The Sacramento Area Skeptics are proud to partner with the Bay Area Skeptics to present the 2010 SkeptiCal Conference. This is the first science and skepticism conference for Northern California. This one-day conference will be held on Saturday, April 24th at the  The David Brower Center in Berkeley, California. The conference will feature lectures as well as breakout  discussions on media and skepticism, psychics, alternative medicine, UFO and extraterrestrial investigations, denialism, and climate change. More information on the conference can be found on our website, skepticalcon.org.

The first SkeptiCal Conference is starting out with a modestly sized auditorium but with a major lineup of speakers. The key note speaker will be the Director of the National Center for Science Education and President of the Bay Area Skeptics, Dr. Eugenie Scott. Following Dr. Scott is be Dr. David Morrison who is currently the Director of the NASA Lunar Science Institute and Senior Scientist for Astrobiology at the NASA Ames Research Center. More speakers will be announced shortly.

The breakout sessions will provide the attendees the opportunity to get involved. Leading these breakout sessions will be respective leaders in these fields: Skeptoid Host and Producer of the Skeptologists, Brian Dunning; Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of California, Davis, Ian Faloona; contributing blogger for Denialism at scienceblogs as well as Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology’s Information Privacy Program, Chris Jay Hoofnagle; Editor for The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine and co-founder of CSICOP, Wallace Sampson, MD; Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute and host of “Are We Alone?”,  Dr. Seth Shostak; and Dr. Karen Stollznow who Hosts Point of Inquiry and Monster Talk, blogger of the CSI’s “Naked Skeptic” web column and the “Bad Language”.

Registration for SkeptiCal opened today. With the cost of registration at only $40 ($55 if you want a most excellent t-shirt as well). You can register for the event at http://www.skepticalcon.org/cms/tickets. If you are interested in attending I strongly recommend that you register as soon as you can since space is limited.

Follow SkeptiCal:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SkeptiCalCon
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/SkeptiCal-Conference/339403997128?ref=ts

The lecture began with Charles Darwin’s introduction of natural selection into evolution literature and the backlash that this theory received by evolution-deniers in the United States and around the world. Branch breaks the history of creationists attempts to undermine evolution into three phases; Banning of evolution, seeking equal time, and the phase we are seeing today, strengths and weaknesses / teach the controversy. In phase one for these creationists (evolution-deniers) attempted to outright ban the teaching of evolution and natural selection from the classroom. The evolution-deniers seem to have succeeded on this mark for many years until a dramatic reinvestment in science and technology education around the country was seen as a reaction to US efforts in the Cold War. This resulted in the widespread teaching of evolution in areas where it had not been taught prior.

As evolution became more apparent as a scientific theory in the United States, evolution-deniers then altered their approach to simply seeking equal time for creationism / intelligent design as evolution has in the science classroom. Because these ideas are not science, such attempts have been struck down time and time again by legislatures, school boards, and when necessary, courts. In most recent attempts to insert their craziness into schools, creationists claim that they want the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution taught; however,  their interpretation of weaknesses is the same old drivel that has been thoroughly debunked for years.

Glenn Branch is the Deputy Director for the National Center For Science Education and is co-editor of the book “Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design Is Wrong for Our Schools“. Mr. Branch has had several articles published on the teaching of evolution and why creationism/intelligent design should not be promoted in the science classroom. Branch’s educational background is in philosophy, receiving a Masters of Arts from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Video of the Glenn Branch presentation on The History and Prospects of Creationism via www.youtube.com/user/stvbkr01:

Glenn Branch Presentation Pt.1

Glenn Branch Presentation Pt.2

Glenn Branch Presentation Pt.3

Glenn Branch Presentation Pt.4

Glenn Branch Presentation Pt.5

Glenn Branch Presentation Pt.6

Glenn Branch Presentation Q&A Pt.1

Glenn Branch Presentation Q&A Pt.2

Glenn Branch Presentation Q&A Pt.3

Glenn Branch Presentation Q&A Pt.4

This years event will have many familiar faces from past TAM’s such as Phil Plait, Penn Jillette, Teller, Adam Savage, Michael Shermer, and the Amazing One himself, James Randi. This years key note speaker is Sir Richard Dawkins (I knighted him) and he is backed up by many new faces like CFI founder Paul Kurtz, Daily Show writer David Javerbaum, Author Carol Tavris, Paranormal Investigator Joe Nickell,  enemy to all British chiropractors Simon Singh, and many more.

The first TAM was held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida but they have been held in Las Vegas every year after that. The JREF branched out with more then one TAM a year in 2008 and hosted its first ever TAM outside of the United States last year in London, England, which sold out within hours of registration opening. This year, in addition to TAM 8 in Las Vegas and the second TAM London, there will also be TAM Australia which will be in Sydney.

For more information about The Amazing Meeting 8 visit the official website here: http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/amazing-meeting.html

In this month’s newsletter:

Bad Month for the Anti-Vaxxers

Proposed Changes to NASA

Oprah Sweat Lodge Guru Charged with Manslaughter

The Amaz!ng Meeting 8

Wars Breakout Over DSM-V

SacramentoCoR is a local chapter of the national organization, United Coalition of Reason, unitedcor.org. Its website states that:

The primary focus of United CoR is local. As such, it doesn’t compete with other national organizations, and its local work is geared toward fostering the success of existing groups, not changing their nature or adding new groups or an additional organizational level to the mix. A central goal is to help unaffiliated nontheists learn about local activities and, ideally, get involved.

