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Doug Stanhope On Lame Celebrities

Picking up a Hammer on the Moon

MichaelL says...

No need to go through the whole Newtons things... easier to keep it all in kg since that's how we think anyway. So on the moon, astronaut + suit = 100/6 = 17 kg. Only about 40 lbs... So an astronaut should have no problem doing a pushup there.

As I said, probably more to due with the awkward, pressurized suits.

However, the jumping part... well, that's a puzzle to me why they aren't able to jump higher since I don't see any mechanical disadvantage. It's one of the arguments for the 'fake moon landing' thing.

However, if the moon surface were 'spongy' then it would be like trying to jump out of a barrel of mud.

Re: conspiracy thing... Alternative 3 claims that Apollo astronauts went to the moon, but discovered the bases that had already been there and were threatened/sworn to silence. Curiously, Neil Armstrong became a public recluse after his career as an astronaut, rarely giving interviews or talking about his experience.

However, if you believe the 'we never went to the moon at all' version, the claim is that NASA hired Stanley Kubrick to film the fake moon landing thing based on his realistic looking 2001.

Chairman_woo said:

Though while were at it if that astronaut and suit weight say 100kg...

Guys Reaction to Justin Bieber Getting Arrested

MichaelL says...

Somebuddy been watching too much Joe Pesci / Robert De Niro / Scorsese.
But it's funny that this guy is popping a neck vein over JB who is a Canadian. We Canadians are good at that... we export our shit singers to the States, keep the best ones for ourselves...

Kevin O'Leary on global inequality: "It's fantastic!"

MichaelL says...

A few years ago this guy was a nobody insofar as the media was concerned. Then he started playing the 'baddie' on Shark Tank and the Canadian version of Dragons' Den.
I think this guy is borrowing a page from the likes of Ann Coulter and other right-wing talking heads. Essentially, they are media whores who know that controversy helps to sell their books, programs, lecture circuit, investments... their 'celebrity-ness'. So they say outrageous stuff because they know it gets them face time in our dumbed down media. How do you think it ended up here on Videosift?
Whether they actually believe their own shit... who knows?

Picking up a Hammer on the Moon

MichaelL says...

In this case, it is. Lift a 1 kg(mass) on earth 2 metres and drop it. If will hit the earth with a force of 9.8 Newtons. (F=m x a) That's its weight though we tend to use the kg instead of Newtons to express weight. To lift that mass, you would have to exert 9.8 newtons of force.

On the moon where acceleration due to gravity is 1/6 that of earth, that 1 kg mass would only weigh about 1.8 (9.8/6) Newtons. So it would take correspondingly less force to lift it.

So our astronaut should be able to easily push himself upright in theory.

The real reason he can't do it probably has more to do with the design of the suit (top heavy, not very flexible) and the loosely packed surface composition of the moon. Like trying to right yourself while wearing an inflatable sumo outfit in a McDonald's ballpit.

The high jump answer... when a high jumper clears 7 feet he is really just lifting his centre of gravity about 3-4 feet. He just twists his body horizontal to get his legs and feet over.

On the moon then, he would only lift his CofG about 18-24 feet (plus say 3 feet for his legs). So his record jump would be less impressive than you might intuitively think.


Chairman_woo said:

In other terms weight alone isn't the whole story (as I assume you well know).

Picking up a Hammer on the Moon

MichaelL says...

I have a degree in physics. I'm guessing that English is maybe a 2nd language for you? Your explanation of mass and weight is a little confusing. With regards to our astronaut on the moon, it's the difference in weight that matters. He should be able to (approximately) lift six times the weight he could on earth.
(Sidebar: It's often been said that Olympics on the moon would be fantastic because a man who could high-jump 7 feet high on earth would be able to high-jump 42 feet high (7x6) on the moon. In fact, he would only be able to jump about half that. Do you know why? I'll leave that with you as a challenge.)

Insofar as faked moon landings, I'm 90 % sure we went to the moon. However, bear in mind that Americans didn't know their own government was spying extensively on them til last year. It's the old joke... "Just because your paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't watching you..."

Alternative 3 is an interesting study of conspiracy dynamics. I first heard of it 30 years ago. It started as an April Fools joke in Britain on a science news TV show. It was brilliant in it's conception...

Short version:
1. Global warming will lead to total collapse of earth's eco-systems in two centuries or less.
2. Global governments are co-operating to move the cream of earth's leaders, scientists, etc to bases that have been established for decades on the far side of the moon and on Mars. (Alternative 3. Alternative 1 was huge underground bunkers, Alternative 2 was huge geo-synchronous cities... both were deemed too impractical to carry out.)
3. Mars is actually very liveable. We landed there in the 60s, established bases, using flying saucer technology developed here on earth by scientists.
4. The general population is being kept ignorant of the impending disaster, our advanced technology, the true state of Mars, etc. Governments worldwide are co-operating at the highest levels to perpetuate the myth that our progress in space is a slow, laborious process. (Which explains why the Soviet Union did not expose the Apollo programs as fake...) They don't want to cause a panic while they advance their agenda.
5. They have even developed psychic assassins capable of killing with their minds via spontaneous human combustion.

