Bigfoot: I want to believe

[Uncle Ted]

Ha. I always pay.

Here's rooting for the crazy dude from Oregon.

You're currently in Dallas, right? I'll hold the money. Just drop it off at my house (PM me for my address). Cash only.

[Moliere]

Actually, better would be to boardmail wholpins, beefalo, and red wolves (all fertile hybrid species).

Bees and buffalo can mate?

[SoCalCoug]

Dr. Ketchum is enough of a kook that I'd be a fool to take Lebowski's bet. That doesn't mean I'd be a fool to believe she has something significant.

There is, however, another, less kook-driven, parallel DNA study that's coming along a bit under the radar. This one's a little more authoritative, as it's driven by University of Oxford professor Bryan Sykes, a well-known and published geneticist. I would take the bet that his study will withstand scrutiny, although I don't know his claimed results. He announced his study in about May of this year, and I'm hearing it's possibly going to be released by the end of this month, but more likely early next year. Some think this is the main reason Ketchum issued her news release. She's been working on her study for so long, she's not about to be upstaged by Dr. Sykes.

Some of my caution with Dr. Ketchum is not about the results of her study, but whether she will be able to stand up to scientific rigor. It very well may be that her conclusions are valid, but her inexperience in the academic world is such that she simply fails to adequately support her conclusions, or she makes too many unjustified logical leaps (this is the most likely to me). It appears she (or her financial backers) is trying to forestall this by including a number of other academicians and scientists in the study. There are reportedly quite a number who will have their name on the article.

The thing that's different now, as opposed to, say, 10 years ago, in the bigfoot world, is that there are some people with legitimate scientific credentials who are looking into this, and who seem to think they're going to have some very interesting results. Also, DNA analysis has become far less cost-prohibitive, making it much more feasible in this sort of context.

Also, tonight's Finding Bigfoot episode is Moneymaker's DNA episode, and there's some thought that the timing of Dr. Ketchum's press release is in response to this. It is thought that perhaps Moneymaker will be revealing some DNA results in this episode. However, there is also some doubt that he would have kept it under wraps for so long as this episode was supposedly taped a year or so ago.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Dang it, creek and SoCal, I almost had them!

If any of you suckers ..... err ..... other posters still want to make that bet I am still game. Let me know.

[All-American]

I will take money from any of you.

Are you sure you aren't a lawyer?

[FMCoug]

Are you sure you aren't a lawyer?

Obviously not. The lawyers are the ones dumb enough to fall for this stuff.

[clackamascoug]

Dang it, creek and SoCal, I almost had them!

If any of you suckers ..... err ..... other posters still want to make that bet I am still game. Let me know.

In light of SoCal's classic chair pull, I'll do this... In the spirit of El Jefe, give me two to one odds, and I'll donate $50 to CUF, and when you lose you'll have to pay a $100 to CUF in my name. I'll pay tomorrow, and if in 6 months the DNA claim is still valid, you will acknowledge your loss, and pay $100. Let's say the summer solstice, Big Foot's favorite day. And if it turns out the DNA has a tie in with Stonehenge, you pay $500.

[Non Sequitur]

Also, tonight's Finding Bigfoot episode is Moneymaker's DNA episode, and there's some thought that the timing of Dr. Ketchum's press release is in response to this. It is thought that perhaps Moneymaker will be revealing some DNA results in this episode. However, there is also some doubt that he would have kept it under wraps for so long as this episode was supposedly taped a year or so ago.

I've never seen the show before, but you inspired me to watch it tonight. Don't know how I feel about Bigfoot, but I have a crush on the tall, androgynous biologist lady.

[Jeff Lebowski]

In light of SoCal's classic chair pull, I'll do this... In the spirit of El Jefe, give me two to one odds, and I'll donate $50 to CUF, and when you lose you'll have to pay a $100 to CUF in my name. I'll pay tomorrow, and if in 6 months the DNA claim is still valid, you will acknowledge your loss, and pay $100. Let's say the summer solstice, Big Foot's favorite day. And if it turns out the DNA has a tie in with Stonehenge, you pay $500.

