I juat learned that Richard Hoagland will be talking about the Apollo 11 tapes — meaning the "UFO" –on the radio show Coast to Coast AM. That’s bad enough, of course, but — uchhhh, I can hardly type this– Buzz Aldrin will join the program at 11:00 (Pacific).
Criminy. Did they tell him who Hoagland is? Maybe not. Given Hoagland’s history, and the fact that he attends UFO conferences where I’ve heard he charges $20-40 a head to lecture for hours about his, um, wacky ideas on Mars, I suspect he’ll play up the UFO angle. He has to defend that the astronauts went to the Moon, since he claims there are alien cities there, but a UFO following them won’t hurt that silly theory, and may even enhance it in his mind.
Yecccch. I’ll listen in for as long as I can stand it.
Tip o’ the space helmet to Jim Oberg for telling me about this.
July 31st, 2006 at 10:01 pm
Didn’t Buzz once puch out some guy who denied the moon landings? Too bad he can’t do that on radio.
But I think this might make great radio. Hoagland and his woo woo nonsense have far more to fear than Aldrin.
July 31st, 2006 at 10:45 pm
Phil,
Thanks for the heads-up. As much as I detest RCH misleading folks who aren’t up-to-snuff on common sense when it comes to science, I find it fascinating to listen to his nonsense, and what people will actually believe.
It’s really sad, but entertaining nontheless.
July 31st, 2006 at 10:53 pm
If there was something tagging along, observing the Apollo spacecraft, it was probably Russion and undisclosed.
July 31st, 2006 at 10:57 pm
An astronaut vs. a guy who likely never stepped foot into a spacesuit? Hilarious.
July 31st, 2006 at 11:04 pm
Ah– Buzz is on for the first half hour, and then Hoagland. And, hopefully, ne’er the twain shall meet.
July 31st, 2006 at 11:08 pm
Yeah, but it’ll be interesting to see what RCH takes out of context from the Aldrin interview, won’t it?
July 31st, 2006 at 11:32 pm
About the UFO claims, Buzz just said this: "It’s a little irresponsible of people to bring up subjects that have been explained rather thoroughly, especially in our case…"
George brought up astronuat Ed Mitchell, who is something of a UFO proponent. George was talkiong about aliens visiting us, but Buzz (I love this guy) immediately took the reins and turned it into a pretty good description of how big the Galaxy is, and how likely aliens are, but how unlikely it is they are visiting us. I have said precisely this on C2C when I’ve talked to George as well.
July 31st, 2006 at 11:39 pm
Phil,
Yeah, that was a very nice deflection of BS by Aldrin, so he could continue talk about what we really wanted to hear; his account of the amazing accomplishments of the Apollo program.
Nice job, Buzz. You truly are a hero, not just to America, but the world.
(Oh yeah, the mention of Bush’s space initiative in an “election year” was great, too.)
July 31st, 2006 at 11:48 pm
You know what? After listening to a man who walked on the Moon, I have little desire to listen to RCH. I’m signing off and going to bed.
August 1st, 2006 at 12:16 am
OK, BA, since you didn’t stay up for the musings of the great RCH, here’s a recap: Same old s***, including the fact that Aldrin was just a good soldier, and took his orders not to talk about the “ruins on the moon” seriously.
As for everything else Hoagland said, well, just go to his web site for “incontrivertable photographic proof” of everything he said.
Dang, I shoulda gone to bed too.
August 1st, 2006 at 6:44 am
Are you kidding? I’d love to see that… POW!
August 1st, 2006 at 6:57 am
“Oh, the humanity”?
No- It’s “Oh! The HUGE MANATEE!!!”
August 1st, 2006 at 7:14 am
Buzz is a national hero for two reasons: first, for walking on the moon and all that, and second, for punching out a nutty Apollo-denier. Come on, you all wish you could have been there to see it in person.
(Heck, I’ve wished more than a few times that I had the opportunity to do it myself. Both walking on the moon and punching out woos.)
August 1st, 2006 at 11:15 am
Glad I missed it too. Coast to Coast is where I first heard of the BA, and thanks to him and the folks at Science Blogs I know longer have the stomach for RCH or C2C (although the Hollow Earth woos already had me turning the show off). Thanks BA.
August 1st, 2006 at 1:49 pm
Did anyone note from the Coast to Coast web site:
“Coast to Coast AM science advisor Richard C. Hoagland …”
I mean, you can’t get much lower than that!
August 1st, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Being the Science Advisor for Coast to Coast? (Prestigious affiliation there.) Or Coast to Coast choosing Hoagland? (Dredging the bottom of the barrel.)
August 1st, 2006 at 5:17 pm
A friend of mine reminded me of one of the conspiracy theories from the 1970s.
It wasn’t that NASA didn’t go to the moon. It was that there was NO actual space race. So when NASA did go to the moon with their first Apollo landing, the Russians also launched a vessel towards the moon and kept it in lunar orbit for the duration of the mission, essentially to act as a rescue ship, should anything go wrong with Apollo.
So in this conspiracy, for all their apparent rivalry, the US and Soviets were actually working together!
Its fun to watch conspiracies come and go and evolve over time.
It gives us something to laugh at.
Folcrom.
August 2nd, 2006 at 6:54 am
Wait a second…
Bad Astronomer = BA
Buzz Aldrin = BA
A new conspiracy theory is born! Buzz Aldrin is really the Bad Astronomer, and Phil Plait is his secret identity!