Loony Landing

http://www.smh.com.au/world/loony-landing-20090605-byhj.html

John Huxley | June 6, 2009

If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon, If you believe there's nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool … - from Man On The Moon by R.E.M.

Forty years on it remains one of mankind's crowning achievements; a moment in time and space etched forever in the memories of those old enough to have watched it happen live on murky, monochrome television pictures bounced round the world via a NSW bush tracking station.

At least, that's the official version of the Apollo moon landing on July 21, 1969, Sydney time. But Glen Nagle, the education manager for the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, is constantly confronted with a different perspective: that the man on the moon is no more than pie in the sky.

"The question of conspiracy theories crops up here every other day. Members of the public come in, and yeah, yeah, they know we're exploring the universe. But, nah, they don't believe man landed on the moon. Fifty per cent who come through have their doubts."

More disturbing is the level of disbelief among children. "I often do a quick hands-up with school groups that come through. 'Who here thinks we didn't land on the moon?' Again, about half the hands go up."

Nagle attributes such scepticism to naivety, stupidity or, more likely, misinformation. "They've probably been told to do a project on the moon landing, got on the internet and found all this conspiracy stuff pop up."

Thousands of sites - some sophisticated, some merely scatterbrained - argue the landing was a complete or partial hoax. One leading sceptic argues that man did walk on the moon, but pictures were faked to prevent the Soviet Union drawing detailed information from the real photographs.

There is no shortage of tell-tale signs that the landing was rigged, probably in a Hollywood studio. No stars can be seen. Pictures taken miles apart have the same background. The United States flag flies in the still moon air. A Perth resident even claims to have spotted a soft drink bottle in one frame.

Nor is there any shortage of US Government motives for faking it, says the Wikipedia site on "Apollo moon landing hoax conspiracy accusations" - first port of call for many amateurs boldly going in search of information.

Motives include beating the Russians, boosting support for more NASA moon shots, distracting Americans from unpopular ventures such as the Vietnam War, and fulfilling president John Kennedy's pledge to put man on the moon before 1970.

Despite comprehensive debunking, the moon landing remains among the more persistent of many thousands of conspiracy theories "out there". Each claims to expose the truth behind what "they" tell us happened. Popular targets include:

- The deaths of politicians such as John Kennedy (engineered by the CIA) and celebrities such as Princess Diana (the royal family);

- Events such as September 11 (Zionists), the global financial crisis (a secret cabal of central bankers operating from a bunker at Denver International Airport); Hurricane Katrina (then president George Bush);

- The spread of swine flu. Within days of the first case being identified, in the small southern Mexican town of La Gloria, the first conspiracy theories had been spawned, accusing authorities of burying flu dead to prevent panic, or beating up the risks to distract the world from its financial woes.

Today cases of flu conspiracy theory have reached pandemic proportions, as the myth-busting website retardzone.com reveals. Its top plague theory suggests the drug maker Baxter is the evil corporation behind "a massive conspiracy that goes all the way to the top".

No less preposterous theories can be found closer to home. Some Australians still insist Harold Holt was whisked away in a Chinese submarine, that Gough Whitlam was dismissed on CIA instructions, even that the Port Arthur massacre was staged by supporters of gun control.

So pervasive has the "conspiratorial imagination" become that it sometimes seems that Western societies have regressed, adopting a medieval attitude towards calamitous acts, says a leading sociologist, author and academic, Frank Furedi.

"Back in the Dark Ages people regarded accidents, disasters and other acts of misfortune as the work of hidden forces. Misdeeds were often said to have been caused by people who had been manipulated by evil forces. This primitive outlook is making a comeback."

Increasingly, Furedi suggests, life is interpreted through the prism of a Hollywood blockbuster - like Australia's current favourite movie, the conspiracy-riddled Angels & Demons - "where powerful, evil forces pull all the strings".

But why? As with conspiracies, there are many theories. The authors of clavius.org, another myth-busting website, suggest several reasons.

They are devised to explain variations and inconsistencies, or fill in the gaps, in official accounts. They are created for entertainment, or mischief. "Real life is boring. It's more exciting to believe that strange lights in the sky are visiting aliens and not an airliner's landing lights," they say.

