Bigfoot DNA

[AttorneyTom]

Yeah.. I thought that was the University of Phoenix or Bob's College, or maybe The International Pedantic University.. something.. perhaps the University of Form Over Substance ? Good old FOS.

 

[The Shrike]

As I understand it, TheMelba achieved her DVM in a 5-year, joint bachelor's and DVM program. It took me 12 from BS to MA to PhD, plus 3 years out of academia and 3 years of post-doc. These days, we full-time academics are often in our mid-late '30s when we get our first tenure-track positions.

But, what do we know? We're all stuck in our ivory towers and stuff and all closed-minded about the bigfoot people.

PS: Parnassus = ballbuster, in the vernacular of my youth

 

[Pope130]

Yeah.. I thought that was the University of Phoenix or Bob's College, or maybe The International Pedantic University.. something.. perhaps the University of Form Over Substance ? Good old FOS.

Shouldn't that be "UFOS"? (I'd buy that sweat shirt!)

 

[rockinkt]

As I understand it, TheMelba achieved her DVM in a 5-year, joint bachelor's and DVM program. It took me 12 from BS to MA to PhD, plus 3 years out of academia and 3 years of post-doc. These days, we full-time academics are often in our mid-late '30s when we get our first tenure-track positions.

But, what do we know? We're all stuck in our ivory towers and stuff and all closed-minded about the bigfoot people.

PS: Parnassus = ballbuster, in the vernacular of my youth

Yep...my friends with the Phds in Physics and Math look at friends who went into medicine as those who took the easy way.

 

[The Shrike]

1) Welcome back, rock.

2) The point is that academia is a career environment in which depth of experience is really important. It's quite difficult to pursue a truly academic exploit, like publish a groundbreaking paper, if you come to that exploit from a different career.

When my kids get banged up I'll often joke with them that "it's okay: I'm a doctor." That's often enough to distract them from the twisted ankle or the baseball-shaped contusion. But as silly as it is to have an ecologist provide your medical care, it's just as silly to have an MD try to interpret the ecological world. I've experienced this a few times while listening to the "Skeptic's Guide to the Universe" podcast. As much as I enjoy the skeptical rogues, their ignorance of what I do is pretty glaring when they cover topics related to wildlife ecology.

 

[DennyT]

Evidence?

They give degrees that to most people misrepresent the academic achievement. what A and M calls a doctorate in veterinary medicine would simply be called a doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM) elsewhere. It's a "professional degree.' DVM. Not much different from an MD (Doctor of Medicine) in terms of its implications regarding scientific training, (although most MD's have a four year undergraduate degree and medical school admissions are more competitive). To most of the world, a doctorate is what The Shrike describes, ie a Ph.D.

So the A and M title is deceptive, it uses a common term in a deceptive way, and I call that a fake. Others might call it something else.

"Any advertising or promotion that misrepresents the nature, characteristics, qualities or geographic origin of goods, services or commercial activities" (Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1125(a)).
Proof Requirement

To establish that an advertisement is false, a plaintiff must prove five things: (1) a false statement of fact has been made about the advertiser's own or another person's goods, services, or commercial activity; (2) the statement either deceives or has the potential to deceive a substantial portion of its targeted audience; (3) the deception is also likely to affect the purchasing decisions of its audience; (4) the advertising involves goods or services in interstate commerce; and (5) the deception has either resulted in or is likely to result in injury to the plaintiff. The most heavily weighed factor is the advertisement's potential to injure a customer. The injury is usually attributed to money the consumer lost through a purchase that would not have been made had the advertisement not been misleading. False statements can be defined in two ways: those that are false on their face and those that are implicitly false.

I think Texas also leads the nation in boob jobs and cowboy hats worn by non cowboys, so there's that.

 

[GT/CS]

Shall I post the definition of evidence?

What you posted is nothing more than opinion. It's the type of response we beat up 'footers for posting. I expected more from someone with 2000 posts.

 

[Vortigern99]

I think Texas also leads the nation in boob jobs and cowboy hats worn by non cowboys, so there's that.

I can't speak to boob jobs, but I've lived in Houston and Austin (and surrounding rural towns) all my life, spent time in San Antonio and Dallas-Ft. Worth, and also been all over the state on road trips, visits to relatives, etc. Cowboy hats are extremely rare, and are worn mainly by rural folks who use them to keep the sun off their brow.

