Thursday, July 9, 2015

Another astounding display of ignorance from Mike Bara

credit: ESO

        Mike Bara, the world-renowned designer of jet aircraft and seducer of strippers, posted this picture today with the comment "Another confirmation of the solar fission theory discussed in my book The Choice."

        It's a pretty picture but it has nothing whatsoever to do with solar fission. Mike Bara is so utterly ignorant of things solar and planetary that we've come to expect from him nothing much better than "It looks like, therefore it is."

        Solar fission is Tom Van Flandern's theory that the solar system was not born from the gradual contraction of an accretion disc, as the accepted theory teaches. Rather, the Sun formed first and then flung planets off in pairs by a process similar to good old centrifugal force. Van Flandern's diagrams do look a bit like the above picture, if you ignore the obvious fact that the smaller object is not one of a pair. Mike Bara wouldn't give a thought to a detail like that any more than he did two years ago when he cited the observation of a single exoplanet, GJ504b, as support for Van Flandern. As a theory, solar fission always had its problems and went into the recycle bin when planetary accretion was actually observed in progress, at HL Tauri.

        What we really see here is a "contact binary" -- a pair of stars that are so close that their exo-atmospheres are partly shared. It's part of a five-star system that is made of the contact binary, a detached binary, and one single star. It's called 1SWASP J093010.78+533859.5 (cute name, huh?) and it's in Ursa Major. The complete announcement is here. By the way, as Chris rightly notes in comments here, this isn't really a picture of 1SWASP J093010.78+533859.5 at all. It's an artist's impression of  HR 5171. "Confirmation of the solar fission theory"?   No, Mike, No. Just NO.

        It's one thing for Bara to peddle his virulent climate change denial — at least there still is some real controversy there (although precious little, at this point). But when he tries to promote a long-dead theory with an irrelevant image, we can only laugh and go about our business.

17 comments:

Chris said...

Mike, take a look at this. What does the title say? Move your finger slowly across the words if you're struggling.

http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1409b/

Good boy. Now read the smaller words underneath the pretty picture. You've been a silly boy again, haven't you?

Dee said...

Hmm, perhaps Bara was thinking of how solar fission theory tries to explain the formation of binary stars? Something with angular momentem and stuff? Lets see if I can find something here and play Bara's advocate...

From History of Solar System formation and evolution hypotheses (wikipedia...)

Fission is also proposed as a possible explanation for the formation of close binary stars and explosions for the formation of galaxies and galaxy clusters

Hmm, but weird as that doesn't mean you can turn that around, that close binary stars would somehow strengthen or improve the explanation of the fission theory. Also I cannot verify the reference.

Found also something from 1957 The Fission Theory and the Origin of Binary Systems -- Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 51, p.97

The problem appears to be with Bara that he confuses a lof of things. He might indeed remember somewhat that fission theory can indeed somewhat explain binaries and as such he started to think the existence of binaries are actually some proof of fission?

Dee

Unknown said...

Went to Mikey's old site, this is what I found.

Domain Name: MikeBara.com
Sale Type: Fixed Price - Buy Now for only $2,745
Domain Length: 8 Characters
Base Domain: Mike Bara
TLD Extension: .com
Brandability: VERY HIGH

Hey Expat, you'd better grab this one now before Mikey buys it back with the royalties from Ancient Aliens and Aliens Uncovered.

Hurry, this offer won't last long.

expat said...

Dee: I really don't believe Mikey thinks that far into things. He saw that image and instantly thought "Solar fission!!!"

Anonymous said...

As someone in the position of hiring aero/mech engineers/designers in southern california, the fact that Mike Bara is currently employed by Arrowhead Products makes me file all resumes of Arrowhead employees in the same bin as Van Flandern's theory.

That may not be fair, but employment is in high demand, so: too bad.

Dee said...

You're probably right Expat but I really like Bara to be someone who is just fantastically wrong and not actually brain damaged and in urgent need for treatment. The world just looks like a better place that way, at least to my mind :-) Of course it's also tempting to think of him as a conman who's not actually caring about the facade he writes but that would make him a terrible lousy conman, even too lazy to put a little effort in the con. Is it possible he once put his old domainname up for sale himself through some auction or is it that he just couldn't pay the bills at the time and others snapped it up based on SEO value?

Anonymous said...

"........ It's one thing for Bara to peddle his virulent climate change denial..... "

...does that mean that the climate chance vitriol of Al Gore and other fear mongers is real by means of some unknown mysterious scientific factor sometimes called hard cash ??? It is hilarious to point out the blatant errors and other "idiotery"by Mike "the Cartman" Bara....he is asking for it most of the times......but the same set of game rules apply to you of course when you propagate this climate chance nonsens as an off the cuff truth.

[and yes...there is climate chance...the natural occurring one..eon after eon....here on earth and in the universe]

Adrian

expat said...

I don't really propagate climate change. The only time I referred to it recently I wrote that I wasn't qualified to argue the point.

I offer (very mild) mockery of Bara's position just because for him it's so obviously a political, not scientific, point. "All Democrats are douche-bags, Al Gore is a Democrat, Al Gore invented global warming, ergo global warming is rubbish.

Chris said...

Dee: Bara is just lazy and thick. He saw that pic on the BBC, imagined it looked like part of a star breaking away and decided that means it must be. He did zero investigation, failed to pick up that it's obviously not a photograph, didn't bother to try and find a source and so failed to appreciate that it's not relevant to the story carried by the BBC and failed to appreciate that the story carried by the BBC is in any case not relevant to his pet theory because he was too lazy to read it. He just saw a picture and reacted, like he always does, like he did with the ziggurat image, like he does with metal android heads and desktop PC projectors on Mars.

