
Amelia Earhart: Island bones 'likely' belonged to famed pilot - RustGirl
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43323944#
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revx
This was posted recently on reddit to much skepticism. Apparently the group
who funded the study is known for pushing a specific agenda. More info:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/82rl2n/bones_found...](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/82rl2n/bones_found_on_south_pacific_island_belonged_to/dvcar35/?utm_content=permalink&utm_medium=front&utm_source=reddit&utm_name=science)

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taborj
I don't see what they gain by "pushing a specific agenda." It's not like
they're using this for political gain.

To be fair to TIGHAR, it's more like vigorously researching a particular
theory. To be honest, they're the only ones who are sinking actual cash and
bringing in actual specialists to investigate their theory, and at the very
least they've found some intriguing, circumstantial evidence.

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buahahaha
The "non-profit" group is a scam, where the operator of the group gets paid
very well from the operating expenses of the non-profit.

An event like this would be leveraged to draw attention to the cause, thereby
the group, thereby raising more funding to spend on further self-gaining
operational expenses.

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dzdt
"Identified" based on recorded dimensions of the bones from old medical notes?
When the original examiner, with actual bones in front of him, determined them
to be from a male? I will take a large grain of salt here!

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bunderbunder
I guess* there's been a lot of revision of previous sex determinations for
skeletal remains lately. Something about older techniques paying too much
attention to the absolute sizes bones, which led to a lot of misclassification
of taller-than-average men and shorter-than-average women.

*Based on a conversation with a museum employee, so I've got no citation here.

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snowpalmer
The article gives little information to trust this source.

> The bones have unfortunately since been lost, and so cannot be analysed.

The actual written paper I hope gives more (though I haven't read through it
yet.)

[http://journals.upress.ufl.edu/fa/article/view/525/519](http://journals.upress.ufl.edu/fa/article/view/525/519)

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natecavanaugh
For anyone looking for a direct link to the skepticism of TIGHAR, here it is:
[https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4295](https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4295)

I don't have a dog in the fight either way, but I'd have appreciated a link to
the criticism :)

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simonblack
In other words, the bones could have belonged to any one of millions of other
people the same size as Amelia Earhart.

I nominate my Aunt Olga as the person who died on that island. (Just as
possible, just as likely as Amelia Earhart)

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aphextron
I've been avoiding this story, but is there consensus it's legit?

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kobayashi
There is no such consensus. As extensively outlined elsewhere (such as the
r/science reddit thread posted elsewhere on this HN page), this group seems to
have had an agenda other than rigorous scientific exploration.

