Thanks for setting me straight and helping me avoid quite a bit of embarrassment.

Sorry, I just had to say it!

Do these people not remember that they supposedly could have seen the same thing last year, and that it did not happen?

I got one acquaintance to stop sending me those spam emails about lost children by constantly sending him links to snopes.

Now, if you replaced Mars with Jupiter, then oppositions would look a bit cooler. Jupiter is 41 times wider than the moon, so at a perihelial opposition, (125 times as far), Jupiter would appear to be about 1/3 the diameter of the moon.

Of course, doing this would destabilize the orbit of the Earth, but let’s not dwell on the details here…

I was disabused of that second one in primary school, aged 10. I think I’d heard that the Earth was sometimes further from the Sun, you see, so it seemed to make sense at the time… then we had a lesson on Earth & astronomy.

Heh — at the age of 12, I disabused my “teacher” of that one. He was more like a glorified coach, and it was social studies class, but still…

I attribute the herpes-like permanence of this hoax to two things:

1) A shocking lack of fundamental astronomy knowledge, akin to believing that Moon phases are caused by the Earth’s shadow on the Moon, or that seasons are caused by the Earth’s varying distance from the Sun.”

Yeah… I was disabused of that second one in primary school, aged 10. I think I’d heard that the Earth was sometimes further from the Sun, you see, so it seemed to make sense at the time… then we had a lesson on Earth & astronomy.

Now, if I was taught this at 10 years of age, you have to ask yourself this: what exactly is wrong with the education system, that such basic things are just not understood by so many people?

Been there. Even when when the facts are presented sympathetically and without trying to sound like you’re saying “haha you’re an idiot” many people will react irrationally. They have invested belief in the spammed rumor and an realizing it is not a good feeling.

But still the best policy is politely pointing things out, AND not reacting irrationally oneself when faced with correct facts. Politeness and a fair reputation goes a long way.

That said, I can completely understand the cynicism, frustration and the desire to grab them and shake them until they get it

It took me several times of responding with references to snopes to get relatives to not automatically believe in spammed rumors. This includes those lottery scams. At least one has stopped sending me such emails because she realized I’m not buying them. I wish she would continue to email me because she’s still into astrology and new age crap.