Thursday, December 6, 2012

Hoagland confused about everything, including his own copyright

        Richard Hoagland's latest attempt to write something coherent, a miniature web-essay titled NASA Goes Apartment Hunting, displays his utter confusion, even about his own copyright claims. At the head of the piece it's declared to be © 2012 The Enterprise Mission — at the foot it's Copyright © 1996 - 2013 Richard C. Hoagland, All Rights Reserved. Well, Richard dear, which is it? It can't be both (and I don't think you can claim copyright for a year that hasn't yet arrived, either.)

        Fearlessly defying Hoagland's ferocious team of crack copyright attorneys, I quote the first sentence:
"At the annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting, held in San Francisco, Monday, December 3, 2012, NASA quietly announced a “new target” for its Curiosity rover in the next few days..."
        He really loves to insert that word "quietly." It conveys a subtle atmosphere of intrigue and conspiracy but it means absolutely nothing at all. On page 58 of Dark Mission we find that...
"The Space Agency was quietly founded as a direct adjunct to the Department of Defense..."
        I wasn't present as President Eisenhower signed the Space Act into law, but I really doubt there was anything quiet about it. Plus, it almost goes without saying, Hoagland's interpretation of Sec. 305 (i) is totally wrong, as I pointed out some time ago.

Hoag-perbole

        We only have to wait for line 8 of the latest piece to read the expected Hoagland hyperbole:
...those results will ultimately alter the lives of every human being on Earth. [RCH's emphasis]
        He means the result of Curiosity's investigation of the place they've called Shaler, which is exactly the place Hoagland has claimed to be the ruins of motels and apartment blocks. The significance of the nickname—indicating that the formation is of shale, not drywall and stucco—really seems to have escaped him.

image credit: JPL

In late July 2011, on the Howard Hughes internet radio show, Hoagland said
o This is going to change EVERYTHING
o These images are MIND-BOGGLING
o This will CHANGE OUR LIVES FOR EVER
        On that occasion, he was talking about images of the asteroid Vesta. So even the diehard Branch Hoaglandians must by now have got the message that everything the Master says and writes will change our lives for ever. And therefore, obviously, none of it will.

        Later, he ascribes JPL's decision to have a look-see at Shaler to his appearance on Coast to Coast AM last Saturday -- a likely story, I don't think -- and quite wrongly writes that the label on Dr Grotzinger's laptop lid is the one word BUILDING (it isn't, it's the motto BUILDING CURIOSITY).

        Most hilarious of all, he ends with an invitation to JOIN THE ENTERPRISE CONFERENCE in order to discuss all this false information with "other members of the Enterprise Crew". Anybody who has not already seen that page really should click through and read. This rubbish was written ten years ago, and describes a $3.95/month subscription forum that ceased to exist less than a year later, leaving more than a few subscribers feeling cheated. The moderator is supposed to be Keith Rowland, who severed all connection with Enterprise Mission around that same time.

        Thus, Richard C. Hoagland achieves new heights of fraudulent inducement and sheer misinformation. Confused, dangerously confused....

Spaced out

        Meanwhile, Mike Bara's in London (Shoreditch, actually--not the nicest part by any means.) Since he's with Maureen Elsberry we may deduce that he'll shortly be featured on the Internet TV weekly Spacing Out! The production company is Open Minds, by which we may possibly deduce that the brains of the organization fell out long ago. Further confirmation is had by inspecting their list of past interviewees, and sampling the show. In an ep I happened across at random, Maureen and her nerdy partner were arranged in front of a stack of Ampex 2" Quad videotape spools. Since the Quad format has been obsolete since 1976, it gave me the creeps, slightly.

        Mike has posted a jpg of him holding an Emmy statuette. I didn't know there was a category "most factual errors in a 30-min documentary." We live and we learn.

Update:
        Curiosity has now arrived at Shaler. Do I see a discarded sign saying CHECKOUT TIME 11 AM. NO EXCEPTIONS? No, guess not. Richard Hoagland must be mistaken.

photo credit: JPL

        This frame provides a very useful scale reference, because of the shadow of the masthead. The shadow would be the same width as the masthead itself, comparable with the width of an adult human head. So Hoagland's apartments & motels are miniature indeed.

47 comments:

Jiminy Oddbird said...

What is it that NASA actually stated as the reason for the sudden re-prioritization of Curiosity's agenda, in having it investigate the area of Shaler?

expat said...

I didn't tune in but I can have a guess. It looks very like shale, and shale is the result of successive layers of sedimentation. Its hard to imagine that process without water, therefore the site is obviously of interest. I don't know how "sudden" it was -- seems like a pretty normal decision to me.

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha! Dick has gotten his own "copyright" wrong?!? For a man who is no stranger to copying, this is just more STUNNING CONFIRMATION he hasn't got a f**king clue what he is doing when it comes to publishing "science" on his mess of an amateur 1996-looking website.

