HuffPost Showcases Facebook/FindBigfoot Videos and Bigfoot Blimp

Clockwise: Patterson/Gimlin film, a still for a FB/FB analysed video,
and the Bigfoot Blimp

The Huffington Post's Lee Speigle filed a report about the current state of Bigfootery from his limited perspective. We can give you the Readers Digest version. People are waiting for Melba Ketchums' Bigfoot DNA results. Facebook/FindBigfoot (FB/FB) have positioned themselves as video analysis experts and are claiming 2013 to be year of the Bigfoot. Finally, Idaho State University Anthropology Professor Jeff Meldrum supports a Bigfoot Blimp project.

Each of these three Bigfoot news items (DNA, video, blimp) have encouraged great conversations and debates within the community. These items are not without concerns. Regarding the DNA, after 5 years there are those that are anxious for results. As far as FB/FB video analysis? There are those that feel FB/FB does not take into account the submitter of the videos, some known submitters are considered dubious at best. And the Bigfoot blimp? Some feel no matter how great the camera technology is (and it is really amazing, best of the best) a blimp may not be a practical way to navigate under a forest canopy.

Despite these concerns, at Bigfoot Lunch Club we find these high visibility projects encouraging and innovative. As for most Bigfoot endeavors it is best to take a "wait and see" approach. 

Some interesting quotes from the article.

Jack Barnes of Facebook/FindBigfoot on the Bigfoot "camper" video:

"What's so amazing about this new video is how close the Bigfoot is to the camper's tent," Jack Barnes, chief video analyst for FBFB, said in a press release. "A Bigfoot usually maintains maximum distance from humans, but this one couldn't have been more than 25 feet away."

 Dr. Jeff Meldrum on the Bigfoot blimp:

"It won't be this big, ominous blimp cruising over the tree lines, but it will be this little speck at night that's painted black with some lights on top. It'll just blend in with the starry background," Meldrum said. "Most wildlife usually aren't as aware of things up in the air as they are of things at eye level and on the ground, and even if they did happen to glance up, they wouldn't take notice."

If you wanna see some high quality, quick-witted Sasquatch video analysis, check out Phil Polings YouTube channel ParaBreakdown. Phil Poling does a great job keeping his analysis interesting (FB/FB can be dry and boring at times) and he always takes you through a logical structures argument.

You can read the whole article at Bigfoot Video, DNA Tests Raise Hopes For Believers In The Legendary Beast (VIDEO)

Thom Powell: Bigfoot Too Smart for a Blimp

Thom Powell Looking up at Bigfoot Blimp

"I'm not saying it might not work in other places with less forest canopy, but I would emphatically advise my good friends at the Falcon Project to not waste their precious time and blimp gas over the forests of western Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, or even northern California." -- Thom Powell

Thom Powell is one of the most prophetic authors in Bigfooting. When he published The Locals ten years ago he touched upon topics that were once taboo and now up for reconsideration. His newest book Shady Neighbors has already produced insight into Bigfoot behavior using the vehicle of fiction. If you buy the books now, in ten years, when the only thing we have is Bigfoot DNA, you will at least have The Locals to help guide you on Bigfoot behavior.

Thom's prophetic tendencies, does not come tea leaves, but comes from being a pioneer. He was one of the first Bigfooters to create a network of surveillance cameras back in the 1990's. This was back when you ordered the camera and built it yourself from a kit.

In his newest post Thom Powell speaks highly of the Falcon Project team and wishes them success. Thom also expresses concerns based on his experience with cameras, radio controlled planes, and flying over some the squatchiest areas in the northwest.

Below are a few quotes from Thom's Post

Speaking as a guy who has spent a whole lot of time 'squatching' in forests of the Pacific Northwest, I'm pretty sure the favored habitat of the creatures in question is dense forest. What good is any aircraft in finding anything under the canopy of dense forest? 

Maybe Texas, or parts of Idaho have a more broken forest canopy that would allow them to see the ground.  Fine. Concentrate on those areas, but forget about forested terrain. Period. 

Based on my own crude field experiments, I concluded that sasquatch intelligence was at least as great as ours. In my field experiemnts, the sasquatch  had demonstrated (to my satisfaction) the ability to generate infrasound, to disable electronics, including cameras, from a distance, to somehow cloak their presence,

You have to read the Thom's fascinating post for yourself at his website Thomsquatch.com. If you disagree? Leave Thom a comment, he is always eager to here the other side. Click the following link to read Thom's post titled, "Finding a Bigfoot by Blimp, Really?"

WATCH: NBC Affiliate Covers Meldrum's Bigfoot Blimp

Dr. Jeff Meldrum discussing opportunities of the Bigfoot Blimp

"It looks like something out of a science fiction movie. It's a dirigible, an airship that has two air cells that gives it a kind of a catamaran stability in the air," --Dr. Jeff Meldrum.

