Note: I’m cross-posting this from my blog. I normally wouldn’t do this, but this is both a topic directly relating to skepticism and something I want to talk to the Atlanta Skeptics about. Brian Thompson has posted a response on the JREF’s blog as well, and it’s worth a read.

» Continue reading “Spelling diversityjf without “JREF” (CROSSPOST)”

The videos from our 2011 SkeptiCamp Atlanta back in June have been placed on Vimeo. They’ve been arranged into a channel together so you can easily watch all the video from the event.

Feel free to link to these videos from your own blog or website, you can even embed them so they’ll play in place. Just hit the embed button on the upper right side of the playing video and follow the instructions.

Thanks to Mark Ditsler of Abrupt Media for doing such a fantastic job editing and producing these videos. If you prefer to view the videos offline using iTunes or another podcasting program, Mark has also made them available via an RSS feed here.

The full schedule and other details of the event can be found at the SkeptiCamp wiki.

Once again, we are proud to host a charity Star Party right before Dragon*Con this year! If you are coming to Dragon*Con, plan on coming a day early so you can attend! We’ll have Phil Plait, Pamela Gay, Nicole Gugliucci and George Hrab providing education and entertainment, plus drinks, food and an all-around good time!

This event is in honor of Jeff Medkeff, the Blue Collar Scientist, astronomer, skeptic and friend to many of us. Jeff succumbed to liver cancer in 2008. All proceeds will go toward the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in Jeff’s name.

Get all the details you need and buy tickets here! Can’t make it but still want to donate? Contribute at my fundraising page directly!

Some of you may know who Tim Minchin is, some of you may not.  He is a musical, comic, performance artist with a skeptical bent and is very entertaining.  He will be performing in Atlanta at Center Stage on Thursday, July 14.

A little about the man:

Tim Minchin is an Australian, musician, actor, comedian and writer. He has been performing his unique brand of musical comedy in front of appropriately excitable and ever growing audiences since starting out in South Melbourne’s Butterfly Club in 2005. He won the Director’s Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for his break-out show Darkside, and followed this later the same year with one of the most successful debut acts ever at the Edinburgh Fringe – winning the Perrier Award for Best Newcomer. Without wanting to go on and on about it, he’s done some pretty successful live shows since then, often in Australia or the UK, but also on the North American continent (yes that includes you too Canada). But not you Guatemala. Maybe one day.

His current songs span topics such as environmentalism, rationalism, prejudice(ism) and his amour de boobs(ism). In fact it would hardly be over the top to say that his love of boobs would be up there in the back of Plato’s cave in the bit that’s carved out for the most perfect and complete example of the love of boobs. But not in a weird way. During his shows he plays the piano, always nicely and oftentimes wildly and excitingly, whilst looking wonderfully athletic, in a pair of delightfully uncomfortable skinny jeans.

You can get an idea of his act here:

For your perusal, a slew of pics have been posted on one of our picasa albums. Please feel free to peruse or use!

Click HERE!

Atlanta Skepticamp is this weekend! Stop by if you can! And if you can’t be here, check our our live UStream starting around 10 a.m. EST! We start at 10 a.m. today and tomorrow. Full schedule is here.

If you are a meetupper (sp.?) we have posted a meetup for both SkeptiCamp dates. Go Here for Day 1 and Here for Day 2.  Drop by and RSVP if you want to but please remember you still have to sign up for the event in order to participate.  Go Here for that.

We hope to see many attend!

Registration for Atlanta Skepticamp is now open! Sign up here to speak, volunteer or both!

http://tinyurl.com/atlskepticamp

Get all the details at: http://www.atlantaskeptics.com/skepticamp or visit our Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/atlantaskepticamp

Once again the pollen is high, the temperatures are rising, and once again the bleary eyed skeptics shall emerge from the dark pub and venture out into the light.

I recently asked Maria to post a poll on the Meetup group asking which area of the metro area people would be most interested in for a Skeptics in the Park event. The two top choices by a wide margin were inside the perimeter and north of the perimeter, which is pretty much the only areas we’ve had SitPark thus far, so I’ll just continue the trend.

Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to scout out new in-town parks, but I also want to have our first event before it gets too hot. So, on May 7th, we will be going back to our old standby, Grant Park.

We’ll start around Noon. Food and drinks will be provided (typical grilling fare), but feel free to bring your own food if you like.

For those who have joined us before, we’ll (hopefully) be at the same pavilion we usually use. If you have never been to a SitPark in Grant Park, directions follow after the break.
» Continue reading “Skeptics in the Park – May 7th!”

What do a documentary about autism, a drama about two latchkey kids making do without their mother and an animated short about a cocktail party have in common?  They all touch on issues of interest to skeptics and they all have appeared at film festivals in the last year.  With the Atlanta Film Festival coming up at the end of this month, and having just attended a film festival last weekend, I thought it might be interesting to talk about the intersection of film festivals and skepticism.

I’ve always been a fan of TV and movies, but I had never gone to a film festival until last year when my girlfriend took me to the Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison, Wisconsin.  She’s attended it for several years with a long-time friend who lives there.  We had a great time last year, and returned for the 2011 event just this past weekend.

Each year at Wisconsin Film Fest I find there are one or two films (of the over 200 screened) that touch on skeptical topics.  So far, I haven’t seen any appear that pushed a non-evidence-based viewpoint (e.g. “Loose Change” or “What The Bleep Do We Know“). I don’t know if we owe that mainly to the Wisconsin festival’s selection process, or the lack of promotional acumen of the producers of those films, or both.

In any case, here are a few films that I’ve seen and enjoyed at film festivals that skeptics might find interesting, and several more that are coming up soon. Several are available on DVD, and two of them you can watch online for free. I’ll provide the links. Read on…

» Continue reading “Documentaries, movies and skepticism”