95% Certainty and Indisputable Proof?

At Cryptomundo Loren Coleman is quick to tone down the rhetoric coming from the Seberian Yeti Expedition.

"...while “evidence” might have been collected, there was not “indisputable proof” gained.

No DNA analysis has been conducted. No results have been confirmed or published.

One footprint, allegedly.

One clump of moss said to be a bed, supposedly.

Sorry, such a rush to make a sensational media splash is not even good hominology among my Russian colleagues."

--Loren Coleman

You can read below where Mr. Coleman tells the Huffington Post, "These are not 'proof' that would hold up, zoologically,"

Scientists '95 Percent' Certain They've Found Elusive Siberian Yeti
Lee Speigel | First Posted: 10/10/11 07:34 PM ET Updated: 10/11/11 12:56 PM ET

Has it finally happened? Did scientists find real evidence of the existence of a hairy bipedal creature known as the Siberian Snowman or Siberian Yeti?

Researchers are claiming they are 95 percent sure that the fabled Russian version of the Abominable Snowman or Bigfoot lives in the Kemerovo region of Siberia.

Last week, a group of international scientists met in Moscow and then set out to the remote mountainous area in search of the elusive creature

It didn't take very long for them to issue a statement on the official Kemerovo website stating they had found "footprints, a probable den and various markers that Yetis mark their territory with."

An English translation (from translate.google.com) of the original Russian news report added that the conference researchers "collected irrefutable evidence of the existence of the Yeti in Mountainous Shoria" (the southern part of Kemerovo).

They concluded that the artifacts gave them 95-percent proof of the existence of Yeti in the Kemerovo region, the press release stated.

Some possible Yeti hair samples reportedly found in the region by Russian scientist Anatoly Fokin will be studied in a laboratory to determine their origin.

"This does not seem to be any more than what you hear about from weekend excursions in North America that go out, discovering some hair of undetermined origin, calling it 'Bigfoot hair,' then locating some broken branches and piled trees, saying it was made by Bigfoot, and finding footprints that look like Sasquatch tracks," said Loren Coleman, director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

"These are not 'proof' that would hold up, zoologically," Coleman told The Huffington Post.

It's not the first time this year that alleged Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch) "evidence" has come under scrutiny.

Back in June, creature researchers in California held a press conference soliciting help to get a DNA test that might determine if Bigfoot left physical impressions on the windows of a pickup truck in the Sierra National Forest.

So far, the jury is still out on that case.

Skeptics point out that the area of Siberia that's allegedly home to the local Yeti legend helps promote tourism. In fact, opening day of the ski season there is known as Day of the Yeti -- an attempt to sell many Yeti-related souvenirs and bring in more skiers to the region.

While scientific researchers continue hunting for signs of a Yeti lair in Kemerovo, let's hope they don't discover a cave that contains a set of recently purchased touristy Yeti beverage mugs.
SRC: Huffington Post

Yeti Evidence Found During Kemerovo Expedition in Siberia

Click to read our entire coverage of the Siberian Yeti.

Although the title of the article below is a little sensational, the evidence found was "...footprints, his supposed bed, and various markers with which the yeti marks his territory," the statement said. The collected "artifacts" will be analysed in a special laboratory, it said.

You can read the whole article below from PhysOrg.com

Siberian region 'confirms Yeti exists'

A Russian region in Siberia on Monday confidently proclaimed that its mountains are home to yetis after finding "indisputable proof" of the existence of the hairy beasts in an expedition.

The local administration of the Kemerovo region in the south of Siberia said in a statement on its website that footprints and possibly even hair samples belonging to the yeti were found on the research trip to its remote mountains.

"During the expedition to the Azasskaya cave, conference participants gathered indisputable proof that the Shoria mountains are inhabited by the 'Snow Man'," the Kemerovo region administration said in a press-release.

The expedition was organised after Kemerovo's governor invited researchers from the United States, Canada, and several other countries to share their research and stories of encounters with the creature at a conference.

"They found his footprints, his supposed bed, and various markers with which the yeti marks his territory," the statement said. The collected "artifacts" will be analysed in a special laboratory, it said.

Yetis, or Abominable Snowmen, are hairy ape-like creatures of popular myth, that are generally held to inhabit the Himalayas.

But some believe Russia also holds a population of yetis, which it calls Snow Men, in remote areas of Siberia.

Kemerovo region's Shoria is a sparsely populated territory in Western Siberia that has historically been a territory of coal and metal mining.

The region, the administrative center of Kuznetsk coal basin, has pursued the elusive Yeti for several years as it tries to develop tourism into its mostly industrial economy.

Considering the latest findings, the region may "create a special research center to study the Yeti" in the regional university and "create a journal" dedicated to the science of the Yeti, the administration's statement said.
SRC: PhysoOrg.com

Finally! A Journalist Does Real Research on Tom Biscardi

Before we praise Paul Gackle of The San Francisco Examiner for doing real journalism. We have to give Tom Biscardi accolades and credit. No one can write a press release like Tom Biscardi. Tom Biscardi must be the William Shakespeare of press releases. How else do you explain the newest coverage of his BBC expedition. How can a man claim to have a bigfoot body twice (once in 2005 on Coast-to-Caost AM and then again on CNN in 2008), fail to produce evidence, and then continue to get legitimate news coverage? In all fairness during both cases he claims he was hoodwinked. He was the victim of a hoax.

