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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 07/12/2014 : 18:59:54 [Permalink]
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| Today was good. I was awake for everything. I'm doing my traditional eat with Susan who you guys don't know. More later... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 07/12/2014 : 23:32:33 [Permalink]
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| Okay... I'm back but Thor is sleeping so I guess I'm not going to make noise now. I'll fill in tomorrow. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 07/13/2014 : 17:31:04 [Permalink]
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Okay. I have some time now. Hopefully this will make sense. I did just have a beer and a bagel down at the deli.
Saturday went off much better for me. What that means I was awake for for the talks. The day opened with the usual saturday SGU panel discussion which is always fun. No great shakes. But they did have some funny videos to share. A fellow from Australia, Karl Kruszelnicki gave a very animated fun talk on silliness going on down under.
Wait a sec. I’m not going to describe everyones talk, just so you know.
Paul Offit’s talk was on a measles incident that happened in the early nineties, again due to not vaccinating. In this case, for religious reasons. He went into some detail on it including that there were three deaths that resulted from it. His point was all that went down before there was even an anti-vax movement which makes these times even scarier.
Elizabeth Loftus didn’t really get into any areas of contention for me, so I really had nothing to complain about. I mean, yeah. Memory is malleable. Of course, her big deal is the creation of false memories. What she didn’t say was that repression doesn’t happen, even though that is what she believes.
The junk science and neuroscience and psychological science panel was missing a neurologist, even though there was one in attendance. But cog d is what they are pushing and that’s that.
After Jamy Ian Smith did sort of a pep talk on skeptic wins for the year (it should be noted that his talk was moved up a day and switched with Karen Stollznow’s talk for reason that I don’t know. (The upshot is I kinda missed her talk due to not being awake enough. Same goes for Carol Tavris. Maybe Thor can fill in some blanks here. Seems I might have missed something significant. I dunno.)
Daniel Loxton’s talk was by far my favorite. It was called “A Rare And Beautiful Thing” and it focused on our rich history of skepticism and even some of the dangers earlier skeptics faced and tied that in with our current promotion of skepticism and the importance of doing what skeptics do. It was elegantly put. I know this is my opinion, but I think Loxton is one of the best, if not the best communicators of the mission as some of us see it. Not everyone will agree, but there is no denying his voice for “scientific skepticism.”
Steve Novella gave a talk on how it is to be a physician and the difficulties of making a diagnosis. He drove home the point that it’s not a perfect science but it is built on the the very best current science, unlike other methods of healing.
Eugene Scott gave a nice talk, as usual. She also received an award from the JREF for her part in advancing science education and skepticism.
Now for me, the biggest surprise of the day was Bill Nye’s keynote address. I have never seen him so on and so animated. It was a fiery talk that had us cheering. Hell… He has me almost forgiving him for debating Ken Ham... Almost. I do hope it will be on video soon. I swear it was every bit as good as one of Niel DeGrasse Tyson’s talks.
So afterward, Thor and I found this little prime rib place that is sort of tucked behind the mexican joint. We both filled up and waddled out. Good food!
I think that was Friday night. Saturday we ate with Susan and friends at the buffet, which can best be described as food hell. As much as you want of awful food. But we did have discount tickets that included free wine.
Sorry if I’m bouncing back and forth a bit hey… It’s hard to get on here while I’m not shitfaced or so full of coffee that shooting sparks out my ass.
I’ll get to Sunday in my next post. Hopefully from here. Right now I’m waiting to be told where the volunteer dinner is. It got moved up to tonight and I was supposed to get an email about it, but so far I have no idea... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 07/13/2014 : 17:33:07 [Permalink]
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| I didn't mention it but Thor left this morning after breakfast. I'm gonna miss him around here. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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froydnslp
New Member
22 Posts |
Posted - 07/13/2014 : 17:38:18 [Permalink]
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| Can't wait to hear everything. Maisie wants to see you. Did you get her phone call? Kanudie? Anyway, bummed about the over rep of cog b. But...looking forward to hearing about it all! |
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ThorGoLucky
Snuggle Wolf
USA
1486 Posts |
 Posted - 07/13/2014 : 18:45:40 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
I didn't mention it but Thor left this morning after breakfast. I'm gonna miss him around here.
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Warm fuzzies. It was fun but it's good to be back home with Ms. Elder Puff. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 07/13/2014 : 21:04:18 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by froydnslp
Can't wait to hear everything. Maisie wants to see you. Did you get her phone call? Kanudie? Anyway, bummed about the over rep of cog b. But...looking forward to hearing about it all!
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Yeah! I saved it! What a nice phone call to get.
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 07/13/2014 : 21:50:59 [Permalink]
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I'm back from dinner with D.J and some volunteers. The buffet. It was a nice dinner. Good conversation. There is a photo already up on my fb timeline.
This morning Thor and I made it to breakfast early because he had a flight to catch.
Every year the breakfasts get better. I remember when it was a diabetics nightmare. Now there are eggs and bacon and sausage and fruit and sweet rolls and cereal and sweet-rolls and orange juice and coffee and... Well you know. Breakfast!
The paper presentations were uniformly good. I especially enjoyed Steve Cuno's talk on advertising, and the myths surrounding it. While he agrees that there are misleading ads and outright lies, most of it is just kind of hit and miss and not nearly as scientific as we are lead to believe. The idea is to sell an ad to a firm and if they like it, it's a go. But he pointed out how many of those ads crash and burn. He gave several examples of really good and really bad ads that either worked or didn't. Bad ones that worked and good ones that didn't. Mostly it's about getting a firm to hire an ad agency. That's about it. No one really knows, using the best market research and looking at the trends, what will sell a product. It's kinda like hit records. No one really knows how to make a hit record. If you set out to do it, you will probably be very disappointed.
