CSICOP Turns its Eye on Hoagland --
For years, the authors and publishers of "Skeptical Inquirer," the monthly bible of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation on Claims Of the Paranormal (CSICOP) have tried to pass themselves off to unwitting scientists and the public as a voice of "mainstream reason and sanity" in the often chronically incoherent world of UFO and paranormal investigations. They have piously wrapped themselves in a papal robe of science and wisdom, appointing themselves as the sole arbiters of what is logical and true in an increasingly dubious world that increasingly is seeking non-mainstream answers to the most intriguing questions of the day. Even the very terms, "skeptic" and "inquiry," are meant to imbue a sense of dispassionate truth-seeking to the reader, a belief that the purveyors of this "skeptical inquiry" will bring a comforting order to a world "gone mad" in its increasing passion to understand ALL the phenomena around it that "don't fit." The truth however, especially obvious to those that look at any depth into the "logic" and "reason" that these modern day Cardinals of The Church of Debunkery dispense, is that CSICOP is anything but an impartial truth seeking organization. Its methods are anything but "scientific" or "skeptical," at least in any honest definition of those words, and their passionate desire to crush anyone on the other side of the issues of the day bears a far closer resemblance to religious fanaticism than it does to the cool, rational empiricism they claim to champion. In short, what they do is neither skepticism (a reservation of judgment) nor inquiry (a search for truth). Rather, they are a modern day Spanish Inquisition, self-appointed "thought police" hell bent on spreading the word of the patron saint of their cause, Carl Sagan, to all corners of the Earth. Anyone who takes an alternative view from the "mainstream," who ventures that "maybe things aren't quite as simplistic and mundane as the Church advocates," are to be swiftly crushed and held up as defrocked examples of the heretics to "Truth" they truly are. They seek to ensure that others do not follow in their wake, perchance to find the same "unsanctioned" truths ... Here at Enterprise, we have always referred to them (not so affectionately) as CYCLOPS -- because they are half blind (at best) and lack depth both in their arguments and methods -- but for the most part we have ignored them and their absurd, twisted vision of reality. As long as they left us out of their particularly nasty brand of debunkery (gross distortion of facts followed by brutal character assassination) we were content to let them have their (increasingly shrinking) market share of the whole UFO/Paranormal debate. After all, to give them any attention is to elevate, if only momentarily, their attack dogs to the level of intellectually honest and civil discourse. But with Enterprise principal investigator Richard C. Hoagland now the subject of a full frontal assault in a cover story for the November issue of their pedantic, dirty little rag, the gloves are coming off. We did not choose this fight, but neither will we sit idly by and allow these Lilliputian intellects to distribute their poison unimpeded. The school bully has just picked on the wrong kid on the playground. The first thing that you will notice as you read the hit
piece is that in inimitable SI fashion, these supposed champions of science
have chosen not to say virtually anything at all about anything having
to do with the science at the heart of the Enterprise mission.
Their story is devoid of any such intellectual concerns in favor an innuendo
laden, factually false and breathlessly inflammatory Geraldo-like
version of a series of events that took place over a decade ago. We must
admit, we thought that when they finally came after us it would be a little
less transparent than this. But no, CSICOP is determined to have this
fight down in the slop, perhaps hoping that if they just get us dirty
that no one will want to touch us or notice that they are the ones who
took a beating. This piece, with it's blatant lies, distortions and Clintonian
half-truths is hardly worth the bother. Except that we suspect that it
is just the first in a series of such attacks. So just this once, we have
determined to make them wish they had picked on someone else, like that
skinny, wimpy little Firmage kid ... Over the years, CSICOP has developed a standard technique for dealing with any story they decide to take on. From the outset, they immediately assess how to attack the claim or event in question. They never for a moment consider the possibility that it might have validity. If it does, especially in the eyes of the media, they ramp up the rhetorical noise level to deafening volume. If they fail to achieve their aims (i.e. the thousands of people who saw the Phoenix lights pass right over their houses don't believe they were actually flares 60 miles away) then they shift gears and attack the individuals making the claim. Since most thinking people scoff at their nonsense explanations as more preposterous than the "paranormal" claim being made, this is usually the mode they end up in. Such is the case with their attack on Richard C. Hoagland. From the outset, it is clear that the CSICOP article is going to be a vicious hit piece with no interest in a fair hearing. The cover of the November issue of SI trumpets the story with the headline "The Face behind the Face on Mars" and shows an image of the Face, evidently from Viking frame 35A72. I use the word "evidently" because not only is the image the raw, unprocessed version rather than the excellent Carlotto enhancement, but it has also been grossly distorted by overexposure. In fact, it is so bad that it is nearly unrecognizable as 35A72.
So, from the "get go" there is an intent to deceive. If the Face is so obviously natural, as CSICOP -- led by towering intellects like Phillip Klass and Bill Nye "the science guy" -- insist, then why do they need to use an overexposed raw image -- and one full of "noise" at that -- to make their case? Obviously, they felt that the public would see the image on the newsstands and be impressed by a properly processed version, so they took steps to ensure that most prejudicial, un-Face like image adorn their cover. Never argue fairly on the merits of a case, especially when it makes your side look bad, eh guys? This pattern continues throughout the article ...
