A TAM Virgin

Instead of building The Amazing Meeting 8 up in my mind to be an awesome event, I decided to have no expectations. This was my first TAM and it turned out to be better than I ever could have imagined! As soon as I got to the Las Vegas airport I started to recognize big names in the skeptical community. The first was Paul Kurtz. A living legend was walking right by me and I think I was kind of staring at him. I also saw DJ Grothe, pointed at him and said, "that's DJ Grothe!" To which Ginger said, "don't point!" I felt like a kid in a candy store! I also met Joe Nickell and Brian Dunning in-person. I am big fans of both of their work and it was very surreal to be seeing and talking to them in the flesh.

At one point I said, "Am I really standing here talking to Joe Nickell in the flesh?"
To which Dr. Nickell replied, "No. I'm just a hologram. I'm not really here."

I even got to take a picture with James Randi himself! He was very nice, approachable and he signed my copy of Flim-Flam! All of the speakers were the same way. Very warm. Very approachable.

The only thing that was better than the talks was being among 1,300+ of my fellow skeptics. It was so invigorating mingling with fellow skeptics from, not only all over the United States, but all over the world. Skeptics that I met were from Canada, Ireland, England, and Australia! It feels good to know that attendance at TAM, events like TAM, and the skeptical community are all growing. It always feels good to know that you are not alone in the world.

Another highlight for me was the Grassroots Skepticism workshop. It was so inspiring and motivating to get all kinds of ideas for our local skeptics group here in Cleveland. It was exciting to know that we are all struggling to organize in our own local communities and trying to expand the skeptical community. It gave me a lot of ideas and I cannot wait to help the Cleveland Skeptics to grow and thrive!


If you have never been to The Amazing Meeting I highly recommend you attend at least one in your lifetime. Start saving now and go!

Michael Shermer: The pattern behind self-deception

Michael Shermer says the human tendency to believe strange things -- from alien abductions to dowsing rods -- boils down to two of the brain's most basic, hard-wired survival skills. He explains what they are, and how they get us into trouble.

Dr. Eugenie Scott: Science and Skepticism

How are science and skepticism related? Is skepticism a part of science, or is science a tool of skepticism? Dr. Eugenie C. Scott, Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education, discusses these questions, and explores the importance of teaching both science and skepticism.


Notable Links:

National Center for Science Education

Bay Area Skeptics

James Randi @ TED 2007

Legendary skeptic James Randi takes a fatal dose of homeopathic sleeping pills onstage, kicking off a searing 18-minute indictment of irrational beliefs. He throws out a challenge to the world's psychics: Prove what you do is real, and I'll give you a million dollars. (No takers yet.)

DNA Replacement Therapy

The Cleveland Skeptics recently attended the Gift of Light Psychic Fair, where I came across fliers on DNA Replacement and DNA Implantation distributed by Dr. Steve Glasgow. Trust me, you really want to click the links to see the fliers in all their glory.

I didn't do more than glance at these fliers until after I left, otherwise I would have certainly engaged Dr. Glasgow in some conversation. I thoroughly regret my mistake. Once home, I could not find any references to DNA replacement and implantation of the New Age sense on the web. However, one of the fliers says that his treatment is much more than DNA "activations" out there so I used that as my starting point. Although I was convinced that this DNA therapy must be something new, I saw that Orac talked about DNA Activation on his blog, Respectful Insolence, long ago. Orac described the amusing claims made by Toby Alexander's site, DNA Perfection but I also found others, including one by Deena Douglas. The basic shtick is we are only utilizing two strands of our DNA when there are really 12 (or more) that could all be up and running. (I thought DNA working overtime is a cause of cancer growths, but who's counting?)

DNA Perfection offers activation of 12 strands of DNA, while Denna Douglas offers 24 strand activation. Well, who you gonna go with?? But wait, there is more! Dr. Glasgow speaks of 144 strands, yes, 144 strands of DNA. It reminds me of the "7 minute" abs scene from There's Something About Mary. I should offer to do 20,736 and see if he twitches.

