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NASA Surveillance

Some stories elude my interest in feedback. With over 8 billion people on the planet, many hold on to misguided beliefs, and countless individuals have internet access, phones, and mailboxes. I simply cannot engage with the flood of unrefined ideas that arise. Feedback— I refuse to become the person depicted in the XKCD comic who loses sleep over the phrase, “someone on the internet is wrong.”

Recently, it barely grazed the news that Kim Kardashian seems to think NASA staged the moon landing in 1969. She mentioned the same on her reality TV show The Kardashian Family, which features her mother and sisters.

Kardashian allegedly misinterpreted her chat with Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon. At one point, Aldrin remarked: “That never happened.” He meant there was no frightening incident during the mission, but Kardashian seemed to conclude that it implied the entire mission was faked. This is a quite audacious assertion, especially given Aldrin’s previous criticisms of moon landing conspiracy theories.

Instead of spouting mockery at the Kardashians’ misunderstanding, let’s focus on what lies ahead. According to the BBC, NASA’s Acting Administrator Sean Duffy has “invited Ms. Kardashian to the Kennedy Space Center for the Artemis moon mission launch.”

Duffy might soon wish he hadn’t set that precedent—publicizing nonsensical conspiracy theories through mainstream media appears to yield exclusive tours of NASA. Feedback has desired to visit Mission Control for ages, and we think we could propose better theories than “faking the moon landing.”

Do you know why it took 9 years for the New Horizons spacecraft to reach Pluto? Because NASA was secretly moving the planet further away from Earth to make it seem smaller, enabling the downgrade from planet status to dwarf planet.

Similarly, have you pondered the realism of Martian? Deep NASA (akin to the Deep State, but more effective) would have you believe it’s due to author Andy Weir’s research. In truth, they clandestinely left astronauts stranded on Mars during the ’90s. The premise is based on a video diary he recorded before being terminated by a robot with a heat ray.

We eagerly await the invitation from NASA.

Middle of Saturday

Previously, we delved into the concept of Scunthorpe problems. Harmless words may encompass strings that seemingly offend automated moderation systems lacking context (October 11). We thought we had concluded this matter, but Peter Lloyd has informed us about an earlier iteration of this issue.

On a Saturday afternoon in the ’70s, he recounts: Grandstand begins. ” For younger audiences and those outside the UK, Grandstand was a sports show aired every Saturday afternoon. Depending on your stance on televised sports, it was either a delight or a nuisance in an era with limited television options.

“Suddenly, one word flashed across the screen,” Peter recalls. “I was taken aback! Why would the BBC display TURD on my television? After a brief delay, the image zoomed out to reveal ‘SATURDAY ON BBC1’.”

Just Imagine!

If you haven’t heard yet, submit your work for the upcoming issue by Friday, December 5th. Check out the Imagination Research Journal.

Feedback was previously unaware of this publication, but we’ve taken some time to discover its essence. “We publish imaginary research abstracts, which are short fictive pieces that mimic the format of traditional academic work,” the editors express. An abstract serves as a synopsis of scholarly articles, offering a brief overview of prior research.

If we understand this correctly, the aim is to craft short fiction that is formatted as a mock summary of a research paper. We reviewed the ten most recent volumes. Some of the summaries/stories are quite amusing and effectively parody academic literature.

We particularly enjoyed Edward Loveman’s piece, “Being In-Between: A Sensory Autoethnography of Otherworldly Life,” which recounts “scholars capable of traversing dimensions (hyperdimensionality).” Unfortunately, Loveman notes, “Such research is often met with skepticism, cruelty, and disdain within both academia and the wider public.”

However, he argues that it symbolizes a “unique, ever-evolving, fluid connection to existence that surpasses temporality.”

Similarly, Soyoung Park’s submission queries: “Can research succeed without a research question?” in which a “group of doctoral students” engages in “an intensive coffee session,” disclosing that “their challenge was not the questions themselves, but the essence of questioning, a process that fundamentally implies and necessitates an answer.”

Feedback suspects that Imagination Research Journal could become a staple feature here. It’s a pity it’s only published once a year.

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