Hi,
I know y'all are discussing TAM3, but I thought I'd post my account of TAM2 which I wrote - with liberal quotes from others on this forum - for the UK ASKE newsletter. Thanks to my sources(quoted).
cheers
xenu
A quick account of a trip to Las Vegas, (‘Sin City’, ‘Lost Wages’, etc – I prefer Penn Jillette's description: ‘An adult Disneyland for people bad at math’).
The event, of course, was the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF)'s ‘Amazing Meeting II.’ You can find other accounts and pictures at the Randi Forum at http://www.randi.org. I have borrowed from some of these, especially ‘chaos’ at: http://www.asp.zugetextet.com/modules/WBB/board.php?boardid=7. This account is fairly breathless and cobbled together through a haze of jetlag, work, and skiing holidays.
Thursday 15th
Virgin Atlantic flew direct from Gatwick to Vegas on Thursday at 10:30a.m. - you gain 8 hrs on the way - and arrived at 14:30 local time to check into the Tuscany. Nice place I thought, cheap and roomy.
We missed the ‘Solved Mysteries’ workshop prior to the Meeting proper, but that was in any case an extra charge and designed for those who plan to test psychics. So a stroll to the strip and then back for registration, free T-shirt, browse the bookstalls and the usual OTT American buffet.
Quick introduction by Mr. Randi, then we kicked off with the facilitator, Lieutenant Colonel Hal Bidlack, PhD. sceptic and theist(!), who did a great job controlling the event.
First speaker was up was the conjuror Jamy Ian Swiss, with an exhibition of mentalism and wonderful card tricks. And his outspoken attitude to ‘psychic’ frauds.
Next, Ian Rowland. I've seen him in London and have his cold-reading book, (Full Facts Book of Cold Reading, second edition, also now his third edition, which I bought at the event - I was buying books like a pilled-up Amway conventioneer....) Ian concentrated on cold reading and mentalism, usually the unadmitted domain of people like John Edwards and Sylvia Browne - despite their claims of supernatural powers.
Ian gave us a demonstration of how a ‘talking to the dead’ session works on a large crowd; I found it moving and touching, even to an audience of sceptics. How powerful it must be directed at vulnerable believers... I particularly enjoyed his trick, when no response came, of looking farsightedly and talking to an imaginary member of the audience: ‘I know you are too nervous to speak, and understand this, but I can tell you she is here in spirit and is happy and forgives you...’ Excellent patter.
We almost missed Ian's revolting nail-in-the nose trick. Not sure if I can recommend this one.
The first day also featured a talk on Theatrical Séances by Rick Maue. We missed this. It started two hours later, at 11 pm. As it was already 6:00 a.m. by our body clocks we thought it was time to crash.
Friday 16th
Bang on time, full of thin coffee (Starbucks would have been appreciated). The first speaker on the second day was Dr. Michael Shermer of the Skeptic Society. He presented his latest book, The Science of Good and Evil, which shows that morality is deeply rooted in human behaviour, because humans, as a social species, fare better if they behave morally instead of immorally. The main point of linking this to scepticism is that it eliminates the need for a higher authority to justify morality. Copies were flying off the bookstalls. I enjoyed Dr Shermer's account of his being a born-again Christian, witnessing in the accepted manner, then becoming a born-again atheist, also witnessing, before becoming a bit more relaxed...
Dr. Eugenie Scott told us about the National Center for Science Education, whose Executive Director she is, and its work in promoting scientific education in American schools. The NCSE does a great job in promoting science, though it has far less resources than the Genesis-pushing fundamentalists
Similar in topic to Dr. Scott was the next speaker, Ms. Hervey Peoples, who spoke about ‘the ABCs of the Evolution Controversy’. I was interested that the Pope is considered a liberal on this as the Catholic Church has accepted scientific evolution. But the whole creationism vs. evolution thing is much more of a problem in the US as various wacko school boards push bible literalism in the science classroom. This is one problem we don't have too much of in Europe.
Some delegates took an optional, extra-cost lunch with Penn Jillette which included a tour of his house “The Slammer”. (Check the www.randi.org forum an account of this). All proceeds to the JREF; Penn was very generous. The rest of us had another extreme buffet.
