The Amazing Henry Slade
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- Written by Dr. Romeo Vitelli
- Category: Swift
- Hits: 16032
A Note From Your Volunteer Managing Editor
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- Written by Maria Myrback
- Category: Swift
- Hits: 10129
Early Sunday morning I did something that I should have done a while ago. I permanently banned someone from this blog that had been causing a great deal of disruption. I want to apologize to you, Dear Reader, for not having done this sooner.
Last Week at Science-Based Medicine
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- Written by Harriet Hall, MD (The SkepDoc)
- Category: Uncategorised
- Hits: 9904
Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo in medicine.
JREF Hires New Field Coordinator
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- Written by D.J. Grothe
- Category: Latest JREF News
- Hits: 10646
To improve the resources and expertise the JREF offers to support grassroots activists and local skeptical groups, we're proud to announce that Brian Thompson has been hired as our new Field Coordinator.
Brian is a former high school teacher and producer of the comedy science podcast Amateur Scientist. His writings have appeared in Skeptical Inquirer, Pink Raygun, and The Young Australian Skeptics Blog Anthology. For years he’s used humor and entertainment to promote skepticism and critical thinking, and we’re excited to have him on our team.
In addition to helping local skeptics form new groups, build community and advance critical thinking and science appreciation at the local level, he’ll be working to better connect existing groups with each other and with JREF programs and workshops, and also directing the JREF Speakers Bureau.
If you lead a local skeptical group or want to help start one, we invite you to drop him a line at brian [at] randi.org and introduce yourself.
My TAM Experience: An Amaz!ng Encounter
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- Written by Chris Higgins
- Category: Swift
- Hits: 11786
[Editor's Note: Tickets are still available for TAM Vegas 2011!]
In 2003, James Randi invited 150 skeptics to Florida for the inaugural Amazing Meeting. The conference featured speakers such as Hal Bidlack, Jose Alvarez and Phil Plait, and was an unprecedented success. Eight years later, TAM has become a truly international event, having expanded to three continents (for now), and attracting some 1500 people to the annual TAM in Las Vegas. I was fortunate enough to experience the recent TAM Australia from a particularly unique perspective, and I hope youʼll allow me a somewhat self-indulgent 2000 words to describe the event to you.
My first “amazing encounter” was at TAM 8 in July 2010. Attending a Vegas TAM had been on my ‘bucket list’ for a number of years, so in March I bought a flight, booked a room at the South Point hotel and begged my bank to increase my credit card limit. They obliged, and a couple of months later I was sitting aboard a Boeing 777 with a small wad of unfamiliar looking currency in my pocket and about 40 packets of Tim Tams in my checked luggage.
TAM truly is amazing, and there are a number of experiences from the event that I will never forget. I stood in the middle of the Vegas desert next to Phil Plait, as he pointed out planets and stars to myself, Rachael Dunlop and Richard Saunders. I got to attend the inaugural TAM ʻSkeptics In The Tubʼ (subtract the traditional pub and add a Vegas size hot-tub). I even got to rub shoulders with TAM 8 keynote speaker Richard Dawkins (although as we were the only two people in the elevator, he politely asked me not to stand so close to him). Though, as you can imagine, there is one person at TAM that everyone wants to meet. The man who started it all - James “The Amazing” Randi.
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