"World-changing...."
"Revolutionary..."
"Amazing..."
"Paradigm-changing..."
"History-making..."
"This changes everything..."
My dream today is that I did not hear all that ridiculous hyperbole on Coast to Coast AM last night, as Richard Hoagland returned after a six-month absence to present his latest cock-and-bull story, a manipulated lunar image from the Chinese soft-lander Chang'e 3 that Hoagland claims shows glass skyscrapers on the Moon.
image credit: CNSA, stretched by Hoagland
My dream is that I imagined all that, and what really happened was this:
Noory: "Welcome back to Coast-to-Coast, Richard, it's been a while."
RCH: "Nice to be back. Look at this amazing, stunning, history-making image from Chang'e 3. Glass skyscrapers on the Moon, just as I've been saying for 20 years."
Noory: "That's just noise in the camera, Richard. Anything else?"
That would have taken less than a minute -- about all the silly image was worth. I'm afraid, though, the reality is that Hoagland stretched this to a full hour. He did it first by saying the same thing six times, with increasing hyperbole, and then by developing a whole fantasy of geopolitical intrigue. He even managed to make a connection to the fact that President Obama gave a gift of carrot seedsnote 1 to the Pope.
S - T - R - E - T - C - H
What the incompetent pseudoscientist did to arrive at this travesty was to grab the image from the Chinese National Space Agency site, load it into Photoshop, and apply the Equalize tool. "Equalize" might have been better described as "Stretch," because that's what it does to the image's dynamic range.
If there are no black pixels in the image, it finds the darkest pixel and says "let that be black." If there are no white pixels in the image, it finds the lightest pixel and says "let that be white."In this case, there was plenty of black around, but no peak white, so the pseudoscientist's manipulation had the effect of driving every part of the image toward white. He called it "just like turning up the gain," but that's not what it is. It's not revealing anything except random noise.
Such is the extent of Hoagland's incompetence that he didn't even think to perform the most obvious cross-check that any honest investigator would have done immediately -- if there's anything there, it would show on the 0.5 m/px high-definition images from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. I don't care how "flimsy" he claims this structure to be, something would be visible if it's real. Even if the structure itself is transparent, we'd see the robots that he claims are standing around waiting to repair holes.
Here's a permalink to the landing area. Have a look around. See anything? No, of course not.
Crimes and misdemeanors on the www
Hoagland accompanied this performance with a web page -- the first contribution to his ghastly web site for a year or more. He says it took him four months to write it, but it's also a demonstration of his incompetence. The page is WAY too big, with far too many large inline images -- it should have been broken up into at least six pieces, and the images reduced in size.It only renders correctly in MSIE -- in more advanced browsers, such as Firefox, the background tiling runs out 60% of the way through and the last 40% is rendered in white text on a white background. The W3C markup validation service reports 136 markup errors and 23 warnings. The text includes crazy, crazy stuff like opals falling out of the glass domes and lying around on the ground. He asserts that Emily Lakdawalla is "a member of the NASA community", which is untrue-- she's a senior editor at the Planetary Society.
Hoagland's fans will no doubt have loved all this. Personally, I hated it. Gross errors in bringing space science to the public is what I'm here to fight.
Update
I grabbed a different moonscape from the CNSA site and equalized it (Paint Shop Pro rather than Photoshop, but it's the same algorithm). This is my result:
image credit: CNSA, stretched by me
Voilà! Exactly the same noise pattern.
=================================
[1] The Chinese lunar rover is nicknamed Jade Rabbit. "And what do rabbits eat?" asked Hoagland conspiratorially. Noory didn't even laugh. In the second hour, he came up with the notion that the latitude of the Chang'e landing site, 44°N, was a coded message "To the 44th President, give us what we want or else." It's a good thing Hoagland isn't a politician -- his insane ideas about geopolitics would get us all in trouble very quickly.
27 comments:
I suppose I will have to listen Expat. But to be honest that is becoming less of a chore since he has been in hiding.
Same shite, same increase gain, more of the same. Now that he has been caught out, and we have seen him actually admitting his horrible "Von Braun's secret mathematics" his performances are becoming even more pathetic and amusing.