After lunch, Peter Bowditch of the Australian Skeptic´s Society spoke on health quackery in Australia. I talked to him later about the UK guy jailed recently for using a fraudulent Australian healing device as a cancer cure. N.B. - presenting at TAMII must be nerve-wracking for amateurs; there are a lot of very good professional speakers.
Next up was, Banachek, one of the ‘Alpha Kids’ who, working with Mr. Randi, fooled parapsychologists into believing they possessed ‘psychic powers’. Only later did they reveal they performed tricks. He gave the conference a detailed account of the tests as well as the – relatively simple - tricks they used to fool the researchers. (And they certainly fooled me!). Banachek said that he and his partner in deception agreed that if they were ever asked, ‘Are you conjurers?’ they would of course admit it straightaway. That is, they would not lie. But they were never asked, presumably because of the parapsychologists' need to believe in the ‘psychic’ phenomena. Banachek also indicated, when showing how the ‘moving compass’ tricks were done, that they were many other ways of performing the trick than magnetics or manipulation. The simplest spoon-bending trick was to switch the labels on the test spoons; some were naturally more bent than others and they just switched the nametags of a ‘more-bent’ spoon to a straighter one! They did not even have to bend it!
Which brings us to the afternoon's highlight: Penn and Teller. They are admirers of Mr Randi: indeed I learned that he was instrumental in their getting together. They gave a special performance, performing miracles for the ‘Church of Teller’ and other tricks. Teller's famous pin-swallowing trick was wonderful. A little of Penn Jillette, especially in performing mode, goes a long way, but his honesty and passion for reality shine through. They had a short Q and A afterwards. Teller spoke(!) and Penn Jillette, letting the showman slip, movingly replied to a question about Roy (of Siegfried and Roy)'s condition. A P&T skeptical show, ‘◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊’ was mentioned; it will get a second series (is it on UK TV anywhere?).
That day of the conference ended with a panel discussion on the topic ‘Bringing skepticism to the masses’, with Mr. Randi, Penn, Teller, Michael Shermer, Hervey Peoples, Eugenie Scott, Bob Park, Steve Barrett and Phil Plait. Hal Bidlack acted as moderator.
There were a lot of questions on religion; for what it’s worth I tend to the view that we should concentrate on physical manifestations/miracles and other testable claims rather than belief in God. The discussion could have used some more focus. We had a diverse and very strong panel, but their expertise was too varied; I would have preferred that they used their knowledge in a more focused way, i.e. on alternative medicine, psychics, or conjuring, rather than the random questions we got. Perhaps some prepared, pre-submitted questions would be better? A fault of these events is that the questions become long-winded statements of the questioner's own belief, rather than topics for the panel.
After the conference, there was an additional fundraising event with proceeds to the JREF: you could pay for a private dinner with Mr. Randi.
We omitted this, but joined the majority of delegates who had booked tickets for the Penn and Teller show at the Rio Hotel, where they are the resident attraction. The tickets were donated by P&T (all proceeds again to the JREF). Transport was laid on, but my pal and I walked to the Rio, via the Bellagio, to confirm tickets for the Circle du Soleil show, ‘O’, on Sunday. Walking off the strip, you are soon in a motorway desert. Not many pedestrians take that route…
As Penn said in the early part of the show, he and his partner Teller are liars and deceivers, but they are the best liars and deceivers of all in Las Vegas. Their tricks ranged from hilarious to astounding, to mind-boggling, and back again from there - an excellent show in a huge theatre. You are constantly reminded of the huge scale of Las Vegas. I enjoyed Teller's classic goldfish illusion, and the political and libertarian implications of their flag-burning sketch, about which I browbeat the New York Times reporter at lunch the following day. Penn's broken-bottle juggling was jaw-droppingly good.
It is worth stressing the contribution Penn and Teller, and other supporters such as Johnny Carson, give to the JREF.
Saturday 17th
The first speaker for the day was Dr. Bob Park of he American Physical Society. He spoke about ‘The Seven Signs of Voodoo Science’ – seven characteristics by which pseudo-science can be distinguished from real science. His book, ‘Voodoo Science’ is excellent. I have most of the standard sceptical books and this one was a worthy addition, lots of new stuff, excellent layman’s scientific explanation, new targets, and humour apparent from the style of his ‘What's New’ e-column.
