We’ll be having a Skepticamp Volunteer and Planning Meeting this Sunday, February 28th at 4pm at Thinking Man Tavern. For more details and to RSVP, please visit the event page!

At the meeting we’ll work on confirming an event date and location, brainstorm additional fund raising and event promotion avenues and hear some some ideas from our amazing and brilliant volunteers! We’ll also be there for those curious about participating in Atlanta Skepticamp to answer questions, assist with topic selections and offer help however we can!

I personally can’t wait to get another Skepticamp off the ground, and I’m excited to see new and familiar faces alike at the meeting on Sunday!

See you there!

I’m very excited to announce that in March, we are hosting a Live Amateur Scientist podcast. Brian Thompson has graciously agreed to come to Atlanta to help us raise money for the Atlanta Skepticamp this summer!

We’re crazy excited about this. Brian is one of my favorite podcasters and the last time he did a live podcast in Atlanta, it turned into one of the best parties I’ve been to in years.

I hope that if you’re in or near Atlanta, you’ll join us. Brian will be interviewing Atlanta’s own Blake Smith (co-host of the Monster Talk podcast), and Lindsay Starke (writer and conspiracy expert). We are also expecting some exciting visitors who are coming into town for the event. Nothing is confirmed yet but there may be sightings of loud astronomers and flora-dwelling crustaceans… you never know

Plus, PRIZES. And not shitty Kevin Trudeau books like we had last year (although I think I still have a couple that may show up…) I’m talking really cool prizes, donated by the Atlanta Skeptics, Surly Amy, Tree Lobsters and others. » Continue reading “The Amateur Scientist Invasion”

I was taking advantage of some downtime from playing Army today, and checked out the AJC site to see what was happening back home. I came across a blog post from Jim Galloway highlighting the state of the current debate over the military’s ban on openly gay soldiers, or the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

For those who don’t know I’ve served in the Infantry for twelve years with three combat tours and I’ve seen it all. I’ve jumped out of airplanes, blew stuff up, shot big guns, and generally put foot to ass for the country that I love, warts and all.  And, to be honest, I didn’t think that having openly gay soldiers serving alongside heterosexual soldiers was a good idea, not even a little bit. My own personal belief was that it would hurt unit cohesion, and when kicking down doors you MUST be able to trust the people around you. If you have family you wouldn’t trust with a potato gun… you know what I’m talking about. » Continue reading “Time to Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is”

We’re preparing for Atlanta’s 2nd SkeptiCamp planned for early this May. This week we’re getting things started with a unique opportunity to help The James Randi Educational Foundation, as well raise awareness about Atlanta SkeptiCamp.

For donations made to the JREF through this link this week, I will make a matching donation to Atlanta Skeptics up to $150 for the upcoming Atlanta SkeptiCamp event.

We’ll be announcing this at Skeptics in the Pub tonight in anticipation of next month’s March Skeptics in the Pub — Live Podcast with the Amateur Scientist. This is going to be a great fund-raising event for Atlanta SkeptiCamp, and tickets are just $5!!

Let’s have great kick off to this SkeptiCamp season by raising money for the wonderful JREF! Remember, for this week donations made to the JREF through this link,  I will make a personal matching donation up to $150 towards Atlanta SkeptiCamp 2010!

We’re looking forward to having another great Atlanta SkeptiCamp this year, and helping out our friends JREF as well!

Like most of you, I’ve heard and read about the anti-vaxers. I don’t want to beat this dead horse, but I did want to share my recent experience. I’d never heard the dark side first hand…until now. I found out about an information session at a “clinic” that treats autism and various other children’s neurological issues. The clinic is only about 3 miles from my house so I said “Why not? It’ll get me out of the house for a while.” The woman (I will call her Ms. Information) who runs the clinic is an RN from South Africa. Her office had wall to wall shelving full of homeopathic bottles. Other services offered include “bioenergetic assessment,” “neurointegration therapy,” and “craniosacral therapy.” These are just big, fancy words that mean “crap that doesn’t work, but you still have to pay me.” I should mention that she does recommend legitimate neurotherapy in addition to all the other expensive unscientific treatments. » Continue reading “Anti-vaxxers in our own backyard”

As I drove into work this morning in the rain, again, my thoughts went back to a dry day in November 2007. That day the governor of the state of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, joined lawmakers and ministers at the Capitol Building to pray for rain. Naturally, this brought the question of church vs. state and made headlines worldwide. I think more than the religious connotations, it also brought up the idea of looking to mystical ideas to change natural events outside of our direct control. Why not do a rain dance or start some human sacrifices while we’re at it?

