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 EVERYTHINGOn 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.
o These images are MIND-BOGGLING
o This will CHANGE OUR LIVES FOR EVER
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.