Next, Dr. Steve Barrett of Quackwatch spoke. Quackwatch is the website devoted to warnings and exposes of the various kinds of quackery and pseudo-medicine that infest our society.
Following a short break, Dr. Phil Plait - also known as The Bad Astronomer - was up. He started his presentation with pictures of a ‘visitation in his shower - an arrangement of water on his shower curtain that looked remarkably like Mr. Randi. So it's not just the BVM who appears! Phil, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Dr Richard Wiseman, included the elusive ‘Planet X’ (‘It´s still not there’) and a look at a ‘perfect constellation of planets’ that turned out to be not quite as perfect at closer examination.
After another excellent buffet lunch - Chinese, this time - Julia Sweeney gave us an excerpt of her latest show, ‘Letting Go of God’. Julia was the highlight of the weekend for me. Her talk followed her journey from Catholic believer to atheist and sceptic. All done at 180mph, with beautiful timing, diction and humour. I loved her amusement at the mad story two sweet Mormon missionaries told her - but then she had to look at her own beliefs: were they any less ridiculous? That struck a chord with me. She then converted to ‘God is Nature’: but the impact of what Nature does to the weaker ‘Blue-footed Booby Baby’ (a bird species native to the Galapagos islands) weakened that faith, too. (She also fell for, and after examination rejected, Deepak Chopra and Buddhism on the way to scepticism).
(I'll add another quote on Julia's performance: ‘Letting Go of God is Julia's story of her journey from belief to becoming a sceptic and gradually losing her faith in God. Each step along the way is driven by Julia's desire to explore and test her current convictions. Study of the Bible led her away from the naive faith of her childhood. Further study and a desire for greater meaning led her away from the Church entirely. Observation of the authentic practices and beliefs of Buddhism pushed her from that tradition. Venturing out to see nature, red in tooth and claw, eliminated the God of Nature. All of this story is told with charm and wit that had people doubled over laughing helplessly in the back. The version at the conference was only about half the length of the full performance, so there is still much more to the story.)
Julia has taped a performance on video. You can get it at http://www.skeptic.com - code AV101.
‘Dino and Victor´s Nigerian Spam Scam Scam’ was a performance detailing part of the e-Mail traffic that Dino (Dean Cameron) had with the perpetrators of the Nigerian Spam Scam, the well-known spam e-Mail from Nigeria designed to trick the recipient into sending money to the criminals. I found this a bit over-long, but then I had read the transcript (at www.quatloos.com. BTW; don't go to Nigeria to get your money back... It's very dangerous).
Another famous conjuror, Lance Burton, gave us some classic tricks, including the Houdini straightjacket escape. He has a superb deadpan drawl and understated humour. I'd like to see his stage show.
After a short break, the day´s official program closed with another panel discussion, this one on the topic ‘Skepticism and the Entertainment Industry’. On the podium were Mr. Randi, Julia Sweeney, Penn, Jamy Ian Swiss, Ian Rowland, Dino, and Andrew Harter, with Hal Bidlack serving as moderator yet again. Lots of criticism of the media, but Penn Jillette pointed out that Christian fundamentalists complain too. There was lots of praise - lead by me - for South Park's John Edwards episode ‘The Biggest Douche in the Universe’. Penn (again) is a fan and he knows Trey Parker. South Park gets lots of criticism but because people watch it, they can keep it going.
Mr Randi finished the day with clips from Mr Alvarez playing ‘Carlos’ on Australian TV. Randi set up the Oz media with a fake psychic and showed examples of Carlos's cold-reading divinatory powers. We finished with a video of ‘the first card trick in space’: Randi got an astronaut to take a pack of cards up to the space station, and perform a card trick in zero-G, linked up by video to the JREF.
Sunday 18th
The first part of the conference that day was the presentation of papers. The organiser for that part, Jeff Corey, had selected three presentations:
Lt. Col. Matt Morgan, PhD, of the US Air Force Academy presented ‘The Second Law of Thermodynamics’. This law - stating that in an isolated system, the amount of entropy (chaos) will always increase - is often used by creationists to refute evolution, based on the assumption that evolution from simple to complex life presents a decrease of entropy. Lt. Col. Morgan showed that, while the organisms indeed become more complex, and therefore less entropic, this always causes an even greater increase of entropy in their surroundings, as the organisms themselves are not an isolated system, while organisms plus surroundings are isolated.
