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Emily Rosa

TsarBomba

One Damn Dirty Ape
TsarBomba
Joined
Jan 7, 2007
Messages
808
Emily Rosa was originally scheduled to a be a speaker at TAM 7, but has canceled.

She posted an "explanation" on her Myspace page.

According to her page, she declined to be a speaker at TAM because the JREF would not comp her a free conference pass for someone that she wanted to bring along with her.

From Emily's Myspace page:

A very simple request I thought, since many free tickets are awarded.
Click to expand...

A simple request, no doubt, but an appropriate one? I don't think so.

I also like where she calls TAM a "hoity-toity affair" because, you know, it's like, expensive.


Here's another little nugget:
. . . it would be the fee of a single companion. I am a young woman traveling alone, and I thought it was a reasonable request, but it turns out to be one that the organizer could simply not agree to.
Click to expand...

This makes it seem like she is a 12 year old girl who needs a parent or some other chaperon along. I mean, really! According to her Myspace profile she is 22 years old. I think that a 22 year old can be trusted to get on a plane to Vegas, find their way to Southpoint (although as a speaker she would likely be picked up by someone form the JREF) and hang out with the rest of us at TAM.

In summary, it seems like a mighty frivolous reason not to speak at TAM, not to mention, IMHO, an inappropriate request for the JREF to essentially hand her something with the value of $500 in addition to whatever benefit she gets as a TAM speaker.
 
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Well, she's certainly wrong that free tickets are often awarded, even volunteers have to pay, but I don't think it's an unreasonable request.

Are we sure that's her MySpace page? There are many enemies of JREF who could take advantage of a situation like this. Seems like it is but certainly worth questioning.

Something about this stinks because it's hardly a deal-breaker. I don't accept that JREF would lose a speaker over a free pass with no other reasons at all. If this is true then I don't believe it's all of the reason. If it was 'free pass plus another hotel room plus expenses plus a second flight' or something then it's reasonable to refuse, or there may be other reasons we're unaware of.

Always three sides to a story :)
 
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TsarBomba said:
Here's another little nugget:
Click to expand...
And another:

" . . . it turns out to be one that the organizer could simply not agree to. He then asked me to LIE about the reason why I would not be attending the conference (to say instead that it was because of scheduling conflicts). Shameful."
 
She and other commenters on her blog are complaining about the unfair cost of TAM, claiming that you have to be rich to be a skeptic. What do you guys think of this? Is it a legitimate complaint? Personally it seems to me that she hasn't given it a lot of thought and is throwing out her opinion...well...unskeptically. How else does she think the costs of holding a convention in Vegas for a thousand people is going to be covered?

Yeah, TAM isn't cheap. We all know that. It's cost-prohibitive for a lot of people who might otherwise like to attend. And yet, it's never occurred to me to pout because it felt like the JREF was trying to unjustly wring funds out of me. TAM is a gathering in one location -- meaning everyone who doesn't live in Vegas year-round has to pay for transportation there. It takes place in a hotel, which means everyone has to pay for hotel costs. And it's a 3-4 day conference, which requires a fee that breaks down to roughly $100 per day for the privilege of attending. Where's the unfairness? I don't see it.

I'm really, really disappointed in Emily Rosa.
 
Personally, if I was asked/accepted to be a speaker at TAM, I'd be honored and too mortified to even have the courage to ask a favour like that.

We've been to a couple of the same Mile High Skeptics meetups together and although I'd never talked to her, she seemed like a mature woman. I'm just a year older than her and as another "young woman," I was fully planning on attending TAM all by myself even if my roommate wasn't coming. If this is really the only reason she cancelled, I'm very disappointed as well.

(On a side note, her mom is WAY COOL. :D She had these awesome light-up shark earrings at one of our meetups.)


ETA: I'm in no way "rich" and I had to scrape and save for TAM, as did many people who are planning to attend. It looks like speakers get to attend for free (correct me if I'm wrong), isn't that a gift already? That coupled with getting the privilege to give a presentation during an event like TAM, it seems to me that she's being petulant. Of course, no one knows the whole story so this whole conversation might be irrelevant.
 
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arthwollipot said:
From the sound of it, she may not want to be helped. Sad. I was looking forward to hearing what she had to say.
Click to expand...

I read her posts on myspace and I am not impressed with her at all. Not impressed with the picture she chose for the site either. It would be interesting to hear her speak, but I won't be that sad if she doesn't. What she did as a kid was very cool, but what is she doing now?
 
Rodney said:
And another:

" . . . it turns out to be one that the organizer could simply not agree to. He then asked me to LIE about the reason why I would not be attending the conference (to say instead that it was because of scheduling conflicts). Shameful."
Click to expand...

If that's true then, yes, it is pretty shameful; and hypocritical to boot.

I surmise that JREF considered that she and her freeloading companion
weren't enough bang for the bucks. What's she done that's especially
remarkable, anyway? I know about that simple experiment she did years
ago; but that was very likely guided by mummy the qualified nurse (who
wrote it up in a paper later). She sure ain't no Joe Nickel or Mike Shermer.
 
Rodney said:
And another:

" . . . it turns out to be one that the organizer could simply not agree to. He then asked me to LIE about the reason why I would not be attending the conference (to say instead that it was because of scheduling conflicts). Shameful."
Click to expand...

I don't know, maybe I'm just jaded. This doesn't sound hypocritical or shameful to me at all. It sounds like an attempt on the organizer's part to allow them both to save face after she decided she wanted to back out. Most professionals would have agreed on some diplomatic wording like this, I think, but Emily interpreted it as the JREF asking her to "lie," either because she's immature, or inexperienced, or just thin-skinned. A shame she chose to vent her feelings this way, because it makes her look bad.

And she was always the one female skeptic I'd have gone gay for, too. Sigh.
 
Okay, I know people are going to throw things at me, but...

... who is Emily Rosa?

:duck:

ETA: Never mind. Damn, that's a shame she won't be at TAM.
 
This is Emily. This is what we are missing. If I find out that Jeff Wagg had anything to do with this, I will kill him dead in front of the whole room. And the judge will rule it justifiable homicide. :mad:
 

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If that is what she really looks like, Scrut, I will hold Jeff Wagg down while you step on his most vital & sensitive parts...

... oh wait... you're drunk again, aren't you Scrut?
 
MattusMaximus said:
If that is what she really looks like, Scrut, I will hold Jeff Wagg down while you step on his most vital & sensitive parts...

... oh wait... you're drunk again, aren't you Scrut?
Click to expand...

No I'm not! I'm half way thinking of swimming out to the TAA4 boat right now, and killing him early.

But first I have to verify that is really her. :)
 
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She was on an episode of that Penn & Teller show that starts with a B and ends with it. That pic is her.
 
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