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1
The Hoax Theory / Re: Gene Gilmore
« Last post by onebigmonkey on Today at 01:55:29 PM »
It's a while now since I wrote that page, and I can't say for certain where I got that idea from - I'm happy to correct the page if he never collected any meteorites at all!
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The Hoax Theory / Re: Gene Gilmore
« Last post by JayUtah on Today at 11:09:31 AM »
None of the records I have seen of Wernher von Braun's trip to Antarctica mentions the search for or recovery of meteorites. That absence is highly conspicuous, because prior to 1969 the discovery of a meteorite of any origin in Antarctica was an incredibly rare event. Between 1911 and 1969 only four meteorites had been found in Antartica, and none of them were of lunar origin. Had Von Braun found one on his trip, it would have been a herald event in the international scientific community. The first meteorites of lunar origin were discovered in the 1970s but recognized as lunites only in the 1980s when they were compared to Apollo anorthosite specimens.
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The Hoax Theory / Re: Gene Gilmore
« Last post by Kiwi on Today at 05:50:20 AM »
Onebigmonkey has posted an excellent analysis of this 'claim' - https://onebigmonkey.com/itburns/bartbs/bartsbull.html

Onbigmonkey certainly has done a great analysis. A fair way down, he says this:
Quote
Yes, von Braun went to Antarctica. Yes, he collected some meteorites. But see if you can guess how they know now that they are lunar in origin.

I have done a fair bit of study of von Braun's trip to Antarctica, but I can't find here in New Zealand the same sort of stuff that would be available in the U.S., so I have never seen anything about him collecting meteorites of any type while there. As far as I can tell, he never went anywhere near the areas where lunar meteorites were later found.

Does anyone know anything about von Braun collect any meteorites in Antarctica and, if so, what information is available?

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The Hoax Theory / Re: Gene Gilmore
« Last post by smartcooky on March 19, 2025, 01:29:01 AM »
Anyone heard of this clown?

https://rumble.com/v6qtabc-nasa-contractor-confesses-on-deathbed-i-helped-fake-the-moon-landing.html

So its not a video of the person confessing, its video of the son claiming his father confessed?

If so that's hearsay, and there's nothing to see here.

Exactly.  But I have some in-laws convinced by it....!

Well, no insult to your in laws. but

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The Hoax Theory / Excellent reply to an HB at Quora - minus photos
« Last post by Kiwi on March 19, 2025, 12:02:19 AM »
Quote
C Stuart Hardwick
Has a lunar adventure in the March 2019 Analog Scifi. Updated 5y

What did you think of the USA Today front page showing two photos of the Apollo 11 flag waving and no stars?


What did I think of the USA today front page showing two photos of the Apollo 11 flag waving and no stars?

I think anyone with any intelligence understands that when you hang a nylon flag from a metal supporting rod in lunar gravity in a vacuum and adjust the exposure of the camera for bright sunlight, it looks just like this:

I think that anyone with any intelligence knows that when you reproduce such an image on the cover of the newspaper, you lose a lot of definition and contrast.

I think anyone with any intelligence, before making pronouncements or comments about one of history’s greatest and best-documented achievements, would seek to check out the reasonableness of their off-the-cuff impressions, say, by searching Quora for one of my dozens of answers to this topic.

I think that anyone with any intelligence should know at this point that the Apollo missions landed early in the Lunar morning, and the sky appears dark only because the moon has no air to catch passing photons of sunlight and scatter them down into the camera (or eye) of an observer—but that the photons are still there, illuminating whatever they touch with greater energy than the force of the hottest high noon sun back on Earth.

Further, I think that any intelligent person knows that stars are extraordinarily faint compared to sunlight, that photographs of stars made at night require long exposures and/or fast film and wide apertures, and that any photo made of an astronaut in a white spacesuit in broad daylight adjusted to show stars would look something roughly like this:

And I suspect that a really clever person will guess that the above image, though produced using GIMP and displaying numerous gleaming bits of dust caught in the equipment when this was scanned from the film, still looks starless when shrunk down by Quora’s image processor.

I think that any intelligent person understands that all this is why you can’t see any stars in this image (from The Atlantic) ..

…and why this overexposure of a dude on a hill with a headlamp looks surreal…

..and why here, the dim red light used to preserve the dark adaptation of astronomers working inside becomes a beacon across the landscape in this long exposure designed to capture the Milky Way…

..and why you can’t see any stars in this shot of the Las Vegan strip:

I think that intelligent people understand perfectly well why you cannot, and should not expect to, see stars in photographs taken on the moon or of other brightly lit objects against a dark sky.

I think people have a choice to make. Do you want to be counted in the camp of intelligent people, or in the camp of those who don’t understand elementary principles of photography that any child should know, yet presume to question the best and the brightest minds our species has to offer?

I get these in my email and can never find a link. Perhaps links are for members only. Some of the answers don't interest me, but occasionally there's a real gem, like this one.
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The Hoax Theory / Re: Gene Gilmore
« Last post by Dalhousie on March 18, 2025, 09:49:56 PM »
Anyone heard of this clown?

https://rumble.com/v6qtabc-nasa-contractor-confesses-on-deathbed-i-helped-fake-the-moon-landing.html

So its not a video of the person confessing, its video of the son claiming his father confessed?

If so that's hearsay, and there's nothing to see here.

Exactly.  But I have some in-laws convinced by it....!
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The Hoax Theory / Re: Gene Gilmore
« Last post by smartcooky on March 18, 2025, 09:15:28 PM »
Anyone heard of this clown?

https://rumble.com/v6qtabc-nasa-contractor-confesses-on-deathbed-i-helped-fake-the-moon-landing.html

So its not a video of the person confessing, its video of the son claiming his father confessed?

If so that's hearsay, and there's nothing to see here.
10
General Discussion / Re: Kids say the darnedest things...
« Last post by Peter B on March 14, 2025, 04:54:27 PM »
14YOS and I were talking about vaccinations. The context was that all three of the kids (and my wife) have just had chicken pox despite being fully vaccinated.

14YOS: So, why are people opposed to vaccinations?

Me: A variety of reasons, none of them really good. Some people think the diseases aren't dangerous. Some people are worried about additives to vaccines. Some people prefer to expose their kids to the actual disease rather than the vaccine.

14YOS: I've heard that some people reckon the vaccines contain microchips to control everyone. Though that doesn't make sense, they could just put them in the  water supply...

Me: And anyway, people seem willing to control themselves with their addiction to social media...

We both look at 12YOD, whose head is buried in her phone.

She looks up blankly.

12YOD: Huh?
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