They are someone's ego trip, invented to make the theorist appear intelligent, in the know, on the inside, with access to secret information unavailable to others.

And, most convincingly, they are the product of a society that distrusts authority, that increasingly contests, challenges, doubts virtually every aspect of public life; what Furedi, who teaches at the University of Kent,calls a "crisis of causality", an inability to understand and explain events.

Peter Curson an international security expert at Sydney University, says many people are overwhelmed by the complexities and perceived dangers of modern life. "They feel a loss of autonomy, that they have lost control, that they are being manipulated. In times of crisis, especially, they want answers, they want to know who is responsible, who is to blame. In some cases, they want to know who can be made a scapegoat."

In part, this sense of incomprehension, distrust and suspicion is the fault of governments and the media, whose traditional role as sources of reliable information has been eroded.

"We've been disappointed with politicians, and grown tired of the mainstream media, whom we used to rely upon to keep the bastards honest," suggests Les Posen, a clinical psychologist who monitors the impact of new technology.

Little wonder, he says, that people "play silly buggers on the internet".

That, at least, is indisputable. For all its blessings, new technology has upset the traditional hierarchy of knowledge and authority, transforming consumers of information into users and purveyors, and empowering them with audience reach and resources unimaginable a decade ago.

With tools such as Photoshop, YouTube and Facebook, everyone can be a conspiracy theorist, everyone can devise and disseminate their own moon-landing story. "That's frightening," Nagle says.

Of course, the existence of some conspiracies - the Watergate break-in, for example - is proven by thorough investigation. And innocent mistakes happen, though their effect is magnified by the internet, which spreads fiction as well as fact. Nagle quotes a virulent hoax email doing the rounds, which says that later this year Mars will appear as large as the moon in the night sky. This August, Mars will be close to Earth - though not as close as in 2003 - but will require a 75-power magnification telescope to compete with the moon viewed through the naked eye. This qualification, contained in the original official statement, has been omitted.

More worrying, obviously, is the intellectual laziness of consumers, and the wilful intention of users to deceive. "Sadly, for many people it is easier, or more convenient, to believe a lie than go to the bother of discovering the truth," Nagle says.

Some conspiracies, he concedes, are laughable, but the claim the moon landing was faked angers him. "They undermine one of the most astounding things man has done. They dishonour the Australians [primarily at the Parkes and Honeysuckle Creek tracking stations] who played an important part in bringing the pictures back."

For Nagle, they prove the observation about a sucker being born every minute.

Though some moon-landing data has gone missing, every accusation made by "deniers" has been demolished. The absence of stars? The sun was shining, cameras were set on daylight settings. The background was common? Incorrect, it was similar.

And, the flapping flag? The flag appears rippled because it had been folded for storage, and the horizontal rod from which it was suspended could not be fully extended.

But what does Nagle tell moon-landing doubters? Does he go through the minute details of the massive undertaking? Does he tell them it would probably have cost more to fake the landing than to do it?

No. "I ask them, 'do you really think that the Russians were so stupid to believe they hadn't been beaten in the space race'." They were beaten, fair and television-screen square.

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RECLAIM AUSTRALIA IS DOOMED

Although I agree with many of their ideas, the forces reigned against RAM are too great, violent, statist and reactionary for them to remain a non-political, broad based, multi-ethnic, community protest group for much longer. The Left and their Antifa nihilist fellow travelers are already pushing them towards the extreme Right, by calling them racists and Islamophobes and so on. Whilst the extreme Right have aligned themselves with RAM. With fascists of the Left and Right pressuring them they will not be able to remain beyond the Left-Right divide and will inevitably move to the Right - the extreme Right. Which is already happening. A development which will alienate decent Australians of all ethnic backgrounds many of whom currently support them.

The RAM leadership have already established open alliances with the Patriotic Front (the ape in the photograph is a Patriot Front supporter at a recent Richmond demonstration) Australia First and Golden Dawn, a Greek neo-Nazi party. Members of these collectivist groups are currently attending RAM demonstrations all over Australia.

