From: Hal Finney (hal@rain.org)
Date: Fri Mar 27 1998 - 13:34:39 MST
jeff@ultraviolet.com writes regarding Richard Hoagland.
I read Hoagland's book about Cydonia many years ago, and it was completely
unconvincing.
The problem is that the shapes are not obviously artificial. Yes,
some of them are roughly pyramidal, but I can find rocks that have a
similar shape. You have to look at the weathering and erosion and other
factors that carve these rocks. The Martian experts who have done so
believe that these shapes are the products of natural erosion.
Jeff also mentions Hoagland's video tape analysis of events on a 1991
space shuttle flight. This is STS-48, and a good resource for information
about the controversy is http://web2.airmail.net/yogi/sts-48.html.
You can read there the questionable reasoning of the UFO believers.
James Oberg, a well known space expert, says that all the video shows is
particles near the shuttle being pushed by its thrusters. See Oberg's
analysis at http://web2.airmail.net/yogi/oberg.html.
Hoagland's web site at http://www.enterprisemission.com claimed shortly
after the Mars rover landed that they had found all kinds of artifacts in
the surface pictures: military vehicles, technical equipment, cannisters
of various sorts. Everyone else just sees rocks. Hoagland has also
claimed to have seen a crystal city on the moon by enhancing Apollo
images.
In my mind, Hoagland has no credibility. He may be deluding himself,
or he may just be deluding others, but either way he is not a reliable
source of information.
Hal
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