Blogs / Bad Astronomy

You may know me as a buster of the Moon landing hoax claims, debunking the dumbosity of people who think the Apollo missions were faked.

But I have been leaked a picture that makes it clear that the truth behind Apollo was far, far bigger than anyone has ever suspected. In fact, it’s a real Thriller.

Reader Dan Brennan from the Unmanned Space Flight bulletin board sent this picture to me:

It’s a shot from Apollo 11 of Buzz Aldrin in the command module, a screen capture from the amazing (but Flash-heavy) site We Choose the Moon. Before I even read the content of Dan’s email I knew what he wanted to show me. Can you see it? Look just to the right of Buzz, at what should be a gauge on the control panel… but actually shows what looks for all the world (well, all the cis-lunar space) like Michael Jackson!

In fact, I think it is Michael Jackson.

The evidence is overwhelming. Sure, he looks like he’s wearing an eyepatch, but given his wardrobe choices over the years, is an eyepatch all that unlikely? And look at this picture for comparison — my Photoshop skillz are unmatched (happily for millions of satisfied Adobe customers). The resemblance is too strong to be coincidence.

So what’s the deal? You might think that Buzz was a fan, so he had a picture of Jackson taped to the console — though Michael was only about 11 when our first mission to the Moon launched, so that’s silly. The gauge in the panel is visible in other images, and you can tell there’s a glass cover on it. That means the face is not taped on, but is in fact a reflection!

The conclusion is clear. What’s going on here, obviously, is that a time-traveling Michael Jackson stowed away aboard the Apollo 11 capsule to experience the mission for himself.

I mean, c’mon. How do you think he learned how to moonwalk?

Shamone!

Some people say the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was a joke made up to satirize creationism and the incursion of fundamentalist religion into politics. Other people seem to see their religious icons everywhere they look. Still others promote their beliefs through the military.

I think these folks ought to get together. Or maybe they already did:

People say there are no atheists in foxholes… but maybe there is a higher authority.

Tip o’ the noodly appendage to Jay Sinclair.

Credit: US Air Force and Tech. Sergeant Russell E. Cooley IV

I like a lot of web comics, but it’s sometimes hard to find good ones. I was recently twigged on to Calamities of Nature, which commonly has themes dealing with science and critical thinking. I particularly like this one, excerpted in the picture here. The last panel is awesome.

In the character guide, the artist describes the mole (the white guy with earmuffs) as a cynic, but I don’t think so. A cynic is in many ways a pessimist, but a skeptic can see the good in things while still asking for evidence of claims. I think Aaron is a skeptic.

Tip o’ the virtual ink to Carl Spackler.

I haven’t done a Caturday post in awhile, but I found an old photo with a story I wanted to share.

In 2009 I filmed a documentary for the show "Engineering the Universe" (this was with the same crew that helped me Kill A Planet). We wanted to make a scale model of the solar system that people could instantly grasp, so we went to the Denver Broncos’ Mile High Stadium to use the football field there. We put the Sun on one end and Pluto at the other… but I won’t spoil it. It’ll air eventually!

Anyway, as we walked onto the field through the corridor between bleachers, this cutie was guarding the way:

But what was she guarding? If you look down on the right near the end of the corridor, you’ll see a blue metal door ajar with a green bin in front of it. I saw some movement, so I peered in… and got a surprise.

I guess Guard Cat was actually Mama Guard Cat! She was very skittish, but the kittens were friendly and adorable. The whole crew wanted to take them home, but we decided they had a pretty good life right here. I’m sure they get fed, and had plenty of rodents and such to choose from. The stadium is huge and no doubt is the cat equivalent of a food court.

Happy Caturday!

Do you read the web comic Tree Lobsters? It has lots of good skeptical and critical messages, and it’s pretty funny. This panel is from a particularly good one; click it to see the rest.

And who knew Jenny McCarthy had a chitinous exoskeleton?

The guy in this Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal cartoon looks familiar, but I can’t quite place him. Still, he’s obviously extremely handsome, brilliant, funny, and charming. And a good parent. After all, we don’t want our folks filling our heads with nonsense and an over-indulgent sense of self-worth.

I’ve seen this several times, and it still makes me laugh.

Mrs. BA got me a Flip vidcam for Christmas, and I’ve been following around my cat for days. She doesn’t do anything interesting until I have my back turned. Sigh.

Anyway, you may enjoy this strange video of a cat being either happy or ticked. Maybe it’s Schrödinger’s cat, and it’s both.