God was apparently slow in answering that prayer as the rains didn’t return in force until fall of 2009. And, boy howdy, did the rains return! Much of North Georgia had what was categorized as 500-year flooding in October. Rehearsals for a show I was in at the time were canceled due to rain, something I’ve never experienced before. Since October, we’ve had regular rain, and will probably continue to have rain through the spring. This is all thanks to El Niño, which means “the boy” in Spanish. I’m thinking of petitioning for a name change to El Bastardo.

Anyway, I was thinking of all of this on my morning commute. Apparently, I’m the only one as that prayer meeting in 2007 seems to be old news. No one is blaming the governor for the flooding and non-stop rain. I wonder if we had only received moderate rainfall, bringing Lake Lanier up to full pool over time instead of overnight, would people have praised Perdue for “taking action” in 2007? Is the only reason no one is linking the increase in rain to that prayer because of how destructive the rain has been, because that couldn’t possibly be what God would do, could it? I’m not sure what logical fallacy that might fall into, maybe a form of confirmation bias, it’s just something I find interesting.

As for me, I do blame the governor for all this rain, not because I think the prayer did anything at all, but just because I can. Well, that and he threatens to veto any law allowing Sunday alcohol sales, but that’s a whole different story.

Despite Republicans running all Georgia government, the Christian right in Georgia has lobbied heavily in opposition to a couple of Republican-sponsored bills in the legislature.  They held a press conference together today.  The groups who made it to the press conference were the Georgia Christian Alliance, the Georgia Christian Coalition, Georgian Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, and the Georgia Baptist Convention.  Georgia Eagle Forum president and former state senator Nancy Schaefer is leading efforts against these bills.  Republican gubernatorial candidate John Oxendine was at the press conference, but did not speak there.  Most of this information comes from this AJC article/blog entry.

The weighty issue they are screaming about, against the Republicans who presented these bills?  The bills would allow young girls (under 16) to be placed into diversionary programs instead of arresting them and putting them into the criminal system with prostitution charges.  The argument in favor of these laws is that legally, children cannot consent to sexual intercourse, and so, legally, cannot be considered guilty of prostitution.  The argument against these bills, best as I can determine, is that the pseudoChristian protestors are just implementing the words of Jesus Christ, when He was asked about the 12-year-old prostitute: “Let that ho fry!”

» Continue reading “Georgia Christians support sending little girls to jail?”

I love the Bert show, let me say that right now.  Day after day, they entertain me like few other morning shows have.  I like the charity projects that they do, like Bert’s Big Adventure.  Chances are that if you have been in the Atlanta area, you have at least  heard of them.  I personally love the critical eye they cast towards listener’s dubious stories.  If you call in and you don’t have your story straight, you will be eaten alive!

The problem is that when it comes to pseudoscience and woo they are woefully inadequate.  I’ve been forced to listen to those damn Atlanta Ghost Hunters too many times.  Now, their latest golden calf is this weight loss supplement called Healthe’ trim.  They have numerous commercials throughout the day with Bert Weiss, the namesake of the show, giving his testimonial of how effective this supplement is, followed with testimonies of actual users.

My inner voice stewed, “These commercials are so annoying! This is CRAP!”  I turned on the radio today and listened to the creator use Bert show airtime to hawk this junk.  In response I sent this email: » Continue reading “Celebrity Endorsements or Why I Love/Hate the Bert Show”

Generally I support the idea that politics should stay out of science and vice-versa, but when talking about problems that can be accurately measured and quantified, I think science can lend a hand in providing solutions. Case in point: the new super speeder law that has become official on 1 January 2010. This law will tag on an additional two hundred dollars to a speeding ticket when the measured speed is thirty-five miles over the posted limit.

There are two stated reasons for this extra fine: the first is that Georgia lawmakers want to reduce the amount of speeding in the state. If you’ve ever been on any part of I-285 you know what I’m talking about; it’s a frakking racetrack. The second reason stated that this extra money will go fund trauma centers, but (fine print) the legislature can do whatever they want with it.

I don’t want to talk about Georgia politics, (but I will if given half a chance); instead I want to focus on the idea that higher fines will decrease speeding. Surely, other states have tried this approach. There should be a mountain of data out there confirming or unconfirming this idea. Can we move this from an idea to a testable hypothesis? » Continue reading “Evidence Based Government”

This is just a quick follow-up to my previous post about Scientology moving into Sandy Springs. Last night the city council of Sandy Springs approved letting Scientology move into the office building at Glenridge and Roswell Road by a tiebreaking vote. Despite this, the saga isn’t quite over.

The Scientologists are planning on filing a religious liberty lawsuit against the city because they will not be allowed to add a fourth floor to the building, but are stuck with what’s already there. They will probably end up getting what they want considering the money and horde of lawyers they have backing them.

Another lawsuit may be coming from the other direction as some home owners in the area are convinced the building in question does not have enough parking and will make traffic in the area worse. I personally doubt this will go anywhere. It looks inevitable that the Georgia headquarters of the Church of Scientology will be moving into my potential backyard.