WWTBAM Bored

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/14/bigfoo ... index.html

Somehow, I suspect the involvement of the Chinese Gymnastics Federation.

Buffacuse wrote:http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/14/bigfoo ... index.html

Somehow, I suspect the involvement of the Chinese Gymnastics Federation.

Isn't it more likely that this is a Russian Special Ops guy, after all I've reading about them invading Georgia?

Okay, whether or NOT this is true, did they say they killed it?

Yeah, skeptical is one word for it.

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:

Buffacuse wrote:http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/14/bigfoo ... index.html


Isn't it more likely that this is a Russian Special Ops guy, after all I've reading about them invading Georgia?

I would have thought that if the Russians had REALLY invaded Georgia, that we would have heard something from Ace or another Southern BB by now.

Buffacuse wrote:http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/14/bigfoo ... index.html

Somehow, I suspect the involvement of the Chinese Gymnastics Federation.

I guess no one will no longer be messin' with Sasquatch in those Jack Links Beef Jerky commercials.

I hate to admit, when I saw "Georgia" in the story highlights -- I first thought of the former Soviet Republic instead of the US state! Who knew there were Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) over there too?!

Here's a funny take on the "2 Georgias" situation from The Fray in Slate.

christie1111 wrote:Okay, whether or NOT this is true, did they say they killed it?

Yeah, skeptical is one word for it.

According to another article I read, they've only come up with three versions, so far, of how they happened upon their find.

"Messages left for Whitton and Dyer early Friday on their Bigfoot Tipline were not returned. They have so far offered three different tales so far about how they came to find the creature:

In one, the animal was shot by a former felon, and the men followed it into the woods. In a second version, they found a "family of Bigfoot" in North Georgia mountains. In the third, the two were hiking and stumbled upon the corpse with open wounds."

AP Story Here

has anyone seen ellyn's cat lately

The DNA samples were analyzed. One was human. The other was possum. The perpetrators have a business selling Bigfoot merchandise. They think the DNA testing must have been flawed.

I guess they achieved their goal.

===

PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) - Bigfoot remains as elusive as ever.
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Results from tests on genetic material from alleged remains of one of the mythical half-ape and half-human creatures, made public at a news conference on Friday held after the claimed discovery swept the Internet, failed to prove its existence.

Its spread was fueled by a photograph of a hairy heap, bearing a close resemblance to a shaggy full-body gorilla costume, stuffed into a container resembling a refrigerator.

One of the two samples of DNA said to prove the existence of the Bigfoot came from a human and the other was 96 percent from an opossum, according to Curt Nelson, a scientist at the University of Minnesota who performed the DNA analysis.

Bigfoot creatures are said to live in the forests of the U.S. Pacific Northwest. An opossum is a marsupial about the size of a house cat.

Results of the DNA tests were revealed in an e-mail from Nelson and distributed at the Palo Alto, California, news conference held by Tom Biscardi, host of a weekly online radio show about the Bigfoot.

Also present were Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, the two who say they discovered the Bigfoot corpse while hiking in the woods of northern Georgia. They also are co-owners of a company that offers Bigfoot merchandise.

Despite the dubious photo and the commercial interests of the alleged discoverers, the Bigfoot claim drew interest from Australia to Europe and even The New York Times.

Biscardi said the DNA samples may not have been taken correctly and may have been contaminated, and that he would proceed with an autopsy of the alleged Bigfoot remains, currently in a freezer at an undisclosed location.

One of the two samples of DNA said to prove the existence of the Bigfoot came from a human and the other was 96 percent from an opossum, according to Curt Nelson, a scientist at the University of Minnesota who performed the DNA analysis.

What the heck is "96 percent from an opossum" supposed to mean? Isn't that like looking at the DNA of a human body and declaring it to be 98 percent chimpanzee?

My guess is that when they mocked it up, they took some of the hair from a dead possum. If it's been dead for a while, it would have picked up a lot of other DNA -- bacteria, insects, etc. Not to churn your stomach or anything, but that would be one explanation.

mrkelley23 wrote:My guess is that when they mocked it up, they took some of the hair from a dead possum. If it's been dead for a while, it would have picked up a lot of other DNA -- bacteria, insects, etc. Not to churn your stomach or anything, but that would be one explanation.

