Scientific Methods

REFERENCING - TRYING TO CLEAR UP ANY CONFUSION

2006-08-01T04:24:00.000+02:00

All Email originating from UWC is covered by disclaimer http://www.uwc.ac.za/portal/uwc2006/content/mail_disclaimer/index.htm

Hi Everyone

I noted two comments on this topic, indicating some mis-understandings that need to be cleared up.

Contrary to what has been expressed, we have not CHANGED the way of REFERENCING, we have adopted the CBE/CSE style, and this is especially important for referencing.
We have provided a quick reference (Vanessa kindly prepared this) which is primarily aimed for preparation of Essays, Projects and Prac Write-ups.
For Written Articles - in other words handed-in assignments (Essays, Projects, Prac Write-ups) I would recommend that you do the referencing with the Author and Date and list the references in alphabetical order.
For Internet publication and when Presenting your research at a Conference or on a Poster having lots of authours and dates makes it more difficult to read (it can get very cluttered) I suggest that you use the numbering system so after a reference use a number in square brackets and if it is a URL hyperlink it to the site if publishing electronically, so it is easy for a reader to navigate to it.
It has become something of an INFORMAL standard for material that is put onto the INTERNET or presented in a POWERPOINT to use the numbering system - this is why Wikipedia uses it, and so do most Online Journals.
Remember that different Journals have different editorial styles (I will post something on this next week) but still adopt the CBE/CSE style, for example Journals that have a wider audience such as Nature and Science have used the numbering system for referencing to save space and thereby publish more articles. In contrast your more specialised Journals will stick to citing the authour and date - which remains the more conventional approach.
To Summarize: For PowerPoints and Blog Postings and other Electronic Publication use the Numbering system otherwise stick to Author and Date referencing.
Numbering system must be sequential the first reference cited is [1], the second reference cited is [2] etc, and these should be listed at the end of the article or on your last slide in numerical order. Referencing using Author and Date should be listed in Alphabetical order and where you have multiple references from the same author this should be listed in chronological order with the earliest references listed first.

Please confirm that you have read this and if still unclear indicate this when confirming by comment.

Cheers

Rich

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

Please cc important email to knight.rich@gmail.com

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

PLAGIARSIM PROCEDURE DOCUMENTS

2006-07-24T12:33:00.000+02:00

Hi

I still see confusion, so as to clear up things I will try and explain what each of the documents under the Plagiarism Statement mean and when to use them. I confirm that I received your first hard-copies and CD for the Map Projections Assignment 2 with all forms signed.

Plagiarism declaration to be included in all assignments.doc

This document is to be submitted with EACH and EVERY assignment - although there is no a place for it, I would suggest that you also write in the name of the assignment on that form and then attach (staple) to the back of all submitted work. Make sure that all submitted work has a front piece with Your Ful Name, Student Number, Student Email (CSIR), Assignment Title, Course Title (and Course code e.g. BCB703) and Date. (Note you have done this correctly so many thanks!)

Plagiarism declaration.doc

I need this document for each course (e.g. BCB703) thast you undertake but only ONCE for the course - it is so we have on record that you understand the issue of plagiarism. Each course is assume to be independent legal contracts. Although the form does not ask it I would add the APPROPRIATE course code next to the heading GENERAL PLAGIARISM DECLARATION.

Plagiarism statement of guilt.doc

This document is only to be used if we identified that you have committed plagiarism - in essence it is an "admission of guilt". You do not sign this until we have made a request that you do so AND on us providing evidence that you have committed this offence. Please see the Code of Honour that I put up earlier http://bcb703.blogspot.com/2006/07/code-of-honour.html, and I assume you accepted THIS GUIDELINE - this indicates what represents an appropriate amount of evidence for this procedure to be implemented. So these forms you have filled will be destroyed and I am starting you off from this day with a clean slate of no offenses. Please remember once you have signed this document you have only one chance before disciplinary action leading to your possible academic exclusion is initiated through the Proctor and this will necessitate that you come down to Cape Town.

PLAGIARSIM PROCEDURE.doc - this is the official document from the Science Faculty to guide you on this issue.

I have attached the official Department guidelines on referencing - if you apply this you will not be penalised in any way UNLESS we have specifically asked you to do something different in the ASSIGNMENT instructions, so I suggest you print out the CSE Referencing document and keep by you at all times.

Due to the need for these documents all future assignments have to be submitted in Hard Copy and Electronic formats. I will seek final confirmation from the Department and the Faculty later ion this issue.

Rich

Please if you do not understand these documents or this posting either add a comment if you think it is a general lack of clarity inb the class otherwise you can email me at my UWC address. Personal issues, like the my own file will not open you should contact me directly.

REFERENCING: REVIEW

2006-07-16T19:03:00.000+02:00

Below are SUMMARIZED guidelines from the Council of Science Editors (CSE) to use when referencing your work.

There are two parts to referencing. Firstly, the source of
information is indicated by placing the author’s surname and the year of
publication in brackets at the appropriate place in the body of the text.
Secondly, at the end of the paper the full references are listed in alphabetical
order by first author surname.

1) Citations in the text

The surname of the author and the year of publication are
placed in parentheses to acknowledge the source of information, e.g. (Smith
2006).

If the author’s name forms part of the sentence, provide
only the year of publication in parentheses, and place the parentheses
immediately after the name, e.g. Smith (2006) made this discovery.

If there are two authors on a paper, separate their names
with either ‘and’ or ‘&’, e.g. (Smith and Jones 2006).

For three or more authors on a paper, use the name of the
first author followed by et al. (which means ‘and others’), e.g. (Smith
et al. 2006).

When quoting directly from a source, use quotation marks
and then provide the page number where that quote was taken from with the
citation, e.g. (Smith 2006 p 57).

Multiple references for the same statement are separated
with a semi-colon and ordered chronologically, e.g. (Smith 1998; Jones 2002).

For multiple works by the same author, give the name once
and then separate the years with commas, e.g. (Smith 2000, 2003)

For multiple works by the same author in the same year, use
small letters to distinguish them, e.g. (Smith 2006a, 2006b). The first work
that you refer to will be “a”, the second one “b”, and so on.

2) Reference list

The reference list is alphabetical by the first author’s
surname. When authors have identical surnames, sequence references
alphabetically by the initials of the first author, then by the first letters of
any following surnames. When the authors’ surnames are identical in two or more
references, these references are sequenced by publication date from earliest to
latest. Use the formats below to reference specific sources of information.

· Book:

General format: Author/editor. Year. Title of book.
Edition. Place of publication: Publisher. Number of pages.

Example: Krebs JR, Davies NB. 1993. An Introduction
to Behavioural Ecology. 3rd ed. London: Blackwell Science. 420 p.

· Book Chapter:

General format: Author. Year. Title of chapter. In:
Editor of book, editor. Title of book. Edition. Place of publication: publisher.
Pages of selection.

Example: Akerele O. 1995. Medicinal plants and
protected areas. In: McNeely JA, editor. Expanding Partnerships in Conservation.
Washington, D.C.: Island Press. p 75-81.

· Journal Article:

General format: Author. Year. Article title.
Journal title Volume(Issue):Pages.

Example: Ryan MJ, Rand W, Hurd PL, Phelps, SM, Rand
AS. 2003. Generalization in response to mate recognition signals.
American Naturalist 161(3):380-394.

· Dissertation or Thesis:

General format: Author. Date. Dissertation/Thesis
title [dissertation/thesis]. Place of university: Name of University. Number of
pages.

Example: Angell CM. 2006. Body fat condition of
free-ranging right whales Eubalaena glacialis and Eubalaena australis
[PhD thesis]. Boston: Boston University. 256 p.

· Newspaper Article:

General format: Author. Year Month Day. Article
title. Newspaper title; section:pages (column).

Example: Rensberger B, Specter B. 1989 Aug 7. CFCs
may be destroyed by natural process. Washington Post; Sect A:2 (col 5).

· Conference Paper:

General format: Author. Year. Paper title. In:
Editor, editors. Title of volume. Conference Name; Full date; Place of
publication: Publisher. Pages of selection.

Example: De Bourcier P, Wheeler M. 1997. The truth
is out there: the evolution of reliability in aggressive communications systems.
In: Husbands P, Harvey I, editors. Proceedings of the fourth European conference
on artificial life. Fourth European Conference on Artificial Life; 1997 Jul
28-31; Cambridge; MA: MIT Press. p 444 453.

· Conference Abstract:

General format: Author. Year. Abstract title
[abstract]. In: Conference name; Full date; Place of conference: Title of
organization. Pages of selection.

Example: Bottai M. 2001. Bootstrap confidence bands
for assessing environmental pollution [abstract]. In: Geographic Information
Sciences in Public Health: First European Conference; 2001 Sep 19-20; Sheffield,
UK: Stockholm Center of Public Health. p 25.

· Magazine Article:

General format: Author. Date. Article title.
Magazine title: pages.

Example: Wilson EO. 1998 Mar. Back from chaos.
Atlantic Monthly: 41-62.

· Electronic Journal:

General format: Author. Article title. Journal
title [internet]. Date published [cited date]; volume(issue):pages.
Available from: URL

Example: Janz N, Nylin S, Wahlberg N. Diversity
begets diversity: host expansions and the diversification of plant-feeding
insects. BMC Evolutionary Biology [internet]. 2006 Jan 18 [cited 2006 Jun
23]; 6(4): (10 pages). Available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/6/4

· Web Page:

General format: Author. Document title [internet].
Title of complete work; update date [cited date]. Available from: URL

Example: Wikipedia contributors. Citation
[Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Jun 30, 18:21 UTC [cited 2006 Jul 16]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Citation&oldid=61411767.

This was prepared by Dr Vanessa Couldridge for students to have a quick guide.

Cheers

Rich

IMAGE CAPTURE FROM K-LITE CODEC PACK

2006-07-14T13:06:00.000+02:00

Hi Everyone

To view your videos we provided the free-software K-Lite Codec Pack, which I hope you are using. In the past I have said you could capture using the Prt Scr key on the keyboard an then a Paint Program to crop and re-svae. Well I have found a much easier way to capture images.

When you launch K-Lite codec and selecting Media Player Classic, select from the top menu View and then from the drop down select Options, on the left hand side is Playback and under that is Output - select this option - the right hand side is refreshed with Output options that include DirectShow Video, under this are some radio buttons, you will need to select VMR9 (renderless)**. Please note if this is not available (greyed out) you will need to re-install the full K-Lite Codec Pack (DVD 3 - Planet Earth videos has a folder called Codes and within this folder is the file klcodec262f.exe which should be executed).

Once you have set the Video Output to VMR9 (Renderless), you must re-launch K-Lite codec Media Player Classic, this can be done by clicking on any suitable Video file, once the desired video is running you can select from the top menu File and then from the drop down select Save Image (CTRL + I are the quick keystrokes that will do the same thing) and this wil give you the option to save the image with the desired name and folder destination, making sure that you use JPEG/ *.JPG format. This will make picture capturing much easier from your video material, and doing assignments. I will give a TWO extra working days to include this in your Video Assignment

Please confirm that you have read this posting and set up your K-Lite according to these instructions and your Image capture is working.

Thanks

Rich

THE DA VINCI CODE: PART III: THE BOOK AND FILM

2006-07-11T16:54:00.000+02:00

The most striking feature in the whole set-up of the book and the film is the explicit money- making schemes that are added to both. As one explores the internet for some information you slowly realize that this is nothing but a big money-making scheme that according to statistics definitely paid dividends as reported in terms of money by numerous reporters and the fact that the author Dan Brown had become a multi-millionaire in about a week’s time. Somehow in my opinion I think most of its critics had missed the overall purpose of writing the book and the film.

Dan Brown did not write the book in an effort trying to change the past or the future of religion. If that was his purpose he would have made sure about all his facts. What he did realize though is the fact that involving elements like Jesus, marriage, Mary Magdalene (known generally as a prostitute), a famous painter, Leonardo Da Vinci, the Catholic Church etc. are definitely a brilliant way of attracting public attention. What he did was to arise the inquisitiveness of the general public. In my opinion I think most people thought that in the film they were going to see a new human version of Jesus Christ and His proposed wife, but unfortunately, they had to be happy at looking at one of Da Vinci’s paintings, the last supper and a kind of interpretation thereof. However, Dan Brown probably did not dream in his wildest dreams that this effort of his would result in such a big pay-off, of course at its own prize.

I wonder how many writers after writing a novel really analyze how it will be interpreted by the different levels of readers like the academics and the lay public. Did Dan ever thought that so many academics would find the time to read and interpret his book that were probably just meant to be for the lay public and to make him a few bucks that he could live of. I mean the theme Dan has chosen is nothing new as there are already a few books written before in the same kind of line, but the big difference here is the fact page in front of the book and the fact that it had made Dan a very wealthy man afterall. I reckon the fact page has given many critics a whip in the hand with which they could lash out at Brown. Would the reaction have been the same if the fact page in front was just left out? Yes once fact and fiction, especially including some romance, are mixed together the truth can become easily confused. Remember the expected effect and the actual result mostly differs totally. Did it ever occur to Dan Brown that there are some people that are so young in their faith that anything they read, hear or see will influence them resulting in overall personal confusion?

It did not make me mad when I read accusations about Jesus being married and having a bloodline and so on, and so on …. In fact it brought a smile to my face, due to the fact that I realized that being married and having a family is the creation of a picture of happiness. Gone is the picture of the lonely sole, which had absolutely no-one to rely on or no hope in future of passing on his genes. Isn’t wishing some-one well with words like “…..I hoped you will get married and have lots of children…..” part of our framework of creating happiness? Most books and films made of Jesus illustrate his suffering in an effort to save humankind. Attributing more human-like properties to Jesus makes it in a way easier to relate to him. Don’t we all have more sympathy with the poor suffering sole than with the guy that have everything and is always perfect?

I wonder if this book and film would have attracted the same attention and critics if everyone ignored it and Dan Brown did scarcely made a buck. Unfortunately I am not going to discuss the whole storyline of the book and film, because then I will rob you from the opportunity of going yourself on the internet, maybe buying the book and making the effort to see the film. However I will supply some good sites on the internet that you can explore yourself and form your own opinion about it below.

What did Dan Brown and the Da Vinci code do for me? It made me wonder why I couldn’t remember the piece of Jesus kissing Mary Magdalene and Peter lashing out at them though I did read through my Bible a few times during my lifespan. I therefore tried to find the book Philip in my Bible, but only found Philemon and Philippians, through which I read again just to make sure. After an internet search I learned that the book Phillip, as the book of Thomas, etc. is part of the Nag Hammadi Documents that were discovered in 1945 and due to the fact that it was all written more than 100 years later than the other New Testament Bible books were not included in the Bible. I also read through the internet version of these lost books, especially the book Philip and found that it was definitely written in a totally different manner than the books currently included in the Bible. I personally found the book Phillip repeating itself a lot of times. That leads to confusion, as if the person did not really have to say much, but was trying to say the same thing repeatedly in a different way.

I also wondered why I did not know more about these lost books. Why was it never pertinently mentioned by name in my religious education, like Sunday school, Sunday church ceremonies, etc.? I feel quite embarrassed by the fact that I have to learn (like it seem to me a lot of other people) through Dan Brown’s book and film about the book Philip. It made me wonder how I will be able to defend myself if I am obviously uninformed in my religion. Frankly it feels as if my religion educators failed me in a certain sense.

I also learned about the existence of the Priory of Sion (though its creators claims it is totally misinterpreted), The Holy Grail, Opus Dei, The Knights Templar, etc. and it urged me to do some research on each of them to find out exactly what they were about.

Whether the book and film are good or bad or true or untrue does not matter much to me. I have learned a lot of new information that I did not knew about and I own the freedom to decide what of it I want to believe or not. Afterall, I am not a puppet and do have the ability to form my own opinions about information supplied to me. I truly think anyone that just blindly believe what Dan Brown or any other author writes in his books without doing research themselves to find the real truth deserve to be mislead.

Here are some websites you could use to explore about the book and film of The Da Vinci code:

1. Wikipedia contributors. The Da Vinci Code [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 31,
17:59 UCT [cited 2006 May 31].
Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Da_Vinci_Code&oldid=56167417.

2. http://www.opusdei.org/art.php?w=32&p=7017

3. http://www.leaderu.com/focus/davincicode.html

4. http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html

5. http://www.webcom.com/gnosis/naghamm/2ja.html

6. http://www.webcom.com/gnosis/naghamm/gop.html (Gospel of Philip).

7. http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gthlamb.html (Gospel of Thomas).

8. http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm (Gospel according to Mary
Magdalene)

9. http://www.webcom.com/gnosis/naghamm/nhlintro.html

10. http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/persecution/pch0058.html

11. http://www.crisismagazine.com/september2003/feature1.htm

12. http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/newsletter/2003/nov7.html

13. http://www.danbrown.com/novels/davinci_code/nytimes.html

14. http://www.danbrown.com/novels/davinci_code/reviews.html

15. http://www.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/DESTINATIONS/05/31/da.vinci.code
chateau.ap/

16. http://www.probe.org/content/view/127/169/

17. http://www.catholic.com/library/cracking_da_vinci_code.asp

18. http://marty-center.uchigago.edu/sightings/archive_2003/0924.shtml

19. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000088&sid=ay_zOUsJEGs
Q&refer=culture

20. http://www.gotquestions.org/lost-books-Bible.html

Elizabeth van der Merwe
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag x17

My link: http://uk.360.yahoo.com/elizabethmerwe

Email: 2538521@uwc.ac.za

THE DA VINCI CODE: PART II: DAN BROWN

2006-07-09T19:15:00.000+02:00

If you go to the website: http://www.danbrown.com/ it displays a webpage that states “The official website of #1 National bestselling author”. Other comments made on this introduction webpage are “One of the most intelligent and dynamic authors in the genre” by the library journal and “his research are impeccable” by the New York Daily News.

But who exactly is this man that is simultaneously so famous, but yet so ill-famed by others? Dan Brown was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, England, where he also spent his childhood, as the firstborn of three children to parents Richard and Constance (Connie) [1, 7]. Some sources state that his father was a secondary school mathematics teacher [1, 7], while other states that he was a professor in mathematics at Phillip Exeter Academy in New Hampshire [6, 8]. Nevertheless his father was a well-educated man. His mother was also well-educated as musician [1, 6, 8]. Dan has grown up in an academic (science) and Christian environment and both his parents were immaculate examples in society [1]. It is however being stated by some that the controversial themes of his novels, that mostly includes the paradox of religion versus science, is a direct consequence of his childhood exposure [1]. Dan himself was also very exemplary, attending church and Sunday school, singing in the Church choir and attending church camps [1, 2].

Currently he considers himself still a Christian, but also state clearly that he is an open-minded person that pursue new knowledge about religion and as he become more informed tends to ask more questions [9]. He also states that it should be kept in mind that Christianity is experienced differently by different people [9]. He obviously does not just accept what are stated in the Bible and “let sleeping dogs lie”.

He graduated from Phillips Exeter in 1982 whereafter he enrolled at the Amherst College and graduated in 1986 [1, 6, 7, 8]. During his college years he played squash and was a singer in the Amherst Glee Club [1]. Dan is also a keen hiker and tennis player at leisure [7]. During this time he also became interested in writing through the novelist Alan Lelchuk [3]. After college Dan seriously tried to established a musical career for himself (remember his mother was a professional musician) [1]. However, setting up a career in music was not that easy and part of his efforts were the establishment of a record company known as “Dalliance”, production of some CD’s, that included some for children such as “Happy frogs” and “Suzuki Elephants” [1]. During 1991 he moved to Hollywood, in an effort to promote his career [1]. Here Dan, as many others before him discovered that making a career does not just happen because you have moved to the place where all the action were supposed to be therefore he had to support himself as a preparatory teacher in Beverly Hills [1, 7]. However, Dan was a busy body and never waited for opportunities to come his way, but was always chasing them himself.

In Los Angeles he met his future wife, Blythe Newton, at the National Academy of Songwriters [1]. Although Blythe was 12 years older than Dan she seemed to be the perfect fit and they married in 1997 in his home town, New Hampshire [4]. Blythe is known to be an art historian and painter [6, 8]. Blythe played a very important role in Dan’s career, especially when he decided to shift music to the background and to become first an English teacher in 1993 at his alma mater Phillips Exeter Academy and later a full-time novelist writer in 1996 [1, 6, 7, 8]. Dan wrote a few books, like Angels & Demons, Digital Fortress, Deception point and some humorous ones that was co-authored by his wife Blythe, but they were all considered as intermediately successful on the sales market [1]. However, after writing his controversial book, The Da Vinci code, life changed very quickly for Dan and his books, and in one week’s time after the release of the book he had become universally well-known [1].

The main theme of all Dan’s books are that of cryptography, codes and secret agencies [5, 6]. The mystery and intrigues that accompany cryptography and codes have caught the attention of the public as his novels are currently available almost everywhere in the world [5, 6]. Part of their success seems to be a lot of time spend on doing research either by Dan or Blythe or both [6]. Dan also seems to have incredible respect for women as the themes of all his novels show clearly.

Interestingly enough Dan states clearly he does not believe in: “Crop circles, aliens and the Bermuda Triangle” [9] and therefore he has immediately grabbed my attention and gained some respect from me.

Recently Dan managed to be listed by Time magazine as one of “the 100 most influential people in the world” [8]. He had been invited to appear on top programs such as: “CNN, Today Show, National Public Radio, Voice of America, Newsweek, Forbes, People, GQ, The New Yorker and many more” [8].

In conclusion, as the saying goes “…..the highest trees catch the most wind”, Dan also did not escape, even though he had worked very hard in establishing his career as a novelist writer.

In The Da Vinci code Part III I will discuss the overall success of all Dan’s novels and how it all fit in with his book and film “The Da Vinci code”.

References

1. Wikipedia contributors. Dan Brown [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 31, 19:37 UCT [cited 2006 May 31]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dan_Brown&oldid=56183805.

2. http://www.danbrownbio.com/excerpt1.html

3. http://www.amherst.edu/~astudent/1997-1998/issue018/f-wherenow.html

4. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1729079,00.html

5. http://www.danbrown.com/secrets/foreign.html

6. http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=226
7. http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/may98/brown.htm

8. http://www.danbrown.com/meet_dan/index.html

9. http://www.danbrown.com/meet_dan/faq.html

Further interesting facts about Dan and his personal interests like what kinds of books he like to read and what kind of films he enjoys the most is to be found at:

http://www.danbrown.com/meet_dan/faq.html

http://www.danbrown.com/

Elizabeth van der Merwe
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag x17

My link: http://uk.360.yahoo.com/elizabethmerwe

Email: 2538521@uwc.ac.za

ASSIGNMENTS AND SUBMISSION DATES AND MY EMAIL ACOUNTS

2006-07-09T15:29:00.000+02:00

I appreciate your diligence with respect to re-doing assignment, but we are very very far behind in our programme, so we cannot keep re-doing assignments until you get it right. I have provided a “Code of Honour” for you to comment on, if acceptable please we need to abide by it and only re-do assignments under those precise conditions. To summarise...

The originality report is to help you with future assignments, not for you to automatically redo them.

If you fall into one of the categories listed in the “Code of Honour”, I will contact you to request you to re-do the assignment.

The Science Faculty is clear if there is a re-mark the maximum marks that can be allocated is 50%.

As agreed earlier, I will use your latest submitted Human Evolution – thank you.

I will re-examine your Power Points, but this is an exception.

If you have not submitted your final Biodiversity accumulated reports please do so in the next 24 hours.

Please DO NO FURTHER WORK ON THE BIODIVERSITY REPORT once you have your Originality Report.

Please DO NOT SEND assignments to rknight@uwc.ac.za – they will be deleted since I do not have a large Mailbox.

Assignments should be submitted to knight.rich@gmail.com

General queries should be addressed to the Blog or sent to rknight@uwc.ac.za

I only pick up emails to knight.rich@gmail.com over weekends, so please DO NOT USE for general correspondence.

Use YOUR BLOGGER ACCOUNTS to add your own messages when there is a need for CLARIFICATION, and then everyone can benefit.

Cheers

Rich

Image Credit

http://www.fowlerprinting.com/imagesnew/email_layout.jpg

PLAGIARISM: RHODES CAMPUS

2006-07-04T13:06:00.000+02:00

Hi Everyone

Here is email I received from Laurie Barwell (lbarwell@csir.co.za). I thought I should shared extracts of this with you, since it is the experience of another university.

Rhodes (University) did a research project in 2005 to determine the level of plagiarism in past assignments and scanned a large number of past student papers and assignments. This was done as a baseline prior to instituting a web-based plagiarism detection system. They found that a high level of "plagiarism" as defined in their policy existed, but concluded that only a small number of these were done intentionally, in other words there were very few "villains". They concluded that the problem was that students "had a lack of command of academic literacy".

They further concluded that it was the teachers and lecturers' responsibility to teach students how to write.

Although Rhodes subsequently implemented a web-based scanning service to assist with the issue of plagiarism, they only use it as a "teaching tool" aimed at creating awareness and education. The results of the scans are made available to lecturers and any follow-up action left up to the discretion of the Lecturer.

A distinction amongst, Plagiarism, Copyright infringement and academic dishonesty was drawn. Different actions are required for each. It was stated that, for example, a student could pay someone else (a ghost writer) to write a Masters Thesis (or an assignment) without committing plagiarism or a copyright infringement, but thereby be academically dishonest .. a serious "crime". Copying others' work was also not necessarily plagiarism, but can be a combination of copyright infringement and academic dishonesty.

The question was posed whether lecturers don't perhaps promote dishonesty by providing copied books/notes/videos to students under the perception that they are helping the spread of knowledge ... this is stealing!

A Xhosa-speaking lecturer made the comment that in some cases the students copied the statements from text because they felt their own ability to communicate the facts stated by the author was inadequate and that they could not improve the text ... they did not realise that they should have tried to convey their own understanding of the specificfacts, and not the facts per se.

The key lies in teaching students the ethos of becoming knowledgeable through the interpretation of available information and forming an own opinion (= creating new knowledge).

Laurie

Rich's comments on this email

Personally, I believe UWC needs to know the extent of the plagiarism problem and this is done through direct questioning/interviews with students and by way of a service like Turnitin. As Rhodes has done, we need to confirm reasons behind committing plagiarism. Although a lecturer can elect for Turnitin to withhold providing originality reports from students, I personally believe that its value is more for the student than the lecturer. It may help instil more original thought, better integration between viewpoints, eventually leading to the students forming their own opinions. Academic empowerment is to engage in free thinking and the ability to express such thoughts to a wider audience.

I do agree that most student, and were unaware of the issues and often feel they cannot express it better than the original author. Herein is the main issue as a lecturer, and that is we need to get students to review multiple information sources to form opinions and view points, I will illustrate this with the following example.

Nothing is faster than the speed of light and this is a constant – Correct?

We all know that the fastest that any matter can move is light and the speed of light is fixed (Einstein would have agreed this to be the case). Actually not everyone agrees ....

In quantum theory and Heisenberg uncertainty relations photons can travel at any speed for short periods – in other words they appear to be able to be propagated elsewhere faster that the speed of light.

