For, as badly as I want to believe, like others, that the large, beautiful ivory-billed woodpecker, considered extinct since 1944, was discovered alive last year in an Arkansas swamp, I can’t.
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Sure, some of the world’s best scientists and bird experts were confirming the sighting as fact, but had they watched the video?
When I did, my face turned red with embarrassment for them.
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In the 1970s, I recall seeing better evidence that Bigfoot existed.
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I’m more concerned that high-witted biologists want a miracle so badly that they are trying to give flight to a bird that left us many, many years ago.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
"Red with embarrassment"
Some snippets from David Magee's column in the April 12, 2006 edition of the Chattanooga Times Free Press:
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7 comments:
Holy hanibal lecter ... this is the most brutal piece I've ever read. This Faulker and O'Connor country. Fitz et. al aren't ready for this.
Bite of their heads?
Just one point to the gathering cojones of the press ... this isn't about your feelings over whether the bird still exists, this is about the EVIDENCE.
Debating the theoretical "belief" isn't the point, discussing the EVIDENCE is the point.
It is on the EVIDENCE that we fault Fitz et al ... not on what might be but what IS.
This of course depends on what the meaning of "IS" is.
You fellows put too much stock in the evidence. You need to believe in the people. Do you really believe that Dr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Sparling, Mr. Luneau, Mr. Harrison, and Mr. Gallagher would let us down?
May 10th people...May 10th.
Signed,
The True Believer
I find it strange that so-called scientists used to ridicule people who reported ivory-bill sightings after 1944. It wasn't too difficult for people who live in the birds habitat to differentiate between woodpeckers with a symetric white back pattern and those with an almost totally black back. Only few of these ornithologists tried to find evidence whether the species still existed or what could be done to reverse the environmental damage caused by the almighty industry. It's a shame that a unique ecosystem could be ruined by companies like the Singer corporation. I think actions should have been taken half a century ago, but now they expect miracles to happen. Although one should take into consideration that many species have been rediscovered after an absence of many decades.
Michael
"I find it strange that so-called scientists used to ridicule people who reported ivory-bill sightings after 1944."
Specifically which so-called scientists (names please)?
Specifically what did they say (actual quotes please)?
"I find it strange that so-called scientists used to ridicule people who reported ivory-bill sightings after 1944."
Specifically which so-called scientists (names please)?
Specifically what did they say (actual quotes please)?
Tom, I think you're missing the point. "The Scientific Establishment ridiculed anyone who dared report an Ivory-Bill after 1944" is on the official list of excuses. You are unlikely to be provided with quotes of ridicule from ornitholigists because it rarely happened, it's just an excuse.
You can counter the "ridicule" argument with the fact that there have been at least two major failed searches in the last 10 years alone based on reports from people outside the establishment, along with many other smaller "follow-ups."
"They are ultra-wary" is also just an excuse unbacked by data.
"They live in deep wilderness" is another. Look at a list of modern "sightings." Most are near roads or even in yards.
Lots of excuses, endlessly repeated. But no solid evidence.
Didn't Singer preserve a section of that land, which was only clear cut when they sold it?
"I find it strange that so-called scientists used to ridicule people who reported ivory-bill sightings after 1944."
Specifically which so-called scientists (names please)?
Specifically what did they say (actual quotes please)?
Tom, what about the John Dennis reports in the Big Thicket and what about the 1971 picture of F Lewis in Louisiana. Currently they are - least to say - totally ignored by the 'scientific' literature.
The Dutch Birder (Former Believer, Now a Lost Sheep)
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