There is a real need in Australia to establish a political movement beyond the Left-Right divide and their vested interests, a movement that questions the current direction Australia is heading i.e. the direction the Left/Right and their extremes would like to take it; that questions the efficacy of state sponsored multiculturalism, as opposed to a proper, non-discriminatory immigration policy; that questions the validity of political correctness; that is politically neutral, anti-war and pro environment; that is opposed to all collectivists ideologies (fascisms of the Left and Right); that would dismantle the power pyramids of corporations and banks and their ability to impact on government; that would dissolve all anti-terror laws and all laws that impose on the rights and freedom of the individual and the people.

(The ape in the photograph is a Patriot Front supporter at a recent Richmond demonstration)

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/reclaim-australia-rally-set-for-sydney-on-sunday-20150718-gifb9s.html

http://australiafirstparty.net/news/reclaiming-australia-queensland-senate-campaign/

By Eugene Donnini on 2015 07 26 - 15:36:56
From the entry 'Dylann Roof: soldier in a new race war or just a pawn in the game?'.

Hello there I am so thrilled I found your web site, I really found you by error, while I was searching on Digg for something else, Anyways I am here now and would just like to say thanks for a incredible post and a all round thrilling blog (I also love the theme/design), I don韙 have time to go through it all at the minute but I have bookmarked it and also included your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Please do keep up the great work.

By Prova a Adidas Neutro Originals Nizza Nero Giallo on 2015 07 20 - 08:41:30
From the entry 'Statism, the greater good and the big lie'.

I second Keith’s assertion that Mike Holt from Restore Australia is very much a fake. He bangs on about Halaal being a scam and money maker for Islam (and no I don’t support Halaal whatsoever), but makes excuses for its counterpart Kosher as being a somehow legitimate. Double standards? When I confronted him about this fact he went off on a convoluted tirade about Israel being some sort of “Bastion of Democracy” in the middle east…Really!, I will leave that one up to the readers to decide on. I found that MH came across as disingenuous to say the least.

By Citizen Scorn on 2015 07 19 - 07:33:43
From the entry 'Restore Australia!'.

Without doubt, TNR is one of the best, if not the best alternative news source on the net. Which doesn’t mean Herewood is always right. His job, I believe, is to present the facts as he sees them as an objectively as possible, without fear or favor. For this, he has my respect and support. But I believe he needs to be careful and to think a little deeper about the problems of “racism,” in Australia. He has labelled the Reclaim Australia Movement as racist. I’m wondering if his objectivity is a little weak on this point, a little without foundation.

Of course all political movements have its fringe groups and individuals. We make a distinction between, for example, a Muslim and a fundamentalist Muslim (Islamist), and by so doing we don’t claim that all Muslims are blood thirsty fanatics. If its good for the Muslims, then its good for RAM, which is bound to attract a few lunatics and real racists. But to brand the entire movement as “racist” is wrong; it is the same ploy that is used by the mainstream media and its left-wing, establishment Marxist boot boys.

One of the first things I noticed when i attended a RAM rally recently were the amount of non-white people in attendance, including Aboriginals. In fact the main banner of RAM contains an Australian flag and an Aboriginal flag. Speakers at their rallies have included Jews, Arabs, Indians, Aboriginals, Chinese and so on. What does this tell you? Is this really a fascist-Nazi-racist movement whose stated aim are the eradication and exclusion of other cultures, in place of some sort of Aussie white Reich, or is this just propaganda that is being propagated by the left for their own political interests. Consequently, we all know where the culmination of their politics have led, historically speaking, which are to the imposition of terror and dictatorships.

We can be thankful for small mercies, in terms of the Left, which today mostly tends to attract collectivists, establishmentarians and the privileged sons and daughters of the upper bourgeoisie, who seems to share one thing in common, nativity….

By Eugene on 2015 07 18 - 16:03:54
From the entry 'Dylann Roof: soldier in a new race war or just a pawn in the game?'.

Mike Holt from Restore Australia is very much a fake. He hasn’t even been citizen for but a few years. But, he makes out like he was born there. ALSO - this guy spent 30 years in Thailand working shady businesses. I would wager that his primary purpose in being an activist is that he wants to make money off selling merchandise.

