Exposing PseudoAstronomy

David Sereda started as a UFOlogist who became interested in "alternative" energy, propulsion, and anti-gravity. Over the years, he branched out into what most would term a general 'new age' movement with quantum vibration jewelry and harmonic resonances. In this first of two parts, I discuss this evolution and go through a few of his claims. Part two will focus on many more of his claims.

Richard C. Hoagland has claimed now for at least a decade that there exists a “hyperdimensional torsion physics” which is based partly on spinning stuff. I assume he is correct in his model and claims and that his Accutron watch can actually measure what he claims. I then go through how you would properly design an experiment to test the claims and show why the data that Mr. Hoagland has presented is, quite literally, meaningless.

Astronomical objects are an astronomically large distance away. So far, in fact, that for light, at its current speed, to get from there to us so we can see them, that the universe must be more than 6000 years old. Young-Earth creationists have a problem with that. This epiosde discusses one of the ways they try to solve that problem.

In yet another edition of "Fake Planet X" stories, this time I talk about Mark Hazlewood's claims surrounding his failed prediction of a 2003 approach. Hazlewood borrowed a lot from Nancy Lieder (she claims he copied her), but he is much more conspiratorial. This episode focuses more on the story of what happened and his claims rather than delve too much into why everything he claimed was wrong.

By most accounts, Disney's "John Carter" movie, based on the books by Edgar R. Burroughs, was a box office flop. It did get decent reviews, and I don't think it's not worth seeing. But Richard C. Hoagland saw something different, and in an exclusive, three-hour interview in April 2012, he laid out his case that "John Carter" was depicting Mars as it really was, and the Therns who controlled things from behind the scenes were what is going on today, on Earth.

Ancient astronomers searched for evidence and found none that Earth is not the center of the universe. Thousands of years later, we found that evidence, but there are still people today who point to other reasons and claim heliocentrism is wrong. This episode explores those and some independent ways to show why geocentrism doesn't work.

In the long-delayed "2012 Back-Peddling" episode that is this, I talk about a few examples of people saying one thing or group of things is/are going to happen on or about December 21, 2012, and then their reactions (or lack there-of) when it didn't. Or claims that it still did. We'll see ...

Nancy Lieder is best known for her failed prognostications about Planet X coming in May 2003. Lost among her many Planet X claims is a deeper misunderstanding of astronomy. In this episode, I delve into several of her astronomy misstatements and explain what's really going on.

Back in 2010, David Coppedge, a young-Earth creationist and an Intelligent Design advocate, sued NASA for workplace discrimination, alleging he had been discriminated against due to his religious views. He later amended the lawsuit for wrongful termination after he was fired. In early 2013, the lawsuit was thrown out in its entirety. This episode is an interview with a legal expert about the case.

The color of Mars seems like it should be something fairly simple to know and represent. Scientists claim to have solved it very early on, but a branch of conspiracy theories claims that, in fact, NASA and other space agencies have lied about the true color of Mars for decades.

The first public, and abridged, version of a TAM 2013 workshop on image processing and analysis for skeptics. This was a live talk presented at the Denver 2013 Skepticamp in front of a live studio audience. Besides background information, this talk used basic skills to analyze the infamous Face on Mars and a lesser known lunar step pyramid.

In this first edition of Solar System Mystery Science Theater, we learn about Iapetus, a weird moon of Saturn that has features unlike any other object in the solar system. Some have explained those with exploding planets and spaceships. Others look for something that makes sense.

Andy Lloyd has a chemistry background and has had an interest in astronomy his whole life. He also likes Zecharia Sitchin's idea of Nibiru and the Annunaki. In his book, "The Dark Star," Andy tries to reconcile what he knows about astronomy with Sitchin's model to create a "neo-Sitchin" proposal that just might be plausible, so long as his changes don't introduce their own new problems.

The Ringmakers of Saturn by Norman R. Berbrun makes a premise, claimed to be consistent with all other research on Saturn's rings, that the rings are created by the exhaust of gigantic space vehicles. He determined this through analyzing blow-ups of photographs returned to Earth by the Voyager spacecraft.

A problem for particle physics and solar physics sparked a somewhat technical argument by young-Earth creationists that our Sun is a young star, only a few thousand years old. Unfortunately for them, the problem was solved in 2001, but I'm getting ahead of my story ...