@rafdevis » reporting

9/11 aerial views

rafdevis — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:14:38 +0000

All images © Det. Greg Semendinger (NYC Police Aviation Unit)

Yesterday newly released images from the 9/11 attacks sprung up on major news sites and completely wow’ed me. Despite the tragedy these images qualify as stunning art pieces. No movie director can invent surreal cloud formations like these. Splendid splendid nature.

The images were taken from a police helicopter — the only photographers allowed in the air space near the towers on Sept. 11, 2001. They were obtained by ABC News after it filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which investigated the collapse.
[source: MSNBC.com]

Herman Van Rompuy

rafdevis — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:47:18 +0000

It must be said I’m pretty proud of our prime minister becoming the very first European president. Nowhere near the executional power Obama has but still this is a great honor for a tiny country like ours. As said by some journalists, if this guy can keep together a country like Belgium (the French and Flemish regions don’t always get along that well) he can defintely keep Europe in one piece.

Apollo hoax

rafdevis — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:06:30 +0000

I can’t resist. My daily visit to CNN.com made me read their article on the enormous amount of conspiracy theories about the moon landings being faked by the US government. If you’re looking for a few hours (days) of conspiracy entertainment you can dig up Bill Kaysing‘s book “We Never Went to the Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle“. Or you can watch the movie which was inspired by him, called “Capricorn One” (fun detail: stars the younger version of well-known actor Elliott Gould known from the Ocean’s series and Friends).

Or you could watch this documentary which aired on Fox channel in 2001, also initiated by Bill Kaysing, in which the video footage of NASA is scrutinized for inconsistencies. Rippling flags by non-existent wind on the moon, light where there should be shadow, different shadow lengths, etc.

Kaysing died in 2005 but sparked the interest of Bart Sibrel who took it on to continue the mission of uncovering the truth about the moon landings and directed a documentary called “A funny thing happened on the way to the moon“.

Who hasn’t heard of 72-year-old second-man-on-the-moon Buzz Aldrin punching Sibrel when the latter calls him a liar and some other non-flattering names?

After that you could read NASA’s official rebuttal of all of the above in their special press release in 2001. You could also look into the allegation that Stanley Kubrick, hot off “2001: A Space Odyssey“, was hired by the US government to shoot al the moon landing scenes. And if after this you still have time, find a good overview of everything on this topic at Wikipedia.

Or you could just sit back and watch the new digitally enhanced version of this legendary moment where mankind unveiled some of the mystery surrounding the universe.