Space Oddity

Today, We Shall Be Looking At A Conspiracy Theory
Also, we shall be laughing at the bampots who put these things forward.  Yesterday we took a mocking look at some nutter who didn't believe that the final shots of Apollo 17's LEM ascent stage were taken with a remote camera.  Well, he did stop short of stating that the Apollo landings were a hoax.

Oaks.  Close enough

     Now we move off at a tangent and introduce one of your humble scribe's favouritest films:  "2001: A Space Odyssey".  Art?

Just add Blue Danube

     As directed by Stanley Kubrick, a chap who really knew what he was doing.  We have gone on about "Doctor Strangelove" a lot in the past on BOOJUM! because end-of-the-world comedies are rare, and well-made ones are rarer still.
     Anyway, the conspiracy theory is that: NASA were so impressed by the lunar scenes shot by Ol' Stan that they invited him to fake the Moon landings.  While this is a spectacularly silly idea, it is only one of several that attach to the man.  We may come back to them.
     "But Conrad!" I hear you warble, "It could be done!"
     No it couldn't.  Stop being silly.  
     First of all, when could Ol' Stan have made the hoax film?  He finished 2001 in 1968 and began pre-production for "A Clockwork Orange" in early 1970.  There's no accounts of him disappearing mysteriously for a very long time between those dates.

A digital orange
(we move with the times)

     And it would have been a long time, too,  because one thing SK was noted for was doing as many takes as he felt necessary to get it right.  "Good" was not good enough; it needed to be perfect.

Like me.

     Then, too, SK (sorry, "Ol' Stan" seems a bit too disrespectful) didn't film 2001 on his own.  Being a bit of an anorak, your humble scribe tallied the production crew for 2001 and it comes to over 250 people.  Not all of these would be needed to fake a Moon landing, so we shall say only half would be required, since there are no monkeys on the lunar surface.  So, none of these people have ever come forward or confessed or left details or been found out?  They all kept the secret for nearly 50 years?  No leaked photos of props or sets or actors in all that time?
     What's that?  You thought this was going to be about an album by David Jones, a man famous for wearing makeup?  I don't know about that, but there is a Duncan Jones, a well-known film director who is responsible for the very excellent "Moon".
     Which is where we came in.

For once, that's not my camera causing an effect

"Dev Diary: Researching Tanks"
You'd think that researching the real-life statistics and measurements for a computer game would be dull.  In fact it probably is, except when narrated by Nicholas Moran, the Irish tanker who serves in the South Canadian army.*  Art?

Nick to scale

     He's also a representative for a computer game called "World of Tanks", which appears to have taken the entire world by storm. Except for me.  I had to look it up.
     Nick points out that, to have tanks model properly in the game, you have to do extensive research.  It's not simply a matter of getting the thing to look right, you have to work in thickness of armour, weight, ammo storage, muzzle velocity, etcetera.  Then it has to be balanced and beta tested before being added to the lists of tanks you can select and charge around in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAoJGgs97Jk

     There's the link to his Youtube presentation.  It is mostly Nick talking, but he's a personable chap and a good public speaker.  

Meanwhile, Back In Andreivia ...
Ah yes, the fictional Black Sea nation that my friend Richard created, in order to be able to use all kinds of miscellaneous wargaming kit.  He is planning a two-day event in April, which I will hopefully be able to attend (the car blew up last time I tried).  This time it's set in the chaos that erupted in the Tsarist empire after the October Revolution.  We shall have the locals, the Turks, Germans, a British flying column, Bolsheviks and White Russians, so it all promises to be extremely complicated and messy, as things usually are in Andreivia.

Andreivia: distant, exotic and always at war

     I shall probably have to supply some Andreivian cakes, which will be an interesting bake, seeing as how the country doesn't actually exist ...

*  No, I don't understand it either.