Melba Ketchum Update
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on August 23rd, 2013
From her Facebook page:
To the latest round of criticism, funny all of the skeptics keep getting different findings. If it was a known species, they should all get the same results. Besides, the mtDNA would not be human if it came from any other species. The last skeptic said it was pig feces and now this one says bear, etc. Can’t be both. When I did random BLASTs, I stopped counting at thirteen different species having similar sequences found in the same sample. A BLAST gives you the sequence closest to your query. If the sequence is new, you get findings like this. It is not consistent. There was a person that was a true geneticist and ran a genome lab that supported our findings. Pity his boss didn’t let him go public. The other thing that gets me is that the critics pick only one portion of the paper and try to refute it. The testing was done with many disciplines that supported one another. You can’t dissect one part out of a picture and expect to see and understand the entire picture. Bottom line, the DNA is unknown and though it can share similar sequences with a variety of species, it is not diagnostic for those species. The mtDNA was clearly and unequivocally human. If there was contamination from any other species, it would have shown. If it was a species other than human, it would not have shown as being human. They are what they are, a type of human with a lot of unknown DNA. On the post by Dr.Swenson below, he mentions a database for genetic data. On that site it has a page on comparative genomics. It compares a lot of species with human. You would be surprised at how much sequence we share with animals.Melba Ketchum, 8/23/13
Melba Ketchum, I just found Ensemble. Is this useful?David H. Swenson
Had a good interview with Jen Brien at WBZ out of Boston CBS affiliate tonight. It was cleansing as I vented about how things have gone with the project and how unfair the research has been treated. I seldom do this but considering the recent unwarranted criticism, I decided not to be quiet for a change. Jen might be the first media person to visit our habituation sites. I truly hope that she does. Time will tell.
I have invited all that I have had any contact with, but they all say that they will come, but none of them have.Melba Ketchum, 7/31/13
The media talks big but doesn’t follow through. Haven’t heard from the media person that was so anxious to come and see one. That’s a dozen offers or so with no takers even though almost all said they would come. Doesn’t that seem just a little odd?Melba Ketchum, 8/5/13
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Why does Jeff Meldrum never sound like this?
Don’t know, but it does have something to do with the relative seriousness with which I take him vs. Ketchum.
her own statements actually contradict her findings.
“When I did random BLASTs, I stopped counting at thirteen different species having similar sequences found in the same sample. A BLAST gives you the sequence closest to your query. If the sequence is new, you get findings like this.”
you also get results like this if your sequences are not large enough to definitively indicate ANYTHING. of course if you are already convinced that you found something new, you could interpret the results as “new species”.
“You would be surprised at how much sequence we share with animals.”
exactly, which is why your results are meaningless
If the Cosmos is indeed just, I’m hoping Melba will have the last laugh. Anyone game for a shoe-eating bet?
More and more, I’m thinking she has the goods, and is waiting to make her Big Splash.
I’m betting she doesn’t have the goods…BUT, I believe sasquatch’s are real and someone will come up with the proof.
My bet is on some hunter who kills one, fore-go’s the whole scientific route and just plain lays it over his truck hood and lets all the networks come and photograph it.
I do believe that Melba is after the same type of stardom that a lot of Bigfooters are after. A big star in the newer bigfoot world. “I Am Somebody”,”Look At Me”. A lot of folk have been trying to come up with their own angle for their ego satisfaction. Weather it be a “Scientist” or a “Detective”, “Investigator”or even a Hoaxer. Some even get their own internet radio shows all for the self promotion. I have yet to find ONE Authority on Bigfoot. Yea, it’s gonna take shooting one and laying it out on the hood!
@ sasquatch: Re the Hunter Scenario. It’d certainly be a lot quicker and more straight-forward than Ketchum’s quagmire of a study…
While I am pretty sure that bigfoot (or whatever you want to call them, yeti, sasquatch, etc) exist even though I have never actually seen or heard one, I personally do not think any hunter will ever bag one. They are too smart.
IMo it would be equivilent of sending a kindgergarten kid to find a a Green Beret or Special Forces Solder in a hide and seek exercise, where the the solder has all of his camoflage and survival gear with him, and the kid has to find him.
sasquatch: I often find myself thinking it would be far better for them is there’s never proof. (Not that P-G isn’t proof, but you know what I mean.)
I’ve even prayed for a several times. And I’m basically agnostic. When I pray, I never ask for anything. That’s sort of stupid, to ask for things. I just open my heart up and try and shut off the internal dialogue.
AreWeThereYeti;
And when it’s examined by scientists, and they determine it human or mostly human, will the shooter be charged with murder? I’d LOVE to be a DA in that jurisdiction; I’d have the ne’er-do-well up on so many charges it’d make his head spin.
I guess I always have a hard time when folks say that Sasquatch is “human”…I know nothing about DNA but when you’re talking about a creature that’s often 9 feet tall, 600-700 pounds, covered with hair, has a conical head, massive feet, hands and shoulders, grunts and howls, strides highways in two or three steps, it doesn’t seem like “human” can really be applied to it accurately.
A relative? Sure. An ancestor or offshoot? Probably. But not “human” as I understand it.
Melba: “Doesn’t that seem just a little odd?”
Me: “No, it’s you that seems just a little odd.
She and her minions are 100% frauds.