“Are Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara liars, or merely mistaken?”
Kiddie gaming forums and NASA
There is a one-mile square ziggurat on the Moon. Or so Hoagland and Bara would have us believe. An astonishing, astounding, heart pounding revelation of ancient alien technology right on our own doorstep. Until you realise that the veracity of the above must surely be suspect given the source.
Not only the source of the information but the source of the evidence itself. You see, the photograph of the ziggurat was found by Mike Bara on a children’s video game forum named, “Call of Duty Zombies.” It is a well-known fake by a hoaxer named kksamurai. Who earlier this year admitted to having faked the image over a decade ago. End of story.
Well not quite. Mike Bara sent the faked image to his former co-author Richard C. Hoagland who further “enhanced” the image with Photoshop before declaring it to be real. Bara went even further and dedicated book-space to it in his horribly error-laden
scrawl, “Ancient Aliens on the Moon.”
When challenged regarding the authenticity of the photograph both Hoagland and Bara countered by claiming that all other images of the same location taken by Japan, Europe and NASA had been tampered with to hide the ziggurat. However, the image that Bara had found on a children’s gaming site was the only untouched image in the public domain.
While this is of course preposterous, and the kind of unfalsifiable nonsense that both Hoagland and Bara are wont to belch forth. One has to remember that the list of factual crimes committed by Hoagland and Bara is as long as Hoagland’s forked tongue.
While this is of course preposterous, and the kind of unfalsifiable nonsense that both Hoagland and Bara are wont to belch forth. One has to remember that the list of factual crimes committed by Hoagland and Bara is as long as Hoagland’s forked tongue.
Comets bullshit physics and homophobia
It is not the first time, nor will it be the last that Hoagland and Bara have put false information in the public domain. Mike Bara tells us that centrifugal force would flatten us like pancakes were it not for the Moon’s calming influence and that light can penetrate our deepest oceans before being reflected off the ocean floor and back into space. Ridiculous I hear you shout. And you would be of course correct. But Bara did actually claim the above and had these “facts” committed to print.
When challenged Mike Bara responded by calling this author a cunt, and suggesting that I should be a suitable homosexual partner for John Travolta. Apparently Mike takes great exception to being proved horribly, horribly wrong.
Hoagland, while not being as rude as Bara, is certainly more intelligent, and likes pretending to be a scientist. Bara likes to pretend to be an engineer. Between them, the comedy of errors both in print and via interview are many, varied and highly entertaining in their mirth.
Hoagland told us that Comet Elenin was a hyper-dimensionally shielded, intelligently guided spaceship of some type. No, I am not making this up.
Hoagland however certainly is. He then went on to inform us that this space craft had been sent to Earth from Earth 13,000 years ago by the “Shem Su Hor”, or “Followers of Horus” to bring a message to humanity in modern times. He also asserted that President Obama is a member of the Shem Su Hor, and will be the President that discloses an ET presence to humanity. Whatever the message was, it was not made public, nor did ET show up on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Hoagland however certainly is. He then went on to inform us that this space craft had been sent to Earth from Earth 13,000 years ago by the “Shem Su Hor”, or “Followers of Horus” to bring a message to humanity in modern times. He also asserted that President Obama is a member of the Shem Su Hor, and will be the President that discloses an ET presence to humanity. Whatever the message was, it was not made public, nor did ET show up on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Mike Bara claimed that he was confident he could prove that there were no such things as the laws of physics. He claimed that Newton’s laws of motion only work if the object being measured doesn’t rotate. He claimed that Werner Von Braun, “snuck” a couple of extra terms into the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation without the engineers noticing and that this accounted for the over performance of Explorer I. The list goes on and gets no less disgraceful. Once again I must reiterate, “I am not making this shit up.”
Conclusion:
Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara are indeed liars.
I've had this discussion with Expat a number of times. He's willing to suspend disbelief and take Hoagie and Bara's claims at face value, as if they are just a couple of scientific illiterates. He then attacks the science of their claims with relative ease.
ReplyDeleteI suppose that works well enough when discussing the science, but it misses the point of what is going on. From a scientific perspective, none of their crap makes sense. It's only when you understand that they are lying, that what they say becomes understandable.
