Klaatu's Speech To Earth From "The Day The Earth Stood Still"

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"I am leaving soon and you'll forgive me if I speak bluntly. The universe grows smaller every day and the threat of aggression by any group anywhere can no longer be tolerated. There must be security for all or no one is secure. Now this does not mean giving up any freedom, except the freedom to act irresponsibly. Your ancestors knew this when they made laws to govern themselves and hired policemen to enforce them. We, of the other planets, have long accepted this principle."

"We have an organization for the mutual protection of all planets and for the complete elimination of aggression. The test of any such higher authority is, of course, the police force that supports it. For our policemen we created a race of robots. Their function is to patrol the planets in spaceships like this one and preserve the peace. In matters of aggression we have given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. At the first signs of violence they act automatically against the aggressor. The penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk. The result is we live in peace without arms or armies, secure in theknowledge that we are free from aggression and war, free to pursue more profitable enterprises. "

"Now, we do not pretend to have achieved perfection, but we do have a system, and it works. I came here to give you these facts. It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder."

"Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you. "
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The Six Faked Moon Landings?

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"Columbia, he has landed at Tranquility Base. Eagle is at Tranquility. I read you five by. Over." The voice from Houston betrayed no emotion, although this was anything but business as usual. A human being was about to set foot on the moon for the first time in history, armed only with the Stars and Stripes, some scientific instruments, and an almost reckless, can-do demeanor that had captivated the world.

The reply from Columbia, the command-and-service module that had released the lunar lander 2 hours and 33 minutes earlier, betrayed only equal professional cool. "Yes, I heard the whole thing," Michael Collins said matter-of-factly.

Houston: "Well, it's a good show."

Columbia: "Fantastic."

That's when Neil Armstrong chimed in. "Yeah, I'll second that," said the 38-year-old astronaut, the moonwalker-to-be, America's own Boy Scout, and the most famous man in the - well, in the universe. And even though the static ate away at the clarity of his consonants, Armstrong's sneering tone came through loud and clear. The mission control man heard it too. And he knew what was coming. Sort of.

"A fantastic show," Armstrong said. "The greatest show on earth, huh, guys?"

There was a moment's silence. Then a cameraman sniggered. And the director sighed, and did what directors do when actors screw up their lines. "Cut," he groaned. He was a heavyset man in his 50s, and the combination of the long hours and the hot studio lights had started to get to him.

"Shit, Armstrong, if you're gonna be a smart-ass, do it on your own time, all right? We got 25 tired people on this set. We got a billion people who are going to be watching your every move only a week from now. We're on deadline here. Now, do you suppose you could just stick to the script and get it over with? Thank you."

His assistant stepped forward with the slate. "Apollo moon landing, scene 769/A22, take three," she announced.

"Action!"

"Columbia, he has landed at Tranquility Base," the mission control man began again.

When Buzz Armstrong stepped down from that ladder, saying it was only a small step for him but a giant leap for mankind, was he was merely setting foot on a dust-covered sound stage in a top-secret TV studio in the Nevada desert? Yes, some people say we faked all six moon landings. I had dinner with one of them tonight. A smart guy I really like. Yeah, some people really do believe this. In fact, a poll taken in the early 70's indicated that around 30% of all Americans believed the whole moon landing was flim-flam.

Bill Kaysing worked as head of technical publications for the Rocketdyne Research Department at their Southern California facility from 1956 to 1963. Rocketdyne was the engine contractor for Apollo. Here's his side of the story.

"NASA couldn't make it to the moon, and they knew it. In the late '50s, when I was at Rocketdyne, they did a feasibility study on astronauts landing on the moon. They found that the chance of success was something like .0017 percent. In other words, it was hopeless."

As late as 1967, Kaysing says, three astronauts died in a horrendous fire on the launch pad. "It's also well documented that NASA was often badly managed and had poor quality control. But as of '69, we could suddenly perform manned flight upon manned flight? With complete success? It's just against all statistical odds."

