Stuff Believers Like #9: Arguments from Ignorance.....

Yet another report on possible proof of the existence of Bigfoot, the cryptozoological equivalent of cold fusion, has emerged out of Japan. This time the proposed evidence comes from a Japanese team of explorers who had spent 42 days on a region of the Himalayas where, according to the Yeti Project Japan leader, one of the mysterious beasts had been seen before by him, from 650 feet away. They were unable on this, their third attempt, to obtain video footage of Bigfoot however they did return with photographs of footprints.

The team feels that despite having failed in their primary mission to record images of the Yeti in action, the footprints are all the proof they need. The footprints in question, of which only one image is provided alongside the article by the AFP, is yet another case of Bigfoot is in the eye of the believer. To me, an admitted amateur print analyzer, it looks only vaguely footprint like and could easily be explained by simple random noise of melting snow being misinterpreted by a group of people biased by their belief system. It hardly serves as extraordinary evidence.

The logical fallacy which seems to be at the root of the team's announcement is an argument from ignorance, or in the form I prefer, an argument by lack of imagination. The team leader explains, in reference to the proposed Yet prints, "Myself and other team members have been coming to the Himalayas for years and we can recognise bear, deer, wolf and snow leopard prints and it was none of those,". He adds that "We remain convinced it is real. The footprints and the stories the local tell make us sure that it is not imaginary,". Because the team cannot imagine that the prints could come from an animal that they know to roam the region where the print was found, they believe that by default it must have been left by a Yeti. That simply doesn't cut it.

More Bigfoot Fluff on the Local News.....

This one stings a little. I love Tennessee, especially the capital city of Nashville. It is a beautiful and vibrant place to live, even for someone like me, an atheist who doesn't particularly care for country music, and I spent three of the best years of my life there. I have nothing but fond memories of the place, and miss it dearly but, alas, I must admit that it fares no better than other cities when it comes to local news reporting of pseudoscience.

Today, WSMV Nashville brings us a brief report and an accompanying video covering the discovery of a "mysterious" footprint by a retired builder from Cookeville, Tennessee. The footprint, which is claimed by owner Harold Jackson to be thousands of years old, is a mess that barely resembles something made by a hominid species. There is the faint outline of what could be toes, and an indentation that appears to be a heal, but the whole thing might very easily be just another example of pareidolia. I think it is of too poor a quality to be a hoax but that is also a consideration. And though the report qualifies Jackson as an amateur archaeologist, he is quoted saying that he doesn't "know anything about archaeology or anything".

The title of the report, "Scientists Interested In Large Footprint Discovery", hardly counts as news, but in this day and age, where outlets jump at any fluff piece involving pseudoscience or the paranormal, it isn't too suprising. Nor is the fact that the only scientist specifially named as being interested in the discovery is oft quoted Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, whose skeptical take on the recent Bigfoot corpse hoax was paraded around the news circuit as if it was some kind of unique opinion that required being a "Bigfoot expert" to hold, and whose best evidence for the existence of the creature is the argument ad populi that so many outdoorsmen and hunters can't all be wrong. Yes, Meldrum is a skeptic like Larry King is a skeptic and he employs critical thinking in regards to Bigfoot like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did to fairies. Besides, calling oneself a scientific expert on a fictional entity is dubious at best, even if you have a PhD in anatomy to go along with your doctorate in confirmation bias.

The report sinks even lower into pseudojournalism when it is revealed, as if it is in some way meaningful, that Channel 4 has yet to even speak with Meldrum, or to reach Tennessee state archaeologist Nick Fielder for comment on the footprint. It isn't news that you didn't talk to somebody. You don't get credit for not doing your job when it comes to reporting. I have no doubt that lots of famous and important people are interested in whether or not Bigfoot exists, and many reputable scientists would be qualified to discuss this finding, but just mentioning the name of one is obviously thrown in to lend more credibility to this worthless bit of fluff.

It's a Hoax!.....