The second presentation was done by Dr. Ray Hall, on the topic ‘How Science Works: The Demarcation Line between Science and Pseudo-Science’.
Dave Ewalt, mistakenly identified as ‘Dr. Dave Ewalt’ in the schedule, did the third presentation, ‘Skeptics and the Media - Making your Voice Heard’. He covered many possibilities for that, including how most effectively to write letters to the editor, and blogging.
The last speaker of the conference was Dr. Ray Beiersdorfer. His topic was crystals, one of the staples of new age philosophy. Dr. Beiersdorfer explained what crystals and minerals are, how they are categorized, and what properties New Age philosophy ascribes to them. At the beginning of the conference he had asked every delegate to take an amethyst crystal and keep it with them at the conference, to see what effect it had. Although New Age philosophy regards amethysts as perhaps the most powerful crystals, it turned out they had no effects at all - except that, as Mr. Randi joked, they seemed to have enhanced critical thinking and scepticism at the conference.
And at the end?
Next year TAMIII is also in Las Vegas in January, this time at the Sahara. I can heartily recommend the trip; Las Vegas is fascinating place: the hotels are mad beyond description. The Circle de Soleil show, ‘O’, at the Bellagio Hotel, is a wonderful spectacle, the best I've ever seen.
Regrets? We did not do enough socialising, but the weekend was so busy - and I went with a pal - that we did not stop. I would advise joining the Forum prior to going next year and so get known.
Gambling? Spent $10 or so on a slot machine, and $40 on one blackjack hand. Take a quick punt and don't come back - gambling is like tossing a coin, but with the side you want heavier than the other.
And the book of complimentary vouchers we got when enrolling as a Tuscany Hotel/Casino customer gave you an extra $5 if you cashed your payroll or unemployment cheque there.
I know y'all are discussing TAM3, but I thought I'd post my account of TAM2 which I wrote - with liberal quotes from others on this forum - for the UK ASKE newsletter. Thanks to my sources(quoted).
cheers
xenu
A quick account of a trip to Las Vegas, (‘Sin City’, ‘Lost Wages’, etc – I prefer Penn Jillette's description: ‘An adult Disneyland for people bad at math’).
The event, of course, was the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF)'s ‘Amazing Meeting II.’ You can find other accounts and pictures at the Randi Forum at http://www.randi.org. I have borrowed from some of these, especially ‘chaos’ at: http://www.asp.zugetextet.com/modules/WBB/board.php?boardid=7. This account is fairly breathless and cobbled together through a haze of jetlag, work, and skiing holidays.
Thursday 15th
Virgin Atlantic flew direct from Gatwick to Vegas on Thursday at 10:30a.m. - you gain 8 hrs on the way - and arrived at 14:30 local time to check into the Tuscany. Nice place I thought, cheap and roomy.
We missed the ‘Solved Mysteries’ workshop prior to the Meeting proper, but that was in any case an extra charge and designed for those who plan to test psychics. So a stroll to the strip and then back for registration, free T-shirt, browse the bookstalls and the usual OTT American buffet.
Quick introduction by Mr. Randi, then we kicked off with the facilitator, Lieutenant Colonel Hal Bidlack, PhD. sceptic and theist(!), who did a great job controlling the event.
First speaker was up was the conjuror Jamy Ian Swiss, with an exhibition of mentalism and wonderful card tricks. And his outspoken attitude to ‘psychic’ frauds.
Next, Ian Rowland. I've seen him in London and have his cold-reading book, (Full Facts Book of Cold Reading, second edition, also now his third edition, which I bought at the event - I was buying books like a pilled-up Amway conventioneer....) Ian concentrated on cold reading and mentalism, usually the unadmitted domain of people like John Edwards and Sylvia Browne - despite their claims of supernatural powers.
