Download it directly here, get it on iTunes, or join the Feedburner Feed
06:15 Birthday and reality TV discussion
11:50 Webshite for Web Of Trust plus a brief relapse into the previous WOT
21:20 TAM Recap by Greg Meeting folk
28:15 Some of the changes this year
34:40 Some of the talks
48:45 6 types of atheists and branding (the marketing kind)
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/15/the-six-types-of-atheists
http://www.atheismresearch.com
1:15:15 Tweeting for less purgatory
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/16/vatican-indulgences-pope-francis-tweets
1:16:15 Jenny McCarthy on The View Donna is not happy
http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/07/15/jenny-mccarthy-the-view/
1:20:13 Garys Summary
1:22:00 Next song challenge love song for our NSA stalkers
And Harpo is happy to indulge us all with her views.
Follow the blog at: http://skepticwire.blogspot.com
Follow on twitter: @theskepticwire
Write us at: skepticwire@gmail.com
Subscribe via Feedburner
http://feeds.feedburner.com/SkepticWire
Friend us on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/SkepticWire
Subscribe on iTunes
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-skeptic-wire/id434251897
Check out the music on Soundcloud
http://www.soundcloud.com/skepticwire
...leave a review, if you are so inclined!
And here is a video of a semiconductor on a magnetic Mobius strip
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments
Showing posts with label TAM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TAM. Show all posts
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Skepticism’s Broader Mission
I think many people would agree with me that one of the top ten most interesting panels at TAM9 (http://www.amazingmeeting.com) was the “Diversity In Skepticism” panel. To paraphrase the primary opinion of many of the panelists: “we can do more than vaccines, creationism, and woo.” There was much more to the conversation, and it focused more about adding social injustice issues to the skepticism tent, but the broader point was what I latched onto. We skeptics can still stay true to the movement’s “critical thinking” message and maybe broaden our scope to help more people and, in general, do better.
One of the local topics that we didn’t get to on our podcast last week was an article I found on San Antonio’s KEN5 news station website (http://www.kens5.com/news/Texas-leads-in-the-nation-in-hot-car-child-deaths-125908354.html). It described how Texas has, for the last year and a half at least, been leading the nation in child-in-hot-car deaths. In 2010 thirteen of the forty-nine child deaths from hot car heat stroke were in Texas. As of July 2011, Texas accounts for six of the twenty hot car deaths in the US. That’s a thankfully small number compared to our national population of 310 million, but the way I read the article was that we’re on track to have the same amount of annual hot-car deaths in the U.S. and in Texas. The rational community had a great institutional victory for children’s education in Texas last week (http://ncse.com/news/2011/07/victory-evolution-texas-006802), but is that all we can do? Where are the op-eds in papers and people from skeptic groups testifying at board meetings about this “I’ll just leave my child in the car for a minute” nonsense? We can do better.
Also in the news lately is the media controversy over Raquel Nelson of Marietta, Ga (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43878939/ns/today-today_people/t/mom-faces-jail-after-son-died-jaywalking-her/) . She was jaywalking with her three children after getting off a bus and her four year old boy got hit by a car. Most of the news articles and blogs I see are discussing the issue focus on the fact that the driver only got a 6 month hit-and-run conviction whereas the mother got 36 months for second-degree vehicular homicide, reckless conduct, and failure to use a crosswalk. Let’s consider the basic facts of the actual incident: She was trying to cross in the middle of a four lane road…with three children in tow. For a minute set aside the legal system side of the story: why were these children in mortal danger? Mz. Nelson herself said “I know that nobody gets up that day and says, ‘I’m going to kill a 4-year-old.’” The driver was an idiot for driving away from the accident, yes, but the accident wasn’t anything he chose to do. The mother, on the other hand, made the conscious choice to cross in the middle of traffic rather than walk to the “nearest crosswalk from the bus stop [that] was nearly three-tenths of a mile away.” Where are the advocates for critical thinking who could be calling for parents to stop jaywalking and putting their children in danger? We can do better.
The skeptical movement has made a great start in getting the message out to parents that vaccines are important and safe for your children. (http://hugmeimvaccinated.org/ ) This is a perfect message for our movement: science based medicine, consumer protection, and saving children. Vaccines have become a contentious issue, but in conversations I’ve had in meet-ups and at conventions most of us in the skeptical movement can at least understand that most of the average “antivax” parents might be mis-educated, but that they’re still trying to do what they think is the best for their children. The problem is a minority group of people out there that are the ones actively spouting nonsense. We need to fight this fight, but we can do more.