2009 was a great year for the promotion of science. It happened to be a culmination of several major scientific anniversaries, each with there own celebration of sorts. It was the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and 150th anniversary of his publication of the On the Origin of Species. There has been Darwin Day celebrations around Darwin’s birthday for several years but last years unique milestone resulted in a much wider celebration then usual. Sacramento did its part by hosting its 12th annual Darwin Day event with featured speaker Michael Shermer of the Skeptics Society. 2009 was labeled as the International Year of Astronomy by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 2009 was marked to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s observations of the moons of Jupiter though a telescope, the first documented astronomical use of a telescope; furthermore, it was 400th anniversary the publication of Johannes Kepler’s Astronomia Nova, the seminal work documenting planetary motion.

It is important that we keep the momentum of science promotion from 2009 into this year. There are efforts in the astronomy community to keep many of the celebrations alive and well through 2010. A great example of this is the 365 Days of Astronomy project, which had an astronomy podcast for each day of 2009. It was so popular that it has been extended through this year as well!

On February 7, 2010 many Sacramento groups are coming together for the Charles Darwin’s 201st birthday and Sacramento’s 13th annual celebration of it. This years Darwin Day guest speaker will be Dr. Andrew J. Marshall who will give a presentation on “How Conservation Depends on Evolutionary Biology: Examples from Borneo’s Rain Forest”.

2009 also saw the creation of Carl Sagan Day, celebrating the late astronomer and science popularizer’s birthday. The plan is that this will become an annual event, much like Darwin Day. The Sacramento Area Skeptics want to see this event succeed and may host its own Carl Sagan Day this November.

Sacramento Area Skeptics December Newsletter

Some movies have been filmed in such a way that it gives off the impression that it was real, such as “The Blair Witch Project” or the much more recent “Paranormal Activity”. Making it seem as if it had been filmed mainly on hand held cameras by the characters themselves, giving the sense that it may have actually taken place.  “Paranormal Activity” even went as far as having no introductory or closing credits just a note (SPOILER ALERT) dedicating the movie to the two main characters. Aside from the occasional rumors that these movies may have been real, any research or a quick run to the internet movie database will show a list of actors and production crews involved. Other movies however, have chosen to advertise there films as actually based on true events.

I am bringing this up in light of the new movie “The Fourth Kind” which comes out today. It’s viral advertising campaign has pitched it as “based on actual case studies” of alien abductions. In introducing the film, actress Milla Jovovich, tells us that “every scene in this movie is supported by archived footage”. The title harks back to a scale created by Ufologist J. Allen Hynek which breaks down the levels and types of encounters someone can have with extraterrestrials. The third kind is seeing actual ET’s (Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”) with the fourth kind being abduction. The movie is supposed to retell the story of a psychologist’s sleep study of traumatized citizens in the remote town Nome, Alaska. After interviewing her patients she came to believe that they were being abducted by aliens. This as well as the fact that Nome has a history of its residents going missing adds to the mystery behind the story.

So what are the facts behind the claims this movie is making? As for the 20 or so missing people since the 1960’s, the FBI came to conclude that a large number of these cases had to do with the high level of alcohol consumption in the town of Nome mixed with the harsh winter climate, the report continued that there was also no evidence of foul play for many of these cases. Despite this report rumors are abound in and around the town that many of these missing cases had been something other than clumsy drunks; however, allegations that these could be due to alien abductions seem to be a new one for many of the citizens. The movie also includes archived documentary footage which it claims to be real, with no actor credits for those in the footage, but many have noticed that the acting in these segments are unimaginably bad, and Roger Ebert hints that this would be against doctor-patient confidentiality, and of all the people to release them to, why a horror film?

What about the psychologist’s sleep studies and her alien abduction claims? Well, there is a problem with that too, no one is aware of the alleged psychologist and no one has heard of her studies, including the Alaskan licensing board and the Alaskan psychologists association. If you try to find evidence that this psychologist ever existed you will be hard pressed to find anything. Reporter, Kyle Hopkins, back in September noticed that the only thing he could find were:

“…a convincingly boring Web site called the “Alaska Psychiatry Journal” — complete with a biography of a psychologist by that name who researched sleep behavior in Nome. Except the site is suspiciously vacant, mostly a collection of articles on sleep studies with no home page or contact information.”

Another site, www.alaskanewsarchive.com, features a story from the Nome Nugget about Tyler moving to Nome for research. The problem? The story is credited to Nugget editor and publisher Nancy McGuire, who says it’s baloney and she never wrote it.

Hopkins later found that the Alaska Psychiatry Journal has never existed and both of the above domain names had been created in August of 2009, which coincidentally corresponds with when the movie started its advertising campaign. Since Hopkins post, both websites have now been removed. Past paranormal horror films that have advertised that they were based on true stories include the “Amityville Horror” and “A Haunting in Connecticut” which will undoubtedly get under a skeptics skin; however, this film would appear to have taken it to the next level, forging archival footage, websites, authors, and even academic journals in an attempt to deceive their potential audience.

There is another movie inspired by actual events that came out today, “Men Who Stare at Goats”, except this one skeptics can get behind. Adapted from the book of the same name written by Jon Ronson. “Men Who Stare at Goats” follows a reporter (based on Ronson) who by happenstance runs into a retired psychic soldier who is reinstated after the September 11th terrorist attacks. It takes a humorous look into the secret United States Army program, researching the potential military applications of psychic phenomena. A giant waste of time and money but a great story to be told.

Recommended reading and related links:

Alaskan reporter Kyle Hopkins researches the claims made by “The Fourth Kind”

Roger Ebert Reviews “The Fourth Kind”

Roger Ebert Reviews “Men Who Stare at Goats” *Note the shout out to Skeptic Magazine

Skepticality interview with “Men Who Stare at Goats” author Jon Ronson