Saturday, September 17, 2005

Bigfoot/Ivory-bill parallels

If you're interested in the Ivory-bill controversy, you really should read this entire article. It's titled "Bigfoot at 50: Evaluating a Half-Century of Bigfoot Evidence".

I was going to highlight specific parallels between the Bigfoot and Ivory-bill stories, but there are so many that I'm not going to bother. Here's a single snippet:
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...On the other hand, if Bigfoot is instead a self-perpetuating phenomenon with no genuine creature at its core, the stories, sightings, and legends will likely continue unabated for centuries. In this case the believers will have all the evidence they need to keep searching-some of it provided by hoaxers, others perhaps by honest mistakes, all liberally basted with wishful thinking. Either way it's a fascinating topic. If Bigfoot exist, then the mystery will be solved; if they don't exist, the mystery will endure. So far it has endured for at least half a century.
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