As anyone can see, in both cases, the images presented
in SI, are the worst possible versions. They used the raw unprocessed
version of Viking frame 35A72 and the infamous "Catbox" MGS image put
out by JPL in 1998. The "Catbox" has been subjected to a variety of filtering
to remove detail and contrast in both the high frequency and low frequency
signal ranges. The Mark Kelly enhancement on the left, while not perfect
(accurate ortho-rectification is complicated by the extremely low, oblique
angle the Face was imaged from) is vastly superior to the "Catbox."
So the question is raised; if the CSICOP position is so strong, if they are so rational and confident of their position, why the need to tilt the playing field by using obscured images of the Face? The answer is obvious. Any rational, seeing person would be able to tell from their own eyes that the properly processed versions of the Face images hardly support the SI contention that it is a "natural object." This pattern even continues when it comes to Hoagland himself. Rather than use one of the many images of Hoagland freely available on the web, they insert a freakishly weird sketch done by one of their leading hatchet boys, Joe Nickell. This "artists rendering" makes Hoagland look like some sort gene-spliced cross-breed of Grizzly Adams and Michael Malin. This has to be one of the weirdest editorial decisions of all time. The text of the article itself, authored by Gary P. Posner, starts off with an immediate Clintonian half-truth: This is, as I stated above, only a half truth at best. It is true that Viking did take several images of Cydonia. Beyond that ...In July 1976, as NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft orbited Mars, a couple of its photographs included coverage of a geographic region designated as Cydonia. Strewn with rocky mesas and devoid of dried river channels, this landscape did not strike NASA as an inviting target for their next lander mission to search for traces of possible ancient life. The truth is that NASA considered Cydonia an extremely "inviting target," for the Viking 2 lander. So much so in fact, that it was the designated landing site for that spacecraft. Within a few days of the first "Face" image, 35A72, rumblings began about changing the site. The ostensible reason for changing the targeted landing site was that Cydonia was suddenly considered "too rocky" for the Viking lander to risk a touchdown. It was further claimed that the "northern latitude" of Cydonia was partly to blame for this rough surface, and a more suitable landing site would be sought farther south. In the end, Viking 2 set down in a region known as Utopia Planitia, an even more northerly and rocky site than Cydonia. Nobody thought much of the venue change at the time, but since their new choice for a landing site contradicted their reasons for scuttling Cydonia, it seemed that somebody at JPL was nervous enough about the Face to make sure Viking stayed well away from it. While it is basically true that Cydonia does not have much in the way of "dried river channels," it is thought to be the location of an ancient Martian ocean and as such would have all the necessary elements to have supported microbial life. The action of this ocean is in fact one of the many (and contradictory) explanations frequently cited to account for the process that created the Face in the first place. So to claim that Cydonia is not a good place to look for life is patently absurd. The next two paragraphs then begin a pattern of misrepresentation which permeates the article:
To my knowledge, no one associated with the Mars investigations
over the years has ever asserted that the Face was built by "Earthlings
-- from our own future." This is ridiculous on the Face of it, and would
certainly go a long way to giving the impression that advocates of the
Cydonia artificiality hypothesis are willing to embrace even the wildest,
most "unscientific" of ideas. Since this notion certainly does not appear
in "Monuments,"
which is Hoagland's "magnum opus" on the subject of Cydonia, and Hoagland
certainly is the focus of the article, I can only assume that this is
a blatant attempt to put words in his mouth.
Posner then goes on to make a mistake which anyone who had actually read Monuments certainly would not. He implies (as many debunkers have before him) that Hoagland claims that the "Fortress" is an actual fortress, rather than just a name given to the object for archeological purposes. Next, he gives a short dissertation on a radio program called "For the People," presided over by radio talk show host, Chuck Harder. Hoagland made several appearances on Harder's nationwide show in the early 1990's. It is not clear to me what these "For the People" paragraphs are supposed to mean in investigative terms, but apparently Posner is seeking to imply that Hoagland was at the time claiming that he had somehow influenced NASA's agenda with regard to Mars. Unfortunately, he fails to produce a single quote or shred of evidence to support this claim: But by 1990, despite the popularity of Hoagland's book, there still appeared to be no NASA program in the works to aggressively explore Cydonia. Yet, to hear Hoagland tell it, all was about to change dramatically, thanks to his efforts. The first problem here is that Chuck Harder is not Richard Hoagland. How can Hoagland be chided for making a claim that even Posner shows was actually made by the radio talk show host? This is a blatant attempt to impugn Hoagland's credibility by holding him accountable for something he never even said!My initial inquiries into some of Hoagland's pronouncements on For The People had concerned the first of his two 1990 presentations (March 20) at the NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. In a May 13, 1990, Letter to the Editor of TBS Report, Chuck Harder had claimed thatNASA invited [Hoagland] after their own internal investigation of the [Cydonia] photos gave his mission sufficient credibility to ask him . . . to present the program to 4,000 NASA scientists and employees. Hardly a laughing matter. . . . Thus on the "NASA ALERT Presentation -- Was There Life on Mars?" I suggest you contact Joyce E. Bergstrom at NASA. I have photocopied her business card (attached). Posner goes on:
On the July 13 For The People program, Hoagland discussed his March 20 presentation at NASA/Lewis. Among his statements was one to the effect that NASA's Dr. John Klineberg, as he introduced Hoagland, credited him with playing a role in President Bush's decision that we reinvigorate our exploration of Mars. But Klineberg informed me (in an October 24, 1990, letter) that his remark was "of insufficient gravity to be quotable" since he had "no insight" into any such connection. Lewis's Director of Internal Affairs, Americo F. Forestieri, had written to me on October 4 saying, "I understand [Klineberg's] remark was made with tongue in cheek." During the same July 13, 1990, FTP broadcast, Hoagland said that his second NASA/Lewis invitation was to address an upcoming September 11 "major national NASA education conference." On the September 17 FTP program, he described what had been "a packed auditorium full of teachers and scientists and engineers and educators." He added that NASA's Dr. Eddie Anderson had "made a very big point of congratulating me, of expressing his interest in our work." But, according to Forestieri,
How any of this implies that Hoagland ever claimed to be effecting
NASA programs is beyond me. The whole tone of these paragraphs seems to
be an attempt to downplay the significance of Hoagland's invitations to
NASA/Lewis and to suppress the idea that they in any way constituted an
endorsement of his research. However, a careful review of the facts tells
a very different story.
