The Mad Skeptic wraps up 2011 Bigfoot scene, takes jabs at Bigfoot DNA project and recent Russian Bigfoot video

It has been a busy year here at Bigfoot Evidence blog. Many of our readers are skeptics, and some of them have blogs where they write about what they think is the "lack" of Bigfoot evidence being presented here. We disagree with that notion, but we'll save those arguments for another time.

There's only a few days left before 2012 arrives, and this past couple of days have been flaring with Bigfoot related news. Just last week, we posted an article about Tim Fasano's claim that Dr. Melba Ketchum's Bigfoot DNA was rejected by a scientific journal. Fasano later pulled his original post.

Then there's the “Yeti Finger” that was stolen from a monastery in the Himalayas around the late 1950s. DNA test results on the finger revealed it to be of human origin.

And yesterday we received news about the Russian Bigfoot footage that surfaced showing a purported Bigfoot captured and caged by border guards. Russian officials later admitted that it was a publicity stunt to generate support for city orphans.

With all the Bigfoot related news lately, it was only a matter of time before skeptics have their say in all this. The Mad Skeptic blog wraps it all up in a post titled "2011 Wraps Up with Bigfoot Baffoonery," where he takes a few jabs at each of the news events.

On Dr. Melba Ketchum's Bigfoot DNA study, he writes:

The other much ballyhooed DNA story of the year is the so-called Ketchum DNA samples. For the uninitiated, a series of samples were supposedly tested for DNA. Some of us have been waiting to hear the results of these supposed tests. It doesn't bode well when recognized fraudster, Tom Biscardi, is involved with these samples but many of us (yes, Bigfoot skeptics are interested in this stuff and, yes, many of us -- myself included -- would love there to be such a thing as Bigfoot) have been waiting for the paper with the results to be published. Something, though, doesn't seem to be right. Despite some making claims that 2012 will be the year of Bigfoot (although, I thought it was supposed to be the end of the world -- again), trouble seems to be bubbling up. There are now rumors that the paper submitted by Ketchum has been rejected outright. Now, here's the deal, if the paper has been rejected, there will not be a statement from the journal that rejected it. What we will be gifted with is a series of excuses and post-hoc rationalizations from this segment of the Bigfoot world. So, although I'm not in the business of making predictions, I'm going to make one now. My prediction is that 2012 will be the year of the Bigfoot-DNA cover-up conspiracy. There will be claims made about how the information was so "damaging" or some other such nonsense to the "Scientific establishment" that the men in black (or other secretive agents -- perhaps the Illuminati?) prevented the paper from being published. None of this mindless drivel will be challenged by the journal(s) that rejected the paper. Why? That's not their job. They had the paper reviewed and, if the rumors are true, it was rejected because it was unscientific garbage. Science journals do not waste their time explaining why they didn't publish unscientific garbage. The end result will be the true-believers saying all manner of craziness.

And he writes this about the stolen "Yeti Finger" taken from a monastery in the Himalayas:

Much yapping and carrying on has gone on the Internet about how the existence of Bigfoot would be proven this year because of DNA analysis being performed on various samples of supposed Bigfoot material. Of these, only two really warrant addressing here. First, there was the analysis of a "Yeti" artifact (I understand the difference between a Yeti and a Bigfoot by the way but Yeti and Bigfoot mythologies have been so interwoven since the late 1950's, I'm going to take the liberty and deal with them as the exact same phenomenom -- just located in different parts of the world). Many of us who are familiar with Bigfoot and the Yeti are bound to recall the famous story of Yeti artifacts being stolen by Peter Byrne and then smuggled out of Tibet by Tom Slick -- a wealthy American with money to burn on foolishness like stealing Tibetian artifacts. This story has remained wedged in my head alongside the famous picture of supposed Yeti footprints taken by Sir Edmund Hillary but I, and a lot of the world, had put the story on the back burners of our minds -- until 2 days ago. They "Yeti" finger made a triumphant return! You see, someone decided to test the finger's DNA. The results: HUMAN. Sorry folks, no Yeti here. Move along.

And finally, he writes about the recent Russian Bigfoot footage that turned out to be a hoax:

Many people are aware of the recent nonsense where some Russian proclaimed they had irrefutable proof of the existence of Bigfoot. Later, the "evidence" proved to be a fraud perpetrated in an attempt to generate tourism in a region of the country. Not to be outdone, some Russians have upped the ante in their game of hoaxes with a modern day version of Jacko! Yesterday, word came out of good ole Russia that someone in the town of Narzan had gone and captured themselves a Bigfoot! No joke. Well, actually, it is. You see the whole damn thing was a fraud (even if it was supposed, somehow, to benefit orphans)!

The Mad Skeptic wraps up the whole Bigfoot scene with a remark about Bigfooter's "scientific" method:

Honestly, if the denizens of the world of Bigfoot really want to be taken seriously, they need to start acting seriously. All these crazy shenanigans with stealing ancient relics and then waffling about the testing of supposed samples needs to stop! Instead of trying to fit the facts to your predisposed hypothesis, why not let the facts actually lead you to reality? Why not grow up and actually use the Scientific Method. Not willing to do that? At the very least, you can stop paying any attention to the mindless fraudsters looking for attention -- or is that a part of the Bigfooter's "scientific" method?

You can read the full article here.