More links on the irrigation project halt

1. From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (subscription may be required; the bold font is mine):

David Carruth, president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, one of the plaintiffs, said Thursday that despite the “naysayers” no one has proven that the bird doesn’t exist.

“The debate will rage until the proverbial million-dollar shot is produced,” he said, referring to a still or moving photograph that will be indisputable.

2. "Descent into Madness"

3. "...Good News"

4. Gary Bogue weighs in:

Does this mean that we no longer need to have real animals? That we can just presume animals exist in a particular area?

5. From The Baxter Bulletin:

Rep. Bobby Glover said he was concerned that the federal ruling would lead to work on other projects in the state being delayed.

"Just one person would have to say they saw an ivory-billed woodpecker and that gets shut down," said Glover, D-Carlisle.

Sen. Jim Luker, D-Wynne, later defended the bird despite doubts of its existence.

"That woodpecker happens to be my constituent, so I have reason to take care of him," Luker said.

6. "Endangered Logic"

Upcoming "Ghost Bird" movie

Preview available here.

"Woodpecker Halts Ark. Irrigation Project"

Washington Post article here.

Regardless of its effect on the "Ivory-bill", I think we can all at least agree that this irrigation project could be devastating to any local leprechaun, Bigfoot or jackalope populations.

Here is the Wikipedia page for the Daubert Standard, which is now being mentioned by some emailers and commenters.

Outrageous quotes from Ron Rohrbaugh

An interview with Ron Rohrbaugh, director of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Research Project at CLO, is available here.

About half way through this segment, Rohrbaugh says that the seven alleged IBWO sightings were "very top-quality sightings" by "professional ornithologists".

According to Rohrbaugh, the birds were seen through "high-quality optics"; he also claims that "multiple fieldmarks on the bird were seen".

Updates from Bobby Harrison

Some April "updates" from Bobby Harrison seem to have recently appeared here.

Article by the late Eirik A.T. Blom (again)

Back by popular demand...a commenter suggested that I link to this old, sensible Eirik A.T. Blom article again.

"I Believe" merchandise

Available here; "iLive" merchandise here.

So what were/are these people thinking?

At this WorldTwitch link, we see this:

I doubt that the principal proponents of the Ivorybill hoax believe their own propaganda. Their brighter underlings clearly don't.

Do you agree?

Later in this post, I've included some names of people listed as authors of various Cornell "Ivory-bill" papers.

Some of the commenters on this blog seem quite well-connected. I'd be very interested to hear any of your thoughts on a couple of questions:

1. As of April 20, 2005 (just before the grand public announcement was made), what were these people truly thinking? All of them ecstatic to be associated with a truly astounding ornithological miracle? Any of them facing niggling doubts that maybe this was all a massive mistake?

2. As of March, 2006 (after they all presumably had a chance to digest some devastating "peer-review" from non-Fitz-et al sources, and after many more months of intense, fruitless searching), what were these people truly thinking? Still believing in their miracle, maybe because the alternative was too painful? No longer believing, but still "maintaining appearances" publicly, maybe for The Greater Good of the Big Woods, or maybe to save face personally, etc?

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The 17 authors of Cornell's original Science paper (these same people are listed as authors of Cornell's rebuttal to Jackon's Auk commentary):

John W. Fitzpatrick
Martjan Lammertink
M. David Luneau Jr.
Tim W. Gallagher
Bobby R. Harrison
Gene M. Sparling
Kenneth V. Rosenberg
Ronald W. Rohrbaugh
Elliott C. H. Swarthout
Peter H. Wrege
Sara Barker Swarthout
Marc S. Dantzker
Russell A. Charif
Timothy R. Barksdale
J. V. Remsen Jr.
Scott D. Simon
Douglas Zollner

These five people are listed as the authors of Cornell's rebuttal to Sibley's rebuttal:

John W. Fitzpatrick
Martjan Lammertink
M. David Luneau Jr
Tim W. Gallagher
Kenneth V. Rosenberg

A herpetologist's view on wingbeat rates

A herpetologist 'named' Fangsheath writes about wingbeat rates here.

Another $2761 for "Ivory-bill" research

Here.

An excerpt:

David says, "We decided we wanted to raise money for the welfare of a bird, and of course the first thing that came to mind was the ivory-bill project!"