The Bad Astronomy Newsletter

Bad Astronomy Newsletter #14

Contents:

1. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones review online
2. Bart and Phil's Excellent Adventure
3. Bad Astronomy talk in L.A. on Sunday
4. Subscribe/Unsubscribe info

1) Star Wars: Attack of the Clones review online

It's been a long time, but I finally have a new page up on the site, and it's a biggie: my Bad Astronomy review of "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones". I actually liked this movie quite a bit, far more than "Phantom Menace". There wasn't much astronomy in it, but there were a few mistakes. Surprisingly, it's what Lucas got right that is interesting. Read the review to see what I mean.

2) Bart and Phil's Excellent Adventure

On Friday, May 17, I "debated" Bart Sibrel, true-blue Moon hoax believer and producer/writer/gaffer of the video "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon". We were interviewed on WRUV in Vermont, and it was also live on the web.

I have never actually participated in a live debate with a believer in any pseudoscience before. I wasn't sure how it would go; typically, people like Mr. Sibrel have lots of experience debating skeptics, and can run rings around them. The pseudoscientists aren't right, of course. They are just able to speak more glibly, change the subject faster, and just generally use hot-button phrases better than skeptics do.

In this case, though, I think I had the upper hand. I was able to counter most of his claims. The only one I wasn't sure of was just why they didn't broadcast color footage from the surface of the Moon in Apollo 11 when they clearly had that capability on the way to the Moon (it's because they only had a small antenna on the lander, which was not sufficiently broadband to send color; the antenna on the orbiter, where weight was not as big an issue, was much larger and capable of color transmissions). I didn't want to say something wrong, so I mentioned other websites where the information was available.

We went back and forth for a while. He made several grossly inaccurate statements about the usual stuff: shadows, photographs, radiation and the like. Since I was familiar with his material, it wasn't terribly hard to show just exactly why he was wrong. Since I was involved in the actual debate, it's hard for me to know exactly how it went, but the comments I have received from people who listened have been overwhelmingly positive.

I have asked for a tape of the show, and I'll either put it online or put up a transcript when I get the chance.

I am sure Mr. Sibrel will sell a few videos from all this, but I am equally confident that many people who listened know just what that video contains: nonsense.

Score one for the Good Guys. ;-)

You can see Mr. Sibrel's claims for yourself at http://www.moonmovie.com and find out why he's so wrong about everything at http://www.clavius.org/bibsibrel.html or get links to many Moon Hoax sites on my website.

3) Bad Astronomy talk in L.A. on Sunday

Just in case you still haven't heard, I be in Los Angeles Sunday to give a public Bad Astronomy talk. I will be speaking at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time at CalTech, in Baxter Hall. Admission is $8 for the general public and $5 for members of the the Skeptics Society. You can find out more about the Society at http://www.skeptic.com/.

Baxter Hall is smack dab in the center of campus. You can get a map at http://www.caltech.edu/map/. Baxter Hall is Building 77 on the map.

4) Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information

If, for some weird reason, you want to unsubscribe to this newsletter, just send email to badastronomy-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com with no body text. Make sure you send it from the address to which the newsletter is sent! Alternatively, you can unsubscribe from the Yahoo!Groups website. Go to http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/groups-32.html for more info.

Remember, the newsletters will be archived on the website at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/badastronomy so even if you unsubscribe you can still read them there. I suggest staying subscribed so you get them as soon as I send them.

Also, I do not sell your email addresses and neither does Yahoo! Take a gander at the Yahoo!Groups privacy message if it makes you feel better: http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/ Note that the email addresses are visible to me, but I have no prurient use for them. If that makes you nervous for whatever reason, feel free to unsubscribe and simply read the archived newsletters at the website listed above.

Phil Plait
The Bad Astronomer
badastro@badastronomy.com
http://www.badastronomy.com