Ok, you may have heard that a couple weeks ago Opportunity discovered a ‘mysterious’ rock, that somehow appeared where it wasn’t before. For those unfamiliar:

Now, of course, the alien-hunting wingnuts have thrown their assorted theories out to the wind, but one person is actually suing NASA for failing ‘to closely photograph and thoroughly scientifically examine and investigate a putative biological organism.’.. Basically, he’s convinced it’s a chunk of extraterrestrial fungus.

http://www.popsci.com/article/science/lawsuit-alleges-nasa-failing-investigate-alien-life

Scribd copy of the suit is lower on the article, and… yeah. It’s pretty amusing.

I like how self-assured of his own greatness the guy is. I should note that unlike Hoagland and his ilk, he is not claiming that there is some glorious conspiracy to cover up the existence of extraterrestrial life. Instead, he is accusing NASA of being negligent and ignorant, and not accepting his theories (or answering his emails). Mind, that may change once the judge who’s been assigned this case stops laughing long enough to throw it out…

Interestingly, the guy appears to have a genuine scientific track record. It seems he is not your average moronic crackpot. Yet from the way his credentials write-up developes from main stream science to fringe, it appears he is the love child of Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wikramasighe.

I know, right? I think this guy may be a good example of someone sliding slowly into crackpot-hood.

He’s showing all the signs, including the… not sure what the word is, but it’s like a Messiah Complex, where the nutter is convinced that they have seen the TRUTH, and that all they need to do is to show it to everyone else in order to get them to understand. Later, when people don’t understand something so ‘obvious’, they slide further into ‘they are against my ideas’, and later even further into ‘they are against me’.

Confabulations like this are the sign of someone who needs a nice lie down, and possibly medication.

In all the pictures I’ve seen of this thing I honestly can’t see how this guy thinks it is organic in any way shape or form.  But I guess if you want to believe hard enough anything is possible.  I think he is well on his way to becoming a full time certified nutter.

Shame on you people. Rhawn Joseph is a respected scientist with an impeccable reputation. He must be allowed to sue NASA….....

......on the proviso he personally goes to Mars to collect the object so as to present it in court.

So. Has Rhawn Joseph gone to Mars yet?

I think he decided to skip that part Peter.  Probably something about the trip being too expensive and it’s not his responsibility anyway.