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Cryptozoology fail: Loren falls for an obvious hoax

idoubtit said:
The web archive version of the page is here http://www.webcitation.org/62WrhbHK4 Note: I can't get it to show up right in Chrome, use another browser.

I have never had LoCo make any direct sexist comments about me or make anything more than subtle, debatable comments about it. I'm not overly sensitive to that stuff (as are some women in the skeptical community, ahem) but he does post garbage on this topic, getting delight out of image-heavy posts about the sexiness of cryptozoological personalities. I was not included with those women. I'm not a cryptozoologist, I just write about this stuff out of interest. When this crap comes up, I get mad because it has nothing to do with the topic and its unprofessional.
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I can see the link in Chrome. I like the photo caption: "Ms [idoubtit's] public photograph of herself." It makes it sound as if, in real life, you're a leprous hag who distributes misleadingly attractive publicity photos.
 
The point is, one's own physical appearance is not the issue. Calling it into question and making it an issue is a rather creepy form of ad hominem.
 
Second thought, would one expect anything other than creepiness from a self-proclaimed promoter of "orgone research?"
 
John Albert said:
Second thought, would one expect anything other than creepiness from a self-proclaimed promoter of "orgone research?"
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Hi John, I can't tell if you are serious or not, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. But just so we're all on the same page, "Orgone Research" is a parody of the ease with people can tack "research" onto anything to legitimize it. Reich was a very interesting guy, somewhat similar to Ivan Sanderson in that they both started out quite legitimately and ended up as total crackpots. Personally I like the esthetics of "orgone" much better than 15 foot penguins.

I applaud Loren Coleman for publicly apologizing. It's a great start towards rehabilitating his seriously damaged public persona. Here are some additional suggestions:

1. Publicly apologize to the victims of 9-11 and the West Virginia Silver Bridge collapse.
2. Publicly apologize to Peter Byrne.
3. Cease and desist from using copyrighted photos without authorization to pad your for for-profit business.
4. Cease and desist from padding your blog with scraped photographs of sexy women to game search engine rankings.
5. Stop calling your opponents names like "scoftic" or "wolf in sheep's clothing."
6. Stop the chronic begging.
7. Stop censoring comments of those who disagree with you.
8. Tone down the gratuitous self-linking to your books.
9. Accept that if you promote ideas that others find misguided, your ideas will be criticized.
 
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John Albert said:
Damn. Here I was, hoping against hope for 15-foot penguins.

Now I know how the BFers must feel every other day of their lives.

:(


After all that hard work fabricating and trudging around in those giant iron feet, and then reading Sanderson's conclusion, I imagine that Tony Signorini guy must have been like, "15-foot penguins?!? No you idiot, they're supposed to be dinosaur tracks! Dinosaur tracks!" [qimg]http://oi52.tinypic.com/ztgi13.jpg[/qimg]
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Well, to be fair, sexist comments apart, the "giant penguin" stuff dates back to the times where dinosaurs were tail-draggers. I remember that even back in the 80's some people explained the absence of marks of dragging tails behind the footprints by having the dino walking though shallow water, with its tail floating.

So, maybe Sanderson was thinking along the line "if it has no marks of a dragging tail, then it was not made by a dino but some large bird".
 
idoubtit said:
Unfortunately, it totally ruined my plans to go unnoticed at this weekend's Bigfoot convention.
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If your avatar is your photo, I don't see how you can go anywhere unnoticed.

[/shameless flirt mode]

I'm in big trouble if my computer gets a virus, and ads and videos tend to slow it down to a crawl or freeze altogether, so I'm leery about clicking on links. But for 15-foot penguins, I might risk it.
 
The Shrike said:
View attachment 23785
Loren Coleman's public photograph of himself?
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This is the most recent one I've seen. :D

11949845291884712864head6_svg_med.png
 
tube said:
Hi John, I can't tell if you are serious or not, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. But just so we're all on the same page, "Orgone Research" is a parody of the ease with people can tack "research" onto anything to legitimize it. Reich was a very interesting guy, somewhat similar to Ivan Sanderson in that they both started out quite legitimately and ended up as total crackpots. Personally I like the esthetics of "orgone" much better than 15 foot penguins.
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I didn't mean to knock your blog or anything (I didn't even know it was yours), but that "orgone" stuff is creepy. The idea of a psychologist advocating practitioners to engage in sex acts with patients under the guise of "medicine" is unconscionable.

