Page 34 - 200303 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2003

34 Sheer Lunacy Sheer Lunacy 34 Sheer Lunacy the first man on the moon, so maybe he Sheer Lunacy has an obligation to be a bit more vocal about the experience. Or NASA could Which is nuttier: denying we just buy Aldrin a nice plaque ever went to the moon or commemorating his most recent moon trying to convince the true shot, in which his fist slipped the surly bonds of decorum and touched the face of nonbelievers? Mr. X. [End] Beckenham man claims By Steve Mirsky Beckenham man claims proof of UFOs proof of UFOs Once upon a time--July 20, 1969, to be specific--two earthlings got out of their little spaceship and wandered A UFO expert reckons his around on the moon for a while. Ten neighbour has vital new evidence for the more earthlings walked on the moon over existence of aliens. the next three and a half years. The End. Author Timothy Good, 60, believes Unfortunately, not quite. A fair a mysterious circular object moving number of Americans think that this across the sky spotted by neighbour Chris whole business of moon landings really is Taylor, could be a genuine and important a fairy tale. They believe that the moon sighting. landings were a big hoax staged on a set Postman Mr Taylor, 44, saw the in the Mojave Desert, perpetuated all guest-starred, although there's some object from his bedroom in The Avenue, apparently to convince everyone that instructive physics in The World's Most Beckenham. U.S. technology was the bestest in the Hilarious Fatal Car Crashes--or whatever He said "I looked out of the whole wide world. they call this week's special in which window and saw this thing, like a light Time to shave with Occam's razor. large objects traveling at high speed moving very quickly, going against the Which is the harder thing to do: Send smash into one another. usual direction of air traffic. men to the moon or make believe we did? The moon-hoax show claimed that "It was going way too fast to be a The fact is, the brute-force physics 20 percent of Americans have doubts hot air balloon, and seemed very high up. behind blasting people to the moon is about whether we ever really went I couldn't say what it was. simple. You can do it with slide rules and (apparently up from the 6 percent that a "I've never seen anything like it in with computers whose entire memory 1999 Gallup poll identified). At first my life. I've seen unusual things but capacities can now fit on RAM chips the glance, that number looks alarming, but I nothing like that." size of postage stamps and that cost about would estimate that 20 percent of Mr Good, who claims to have seen as much as, well, a postage stamp. I know Americans probably think that the Fox a UFO above Orpington back in 1980, is you can, because we did. show Malcolm in the Middle is a a world-renowned expert on UFOs. Nevertheless, last fall NASA documentary about a family in crisis. He believes there are several considered spending $15,000 on what (Sonoma State University astronomer different species of aliens living on earth amounted to a public-relations campaign Phil Plait supplies the details of the and has been invited to The Pentagon to to convince the unimpressed that moon-landing polls and many other discuss his research. Americans had in fact gone to the moon. related items on his excellent Web site, He said: "It sounds like this could That idea was mostly a reaction to a Fox www.badastronomy.com. be a genuine sighting, and I was very television program, first aired in Anyway, NASA's publicity interested in what Mr Taylor said." February 2001, that claimed to expose campaign began to retrorocket as the hoax [see "Fox's Flapdoodle," by conspiracy theorists pointed to the effort NOW AVAILABLE Michael Shermer; Skeptic, Scientific as confirmation of something to hide and American, June 2001]. The show's rational thinkers contended that $15,000 creator is a publicity hound who has lived to convince people that the world was up to the name in more ways than one by round--I mean, that we had gone to the hounding Buzz Aldrin. Mr. X (as I will moon--was simply a waste of money. call him, thereby denying him the joyous (Actually, the $15,000 was supposed to sight of his name in print) recently pay for a rebuttal monograph by James E. followed the second man on the moon Oberg, a serious astronomy writer who, around and called him "a thief, liar and with Aldrin, has contributed to Scientific coward" until the 72-year-old astronaut American. As far as I'm concerned, finally lost it and--bang, zoom, to the paying a science writer is never a waste of CREEPY CANADA - The moon, Alice--punched the 37-year-old money, but I'm severely prejudiced.) Companion to the Discovery Mr. X in the face. If NASA's not paying Oberg, Channel Series! Of course, the only Fox show that perhaps it could put the money to good ONLY $19.95 features good science is The Simpsons, use by hiring two big guys to drag Neil If you love the CREEPY CANADA TV series, this book is a must! on which Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Armstrong out of the house. Armstrong is Hawking and, for that matter, Aldrin have an extremely private man, but he is also www.creepycanada.com