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Not to get too controversial (he said, as he was about to get flamed)... but
whenever I hear the phrase "different ways of knowing" bandied about, I get
nervous. I worry that's it code for "I will accept absolutely any idea, even
if it's complete nonsense."

Why? Well, check out this item from the AP...

Jonah Cohen
Outreach & Public Programs Manager
The Children's Museum (formerly the Science Center of Connecticut)


Bigfoot is bigger than life at Idaho museum

POCATELLO, Idaho - The director of the Idaho Museum of Natural History says
it won't matter whether Bigfoot is farce or fact when a new exhibit opens
Friday.

Linda Deck, who is also curator of the Bigfoot exhibit, said the museum is
taking a neutral position and simply displaying artifacts that involve the
legendary creature that some say lives secretly in the Northwest.

"As human beings we make sense of our world in a variety of different ways,"
Deck told the Idaho State Journal. "We've got our myths, legends and beliefs
and a very scientific way of knowing about our world, too, where we make
hypotheses and test things and learn and change what we think."

But for Bigfoot believers, it could be a treasure trove.

Included in the exhibit is the Patterson-Gimlin film that shows a large
creature striding away before turning and looking directly at the camera.

In the clip the creature steps on a branch. That branch is included in the
exhibit. The branch was used to calculate the creature's height at 6-foot-6
(2 meters), said Dave Mead, exhibits director at the museum.

Also on display is a flannel jacket worn by the late Rene Dahinden, who
spent 40 years in search of Bigfoot. He wore the jacket during a series of
commercials for Kokanee beer.

Other objects in the exhibit include American Indian depictions of Bigfoot,
a stick thought to have been twisted by one of the creatures, art and
sculptures of Bigfoot, hair samples said to be from a Bigfoot, a cast of an
impression said to be of a Bigfoot's elbow, and other evidence gathered by
people involved in the search for Bigfoot.

Jeff Meldrum, an anatomy professor at Idaho State University and a local
Bigfoot expert, said the exhibit will give visitors a new way to consider
the subject.

"I think the (museum's) approach is a very thought-provoking one that
recognizes there are a variety of dimensions to the experience of Bigfoot,"
Meldrum said. "The exhibit attempts to use the topic of Bigfoot as a
springboard to analyze different ways of knowing. A variety of those things
intersect with the subject matter at hand."

Mead said he expects the Bigfoot exhibit to rival an exhibit the museum had
15 years ago that featured automated dinosaurs.

"Bigfoot is along the same lines of attraction," said Mead. "He's mysterious
and big."

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