A new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found three-in-ten Americans (29%) and one-in-five Canadians (21%) think Bigfoot is “definitely” or “probably” real.
"One out of five Canadians believe the legendary Bigfoot stomps through the forests. Americans are even more inclined to believe Bigfoot lives in the West Coast mountains." --Vancouver Sun
Drilling deeper into the Canadian profile
The Vancouver Sun cites a new Angus Reid Opinion Poll. The poll compares West Coast Americans compared to varying provinces in Canada.
One out of five Canadians believe in Bigfoot (Sasquatch)
Bigfoot, also often known as “Sasquatch” in Canada, is said to be an extremely tall and hairy primate, almost nine feet (2.75 meters). The rarely-seen, or never-seen (depending on your view), creature is said to live in remote areas of Canada and the United States, particularly in Cascadia (also known as the Pacific Northwest).
Artist's rendering of a Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch
Wikipedia says: “Even though many people claim to have seen a Bigfoot, or seen their tracks, no one has ever captured one, or found a dead body. For this reason, some people do not believe in Bigfoot. Some also believe Bigfoot is a dangerous monster, because of some scary stories told about them. Most people who study Bigfoot, however, agree that the species is probably gentle and intelligent, just like humans.”
The Angus Reid survey of more than 1,000 Canadians and 1,000 Americans found that the Bigfoot phenomenon is bigger in the U.S., where 77 per cent of respondents claim to have heard “a great deal” or a “moderate amount” about Bigfoot (compared to 61% of Canadians).
In Canada, Albertans (29%) are more likely to think that Bigfoot is real than British Columbians (18%), even though B.C. is supposed to be prime Bigfoot territory. Nineteen percent of Quebecers believe Bigfoot could be the real deal, compared to 17 per cent of Ontarians (17%). In the United States, respondents in the West (32%) are more likely to believe that Bigfoot is real.
Full Disclosure: Bigfoot Lunch Club is a contributor to Cryptomundo and we have the highest regard for skeptics. Skepticism, in our mind, requires discipline and rigor. We even have a few favorite skeptics we follow, Sharon Hill of Doubtful News and Brian Dunning of Skeptoid.com. These are two skeptics that are very good at articulating arguments and they do their research.
Then there are those who don't do their homework. This brings me to Myron Getman of The Mad Skeptic and Bobby Nelson from The Bent Spoon Magazine. Recently, Myron created a truly funny post that could have been respected as satire, had it not ventured into unfounded assumptions. The gist of Myron's argument is, "...Coleman and Craig Woolheater's favorite tactics to generate traffic -- SEO tactics and, more specifically, the use of keywords." Myron bases this assumption on his previous experience as an SEO writer.
To be fair, Bobby only accuses of Loren Coleman using a "Cheap Attempt to get Hits on 9/11" and that Coleman shamelessly plugs his book.
We know that there has already been an exchange between Myron, Bobby and Loren, but when we read Myron's post today we couldn't help but offer our opinion.
Although this may seem like a Valentine to Cryptomundo, I am hoping I can make reasoned arguments that:
Cryptomundo does not need gimmicks like bikini clad women and high-profile keywords to get traffic.
The "tactics" Myron accuses Cryptomundo of using to drive traffic don't work and he may not have a current understanding of how SEO works. (Keywords don't work)
If the first 2 arguments have merit, then there is another valid possibility for why Cryptomundo uses topical subjects and keywords. Occams Razor: They are being topical. Why the bikinis? Loren Coleman likes women.
ARGUMENT 1. Cryptomundo does not need gimmicks, Below is a graph from Alexa.com. The lower your rank number the higher your ranking (#1 is the highest ranking). Cryptomundo is ranked 100,461 out of approx. 16 Million websites. It is ranked in the very top percentile of all the websites Alexa tracks. It beats about 15.8 Million other websites. If you want to verify Cryptomundo's high traffic you can click on these other reputable ranking/traffic websites (these links will take you directly to Cryptomundo's stats), Quantcast.com and Compete.com.
Traffic rank for cryptomundo.com:
Traffic Rank
Change
1 month
90,539
-14,641
3 month
100,461
-35,643
ARGUMENT 2 The "tactics" Myron accuses Cryptomundo of using, don't work. Cryptomundo has many organic (non-manufactured) reasons why they already rank high on search engines and get plenty of traffic. These reasons are far more effective than keywords.
One of the strongest reasons is theyhave over 34,000 websites that link to them, we call them backlinks; very valuable for SEO. The next biggest crypto-site BFRO.net only has 8000 backlinks. Cryptomundo also has a high rate of loyal returning visitors. Bikinis and high-profile keyphrases can't buy that kind of SEO gold.
If the SEO tactics Myron mentioned worked, his post would have ranked pretty high yesterday. TheMadSkeptic didn't show up on the first 120 results for either Andrew Breitbart or Davy Jones. You could argue that if you searched for both of those together you would find his post, but according to our research, almost nobody searched for those two names together. There is the possibility he did get a lot of traffic to that post, which would have less to do with keywords and more to do with the clever lampoon.
Finally, below is the third-party report for Myron's meta tags. Meta tags are called in-page SEO. It is the first place you start when optimizing for search engines. They are not terrible, but do not rate as well as you would expect from someone who had a working knowledge of SEO or keywords.
