Yes, this is a rapid turnaround in Bigfoot posts, as we just posted one the other day. However, things are moving very fast in the world of Bigfoot, so it’s time for a new post.
Dr. Melba Ketchum DNA study may be in embargo. Based on some comments on the Bigfoot Evidence blog, it looks like the DNA study may be in an embargo before release.
Ed Smith Jan 16, 2012 05:56 PM
With the last weeks developments, this post may be problematic for the study and the peer report. Discretion should have been exercised MK the threshold has bee breached.
Later he writes in response to my response about a press embargo:
The news was forwarded last week to all it affected. As far as info blackouts they are not hard to maintain so long as you keep the right people out and that is how we have been working for a number of years.
What was the mysterious news sent out to all it effected (apparently all of the successful submitters to the study) last week? It must be that the study is under press embargo.
Smith is a researcher in Oklahoma who has made some strange claims about Bigfoot DNA and the Ketchum study. However, it looks like he might have successful Bigfoot samples in the study. I take all of this, along with Steven Steufert’s recent dynamic post on Facebook alluding to the Bigfoot DNA study being about to hit the fan, as meaning that the study is under press embargo and will soon be released.
How long do press embargoes last? Wikipedia says they last about a week, but I am not sure that is correct. If they do only last a week, we could be seeing publication of the study within the week. If they last longer, it could be longer.
There is other evidence of an embargo, including all of my sources going as dark as North Korea at nighttime.
December 31 date. A very controversial date, this date was given as the publication date for the Ketchum paper. However, my sources said it was when she hoped to have passed peer review. But now it looks like that was the date that she thought the study would be published by. How do we know this? Because she told people just that in conversations around mid-December. If she really hoped to be published on December 31, and it seems like the paper is embargoed now, it’s all starting to making sense.
Adrian Erickson and Ketchum. In mid-December, Ketchum told someone that she had released Erickson from his NDA, allowing him to release his video any time he wants to. Erickson’s NDA is the source of much speculation, most of it wrong. The problematic aspects of the NDA were that Ketchum and Erickson were tied together at the hip. One could only release findings in tandem with the other.
By releasing him from his NDA, Erickson no longer has to wait for the DNA study to release his video. He can release it any old time. I think he may release it around the time of Ketchum’s published study, but I have no idea. All our sources with Erickson have completely dried up.
Erickson’s finances. There is much speculation about Erickson’s finances and his website going offline. I know why the website went offline, and trust me, it’s nothing. Nothing nada zip zilch zero. It means nothing. It’s related to Erickson’s internal politics and nothing more than that. It doesn’t mean his company is bankrupt or that the video project is dead. His company is still in business last time I checked, and of course that video is going to be released. Are you crazy? You think he won’t release that thing? C’mon.
How will it be released? Probably as a DVD.
Erickson’s finances? The company is surely still in business, but I would say that Erickson is headed down the road to bankruptcy unless things pick up. The bank may well foreclose on that very fancy house of his too. But if he starts making money off the video, all of that picks up quite a bit.
Keep in mind that many people have invested in Erickson’s real estate business. These investors have an interest in Erickson’s finances. They know about the Bigfoot DVD, and they would like it to be released so Erickson can make a lot of money, improve his finances and start to pay them back. Get it? So the video will be released for one reason or another, if only because the investors demand it if for no other reason.
Refusal to drop the “Bigfoot is an ape” meme. You would think that with all the evidence we have gathered that the Bigfoots are hominans, people would start dropping the “Bigfoot is an ape” thing.
Matt Moneymaker of all people was on TV recently insisting that Bigfoots are apes. Tim Fasano was on cable TV saying much the same thing, but at least Fasano had some data to back up his theory. Facebook Find Bigfoot is deeply invested in the Bigfoot-ape thing, and that’s one reason why they refuse to cover the Ketchum DNA study.
Jeff Meldrum has bought deep into the ape thing. In a recent radio interview, he continued to insist that they are apes or possibly that they are somewhere along the missing link edge of the spectrum as in a Sediba or Habilis type.
John Bindernagel, author of a book promoting the ape line, continues to peddle that theory in interviews. However, we know that he was flown to Crittenden, Kentucky by Erickson, and there Bindernagel saw his first Bigfoot with his own eyes. At that time, Bindernagel stated that he was re-evaluating his ape theory, and now thought, after seeing them, that they were hominans.
The ape meme has been around forever, and it’s going to die a hard death. But it’s always been one of the biggest stumbling blocks to the Bigfoots making any sense. For one, there are no New World apes. No New World apes, no Bigfoot. Real simple.
But the theory always had the worst and stupidest of problems. It’s amazing no one saw them. How many bipedal apes are there? Zero. Zero other than hominans that is. You see a bipedal ape other than Oliver, and what is it? It’s a hominan. Duh. This is so rock dumb that you would think these guys would have thought of this.
For all their objectivity, scientists are subject to human emotions (read subjectivity) like all the rest of us. Most folks love to keep their pet theories and views of the world around as long as possible. The world is weird enough without getting up every morning and finding everything you believed turned upside down. We need to make sense out of this mess, and we don’t like to be wrong. When we are wrong, we don’t like to admit it. We dig in our heels.
And so it is in the “objective” sciences, which can never be fully objective as long as subjective humans are engaging in them.