Opinion: WHAT IS "BIGFOOT RESEARCH"?

Why is it called "Bigfoot Research," when in almost all cases it is simply wandering in the woods and looking around? Shouldn't it simply be called "outdoor exploration"? It seems to me that the presumption of Bigfoot is blinding to the true nature of the context and evidence. It is most valuable just to look and to learn, about everything. If one discovers bear signs, that is a valuable learning experience. If one learns zoology, botany, geology or hydrology, these are valuable keys to understanding a habitat. To see Bigfoot in everything is not only to miss these true understandings, but it is in fact an instance of getting lost in the woods. The sleep of reason breeds monsters. If there is to be a claim of Bigfoot, let us first rule out all other possibilities of animal, natural or human action before we presume. This kind of learning, eschewing the possible desired result for the discovery of whatever the empirical facts really are, and only this, can really be called "Research." When all the facts and context are known, when due diligence has been taken to fully understand, and something truly unusual does come along... then we will be ready.

Critical method and thought should be taught in kindergarten.

Even as a small child I learned about nature and reality by exploring. It is what I still do to this day. If Bigfoot finds me, so be it. I remain happy with the jumping steelhead at dusk, the flying V of geese in early fall, the crunching footfalls in the brush on the hillside of an unknown animal, and to have my daughter by my side seeing these same things through fresh eyes. I don't need to call it "research," and I definitely don't need that animal on the hillside to be a Bigfoot.

The most ordinary things are opportunities for learning. Knowing them well and deeply prepares us to know the extraordinary.

In fact... Nothing is truly ordinary.

True skepticism, besides, is skeptical of itself. The believer questing for proof of belief is usually going to bumble right past the subtle facts and obvious truths. Confirmation bias is perhaps the greatest fallibility of human awareness. It is as a palliative to this, the roots in our superstitious and blinded past, that, thankfully, we have Science, critical thinking and Logic.

I have noticed a pattern. To the degree that one professes to be a bigfoot researcher, to that same degree does one seem to produce low-quality "evidence" and "encounters." Those who are not researchers seem to have predominantly the better sightings reports. How do we account for this seeming disparity? I say it is the Will to Believe, in many, many cases.

******

"Sometimes, when you want to believe so badly, you end up looking too hard."

---Dana Scully,
"The X-Files," Season Two

******

This is a compilation of post from the Facebook group, 

The Coalition for Reason, Science and Sanity in Bigfoot Research, 

October 14-15, 2012. View the full context of the discussions here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/smartbigfoot/

ANIMAL SOUNDS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, Videos on BFRO YouTube Channel... Not a Bigfoot?

Yep, that's right... these are NOT a Bigfoot (until the last segment, perhaps).

Folks, you might find these interesting. These videos were made on a BFRO expedition in the Humboldt Redwoods by my friend Robert Leiterman (co-member of the Bluff Creek Film Site Project), of a presentation by Bill Brewer. These are animal sounds, real ones, and hopefully they won't be mistaken for Bigfoot when you hear them in the woods. It's helpful to know the place you're in and all the critters in it, so that everything is not taken for something unusual.

Watch in three parts. It is well worth it.
Part One:

http://youtu.be/Uo0SRguCDkk
Part Two:
http://youtu.be/prT3mjN8y8o
Part Three:
http://youtu.be/MXZo4Ok9p1w

"Have you ever wondered about some of those sounds you've heard in the forests of Northern California? Join us on ...a three part series narrated and produced by Bigfoot Field Researchers Bill Brewer and Robert Leiterman. Bill's well received program was recorded during the Redwoods 2010 BFRO Expedition. These aren't all of the sounds you might hear on your outdoor jaunts in Nor. Cal. but its a good start."

He's fooling you. ALL of those are Bigfoot sounds.
(Under the right circumstances of perception, that is.)

No "ugh" here. These are cool.

Thanks to the BFRO for hosting these and all 67 (so far) of our Bluff Creek Film Site Project series...
http://www.youtube.com/user/BFROVIDEOS

‎"Mantracker Sasquatch"? Nope, Sorry. That Ain't No Bigfoot

Sorry, but I guess I'm on a video debunking jag. Here's another bad one to watch, taken from the TV show, "Mantracker."