If Posner wanted to get details of Hoagland's visits and two presentations at NASA/Lewis, he could have reviewed pages 340-346 in Monuments. The reality is that Hoagland's presentation on March 20th, 1990 was quite a big deal. Not only was the main Center Auditorium literally filled with NASA engineers and scientists (even to the point of overflowing to the aisles), but special viewing rooms were set up around the the complex to allow other NASA/Lewis personnel still on the job to remotely view the presentation. Two video cameras were in place to officially record the event, and Joyce Bergstrom had promised to provide broadcast quality copies of the presentation to ABC news, among others, due to requests from the media. The night before the presentation, Bergstrom set up an interview by none other than Dr. Lynn Bondurant, who according to Posner, later downplayed "any real interest" in Hoagland's work.
Not only did Bondurant, director of NASA/Lewis's Educational Programs Office personally conduct the interview, he arranged to professionally record it for a later PBS broadcast. He requested that Hoagland come in after hours the night before his scheduled Presentation, and proceeded to set him up in a teleconference room -- with a huge backdrop of the official NASA/Lewis logo framed behind him, so that during the interview it would appear in virtually every shot. Now, if Hoagland was just another "normal" guest, with no more status than any other outside party that might get invited to speak at Lewis, why would he get such red carpet treatment? Did all of NASA/Lewis's guest speakers get brought in the night before to be interviewed for a PBS Special with the official NASA logo? And, if the presence of the NASA seal behind Hoagland during the extensive interview was not meant to be a tacitly-implied endorsement of his research ... why not conduct the interview in the visitor parking lot, or some other equally "unidentifiable" location?! But it gets better. Not only did Bondurant conduct the interview himself, from the actual interview tape it is obvious that he had read Monuments "cover to cover"; the Director of the NASA/Lewis Education Office spent over two and a half hours asking a series of serious, sober and highly detailed questions, based on an obvious extensive knowledge of the work of not only Hoagland, but of the other "Mars anomalies investigators." He knew the details -- some of them quite obscure -- of almost a decade of research on Cydonia carried out by DiPietro, Molenaar, Carlotto and Torun. This hardly seems the behavior of someone "just being a genial host," and having no real interest in Hoagland's ideas or published works. So, what did this all imply about the "official" stance of NASA/Lewis toward Hoagland's controversial research, and how does it jibe with Posner's implication that it was all "no big deal?" The totally unexpected answer came the next day. When Dr. John Klineberg, Director of NASA/Lewis introduced Hoagland the following afternoon, he stated that Hoagland's work had been a major influence on then President George Bush's decision to launch the Mars Exploration Program in 1989! Posner seems now to be arguing that while Klineberg did say that Hoagland's research had influenced President Bush's decision, he didn't "really mean it." This is absurd on the Face of it. Is it likely that the director of a major NASA research facility is in the habit of mis-attributing the statements of the President of the United States? Of course not. And, when you read the actual text of what Klineberg said, it becomes even more obvious that his comments are anything but "tongue in cheek." Beyond that, only minutes before his public statement, Klineberg had informed Hoagland and several other attendees in a private meeting in the Director's office that NASA was under "intense scrutiny from Congress." Why would he then go out and make an untrue and irresponsible statement about the President (and over such an intensely controversial issue, certainly inside NASA)-- with multiple television cameras and recorders running -- about a man (the President) whose support would be desperately needed in the ongoing Agency political battles?"Richard Hoagland is also the man who managed to convince the President to state that a return to Mars is one of our goals ..." The answer is obvious. He wouldn't. And he didn't. What Klineberg and Bondurant were doing was what they believed the White House wanted them to do. Their actions and Klineberg's comments only make sense in this context. And the whole idea is strikingly supported by a completely separate, secondary line of proof. We have a poster from the White House Mars Exploration Program proposed by Bush. This poster was commissioned by the Boeing company and is designed, as all such materials are, to raise awareness and inspire enthusiasm for a given program. In this case, the artists saw fit to inspire their workers and the public by creating a depiction of NASA astronauts ascending a cliff (perhaps the Cliff, there is a suspiciously "Face like" edifice in the background) and encountering nothing less than clearly artificial ruins -- on Mars! The poster also includes a quote from President Bush explaining "Why Mars?" In actuality, the illustration says it better than any words could. The ruins are a series of partially buried, stacked stones with a variety of Egyptian or Sumerian appearing symbols and glyphs on them. But the image is dominated by the face of what appears to be a black man in an Egyptian styled hat. It is obvious that Bush was as interested in Hoagland's work as Klineberg suggested that day, his later comments (assuming he actually made them to Posner) notwithstanding. There's a curious postscript to this story: Months before his "red carpet treatment" at NASA/Lewis, on the day of Bush's astonishing announcement -- July 20, 1989 -- regarding the President's dramatic 30-year plan for a Space Exploration Initiative culminating in a manned Mars landing (in the tradition of Apollo), CNN suddenly called Hoagland for an interview. The producers of the political program "Crossfire" specifically wanted Hoagland -- of all the possible NASA Mars experts they could have called upon -- to present "the case for Mars," following the President's surprise announcement. Now, just who do you suppose recommended Hoagland to defend the President's controversial "Moon/Mars Initiative?" And, what do you imagine they thought he'd talk about on CNN ..?
