The Volokh Conspiracy

In the olden days (i.e. prior to the late 1990's) you could drag out a scam like that for weeks or months. In these days of the instant-reaction blogosphere, you get called out on it within days, sometimes within hours.

This is just a manufactured side-show to distract us from the fact that we're being visited by space aliens.

There was a seasonal comedy X-Files episode in which Sculley started an autopsy on an apparent alien only to discover a zipper. It turned out to be an Air Force officer wearing a space alien costume suit.

Tomorrow's headline

"Global Warming to Threaten Bigfoot Habitats."

Pseudo-science meets psuedo-science, but I think Bigfoot is more likely to exist than warming, I mean climate change, I mean hedging our bets.

Whatever happened to the Chupahuevos... er, I mean "cabra"?

Just as long as nothing disturbs the research grants.

This was obviously a hoax from the outset. (a) if the perps had been sincere, they would have invited unconnected biologists to examine the body and take samples from it themselves rather than allegedly sending samples to a lab of their own choosing. (b) they said they found it in Georgia.

My secret is safe!

Why did the media pay attention attention to this issue?

Because the ignorant masses eat this stuff up. The real newspapers don't want to lose readers to the tabloids so they cover it too. Furthermore, a lot of reporters and editors are too ignorant to distinguish real science from junk.

Because the ignorant masses eat this stuff up.

I have seen no evidence of that, unless by "ignorant masses" you mean "media elites."

I was joking, of course.

Sure.

Still, assuming a law professor is in touch with reality is risky business.

The joke's on all of you. Some years back he was given a thorough full-body waxing and signed to a NBA contract. He has 4 NBA championships to his credit and has been accepted as human by most of the population, although the strange sounds he made on his rap album should have tipped people off.

Nick

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Freddy Hill:

I think you don't look at the newspapers in the supermarket enough.

Bill Poser:

Freddy Hill:

I think you don't look at the newspapers in the supermarket enough.

No, he just thinks the media elites read The Weekly World News, and the ignorant masses read The Star.

Why are leprechauns confined to Ireland? Because Nessie ate the Scottish ones.

It's a conspiracy. This is how the VC conspirators intend to take over the world -- an army of Bigfoots. One of their soldiers had an unfortunate accident and got discovered. So they're covering up for it by saying it's fake.

Don't you people watch those History Channel "documentaries" that describe how the Air Force covers up the UFOs?

Someone put bigfoot in mouth.

Sua Tremendita: I had forgotten about Manbearpig.

Now I won't be able to sleep at night.

Ah, I knew I could count on VC commenters to take a bit of newsfluff and turn it into some bitter partisanship. You never let me down.

Told you. You punks ain't never going to find me.

I recall attending a bona fide science conference, where two "bigfoot researchers" gave a talk entitled "New evidence for the existence of bigfoot in northern California." How that talk even got on the schedule is another story.

The "evidence" boiled down to claims of rocks being rolled down the mountain toward their camp, strange "grunts" at night, and to top it off, footfalls (from a running, bipedal organism) in their camp one night.

At the talk's conclusion, a world-reknowned specialist on mammals raised his hand, and stated:

"There are many possible explanations for the sounds you heard, deliria being one of the foremost."

The crowd roared, and the speaker was undaunted.

It's a known fact that no one has seen Bigfoot and Janet Reno in the same room together.

Hmm-m...

Well, biologically (but not taxonomically - a bit of human bias there) there are subspecies of humans native to temperate/cold climates, and we're apes. Closer to chimps than chimps are to other apes, etc.