In cosmology, a variable speed of light has been proposed by John Moffat, and subsequently by João Magueijo and Andreas Albrecht (the latter has subsequently distanced himself from this) to explain the near uniform cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in the universe. The CMB radiation comes from 15 billion light years away but we know that the light emitted occurred when the universe was younger (about 300,000 years old). This would mean that any two distant points in the universe should not have been influenced by one another and yet they have the same temperature? The explanations are either cosmic inflation where during the immediate period following the Big Bang that created the universe, it (the universe) increased at an enormous factor or in the past the Speed of Light was faster (calculated to be as much as 60 times).

What I have demonstrated is even things we considered to be “truths” in physics are being questioned and alternative hypotheses sought. As scientists we need to review several references and compile this information, and explain it to ourselves first before we write it down for others to understand. When you copy and paste this process is essentially being short-circuited and you have not had the chance to internalise the concepts. Even though the previous authors may have expressed by summary the concept of a variable speed of light, I only really started to understand it when I put it into my own words for this posting.

My own experience is providing that the Turnitin reports are given back to students, they are actually happy about submitting stuff for scanning. The Turnitin is more part of the learning to write process, rather than an academic policing. That's my say for the day.

Cheers

Rich

Reference

Wikipedia contributors. Variable speed of light [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Jun 25, 21:14 UTC [cited 2006 Jul 4]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Variable_speed_of_light&oldid=60544720.

Image Credit

Wikipedia contributors. Rhodes University [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Jul 3, 22:24 UTC [cited 2006 Jul 5]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rhodes_University&oldid=61921670.

CODE OF HONOUR

2006-07-02T21:58:00.000+02:00

Hi Everyone

Now that you should be getting some feedback from your Turnitin Originality reports, you might be asking what do these reports mean? The higher the percentage the more the work is copied and NOT your own work. When assessing your reports, I also exclude anything put into quotes and references. I will try and interpret these scores and suggest the following actions.

Anything more than 75% is totally unacceptable - in effect this means so little of the work was yours that it should NOT be considered for any marks and that this constitutes enough of a transgression that it is actionable. If this is your first case you will be asked to sign an admission of guilt as prescribed under UWC rules and allowed to re-submit it and it will be marked to a maximum of 50% (no matter how good it is, you will receive only 50%). If this happens a second time it will be reported through the various University channels leading to the Proctor.

50 to 75% also means that the majority of what you submitted is not your work, if this is you first case you will be asked to re-do the assignment and it will be marked to a maximum of 50% (no matter how good it is, you will receive only 50%). If this happens a second time you will receive 0% and no chance to re-write. A third incidence and you will be asked to sign an admission of guilt as prescribed under UWC rules. If this happens a further time it will be reported through the various University channels leading to the Proctor.

25-50% is still too high and if this is your first case you will be asked to re-do the assignment and it will be marked to a maximum of 50%, in the second case you will have the amount that is similar to other content taken off, so for example if you got 65% and 30% is un-original you will receive 35% (65-30=35).

10-25% is starting to mean that the majority of the content is your own work, however, it needs further improvement. Marks will be taken off equal to the amount that is un-original, consequently if you receive 65% and 12% is not original you will get a final mark of 53% (65-12 = 53). If the marks subtracted means you receive less than 50% and this is your first transgression you will be asked to re-do the assignment and it will be marked to a maximum of 50% (no matter how good it is you will receive only 50%). After this you will simply receive your mark minus the amount that is un-original.

5-10% is acceptable since it can happen that you have written similar words to somebody else. Consequently this will be ignored in all cases and no marks deducted.

Less than 5% means that work is essentially original and a 5% bonus will be added to your marks.

I will put as links under the plagiarism statement the various documents just received from faculty, including the admission of guilt statement.

The above remains my interpretation and I suggest we start the process from today onwards. However, I would like you to read through this and either agree whether it is fair or if you think it is unfair, please give me your opinions. Just remember if someone is plagiarising and getting away with it, it is like theft and eventually you and your degree will suffer, since essentially un-qualified people will be receiving the same degrees that you worked hard to get through your own genuine efforts.

Please acknowledge that you have read this posting, but preferably add your own comments and suggestions.

Finally I would like you to review the following link that describes the originality report.

http://www.turnitin.com/static/videos/or_vid.html

One final note, if you think that Turnitin is on balance useful please let me know, there is much discussion on using services such as this, and I am of the opinion that it might help students write better, be more independent and possibly do better overall, so ALL suggestions positive and negative please, and if it is negative do not worry I will not think bad of you - here we need honour which means being honest with each other.

Cheers

Rich

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

Please cc important email to knight.rich@gmail.com

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

TURNITIN ACTIVATE: PRETORIA STUDENTS ONLY

2006-06-29T15:09:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone

We have activated the Turnitin service and most new assignments will be submitted via this service for the distance classes (Pretoria). To test its efficiency your Human Evolution assignment was scanned and the reports will be sent to you individually. You should all have received an email subscribing you to Turnitin. If you have not received an email notification with the subject "Turnitin Account" please contact me directly at rknight@uwc.ac.za or leave a comment on this posting.

In brief your assignments indicated that between 33% and 79% was not original work and in certain cases up to 36% of your assignments were identical to each other! Yes Turnitin also scans against each of your submitted assignments and hold these assignments in its database for future reference. However, your assignments are not made available to sources outside UWC, so your intellectual rights are protected, but they are used to check for plagiarism by other Turnitin clients.

If you use print material, it is quite possible that it is also in the Turnitin database, or students have previously plagiarised the text, in which case it is highlighted, but without me putting in a request for that assignment, I cannot say exactly what was plagiarised.

The text in your Power Point projects for Science Methodology project will also be scanned and reports sent back to you in due course.

Currently I will scan the documents for you and return them, not for correction but to inform you.

Please stay tuned to this website and the others and uses your FeedBlitz subscriptions to ensure that you do not miss anything posted.

We will provide links to instructions on submitting your work directly to Turnitin in a day or two.

Cheers

Rich

FEEDBLITZ PROFILES

2006-06-28T09:51:00.000+02:00

Hi Everyone

I noticed one smart person has elected to be anonymous for the FEEDBLITZ subscription, by marking their profile as private. You have 24 hours to correct this otherwise as the Administrator I will remove your FEEDBLITZ subscriptions to my Course Blogs. We need to be open, so please use your own names or commonly known nick names.

Cheers

Rich

Image Credit
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/z0302a1700/anonymous.jpg

SYNDICATION SERVICE

2006-06-27T14:37:00.000+02:00

Hi Everyone

The observant eyes will notice a new feature on our Blogs - this is a Syndication Service and allows you to subscribe to this Blog page and for you to automatically receive email updates when any new posts are put up. Your email client needs to be html-compliant (in Groupwise use the HTML view) so it will look quite similar to the original webpage complete with graphics!

How does it Work?

You simply type your email address in the dialogue box and press the Subscribe me! button. PLEASE DO NOT MAKE A MISTAKE WHEN ENTERING YOUR EMAIL SINCE I HAVE NO AUTHORISATION TO CORRECT MISTAKES. A new screen will come up which will ask you to confirm your account details (see Image). Confirm that your email is correct and then type in the code (an anti-spam procedure). You will get an email from FeedBlitz with a link to confirm your acceptance of the subscription (another anti-spam procedure). From then on you will get notification when posts are put onto this particular Blog (or until you unsubscribe). You only receive an email when new postings are put up and also in an aggregated daily report (all postings for all of your subscribed Blogs are compiled as one report). Ensure that you use the html client when confirming your acceptance of the subscription notification and do not mark private. I will remove all subscribers who are anonymous. You only have to accept the subscription once, from then on it automatically searches and compiles new postings that are sent to your by way of your email account.

Finally you will need to do this for each of your Blog pages (Scientific Methods, Biodiversity, Invasive Biology and Resource Mapping) since each is effectively a different website/address. When I invite you to new Blogs in the future please make sure that you subscribe to the Blog as well!

The type of Service is called RSS and is often referred to as the following... Really Simple Syndication. An RSS service delivers Blog/Website information as an XML file called an RSS feed, webfeed, RSS stream, or RSS channel. This allows Blog users such as yourselves to track updates on the various sites that they subscribe to using a news aggregator.

Cheers and enjoy subscribing to our new information services.

Rich

Reference

Wikipedia contributors. Aggregator [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Jun 21, 08:49 UTC [cited 2006 Jun 27]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aggregator&oldid=59779980.

HANG IN THERE- DISTANCE LEARNING SUPPORT KIT

2006-06-27T13:52:00.000+02:00

Hi Everyone

I have just received an e-mail on a great resource from the University of Queensland called "Hang In There" - Distance Learning Support Kit since you are all registered for a distance-based degree there should be some useful resources and hints. I really urge you to look through this site and please also look at the section on plagiarism - it is quite helpful. University of Queensland is one of the leading providers of distance education. Try the quiz Am I ready for distance study?

Here is an extract from their website describing characteristics of a self-directed learner

Recognise that learning is a process that is ongoing and lifelong.
Recognise that learning is an active construction (or building up) of knowledge and understanding, not just memorisation of facts.
Actively connect new information with prior knowledge and previous experiences.
Are aware that the learning process requires intention and effort.
Take responsibility for their learning rather than expecting their teachers to do it for them.
Understand their preferred learning styles.
Understand how to self-manage their learning.
Have a range of strategies they can apply to any learning situation - at work or in their lives generally.
Think critically about what they are learning.
Take time out to reflect on and monitor their learning.
Are confident, independent and prepared to take risks.
Aren't afraid to ask questions and seek help when they need it.

The URL is http://www.uq.edu.au/hanginthere/

Here are the deatail of one of the developers/

Caroline Steel

Lecturer in Higher Education
Teaching & Education Development Institute
The University of Queensland
Ph: +61 7 3365 9035
Email: c.steel@uq.edu.au

USEFUL ECOLOGICAL WEBLOG

2006-06-26T15:28:00.000+02:00

A very useful blog that you should create an account for so that you get posted useful information on species prediction. You will be developing models to predict where species can potential invade and the distribution of species taking into account the effects of climate change.

http://landshape.org/enm/?p=43 (use the Subscribe Me to make an account on Feed Blitz for syndication)

The recently published paper by Jane Elith and Catherine Graham et.al. Novel methods improve prediction of species’ distributions from occurrence data (EG06) is sure to be a landmark study in the field. EG06 compares 16 modeling methods using 226 well-surveyed species in 6 regions of the world. Measures of statistical skill on held back data show a spread from a wide range of methods including: the older methods such as BIOCLIM, DOMAIN, through GARP, GLM and GAM to the newer arrivals from machine learning MAXENT, BRT and community based method GDM, prompting the conclusion “novel methods improve prediction”. The work of a great many people is appreciated, as these results will no doubt be very helpful to many biodiversity modellers in the future."

I will be making this review paper available shortly.

Cheers

Rich

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za
Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

ADDRESSING STUDENT PLAGIARISM

2006-06-25T12:23:00.000+02:00

All Email originating from UWC is covered by disclaimer http://www.uwc.ac.za/portal/uwc2006/content/mail_disclaimer/index.htm

Hi

I received this email from our Director of ICS Prof. Derek Keats on the 06/20/06 07:50AM so I thought you should all review the article referred to.

Please note that I plagiarized this word for word....thought it might be of interest....

"Sally Brown, pro vice chancellor for assessment, learning, and teaching at Leeds Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom, believes that the age of technology has not only made cheating easy but has also engendered a sense among today's students that there is nothing wrong with copying and pasting someone else's work into your own. Many students today, she said, simply do not understand what plagiarism is and why it is wrong. Of the several approaches Brown suggested for fixing the problem, the one she thinks the best is designing coursework around plagiarism. By giving assignments that require personal knowledge or that compel students to provide regular accounts of their studies, an instructor can largely avoid the issue of plagiarism, according to Brown. Other strategies include education, punishments, and changing the culture among students so that cheaters are looked down on by everyone."

BBC, 18 June 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/5093286.stm

Derek Keats

I will be putting links up on the finalized documents from the Science Faculty for your attention.

Cheers

Rich

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

THE DA VINCI CODE: PART 1: LEONARDO DA VINCI

2006-06-20T00:20:00.000+02:00

Sigmund Freud said “Leonardo Da Vinci was like a man who awoke too early in the darkness, while the others were all still asleep” [1].

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was a very talented man, except from being a painter during the Renaissance period he was also known as a “philosopher, mathematician, anatomist, sculptor, geometer, musician, inventor, engineer and architect” [1, 2, 3]. This great man was considered as a “universal” genius and is still today [1, 2].

He was born in Anchiano, Italy, in 1452 [1]. Earlier sources indicate that Leonardo’s mother, Catarina, was the daughter of a farmer and there is not much known about her today, but more recent sources indicate that she was probably a slave from the Middle East [1, 2]. However, Leonardo’s father, Ser Piero da Vinci, never married her because she was from a poor family and not considered applicable for Ser Piero [1]. Ser Piero already married his first wife in the year Leonardo was born, and thereafter he was married four times in total [1, 2]. Rumor suggests that Leonardo lived the first five years of his life with Catarina, and thereafter with his father that accepted him into the family due to the fact that he and his first wife never had children [1]. However, he was never legitimated [1, 2]. The real christened name of Leonardo was actually “Lionardo” [1].

Leonardo lived most of his childhood in a small town known as Vinci in Italy [1, 2]. Leonardo was a very inquisitive child and liked to ask his tutors a lot of questions, but he was also a doubting Thomas [1, 3]. He started with his first apprenticeship at the age of fourteen underneath Verrocchio in Florence [1, 2]. That was in the year 1466 [1, 2]. Verrocchio himself was a very talented man and excelled as “sculptor, painter, goldsmith and bronze caster” [1]. Verrocchio recognized Leonardo’s exceptional talent [1, 2]. Some other well-known painters of Leonardo’s time are Perugino and Botticelli [1].

Leonardo especially excelled after he has mastered the art of painting with oils like the Dutch [1, 2]. In 1972 his name was taken up in the “Campagnia de Pittori, the famous red book of painters” [1]. Leonardo made his first well-known drawing in 1473 and it was a pen and ink drawing of a river valley [1, 2]. Thereafter the famous “Baptism of Christ” followed and rumor holds that Leonardo painted an angel that was in comparison with the other figures painted by Verrocchio and others so good that Verrocchio stopped painting thereafter [1, 2].

Leonardo’s also had lived through some very bad times in his life like when he was accused of being homosexual by an anonymous person claiming that he had a relationship with a model, Jacopo Saltarelli [1, 2].

Some of Leonardo’s other famous paintings are “The virgin and the child, the Madonna and her cat and the Last Supper” [1, 2]. Another painting known as the “Annunciation” consisting of landscape and flowers, are the centre point of controversy as some claim that Leonardo are the painter, but most scientific information indicates Lorenzo di Credi as the original painter [1, 2]. St Jermoe is another important painting of Leonardo, but sadly enough unfinished as may others of his paintings [1, 2]. Leonardo painted a large variety of paintings throughout his life time that are nowadays all considered as excellent works.

The most well-known painting of Leonardo is the Mona Lisa. Rumor holds it that it is a painting of Lisa di Antonio Maria di Noldo Gherardini, that was the third wife of Francesco di Bartolommeo di Zanobi del Giocondo [1, 2]. After finishing the painting Leonardo decided not to sell it but to keep it [1, 2]. However, he did sell it later to King Francis I in France [1]. Since then the painting did traveled widely and was even stolen once, but currently the painting has find a resting place in Paris in the Louvre [1]. Due to the fact that it is behind “Bullet-proof” glass it is assumed that it is going to be in Paris for still a very long time [1].

During his lifespan Leonardo traveled a lot and widely [2, 3]. He did kept accurate notes during all his travels writing in “mirror writing” which is assumed was easier, taking in account that he was left-handed [2, 3]. Leonardo died at the age of 67 years in 1519 [1].

Why a look at Leonardo da Vinci? In his book, “The Da Vinci Code” Dan Brown, a fiction writer makes the statement that Leonardo da Vinci was part of a fabricated culture “the Priory of Sion” that was very mysterious [2]. In part two and three I will inform you more about Dan Brown, the controversial book and currently showing movie “The da Vinci code”.

Reference

1. http://www.kausal.com/

2. Wikipedia contributors. Leonardo da Vinci [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 31, 13:15 UCT [cited 2006 May 31]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leonardo da Vinci&oldid= 56121735.

3. http://www.artchive.com/artchive/L/leonardo.html

Further interesting facts about Leonardo Da Vinci to be found at:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0530/p18s02-hfks.html

Leonardo Da Vinci, the classic biography from Kenneth Clark

Elizabeth van der Merwe
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag x17

My link: http://uk.360.yahoo.com/elizabethmerwe
Email: 2538521@uwc.ac.za

GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL!

2006-06-15T17:55:00.000+02:00

Still think global warming is a hoax please check this. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5076322.stm

PLAGIARISM PREVENTION, GRADING AND PEER-REVIEW: THE WAY FORWARD

2006-06-07T02:04:00.000+02:00

All Email originating from UWC is covered by disclaimer http://www.uwc.ac.za/portal/uwc2006/content/mail_disclaimer/index.htm

Hi Everyone

I am finalizing the contract with Turnitin so that future assignments for me (viz the NISL-EI2 courses) will require submitting to this electronic scanning service. This is not actually to scare you, rather to help you with your writing skills and get away from a dependency for lifting text from the Internet, printed text and even previous student assignments submitted (your assignments are entered into an electronic database that is used for future scanning). It works in the following way...

There will be a link on each course Blog page to Turnitin for submitting of the assignments.
You will be issued Turnitin accounts (usernames and logins) for the NISL-EI courses.
I will setup the assignment details for your submission.
In the beginning you will be required to create your student profile that will include your ClassID and Password, which I will provide you via email. You will then need to fill in your email address, provide your personal Turnitin password (a minimum of 6 letters and numbers but no special characters and at least one character must be a number), you will then be presented with a secrete password retrieval question and answer and finally to complete your profile you will provide your names (first and last name) and your Country.
The creation of your student profile is completed when you accept the user profile agreement form.
You will then get logged in and will navigate to the correct BCB course and assignment.
You will upload your assignment and you will see that it has been uploaded (you can check that it is the right document via the on screen system) and once confirmed you will get a digital receipt and a confirmation email message that the assignment was submitted and time stamped.
Late assignments will not be accepted via the electronic system.
If you are confused do not worry online training videos will be provided just prior to initiation of this process.

I have elected to go for an electronic marking as well, so your assignment will be analysed first for Plagiarism and if too high will be returned to you with a full report of where there is plagiarism and close paraphrasing. I do not know how strictly this system will apply the rules but certainly just changing a word or two in place will not fool the system and it is based on a very comprehensive database. I will then use my discretion as to whether you get zero marks or a chance to re-submit. Unfortunately the cost of the scanning service is rather expensive and we pay for both an annual subscription and a per document cost, so chances to re-submit will be restricted (each assignment will cost me about R10 to process). An electronic grading will be done and you will be sent back your marked-up scripts with the grade electronically. This system will work much better than the old way of emailing them to my gmail account which I can only access after hours. Finally some assignments will also be peer marked by yourselves using the Turnitin Peer Review system.

Hopefully this will level the playing field and be fair to everyone and was a decision not taken lightly. Until I know when our payments have been made and the Turnitin accounts been set up please hold back from submitting any assignments such as the Biodiversity due at the end of this week. The first assignment that you will be submitting will be your cumulative Biodiversity reports (all of your answers combined into one report to save scanning costs and processing time). Since you have had extensive feedback on these assignments previously it will give us the perfect opportunity to know precisely how the implementation of the system will work.

Can you please confirm that you have read and understood this posting by attaching a comment and your name. This is also an opportunity to air any issues that you have or to finally clear up any misunderstandings, I promise to respond to all of your concerns if expressed.

Good Luck

Rich

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

TOTAL DESTRUCTION 1939 - 1945...

2006-06-06T21:08:00.000+02:00

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa050300a.htm

The most influential scientists of the last century most certainly include those responsible for the invention of the atomic bomb through the Manhattan project between 1939 – 1945.

Robert Oppenheimer, David Bohm (appropriate name!) Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Otto Frisch, Rudolph Peierls, Felix Bloch, Niels Bohr, Emilio Serge, James Franck, Enrico Fermi, Klaus Fuchs, and Edward Teller, created a complete paradigm shift in the way the world perceived warfare and weaponry. The shear magnitude of potential force exhibited by nuclear weapons was enough to fuel the cold war, a war fought out of fear of total annihilation.

It all started back in World war two, in fact just prior to the war, when Germany had discovered nuclear fission in 1938, a major breakthrough which Nazi scientists knew could be used to create a weapon to service the desires of Adolf Hitler’s regime of world domination. Critical to the development of a nuclear weapon, two rare materials, heavy water and uranium, found only in Norway and Czechoslovakia, were in the possession of Nazi scientists after both countries fell under the regime’s control. Some historians argue that it was in fact this success which sparked Adolf Hitler’s confidence and arrogance. This discovery affectively placed the Germans two years ahead of the rest of the world in developing nuclear energy.

Interestingly, Hitler expelled some of the top nuclear physicists from Germany, who later became critical in the development of the first atomic bomb in America, which ultimately ended the war after the dropping of “Little boy” and “Fat man” on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. There was no place for Jewish nuclear physicists in Nazi-ruled Germany. If indeed Hitler had maintained these scientists, he may well have succeeded in world domination through the threat of nuclear annihilation.

In August 1939, Leo Slizard, the inventor of the nuclear fission reactor in 1955, Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller, persuaded Albert Einstein to sign a letter that was drafted for President Roosevelt. The letter from Einstein led to the creation of the Manhattan Engineering District, known also as “the Manhattan Project.” The Manhattan Project was a programme designed to produce the first nuclear weapon before Nazi Germany. President Roosevelt authorised the project a day before the bombing of Pearl harbour.

During the period from 1939 – 1945, over $2 billion was spent on the development of the first atomic bomb, code named “The Gadget” through the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos in New Mexico. On 16 July 1945 at 05:29:45, “The Gadget” was detonated, even as some of its inventors feared that it might set fire to the Earth’s atmosphere. The explosion produced an intensely bright white light that gradually became an orange colour as the massive fireball shot skywards at 360ft per second. A characteristic mushroom cloud of radioactive vapour became visible at 30 000ft, and at the ground at the site of the explosion, the soil had turned into radioactive glass from the heat of the reaction.

After the witnessing of the explosion of “The Gadget,” the scientists signed petitions against using the bomb in warfare, though, only a few weeks later, on 6 August 1945, “Little boy” was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, and, on 9 August, “Fat man” was dropped on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered the following day.

Nuclear weapons are a sick reminder of our destructive capabilities, with the potential to eliminate life as we know it in an instant. In the wrong hands entire cities can be eliminated. What’s more is the thought that the power to unleash such devastation is held by only a few powerful people around the world, people who were created imperfect and who should never be given the opportunity to play God…

David Vaughan

Senior aquarist, Quarantine

Two Oceans Aquarium

Cape Town, South Africa

dvaughan@aquarium.co.za

davidvaughan.b-logging.com

DARWIN vs WALLACE: ANOTHER CONSPIRACY THEORY?

2006-06-01T18:11:00.000+02:00

Charles Darwin was 22 years old when he had signed on for a voyage on the Beagle. He had developed a keen interest in natural history, but it is said that be probably went on that voyage out of boredom or indecision. He had studied medicine and theology and was part of the establishment, coming from a wealthy family. His interest in biology started with collecting beetles. During his 5 year journey on the Beagle he concerned himself not only with biology, but also geology. He had developed his idea of evolution soon after he came back, but for more than 20 years he just tried to gather information to prove his theory, but he had not dared to publish it.

Alfred Russell Wallace came from a much poorer background. He had to leave school at the age of fourteen, due to financial constraints of his family. From there on he educated himself, partly through an apprenticeship in the surveying business, but mostly through reading books in public libraries. He became fascinated with biology and natural history. He had read amongst many Darwin's Journal and a book called Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. In 1848 at the age of 25 he left on his first voyage, with one thing on his mind... to find the origin of species!

Through his travels exploring the world, funding himself by collecting beetles and other animal specimens for the collectors trade, Wallace came to almost the same conclusion as Darwin. He was a great admirer of Darwin and he had sent him a paper he indented to publish on natural selection. It is here where the conspiracy theory comes in. (Several books have been written on this "conspiracy theory", claiming that Darwin stole some of Wallace's ideas, like specie divergence, but I am not going to go into that detail.) What exactly happened after that, we will probably never know, but the result was that Darwin and Wallace jointly published and Darwin ended up getting all the credit.

So, why am I a Wallace fan? Probably because I am biased and I would rather support the underdog. Taking his background into account, the way he educated himself and fought his way up (unlike Darwin, who had a University education and knew the right people) I like to think that Wallace was the better scientist of the two (although he did do some weird stuff later in life!).

(Some Conspiracy Theory books: Just Before the Origin by John Langdon Brooks, Wallace and Natural Selection by H. Lewis McKinney, an article titled "Wallace, Darwin, and the Theory of Natural Selection" by Barbara G. Beddall published in the Journal of the History of Biology.) I cannot recommend one as I haven't read them.

Karen Marais
BCB Hons NISL student
University of the Western Cape
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CROP CIRCLES ARE NOT MAN MADE.

2006-05-29T08:25:00.001+02:00

Crop circles are the most interesting attracting patterns found in some parts of the world, as far as we know they are only found in the Northern Hemisphere. They are not only in the forms of circles but they are also in the form of geometric patterns. It seems as it is not easy to explain the crop circles [1].

Most of the crop circles have been found in England, the Netherlands, the United States, and Australia. These mysteries of phenomenon can be found in fields, in the top of the tree, in snow and ice, and they are also found in corn fields, wheat, oat, rape and barley. The formation of the crop circles does not occur at anytime. The crop circles are created late at night between 23h00 and 04h00 [1].

The size of the crop circles found in Australia in 2004 is about “four degrees east of magnetic north, an 8 metre circle to the south of a 3.8-4 metre circle” [2].

The crop circles appeared flattened, burnt with some form of heat and light source, there were also changes in nodes of the stems and the colour of seeds were also different from the original colour [1]. The shapes of the crop circles are likening to creation, sacred geometry, etc, [1]. There are different believes concerning the crop circles, some believes that they are naturals; some believes that they are the results of the devils while other believe that they are hoax, some of the people believed that crop circles were formed by the wind and some believe that they are created by the UFOs, others say they are created by a “brief, intense bursts of microwave radiation from the outer space” [3].

The sampling methods were used to identify the type of crop in a particular location. The barley type of crop was discovered in 1996 August 15 after occurring in 01 – 02 August 1996 in Logan, Utah by Todd Ryan and Lisa Layton. They sampled plants and soil from the field of the circle [4].

In conclusion, the crop circles are not man made, they occurred naturally. If really they were hoax, why are they not found in China and South Africa? I believe they were naturally created. Hoax believers should ask themselves why this crop circles are not found everywhere. Who can spend six hours creating the crop circle? They might spend more than six hours. I totally agree that the crop circles are not man made.

References:

[1]. Anon. Crop circles in Australia. UD [Internet]. Updated April 2006. Available from: http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/inter2006/Australia/Australia2006.html.

[2]. Anon. [Earth]: Crop circles. UD [Internet]. Available from: http://www.mufor.org/crops.htm.

[3]. Anon. crop circles theories. UD [Internet]. Available from: http://www.crystalinks.com/croptheories.html.

[4]. Nancy Talbott. 1996. Crop formation. [Internet]. Available from: http://www.bltresearch.com/print/plogan.html.

