Provenance … is there a DNA problem?
‘Derek Abbott, a professor in the Adelaide University School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, claims it was strands of the man’s hair trapped in a plaster “death” mask made by (Paul Lawson under the police’s supervision) police in the late 1940s that provided him with what he says is proof of the man’s identity.’
‘Police gave Abbott strands of the hair a decade ago as he continued what had become a personal quest to solve the Somerton man mystery.’ Hilary Whiteman CNN 26/7/22.
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The Somerton Man .. 
OK, But what about the bad points?
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Yeah .. and do we know exactly when the hairs were harvested, and by who, and under what circumstances? Little wonder the gorgeous Xanthe Mallet has strong doubts the body will ever be identified (she’s got similar qualifications as Colleen Fitzpatrick).
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Unfortunately, you could be correct, pity that the gorgeous Xanthe was a bit late on the scene, so to speak. Apart from the DNA query, the photos of the SM could have/were doctored to change his I.d. I just have the feeling that his origins relate to Eastern Europe (Czech/Bulgaria) can’t prove it, unfortunately.
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I wonder if SAPOL would be so kind as to release some more samples obtained from recent excavations, then Xanthe could have a trundle at the “unknown man”.
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Is anyone a witness to the hairs being taken from the bust
or was he just given them
or does he claim he took them himself
We just don’t know
where those hairs came from
Where is the certainty of proof
in all of this
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I’m thinking that it would be almost be irresistible for someone to run their hands over that plaster dome, accidentally rubbing off a few of those fragile hairs in the process.
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For all his (presumed) good intention, DA seems to have a habit of attracting well-qualified people to endorse any fantasy he comes up with. It’s actually one of the biggest issues I take with him – that he uses the world of academia to put forward an opinion that sounds more qualified than it is – because it comes from academics, right? He also uses his academic connections to give credence to any theory even when it doesn’t seem to have any skerrick of possibility in it.
Imagine the amount of research that has been done with the University’s funding that is driven by his quest – I know there’s been multiple post-grads into different aspects of the of SM (mainly into the “code”) – and while I’ll admit I’m not familiar enough with how Universities work to know what criteria there might be for Masters or Doctoral coursework, I’m not sure what value a study into cracking a specific code would bring – unless it develops new ways of cryptographically assessing or attacking the code. I’ve also never really understood how this would be Post-Grad Electrical or Electronic Engineering – Mathematics, maybe, Computer Science perhaps…..but if I’m honest I think the fact that it’s a post-grad research is what bothers me the most.
Happy for anyone who was part of this Post-Grad research to correct me on that.
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Oops – I stand corrected (a little bit). They were Honours projects, not Masters or PhD. Maybe in that case I’ve been a little harsh toward the end….it’s still at least 9 project with at least 18 people in total. That seems like a lot of effort for a small code whose solution has no obvious benefit unless it helps with the advancement of some code-cracking technique (and I still don’t really see how it fits into Electircal and Electronic Engineering).
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