Here is what is in the image, without any ambiguity...

Click to Enlarge, if you need to....

This situation is reminiscent of yet another TV-based "Bigfoot" find. Here is the dog-mushing "Dirty Jobs" Bigfoot-spotted (yeah, right) video...

Some people really just watch too much TV, I suppose.
Ugh.

Who IS this dude, anyway?

Thanks again to BIGFOOT EVIDENCE for posting these silly entertainments.
Here are Shawn's original article links...
http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.com/2012/10/new-footage-possible-bigfoot-spotted-in.html
http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.com/2012/10/this-is-latest-footage-debunked-by-carl.html

A Real "Sasquatch"? No, It's a Real WTF from MK Davis.

Another video from our buddy MK has been released, entitled
"M.K. Davis discusses the tall Sasquatch in the garden video.wmv,"
and showing the very same rural homestead farm outbuildings from the already debunked previous "White Bigfoot" videos. This one is even more ridiculous than a man in a white shirt with dark pants walking around. It is so blurry that almost no clear image exists of whatever the moving subject is. That being said, it is still pretty clear to a rational mind (I should think) that the blur looks like a man, and he is dragging around some tall junk. The things look like big puppets or something, certainly not "Bigfoots." One may see the furtive form of a humanoid, once in lighter clothes and then in darker clothes, pulling these things around. By the movement one can see that the smaller figure is indeed pulling the larger figures, and that they are not biological organisms. Nor are they heavy, as in one case they sway back and forth absurdly. How can MK even IMPLY that these have any relation to a "Bigfoot" is beyond me. It just looks like more goofiness and blur from known, admitted hoaxer, Mike Sells.

Watch it here, opened to full screen, pausing frequently...

Here are two attempts at seeing the most clear frames from the video above, but you have to see it moving to realize how ludicrous all of this is...

You know, it's just sad, really.
I'm going to have to say "Ugh" on this and all the other recent MK Davis-released videos.
Here is one more debunking image that shows pretty clearly a man in a white shirt and blue jean pants. This is the same guy and same location, it seems to me.

What are we looking at? Here is an example, from yet another of these stupid videos....

Don't Miss This: Bigfoot Investigative Reporter, ROBERT LINDSAY, Appearing on SquatchDetective

Tonight at 5:00 Pacific Time, or stored via archive anytime at the same link below, you can witness the death match between Bigfoot Investigative Reporter, ROBERT LINDSAY and STEVE KULLS, The SquatchDetective. In the past there has been some bad blood. Will fences be mended? What will be revealed? Tune in, online, on BlogTalk Radio.

Click here to listen, live or otherwise. Sign in to get in the chat room if listening live
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/squatchdetective/2012/10/08/squatchdetective-radio

screen shot only... click link above to listen

Yes, after a long absence, SquatchDetective is back again on BlogTalk, after a video experiment on another site. That former site seemed to have many technical difficulties. It's always been a great show, and I think it is true when they say its the "longest running BTR program on the Sasquatch!!!" It is also one of the best. Check it out.

Here is Robert...

You may read his BIGFOOT NEWS segments on his controversial generalist blog at:

http://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/
His motto: "If I'm Not Making You Mad, I'm Not Doing My Job."

To find general information on The SquatchDetective show, or to listen to future episodes, check in here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/squatchdetective

Lindsay just posted the following on his blog, so it would appear that he and Kulls are on better terms these days: "The hosts will be my friend Steve Kulls and Chris Bennett. Kulls has turned into a superb researcher of late, putting his detective skills to excellent use."

BIGFOOT DOWN, the Debut Novel by BRUCE PHILLIP HOOD

BIGFOOT DOWN
is the Debut Novel by
BRUCE PHILLIP HOOD,
out now as an Amazon Kindle eBook.
"The Closest You Will Ever Get to a Sasquatch Without Smelling His Breath!"