What About The Absent Stars ? Kaysing points out numerous anomalies in NASA publications, as well as in the TV and still pictures that came from the moon. For example, there are no stars in many of the photographs taken on the lunar surface. With no atmosphere to diffuse their light, wouldn't stars have to be clearly visible? And why is there no crater beneath the lunar lander, despite the jet of its 10,000-pound-thrust hypergolic engine? How do NASA's experts explain pictures of astronauts on the moon in which the astronauts' sides and backs are just as well lit as the fronts of their spacesuits - which is inconsistent with the deep, black shadows the harsh sunlight should be casting? And why is there a line between a sharp foreground and a blurry background in some of the pictures, almost as if special-effects makers had used a so-called "matte painting" to simulate the farther reaches of the moonscape? "It all points to an unprecedented swindle," Kaysing concludes confidently.

But just how could NASA possibly have pulled it off? Easy, says Kaysing. The rockets took off all right, with the astronauts on board, but as soon as they were out of sight, the roaring spacecraft set course for the south polar sea, jettisoned its crew, and crashed. Later, the crew and the command module were put in a military plane and dropped in the Pacific for "recovery" by an aircraft carrier.

There are hundreds of sites on the internet, documenting both sides of the issue. Just do a GIS on "fake moon landing."


NASA Fights Back

NASA even felt the need to rebut Kaysing's version of events:

Q: Why is there no discernible crater beneath the lunar lander?

A: "Although the descent engine of the LM is powerful, most of its operation takes place thousands of feet above the moon during the early stages of the landing," says a NASA information sheet. "At the moment of touchdown, a small amount of surface dust is blown away, but the relatively cohesive lunar surface seems to deflect the blast sideways."

Q: Why is there an artificial-looking line between a sharp foreground and a blurry background in some of the pictures of the lunar surface?

A: "What you see is simply the curvature of the moon," explains Paul Lowman, a NASA geophysicist. "Because the moon is such a small body, the curvature horizon is only two or three miles away from eye level. That sharp line you see in some pictures is the visible horizon. The blurry part you see is caused by mountains sticking up from beyond the
horizon."

Q: Why are there no stars in many of the photos taken on the moon?

A: "That's one of Kaysing's sillier arguments," says James Oberg, a space-flight operations engineer with the space shuttle program. "Go out at night and take a picture of yourself under a streetlight. Even if there's a star-studded sky, you'll see no stars in your picture because the camera was set to properly expose that big lighted object in the foreground - you - and will not register much weaker light sources."

Q: How about the various lighting anomalies?

A: "On some pictures, astronauts are lit from more than one side because the sunlight is reflected off the lunar surface or off the landing vehicle," says NASA spokesperson James Hartsfield. Paul Lowman adds that some conspiracy believers are unknowingly or deliberately using pictures of astronauts that NASA never claimed were taken on the moon. "There are pictures being passed on and published in their circles that appeared in pre-moon landing issues of Aviation Week - nothing mysterious about them," sighs Lowman. "These are photos taken in a moon-like training facility at the Johnson Space Center where, indeed, there were several sources of light."
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Painting: General Douglas MacArthur /MacArthur's Thoughts On Making War

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"Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear--kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervour--with the cry of grave national
emergency. Always, there has been some terrible evil at home, or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it."

General Douglas MacArthur
Southwest Pacific Supreme Allied Commander, World War II

Photograph: Another Mural In SF's Mission District

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Cindy Sheehan: They’re a bunch of f***ing hypocrites!

The more I learn about Cindy Sheehan the more I like her. She's roiling the waters. She has the conservatives throwing fits. Just that makes it all worthwhile.

Camped out near the Bush ranch in Crawford, TX, Cindy Sheehan, in a high profile media blitz, has toned down her rhetoric somewhat in her current protest I guess you'd call it. Last spring, however, at my old alma mater, San Francisco State University, she got into more graphic detail (see the article on The Drudge Report yesterday).

"We are not waging a war on terror in this country. We’re waging a war of terror. The biggest terrorist in the world is George W. Bush!"

