Brexit

Posted on 5 August 2019 by pws

When I took my sixth month pause from writing this blog at the end of 2018, the UK was still in the throes of organising its leaving of the EU, Brexit as it is called.

Prime Minister May had put a proposed deal to parliament which was constantly rejected. Death threats had been made against politicians, as traitors. Some leavers simply wanted ‘leave’ whatever that meant, regardless of the consequences. “Brexit means Brexit”, whatever that means. As one friend said to me, we need to leave the EU to “get the blacks off our streets”.

Since no-one was agreeing and no compromises were to be had, progress was nonexistent.

So now here we are in August, and it’s all sorted, right?

Well, no. Deadlines have been extended to October, provided good use of the time was made. For MPs, that meant going on holiday.

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Men on the Moon

Posted on 31 July 2019 by pws

Given that just 12 men have walked on the Moon, how many can you name. More than two is good. I can do most, but get the mission numbers a bit confused (mind, I don’t remember what I had for breakfast).

So here they are:

11 Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin

12 Pete Conrad, Alan Bean

14 Alan Shepherd, Edgar Mitchell

15 Dave Scott, Jim Irwin

16 John Young, Charlie Duke

17 Gene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt

As I write, four are still alive: Aldrin, Duke, Schmitt and Scott.

Apollo 13, of course, was due to land on the Moon but an explosion aborted the mission.

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Did it really happen?

Posted on 29 July 2019 by pws

Apparently, one American in 20 does not believe we went to the Moon. One in 10 does not believe we have ever been in Space. A similar number believe that the Earth is flat (and that the Easter Bunny is real too, I guess).

All the interest in space has brought all the nut cases out of the woodwork.

Some really are just nutty. I guess they actually believe it was all a conspiracy and a fake, filmed by Kubrick just like the film Capricorn One.

I don’t know why people listen to these folk. They talk nonsense. Just because you can say it, doesn’t mean it’s true. Here are some arguments the Discovery Channel is using to suggest it’s a fake:

  • the flag blows in the wind on the “Moon”
  • man would die when pasing through the van Allen belts
  • America couldn’t trust the astronauts to complete the task so they faked it
  • Wernher von Braun was a Nazi so we didn’t go to the Moon
  • there is no real evidence of going to the Moon
  • if they had gone into space, where are all the pictures of the Earth?
  • you can’t see anything on the Moon that proves we went

and so on.

I don’t know why the media give these stupid people the time of day. It’s a failing of our educational system that folk believe in nonsensical things.

Mythbusters categorically disproved every popular fake theory a few years ago. I am sure you can find it and others on YouTube.

And ask yourelf this question. Why would they fake it? It would need hundreds of thousands of people to be in on the conspiracy and for all of them never to admit such a fake existed.

Posted in Reason, Space | Leave a comment