Everyday application of Apollo knowledge

[Luke Pemberton]

One retort to the "government shill" accusation I formulated a while back, but don't think I've actually used, is something along the lines of.  "Oh, darn, your shrewd detective skills have found me out.  Well, now that you've blown my cover, your IP address has been traced and an extermination squad will be there in the morning to process you.  Sleep well."

I play along with the shill accusation and admit to being paid $10 per comment. With most CTs, particularly the sort at YouTube, it is best to humour them when they show up. My favourite was stalkervision, whose account is now closed. Within one comment section on a video he presented the van Allen belt argument, and within a few comments he claimed that the crew of Apollo 8 saw UFOs as they orbited the moon but NASA covered the story up.

[JayUtah]

I'm trying to remember which famous recent movie it was that has an obvious goof involving the use of a handheld reflector. Whoever was holding it wasn't holding it steadily enough and/or the reflector was too specular.

"Aziz!  Light!"

No, probably not.

I would think that a big problem with an aluminum-covered reflector. You'd want something much more diffuse. Maybe it helps to crumple the foil first?

Crumpling generally produces fine-grained caustics, not diffusion.  My silvered reflector is bonded to the dimpled underlying polystyrene sheet, so it's reasonably diffuse but can still be too specular in detail.  Most of the commercial metalized reflectors are "spun" in the sense that the metal is applied to a filament which is then knit or woven into a fabric.  Honestly I think old-school Beta cloth would make a wonderful reflector.  The newer formats change how the Teflon is applied, and result in a less lustrous finish.  Sadly the spacesuits in From the Earth to the Moon were made from newer Beta cloth, not classic Apollo-era cloth.

[cjameshuff]

Crumpling generally produces fine-grained caustics, not diffusion.

It's basically just a macroscopic version of diffuse reflection. Crumple it thoroughly enough and use it at a distance, and it can do the job. I've also used foil behind (that is, reflecting through) white paper in macro photography.

If that's not close enough to a Lambertian reflector for you, aluminized cloth seems like it could be problematically anisotropic, tending to spread the light along directions perpendicular to the thread. If you're really picky: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectralon

[ka9q]

One retort to the "government shill" accusation I formulated a while back, but don't think I've actually used, is something along the lines of.  "Oh, darn, your shrewd detective skills have found me out.  Well, now that you've blown my cover, your IP address has been traced and an extermination squad will be there in the morning to process you.  Sleep well."

I've seen that one used, but I've never used it because it could be seen as  a threat. One thing I've learned about hoaxers is that they have no sense of humor about their delusions. None whatsoever.

[ka9q]

My favourite was stalkervision, whose account is now closed. Within one comment section on a video he presented the van Allen belt argument, and within a few comments he claimed that the crew of Apollo 8 saw UFOs as they orbited the moon but NASA covered the story up.

I know he could be inconsistent and self-contradictory, but I don't think I saw him make this particular claim about Apollo 8.

No doubt the UFOs were just hallucinations caused by radiation poisoning. You know those flashes of light some of them saw? That wasn't even the beginning of it... :-)

[nomuse]

I once warned a hoaxie about Fletcher and Munson, and the mysterious Doctor Haas (who has the uncanny ability to become undetectable to human hearing).  He tried to report me to the webmaster for making threats.

[ka9q]

Amusing.

I already knew what Fletcher-Munson curves are, but I actually didn't know about the Haas effect until just now when I looked it up.

Whenever I tell the hoaxers about Dunning-Kruger or psychological projection, they invariably start telling me that I'm an example...

[Luke Pemberton]

I've seen that one used, but I've never used it because it could be seen as  a threat. One thing I've learned about hoaxers is that they have no sense of humor about their delusions. None whatsoever.

Of course they don't, none whatsoever. There's no humour involved at all. After all they have disclosed the biggest fraud in the history of the human race. It's serious business.

[twik]

Well, I think we should make a distinction. Hoax believers usually have little sense of humour. Those who actually create hoaxes often have too much.

So, when believers ask in outrage, "Why would anyone fake a UFO sighting?" the answer is often, "for the lulz". There was no profit motive, nothing deep and dark. Just they thought it would be funny to put candles in bags, and see what people made of them.

[nomuse]

Amusing.

I already knew what Fletcher-Munson curves are, but I actually didn't know about the Haas effect until just now when I looked it up.

Whenever I tell the hoaxers about Dunning-Kruger or psychological projection, they invariably start telling me that I'm an example...

Doctor Haas has been my often-encountered nemesis.

Musician, "That monitor isn't on.  I can only hear my guitar coming though my own cab which is 16" behind me."

Director, "That singer, who is 200 feet away from me and I can hear clearly?  It doesn't sound like her voice is coming through the speaker so that means her mic is broke and you have to fix it now, now, now!"