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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    I just read an Onion News story about this very exciting research, and immediately thought of this forum. Researchers Discover Details Smaller Than Minutiae PASADENA, CA—A team of Caltech scientists announced Monday that they have discovered a type of conversational detail smaller than...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    I don't care how "sure" anyone is. Lots of people are sure that Bigfoot exists, etc, etc, etc. Without a photograph, Steinberg's book is simply more of the same. And some of you believers seem to be more excited about the humiliation of the skeptics than about the rediscovery of the bird. Why...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    One: In the last four years of intense searches, all that's been found are a few dust-specks of possible evidence, which people carefully arrange in nice little piles and rows, and then magnify to make them look like something solid. There is really no chance that the IBWO survives. The...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Since the Arkansas reports never generated any confirmation, and there is no way of knowing what anyone saw, what's the difference between them and reports from Maine, etc? I know, I know, two observers together, highly-trained experts, multiple sightings and sounds in the same area....and of...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    The title of his talk: Evaluating Evidence of Persistence for Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) in the Southeastern United States from 1900 to the Present. I wasn't there, so I don't know what patterns he talked about, and it's not really clear from the abstract. I was going to...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Quite true. And I think if you really look objectively at all the sightings "evidence" of Ivory-billeds, you'll find it scattered equally from Florida and Texas to Maine, Ontario, and Washington State. So one could conclude that they occur everywhere, or nowhere. It requires a strong bias to...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Dave-in-Michigan, The key point that Louis was trying to make with his Maine example, I think, is that you can find claimed sightings of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers from all over the US and southern Canada. Except for its location, this report from Maine is just as credible as any of the...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Dave_in_Michigan, I think your posts boil down to a convoluted and pseudo-intellectual version of the believers' last refuge: There is no proof that the Ivorybill is extinct (there never will be any, of course). Then you present yourself as a paragon of objectivity in search of "good science"...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Incredible! So you think the skeptical review of the evidence has been good and thorough? So if the skeptics have met their obligation as good scientists, what were all your previous posts about? What does it matter if some skeptics are not good scientists, if the evidence has been reviewed to...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    To Dave_in_Michigan, I can't believe you're still at it. How can you claim that you are objective and "not trying to point fingers"? Earlier you quoted Gary Taubes on how a good scientist will examine every possible way to refute their hypothesis, and that failure to do so leads to something...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    First, although I understand Rob's point, I don't agree that Hill is effectively calling Hicks a liar. I think Hill is absolutely convinced that Hicks is correct. But all that means is that Hill is gullible, not that Hicks is correct. Of course he has faith, that's the only thing propping up...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    To Ilya's comments I would just add that, to me, a lot of the supposed double-knock recordings from Florida sound like they could be exploratory foraging taps of little woodpeckers, like Downy, Red-bellied, etc. And they just happen to have two taps together. And given the historical accounts...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Fair enough, a scarce bird in those swamps could be hard to photograph, and could even elude searchers... for a few weeks... maybe (but that's hard to imagine). But surely after four years someone at least should have gotten a decent look at one! The bigger question for you is: How do you...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    OK Dave, I'm trying to understand. Here's what you wrote on 13 December: Just for the sake of discussion, if there is a 1% chance of truth to a claim, then true skeptical exchange would focus continuously on the details, viability, and legitimacy (or not) of that 1% possibility. But advocates of...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    You're showing your bias, Dave. Rob's suggestion of decreasing wariness is just as reasonable as the increased wariness that you like so much, and you can find lots of evidence in support of both (think about Wild Turkey). What is not reasonable is arguing that wariness is a good explanation for...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    It seems perfectly obvious, and I assume everyone here would agree, that behavior can change and that animals that are hunted quickly develop some fear of humans. But the change from normal large-woodpecker-behavior described in the eyewitness IBWO accounts, to what people are proposing now is...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    I think you've overlooked this part of Sibley's post: "It is not up to the skeptics to show how all observers could be mistaken. The simple answer is "Yes, that is possible." There is no proof and whether these observations are more likely to be correct or incorrect is simply a debate over...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Snowy, the opinion on the CLO video is backed up by the best names in the business which, I know I know, is all just part of this vast Inaction Conspiracy going on down here. It is pretty nasty to claim I wine, when really I "whine". My point is that there is a very credible challenge to CLO's...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Inaction! - I wouldn't call $10 million dollars inaction! The IBWO has not gotten any $$ over the last few decades because no one has shown any evidence that it is alive. It's "alive-ness" is unrelated to the skeptics. Meanwhile there are troubled species, birds with daily sightings, that...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    You are correct - clearly the analysis of the video can't be extrapolated to any other sighting or place - it is only relevant for that video. But the work that has been done to correct the ID of the bird in the video was not done to demonstrate that IBWO was extinct. None of the authors have...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    I did not mean to disparage the PIWO videographer, only the assumption that it is a fact that PIWO flap more slowly than IBWO. The videos of PIWO are needed and I applaude that people are taking it into their own hands to investigate. My main point is that the "science" behind the IBWO flap...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Keep those videos commin! I 'm sure the cutting room floor at CLO is filled with flap rates of PIWO just like these. It is important to note that there is no diagnostic flap rate for an IBWO. CLO wants you to believe that with a single (N=1) audio recording only, with no narration of what the...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    There is a real trend to disregard the evidence that has been amassed by CLO. Maybe, just maybe, even with all the creepy crawlies and muck CLO proved exactly what is in those swamps...lots and lots of PIWO. Maybe, just maybe, even with thousands of hours of remote recordings and hundreds of...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    And to this you guys question what freakin' EVIDENCE means.This guy is claiming, quite off-hand ,that he knows where there are Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. And to that you jump all over the word EVIDENCE? Well, Language Police, the claim is extraordinary, and there is no accepted evidence of...
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    Ivory-billed Woodpecker (formerly updates)

    Again, I ask.. Are you talikg about Ivory-billed Woodpeckers? Do you know that there is no evidence of these bird for 60+ years? Heloooooooo!
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