Ian gave us a demonstration of how a ‘talking to the dead’ session works on a large crowd; I found it moving and touching, even to an audience of sceptics. How powerful it must be directed at vulnerable believers... I particularly enjoyed his trick, when no response came, of looking farsightedly and talking to an imaginary member of the audience: ‘I know you are too nervous to speak, and understand this, but I can tell you she is here in spirit and is happy and forgives you...’ Excellent patter.
We almost missed Ian's revolting nail-in-the nose trick. Not sure if I can recommend this one.
The first day also featured a talk on Theatrical Séances by Rick Maue. We missed this. It started two hours later, at 11 pm. As it was already 6:00 a.m. by our body clocks we thought it was time to crash.
Friday 16th
Bang on time, full of thin coffee (Starbucks would have been appreciated). The first speaker on the second day was Dr. Michael Shermer of the Skeptic Society. He presented his latest book, The Science of Good and Evil, which shows that morality is deeply rooted in human behaviour, because humans, as a social species, fare better if they behave morally instead of immorally. The main point of linking this to scepticism is that it eliminates the need for a higher authority to justify morality. Copies were flying off the bookstalls. I enjoyed Dr Shermer's account of his being a born-again Christian, witnessing in the accepted manner, then becoming a born-again atheist, also witnessing, before becoming a bit more relaxed...
Dr. Eugenie Scott told us about the National Center for Science Education, whose Executive Director she is, and its work in promoting scientific education in American schools. The NCSE does a great job in promoting science, though it has far less resources than the Genesis-pushing fundamentalists
Similar in topic to Dr. Scott was the next speaker, Ms. Hervey Peoples, who spoke about ‘the ABCs of the Evolution Controversy’. I was interested that the Pope is considered a liberal on this as the Catholic Church has accepted scientific evolution. But the whole creationism vs. evolution thing is much more of a problem in the US as various wacko school boards push bible literalism in the science classroom. This is one problem we don't have too much of in Europe.
Some delegates took an optional, extra-cost lunch with Penn Jillette which included a tour of his house “The Slammer”. (Check the www.randi.org forum an account of this). All proceeds to the JREF; Penn was very generous. The rest of us had another extreme buffet.
After lunch, Peter Bowditch of the Australian Skeptic´s Society spoke on health quackery in Australia. I talked to him later about the UK guy jailed recently for using a fraudulent Australian healing device as a cancer cure. N.B. - presenting at TAMII must be nerve-wracking for amateurs; there are a lot of very good professional speakers.
Next up was, Banachek, one of the ‘Alpha Kids’ who, working with Mr. Randi, fooled parapsychologists into believing they possessed ‘psychic powers’. Only later did they reveal they performed tricks. He gave the conference a detailed account of the tests as well as the – relatively simple - tricks they used to fool the researchers. (And they certainly fooled me!). Banachek said that he and his partner in deception agreed that if they were ever asked, ‘Are you conjurers?’ they would of course admit it straightaway. That is, they would not lie. But they were never asked, presumably because of the parapsychologists' need to believe in the ‘psychic’ phenomena. Banachek also indicated, when showing how the ‘moving compass’ tricks were done, that they were many other ways of performing the trick than magnetics or manipulation. The simplest spoon-bending trick was to switch the labels on the test spoons; some were naturally more bent than others and they just switched the nametags of a ‘more-bent’ spoon to a straighter one! They did not even have to bend it!
Which brings us to the afternoon's highlight: Penn and Teller. They are admirers of Mr Randi: indeed I learned that he was instrumental in their getting together. They gave a special performance, performing miracles for the ‘Church of Teller’ and other tricks. Teller's famous pin-swallowing trick was wonderful. A little of Penn Jillette, especially in performing mode, goes a long way, but his honesty and passion for reality shine through. They had a short Q and A afterwards. Teller spoke(!) and Penn Jillette, letting the showman slip, movingly replied to a question about Roy (of Siegfried and Roy)'s condition. A P&T skeptical show, ‘◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊’ was mentioned; it will get a second series (is it on UK TV anywhere?).
That day of the conference ended with a panel discussion on the topic ‘Bringing skepticism to the masses’, with Mr. Randi, Penn, Teller, Michael Shermer, Hervey Peoples, Eugenie Scott, Bob Park, Steve Barrett and Phil Plait. Hal Bidlack acted as moderator.