Ms Evelyn Maleka
CILLA CSIR
P.O. Box 395
Pretoria,
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Tel: (012) 841 2133
Fax: 012 842 7024.
Email: emaleka@csir.co.za
http://malekaevelyn.blogspot.com/

THE AMAZING STORY OF THE CROP CIRCLES

2006-05-29T08:16:00.000+02:00

Crop circles are very nice, beautiful, flattened and complex geometric patterns. The geometric patterns include the proofs of Pythagoras theorems which are related to musical notes. They are found in different types of crops such as Corn, Wheat, Oats, Barley and Grass. Crop circles are not only found in crops, but also in Maize. In the 17 century, the fossil record of woodcuts which appear to be the crop circles has been observed. The first woodcut appears in the Hertfordshire newspaper in England. Today there is variety of thousands of the crop circles of different shapes around the globe. Different theories and beliefs on whether the crop circles occur naturally or are man-made also prevail.

There are beautiful and the most attractive crop circles in different parts of the globe. They are found in the USA, Russia, England, Israel and Canada. Even though they are found in different parts of the world, England seems to be the dominant country of where many of the crop circles are found. Shamefully, there is no single report indicating the locations of crop circles in the continent of Africa. Lack of availability of the crop circles in the continent of Africa can be attributed to the poor reporting from the media or lack of knowledge about the crop circles.

There are different types of these magnificent crop circles. They are ranging from simple, to doubles, triples and multiples crop circles. The names of these crop circles include Mandelbrot set, Stonehenge Julia Set and the Triple Julia Set. In my opinion, the most beautiful crop circles which hooked my heart from the Video viewed is the Triple Julia Set because of its shape and golden colour. The shape and its beautiful golden colour of the Triple Julia Set is amazing, because it also consists of 35 circles, imagine not just circles, but golden circles which hooked the eyes of the observer.

Like in the Video reviewed, Jazz Rassol an Astrophysicist, Paul Vigay and Michael Glickman share different views when coming to the crop circles. Rasool provides his insights about the crop circles; he tries by all means to link crop circles with human mind and quantum gravity. He further says that the beautifulness of the geometry of the crop circle is indicated with various colourful computer generated images and animations. While on the other side, Paul Vigay says that crop circles are found all around the globe in places like USA, UK, Russia and Israel. He further says that crop circles are found in the crops such as Corns, Oats, Grass and Wheat.

The unfortunate part of the crop circles is that the evidence which indicate clearly how the crop circles are formed remains sketchy. The unavailability of how the crop circles are formed can be attributed to many of the different theories and beliefs. Other people believe that there is energy of field present in the crop formations that affect photographic equipment and other equipment. Visitors who visit the crop circles reported a wide range of physiological, psychological or emotional effects. While in the Agricultural sector, farmers believe that crop circles tend to interact at an unconscious level, the type of experience is governed largely by the state of mind of the individuals.

References:

Wikipedia contributors. Crop circles [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopaedia; 2006 May 26, 00: 36 UTC [cited 2006 May 26]. Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circles
Wikipedia contributors. Geometry [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopaedia;
2006 May 23, 15: 46 UTC [cited 2006 May 26]. Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometry
Wikipedia contributors. Agriculture [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopaedia;
2006 May 25, 00: 41 UTC [cited 2006 May 26]. Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture
Wikipedia contributors. History of crop circles [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopaedia; 2006 May 26, 00: 36 UTC [cited 2006 May 26]. Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circles#History_of_crop_circles

Peter Muvhali
CSIR PTA
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Tell no 0128142133
Fax 0128423676
Email smuvhali@csir.co.za
URL: http://www.blogsoccer-peter.blogspot.com

Peter Muvhali
CSIR PTA
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Tell no 012 8142133
Fax 012 8423676
E-mail smuvhali@csir.co.za
URL: http://www.blogsoccer-peter.bogspot.com

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Crop circle

2006-05-26T17:07:00.000+02:00

Crop circle are flattened and geometrically. There are different shapes of crop circles; these include squares, circular, rectangular, rings and cubes. Crop circles are very unique and complex pattern. Some were observed from the video. Crop circles happened on wheat, corn, rice, barley, oats and grass. Crop circles occurred naturally however, some crop circles are artificial. Crop circle occurred in different places in the world. Many of the crop circle occurred in 11pm and 4am.

Some scientists said that the crop formation show that the world is going to change. In contrary, some scientists said that crop circle happened when Satan has visited the farmer’s yard and trampled down within crop circle.

Scientists used different way to understand the crop circles. Some scientists tested the soil and silicon crystals inside the circle as well as the soil outside the circle. The findings indicated that the soil inside circle was radioactive. The soil outside the circle was not radio active. The circles were flattened. Some scientists said that inside the circle there is more magnetic ion compound than outside.

Crop circle have occurred in countries such as Japan, United States of America, Israel, England, India and Britain. In place such as Germany and France crop circle occurred in April and August. In Japan crop circles had appear on rice field. The shape of the crop circles were pictogram.

The laboratory finding which has been found in USA was based on oats stem. The stem which was found inside the circle and outside was different. The crop inside the received more heat.

The crop circle which has been found in New York had the triangular formation. The scientists used wheat. The findings indicated that the seeds inside the formation were tiny and they were not growing very fast. The crops near the circle formation were also were similar like crops inside.

Crop circles are really unique. It is difficult to understand the formation. Crop circle do occur naturally. However, some crop circles are made by human. Crop circle also have sizes which indicate that they used certain measurement.

Reference

Turrusse M. Crop circle. [Internet] Elohim Crop circle; 2006 May 26, [Cited 2006 May 26 3:04 UTC]
Available from: http://www.chez.com/cropcircles/keys.htm

Masiya Kedibone
CSIR Pretoria
0001
Cell No : 073 2519071
Tel No: 012 8412123
Fax : 012 842 3676
E-mail: kmasiya@csir.co.za
Web log: kmasiya@csir.co.za

CROP CIRCLES OR FAIRY CIRCLES

2006-05-26T16:54:00.000+02:00

What are these crop circles some says that they are patterns that no one can explain and others says that they are similar crops that some of the crops are flattened to form different types of shapes.

Some people think that crop circles are natural and others thinks that are manmade. Some people think that it is a “foot print of intelligence” [1]. Those who have seen crop circle been made said that it takes just few minutes to make a crop circle. For an example Doug Bower and Dave Chorley said that they know how to make these circles and they have been making crop circles in England since 1978 [2]. They said they were using planks, ropes, wires and hats to make the circles.

So who or what really made these crop circles is it the witches/wizards or lightning or aliens or just super natural powers or man. I think nobody really knows the answer to this question because each and everyone want to prove that his/her point to be right. Those who are saying that they are witches or wizards’ making this circles they said that the witches/wizards made the circles while they are dancing and they dance in rings or circles. As for the different circles they says that witches/wizard do not serve the same master so it depends on which master they are serving and they call crop circles as “fairy circles”. Some people say that is a way that aliens communicate with people so what people has to do is just to figure out what the circle means. As for the lightning they say that the lightning has burst from the clouds in a circular way then when it reaches the ground it makes crop circles [3].

Why are this crop circle happening is it just to decorate the field or is there any other reason. Those who are making these circles they are just making them for fun just like Doug and Dave were making these circles just to make people think that aliens’ spacecraft had landed there just because they have read about crop circles from a book [4]. But those who believe that crop circles are made by aliens said that on the night this crop circle appeared they saw unusual light and they also heard some weird sounds and some says that they smelt a “smoky foul smell” in the early mornings [5]. As for those who believe that crop circles are natural thinks that everything can be explained by the “Plasma vortex theory” where air from the top of a hill whirls up and produce electrically charged particles which flattens the crops [6].

In the soil of some crop circles especially were the crops were bent there were small particles of magnetic iron which were found inside the circles were more than those found outside the circle? The soil inside the circle differs from the soil outside in such a way that the soil which is found inside the circle is more fertile than the one which is outside. The nodes on the stalks of plants which are inside the circle are different from those outside so if it was man-made how do they change the nodes of plants? Why the do not make mistake because all the crop circles that are available are all perfect. Where do they get time to make this circle? What is keeping the shape of the circles? Why are these crop circles only found in certain plants such as wheat, corns or oat but not in spinach field or pumpkin field? Why do they occur only during the night between 11 pm to 4 in the morning [7]?

The way the crop circles are made the are so beautiful so some of them I can believe that they are made by man but some I do not believe; they way the are so complicated I do not think they can make them. From this website [8] explains how artificial crop circles were made so my question is how did the change the nodes on the plants or is just another technique used to become rich and famous? So I personally I think some of the crop circles occur naturally and some are man-made.

References:

1. Quest for the truth. [Video] available from: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=974931714241227503&q=crop+circles
2. Wikipedia contributors. Crop circles [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopaedia; 2006 May 18, 03:27 UTC [Cited 2006 May 19]. Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crop_circle&oldid=51207130
3. Plot, R. The natural History of Stafford-Shire. [Internet]Updated 2006 May8, 2:31 am [Cited 2006 May 23]. Available from: plotshistorystaffordshireabbrev.pdf
4. Anon. Crop circles [Internet]. Updated 2006 May 26, [Cited 2006 May 26]. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/life/aliens/cropcircles/human.shtml
5. Anon. Are crop circles made by Aliens? [Internet]. Updated 2006 May 26, [Cited 2006 May 26]. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/life/aliens/cropcircles/alien.shtml
6. Anon. Are crop circles a Natural phenomenon? [Internet]. Updated 2006 May 26, [Cited 2006 May 26]. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/life/aliens/cropcircles/vortex.shtml
7. Anon. Crop circle theories [Internet]. Updated Anon [Cited 2006 May 19]. Available from: http://www.crystalinks.com/croptheories.html
8. Krystek, L.Crop circles from outer space? [Internet]. Updated 2000, [Cited 2006 May 26]. Available from: http://www.unmuseum.org/cropcir.htm

Lethabo Mosomane
CSIR
Pretoria
0001
Tel: 27 12 841 2133
Fax: 27 12 842 3676
Mail: http://www.blogger.com/lmosomane@csir.co.za
http://lmosomane.blogspot.com/

One can ask a question like, what is a crop circles?. It is easy to understand what crop circles are

2006-05-26T16:39:00.000+02:00

One can ask a question like, what is a crop circles?. It is easy to understand what crop circles are. According to the knowledge I have, after reading different materials and viewing videos. Crop circles are defined as a place of similar crops that have systematically geometric patterns. It is not easy to explain the pattern of crop circles that are found in fields. Some scientists said that, crop circles are just circles that are found in crops. Some of them said that, a circle is a symbol of humanity on earth. They also said that, it is a symbol of God and Heaven in different things. Crop circles are mostly found in wheat, corn, seeds, maize, oats and in barley. Sometimes Crop circles may occur in snow and even in long grass. Some say the crop circles are man made while others are artificial. Some of the Scientists said that, most of the crop circles are created at night and early in the morning between 11pm to 4 am.

There are different shapes of crop circles; some are like a ring, flattened, rectangular, geometric, triangle, and circular shapes.. In place where there is crop circles plants are bent above the soil and it laid down like a geometrically patterns. If we look on this grass, it is invisible to see the physical sign indicating the damage between those plants. But there is some heat in those plants because of light burn that occurs in the base of stems. Depletion of local watershed occurs but you can not see it physically. This will cause the crops (maize) to change the colours. Although crop circles does not happened to trees.

According to the laboratory results found in the United Kingdom. The research is based on barley of crop circles. They focus on barley (Samples of seeds heads). This was done on 07 November 1992. The shape of these crop circles is circular in shape and it was fourth circles. The people who study this crop circles said that, there is different between the seeds from the circles and the seeds that are outside the circles and they grow differently. The different is that, seeds that are found outside the circles are well-developed while in the inside of the circles have no seeds.

Another laboratory report which is also found in United Kingdom. Were focused on seeds. The information indicates that, there are 21m circles that are formed during the night of April 24-25 1992 and they are collected on 01 May 1992. The shape of these crop circles is circular in shape. They provide information that, the cells at outer circles were the same as compared to those in the circles. This is when they focus on the stem of the plants

Soil samples taken within the crop circles have been studied and the results show that, they contain Radioactive which is not occur in the outside the circles. During watching the videos, the type of crop circles that attract my heart was Triple Julia set because it has beautiful shape and it consists of 35 circles.

Reference

1. Wikipedia Contributors. Plagiarisms [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopaedia, 2006 May 26 00:36 Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circles

Linette Netshiheni
CSIR Pretoria
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Cell: 0820446442
Tell: 012 841 2133
Fax: 012 842 3676
tnetshiheni@csir.co.za
Weblog: http://tnetshiheni-linette.blogspot.com/

CROP CIRCLES

2006-05-26T16:36:00.000+02:00

Crop circles are the strange patterns that occur in plants such as wheat, corns, grass, oats and barley. These crop circles are very beautiful. They do not occur every where and at any time, but there are specific countries such as USA, Israel, Russia and UK. Some scientists believe that these circles are man made and while others believe that crops circles do occur naturally. They further say that most of these crop circles occur between 11 pm and 4 am. There are different types of crop circles.

Crop circles are found only in the Northern Hemisphere which is surprising. Some of the countries in which crop circles are found include USA, Israel, Russia and UK. In the Southern Hemisphere we do not hear any reports about the availability of the crop circles. Lack of information about the crop circles in the Southern Hemisphere can be attributed to misunderstanding of what the crop circles are.

Each crop circles have its unique shape. Some are triangle, squares, circles, rings and hexagons etc and it is believed that each circle shape has its meaning. The triangular crop circles are found in USA. The evidence or the samples that are taken inside the circle and outside the circle were not the some. The colours of the crops that are found inside the circles are brown in colour while the crops that are outside the circle are green in colour. The information of the different colours inside and outside of the crop circles has been found by studying the soil samples in the laboratory.

There is still no valid information which confirms how the crop circles are made. Some scientists believe that the energy which is present in the formation of the crop circles is affected by the equipments which are used to take photos and other instruments. On the other side people who do visit the crop circles have also reported a wide range of psychological, physiological and emotional effects. While agriculturalists believe that the pesticides are the once responsible in the negative effects in the crop circles.

From the Video viewed, crops found inside the crop circles were found flattened as opposed to the crops found outside the crop circles which were standing firm. The bending of the crops which were inside the crop circles is attributed to the natural causes. In my opinion crop circles are not hoax but real phenomenon.

In conclusion, there are different types of crop circles which are also found in different parts of the world such as USA, Russia, England and Israel. The crop circles also differ in their shapes such circular, ring, triangular, squares and hexagons. The controversy surrounding whether the crop circles are man made or occur naturally remain sketchy. This is because the disagreement among the scientists is still continuing even today.

References:
1. Anon. Crop Circle Theories [Internet]. Crystalinks. [cited 2006 May 5] Available from: http://www.crystalinks.com/crop theories.

2. Herby, T. 2000. Crop circles. [Internet]. 2000 January 01. [cited 26 May 2006]. Available from:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/6583/crop.html

3. Wikipedia contributors. Crop circles [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopaedia; 2006 May 26, 00: 36 UTC [cited 2006 May 26]. Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circles

4. Wikipedia contributors. Geometry [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopaedia;
2006 May 23, 15: 46 UTC [cited 2006 May 26]. Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometry

Lizzy Maluleke
CSIR PTA
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Cell number 072 351 8488
Tell [012] 841 2133
Fax [012] 842 3676
E-mail mmaluleke@csir.co.za
Weblog: http://mmaluleke.blogspot.com

CROP CIRCLE

2006-05-26T16:35:00.000+02:00

Crop circle, this phenomenon brings the picture of THE MOVIE SIGNS, featured Mel Gibson. The real researchers of crop circle disagreed with THE MOVIE SIGNS, but it renewed interest in this theory to other people. Even today crop circle theory is still difficult for one to understand whether is a natural made or mankind made and for sure is normal for different people to see things in different way.

Crop circle mostly occur in UK, USA (corn; Barley; Oats and Wheat), Israel (on the grass) and many other countries. Most of the time this patterns are been made during the night. There are some few people who claimed that the saw crop circle being formed during the night in England and others claimed that they shoot crop circle being formed on camera. People who are responsible for crop circle fraud have found that plants can be harmed in man made crop circle. Theory of wind vortex also first suggested that it maybe the cause, but the two crop circle that were equal in size around 1980 suggested that the theory was wrong.

These phenomenon depend on believe that one has, since crop circle shows different shapes that are symbols for different cultures “some religious groups feel that the crops circles have a religious meaning” (1) and others believe that is the way aliens communicating with us.

They are many theories behind crop circle, the theory of wind vortex, a plasma vortex and a crop formation. Theory of wind vortex is not reliable, since it is impossible for a wind vortex (“causes the plants to flatten in a circular pattern”) to create equal sizes on the crop circle. The plasma vortex theory is still not reliable too or easy to understand it or to believe it, since is highly impossible for a “force field to push the crop down in a swirling manner” resulting the crop circle to be in the same sizes (1).

Indeed one can agree with grass formation theory that have been tested in Israel (Pinelandia & Bayville Labs), four samples where taken: first sample “one of the sub-apical nodes contained an expulsion cavity typical of those found only within crop formation in other countries”; sample two no growth lines were found “as would have expected if silicon crystals were thermochemically grown as a pure form”; sample three show that “coating of red granular material on the stems and leaves of plants, termed red hay by collector” and lastly soil sample shows that “thermal studies indicates that the soil melting temperature was in the range of 50 degrees celcius”, meaning it contain a very low melting point hydrocarbon.(2), therefore in conclusion: the grass formation samples shows that the crop circles are not a man made thing.

Reference:

1) Thomas. A., A complete Guide to the Crop Circle Mystery and why it is Not a Hoax. East Sussex: S.B. Publications, 1998. [Internet] Online access: 2006 May 26; 10:53 [cited 2006 May 26]. Available from:
http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/poltergeist/913/crop.html
2) Lenvengood W.C; Burke J.A, Crop formations & Association Materials, Israel, 1995, Report no. 53. Page 1-2.[Internet] access Online:2006 May 25; 16:40 [cited 06 May 26]: http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Scientific_methods/Circles/ResearchReport53-2Mar1996-QadimaISR.pdf
Ramapulana Nkoana
CSIR Pretoria
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Tell:+27 12 841 2133
Fax:+27 12 841 4405

Email: pnkoana@csir.co.za

My blogger URL: http://pnkoana.blogspot.com/

CROP CIRCLE ANOTHER HOAXES OR WHAT?

2006-05-26T16:34:00.000+02:00

Crop circle are geometric design that occur in the field of crops or plant but it was mostly found occurring in the plant or crop that have herbaceous stem. They form different shape but most of it develop from circle and stretch to other formation. It was suggested by most of the ancient scientist that the crop circle are natural design. It was suggested that God or evil, use the design to spread some information to the people. But other believe that aliens or natural cause try to communicate with us in the form of crop circle.1

Most of the crop circle happens in the ancient country in north hemisphere, and they occur in the farmland not in the natural forest. They mostly happen during the crop season, so this made other people not to believe that it happen natural, why not happen in the forest or not in the herbaceous plant. These are the questions that are raised by people who do not believe the crop circle as hoax.2

It happen mostly in small herbaceous plant or crop, they lay flattened on the ground and the stem of the crop just bent down not broken, they grow flat following the circle. Or the shape of the crop design. They can be 40ft in diameter with 5 ft diameter of standing plant in the centre.

Shapes of the crop circle are not the same they are known as geometrical, because they produce different shape. These shapes tend to have effect on the crops, the leaf of the crop result in changing colours that shows that they are burnt by micro wave radiation or they are not receiving sunlight properly .the leaf tend to be yellow like they are drying up.

Other scientist do some test to prove if the crop circle is man made or what, laboratory test confirm that the leaves are burnt by micro wave that made them shriveled. The plants that are in control do not show any effect. So this ripple indicates that during formation of circle there was a transient energy involving.

But one can suggest that all this is part of hoax, the crop circle are design by human. Scientist such as David Bower and his friend Dave Chorley confirm that they used to design the crop circle; using plank and string with razor to cut a small puncture that will allow the crop to bend easily.1

The origin of this crop circle can make one not to believe that it is a natural thing, because it only happens in the ancient county why not in the other parts of the continent like Africa. Why only happen in the herbaceous plant only. And it mostly designs unique shape that can mostly design by man.

In conclusion I can suggest that the crop circles are man-made features, they designs it spread information that can be used for psychological purpose. For those who believe on the diagrams. The crop circles are mainly found in north hemisphere, in Egypt. People there believe that the crop circle drawings are useful to relax ones mind .they also believe that it bring ones close to the nature or planet earth. It shows love and caring, but this for me depend on the belief that on have, as scientist we take what we analyse and find it suitable for our consciousness 3

Reference:

1. Lundberg J. Case history of circle makers, [internet] [cited 2006 May 26]Available from http://www.circlemakers.org/case_history.html

2. Crop circle 1999 [Internet] [cited 2006 May 26] Available from http://www.invisiblecircle.org/uk/schindler/textkk.html

3. Crop circle research [Internet] [cited 2006 May 26] Available from: http://www.cropcircleresearch.com/articles/shapes.html

Mr Elelwani Muanalo
CSIR Pretoria
NISL- Ecological Informatics Student
P.O. Box 395
Pretoria, 0001
Tel: +27 12 841 2133
Fax: +27 12 842 7024.
Email: emuanalo@csir.co.za
My bloger URL: http://muanalo.blogspot.com

CROP CIRCLES OR HOAX?

2006-05-26T16:28:00.000+02:00

Although no clear definition of crop circle is currently known, it is believed that they are supernatural things which are very difficult to explain their real causes. Different shape forms of these crop circles are the most interesting thing about these phenomenons. Some have round shape, rectangular shape and star shape.

However the scientists are trying to find out the real cause of this phenomenon. On the other hand, there are hoax believers who believe that these circles are human made. Crop circles have been reported in different countries around the world and this phenomenon appeared in mediums such as barley, wheat and rice paddies.

For example, a crop formation at Chehalis, Washington, USA sampled by Ilyes, the shape of this crop circle was an equilateral triangle. The results of this analysis indicated that electromagnetic energy is an influencing factor in crop formation. The result shows that plants stems were altered by energy mechanism.
ResearchReport24-28Sep1994-DelineationOfElectromagneticEnergy.pdf

Interestingly, I have a lot of questions regarding crop circles formation. First is the issue of time in which they occurred. It is said that they occurs between 11pm and 4am. Second is the fact that they are only found in developed countries and non in developing countries. Surprisingly they are found in the northern hemisphere and why non in the southern hemisphere. The third is the different shape forms they have. I therefore believe that these are man made phenomenon, there are people who are behind this crop circles. The time in which they occurred is an indication that these people work in dark so that they cannot be seen. The fact that these crop circles are found in developed countries is still questionable. I believe this as another hoax as far as many hoaxes are still not yet recovered.

Looking at their different shapes, I believe that there are circle makers who specialise in designing these crop circles.

“Various scientific and pseudo-scientific explanations were put forward to explain the phenomenon, which soon spread around the world. In 1991, more than a decade after the phenomena began, two men, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, revealed that they had been making crop circles in England since 1978 using planks, rope, hats and wire as their only tools. Many other people around the world are also openly making crop circles, notably Circlemakers.org. Although the commonly accepted view today is that crop circles are a man-made phenomenon, paranormal explanations, often including UFOs, are still popular” (2).

I therefore conclude that crop circles are human made but not natural phenomenon as it is said by others.

Reference:
1. pineland and Am-tech Labs. Delineation of Electromagnetic Energy Influencing Crop Formations [Internet]. 1994 September 28 [Cited 2006 May 26]. Available from:
ResearchReport24-28Sep1994-DelineationOfElectromagneticEnergy.pdf

2. Wikipedia contributors. Crop circle [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 26, 00:36 UTC [cited 2006 May 26]. Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crop_circle&oldid=55168703.

Mr Lufuno Mukwevho
CSIR Pretoria
P.O. Box 395
Pretoria
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Tel: (012) 841 2133
Fax: 012 842 7024
Cell: 0723175626
E-mail: lmukwevho@csir.co.za
My blog URL: http://mukwevholufuno.blogspot.com

CROP CIRCLES ARE NOT MAN MADE.

2006-05-26T16:23:00.000+02:00

Most of the crop circles have been found in England, the Netherlands, the United States, and Australia. These mysteries of phenomenon can be found in fields, in the top of the tree, in snow and ice, and they are also found in corn fields, wheat, oat, rape and barley. The formation of the crop circles does not occur at anytime. The crop circles are created late at night between 23h00 and 04h00 [1].

The size of the crop circles found in Australia in 2004 is about four degrees east of magnetic north, an 8 metre circle to the south of a 3.8-4 metre circle [3].

The crop circles appeared flattened, burnt with some form of heat and light source, there were also changes in nodes of the stems and the colour of seeds were also different from the original colour [1].

The shapes of the crop circles are likening to creation, sacred geometry, etc, [1]. There are different believes concerning the crop circles, some believes that they are naturals; some believes that they are the results of the devils while other believe that they are hoax, some of the people believed that crop circles were formed by the wind and some believe that they are created by the UFOs, others say they are created by a brief, intense bursts of microwave radiation from the outer space [4].

The sampling methods were used to identify the type of crop in a particular location. The barley type of crop was discovered in 1996 August 15 after occurring in 01 02 August 1996 in Logan, Utah by Todd Ryan and Lisa Layton. They sampled plants and soil from the field of the circle [2].

In conclusion, the crop circles are not man made, they occurred naturally. If really they were hoax, why are they not found in China and South Africa? I believe they were naturally created. Hoax believers should ask themselves why this crop circles are not found everywhere. Who can spend six hours creating the crop circle? They might spend more than six hours. I totally agree that the crop circles are not man made.

[1]. Crop Circles in Australia http://www.crystalinks.com/croptheories.html.

[2]. http://www.bltresearch.com/print/plogan.html

[3]. http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/inter2006/Australia/Australia2006.html

[4]. http://www.mufor.org/crops.htm

======================================
Ms Evelyn Maleka
CILLA CSIR
P.O. Box 395
Pretoria, 0001
Tel: (012) 841 2133
Fax: 012 842 7024.
Email: emaleka@csir.co.za
http://malekaevelyn.blogspot.com/

PLAGIARISM DECLARATION

2006-05-25T14:41:00.000+02:00

Hi Folks

At a recent BCB departmental meeting (May 2006) it was agreed that all students will need to sign an undertaking that their assignments have not been plagiarised and are correctly referenced. At an earlier meeting in 2006 the department agreed to using the CSE/CBE style for all referencing in student assignments. It was also recommended that all electronic courses also carry such a declaration. To this end you will note that a plagiarism declaration has been added to the right hand side of the Weblog ensuring compliance and understanding of the issues of plagiarism and correct citation, quotation and referencing.

It is important that you understand these issues and to this end Gwen and Nick have put a lot of effort in helping your identify and not to commit plagiarism while undertaking the Biodiversity course. I trust that this message is now fairly comprehensively understood, nevertheless you may submit certain assignments to Nick who has agreed to check them as per the revised schedule put up by Gwen in an earlier posting on the Biodiversity Blog (See http://bcb705.blogspot.com/2006/05/correction-editing-times.html )

How to avoid plagiarism?