For instance, the ziggy on the Moon thing is silly in any reality based world view. No sane person would construct a model of the universe that requires every space faring nation on Earth to be in on a scheme to prevent the existence of alien artifacts on the Moon from being known. However, if you are trying to sell books (and in Hoagie's case, conference appearances) on the notion that there are such artifacts, and the image evidence (from every probe that has looked at the area) doesn't support that idea, then of course there has to be a conspiracy. The rubes certainly aren't going to give you their money if you admit you are BS-ing them.
Another example is the ever popular rocket equation used in the Von Braun's Secret papers. Hoagie has been told about the math mistakes he made, yet he refuses to correct them. No real scientist would let papers he has his name on stand with the huge errors he has in them. So from a scientific perspective, his laziness seems unexplainable. On the other hand, if those errors weren't mistakes, but deliberate errors instead, what he is doing (or not doing) makes perfect sense. His errors make his thesis work, which is why he made them. To correct them is to invalidate the thesis, and the thesis is part of the narrative Hoagie is trying to sell.
Well said Chris.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder if it is even worth the effort exposing these frauds.
As you say, if they admit being wrong they are no longer able to sell their woo.
Pointing out the science/math problems is a worthwhile exercise, as their existence and the fact that they are not addressed by the originators is evidence of fraud. I just think that the errors should be put in context. The why of the "errors" tells you something about the person who made them.
ReplyDeleteI admit though, it is fun to just think of the mistakes as proof that the person is just a scientific illiterate, and in many cases it may even be true. When you are dealing with a guy like Hoagland though, that is a dangerous assumption. He knows enough about science to know his material is BS, and he's glib enough to be able to double talk his way out of most factual confrontations. So if you make the mistake of thinking he's the fool, you'll just be doing him a favor.
With regards to Bara, I'm not sure if he believes his crap or just doesn't care. He's obviously not knowledgeable (or glib) enough to be able to defend his ideas in a real debate, which is why he goes for the homophobic insults and such. He's more openly mercenary about what he's doing, so he doesn't think he needs to offer a rational defense of his ideas. Unlike Hoagie (who wants to be considered Carl Sagan's successor), Bara just wants to dazzle porn stars and strippers with his intellect.
I don't think either Hoagland or Bara would be phased by fraud accusations. Simply because they are both well known liars. They have no shame.
ReplyDeleteI know for a fact that Hoagland knows his maths regarding Explorer 1 are wrong. Both myself and Expat have shown him the correct interpretation of the ideal rocket equation. Hoagland has admitted his calculations are bullshit. Yet he won't repair his mathematical mess.
As for Bara's attempt at explaining Explorer 1's alleged hyper dimensional boost. The man is an utter mathematical dunce. Expat had much fun with Bara on that one. I couldn't email Bara for laughing.
Bara learned the trade from Hoagland, but he lacks even Hoagie's limited knowledge base. So he knows the lingo, but lacks any understanding about what is being discussed. In other words, he knows he's lying, he just doesn't know how much he's lying.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, that lack of understand tends to make him a better writer than Hoagland. Where Hoagie can fill 10 pages with techno-babble crap on any given subject, Bara has to cut to the chase before he loses his train of thought. That makes his writing cleaner and easier to understand. It's bullshit, but at least it's understandable bullshit.
Bara though, lacks Hoagland's presentation skills. There's a reason you only see him in 2 or 3 minute segments on those Ancient Alien shows. Longer than that and it's clear he isn't all that knowledgeable or interesting. That's also why (aside from the fact that Noory is an awful interviewer) his C2C appearances always suck.
Both of them have been rather quiet lately. Especially Hoagland. I wonder what is going on. Perhaps they have fleeced enough money from the rubes and are in semi retirement.
ReplyDeleteNah, I doubt it. Hoagland's ego would never allow him to retire, and Bara's love of cheap women and fast cars would win over any retirement plan.
I notice that Snoory isn't calling RCH much, and as far as I know the last time Bara was on C2C he painted himself into a corner by declaring he would debate Dr Robbins. That is a debate that will never happen by the way. Bara would never go 1 v 1 with a real scientist or engineer. Hoagland would try, Bara wouldn't. Mikey boy knows he's out of his league.
Listen to Bara being interviewed on woo radio. He is perfectly relaxed when anything he says goes unchallenged. However Gene and Chris at the Paracast had Mikey squirming and mumbling because they didn't let him get away with saying anything he pleased. It was rather funny.
