Ask Don Rogers

[AArdvark]

Dear Don Rogers:

My best friend of 30+ years has become convinced that we never went to the moon. How do I un-brainwash him without hurting his feelings too much.

signed,

THE
FLAT EARTH
AARDVARK

[Jizaboz]

I'd be happy to talk to him. I was heavy into that stuff for a couple of years.

My conclusion now is yes, we mostly likely did go. However, a lot details don't add up which kind of stirs up guys like him. I'd be willing to bet most of his "proofs" are nonsense in any case.

[pinback]

No one has ever gone anywhere.

[Tdarcos]

What a lot of people don't realize is the defining characteristic of the moon landing was the fact it was televised, live. Back in 1969 National Television was still primitive. You may be aware of the incident a few years earlier in which a football game was cut off early in order to start the program "Heidi" on time. This caused a massive viewer backlash, but the problem was, because of the limited technical functionality available, once they'd switched from a remote location back to New York, it was damn near impossible to arrange to switch back.

So as it still was in July, 1969, the single broadcast signals of the three networks was essentially all of the bandwidth capacity for the entire country, special effects such as switching locations rapidly were not possible, and what they did showing the moon landing was about bleeding edge in video technology.

In short, as incredible as it sounds, while "we" as a people had the capacity to send people to the moon and back, we did not have the technical capacity to fake the broadcast as if it had not actually happened as implied and was being simulated on earth.

[RealNC]

Dear Don Rogers:

My best friend of 30+ years has become convinced that we never went to the moon. How do I un-brainwash him without hurting his feelings too much.

signed,

THE
FLAT EARTH
AARDVARK

Bring him here and show him Tdarcos. Tell him, "that's you, right now."

[Jizaboz]

Great stuff Paul.

OK Don this is too good but I'm not gonna drag yr thread down. Started a new Moon Landings thread here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10639

[pinback]

My comment was the only important one.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

The DEFINING characteristic of the MOON LANDING was that it was on TV.

That's .... that's something.

[RealNC]

Another important defining characteristic of the moon landing was that PEOPLE LANDED ON THE FREAKIN' MOON.

People who deny the moon landings usually also believe in homeopathy or other assorted crap. But if they fall and break their necks or have a heart attack, you know what these people don't do? Call an aroma therapist. That's when they drop the bullshit.

[Tdarcos]

Perhaps I said it wrong and "defining characteristic" might not have been the correct phrase, but from the standpoint of doing a "fake" the fact it was a live broadcast meant it couldn't be faked because the video capacity wasn't there to do complicated video effects in real time, and thus that was the defining characteristic of the broadcast: it was technically possible to transmit video from the moon, but was not possible, given the techology of video then, to fake it.

[pinback]

How would you define the magic of the moon landing?