Make your own notes when revising material and keep a record of all the references you have consulted.
Organise your notes into a mind map of the assignment.
Use your notes and mind map to prepared the final assignment.
Get a classmate to look through your assignment before submitting, for both plagiarism and proper referencing.
For submitting on the Weblog and when preparing Power Point presentations, I would recommend using a number in brackets after the text. The number should be hyperlinked to the article if it is available electronically available. The numbers must be organized in ascending order and placed within square brackets [1].
Do a few checks of phrases of five words or more using a Google Search
Finally quickly read through your more important references to check that you subconsciously have not slipped in a near verbatim phrase.

Some important references to Plagiarism on the NISL Weblogs that you have participated in

PLAGIARISM: OFFICIAL RULING AND DEFINITION - SENATE UWC

http://bcb703.blogspot.com/2006/04/plagiarism-official-ruling-and.html

DEFINING PLAGIARISM

http://bcb703.blogspot.com/2006/03/defining-plagiarism.html

STANDARDISED PENALTIES FOR THE SCIENCE FACULTY

http://bcb703.blogspot.com/2006/03/standardised-penalties-for-science.html

THE HUNT IS ON FOR PLAGIARISM

http://bcb705.blogspot.com/2006/05/hunt-is-on-for-plagiarism.html

BIODIVERSITY TAUGHT THROUGH THE WEBLOG

http://bcb705.blogspot.com/2006/04/biodiversity-taught-through-weblog.html

EXTENSIONS, TESTS AND PLAGIARISM

http://bcb705.blogspot.com/2006/05/extensions-tests-and-plagiarism.html

Plagiarism and Referencing: Hopefully the last word

http://bcb705.blogspot.com/2006/05/plagiarism-and-referencing-hopefully.html

Cheers

Rich, Gwen and Nick

Team: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

FROG PET A HOST!

2006-05-24T21:39:00.000+02:00

We go to great pains to get pets from wherever not caring the costs. But think before you import frogs. They could be carriers of a parasite called Chytrid fungus resposible for the death of amphibians in many parts of the world. For more read
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5008940.stm

VINCENT MUCHAI WAIRIMU

Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

University of the Western Cape

Private Bag X17 Bellville

TEL: +27825103190

Email: 2648463@uwc.ac.za

Website:http://www.muchai.iblog.co.za

CROP CIRCLE ASSIGNMENT - PRETORIA LEARNERS

2006-05-23T19:07:00.000+02:00

Hi Everyone

A point of clarification on the crop circles - the intention is not to
read all twenty five pdfs - but rather select one or two read them
thoroughly and discuss them among yourselves and then prepare a posting
for the blog which reflects your own view points. So please do not
spend huge amounts of time on this task - rather concentrate your
efforts on getting your biodiversity assignments in by this Friday. If
you find other peer-reviewed material on crop circles and cite them
correctly you will get bonus marks.
Good Luck

Rich

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological
Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

MOST SIGNIFICENT SCIENTISTS

2006-05-23T12:18:00.000+02:00

Yes I did say “scientist(s)”, because I think the discovery that impacted and changed the world currently the most is the invention of the silicon chip. Two scientists that played a major role thereof are Jack St Clair Kilby and Robert Norton Noyce. Both this scientist invented independently and nearly simultaneously the Integrated Circuit (IC) (1).

Kilby was born in 1923 in Jefferson City, Missouri. He received a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1947 from the University of Illinois (1, 6). In 1950 he received a M.Sc. degree from the University of Wisconsin (1, 6).

Noyce was born in 1927 in Burlington, Iowa. In 1949 he graduated from the Grinnell College (1, 4, 5). In 1953 he received a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Physics (1, 4, 5).

Kilby worked at the Centralab Division of Globe Union Inc. in Milwaukee from 1947 to 1958 (1). He’s main job description was during this time span the design of ceramic-base silk screen circuit boards. In 1958 he moved on and became part of the work force of Texas instruments in Dallas (1, 3, 6).

Noyce became a research engineer for Philco Corporation from 1953 to 1956 (1, 4). In 1956 he began to work at the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Mountain View, California (1, 4, 5). In 1957 he and some others formed the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation (1, 3, 4, 5). Noyce and Gordon Moore were the co-founders of a company INTEL (4). Noyce was nicknamed “the Mayor of Silicon Valley” due to the important work he did (4, 5).

The problem both of them faced was known as the “Tyranny of Numbers” (1, 6). This was “the metaphor that described the exponentially increasing number of components required designing improved circuits, against the physical limitations derived from the number of components that could be assembled together” (1).

The answer to the above problem laid in a monolithic integrated circuit (1, 6). They fabricated whole networks of discrete components in a single sequence by laying them into one crystal of semiconductor material (1, 6). This single crystal of semiconductor material was known as a chip and made respectively of germanium (Kilby) and silicon (Noyce) (1, 6).

The two mother companies filed for patent right a few months apart from each other and naturally a legal battle started that lasted about a decade before an agreement were reached and cross-licensing of the two companies occurred (1).

In 1964, the Patent No. 3 138 743 for Miniaturized Electronic Circuits was given to Kilby and Texas Instruments (1, 6). Many more patents followed thereafter and in 1970 Kilby received the National medal of Science (1, 6). In 1982 Kilby was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (1, 6).

The Patent No. 2 981 877 for silicon based IC was given to Noyce that created the Company INTEL responsible for the invention of microprocessors (1). Many more patents followed also for Noyce. In 1983 Noyce was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (1).

Jack Kilby received the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2000 from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for “basic work on information and communication technology” (1, 6).

The invention known as the “silicon chip” is still today one of the most important achievements in scientific history.

In an online survey done by “Explorers special reports” the three top inventions listed were first the silicon chip (28 500 people), second the World Wide Web (23 600 people), third the Personal Computer (20 700 people) and last the Walkman (140 people) (2).

The silicon chip is considered as so important as it form the bases for the development of the Modern computer (2). Before the silicon chip most electrical devices were based on vacuum tube working (2). Vacuum tubes needed a high power supply and were also very large in most devices (2). Transistors made the problem halfway better but was still not the ideal answer because large wired circuit boards were involved (2, 3). The fact that the transistor has to be connected to wires and other electronic parts placed a limit on the size of the transistor and the smallest it could actually be was determined by the handler’s steady hands and tweezers (3).

Silicon is a semi conductor and the realization that all the parts thereof of could be made of silicon and not only the transistor, lead to the realization that this implies that the whole circuit (which large size was a problem) could be built out of one crystal, minimizing it and facilitating the production thereof (3). The first silicon circuit had the size of a pencil point (3). Unbelievable actually but true!

References

1. http://www.xnumber.com/xnumber/kilby.htm

2. http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/12/27/explorers.silicon/index.html

3. http://www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/events/icinv.html

4. http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/noyce.htm

5. Wikipedia contributors. Robert Noyce [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia; 2006 May 17, 21:08 UCT [cited 2006 May 22]. Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Noyce&oldid=53747804
6. Wikipedia contributors. Jack Kilby [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia; 2006 May 3, 21:40 UCT [cited 2006 May 22]. Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jack_Kilby&oldid=51427174

Elizabeth van der Merwe
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag x17

My link: http://uk.360.yahoo.com/elizabethmerwe

email: 2538521@uwc.ac.za

Mysteries of the unexplained...Crop circles unearthed

2006-05-16T09:51:00.000+02:00

“Man cannot discover new oceans until he has the courage to lose sight of the shore” http://www.cropcircleresearch.com/. If we have learnt anything from the ideas of Quantum Mechanics, it’s that we can only experience things that our conscience believes possible, which we then bring into being. So then is it not possible that the answers to the questions we have about crop circles, and the fact that we disbelieve so much of their very existence is because we do not believe the answers to be possible?

The first documented crop circle is the story of the Mowing – devil. The mowing devil is the title of an English woodcutters pamphlet published in 1678. It tells of a farmer who, refusing to pay the price demanded by a labourer to mow his field, swore that he would rather that the devil mowed it instead. According to the pamphlet, that night his field appeared to be in flame (which is in line with present day accounts of the balls of light most people see hovering over the places where circles are being created). The next morning, the field was found to be perfectly mowed - supernaturally perfect, in fact.This pamphlet, and the accompanying illustration, is often cited as among the first recorded cases of crop circles by cereologists. People who study these phenomena are cerealogists after Ceres the Roman god of agriculture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cereology

I find that over the course of time mankind has shifted his blame for the things he can’t understand from the devil (and the occult) to now the employment of conspiracy theory. Now no one is prepared to believe that anything is beyond our comprehension, and that the technologies we have must be able explain absolutely everything in our universe. We seem convinced that behind every ‘wonder of nature’ there must be someone trying to pull our leg (take us for a ride).

A very good example of people using our skeptic nature to fool us into believing that crop circles are all man-made is a website http://www.circlemakers.org/tools.html hosted by a group called circlemakers, claiming to have created cropcircles using quite simple tools. The only problem with their work is that it cannot possibly explain the electromagnetic fields found in the genuine article, and most certainly cannnot mean that they had created these without breaking one single crop. I might also add that none of the crop circles which I saw on this website are nearly spectacular as the ones who no one has claimed to have made (sorry guys).

The first reported crop circle for 2006 is one in Brisbane, Australia in February http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/2006.html and seems to be a continuation of circles that appeared in more or less the same place in 2004, which definitely reinforces the beliefs of many people that these circles are in fact messages from other beings/planets/universes.

The evidence to show the very intruging plant abnormalities that exist in the crops in and around crop circles are truly amazing. They have been thouroughly researched and statistically analysed to 95% confidence levels by many scientists including Michigan biophysicist W.C. Levengood http://www.bltresearch.com/plantab.html . These include abnormal enlargement of cell wall pits in bract tissue, Enlarged (both laterally and longitudinally) plant stem nodes, Marked bending of the plant stem nodes, Bending at the base of the plant stem and Expulsion cavities (holes blown out at the plant stem nodes).

Then there are those who belive that the crop circle phenomenon can be explained by military powers US and UK using microwave technology to destroy enemy weaponry http://www.ovnis.atfreeweb.com/5_crop_circles.htm , well i dunno, they do present some good facts, but it then points right back to my devil-conspiracy theory hypothesis.

There are so many people claiming to know conclusively wo done it, but none I feel to my satisfaction so I will for now, until someone comes with a evidence based, repeatable or provable explinations be prepared to merely sit back in my armchair and admire one of lifes great mysteries of the unexplained.

Miss Annamarie Martin
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation biology
University of the Western Cape
Private BagX17
e-mail - 2318859@uwc.ac.za
Blog - http://www.marypoppins.iblog.co.za/

NEW CHAPTER ADDED

2006-05-16T02:31:00.000+02:00

Please note that a new Chapter has been added for your to review.

Chapter 7: Presentations: Posters and Talks (There is no sound with this)

Cheers

Rich

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940

Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

CROP CIRCLES - WHAT SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE DO WE HAVE FOR A NON-ANTHROPOGENIC ORIGIN?

2006-05-16T01:47:00.000+02:00

Hi Everyone

This is a message for the Pretoria group (NISL-EI learners) ONLY. I would like you to review at least some of the video material on Crop Circles, you are lucky that the Cape Town students have done this assignment (they started the course a little bit earlier), and I have to say they have really shown good insight and they are well prepared. I have sent up the marks for your Power Point projects with some comments, please ask for them if you have not got your marks. I got an external outsider to mark them. Some of the marks were not very good, mostly due to failure to read instructions, test your hyperlinks and to work accurately, or to put enough effort into doing the exercise. This is about the last chance to show that can do these things BETTER. You need to find some peer-reviewed material – have a look at the library chapter – CSIR subscribes to EbscoHost – I think (please tell me by way of comments which library databases CSIR subscribes to). To ensure that this last exercise is a bit more rigorous I have put up some 25 PDF document describing research on individual crop circles that have been investigated. They are not great but a least they are not just Wikipedia. Please find more material than Wikipedia

http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Scientific_methods/Circles/

Please check your URLs – this morning when we started assessing your biodiversity answers we found lots of careless mistakes, and almost none of the URLs worked. Please remember 20% of all marks will be allocated to proper referencing and having enough referencing. OK so give it a go and try and get it correct. This assignment must be submitted using you Blogger accounts under you own name with your Signature files with working links!

PLEASE VERY VERY IMPORTANT – EVERYONE CHECK THAT YOUR EMAIL AND WEBLOG ADDRESS ARE CORRECT IN YOUR SIGNATURE FILES–SOME PEOPLE HAVE THIS WRONG. WHEN YOU SUBMIT YOUR POSTING CHECK THE LINKS AND SEE WHETHER THEY WORK! YOU CAN EDIT YOUR POSTING USING YOUR BLOGGER ACCOUNT! WE WILL CHECK THAT YOUR SIGNATURE FILE LINKS WORK AND IF THEY DO NOT ONE-THIRD OF MARKS WILL BE DEDUCTED.

Resources

This is show of aerial photographs of Crop Circles all fairly short - media designed by an Italian guy interested in the phenomena

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5459855608811578319&q=Crop+circles

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4069600773978744460&pl=true

Here is this Italian Chap's Weblog - afraid it is in Italian
http://terradeisogni.blogspot.com/

Star Dreams - The Crop Circles (trailer for a video material)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=966639197455233571&q=Crop+circles

Crop Circles: Quest for Truth (almost an hour) it starts of with a bit of "Science?"the last third of the video is a bit loopy and in desperate need of editing.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=974931714241227503&q=crop+circles

Good Luck in this exercise and please confirm that you understand the contents of this posting by adding a comment.

Cheers

Rich

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535
Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

CROP CIRCLES

2006-05-15T18:12:00.000+02:00

Images …. Pictures of the mind ….. Pictures of the eyes. Crop circles are but one phenomenon of several kinds that involve eye-catching, nearly perfect geometric forms. How these pictures will be interpreted depend on the human self and the values one has grown up with. If you need to believe in something mysterious the crop circle concept is perfect. I do consider it as a weakness in personality. Just as some people has to believe in God or gods, some need to believe in some kind of mysterious phenomenon that will also hopefully save the world or change the world in future, making it a better place to live on. I’d rather believe in myself than in such a phenomenon! But let us have a look where this whole concept comes from:

The patterns occur mainly in cereal (grain) fields and are being made overnight (1).
Interestingly enough I noticed that it only occur in well developed countries and not in the poorer, under developed countries. This made me wonder whether the aliens making them have such a good knowledge of the economics of the different countries and why are they avoiding the poorer souls. Or are they so intelligent that they only want to communicate with the cream of society?

The fact that the first crop circle made resembles a devil-like creature made me wonder what role Satanist play in this whole saga. It is general knowledge that Satanist draw pictures of Satan-like creatures at places where it will be noticed and I do think that the choice of a grain land is an excellent one if you want to draw attention and also add the mysterious element. The fact that people that visit these crop circles return as changed people according to published information may rather be due to the working of Satan than to Aliens, although if you believe in aliens it is also quite clear that you don’t believe in God and isn’t that in itself already a rigid fundament for Satan to find an opportunity to pursue your soul and mind. With this I do not say that all people that does not believe in God is Satanist, because there are also people that does not believe in any kind of religious force. Wikipedia mention that the farmer on whose farm the first crop circle appeared “swored that he would rather have the devil do the work”. It is utterly important to remember that just as it is wrong to call God by his name unnecessary it is also wrong to call to Satan as a figure as speech. The Bible warns us that Satan is very powerful; therefore one has to watch your tongue because if you are calling Satan he will be available before you have even finished your sentence or thought.

Isn’t it a stated fact from the Bible that Satan especially works in the dark and not in the light and also that Satan is wasting no time but are working as fast as possible to gain as many souls possible for his Kingdom? Yes it may seem impossible for us to think that a complicated crop circle pattern can be created in say fifteen minutes, but for Satan nothing is impossible except to beat God. It is also a general fact that the ancient Egyptians did not believe in God, although they were aware of God’s existence, because after the ten plagues they definitely feared God, but they still did not believe in God. It is also general knowledge that the Egyptians believed in gods and therefore is the drawings of aliens in their ancient graffiti not really something unexpected, because they believed in a variety of gods which may have just as well included alien gods. I mean why not?
Just as the amount of crop circles were growing, Satan’s followers did also grow.

It is also noteworthy to mention the fact that the first crop circles were very simple in structure, but as technology has improved the patterns did also.

Plants are also positive phototropic and will grow therefore towards light and this may provide a possible explanation for the fast growth of the cereal nodes at the outer side of the plant and the slower growth pattern at the inner side of the node. This is exactly where the dark nights come into action, because the fastest reaction of plant growth on a light stimulus will be when it is surrounded by darkness and a light source is directed from only one side. The increase in growth rate can be easily explained if radio-active material was added to the recipe. A small piece of radio-active material can have an immense immediate and after effect on plants and humans for example. Forces are not only mechanical of nature with the result of plant pieces found lying around. Some forces like electromagnetic forces work over a distance and its effects can be just as dramatic. Interaction between magnetic fields and electrical fields may have played a role in the formation of crop circles. And yes what about lasers, especially in the making of the modern crop circles that seems to get more complicated and faster made. As the saying goes: Time is money! I do believe that there is a quite simple rational explanation that will explain its creation and that in due time it will become known to us.

Wikipedia mention also the hypothesis that the bending can be due to the bursting of the nodes due to the heating up of the water in the nodes that will vaporize, therefore increase the pressure etc. BUT my logic tells me that if the temperature did rise so high that water inside the nodes can reach boiling point it will not only be the nodes that will explode but also the internodes, because xylem tissue is continuous and the nodes are not vacuoles acting as storage places for excessive water, but it is the locality where auxiliary buds occur that will develop into side branches therefore the thickening and extra strengthening of the stem. Further more if the temperature increases so much that the water inside the nodes could have reach boiling point, the rest of the cell contents would definitely been destroyed, like the cell organelles. Heat does not choose and it most definitely did not only have an effect on the water content of the plant. Thus any further plant growth in this case would have been impossible, the whole plant would have been damaged and died due to over exposure to heat. I mean boiling point is 100 degrees Celsius! I have never read anywhere that the other plant parts like the phloem tissue, parenchyma, collenchyma, sklerenchyma, etc. are heat resistance. I thus consider this theory as busted.

There are several more theories that involve gods but as I don’t believe in gods I do not consider any of these theories as holding any truth and it is therefore not in my framework to say more about it. Some theories that may give some kind of an explanation is the Whirlwind Vortex and the Plasma Vortex, but I am unfortunately not convinced yet by any of them. I think the solution to the formation of the crop circles must be very simple and direct and it is only a matter of time before it will be solved through serendipity.

1. Wikipedia contributors. Crop circle [Internet]. Wikipedia, The free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 10, 21:18 UCT [Cited 2006 May 11]. Available from: http://en.Wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crop_circle&oldid=52553351.

Elizabeth van der Merwe
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation
University of the Western Cape

My link: http://uk.360.yahoo.com/elizabethmerwe

email: 2538521@uwc.ac.za

CROP CIRCLES-ALIEN OR MAN MADE?

2006-05-15T10:31:00.000+02:00

The first time I became aware of or saw crop circles was when the movie Signs featuring Mel Gibson was screened. Initially it was very puzzling because my knowledge about these formations were limited, and now after I read and tried to understand, it has become even more enigmatic.

Crop circles are unexplained phenomena that have baffled people all around the world and many theories endeavor to explicate the event, but no conclusive evidence has been found ( http://www.crystalinks.com/crops.html ). Crop circles have a worldwide occurrence and have been found in England, all of North America, Australia and even in South Africa ( http://www.crystalinks.com/crops.html ). Crop circles are more prevalent in the southern countryside of England and in the year, 1990 about 700 crop circles were discovered in Britain (Krystek, 2000). These circles are located predominantly in cereal plants such as wheat and cornfields, but are also found in oats, barley and canola ( http://www.crystalinks.com/crops.html ).

Cereologist, a word derived from the Roman goddess of vegetation, are people who have decided to study the crop circles and tried to find possible reasons for its appearance (Krystek, 2000). Crop circles are shaped in the most beautiful geometric forms as result of the knocking down or flattening of these crops (Krystek, 2000). They range from about ten feet to a hundred feet in diameter and come in the form of simple circles to meticulously created complex works of art (Krystek, 2000).

Numerous explanations exist for these phenomena, yet none of the proposed theories are conclusive. The formation of the crop circles are however under severe scrutiny after hoaxing has been implicated for the falsification of these circles. But are all the crop circles man-made? The question has had observers and so many others baffled over the years, but some have definitely been made by human hands.

The unresolved theories of the formation of crop circles still linger, and although not physically proven, some suggestions have been made. The first of these include weather effects that professor George Tenence Meaden describes as a "plasma vortex phenomena" and explains it to be like "a spinning mass of air which has accumulated a significant fraction of electrically charged matter."(Krystek, 2000). He explains the similarity of this to a ball of lightning, which is huge and lasts for a lengthy period of time (Krystek, 2000).

UFO's have been implicated for the creation of these complex circles, by the spacecraft landing on the crop fields and imprinting the designs of the UFO's on the crops, wheat, etc (Krystek, 2000). It is assumed by some that the patterns left by the aliens are a means of communicating with humans.

The most plausible explanation, according to many is that these crop circles have been perpetrated by hoaxers (Krystek, 2000) and because many of the crop circles are man made it serves as a good explanation for these immaculate designs. But are humans able to create such marvelous works of art in one night? I doubt it. So much would go into the design and the actual labour associated with these formations, and though it is not impossible that humans are able to create it, time constraints would definitely result in it being done over a minimum of three days, according to my estimation. Crop circles have appeared in a minimum time of about 15 minutes as explained by aircrafts surveying the land. It is impossible that hoaxers could have created such a large design in such a short period.

The formations of "authentic" crop circles results in a bend in the stem of the crop underneath the joints and those produced by the hoaxers create a crack at any location on the stem ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circle ). It is claimed that the bending is determined by the plant itself and not the degree of force applied. In summer months the crops bend easily and it would not be known whether it is man made or not ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circle ).

Hoaxed and unnaturally formed crop circles are sometimes indistinguishable from one another and sceptics derive their objectivity from this. Personally, I think that there are some crop circles which are created by forces beyond our understanding. I do not know exactly who is responsible for it, but the electro-magnetic ball seen by many is my best bet at the moment.

References:

Anon. Crop Circle Theories [Internet]. Crystalinks. [cited 2006 May 5] Available from: http://www.crystalinks.com/crop theories.
Krystek L. Crop Circles from outer space?[Internet]. UNMuseum.[cited 2006 May 5]. Available from: http://www.unmuseum.org/cropcir.htm
Wikipedia contributors.Crop circles [Internet]. Wikipedia; the free encyclopedia; 2003 Feb 10, 19:48 UTC [cited 2006 May 5]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circles .

Monique Rochelle Maseng
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17

Email: 2319394@uwc.ac.za
Blog: moniq.iblog.co.za

AFRICAN CROP CIRCLES

2006-05-11T13:55:00.000+02:00

These are some graphic images of African Crop Circles that have apparently been seen over the years. But again, they are anecdotal...

Here is the link to the site I found them on:
http://www.kornkreise-forschung.de/textCredoMutwa.htm

And here is an interesting site on Crop Circles with a South African flavour...
http://www.tashitagg.com/forum/weblog_entry.php?e=1873

Enjoy!

Karen Marais
BCB Hons NISL student
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville

E-mail 2657211@uwc.ac.za

Web http://brit-journal.com/karen2006bcbnisl/

CROP CIRCLES- SCIENCE OR A HOAX

2006-05-10T23:37:00.001+02:00

Imagine you are a farmer and you have planted your field of cereals, say wheat one hundred hectares. The weather and season has favored you well and you are expecting a bounty harvest. You have even toasted with your friends in the bar last night because you are going to get a good profit from your fields. You go to bed that night and when you wake in the morning since you slept late and had a hang over you are met by a battery of journalists. Curious neighbors and funny looking tourists then some guys who says they are scientists and others investigators who ask you whether this is you farm. Before being rude you as you should be asking them what they are doing you think twice and ask what is going on. The word is let out……… crop circle.

Crop circles are areas of cereal or similar crops that have been systematically flattened to form various geometric patterns1. These circles are well drawn on the cereals creating the most beautiful patterns of circles ever known. The first ever recorded crop circle is in the 17th Century woodcut pamphlet with the Mowing-Devil’s story2. Originally crop circles were in England and shot to prominence in 1970’s but currently they have appeared in many other countries like Soviet Union, Japan, America and Canada1. There has been a lot of debate as to whether this phenomenon is man- made, matural causes(climatic) or divine intervention from God or gods.

1991, two men Doug Bower and his friend Dave Chorley revealed that they made their crop circles using planks, rope, hats and wire as their only tools and had conceived the idea in a bar at Southampton, England in 1978. They later demonstrated how they drew their crop circles the simple tools they had. Therefore infront of the press they admitted the phenomenon as a hoax and had making this a human passion3. This gave credence to the argument that the crop circles were a hoax. Knowledge shows that such admissions can be faked and by calling the media it just can serve just to remove mystic aspect of the circles. The example of Piltdown’s man hoax is one4. Press is normally used to put sensatioanlism to a story and I suggest maybe someone didn’t like the line of study being persued and suggested a hoax be created.

Science like any other field is faced with so many contreversies or what one would call politics. One person may be searching the truth but one maliciously is looking to make them look a fool. Even though some of the circles can be man made there are others that have been authentic. In some of them there are no signs of the grains seeds being broken. How can they expalin for the designs being made that were so complex that they cannot be remade on paper alone let alone in a field at night. see http://www.circlemakers.org/1. Actually one retired American astronomer Gerald S. Hawkins wrote a letter to Doug Bower and Dave Chorley asking “managed to discover and incorporate a number of ingenious, previously unknown geometric theorems - of the type that appear in antique textbooks - into what he called their :artwork in the crops”3. Hawkins has gone ahead to discover that the ratio of the diameter of a large circle - drawn so that it passes through the centers of the three original circles - to the diameter of one of the original circles is close to 4:33. How could man claim to make such accurate patterns all over the world use the same dimensions? If one has to bend cereals like maize fields or such then one would encounter the problem of the maize breaking. But in many crop circles the stalks are bent actually “Stalks…are very often bent up to ninety degrees without being broken, particularly at the nodes, which are like the joints of wheat stems”5. And they don’t break. Something more than human effort has to be involved to make nodes to be extended for the inside out and made the bends to have electric charge5.

This leads me to a conclusion: Though some of the crop circles have been a hoax some have not been a hoax. So how do I explain such a phenomenon? The fitting argument after going through the internet is plasma. Plasma is highly electrified air carrying an electric charge which when it travels through a magnetic field (like the geomagnetic existing on the planet) 5 it moves in a spiral and produces microwaves. Plasma can be caused by lightening which produces high energy plasma5, 6. It can also come from the ionosphere (atmosphere that is ionized by solar radiation). It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity formation and thus the magnetosphere7. The spiralling is the one that causes the circles to form in a particular manner and the microwaves heats the stalks after which they bend. The soil in the area of crop circle occurrence when touched with a magnet it gets attached this also happens to the stocks that are within the crop circle area7. When these spirals of plasma are moving they form well distinct patterns which no hand on man can make. How are they directed to make such beautiful structures? I will speak like a good believer in God. God made them to beautify our world.

References:

1.Wikipedia contributors. Crop circle [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 10, 18:25 UTC [cited 2006 May 10]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crop_circle&oldid=52526750.

