Exposing Pseudoastronomy

Explores claims made by "Mars anomalists" that the Cydonia region of Mars (the region with the "Face on Mars") was constructed, designed, or arranged by intelligent aliens. This episode takes you through the context of the claim, some of the math behind it, an exploration of the "null hypothesis" (what the results would be if it were purely random), and draws conclusions based on the latest orbital imagery of Mars. (Note: This episode is inended as a companion to the video, also in the podcast feed and on YouTube, by the same name. It is stand-alone, however.)

Imagine, if you will, that NASA sent two spacecraft out into the solar system, launched in 1972 and 1973. Their sexy encounters with Jupiter and Saturn over a mere two and six years later, respectively, they were alone and pretty much forgotten by most of the world that had watched their launch, though they continued to return data to interested scientists. It was only when something weird was observed, first as early as the 1980s, but not seriously investigated until 1994, that the world began to again take notice, and as is often the case of something unexplained, everyones' pet idea came out of the wood work.

This is the story of a time in the present, a time of myth and legend. When the ancient tales are petty and cruel, and they will return to plague mankind with suffering. Only one group dared to challenge the disinformation machine, led by a man named Marshall Masters. Masters possesses an intellect the truth movement rarely sees, being a member of Mensa, an intellect surpassed only by the power of his heart to get the word out. He journeyed the internet and late-night radio programs, battling the minions of the evil disinformationers, and the all-powerful NASA.

Episode 94 was probably kinda boring, learning about error, uncertainty, accuracy, precision, and all that stuff. Well, it's back, but this time more interesting! Learn all about what our inability to make perfect measurements means for how we get around the solar system - from Superman flying to Mars to satellites orbiting to asteroids hitting Earth to observing objects with spacecraft.

It's that time again when several small bits of pseudoscience have accumulated to the overflowing point, and I've put them together into another clip show. This one discusses whether gravity is a force (or if we've been lied to about it), whether the moon is a hologram (put up there by Illuminati aliens?), and something weird about rainbows and chemtrails and evil.

From forming the moon by budding it off Earth in the last episode, we go to forming the planets by them budding off the Sun. This is mainly an idea by the late Tom van Flandern, and I go through his model, his evidence for it, and the evidence against it, and there is a discussion of some of his surviving advocates.

While I talked briefly about the fission model of lunar origins in Episode 53, it deserves a more in-depth discussion, especially as a setup for the next episode about a fission formation for the planets, from the sun. This episode takes you through a historic context and justifications for the "Big Split," but it ultimately why it has been rejected by the scientific community today.

Pyramids on Mars may not be as sexy, popular, or well-known as the "Face," but they are much more prevalent with many different persons pointing to many different features on the planet that appear to be pyramids. Now the question is, ¿Are they natural or unnatural?

Any legitimate field of science or scientific object is fair game for young-Earth creationists in their attempts to sew doubt about an old universe. Somehow, Jupiter is dependent on evolution and since Jupiter can't be old, evolution can't have happened, therefore Goddidit many (where many = 6) thousands of years ago. Or not.

A Q&A and discussion happened after I gave my presentation at the Launceston Skeptics in the Pub (Episode 99). Listen in as we talk about the goals of skepticism, what other kinds of astronomy topics there are, and about real astronomy observations.

A mysterious crop circle appeared during the night of December 27-28, 2013, in Chualar, California. Security guards quickly came to guard the circle, and then it was mysteriously plowed under just a few days later. Crop circle researchers point to numerous lines of evidence that this was made by aliens, but it was later revealed to be a publicity stunt by NVIDIA. Or was it?

For the hundredth episode of the Exposing PseudoAstronomy podcast, I pay homage to paranormal radio programs and play the credulous host with two guests and several callers. The show is complete with commercials and bumper music and spans two nearly hour-long segments.

For the hundredth episode of the Exposing PseudoAstronomy podcast, I pay homage to paranormal radio programs and play the credulous host with two guests and several callers. The show is complete with commercials and bumper music and spans two nearly hour-long segments.

In July of 2012, I did an analysis of a photo purported to show a genuine ziggurat (a step pyramid) on the Moon. I showed that it was more likely to be a hoax than not. What ensued grew to more than I expected, with name-calling, mud-slinging, various side-claims, and other things that I relate in this live talk I gave twice while in Australia.

Michael Heiser is an expert in ancient languages and his work led him to investigate the possibility - or the claimed evidence for - ancient aliens and related materials. In this second part of a two-part series, we talk about the claims of Zecharia Sitchin; we don't discuss the specific details, but rather we delve into the claimed evidence that Sitchin used in his numerous books about the Anunnaki and Nibiru.

Michael Heiser is an expert in ancient languages and his work led him to investigate the possibility - or the claimed evidence for - ancient aliens and related materials. In this first part of a two-part series, we talk about how he got interested in the topic, his approach, and an investigation he facilitated into the infamous "MJ12" documents.

The Star of Bethlehem is perhaps one of the most famous astronomical events, but it's one that we're not even sure really happened. Much ink has been spilled on the topic, and in this interview, Aaron Adair talks about his new book (The Star of Bethlehem: A Skeptical View) and the methodic approach he takes, examining primary source material, interpretations of the text and possible events at the time, and what, based on the available evidence, the famous Star may have been, or if it was ever there.

Zecharia Sitchin's ideas about Planet X were discussed in Episode 23, where I also presented numerous reasons why his Planet X - Nibiru - does not exist. This episode discusses some of the news stories over the past decade that the man posted to his website and claimed supported his ideas, and I address whether they do or do not.

What a scientist means by "accuracy" and "precision" are usually different from common, every-day use. The process of formal error analysis and their propagation to a final formal uncertainty applied to a final result is also generally not well understood. This episode discusses all of these, focusing on different types of error in scientific data and experiments.

Peer Review is one of the foundations of modern science, and yet, outside of science, it is a poorly understood process even though many think they understand it. It is also one of the common threads of ire among pseudoscientists, mainly because they cannot pass it. This episode goes through how peer review works not only for scholarly papers but also how that research may have been funded to begin with, grant review.