The purported discovery, as heralded by many a local media outlet as well as big name news providers like CNN, of the corpse of a previously unidentified species of hominid known popularly as Bigfoot is a hoax. Not that anyone should be suprised by this revelation. I certainly wasn't.

With the aid of a heater, a team of "researchers" from Searching for Bigfoot Inc. quickly uncovered the truth when a rubber foot emerged from the ice as the frozen alleged corpse thawed. The events are described in detail at their website, Searching For Bigfoot, and would be comical if not for the realization that so many intelligent people were fooled by such shannanigans. But you can't blame Stanford anthropologist Richard Klein for allowing his name to lend credence to the bogus discovery because, according to the CNN article, he wasn't even aware that he had anything to do with the project.

The pair of would be heroes to the Bigfoot community, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, who have since admitted to the body being just a tad more synthetic than they had previously stated, may be in big trouble. Whitton is a police officer for Clayton County in Georgia and should lose his job considering this amounts to fraud since the two did receive an undisclosed amount of money from Searching for Bigfoot Inc. before they would allow an investigation. Now they are skipping talk show appearances and have disconnected their phones, and Biscardi, the man promoting the affair, is ill and his secretary doesn't know when he'll be returning calls. Convenient, isn't it?

The money quote from the linked CNN article comes from Klein, in reference to Biscardi:

"He seems like a nice enough guy," Klein said, "but I can't imagine why anyone would devote their lives to proving the existence [of Bigfoot]. Anything has a remote chance of being true, but there is virtually no prospect of this animal being real."

That sums it up pretty well.

Bigfoot Update.....

Not suprisingly, instead of the promised scientific evidence that was to be presented at the afternoon press conference, the two men claiming to have discovered the corpse of a previously undiscovered species known as Bigfoot, presented video stills and photographs. According to the CNN article there have even surfaced videos of the men on youtube that seem to indicate that the discover is phony and even the Bigfoot believing community is showing no support. It is fairly clear that there is a financial motive behind this. In addition to the proposed documentary, the two men have now announced that they will also be writing a book about their experience. I have little doubt that this is a hoax at this point.

Stuff Believers Like: #6 and #7 Bigfoot and Circumventing Peer Review.....

Bigfoot must be slipping, perhaps distracted by Michael Phelps' attempt to claim 8 gold medals in Beijing. He and others like him, Bigfoot not Phelps although he does wear a size 14, have managed to elude capture, and to avoid leaving any real evidence of their existence for the thousands of so-called cryptozoologists to find, for hundreds of years. But according to a CNN article released today, "Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, a pair of Bigfoot-hunting hobbyists from north Georgia, say they found the creature's [dead] body in a wooded area and spotted several similar creatures that were still alive."

They have stored the 7 feet, 7 inch tall 500 pound sasquatch/Halloween costume in their freezer and claim that extensive scientific testing is underway. They believe that they have the evidence to prove the existence of a new species of half-ape, half-man and that the only man to be trusted with handling the situation is Tom Biscardi, a well-known bigfoot hunter. All of this was announced to the world a few weeks ago on an internet radio program, and a follow-up press conference is to be held today.

Unfortunately for the bigfoot enthusiasts out there, this will almost certainly be a hoax. I will of course withhold judgement until all of the evidence is on the table but there are some major red flags. First and foremost is the fact that these gentleman, like the infamous Pons and Fleischmann before them, are using channels that circumvent peer review. They are going straight to the press and making big promises instead of working through reputable researchers to publish their findings in a scientific journal. Any other way of doing things in the world of biology is suspect. It doesn't mean it's bogus, but it don't look good.

And neither does the fact that Biscardi has been involved in a hoax oddly similar to this in the past, as described by Ben Radford in an August 13th LiveScience article. Also suspicious is the announcement by Biscardi that he will be saving the best evidence for his upcoming documentary, which I doubt will be freely distributed to the world. I'm skeptical to say the least, but who knows. The kid in me would love knowing that there are large undiscovered creatures still lurking out there, but I'm not holding my breath.