2. Wikipedia contributors. Mowing-Devil [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 5, 16:22 UTC [cited 2006 May 10]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mowing-Devil&oldid=51697808.

3. Ivars Peterson Euclid's Crop Circles; February 1st, 1992 Science News
Vol. 141
4. Wikipedia contributors. Piltdown Man [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 4, 05:18 UTC [cited 2006 May 10]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Piltdown_Man&oldid=51482854.
5. Burke, J. A. The physics of crop formations MUFON UFO Journal October 1998.
6. Wikipedia contributors. Plasma (physics) [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 9, 02:37 UTC [cited 2006 May 10]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plasma_%28physics%29&oldid=52252638.7. Wikipedia contributors. Ionosphere [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 26, 03:39 UTC [cited 2006 May 10]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ionosphere&oldid=50200652

VINCENT MUCHAI WAIRIMU
Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17 Bellville

TEL: +27825103190

Email: 2648463@uwc.ac.za

Website:http://www.muchai.iblog.co.za

THE CROP CIRCLE PHENOMENON: ARE WE ALONE OR JUST PLAIN IGNORANT?

2006-05-08T22:07:00.000+02:00

Ask anyone if they have heard of crop circles and most will say they have in some form or other, and this mostly as anecdotal information of interest passed from one intrigued individual to the next. The mere fact that this mystery sparks such interest in us today, reflects the inner need to want to know and solve problems which we cannot understand. Regardless of origin, crop circles are the lure to our imaginations!

There are many explanations of what crop-circles are. On one hand, there are those who suggest that crop circles are a means of communication from extraterrestrials, or that they are inter-dimensional evidence and even the catalyst to the advancement of modern thinking. On the other hand there are those who seek resolution through the understanding of yet unexplained or uncommon scientific phenomena which may even lead the way to the improvement of modern though.

As with most high-profile sensationalisms, hoaxes form an integral part of parasitised reality, of which crop circle phenomena are not immune.

To assess the information available on the subject, a balanced and objective approach must be investigated, to which I hope this article serves as a reflection.

While roaming the net, I came across an article which matches my own way of thinking on the subject. Paul Vigay's Crop Circle Research page, http://www.cropcircleresearch.com/, describes what we experience and live in, as a three and a half dimension. Paul Vigay suggests that the common view of the third dimension including time, is flawed, since we cannot actually move in all three directions in time, only forward. Paul's theory suggests that our perceptions of higher dimensional objects can only be interpreted as reflection within our own dimension, hence strange unexplained phenomena such as crop circles.

My personal interpretation of time within our dimension has to do with the theory of quantum mechanics, which I believe is the reasoning behind this and many other unknown and even known phenomena. Without time, quantum mechanics suggests that all possibilities can occur randomly or at once etc. If we take a central point, seen in the second dimension represented as a small mark or dot made on a piece of flat paper, what would best represent the theory of quantum mechanics?

If every possibility between the beginning point on the page could be represented as a straight line, then depending on the colour of the ink used to draw the line, the page would be completely covered and initially look as if it had merely changed colour, however, what is truly represented are all the possibilities from the central point radiating outwards in 360 Degrees. What is even more liberating is the fact that all lines would have no end and the angles between them would increase exponentially, radiating outwards, making space for even more possibility and so on, and this only on a two dimensional plane. So what happens if we apply the same way of thinking but in the third dimension, and for the mean time, ignoring time as an influence. The proverbial page suddenly has depth or height, length as well as breadth. If all possibilities represented by our lines to infinity from the central point were introduced, no longer would they remain on a single plain, but now would radiate in all possible directions within 360 Degrees to include behind, in front of, and all other directions of 360 Degrees from our central point forming an ever-expanding sphere or globe that grows exponentially into infinity, creating with it more three dimensional space and therefore more possibility.

If we add time to this theory interesting things begin to emerge. Time is a limiting factor, which I believe is quite explainable within the third dimension since without time the third dimension would not have definitive form or variation of forms, making up pretty much everything that we know in our conscious existence. If we look at the example of the second (flat) dimension again, but this time define the outcome of the line to a finite point in time, the line in all possibility from the central point ends at a finite point B. If time's influence on all possibility of this line from a central point was equal, then the radiation of the lines outward in 360 Degrees from that point would be given a definite area or form, a circle, however if some of those possibilities were affected at different levels of time, the structure area or form would take on a multitude of possible shapes between the minimum and maximum time-fields. These time-fields give rise to the manipulation of form through speed, from the time it takes to get from the central point to the defined point in time.

The same theory looked at in the third dimension would effectively produce a three-dimensional sphere of known proportion defined by the action of time on all possibilities of line from the central point. Again, if there were differences in the manipulation of speed from the central point to the finite point of the lines, all possible shapes within a three-dimensional form are possible.

The only concern with the above theory is that in the third dimension time is a constant and cannot slow down or speed up, however I do believe that matter forming different relationships together can affectively utilise possibility to shorten the distance it takes a straight line for example to get from point A to point B, probably by an integrated and interweaving or folding to make the form non-uniform, however the structural integrity of the probability between both points is unbroken and is still defined in space by time. This is how we could possibly explain the presence of round spherical bodies like planets or suns etc. in our three dimensional universe, and that space is endless, spherical and continuously expanding in all directions as a result of time. The relationships of form are still governed by time uniformly, but the density and relationship of matter in many possibilities, gives rise to many differential forms. Added to this the substance of life, which here we will define as the ability to manipulate matter's inter and intra-relationships into constantly fluxing mathematical equations of movement possibility governed by the time continuum, and you have the essence of living organisms in all their diverse and ever-changing forms in time.

In support of my own theory above, if we look at the constant of time in the context of a three dimensional round object of defined possibility, so it has a defined form, like a wrist band or better still, one of those thick rubber bands, time's equal influence creates the circumferential 360 Degree structure. What would happen if we had to reverse time, in other words, what would happen to this form if we could go backwards in time? Would it be an instant change in form or would there be a series of predictable events? I believe that the above would produce a set of predictable events. If time could be viewed as going through one end of the circle created by the rubber band and exiting out the other side, creating the inner surface of the rubber band (excluding the outer surface, existing in a parallel dimension), if reversed, and since this inner surface is the result of time and is directly "attached" to time, the outer surface in the parallel dimension would meet initially at a right angle to the third dimension before the two dimensions crossed over each other completely switching dimensional position and thereby reversing time itself. Basically time could only be reversed by turning the third dimension inside-out, but could this be possible. I believe so. What is even more interesting is the fact that during the distortion of form though the manipulation of time, of both dimensions at right angles to each other, I believe it would be possible for a person to see himself. To demonstrate the above take one of those thick rubber bands in your hands, holding it in front of you as a circle (do not pull tight). The inner surface, facing inwards into the circle created by the rubber band, imagine is the ground or the earth you are now walking on. Draw an arrow on this surface facing away from the circle, i.e., perpendicular to the edge of the band. This arrow represents the direction or constant of time as we know it. Now with your finger and thumbs of both hands simultaneously on opposite sides of the rubber band, slowly begin to turn the rubber band inside out and see what happens...The inside surface becomes the outside surface, and, the arrow direction, representing time, is reversed! You will also notice that the rubber band distorts its form when the opposing margins are facing each other, representing the distortion of form when both dimensions are at right angles to each other. Time no longer has an influence over possibility of form at this point, and form could therefore take on any meaning at this crucial cross-over point.

So why my long explanation of dimension and how is this related to crop circle formation? Well, we generally have a rather close-minded approach to trying to define a reason for the many forms of crop circles. I would like to suggest that there is actually no reason or any purpose of any crop circle shape, and that based on what I have already mentioned, they may just be random chances of form created as a result of the distortion of time as a result of dimensional interference, either as a source of intelligent manipulation or natural occurrence. This may also explain how crop circles suddenly seem to appear without having had enough "time" to be created.

Magnetic fields and magnetically charged particles found within crop circles could also indicate the reactions of form to the distortion of time. In our little experiment above, if an object is distorted and "reversed" temporarily through the distortion of dimension then magnetic fields would similarly be affected or temporarily reversed, having a resultant reaction on charged particles which could shift their position or be changed completely in form to create the classic round shapes often found in soil samples of crop circle sites. Remember that magnetic soil particles, if small and relatively weathered into a variety of shapes through natural processes were distorted through this dimensional interference, when re-emerging into the known third dimension, time would have an equaling effect on its matter again, forming a sphere shape. This effect would also be different for different materials, and an explanation of the effects of the occurence on plant stems, could be given where the effects of a dimensional event decreases outwards in a concentric circle of possibility, or as waves, where certain plants are form-changed at certain levels on the plant only, causing them to look as though they were stretched or were bent. It would be interesting to do the research on the relationship of position of form-changing dimensional event on different individual plants in the same crop circle.

To conclude, and in support of the above, many crop circle forms bear the characteristic sphere shape, either as a macro form or composite form of smaller spheres. The symmetrical nature of almost all crop circles is a strong relationship of time on form.

I believe that we need to think outside of the box as it were, since known science applied to a completely amorphological time-dimensional event is limiting.

Do I believe that crop circles are as a result of extraterrestrial influence? Yes and no. Both are possible in the context of the above discussion, but even moreso, the above discussion rules out the significance of extraterrestrials as the creators of these events, placing them rather as a possibility within the event.

My personal belief is that the understanding of these events and recreation of these events through a science that we have still to discover, might lead us towards a multitude of technological possibility with the ultimate influence on our goal to search and conquer the universe.

David Vaughan

Senior aquarist, Quarantine

Two Oceans Aquarium

Cape Town, South Africa

dvaughan@aquarium.co.za

davidvaughan.b-logging.com

RED ALERT - THE ALIENS HAVE LANDED!

2006-05-08T19:44:00.000+02:00

What are crop circles? Geometric designs in crop fields are no new phenomenon and have been reported for many years. The earliest report in a reputable magazine (the only one?) was in “Nature” in 1880 (1), where crop circles in the English county of Surrey had been described. An increase of this phenomenon took place since the early 1970’s and since has been noticed in many countries all over the world. (2)

But are they man-made, a natural phenomenon or as some people even suggests, extra-terrestrial forces at work?? From the internet search I have conducted it seems that it is still mystery. There are several theories and hypotheses of how they are created, but all are still theories… Some more fantastic than others, but none have provided enough evidence to convince me of any of the theories.

One thing that did strike me as I was struggling through a myriad of sites was the amount of sites with a distinct “commercial flavour”! I mean, how reputable can a site be , when the first thing you notice are pop-up menus with advertisements of books on crop circles, shops that sell crop circle paraphernalia and requests for donations for “crop circle research”? The impression I got from many sites was definitely not ‘scientific’. They seemed either to be a personal opinion of someone obsessed with crop circles (the “research” being no more than anecdotal), or someone out to make money out of people obsessed with crop circles or some New Age healers, spiritualist or something of that sort trying to convince people of some aliens trying to communicate with us mortals on earth (and make a buck or two along the way…)! Made me rather think of the “support group for people that had been abducted by aliens” that exists in the United States of America…

To me, with my limited knowledge of physics, the best scientific explanation for the phenomenon was given by the Plasma theory. The plasma vortex theory was first postulated by meteorologist Terence Meaden but later adapted to the plasma theory by John Burke and William Levengood. (3, 4) Research conducted by this team of biophysicist has come up with a few explanations of why they think that plasma is the active force behind “authentic” crop circles. They claim to have studied and analyzed plant samples from more than 300 crop circle formations from 5 countries around the world. Patterns of physical alterations in the plants have been found for the crop formation samples, but not the control samples. Further, these physical alterations in the tissue of the plants inside a crop circle have apparently not been found in known man-made (hoaxed) crop circles.

As I understand it, they postulate that plasma (“…a plasma is an electrically conductive collection of charged particles that responds collectively to electromagnetic forces. Plasma typically takes the form of neutral gas-like clouds or charged ion beams, but may also include dust and grains (called dusty plasma). They are typically formed by heating and ionizing a gas, stripping electrons away from atoms, thereby enabling the positive and negative charges to move freely.”) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_Physics) (5) is drawn to the earth from the ionosphere (6) by a strong electro-magnetic field. These electro-magnetic-fields can be caused by water percolating from chalk and limestone aquifers. (3) Plasma reacts when traveling through a magnetic field by moving in a spiral and emitting microwaves in the process. (3) Thus, if plasma could reach the earth, it would explain the holes blown from the inside out in growth nodes and the elongation of growth nodes in plants inside a crop formation. (3) However, they cannot quite explain the shapes of crop formations!

Other explanations I have come across on the internet are however even less plausible and mostly not researchable. One was given by a South African sangoma, Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa, only as “the writing of the gods”. (7) Another explanation given was that crop circles had similar properties to liquid crystals and that this could explain the mechanical failure of cameras, cell phones etc. in crop formations, but their research had not produced consistent results. (8, 9)

The more reputable sites I did visit like the BBC (10) and Wikipedia gave little credit to the research that has been done to date. I must admit that I am very skeptical myself and the religious fervour with which some people defend the alien hypothesis undermines the scientific credibility of these reports even further, which reduces the chance that any serious research will be done to try and solve the “mystery”. To me they are a form of art, nothing more.

References:

1. Mueller, A. Crop Circles [Internet]. Kornkreis Forschung in Deutschland. [cited 2006 May 6] Available from: http://www.kornkreise-forschung.de/

2. Wikipedia contributors. Crop circle [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 2, 14:12 UTC [cited 2006 May 6]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crop_circle&oldid=51207130.

3. John Burke. Crop circle formation [Internet]. Physics of crop formation. 1998 [cited 6 May 2006]. Available at: http://www.bltresearch.com/physics.html

4. Levengood W, Burke J. 1995. Semi-Molten Meteoric Iron Associated with a Crop Formation. Journal of Scientific Exploration 9 (2): 191-199

5. Wikipedia contributors. Plasma (physics) [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 6, 21:58 UTC [cited 2006 May 8]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plasma_%28physics%29&oldid=51888274.

6. Wikipedia contributors. Ionosphere [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 26, 03:39 UTC [cited 2006 May 6]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ionosphere&oldid=50200652.

7. Mueller, A. Crop circle explanations [Internet]. 2006 [cited 2006 May 6] Available from: http://www.kornkreise-forschung.de/textCredoMutwa.htm

9. Hein S, Russel R. 2000. Electromagnetic Anomalies and Scale-Free Networks in British Crop Formations. Unpublished. Available from: http://www.mountbaldy.com/crop/

10. BBC editors. Crop Circles [Internet]. [cited 2006 May 6] Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/life/aliens/cropcircles/index.shtml and http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A724204

Karen Marais
BCB Hons NISL student
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville

E-mail 2657211@uwc.ac.za

Web http://brit-journal.com/karen2006bcbnisl/

DISCUSS THE PROCESS OF FOSSILIZATION AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN THE INTERPRETATION OF EVOLUTIONARY EVENTS.

2006-05-05T16:20:00.000+02:00

Fossilization is the process of change of matters into fossils. Fossils are the remains of animals, plants and organisms. They are many types of fossils which occur as result of different types of fossilization process. Fossil come in many different ways. They are different types of fossils and fossilization process fossils Each type of fossil is occurs as a results of different fossilization process and each tells scientist something about material conserve. Fossils consist of traces of remains of organism and mark left behind the organism while it was alive. E.g. footprint, trackways, bites marks and dwelling burrows. Fossilization is rare occurrence because most of the components of living things tend to decompose. Organism to be fossilized, the remains needs to be covered by sediments.

The term fossilization does not only refer to the remains of organism but also to the impressions in rock and traits form by organism when they are alive. Fossils are formed when living organism dies and the part of the body are kept safe. Burial prevents the destruction of organism by scavenger, bacteria or weathering and erosion. It is also important because oxygen is no longer available to bacteria that cause the decay. Fossilization favours the following organism: big organism with hard body parts, organisms that were widespread and organism that lived for a long time. It favours these because it is impossible to find the following: small fossils, soft bodied organism living in small areas that did not live for a long time, either because they become extinct or because they evolved quickly. Geological process such as erosion destroys many fossils.

Fossilization process start when living thing dies, flow down a river and lodges on a sandbar. The bone may get covered by mud or sand but the tissue and skin decomposed. In drier areas, animals may fall into a crack and be quickly covered by wind blown sand. Once burial has occurred the remaining process of fossilization can continue. During the period of some hundreds millions years sediments built up over the buried remains and the pressure drives water out and converts the sediments to rock.
During the life time of rock, water sort through it dissolves some minerals and deposit them at the other sites, and deposits different minerals at the original site of the fossil thus cause the fossil remains themselves become converted into different types of rock
The process of carbonization occurred in the process of fossilization, plant leaves, and some body parts of fish, and reptiles decompose going behind only the carbon. This carbon creates the idea in the rock giving the great details of fossil. Plants are commonly fossilised through carbonisation

Fossils are the main sources of information on the evolution. Without the information provide by fossil, we can not have no direct knowledge of timing of biological events such as the following: origin of life, the development of skeletons, the colonisation of the land, the appearance of mammals and the flowering plants, the development of flight and the major episode of extinction.

Fossils are the main source of information because it gives the history development and the evolutionary relationships of Morden flora and fauna. It also gives the knowledge and characteristics of extinct organism such as dinosaurs

Linette Netshiheni
CSIR Pretoria
0001
Cell: 0820446442
Tell: 012 841 2133
Fax: 012 842 3676
tnetshiheni@csir.co.za
Weblog: http://tnesthiheni.blogspot.com/

VARIATION IN SHELL STRUCTURE OCCURRED IN THE PHYLUM MOLLUSCA

2006-05-05T13:46:00.000+02:00

The mollusks constitute one of the largest phyla of animals, both in numbers of living species and in numbers of individuals. All mollusks have a soft body, which is protected by a hard, calcium- containing shell. Mollusks are triplobastic (ovum which has three primary germ layers-ectoderm (outer), mesoderm (middle) and endoderm (inner layer) protostomes. A significant characteristic of mollusks is their possession of a coelom, a fluid-filled cavity that develops within the mesoderm. The coelom functions as a hydrostatic skeleton which also provides space within which the internal organs can be suspended by the mesenteries. The body cavity is filled with blood. Mollusks have a mantle (fold of the outer lining of the shell and a muscular foot that is used for motion-movement). Many mollusks mantle produce a calcium carbonate-external shell and their gills extracts oxygen from water (1).

Phylum Mollusca are divided into different classes which have different types of shells:-

Class Gastropoda

Most of the approximately 40,000 living species of gastropods have shells, however there are quite a few groups that have either reduced or internal shells, or no shell at all. Although most Gastropods are marine, there are numerous forms in both freshwater and terrestrial environments. Most members have a shell which is in one piece and typically coiled or spiralled which usually opens on the right side (2). Some species have an operculum which operates as a trapdoor in order to close the shell.

Class Pelecypoda (Bivalvia )

They have two part shells with both parts being less or more symmetrical. The class include scallops, clams, oysters and mussels. Their shells are composed of calcium carbonate and the shells are very strong. In some bivalves the shell is made up of calcium carbonate known as aragonite which is not very strong (3).

Class Cephalopoda

This class includes species like squid, octopus and cuttlefish. Their shell is either internalized or is absent. The cuttlefish is the only modern shelled cephalopod. It occupies only the outermost portion of its elaborate and beautiful shell, the rest of which serves as a flotation chamber. In the squid and its relative, the cuttlefish, the shell has become an internal stiffening support, and the octopus does not have a shell entirely (4).

Class Monoplacophora

They have a single, flat, rounded bilateral shell which resembles chitons. Their shells are often thin and fragile and their shell apex is forward (5).

Class Polyplacophora

This class include the chitons which have seven or eight dorsal shell plates embedded in the tough muscular girdle that surrounds its body. Their calcareous armour shell that they carry dorsally acts as a protective measure. Their shell is made up of aragonite and colored (6).

Class Scaphopoda

They are also called the tusk shells because their shell is openly curved plan spiral tubular shell which opens at both sides and the shell resembles an elephant tusk. They have tapered, tubular shells that open at both ends (7).

Reference:

1.Wikipedia contributors. Council of Science Editors [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 4, 3:39 PTA [cited 2006 May 4]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mollusc

2.Wikipedia contributors. Council of Science Editors [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 3, 20:07 PTA [cited 2006 May 4]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastropoda

3.Wikipedia contributors. Council of Science Editors [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 3, 19:00 PTA [cited 2006 May 4]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bivalvia

4.Wikipedia contributors. Council of Science Editors [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 03: 04:57 PTA [cited 2006 May 4]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopoda

5.Wikipedia contributors. Council of Science Editors [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 22, 20:03 PTA [cited 2006 May 4]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoplacophora

6.Wikipedia contributors. Council of Science Editors [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 04, 15:32 PTA [cited 2006 May 4]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyplacophora

7.Wikipedia contributors. Council of Science Editors [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 23, 12:22 PTA [cited 2006 May 4]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphopoda

Lethabo Mosomane
CSIR
Pretoria
0001
Tel: 27 12 841 2133
Fax: 27 12 842 3676
mail: lmosomane@csir.co.za
http://lmosomane.blogspot.com

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NEW CHAPTER LINKS ADDED TO SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY

2006-05-05T03:21:00.000+02:00

Hi Everyone

Please note - eventually our Internet behaved itself and I was able to update the links to Chapter material on the following - Weblogs, Scientific Writting and Library Methods (html guide).

Chapter 4: Weblogs

Chapter 5: Scientific Writing & CSE Style

Chapter 6: Library Methods

Link to CSE/CBE posting

http://bcb703.blogspot.com/2006/04/question-of-science-style-_114520901403207283.html

Please confirm by adding a comment that you have read this posting and that you have downloaded the CBE/CSE style help document and that you have loaded to help you write scientific documents.

For those students doing the Biodiversity course please visit it TODAY - there are important instructions and a Calendar Planner has been implemented.

Link to the Biodiversity Course

http://bcb705.blogspot.com

Thanks

Rich

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

DEBRIEFING: DID WE LAND ON THE MOON?

2006-05-02T00:28:00.000+02:00

Sherlock Holms would say its “its elementary my Dr Watson”, but is it elementary to answer this question, have we a very clever Space Agency that could not deliver what the Government wanted and need a psychological way to win the Cold War and emerge as the only “Super Power” or a group of conspiracy theorists who will grab onto any small issues of inconsistency and a blow it up out of proportion for their own agenda or because they simply have not understood the science behind the technology/ What I mean by starting this debrief as a conversation between the legendary Crime Detector and Dr Watson is the only real way to analysis this question is as to be at the crime scene. Normally if you wish to test somebody’s research findings you will go through the experiment and re-do it. Well this is not entirely possible in this case, a) it would be a very expensive experiment and b) conspiracy theorists have stated that that blue-prints for the Apollo programme design were “destroyed”. There does seem to be some strange issues on this aspect and the best response I have had on this is “According to Paul Shawcross from NASA's Office of Inspector General, the blueprints for the Saturn V are held at the Marshall Space Flight Center on microfilm. There are some diagrams of the LM [Landing Module insert RK] and Moon buggy on the Nasa web site, but the technical blueprints showing sizes, etc. do seem to be missing" [1]. So from logistic and technical aspects we cannot actually re-construct this experiment and observe whether it is true or not true and that would have been the scientific approach which clearly NASA did not want re-examined (the moon buggies were left on the moon as were the cameras). While quantum mechanics theoretically argues that time travel is a future possibility, our technology is far off from exploring it so we cannot go back and re-observe the experiment unfolding. Consequently this is like a crime scene, where you cannot even re-enact the sequences and review the evidence. This question is rather difficult for those conspiracy theorists attempting to falsify NASA’s claims; first the crime scene is some 384,400 km away and some rather nasty radiation belts (van Allen) to contend with. So again unlike both scientific experiments and most crime scenes – this crime scene is beyond bounds.

So how does this relate to the hypothetico-deductive method, induction and deduction falsification? It can probably be answered most effectively using deduction and is rather difficult to establish through falsification and induction. It should be realized that certain cases lend themselves to a particular method of inquiry (be it hypothetico-deductive falsification, induction or deduction). The major issue is that in this case the observation cannot be redone so essentially you cannot use induction. Consequently you have to really deduce what happened by using the available evidence, and assess how contaminated that evidence was. Essentially you should have case STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES for the plaintiff and defendant, the conspiracy theorists and NASA respectively. I found this approach rather difficult due to so much conflicting evidence.

Consequently I have sought an epistemological approach to focus on analyzing the nature of knowledge in this case and how it relates to similar notions such as truth, and belief [2] Please review this reference. Much of this discussion concerns justification and epistemologists analyze the standards of justification for knowledge claims, that is, the grounds on which one can claim to know a particular fact. In a nutshell, epistemology addresses the question, "How do you know what you know?"

Another useful philosophical tool is called Occam's razor. Occam's razor simply stated the explanation of any phenomenon should have the fewest possibly assumptions as possible, and specifically eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory [3] Please review this reference as well. This principle is often expressed in Latin as: “entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem” which translates to: “entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity”.

Most crimes work on examining the Motives, Opportunities and Means (MOM). So for NASA hoaxing the moon landing, lets exam their motives to doing this. In the early 1960’s President J.F. Kennedy had tasked the USA to land a man on the Moon before the decade ended. At the time the USA was in a Cold War with USSR, in contrast to the USA, the USSR space programme appeared to have been progressing well [4] and even today has the following firsts

Artificial satellite launched on October 4, 1957; Sputnik 1,
First living passenger, a dog named Laika in space but was never intended to return to the earth; Sputnik 2
First passengers (dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants) in space that were returned to earth; Sputnik 5
First person in space and in orbit, Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1, Vostok programme
First dual manned flight and approach in space with Vostok 3 and Vostok 4.
First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova on Vostok 6
First three man crew, Voskhod 1
First EVA, Voskhod 2 by Aleksei Leonov
First docking between two manned craft in Earth orbit and exchange of crews, Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5.
First firing of a rocket in Earth Orbit, Luna 1
First probe on the moon, Luna 2
First images of the moon's far side, Luna 3
First probe to land on Venus, Venera 3
First probe to land on Mars and return data, Mars 3
First samples automatically returned to Earth from another body, Luna 16
First robotic space rover, Lunokhod 1
First space station, Salyut 1
First woman to walk in space, Svetlana Savitskaya while on Salyut 7 space station.
First crew to spend over one year in space, V. Titov and Manarov on board of TM-4 - Mir Dec 12 1987
First permanently manned space station, Mir, which orbited the Earth from 1986 until 2001
First space satellite, launched on 7 July 1998 from submarine Novomoscovsk

Finally despite far more manned hours in space only four Russian cosmonauts were killed compared to 18 American astronauts killed in flight. The USA fatalities were Apollo 1 (3), X-15-3(1,) Challenger (7), Columbia (7) and USSR fatalaities were Soyuz 1 (1), Soyuz 11 (3) [5]. Consequently the USA was very aware of its shortcomings, and even today it is debatable as to whether it really was any more successful than the Soviet/ Russian programme.

The early success of the USSR space programme was a worry to citizens of the USA since the implication was that a space rocket is little different to an attack missile armed with a nuclear warhead. The USA had to respond to USSR The stakes were very high, and failure by NASA and the USA not to land on the Apollo and do one better than the Soviet Space Programme Soyuz would have done irreversible damage to its Cold War campaign. There certainly is a motive to a least having photos and video material as “backup” in the case of any mission problem, including technical ones in securing the necessary photographic/video evidence. At least one astronaut has openly stated

"If some of the film was spoiled, it's remotely possible they [NASA] may have shot some scenes in a studio environment to avoid embarrassment."

