The Ketchum Report

[JDL]

@Theagenes: I wrote as I did to keep it from being personal, so don't assume that it was.

What I see so far in practical terms:

The study isn't considered conclusive.

The study does advance the ball with regard to the scientific debate.

More scientists will be asking if perhaps there isn't something out there.

We're closer to eventual recognition of the species than we were before the study came out.

If it bothers anyone that I speak as if it is a foregone conclusion that bigfoot exist that's your problem, not mine.

I've already had my "Is this thing going to rip our heads off or not?" experience. For me, that experience establishes what we call in the engineering profession, a boundary condition. For example, a container cannot have a negative volume and the amount of matter that it contains cannot be less than zero. So, since I, and the two other people with me at the time, have faced one, they do exist.

It's a matter of certainty, and that remains true no matter how many people choose not to believe it is so.

I will say that the study's conclusion that they are a near-human species is consistent with what I have observed.

[Guest]

Bartlojays said:

The suggestion that any of us felt the Trent submission was “a slam dunk,†the sample was believed by us to be a “bigfoot†on behalf of Ketchum’s mere word (LOL) is grossly inaccurate and as much as I’ve detested her since knowing what she tried to do, it’s a bit insulting personally. There was no “general confusionâ€, the plan was to vet the sample and if our suspicions were confirmed publicly, notify everybody, as was our responsibility and expectations “we†set in advance …period.

I have no problem confirming what Bart said in the post above are just some of the things we discussed. I never once got the impression from Bart he or Justin ever thought any of this was a slam dunk whether it be Trent or Melba. As Bart said to me many times - if the tests come back Bigfoot - they come back Bigfoot If they don't - then they don't. But I can say I felt Bart and Justin went the Trent route maybe out of frustration at getting no information and at times concern about what they were being told by Melba.

Bart and Justin both made some pretty tough decisions. I would not want to be in the position either of them were in.

It directly has everything to do with them, because when you say it's incorrect, you are saying all the samples were also wrong, you can't say just her work is flawed but everybody else's work was ok, sorry that is not going to work. if your saying the study is no good then you are saying EVERYBODY involded with the work were wrong also,

that's the other labs, universities, etc... if they all had completely different results maybe, but they were the same as hers so, they can't be right and her the only one wrong.

So, basically what your saying is - if I take my car to a repair shop and they do horrible work - it's my fault and not the fault of the car repair shop? C'mon.. If you want to lay blame on the submitters that's your thing, not mine. I don't blame these people - it was and is up to Ketchum to prove her work - not those who submitted the samples.

[Guest Ishcabibble]

Has anyone seen a response by Dr. Meldrum and whether he will make the trip to Vegas? I may have missed it in trying to stay current with this thread, but I can't find any confirmation.

As I understand it, Dr. Meldrum was, in fact, invited to see the "body". Has he accepted? I mean no disrespect to Derek. I don't know you personally, and I do respect you simply based on the support provided by others on this forum, but I know who Dr. Meldrum is, and I respect his opinion above almost all others. If he thinks this is worth looking at, I may have to pay more attention to this story.

[JDL]

Body? Have I missed something?

[Guest]

Has anyone seen a response by Dr. Meldrum and whether he will make the trip to Vegas? I may have missed it in trying to stay current with this thread, but I can't find any confirmation.

As I understand it, Dr. Meldrum was, in fact, invited to see the "body". Has he accepted? I mean no disrespect to Derek. I don't know you personally, and I do respect you simply based on the support provided by others on this forum, but I know who Dr. Meldrum is, and I respect his opinion above almost all others. If he thinks this is worth looking at, I may have to pay more attention to this story.

I think you hit the wrong thread, but why not. Get Ketchum down to Vegas to do a DNA study on Dyers body, that's scientific gold right there!

[Guest Theagenes]

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE OF THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION, As reported in the PRweb in Seattle WA atwww.seattlepi.com,

“The team, led by Dr. Melba S. Ketchum, DVM, of DNA Diagnostics in Nacogdoches, TX, sequenced the three whole nuclear genomes using the next-generation Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform at University of Texas, Southwestern from a tissue sample, a saliva sample, and a blood sample. The three genomes all attained Q30 quality scores above 88 on the Illumina platform, significantly higher than the platform average of 85, indicating highly-purified, single-source DNA with no contamination for each sample. The three Sasquatch genomes align well with one-another and show substantial homology to primate sequences.

NOTE: The Three Q30 Scores of the three Genomes,with over 90 Gb of Raw seqence for each sample (Comprising greater than 30x coverage) were 88.6, 88.4 and 88.7 respectively. The Q30 is the percent of reads that have the statistical probability greaer than 1:1000 of being correctly sequenced (According to Illumina, a pure single source sample would have a Q30 score of 80 or greater with an average of 85). Therefore, not only were the 3 sequences submitted from a single source, but the quality of the sequences were FAR ABOVE the average 85 Score on genomes sequenced using the Illumina Next Generation Sequencing Platform AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS Southwestern in Dallas, Texasâ€.