In an historical twist whose consequences we will probably never fully realize, it just so happened that Hoagland at that moment was in the middle of Yosemite National Park, in northern California -- about as far from a television studio as you can get in North America! The proposed CNN Mars "Crossfire" for that evening, with Hoagland literally defending the President of the United States, for reasons of practical logistics simply couldn't happen. But, some of us will always wonder if ... In any event, while there is still more to this story that deserves telling (someday), what happened after Hoagland's initial NASA/Lewis presentation on March 20th, 1990 is another curious story that bears repeating. And it may shed some light on Klineberg's later downplaying of his own initial comments. A few months after his appearance at NASA/Lewis, Hoagland was invited again to the facility by none other than the same Dr. Bondurant who had so thoroughly interviewed him back in March. The intent this time was to hold a full briefing and educational workshop for representatives from various high schools, universities and even NASA headquarters itself on The Monuments of Mars. It was certainly a "major" event, as all the attendees were leaders in their fields, and the workshop came complete with pre-printed workbooks and references (prepared by NASA/Lewis). Since this was a special session for educators, rather than a general presentation for the whole facility, it was held in a room with a capacity of about 50 because that's how many educators from around the country were invited. And it was absolutely full. Posner actually doesn't argue with any of this. He simply uses a statement by Forestieri to imply that Hoagland is "stretching it a bit" by claiming that his second appearance at NASA was a "major national NASA education conference" at" a packed auditorium full of teachers and scientists and engineers and educators." He apparently bases this solely on the fact that "only" about 50 educators attended the conference. What's the implication? That a conference cannot be "major" unless it is attended by more than 50 people? And if those 50 people are top flight educators, including from NASA headquarters itself, than is it too much to assume that this is a fairly major event? Is Hoagland wrong or self serving to have described it that way? Of course not. But that is what Posner wants you to think. If we use his standard, which is apparently that an event sponsored by a major NASA division is not "major" unless it is attended by more than 50 people, then isn't Hoagland's previous NASA/Lewis appearance, viewed by over a thousand NASA scientists and engineers in the NASA/Lewis Main Auditorium live and shown to literally thousands more around the Center via closed circuit television, to be considered "major?" You can't exactly have it both ways can you ..? Now you can argue that it was Forestieri, not Posner, who made the claim that Hoagland was "stretching it a bit." But let's Face it, if Posner did not agree with Forestieri's standard, why did he use it in his article? He used it because he wanted to give the impression that Hoagland (at the least) exaggerates the importance of his appearances at NASA\Lewis. The evidence would seem to argue to the contrary, that it is Posner that is "stretching it a bit" to try to make something disingenuous (on Hoagland's part) out of these events. And it gets better. Not only did Bondurant put on this conference, but he also used it to announce to the assembled scientists, engineers and educators that this session and Hoagland's previously taped appearances were going to part of an upcoming PBS miniseries ... "Hoagland's Mars!" Bondurant had evidently been planning (obviously at the behest of his boss, Klineberg), since that initial "night before" interview in front of the NASA/Lewis logo, to create this program series. Hoagland, along with everyone at the conference, was surprised at this announcement, since they had not been in the loop on the plans at all. The process of creating the series went forward (with no input from Hoagland; it was 100 percent a NASA/Lewis production), and was being prepared for broadcast on January 6th, 1991. Then, less than three weeks before the scheduled broadcast, on December 13th, 1990, Bondurant called Hoagland with bad news. Sounding (according to Hoagland) "like death warmed over," he somberly informed Hoagland that "the plug had been had pulled on the planned 'Hoagland's Mars' Series," and he was to report to NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. immediately with all the tapes, scripts, and graphics for the programs. When Hoagland asked what had happened, Bondurant told him that JPL had somehow "got wind of the series," and had absolutely "raised hell" back at Headquarters about it. Later, Hoagland confirmed as much from another long-term source within NASA Headquarters itself. So