Dr Brian O'Leary

Did NASA have the opportunity to either go to the Moon, or to hoax the operation? I will answer this by using the following question…

Was NASA sufficiently prepared to launch a landing on the moon?

Of all of the space programmes manned Apollo missions were remarkable trouble free, given the history of NASA. Apollo 1 lost a crew of three while still on the ground and Apollo 13 had numerous well publicized problems. Further other than the manned Apollo space programmes no manned space craft has gone further than about 600 km or 0.156% of the 384,400 km journey to the moon. The Soviet Union up until the mid 1960s was clearly ahead in the space race and was preparing to send a rocket to the moon, but from the day of the Apollo landing until now has never attempted it (or at least admitted to attempting this). It is also interesting that having six success landings by NASA over a very short period that the motivation in human landing on the moon has not continued. The advances that NASA made between its first astronaut in space, Alan Shepherd in 1961 whose entire mission lasted a mere 15 min 28 s and gained an altitude of 187 km [6] to Apollo 8 in 1968 which made the first three-manned lunar orbit and lasted 6 day 3 hours 0 min 42 secs [7] is spectacular. Expressed differently in seven years NASA’s space programmes made trips 2 000 times further, 600 times longer while carrying 3 times the number of passengers! Using Occam's razor approach, there are rather more assumptions in NASA getting to the moon that to create convincing film footage and photographs, since the year earlier than the moon landing Stanley Kubrick directed the film 2001: A Space Odyssey [8] which convincingly showed that it was possible to fabricate this evidence. There is certainly an opportunity and the means for NASA to at least “make the evidence” which is demonstratably easier than doing the real thing. Looking at other evidence it becomes clear that a certain amount of deception has taken place on the part of NASA.

Van Allen radiation belts

Conspiracy theorists argue that the Apollo space craft could not transverse the Van Allen radiation belts. These high radiation belts stretch from 10,000–65,000 km altitude [9]. In defence of this it is claimed that they spent only half an hour [8] travelling the 55 000 km of the radiation belts. If they had maintained this speed for entire trip they would have arrived at moon in a little over three hours rather than almost three days. A possible explanation is that “orbital transfer trajectory from the Earth to the Moon through the belts was selected to minimize radiation exposure” [10]. Conspiracy theorists have also argued that the Apollo missions were done when the radiation belts would have been at one of their worst condition due to very high sunspot activity. Monthly measurements of sunspot numbers taken by Royal Observatory of Belgium have indicated that the 11-year sunspot cycle had maxima in 1958, 1969, 1980, 1990 [11]. While 1969 was the lowest of the four peaks in this period, such sunspot peaks and solar winds have been linked to a lot of satellite failures in telecommunications operations [12] and these satellites operate well below the Van Allen radiation belts. This Apollo missions certainly coinciding with the least favourable times if consideration for reliability of the electronic equipment was a consideration.

Photographic discrepancies

Conspiracy theorists have argued that flag waving (in no atmosphere?) and blast carter below the lunar module are also evidence. Further, the shadows and lighting under lunar conditions (characteristic of high cosmic and gamma rays, extreme fluctuation of temperatures), the cross hairs etched onto the camera lens getting obscured by bright objects, and similar backgrounds despite supposedly been taken on different missions as provided as evidence for fabrication [10]. Many (but not all) of explanations for these inconsistencies in the photographic evidence are plausible and can be re-created [13]. However, the non-parallel and hugely different length of shadows of the two astronauts (shown in official NASA video material) is difficult to explain. It should be remembered that the only way to distort the direction of the shadows as much as in the photographs would be to use a wide angle lens. Unfortunately defenders of the NASA lunar landing have fabricated the evidence by using different focal lengths of the camera to demonstrate the possibility of this [13][14]. Further the photographs showing the converging shadow are always less extreme despite using a wide angle lens! [13][14]. Using a 60 mm lens as fitted to the lunar cameras will not distort to this extent. Jan Lundberg Group Manager Space Projects Hasselblad (1966-1975) in an interview for the film What Happened on the Moon? [available from http://www.aulis.com/nasa.htm] commenting on one of the famous Aldrin photograph “seems as if he is standing in a spot light and I cannot explain that”……”that escapes me” and finally “maybe you have to find Armstrong and ask him”.

To make matters worse for NASA they appear to have stated that they used special emulsion film (Brian Welsh, Director of Media Services, NASA as interviewed in the documentary What Happened on the Moon?” [available from http://www.aulis.com/nasa.htm] called it XRC. The official NASA website on its still photography said the following…

“Kodak was asked by NASA to develop thin new films with special emulsions. On Apollo 8, three magazines were loaded with 70 mm wide, perforated Kodak Panatomic-X fine-grained, 80 ASA, b/w film, two with Kodak Ektachrome SO-68, one with Kodak Ektachrome SO-121, and one with super light-sensitive Kodak 2485, 16,000 ASA film. There were 1100 color, black and white, and filtered photographs returned from the Apollo 8 mission.” [15]

Interestingly Kodak makes no mention of this technology on its website and lists of achievements for 1969 are “Construction began on Kodak Colorado Division - a manufacturing unit for films and papers, located in Windsor, Colorado. A very special stereo camera made by Kodak accompanied astronauts Aldrin and Armstrong when they set foot on the moon. Kodak received an "Emmy" Award for its development of fast color film processing for television use. The number of shareowners passed the 200,000 mark.” [16]

In an interview with HJP “Douglas” Arnold who worked for Kodak as an assistant to the MD in the UK from 1966-1974 What Happened on the Moon? [available from http://www.aulis.com/nasa.htm] stated the film that was used on these missions was basically the standard Ektachrome X 64 and 160 ASA (now ISO) that we use on Earth [17].

My caveat for the rest of the photographic anomalies is that it should not be ruled out that persons wishing to be a “whistle blower” that the photographs were non-ingenious could have introduced deliberate tell-tale signs in them that would not be immediately evident to the NASA officials at the time and would get revealed at a latter stage. However, fabricating the photographs does not necessarily mean that the entire mission was hoaxed. I am certain (95% sure) that the photographic evidence presented by NASA was not genuinely obtained from the moon surface.

Evidence from SMART-2

ESA SMART-1 probe was hopefully providing the much needed independent photographic evidence that indeed the Apollo missions were undertaken and Bernard Foing, Chief Scientist of the ESA Science Program allegedly told SPACE.com that the “SMART-1 orbiter circling the Moon has already covered the Apollo 11, 16, 17 landing sites, as well as spots where the former Soviet Union 's Luna 16 and Luna 20 automated vehicles plopped down. The images have not yet been released” [1]. To me the problem with this statement is the official line for a lack of a crater or burn marks under the Lunar Module in the photographs is “No crater should be expected. The Descent Propulsion System was throttled very far down during the final stages of landing. The Lunar Module was no longer rapidly decelerating, so the descent engine only had to support the module's own weight, which by then was greatly diminished by the near exhaustion of the descent propellants, and the Moon's lower gravity. At the time of landing, the engine's thrust divided by the cross-sectional area of the engine bell is only about 1.5 PSI ), and that is reduced by the fact that the engine was in a vacuum, causing the exhaust to spread out” [10]. In fact it was such a gentle landing that no real dust was sufficiently disturbed to settle on the landing pads of the lunar module and this has been explained as follows “The dust around the module is called regolith and is created by ejecta from asteroid and meteoroid impacts. This dust was several inches thick at the Apollo 11 landing site. The regolith was estimated to be several meters thick and is highly compacted with depth. In an atmosphere, we would expect a rocket engine to blast all the surface dust off the ground for tens of meters. However, dust was only removed from the area directly beneath the Apollo landing engine. The important observation here is "atmosphere". Powerful engines set up turbulence in air which lifts and carries dust readily, far beyond the engine itself. However, in a vacuum, there is no air to disturb. Only the actual engine exhaust's direct pressure on the dust can move it” 10]. Given the official line could an orbiting satellite clearly photograph landing sites of the Apollo missions, and more curiously my searching on the Internet has never confirmed that they these photographs were ever released. Somebody must be telling an untruth, either ESA or NASA?

My conclusions

Unfortunately, there is little doubt that there are too many inconsistencies, to at least conclude that not all that has been reported to the public by NASA can be true. Even if you accept that some photographic evidence could have been tampered with either to indicate that is was faked (whistle blowing) or by people wishing to discredit NASA. To accept that NASA made such major advancements in such a short period and undertook their missions when space conditions were at one of their most hazardous in the last fifty years and appeared to have done repeatedly missions with only one failure (Apollo 13), stretches the credibility (epistemological approach) of a scientific mind. Using Occam’s Razor, again suggest that the most parsimonious use of assumptions suggest that the evidence for the Lunar Landing was more easily fabricated than undertaken. If this is the case why have the USSR not blown the whistle on the USA? I can only conclude that NASA’s economy with truth was matched by Soviet Space Programme, the only difference is that the latter have been caught out with at least one untruth and that surrounded the details of the first animal in space, the unfortunate dog named Laika in 1957. At the time Soviet officials had said she died painlessly in orbit about a week after launch [18]. In October 2002 Dimitri Malashenkov, one of the Soviet scientists involved with the Sputnik 2 mission admitted that she died from overheating and panic just hours after the mission started [19]. If it took 45 years to come clean with the truth about the death of a dog, how many skeletons does the Soviet Space programme still have and rather more importantly how many of them are known to NASA? For me, it is only my faith in human nature that accepts that NASA did land man on the moon, the alternative is that pinnacle of humanity’s achievement is no more than a Government’s ability to manipulate the beliefs of all of us citizens of the world. Taking as scientific an approach as possible (at least an epistemological approach) seems to lead me to a very different conclusion, despite my deliberately avoiding using references originating from the conspiracy theorists (barring the film What Happened on the Moon). Finally I am still wondering why James Webb chief administrator of NASA and architect of the Apollo programme resigned early from NASA in October 1968 [20], just as the Apollo programme was nearing such a momentous occasion for all humankind?

Acknowledgements

Faghrie Mitchell provided much discussion as well as some notes on how we could examine this topic as scientifically as possible as well as the Sherlock Holmes analogy. I am indepted to his useful insight, although our conclusions are not necessarily the same. Indeed, I surprised myself that so much of the conspiracy theorist’s information turned out to be supported using, where ever possible, independent sources, and that my scientific and faith beliefs appear to oppose each other leading to inevitable lack of a definitive conclusion.

References

[1] David, L. End of Conspiracy Theories? Spacecraft Snoops Apollo Moon Sites [Internet]. Moon Hoax Related News; 2005 March 04, 12:26 pm ET [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from:
http://www.xenophilia.com/zb0003c.htm.

[2]Wikipedia contributors. Epistemology [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 29, 04:56 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Epistemology&oldid=50696077.

[3]Wikipedia contributors. Occam's razor [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 30, 16:17 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Occam%27s_razor&oldid=50903631.

[4] Wikipedia contributors. Soviet space program [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 30, 12:05 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Soviet_space_program&oldid=50879606.

[5] Wikipedia contributors. Space disaster [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 29, 22:36 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Space_disaster&oldid=50802426.

[6] Wikipedia contributors. Freedom 7 [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 27, 18:03 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Freedom_7&oldid=50454216.

[7] Wikipedia contributors. Apollo 8 [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 28, 15:52 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Apollo_8&oldid=50597426.
[8] Wikipedia contributors. 2001: A Space Odyssey (film) [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 May 1, 01:55 UTC [cited 2006 May 1]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_%28film%29&oldid=50980631.
[9] Wikipedia contributors. Van Allen radiation belt [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 29, 22:46 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Van_Allen_radiation_belt&oldid=50803903.

[10] Wikipedia contributors. Apollo moon landing hoax accusations [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 30, 20:19 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Apollo_moon_landing_hoax_accusations&oldid=50934949.

[11] D'Aleo J.S., How Weather Affects the Sky [Internet]. Earth and Sky Radio Series; undated, [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://www.earthsky.com/skywatching/weather_sky.php.

[12] Baker, D. N.; Allen, J. H., Kanekal, S. G. and Reeves G. D. Pager Satellite Failure May Have Been Related to Disturbed Space Environment [Internet]. SPACE PHYSICS; undated, [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/articles/eisbaker.html

[13] Goddard, I.W. Are Apollo Moon Photos Fake? [Internet] Goddard’s Journal, 2001 February 26, [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://www.iangoddard.net/moon01.htm

[14] Anon, The camera never lies! [Internet]. The truth is out there!; undated [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://www.apollo-hoax.me.uk/strangeshadows.html

[15]. Kitmacher, G.H. Astronaut Still Photography During Apollo [Internet] NASA History Division; 2004, August 3 [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from:
http://history.nasa.gov/apollo_photo.html

[16] Eastman Kodak Company [Internet]. History of Kodak 1960-1979. Undated, [cited 2006 April 30]. Available from: http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/kodakHistory/1960_1979.shtml.

[17] Anon. Some Answers – Page 1 [Internet]. Moon Hoax Debate; 2005 August 3 [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://www.xenophilia.com/zb0003a.htm.

[18] Whitehouse, D. First dog in space died within hours. [Internet] BBC News World Edition, 2002 Monday, 28 October, 10:34 GMT [cited 2006 Apr 30]. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2367681.stm

[19] Wikipedia contributors. Dimitri Malashenkov [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2005 Apr 29, 19:41 UTC [cited 2006 May 1]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dimitri_Malashenkov&oldid=16769632.

[20] Wikipedia contributors. James E. Webb [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 12, 17:33 UTC [cited 2006 May 1]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_E._Webb&oldid=48142506.

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FIRST ASTRONAUNTS TO LAND ON THE MOON(Apollo 11)

2006-04-25T11:12:00.000+02:00

In 1960s competition between the United States of America and the United Soviet Socialist Republic was on, following the soviet space program of man- made satellite placed on the space, then Americans alarmed their own mission on space. Competitions started during the cold war and it was for the two countries to land on the moon, and this result in many attempt to land on the moon. With the influence of radiation belt scientist believe that no one could make it, but the attempt of Americans bears fruits in 1969 by Apollo 11.

According to the NASA, they have done many projects in an attempt to land on the moon. American launched their Project to land on the moon in 1961, project mercury and Gemini iii was set to discover if man can survive on the space, for long period Alan. B. Shepard Jr became the first in the space, and John Glenn was the first to orbit the earth in 1962 using friendship7spacecraft and then Virgil Gus Grisson and John W Young. Arrive to the space in 1965 using Gemini iii, this encourage them that they can make it to the moon this because both of the project proved that human can survive on the space.

Then the Apollo program was launched following the success of mercury and Gemini, in the first it was not planned to land man in the moon, it was planned to do some research on the space, US President John F Kennedy change the program in 1961 that the USA must commit it self to land man on the moon and return him to the earth safely. Its first attempt to land man on the moon failed with the loss of astronauts life in Apollo 1 catches fire, from Apollo 2 to Apollo 7 the was a technical failure which alter the Apollo to reach the moon due to the radiation belt which have impact on the object because of its temperature which reach 500 degree Celsius.

The modification resulted in the Apollo 8 which manage to pass the radiation belt and orbit the moon in 1968, and this encourage them to try again to land the spacecraft on the moon because of the Apollo 8 which was nearly to make it, then the Apollo 11 made it in 1969 with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, these two astronauts was the first two to land in the moon, and this result in National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA) to win the race to land spacecraft on the moon and which proved that not all of their Apollos reach the space only one made it because there was other Apollo which follow after Apollo 11,Apollo 13 to Apollo 17 fail to make it. This made me 99 percent certain that there were astronauts who reach the moon from America and it was not a hoax. Critism can develop everywhere since other scientist do not believe on other scientist findings.

With the flag that the astronaut place on the lunar surface and the rock they brought back reflect that they landed in the moon, with the picture taken also show that they where in the moon,

Due to the foot print and the dust blown during landing was influenced by the dry soil in the moon as there is no moisture, the footprints was caused by the type of soil presented in the lunar surface which is predominately composed silicate material , it bond with other silica to form large molecules with the existence of oxygen. because in the moon there is no oxygen these bonds cannot occur until there is an event that aligns the molecules when the astronauts boot disturbs the lunar dust new molecular bonds are created, and this result in the footprints.

Concerning the waving flag not all waving needs wind when the astronauts planting the flag pole they rotated it back and forth for better penetrating the lunar soil so of course the flag must wave.

The photo cannot be the accurate if it was taken by the camera that was mounted on the astronauts chest it cannot shoot all the features on different slope and angels, so the omission of the star was subjected on the slope and only the picture shoot on the same level will be accurate.

In nutshell I am sure that the scientists manage to land spacecraft and astronauts to the moon. it is only criticism from other scientist who do not believe on astronauts findings, Negative criticism always make an impact than the positive criticism so with the involvement of the media it make the negative criticism to be more accurate than the truth , in the video one cannot be certain if that was planned so that the public can believe that no one landed in the moon ,I do not believe that Astronauts can lie to their own president and the world as a whole, also their rivals USSR are not revealing that the USA fail to land on the moon so it leave most of us certain that we land on the moon. This can also supported by the tour of Mark shuttleworth to the space which shows there is a possibilities to land on the moon.

Reference:

1. [Online] http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/ConspiracyTheoryDidWeGototheMoon.htm Accessed

[2006-April-19] 10:30

2. [Online] http://www.thekeyboard.org.uk/Did%20we%20land%20on%20the%20Moon.htm Accessed:

[2006-April-19] 11:24

Mr Elelwani Muanalo
CSIR Pretoria
NISL- Ecological Informatics Student
P.O. Box 395
Pretoria, 0001
Tel: +27 12 841 2133
Fax: +27 12 842 7024.
cell: +27 82 573 8678
email: emuanalo@csir.co.za
my bloger url: http://muanalo.blogspot.com

No man landed on the moon.

2006-04-22T11:52:00.000+02:00

According to the information I read on the "The great Moon Hoax" article, it shows that or proves that Apollo astronauts did not visit the moon. Even though nine astronauts return from the moon with 841 pounds of moon rocks but other scientist suggested that were produced from explosive volcanic activity on earth. There are few peoples point to alleged anomalies in the Apollo photo and video record as evidence of their claims. Those people are Bill Kaysing (author of We Never Went to the Moon); Ralph Rene (author of NASA America). Dr. David McKay (is a chief scientist planetary science and exploration at NASA's Johnson Space Centre; and also a member of the group that overseas the lunar sample laboratory facility at JSC where most of the moon rocks are stored) mention that the moon rocks are not the same as other rocks in the universe (NASA,2001).

Bill Kaysing claimed that the chance of a successful landing on the moon was calculated to be 0.0017 and it also confirmed comparing with the Rocket dyne Company in the late 1950. The lunar module's antenna was used to send television pictures of the Apollo 11 landing directly to earth from the surface of the moon. Regarding the pictures of Apollo 11 taken on the moon, it has been mentioned that there cannot be any pictures taken on the moon because the film would melt in the 250 degrees temperature; and also the radioactive heat can be effectively directed away from an object by wrapping it in a material with a reflective surface, usually simply a white material. In the camera casings, as well as most of the astronauts closing, were indeed white (NASA footage, 1975)

On the video, taken from Google it shows that the images of the earth taken from orbit also lack stars and NASA has perpetrated the lie that stars cannot be seen in space to validate the lack of stars in the Apollo photos. After the astronauts landed on the moon they putted an American flag which was bending and rippling while on the moon there is no breeze. In an atmosphere the motion of the American or any flag would quickly dampen out due to air resistance. The information technologies experts also said that no one saw the Apollo spacecraft leaving the earth orbital and the Soviets closely tracked the Apollo's all the way to the moon and back (NASA footage, 1975)

Other Apollo's before Apollo 11 never succeeded to the moon due to Van Allen Radiation belts, which resulting in the lethal doses of radiation. The Van Allen Radiation belts consist of a doughnut shaped region centred on the earth's magnetic equator and spanning about 40 degrees of latitude -20 degrees above and below the magnetic equator. However spacesuits can radiate heat, some of the heat energy received from the sun is radiated back into space as infrared rays and much of the sun's radiant energy can be reflected away. The astronauts wore spacesuits known as the extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU). The environment inside the suit consisted of 100% oxygen at 3.7 PSI (about 1/3 that of a ball), therefore the astronauts should have been puffed out like the Michelin Man, but were seen freely bending their joints (NASA, 2001)

In my conclusion: I am 94% believe that neither space craft nor man landed on the moon. All claims of Apollo 11 astronauts are a fake due to NASA In order to beat Soviets and to assure that American achieve John Kennedy's goal of landing on the moon.

References

1. Extracted from: NASA, 2001. The great moon hoax. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm: Online accesses 20/04/2006.
2. Extracted from: Google video, 1975. The time of Apollo, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=289444585088213883&q=man+on+the+moon+duration%3Along&pl=true :Online accesses 20/04/2006.

Ramapulana Nkoana
CSIR Pretoria
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pnkoana@csir.co.za
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Fax:012 842 3676

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DID WE LAND IN THE MOON?

2006-04-21T23:11:00.000+02:00

This is the right question as compared to being asked whether we've ever
landed on the moon. Did we land on the moon on 20th June 1969? We landed
space ship there but not human on space. The Russians already had landed
a space ship there and also Americans did it but not the idea that the
human beings landed on the moon. We didn't land at the particular time
suggested .To me what happened and was broadcasted in Huston was just a
well prepared lie for the Americans and the world to justify the 25.4
billion dollars
expenditurehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Apollo#Reasons_for_Apollo
to a project that becomes a failure. This also served the purpose of
boosting the confidence of Americans which had dwindled in their
administration after the launch of the launch Sputnik1 the first space
shuttle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik First lets look at the
reason why Apollo 11 was launched. This was done during the cold war
space race and, at this time the Russians had just launched the first
satellite into space on 4th October 1957. This was a challenge to the
Americans as they seemed to be loosing the space race to the Russians
only to recover by the launch of the Apollo 11. President Kennedy said
"Everything we do ought to really be tied in to getting on to the
moon ahead of the Russians... otherwise we shouldn't be spending that
kind of money, because I'm not interested in space... The only
justification (for the cost) is because we hope to beat the USSR to
demonstrate that instead of being behind by a couple of years, by God,
we passed them." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race. With this in
mind the Americans had to do their level best to include creating a
hoax. The previous missions had no photos so photos had to be added to
give more strength to the case also Americans needed something so as to
boost the public's confidence in the government.

The greatest give away for the Americans were the photos that they
claimed were from space. The flag is shown to be blown by the wind where
was the wind from? Who took the photos like the ones for Neil Armstrong
when making his giant leap to the moon and the take off of the ship from
the moon? The pressure in the space suits should be higher in the space
suits than in the moon so they should be bloated and not like they
appear. Where are the stars in all the pictures?

For a space ship to have landed in moon am 90% certain, for man landing
in the moon am about 10% percent certain. The space ship could have
escaped the Van Allen radiation belt but this would have had a fatal
effect on human beings. To date non of the astronauts have any side
effects or died from the effects of such strong radiation. The ship is
believed to have been exposed for about thirty minutes and these are
strong and fatal rays. For the photos it was a mere public relations
issue and with the discovery of others video fragments it shows they
were manipulated.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4280164630927881599&q=Nasa+apollo&pl=true.
And with this honorable ladies and gentlemen I beg to rest my case.

References:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4280164630927881599&q=Nasa+apollo&pl=true.
The Space Race http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race
The Sputnik http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik
Reasons for Apollo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Apollo#Reasons_for_Apollo

VINCENT MUCHAI WAIRIMU
Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17 Bellville

TEL: +27825103190

Email: 2648463@uwc.ac.za

Website:http://www.muchai.iblog.co.za

NO MAN LANDED ON THE MOON

2006-04-21T16:15:00.000+02:00

NO MAN LANDED ON THE MOON

There was a serious argument between the Advocates of Hoax and National Aeronantics and Space Administration (NASA) about landing on the Moon. The entire drone about the Moon began on 15th of February 2001. When Fox television aired the program entitled Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? The Advocates totally disagree with evidence that were provided by NASA. Advocates identified different things from the evidence of Astronauts that led them to the conclusion that Landing on the Moon was a hoax.

The most prominent advocates of the hoax theory were Bill Kaysing, Ralph Rene, David Percy, Marry Bennett and more recently Bart Sibrel. Bill Kaysing argued that landing on the moon was faked in the Nevada desert (http://www.badastronomm.com/bad/mis</apollo.hoax.html). NASA did not have technical capability on going to the Moon, but due to the Cold War with the Soviet Union forced them to fake it. He had indicated that the chance of landing on the Moon was calculated to be 0.0017 (1 in).

Ralph Rene believed that the NASA decided not to land to the moon and fake it. The Data which was shown was accurate, but there was a big difference between a defect and major technical problem. As results moon landing was failed. In contrary, the studies conducted by Apollo Support Department of the General Electric Company in Florida showed that the chances of landing on the moon and returning safely to the earth were very high. It was more than 90%. The assessment was based on the understanding and technology of that time. (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm)

Furthermore, Bill as one of the Advocates argues that NASA has perpetrated in lie that there was no stars which can be observed in a space to validate lack of stars. In all photograph, there were no stars that were visible, but NASA said that the purpse of the photos was to record the activities on the surface of the moon not to take the stars.

In all the pictures that were taken by the astronauts, the shadows were not black. Object in the shadow were clearly, including a plague on the side of the lander that can read easily. If the sun was the only source of light on the moon, the Hoax Believers (HBs) said that there was no air to scatter the light, shadow should be utterly. http://www.badastronomm.com/bad/mis </apollo.hoax.html).

The man who designed the camera of astronauts was contacted to know more information about the pictures. The pictures were perfect. They could not take perfect picture every time. The man did not give the answer. He hemmed and hammed. The situation was difficult for him to speak the truth during the interview. This was clear evidence that NASA must have faked the mission (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm).

David Percy said that not one still photograph of John Young matches the video footage, yet NASA claims both were shot at the same time. He indicated that the triangular shaped piece of the fabric was located on the top of John did not appear and NASA said that was a myth. The tip of the fabric can be seen when one closely examine the video ( http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm ).

The crosshairs of the astronauts were etched to better help measured objects in the picture. The HBs argued that the film would melt if exposed to a temperature of 250. NASA indicated that Advocates were not aware about the type of film used . Apollo Astronauts used the special transparency film designed specifically. The camera used was protected inside by a special case to keep them cool (http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm).

Kaysing argued that when the astronauts were assembling the American flag, the flag waved. That must had been from an errant breeze on the set. A flag would not wave in a vacuum. The advocates were not aware that the flag can wave in vacuum. That happened because when they whipped around the vertical pole, the flag waved since it was attached at the top. The top moved first, and then the cloth followed along in a wave that moved down(http://www.badastronomm.com/bad/mis</apollo.hoax.html).

I am 97% confidence that no man landed to the money. I agreed with the evidences which were given by Advocates of HBs, for examples shadow cast on the lunar surface should be parallel. Apollo photos were not parallel indicated more than one light source, moisture must be present in soil for it to form footprints, yet the Moon is totally dry world, and a large amount of dust was generated during landings, yet no dust can be seen on the Lunar Module footpads.

