TAM2 Reports

Chaos

Penultimate Amazing
Chaos
Joined
Sep 15, 2003
Messages
10,611
Hi!

Let´s gather all the reports from TAM2 that attendees have written so far, that is, please post links to them.


Here´s mine:

http://www.asp.zugetextet.com/modules/WBB/board.php?boardid=7

This is the subforum where I have submitted the first part of the report (up to Thursday evening), and were I will post the further parts.
There are a few other good English-language pieces there, including limericks by 7th sextile that I posted there with his friendly permission.
 
I have thought about having the next issue of SkepticReport devoted to TAM2. So many things happened, it was such a huge event in the skeptic community.

If people want to have their accounts published there, let me know.

Contact me at webmaster@skepticreport.com
 
exarch said:
Hey Scott, there's a guy in your pictures of the red rock tour who you call EvilYeti yet looks suspiciously much like Arctic Penguin ...
Click to expand...
Yes, it is arcticpenguin. He shared with me MarkB's car on the tour
 
SkepticScott said:
I already posted this in the TAM2 pictures thread, but there's more than pictures in my account: http://home.comcast.net/~sromanowski/TAM2/The_Amazing_Meeting_2.html
Click to expand...
I thought I would add a comment about the "Toss 'em in and add 'em up" games that Penn had on display at his home. Basically, they are illegal games because they are rigged, and they are rigged in a clever way.

Basically, the sucker throws a bunch of balls into a grid, and the balls fall into numbered holes. The numbers get added up, and the sucker throws again. When the sucker first starts to play, the carney INFLATES the sucker's score, saying that the sucker got more points than he actually got. As a result, the sucker starts out thinking that he's doing quite well. As the game goes on, however, the carney stops inflating the score, and adds the correct number of points to the sucker's score. The sucker realizes he's not getting as many points per throw as he did at the outset, but if he counts the points himself, he'll find that the carney is counting them correctly. And in the end, of course, the sucker doesn't earn enough points to get a prize.

Or something like that. The clever part of the rigging is that the game, if played honestly, is hopeless from the sucker's standpoint, but the early part of the game is rigged in the sucker's favor to make him think he's got a good chance of winning.
 
Originally posted by Electric Monk
Mine is done. Finally.

TAM2 Report
Click to expand...
Hey, if you're including quotes from the panel discussions, why not include Penn's quote regarding "psychics are helping people feel better":

"Cocaine makes people feel better too."
 
I think he said heroin.

Something along the lines of "For those people who say 'psychics make people feel better', I've got one word: heroin"
 
Originally posted by bignickel
I think he said heroin.

Something along the lines of "For those people who say 'psychics make people feel better', I've got one word: heroin"
Click to expand...
Yeah well, it might even have been Jamie who said that, he said something along the same lines the night before, at 3 AM, when everyone was trying not to fall asleep so as not to miss a word he said :D
(although I think it was Penn though)

Randi, Penn, Jamie, in a way they're all rather crude and straight to the point, but it's because they've heard it all a thousand times before, and they're fed up with it I'm sure. They've lost the patience to be tactful. But it gets the message across, unmistakably.
 
I thought he said "Heroine"
I've heard the analogy, and susequently used it.
It might have been Penn, but there is the possibility that if one gathers 100 critical thinkers and one comes up with an idea, it might spread.
Then there's the possibility that it was an independent discovery.
 
exarch said:
Hey, if you're including quotes from the panel discussions, why not include Penn's quote regarding "psychics are helping people feel better":

"Cocaine makes people feel better too."
Click to expand...
Yes, that's a good one. (It was "heroin" that Penn used as an example in both the performance at TAM and on the second panel. I agree that it was probably Jamy who said something similar with "cocaine".)

I may also add something about Penn's anti-fear message. Stay tuned.

--James

(P.S. Is it March 1st yet?)
 
Penn's "heroin" quote was his response to expressions of what he called "epistemoligical hedonism."
 
wildflower1 said:
Penn's "heroin" quote was his response to expressions of what he called "epistemoligical hedonism."
Click to expand...
Yep, another good one. "If it feels good, believe it."

And good work on your report, BO'B. My favorite HTML editor is notepad, too.

--James
 
Ten years ago, many of us were returning home from TAM2 and were committing our memories to paper, forum and web site.

I have been going over these memories in the past few days. The best vacation of my single life was the one I took in January of 2004.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom