What becomes of old 'friends'..

[ka9q]

I just had to lob in a verbal bomb of my own. Sorry, can't resist.

[ChrLz]

And another 'old friend' Rajeev Shagun also turned up at Unexplained Mysteries and pretty much self-destructed, being unable to respond to us pointing out the numerous errors and clearly deliberate misinformation he was parroting (from Keysing and White, naturally).  He also refused to even acknowledge my usual question, namely "Show us the very best evidence you have and let's debate that..".  That concept seems to strike fear in their hearts with good reason - if their 'best' is easy to debunk, then a number of clear inferences follow.. 

Anyway, Rajeev has now suffered the same fate and he also has been banned from participating further in any conspiracy threads.

It's been an unproductive month for the Dark Side...

[cjameshuff]

Solon's weird ideas about light are another. He doesn't seem to deny Apollo, he actually asserts the fact that they didn't see and photograph a sky full of stars as evidence for his theory. Every example that contradicts his beliefs gets ignored or rejected because it can't be proven they didn't use "gratings" or some other magical optical technique. And his conspiracy involves everyone who has ever worked with optics and/or vacuum, so unlike Apollo, it also requires that the conspiracy have started a good century or two ago.

Poor Solon had absolutely terrible research skills.  He'd routinely ask innocently, "Why are there no picture of X taken from Y?", or "Why is there no mention of Z?"  When immediately presented with a dozen examples of things he said didn't exist, he'd put his shoulders to the goalposts and quickly push them into... himself; he contradicted himself a lot. 

This just reminded me of poor Solon: https://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_alex/

The metadata on the Milky Way photos indicates he was using a Nikon D3S. Of course, Solon would complain that he wasn't outside, that there's no proof the camera didn't have a grating, that the photo was taken on a Saturday...

Pretty pictures, anyway.

edit:
Another good one: https://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_alex/14436227387/

[twik]

I sometimes think my last words will be, in a tenuous gasp, "Solon ... what the heck was his point, anyway?"

[Noldi400]

I see our old YT friend Hunchbacked is posting hoax videos again. I also see that he still has no clue about angles, perspective, or video artifacts.

[onebigmonkey]

Wow, so much fail right from the start...

[Allan F]

Has anybody contacted the institution he claims to have graduated from - and verified that he actually is a legitimate aerospace engineer as he claims?

[smartcooky]

Has anybody contacted the institution he claims to have graduated from - and verified that he actually is a legitimate aerospace engineer as he claims?

How on earth could he have even got close to being competent in the math required when his understanding of angles is so deficient?

I smell BS.

[Allan F]

Apparently, somebody (Jay?) has seen his diploma with his real name blacked out. His real name is known, though. I have addressed him on several occasions with his name, and he has not reacted on it.

However - on the picture of the diploma I saw, it looked not quite official enough.

[ChrLz]

I see our old YT friend Hunchbacked is posting hoax videos again. I also see that he still has no clue about angles, perspective, or video artifacts.

Ahh, now there's a coincidink..  A certain poster called "Inquisitive Mind" turned up at Unexplained Mysteries a few days back making a generic handwave about Apollo and linking to a site which included the letters "xpascal".  Seems this same poster had only posted once before since he registered there in 2010 (prolific, huh?) and on that very first post, he said the same site was his...  I think we may be talking about the same 'hunchbacked' person, even though it is strange he didn't spam his youtube channel.

Anyway, as is my boringly predictable habit, I gently (!) admonished Xavier/hunchbacked for seagull posting and challenged him to nominate his best evidence and debate that in full.  No reply yet, and I suspect he won't be seen again for another couple years, but you never know.

It's really interesting how the tide seems to have now completely gone out at places like UM, where many other conspiracy theories are rife yet Apollo is pretty much accepted (and quite vigorously defended) even by folks who believe many/all other CT's.  I think Apollo denial's day is truly done (although I don't 'hang' at Youtube, so maybe there is a bit of a haven there amongst the trolls and lunatics..).

[dwight]

ChrLz, that is the general perception I have of Apollo denial. It appears to have gone very much out of fashion.

[darren r]

ChrLz, that is the general perception I have of Apollo denial. It appears to have gone very much out of fashion.

They occasionally show up on newspaper forums in the UK whenever there is a story about the Moon but they are pretty quickly rounded on and trounced by other commenters.

One recently appeared on the Guardian website and, apart from handwaving about 'Cold War propaganda' and demanding to know 'how they could have got back' (to which the response was 'why do you think they couldn't?') refused to acknowledge any requests that he provide some kind of evidence or even a proper argument.

Curiously, he showed up again a few days later, under a story about a Home Office report about lab animals. Some commenters were arguing, rather thinly, that the report was faked (as it found scant evidence of ill-treatment) and the Moon Hoax believer rushed to its defence, accusing its detractors of being 'conspiracy theorists' in tinfoil hats!

My computer exploded under the weight of the irony, but luckily I was in work.

[dwight]

FYI regarding hunchbacked, we were debating video tube burn in a few years back. He wanted evidence that such an effect can happen in tube cameras. I used a video of the Midnight Oil at Goat Island concert from the early '80's, and provided time-code readings to properly refer to the tube-burn the concert clearly displayed for around 20 seconds. Despite having the TCs, told where to look on the screen, and being told what the artefact looked liked, he offered a rebuttal using a sequence of footage no where near the time of the event I used...

[Abaddon]

Speaking of old friends, someone claiming to be the brother of Dr. Socks/Patrick Tekeli has turned up ant the forum formerly known as JREF.

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10281026&postcount=53

[Dr.Acula]

Speaking of old friends, someone claiming to be the brother of Dr. Socks/Patrick Tekeli has turned up ant the forum formerly known as JREF.

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10281026&postcount=53

Actually I'm reading the thread, ChrLz had linked to (Inquisitive Mind). On this thread there was Cosmored active (incl. turbonium and rajeev, two really funny guys at all). Cosmored was another of Tekelis sockpuppets. But I was told, that Tekeli died. Or was this an attention-paying story made by Tekeli either?