REFERENCES

Fox TV and the Apollo Moon Hoax, 13 February 2001
http://www.badastronomm.com/bad/mis </apollo.hoax.html
Accessed on 2006- 04-19: 11h10

Did we land on the moon? 15 February 2001

http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm
Accessed on 2006- 04-19: 13h30

Debunking of the Moon Hoax Theory, 23 February 2001
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm
Accessed on 2006- 04-19:12h15

Masiya Kedibone
CSIR Pretoria
0001
Cell No : 073 2519071
Tel No: 012 8412123
Fax : 012 842 3676
E-mail :kmasiya@csir.co.za
weblog: http://kedimasiya.blogspot.com/

ASTRONAUTS DID NOT LANDED ON THE MOON

2006-04-21T16:10:00.000+02:00

There was an argument between the Scientists about the astronauts landed on tme moon. Some of the scientists believed that NASA fakes this, they never landed on the moon and they did not return with enough evidence from the moon, they return with the rocks. Other scientists believed that astronauts did land on the moon and they return with the evidence of rocks from the moon.

According to Bill Kaysing, astronauts did not landed on the moon, they fake their video about landed on the moon. Bill has all the evidence which include the taken pictures during their journey to the moon. Something was missing from their photos. This proved them that astronauts never land on the moon because the star was missing from their photos. Another evidence that Bill have included engineering details and what the confirmed during their interview (Fox TV, 2001).

The other picture that was taken by an astronauts is that there was a lunar dust blown away by the rocket when the astronauts jumping from one place to another on the moon. It was said that on the moon there is no force of gravity; air is the only thing that can helped the dust to blow away. It was said that all the pictures taken from the moon were always perfect meaning that they were clear and they interviewed the person who designed the camera of an astronauts that, why the photos were all clear? He said that he did not have the answer and he finally agreed that it was a hoax and NASA fake the mission. Some astronauts were asked why the stars are missing at their pictures. They said that it is impossible for a camera to view every thing, every where, so camera can not take every thing (Fox TV, 2001).

There was another picture which shown the flag of the United States planted by the astronauts on the moon. The flag of the United States was waving, so there is no way that the flag can wave without air and it was said that there is no air on the moon. Some astronauts believed that not all the time the flag can be waved by air in the space. Astronauts also said that flag waved when they planted the flag pole because they rotate it back and forth to better penetrate the lunar soil and it is possible for the flag to wave in a vacuum (The Great Moon Hoax, 2001)

According to the Dr David McKay who was the lunar sample laboratory facility at theNational Aeronantics and Space Administration ( NASAs) Johnson Space Centre (JSC) said that many astronauts walked on the moon between 1969 and 1972 and some of the astronauts died on their way to the moon, only nine are still alive and they return from the moon with the 841 pound of the moon rocks which were different from an Earth rocks. The different between the rocks from moon and the earth is that, the rocks from the earth do not have water, and the rocks from the moon have trapped water. Dr Marc Norman said that they found a fresh glass in the moon rocks produced by explosive volcanic and meteorit impact about 3 billion years ago (The Great Moon Hoax, 2001).

Ralph Rene said that no one landed on the moon, NASA fake the whole thing about moon landing. It provided by having difference evidence between a defect and major technical problem. Rene said that early Apollo flights tested mission share out buds in hardware and procedure, the moon landing were far from flawless (Did we land on the moon, 2001).

I am 90 % certain that no man landed on the moon, all was a fake. Apollo 1 to 10 are the once who tried to go to the moon but unfortunately they did not came back on Earth, they died during their journey because of the solar radiation. Apollo 11 to 17 claimed that they landed on the moon but they refused to swear to God that they landed on the moon, they just run away. The astronauts took 9 hours to go to the moon which was impossible and it said that the journey to the moon took three days. I am 89 % certain that no spacecraft landed on the moon. This is because the Apollo pictures were not having the stars. The star can be seen only when there is a sun and it means the sky will be black. I concluded that no one landed on the moon and one of the astronauts said that if they can not make it, they have to fake it. So they did fake the landed moon.

Reference:

FOX special at Phil Plaits Bad Astronomy (2001),
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/apollohoax.html ,
[Accessed on 2006-04-21:12h00]

The Great Moon Hoax (2001),
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb 2.htm,
[Accessed on 2006-04-21:13h00]

Did we land on the moon?
http://www.braeuning.us/space/hoax.htm ,
[Access on 2006-04-21:14h00]

Lizzy Maluleke
CSIR PTA
0001
Cell nomber 072 351 8488
Tell              [012] 841 2133
Fax              [012] 842 3676
E-mail          maluleke@csir.co.za
weblog: http://mmaluleke.blogspot.com/

DID THEY LAND ON THE MOON OR IT IS A HOLLYWOOD HOAX?

2006-04-21T16:09:00.000+02:00

Since 1960s until early 1970s the attempts were made by the Russians and the Americans to land on the moon. Because of the radiation belt the Apollo 1 to Apollo 10 never reached the moon, they were all destroyed and the astronauts were killed. It was until 20 july1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are said to be the first to have landed the moon. The NASA claims were supported by the evidence of 841 pounds of moon rock they brought home to the earth. It is believed that not only these two went to the moon but also other astronauts did go there until the period of 1972. Among those who went to the moon 9 are still alive.

On the 15 February 2001 the fox television aired a program called conspiracy theory: did we land on the moon? According to the show NASA fake the film of moon landing. Since the programme aired there are lots of debates going around concerning whether they did or did not land on the moon?

According to my point of understanding, I am 94% believe that the whole thing is a hoax and they never landed the space craft on the moon. It is said that there is a radiation belt that surrounded the moon. The temperature of this radiation belt is about 250- 500 degree Celsius and this is too much for any object to pass through this belt therefore they should be destroyed. Though NASA claimed to have made a well planned space craft to withstand this temperature still it does not make sense because during the 1960s, the technology was not that much well advanced and they did not have the capabilities of reaching the moon.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are said to be the first to land on the moon and this is supported by the fact that they were seen walking on the moon, they erected the American flag and they brought back moon rock home to earth. I totally disagree that this men landed the moon because by the time they were erecting the flag, it was seen bending and ripping of which is highly impossible in situation where there is no air. The way they (astronauts) were moving is questionable. It is said that at the moon there is no force of gravity therefore they were not suppose to jump up and down because if there was no force of gravity they should have just hang over the moon ground.

The astronauts were heard communicating with the controllers on the ground just 9 hours after they leave the earth and they claimed to have reached the moon. But according to what the scientist said it is estimated that the time to reach the moon is 72 hours so 9 hours is not even a halfway to the moon.

The other fact is that those astronauts who said to have landed the moon refused to be interviewed. Those who were interviewed some how they were not co-operating and were rude these prove that they are hiding something. I think they should be proud, stand-up tall and tell us about their experience. So by running away from the people who need to interview them prove that there is something wrong or they are running away from the truth. Those who were interviewed some how they made different statements which raise concern that they really faked to have gone to the moon.

The NASA failed to show the photos that confirm that the astronauts really did go to the moon. This is because their photos failed to show the stars. The black sky should be full of stars and non are visible in their photographs. Therefore these proved that they photos were not originally taken from the moon surface.

I therefore conclude that we are living in the world of competition where every country wants to be on top in terms of technology, wealth and everything. That is why some people will have to fake things if they cannot make the original or the real things. I believe this is also another hoax.

Reference:

1. http://www.braeuninig.us/space/htm [Accessed 19 may 2006, 12:00]

2. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1481909519678263426&amp;amp;q=Apollo+debrief&pl=trueax.htm [Accessed 20 may 2006, 10:00]

Mr Lufuno Mukwevho
CSIR Pretoria
P.O. Box 395
Pretoria, 0001
Tel: (012) 841 2133
Fax: 012 842 7024.
cell: 0723175626
email: lmukwevho@csir.co.za
blog : http://mukwevholufuno.blogspot.com

WRITING A SCIENTIFIC PAPER

2006-04-21T16:05:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone on the 20 April 2006 I attended a small presentation about scientific writing at CSIR in Pretoria NRE (Natural Resources and Environment) building. Writing a scientific paper was presented by Peter Ashton. He talked about the different papers for example book reviews, discussion document, newsletters. When writing a scientific paper you should include all authors but with their permission and try writing as a team in that way you will be sharing the load and information. He talked about how to structure your paper before writing and the most important thing is that you should follow instructions. For more info send me an e-mail.

Lethabo Mosomane
CSIR
Pretoria
0001
Tel: 27 12 841 2133
Fax: 27 12 842 3676
mail: lmosomane@csir.co.za
blog: www.lmosomane.blogspot.com

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THE GREAT MOON HOAX

2006-04-21T15:13:00.000+02:00

The main reason for going to the moon was to compete with the Russians and Americans. The whole thing was faked in the Navenda desert. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in 1969 and they were failing to get it. Some of them died but others have survive to come back. They used Apollo to go to moon. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) faked the fact that Neil Armstrong was the first man to land on the moon. During 2001 the Fox television aired a programme titled Conspiracy Theory, did we land on the moon? NASA was not up to real moon landing. No they did not land on the moon. On the moon there is no atmosphere and no force of gravity, how did they walk? This is an interesting thing about conspiracy theory.

In the rock of the moon there are Isotopes, which we did not normally find on the earth. These Isotopes were created by nuclear reactions with the highest energy cosmic rays. Pictures of Apollo astronauts shows the flag on the moon is bending and rippling. This would not happen because there is no breeze on the moon. So the flag waves. The black skies are not full of stars in all Apollo photographs. They fail to recognize the difference between seeing stars and photographing stars. Astronauts never mention the beautiful star-filled sky.

To go to the moon astronauts would travel through van Allen Radiation Belts, which results in Radiation. Those people would have died, because it took Apollo one hour to pass through the radiation belt. This means that, radiation from the solar what? Would have killed the Apollo astronauts en route to the moon and when it came back. These Apollo astronauts would have been killed by thousand of micrometeoroids. How could those people have survived on the moon because there is heat on the moon. Of course the astronauts survived because some of the heat energy received from the sun then is radiated back into space as infrared rays.

In most of the photographs, the shadow side of rocks appear black where as astronauts appear illuminated. Those astronauts failed to reflect sunlight. On the video we watched two men walking on the moon during Apollo mission and there was a photo in which Astronauts reflected the visor had no camera, to take the shot.

We can not take any pictures on the moon because the film would melt. Any normal film will melt if exposed to 250C temperatures. Apollo astronauts used film designed by a NASA contract. Photographers know that it is difficult to captures something very bright and very dim on the same film. In the NASA pictures, there is lack of stars in the pictures taken by Apollo Astronauts from the moon. With no air the sky is black. On the earth without sunlight air is dark, at night it allowing us to see stars. On the moon lack of air means sky is dark and the sun is high during full day. If you were standing on moon you would see stars even during the day. This makes it remotely possible that NASA faked it.

All pictures taken by astronauts indicate that, the shadow is not black. Photos from the moon are shown where the objects on Lunar Landscape have long shadows. The sun is the only light source, which means the shadows should be parallel. Images taken by Astronauts shows us the objects are in front of the crosshairs, this is impossible if the crosshairs were inside the camera. Shadows cast on the Lunar surface should be parallel some shadows in the Apollo photos are not parallel and it indicates more light sources. This is100% a total hoax.
Reference
1. Here is a web page on the FOX special at Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy site.
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html [ Accessed 18 April 2006, 13:00]

2.. Did we land on the moon?
http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm [Accessed 18 April 2006, 11:00]

Linette Netshiheni
CSIR Pretoria
0001
Cell: 0820446442
Tell: 012 841 2133
Fax: 012 842 3676
tnetshiheni@csir.co.za
Weblog: http://tnesthiheni.blogspot.com/

DID WE REALLY LAND MEN ON THE MOON? REVEWING THE PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE

2006-04-21T15:01:00.000+02:00

The world of science is full of surprises. Each an every time, when scientist/s invent or make a discovery about something, negative criticism tend to be more than the positive criticism, but later on reality tend to come into existence. Both negative and positive criticisms mostly come from the media, both print and electronic. The fact that Fox television has broadcasted a programme called Conspiracy theory fuelled the mistrust of people to the astronauts.

I am 99% certain that the first man to land on the moon was Neil Armstrong from United States of America (USA). The credibility of the film makers is also questionable, how can they compare photos which are taken from the two different earths, the one which is having the atmosphere and the magnetosphere which is the earth that we live on and the one without both the atmosphere and magnetosphere, the moon. It is obvious that the conditions which prevail between the two earths are totally different. Therefore, photos taken from the different earths would also be different.

It is also obvious that among the people who were viewing the film were the scientists. As we know that among the scientists themselves, in order for something to become reality and accepted by the scientific community and convince the public, argument must first prevail. Surprisingly, from the Fox film makers we do not hear from them about who was the first person to land on the moon. This means that only what is shown in the film was a Hoax.

Even though I am 99% certain that the first man to land on the moon was Neil Armstrong, but I am also 1% uncertain. This is because why the astronauts from NASA asked questions refused to answer. One can also suspects that may be they were hiding something about the allegations will leave the people unsure whether the film aired by the Fox was true or false.

As the main purpose of the film is to make money, may be this also influenced the film makers to put the story in their film in such a way as to make public to buy their film. For example, in the article the headline read as follows, The Great Moon Hoax. The above mentioned headline in the article can be interpreted in different ways, because we cannot interpret things the same way, as we see things differently.

If it is the fact that Neil Armstrong is the first man to land on the moon is a hoax, this also means that many of the books, journals and information in the internet need to be wiped off to prevent further confusion. One can also ask himself/herself a question such as if landing on the moon is a hoax, why it took so long for the hoax to be exposed. The chances are slim that lending on the moon was a hoax as compared with the information available which supports the fact that Neil Armstrong was the first person to land on the moon.

Source

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb 2.htm

Peter Muvhali
CSIR PTA
0001
Tell no 012 8142133
Fax 012 8423676
E-mail smuvhali@csir.co.za
weblog: http:pmuvhali.blogsport.com

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NASA FAKED THE MOON LANDING

2006-04-21T14:37:00.000+02:00

Neil Armstrong and his team were the first people to land on the moon and they also put a United States of America flag on the moon but Bill Kaysing said that the chance of landing a spacecraft on the moon was 0.0017 which means 1 in 600 so Neil Armstrong and his team could not have gone to the moon (2). Neil Armstrong and his team brought back an 11.7 Kg Moon rock from the moon and it was prove to show the world that they actually went to the moon. The rocks from the moon are different from the rocks on earth. Moon rocks have isotopes which were created by nuclear reactions with the highest-energy cosmic rays and earth rocks are protected by the atmosphere and magnetosphere from the radiation (3). Moon rocks also have almost no water trapped in their crystal structure and earth rock has water trapped inside but Dr Marc Norman said that they have found fresh particles of fresh glass in the Moon rocks and the glasses were produced by a volcanic explosion activity(3).

Neil Armstrong and his team managed to take some photographs and video of the moon. They used Lunar Module antenna to send the pictures of the Apollo 11 landing to earth (2). Apollo 11 was limited to using black and white, slow-scan TV camera with a scan rate of 10frames per second at 320 lines per frame. The pictures were converted to the commercial TV standard Electronic Industry Association (EIA) first before they were displayed on a 10-inch black and white monitor and a vidicon camera. The pictures were scanned at the EIA standard. Kodak said that it is impossible to take photographs on the moon because temperature on the moon is 250ºF and the film will melt (2). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said that they have designed special transparency film for environments like the moon by wrapping it with a material which has a reflective surface (usually a white material). Bill Kaysing said that the pictured lacked stars and the stars should be visible because the pictures were taken from the moon (2) and the sky was black. NASA said that the stars were not visible on the photographs because they are too faint to be seen and also the moon surface is brightly lit by the sun; they are also wearing white suites so the stars cannot be seen on the pictures(1).

I do not think that NASA landed a spacecraft and no man also landed on the moon because the earth orbital is surrounded by the dangerous Van Allen Radiation Belts which are too dangerous since it is consists of small molecules which can penetrate the spacecraft and the space suite. On the video 2 (4) one of the Astronauts jumped and there was dust but surprisingly the dust managed to come down to the moon surface. What I know is that the is no gravity on the moon so how come did the lunar manage to go down, is it that the dust should remain being suspended on space just like the things(e.g. food that they were passing to each other) that they were using remained suspended until someone takes it . None of the people who went to the moon wanted to be interviewed by the CNN news on video 3(5); if they were not hiding anything they could have told people how it was to be on the moon because they used their money and they should also thank them for their support. They should have done what Mark Shuttleworth did, he went to space and when he came back he reported how it was like to go to space to show that he has nothing to hide. So what is it that Neil Armstrong and his team running from, why did they not want to be interviewed? If they went to the moon why did they fake their pictures because all their pictures have the same background, some have more than one light source how that can be possible. Since at the moon gravity is absent and also airless how come the flag on video 2(4) was flapping?

References

1. http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html [Accessed 19 April 2006, 15:47]

2. http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm [Accessed 19 may 2006, 12:23]

3. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm [Accesssed 19 April 2006, 09:58]

4. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1481909519678263426&amp;amp;q=Apollo+debrief&pl=true [Assecced 19 April 2006, 14:00]

5. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2265515730495966561&q=Did+we+land+on+the+moon&pl=true [Accessed 20 April 2006, 14:00]

Lethabo Mosomane
CSIR
Pretoria
0001
Tel: +27 12 841 2133
Fax: +27 12 842 3676
E-mail: lmosomane@csir.co.za
Blog: lmosomane.blogspot.com

Made in a Hollywood basement - Did they or didn't they land on the moon?

2006-04-21T13:07:00.000+02:00

Well, in my humble opinion I would venture to suggest that the moon landing that we saw in the footage, photo's and other paraphernalia was in fact all staged, and that the real moon landing, whenever that was I'm not sure, was a much less spectacular, and much less eventful happening. The moon footage and photo's were all done in time to afford America victory in the 'space race', and the suspicions around that I feel can never truly be rebutted, in light of the fact that to the day the united states remains a world superpower, who has a direct influence on almost every major event (or at least how it to be perceived by the rest of the world) in the world. The movie 'Wag the dog' is a perfect illustration of the power that the US media has over the way a war, or the rest of the world views any other current world event, and also just how much one can tamper with footage/photo's to achieve the desired result.

Some of the most plausible motives for the US government staging this hoax are distraction and cold war prestige. Distraction - the lunar missions definitely took peoples attention from the Vietnam war, and the frantic lunar activity strangely came to a halt, with planned missions being aborted, around the same time that the US stop their involvement in the Vietnam War. Cold War Prestige - It was imperative for the U.S. government win the space race with the USSR. Going to the Moon, if at all possible, was quite risky and pretty expensive. It would have been much easier (and cheaper) to fake the landing, ensuring sure-fire success.

There are many people who believe, and many who don't, and I will now work through my opinion on their comments, which I got off www.bbc.co.uk

Bob Builder - "How is anyone supposed to believe that a space-craft with the total computer power of a pocket calculator made it to the moon and back?"

I do believe that there must have been some serious risk involved in the first mission. The available technology at the time was such that there was a good chance that the landing might fail if genuinely attempted, and therefore I think they would have at least have taken 'precautionary' measures like maybe prerecording the mission, and taking photo's, to ensure the 'success' of the mission.

Harry Faulkner - "I still believe it was real. And just think what a coup it would have been for the Soviet Union to be able to show that it was all faked. If they had even so much as a whisper that it was faked - and their intelligence was very good - they'd have screamed 'fake' at the top of their voices. They never did."

The Soviets, with their own competing moon program and an intense economic and political and military rivalry with the USA, would be expected to have cried foul if the USA tried to fake a Moon landing, if it wasn't for the fact that, according to the Theorist Ralph Rene, shortly after the alleged Moon landings, the USA silently started shipping hundreds of thousands of tons of grain as humanitarian aid to the allegedly starving USSR. This may act as evidence of a cover-up, the grain being the price of silence.

Geoff Pollard - "The conspiracy theorists always ignore one important factor... the moon rocks that were brought back. These were distributed world wide to the scientific community and universities for evaluation. Surely if they had been faked then someone would have blown the whistle by now."

In response to that, I only have two words: Piltdown Man. Piltdown was a major archaeological hoax, which was successfully perpetrated for over 40 years. Many other hoaxes have been successfully staged over the years, and I have no reason to believe that in this one there isn't some hint of untruth.

Sources:

http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Apollo_moon_landing_hoax_accusations
http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm
www.bbc.co.uk

Miss Annamarie Martin
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation biology
University of the Western Cape
Private BagX17
e-mail - 2318859@uwc.ac.za
Blog - http://www.marypoppins.iblog.co.za/

Made in a Hollywood basement - Did they or didn't they land on the moon..?

2006-04-21T12:59:00.000+02:00

Some of the most plausible motives for the US government staging this
hoax are distraction and cold war prestige. Distraction - the lunar
missions definitely took peoples attention from the Vietnam war, and the
frantic lunar activity strangely came to a halt, with planned missions
being aborted, around the same time that the US stop their involvement
in the Vietnam War. Cold War Prestige - It was imperative for the U.S.
government win the space race with the USSR. Going to the Moon, if at
all possible, was quite risky and pretty expensive. It would have been
much easier (and cheaper) to fake the landing, ensuring sure-fire
success.

There are many people who believe, and many who don't, and I will now
work through my opinion on their comments, which I got off www.bbc.co.uk

Bob Builder - "How is anyone supposed to believe that a space-craft
with the total computer power of a pocket calculator made it to the moon
and back?"

I do believe that there must have been some serious risk involved in
the first mission. The available technology at the time was such that
there was a good chance that the landing might fail if genuinely
attempted, and therefore I think they would have at least have taken
'precautionary' measures like maybe prerecording the mission, and taking
photo's, to ensure the 'success' of the mission.

Harry Faulkner - "I still believe it was real. And just think what a
coup it would have been for the Soviet Union to be able to show that it
was all faked. If they had even so much as a whisper that it was faked -
and their intelligence was very good - they'd have screamed 'fake' at
the top of their voices. They never did."

The Soviets, with their own competing moon program and an intense
economic and political and military rivalry with the USA, would be
expected to have cried foul if the USA tried to fake a Moon landing, if
it wasn't for the fact that, according to the Theorist Ralph Rene,
shortly after the alleged Moon landings, the USA silently started
shipping hundreds of thousands of tons of grain as humanitarian aid to
the allegedly starving USSR. This may act as evidence of a cover-up, the
grain being the price of silence.

Geoff Pollard - "The conspiracy theorists always ignore one important
factor... the moon rocks that were brought back. These were distributed
world wide to the scientific community and universities for evaluation.
Surely if they had been faked then someone would have blown the whistle
by now."

In response to that, I only have two words: Piltdown Man. Piltdown was
a major archaeological hoax, which was successfully perpetrated for over
40 years. Many other hoaxes have been successfully staged over the
years, and I have no reason to believe that in this one there isn't some
hint of untruth.

Sources:

http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Apollo_moon_landing_hoax_accusations

http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm
www.bbc.co.uk

Miss Annamarie Martin
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation biology
University of the Western Cape
Private BagX17
e-mail - 2318859@uwc.ac.za
Blog - http://www.marypoppins.iblog.co.za/

DID WE LAND ON THE MOON OR IT IS JUST A HOAX?

2006-04-21T12:29:00.000+02:00

As I was busy preparing for my assignment, I realised that there was an argument about Man Landing on the Moon if ever man landed on the Moon or it was just a hoax.

According to (NASA, 2001) Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon in 1969 and they put the USA flag on the surface of the Moon. And they were not the only astronauts to go to the Moon, a dozen went to the Moon in 1969 and 1972 and only nine of them are still alive and they can prove that. They came back to earth with 841 pounds of the Moon rock and the pictures they captured on the Moon.

The rocks they brought home to earth were unique, it really showed that the rock came from another world, which was the Moon because of the difference between the rocks which are found on the world, they were the isotopes in the rocks of the Moon and we do not normally find those isotopes on the Earth (NASA, 2001).

People believed that NASA faked the Apollo Moon landings in the 1960s and 1970s and Bill Kaysing seems to have all sorts of evidence, including the pictures taken by the astronauts themselves, some testimony by the astronauts themselves and the engineering details. The conclusion was that the whole thing was faked by the NASA in the Nevada desert; they believed that NASA did not go to the Moon because they lacked the technical capability. They did all this fraud because of the pressure due to the Cold War with the Soviet Union (Fox TV, 2001).

I am 97% certain that no spacecraft landed on the Moon. The astronauts would have to travel through the radiation belts and the powerful radiation from the solar flares would have killed the Apollo astronauts in route to the Moon and back and they would have been pierced by thousands of micrometeoroids. Who wants to die?

I am 89% certain that nobody went to the Moon. As I watched the video I realised that those astronauts claims to have gone to the Moon, none of them really gave the proof about their tour to the Moon and some of them were cross with the interviewer, they did not want to be interviewed about that. I am 99% certain that they faked the whole thing at the Nevada desert, because if really they went to the Moon how could they come back with pictures, because at the Moon it is hot with a temperature of 250 degrees Celsius, so the film would have melted. And their pictures were without the stars. (Conspiracy Theory, 2001).

The USA flag that they believed was on the Moon surface was shown to be bending and rippling this also proves that the flag was not on the Moon because there is no breeze on the Moon, (Great Moon Hoax, 2001). And (Plait's Bad Astronomy, 2001) supports the fact that there is lack of air on the Moon. As I was watching the video I saw the dust blown away by the rocket, which was not supposed to be blown. And again I saw the footprints, and I believe that in order to see the footprints moisture must be available in soil and the Moon is known to be a totally dry world (Conspiracy Theory, 2001).

In conclusion, no man ever landed on the Moon, they tried to reach there but they failed because they could not travel through the Van Allen Radiation Belts. It was very dangerous to go to the Moon during the time of the astronauts Neil Armstrong and his colleagues and I believe even to day it is still dangerous. That is the reason why people are no longer trying to go to the Moon. And again if it is not dangerous, why people are not spending their holidays there or even to celebrate their wedding ceremonies. Finally, I believe that NASA would be making money by taking people to the Moon like other business companies who are making money; for example, I can spend an hour travelling from Johannesburg to Durban using a flight instead of spending 18 hours using a car. That was a hoax, no one walked at the Moon surface.

Reference:

Science at NASA (2001) The Great Moon Hoax, (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm, accessed on: 2006/04/19: 08h00)

Did we land on the Moon? (2001), (http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm, accessed on 2006/04/19: 10h00)

Plait's Bad Astronomy (2001), (http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/apollohoax.html, accessed on 2006/04/19: 14h00)

======================================
Ms Evelyn Maleka
CILLA CSIR
P.O. Box 395
Pretoria, 0001
Tel: (012) 841 2133
Fax: 012 842 7024.
cell: 082 292 1415
Email: emaleka@csir.co.za
http://malekaevelyn.blogspot.com/

IF THERE IS A MAN ON THE MOON, CAN YOU HEAR ME CALLING YOU...

2006-04-20T16:53:00.000+02:00

How certain were you that we landed space-craft on the Moon?
How certain were you that we landed men on the moon?
How certain that the NASA photos presented to the world are authentic and unmodified?

I have always taken the lunar landings as a given. Not giving much thought to the whole business, until I watched the video on the Conspiracy Theory... Well, now I was forced to think about it. I must admit, I have never been an admirer of the American way of doing things, so with that in mind, I had to try and stay objective!