There were a lot of questions on religion; for what it’s worth I tend to the view that we should concentrate on physical manifestations/miracles and other testable claims rather than belief in God. The discussion could have used some more focus. We had a diverse and very strong panel, but their expertise was too varied; I would have preferred that they used their knowledge in a more focused way, i.e. on alternative medicine, psychics, or conjuring, rather than the random questions we got. Perhaps some prepared, pre-submitted questions would be better? A fault of these events is that the questions become long-winded statements of the questioner's own belief, rather than topics for the panel.
After the conference, there was an additional fundraising event with proceeds to the JREF: you could pay for a private dinner with Mr. Randi.
We omitted this, but joined the majority of delegates who had booked tickets for the Penn and Teller show at the Rio Hotel, where they are the resident attraction. The tickets were donated by P&T (all proceeds again to the JREF). Transport was laid on, but my pal and I walked to the Rio, via the Bellagio, to confirm tickets for the Circle du Soleil show, ‘O’, on Sunday. Walking off the strip, you are soon in a motorway desert. Not many pedestrians take that route…
As Penn said in the early part of the show, he and his partner Teller are liars and deceivers, but they are the best liars and deceivers of all in Las Vegas. Their tricks ranged from hilarious to astounding, to mind-boggling, and back again from there - an excellent show in a huge theatre. You are constantly reminded of the huge scale of Las Vegas. I enjoyed Teller's classic goldfish illusion, and the political and libertarian implications of their flag-burning sketch, about which I browbeat the New York Times reporter at lunch the following day. Penn's broken-bottle juggling was jaw-droppingly good.
It is worth stressing the contribution Penn and Teller, and other supporters such as Johnny Carson, give to the JREF.
Saturday 17th
The first speaker for the day was Dr. Bob Park of he American Physical Society. He spoke about ‘The Seven Signs of Voodoo Science’ – seven characteristics by which pseudo-science can be distinguished from real science. His book, ‘Voodoo Science’ is excellent. I have most of the standard sceptical books and this one was a worthy addition, lots of new stuff, excellent layman’s scientific explanation, new targets, and humour apparent from the style of his ‘What's New’ e-column.
Next, Dr. Steve Barrett of Quackwatch spoke. Quackwatch is the website devoted to warnings and exposes of the various kinds of quackery and pseudo-medicine that infest our society.
Following a short break, Dr. Phil Plait - also known as The Bad Astronomer - was up. He started his presentation with pictures of a ‘visitation in his shower - an arrangement of water on his shower curtain that looked remarkably like Mr. Randi. So it's not just the BVM who appears! Phil, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Dr Richard Wiseman, included the elusive ‘Planet X’ (‘It´s still not there’) and a look at a ‘perfect constellation of planets’ that turned out to be not quite as perfect at closer examination.
After another excellent buffet lunch - Chinese, this time - Julia Sweeney gave us an excerpt of her latest show, ‘Letting Go of God’. Julia was the highlight of the weekend for me. Her talk followed her journey from Catholic believer to atheist and sceptic. All done at 180mph, with beautiful timing, diction and humour. I loved her amusement at the mad story two sweet Mormon missionaries told her - but then she had to look at her own beliefs: were they any less ridiculous? That struck a chord with me. She then converted to ‘God is Nature’: but the impact of what Nature does to the weaker ‘Blue-footed Booby Baby’ (a bird species native to the Galapagos islands) weakened that faith, too. (She also fell for, and after examination rejected, Deepak Chopra and Buddhism on the way to scepticism).
(I'll add another quote on Julia's performance: ‘Letting Go of God is Julia's story of her journey from belief to becoming a sceptic and gradually losing her faith in God. Each step along the way is driven by Julia's desire to explore and test her current convictions. Study of the Bible led her away from the naive faith of her childhood. Further study and a desire for greater meaning led her away from the Church entirely. Observation of the authentic practices and beliefs of Buddhism pushed her from that tradition. Venturing out to see nature, red in tooth and claw, eliminated the God of Nature. All of this story is told with charm and wit that had people doubled over laughing helplessly in the back. The version at the conference was only about half the length of the full performance, so there is still much more to the story.)
