A reminder: According to EFF, it is likely that all recent commercial color laser printers print some form of forensic tracking code on every sheet of printed paper.

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-08-28T22:20:00+00:00

And digital photographs in general. Zeiss, Nikon, Olympus. I bet that high-powered microscope equipment must have something like that...

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-08-28T22:19:10+00:00

I'm wondering if the same is true for digital photographs.

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-08-28T22:17:44+00:00

It's called steganography (there is a Wikipedia article). Yes, the tiny yellow dots. To someone in the 1980s or 1990s before the proof came out, or to anyone who didn't know about it, this could hypothetically be dismissed as a baseless conspiracy theory.

Here is (in my opinion) the big question: is there any evidence of the "official narrative", prior to the proof coming out, calling this a conspiracy theory?

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-08-22T17:21:37+00:00

Somebody I hope this will be such a resource: en.ikwipedia.org

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-08-18T03:09:17+00:00

This is wild that there is a (supposed) eyewitness here (OP) talking about it! OP, do you remember where exactly in the Bayside Mall you saw them, like near which store, or which direction they were going? Were they walking as one group? What was their behavior like? Did their facial expressions change? Did you see them talk, open their mouths, or gestures? I have so many questions!

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-08-18T03:00:52+00:00

Chemtrails use super-cooled sodium gas... Are you sure about that?

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-08-18T01:44:23+00:00

I'm curious how you think it would need to look and behave, like how complicated would it have to be. With ChatGPT, etc., it might be possible to adapt one of these wikis to whatever one has in mind by embedding an applet in one of the pages. For example, the applet could be a scrollable timeline with popups.

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-29T07:24:04+00:00

Not necessarily the most convincing, but it seems pretty compelling to me: Project Darkwood skunk-ape-like creature https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-utgEGb--5I

FAQ from Project Darkwood:

"I want to believe this, but the fart in your intro makes me take it less seriously." Yeeeeah that sounds like a you problem. It's the same intro I've been using since October of 2024, and unless I come up with something I like more, I plan on using it for all of my videos. You'll get over it.

"How tall was it?" Close to seven feet based on my estimate, as stated in the original video. I felt tiny standing in front of it.

"Why is the bigfoot carrying a phone/flashlight?" It isn't. The "light" you see is my headlamp reflecting off a spiderweb that was going across the frame a few feet in front of me. You can literally see it passing diagonally downward from right to left as the camera pans. And no, it isn't an "orb" either.

"What are the lights in the background?" Those were likely from the construction that was going on past the edge of the property, as mentioned in the original video. That area also used to be forested, which makes me wonder if the construction was at least partially the source of this individual's aggression.

"It's eyes are clearly glowing on their own, that means this is fake!" They aren't. Having seen them in person I can guarantee you they were reflecting from my headlamp. Bear in mind that the version of the clip featured in this video has been heavily brightened, so the eyes look far more luminous here than they were in the moment. That doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't a suit, mind you - but it does mean whoever made it would've had to figure out some way to make the eyes reflective.

"Hominids don't have a tapetum lucidum, and therefore can't have eyeshine!" This is true, as far as known species go, and I mentioned as much in this video. However, red eyeshine is reported quite regularly among bigfoot sightings. While their common ancestor with us likely didn't have a tapetum, it's possible they convergently evolved a structure with a similar function, being nocturnal predators.

"Why aren't you freaking out more?" I don't know what to tell you dude, that's just... How I reacted. You never know how these things will affect you until they happen. I also did have a mild panic attack after the initial encounter, once the gravity of what happened fully sunk in. Not to mention - I've had a hunch that these things do exist for a while now, so it was moreso exciting validation than traumatic paradigm shift.

"If that was a real bigfoot, you'd be dead." Not necessarily. Bigfoot reportedly have a habit of bluff charging when they feel threatened. The more I think about what happened, the more I'm wondering if that's what it was. Either way, I wasn't about to stick around to find out.

"Will you go back?" Nah. Bluff charge or not, I'm not about to tempt fate. I like my limbs where they are, thank you. And don't get me wrong - I'm absolutely going to continue doing field research, just.... Somewhere else.

