I believe a healthy discussion of Federal Agencies/DOI is warrented

[hiflier]

35 minutes ago, Huntster said:

Think about that for a moment. Where else is the biologist going to send it without dedicated funds otherwise? 

 

I have....often. My conclusion? The people in those crime labs got their training and education in, lets say, hair morphology and DNA diagnostics from.....you guessed it.....academia. The universities that have courses in Law Enforcement as well as DNA and hair studies. So nothing needs to go directly to a state crime lab. Sykes went to Ashland because it is a US Fish & Wildlife facility and he was dealing with suspected unknown hair. He did that even though I'm sure he had a facility with everything he needed in Europe. So why he was actually there is a bit of a mystery to me. In fact, why LEO's in general would send samples there from a crime scene is beyond me. UNLESS a crime occurred in NF habitat and involved Human death from a suspected animal?

 

Beyond that, I wouldn't have a clue how the personnel at the Ashland lab fill up their time. Because there's a thousand labs that can run diagnostics on hair much cheaper than at Ashland- which.by the way is only one of many FS labs in the country. I mean it's not like it's the only one? So for Sykes to be there must mean something. What would that be? Could it have been because if it turned out there really was a Yeti then the Ashland lab is VERY specialized and maybe already has Sasquatch DNA. If that's the case, then what better place would there be for Sykes to get the final word on his own suspected Yeti samples? Number one, it would be a place where the findings could be kept secret. And, number two, there could have been Sasquatch genomes there for Sykes to compare his samples to. My take is that going there wasn't something Dr. Sykes woke up one morning and decided to do. There was more to it than that.

 

But, heh, you know me, I'm just speculatin' here  

Edited January 28, 2020 by hiflier

[Huntster]

46 minutes ago, hiflier said:

..........My conclusion? The people in those crime labs got their training and education in, lets say, hair morphology and DNA diagnostics from.....you guessed it.....academia. The universities that have courses in Law Enforcement as well as DNA and hair studies. So nothing needs to go directly to a state crime lab........

 

.......But, heh, you know me, I'm just speculatin' here  

 

Yup, and you missed my key point:

 

.......

Where else is the biologist going to send it without dedicated funds otherwise? 

 

There is no sasquatch study funding in any fish and wildlife agency of the 50 states or 13 Canadian provinces or territories. But they all have crime labs, or immediate access to one, and they would be dealing between state agencies, so "favors" instead of funding transfers can occur. 

 

If academia wanted to study the issue, they could do so infinitely easier than any fish and wildlife management agencies. Known to study every ridiculous idea or concept that some idiot dreams up, it shouldn't take a whole bunch of effort for a consortium of biology and anthropology departments to drop a few research pennies in a pot to analyze purported sasquatch evidence........but zip. Nada. Nothing.

 

Therein is your problem.........

[hiflier]

2 minutes ago, Huntster said:

it shouldn't take a whole bunch of effort for a consortium of biology and anthropology departments to drop a few research pennies in a pot to analyze purported sasquatch evidence........but zip. Nada. Nothing

 

ALL of your points are well taken, Huntster. Oh man, could I ever open up a whole burlap bag of snakes here, but I won't. I WILL say though that getting the door to academia opened has taken some time and effort. It's at least somewhat ajar. For how long I don't know but I managed to plant some concepts that I hope will carry some further interest down the road.

[Huntster]

16 minutes ago, hiflier said:

.........getting the door to academia opened has taken some time and effort. It's at least somewhat ajar........

 

Where's my satchel charge........

[hiflier]

Huntster, I spent a solid two hours across the table from the man, one on one. You shoulda been a fly on the wall, you'd have been proud. He now has a FULL picture of the subject where he now knows way more than 99.999999% of his colleagues or anyone else he may know.......except for yours truly, of course   The cool thing? His spouse is a microbiologist.

Edited January 29, 2020 by hiflier

[MIB]

17 hours ago, hiflier said:

Beyond that, I wouldn't have a clue how the personnel at the Ashland lab fill up their time. Because there's a thousand labs that can run diagnostics on hair much cheaper than at Ashland- which.by the way is only one of many FS labs in the country. I mean it's not like it's the only one? So for Sykes to be there must mean something. What would that be?

 

They do have a web site.  You could read up on their mission.  

 

While the Ashland lab is one of many, it is also unique in its mission.   It does other things, but it's main focus is CITES violations.   

 

Sykes was there, rather than at a different lab, because he had an indirect personal connection, it wasn't because of any law enforcement angle.

 

MIB

 

 

[hiflier]

1 hour ago, MIB said:

 

Sykes was there, rather than at a different lab, because he had an indirect personal connection, it wasn't because of any law enforcement angle.

 

MIB

 

 

 

We,, my friend, that's my point of mention. Indirect personal connection? But it doesn't really explain why he was there, or why it may have been suggested by his indirect personal connection. Sykes was doing Yeti DNA investigations, but there is no Yeti data in the GenBank. There's no Sasquatch DNA data in the GenBank either as far as we know. BUT! If the USFW knows about Sasquatch then the LAB may be the only repository with any possible DNA record of the genome. I mean where else could ANY scientist run a BLAST against Sasquatch DNA?  Sykes's "Yeti" samples could have been barcoded through any lab of his choice- the caveat being none of the other labs would have Sasquatch DNA access.