A Further comment was: “The high quality of the Genomes can be attributed to the STRINGENT EXTRACTION PROCEDURES UTILIZED WHEREBY THE DNA WAS REPEATEDLY PURIFIEDâ€.

PLEASE NOTE: It would appear that the University of Texas Southwestern is rather sure that these are good Genomes, and that they tested to be of very high quality. How could you ask for more than that? It is time for the Skeptics to admit that they were WRONG! It is a new Species.

You will not be able to find a Geneticist who can argue with the results produced by the UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS. NOT WITH THOSE HIGH Q30 scores. New species have been accepted by Science with as little as 16 KB. Just a small number of base pairs. The sample size here was 90 Gb for each of three samples. See the Supplementary Data 7-10

This is a press release from Melba.

[Guest Theagenes]

Okay, so now she's going to let several experts look at her work privately and point out any problems with it if any. Maybe suggest some alternate interpretations of the data. And then once that's done she'll then publish then results? Okay that sounds reasonable. In fact don't they have a word for that? Wait it's right on the tip pf my tomgue. . . Oh yeah. . .

PEER REVIEW!

[Guest]

Funny how that works, huh.

[Guest TH68]

So perhaps after hearing Dr K request Mr Smeja to destroy or tamper with his remaining sample he sent off a piece of bear to be independently tested as payback?

RL says he will be updating. Stay tuned!

[JDL]

Bear hunter. Bear hunter's vehicle, clothing, freezer, equipment used to transport, contain, store bigfoot sample. Absolutely no chance of incidental bear contamination. That would be too simple a concept.

Lot's of conspiracy rumor, though.

Skeptic's razor.

Edited February 16, 2013 by JDL

[Guest TH68]

Good point. Dr k to be interviewed Sunday night on C2C radio. Also some interesting pics on her Facebook page involving one of the samples. Boots on the ground trump armchair critics every time.

Edited February 16, 2013 by TH68

[Guest gershake]

Lots of more from Melba (via Facebook):

Melba Ketchum: "One more thing I want to make abundantly clear. I did not arrange this independent evaluation. They came to me and offered after someone that they knew proposed it. The person that asked if they were interested is an outspoken skeptic. We have nothing to hide though so I am excited about this."

Danny Valderrama: "I thought this was already done during blind testing of samples"

Isis Ming Hao: "Dr. Ketchum what are the credentials of these people may I ask?"

Melba Ketchum: "@ Danny It was, but nobody believes us even with universities having done the blind testing."

Melba Ketchum: "This group has a lot larger name than UT as far as genomics. I cannot divulge their names. I agreed to that. I am sure that they do not want the unwanted attention like I am getting. They will support us when they conclude if they agree with the UT conclusions."

Melba Ketchum: "@Isis Everyone would know who they are if I gave their credentials."

Melba Ketchum: "Those that appreciate Wally Hersom funding this study, please send thank you's to science@sasquatchgenomeproject.org. We will collect them and forward them to him."

Philip Smith: "Melba when will the official report and statement come out?"

Melba Ketchum: "I do not know at this time and I also do not know whether they will write a formal report, make a statement or what they will do."

Melba Ketchum: "One more thing. As I said, this offer came after the paper was published. They will go public in support of our findings only after completion of their analysis and assuming that they obtain the same results as the University of Texas did in our manuscript. If they find anything different, I will report that. Now that the manuscript is published I can be transparent."

Melba Ketchum: "I am so thankful that the paper passed peer review and is published. This enabled us to get the attention that will vindicate us and the biased peer reviews we have endured."

Daniel Benoit: "I cant wait for the results of it all, Im anxious and pretty excited regardless of the outcome."

Melba Ketchum: "Regardless of what we had to do to get it published."

Melba Ketchum: "The fact that they are doing it and aren't using our data directly but are generating their own conclusions makes me feel that they will be honest."

Danny Valderrama: "can you explain why your testing of the Justin Smeja sample can back different than his own testing that came back as bear ?"

Melba Ketchum: "It is not the same sample."

Melba Ketchum: "To all submitters: Please do not buy the paper, we are trying to get a link to you so you will have it at no charge. PM Robin if you do not receive the link."

[TimB]

Bart- who were the people listening in on the conversation in January 2012?

[Guest Scout1959]

Why are we crossing threads today???

I come here to read about Melba's report, if I want to read about the other issues out there I'd go to the proper thread.

[Guest Cervelo]

^^^^^

Indeed!