Dr. Lovaas, We Barely Knew Ye
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- Written by Stephen Sarcasm
- Category: Swift
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A bit over two months ago, a man named Ole Ivar Lovaas died. Many in the skeptical community will not recognize the name. Many in the gay community won't, either. Even in the autism parent community, many reacted to this news with confusion. They didn't know who Lovaas was.
This state of affairs is to be expected. It's not like his is a name which should live on in infamy for generations to come.
The President of the United States -- On Mythbusters!
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- Category: Latest JREF News
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Perhaps because he's got some myths he'd like to bust (can Adam Savage devise a citizenship test?), or perhaps because Mythbusters is plainly awesome, President Barack Obama will appear on that show in December during the White House Science Fair. According to CNN, Obama said:
If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you're a young person and you produce the best experiment or design, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too.
Congrats to our friends Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman for scoring the presiential walk-on, and kudos to the prez for going out of his way to make a big deal about America's young scientists.
The Science & The Humanity: How Literature and Critical Thinking Are Clearing a Dead Man's Name
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- Written by Brandon K. Thorp
- Category: Swift
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This is an article about a brave and brilliant bit of journalism that appeared in The New Yorker a year ago last month. Its author was David Grann, and it was titled “Trial By Fire: Did Texas execute an innocent man?”
The answer to the title is: “Probably.” The man in question, Cameron Todd Willingham, was executed in 2004 for the murder of his three young daughters, Amber, Karmon, and Kameron. The alleged murder weapons were fire and smoke. On the morning of December 23rd, 1991, as his children lay sleeping, Willingham allegedly poured a “liquid accelerant” (such as kerosene or lighter fluid) thoughout his young family's small two-bedroom home in the little Texan town of Corsicana, and set it ablaze.
The JREF In Three Major Media Outlets
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Friends! Please note the JREF's presence in these three major media outlets this week.
The Guardian: You know our second TAM London is happening this weekend. What you don't know is that The Guardian is live-blogging it. Click here for updates. They've already written this piece, which we love, though we're not sure we're quite so geeky as they suggest. Or, who knows, maybe we are.
PBS: JREF staffer Brandon K. Thorp, along with his partner, occasional Swift contributor Penn Bullock, are featured this month in the PBS documentary series In The States, discussing their exposure of pseudoscientist and anti-gay activist George Alan Rekers. Rekers was the co-founder of the Family Research Council and one of the inventors of “reparative therapy,” which seeks to turn homosexuals into heterosexuals; Thorp and Bullock caught him on vacation in Europe with a male escorted he found on Rentboy.com. (You can see Stephen Colbert's take on the situation here.)
Frieze: A really excellent profile of James Randi appears in this month's Frieze, the gorgeous English design magazine. The writer, George Pendle, gives an overview of Randi's career as acute and concise as any we've seen. You'll need a subscription to view the whole story online, which is unfortunate, though the unfortunate-ness is nicely offset by the really reasonable subscription rates and the fact that the mag's well-written and good looking enough to be more than worth it.
Rick Gibson's Dragon*Con Report
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- Written by Rick Gibson
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Two weeks ago, over Labor Day weekend, I flew down to Atlanta, Georgia to experience my first Dragon*Con; a convention that’s been described as “Geek Mardi-Gras.” Over the four days of the con, one vividly experienced science fiction, gaming, science, skepticism, cosplay and a smattering of dozens of other genres that all came together under the roofs of four hotels in downtown Atlanta. Here’s a snapshot at the Hyatt, as people shuffled from one place to another to try and catch the excellent programming.
Getting to the Hilton in the early evening (after Delta was kind enough to loose my luggage), I met up with friends, dropped bags off, and headed out to the Star Party, put on at the Emerson Physics Dept. by the Atlanta Skeptics as a fundraiser for Light the Night – the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I was lucky enough to bump into my friends Danny K and his wife Ellen. And instead of just sharing a cab to the party, Angie, the con’s Medical Director, was nice enough to offer a ride in her SUV. We all packed in, and with some help from the iPad, we managed to get to the party right on time.
There was food, wine, and beer, and music provided by skeptical troubador George Hrab.
People exchanged hellos, raised a glass, and made some new friends.
Then it was time to see Dr. Pamela Gay‘s talk on citizen astronomy. We filled into the rows of the lecture hall and it felt a bit strange to be bringing a bottle of IPA into such an academic venue.
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