I use WordPress to power this blog, and I love it. One of the best features is the ability to spam filter comments using a plugin called Akismet. Akismet learns what you’ve previously dismissed as spam and tries to replicate the filter to catch other similar sorts of things.

Now, Akismet works pretty darn hard here on LLH.com. It catches roughly 30 spam comments a day, and usually for this reason I leave it be. However, today I ventured in just to check it wasn’t catching anything it shouldn’t be. And I found pure gold.

For yes, I can confirm that someone naming themselves as “NoName” (this will be why Akismet activated) left a message on the post about the LRO photographing the Apollo mission sites claiming that NASA have made a “spectacular mistake” because…

… they have shown photographs of the lunar modules on the moon, when everyone knows that the lunar modules were used for the astronauts to rendezzvous [sic] with the command modules!!

Ouch. (Also, in the above, sarcastic italics are mine.)

(For those who may not be aware – and I don’t blame anyone for not knowing, it’s more that someone would claim “proof” of a hoax based on not knowing - the lunar modules had two parts. The descent stage was for the rocket-powered descent onto the lunar surface, and the ascent stage powered the astronauts back up to rendezvous with the command module. The descent stages were left behind on the lunar surface, and it is these that appear in the photographs. This would be mentioned in Apollo Missions 101 if such a thing existed, and it continues to amaze me that conspiracy theorists will spring on anything to prove NASA faked the missions.)