Turned on Talk radio the other night in Phoenix Arizona. Hoagland was on! And it wasn't the Art Bell show! He was going on about the THEMIS images recently recieved from the Odyssey orbiter. Does this guy ever quit? What scares me is how #$%@ convincing he really is. He had me second guessing for a minute there... hehehe. He's a pro. He actually has people convinced that there are entire cities lying buried just beneath the sands of Mars. He shows an image on his website taken from Phobos II that looks like city streets. Anyone with a hint of geological knowledge can clearly see layered strata in the image. But he is developing a serious following.
BA - I have your book on order, but I gotta know. Do you touch on any of ol' Dick's theories?

No. What you got to understand is that Hoagland has a business enterprise to trying make NASA is concealing a bunch of things. He won't give up, because he has established a living of doing that, and has many followers.

Go to http://www.apollohoax.com, where some of Hoagland's main arguments have been refuted.
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"The contemplation of celestial things will make man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs." -Marcus Cicero

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: AstroMike on 2002-03-07 16:36 ]</font>

That's a lovely quote! Thank you!

Silas

Absolutely correct Astro. I have to admit, I do find Hoagland incredibly entertaining. There aren't too many individuals out there who would voluntarily stick their necks on the chopping block by purporting some of the claims he does. I've had the ummm... pleasure of going to a couple of his conferences in Phoenix. To make a long story short, by the end of the night, everyone in the auditorium knew who Phil Plait was and has http://www.badastronomy.com emblazoned in their memories. No, don't think Hoagland is a fan of mine....

Sigh. Hoagland.

Yes, he is mentioned in my book. he has this idea that NASA is covering up Hubble data of the Moon. Needless to say, his ideas are... confused.

The ultimate irony is that his Moon hoax debunking page is really quite good. With his claims, he finds himself in the delicate position of defending Apollo, because without the reality of Apollo he cannot claim they took pictures of glass spires and alien bases on the Moon.

His site actually corrects a mistake I made on my hoax page, about filling in shadows! Amazing. He obliquely mentions my site on that page.

So what did you say about my site at the meetings in Phoenix? I'm curious now.

If I remember right, Hoagland was talking about the face on Mars and the fact that Mars's moon Phobos was possibly hollow, therefore artificial. I asked a simple question about references and documents that could back this theory up. Of course, he went into a long-winded, technical version of "I have no references" (Which is unusual for Hoagland). At that point, I mentioned Phil and this site and the fact that many misconceptions can be logically explained. He obviously knows of you. He made no further comment and went immediately to the next question.

The interesting thing I got out of the conference is that most of the people there are not necessarily Hoagland followers. They are mostly people looking for some kind of answer. When the media is flooded with idiocy of Fake moon landings, and faces on Mars, people have no choice but to find answers. That was proven after the conference when I was approached many times by people wanting the URL for this site.

If any of you are out there, I'm the guy in Phoenix that almost made Hoagland lose his cool!

Maybe I should send him my theories.

Like how the Martians filled their canals with dust when they discovered that we could see them with our telescopes.

And how the lost Mars Observer wasn't really lost. It carried a nuclear warhead that was used to destroy The Face.

Sheesh, even though I am slighlty retarded (hence the handle) I can figure out the basics of how the world works (and rely on the bigger brains to guide me step by step on the difficult parts). Face on Mars equals= low res camera. Art Bell and Hoagman = making money off of paranoia and well meaning idealism of their fans. Nothing wrong with that methinks, just how they run their life. But thankfully, humanity is a diverse species and has really really smart guys and gals to help us out and point of us in the right direction for learning. But, humanity is as humanity does, we also have people who will take advantage and use our lack of knowledge against us (a lesson I have learned all to well in life).

yeesh, a bit somber coming from me so instead : Hip Hip Horray and three cheers to sites like Badastro and the nine planets (from Mr. Arnett) along with a lot of other sites that help debunk many myths and give us the nitty gritty.

The funny thing is that I honestly believe that Hoagland is not trying to swindle anybody. He honestly believes in his theories. More power to him. I want nothing more than for him to prove me wrong. Art is a great celeb. Its funny to listen to him. He CLEARLY thinks that all of these callers are out of their gourds. You can tell that by his comments. And he fuels the fury by having these wackos on his show. He's actually doing a service. A majority of listeners sit flabergasted at what they are hearing and seek out sites like BA's. Would love to get Phil on his show. Now... THAT would be good!!!