Calm Down
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 9th, 2006
Calm down, everyone. Now, while I may be poking fun at the dynamic duo in their present situation and this smells of “a paltry subterfuge of an anonymous signature” (Robert Smith Surtees), let us be levelheaded and try to be fair to them. Let’s assume for a moment that they are totally innocent of any con job and did what they had to do because they had limited options. From this perspective and within this premise, this could be what happened. (I’ve included some comments -directly following each point; remember, this is not what actually happened but merely postulation on my part.):
Sighting of three creatures (when was that?) near river. – A genuine case?
Chow, who had been doing research on JH, was alerted and he started investigations. – He was just another BF enthusiast.
Footprints were presented to Chow. – Some real, some fake?
Out of the blue, guy approached Chow, claiming to have photos of JH. – Did Chow have previous dealings with this guy?
Chow’s only fault was trusting this guy, but he still wasn’t 100% certain. – I think Chow truly was conned since he even considered the possibility of the photos being real.
Chow decided to find more hard evidence to support the photos, but prematurely announced the existence of the photos. – I remember asking Chow if he’d mind letting everyone know about the photos and he confidently gave an affirmative reply.
After the initial hoo-ha, Chow realised that he might have made the wrong move, since he himself wasn’t 100% sure of the photos’ veracity. He quickly set out to gather more facts about the photos’ origin. Sean Ang’s opinion was sought, but, unfortunately, due to lack of exposure to state-of-the-art special effects technology and movie magic, he too was conned. – I’m sure both men now realise how easily fooled they were.
Having said that, they still wanted to be absolutely sure, so they put up a website to get some opinions from more learned and worldly-wise individuals. – I think this was a good move (and a bold one), although many see it negatively. The only problem was that they didn’t even allow any experienced individual from the movie or media industry to examine the photos before showing them to the Sultan, MB, etc.
Meanwhile, Chow continued his gung-ho expeditions into the jungle to try to redeem himself. – This I truly believe he did. There is no doubt in my mind that this man truly believes in the existence of these creatures and this didn’t start with the revelation of the photos’ existence. It began decades before.
When the photos were proven to be fake, Chow and Ang had to answer to the cryptozoology community. They did not apologize for the whole fracas created since the photo claim because they didn’t see themselves at fault, but were victims themselves. – Perhaps, if they would admit to being gullible, that might just calm the CZ community.
The rest is history.
Perhaps we shouldn’t pounce on any new development that springs forth from that region just because of this unfortunate episode. This is, after all, cryptozoology, where Mothmen, Dover Demons and El Chupacabra dwell. Where is the fun and adventure if we didn’t allow any speculation?
Cheers,
Peter Loh
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
No, Peter, I’m not buying any of that, if you’re speaking of the photos that were posted here.
I haven’t weighed in on this issue for my own reasons, but for any “scientist” to lend any credence to those photos is ludicrous. And the nonsense that’s currently being spun in defense of this hoax is indefensible and insulting to folks who want real answers to real questions.
I love “fun and adventure” and speculation as much as the next person, and that may very well be why this blog is so popular. But there are people who come here because we’re seeking real information, not silly soap operas with predictable and sit-com worthy conclusions.
I do understand that you and the authors of this blog must maintain working relationships with anyone who even sniffs of legitimacy in this much-maligned field, but there are limits to our patience.
I’ve followed this story closely, and I can’t fathom any scenario where Ang and Chow aren’t complicit in this hoax, and I don’t think any serious reader would argue that.
I do, however, enjoy your cartoons very much
I ain’t mad at those dudes because I felt deep down that eventually the truth would arise regardless. But yeah, alot of readers are upset and angry to put it mildly. Although I give Chow, Ang and Loh an A plus for credit for getting us all hyped up. Just please don’t do it again.
I thought Chow didn’t have the pictures, that the “owners” of the pictures retained possession and had the “rights”. If that was the case he likely was conned, because he had little ability to show the pictures around to experts to assess authenticity. Or post them to get analysis and feedback from a wider audience.
I think it’s obvious: he wanted to believe, because he really does think the critters exist, and he got led down a primrose path because he didn’t want to tick off the folks with the photos before they became public.