St. Louise NBC affiliate KSDK covers the Falcon Project, a project we refer to as the Bigfoot Blimp. We first covered the Falcon project back in 2010 before in an article titled, "The Falcon Project: A Blimp to Find Bigfoot." The project has been in the blueprint stage for sometime, and during that time it has gone through redesigns and revisions. Recently the Bigfoot Blimp has gained attention and higher visibility due Dr. Jeff Meldrum's involvement in trying to help fund the project from private donors.

In yesterdays (12/06/12) report by KSDK, there seems to be a new tone emerging. Dr. Jeff Meldrum reminds viewers that the Bigfoot Blimp could be used for research beyond Bigfoot.

"All types of wildlife studies even geological studies could be conducted with data that could be garnered from an airship gathering this type of aerial surveillance imagery," said Meldrum.

Good thing other wildlife and geological research may benefit from the Bigfoot Blimp. There have been those within the Bigfoot community who have expressed concerns. The habitat attributed to Bigfoot is usually under a dense forest canopy, a blimp navigating beneath this canopy seems unlikely. 

Watch Dr. Meldrum discuss the opportunities of using a Bigfoot Blimp below.

By Jake Taylor

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI/CNN) - An Idaho professor is planning a search for Bigfoot, and he's building a new aircraft to help him find the legendary creature.
"A state of the art aerial wildlife survey in order to try to track and locate a sasquatch," said Prof. Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University.

That's the plan. With the help of a Utah-based company, Meldrum says he'll soon build a Bigfoot blimp to try and track down the legendary creature.

"It looks like something out of a science fiction movie. It's a dirigible, an airship that has two air cells that gives it a kind of a catamaran stability in the air," said Meldrum.

He says the zeppelin will be state-of-the-art, filled with high-techequipment, and infrared cameras that will give researchers the best possible change of spotting a Sasquatch.

"It's not just looking at a little blob of red light against a blue background. This is high definition videography that will use a telephoto lens that can zoom in from a mile away literally," said Meldrum.
Of course, before the airship has its maiden voyage, it has to be built. Meldrum says the money to put it together will come from private donations.

Beyond the more attention-grabbing goal of finding Bigfoot, Meldrum says the planned aircraft has many other possible uses.
"All types of wildlife studies even geological studies could be conducted with data that could be garnered from an airship gathering this type of aerial surveillance imagery," said Meldrum.

He says he's planning on getting construction started within the next few months, and have it in the air by the end of the spring.
KIFI/CNN

Slate Online Magazine Bashes Bigfoot

Sign on Pikes Peak Highway Photograph by Ashish S. Hareet/Wikimedia Commons

"Bigfoot is not a monster but a meme." -- Brian Switek

Slate is an online magazine first owned by Microsoft and currently by the Washington Post, it is known  as a current affairs and culture magazine. Although if you ask our opinion, it has never found a niche that distinguishes itself with any character. However it is not the opinion of the magazine overall that we want to focus on, it is today's article (11/21/2012) written by Brian Switek. Brian has been critical of Bigfoot before, but seems to especially target Jeff Meldrum. Earlier we covered Mr. Switek's critique of Meldrum.

Mr. Switek is at it again, criticizing Meldrum and Bigfooters in general. While we think skeptics are healthy for the Bigfoot community, we prefer the ones who have a more balanced approach and actually give constructive thought to our endeavor. We prefer the Brian Dunnings and Sharon Hills of the world.

To be honest, we look forward to Bigfoot criticism. We look forward to some insight to ourselves that we may not have the objectivity to see. Unfortunately Mr. Switek delivers the same old arguments, without a single new thought or novel take on the Bigfoot Phenomena. You can read a short excerpt below to get a sense of the direction Mr. Switek is going. You can follow the link below to read more of the same.

Jeff Meldrum wants to search for Bigfoot by using a remote-controlled blimp. Because when you’re looking for a mythical creature famous for eluding all who search for it, a giant, buzzing, looming balloon is clearly the way to go. Meldrum, a tenured Idaho State University anthropologist who established his career studying primate foot anatomy before shifting his focus to monsters, expects he’ll have to raise $300,000 to get the project airborne. He’s trying (and so far failing) to get funding from private sources. (No surprise that his home institution wants nothing to do with the endeavor.) That’s a lot of money and effort for what will undoubtedly turn out to be a collection of blurry photographs that look like Instagram snapshots from a visit to the Pacific Northwest woods.

I loved reading breathless tales of encounters with the Yeti, Loch Ness Monster, Jersey Devil, Bigfoot, and other cryptids as a child, but those stories have never been supported by anything more substantial than an out-of-focus snapshot or embellished campfire story. And in the case of North America’s legendary nonhuman ape, the picture historians and sociologists have pieced together is that Bigfoot and other shaggy humanoids are cultural inventions that we have repeatedly conjured so that there’s always something wild and mysterious in the woods. Stories about Bigfoot began to proliferate after expeditions in the Himalayas in the 1950s reported ambiguous Yeti footprints—none of which have been convincingly attributed to a Gigantopithecus descendant or other prehistoric hominid holdover. Sasquatch fans have since done a bit of retconning [sic] by claiming Native American stories and dubious historical encounters as part of their mythology, but the trail is clear. Bigfoot is not a monster but a meme.

SRC: Slate Magazine