Julia has taped a performance on video. You can get it at http://www.skeptic.com - code AV101.
‘Dino and Victor´s Nigerian Spam Scam Scam’ was a performance detailing part of the e-Mail traffic that Dino (Dean Cameron) had with the perpetrators of the Nigerian Spam Scam, the well-known spam e-Mail from Nigeria designed to trick the recipient into sending money to the criminals. I found this a bit over-long, but then I had read the transcript (at www.quatloos.com. BTW; don't go to Nigeria to get your money back... It's very dangerous).
Another famous conjuror, Lance Burton, gave us some classic tricks, including the Houdini straightjacket escape. He has a superb deadpan drawl and understated humour. I'd like to see his stage show.
After a short break, the day´s official program closed with another panel discussion, this one on the topic ‘Skepticism and the Entertainment Industry’. On the podium were Mr. Randi, Julia Sweeney, Penn, Jamy Ian Swiss, Ian Rowland, Dino, and Andrew Harter, with Hal Bidlack serving as moderator yet again. Lots of criticism of the media, but Penn Jillette pointed out that Christian fundamentalists complain too. There was lots of praise - lead by me - for South Park's John Edwards episode ‘The Biggest Douche in the Universe’. Penn (again) is a fan and he knows Trey Parker. South Park gets lots of criticism but because people watch it, they can keep it going.
Mr Randi finished the day with clips from Mr Alvarez playing ‘Carlos’ on Australian TV. Randi set up the Oz media with a fake psychic and showed examples of Carlos's cold-reading divinatory powers. We finished with a video of ‘the first card trick in space’: Randi got an astronaut to take a pack of cards up to the space station, and perform a card trick in zero-G, linked up by video to the JREF.
Sunday 18th
The first part of the conference that day was the presentation of papers. The organiser for that part, Jeff Corey, had selected three presentations:
Lt. Col. Matt Morgan, PhD, of the US Air Force Academy presented ‘The Second Law of Thermodynamics’. This law - stating that in an isolated system, the amount of entropy (chaos) will always increase - is often used by creationists to refute evolution, based on the assumption that evolution from simple to complex life presents a decrease of entropy. Lt. Col. Morgan showed that, while the organisms indeed become more complex, and therefore less entropic, this always causes an even greater increase of entropy in their surroundings, as the organisms themselves are not an isolated system, while organisms plus surroundings are isolated.
The second presentation was done by Dr. Ray Hall, on the topic ‘How Science Works: The Demarcation Line between Science and Pseudo-Science’.
Dave Ewalt, mistakenly identified as ‘Dr. Dave Ewalt’ in the schedule, did the third presentation, ‘Skeptics and the Media - Making your Voice Heard’. He covered many possibilities for that, including how most effectively to write letters to the editor, and blogging.
The last speaker of the conference was Dr. Ray Beiersdorfer. His topic was crystals, one of the staples of new age philosophy. Dr. Beiersdorfer explained what crystals and minerals are, how they are categorized, and what properties New Age philosophy ascribes to them. At the beginning of the conference he had asked every delegate to take an amethyst crystal and keep it with them at the conference, to see what effect it had. Although New Age philosophy regards amethysts as perhaps the most powerful crystals, it turned out they had no effects at all - except that, as Mr. Randi joked, they seemed to have enhanced critical thinking and scepticism at the conference.
And at the end?
Next year TAMIII is also in Las Vegas in January, this time at the Sahara. I can heartily recommend the trip; Las Vegas is fascinating place: the hotels are mad beyond description. The Circle de Soleil show, ‘O’, at the Bellagio Hotel, is a wonderful spectacle, the best I've ever seen.
Regrets? We did not do enough socialising, but the weekend was so busy - and I went with a pal - that we did not stop. I would advise joining the Forum prior to going next year and so get known.
Gambling? Spent $10 or so on a slot machine, and $40 on one blackjack hand. Take a quick punt and don't come back - gambling is like tossing a coin, but with the side you want heavier than the other.
And the book of complimentary vouchers we got when enrolling as a Tuscany Hotel/Casino customer gave you an extra $5 if you cashed your payroll or unemployment cheque there.
