Friday, November 1

To the Moon, Alice, to the Moon! - NASA has come to the rescue of Buzz Aldrin. Earlier this year, the septegenarian Moon walker was accosted by one of those conspiracy nuts who believe fervantly that the government made up the whole Apollo program and filmed the landings on a Hollywood sound stage. Bart Winfield Sibrel, who fancies himself a freelance documentarian, ambushed Buzz, shoved a microphone in his face, and asked him to swear on a stack of Bibles that he had in fact made the 480,000 mile roundtrip. Aldrin did us all a favor -- as the website BadAstronomy.com put it, he "told Mr. Sibrel to go away repeatedly, and even asked for the police. When Mr. Sibrel physically blocked his path, Mr. Aldrin (who is 72, 5'10" and 160 pounds) punched Mr. Sibrel (37, 6"2" and 250 pounds) in the face." Now NASA has taken a higher road, by paying an expert to refute the space hoaxers, according to a report in Thursday's Miami Herald. Now can they do something about Area 51?