Oracloid Blog

While going through my Google Reader today I noticed this post on StorageMojo referencing Washington-Post article. Can anyone believe that someone could actually forget about those hi quality tapes for years? Impossible.

Plenty of sources claiming this was a fake landing I especially like this page with the image:

… and “9 space oddities” from just mentioned site:

1. Apollo 14 astronaut Allen Shepard played golf on the Moon. In front of a worldwide TV audience, Mission Control teased him about slicing the ball to the right. Yet a slice is caused by uneven air flow over the ball. The Moon has no atmosphere and no air.
2. A camera panned upwards to catch Apollo 16’s Lunar Lander lifting off the Moon. Who did the filming?
3. One NASA picture from Apollo 11 is looking up at Neil Armstrong about to take his giant step for mankind. The photographer must have been lying on the planet surface. If Armstrong was the first man on the Moon, then who took the shot?
4. The pressure inside a space suit was greater than inside a football. The astronauts should have been puffed out like the Michelin Man, but were seen freely bending their joints.
5. The Moon landings took place during the Cold War. Why didn’t America make a signal on the moon that could be seen from earth? The PR would have been phenomenal and it could have been easily done with magnesium flares.
6. Text from pictures in the article said that only two men walked on the Moon during the Apollo 12 mission. Yet the astronaut reflected in the visor has no camera. Who took the shot?
7. The flags shadow goes behind the rock so doesn’t match the dark line in the foreground, which looks like a line cord. So the shadow to the lower right of the spaceman must be the flag. Where is his shadow? And why is the flag fluttering if there is no air or wind on the moon?
8. How can the flag be brightly lit when its side is to the light? And where, in all of these shots, are the stars?
9. The Lander weighed 17 tons yet the astronauts feet seem to have made a bigger dent in the dust. The powerful booster rocket at the base of the Lunar Lander was fired to slow descent to the moons service. Yet it has left no traces of blasting on the dust underneath. It should have created a small crater, yet the booster looks like it’s never been fired.

Couple weeks ago we went skiing for the first time in Canada. We choose Camp Fortune for few hours of night skiing - it’s only 15 minutes from downtown Ottawa.

I’ve got one shot to share. It’s not the best but hey my Olympus C-5060 is quite old. I guess I have to think about proper SLR camera at some point.

The mountain is not comparable to European Alps in Austria - it’s more like hills but location is very handy for couple hours skiing. I noticed that -10 C in the evening feels way colder than -20 С during the day in Alps.

This weekend the weather is excellent here in Ottawa - a bit below zero and sunny. Perfect time for skiing and skating especially now that Rideau Canal is fully open. Unfortunately, our whole family is a little sick and outdoor activities are no go for the next few days.

Doug Burns has spent 4 weeks in our Ottawa office and now he is back home to Madeline and boys. Yesterday, before he left, we had the lunch at Cock & Lion Ale House:

Food wasn’t the best for me (I got fish and chips) - but very nice and cozy place and they did have Guinness as well as plenty of other beers so I can’t complain:

To put the names on the faces - left to right - Christo, Karun, Raj, Paul, Martin, Mark, Igor, Julien, Marc, Virgil, Doug, and Singer.

While Doug was here we’d got a team split and he ended up in the new team (8) with me and Karun. Needless to say that’s a real pleasure for me to work with these guys. I hope they won’t be complaining too much about me. :-)
Let’s see if Doug could get some work done from home. ;-) I wouldn’t.

Today we had a “bye-bye Doug” dinner at Lone Star Texas Grill. From left to right - Alex Jr., me, Paul, Nicole, Olga and Doug (already switched to UK time zone as you can see):

They have excellent Fajitas. Of course, they serve Corona which is my second favorite beer after… eh… well, you know. They even keep pepper and salt in Corona bottles:
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