"They’re a bunch of f***ing hypocrites! And we need to, we just need to rise up..." Sheehan said of the Bush administration.

"If George Bush believes his rhetoric and his bull****, that this is a war for freedom and democracy, that he is spreading freedom and democracy, does he think every person he kills makes Iraq more free?"

"The whole world is damaged. Our humanity is damaged. If he thinks that it’s so important for Iraq to have a U.S.-imposed sense of freedom and democracy, then he needs to sign up his two little party-animal girls. They need to go to this war."

"We want our country back and, if we have to impeach everybody from George Bush down to the person who picks up dog shit in Washington, we will impeach all those people."

Having a son die in the Iraq war gives her a lot of traction [1]. I enjoy seeing POTUS and the republican leadership dance around her, and defend her right to dissent at every turn!

[1] During the Vietnam War, disabled/crippled veterans would often be in the front lines of protests. It made it pretty hard for the skinheads, cops, and hardhats to beat on the protestors.

---o0o---

G.O.P. Running Scared On War's Impact On The '06 Congressional Mid-terms

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 - A stream of bad news out of Iraq, echoed at home by polls that show growing impatience with the war and rising disapproval of President Bush's Iraq policies, is stirring political concern in Republican circles, party officials said Wednesday in an article in the New York Times.

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Dragon In The Himalayan Sky Photos

Some better photos of the "dragon in the Himalayan sky" from The Epoch Times.

One Of The Fabulous Murals in SF's Mission District

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If you ever get the chance, take the walking tour of the Mission murals in San Francisco. There are over 200 of them, and most are great examples of the mural as it is practiced today.
---o0o---

Photograph: Dean & Jack In California

Click to enlarge. Photograph by Del Brummet.

Dean Ericksen and Jack at a wedding in Ross, California, August 14, 2005.

Paul Bunyan, Babe The Blue Ox & The Trees Of Mystery

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We didn't pay to go in The Trees Of Mystery, but stopped by to see my childhood hero Bunyan and his faithful friend, Babe The Blue Ox. Standing in front of the entrance to the Trees of Mystery, Paul chats up the tourists, often reminding them to "visit the gift shop!" Most of Paul's banter involves describing the clothes that people at his feet are wearing, so you know it is not a canned recording. "Hello, there...you're wearing a Yankees sweatshirt!" He also answers questions from the tourists about his size and composition.

In this photo by Del Brummet, I am inspecting Babe's left testicle.

Happy Birthday Fidel! Castro

He has to be the longest reigning king-president-premier of our time, outlasting even Ethiopian legend Emperor (and Rastafarian deity) Hailie Selassie in terms of sheer years in "office [1]." However, it doesn't seem quite right to call a dictator's situation an office per se [2].

Happy Birthday Fidel! I never believed you were the monster the conservatives said you were, or the hero the left said you were. But I'll hand it to you...you've held on these many many years....


[1] As Jacque Ewing once said angrily to Bobby Ewing: "You don't get power, Bobby. YOU TAKE IT!"

[2] We tend to think of an office as an elected office. . .not an office seized. This is where I have to disagree with some of the left. How can we actually venerate someone who stole an office not his to take--no matter how corrupt the previous occupant was? In this case, the previous occupant, Batista, did indeed have his hands in the till.

---o0o---

Microsoft May Get To Wet Their Beak On The iPod

This has got to have Steve Jobs pounding the walls. Apple Computer and Microsoft were both working on portable music players in 2001 and 2002. Apple released their first iPod in November 2001, but did not file a provisional patent claim until July 2002. In the meantime, Microsoft filed a patent in May 2002 that covered, among other things, the song menu software. In July, the Patent Office rejected Apple's claim, saying the ideas were similar to the earlier Microsoft patent! What does it all mean? Apple could end up owing Microsoft millions of dollars in royalties. Not millions of dollars...hundreds of millions. Apple is projected to sell their 35 millionth iPod this year. This should be an interesting story to follow in the next few months...
---o0o---