The Fortean/paranormal/conspiracy thread

[MoChatra]

That's 8pm to 9pm our time. I love reading Sickboy's stuff when he gets really passionate about something.

[neil]

There was that frightening statistic that 20% of Americans believing that the moon landings were hoaxed.

For the "9/11 INSIDE JOB THE EVIDENCE IS OBVIOUS" stuff I believe I saw a poll which was at about 45%. Absolutely insane. I absolutely detest 9/11 "TRUTHERS" because they are so full of shit that it makes a great argument for the various government and secret agencies being clean. There are troubling aspects of the 9/11 incidents but these get totally glossed over with nonsense like "buildings dont fall like that" and "the owner said PULL IT!!!!!".This is a very interesting thread, and I like to think of myself as a skeptic although I will admit I tend to lean towards the "probably not" bias with much of the evidence posted on various things.I find the notion of conspiracy theories and the like to be fascinating from a psychological view. Its astonishing how people will take basic assumptions about things and can paint a totally false picture and have people absolutely convinced. At the same time its amazing how people can be the polar opposite and won't accept the possibility unless it is literally infront of them.

[Astro Hollywood]

The way it's panning out, I expect the press conference to be an announcement that the DNA was either inconclusive or not here yet, maybe the holding up of another photo or two and "stay tuned for our upcoming documentary!!" Whatever they can do to drag it out. From there, something will probably get leaked onto the web, more pictures probably, and the documentary won't ever surface.I put Fox on just in case, and it sounds like they they may be showing it live, incredibly.Yeah, Fox. Sky 509, they're showing it live coming up soon. Amazing. I pictured a few neckbearded men in a tiny toom with no real press, certainly nothing live on a real channel (jokes about Fox News withstanding).

Edited August 15, 2008 by Woyzeck

[Astro Hollywood]

CNN.com right now. I'll do a PBP.Seems to be already lying. He claims the picture out now is the result of a hacking. He actually sent it to Loren Coleman of Cryptomundo and accidentally uploaded it to the website himself. He says getting pictures from the men is like "pulling teeth."He clearly has fuck all with him at the conference, just talking. The body won't be wheeled out.Hmm. Proper scientists and doctors will be invited to do an autopsy on Monday, where the news can film it.The two men who found it about to speak now. They found it dead, laying next to a stream. Three other live Sasquatches watched as they took the body away.Waiting for the DNA to come back.It's on Fox now, but the hosts are talking over the top of him, taking the piss. Feed cut on Fox already.They won't reveal the location.They've not called the Georgia authorities yet. Didn't call any authorities because they wanted to protect the location and avoid a frenzy.The three creatures that watched then as they took the body away were filmed, very clearly.Very reticent to show anything. Tom says he has the pictures and will be dispursing them at the end.7'7" tall. Andre the Sasquatch.Angle seems to be that the two men didn't want to give the pictures out, but good ol' Tom talked them into it out of respect for the press. Says there's a closeup of the face that will prove it's not a mask."Some guts were hanging out of it" when they found it. Autopsy will decide what killed it.Youtube hoax confession brought up. Tom "glad they're addressing it." Tom diverting attention by getting angry and saying they've been getting death threats because someone wanted to steal the body and one of the men had to leave their house. They're admitting the brother as doctor hoax video, say it was to "give these psychos something to do for the weekend, and that the police were called because of death threats and people at their house.Plans are fully to capture a live one.Tom has contacted "lots" of people in the scientific world. "Top name scientists" will look into it, but they can't name any or any institutions.Bipedal based on the three they saw in the woods, walking about."Are there a lot of psychos in the Bigfoot community?" Heh.They want to capture, tag and release a live one.Talk of Tom's previous body hoax. Says he was convinced by a "deranged woman". Tom is very testy, calling the female reporter "dear". The Webcam thing is brought up too. Honestly, he's angry, but they're deflecting everything really well.Laughed and said it was definitely a male, so presumably Bigfoot is pretty hung.Tom pulling figures out of his arse about how many there are nationwide. Reporter asks about how they've only just found one now, Tom asks why 72 planes over the past 25 years have crashed that nobody ever found. "How many times do you find a bear carcass?" Tom is being very obnoxious, but he's done his homework. Brings up Steve Fossett's unfound body.DNA results before the press leave. Two parts, one was inconclusive, one was human, one (sampled from the intestines) came back possum?? Curt Nelson from University of Minessota did the testing.Press will leave with DNA results, one picture of Bigfoot walking upright, one closeup of the face."We weren't bigfoot hunters until we found it." I'm guessing that's only because they never had anyone bid for it, so they never went out on any hunts.Matt's timeline is a little screwed up. He says the website went up after they found it and he had no interest in bigfoot until he found it. From memory, that seems wrong. Actually that probably does fit, if they found it June 10th.Matt refuses to talk about being a policeman. Getting angry when it gets brought up again. Says he "got shot." (he shot himself in the wrist)The story is that they didn't know what to do with the body or how to handle it, all the press and stuff is down to Tom, they just planned on using the body to set up a bigfoot hiking business and thought it would be a big local story but no more. They are hicks, frankly. They didn't know who to call or who to trust, compares it to finding the biggest diamond in the world, who would you call, and who would you trust? I have to say, it's a believable angle. Right down to why they filled the freezer with water, they really seem like two hick fucknuts who stumbled on something massive.Third guy getting onstage. This whole thing is a way bigger deal than I anticipated. Lots and lots of legitimate press.Tom back onstage with some papers. Huge closeup of the tongue and teeth. He's so rude :(Holding up picture of a creature walking away, it's too small to see on the feed. Tom says you can see eyes, ears, nose etc.Feed's gone down. That might have been the end, Tom said thanks before it cut off....I don't know what to make of it now. With talk of a proper, medical autopsy, I feel like Susan's parents driving with George Costanza to his fictional house in the Hamptons. It sucks that it's three obvious cocks at the centre of this, although the PT Barnham aspect of Tom is fitting I suppose.I hate to say it, but that was actually really convincing. They had all the bases covered, there were a lot of hostile questions, the sort of questions people should be asking, and they batted them right back at the reporters. The story is very, very convincing, or at least at convincing as any story that involves finding a bigfoot corpse. Even the explanation behind the youtube videos is kinda believable, in the context of the rest of the story. Just because they're a pair of hicks and Tom's a known bigfoot kook, that doesn't mean they couldn't be the ones to stumble on something.I'm probably just feverish, but I don't know where I stand now.

