The Odd Emperor said:
Woo is a somewhat derogatory slang for “person with irrational belief.†It’s a pretty new term in the lexicon (this lexicon anyway.)
But I believe he said “it’s pure woo behavior.†Not “you woo!†In which case he might be attacking the idea, not the person.
Oh, well that's certainly not me, nor my behavior, nor the ideas. I look at this with the same lens I use on everything else.
I guess I can relax on my implications about the poster's maturity. I was getting close to an ad hominem attack myself, actually.
As-hom is against rules of debate but people here don’t always follow those--which is OK in my mind. JREF is more like a late night bull session at a really strange convention than a formal debate.
Ah, good. The boards I'm used to aren't formal debate either, but some of the logic jockeys tend to forget that when they've lost.
"Ah, that was an ad hominem attack; you lose." "No it wasn't." "Clearly it was; the conversation is at an end." "You're filtered."
And the content gets lost in the mud-slinging.
Found this fairly balanced look last night (there are some errors, such as on Wallace):
http://www.biologydaily.com/biology/Bigfoot
Check the links on some of the experts who have taken an interest.
One thing that struck me in the Post story was Ciochon's concern that funding would be drawn away from his own work on
Gigantopithecus blacki.
Could fear of loss of funding be one reason some scientists shy away?
I read Dr. John Bindernagle's book (got it through the local library) and after that found it impossible to think of these creatures as anything but a normal, if elusive, animal. He relates the throwing behaviour to Great Apes. Bears and elk certainly do not do that.
Something on/from him:
"In the last 14 years more reports on the island have come to light due to the work of Vancouver Island wildlife biologist and Sasquatch investigator, John Bindernagle. He suspects the number of sightings to be much higher than reported, but says people often don’t come forward for fear of ridicule.
“Because of the sort of taboo nature of this animal, most sightings do not become reports, and most people don’t know where to report them anyway,†he explained. “This is just the tip of the iceberg.â€
Bindernagle said that it won’t be long before indisputable evidence is found.
“What we’re going to need is a road kill or the actual carcass,†he said. “In the meantime, we have so much evidence—tracks and eyewitness accounts—the problem is to get other scientists to look at this evidence, but they won’t even address it.â€
Most scientists, he said, refuse to engage the evidence found thus far, instead relying on mainstream media and tabloid reports that are done without scientific consultation.
“We have a real problem with a non-human primate existing anywhere in North America. It’s too bizarre for us; it’s too bizarre for scientists,†he said. “This is what keeps me going. [People who report sightings] are not idiots, but they’re being treated as idiots.â€
http://www.martlet.ca/archives/040916/feature.html
He became interested when he came across a trackway while hiking in a wilderness area.
I saved a site on papers he's presented, but haven't found it yet.