Due to TV schedule changes it was shown at a later date convincing the general public there that it was the real deal. (You can actually see the original show on YouTube... you'll even recognize some of the 'real scientists' etc as British character actors if you're old enough.)

It's a long convoluted story but thanks to a couple of follow up books and the Internet which gave it new life it has now 'morphed' into this vast conspiracy that involves alien / government co-operation at the highest levels à la X-Files. (The original conspiracy did not involve aliens...)

Adding to the fun and mystery is that some real world events -- too complicated to explain here -- later played right into details of the conspiracy.

I always thought it would make for a brilliant Hollywood movie -- the original version, not the 'updated' version.

Chairman_woo said:

Just looked up alternative 3. touche' lol
(assuming that was indeed a joke on your part)

If your original comment was supposed to be sarcastic then it got lost in the emotionless void that is text only communication sorry (there is a sarcasm tick box to avoid exactly this kind of misunderstanding mind you). If you were however seriously suggesting the moon landing was a hoax then see above. (this is the internet after all, people that genuinely believe this stuff are all over the place)

Picking up a Hammer on the Moon

MichaelL says...

So you're saying on Jupiter or any other super-giant planet, we should have no problem walking about, lifting the usual things such as hammers, etc with no problem because the mass is the same as Earth?
Hmm, didn't think gravity worked like that. I always read in text books that on the moon, you should be able to jump higher because gravity was less than earth... but you say no.
Damn scientists always trying to confuse us...
(Pssst... weight and mass are different things. Weight measures gravitational force... the force that you have to overcome to lift something... less gravity = less force to overcome)

As for the conspiracy thing... you do know we already have bases on the dark side of the moon and Mars right? Look up Alternative 3...

Chairman_woo said:

Were you not paying attention in physics class the day they explained the difference between mass and weight? As @Payback pointed out the energy required to overcome inertia is the same no matter what the gravity, low gravity simply allows you to "spread the duration" of the force like a fulcrum.

I.e. it would be easier than on earth but you still have to apply enough force to move 2-300kg of mass, you just have the option of doing so less rapidly (making it easier but not easy).

Even if this were not the case your argument still makes no sense. If it was indeed faked then surely they were on wires anyway? How else are you proposing they replicated the effects of low gravity?

The fact your comment got 3 likes is rather depressing. As someone who makes researching conspiracy theories a borderline obsessive hobby I can say with some confidence that the whole faked moon landing thing is about the most debunk-able one ever conceived. It is an insult to the very term "conspiracy theory" and helps give the rest of us a bad name .

Radiation belt? = 7 mins of expertly calculated exposure, there is a 1000ish page NASA manual on how they did this.

Cameras? = they had about 20 DIFFERENT cameras & much like anyone else would the crappy poorly framed or exposed shots weren't used for publicity

Multiple light sources? = The surface of the moon is both highly reflective and uneven. (mythbusters did the shit out of that one)

Most complicated machine ever built? = Actually launched, several times, to the freaking moon and back!

Waving flag? = Funny how every single shot of the flag waving is when someone is holding/touching it eh? (& what kind of retard leaves evidence of wind in the most expensive coverup of all time?)

The Russian space programme? = They just turned a blind eye to their arch rivals lauding it over them? They were in on it? You have to get really paranoid before that one starts to make any sense whatsoever.

etc. etc. etc.

I have a lot of time for conspiracy theories and I'm happy to speculate with the best of them but I've yet to find a single good argument for the landing not happening. I can maybe work with the possibility that some things were omitted/covered up (Monoliths etc.) because this could not be conclusively refuted by empirical facts. Suggesting that it never happened however is so easy to disprove it blows my mind that people still have time for the idea.

For your own sake try looking into the opposing arguments. There are plenty people with PHD's and direct experience who are happy to take you through the counters to all this stuff. And they back it up with actual evidence and experiments rather than conjecture and selective information. Your mind will thank you for it

Batman Recut as a Comedy

MichaelL says...

Agree. This was pretty good... I like the 'main character running down a street/alley/airport concourse' scene to convey desperation/confusion/redemption which is a cliche of every Tom Cruise movie and every rom-com ever...

brycewi19 said:

This feels more like an quirky independent coming-of-age cut instead of a comedy.

Picking up a Hammer on the Moon

MichaelL says...

Yeah, why wouldn't he just get into the pushup position, grab it then push hard to upright himself. Gravity on the moon is only 1/6 that of earth.

I'll tell you why... cause it's FAKE! He's in a movie studio in a heavy suit so hasn't the strength to be able to push himself upright.

How dogs and cats teach their young about stairs

Animated Classic Paintings: B E A U T Y

Google Glass Assholery

MichaelL says...

God kill me if this is the future... never being able to simply enjoy the moment, but instead having it continually overlaid with statistics, facts, directions, etc all of them demanding your consideration.
Sometimes it's okay to just let life wash over you without trying to analyze it.

GIFs, now with sound!

Superman vs Hulk - The Fight (Part 3)

People Almost Dying on Skydives and BASE jumps



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