By Keith on 2015 07 17 - 20:51:15
From the entry 'Restore Australia!'.

good to see you putting out some new shows heraward

freely the banana girl is to a certain extent a troll, as is her boyfriend durian rider. they have been trolling the fitness community on youtube for some time… and yes they are extreme but they are also trolls. They use their trolling to spread their message. currently, another dude called vegangains is trolling the fitness community as well.

i am a vegetarian, and it was seeing this documentary on the pork industry that started me on the vegetarian path. for anyone interested, its pretty off the charts disturbing and its australian as well. its pretty much made by dudes breaking into pork farms and filming what they find

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KArL5YjaL5U

Would the world be better if people cared where their food came from? probably, they might then care about other things too

do you become a better person if you dont eat meat? i feel like a better person mainly because animals aren’t being hurt because of me. i dont feel humans have to eat meat really… or at least not much. How can you watch that documentary on pork, know that that is pretty much whats going on and turn a blind eye to it? I think its basic empathy and just saying well ‘i like bacon so yeah’ is in my opinion wrong and i can see freleys point of view to an extent. In my opinion, at least these people believe in something. i see my money as my vote, henceforth im ethical as to what i do with it. free range eggs became mainstream for exactly this reason… although im pretty sure woolies and coles lobbied the state to change the definition of the word ‘free range’ at some point. I dont eat beef because the amount of resources that go into growing a cow are pretty crazy. Think about how much grass that cow needs to eat before it is harvested and how much space it requires. think of how many vegies you could grow in the same space with the same amount of water. lamb? comon, think about what your doing here… but that being said i think most vegans are total loons. People like freeley should be advocating for the destruction of lions and tigers, as lions and tigers murder other animals in truly horrific style. if we humans are smart enough to not harm animals, then we should be stopping the animals that harm other animals from existing. Freeley also kills birds when she flies in aeroplanes so she is a hypocrite.

feminism is one of the biggest problems in society today and although there is some valid historical basis to it, the liberation of the human female from their biology is in my opinion largely a product of the technological advance of humans. sufferagettes where never machine gunned on the streets, unlike the men that where drafted and sent off to war to die just a few years earlier. as technology has advanced, women have advanced as well, however now its going way too far and is pretty blatantly anti male in many respects. i view feminism in its modern context as a tool of the social marxists that really isnt doing society a great deal of good at this time. its screwing up gender dynamics and is wrecking women and men for each other. i see it as low frequency, lowest common denominator idiocy, just like a lot of the the race baiting ‘is this racist’ stuff getting around that is being perpetuated pretty much as a distraction, divide and conquer strategy by the power elite. idiots love this kind of bicker and beef… it would be funny if it wasn’t so serious

anyway

I agree with steven friar. gods a maniac

good show… keep making them

By r0Kb3B0p on 2015 07 14 - 21:05:32
From the entry 'Addictions, obsessions, fanaticisms and distractions'.

Really truthfull.

By OZE on 2015 07 07 - 16:56:36
From the entry 'Defending your personal health choices'.

Yeah sure authority aware.

By OZE on 2015 07 07 - 16:28:55
From the entry 'What is the future of Australia?'.

Stay tuned for more rules here as usually is the case!!!

By OZE on 2015 07 07 - 16:21:50
From the entry 'Mass media disinformation and brainwashing dissected'.

Almost two months since the last broadcast! How the hell can you expect people to donate when you don’t broadcast? Looks like the ship of truth has sprung a leak. This broadcast has been part of my life almost since its inception…it is one of the few alternative news sources that hasn’t gone off the deep end, by dilution credible information with crap e.g. Fairdinkum Radio and Info Wars…Pittard started FR with some incredibly interesting material, but then he flipped…Today he sounds like a fundamentalist preacher, the Christian equivalent to a Fanatical Islamist. As an atheist, I think he’s really ###### up a potentially good show. As for Info Wars, all they would have to do to improve is dump Alex Jones, what a shit-for-brains. I reckon Jones and Pittard are allowed to proliferate, because they’re so stupid and harmless. I suppose they have some entertainment value, and along with David Icke are living examples of how low the alternative media has sunk. Truth News Radio is, or should I say was, way ahead of them all ahead of them all in terms of credibility How sad that its come to this.

By Eugene on 2015 06 28 - 17:28:56
From the entry 'Introducing Internet.org: Mark Zuckerberg's free 'private' internet which will soon be rolled out to 4 billion+ people'.

Loony Landing

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