Remember this before and after picture in the news recently from NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity?
Well, it appears there’s a conspiracy theory under every rock, more fodder for Lewandowsky and Cook I suppose.
Science doesn’t advance by lawsuits, though some people think it does.
I’ll point out the obvious: that “biological organism” hasn’t moved since.
The explanation from NASA’s mission leader Steve Squires (al la Occams’ Razor):
“We think the most likely hypothesis is that it was dislodged by the rover wheels from a location that may currently be obscured by the solar arrays,” he said via email.
Squyres described the rock as “white around the outside, in the middle there’s low spot that is dark red. It looks like a jelly donut,” and said it’s like nothing they’ve ever seen before on Mars.
And Squires has a photo to back up the claim:
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-01-ideas-jelly-donut-mars.html#jCp
Anyone who’s ever driven a vehicle down a gravel road knows that rocks get dislodged by the tires and may move a foot or two.
The lawsuit seemed almost too ridiculous to be real, so I checked to see if the plaintiff was real. Yep, he has his own Wiki page.
Rhawn Joseph is a neuropsychologist who worked at the Veterans’ Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System in California.
He is involved with the Journal of Cosmology, and he advances eccentric views on the origin of life on Earth.[1]
Joseph is the author of Astrobiology: The Origins of Life and the Death of Darwinism, published in 2001. In the book he writes that “Contrary to Darwinism … the evidence now clearly indicates, that the evolution of life had been genetically predetermined and precoded…”
…
Joseph has been described by some evolutionary biologists as a crank for embracing unorthodox mechanisms of evolution. In one instance, the blogger P.Z. Myers ridiculed a claim by Joseph that a rock found on Mars is a living organism similar to a type of fungus existing on Earth.
In the lawsuit there is this language:
“Petitioner immediately recognized that bowl-shaped structure, hereafter referred to as Sol 3540, resembling a mushroom-like fungus, a composite organism consisting of colonies of lichen and cyanobacteria, and which on Earth is known as Apothecium.”
“When examined by Petitioner the same structure in miniature was clearly visible upon magnification and appears to have just germinated from spores.”
Strangely, and for the first time ever, I find myself in agreement with P.Z. Meyers.
h/t to reader Ed Zuiderwijk
Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/202863315/NASA-Lawsuit
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“conspiracy theory under every rock”
Huh? This one is very clearly above the rock, not under it!
That Mars thingy is just another of those silly Zaphod pranks…
This just in:
We’re receiving communications from the “biological organism.” It appears to be repeating the same message, over and over:
ICH BIN EIN BERLINER…ICH BIN EIN BERLINER…ICH BIN EIN BERLINER
As an Earth Scientist in Pennsylvania, I was peripherally involved in the 2005 Katzmaier v Dover School District action and, as a result, followed P.Z. Myers’ web site for a while. I had to give it up though once that furor was over and he began ranting about climate science. I have not followed his site since because his arguments on both evolution and climate were founded on the authority of the scientists – not on the sciences.
Marnof +1
I believe absolutely that this rock, sorry intelligent lifeform, could not possibly have been dislodged by the wheels of the rover. It was probably just trying to get out of the way, or rescue its babies that were in danger of being crushed by the infernal machine. Makes perfect sense.
Marnof – your comment is excellent!
“Anyone who’s ever driven a vehicle down a gravel road knows that rocks get dislodged by the tires and may move a foot or two.”
The rover has a top speed of 5 centimeters per second (~0.1 mph). Yes, it possible that on a steep slope the rover could dislodge something that could then roll into place, but the rover is programmed to avoid steep slopes.
And, no, I don’t think it is biological.
How long until Steve McIntyre’s FOI requests for necessary data are lumped in with this unnecessary request.
I mean if Homer Simpson’s littering outer space you’ld think NASA would want to know.
He used to work there after all.
I think RationalWiki might be right here
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Rhawn_Joseph#cite_note-pub-bio-0
“He is involved with the Journal of Cosmology, and he advances eccentric views on the origin of life on Earth.[1] “
I noticed the apparent coincidence of roughly collocated circular features immediately when the Pinnacle Island photos were released. I also remember the “Face on Mars” at Cydonia.
Maximizing Entropy keeps it interesting, MaxEnt the proper Bayesian naive objective prior, according to Jaynes. “Impossible” squeezes all of the ignorance into a corner into which the squeezer may find himself painted.
I don’t know. I saw the movie Apollo 18. And it wasn’t long after that that rocks mysteriously began appearing in my skeptical wife’s under ware drawer.
This is actually a pretty brilliant move by Rhawn Joseph, and so far is going exactly to plan.
How else do you think some no-name pencil pusher at the Veteran’s Affairs Bureau in Palo Alto is going to get people all across the web talking about HIM???
A couple more shout-outs like this, and he’ll be hosting his own exobiology show on Animal Planet – either that or the Weather Channel. (Why not???)
In the ‘after’ picture it looks like someone’s dropped a crumpled cigarette packet there. Who’s driving that rover?
Tom G(ologist) says: January 31, 2014 at 7:47 am
“I was peripherally involved in the 2005 Katzmaier v Dover School District action”
I believe that case was Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District…
Dr. Manns lawsuit if not ridiculous given the already harsh consequences financially to the people who are at the other end of it, and the chilling effect it has on free speech
I dont consider it ridiculous at all. I am sure Dr Mann does not, and in fact it may have already served a purpose, intended or not. The only way out for the parties now is to go through with it and that would mean that the very challenges what should be a matter of spirited jousting in open debate will be shown in court. That is a shame. The right way to do it is in debate, as in the court of Katherine, not the court of law. But ridiculous. I beg to differ
Maybe a “sailing stone” sailed up to Mars.
G00gle Real Time coverage
https://news.google.com/news/rtc?ncl=d57qMbErOhMClWM-E0GZ-CXNyApHM
Also consider the Open Access aspect to the kerfuffle and cosmology.com.
Why, it must be fast asleep, due to Keith Maniac form Guatemala perhaps.
Jabba:
“I believe that case was Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District…”
You are correct. I am currently working with a land owner with the last name I inadvertently typed rather than Tammy Kitzmiller’s correct name.
What the …..
somebody has been laying down paving stones ,
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/nasa-discovers-mysterious-rock-on-mars.jpg
It’s a pet rock that went rogue, quick round it up and put it back in the pet rock corral.
Off of the Klamath river in northern California next to interstate 101 they have areas for such rocks.
This one needs detention, bad rock, bad rock…
Just re-reading Sagan’s “Demon-haunted World”, and as with “Cosmos”, he re-iterates that science has to remain science, not politics. For instance, he was castigated by a physicist for facilitating a meeting between planetary scientists and UFO “experts”. Sagan’s reasoning is that if scientists DON’T reach out to skeptics, ideas can’t be shared, which is the whole point of science.
He also mentioned that Marsologists (my term), went from contemporary “canals” designed by intelligent beings who didn’t look much different than we were, to (after Mariner and Viking), remains of ancient cities and giant faces…I guess now we can mention “invisible Martians who move rocks around”…
A view of Pinnacle Island from another perspective , front hazcam SOL 3540:
http://imageshack.com/a/img838/6734/alub.png
Rep Sheila Jackson Lee (Dumbest person ever…) knows.
its from planting the flag there earlier.
It goes without saying that Rhahn hails from California.