Have you registered for Atlanta Skepticamp yet? If you haven’t, you are missing out on these AWESOME t-shirts that I just ordered!
Don’t worry – I ordered a few extra. Sign up soon to help out and get one! Not sure what you can do? Check out our page on Other Ways to Participate at Skepticamp!
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I’m excited to say our speaker time slots for “Atlanta Skepticamp 2010: Critical Thinking For Everyone” are currently all filled! I’m looking forward to hearing a wide range of talks this year!
I also realize there are people really looking forward to giving a talk this year, who did not register in time to get a speaker time slot. I’ve heard from people who would love to contribute a presentation to Skepticamp, but are really not into the idea of giving a talk in front of on an audience. To accommodate more participation, we’re announcing a Skepticamp “Poster Session” which will take place Saturday May 15th 10am-12pm (Day 1 of Skepticamp)! We’ll also begin May 16th, day 2 of Skepticamp, earlier at 10 am and we’ve got something special planned that we’ll be announcing soon! If you’ve been on the fence about attending Skepticamp, you REALLY don’t want to miss this!
We’re asking people to contribute their most creative submissions for Skepticamp, not just poster presentations! For more suggestions, please visit our page on Other Ways to Participate at Skepticamp. Personally, I’m hoping to see at least ONE skeptical diorama!
If you’re having trouble thinking of a topic for your contribution to Skepticamp, I encourage you to address, in your own way, the idea of “Critical Thinking For Everyone.” We’re taking the opportunity of Skepticamp this year to champion this idea, and invite our participants to explore the topic. I discussed the upcoming Skepticamp and “Critical Thinking For Everyone” with Atlanta’s own Derek and Swoopy on a recent episode of Skepticality. I encourage everyone to check it out, and I’m looking forward to seeing/hearing great things from my fellow skeptics in a few weeks at Skepticamp!
Note: Don’t forget to register for Skepticamp, if you haven’t done so already!
Just before Easter I wrote on the state of the Catholic church and proposed that if change were to come to the church it would not be from outside forces railing against the institution for its policies, but from internal forces of reform inside the church. Then on April 11, 2009 The Sunday Times (A British newspaper) published an article about uber-atheist Richard Dawkins’ plan to use legal means to arrest the pope if he sets foot in Britain, with an absurd headline claiming that Dawkins himself planned to make the arrest. The headline was attention-grabbing, but made the whole thing look like a crazy publicity stunt, when in fact it could be a very serious legal challenge to the church if properly executed.
A Venn D-Cell Diagram
Empowered by the unhindered freedom to say anything, impassioned Internet activists from both communities frequently opine on the best way to move their agendas forward. Sadly this usually doesn’t end up with thoughtful, rational, coffee-shop style philosophy discussions. Instead it seems to be a jarring mix of rational discourse and irrational admonishments to self-intercourse.
Take the case of the Dawkins “arrest the pope” movement which I described above. Rebecca Watson, notable skeptic of the Skepchick blog and Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast, came out strongly in favor of arresting the Pope. It is perfectly acceptable to opine on social issues – and is what many might say a blog is for. However she also had harsh criticism for those who argued that it is not the place of “the skeptic movement” to take sides on such matters. Keep in mind they weren’t arguing that she shouldn’t opine on such matters, but that the skeptics movement as a whole should not get embroiled in politics and religion. Other notable skeptics and atheists (PZ Myers, Daniel Loxton, Jim Lippard, et al) commented on the matter with similar results outcome from the feedback. I mention Ms. Watson’s comments in particular because they affected my personal net chatter the most – but no matter which way skeptical bloggers chose to speak out on the issues – the comments kicked off by such discussion seemed to turn raw and bloody as though the only way to reach consensus is to crawl bare-kneed across glass.
Can you spot the accommodationist?
Should the skeptics movement be involved in questions like the “Put the Pope in the Pokey” controversy?
It is foolish to think that all of our village people will jump up and take the “right side” in questions involving politics and religion. And it is foolish to think that skepticism or atheism should have single views on such questions.
What if we try to be dispassionate and look at the science and math of the question? What percentage of people have faith and religion as part of their lives? One can only guess, but the answer is more than 50%. That’s a lot of people with many different beliefs.