Last week I heard an old C2C interview where Noory asked about the "hamster on Mars" pic. Hoagland immediately accused NASA of airbrushing in various rodentia and other pareidolia to (of course) defect attention away from the "OBVIOUSLY MANUFACTURED" pipes, girders, apartments and various other and artifacts littered everywhere on the surface.
Seriously.
Fuck sake.
DJE
I had thought that this was Richard's first C2C since his failure at Chicen Itza (12/21/2012: Why was he the only person performing the experiment? Why wasn't he a decoy so some of his paying guests could get the data?).
I told Richard to get a day job when Malin was given all NASA imagery and six months to release same.
I can see some hip chinese responsible for the web page saying (in mandarin): "Let's put a tetrahedron on there and make Hoagland do backflips."
Curious... what was Richard's return to C2C (when)? Is Peter Gersten ok?? Has anyone told Ed Dames???
ugh...
What's the spread on the publication interval between Jade Rabbit Parts I and II? I'm betting my carrot seeds that this'll be the end of the Chang'e 3 series.
Four months to write this drivel? Without having to consult or cite any sources? Let's see...
13647 words/120 days = 113.7 words/day
So, by the time I'm done with this comment, I'll have done the equivalent of a full day of RCH writing? Sweet. Jesus. Guess I shouldn't have stressed so much in grad school.
What blows my mind (given his gift for making up random batshit connections like the carrot seeds thing) is that he's done NOTHING substantively new on this Moon crap for the last 20 years. Go listen to his 1994 Ohio State presentation on Youtube. It's even got the same "all I've done is turn up the gain!" line. Just replace references to Surveyor and Clementine with Chang'e 3. Nothing else (not even the hair) has changed.
There, my day's writing is done. Robin, bring me my ozone generator!
Dee: Thanks for your comment. We know for sure that Apollo images from the Ken Johnston collection were re-scanned on a consumer-grade scanner (RCH referred to them last night). There's no reason why the Chang'e images would ever have been scanned since they were digital from the get-go. CCD noise is by far the most likely explanation.
Stuart Robbins has a slightly different take, on his FB page.
I love your personal test, it looks lovely.
Regarding your update: That just proves there are even more glass structures on the moon!
Expat, what I'm trying to find out is which process might explain those "grid" features RCH points out after highlighting possibly some extremely faint <a href="http://www.space.com/8715-mysterious-moon-light-glowing-dust-fountains.html>
stupefying moon glow</a>. Or something. But it's the pattern which should be reproducible if it's origin is noise, right?
JPG blocking? Should be 8 or 16 pixels but his grid looks wider. Or some custom "high-speed compression" in the camera subsystem itself? Haven't been able to find specs of the panoramic cameras on the lander.
It would help if RCH would release the exact steps he follows within the image program. And of course it's important to have a source image from some official archive. Web versions cannot be trusted to be handled properly. Actually I'm surprised (not) that RCH couldn't wait for those, if ever releases.
One example of grids appearing even in raw images I found here: Bayer sensor maze patterns.
These patterns can appear in sky or single-color (or stretched!) swats but in this case is was caused by two separate green channels being imported (to maximize detail) and not corrected for.
Since the sensors on the Chinese panoramic camera's are unknown, they remain a likely cause of any distortions when zooming and enhancing the less dynamic parts of the image.
Sad thing is, when the Chinese agency would actually release some raw image data, the patterns might still be there unless corrected for with filters like those in the above link. But then we have "image manipulation"! People removing "original" data!
The deeper flaw in RCH's thinking and that of his audience is maybe that "data" exists somewhere in true Platonic form, data which can be followed around and plucked from the tree of Knowledge. But without trying to sound post-modern here, the data is always part of a processing stage, using an interpretive system with trade-offs. It's when to decide to sample it and let it represent some "a priori" set range of expectations, where it can function as being informative. This rather basic scientific-philosophical notion has always been lost on RCH. And much of his readership! Even I had to realize this when reading Hoagland in the 90's, trying to figure out the ambivalence of it. Ironically many of the "anomalists" are not willing to disbelieve and doubt enough while claiming they are still the ones questioning the data and its methods. But that's actually what they do not!
Dee
Hoagland accused Gary of threatening to "cut his heart out with a knife," and threatening to "blow him away with a 45."