Michael Shermer gave his talk. I heard it wasn't bad. It wasn't until the end that he pitched his new book.
Don Prothero's talk was "The Mind of the Science Denier." Mostly good, but... Well look. I'm a liberal and even I know that conservatives are not responsible for all of the science denial. He even said that most of the anti-vax was coming from the right. And he didn't even mention anti-GMOs which leads me to believe it would have been an inconvenience because just about all of that one is coming from the left and has been very effective. He sort of waved away the left stuff because the right is making policy. So he focused on Climate change. And he's right there. But I just couldn't go all the way with him. While he's screaming about "ideology," he showed his own. Sigh...
Richard Saunders was fun as usual, showing us examples of psychic failures and more importantly, gadgets that are being marketed that do nothing. Very expensive gadgets at that.
Massimo Polidoro, the Italian Randi, who learned his trade from Randi mostly made a pitch for funding to get his book about Randi written. Sounds like it will be a good one. Much more in depth than the movie is. I think he's going to Kickstarter to help raise funds so he can work on the book exclusively.
And so ended the official presentation part of TAM. D.J. came out with numbers. Seems people from over thirty countries attended and the count was somewhere around 1100. Same as last year. Not bad.
Randi read a bit of something he wrote back in 1991. Still very relevant today. He thanked us all and said this was the best TAM ever.
I don't know about that, but it was a good TAM. The vibe was good. I did get into some conversations about the problems in the community with a few people. Opinions ran in several directions. But I didn't talk to anyone who was unhappy about being there. With whatever problems there are, some perceived and some real, TAM still rocks.
And now, I'm tired of writing and I just might go down to the Del Mar and see what's going on there...
I'll probably get into some more detail after I get home. Might even put in some more time on this tonight or in the morning. I'll be home tomorrow, late afternoon.
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2014 : 04:49:07 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
But I didn't talk to anyone who was unhappy about being there. |
You're dealing with a biased sample. The people who thought they'd be unhappy there probably didn't show up. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2014 : 06:02:23 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by Kil
But I didn't talk to anyone who was unhappy about being there. |
You're dealing with a biased sample. The people who thought they'd be unhappy there probably didn't show up.
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He didn't say that there WERE no people who were unhappy about being there. Only that he did not TALK to them.  |
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2014 : 09:08:47 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by Kil
But I didn't talk to anyone who was unhappy about being there. |
You're dealing with a biased sample. The people who thought they'd be unhappy there probably didn't show up.
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Yeah. That was a bit of snark on my part. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2014 : 19:30:58 [Permalink]
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| It's monday night and I just got home. There was a bit of a mixup with baggage so it took longer in the airport than it should have. I'm just getting organized so give me a little bit and I'll bring this thing up to date. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 07/18/2014 : 20:02:32 [Permalink]
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So anyhow... Sunday, after lunch, I was talking with some people up in the convention area when Banachek walked up to us and asked if we were all IIG members. I'm not, so for some reason that qualified me to be a test subject for the million dollar challenge. I was lead to a small conference room. In the room there was a fellow, a person who claimed he could cause you to feel something (I don't know what) physically, just by waving his hand around. There was a woman writing stuff down, Banachek and me. I was asked to sit down in front of an open box on the table where I sat, and put my hand into the box without touching the sides of the box. The opening was facing me and there was a towel on the bottom of the box to make it more comfortable to hold that position. Banachek then asked the challenger to do his thing. After some prep, which was kinda funny to watch, he held his hand to the side of the box without touching it. After 30 seconds were up, I was asked by Banachek to take my hand out of the box and describe what I felt. What I felt was nothing other than I put my hand in a box and then took my hand out of the box. Nothing unusual happened while my hand was in the box. And with that, Banachek thanked me and I was done.
I think I was some sort of control. A skeptic. I think people in the IIG group were not allowed because they do testing. I'm not sure.
Anyhow, as I understand it, the people who put their hands in the box in the actual challenge event were not skeptics. They were people from Vegas and had no ties to the skeptical community or even to skepticism as a philosophy. Just folks. After the challenger failed in his the first two attempts, it was over.
I wasn't there because watching the challenge is a bit like watching paint dry, usually. This time it was over fast, I guess. I heard about how it went from other people.
The volunteer dinner was at the Garden Buffet (food hell) and it was fun.
Monday morning I packed, checked out and had breakfast. A bagel and coffee. I hung out at the Del Mar with my coffee until it was time to go. It was a nice quiet time talking to a few skeptics and just hanging out. My shuttle was to leave at 1 pm and my flight was at 3pm. Monday morning is a nice time there. Very relaxed. In our group was Richard Saunders, which is a bit of name dropping, but hey...
The flight left on time and there was a baggage screw up on the other end, but no big deal.
And if anything else comes to me, or if any of you have any questions or comments, have at it. Should I post some photos here? |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 07/19/2014 : 01:18:32 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
There was a woman writing stuff down, Banachek and me. I was asked to sit down in front of an open box on the table where I sat, and put my hand into the box without touching the sides of the box. The opening was facing me and there was a towel on the bottom of the box to make it more comfortable to hold that position. Banachek then asked the challenger to do his thing.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yIDtN8CDQmk#t=71 |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 07/19/2014 : 09:58:44 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse
Originally posted by Kil
There was a woman writing stuff down, Banachek and me. I was asked to sit down in front of an open box on the table where I sat, and put my hand into the box without touching the sides of the box. The opening was facing me and there was a towel on the bottom of the box to make it more comfortable to hold that position. Banachek then asked the challenger to do his thing.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yIDtN8CDQmk#t=71
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Yep. That's exactly what it was like!
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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TAM thread 2014
