Apollo 11 Launch of July 16, 1969 on CBS

It's still historic - as most people remember where they were on July 16, 1969 - as Apollo 11, first space mission to land men on Moon, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center. Saturn V booster rocket, according to Wikipedia, "... remains the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status and still holds the record for the heaviest launch vehicle payload."

#DataDump: Log-Ins and Paper Planes

Scientists estimate billions of habitable planets in Milky Way*
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Finds Apollo 11 Engines on Ocean Floor*
Gigantic paper plane soars over Arizona skies*
James Murdoch reportedly resigns from three boards*
Audit faults Apple supplier's factories in China*
Apple offering iPad 4G refunds in Australia*
Senators ask feds to probe Facebook log-in requests*
Video: Facebook Says Giving Password to Employers Violates Privacy*

Apollo 11 Moon Landing Site - Now Seen in Unprecedented Detail

The Daily Galaxy details in article repeated attempts to provide public with hi-res images of original 1969 Moon Landing. First, images provided by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) are hyped:

"The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera snapped its best look yet of the Apollo 11 landing site on the moon. The image, which was released on March 7, 2012, even shows the remnants of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's historic first steps on the surface around the Lunar Module.This image of the Apollo 11 landing site captured from just 24 km (15 miles) above the surface provides LRO's best look yet at humanity’s first venture to another world."

A viewer is soon disillusioned, however, with images as there's signs of Photoshop editing. Northerntruthseeker does excellent job arguing for a continued Apollo hoax. A You Tube video, "the proof that the LRO photos are photoshopped," shows what images actually look like and credible observations about editing. Apollo believers can take solace in case made by Bad Astronomy blog. It's all in the image, whether you believe it's real!

The Daily Galaxy article returns to a three year saga, an exhaustive search for tapes from camera used on the Moon:

"After the camera recorded the Apollo 11 astronauts' descent onto the moon's surface, they placed it on the moon to record their other activities, beaming images back to Earth by the lunar camera that is still resting on the moon's dusty Sea of Tranquility, right where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left it. Following NPR's reports in 2006 that the video tapes were missing , NASA began a massive search to find the tapes from the lunar camera."

The article builds reader's hope for discovery of vintage tapes of lunar landscape in odd video format of the day and converted to digital to everyone's delight! Alas, there's not that happy ending - or discovery - only consolation of digitally enhanced broadcast footage. There's also regret tapes were most likely recorded over and reused for subsequent satellite missions that ran tape continuously. It seems a propaganda piece, doubts linger about sixties tech and an improbable lunar lander! The layers of deception may not stop here, though. We may not gone to the Moon with rocket tech, but what of other means? The present writer remembers a time when anti-gravity was shared with public and in the press only to go silent in the early sixties!

3/31 defcon: morpheus, auroras, smartbombs & omg's!

secret space plane can't hide from amateur sleuths*
secret x-37b space plane caught on video by skywatchers*
nasa tracking 'a large object approaching the sun'*
video: will 'morpheus' be the first vehicle on the moon since apollo?*
video: stunningly beautiful time-lapse footage of aurora*
nsa said to focus its decrypting skills on nasdaq cyber attack*
australia pm julia gillard's computer hacked*
federal courts worry your smartphone might be a smartbomb*
facebook says no revolution for the palestinians*
omg! online abbreviations make it into oxford dictionary*

kubrick's odyssey: a11 faked moon landing?

Jay Weidner does a masterful job in his essay, "How Stanley Kubrick Faked the Moon Landings: ... ", exposing Hollywood trickery evident in the dated Front Screen Projection effect, and contended, used in the sixties on the Apollo 11 Moon shots.  "All I am trying to do, with the following evidence, is show that the Apollo landings were a hoax. And that Stanley Kubrick, using the Front Screen Projection system, directed them," says Weidner.  The author believes the United States traveled to the moon, but not by means of conventional rocket science. This third position occupied by Weidner views the NASA Space Program as a cover for the anti-gravity propulsion secrets, our government wanted to keep from their Cold War nemesis, the USSR.

The author follows up with a shocking interpretation of Kubrick's symbolism in "Secrets of the Shining". Weidner believes the liberties Kubrick took with Stephen King's novel, "The Shining," were intentional attempts to communicate his personal plight. 

Weidner lays it out for the reader. "The Manager tells Jack that his main job is to prevent the Overlook Hotel (America) from appearing like it is decaying. The Manager reiterates that this is Jack's primary responsibility."  Son Danny's vision of the "Gemini" twins (killed by the previous caretaker) on their very first day.  The Apollo sweatshirt worn by Danny.  Jack's deterioration during the course of the movie, a parallel to Kubrick's personal decline while making "2001: A Space Odyssey".  The damaging effect making the movie had on Kubrick's marriage.  Weidner goes so far as to suggest, "...the nickname, or the code name, for the faking of the Apollo Moon Missions was A11?" "All" for Apollo 11 was the first word Jack is typing over and over in the movie.

Kubrick has been communicating far earlier than recent insights into his last film, "Eyes Wide Shut," which some believe resulted in his death? Weidner makes a compelling case and believes the errors in the faked Moon shots were intentional attempts by Stanley Kubrick to reveal the truth.  It's a good read.