‘I know, I know. I must remain polite, attack the ideas and not the person, but…
… this made me laugh. I’m a bad person.
For the rest of the joke, click the image (from Partially Clips).’
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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January 2nd, 2006 at 2:14 am
Priceless. It’d be funnier if it weren’t so… true.
January 2nd, 2006 at 2:25 am
Unfortunately, most of the kids in my high school seem to have that kind of attitude. I swear, sometimes I just want to go to one of these clubs at my school and punch some of these kids in the throat for being dumb enough to believe any of that crap. Gahhhhhh
January 2nd, 2006 at 6:58 am
I have a question about the fake moon landing delusion going around. Would it be this bad if it weren’t for the long time it’s been since humans first landed? We seemed to have lost all interest in the moon after the last Apollo missions. Perhaps going back again will make people less ignorant of the world around them? As Jamie and Adam from Mythbusters point out, the only way of busting the myth of man not having been to the moon, would be to actually go there and see the actual moon landings.
January 2nd, 2006 at 8:47 am
Smacklug:
did you say clubs? your highschool has moon hoax clubs?
oh my intelligent designer.
“its a hoax, the TV told me, the TV has experts. not like nasa who only has lame-o scientists that are out to make money.”
January 2nd, 2006 at 11:15 am
Jimi Hendrix really did not play his electric guitar that great. Inside of his Marshall Amp stack was a tape recorder playing another guitar.
Get the point?
January 2nd, 2006 at 11:17 am
Sad,
January 2nd, 2006 at 11:44 am
Ray Gray, Just like Mili Vanil.
January 2nd, 2006 at 11:48 am
Ray, was that why Jimi used to smash up his amps? To stop the tape from playing so he could hear himself play????
And, yes. Anyone who really believes in the moon hoax, despite the (to my mind) overwhelming evidence that 12 men walked on the Moon, would not believe any evidence. Unless they themselves were shipped off to the moon (No, it’s OK, Mr Sibrel, you can play another round of golf, we won’t leave without you…). But, then, they might claim they were the first on the moon …
Oh. I just got it. Partially Clips. Partial eclipse. D’oh!
January 2nd, 2006 at 11:49 am
“Unfortunately, most of the kids in my high school seem to have that kind of attitude. I swear, sometimes I just want to go to one of these clubs at my school and punch some of these kids in the throat for being dumb enough to believe any of that crap. Gahhhhhh” – Smacklug
Really? Wouldn’t it be better to try to interest the faculty and administration in more science and other high-level thinking skills clubs? I’m assuming you’re a student (If you’re on the faculty, shame on you!), but that doesn’t mean you are powerless to act against ignorance in your high school. Find a teacher who will sponsor a science club and organize it yourself. Get other kids who think similarly to join you and make significant changes.
The world doesn’t improve because we sit around and gripe. It takes action to stifle ignorance and prejudice. Examples abound! I’ve seen them many times in schools where I worked and in my district alone. Change the paradigm.
January 2nd, 2006 at 2:55 pm
It’s a funny cartoon, but I’d take issue with the Moon landings necessarily being ‘mankinds greatest achievement’. Most audacious, no doubt, and certainly very inspiring. But just an (admittedly complex) engineering feat, really. Sequencing of the Genome? Hamlet? Building of the Pyramids? Origin of Species..?
I’m not saying it’s definitely not the greatest; I just don’t agree that it should be automatically considered so without challenge.
January 2nd, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Who at NASA feels they were responsible for the moon landings? Anyone under the age of 65? Is there anyone left there from the Apollo era?
January 2nd, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Bwaha! That’s awesome.
I love the rest of the strip.
January 3rd, 2006 at 2:25 am
Well, here’s another funny one on that same site, about a Science class:
http://www.partiallyclips.com/index.php?id=1134&c=1
January 3rd, 2006 at 2:40 am
Well, this is something which is the most debatable topic.To be honest and true, I personally feel and anticipate that people didn’t land on moon.In todays technology where columbia bursts right in the middle of the returning journey…… how can in 1969 they landed and returned back on earth safe n live.I don’t know much abt it cause i was not born at that time.i was born in 1989.Of course those flag waving are rubbish things but i don’t know why my mind and heart doesn’t want to agree with fact that this journey was indeed taken up.
January 3rd, 2006 at 5:08 am
Varun, if you have any doubts about whether or not man landed on the Moon during the Apollo missions, read this website:
http://www.clavius.org/
It has a lot of very useful information. It debunks all of the “arguments” claiming that we never made it to the moon, and has links to other sites describing the Apollo missions. Speaking of which, try this one as well:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/frame.html
It is the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, and contains as much detail about the missions as anyone could wish for.