This is perhaps one of the strangest and most challenging Bigfoot novels ever written. It depicts a creature at once not like that of the B-movies featuring a slasher/killer monster, but also not as corny as the "Forest Brother" featured in the recent "Letters from the Big Man." Instead, we find a being every bit as complex and intelligent as any human, if not more, yet one with the strength of a bulldozer. Part suspense novel with all the twists and turns and intriguing ideas of a Dan Brown story, part "Blackhawk Down," and partly like the novel "Ishmael" (which features interspecies philosophical discourse with a gorilla), BIGFOOT DOWN will twist your categories of of what is possible with a Bigfoot-human encounter, all while challenging at the core the idea of what it is to be "human." Who is the savage beast, and who is the higher intelligence? What is right and wrong when all usual parameters for ethical judgement have broken down? Who will one day rule the earth if civilization falls, or if Bigfoot proves to be capable of mastering technology? Who is civilized, and who the beast? Entertaining and intriguing, this novel is much a Dadaist thought experiment as it is an engaging read. Bruce Phillip Hood's Bigfoot suggests a scenario where we are not only not the only intelligent life forms on the planet, but in some ways, potentially, we may have been surpassed. When Claude Michel puts his big foot down it shakes the human world at its core, and it should shake you up as a reader, as well.

"Deep in the wild of Canada’s Boreal Forest, in a place chosen for its isolation, a botanist experiences a series of break-ins that threaten his life’s work. The perpetrator is caught in the act and gunned down. When the smoke clears the botanist and committed naturalist realizes he has bagged a live Bigfoot, now barely clinging to life. Stricken with grief, he summons all his resources to right this wrong. What happens next is a bloody clash of cultures with a creature filled with intelligence. An outsider chosen by the beast himself serves as biographer for a story of love and fear, hope and tragedy, humor and horror and, in the end, a true tale of friendship and loyalty. Bigfoot Down is as close as you will ever get to a Sasquatch without smelling his breath."

You can download the current eBook version or get a sample segment via Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Bigfoot-Down-Sasquatch-Smelling-ebook/dp/B009DK7U4M

Barnes and Noble has one for the Nook Reader and other compatible devices here:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bigfoot-down-bruce-phillip-hood/1113017871?ean=9781623095024

A "hard-copy" version will be published soon, for those of you who don't like using e-texts, collectors and libraries.

There is a Facebook page just created where you may read more, find links and reviews, and get updates soon to come:
https://www.facebook.com/BigfootDown

Check it out!
I'm saying a cool kind of "Urgh" on this one. Some of the scenes will shock you, indeed.

"The Great Big Bigfoot Poll of 2012" from Mike Rugg of the Bigfoot Discovery Museum, plus Bigfoot Discovery Day 5 Info.

What do you think of this new poll that has just been released?

Here is the Mike Rugg SURVEY ON THE PGF, "The Great Big Bigfoot Poll of 2012," being circulated to "serious researchers," or just about anyone, too. You might also consider taking the survey, if only for your own interest.

See BELOW the poll for information on BIGFOOT DISCOVERY DAY 5.

***********************************************

Here is a copy of the poll we ask ALL BIGFOOT RESEARCHERS to respond to (especially if they cannot make it to our event):

The Great Big Bigfoot Poll of 2012

Please return results to: Bigfoot Discovery Museum, Felton, CA 95018 before Oct 18harrybiped@yahoo.com

Please respond if you consider yourself (or your group) a "Bigfoot Researcher". (Definition: You spend a considerable amount of your time delving into bigfoot either online or in the forest and you have spent a considerable amount of money on this topic ($100s) over the years.)

Name of individual and/or group:______________________________________________

Web site URL:________________________________________________________________

email address:____________________________________________________________

Phone number:_____________________________________________________________

Number of years into the research:_________________________

Do you think the Patterson/Gimlin Film depicts a genuine Sasquatch/Bigfoot?

Yes_________ No_________ On the fence__________   

Can you express your opinion as a %-age?___________%

Are you aware of the work of Bill Munns on the PG Film analysis?  Yes______No_______

Comment?

