Hoaxes and hoaxers
I was talking to a couple of people yesterday about a show they saw on TV which claimed that the Apollo moon landing was a hoax. The show’s claim was that NASA faked the whole thing in a movie studio in order to “beat” Russia to the moon.
I’d heard about this before (somewhere on par with people who still believe the Earth is flat) so I did a quick search on Google for rebuttals. High up there is the Bad Astronomy page, which seems to debunk every possible objection you could have. I’m can’t bare to go through all the ridiculous things these guys have come up with, but have a read yourself.
Now, my friends were intelligent and sensible people, but they were willing to believe that one of the most profound moments in scientific history was nothing more than special effects - and bad ones at that, if you listen to some of the sceptic’s claims. It goes to show, again, how easy it is to present an unbalanced, one-sided view of something, and yet make it so believable. And of course, it sensational and controversial stuff like this that makes for ratings - people love a good conspiracy theory (and I have to admit, I still suspect my mum had some involvement with that whole Tooth Fairy business)
And now, I’ve got to go and print out all these webpages to give to my friends to read…