what had happened? The problems evidently began with something known as the original "Enterprise Mission." In early 1990, Hoagland had begun an educational project of his own in Washington D.C., at Dunbar Senior High. Drawing unabashedly upon the Star Trek motif of his friend, Gene Roddenberry, the "U.S.S. Dunbar" was designed by Hoagland and colleagues to stimulate interest in science among the students at this 99% black inner city school by focusing their research on various real space science issues and arguments within NASA, such as Hubble, the Magellen Venus Mission, and Mars ... The prototype Dunbar experiment for a national program was to end by tackling the thorny issues swirling around the Face and "Cydonia" itself! This pioneering educational project, with the able contributions of both national corporations and local community volunteers (including Keith Morgan, of ABC news), eventually received a nomination for a "point of light" award from the the President's own Point of Light Foundation. The program also caught the attention of the White House itself, and after several months of negotiating, the U.S.S. Dunbar got a chance to welcome it's most important visitor: none other than First Lady, Barbara Bush! Hoagland promptly sent a tape of her appearance (shot by the students themselves) to Bondurant, and suggested it be included in his production of "Hoagland's Mars," because of the specific references to the Washington D.C. "Enterprise" experiment that Bondurant had included in the "night before" interview months before. This is apparently when the "stuff," as they say, "hit the rotating receptacle." It seems that the notion of the First Lady of the United States, the wife of the President of the United States, tacitly endorsing the notion of "artificial ruins at Cydonia" by her sheer presence at a Hoagland project, was just a bit too much for the folks at JPL. Perhaps this is also why Klineberg's formal introduction of Hoagland, back on March 20th, somehow was mysteriously excluded from the "official NASA/Lewis versions" of the Presentation video tapes (including those that went -- very late -- to ABC News), due to "simultaneous failure of both cameras." Good thing they both came back on line just in time for Hoagland to begin speaking ... In the end, the program was reduced to a single half hour featuring a "balanced response" from such unbiased figures as Michael Carr and his JPL cohorts (the same ones who according to two sources had killed the pro-Hoagland version in the first place). It had nothing to with a lack of "technical quality." Believe me, I have seen both Bonudrant's original March 19th interview tape and the "Hoagland's Mars" tape that was eventually released by the Mars Mission. There is nothing wrong with their "technical quality." The point of all this is that the actual events, as described
in Monuments
and when viewed with any sort of objectivity, clearly support Hoagland's
version of the events, rather than Posner's ugly characterizations. Hoagland
certainly did not exaggerate the importance of his appearances at NASA\Lewis,
and indeed it seems he was on track to a significant endorsement of his
work until "JPL happened." Next, Posner takes out after Hoagland on the "Pioneer Plaque" with predictably nasty charges and undertones.
Now all of this is at best another half-truth. It is literally
true, as Sagan and Drake assert, that Hoagland had nothing to with the
design of the plaque that actually went on the Pioneer 10 spacecraft.
But that is only because after getting the idea from Hoagland and Burgess,
they froze both of them out of the design process! Carl Sagan was, if
anything, a master self-promoter and manipulator. He well knew that if
the notoriety over the Plaque idea was going to go to him, then he must
be the one to conceive the design of it. As he wrote about it later in
"Cosmic Connection -- An Extraterrestrial Perspective" (Doubleday) in
1973, Sagan managed to tell the story in a way that didn't exactly lie
about the origin of the Pioneer Plaque idea ... but didn't exactly tell
the truth either.
In chapter 3, on page 18,
Here Carl is
truly at his best. While he and Drake acknowledged Hoagland and Burgess
in the notes of their paper in Science on the plaque, certainly
Carl knew full well that almost nobody would read the Science paper,
and lots of people would read his book. His clever play on words "...
when my attention was drawn ..." is vintage Carl. He does not say who
drew his attention, and by not mentioning Hoagland and Burgess, he
knows the reader will be left with impression that "his attention" was
an internal thought. Perhaps this sort of Clintonian manipulation is what
Posner was referring to as Sagan's "poetic genius." Five
years later, in "Murmurs of Earth" Sagan again revisits the Pioneer plaque
issue but still can't bring himself to mention Hoagland or Burgess, leaving
it to co-author Drake.
