Bookies Not Too Smart

Bookies have paid the Natural History Museum in London an annual fee (£22,000 so far in total) since 1987 for the museum to "provide positive identification" if the Loch Ness Monster or Yeti should be discovered. In such a case, the museum would also have the rights to exhibit the animals' remains. (News source.)

Of course, as it is unlikely the bookies themselves will secure the evidence, and I doubt that they are going to pay out any money to the discoverers themselves (if they don't actually place a bet), nor is there any reason for said discoverers to allow the bookmakers or museum to have anything to do with any remains, looks to me like the bookmakers have paid out a great deal of money for nothing. Seriously, if someone actually discovers a yeti or lake monster (with full remains) there are far better ways to make it available to the scientific community while retaining remunerative financial benefits. (One way would be to provide the specimen on permanent loan to an institution while retaining commercial rights to reproduction of skeletal remains...)

Weta Workshops Yeti

A tv ad for NZ's Land Search and Rescue includes a yeti, with combination of guy-in-a-suit and animatronics tech. (News source.)

Attenborough on the Yeti

Sir David Attenborough thinks the question of the Yeti is as yet "unanswered." (News source.)

More Siberian Yeti News

Take it for what it's worth...

SciFi Yeti Movie

SciFi Channel will be airing a yeti movie on Saturday, Nov. 8. Some info here.

Japanese Expedition Finds Yeti Tracks

An expedition to Nepal/Tibet to film a yeti found only (alleged) tracks. (News source.)

"Yeti" Hairs Tested

Hairs found near sightings of a yeti-like primate in India have turned out to be goral (a wild goat) hairs. (News source.)

Yeti

A generic travel article on the yeti in Nepal here.

Yeti Hunt

A 7-man Japanese crew will be setting out soon for the Himalayas, with the intent of getting video evidence for the yeti. (News source.)

An earlier expedition didn't succeed, but this time, with better equipment, they think they'll be able to get clear video proof of the cryptid's existence. (Except, of course, that scientists are unlikely to consider video evidence proof of existence...)

Still Waiting for DNA Results...

The UK scientist investigating the "India yeti" hairs is still awaiting DNA results. (News source.)

The guy's logic is a bit strained, though, here:

"'The DNA will tell us if it's a primate and may unveil a new species. If that's the case, it'll still be a mystery and we need to get resources to the Indian scientists.
"'If it's a new species, it's likely to be small and, therefore, could well be under threat. If they're the size people have said they are, you would expect a lot more of them to be seen in the area.
"'The sightings are in secluded villages where there are no cars or telephones so news travels by word of mouth.'"

More Mande Burung

Another article on the "yeti" of India.

Yeti in Bhutan

A long article in the Washington Post on cultural changes in Bhutan, with an emphasis on yeti sightings.

Yeti Hair Update

From the news:

"Ape expert Ian Redmond, who is coordinating the research, said they had ruled out the hairs belonging to Asiatic black bears, macaque monkeys, humans, dogs, and wild boar." ...
"Zoe Forbes, a spokesman for Oxford Brookes, said: 'The testing of the hairs is a three-stage process, involving microscopic analysis, analysis under a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and then the extraction of DNA.
"'The SEM analysis is also taking place at Brookes, but if it confirms the original findings, the hairs will be sent to other laboratories for DNA extraction.'"

Yeti Sketch

A British artist visiting Bhutan used local folklore and sightings to sketch a representation of the Migoi (local term for Yeti). She was also shown an alleged yeti scalp that was kept as a holy relic. (News source.)

Sherpa Suggests Bear

Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, suggests that the publicized "yeti" prints discovered by Destination Truth may be bear tracks. (News source.)

"Similar" to Yeti Tracks

The television show Destination Truth is reporting that they've found tracks "similar" to those of ABSMs. Which, of course, doesn't mean anything: they may have already identified them as something else, but you just won't find out until the episode airs. (News source.)

Short Cryptofiction: Yeti-Chasing Nazis

A collection of short stories by Jim Shepard, Like You'd Understand, Anyway, includes a yeti-themed story titled "Ancestral Legacies."

From the LA Times:

"There are also quests in this collection, foolhardy expeditions for political or sociological reasons, yet driven by foolhardy inner demons as well. Ernst Schafer, who narrates 'Ancestral Legacies,' has been sent by the Third Reich to search for the 'Nordic-Aryan legacy' while stirring up British-Tibetan tensions in the Himalayas; he's skeptical of Himmler's bogus theories but happy to exploit those state-provided funds. A self-proclaimed man of science -- "I'm interested in the racial origins of inventiveness. . . . [B]efore this mission I myself had begun branching out into the more positive aspects of eugenics" -- Schafer is more intent on justifying his quest for the mythical yeti: 'I've been mocked for devoting my life to a legend. But legends have moved whole nations, and held them together.'"

From the NY Times:

"'This is the roof of the world. An immense, sequestered place, the highest of the high plateaus, many times the size of the Reich. I'm still sick. The porters still gesticulate and exchange private jokes when they assume my attention is elsewhere. Beger's bad ankle is still swollen. Somewhere I've misplaced my certainty.'
"So opens 'Ancestral Legacies,' with Shepard's trademark sucker punches displayed to full effect: an attention-getting opening sentence (nicked from Mingtao Zhang's 'Roof of the World,' and 10 bucks for anybody who knew that already), a sneaky reference ('the Reich') that slips in a setting and a point of view while ostensibly describing the scenery, the establishment of internal and external conflict in a few short phrases -- we've met several other characters and learned that the narrator is both watchful and ill -- and a paragraph closer that works in a lovely turn of phrase while establishing our hero's state of mind, then and now. All this in the tale of two Nazi scientists trekking through Tibet on a search for the yeti as a way of proving racial theories beloved by Himmler. I can think of six writers offhand, myself included, who might drag that idea through a 400-page first draft tentatively titled 'Misplaced Certainty.' Shepard gets the job done in 15 pages, tipping his hat to H. P. Lovecraft and M. R. James and still coming out ahead."

Expensive Image

The photograph of an alleged yet footprint taken on a 1951 expedition was sold at Christie's yesterday, for £3,500. (News source.)

Shipton's Yeti Photos at Auction

From the Telegraph:

"Four photographs of large paw prints in the snow beneath Mount Everest are to be sold at Christie's in London on September 26.
"The images were taken by the legendary British mountaineer Eric Shipton on a reconaissance trip to Everest in 1951..."
"Tom Bourdillon, who was also in the reconaissance party, later gave Shipton's black and white prints, which measure 6ins by 4ins, to a friend, Michael Davies.
"Mr Davies' descendants are now selling the historic souvenirs, which are expected to fetch £2,500." ...
"On the back of one of his images, Bourdillon wrote to Davies about the team's sighting of the prints.
"He said: 'We came across them on a high path on the Nepal-Tibet watershed during the 1951 Everest expedition.
"'They seem to have come over a secondary path at about 19,500ft down to 19,000ft where we first saw them and then went on down the glazier.
"'We followed them for the better part of a mile. What it is I don’t know, but I am quite clear that it is no animal known to live in the Himalaya and that it is big.'"

The estimate sounds a bit on the high side...