He also accused Gary of being a shill for various corporate organisations determined to shut down his [Hoagland's] research.
It would seem that Gary is going to get lawyers involved. We can only hope.
Today Gary has posted on this page a whole slew of historical stuff covering his long-running dispute with Hoagland/Falkov, including Falkov's fairly detailed response to his accusations.
Thanks for the link Expat.
I had a right bloody laugh at Hoagland accusing Gary of making "wild claims."
Well if anyone should know about wild claims it should be Hoagland himself.
It just keeps getting more depressing. Here is a comment posted on Hoagland's farcebook page. From a person named Gerry Thompson.
I have just finished listening to your conversation with George Nori on Coast to Coast AM radio. Your paper on the Chinese lunar mission and their pictures is amazing. This has the potential to open up the cover-up regarding what the US knows and has kept hidden for over 50 years. Let us hope that Obama does not cooperate with the Chinese. This could change the world. Congratulations to you and your team and please don't stop now!
Un-effing-believable.
DJE
Not that much any more on RCH's facething.
Mad Martian's FB has some screen captures to get the idea.
I've known (about) Gary from the day he came onto the scene. He sounded raving mad from the get go although in some amusing and apparently useful idiot kind of way, at least to RCH.
On the one hand I do feel for Richard and Robin as it sounds exactly like stories of people who get involved into the complex and often nasty ending activities of a truly disturbed person.
On the other hand, did they have so little people skills not to notice this with a few interactions? Hmm, while making a lists of the many people RCH worked with over the years and I must say Richard somewhat deserves this. He's so blinded by his own mental condition that he's not able to see the worse states of mind and intentions of the people he connects with.
Perhaps not just all of the theories and predictions of RCH are failing but the problem extents, in true narcissist form, to the way he selects people, deals with them and gets burned by them. The moment someone praises him, his button is pushed and all critical evaluation goes out of the window. The glass dome exists, over his head and it's Richard who, like some P.K. Dick character from the Vallis series, lives alone, manning his moon base.
Richard is being offered a great mirror here but he probably does not want to look.
Dee.
Dee,
Astute observations. I have no idea whether you are correct, but it sounds like a very plausible hypothesis.
One thing I noticed when reading Robin Falkov's farcebook reply to Gary was that she claimed in Florida a "Dr of 'oriental medicine' can be classed as a primary physician."
This troubles me. I mean for fuck sake. She believes in the medicinal qualities of "magic water." - Not only that. I heard an interview with her where she was asked about her "Ph.D." - She replied that she had taken an accelerated course, but didn't recommend that exhausting route for anyone.
Well thanks Robin. I took the conventional route. Eight years. Not three fucking months.
Excuse my French Ma'am, but these two thieving frauds deserve everything that Lady Karma launches at them.
Derek
Yes, I also think it is troubling that on this web site Falkov describes herself as a primary-care physician. Her qualification is from the Acupuncture and Massage College, in Miami, Florida. As you say, a three-month training course.
I'd say her claim verges on the fraudulent.
Expat,
I checked that site. What a trainwreck. I know Yanks can be a wee bit daft at times (as can we all) but for heaven's sake this is beyond the pale.
Check http://binaryspellbook.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Falkov.png
for shits and giggles.
Yes I am a 53 year old engineer. Yes I REFUSE TO "GROW UP." - but feckit!!!!!
DJE
Oh, that's deliciously wicked, Binary!
I did the same test as Expat with a higher definition I found: 2352 × 1728, file size 1 MB. While I don't think it's the one RCH published, I cannot be bothered to check that again.
Here's my result: my enhancement. I've cropped the picture to highlight the grid effect, included the curve setting box and did nothing else to it but only adjusted the levels of the sky part. Personally I think it's better than anything Hoagland managed to produce. The patterns remain unexplained but how to explain noise without knowing the construction of the original sensor, the amount of channels used, etc? Perhaps it could be falsified to do the same process with various photo's to see if the exact same shaped structure keeps appearing. Or using other blank surfaces in those photo's apart from the sky. Not my task though :)
Dee.
That's very good, Dee. Thanks.