And certainly it would seem that the issue of just who originally "drew" his attention would be kind of important to include in his books. Because let's Face it, if it had been strictly up to Sagan and Drake, there would be no "message from mankind" on Pioneer 10. They never thought of it. As to the question of the "message design," and Hoagland's and Burgess's contribution of ideas for it, Sagan is suffering from at best "selective memory." All parties can certainly agree that Burgess did not contribute any ideas as to what the message might contain. But Drake's alleged statement to Posner, that "neither Eric Burgess nor Richard Hoagland contributed any ideas or even suggestions as to what should be on the Pioneer 10, and no suggestions as to any message content" is just simply not true. To give Drake a benefit of the doubt that Posner is not willing give Hoagland, it is possible that Sagan never told him about the exact circumstances under which Hoagland and Burgess put their idea to Sagan. If he had, Drake would certainly know that Hoagland did make a number of very specific suggestions to Sagan as to the message content. Let's go back over the details of that day in sequence. There is, unfortunately, some difference between Hoagland and Burgess's version of just how the idea came to each of them. As Posner is quick to point out above, Burgess now says that the idea was his alone and that he came up with it over lunch. Hoagland's version, well documented in Monuments, places the moment at TRW in the actual bay where the Pioneer spacecraft was being held prior to launch. After a discussion of the idea, they went (together) to various officials at TRW with the concept. During the course of this, they learned that Pioneer had an "extra" five pounds available because of the last-minute cancellation of an on-board experiment. Eventually, they realized that the folks at TRW were not going to be of any help on such a "far out " idea, and that the one man who might be able to sell such an extraordinary concept to NASA in the short time remaining until launch was ... Carl Sagan. So they headed back up the San Diego freeway in Burgess's car headed to JPL where Sagan was giving a press briefing. Hoagland was "tagging along" on this trip for one very good reason -- he and Burgess had driven together to TRW. Once Hoagland and Burgess had cornered Sagan back at JPL between "two hot cups of coffee" in the spacecraft museum just outside his briefing, they submitted their idea. Hoagland also, in stark contrast to Drake's dismissive statement, had a whole series of specific suggestions as to how the "message" could be composed that afternoon. He proposed that a sort of "space-age time capsule" could be encased in a high-tech glass brick (glass is not only stronger than steel in a vacuum, it also would effectively protect the contents from the effects of interstellar radiation). The brick could hold up to 5 pounds -- an enormous amount of weight by spacecraft standards -- of items from the Earth, including the "brick" itself. Hoagland suggested that the contents include images of the Earth and its people (in long-lasting silver); actual examples of terrestrial plant and animal life; and even a specimen of human DNA! Sagan absorbed all this rapid-fire input, and in the end according to Hoagland in "Monuments" said "Oh, what a nice idea ...". He then promised that he would take it up the chain to NASA Headquarters. That was the last either Hoagland or Burgess heard of the project, until Sagan himself called Hoagland at home the night before the launch from Cape Canaveral -- only informing him "the deed is done." In the intervening four months, Sagan took the design of the message "in house" between himself, his wife at the time, and Drake. And as we see above, most of the credit. As to why Burgess now insists the credit is his alone, we can only speculate. Burgess is an elderly man now well into his 90's, and his income is dependent on a series of NASA sponsored books and publications. It is plausible that he is not willing to back NASA's public enemy #1 against the hand that feeds him, or that he simply remembers the incident differently (he was in his 70's when he wrote the account that Posner cites in 1992). But there is no question as to what the official record (Sagan and Drake's Science paper) says: it gives equal credit to both men.
For the record, it should be noted that at no time has Hoagland ever sought to exclude Burgess from receiving his due credit for voicing the idea, as Burgess has done to him. Nor has he ever failed to credit Burgess by name at any time he has discussed or written about his role in the creation of the Pioneer plaque. Further, Posner makes a big deal out the fact that Hoagland acknowledges that Burgess was first to voice the idea of a message on the spacecraft. Posner acts as if this somehow compromises Hoagland's claim on the issue. But does it really? Let's think
about this. If Hoagland had something to hide, if he were trying to misrepresent
his role in the whole "plaque affair," why would he acknowledge that Burgess
was the first to voice the idea? If he was being deceptive, wouldn't he
have told a version (as Burgess apparently has) that gave him the
credit exclusively? Or at least that he voiced the idea first? Of course
he would! So while Posner cites Hoagland's version of events as some sort
of proof of Hoagland's dishonesty, it in fact proves just the opposite.
He's telling the events as he remembers them. And in this he is supported
by Sagan and Drake and the official record. Next, Posner turns his attention to Europa, repeating the now tiresome intimation that Hoagland has tried to take credit for the work of Cassen, Reynolds and Peale on a liquid water ocean under the ice crust of Europa. In this he cites once again the obsessive campaign of Ralph Greenberg, a mathematician at the University of Washington with CSICOP ties who has made something of a second career out of pushing this idea. The problem of course is that Hoagland has never claimed any such thing, and he has cited Cassen, Reynolds and Peale in his original paper on the Enterprise web site and frequently in his on air appearances. So again, we raise the question, if Hoagland were trying to take false credit, why would he cite the work of Cassen, Reynolds and Peale, and then put it on his own web site for all the world to see?
Now, maybe it's just me, but isn't
Clarke making it clear above that Hoagland's model is about life
in the Europan oceans? Isn't that what Hoagland has said all along? I
don't see anything in Clarke's statement that gives credit to Hoagland
for anything other than a model for life. Posner continues:
These next couple of paragraphs are pure CSICOP-serving
pap. Posner makes it sound like Greenberg is some sort of independent
entity, who "just happened" to come to his attention, when I know for
a fact that Greenberg is in frequent contact with CSICOP members, if not
a member himself. And the notion that Greenberg in turn "just happened"
to find an article on Europa is pure nonsense. By his own admission, after
hearing that Hoagland had a preeminent claim to the model for life on
Europa, Greenberg spent "dozens and dozens of hours" trying to find any
references to overturn Hoagland's claim. He has continued to push the
idea that Hoagland is claiming to be the first to propose a liquid water
ocean there, when in fact this has never been Hoagland's claim. The pre-existence
of such an ocean is a crucial component of Hoagland's specific model for
the subsequent evolution of life in that ocean, and as we saw above, he
has given more than appropriate credit for that aspect of the model. Again,
Posner, with Greenberg's help, is trying to force Hoagland to apologize
for something he never did or said.