My quibble is that "96 percent from an opossum" doesn't sound like the kind of phrase that a DNA analysis expert ever would use. It's not quoted directly, so those probably are not the exact words. I wish the reporter simply had copied whatever paragraph the scientist had written.

If the expert wrote "96 percent match with opossom," then I would conclude it's not opossom, given the enormous similarities in DNA between all warm-blooded creatures. (That does not mean I'm arguing for the probability that the so-called discoverers of the creature found an entirely new species.)

silvercamaro wrote:

mrkelley23 wrote:My guess is that when they mocked it up, they took some of the hair from a dead possum. If it's been dead for a while, it would have picked up a lot of other DNA -- bacteria, insects, etc. Not to churn your stomach or anything, but that would be one explanation.

My quibble is that "96 percent from an opossum" doesn't sound like the kind of phrase that a DNA analysis expert ever would use. It's not quoted directly, so those probably are not the exact words. I wish the reporter simply had copied whatever paragraph the scientist had written.

If the expert wrote "96 percent match with opossom," then I would conclude it's not opossom, given the enormous similarities in DNA between all warm-blooded creatures. (That does not mean I'm arguing for the probability that the so-called discoverers of the creature found an entirely new species.)

Excellent point. It would have been better to just say "mostly possum."

I guess I'm just so jaded about the media that I just automatically try to fill in the blanks whenever I read anything that purports to be scientific.

By JUANITA COUSINS, Associated Press Writer Tue Aug 19, 7:12 PM ET

ATLANTA - Turns out Bigfoot was just a rubber suit. Two researchers on a quest to prove the existence of Bigfoot say that the carcass encased in a block of ice — handed over to them for an undisclosed sum by two men who claimed to have found it — was slowly thawed out, and discovered to be a rubber gorilla outfit.

The revelation comes just days after a much ballyhooed news conference was held in California to proclaim that the remains of the creature found in the North Georgia mountains was the legendary man-ape.

Steve Kulls, executive director of squatchdetective.com and host of Squatchdetective Radio, says in a posting on a Web site run by Bigfoot researcher Tom Biscardi that as the "evidence" was thawed, the claim began to unravel as a giant hoax.

First, the hair sample was burned and "melted into a ball uncharacteristic of hair," Kulls said in the posting.

The thawing process was sped up and the exposed head was found to be "unusually hollow in one small section." An hour of thawing later and the feet were exposed — and they were found to be made of rubber.

Matt Whitton, an officer who has been on medical leave from the Clayton County Police Department, and Rick Dyer, a former Georgia corrections officer, announced the find in early July on YouTube videos and a Web site.

"Everyone who has talked down to us is going to eat their words," Whitton said at the time.

Phone calls to Whitton and Dyer went unreturned on Tuesday. But the voicemail recording for their Bigfoot Tip Line — which proclaims they search for leprechauns and the Loch Ness monster — has been updated and announcing they're also in search of "big cats and dinosaurs. If you see any of those, give us a call."

On Tuesday, Clayton County Police Chief Jeff Turner said he has not spoken to Whitton but processed paperwork to fire him.

"Once he perpetrated a fraud, that goes into his credibility and integrity," Turner said. "He has violated the duty of a police officer."

Squatchdetective Radio?

And this alleged bigfoot was found in Georgia, encased in a block of ice? In exactly which Georgian glacier did those two men claim to have found it?

MarleysGh0st wrote:Squatchdetective Radio?

And this alleged bigfoot was found in Georgia, encased in a block of ice? In exactly which Georgian glacier did those two men claim to have found it?

The one next to the giant glass of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.

gsabc wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote:Squatchdetective Radio?

And this alleged bigfoot was found in Georgia, encased in a block of ice? In exactly which Georgian glacier did those two men claim to have found it?

The one next to the giant glass of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.

And it was empty, thus preserving his innards.