Mythbusters Moon Hoax Special

Here at RD we are firm believers in the fact that NASA and the US government successfully landed men on the Moon. There is no hoax, there is nothing fishy going on and there is an answer to every single so called 'fact' that the hoaxers come up with. Go to BadAstronomy.com to read more info about the Moon hoax.
Well it looks like our favourite buster of myths, The Mythbusters are doing a Moon Hoax special. Yay, I am supremely confident that every test, experiment they do will add weight to the truth, that we as a species landed on the Moon. I am not going to debunk the the Moon hoax stuff here as there are plenty of reality based sites out there with that info.
Check out the trailer after the jump for the Mythbusters Moon Hoax special.

"Dubya" - Action, Drama, Comedy?

Oliver Stone is not new to controversy, several of his films have fallen into that particular category. Salvador with James (freaking cool) Woods, Platoon with Charlie (I like my characters to be called Charlie) Sheen and JFK with Kevin (Waterworld) Costner would all be considered politically challenging subjects. Well he’s only gone and done it again. The trailer for his new socio-political George W. Bush drama, aptly named “W” has just come out and boy, this looks a doosey.

Actually it looks pretty good. I like a lot of what Oliver Stone has done in the past, excluding Alexander which was a bore fest and look forward to the approach he takes. Stone has assembled a great looking cast too, Josh Brolin as Dubya himself, James Cromwell as Daddy Bush, Thandie Newton looks particularly good as Condolezza Rice as does Jeffery Wright as Colin Powell. Stone has said that he didn’t want to make an “anti-Bush” film, but to be honest when you make a movie about someone like GWB its going to be hard not to be objective. Some people have read part of the script and New York Post writer Cindy Adams said, “Pro-Bushies will hate it, antis will love it.”

Stone deserves a good film soon as his last few have been decidedly average\crap. Check out the trailer.

Sensing Even More Horseshit

Check out the Silly Beliefs website and their dissection of the Sensing Murder episode where a supposed "die hard skeptic" was turned and is now a fully fledged believer of the woo. Well it certainly helps when the so called "skeptic" rings them up and asks to be on the program.
He admits that he did approach 'Sensing Murder', not the other way around as he claims in his book. So we were right after all, but why did he fudge the truth in his book? Perhaps to suggest that he was such a famous psychologist that 'Sensing Murder' would naturally seek him out?)"
Check it out along with heaps of other good stuff.

Things to do in Wanaka when you're dead

Well, maybe not dead - just with a couple of hours to kill. Why not head over to The Puzzling World which according to Stuart the owner "is a world unique attraction specialising in puzzling eccentricity." And if you are some kind of fruit weirdo have problems with reality psychic or diviner, you can try your hand at Stu's amazing $100000 challenge. It sounds pretty funny actually - and a few nutjobs have had a swing at it too.

The Psychic Challenge has been going on for about 14 years now, and in that time Stuart has had 4 "serious" contenders. As per the rules of reality, all four have failed to come within cooee of scoring the loot, and Stu's money remains safe, much in the way that the $1 million dollar challenge from James Randi has remained safe all these years. And what it this mighty task you ask? What arduous chore is the mere psychic supposed to carry out? Is it steal the secret of fire from the gods? Or maybe predict who will win the Bledisloe this year? No - its actually reasonably simple (if you claim to have amazing psychic powers that is). Find the money. That's it - and he even tells you where it is, down to 100 square metres. Surely the amazing powers of the psychics should be able to predict something like that?
The unsurprising answer is no, they can't. What is surprising is some of the techniques people try and use to find it. I thought the best one was the nice lady who wanted him to grab her boobs :

One of the strangest challenges involved a lovely young lady who declared that she could find the Promissory Note. All Stuart had to do was to put his hands on her bare breasts and she would get the message (what message?!). Stuart, mindful of potential lawsuits, declined the challenge.

Bizarre to say the least. But unique!

But its not really surprising to hear that no-one has succeded, and that a majority of the bigger names in this enterprise have declined to try this test. Whenever a practitioner of the paranormal is asked to prove their claims, they always beg off with some excuse to try and avoid the sucking disappointment of their phony trade being proven wrong (again). And of course the irreparable harm it would do to their business if the word got out that they actually can't do the tricks they advertise. It does not pay in business to advertise the fact that you are selling ice blocks to Eskimo's, especially when they buy them in large numbers.

As Stu's site says, "As a matter of interest, worldwide, there is over $US 2.5 million offered as prizes to anyone who can prove psychic ability, as yet, none of these prizes have been claimed." Not surprising at all really.