That’s why my personal position is to fight for a strong secular government that gives equal protection to those who want to worship god(s) and those who want to worship nothing. But no matter how rational I think that position is, I wouldn’t ask the skeptic’s movement to rise up and back it, nor would I suggest they self-fornicate if they disagree. It is for each person to decide how they want to handle religion and politics.
I work in the arts. Have for all my professional life. And yes, I am a bleeding heart liberal that believes it is the state’s responsibility to help fund arts and culture. It is simply a quality of life issue that we all deserve. Indeed you will find many of us at Atlanta Skeptics either work in the arts or are active participants in arts related endeavors such as theater, museums, puppetry, etc. Why? Because arts and culture help us think, feel, and understand the world around us. We are better critical thinkers and skeptics because of it.
It has been proven that art, theater, music, and other such cultural activities are a necessary part of a persons life and help greatly with education. Apparently, however, the lawmakers in Georgia take a different stance on the importance of the arts and arts funding, a stance that I do not agree with.
The $17.8 billion budget passed by the House on Wednesday calls for the elimination of the Georgia Council for the Arts. Georgia would become the only state in the U.S. without an arts agency if that plan holds as the budget works its way through the Senate before going to Gov. Sonny Perdue.
It’s already a fact that arts funding in this state lags behind much of the country (we’re presently ranked 44th) so it is no big surprise that the whacko’s in the capitol building want to get rid of it altogether. It is a travesty, however, that should not be allowed to happen. In an economy where jobs are already hard to come by, this decision will cut many jobs that depend on Georgia Arts Council funding. How does cutting more jobs, by cutting a small part of the state budget help things? In fact it will hurt far more than it helps. I urge you, all of you who read this, to contact your state senator or representative and even the governor. Let them know how you feel. Try to do something about this.
Join the Help-A-Thon!
Skepticamp is all about collaborating, and as an organizer, I am ALL about some delegating. It’s been easy not to worry about that so far. People have been coming to us with help, finding us a venue, designing our t-shirts, giving us $5 to be able to listen to Brian Thompson AND see him at the same time.
I created a google group to use for communication while we all plan and organize Skepticamp together. I haven’t sent a single message. But, I want us to actually use it to talk about ideas, and give everyone a chance for their idea to be a part of Skepticamp. I personally have not been doing a good job of motivating, or even including others to be a part of planning Skepticamp.
The truth is, right now we need some help. Skepticamp is still 5 weeks away, and everyday we’re going to need more help, and more help, and so on. Not only do we need help, but people want to help and want to be a part of planning and running Skepticamp because THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT OF SKEPTICAMP!
So, Atlanta Skepticamp 2010 Help-A-Thon starts now! If you’re ready to help, if you want to be a part of Skepticamp, join our group and start talking about it!
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I woke this morning to a Twitter discussion about the new photos of an alleged Yeti. The Telegraph, the UK news outlet, was reporting the finding. They were swamped with traffic so I had to google around and find another less trafficked site to get the photo. Boy was I disappointed.
This is not the giant man-shaped hairy monster of the Himalayas. It doesn’t look like an animal capable of walking on two legs. In short, it appears to be some kind of hairless quadruped mammal.
Seriously? This is supposed to be a Yeti?
To figure out what it was, I did a search on “Chinese Mammals ” and then started scanning the image files.
The first set of images that came back included this helpful picture:
Viverridae - includes the civet-cat.
I’m not a biologist, and pesky old Mr. Evolution makes it tricky to identify a specific mammal when the creature is hairless, since hair coloration is one of the ways we identify animals. But even though I’m not an expert, I see enough similarity to strongly suggest that the thing in the cage is likely a mange afflicted animal from the family Viverridae. I posted that conclusion to Twitter.
As cryptid enthusiasts from the states wake up, I expect they’ll endorse the same conclusion. Loren Coleman at cryptomundo already came to the same finding.
I am normally very polite about how people interpret the things they find in the world. However, this “news story” isn’t the work of cryptozoologists – it is the work of cryptidiots.
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Atlanta’s 2nd Skepticamp is coming up May 15th-16th! Registration for the event is now open! Register for Skepticamp.
We’re calling this year’s conference “Atlanta Skepticamp 2010: Critical Thinking For Everyone.” Find out more.
