lasers to microwave ovens back backwards engineering alien technology from the “crash” at Roswell. According to him, these things were “too complex” to be developed by mere humans. Of course, Einstein envisioned the concept of lasers in 1917 and the first microwave oven was being marketed in 1947, a year before the “Roswell Incident.”
Personally, I find the whole thing rather insulting to humanity in general. I believe these small, paranoid, fools who have nothing to show for their own feeble existence and feel it necessary to raise their own self-esteem by denying and/or denigrating the accomplishments of others. As American society slides deeper and deeper in mediocrity, the ranks of these morons will only continue grow…
…or maybe I’m over-analyzing this, and should pay these dorks no mind at all.
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