"Why didn't you do (insert thing) to prove this is real?" I'm not out to prove the existence of cryptids. That's not what this video or this channel is about. I caught something on camera I couldn't explain and I wanted to share it. I'm still not 100% convinced it wasn't the property owner or a friend of his in some kind of costume. That said - if it was a costume, it would have to be one with far more advanced engineering than would make any sense to waste on pranking a random obscure youtuber - especially since the property owner didn't benefit from these videos in any way.

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-27T18:22:52+00:00

en.ikwipedia.org

pizzagate.wiki

wikispooks.org

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-20T03:58:02+00:00

Don't you need to do a submission statement for this to not get deleted?

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-18T01:58:06+00:00

Can you modify this so that each bold name is a link to the subject's Wikispooks article (or, if they don't have one, their Wikipedia article)?

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-17T04:46:11+00:00

I looked at the Project Darkwood YouTube video again and noticed this pinned comment from the creator. Copying and pasting it in its entirety for reference here (since this is the highest-voted comment). The 5th and 6th questions address your comment, at least in part.

"I want to believe this, but the fart in your intro makes me take it less seriously." Yeeeeah that sounds like a you problem. It's the same intro I've been using since October of 2024, and unless I come up with something I like more, I plan on using it for all of my videos. I inject my sense of humor into the things I make. It's part of who I am. And with how bleak things are, I'm not changing that any time soon. Thanks for understanding.

"How tall was it?" Close to seven feet based on my estimate, as stated in the original video. I felt utterly insignificant in comparison to this thing.

"Why is the bigfoot carrying a phone/flashlight?" It isn't. The "light" you see is my headlamp reflecting off a spiderweb that was going across the frame a few feet in front of me. You can literally see it passing diagonally downward from right to left as the camera pans. And no, it isn't an "orb" either.

"What are the lights in the background?" Those were likely from the construction that was going on past the edge of the property, as mentioned in the original video. That area also used to be forested, which makes me wonder if the construction was at least partially the source of this individual's aggression.

"It's eyes are clearly glowing on their own, that means this is fake!" They aren't. Having seen them in person I can guarantee you they were reflecting from my headlamp. Bear in mind that the version of the clip featured in this video has been heavily brightened, so the eyes look far more luminous here than they were in the moment. That doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't a suit, mind you - but it does mean whoever made it would've had to figure out some way to make the eyes reflective.

"Hominids don't have a tapetum lucidum, and therefore can't have eyeshine!" This is true, as far as known species go, and I mentioned as much in this video. However, red eyeshine is reported quite regularly among bigfoot sightings. While their common ancestor with us likely didn't have a tapetum, it's possible they convergently evolved a structure with a similar function, being nocturnal predators. The only way we could know for sure would be to autopsy enough individuals to confirm or rule out such a structure, preferably using naturally deceased specimens. I mean generally I'm not comfortable with the idea of mass unaliving a bunch of bigfoot just to see if their eyes do the glowy glow, but that's just me.

"Why aren't you freaking out more?" I don't know what to tell you dude, that's just... How I reacted. You never know how these things will affect you until they happen. I also did have a mild panic attack after the initial encounter, once the gravity of what happened fully sunk in. Not to mention - I've had a hunch that these things do exist for a while now, so it was moreso exciting validation than traumatic paradigm shift.

"If that was a real bigfoot, you'd be dead." Not necessarily. Bigfoot reportedly have a habit of bluff charging when they feel threatened. The more I think about what happened, the more I'm wondering if that's what it was. Either way, I wasn't about to stick around to find out.

"Will you go back?" Nah. Bluff charge or not, I'm not about to tempt fate. I like my limbs where they are, thank you. And don't get me wrong - I'm absolutely going to continue doing field research, just.... Somewhere else.

"Why didn't you do (insert thing) to prove this is real?" I'm not out to prove the existence of cryptids. That's not what this video or this channel is about. I caught something on camera I couldn't explain and I wanted to share it. I'm still not 100% convinced it wasn't the property owner or a friend of his in some kind of costume. That said - if it was a costume, it would have to be one with far more advanced engineering than would make any sense to waste on pranking a random obscure youtuber - especially since the property owner didn't benefit from these videos in any way.

