Really stupid LTTE in our local newspaper...

[Archae]

No doubt a Teabagger who flunked 5th-grade science.

http://www.sheboyganpress.com/article/20110805/SHE0601/108050323/Letters-Big-Bang-theory-not-science?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Opinion|s

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. *sigh* Sad, no?

[Richardo]

2. Hilarious - stars are millions of light years away, but the universe can't be millions of years old

:rofl:

[Journeyman]

7. My favorite part was the dust: The moon is millions of years old, yet only has a few inches of dust

there should be 8 or 9 feet of dust!

Obviously, he's unfamiliar with the "cosmic housekeeper" theory.

[gratuitous]

3. The stupid is strong in that one

Dr. Pangloss would be very proud, however, of Ms. Jones' perception. For, indeed, why would men wear pantaloons, except that their lower limbs are so well-suited to pantaloons, and so men wear pantaloons.

If you're contemplating a responsive letter (and I encourage you by all means to do so), you'll find lots of helpful tips from your fellow DUers for just the right touch in dismantling this nincompoop.

[Archae]

6. I'm in the comments.

As "Spyro"

[gratuitous]

8. I clicked up the comments

Excellent responses from several folks, including yours. I don't know which category Ms. Jones might fit in, but as you noted, there's some overlap between the mentally ill, the gullible and the hucksters. I appreciate particularly the folks who patiently walked through some of the science. I don't know how many people will bother to read through, but a thorough debunking of the writer's position is there for even the casual reader.

[Botany]

4. I stopped @ this

"Theory is defined as that branch of art or science consisting of knowledge of its principles and
methods, rather than in its practice as opposed to applied science."

:wow:

[tularetom]

5. Of course the moon dust was only 1 or 2 inches deep

That's all they bothered to truck into that big airplane hangar in Area 51 where they faked the whole thing.

Shoot, everybody knows that. I'm amazed that someone as astute as Ms Jones seems unaware of it.

[deaniac21]

9. LTTE and stupid are synonymous.

[bertman]

10. Jan just applied the old 'fingertip to the tabletop' theory of dust accumulation

to the methodology for determining the age of the moon.


:evilgrin:

[polmaven]

11. Sun comes up, sun goes down...

You can't explain that." 'Spose Jan is related to Billo?

[JohnnyRingo]

12. Where to begin?

I suppose the part that proclaims: The moon is the exact distance from the Earth it should be. Any closer and its gravitational pull would cause tidal waves. This happened by accident? would be a good place.

The author overlooks that the other planets are not so ideally located and assumes that the Earth and moon is so placed to produce life instead of understanding that the Earth's unique position in the solar system is the reason life flourished here. The writer looked at the science behind the issue with a preconceived notion that we were placed here by an all-powerful entity. I guess the creator just put the other planets out there for eye candy.

Assuming dust has to pile up on the moon like it does under your bed over time is just plain ignorance.

[Archae]

15. The Moon dust argument is a leftover bad estimate from the 1950's.

The guy who said the dust should be (whatever) feet thick simply grossly overestimated the amount.

Don't forget we are dealing with people who still believe in the Paluxy, Texas "man-tracks," that have been shown to have been a medium-sized therapod. (Bipedal predatory dinosaur.)

Not human.

[Wounded Bear]

21. She also kind of glossed over the fact....

proven by the reflectors left on the moon by NASA, that the moon is actually moving away from the Earth by about 1 inch/year IIRC.

:shrug:

[uppityperson]

24. that's because all those tides are wearing down the planet so it has to be further away to do

the same thing. Think that happened by accident?

[dtexdem]

13. And elementary logic.

Assuming the writer was ever introduced to logic.

[JHB]

14. Someone is mad about losing on"Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader"

This one is heavily invested in NOT learning.

[high density]

16. So when the sun engulfs the earth in 5 billion years, will it still be an "exact distance?"

Why do papers print this nonsense?

[chrisa]

17. This has to be satire, imo,

Especially the last part about the dust. That gives it away. Still pretty funny, though.

[a simple pattern]

22. Damn you, Poe's Law!

Can't tell if trolling or just Christian...

[hifiguy]

18. Dr. Tyson is

disappointed in you, stoopid bagger.

[Brother Buzz]

20. Perhaps Dr. Tyson will address some of Jan Jones' concerns on his new series

Cosmos to Get a Sequel Hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Over three decades later, Carl Sagan’s groundbreaking, brilliant 13-part TV series Cosmos:A Personal Voyage is finally going to get a sequel. Cosmos, which originally aired in 1980 and was rerun many times over the following decade, is widely regarded as one of the first, and best, TV shows to make science accessible to everyone. You can watch the show now on Hulu, but despite its brilliance it is still a show from over 30 years ago, and you can tell — the special effects are primitive by today’s standards, but more importantly some of the content has been superseded by discoveries in the intervening years.

So I think we can all agree it’s high time someone made a sequel to it, and now someone is! In partnership with Sagan’s colleagues Ann Druyan (who is also his widow) and Steven Soter, Seth MacFarlane — yes, that Seth MacFarlane — is going to produce a new 13-part series to serve as a sequel and modern update to Sagan’s masterpiece. Taking over the hosting duties will be none other than well-known astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who has among other things served as host of NOVA ScienceNOW on PBS for the past five years, so has plenty of experience making science accessible to the general public. It would be difficult to think of anyone who would be better able to succeed the late, great Carl Sagan. The folks working on it are going to take their time and do it right — it’s not scheduled to air until sometime in 2013.

The producers of the show say the new series will tell “the story of how human beings began to comprehend the laws of nature and find our place in space and time. It will take viewers to other worlds and travel across the universe for a vision of the cosmos on the grandest scale. The most profound scientific concepts will be presented with stunning clarity, uniting skepticism and wonder, and weaving rigorous science with the emotional and spiritual into a transcendent experience.”

That’s the good news. The bad — or at least, potentially bad — news is that, due to MacFarlane’s involvement, the series will air in primetime, and on Fox. Now, in one way I’m all for putting in primetime on a major network, because it’ll be that much more likely that people who routinely ignore the Discovery Channel, the Science Channel, and, yes, PBS, will actually see it. I’m less thrilled, though, that it will have to compete with other, more mainstream primetime shows, and it’ll be on Fox, who don’t exactly have the greatest track record in giving shows a chance to pull their ratings up once they go down. Now, maybe the fact that MacFarlane is involved — and Joss Whedon isn’t — will help. I certainly hope so.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Oh my..so now the moon landing

Must have been written by O'Reilly, it goes in, it goes out...

[uppityperson]

23. Consider this...(from the lte). omg.

Why is the sun the exact distance from the Earth it should be? Any closer, and we would burn up; any further away, and we would freeze. This just happened?

The moon is the exact distance from the Earth it should be. Any closer and its gravitational pull would cause tidal waves. This happened by accident?

The stars are a marvel and millions of light years away. Do you mean to tell me that they were thrown that distance?

Why do the Earth and other plants rotate on an axis? Why de we have just the gravity we need? Why is our atmosphere just right for us and not on other planets?