Edited August 15, 2008 by Woyzeck

[Astro Hollywood]

Starting to filter out to news sites now - http://cbs5.com/local/bigfoot.remains.found.2.796536.html

 

This whole thing is so weird. As a hoax, their options are so limited. A body is the one lie you can't get out of. They're not getting any big money without showing it, and the press will get bored of them really quickly if they stall too much. Having a film you can sell is one thing, but the body will have to be seen and examined, which if it's real will be verified as such, or if they refuse to grant access, this will all be outed as a hoax. If it is a hoax, it's the farthest anyone's ever taken one, and at this point, it's really hard to see their motivation. They absolutely would not get away with it, like you maybe would with pictures or video footage. I have no idea where this is all headed.

[Frankie Crisp]

It's an elaborate ploy to get the world's attention... and to witness the second coming of Sam Gibbs.Seriously though, I watched the press conference and there were so many holes in the story, yet something kept drawing me in. Cracking PBP above, although one thing you missed (unless I didn't spot it in your notes), was the claim that they reckon there are 3,500 to 7,000 of the fuckers across mainland USA. I too am intrigued to know how this one will end. Vince will probably book Bigfoot Vs. Big Show for WMXXV.

Edited August 15, 2008 by The Waterboy

[Astro Hollywood]

It's an elaborate ploy to get the world's attention... and to witness the second coming of Sam Gibbs.Seriously though, I watched the press conference and there were so many holes in the story, yet something kept drawing me in. Cracking PBP above, although one thing you missed (unless I didn't spot it in your notes), was the claim that they reckon there are 3,500 to 7,000 of the fuckers across mainland USA. I too am intrigued to know how this one will end. Vince will probably book Bigfoot Vs. Big Show for WMXXV.

I don't think there were holes, really. Say what you like about them, they'd done their homework. The claim about how many Sasquatch there are was just silly speculation though and typical of Tom's carney attitude.Picture of the mouth closeup is available now - http://srimg.ny.publicus.com/apps/pbcsi.dl...7684&Ref=V1The second picture is out too. Surprise surprise, it's fucking terrible.That's the one he was pointing at in the press conference, saying how it was the clearest ever picture, and you could clearly see the eyes and ears. Edited August 15, 2008 by Woyzeck

[DJ Stevie C]

Is that a spider baby?

