I've been over there and my brain seems to have stopped functioning now....

Jay, you are a star!!!! How you managed to keep your cool and continue to argue rationally when all around you were ignoring common sense is beyond me! You have the proverbial patience of Job....

I always find it a little disheartening when possibly man's greatest ever adventure is dismissed with a phrase such as "just look at that foil lunar lander thing, it COULDN'T POSSIBLY have been used to land on the moon. It certainly doesn't look like something they would have made for Star Wars...." (or insert any suitable Sci-Fi film title of choice).

"Functionality" and "built for purpose" seem to be concepts they do not comprehend. The LM might not look "pretty" in many people's eyes, but for those of us who understand the concepts (and believe me I only understand the basic concepts, certainly nothing compared to Jay's great in-depth knowledge) it seems to make perfect sense to me.

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The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not Eureka! (I found it!) but rather, 'hmm.... that's funny...'
- Isaac Asimov

Are we alone in the Universe? Are we the only intelligent life? Who knows? But the universe is so BIG, it somehow seems such a waste of space if we are ....