Meta tags report for: http://www.themadskeptic.com
meta tag
length
value
Title:
36
Andrew Breitbart Davy Jones Bigfoot!
Description:
77
Writings on skeptical, scientific, computer, and other topics by a scientist.
Keywords:
199
skepticism, skeptic, science, education, woo, myron getman, baron_army, asbestos, bigfoot, linux, opinion, critical thinking, analysis, blog, health, new york, new york state, albany, ubuntu, xubuntu
Meta tags analysis.
Title:
Title contains no errors.
This tag contains 36 characters.
Description:
Description meta tag relevancy to page content is fair.
The Description meta tag relevancy to page content is 45%.
Keywords:
Keywords meta tag contains too many keywords.
This tag contains 23 keywords. This is too many for what we would consider a 'robot friendly' keywords tag. The maximum number of keywords we recommend for this tag is 20.
Finally the third argument is dependent on the first two. The accusation that Cryptomundo is using keywords and other SEO as cheap tactics to drive traffic is not the simplest possible answer. Cryptomundo already gets plenty of traffic through more effective channels and topical keywords are simply just that, topical.
Retired Navajo Ranger, Lt. John Dover still Inspects the unexplained.
"There is a law enforcement agency in Arizona that actually welcomes claims of the paranormal - ghosts, witchcraft, UFOs and even Bigfoot." -- Scott Davis CBS 5 News AZ
CBS 5 Exclusive: Paranormal Task Force
Posted: Feb 29, 2012 8:33 PM PST
Updated: Feb 29, 2012 8:56 PM PST
By Scott Davis
WINDOW ROCK, AZ (CBS5) -
With this story, keep in mind that we really do tell it like it is- even when it is hard to believe.
There is a law enforcement agency in Arizona that actually welcomes claims of the paranormal - ghosts, witchcraft, UFOs and even Bigfoot.
CBS 5 obtained hundreds of photos and dozens of cases - strange scenes and sightings in northeastern Arizona.
Most police won't take reports like this. But about 10 years ago, officials on the Navajo Reservation decided to stop the snickering, to treat these witnesses with respect and thoroughly investigate.
Only one agency - the Navajo Nation Rangers - stepped up to the plate. For the first time ever, they are sharing their documents exclusively with CBS 5 News.
Retired Lieutenant John Dover explains that Navajo Nation Rangers are a federal law enforcement resource. They manage national parks, archaeological sites, fish and wildlife services and more as officers of the law.
Dover spent 31 years in police work- the last 10 included claims of the paranormal.
"Haunted locations and things going bump in the night," he said. "Objects appearing out of the air and dropping onto the floors, objects flying across rooms, ceramic vessels exploding and then we got involved in UFO investigations."
In one of the most solid cases, a mother and daughter describe a mass of lights floating over uninhabited reservation land in January 2012. As they watched, the lights blinked out after a few seconds, followed by a sonic boom, a black domed craft and the entire town of Chinle losing power.
Their drawings are strikingly vivid - blue, orange and white colors stand out against a dark landscape.
There are also reports of Bigfoot. The hairy creature is most often associated with the Pacific Northwest. However, both the Apache and Navajo tribes say they've got Sasquatch too.
One case Dover investigated had 30 witnesses. "We came out with physical evidence," he said. "Hair samples, footprints, stride distances, logs that had been pulled out of the bog area and removed - normal people wouldn't have been able to do that."
Here in Arizona, so-called paranormal activity is abundant, but serious investigation is not. Just ask Jim Mann, state director of the research organization MUFON.
Mann told CBS 5 News, "Tribal lands are filled with Native American legends and folklore and we know those people take the UFO phenomenon very seriously."
Mann said partnering with the Rangers is a huge step forward for the field of paranormal research. "It's always been the history that unfortunately the news media has sort of rolled their eyes at us and snickered at us," he said. "We have to grow up and realize this phenomena is really happening and we have to get over the giggle factor."
Dover says 10 years of investigations have revealed a wealth of information. Witnesses are comfortable speaking with officers who promise to be thorough and protect their anonymity. "Maybe we don't believe it," he said. "Maybe we don't hold every belief that you do, but we're going to investigate it rather meticulously and professionally. We'll report it and let the chips fall where they will."
More often than not, Dover said those chips fall on the side of truth. "Their testimony would be accepted in a court of law. The confidence level is high," he said. "We've seen them ourselves on occasion. We've seen cigar-shaped craft flying low, we've seen orbs. I had one follow me for about 30 minutes one time."
Dover retired from the Rangers last year but still consults unofficially on the side. The Rangers continue to take paranormal reports. "The cases are coming from people that are just normal people who were very afraid - something unusual was happening to them," he said. "They didn't know what was going on, they didn't know if it was military, something supernatural, if it was witchcraft. They wanted answers and they wanted to know that somebody cared enough about them to find those answers for them."
You can meet Dover on March 11. That Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Harkins Shea 14 Theatre, Dover and other guests will attend a screening of the documentary The Phoenix Lights. They will take questions from the audience along with filmmaker and witness Dr. Lynne Kitei. For more information on the film and their appearance, click here.