The tragedy of what happened to Columbia illustrates three things: (1) that space flight is intrinsically dangerous; (2) that the shuttle is a more complex machine than the Apollo spacecraft (and hence there is more to go wrong); and (3) we should never become complacent about doing something hazardous, even if we repeatedly get away with it.
January 3rd, 2006 at 7:07 am
The problem is that the US government has lost a lot of credibility in recent years, and not just about Iraq. They were are seen as the yankee imperialist parasites in the pay of the illuminati, with the CIA committing all manner of atrocities, even up to 9/11 etc. The view out there is “if the US claim something, the reverse is true. They claimed they went so only the most naive ignorant peasant will swallow their lies etc”
Hence, the rising popularity of the Moon Hoax. My suspicion is that in time, only a few will believe it actually happened.
January 3rd, 2006 at 7:12 am
Thanks for the links, Nigel !
January 3rd, 2006 at 7:37 am
“Its funny because its true ?”
January 3rd, 2006 at 10:28 am
Wolverine means it’s true that many kids (and not so kids) feel that way.
Ed Minchau, there are still a few Apollo folks still around. The rest of us who work for NASA feel NASA was responsible, and feel pride in our association with the organization that accomplished it, even though we weren’t around at the time.
Ian Gibson, I agree the “mankinds’ greatest achievement” label is an immediate call to argue over what qualifies, and define the terms such as “greatest”. I would, however, assert it is the most significant, challenging, and awe-inspiring engineering achievement. I mean, how can you compare even the great Pyramids? Come on, piles of stone (even pretty piles of really big stone very neatly placed), or going to another planetary object? There may be engineering feats more important to daily life (clean running water), more ubiquitous (the electrical power system), more mysterious (the Pyramids – given that the exact details of the methods used have been lost to time), more fundamentally significant (the wheel and axle), but there is nothing that stands up to it on the scale of grandness, of sheer impressiveness, of scale and scope and power of what it tells us about ourselves and our possibilities for the future.
January 3rd, 2006 at 10:38 am
Varun Said:
>In todays technology where columbia bursts right in the middle of the returning journey…… how can in 1969 they landed and returned back on earth safe n live.
That’s a bit like saying that because you saw a car accident on the news today that proves that automobiles are a lie and couldn’t possibly work. Because you tripped walking down the stairs, stairs are fake and walking upright is a fantasy, no one could balance on two legs for more than a few seconds, much less actually get anywhere that way. Because people still die from pneumonia, antibiotics are impossible and the Germ Theory of Disease is a sham. Because my bike got a flat tire, bicycles are useless. Because you can’t run a 5 minute mile pace or complete a marathon, they are impossible for humans to accomplish.
Challenger blew up on launch, but that doesn’t mean the Shuttle never flew. Columbia broke up on reentry, but that doesn’t disprove Apollo.
January 3rd, 2006 at 3:59 pm
It is my duty to warn your readers of conspiracy so immense, so huge, that it dwarfs all other conspiracies by comparison. The readers of Bad Astronomy must all be made aware that for the past 3 decades the U. S. govermant has spent billions of our taxpayers dollars in perpetuating the absurd myth that men have walked on the moon. I discovered this by playing backwards a Top Secret 18-1/2 minute audio tape found hidden inside a pumpkin.
The “astronauts” who claimed to have walked on the moon are actually Government Agents, & belong to a Top Secret coterie that is controlled by 100 United Nations meteorologists who have created & are controlling El Nino this very moment! Through their Top Secret laboratories they have also created AIDS, SARS, & Texas Mad Oprah disease. They have already started terrorism by anthrax; next comes terrorism by Amtrak! Their government-built laboratories are hidden deep inside a spider hole underneath a Taliban-built cave complex beneath the Grassy Knoll in Dallas, Texas, whose entrance is cleverly concealed behind a white Fiat belonging to a mysterious man named Raoul. I found the exact location on a government map secretly published on the back of a box of Kix cereal.
The government has also hatched the most dasterdly plot ever attempted against the human race. They are attempting to remove the mercury from our drinking water, thereby to sap & impurify our Precious Bodily Fluids. This has already affected this great country of ours. Recent Top Secret tests have proven the United States of America has dropped down to 14th in mathematical ability throughout the countries of the world—but at least we are still in the top ten!.
I have recently decoded Top Secret documents which prove the Central Intellegence Agency has begun to infiltrate the staff of Bad Astronomy, actually convincing may of its subribers that men have walked on the moon. We must act quickly to avoid disaster! Our only course of action is to immediatel impeah all the liberal reactionaries, moderate radicals, & conservative progressives in Washinton who have perpetuated the moon-landing hoax! Only then will the Truth come out.
Tom Reesor, Conway, SC
January 3rd, 2006 at 10:23 pm
If people did land on moon why was there a need for TV experts to bring their viewpoint in front of the people by saying that it was all fake ? Why did they waste their precious time in getting proofs(maybe right) and convincing people that the landing was never made in reality.I have myself watched the episodes !