We asked a similar question in a previous post titled, "Why Don't Journalist Just Google Todd Standing?"

In that post we displayed what Google users think of Todd Standing--or at least what they type when searching for Todd. We showcased Google's well-known feature called "Google Suggest" or "Auto Complete". Start typing in a search, and Google offers suggestions before you’ve even finished typing.

Here are Todd's results (The second suggestion includes the word Hoax):


What are the results for respectable bigfoot researchers?





Now, for Tom Biscardi: (Similar to Todd, the second suggestion is Hoax)



This brings us to a refreshing article by Paul Gackle of The San Francisco Examiner. Mr. Gackle seem to have done more than reprint the press release, he actually respectively asked other bigfoot researchers what Biscardi's story is.

Redwood City Bigfoot hunter hopes to make giant capture
By: Paul Gackle | 10/08/11 4:00 PM
Special To The Examiner

True believer: Tom Biscardi says he’s come close to catching Bigfoot.
If Redwood City native Tom Biscardi is right, one of the world’s most baffling mysteries is about to be solved.

For decades, scientists, adventurers and monster hunters have explored the furthest reaches of North American wildlands in search of undeniable evidence that a species of gigantic, bipedal apelike creatures — known as Bigfoot — exist. Recently, Biscardi launched an expedition being filmed by English documentarians for BBC that he claims will finally put the Bigfoot mystery to rest.

“We’re going out there for a possible capture,” Biscardi said. “I really think this is going to be it.”

Biscardi hopes to finally silence his critics during an expedition that will focus on Arkansas, Florida, West Virginia and Illinois, where Bigfoot-related activity has recently been reported.

But others working to solve the Bigfoot mystery think Biscardi’s latest hunt is just another gimmick.

“It always ends up being nothing,” said Diane Stocking, who has researched Bigfoot sightings for almost four decades and created Stocking Hominid Research Inc. in Oregon. “To the Bigfoot community, he’s a joke. No one takes him seriously.”

In the past 40 years, Biscardi said he’s encountered Bigfoot six times. But while capture has eluded him, the infamous monster hunter, who moonlights as a Las Vegas promoter, has managed to turn Bigfoot into a thriving commercial industry.

Over the years, the founder of Searching for Bigfoot Inc. has produced four documentaries while hosting the weekly radio show “Bigfoot Live” on his website, www.searchingforbigfoot.com, where he sells caps, T-shirts, mugs and doormats, among other creature items.

“You bet I’m in it for the money. I don’t work for free,” Biscardi said.

This isn’t the first time Biscardi has been accused of plotting a hoax. In 2005, he went on the radio show “Coast to Coast AM” claiming he knew the location of a captured Bigfoot close to the Oregon border and would air footage online via webcam for a small fee. But on the day footage was slated to be released, he said he’d been “hoodwinked” by a woman in Nevada.

Then in 2008, Biscardi held a news conference in Palo Alto with two Georgia men who claimed they were holding a Bigfoot carcass in their freezer. Biscardi confirmed the creature’s authenticity, saying he had measured its feet and touched its intestines. But soon after, the Georgia men admitted the pictures were nothing more than a Halloween costume stuffed with animal parts.

British director Morgan Matthews said his documentary, tentatively titled “Of Monsters and Men,” will be a portrait of several men like Biscardi, who devote their lives to chasing mysterious creatures.

“I think Tom has something to prove and that makes it interesting for us,” Matthews said.

“When you’re on top of the mountain, they all want to knock you down,” Biscardi said. “Hopefully this will be the time we put an end to this thing.”

Close encounters

Bigfoot buff Tom Biscardi says he’s had several run-ins with Bigfoot, and he is launch an expedition in hopes of finally capturing the mythological beast.

FIRST ENCOUNTER
WHEN: Late 1960s
WHERE: Near Spokane, Wash.
QUOTE: “I was shocked. I said to myself, ‘What the hell is that?’”

SECOND ENCOUNTER
WHEN: October 1971
WHERE: Near Mount Burney
QUOTE: “It looked at us and had juice from eating chokecherries all over its mouth.”

THIRD ENCOUNTER
WHEN: April 1973
WHERE: Beaver Lake
QUOTE: “It was bathing itself in the water.”

FOURTH ENCOUNTER
WHEN: October 1977
WHERE: Near Mount Lassen
QUOTE: “It was an albino — pure white. It blew me away; he looked like a stuffed animal.”

FIFTH ENCOUNTER
WHEN: July 2006
WHERE: Deer River, Minn.
QUOTE: “We were pretty damn close to catching him. They move faster than lightning.”

SIXTH ENCOUNTER
WHEN: June 2008
WHERE: Lamar Point, Texas
QUOTE: “We tried to jump on it, but it moved too quick.”

SRC: The San Francisco Examiner