I think you may have misread my intent.the practical application in regards to vs. debate…meant towards the person who created the card.Not about the debate here a a whole.it is meant if youre going to create it and use it as a tool for debate do it somewhere besides a setting of "pro’ bigfoot believers for the most part. Still not sure if I’m explaining myself correctly here…??..Ok maybe this makes more sense ,maybe not…the card is intended as a form of rebuttal against skepticism of bigfoot…to provoke pause or thought…My stance on the use of this card…was that people who are skeptical will remain skeptical …no matter what is presented without supporting facts to back it up…I think for the most part thats been proven…a lack of information on the card to support what it does contain…more sensical now ?
If you wrote more coherent sentences, we might be able to understand your intent a little better.
Raythe, we’re not interested in debating with a card. We’re interested in debating with you. Do you have anything to say for yourself, or are you just going to keep referring us back to “The Card”?
What do you think–does Bigfoot exist, or not?
If any of this “evidence” – scat, hair, footprints, sounds, etc. — is so good, is it strong enough to be published in a mainstreem, peer-reviewed scientific journal? If so, Raythe, please provide a link to the article.
Unless you are claiming that bigfeet live forever and don’t reproduce, we have the problem of regeneration. If so few specimens are around, and in such scattered, remote locations as many claim, how are they going to meet & mate? Or if they are so numerous that this is not a problem, why haven’t we found more good evidence (bones, bodies) of them?
As time goes by, the evidence is not getting stronger, in spite of ubiquitous video & still cameras. No matter what example you may offer up as a parallel – gorilla, coelacanth – once the search began in earnest, better evidence came forward rapidly until the actual animal was found. This is not happening with bigfoot, who remains firmly in the cryptozoology category.
Help the search yourselves, join Yeti@home.
Folks…
here’s the link
where you can find Raythe’s source of info. it is verbatim IIRC.
BTW you’re welcome Raythe. I noticed that your cite apparently didn’t attach. So, I thought I’d give ya a hand. 
and it also seems like the SDMB is the testing grounds for this forum. Follow their link back to here.
Apparently our opinions matter. 
So what’s the deal with Bigfoot and Florida. Seems like FLA. (note several references to and members from there) is overrepresented in this thread and the thread on the other forum linked above as well? coincidence?
I live in one of the less populated western states. My husband and I are avid outdoorsmen and hunters. We have seen no evidence of bigfoot- no sightings, no poop, no bedding areas, no hair and no tracks. We have seen many moose, bear, deer and other animals. Although we don’t see these animals all the time, we do see evidence of them everywhere. There are always tracks, poop, bones or other sign. Until they come up with some hard evidence instead of “my neighbor knows someone who’s brother met this guy” junk, there is no bigfoot. I add my vote to the “it’s a bear” group.
**
No…it is not…more sensical now. Spock…help…me…Must use other…punctuation…besides…ellipsis.
The originator of that “card,” Roger Knights (sounds like a pseudonym, eh?) appears to be a “militant” believer, who wants my tax money used to investigate bigfoot and other “Strange Phenomena”:
While I personally think it is a waste of time to investigate bigfoot, at least as a real animal, I see nothing wrong with Mr. Knights spending his own cash on it. But I draw the line at his spending MY cash.
As as far as his claim that the scientific community has failed to check out claims, he is very wrong. The claims have been extensively checked out and found to be hoaxes or of insufficient substance for serious consideration.
Roger Knights seems to think that scientific facts are decided by a public vote, so he proposes to distribute his cards far and wide to convince people of his beliefs. Apparently he plopped a “virtual” card here in SDMB.
Erm…the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine was established because there were a lot of quacks out there selling useless cancer cures and whatnot, and consumers needed someone to give them a collective heads-up about the burgeoning field of alternative medicine, to help determine what works, what’s merely a waste of money, and what’s actively harmful.
When there’s an equivalent problem with Strange Phenomena–when kindergartners start being abducted out of their homes by poltergeists, and when Florida swamp apes decide that the dumpsters behind McDonalds are a useful food source, thus blocking traffic and leaving “human-sized turds” in the parking lot–then I would expect there to be a government agency created to deal with the problem on behalf of the taxpayers.
See how it works? Problem first, then funding.
Posted by t-keela:
Florida has its own version of Bigfoot, the Florida Skunk Ape – seehttp://www.floridaskunkape.com/FSA/index.lasso; http://www.n2.net/prey/bigfoot/creatures/florida.htm; http://paranormal.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gcbro.com%2F; http://www.lorencoleman.com/flnewspapers.html. As in the Pacific Northwest, there have been reported sightings but no bodies or fossils have been found. Here (http://www.lorencoleman.com/myakka.html) are some purported photographs, showing a creature which strongly resembles an orangutan.