January 3rd, 2006 at 11:49 pm
Re: math stuff… my boss likes to say that five out of four kids in the US can’t do fractions.
January 4th, 2006 at 12:02 am
Varun said: “If people did land on moon why was there a need for TV experts to bring their viewpoint in front of the people by saying that it was all fake ? Why did they waste their precious time in getting proofs(maybe right) and convincing people that the landing was never made in reality.I have myself watched the episodes !”
By “TV experts,” I presume (based on the context of the quote) that you mean the producers of the TV shows claiming that the moon landings were faked. The primary reason they make these shows is MONEY. Those that produce and sell vidoes of this nature are trying to get money from people. TV stations that air such shows are trying to get viewers to watch their station; increased ratings = increased profits. (Of course, as a side note, advertisers want their commercials airing during peak rating times, since their profits are likely to go up as a result.)
The bad part of all this is that such producers rely upon people’s ignorance in order to get their money. The worst part is that so many people are willfully ignorant, without even TRYING to understand reality, that such producers get away with it.
That (people’s ignorance, both willful and otherwise) was one of the points of the comic strip that started this thread. It’s funny because it’s true, but it’s also disturbing because it’s true.
January 4th, 2006 at 8:58 am
Varun, I check the link below.
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html
Also there is a do-it-yourself option as well. Any of the pictures that is claimed to be faked can be created with just a digital camera.
No stars in the background? just try and go outside at night and see if you can take a photo of a bright object in the foreground and still capture some stars in the background.
Lines not parallel in photos? Take two sticks stick them in the ground put yourself in a position where the shadows point straight towards you and take a photo of that.
Identical backgrounds? Pick a nice background around two hundred meters away and put a stick in the ground a few meters in front of you. Take a photo first with the stick in the centre foreground. Next move a meter or two sideways and take another photo without the stick.
You can make up more tests yourself. Just don’t put flour all over the kitchen floor or you might get in trouble with your wife/mom like I did.
January 4th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Varun, one other thing : a lot of the “experts” do not have the expertise they claim to have. Much of the “evidence” claimed to support the moon hoax stands up to less than 5 minutes’ scrutiny by someone familiar with photography (particularly such things as perspective and the “fill-in” effect of reflected light).
January 4th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Varun Said:
>If people did land on moon why was there a need for TV experts to bring their viewpoint in front of the people by saying that it was all fake ? Why did they waste their precious time in getting proofs(maybe right) and convincing people that the landing was never made in reality.I have myself watched the episodes !
CR Said:
>By “TV experts,†I presume (based on the context of the quote) that you mean the producers of the TV shows claiming that the moon landings were faked.
Actually, I think Varun was speaking about the rebuttal programs, such as the National Geographic show that Jay Windley participated in. To answer Varun, because it was a rebuttal to all the lunacy being promoted by the deniers.
Your argument seems to be that if it’s true then there isn’t a need to prove it. That misses the substatial point that there is a cadre of hoax promoters out there that are stirring up trouble (especially on the internet) promoting the idea that it was a hoax. These hoax promoters are getting larger audiences than ever before, and couple that with the fact that moon trips are not currently possible and the growing dissatisfaction with and distrust of the government in general and NASA in specific, and you will find that the belief in the hoax story is growing, especially among the young who weren’t present during the Apollo era.
Part of the problem is that some of the claims being presented are somewhat complex and require a certain amount of technical information to counter. Also, the promoters are slick and make their “questions” seem reasonable and convincing. The rebuttal programs are primarily aimed at helping audiences apply the same scrutiny to the hoax proponents’ claims as the hoax proponents would have them apply to the Apollo missions. Also, the effort is to help provide the technical information that the audience needs to correctly evaluate both sets of claims.
In short, the programs “proving” the moon landings are in response to the amount of attention placed on the programs promoting the hoax story.
January 7th, 2006 at 5:43 am
Varun asked: “If people did land on moon why was there a need for TV experts to bring their viewpoint in front of the people by saying that it was all fake ? Why did they waste their precious time in getting proofs(maybe right) and convincing people that the landing was never made in reality.”
Sadly, it’s possible for some people to profit from the ignorance of others. People who make programs suggesting the Moon landings were faked are acting in the same way as those who use trickery to take money from others.
In other words, there are dishonest people in the world.
January 18th, 2006 at 9:31 am
what kind of profit are these guys making by presenting these hoaxes? I dont see it.
January 23rd, 2006 at 3:18 pm
They’re making profit by showing people what they want to see, Dan. People already believe in hoaxes, so they’ll go and see the episodes about hoaxes, to confirm their beliefs that it couldn’t have happened.