This sidebar has been brought to you by the Defense Against Texan Stereotypes Organization, or DATSO.

 

[Deacondark]

You must not be where I live, because the whole "Urban Cowboy" thing is still in full swing around here. I see cowboy hats on a daily basis, and I live in a city of about 70,000 people. Not big, but far from rural. And most of the people I see wearing them live nowhere near a horse.

 

[rockinkt]

1) Welcome back, rock.

2) The point is that academia is a career environment in which depth of experience is really important. It's quite difficult to pursue a truly academic exploit, like publish a groundbreaking paper, if you come to that exploit from a different career.

When my kids get banged up I'll often joke with them that "it's okay: I'm a doctor." That's often enough to distract them from the twisted ankle or the baseball-shaped contusion. But as silly as it is to have an ecologist provide your medical care, it's just as silly to have an MD try to interpret the ecological world. I've experienced this a few times while listening to the "Skeptic's Guide to the Universe" podcast. As much as I enjoy the skeptical rogues, their ignorance of what I do is pretty glaring when they cover topics related to wildlife ecology.

Thanks for the welcome back. Amazing what a new organ can do.
I think we're both in agreement - but I may have not made myself clear.
The bleevers refer to Melba as if her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine is in some way equivalent to a PhD in an applied field such as Genetics or Mathematics. They do not understand the world of difference.
(I only have a MA (Crim.) - but I have 30 years experience which gives me a Doctorate of Personal Experience so I can proudly refer to myself as a D.O.P.E.)

 

[Jodie]

You have to put it in terms that the average person, a bigfoot proponent, can understand. In Melba's case, she can sequence DNA, but her educational background doesn't give her the ability to interpret results past the basics for animal breed typing.

 

[AttorneyTom]

You have to put it in terms that the average person, a bigfoot proponent, can understand. In Melba's case, she can sequence DNA, but her educational background doesn't give her the ability to interpret results past the basics for animal breed typing.

So your premise is that she is not a scientist nor an expert in DNA research in the true sense of the term ?

 

[TheJackal]

Jodie, if I recall, Ketchum sends out her samples for sequencing, because she doesn't have the ability to perform the testing in house. I have to find the reference, but I believe it was in Stubstad's stuff. So, it's not even clear that she does sequencing.

 

[TheJackal]

I should also have added, has anyone followed the latest implosion on Facebook by Melba? She is upset with people posting on blogs as "Sally here". Simply amazing stuff.

 

[Jodie]

So your premise is that she is not a scientist nor an expert in DNA research in the true sense of the term ?

She does animal DNA studies to establish breeding lines, probably some common genetic disorders. I would seriously doubt she ever sees ape DNA, but I couldn't swear to that. She doesn't have any kind of experience with hominid DNA that I ever read about. Yet she had three entire genomes sequenced of something new?

The volume of information alone from that is mind boggling, I can't imagine she could even begin to try to interpret that. If there is a study out there attempting to do that I doubt she had little to do with much of the work involved or the interpretation. It's looking dicey based on the conjecture I hear.

 

[Jodie]

Jodie, if I recall, Ketchum sends out her samples for sequencing, because she doesn't have the ability to perform the testing in house. I have to find the reference, but I believe it was in Stubstad's stuff. So, it's not even clear that she does sequencing.

If you don't know how to do it how do you develop primers? I remember specifically asking Stubstad about that and I think he said she did, but there is so much gossip floating around I can't keep it all straight. Don't hold me too that.

 

[Jodie]

I should also have added, has anyone followed the latest implosion on Facebook by Melba? She is upset with people posting on blogs as "Sally here". Simply amazing stuff.

I have absolutely no sympathy for that nonsense, it's completely self inflicted.

 

[Deacondark]

She also has a slew of BBB complaints against her. Some claiming she returned results which could not be possible, given the breed of cats the DNA samples were taken from. If she can't even get the breed of a cat right how is she to be trusted with an unknown animal?

 

[rockinkt]

^^^ Easy. She has observed groups of Bigfoot more than once whereas she
has never seen the elusive house cat.

 

[AttorneyTom]

I have intentionally not gone to facebook (or really anything else about this person) and viewed this thing... until just now.

Holy Crikes !