There’s one thing I don’t quite get about the people who believe the Apollo missions to the moon were faked. There are plenty of other – smarter – people who have discredited the claims that Hollywood had more to do with Neil Armstrrong, Buzz Aldrin et al going to the moon than Houston. And I’m not going to work through those claims one by one.

But here’s the thing I don’t get. If the moon landing was faked, why hasn’t anyone faked a Mars landing yet?

Surely the Soviets had plenty of motivation. They needed to restore pride in their technological superiority. And what about Nixon, during the dark days of Watergate? Or Ronald Reagan as part of a death blow to Communism? No one tried. The technology to fake a trip is better. People have more skills. But no one even thought about faking a Mars landing?

So while thousands of people in the 60s apparently lied about the US space program and pretty much got away with it, no one has ever bothered faking a trip to Mars. Makes you wonder.

Photo: h.koppdelaney

The Vatican appears to have forgiven The Beatles – and specifically John Lennon – for his comment 42 years ago that the band was “more popular than Jesus.”

The latest edition of L’Osservatore Romano praises the band’s White Album and puts Lennon’s comment down to the boasting of a working class English kid dealing with a rapid rise to fame. The official Vatican newspaper then goes on to praise The Beatles’ music and continuing pop influence.

There’s some talk that the Vatican’s engagement with popular culture issues like this is an effort to shake off a stuffy image but I think this change of heart has more to do with the fact they can safely forgive Lennon knowing that Google has proven him wrong.

Just look at the number of hits on Google when you do the relevant searches:

• The Beatles: 70.3 million
• Jesus: 209 million
• John Lennon: 16.1 million.

The Lennon case doesn’t hold up. The Google Standard clearly shows Jesus is more popular than The Beatles.

But the band can take some solace. The Beatles are roughly twice as popular as the Pope who only pulls in 37.8 million hits.