NPR:Texas Scientist Says Bigfoot is Real. Let the Hunt Begin?

[arely staircase]

A Texas scientist dubiously claims she's sequenced Bigfoot's DNA. So is it legal to kill him/it now?

You may have read some dubious new claims by a Texas “scientist” that Bigfoot is real. Nacogdoches veterinarian Melba Ketchum (who claims to also be a a scientist in “Forensics and Hominid Research” on her Twitter profile) announced this week that her company, DNA Diagnostics, has successfully sequenced the DNA of not just one, but several Bigfoots. (Or is that Bigfeet?)

Using DNA apparently found from hair, blood and tissue samples, Ketchum says she’s sequenced Bigfoot. Those samples may have come from cryptid enthusiast Robin Lynne, who claims to have several Sasquatch roaming the land around her Michigan property. She says … wait for it … she’s enticed them there with blueberry bagels.


http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/11/29/texas-scientist-says-bigfoot-is-real-let-the-hunt-begin/









http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/11/29/texas-scientist-says-bigfoot-is-real-let-the-hunt-begin/

[Az_lefty]

1. my kid thinks Big Foot lives in his closet

[randome]

7. He's right.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Crypto zoology

Has scored a few times...this one would surprise me. Usually them critters are much smaller.

That said, some serious primatologists on the science channel, a few years back, did not fully discount the possibility.

[liberal_at_heart]

5. The Earth just isn't that big anymore

We have over 7 billion people on Earth and something like 300 million here in the US. I live in the Northwest. There isn't an inch of the Northwest scientists haven't mapped and explored. It's not here.

[Selatius]

8. Most of the Pacific Northwest isn't populated though.

If you look at population density maps of states like Oregon and Washington, there are large gaps where few humans live. It's way too mountainous and densely wooded terrain for people to traverse. The winters are cold, and without access to heating and electricity, it would be difficult for anyone to survive the elements without being forced to live off the land.

[liberal_at_heart]

9. but it has been explored

Just because people don't live in those areas doesn't mean people haven't traversed those areas. Believe me there are too many scientists and even extreme sports junkies out here to not have touched every inch of the Northwest.

[Selatius]

12. Well, the point is with all that unused land out there, it's possible that something could slip by.

Look at all those thousands of square miles of land that are relatively empty of humans.

If the land is plentiful enough to support bears and deer, it likely could support a hominid. I'm not saying that it is evidence of sasquatch, but I wouldn't be so quick to discount the possibility either. The question is an open one, one that in my opinion bears exploration.

[NYC_SKP]

3. If it steals a bike, a carton of cigs, and a bicycle while carrying a knife, Texas can kill him/her.

The blueberry bagel part doesn't at all surprise me.

[arely staircase]

16. bigfoot seemed to be breathing into the mic

eom

[slutticus]

4. Interesting. I though one lured bigfoots with beef jerky for some reason...

[On the Road]

6. That's Only if You're Officially

"Messin' with Sasquath"

[Aristus]

10. One of the same Texas "scientists" who say the Earth is only 6,000 years old?

Good luck getting it into the science textbooks...

[neverforget]

11. I'm not saying it was a Squatch but

[HereSince1628]

13. When it's published in a peer reviewed journal and shared DNA

is sequenced by other primate geneticists who confirm it's from an unknown ape, which is to say when there are a couple of shreds of bona fide scientific evidence...then I'll consider it a serious report.

[csziggy]

14. The debunking link in the article is good stuff

Like OMG! Scientists have sequenced Bigfoot DNA !!!!!!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
There are several significant issues with this. First is this line from the news release, “Full details of the study will be presented in the near future when the study manuscript publishes.”

That is a massive red flag. Real research scientists almost never pre-announce their research findings. That is, they don’t go public with big news until it has been vetted by peer reviewers and, at the very least, been accepted for publication. In this case Ketchum is stating a discovery as scientific fact before other scientists have studied her evidence. In effect she is using the mantle of science to confer credibility on her discovery, without actually deserving the credibility.

http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2012/11/like-omg-scientists-have-sequenced-bigfoot-dna/

The quote from the article she is reviewing is wonderful, especially the part about "angel DNA".

[spanone]

15. oxymoron alert = texas / scientist

[Bennyboy]

17. Think about it for a second.... Texas Scientist..........

Things that make you go HMMMMMMMMMMMMM?

[arely staircase]

19. yeah i know, science and texas in the same sentence. what a joke, huh?

nasa, baylor college of medicine, md anderson, dell, texas instruments, lockheed martin aeronatics division, bell helicopter.

Texas Astronomers Measure Most Massive, Most Unusual Black Hole Using Hobby-Eberly Telescope


Nov. 28, 2012

FORT DAVIS, Texas —

The black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 1277 is eleven times wider than Neptune's orbit around the sun. Click to download this and more images to accompany this release.

Astronomers have used the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at The University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory to measure the mass of what may be the most massive black hole yet — 17 billion times our sun’s mass — in galaxy NGC 1277. The unusual black hole makes up 14 percent of its galaxy's mass, rather than the usual 0.1 percent. This galaxy and several more in the same study could change theories about how black holes and galaxies form and evolve. The work will appear in the journal Nature on Nov. 29.

http://www.utexas.edu/news/2012/11/28/astronomers-measure-most-massive-most-unusual-black-hole-using-hobby-eberly-telescope/

UT Research facts:

$1.1 billion was awarded in sponsored research over the past two years.

$40 million over the past two years in revenue from the licensing of university technology.

The university runs one of the world's fastest supercomputers and one of the most powerful lasers.

Texas researchers were quickly on-site after the Haiti earthquake and Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

About 800 patents have been awarded to the university.

http://www.utexas.edu/research/

Now I just posted the bigfoot thing for fun. But let's not start pretending Texas is some scientific backwater.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

18. Is this the one involving hair from a remote cave in Siberia?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225276/Yeti-latest-Russian-scientists-say-DNA-tests-hair-samples-existence-man-like-mammal.html

That story's in the news, with teams of scientists in Russia and the U.S. having analyzed the DNA from hair samples found in the cave.

[datasuspect]

20. I BELIEVE.

[hifiguy]

21. I'm not a believer as such, but I would rate

Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti as "plausible" on the Mythbusters scale. There's a whole lot of empty on this planet. The likelihood of Bigfoot is considerably higher than that of most fringe theories. Hell, 150 years ago Europeans thought gorillas were a myth.

[arely staircase]

22. that sums up my feelings on it exactly

call me a bigfoot agnostic.

[byeya]

23. Anything as big as BigFoot will leave scat; have recognizable sleeping areas or dens; disrupt

the natural scene in a distinguishing way foraging for food(if a vegetarian) or leaving parts of killed animjals behind(if a carnivore).
People are traversing all over the Pacific Northwest - hikers, hunters, and biologists - and nothing has been turned up.
You hunt for uncharacteristic things in the wilderness, or come across them while engaged in other pursuits, and so far: Nada.

[arely staircase]

24. well maybe they take those

leave your camp site cleaner than you found it signs seriously.

[byeya]

26. A superior life form you're saying?!? That I hadn't considered - Good one!

[Starry Messenger]

25. .

[dorkulon]

27. OK, where's that "aw jeez, not this shit again" guy?

Never mind, I found him:

[Faryn Balyncd]

28. Maybe he could be the next GOP superstar!

[arely staircase]

29. I don't know his politics

it could go either way.

Is he a survivalist in the rw apocalyptic militia style or a rainbow family back to nature hippie type?