Basically he's a failure of a person and is too stupid to go beyond what he's shown here. Twitter and his blog are nice and safe so he sticks with those, no chance of nasty facts intruding into his child-like fantasy world of alien monsters and scary space. Most kids grow up but Bara's a good example of a man with a child-like mind, someone with personal issues around insecurity and extremely stunted intelligence who would rather claim fantasy than be a man and face the world and its unknowns.

jourget said...

Well, it's official. Don Easterbrook and Stephen Grey are the two guests booked on Coast for the night of the 14th. They won't even be talking about Pluto. Hoagland will have his multi-hour extravaganza on Art's network, but it's guaranteed he won't have a fraction of the listenership he was hoping for.

Binaryspellbook said...

Bara is certainly stunted intellectually, lazy and thick. He is also embarrassingly immature regarding the opposite sex. Anyone who gloats and extracts happiness from the fact that that his "ex-ho" is having a shitty life is surely lacking in humanity and compassion.

He actually reminds me of one of these shit talking online gamer kids. He certainly argues like one any time he responds to criticism.

Chris said...

Binaryspellbook, something you have to appreciate about Bara, a couple of things that have become apparent over time:

1) He is a narcissist and he's got it bad. See http://howtoreadpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/how-to-recognize-narcissist.html Bara scores 8 out of 8. There's a degree of child-like immaturity in someone with this disorder and that clearly comes through with Bara. Indeed the whole aliens thing gives him a subject he can control, not because he is skilled, as might be the case with other subjects, but because he is witless - it's so dumb that people with any kind of brains about them simply aren't interested in lapping it up like he does. Anyone trying to argue against it simply plays into his fantasy, eg coverups and so on.

2) Bara often projects his own failings onto others, it appears to be some kind of subconscious coping mechanism for his dull life. Watch out for it and you'll be sure to spot it. When he tweets he usually comes across as if seeking approval for what he's saying. When he claims to be pleased his "ex-ho" has problems, I suspect it's he who has these exact problems, and that's his way of distancing himself from them. He mocks homosexuality to try and gain an image that he's a red-blooded bloke and to prove to himself that he's got no interest in it whatsoever. Whereas most normal men aren't phased by it one way or another. I think Bara is scared of it in fact.

He talks of fame, women, sex, money - which means he has none of those things, only the imaginary James Bond version of himself in his head has them. He is terrified of independent women, so they become "hoes" and "bitches" and "c*nts", as Bara's narcissistic disorder only permits submissive women who will confirm to him his imaginary greatness. He will tweet how well his book is coming along, meaning he wants to convince himself that it's coming along, which invariably it won't be hence the tweet, and lo and behold we get copied and pasted text and images and more narcissism - to Bara his books are just platforms for himself to rant, and to arrogantly presume that his readers care to pay to read it. As for debates with real experts, forget it, that causes him to lose his bowels quicker than anything else, since there would be no way to spin his abject failure even to himself in that environment.

And so on and so on. Basically he's emotionally still a stroppy child trying to convince the grown up world he matters, and this aliens crap gives him a meaningless, safe way to try it and tell himself he did it. Normal people can only really laugh at his imbecility and the way he constantly gets even this lame subject wrong, and await his next cock-up.

Dee said...

Chris, very good! As cherry on the cake, the true narcissist has no problem admitting to his own narcissism and can even revel in it occasionally. This is because truth value is not the thing which is important, to search or to avoid in particular -- the only measuring stick would be if it adds to ones fantastic glorified image or not. As only that brings the desired protection from inadequacy and judgments.

But lets not credit Bara with too much here either. The world he operates in nurtures and fuels narcissistic performers and audiences alike. The aspect of immaturity might be very visible with him but his narcissistic condition doesn't seem that extreme at all, perhaps a bit more crude and loud than the usual in his subculture.

Binaryspellbook said...

I enjoyed reading that and the suggested article very much indeed.
Thank you Chris. I must say you look to have nailed Bara's character perfectly.

I've heard him on air when asked why he wrote the ancient aliens on the Moon/Mars books. One of his favourite answers is that whilst Dark Mission had a lot of the material in it. DM was by far more political. He continues by describing how he wanted to "get the information out to those young people who were unaware of the face etc."

There is a whole generation that have not been taught by those giants Hoagland and Bara he is saying.

Total fucking lie. I would guarantee it. It's all to do with filthy lucre and self aggrandization. Nothing to do with educating children. What the hell does Bara know about children anyway. Let alone teaching them. He is not a parent and neither is his twin brother. They do have cats though.

Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost said...

Dee said, "...the true narcissist has no problem admitting to his own narcissism and can even revel in it occasionally."


That would explain why he seems to be so enamored of that "Mike Bara - Intellectual Bad Ass" (with a bad comb over) picture he likes to flash around.

Chris said...

Robert: the really funny thing about that Intellectual Bad Ass graphic is the tiny little strip of text at the bottom which he didn't spot (because when does he ever pay attention to details in images eh?). ICANHASCHEEZBURGER.COM

It was posted by a user called SeattleGadfly in his "LOL' collection. http://profile.cheezburger.com/SeattleGadfly/Lolz/7

You can see some of the others there, taking the piss out of the likes of idiot Giorgio Tsoukalos. In otherwords the image is mocking Bara for acting like he's an intellectual and being anything but. Bara, too stupid and vain to understand this, and missing the caption, thought it was a compliment and nicked it. HAHA!

Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost said...

LMAO! I never noticed that! Thanks, Chris!