Posner here admits that Hoagland does give credit to Cassen, Reynolds and Peale, but this still apparently isn't good enough. How can Hoagland be claiming false credit for the idea and at the same time be giving appropriate credit?When Greenberg sent to Arthur C. Clarke (and others) six pages summarizing the history/chronology of this evolving view of Europa, Clarke replied that "I have [since] become aware of the fact that many others had thought of it first, as you point out." But Clarke also expressed his enduring gratitude to Hoagland for his "excellent 1980 article [which was] my first introduction to the idea." This is another case, like the Pioneer plaque, where the historical academic record clearly supports Hoagland. Despite all of Greenberg and Posner's protestations to the contrary, the most significant early scientific papers on the subject of tidal heating (Cassen, Reynolds and Peale's Is There Liquid Water on Europa?) and the question of suitability for life (On the Habitability of Europa, Squyres, et-al.) simply do not support Greenberg's "revisionist" version of history. Cassen et al. for instance, make no mention of the "earlier" work by Lewis that Greenberg is so enamored with; they do not cite him in their paper at all. The reason for this is simple: Lewis' ideas, based on the then extremely limited terrestrial knowledge of the Jovian satellites, was simply wrong. He ascribed the possible internal heating as being from radioactive decay (an idea that was later emphatically disproven by the actual Voyager fly-bys). Obviously, Cassen et-al. did not reference Lewis' work because it has no bearing on their (almost now certainly correct) later model of internal heating due to tidal stresses. All of this is irrelevant to our discussion anyway, since as we have shown, Hoagland never claimed to be the source of the ocean theory, despite Greenberg's continued lame assertions. As to the only question that is ultimately relevant -- whether there is really life in that global Europan ocean, increasingly now suspected beneath that global cover of ice -- again the academic record is quite clear. In the first major journal paper on the subject (On the Habitability of Europa, Squyres, et al.) the earliest prior reference is Hoagland's paper, "The Europa Enigma." Just as obviously as with the question of an ocean, the authors did not consider the other possible "prior works" now cited by Greenberg as relevant. This isn't too surprising, since most of the Greenberg "anti-Hoagland references" are from obscure lectures or conference presentations, which are generally not considered appropriate forums for scientifically credited work. Beyond that, simply mentioning life in a certain place, without putting forth a specific (and ultimately correct) model is not a valid claim to ownership of a specific theory. If it was, then "credit" for the microbes ostensibly found by NASA researchers in the "Martian meteorite" in 1996 would have gone to Percival Lowell -- who asserted over a hundred years ago that there was "life on Mars," when he gazed through his telescope and thought he saw canals. And he even published! For readers wishing to learn more about the lineage of the Europa controversy, Steven Squyres and Ralph Greenberg's role in it, and Hoagland's standing in the historical record, I highly recommend my previous articles on the subject "Orwell and the Internet," and "Europa Reveals More of Her Secrets." Next, Posner indulges himself in some good old fashioned name calling:
See above for notes on the "groundswell of official NASA interest."
As to Hoagland not having any credibility in the scientific community,
well, we can go back ten years or more ourselves. In a July, 1988 story
in the Washington Post (quoted in the Fall
1988 newsletter of the Mars Project), NASA Headquarters official
Charles Redmond had this to say about Hoagland and his "weird ideas about
Mars."
Of course, all of this nonsense about the standing of Cydonia researchers in the "scientific community" is a catch-22. With individuals like the senior editor of Nature on the CSICOP board, what chance is there that any paper with Hoagland's name on it, no matter the subject or quality of research, would get published in that journal? And how can any member of the "scientific community" support Hoagland's ideas when anyone who shows the slightest interest, like Dr. Tom Van Flandern, Dr. Mark Carlotto, Dr. John Brandenberg, Dr. Brian O'Leary, or Dr. Stanley McDaniel, are automatically ostracized from that community? If this is the standard, then of course the approval of the "scientific community" will never be forthcoming no matter the quality of the research."He's certainly a legitimate individual. There's nothing flaky about his credentials." In the next section, Posner moves into absolutely ridiculous territory, implying that Hoagland is somehow responsible for corruption in a west African nation ...
There is only one small problem
with all of this. Hoagland had nothing to do with the sale of this stamp
set. Nothing. And he never wrote any of the words attributed to him by
Posner or Laurence. Not one word. The whole "quote" was written by Feinstein
and used without Hoagland's permission. And if Posner was not trying to
taint Hoagland by bringing up the notion of Sierra Leone as "an
obscure and corrupt-ridden African nation," then what is it doing in an
article about Hoagland? What other possible purpose could it serve?
Of course, if Posner had the slightest interest in fairness, truth, or balance, he might have tried to contact Hoagland (as I did) and ask him about the stamp set. But he didn't. He's not interested in any of those things. He's just interested in smearing Hoagland in any way he can. The truth of the allegations is irrelevant to his ultimate aims. Posner then turns his eye toward toward Hyperdimensional physics and the "N-machine" of Dr. Bruce Depalma ...
For those seeking information
on Depalma's experiments and the N-machine, I recommend that you go to
the Primordial
Energy site where many of his papers are published. It also contains
information about Tewari, including his patent
application for the N-machine.