Now if either he or Sean actually saw these things at any point up front, well they’re either complicit in the hoax or REALLY gullible.
And I’ll change my mind on something I said in an earlier thread on this site. I had wondered whether the reception the Patterson film got might argue for holding back photographic evidence until more backup is obtained. My subsequent experience on this site — particularly with this incident — now tells me that you put the photos up as soon as possible after you get them. Negative speculation only gets worse and the eyes more jaundiced the more you try to juice them up by holding back. Even so, if they’re good, they’ll pass every test. If they’re not….well, these “JH” shotz would have been immediately laughed off Cryptomundo ….well, in precisely the way they were.
And I might have added to the above: Nobody’s debunked that Patterson footage yet, have they?
Ummm-hum. Perzackly.
mooppoint,
I agree with you completely. If either of these men are as naive as we are to believe they are, then they have no business being anywhere near a scientific exploration let alone traipsing through the jungle.
That being said, even learned people can be sucked into hoaxes. Let us not forget the case of the Archaeoraptor.
A fraud which pulled the wool over the eyes of none other than the National Geographic and its top scientists.
But faked fossils are not the same as faked photos. Photos give you a heck of a lot more information to work with than the jigsaw puzzles that are most fossil finds.
I tried to give Chow the benefit of the doubt from the beginning but I feel he made a big mistake, that will make me suspect of anything he says, when in a communication to Loren (Aug. 8, “New Claim, More Johor Photographs”) he claimed that his mistake was in releasing/sharing the photos he had (unless I’m mistaken in understanding his phrasing).
To quote from Chow’s e-mail:
“Perhaps my main fault was volunteering information freely and willingly and in the process when things could not meet the high expectations, things turned sour.”
I would say that his “main fault” was not in his “volunteering information freely”, but in doing the exact opposite and keeping that information secret from individuals with experience in the field who could have identified these images a lot sooner (perhaps even early enough to spare his tarnished reputation).
Instead we got a HUGE build up that resulted in a huge fall for Chow.
I likewise disagree.
Rather stupid of him to keep the photos and build up so much publicity. He should have shown specialists right away to attempt to save his rep.
Besides, any scientist who sees those and can not tell they are not real should quit his profession ASAP.
Also, I now doubt the existence of these creatures; at least in this area.
The cartoons are quite nice though…
Oh, and they should not have put up a website without consulting specialists. No matter what their excuse is, it was a stupid move, not a bold move. They should have gotten advice and opinions and then set the site up if they were given a postivie review from scientists.
I doubt we’ll be able to – or at least I won’t- give them any confidence later on. I find them now quite foolish.
Why, for example, did they only put up illustrations on the site at first, instead of them actual ‘photos?’ That was only a disaster waiting to happen, since anyone with artistic ability can draw anything they want.
Jeremy: yo, bro.
The expectations are IMPOSSIBLY high, Mr. Chow. So much so that film and photos are probably never by themselves going to satisfy. So what? If they’re the goods, they are. Time and further research will either prove them out or keep them in the Pantheon of Great Enigmas (e.g., Patterson/Gimlin).
This was an utter fiasco, one that could have been avoided by doing what Loren and Craig — Key Names in crypto if there are any — do: hey, got something here, kids. You’re smart; and I don’t know for sure what it could be. What do YOU think?
We’re ALL smarter than some people think we are.
I agree with those that the guys should have known better or was in on it the whole time.
What do you all say we just forget chow, ang and anyone else attached to this little event. Someone scanned the pics, chow got ahold of them (whether he did it himself or not) and then we were all let down when the truth became known. I would just suggest to these men that they don’t say anything more about such things until there is just such a creature in a cage for all the world to see, simple.
So it’s the end then? No photos, no bigfoot. Rather simple, don’t ye think ?
The world at this stage , so hungry for anything as sensational would love a BF, something to bite on, other than the ME conflicts we see on TV.
Lets not be too harsh on our two friends. Time will soon tell, and like all new discoveries in history, it WILL BE first hotly DENIED, then vehemently ATTACKED and when the truth is proven, all these armchair researchers, hunters will just declare that THEY KNEW IT EXISTED, ALL ALONG !!
