You can do it with lake monsters too www.skeptic.org.uk/2022/09/crea...

I am more troubled by my younger relations digging up an Anglo-saxon crown...

Identifying Biases and the Relevant Statistical Population: The Case of the Loch Ness Monster We used a database of Loch Ness Monster reports to show university level students how important it is to think about bias and the identification of the correct statistical population. The Loch Ness...

For papers on the stats of the Loch Ness Monster see
doi.org/10.1080/2693...
doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

YouTube video by IFLScience IFLScience Investigates The Loch Ness Monster: The Science, Story, And Power Of Belief

A new Nessie doc, with (unusually) interviews with scientists who actually have published papers in cryptozoology!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aezT...

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Just received

"Dear Dr. Monstrum,

I’m reaching out to invite you to consider joining the editorial board of Academia Animal and Veterinary Science, an upcoming Open Access peer-reviewed journal from Academia.edu Journals. "

Actually I rather like being called "Dr Monstrum"

Weird Things Some Scientific Skeptics Say about Science | Skeptical Inquirer Despite their commitment to critical thinking and evidence-based approaches to solving problems, some otherwise very clear-thinking skeptics occasionally pr ...

Latest article: This may make me unpopular in the scientific skeptical movement but it should not do...
skepticalinquirer.org/2025/10/weir...

As I recall Gavin Maxwell reckoned there was a dark waterfall/stream near his home at Sandaig in the Highlands.

Some are factual like hoops in a sea monster narrative, but others are stylistic. More on this in the future...

There are cues that imply to me at least, a fictional narrative but we will never be able to say for sure for any individual case.

I am opposed to AI products and services because of the extra power they require... IN A CLIMATE CRISIS. I am opposed to AI results - texts and illustrations - because they've been created unethically, via theft and non-consensual use of the work of others. Share if you agree.

Strongly recommended!

Oh, I thought your whole shtick was that we already had...

Two bits of art I would like to have the originals of

For cryptozoologists, there was the original Nat Geo art for the
Bathysphaera intacta. It would have been cool to get that.
www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5...

This is why I believe table top demos of the greenhouse effect etc. might be more compelling than telling people to just trust the experts. The trouble is it is difficult to demonstrate things that are statistical.

2/2
From their own perspective they are more scientific than the scientists. All the things they are sceptical of, are statistical. A seventeenth century member of the Royal Society might agree with them. Nullius in verba and all that.

1/2
I think conspiracy is a small part of it, it is about personal experience .... denialists often trust their own experience or info from someone they personally trust over an e.g. statistical argument which they have to take as faith from people they know not.

Unfortunately, I will never attain Adrian's definitive monster hunter look. I can be very occasionally found wearing tweed though!

Intrigued by the subtitle. Offhand, I would not have thought that bigfooters have much affect on science at all, save perhaps occasionally propagating an erroneous view of what science is. I'll put that on my reading list.

To be fair, that was my fault. I, in fact, missed a reference to "humps" on the press release the university put out. Eternal vigilance is required in science communication.

Those who spot the Loch Ness Monster are telling the truth, study says Nessie spotters are telling the truth and really do see humps in the loch, a jaw-dropping new study has revealed.

A well rounded article from the Daily Mail(!) on our recent research on Nessie

www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/...

If you want the original article it can be found here.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lKArabuHw...

Awesome. I have not seen either of these before.

New paper by Adrian Shine and myself. A cultural exploration of aquatic monsters with an unexpected twist about eyewitness testimony.

Hoops, loops and eyewitness reliability: a history of biologically impossible aquatic monsters.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lKArabuHw...

Oops. Should have been "want", but "what" sort of works.

What to know about the history of sea serpents with loops? Coming very soon.

From ChatGPt
"Cryptozoology, as practiced by Charles Paxton, is not pseudoscience."
Nice to know.

This is a reconstruction of the oldest (to my knowledge anyway) first hand sea-monster eyewitness account in Scotland (although the report but not the encounter post-dates the Stronsa beast) that is that of Donald Maclean off Coll in 1808.

How do witnesses report biologically impossible sea monsters....coming soon.

That is a good one.

I do what some might call silly science but I nevertheless think the uncle is asking a legitimate question. In a democracy surely everyone has a right to query what happens to state funds. Antiscience feeling may come from scientists not justifying themselves.