In March 2007, Cornell
said:
Scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology remain firmly convinced that the bird in the Luneau video is indeed an ivory-bill. They will be publishing a rebuttal showing why they believe Collinson’s interpretation is flawed.
Collinson provides some related information
here:
...Deal was... my understanding is that the Fitzpatrick et al team were invited to publish a reply alongside my paper at the time of publication, but the ms was not received in time, or at all. BMC Biology Editor has told me that if the rebuttal arrives, I will get chance to reply. So I expect to hear if something is in the pipeline, and I haven't heard anything yet. Of course maybe the rebuttal has arrived and is undergoing peer review before I see it. That is possible. I hope they go for BMC Biol, rather than somewhere easier like the end-of-term report...
Posts
4 comments:
It would seem likely that there won't be a rebuttal.
Cornell is clearly downplaying and backpedaling on the whole issue. Publishing a rebuttal will only bring more attention to something that most people at the Cornell Lab must surely wish to go away.
Maybe Perfesser Hill can write the rebuttal then Cornell won't have to.
The above comment may be correct. A while back I noticed that the link to Martin Collinson's paper had gone missing. The direct URL still works, but I can't find mention of his paper at CLO's "Ivory" homebase where it used to be. The blurb about Collinson's paper is not listed in the recent news ("Ivory-billed in the News"), news archives, or updates ("Updates from the Lab").
Could this be the work of the alleged publicist hired to back out of this mess? Convenient erasure of history won't do it. Plenty of us are watching and documenting these shenanigans. We are going to learn from this fiasco, right?
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Note lack of "Updates" in mid-March when Collinson's paper came out:
June 12, 2007
Summary of 2006-07 Field Season
March 29, 2007
Famed Wildlife Artist Passes Away
March 2, 2007
Newly found historic ivory-bill images
February 23, 2207
Look Who's in the Swamp!
Arkansas volunteer profile
January 12, 2007
Hopeful signs
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Likewise, the "Ivory-billed in the News" section omits any mention, even though it certainly WAS in the news then:
* Ivory-bill search continues, Discovery Channel podcast, April 20, 2007
* Birding Magazine, multiple articles about the bird and the search, March/April 2007
* A bird worthy of Melville, St. Petersburg Times, March 3, 2007
* Dr. John Fitzpatrick: Harvard Magazine profile, Harvard Magazine, March-April 2007
* Robotic cameras search for ivory-billed woodpecker, UC Berkeley, February 17, 2007
As soon as the "rediscovery" was announced and more "objective" talent was able to assess the "evidence," the "scientist believers" at CLO were warned repeatedly that they had "blown it" and were given every opportunity to cut their losses and wash their hands of this whole mess. But, they had gotten themselves in too deep thanks to their policy of "secrecy." To this day none of them have had the balls to suck it up and say that they were flat out wrong. They deserve to be sanctioned, not bailed out by publicists. Show no mercy.
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