Let’s look at this last point another way: There aren’t any organizations out there kicking skeptics out of “leave your baby in the car” conferences (http://skepchick.org/2011/05/autism-one-conference-skeptics-will-be-prosecuted-to-the-fullest-extent-of-the-law/). There aren’t any celebrities telling us to trust your mommy instincts, that the crosswalk industry is just trying to get our money, and that regardless of the science we should “space out” where and when we cross roads. Compared to the antivaxers I actually think that the people who “just leave the baby in the car for 10 minutes to pop into the store” or “just cross here because the next crosswalk is some blocks down” are, in my opinion, a much less sympathetic crowd to me. (All opinions are my own, not my podcast team’s.) I think that we skeptics can, and should, raise our voices on these basic child-safety issues. It will make just as much of a difference in saving lives and has the added benefit that no one can accuse us of being in the pocket of “big auto” or “the crossing guard mafia.” There is no “us versus them” in this battle. Getting involved in these broader parenting issues would be an easy win.
In Neil deGrasse Tyson’s TAM9 Keynote address {Yes, I’m still going on-and-on-and-on about TAM (http://skepticwire.blogspot.com/2011/07/episode-015-extra-tam-9-overview.html) . Get used to it.}, he recounted the story that in 2006 when a New Jersey teacher was spouting creationist, Noah’s Ark nonsense Tyson tried to remind everyone of the broader issue that “This case is not about the need to separate church and state; it's about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers.” Let’s allow our rational spotlight to cover these broader issues too. We can get the “reality based” message out and get people on our side for the harder battles.
I suggest that we all take a break from posting Tim Minchin videos on facebook and post links to the articles about these more general stories. Helps others not see you as a one-trick-skepticism-or-atheism pony. At your next skeptics in the pub start the night by writing letters to the editor calling for critical thinking every time a child dies in such a preventable manner. Sharing these stories will move people and will get them on our side. Diversifying our call for rationality creates a feedback loop that brings in a more diverse group and then adds to the variety of issues that we can tackle. Even as we make our skeptical tent bigger the message of “think before you act” will stay our main message. We can do more, and we can do better.
One of the local topics that we didn’t get to on our podcast last week was an article I found on San Antonio’s KEN5 news station website (http://www.kens5.com/news/Texas-leads-in-the-nation-in-hot-car-child-deaths-125908354.html). It described how Texas has, for the last year and a half at least, been leading the nation in child-in-hot-car deaths. In 2010 thirteen of the forty-nine child deaths from hot car heat stroke were in Texas. As of July 2011, Texas accounts for six of the twenty hot car deaths in the US. That’s a thankfully small number compared to our national population of 310 million, but the way I read the article was that we’re on track to have the same amount of annual hot-car deaths in the U.S. and in Texas. The rational community had a great institutional victory for children’s education in Texas last week (http://ncse.com/news/2011/07/victory-evolution-texas-006802), but is that all we can do? Where are the op-eds in papers and people from skeptic groups testifying at board meetings about this “I’ll just leave my child in the car for a minute” nonsense? We can do better.
Also in the news lately is the media controversy over Raquel Nelson of Marietta, Ga (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43878939/ns/today-today_people/t/mom-faces-jail-after-son-died-jaywalking-her/) . She was jaywalking with her three children after getting off a bus and her four year old boy got hit by a car. Most of the news articles and blogs I see are discussing the issue focus on the fact that the driver only got a 6 month hit-and-run conviction whereas the mother got 36 months for second-degree vehicular homicide, reckless conduct, and failure to use a crosswalk. Let’s consider the basic facts of the actual incident: She was trying to cross in the middle of a four lane road…with three children in tow. For a minute set aside the legal system side of the story: why were these children in mortal danger? Mz. Nelson herself said “I know that nobody gets up that day and says, ‘I’m going to kill a 4-year-old.’” The driver was an idiot for driving away from the accident, yes, but the accident wasn’t anything he chose to do. The mother, on the other hand, made the conscious choice to cross in the middle of traffic rather than walk to the “nearest crosswalk from the bus stop [that] was nearly three-tenths of a mile away.” Where are the advocates for critical thinking who could be calling for parents to stop jaywalking and putting their children in danger? We can do better.