___________________________________________________________________

Are you aware of the work of MK Davis on the PG Film analysis?    Yes______No_______

Comment?

___________________________________________________________________

 We would appreciate it if you could make a simple (one paragraph or less) statement of your position on the P/G Film:

LOCATION: Bigfoot Discovery Museum 5497 State Route 9 Felton, CA 95018

**************************************************

INFO ON BIGFOOT DISCOVERY DAY 2012
From Mike Rugg.

Hello fellow searchers of truth,

Mark your calendars for Bigfooot Discovery Day V featuring the lost film of Roger Patterson on the 45th anniversary of the Patterson Gimlin Film, October 20, 2012 in Felton, California. This is an open invitation to all researchers to step forward and help develop a definitive proof of the film. Its especially important that we come together and cannonize this bit of evidence once and for all especially at this time when naysayers and hoaxers are putting out a new hit-piece on Patterson. Bill Munns will update his work on the film analysis at the event as well as several other presenters (TBA). Below is a statement by Bill Munns, after he viewed a couple of clips from the film:

"A preliminary analysis of recently acquired film by Mike Rugg and the Bigfoot Discovery Museum is certain to change our analysis of issues related to the known filmed scene of Roger casting a trackway print. This film reel contains a segment showing Roger casting a footprint track, and then displaying the resulting hardened cast, and it is emphatically a different casting effort than the one commonly shown and often argued by the skeptical community as being the Bluff Creek casting. Further analysis is necessary and a proper 4K film frame scan of the footage is needed, but it can be said on no uncertain terms that the skeptical suspicions often cited as discrepancies between the known scene of Roger casting a track, and the scene showing Roger holding two casts by a tree, can no longer be relied upon to support any hoax claims, because the connection between the two film scenes is now disconnected by the proof that Roger was filmed more than once making a cast of a footprint track.

Based on the footage so far made available to me, I cannot yet make a determination if this newly acquired footage was taken at Bluff Creek, but we now must logically consider the following alternatives:

1. The original known scene of Roger casting a track was at Bluff Creek and this new one is not.
2. The new footage is of Roger at Bluff Creek and the old well-known footage was not.
3. Neither of the footage scenes was taken at Bluff Creek and the actual Bluff Creek described casting footage is still unseen and un-analyzed.

But one can no longer simply assume the old footage of Roger must have been taken at Bluff Creek, because it was the only footage known and talk of a demo casting film was dismissed as a rumor. We now know for a certainty that demo casting footage does exist (at least one of the two known versions of footage must be so), and so any analysis trying to identify Roger casting a track with what is described to have occurred at Bluff Creek must now be proven with a far higher degree of compelling proof than anyone has offered to date.

Bill Munns September 4, 2012"

Spread the word--- its time to pay homage to Roger Patterson, and counter attack the smear campaign.
Mike Rugg

Bigfoot Discovery Day V
11-4 at the museum (free) $5.00 (for BBQ lunch)
Patterson Film presentation and panel at Felton Town Hall
$20 each at the gate (members & seniors 18)
$15 advance ticket order (members & seniors 12)
Children under 12 free
PayPal via: harrybiped@yahoo.com

Here is the poster for the event....

Here is a video of Mike speaking about the event.

http://youtu.be/IVrFWIp3duM

I'm not saying "Ugh" about this one at all.

Bigfoot Sasquatch Sighting Near Ashigan Lake, BWCA 2012? NOPE, SORRY!

It doesn't even take an ape suit to do a hoax these days.

Yet Another BAD misidentification/hoax video is out, and if one pauses the thing frame-by-frame one can catch a glimpse of the clothing and the color of it on a clear Homo sapiens sapiens. That ain't no Bigfoot, guys.

Here is what they say about it:
Published on Oct 4, 2012 by Glass Sarx
"Ashigan Lake (near Moose Lake), Ely, MN. September 19, 2012. Huge beast; very tall and very fast. Six day canoe trip cut short; C. W. Outfitter."
"Something's knocking, dude, and that isn't a woodpecker. Look at the SIZE Dude, is that a bear?"
Some pretty pathetic dialogue there, to go with the image.