(or perhaps Dick has copyrighted the whole year 2013, and owns everything that does or doesn't happen in it?)

Chris Lopes said...

It's the usual trip thru Pareidolialand (a hidden part of the Magic Kingdom that only Hoagland has access to) with the usual NASA "sekrit messages". A little short for a Hoagland paper, but he was obviously a bit rushed (what with all that cut and pasting). Obviously he is in need of some attention (preferably from a mental health specialist), and this is his big "I'm back in the game guys!" post.

I was also interested to see that he advertising 2 videos at the top of the page. The first is from the last conference he went to, while the other is an older video that Hoagland once tried to sell as a DVD. I guess he's finally figured out that there aren't that many people actually willing to pay for his nonsense, so he has to give it away.

expat said...

Update: I've added a tail-piece on Mike Bara's antics.

Tara Jordan said...

Nowadays third class paranormal peddlers like Open Minds producers, have the budget to fly first class a kook author like Mike Bara?. Most probably Bara borrowed the statuette from one of Nando's joints. Supposedly flying first class and ending up in a shit hole like Shoreditch,the definition of living large.Congratulations Clown nose,you made it. I am almost jealous.

Anonymous said...

I think Hoagland is the Baron Vladimir Harkonen...He says "Quietly" just like the Baron in Dune....

Dale

Tara Jordan said...

Expat.You might want to check the Facebook page of The anonymous miscreation known as John Cooper.He posted a giant picture of you, & underneath it,another intellectual monstrosity called Michael Dan Wonsower,is fantasizing about murdering you.
Michael Dan Wonsower "i believe a shot from around the corner and across the street? i believe I could make it happen with a small caliber miffed" 8 hours ago.

expat said...

That page is even more of a disaster area than enterprisemash.

*Eyeroll

James Concannon said...

I remind "John Cooper" that expat had good things to say about Gerry Soffen, not too long ago.

Unknown said...

Expat,

I really enjoyed your line about Open Minds. I thought along those lines when I looked at their magazine and thought... Having an open mind doesn't mean taking all the garbage at face value. As I said before, Hoagland's "latest" seems indistinguishable from self-parody... It's sedimentary rock, not apartments!

Tara Jordan said...

There is something intrinsically creepy about that John Cooper character & his gluttony for anything irrational

Unknown said...

I just posted a new article on my blog about the apartments.

http://interposemission.blogspot.com/2012/12/martian-apartment-hunting.html

Strahlungsamt said...

https://www.facebook.com/john.cooper.946/photos_stream

John Cooper's photostream. Includes:

Expat with the text "If you haven't got anything nice to say about anyone, sit next to me".
Cartoon: EXPATTLER TATTLER-RATTLER
Bones and other artifacts on Mars.
A glass bottle on Mars
Playboy girls in lingerie and leather bikinis.
And lots more undecipherable crap.

Definitely a Hoagie/Mikey disciple. The guy seems, quite frankly, nuts. Plus, what's with posting sexist pictures and remarks on a page when you're trying to be taken seriously.

Strahlungsamt said...

I found out who John Cooper is: "HE" is SHE http://www.sherryshriner.com/

FlightSuit said...

I am looking at Hoagland's apartment house photos and still trying to wrap my mind around the idea that anybody would look at those photos and think the "apartment buildings" were large enough to be anything remotely resembling apartment buildings.

The rocks all around them would have to be GIANT boulders in order for those "apartment buildings" to be large enough to have housed even a race of four foot tall gray aliens.

But you can tell just by looking at those rocks that they aren't giant boulders.

They are little. Just like the formations which Hoagland is calling apartments.

It's like he doesn't even care enough to try anymore. It's like he's daring his followers to notice and point out the obvious.

Maybe he wants to get caught, because he's as tired of all this as we are.

Chris Lopes said...

Flightsuit,
It's desperation and laziness in action. He's got nothing and he knows it. He also knows that the whole 2012 thing is about to bust. So he's hoping to hang on with some tripe about Curiosity, but he knows it won't stand up to any examination at all. He's just counting on it being enough to pretend he's still relevant in the pseudo-science world.

Chris Lopes said...

Speaking if desperation, Hoagland is now posting links to all those old Youtube videos he used to complain about. They're in a section of TEM called the Viewscreen. I guess actually coming up with new material is just something he's capable of doing, so he's trying to reuse the past and pretend it's new stuff. This is the same crap Hoagland (constantly) tried to sell as DVD's. I admit to taking some pleasure in the knowledge that he is now conceding it's as worthless as some of us have said it is.

Tara Jordan said...

