SCOTTY IN SPACE

By Benjamin Phillips

James Doohan will apparently get no release from the relentless hounding of Star Trek fans, even in death:

Doohan's ashes to be launched next year with fan notes

NEAL ARMSTRONG IS NO LIAR

By Benjamin Phillips

There are some, and I won't name any names but you know who you are, who believe that that the world famous wildly historical Apollo 11 moon landing was faked. This seemed bizarre to me when I first heard about it, but I have to admit, the conspiracy theorists had a pretty good case on this one, though in the interest of full disclosure I knew next to nothing about the Moon landing, or astronomy on general at the time, and I am notoriously gullible (A woman one convinced me that a chemical in her skin was stopping all her wristwatches. It seemed really plausible at the time.)

Gullible though I am, I never really bought into the whole 'fake moon landing' thing. It just seemed a little big to fake. My observation has been that the government can't flush a toilet without 4000 people knowing about it, so the idea that the entire government, and NASA, and the production crew of a fake moon landing could keep silent for 30+ years just seemed a little unlikely. Not that I looked into it; I just made an equally baseless assumption founded on the common perception of the event. It's just easier that way.

Luckily I can depend on the manic thoroughness of astronomy buffs to do the rebutting for me. A website called Bad Astronomy has an EXTREMELY well researched article dissecting the argument point by point. It can be found here:

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

This should put the debate to rest, and clear the good names of Buzz Aldren, Neil Armstrong, and that other guy.