Watch it here:
http://youtu.be/p2qN5tKYkmQ

Here is the composite image I made, showing the brief few frames with "the Creature" in them.

Click image to enlarge.

Which  is it....

HUMAN??

"BIGFOOT"??

I think it all depends upon the lighting and the blur. Also, I think the pants on the "thing" are fairly obvious. What do YOU think?

Thanks to Shawn at Bigfoot Evidence Blog for the original story:
http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.com/2012/10/new-footage-bigfoot-sasquatch-sighting.html

Again, I say... UGH.

Why Do They Persist? FindBigfoot-Facebook and the "Camper/Tent" Video

OK, so maybe this is a guy in a suit wearing sunglasses, not a man in a hoodie wearing sunglasses. The latest color version shows an auburn color, which seems to lend it more credibility. Was it colorized? Was it a suit? In any case, really, is this worthy of being the #2 FBK-FBK Bigfoot Video of All Time?

Plus, it is already obvious that the guys posting this video were either Rick Dyer's associates, or just Rick Dyer himself using an alias. Yes, the guy from the 2008 Georgia Hoax. Their videos use Rick Dyer's own theme music, plus they were filming from within a tent identical to Rick Dyer's as seen on the BigfootTracker web site.

View the FBf-FBk "validation" video here:
http://youtu.be/nZ_lbVCVd48

Here is what I have to say about it:

The black and white early version seemed to even more clearly show that it was a man wearing clothes. One wonders, was the color version tampered with to add "fur"? The image below was made before the color version was released.

What do YOU think? Number Two of All Time, or proof of gullibility in the analysts over here at Facebook Bigfoot?: https://www.facebook.com/FindBigfoot
I suppose 27,380 "Likes" cannot be wrong. Right?

Here is what FBf-FBk says about the video, which I don't buy any part of:

Filmed in an unknown location on Sept. 6th 2012. FBFB obtained the original files of the videos shot by the camper in 720p. With the addition an additional clip that shows a Sasquatch treepeeking. Clip number two looks to have been just a picture that turned into a movie. The higher resolution clips show the tendons and muscles moving under the Auburn hair. We have waited a very long time for a clear picture of a Sasquatch face. Fantastic! This replaces the woodpile thermal as the #2 video of all time behind the 1967 patterson gimlin film which shows a female Sasquatch with year round pendulous breasts. We have waited a long time for a video that is close enough and clear enough to show that Sasquatch have a hooded nose with downward facing nostrils, just like all modern humans.FBFB has no connection with the making of this video.

Come On, Guys. It is a freaking hoax!

This just in! ...

Steve Alcorn, SasquatchScoop: "Well Rick promises to tell the whole story tonight. He has challenged myself, Sharon, Kulls and others to call into his show. My guess is that nobody will."

Watch his page for updates HERE: http://sasquatchscoop.blogspot.com/

There was a real clusterf**k over on the Sharon Lee Bigfoot Field Reporter show last night. Hear what part of it didn't happen in the chat room (where all the heavy action was) here:
http://youtu.be/HBhatZWIqcM

Ugh.

BIGFOOT EVIDENCE has some good coverage of this. Just enter "Camper Tent" in the search box at: http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.com

Welcome to the Bigfoot News and Review!

That's right, I kill Blobsquatches.

What is this page? What is a "blog"? Originally meaning "web log," a blog was supposed to be a kind of online journal, a collection of interests, ideas and links. As my old blog page, BIGFOOT'S bLOG, http://bigfootbooksblog.blogspot.com/, has become more of a "web site" or newsletter, with posts ranging up to 70 pages in Word, this other page has been implemented to try to get back to fun and basics, to cover smaller things, to convey momentary events and thoughts, cultural debris, and current happenings in the news. It will also feature brief opinion pieces that fall short of being philosophical essays. With a few more ads put in there, too, perhaps this page will help offset some of the major losses to my income due to massive amounts of time spent on Bigfoot without pay and often much labor of thought and writing. I hope you like it!

Guest submissions of articles, news and comments are welcomed.