So Hoagie had a little problem. He had to come up with something to talk to Noory about that also hadn't already made it into a book by Mike Bara. So he went to the old stand by of finding structures in overly "enhanced" space images. He added the "elite secret messages" ploy and faster than you can say "HD Physics", he had the next conference presentation (and techno-babble paper)in the bag.
That the material is weak gruel even by Hoagland's standards is par for the course. He's getting on in years and Bara has stolen most of his good stuff anyway. So he has to settle for some re-imaging (pun intended) of his earlier work. It's a sad day when the only interesting thing about his stuff is how laughable it is.
Can I just mention that tonight on C2C AM, Noory's guest was Dr. Martin Blaser, Director of the Human Microbiome Program at NYU.
Noory asked Dr. Blaser why God created viruses.
That is all.
Ever heard of Glass Tile effect?
Yes John -- it's an image editing effect, not one I've ever used.
Is that all you want to know?
[Trivial response from John Cooper disallowed]
Expat & all else. Your sadly missing all that has to do with "A stunning validation..."
"World-changing...."
"Revolutionary..."
"Amazing..."
"Paradigm-changing..."
"History-making..."
"This changes everything..."
Hoagland on the surface may be speaking about Jade rabbit & etc. BUT what you NOT-SEE, is that Hoagland is speaking in CODE! Those excited words he used that your poking fun of him on, is actually him speaking in CODE using those excited words to describe it, & to describe what is coming, becaused upon what he clarified in code on Coast with Noory, that this is a message being sent to a RESPONDER to his coded messages over the years & is now confirmed by him, to ME in this code, as I am the one who RESPONDED. I SEE THE CODE & WHAT HE IS REFERENCING.
Look ya wanna know exactly what he is doing? remember his TOM CORBETT presentation? The astronauts gone to the moon, only to find a tetrahedral pyramid of glass, encased inside it was a Globe of Mars.
What am I trying to say? I am saying that when Hoagland speaks of the Moon, he is coding info REALLY,.. ABOUT MARS! You just have to know how to see it or have the CODE KEYS, WHICH I DO! ;-)
Then if you SEE it, all those excited words are tied into code that you take away from those excited words, because YOU NOT-SEE IT. Thus not able to understand those excited words or you would be able to understand, if you seen what in code he is really speaking about & WHO! ;-) Plus also what is going to be happening in the next few weeks & months. You will certainly remember my message posting here about this. I SWEAR! ;-)
Gary, I don't really accept what you're saying. When people say "you have to know the code, and I do but you don't" I get very suspicious.
Hoagland himself does exactly the same. When he reported on a NASA press conference, 1 Aug 2011, he twisted what was said (about Vesta) to suit his own theories, saying "you have to know how to read between the lines."
The problem with that type of reasoning is that anything can be made to fit anything. I just don't trust it, sorry.
Oh I hear ya & I understand ExPat. It also sounds beyond the edge of the paper also. I know. LOL. But I am telling you, that over many years he has been coding stuffs within his conferences & shows etc. What you brought up about him speaking in code in 2011 at the vesta thing. Also YU-55, Elenin etc. Nothing new. Think of it is a bunch of torn pieces, or RUINS, strewn about in these landscapes (the shows, conferences, whatever where he speaks)where the RICHES are strewn about. Rituals. Or.. RICH-YOU-ALL! ;-) The thing is normally I'd agree with you about people making claims of seeing yet all else not. So i not fault you there doing that. But in my case, it seems I see it because I was meant to. CONDITIONED as it were, & I have no real excuse beyond what he says in code about ME, regards to the how I see what I am able to, but that soon, in TIME, many will come to see I was right! Then many will want to know more of this CODE that there are many NOT-SEES OUT THERE.