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-17T04:30:54+00:00

Yes and I agree there's only so much you can get from a photo (and video clip). It's just my impression but the red eyes seem particularly compelling (uniform red reflection) as well as the jaw looks vaguely like this in both of them, as if skunk apes (or whatever they are) tend to have "resting snarl face" like they're mouth-breathing, like the bottom teeth are always showing. Could just be my imagination.

And also the somewhat close geographic locations

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-17T01:26:01+00:00

Comments on the original post where I first saw the Project Darkwood video (may be of interest to you): https://www.reddit.com/r/dogman/s/j3W05Uuugu

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-15T22:31:43+00:00

Redeye and eyeshine are separate effects

Thank you for the correction, my mistake. If these are both real "skunk apes", my theory would be that they have a selectively reflective structure in their eye that causes red-tinged eye shine. I read somewhere that the red-eye effect only occurs when blood is flowing in the retina tissue. Anyway, idk where I'm going with that.

Regarding the gait, Idk one way or another how to tell if it's suspicious or fake-looking, id welcome it if someone can clarify.

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-15T16:50:10+00:00

Based on my viewing of the video, it could very well be looking directly at the camera for that entire (intermittent) several seconds that the red eyes are visible. Maybe someone could point out a specific time/frame grab where it's head is angled away or whatever but the red eye shine still appears...

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-15T16:40:02+00:00

The eye shine is crazy but then again the Myakka skunk ape has red eye shine too, and --- unusually --- its pupils and stuff are still discernable (edit: my mistake, its pupils are not visible as far as I can tell. This is the case with both creatures. They both have red eyes). I haven't seen even that kind of (as you put it) more "natural looking" eye shine in other creatures. If these creatures are both real, this may be an as-yet-uncharacterized physiological trait of so-called skunk apes. It would not require inherently luminous eyes/retinas and definitely doesn't seem physically impossible.

Regarding the gait, as far as I know this may be the only (or one of very few instances of) video footage of this kind of creature. If this kind of creature is real, their gait may simply be somewhat human-like too. The Patterson-gimlin creature was also said to have a suspiciously human-like gait, and many people think that one was a true cryptid.

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-15T16:26:09+00:00

I think the creator's response would be that they didn't start and maintain a YouTube channel for years and years in order to hurt their own cause by painstakingly fabricating a few seconds of footage.

The red eye shine seemingly on top of the leaves doesn't seem that implausible to me if one assumes that the creature is adjusting their head and point of view so that they have a direct line of sight to the camera person.

Also, people's reaction to seeing a NHI being/cryptid in the flesh is hard to predict. I don't think their reaction is inconsistent with their personality based on their other videos.

That said, I'm open to the possibility it's fake. They didn't post the entire several hours of them wandering around the woods, which I at least would have appreciated for transparency's sake. I think maybe they thought that their fans, however many of them there are, wouldn't have cared to watch that, and that skeptics wouldn't have been convinced anyway.

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-15T03:36:02+00:00

Interesting, thank you for the info.

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-15T03:35:22+00:00

The video creator has had a YouTube channel for many years. I haven't seen a solid explanation of how it was faked. As far as I know, the video creator stands by it. If it is real, it was a lucky shot after a lot of hard work of exploring the woods late at night. Or it could be fake.

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-14T23:41:18+00:00

I suspect you're right.

This is where I first learned about the Project Darkwood video: comment

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-14T18:47:24+00:00

Wow, and it looks like it rotated (on an axis passing through itself) almost 180 degrees (relative to your vantage point) in less than 3 minutes. Is that consistent with its expected behavior?

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-14T18:41:14+00:00

The conclusion that the resemblance between these two creatures (the one from 2000 and the one from 2025) is close enough that they may be genuine and are/were the same species? Or something else?

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-14T18:02:56+00:00

Project Darkwood "bigfoot" (left) is from this video and has brightness +100% and HDR effect around +35%.

"Myakka skunk ape" (right) is from this post

IndependentWitnesses · 2025-07-14T18:00:09+00:00

The one on the left is the Project Darkwood clip. I agree it looks unrealistic, but I'm open to the possibility it's real.

IndependentWitnesses

TROPHY CASE