KEEP YOUR EYES TUNED ON THIS BLOG FOR THE NEAR FUTURE. And the very best of Irish Luck to ye all.
mjan,
“No photos, no bigfoot” is TOO simplistic.
Maybe there ARE some folks here seeking diversion from the constant images of world events, and that’s OK. Lord knows, we all need some escape from today’s reality.
But, again, there are people who come here for answers to legitimate questions, and explainations for things they’ve seen with their own eyes that defy their own set of beliefs.
Those who are here for that reason have every cause to be “harsh on our two friends” for, at the very least encouraging, and at worst, instigating such a transparent hoax.
You do a disservice to those people by throwing out terms such as “armchair researchers” because forums such as this may be the only means available to some.
Speaking for myself, I’m just looking for answers to what might “exist,” and have no plans to make any self-serving declaration in the event of confirmation of the truth, whatever that may be.
I hope I don’t seem harsh or disrespectful here; I’m just trying to express my opinion, and I thank the authors of this blog for the opportunity to do so.
I think it was perposterous of them to think those photos would fool any of us, and they had to be fully aware of that, which totally implies them as knowing partners in fraud with whomever. It’s the Biscardi School of Barnum and Bailey Bigfoot research…sensational crap. For them to claim not to know is ludicrous.
Though ye may not have trekked and hunted in those jungles, I suppose you can feel the difficulty in moving in that terrain. The heat, the sweat, the mozzies, the leech and the wet and chill of the nights can exhaust any man after a long spell. To hunt a shadow under those conditions would be a task to say the least, and many a man would jump at the hope that something HAS been found by someone, anyone, to put his mind at rest and quench his thirst for an answer to this enigma. I do not blame anyone seeking a quick answer, whether to belief or otherwise.
Whether the answer is a simple or convoluted one. What I am urging our readers here is not to write off something that exists and keep faith with the knowledge that with time and the expanding sphere of outside contact with the shrinking jungle, its exposure is inevitable.
I have had many a chat with the Orang Asli [our Jungle Tribesman] since 1970’s about this subject and have personally spoken to a few men who had first hand sightings, albeit now some 30 years ago. What they told me tallies with what I heard in other parts of the same jungle. And our jungle is huge.
It was NOT an Orang Hutan that they saw, but something bigger and heavier, upright and hairy and black. Our sun bears are no bigger than your Rottweilers, so there are very few known candidates we know that will fit the bill.
I am sorry to see that those few fake photos caused us so much dismay. When I first heard of their existence [the photos] I was relieved, that the hunt is over and I can now put away my old jungle boots, parang and dream another adventure. Now I am happy that they are fakes, so the hunt is again on, and that there is still some life left in the old dog.
May our Malaysian Bigfoot live long.
Great cartoon pete. those two guys really made cryptozoology look bad. All the hard work and research was ruined by some hoaxsters. I was really looking forward to maybe seeing real photos showing real live bigfoots, but it never happened but maybe those things are out there?
Mjan, I think Most of us here entertain the possibility of such a creature in Malaysia, But you certainly can understand how much damage this does to the overall credibillity of it. Many here now believe it’s an attempt by the Malaysian government to boost tourism. And after what happened how could we argue? to get anyone to believe the creatures are there
it’s going take a lot more than stolen pictures from books and movies to convince people that it is a genuine phenomenon.
Mysticrhythms and fellow bloggers. I doubt that the Malaysian Govt. would need BF for its tourism boost unless BF is in a cage or a zoo. The terrain in those parts are not for the run of the mill tourist. Malaria/leeches abound and the occasional tiger and the 2-3 herds of wild elephant for the unlucky, still lurk in those areas. I was there a few months ago, just passing through Pontian and Ulu Choh, oblivious of the BF flap, just a trip down memory lane. Nothing much has changed, the jungle is still as it was so many years before.
Much as I would like to search for HIM/HER again, sometimes I wonder if it is not better if we left them alone, and just live with this lingering heartache that IT is there and how one would love to just have a glimpse, however fleeting! So for the time being, may we live through the eyes of those who have actually seen one and lived to tell about it. And there are a few lucky ones who have done so.
This is what the Joi de vie –joy of life is all about. A marvelling of the unknown and the hope for better things to come! Cheers!