How do you talk common sense with individuals who are obviously already crazy?. Hoagland & Bara understand the value of the lunatic & uneducated market, they know they can keep on pushing the envelope, because as technology improves,humanity is regressing intellectually.Today,the average so called "adults" possess the critical thinking level of 13 yr old pre-teens. Unfortunately,a loony character like John Walker & the rest of the semi retarded New Agers are not the exception.

Tara Jordan said...

I also believe that Flighsuit has psychokinetic power,I was chatting with him on Facebook Friday evening, when we got hit by a 7.3 Magnitude earthquake (snark)

FlightSuit said...

You found me out! My Facebook chat powers are a terrible curse, as I can not control them. You don't even want to know what happens when I inadvertently chat with somebody who is at 19.5 degrees latitude.

Unknown said...


Strahlungsamt said...

I found out who John Cooper is: "HE" is SHE http://www.sherryshriner.com/
December 8, 2012 5:58 PM


The above comment was not posted by me. As a result, I have now registered a blogger account with the name Strahlungsamt. Anything not from this account in future was not written by me.

expat said...

That recently-added photo provides a very solid scale reference, because of the shadow of the masthead. The shadow would be the same width as the masthead itself, comparable with the width of an adult human head. So Hoagland's apartments & motels are miniature indeed.

Anonymous said...

Heard RCH claim that size doesn't matter, the "Martians" might be little folk and the minute apartments would be sufficient. (recent Coast interview)

expat said...

Yes, I suppose he can't be blamed for attempting to wriggle out of his gross error. But Occam's Razor says those rock formations are sedimentary rocks, not miniature collapsed condos.

Don't you think the fact that he put up a picture of the devastated office block in Oklahoma City as comparison is sufficient evidence that he's thinking wrongly?

Chris Lopes said...

Of course he was thinking (and wanted those viewing the picture to think) of large buildings. No one would willingly buy into the idea of ant or mouse sized Martians. Such creatures would hardly be in the business of building the huge cities and the face/mesa at Cydonia after all. Hoagie was just counting on not being called out on it until at least the end of the show anyway. Remember, the lie is not only different at every level, it's different at every telling.

FlightSuit said...

This would be a good opportunity for Hoagland to start claiming that his theory has all along, from the very start, included two races of Martians: One that are human sized, and another race of Lilliputian Martians.

Why not? He's lied in the past about his own previous statements and actions, including what he predicted and when he predicted it. Why shouldn't he "retcon" is own body of work and claim that these shaler apartments are stunning confirmation of what he's always known, which is that a race of six-inch Martians existed alongside the bigger ones we already know so much about?

Anonymous said...

One correction though, the EM conference page was perhaps written ten years ago or possibly earlier but RCH actually changed several times BBS in the mean time. Here's some kind of time line:

1. Started 1998(?) TEM BBS (twin forum of C2C) hosted by Keith Rowland until relationship turned sour. Free admission.

2. 2001-200? Anomalies.net BBS, hosted by Rick Donaldson. Until relationship turned sour. Free admission

3. 2003-now? Gototalk.com. Paid service by Keith Rowland. Relationship patched up?

I might have forgotten something in that list as it's so long ago in internet years. Gototalk was still functional in 2006 but I luckily lost track. The conference page was already up in the early days referring to different forums.

Nothing more to add really.

Jiminy Oddbird said...


In science, Occam's razor is used as a heuristic (general guiding rule or an observation) to guide scientists in the development of theoretical models rather than as an arbiter between published models. In the scientific method, Occam's razor is not considered an irrefutable principle of logic or a scientific result.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor#Overview

Jiminy Oddbird said...

Why would the supposed shadow of the mast head necessarily be the same size as a human head? How do we know that NASA didn't photoshop in the supposed shadow?

expat said...

>>Why would the supposed shadow of the mast head necessarily be the same size as a human head?<<

I wrote that it would necessarily be the same size as the mast head itself. The Sun is so far away that its beams may be considered parallel for this type of observation.

>> How do we know that NASA didn't photoshop in the supposed shadow?<<

That's an attempt to set up an unfalsifiable proposition. Unless you have specific information that this was done, your suggestion may be safely ignored.

Ricky Poole said...

Hoagland surprises me in how he can take something so freaking mundane, a shale formation, and "discover" miniature martian apartment buildings in it. I think it is highly unlikely that Hoagland actually believes anything that comes out of his own mouth. I've asked myself the question, "Does Hoagland make sense as a performance artist?" and the answer is, "Yes he does." I'm sure there are more possibilities than these but Hoagland seems to be either a scientific genius (cough), a delusional fanatic, a confidence operator, or a performance artist. I think the evidence weighs heavy on the performance artist (playing the scientific mystic rebel) whose audience is composed of both those of us who also enjoy watching 50s B-movies for the laughs and those whose credulity makes any distinction between science, pseudo-science, and artistic expression a moot point. At the worst he is the equivalent of a television evangelist confidence man like Robert Tilton, preying on the great "willingness to believe" of the "awake and aware" (or more properly, fantasy prone and easily hoodwinked) set because he can. The fantastic irony that NASA is portrayed as a secretive, superstitious, irrational, evil, deceptive entity when in reality Hoagland his ilk are presenting the superstitious, irrational, and incredibly deceptive components of the equation seems to indicate a black comedy of sorts to me. Is Hoagland just a character of a Andy Kaufman like comedian? Or is he just a fantasist grasping at straws in an attempt to remain relevant?

expat said...

