Monday, April 21, 2008

Profit from Fantasy

For nearly 20 years, a former TV researcher called Richard Hoagland has been making some ready cash by promoting ludicrous ideas about alien civilizations on Mars and The Moon. He says, for example, that there are vast artificial structures on the moon. When asked why they're invisible, he replies "because they're made of glass, of course". When asked why 12 Apollo astronauts who were actually, unlike Hoagland, on the Moon, deny the existence of any such structures, Hoagland replies that they've had their memories "selectively edited". He doesn't produce any evidence for that or most of his other fantasies.

The latest profit generator from this land of make-believe is "Dark Mission", a book co-authored with Mike Bara. "Dark Mission" is accompanied by a blog which purports to be available for anyone to discuss the book. However, it is not. The moderator, none other than Mike Bara himself, denies access to the blog to any posts that criticize the book too strongly or in a way that he cannot dismiss with insults. (Bara's favorite debating technique is to insult his adversaries).

This blog, dorkmission, is a repository of posts that Mike Bara has refused to allow on the "official" blog. We hope the publisher, Adam Parfrey of Feral House, will give some thought to correcting the book in future editions. Now read on...

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