[bAzTNM#1]

Two men in the US state of Georgia say they have found the body of a Bigfoot, the legendary ape-like creature that has been subject of decades of hoaxes. Matt Whitton and Rick Dyer say they stumbled across the 2.3m-high (7ft 7in), 226kg (500 pound) corpse in a wood in the north of the state in June. A photograph on the men's website shows what appears to be the body of a large, hairy creature with an ape-like face. Bigfoot experts reacted suspiciously to the men's press conference claims. "What I've seen so far is not compelling in the least, and I think the pictures cast grave doubts on their claim," said Jeffery Meldrum, a Bigfoot researcher and Idaho State University professor. "It just looks like a costume with some fake guts thrown on top for effect," he told the Scientific American magazine. The US Fish and Wildlife Service also said its officers were not taking the claim seriously and would not investigate it. At a news conference in Palo Alto, California, Mr Whitton and Mr Dyer said they had found the body of a male Bigfoot with reddish hair, "blackish-grey" eyes, and human-like feet and hands while out hiking. "I recognised it was unusual right away," said Mr Whitton, a police officer. "The first thing that pops into your head is that it's Bigfoot." They also said they saw three other live creatures while carrying the corpse away. "They were silent," Mr Whitten added. The two men also brought what they said were the results of DNA tests on the corpse's body tissue which were undertaken by Curt Nelson, a biologist at the University of Minnesota. According to Mr Nelson, one test showed human DNA, another was inconclusive, while a third came back as the DNA of a possum, which he said could have been from something the Bigfoot had eaten. Bigfoot - also known as Sasquatch in Canada, the Yeti in Asia, Mapinguari in the Amazon, and Yowie in Australia - is a humanoid creature said to wander the wooded wilds of the Pacific Northwest. Stories of a giant ape roaming the forests of North America date back to before European settlement. But despite occasional footprints and photographs, there has never been much proof of Bigfoot's existence.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7564635.stm

[Famous Mortimer]

I don't think there were holes, really. Say what you like about them, they'd done their homework...That's the one he was pointing at in the press conference, saying how it was the clearest ever picture, and you could clearly see the eyes and ears.

The second line is the biggest hole in their story, obviously, and the fact they're not producing the body yet, and clearly won't on Monday either. Oh, and this is a fairly large hole:

According to Mr Nelson, one test showed human DNA, another was inconclusive, while a third came back as the DNA of a possum, which he said could have been from something the Bigfoot had eaten.

Edited August 16, 2008 by Famous Mortimer

[Steveo2007]

What do you people think of the 2012 end of the world theories?

[MoChatra]

What do you people think of the 2012 end of the world theories?

The same as the 2000 end of the world theories.

[KFR42]

I too am intrigued to know how this one will end. Vince will probably book Bigfoot Vs. Big Show for WMXXV.

Nah, everyone knows the Big Show would just bring out the YETAAAY to hit bigfoot with their devastating double bearhug.

[Astro Hollywood]

I don't think there were holes, really. Say what you like about them, they'd done their homework...That's the one he was pointing at in the press conference, saying how it was the clearest ever picture, and you could clearly see the eyes and ears.

The second line is the biggest hole in their story

Yeah, absolutely. I edited the picture in long after I'd written that. At this stage, barring the lack of body, it's the biggest black mark. At the conference, he held up a copy of similar size to the online one, saying you could see eyes and ears, and it was the clearest picture ever taken, unlike "all those other blobsquatch photos" were his exact words. The press asked to point out what they were supposed to be looking at, and he got really testy, like they were idiots who were wasting his time. I think that's the point where he called a female reporter "dear" in the most supercillious tone I've ever heard. Regarding holes though, as far as their story goes, there were, rightly, a lot of really tough questions asked at that press conference, which was unanimously hostile and mocking. All of the hoax allegations were brought up, even stuff about Tom's past antics, questions about why they hung onto the body for so long etc, and all the responses from the men were confident to the point of defiant arrogance. It's such a wacky story with so many paths that I figured they'd get tied up in knots and contradict themselves or get flustered, but to their credit, they'd really prepared well. Tom is pure Carney.In retrospect, one of the timelines seems to be wrong regarding the setting up of the website, and the guy who found it has claimed to both have had no interest in Bigfoot, and to have fulfilled a lifelong dream by finding it. Still, for a 45 minute grilling, they could have done far worse.

and the fact they're not producing the body yet, and clearly won't on Monday either.

I have no idea how they're going to get out of that. Smart money is probably on "yeah we've given it to Dr. Fakename and we're waiting for the results," but Tom has said both at the press conference and on Fox News live that the first person to see the body will be the female anchor.It's total Costanza, and we're half way to the Hamptons, baby!

Oh, and this is a fairly large hole:According to Mr Nelson, one test showed human DNA, another was inconclusive, while a third came back as the DNA of a possum, which he said could have been from something the Bigfoot had eaten.

I don't know anything about DNA. Would something come back as inconclusive if it was an uncatalogued species, or would it be part ape, part human, for example? The possum thing was supposedly from a sample taken from the intestine, but it's another one of those weird things I can't fathom the motives behind. They must know that if they're turning up to a press conference with evidence of Bigfoot, which amounts to human DNA and DNA from a possum, they're just going to look like bell-ends. Edited August 16, 2008 by Woyzeck

[Thunderplex]

I get the feeling that this is some kind of viral advertising thing for a movie.