Friday, August 6, 2010

Mike Bara chimes in

     Mike Bara got in on the act Aug 3rd, posting on his new blog (that doesn't allow comments, he-he) the same inaccuracies as Hoagland about the newly colored HiRISE image. His angle was just a little bit different, citing a foxnews.com piece:

Usually, these linds[sic] of articles pop-up when NASA is about to release something new and interesting about Mars. It serves as a warning to anyone in science and academia not to start asking too many uncomfortable questions because they will be subsequently ridiculed.

So, the real issue here is; what’s coming up about Mars that NASA is worried about? We’ll see.

     Oh please. This was just one of HUNDREDS of images released by the Univ Ariz HiRISE lab last month. It was simply labelled 'Popular Landform in Cydonia Region.' Links were prominently provided to other treatments of the basic acquired swath, including the "Full Mona." Warning-schwarning, Mike. Do you really believe foxnews.com is at NASA's beck and call to post sinister warnings to scientists? Aren't there far more direct ways for NASA/JPL/Univ Ariz to get messages to the academic community? Do real scientists (as opposed to fake ones, like Hoagland & Bara) even read foxnews?

     This is exactly the kind of speculative, unsupported, alarmist, thoroughly unscientific analysis we've learned to expect from these two clowns. But at least Bara didn't claim any inside info.

Update: The Scientist Speaks - Aug 27th
     Now that Mike Bara's blog does allow comments, I made some of these points in comment today. The eminent scientist Prof. Michael Bara pronounced as follows:

As if I needed any more proof that you are a complete blithering idiot, the fact that you are obviously a democrat confirms it. Enjoy November.

14 comments:

Chris Lopes said...

Bara is even less qualified than Hoagland in these matters. His bio states he "attended" Seattle Pacific University which sounds suspiciously like "didn't make it past the first semester" to me. I guess being able to BS your way through life trumps having an education in some circles.

As to the image, yes it is (as Hoagland continues to say, as if what it shows doesn't matter) an old image. The fact is though, the image is detailed enough to see it's just a mesa. No giant face carved in rock by some ancient, dead, civilization. Just a really cool looking mesa.

expat said...

Yes, the poor face-fans are now reduced to saying, in effect "Well it used to look like a face, but then OF COURSE it's been eroded for thousands of years, so OF COURSE it can't be expected to look like a face now.

How laughable. I could claim it USED TO look like a kangaroo (or even a Goerge Haas-style roadrunner) using exactly the same pseudo-logic.

Chris Lopes said...

Some are also using the "it's a half-man half-lion face" to explain the obvious asymmetrical nature of the thing. Then there are the "those are altered images" folks. They seem to forget the inconvenient fact that it was the NASA image folks who brought the original Viking era "face" to everyone's attention. If they hadn't, it would have gone unnoticed and Hoagland (along with his little friend Bara) would have had to find a real job.

expat said...

Never let it be forgotten that Mike Bara, in April 2008, posted these immortal words for us all to read and inwardly digest:

"I live on Redondo Beach, California, I drive a 2007 BMW 5 Series, I’m a New York Times bestselling author, and I hang out with strippers and porn starlets half my age."

Chris Lopes said...

expat, you make me almost feel sorry for Hoagland. He just gets to sit around the house with Robin. :)

Biological_Unit said...

The Face was Nuked by the Secret Space fleet.

just gossiping ...

Chris Lopes said...

BU, you bring up an interesting point. One wonders why Hoagland has spent time discussing the Obama Space policy (which he really doesn't understand, even though he has taken credit for some of it) at all. If he really believes in the "secret space program", with really cool advanced stuff that we can only imagine, then what Obama and NASA are doing is beside the point. That also goes for the ESA and the Russian space agency. None of them should matter if Hoagie really believes in this stuff. Makes one wonder.... ;)

Biological_Unit said...

There is a Blog that alleges Masonic ties to RCH and the Secret Space program:

This guy is Nuts!

He has all of the Word Salad charm of Mars Revealer. He puts up Comic book illustrations to cover the fact that he has NEVER provided a SINGLE JPEG from Space.

Chris Lopes said...

BU, I just went to that website you posted and all I can say is WTF! I mean the guy starts out with some stupid phony wanna be macho military BS (which tells me he spent about 0 time in anything that even looked like a military organization) and then devolves into total mush. Friends don't let insane friends handle a keyboard.

Biological_Unit said...

I expect nothing from such a Space Cadet.

Biological_Unit said...

"Doubt 'till thou canst doubt no more...doubt is thought and thought is life. Systems which end doubt are devices for drugging thought." -- Albert Guerard

Biological_Unit said...

Facebook page for RCH's Kool-Aid drinkers:

Colonize Space

Some Chuck guy:
This will employ millions, save the economy. Can't wait to get started.

Hoaxland:
We can start MUCH sooner with existing, shuttle-derived technologies --

- - - -
No, we can't! How do I know? I've said it a thousand times. HUMANS CANNOT LIVE IN ZERO G.

Chris Lopes said...

Ex Pat, where is the comment section on Bara's blog?

Chris Lopes said...

Never mind, I found the comment section. It's conservatives like him that make conservatives like me cringe.