These are good and fair questions. There is definitely an element of fraud in his writings -- asking followers to "join the enterprise conference" is a prime example. He knows perfectly well that anyone who responds will be forking over $3.95/mo for precisely nothing.

Chris Lopes said...

"Or is he just a fantasist grasping at straws in an attempt to remain relevant?"

This. Hoagland seems to be on his last leg here. He's afraid to talk to regular fans any more, except through "Greg" from time to time. The only people he actually will talk to are sympathetic radio hosts or people who have paid the 50-100 dollars to watch his power point presentations. In other words, he's lost all confidence in his ability to convince even marginally skeptical. All his conversations are monologues.

expat said...

This is the non-repetitive part of a post from "Misti".

"They still don't provide an accurate gray scale for correcting all of the images from Mars that they release filtered in red or simply black and white. There is no way to know one way or another what is or is not on Mars from any of the data which NASA continually obfuscates."

Once again I refer Misti and others to Don Davis, who knows what he's talking about:

http://www.donaldedavis.com/PARTS/MARSCLRS.html

My personal opinion, less expert than that of Don, is that the public information service JPL and Univ. Ariz offer from their successful rovers and orbiters has been more than adequate. Over 27,000 hi-res images in the HiRISE catalog now.

expat said...

I don't see how anyone can possibly complain about the quality of images like this.

THIS IS NOT OBFUSCATION, OK??

FlightSuit said...

Expat, if that image with its one centimeter scale is not an example of obfuscation, then answer me this:

Why aren't the once centimeter Martians visible in the image?

I think JPL Photoshopped the one centimeter Martian skeletons to look like pebbles.

The lie is different at every resolution.

expat said...

"Misti" responds, in part --

"Whether the majority or what ever percentage of images from NASA may or may not be veracious, is irrelevant"

I see... or rather, I don't see.

expat said...

"Misti" now posts:
"Your quoting me out of context simply proves my point. "

No it does not. Your point is totally self-contradictory, as anyone with reading skills can ascertain.

If you don't like me selectively quoting you, fine, I'll ban you outright. I'm doing my best to respond to the plurality of regular readers who have asked me to do something about your comment-flooding.

Unknown said...

http://mikebara.blogspot.ie/2012/12/connecticut-school-shootings-generate.html

New low for Mikey. Now he's using the Connecticut shootings to prove his goofball theories.

expat said...

My comment:
-----------
The effect you show is very weak indeed, although possibly interesting if correlated with other similar events. However, the text you offer in 'The Choice' describes, BUT DOES NOT EXPLAIN, other similar effects. You failed to elucidate the principles of what you call hyperdimensional physics so spectacularly that you made a total ass of yourself.

This small demonstration is a million miles from doing what you say -- namely, proving that there is a force of love binding us all together. You are dreaming, Mike. If you want to retrieve any credibility on this point, you need to show in mathematical terms how Maxwell's quaternions explain non-random deviations. Go for it.

Tara Jordan said...

I have to confess I am slightly jealous of Misti Parker, she attracts a lot of attention ;)

expat said...

Your jealousy is misplaced -- I think we all know that "Misti" is a fat, sweaty guy in Peoria.

FlightSuit said...

Mike Bara thinks there is a force of love which magically binds us all together?

I would like to ask him how he honors this force of love in his communications with other people.

Trekker said...

Flight Suit, I was thinking exactly the same thing! For someone who promotes the 'force of love', you'd think he'd be a bit more considerate of others' views, to the extent of actually being civil in dealing with those whose views differ from his own.

The virulent hatred he spews when questioned or opposed is a far cry from the 'love' he purports to preach. What a hypocrite!

Tara Jordan said...

Bara is real piece of schizophrenic work,New ager-old hippie antics for business, but when he talks about politics,socio-economics & minorities (especially Blacks & Muslims), the sleazebag stands on the right side of George Lincoln Rockwell

Unknown said...

Expat,
Thanks for the comment on my blog.

BTW, it seems to me that Hoagland's hyperdimensional physics is alchemy... He transmutes new agey garbage into scientific gold by claiming that it's confirmed by his hyperdimensional physics!

Did you like my comparison of the message of Cydonia to reading goat entrails?