And Today's Dumb UK Tabloid Headline Is …
Keith’s note: The Daily Mail is running with this absurd headline: “Revealed: How the U.S. planned to blow up the MOON with a nuclear bomb to win Cold War bragging rights over Soviet Union“
But when you read their own story it actually says: “Under the scenario, a missile carrying a small nuclear device was to be launched from an undisclosed location and travel 238,000 miles to the moon, where it would be detonated upon impact.”
If America – or anyone – were going to “blow up the Moon” it would take a lot more than a “small nuclear device” to do so.
Silly, especially as it doesn’t mention that the USSR had exactly the same plan (use a nuclear weapon to show arrival) for awhile, and also dismissed it (well documented by Chertok and others in bios).
Phew!
After all those mocking comments, I was starting to get worried that my memory was playing tricks on me. Because I remember reading a version of this story *years* ago in some book on the space race. The problem was that I didn’t remember which book I read it in, so I was hesitant to post it without an attribution.
As I recall, there was also some hysteria on the American side that that Russians might be including colored powder on their rocket, to turn the lunar surface red. Have you read that story as well?
Maybe they are channeling Alexander Abian.
Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News reported there were plans to “Blow up the Moon” but if he had done his research, he would’ve reported that there was a planned test to detonate a nuclear device on the moon not “Blow it up” as he reported.I wish the mainstream media would get their facts straight before reporting such an “Alarmist” story as he did.
UK headlines always state complete falsehoods relative to the content of the story. They don’t have any journalistic standards for headline writing. What is surprising is that NBC would parrot a UK story without making a correction.
Just to show how ignorant most people are here on Earth, there was a serious concern that we would “blow up the moon” or “knock it from it’s orbit” by crashing LCROSS into it…..
Can we lay off tarring the whole of the UK (and/or its press) with the same brush here? The Daily Mail is well known for brainless sensationalism – it caters for the intellectual level of most of its readership that way. Other publications and broadcasters display similar levels of hyperbole, but please don’t fall into the trap of believing that the whole country thinks and writes like this. Most people I know over this side of the pond despair of the Daily Mail just as much as you do!
Ah, the Daily Mail. The paper that also ran an article with this headline:
“Yes, scientists do much good. But a country run by these arrogant gods of certainty would truly be hell on earth”
No, I didn’t get that from the Onion.You can read it right here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…
Be warned. Prolonged exposure to this kind of stupidity can have lifelong consequences.
Yes, scientists do much good. But a country run by these arrogant gods of certainty would truly be hell on earth
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Yes, scientists do much good. But a country run by these arrogant gods of certainty would truly be hell on earth
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
The caption “Would you miss it?” underneath the picture of the Moon seems to be a reference to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999). Maybe that film is what they used as research.
General Hawk (Charles Napier): “Sir. Are you suggesting that we blow up the Moon?”
The President (Tim Robbins): “Would you miss it?”
What next, a NASA Watch article ridiculing the Weekly World News for publishing the BatBoy stories ?
And besides, while the tabloids are over the top since it’s their job, isn’t the really stupid thing that both the US and USSR wanted to do that – for real?
As an Englishman I always read the UK papers mainly for the football (soccer) news when I came across this. After re-reading it about 3 times I burst out laughing at the stupidity of the article but then again the Daily Mail is a tabloid paper so has no deep understanding of science or proper news.
Is this even worth commenting on…okay… I doubt detonating a nuke on the lunar surface would have swung many Soviets over to being true God fearing capitalists. Most would not even been aware of the event. Glad they did not waste taxpayers money.
Thanks, Keith, for a good laugh,
But it looks suspicious to me. OK, so the headline is alarmist, infeasible and contradicted by the story, which looks like an authentic Mail story, but there is no mention of the likely effect of such an explosion – or the subsequent disappearance of the moon – on UK house prices, which is very unusual. I suspect they stole the article from somewhere and didn’t bother re-writing it.
And by the way Ics1956, your completely wrong. Firstly, UK headlines nearly always state complete falsehoods relative to the content of the story. Secondly Daily Mail journalists are known to be trained to the highest journalistic standards by Fox News.
Actually, the US did detonate an explosion on the Moon as part the Apollo program. It was a seismic study (and completely harmless, of course), but I wonder what the Daily Mail would make of it if they knew.
Steve
This just in, US blew up the Moon in the 1970s! (Current Moon is a space mirage)