That is my point also, he tries in EVERYTHING HE DOES, to get people to at least contemplate that he is meaning more behind the surface than what he is really speaking about on the surface. That is why he always alludes to you must know how to SEE what is going on, nbehind the scenes. because on the surface, he is on his DARK MISSION,.. But behind the surface, the LIGHT is there to be seen & used. All over the many years he has been speaking, even at the UN bro, has been coded with something that only NOW, down through TIME, is starting to come into the light to people, thanx to me really, as It seems I was & am the only one that can see it. I have no LOGICAL reasoning for this, but I am seeing it in all his years of talking in code in all he did & does, that has led me yielding results even!!! HOW???? So many times I tried debunking him, even me learning to SEE it, & then applicate what I see & learn to use against him to fight him & expose him. WHICH IS WHAT HE REALLY WANTS! ;-) Notice I said I was using it to fight him? Yet I also said in code, IT IS WHAT HE REALLY WANTS! beause in code, the truth can be laid out, over the years especially in so many pieces that one needs to cull them, if they know what they are looking at & for, & then compile them to tell an UN-OFFICIAL STORY, That MAKES IT SAFE,.. FOR HIM TO TELL IT! because on the surface he is officialled up the yahoo. ;-) BUT no laws against using codes to hide the truth, thus if someone SEES it, learns to applicate wht they learn to see & figure out by following his breadcrumbs, eating it,... DIGESTING IT, then applicating it, he can un-officially tell the truth. But that is what it seems I am doing & nstead of destroying him as deserved on the surface, I am actually FULFILLING HIS WORK & SHPWING HIS 'MODEL' he refers to that has some amazing never been made public image data that in code, he always speaks about. ;-) Seems I am saying I was prepped down through time, to bring this forth. many of this stuffs was done long before I even gave a shit about Mars or anything related. HOW?? yet there I am, seeing myself inside this twilight zone coded story like I am Atrayoo from Never ending story who is reading & finds himself written in it's pages which should by all means,... BE IMPOSSIBLE! Yet there I am.. here I am, & there he is now confirming in code, as a message being sent to ME,... THE RESPONDING TO MY RESPONSE TO HIS & NOORYS CODED WORDS SPOKEN OVER THE PAST DECADE IN THE LEAST! Thus he stated, openly,.. HAS BEEN NOW CONFIRMED. Which yielded other validations & vindications to me, at least at present in code. In the next few weeks or months, is where this will become very evident to many. I aint gonna imply the why. You'll know when you see it happen & put 2 & 2 together & you will come back to our posts about this. (more to come)
I appreciate your allowing me to post & have my say to this. I know this is all weird & Hoagland in code yet on the surface also says that what is being seen by what is really going on tween us, is meant to be a distraction away from the reality going on, so that no one sees this before it's time, yet someone.. PICKED ME, as the only one it seems, to be allowed to see it & use it to prep me to the day & moement all my efforts become of serious major interest by all, when something soon will occur, that will also validate & vindicate me & the code details I see & been claiming I see, & been trying to use against him. On Noory he spoke of MANAGERS... That those being managed, are managed to think of their managares they not know is managing them, is to be considered as the ENEMY!! yet in the reality of that being the case, he said it is to help me to make me in a position where I succeed as to the task I was managed to be set up to be or do. That later it will become known to me & all else when something soon happens. You remember that Coast show right? I know what that something is, & I aint saying because this can either DOOM US,.. OR MAKE US. So I wait & continue my work, for the day when it comes, that this posts here is going to be definietly refeleted of my words. That is all I am saying.
I can certainly understand your hesitancy. LOL. Trust me.. If you only knew what I am dealing with & what all I went through & NOT all just what is seen or reported on the surface. All I am saying is pleasse take deeper looks inside his words & I swear you will see THINGS that he alludes to the things I state.
Also for craps & giggles? To get an idea what I am speaking of, I have put forth my latest decoding as it were, from hsi coast code & from Hagman code shows. A Collage of the BIG PICTURE CONVERSATION being played out tween the lines for me to see & use to reveal. Remember, it is a collage, & is painted to follow the data & paint a picture in your minds of what is really going on. By you all listening & following carefully to see it. Hope you at least listen to it & feel me on my points at least,because it is leading to something very soon, that will CHANGE HISTORY,.. CHANGE THE WORLD ETC... AND I & HE... WILL BE DOING IT! In the least, please listen to my latest & in the least you will all be entertained, no matter what you choose to see or believe. Thanx again for me posting here. Here is the link to the hour 15 minute show:remember, you must piece together what is seen behind his dark surface. ;-)
http://www.thefacesofmars.com/RichardHoaglandsCodedValidationsAndVindicationsPt1.html
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