I sure don’t want to pick a fight with you, DDG, and this is surely a hijack, but my take on the reason the Alternative Medicine office at NIH was formed was to lend a legitimacy to a field that had none. After all, if any treatment now called “alternative” passes conventional medical tests, it ceases to be alternative, and becomes mainstream. So much for their clinical trials.
I suspect the underlying goal of Knights is similar; not only does he want tax money (that is, not HIS money!) spent on his pet project, but the mere creation of a govt agency lends an air of legitimacy to the field, like Project Blue Book once did for UFOs.
Yeah BrainGlutton I’m up to speed now. I’ve read through the BigFoot Forum and the Bigfoot Co-Op and have read over Knight’s articles.
I just finished reading THIS old SDMB thread where Recently Digested tried to debate the Skunk Ape.
I also noticed that jimf from the Bigfoot forum has the same habit that Raythe does of using multiple ellipses and no other puncuation to speak of.
Since the “card” info. is originally written by Knight and supposedly published by Bigfoot Co-Op, yet jimf and/or Raythe copied it off the Bigfoot Forum and pasted it here at the SDMB for a little “practical application” test.
It’s a little too entangled for me. I think I’ll let this thread quietly fade away.
Although I am somewhat intrigued by the idea and would love to see some hard proof. No hard feelings.
What evidence is there that Raythe exists?
Do we have any droppings?
Should we spend US tax dollars investigating this legendary creature?
No! {gasp} Could they be the same person? :eek:
I really don’t care whether they are or not. I do know that I’ve been told in the past by the Mods here not to be linking the SDMB on other forums and to not be copying material verbatim and posting it here.
I also remember this summer another member kputt came here with some buddies Aubrey and friends. Most of them simply killed a few hamsters and left or eventually got banned.
Like I said, no sweat, but to then go back home and degrade the Dope…well let’s just say I take issue with that. I know there’s a lot of members who are also members at other boards. They have to be. They can’t get away with the same crap here that they do elsewhere. If you claim the sky is falling here, you better bring some proof. Quoting chicken little as your source won’t cut it.
I apologize to y’all for the hijack. I hope I haven’t offended anyone either. Just thought some folks might be interested in the little details, unlinked cites, sources and other. Maybe it’s just me.
I’m outta here, g~nite.
The only standard of proof I would accept in a thing like this is proof of my own eyes. Yes, I have seen it, at a distance of about 10 yards, at around 4pm in the middle of a small glade my two friends and I walked into out of the woods, looking for an out of the way place to camp. I was 14, which was 23 years ago; no booze, no drugs.
I have the utmost respect for skeptics. I want nothing to do with the whole pro-bigfoot thing. I dont keep up on whats going on in the whole ‘bigfoot exists’ media world. Those people are the reason why this hominid still remains a mystery. A bigfoot show comes on TV, I get pissed off and switch the channel.
There ~is~ an unknown hominid living in the western US and Canada. This is a very, very serious thing. It deserves a very serious and thorough scientific process, but that is not going to happen as long as loonies are left in charge or asked their opinion, or doing the tracking, or involved in any way.
My only input to any of this back and forth is that, from my perspective, using an analogy of an undiscovered species of animal is not quite accurate.
My own impression that I came away with is that this hominid is far more human-like than animal like. A more accurate (though not completely) analogy would be one of a stone age tribe or culture that knew about us, but didnt want to ‘mix’ with us. Its purely my own inference, but the creature I saw was thinking, was calculating. It wasnt acting merely on instinct.
As to the other very good points raised, I dont have any answers for anyone. Im not here to convince anyone of anything; more to just let you know, I guess. I think of the whole situation as a huge scientific find just waiting out there, but loonies and peoples reactions to loonies are inhibiting what needs to have far more serious methodology and resources applied to it. I saw what I saw, take it or leave it as you will.
Because of my world-renowned psychic abilites, I am going to make a prediction. A year from now, no, five years from now:[ul][li]No live specimen, bones, teeth, scat, hide or hair will be found of a heretofore unknown hominid-like creature of sufficient quality that a subject paper about it is published in a mainstream, peer-reviewed, scientific journal[]Bigfoot proponents will say it doesn’t matter, “real” evidence is just around the corner[]More sightings, smells, sounds, twisted tree-limbs and footprints will be collected, but no really sharp, documented, non-photoshopped images[]Proponents will insist that a large volume of suspicious and poor evidence constitutes good evidence[]There will be more hoaxesThe lack of good evidence will not convince believers that they are holding on to a mere fantasy[/ul][/li]As far as what Jane Goodall or Syvia Browne think, that one is too close to call. :rolleyes:
And just in case you don’t get my point, here it is: The more time that elapses without strengthening evidence or a definitive find, like a live specimen, the less likely that Bigfoot exists at all or ever did outside of campfire tall tales.