As to the issue of Hoagland "selling" a book on Harder's program, Depalma was the author of the book, and Hoagland the editor. Hoagland received no fees or royalties for his role in Depalma's book. He made not a dime. So if the implication is that Hoagland was somehow profiting from a "scam" on the N-machine book, again, how can he profiteer when he donated his services for free? As to the efficacy of the "N-machine,"
the experiments were not completed because the funds ran out, and Depalma
died. The plans still exist and at at least one of the workers who assembled
Depalma's version says he could build another one. If we were able
to obtain funds, we would certainly like to continue the experiments.
So there is no mystery as to what happened. Posner wraps up by summarizing Hoagland's departure from Harder's program, then lurches in a bizarre fashion forward in time to the March, 1996 Lunar press conference. There is no connection made between the two issues, and Posner seems to want to bring in the press conference just so he can quote from a particularly nasty (and just plain dumb) news story on it ...
This last little bit is as nasty as it gets. Why the vicious,
derisive opinions of a "nitwitness news" reporter like Leiby are relevant
to a supposedly "scientific" publication like SI is hard to figure.
He has no standing in the scientific community, and he is not even a "science
reporter" for the Post for that matter.
And, as senior and highly independent White House correspondent Sarah McClendon (who also attended and reported on the Hoagland Lunar Press Briefing) sadly noted in her coverage (Part1 and Part2):
Ms. McClendon, however, who has covered the White House
for over 50 years and more Presidents than any other correspondent, was
impressed with Hoagland, impressed enough to invite him back to Washington
to address her own public policy "study group" at the Press Club, only
a week later. When asked by other reporters why she invited Hoagland,
McClendon replied, "Because it [possible extraterrestrial artifacts, knowingly
concealed by NASA] is a giant subject, that ought to be explained more
fully."
As for the opinion of Paul Loman "geologist and expert in orbital photography," his judgment that the "Shard" is a photo processing defect is laughable. It casts a shadow on the lunar surface in exactly the right direction and length for a real object on the lunar surface. Exactly how a "photographic defect" could do this is a little hard to imagine. Anyone who actually thinks this would hardly qualify as an "expert in orbital photography." And Lowman is hardly an unbiased observer or someone who is disposed to be open about such things. He is the "anonymous author" of the infamous NASA memorandum "Technical Review of the Monuments of Mars," which was widely circulated by the agency in the late 1980's as a justification for not making re-imaging of Cydonia a priority. Dr. Stanley McDaniel, Epistemologist and Professor Emeritus at Sonoma State University, had this to say about the memorandum in his book "The McDaniel Report";
Gee, just substitute "CSICOP"
for "NASA" and it could be a review of Posner's article, couldn't it?
The point here is that Lowman has evidently not changed his stripes since
the 1980's, and is still willing to resort to any tactic, no matter how
stupid it makes him look, to attack Hoagland.
Posner wraps up his diatribe with the usual claptrap about how the MGS image has made it clear that the Face is natural. It's important to remember that this evaluation, like all such CSICOP "scientific" evaluations, is nothing more than an opinion. In contrast to the view offered by Hoagland, Van Flandern and the other Mars anomaly researchers, this opinion is not based on any kind of specific evaluation of the images, comparison to the existing Viking data, or prediction of secondary characteristics or features. In every way, the CSICOP claims are flat psuedo-science without a thread of data or logical argument to support them. But this should not surprise us. These zealots will do anything to keep the lid on ideas outside the mainstream from becoming accepted. If this were a boxing match, it would be TKO for Hoagland in the first round. CSICOP has been shown to have used distortion, deliberate misrepresentation and outright lies in a vicious and demonstrably untrue personal attack. The politics of this particular smear piece are entwined in a larger agenda that has to do with timing. There are some interesting days ahead of us and it is evidently important for them to energize their base just now. But remember, if a political campaign (and make no mistake, that's what this is) has to energize its base this late in the game, it means they know they are losing. And they are. Please keep in mind here that Posner himself is not really the issue. He's just a good foot soldier, a mind numbed robot marching in lock-step (or is it goose-step?) with the orders of the Church to destroy anything and everything that threatens its view of the universe. The bigger issue is the conduct of CSICOP itself, its willingness to use lies, propaganda and character assassination -- as it demonstrably has here -- to achieve its aims. Is this the conduct of "Scientists?" Is it the conduct of rational, thinking men or is it the conduct of demagogues and extremists? And if they are mere rabble rousers, how then should we deal with them? Should supposed arbiters of truth in science like Nature have members of an organization like that on their staffs? If we substituted the phrase "African-American" for their term "believers," would any civilized person view their tactics as anything but racist, bigoted propaganda? Is the standard of civil behavior so much lower just because they claim to defend the notion of "reason?" Don't universities and journals that employ these people bear a responsibility for the conduct of their members? If they proudly call themselves members of an organization that advocates such immoral tactics, should they not be held accountable to their real world bosses? In the end, the only way we can defend ourselves is with the truth, and by demanding accountability of those who seek to suppress it with their particularly rigid dogmas. Don't bother writing in protest to SI or CSICOP. If you are going to expend energy on such an endeavor, hit 'em where they live. Here is a list of CSICOP's senior fellows, along with their affiliations. Let their bosses and department heads and university presidents know how you feel about their membership in an organization that practices such tactics. And send the media a copy for good measure.
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