Ha. "still valid". Good one.

I will accept your terms with the revised condition that the DNA claim has to be universally recognized as evidence of a new species of ape-human as is currently being claimed. Should be a fairly easy standard to meet. I would think that a smoking-gun, rock-hard evidence like this would take the world by storm.

You can extend to 12 months if you like. Still a sucker's bet, IMO.

[clackamascoug]

Ha. "still valid". Good one.

I will accept your terms with the revised condition that the DNA claim has to be universally recognized as evidence of a new species of ape-human as is currently being claimed. Should be a fairly easy standard to meet. I would think that a smoking-gun, rock-hard evidence like this would take the world by storm.

You can extend to 12 months if you like. Still a sucker's bet, IMO.

I need to donate anyway, I'll just kill two birds, and make a side show out of it.

[SoCalCoug]

Listening right now to a podcast with Scott Carpenter, who claims to have submitted samples to Dr. Ketchum, and who is part of the project. He keep saying that the publication will be in the next "couple days" or the next "few days." He's used both phrases.

Also, indications are that the paper will be published in a Russian scientific journal.

[myboynoah]

I am with Lebowski on this one. While I look forward to seeing what the paper says, I think it is almost certain to be without legitimate basis.

My son and I watched this show about moonshiners other day. It included a segment about one of these Arkansas backwoods guys hunting for a feral hog that might threaten his still. He showed the signs he looked for, found tufts of hair, scat and markings all within an hour or two of setting out to look for a particular hog. This guy knows the Arkansan woods like most of us know our tv remotes. If there was any basis for the existence of Bigfoot, one of these sorts of guys would have found a carcass or a pile of crap or some such long ago.

Similarly, we just went on a swamp tour with some guy who grew up in a cypress swamp, here in florida. He told us tales of the swamp ape. Afterwards we asked if he really thought there was anything to it. He laughed and said he knew everything that lived in the swamp, had hunted, tracked and killed everything in the swamp and that while he liked the ape stories, there just "warn't no setch thang." The reason there isn't any better evidence of Bigfoot is because there isn't any such beast as Bigfoot.

LOL, everyone knows bigfoot is a lot smarter than feral hogs and people with bad grammar (and likely equally bad oral hygiene).

[FN Phat]

I listened to one of the scientist that is working on the team with Dr. Ketchum on Coast-to-Coast AM (don't judge me people. It is the only radio show on that my boss will listen to at 4:00 am). He was very specific in mentioning that he was held to a non-disclosure agreement and could only comment on a few aspects of the DNA research. He also was very clear in stating that there was a leak of information and that is the reason that she (Dr. Ketchum) is releasing this info now.

[Uncle Ted]

CNN is now picking up this story.

[SoCalCoug]

Okay, this is getting fun. Kind of like a slow-motion train wreck.

The Russian scientist who prompted the Ketchum press release has spoken again. He alleges that Dr. Ketchum's paper has been rejected by the U.S. science journals, and that's why it's going to be published in a Russian journal, instead.

Dr. Ketchum through her publicist (who is a lady claiming a bigfoot habituation on her property, and that she feeds them - and that they like blueberry bagels in particular) made a statement through facebook that Dr. Igor is incorrect, that the paper (which is 50 pages, very long and scientific!) was rejected with a request for changes. The changes have been made and the journal is again reviewing the paper. They are hoping for publication by the end of the month or (due to the holidays) the first week of January. I hope you caught that it's "hoping" - there still is not yet an official publication date.

In the meantime, as a hedge against the U.S. journal ultimately not accepting the paper, Dr. Ketchum has allegedly also submitted it to a journal in Russia that Dr. Igor is involved with. Particularly with the language barrier, he may have misunderstood the status of the paper in the U.S. Or maybe Dr. Ketchum's lying.

In any case, it's fun times in the bigfoot community these days.