1. KFSM provides some clueless IBWO coverage here. Note the links to two short video clips on the left.
2. Check out the "new remote camera system" links now available here.
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The key for the success of this new camera system will be to get photos clear enough to show a black and white woodpecker of some kind, while still being blurry enough to look sort of like an Ivory-bill if you look hard enough and use your imagination. Several of these blurry photos should add up to sufficient "proof" of living IBWOs.
The ivory-billed woodpecker is an American legend
Legend: a story comming down from the past, especially one popularly regarded as historical though not verifiable; a popular myth of recent origin; the subject of a legend (Merriam-Webster).
While there is nothing mythical about the IBWO itself (we know that it once existed), reports of its continued presence in the forests of the American south have certainly descended to the realm of myth, legend, and story-telling.
I was re-visiting Tom's "unscientific poll" down in the archives: 13% yes, 87% no. This is a pretty pathetic showing by "Believers," considering that (according to the 30 Oct. TIME Magazine):
-18% of Americans believe that "creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster will one day be discovered"
-18% of American women (8% men) believe that "astrologers, palm readers, tarot-card readers, fortune tellers, and psychics can foresee the future"
-25% believe that "some UFO's are probably spaceships from other worlds"
-28% believe that "it's possible to influence the physical world through the mind alone"
-37% believe that "places can be haunted"
-41% believe that "ancient advanced civilzations, like Atlantis, once existed"
-66% have "no doubts that God exists" (vs. only 5% who don't believe in anything beyond the physical world)
From KFSM: "There are still some skeptics because they have not seen the woodpecker on a regular basis, but the bird needs six square miles of mature habitat to survive."
Someone could point out to them that the debris field that was searched for the Columbia Shuttle disaster was 28,000 square miles and the searchers were able to find a surprisingly large number of inanimate objects (both shuttle related and incidental) that were not flashing their black and white wings or providing audio clues about their location.
While I understand we all need to work for the preservation of “mature habitat” I wish some of these conservation organizations would try to encourage “mature researchers”. A big clue for them should be to not engage researchers who act like a kid in a candy store when they have the flimsiest of data.
If you are planning to come to Arkansas to search, keep in mind that the chances of seeing the bird are quite slim.
What the hell is "quite slim"?
The chances of seeing the bird are freaking ZILCHO, dude, and if you do see one you aren't "lucky" but simply "self-deluded."
But of course if you told people that then the number of reported sightings would likely diminish.
And that would be a bad thing for those who like to take other people's money and fart around in the woods until it's gone.
Even though Mueller has not seen if for himself, he knows the woodpecker lives and Luneau has the information that helps to prove it. It took nearly a year studying the tape to determine what it was on the video.
"All our signs point to it," said Luneau. "We'd done a lot of work behind the scenes before anybody knew we were coming out here and it was a relief that we finally did determine it was an ivory-billed."
And no mention that it has been categorically rejected by some (and accepted by none) of the best field birders in the country. OK, I give up. This isn't clueless. This is flat out dishonest.
Folks, take a big whiff of the post-modern "truthiness" virus we're up against:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/11/03/professor.bigfoot.ap/index.html
POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) -- Jeffrey Meldrum holds a Ph.D. in anatomical sciences and is a tenured professor of anatomy at Idaho State University.
He is also one of the world's foremost authorities on Bigfoot, the mythical ape-man of the Northwest woods. And Meldrum firmly believes the lumbering, shaggy brute exists.
That's nice. So some dweeb in Idaho is deluded. Am I supposed to be surprised? Oh, you say he's a PERFESSER? You mean, like Dr. Hill at Auburn?
Meldrum, 48, spends most of his days in his laboratory in the Life Sciences Building, analyzing more than 200 jumbo plaster casts of what he contends are Bigfoot footprints. ...And he is convinced he has produced a body of evidence that proves there is a Bigfoot.
Again, "dweeb sez stoopid stuf" and CNN was there to report it!
"It used to be you went to a bookstore and asked for a book on Bigfoot and you'd be directed to the occult section, right between the Bermuda Triangle and UFOs," Meldrum said. "Now you can find some in the natural science section."
Proving what exactly? That some publisher is successful at convincing book store clerks that pseudoscientific garbage is "real"? WOW.
John Kijinski, dean of arts and sciences, said ... "He's a bona fide scientist," Kijinski said. "I think he helps this university. He provides a form of open discussion and dissenting viewpoints that may not be popular with the scientific community, but that's what academics (is) all about."
Really? Is that what academics are "all about"? I seem to recall that logic, evidence-based reasoning and intellectual honesty was sort of important at some point. Maybe John Kijinski should stop and think for a while about why Idaho State's intellectual cache could fit in a freaking thimble.
[Meldrum] pays for his research with a $30,000 donation from a Bigfoot believer.
I have some great ideas for Bigfoot research that could be carried out over the Internet. I think I could be persuaded to share them for, oh, $3,000. Maybe even $1500 if the believer was a hottie.
Meldrum has a distinguished supporter in Jane Goodall, the world-famous authority on African chimpanzees. Her blurb on the jacket of Meldrum's new book, "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science," lauds him for bringing "a much-needed level of scientific analysis" to the Bigfoot debate.
The "Bigfoot debate"? Which "debate" is that? Is that like the "evolution debate" where the only real controversy is just how stupid and/or dishonest the promoters of the "minority" viewpoint actually are?
As a scientist, she's very curious and she keeps an open mind," said Goodall spokeswoman Nona Gandelman.
Since when do scientists keep "open minds" about mythological and/or utterly debunked bullcrap? What a strange statement.
When not in the lab, he loads his Chevy Suburban with tents and forensic gear and heads for the woods of Washington state and Northern California, where he has collected what he says are footprints, hair and feces from the ape-man. He tests hair samples and uses physics to produce charts that purport to show how Bigfoot would walk.
Anyone have a picture proving that Fitzcrow and/or Hill have met with this character?
Just a brief note to indicate that some evidence based (and I shudder when I think of the word "evidence" right now for personal reasons), rational, scientific method thinkers ought to have a chance to use the vast audience forums that believers use quite often without much questioning.
As an aside, the "IBWP's in the Florida Panhandle" site is a HOOT! *folly (oops) follow up study?*
I'm impressed with Amy Lester's comments. It's nice to see passion for science that doesn't tumble into pseudo-science.
Anyone have a picture proving that Fitzcrow and/or Hill have met with this character?
Amy, Fitz has NOT been to Idaho! Otherwise we'd have heard about ARU's deployed to record Bigfoot saying, "Kent, Kent, gotta remember to steal s'more smokes at the camp."
By the way, this formerly undisguised contributor now fears for his job and will sign off as anonymous.
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