I know that ever since Hoagland asked Mike to the prom, Mike has been sporting a semi-erection at all times thinking he is famous. Can he really be that full of himself that he believes people are jealous of a z list celebrity who's ideas regarding planetary eccentricity are a huge source of amusement to people who actually understand such things.
Well, perhaps he can. After all his audience have the collective IQ of a soggy biscuit.
DJE
Hoagie's absence from C2C might have something to do with his assisting Art Bell get some laughs at Noory's expense when they were on Art's (now gone) satellite radio show. I can see why Hoagie did it. If Art is back on the air, it's a good bet he'll do better than Noory, so his is the ass to kiss. It didn't work out that way, and Noory is probably making Hoagland pay for backing the wrong horse.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Hoagie is also absent from almost every other form of contact with the public. He hasn't been on either his FB page, or his website site in ages. If he's still doing conferences, he isn't interested in promoting them. He's all but vanished from spot light.
Why that might be is anyone's guess. He might be hiding from his critics (my theory), or he might have run out of steam. I know he suffered a hit in the pseudo-science community with the Elenin nonsense, so maybe he isn't invited to those conferences much any more. Of course it's also possible that he's just too damn tired to keep going. He's been doing this stuff for what seems like forever, and he's only human.
Bara's absence is easier to understand. Without Hoagie to provide the creativity, he doesn't have much left to write/talk about. 2 of the 3 books he's written since DM were based on material he got from Hoagland. So he'll continue to say pretty much the same stupid things he's already said until Noory gets tired of hearing it.
I have no idea where Hoagland is. I can however confirm from personal experience that when confronted with irrefutable evidence of his bullshit Hoagland will tuck tail and make off like a bandit.
ReplyDeleteYou have to be careful though. If you handed Hoagland a list with several of his disasters on it, and you had made a single mistake. He will concentrate on that, ignore the rest and grandstand as usual. He's a total fucking weasel.
Bara tries to make out that we are only "after" him because we are all scared of the information he has. Sensible people know that this is utter gobshite, but it's what he trots out at almost every opportunity.
Brookings, yadayada, nazis, yadayada, evil NASA conspirators..etc
I am sure you know his tired old routine off by heart. I can sit through a Bara woo-radio bore-fest and pretty much predict every single thing he will say.
That is why I liked the Paracast interview. Gene and Chris didn't let him grandstand and talk bullshit unchallenged. They also interviewed Expat later on. That was priceless. Bara being exposed publicly as a numpty.
The closest Bara ever came to original research was the ziggy thing, and we all know how that turned out. I got to hand it to Hoagie on how he let his "friend" walk into that mess without even blinking. He spent 2 days supposedly vetting the thing before publicizing it on C2C, then let the fool Bara take full credit for it. He then went into total stealth mode when Dr. Robbins got into the discussion. Unlike Bara (who was too stupid to know he was over matched), Hoagie knew it was crap and was more than happy to let Bara hang himself with it. I wonder if Bara realizes how much he was taken and who it was that led him into the pit.
ReplyDeleteYou know Chris, I had the same thoughts regarding the ziggy. It is demonstrably fake, it was found on a child's gaming forum and it has been around for years.
ReplyDeleteConsider this. Bara when confronted on The Paracast claimed that he was aware of the image from years prior. Denied it was Terry James who faked it and claimed that of all the images released by every space faring nation on the planet of the ziggy area were fake. Yet his was real, and that it looked as if somebody had it stored in a photo album for years.
If the weasel had been aware of it and had it on his hard drive for years. Why the fuck wasn't it in Dark Mission. Let's face it, even though it's an obvious fake. It looks a shitload better that the "miles high glass towers, and the castle."
Bara is a stinking liar, and a vile little runt of a man. If I bump into him one day I am afraid that I will catch him such a one on the snout that I should be very tired afterwards.
I actually think Hoagland set Bara up. Probably as revenge for stealing his albeit flawed and laughable work and then being published as sole author.
ReplyDeleteHoagie's reluctance to defend the thing confirms that idea. If he spent any time at all actually vetting the image, he had to know it was fake. A guy like him is old enough to understand that if it's too good to be true it probably isn't. My thinking is that he went with it anyway as something to talk to Noory about, but was more than happy when Bara took it up as a crusade.
ReplyDelete