"A new scientific truth does not win by convincing the skeptics and making them see the light, but rather because the skeptics eventually die."
A memorandum of Mike's candidates for new scientific truths...
1. Additional centrifugal force due to Earth's faster rotation would "flatten us all like pancakes" (The Choice, p. 32.)
2. If the orbit of Mars was perfectly circular, Mars and Earth would remain at the same distance from each other for ever. (Explaining his error on p.34.)
3. Newton's laws of motion only work if the object being measured doesn't rotate (The Choice, p. 60)
4. An annular eclipse happens when the Moon is unusually close to Earth (The Choice, p. 214.)
5. Nobody really knows much about the Moon (AAotM, p. 5.)
6. Lunar construction glass would be twice as strong as steel (AAotM, p. 51-2.)
7. The lunar craters Asada and Proclus A are in fact satellite dishes (AAotM, p. 108.)
8. Clouds look white in images of Earth in space because light comes off them faster. Oceans look dark because the light has to travel all the way to the ocean bed and back (AAotM, p. 125.)
9. There's a one mile square ziggurat at 174.31°E, 8.95°S on the Moon (AAotM, ch. 9.)
10. Oh, and there's also a gun emplacement, a beach house, a crane and a spaceship (ibid.)
I'd say the entire population of the planet would die before any of those became truthy.
13 comments:
I have to say, of the list, the one about clouds and ocean floors with light is for me the funniest. I think (I'm being generous) he's trying to shoehorn the inverse square law into densities, vapour,seawater, sand/rocks and whatever else he's disregarded. Whatever it is, if it had been presented in a physics essay when I was in school, I think the oik would have been picked up by the ear and kicked around the science block.
SB
I agree, and what kills me about that is that photo-interpretation is a major, major theme of the book. Why didn't the publisher read that and tear up Mike's contract immediately?
I'll type this slowly, so that even someone who learned about science from Richard Hoagland can understand. No, theories do not wait for the critics to die to be accepted. They also don't wait for scientifically illiterate hacks to publish books on them either. What they wait for is actual evidence (that can stand up to critical analysis) to support them. It's called science, you might want to Google it.
I know what it is..he's mixed up transmitted light with reflected light. I'm just thrwing out a hypothesis as to how he might have come to the conclusion:
Using only (the important bit)the built in light meter of his camera, he's taken a photo of a black sheet, and one of a white sheet using the same light source. Without making allowances and not realising as to how the meter is calibrated, he's discovered that the black is exposed as grey...(Snow/white sheet will come out too dark with no allowances)..he's possibly, using some lightbulb inspiration, extrapolated that to think that the oceans' natural colour and density (after the light has not reached the ocean floor several miles down)is irrelevant. He does know doesn't he the the sun is 93 million miles away?
SB
Nice recap of his greatest hits!
Maybe he's just a misogynistic, homophobic moron?
Talk about spunk-trumpetry! I'm going to have to air out the room after reading that Top Ten list.
I love Mike Bara, he is the kind of guy who gives you enough rope to hang himself.If its not enough,you definitely may judge his books by the covers....
Any update on how Mikey's cinematic project is coming along?
It must be hard to find time to direct such an epic production when you're busy writing scientific papers.
Ah well, he's not directing, just writing. I believe Tony Boldi is the director or producer or both.
(Old Hollywood joke: "Did you hear about the Polish actress? She was so clueless she went to bed with the writer" ba-DOOM tsshhhhhhh)
Nothing lately on the UFO series he was doing with Maureen Elsberry, either. At one time he was plugging that for all it was worth without actually revealing any details.
Dear Expat,
I found this by going back to the enterprise site back in 1996,
http://web.archive.org/web/19970417044333/http://www.enterprisemission.com/images/nasa-pr.gif.
Quite hilarious!
Regards
Bill
Bill,
That's still on the site. As is his reply:
http://www.enterprisemission.com/goldin.html
1. Additional centrifugal force due to Earth's faster rotation would "flatten us all like pancakes" (The Choice, p. 32.)
M. Bara obviously has never been to Magic Mountain, Valencia, California and ridden one of the roller coasters.
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