Let's pull our toes out of the pool and jump knee deep in horse doo-doo, shall we?

The DNA Replacement flyer first states,

...the "Original Human DNA" has been located in a sealed ancient stone container... A starter of the "Original Human DNA" is placed in your body and allowed to grow and expand. This is the original DNA that humans had when the first arrived on this planet.

Ancient stone container? Placed in my body? First "arrived" on this planet?

Maybe I shouldn't be so shy about having this DNA placed in my body. After all, "no human touching of any kind is involved," because it is, "physically implanted into the human body through a multidimensional spiritual process called apportation." This is done by the "Doctors and Angels in the Spirit world." Plus, as part of the process I get "Chakra balancing and vortex rotation adjustment." Sounds like something for a New Age auto mechanic.

So all I have to do is allow the Spirit world to place this DNA, "into the bone marrow of the spine near the solar plexus" and I'm good to go. Until I hit 72 strands. Then it is time for a second procedure, and time for another payment.

Now there is pseudoscience which knows how to mix just the right balance of scientific sounding nonsense and just plain nonsense to appeal to the average Joe. Like The Secret. But on this one somebody turned the crazy dial until the knob fell off.

Michael Specter: The danger of science denial

Vaccine-autism claims, "Frankenfood" bans, the herbal cure craze: All point to the public's growing fear (and, often, outright denial) of science and reason, says Michael Specter. He warns the trend spells disaster for human progress.

Michael Specter is a staff writer for the New Yorker. His new book, Denialism, asks why we have increasingly begun to fear scientific advances instead of embracing them.


Notable Links:

Michael Specter's Official Website

UFOs over Cleveland

As if Cleveland isn't scary enough. Now there are strange lights darting about the sky. One man video taped it. "A local man said he spotted a UFO and he believes it's proof we're not alone. 'Absolutely nothing we have on this earth even looks like that,' said Eugene Erlikh." Immediately, Josh on the mailing list (go here to join) reminded us of the words of Michael Shermer, "before we say something is out of this world, we should first make sure that it's not in this world." Carla Jackson, the lone skeptical voice from the article, is even tougher to please. "Camera trick," said Carla Jackson. "I have to be there to actually see it."

Apparently Lake Erie has become known as a hotspot for UFO sightings.  According to the above article, Musician Michael Lee Hill has filmed many UFO videos from this area and posted them on YouTube. He has even sold some of them to news and documentary makers. Although the videos just look like airplanes from the nearby Hopkins and Burke Lakefront airports, Hill rules out this prosaic explanation by pointing out that the lights are not blinking.

If a sighting is not just a plane, there are other possibilities as well. Last year in New Jersey, two skeptics out to demonstrate the credulity of the media, ufologists, and the public at large launched several flares attached to helium balloons and let the mayhem begin. Of course there are those who create hoaxes for other motives such as money or media attention (but one should be careful not to jump to this conclusion either). One member of the Cleveland Skeptics suggested that lasers of some sort could be reflected off of clouds to create a UFO effect.

Yet another explanation involves no humans intervention at all. Josh points out that even though they spend more time looking at the sky than anyone, astronomers and lay expert astronomers rarely report UFOs. "Notice how there aren't a lot of UFO reports from professional and amateur astronomers." That's because they know how to identify objects such as Venus, meteors and other astronomical phenomena which are often labeled as UFOs by the untrained eye.

Josh sums it up, "Lets all remember what the 'U' stands for.  'Unidentified'. To go from calling it an unidentified flying object, to calling it an alien spaceship from another planet is committing the logical fallacy, (the) argument from ignorance.  The only thing that 'argument' proves is that you don't know what it is. "  



Additional Links:

Case closed:MUFON says Euclid, OH, UFOs Are Planes

Lake Erie UFOs Are Stars on YouTube

Neil deGrasse Tyson's take on the UFO phenomena. 

Do astronomers see UFOs? by Phil Plait

A Website for Astronomers to Report UFOs

The Skeptic's Dictionary Entry on UFOs