Well done, B.A.

By the commercial I was very dismayed. It seemed as if this would be just another unrestricted soapbox for the hoax crowd. But after the commercial they seemed to have balanced the scales.

Some notes:

Kaysing is still talking, "based on my experience at Rocketdyne." Did anyone tell PAX he was the librarian?

I felt the focus on Kubrick was a little odd. I enjoy his films and generally agree with what was said, but it's very easy to rebut an argument that Kubrick had the expertise to stage a moon landing convincingly. See my page http://www.clavius.org/movies.html

I was a little dismayed that the editors led from the question of 1960s technology right into Sibrel's first comment. It makes it sound like Sibrel is a relatively dispassionate video expert expressing his opinion.

Kaysing's claim that he has seen 10,000 pound engines at Rocketdyne throwing boulders across canyons is pure bulldeleted, pardon the language. Just one 757 engine is on the order of 50,000 pounds thrust, and you don't see them digging down to bedrock.

I am going to quibble with B.A.'s discussion of thrust. To say that a rocket engine develops 2,500 pounds of thrust is not the same as saying the exhaust plume exerts a force of 2,500 on an underlying surface. But do not despair; the actual pressure is much lower. See my work in progress: http://www.clavius.org/techexhaust.html

The discussion of the Sibrel footage was a bit disjointed. I expected Sibrel to make the cutout argument, but he stopped short and argued only the window outline argument. I think the rebuttal went well. It would have been better had PAX supplemented the explanation by shuttle footage.

Kaysing's argument that high-temperature ovens could be used to produce any type of rock is, of course, pure garbage. I don't think the refutation worked as well here, and it's likely because B.A. didn't know the specific argument that would be made. All rocks are produced in high temperature environments, including those that are known to be from earth and those known to be from the moon.

I think PAX struck a blow in our favor when they closed by implying that nothing will change the conspiracists' opinions. Kaysing is quoted as saying nothing will change his mind now. This is a departure from his opinion on the Fox program wherein he said that if a photo could be taken of Apollo remnants, he would recant.

As a final note, I love the globes on the desk. Can you score me a moon globe?


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: The Bad Astronomer on 2002-03-17 22:08 ]</font>