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

Dr. Ketchum's Bigfoot DNA Study, Peer-Rejected

Dr. Melba Ketchum as Lucy; Charlie brown as the general public

"The problem is that some people absolutize the science. Unfortunately science now is too conservative." --Igor Burtsev on why Dr. Melba Ketchum's Bigfoot DNA research was peer-rejected

This is not the outcome we had hoped for, but one we had hinted at. Dr. Melba Ketchum's Bigfoot DNA study has been rejected for publication. It may not have even made it to the peer review process, meaning it could have been rejected by journal editors before they even assigned a peer-review team.

Igor Burtsev, head of the International Centre of Hominology, is the man who initiated the media frenzy by prematurely "leaking" the study to the public. Dr. Burtsev is also the same man who announced the non-publication of Dr. Melba Ketchum's Bigfoot DNA study.

"Re the paper: the reviewed journals in the US refused to publish the paper. That is why Dr Ketchum has sent it to me to arrange publishing in any Russian reviewd journal. And I showed to our genetisits and understood that it was a serious work. I gave it up to the journal, now it's under reviewing." --Igor Burtsev

UPDATE: Robin Lynn. Dr. Melba Ketchum's spokesperson reacted to Dr. Burtsev's remarks and seems to slightly contradict them:

The REVISIONS HAVE BEEN DONE AND THE JOURNAL HAS THEM NOW. They are now reading the paper. I have read the paper myself it is very indepth. and long. Extremely scientific. This is why it is talking so long...Also this is a topic never been done before. All this adds up to taking alot longer to approve." 

This has been, at least, the fifth time the targeted time line has been pushed back. In fact, in a Yakima Herald article, Dr. Ketchum is quoted on Nov 26th 2012, "(the study might become public in) weeks instead of many months, that’s for sure.”

Lucy and the football comes to mind.

We knew getting a Bigfoot DNA paper published would be a challenge. According to Katrina Kelner, a Science magazine editor, "At Science, we have to reject more than 90% of the papers submitted to us." 

This is why Dr. Melba Ketchum's execution and communication had to be flawless, it had to be held to a higher standard--there were too many expectations and too many personal efforts on the line. In our opinion, if Dr. Melba Ketchum had realized this project was bigger than herself, the outcome would have closer to the one we had hoped for.

Unfortunately it is Not Over.
Like a bad breakup, where on side rejects the other and then the rejected one says they were never interested in the first place. We see a similar analog here. It seems Dr. Burtsev, is almost saying, "Science doesn't like us, we don't think science is worthy." We are paraphrasing so let's use Dr. Burtsev's own words from his Facebook post.

The problem is that some people absolutize the science. Unfortunately science now is too conservative. One third of the population of the USA believes in BFs existing, but academic science even does not want to recognize the problem of their existing or not, just rejecting to dicuss [sic] this question. In such a condition this subject is under discussion of the broad public. We can't wait decades when scientists start to study this problem, forest people need to be protect now, not after half a sentury [sic], when science wakes up. 

Fortunately it is Not Over

There is another camp that is trying to do Bigfoot DNA research. It is the Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project headed by Bryan Sykes (read: Everything You Didn't Know About the Bryan Sykes' Bigfoot DNA Research ). 

The Oxford-Lausanne/Sykes project is taking a different approach, instead of hinging the research on a peer-reviewed paper, the results will be distributed in multiple formats. According to Rhettman Mullis, founder of Bigfootology, "do not forget that Sykes is also turning this project into a book and the BBC have stated they are going to film a three hour documentary (one hour segments) on the Sykes' project."