Having watched all the videos and browsing numerous web-sites both pro and con the lunar landings, I have come to the following conclusions:

I am pretty certain that "we" did land space-craft on the moon. For where did the moon rocks come from? They have been studied by many specialists from all over the world (presumably not all pro American!), and I couldn’t find one that wasn't convinced that they are the real thing. To laymen like me, the arguments about if the lunar module had really landed on the moon (no blast crater) and subsequently taken off again (no flame) seemed feasible, but the experts have an explanation that I cannot refute. The thrust wasn't directed to any one point long enough to cause a crater and in a vacuum the thrust would have been dispersed quite widely anyway. The fuel used ignites on contact without a flame and also produces transparent fumes. The argument raised about the dust that would have obstructed visibility and made landing impossible, also seems flawed as the lunar modules were landed purely with instruments without requiring visual references.

I am now also pretty certain that there was a man (men) on the moon. The Van Allen radiation belts mentioned by the conspiracy theorists do exist, but what is not mentioned is that prolonged exposure is required for this to be harmful. The estimated four hours it took the Apollo spacecraft to pass through these radiation belts, followed by days of low radiation, allowed the astronauts to recover from possible harmful effects. Lead is also not the best or only material for protection as claimed by the conspiracy theorists; today polyethylene shielding is used to protect the international space station.

The presence of dust and the “perfection” of the footprints were also used to try and prove that the NASA footage was taken on earth and not on the moon. However, on closer analysis it seems logical that that these features actually indicate that the shots were indeed taken on the moon as the puff of dust did not stay suspended for a while as one would expect it to do on earth. In a vacuum, dust would fall down immediately, as it does on the video clips. The “perfection” of the footprints indicates that the dust must have been extremely fine, as it is expected to be on the moon.

The waving flag also sounds convincing initially, but taking into consideration that the flag was supported by a horizontal crossbar, it makes sense that the flag would move and appear to be waving as the astronaut struggled to drive the pole into the lunar soil. In addition, the greatly reduced pull of gravity on the moon would have left creases in the flag, creating the appearance that it was waving in a still photo.

I was quite convinced that the photos were fabricated until I had a look at the explanations given by photographers. The shadows that appear to fall in different directions can be explained by objects being at different slopes and angles. The crosshairs that appear to be behind some objects can be explained as these objects were in each case very bright, which would have “cancelled” out the line creating the impression that the object was in front of the line. If one would look at an enlarged photo, the line is visible in front of the object, but only very faintly.

The objects appearing bright in the shadow have also been explained and demonstrated as well as the background that appears to be the same. And so I have found a feasible answer for all the claims made by the Conspiracy Theory. I am not going to go bore you more by going into their detail… there are enough websites to look it up.

There might be some discrepancies and some photos might have been “improved” and “live” transmissions might have been edited first for better effects, but that does not make the first or subsequent Apollo missions a hoax. In fact I am convinced that these missions were for real. If the Americans did fool the whole world about the exact timing of the first lunar landing (and I believe they might have been tempted to do this if one considers the fierce rivalry and prestige involved), it would be beyond all reason to push their luck and perform the hoax six times, even for the Americans!

Finally the Americans did fulfil the special message by John F. Kennedy to congress even though he did not live to see it. And did the moon landings change the world? Apart from the political impact it had it sure made humankind think “we are capable of achieving anything”!

References:

I base my conclusions from studying the following sites and videos.

Wikipedia contributors. Moon landing [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 20, 16:04 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 21]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moon_landing&oldid=49301715.

Wikipedia contributors. Apollo moon landing hoax accusations [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 19, 16:54 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 21]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Apollo_moon_landing_hoax_accusations&oldid=49149949.

Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy site. This page last modified Wednesday, 25-Jan-2006 17:09:29 CST [cited 2006 Apr 20 at 18h25]. Available from: http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

Moon Base Clavius is an organization of amateurs and professionals devoted to the Apollo program and its manned exploration of the moon. Our special mission is to debunk the so-called conspiracy theories that state such a landing may never have occurred. [cited 2006 Apr 20 at 16h10]. Available from: http://www.clavius.org/

Did we land on the moon? Make up your own mind. Made in England. Began August 1999. Updated 15th October 2002. [cited 2006 Apr 20 at 15h31]. Available from: http://www.apollo-hoax.me.uk/index.html

Website claiming moon landings were a hoax. [cited 2006 Apr 20 at 19h15]. Available from: http://www.geocities.com/nasascam/

Keith Mayes site on Bart Sibrel. Last updated 10/10/03. [cited 2006 Apr 20 at 20h05]. Available from: http://www.thekeyboard.org.uk/Bart%20Sibrel.htm

Official NASA website bedunking the hoax. [cited 2006 Apr 20]. Available from: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm

Videos:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=289444585088213883&q=man+on+the+moon+duration%3Along&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;pl=true (The Time of Apollo - National Archives and Records Administration 28 min 29 sec - Jan 1, 1975)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1481909519678263426&amp;amp;amp;q=Apollo+debrief&pl=true (Debrief Apollo 8 1969 National Archives and Records Administration 27 min 19 sec - Feb 11, 2006)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2265515730495966561&amp;amp;q=Did+we+land+on+the+moon&pl=true(Fox television programme called "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?")

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4280164630927881599&q=Nasa+apollo&pl=true (NASA- Apollo 11 How did they do it - a reportedly genuine NASA clip accidentally released)

Karen Marais, BCB NISL student, University of the Western Cape

E-mail 2657211@uwc.ac.za
Web http://brit-journal.com/karen2006bcbnisl/

GREAT APE GAPS IT AS THE FIRST HOMINID IN ORBIT WHILE “MOST INTELLIGENT” SPECIES FIGHTS OVER WHO HAS THE BIGGEST BALLS…

2006-04-19T23:45:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone

Please view my interpretation of the assignment of the moon-landing on my blog as titled above (now posted below in addition, upon request). Though I answer the questions posed by Dr. Knight, I also look at the reasoning behind, and what I believe led up to, the much debated moon-landing and the Apollo programme.

History is an amasing reflection of our destructive capabilities.

Do you agree? Make your own comments...

I look forward to your opinions.

Here it is:

As an assignment, we were requested to look critically at the historical footage of the moon landing of Apollo 11 (and some) as well as the views of those who suggest that the moon-landing never actually occurred. The debate reigns…Did Man (Americans) set foot on the moon or was this just the most elaborate hoax ever conceived?

I did some digging, in fact LOTS of digging, and believe that I can answer the question. As the following is of my opinion and by my interpretation of the facts which I obtained, I may well be incorrect, so, please feel free to present me in the comments section of this blog with alternative hypotheses supported by your own facts…

I believe that the moon landings did actually occur, but also that the majority of the sceptics’ conspiracy theories denying the possibility of an actual moon landing, have substance. How is this possible and can we believe what we are given to see as a historical and accurate account of the events which actually took place? Yes and no…read further…

The question of the moon-landings cannot be viewed as would be expected, through the apparent evidence. We need to look deeper into the philosophy of reasoning behind this event and a build up of political and historical events leading up to this milestone. To begin with the end, I extend my sincere congratulations to the USA government for pulling off a project of this magnitude, within hidden, were the possibilities of total annihilation, if such a project had failed. Guys, you did what you needed to do, bravo!

Lets look at the history of 1961, the basis of my reasoning and angle of approach (no pun intended). All information is supplied by: Wikipedia contributors. 1961 [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 19, 17:30 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 19]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1961&oldid=49154472.

3 January 1961

US President Dwight Eisenhower announced that the USA had cut all ties, diplomatic and consular with its neighbour Cuba.

9 January 1961

British intelligence announced that they had discovered a large Soviet-spy organisation in London.

17 January 1961

President Eisenhower gave his last State of the Union address.

20 January 1961

John F. Kennedy became the president of the USA.

24 January 1961

A US B-52 bomber with two 1-megaton nuclear bombs crashed near Goldsboro in North Carolina.

25 January 1961

John F. Kennedy delivered the first live presidential news conference announcing that the two captured crew members of the USAF RB 47 reconnaissance plane (spy-plane), shot down by Soviet fighters over the Barents sea on 1 July 1960, had been released by the Soviet Union.

30 January 1961

John F. Kennedy delivered his first State of the Union address.

31 January 1961

The male Chimpanzee, Ham, became the first Hominid to be rocketed into orbit as part of a test of the Mercury project, a capsule designed to carry US astronauts into space.

1 March 1961

John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps.

8 March 1961

The first Polaris submarine arrived at Holy Loch in Scotland.

12 April 1961

Yuri Gagarin became the first human (Soviet) in space.

17 April 1961

The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba begins, ultimately ending in failure.

20 April 1961

Fidel Castro announced that all the invaders of the Bay of Pigs had been defeated.

5 April 1961

Alan Shepherd became the first American in space.

25 May 1961

President John F. Kennedy announced to a special joint session of congress, his goals and intentions to initiate a project (Apollo) to ‘put a man on the moon’ before the end of the decade.

31 May 1961

President John F. Kennedy met with Charles De Gaulle in Paris.

4 June 1961

President John F. Kennedy met with Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna (for two days), to discuss nuclear tests, disarmament, and Germany.

4 July 1961

The Soviet nuclear submarine K-19 exploded in the Northern Atlantic.

21 July 1961

Gus Grissom piloted the Mercury 4 capsule, “Liberty Bell,” becoming the second American in space.

13 August 1961

The initiation of the construction of the Berlin wall began.

30 October 1961

The Soviet Union detonated a 58-megaton hydrogen bomb known as “Tsar bomba” over Novaya Zemlya. This explosion to date remains as the record of the largest man-made explosion ever.

2 December 1961

Fidel Castro announced in a nationally broadcast speech that he adopted Marxist-Lenilism and that Cuba was to adopt Communism.

11 December 1961

The Vietnam War officially began.

The above historical record on its own paints a volatile and potentially destructive picture, but lets look even deeper at some of the events mentioned to paint an even more DESPERATE picture, since I believe that this desperation led to the make-or-break of history as it is written…

The Democratic world was at war with the Communist world. The war as we know, was one of threat and power to the ultimate goal of world domination, termed the Cold War. The two apposing sides were the USA with its allies, and the Soviet Union with its allies. The creation and testing of weapons of mass destruction fuelled a massive counter aggregation of potential threat on both sides as a matching stand-off, fuelled by the fear of annihilation and propaganda.

If we look more closely at the evidence and the facts of all of the Apollo missions, we notice initially that the rocket used to transport the crew of Apollo 7, called the Saturn B-1 rocket, was in fact originally proposed as the delivery of nuclear warheads (http://www.eisteins-emporium.com/universe/space_rockets/saturn1.htm accessed 18/4/06: 20:12), a fact which the Soviets would most certainly have been aware of through their own intelligence networks. Apollo 7 was the first manned Apollo mission, and would have been well televised. Not only did the Americans successfully launch people into orbit with this rocket, but the crew spent more time in space than all of the Soviet space flights combined up to that time. Television was used as the tool of propaganda, not only as visual entertainment, but as proof that the American could potentially launch a nuclear weapon into Earth’s orbit. This feat demonstrated that the restrictions of flight distance and therefore range of previous weapons of mass destruction were now obsolete. The problem of strategic positioning of defensive or offensive weaponry of this magnitude was now solved. America had to match the first show of this level of potential force of capability initiated by the launch of the first man in orbit, Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet, in 1961.

President Dwight Eisenhower in his State of the Union Address of 1961, his last, expressed the following:

“To the Congress of the United States:

Once again it is my Constitutional duty to assess the state of the Union.

On each such previous occasion during these past eight years I have outlined a forward course designed to achieve our mutual objective, a better America in a world of peace. This time my function is different.”(http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/eisenhower-9.html 12:51, 18/4/06).

“During the period, the United States has forged ahead under a constructive foreign policy. The continuing goal is peace, liberty, and wellbeing for others as well as ourselves. The aspirations of all peoples are one-peace with justice in freedom. Peace can only be attained collectively as peoples everywhere unite in their determination that liberty and wellbeing come to all mankind.

Yet while we have worked to advance national aspirations for freedom, a divisive force has been at work to divert that aspiration into dangerous channels. The Communist movement throughout the world exploits the natural striving of all to be free and attempts to subjugate men rather than free them. These activities have caused and are continuing to cause grave troubles in the world.” (http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/eisenhower-9.html 12:51, 18/4/06)

The above is President Eisenhower’s discussion, in part, of the foreign policy, which clearly outlines his concerns about the potential Communist threat. He continues as part of his discussion of National Defence:

“For the first time in our nation's history we have consistently maintained in peacetime, military forces of a magnitude sufficient to deter and if need be to destroy predatory forces in the world.

Tremendous advances in strategic weapons systems have been made in the past eight years. Not until 1953 were expenditures on long-range ballistic missile programs even as much as a million dollars a year; today we spend ten times as much each day on these programs as was spent in all of 1952.

No guided ballistic missiles were operational at the beginning of 1953. Today many types give our armed forces unprecedented effectiveness. The explosive power of our weapons systems for all purposes is almost inconceivable.

Today the United States has operational ATLAS missiles, which can strike a target 5000 miles away in a half-hour. The POLARIS weapons system became operational last fall and the TITAN is scheduled to become so this year. Next year, more than a year ahead of schedule, a vastly improved ICBM, the solid propellant MINUTEMAN, is expected to be ready.

Squadrons of accurate Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles are now operational. The THOR and JUPITER IRBMs based in forward areas can hit targets 1500 miles away in 18 minutes.

Aircraft which fly at speeds faster than sound were still in a developmental stage eight years ago. Today American fighting planes go twice the speed of sound. And either our B-58 Medium Range Jet Bomber or our B-52 Long Range Jet Bomber can carry more explosive power than was used by all combatants in World War II--Allies and Axis combined.

Eight years ago we had no nuclear-powered ships. Today 49 nuclear warships have been authorized. Of these, 14 have been commissioned, including three of the revolutionary POLARIS submarines. Our nuclear submarines have cruised under the North Pole and circumnavigated the earth while submerged. Sea warfare has been revolutionized, and the United States is far and away the leader.

Our tactical air units overseas and our aircraft carriers are alert; Army units, guarding the frontiers of freedom in Europe and the Far East, are in the highest state of readiness in peacetime history; our Marines, a third of whom are deployed in the Far East, are constantly prepared for action; our Reserve establishment has maintained high standards of proficiency, and the Ready Reserve now numbers over 2 ? million citizen-soldiers.

The Department of Defence, a young and still evolving organization, has twice been improved and the line of command has been shortened in order to meet the demands of modern warfare. These major reorganizations have provided a more effective structure for unified planning and direction of the vast defence establishment. Gradual improvements in its structure and procedures are to be expected.

United States civil defence and non-military defence capacity has been greatly strengthened and these activities have been consolidated in one Federal agency.

The defence forces of our Allies now number five million men, several thousand combatant ships, and over 25,000 aircraft. Programs to strengthen these allies have been consistently supported by the Administration. U.S. military assistance goes almost exclusively to friendly nations on the rim of the communist world. This American contribution to nations who have the will to defend their freedom, but insufficient means, should be vigorously continued. Combined with our Allies, the free world now has a far stronger shield than we could provide alone.

Since 1953, our defence policy has been based on the assumption that the international situation would require heavy defence expenditures for an indefinite period to come, probably for years. In this protracted struggle, good management dictates that we resist overspending as resolutely as we oppose under-spending. Every dollar uselessly spent on military mechanisms decreases our total strength and, therefore, our security. We must not return to the "crash-program" psychology of the past when each new feint by the Communists was responded to in panic. The "bomber gap" of several years ago was always a fiction, and the "missile gap" shows every sign of being the same.

The nation can ill afford to abandon a national policy which provides for a fully adequate and steady level of effort, designed for the long pull; a fast adjustment to new scientific and technological advances; a balanced force of such strength as to deter general war, to effectively meet local situations and to retaliate to attack and destroy the attacker; and a strengthened system of free world collective security.” (http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/eisenhower-9.htm 12:51, 18/4/06)

The above illustrates my point exactly, the strategic and public display of POTENTIAL to cause mass destruction, either as defence or attack. President Eisenhower uses the words “revolutionary Polaris submarines” referring to the commissioning of three of the potentially most powerful nuclear-capable submarines of its time, stocked with nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles built by the US Navy, each with a range of 1850km. The first test of the Polaris missile took place on 6 May 1962 using a live nuclear warhead, and was the only test of an offensive US nuclear missile (Wikipedia contributors. UGM-27 Polaris [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Mar 19, 12:35 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 18]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=UGM-27_Polaris&oldid=44496660), again a show of potential force and capability. The deployment of one of the Polaris submarines to Holy Lock in Scotland in 8 March 1961 was a deliberate show of strategic defensive strategy with offensive capability.

Eisenhower’s use of the word “Revolutionary” in itself suggests intent.

The Soviet submarine K-19 exploded in the Northern Atlantic on 4 July 1961. K-19 was a Hotel-class submarine, the first nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear ballistic missiles. (Wikipedia contributors. Soviet submarine K-19 [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 7, 22:34 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 18]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Soviet_submarine_K-19&oldid=47472611.

The mere presence of this submarine in the Northern Atlantic displayed the Soviet’s readiness to counter-strategise for their own defensive or offensive possible deployment of weapons of mass destruction, their show of potential force.

Communism seemed to take a grip on the world from 1961 and America was also facing a recession. America could arguably have been at its weakest and open to infiltration or attack. America desperately needed solutions and quickly.

President John F. Kennedy in his State of the Union address commented the following:

“Our greatest challenge is still the world that lies beyond the Cold War--but the first great obstacle is still our relations with the Soviet Union and Communist China. We must never be lulled into believing that either power has yielded its ambitions for world domination--ambitions which they forcefully restated only a short time ago. On the contrary, our task is to convince them that aggression and subversion will not be profitable routes to pursue these ends. Open and peaceful competition--for prestige, for markets, for scientific achievement, even for men's minds--is something else again. For if Freedom and Communism were to compete for man's allegiance in a world at peace, I would look to the future with ever increasing confidence.

To meet this array of challenges--to fulfil the role we cannot avoid on the world scene--we must re-examine and revise our whole arsenal of tools: military, economic and political” (http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/kennedy-1.html 22:07 19/4/06).

President John F. Kennedy, though still controversial, had a different approach to the Cold War. He sought resolve and the union of ideas instead of their destructive uses, to better human-kind. He was outspoken and rightly so, but yet, still did not take any nonsense:

“In the meantime, I have asked the Defense Secretary to initiate immediately three new steps most clearly needed now:

First, l have directed prompt attention to increase our air-lift capacity. Obtaining additional air transport mobility--and obtaining it now--will better assure the ability of our conventional forces to respond, with discrimination and speed, to any problem at any spot on the globe at any moment's notice. In particular it will enable us to meet any deliberate effort to avoid or divert our forces by starting limited wars in widely scattered parts of the globe.

(b) I have directed prompt action to step up our Polaris submarine program. Using unobligated ship-building funds now (to let contracts originally scheduled for the next fiscal year) will build and place on station--at least nine months earlier than planned-substantially more units of a crucial deterrent--a fleet that will never attack first, but possess sufficient powers of retaliation, concealed beneath the seas, to discourage any aggressor from launching an attack upon our security.

(c) I have directed prompt action to accelerate our entire missile program. Until the Secretary of Defense's reappraisal is completed, the emphasis here will be largely on improved organization and decision making--on cutting down the wasteful duplications and the time-lag that have handicapped our whole family of missiles. If we are to keep the peace, we need an invulnerable missile force powerful enough to deter any aggressor from even threatening an attack that he would know could not destroy enough of our force to prevent his own destruction. For as I said upon taking the oath of office: ‘Only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed’” (http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/kennedy-1.html 22:13, 18/4/06).

I strongly believe that President John F. Kennedy anticipated a destructive end to the climax of the Cold War, which was escalating on both sides:

“First, we must strengthen our military tools. We are moving into a period of uncertain risk and great commitment in which both the military and diplomatic possibilities require a Free World force so powerful as to make any aggression clearly futile. Yet in the past, lack of a consistent, coherent military strategy, the absence of basic assumptions about our national requirements and the faulty estimates and duplication arising from inter-service rivalries have all made it difficult to assess accurately how adequate--or inadequate--our defenses really are” (http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/kennedy-1.html 22:11. 18/4/06).

He met with Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev who was the first secretary of the communist party from 1953 to 1964. President John F. Kennedy met with Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna to discuss nuclear tests and disarmament, and Germany, whose affiliation with Communism was growing, ultimately to create what was to be termed the Berlin wall.

John F. Kennedy also met with Charles De Gaulle in Paris on 31 May, prior to his visit with Khrushchev. De Gaulle was a French military leader and a statesman. Before World War Two he was known for his advocation of the concentrated use of aviation forces. He inspired a new constitution. His political ideology is still known as Gaullism (Wikipedia contributors. Charles de Gaulle [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2006 Apr 17, 11:16 UTC [cited 2006 Apr 18] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_de_Gaulle&oldid=48829169.

John F. Kennedy knew that the make-or-break point of the Cold War was dependant on one overpowering single factor that could embrace all differences between political rivals. I believe that President Kennedy’s fear would have been the potential for world domination of the Communists if indeed their ideals and motives in being the first to service this single factor were realised. Democracy just had to be first, and in doing so, end the Cold War by a juxtapositioning of power and fear versus inclusion, support and stability:

“Finally, this Administration intends to explore promptly all possible areas of cooperation with the Soviet Union and other nations "to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors." Specifically, I now invite all nations--including the Soviet Union--to join with us in developing a weather prediction program, in a new communications satellite program and in preparation for probing the distant planets of Mars and Venus, probes which may someday unlock the deepest secrets of the universe.

Today this country is ahead in the science and technology of space, while the Soviet Union is ahead in the capacity to lift large vehicles into orbit. Both nations would help themselves as well as other nations by ten moving these endeavors from the bitter and wasteful competition of the Cold War. The United States would be willing to join with the Soviet Union and the scientists of all nations in a greater effort to make the fruits of this new knowledge available to all-and, beyond that, in an effort to extend farm technology to hungry nations--to wipe out disease--to increase the exchanges of scientists and. their knowledge--and to make our own laboratories available to technicians of other lands who lack the facilities to pursue their own work. Where nature makes natural allies of us all, we can demonstrate that beneficial relations are possible even with those with whom we most deeply disagree-and this must someday be the basis of world peace and world law” (http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/kennedy-1.html 22:20, 18/4/06).

President John F. Kennedy announced to a special joint session of congress, his goals and intentions to initiate the Apollo project to ‘put a man on the moon’ before the end of the decade, on 25 May 1961.

The Apollo missions were not only the means to service the ultimate ideal of the Democratic world as a peaceful gesture in getting Democratic Americans to the moon first, but was also the last front to display the last and largest efforts of potential, to be interpreted on a military scale, in support of the death of the Cold War. So important was this ideal and the race itself, that the advertisement of every step HAD to be undeniably documented. The use of television and photography as the tool of propaganda, as well as sensationalism to secondarily distract the world from pending disaster, had to be FLAWLESS and NON-AMBIGUOUS. Any alternatives to the latter, or suggestions of doubt, could have led to the collapse of Democracy and the ultimate domination of Communism.

If it all came down to the message portrayed, would you too do everything to ensure that the tools used to convey the correct message were supplying irrefutable information (propaganda)? I certainly would.

In my above dissection of what I believe were the balance of political agenda versus absolute survival of the human race as we know it, and if technology was the language used to portray an ultimate and “perfect” message, then I believe that the apparently doctored footage of the Apollo missions, including perfect photographs are proof of this. I strongly believe that America did land people on the moon, as they had no choice but to, however, the doubt that could have been portrayed through the poor quality of technology of the time, or even absence of required technology to accurately deliver the message, most certainly lead to ingenious and desperate innovation.

Today the sceptics are viewing only part of the evidence, and can therefore justifiably make the assumption that America did not set foot on the moon, and the US government will never ever admit anything…in fact the creation of questions by sceptics actually allows the real evidence to become “lost” in opinion…

A final clue to the riddle, in support of the motive behind the space race is the coat of arms printed on the patch designated to the first landing of Americans on the moon, of the Apollo 11 mission. The American coat of arms includes the eagle, holding an olive branch in its talons as a sign of peace. The same eagle holds the same olive branch on the Apollo 11 mission patch. The Lunar module of Apollo 11 was given the name “Eagle” and when the “Eagle had landed” the olive branch, those astronauts representative of a hugely peaceful milestone, took the greatest leap for mankind.

Cheers

David Vaughan
Senior aquarist, Quarantine
Two Oceans Aquarium
Cape Town, South Africa
(021) 418 38 23
dvaughan@aquarium.co.za
davidvaughan.b-logging.com

PLAGIARISM: OFFICIAL RULING AND DEFINITION - SENATE UWC

2006-04-19T17:47:00.000+02:00

Today SEC accepted the following new rules concerning plagiarism:

Rule A.5.1.8
Academic Dishonesty
Academic dishonesty is serious misconduct and will be dealt with in terms of the provisions of the University's Disciplinary rules for Students. Academic dishonesty is not limited to plagiarism, cheating, collusion or activities of that kind, but extends to all deceptions relating to academic work.

(Please note: Plagiarism is viewed as serious misconduct by the University. If a student is found guilty of plagiarizing he/she may be suspended from the University. Furthermore he/she may be charged with a criminal offence and/or a civil claim for damages may be brought against him/her)

Student disciplinary rules

New rule 3.5.1.1.2

"Plagiarism" means to steal, or to pass off as one's own, the formulation, idea or words of another (i.e. appropriating a formulation, idea or words derived from the intellectual work of another person by incorporating, without crediting such author and source, such formulation, idea or words into one's own work).

(Please note: Plagiarism includes but is not limited to:

The appropriation of formulations, ideas or words from the work of another person without acknowledging the author(s) and the source; and
The appropriation of work from someone else's assignment, thesis, test or research paper without acknowledging such other person and/or source.)

Cheers

Rich

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

LUNAR LANDING VIRTUAL OR REAL? ASSIGNMENT

2006-04-19T09:48:00.000+02:00

Hi

To clarify....

Review the video material from http://video.google.com (can do your own search) see links further below.....

Review the additional links I provided to help get more of a feel for the subject.

http://bcb703.blogspot.com/2006/04/did-we-really-land-men-on-moon-links.html

Prepare a SHORT 500 plus articles on summarising YOUR views with respect to

How certain were you that we landed space-craft on the Moon?
How certain were you that we landed men on the moon?
How certain that the NASA photos presented to the world are authentic and unmodified?

For each response: discuss, decide and defend!

Enjoy!!!!!

NASA footage

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=289444585088213883&q=man+on+the+moon+duration%3Along&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;pl=true (The Time of Apollo - National Archives and Records Administration 28 min 29 sec - Jan 1, 1975)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1481909519678263426&amp;amp;amp;amp;q=Apollo+debrief&pl=true (Debrief Apollo 8 1969 National Archives and Records Administration 27 min 19 sec - Feb 11, 2006)

Those claiming the lunar landing to be a hoax

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2265515730495966561&q=Did+we+land+on+the+moon&pl=true
(Fox television programme called "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?")

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4280164630927881599&q=Nasa+apollo&pl=true (NASA- Apollo 11 How did they do it - a reportedly genuine NASA clip accidentally released)

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - EcologicalInformatics

Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western CapePrivate Bag X17
Bellville 7535
Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za
Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za