I understand Wilhelm Reich started out as a serious psychologist, but his "Orgone Theory" was complete nonsense on the same order as the "primal scream" and "regression" therapies of the 1970s, or any "healing energy" woo being hawked today. The US government's crackdown on his quackery may seem excessive by today's standards, but there's absolutely no evidence to support any of his theories, or his recommendations that a lifestyle of sexual promiscuity together with spending hours per day inside a wooden box have any effect on disease or mental well-being. Whatever kind of career the guy had in his earlier life, he certainly degenerated into a dissolute nutjob with that orgone BS.

I think I get the joke though; It's a skeptic blog with a title that makes it sound vaguely wooish? Is that it?
 
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RayG said:
If you don't mind being called a 'scoftic' you might want to join the Bigfoot forums and participate in some of the ongoing topics... like the Skookum cast (AGAIN)... bring a flak jacket. :D

RayG
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Oh no, the prized elk cast. It is fun to watch proponents describe how the imprints were made by a bigfoot. I want to see DEMONstrations. :eye-poppi
 
Just to be clear, Loren Coleman has never advocated the existence of a penguin with fifteen feet. Correct?
 
OK, now that the apology has given me a better idea of what the original issue was--that he treated a sarcastic joke as exposing hypocrisy, which it would have if it had been a serious statement--I don't see how what he did in the first place was particularly wrong. With parodies as common as they are online now, people so routinely find themselves either fooled into thinking they're for real, or suspicious that they're looking at one when it's actually a serious claim, that occasionally getting caught making a Poe's Law slip one way or the other is just a normal part of internet life.

It's not as if he'd done something really deceptive, like using a phrase which means the central/middle area of a certain state to refer to an area that's really distinctly southeast of the actual middle of that state (and even includes at least one border county!). Now THOSE people are not to be trusted.
 
Delvo said:
OK, now that the apology has given me a better idea of what the original issue was--that he treated a sarcastic joke as exposing hypocrisy, which it would have if it had been a serious statement--I don't see how what he did in the first place was particularly wrong. With parodies as common as they are online now, people so routinely find themselves either fooled into thinking they're for real, or suspicious that they're looking at one when it's actually a serious claim, that occasionally getting caught making a Poe's Law slip one way or the other is just a normal part of internet life.

It's not as if he'd done something really deceptive, like using a phrase which means the central/middle area of a certain state to refer to an area that's really distinctly southeast of the actual middle of that state (and even includes at least one border county!). Now THOSE people are not to be trusted.
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It's not that hard to avoid falling for a parody site if you read the bit that says: "Please note: All articles on this site are works of fiction." Link
 
John Albert said:
Is that where all the cool kids are hanging out these days? The Bigfoot Forums?
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I suppose some of the people hanging out there are cool, how does one tell?

It's my impression that most of the people posting there are adults, so if you're looking for a bigfoot decoder ring/whistle, you'll probably have to look elsewhere.

RayG
 
idoubtit said:
This was funny while it lasted but, ultimately, it revealed how little Coleman checks his stories and is influenced by what he WANTS to believe so badly. Truly sad that he is still called upon as an "expert".

In a nutshell, Loren quoted me (truthfully) from a parody website with gleeful abandon. Oh, and called me a "scoftic". Note that the website clearly states "this is fiction" but he didn't notice that part. He has since deleted the Cryptomundo post so you have to access the archive given in the post. Unfortunately, it totally ruined my plans to go unnoticed at this weekend's Bigfoot convention. Oh well, maybe they don't read CM either.

http://wp.me/p1Nw9h-wh

Oh, a plug... if you get a chance to see the film The Bigfoot Hunter: Still Searching, YOU MUST SEE IT. IT IS AWESOME. I can not stress this in CAPITAL LETTERS LARGE ENOUGH. It's not a skeptical film about Bigfoot but about the characters who inhabit this realm. Fascinating. I'm heading to the premier this weekend. Find out more at WhoForted?.com
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I seriously for a split second went to hit the green plus on this post and then abruptly remembered we have no such feature.

I spend far too much time at the BFF these days.
 
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