I’ve kept up with Richard Hoagland’s website for a while now. Ever since the Face on Mars controversey he has peaked my curiosity. He occaisionaly goes way to far into sacred geometries and gives way too much signifigance to star location and launch/mission times. Some of his theories are utterly wacky. Still, I’ve been following his Mars Tidal Model for a while, and he has made predictions that have turned out to be right on the money concerning the apparent distribution of water on Mars. In his latest article he uses the new Mars Odyssey data to confirm his findings.
So what is the staight dope on this theory? Does the tidal model (which implies a dramatic event in the solar system 65 million years ago) look better than what Nasa has been saying about Mars for so many years? Is it good science - he continually makes predictions based on his theory - or is it smoke and mirrors?
You’ve heard about a blind pig finding an acorn now and then? Or perhaps the shotgun approach?
Hoagland is so full of crap theories and nonsense that sooner or later one of his ideas is going to have part of itself fall next to real science that takes place. But lets remember that this is the guy who points at blank spot on the moon and says “Look at the geometry”, oh and lets not forget how you have to be “trained” to see the giant galss skyscrapers on the Moon. I had figured the reimaging of the Mars face, along with Hoagie’s total wackout over Old Navy stores, would spell an end to him. Perhaps Art Bell still needs someone to drone on and on about nonsense for his radio show.
Well, you have to admit, those commercials do get annoying after a while. I mean, I know 1970s fashions are sort-of back in style now, but do they have to pattern their ads after The Love Boat?
I agree. Destroy Old Navy! They’re owned by the Gap, so they must be evil!
And what the heck? “Planet V”??? Is that Planet X’s annoying little brother who won’t mow the lawn even when yelled at?
I seem to recall that if all the known asteroids were assembled into a single body, it would be only half as large (by volume and/or mass) as the Moon. True or not?
I wouldn’t fall for the “Nasa trickery” angle either. Hoagy clearly has a huge axe to grind with Nasa. Just because they’re scientists doing work he doesn’t agree with, doesn’t make them worshippers of the ancient gods of Egypt, satanists or whatever else it is that he believes in this week. It’s his “I told you so; I was right all along; the other guys are all lying” attitude that I find most annoying, he seems evn more concerned with attacking Nasa theories than he does with promoting his own.
Hoagland has accused NASA of murder on several occasions. He claims the deaths of the three Apollo pilots was a deliberate act by NASA to silence them or intimidate the others.