The skeptical movement has made a great start in getting the message out to parents that vaccines are important and safe for your children. (http://hugmeimvaccinated.org/ ) This is a perfect message for our movement: science based medicine, consumer protection, and saving children. Vaccines have become a contentious issue, but in conversations I’ve had in meet-ups and at conventions most of us in the skeptical movement can at least understand that most of the average “antivax” parents might be mis-educated, but that they’re still trying to do what they think is the best for their children. The problem is a minority group of people out there that are the ones actively spouting nonsense. We need to fight this fight, but we can do more.
Let’s look at this last point another way: There aren’t any organizations out there kicking skeptics out of “leave your baby in the car” conferences (http://skepchick.org/2011/05/autism-one-conference-skeptics-will-be-prosecuted-to-the-fullest-extent-of-the-law/). There aren’t any celebrities telling us to trust your mommy instincts, that the crosswalk industry is just trying to get our money, and that regardless of the science we should “space out” where and when we cross roads. Compared to the antivaxers I actually think that the people who “just leave the baby in the car for 10 minutes to pop into the store” or “just cross here because the next crosswalk is some blocks down” are, in my opinion, a much less sympathetic crowd to me. (All opinions are my own, not my podcast team’s.) I think that we skeptics can, and should, raise our voices on these basic child-safety issues. It will make just as much of a difference in saving lives and has the added benefit that no one can accuse us of being in the pocket of “big auto” or “the crossing guard mafia.” There is no “us versus them” in this battle. Getting involved in these broader parenting issues would be an easy win.
In Neil deGrasse Tyson’s TAM9 Keynote address {Yes, I’m still going on-and-on-and-on about TAM (http://skepticwire.blogspot.com/2011/07/episode-015-extra-tam-9-overview.html) . Get used to it.}, he recounted the story that in 2006 when a New Jersey teacher was spouting creationist, Noah’s Ark nonsense Tyson tried to remind everyone of the broader issue that “This case is not about the need to separate church and state; it's about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers.” Let’s allow our rational spotlight to cover these broader issues too. We can get the “reality based” message out and get people on our side for the harder battles.
I suggest that we all take a break from posting Tim Minchin videos on facebook and post links to the articles about these more general stories. Helps others not see you as a one-trick-skepticism-or-atheism pony. At your next skeptics in the pub start the night by writing letters to the editor calling for critical thinking every time a child dies in such a preventable manner. Sharing these stories will move people and will get them on our side. Diversifying our call for rationality creates a feedback loop that brings in a more diverse group and then adds to the variety of issues that we can tackle. Even as we make our skeptical tent bigger the message of “think before you act” will stay our main message. We can do more, and we can do better.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Return from TAM: NORWAY!!! YEA!!!
Yes, I have returned from THE AMAZ!NG MEETING 9. Actually I returned from TAM early Monday morning, but proceeded to sleep the entire day away. It's typical to burn the candle at both ends at one of these conferences, but I also caught a cold the first day. I'm planning on eventually doing a "Average Joe's Guide To TAM" post soon, but for now I'll give you this one tip: DON'T GET SICK. If we've learned anything from elevatorgate it's that there are some simple lessons to learn. It may seem like that should go without saying, but last year I got food poisoning the day before I left for Vegas. One day I'll learn.
Now what you came here for: a description of my experience and a run down of events:
You want more? Well, I'll give my full account when we record episode 015 tomorrow night (complete with envious questions from the Skeptic Wire team), but here's a slightly less brief recap:
Now what you came here for: a description of my experience and a run down of events:
AWESOME. 'nuff said.
You want more? Well, I'll give my full account when we record episode 015 tomorrow night (complete with envious questions from the Skeptic Wire team), but here's a slightly less brief recap:
- Wednesday, The night before TAM started I gathered with a bunch of early arrivals to go see Penn & Teller's show at the Rio. Great show and both are personable and friendly after the show. I got into skepticism and atheism as a movement because of Penn's short lived radio show/podcast. He seemed thrilled to hear that.
- Thursday is "Workshop Day" at TAM. They always have two workshops going at the same time over four time periods, so you have to choose. Mostly these are essentially panel discussions with a smaller audience size, but it's still good quality stuff. The entertainment Thursday night was the "Rebecca Watson Game Show & Variety Hour." Rebecca and the Mr. Deity cast quizzed 5 notable skeptics on science, skepticism, and religion. The audience even got involved by getting prizes if the panel missed the answer. Best TAM run entertainment of the weekend as far as I was concerned.
- Friday began TAM proper. The obligatory live recording of Skeptics Guide To The Universe began the day (with a second hour recorded Saturday afternoon). All the speakers did well, but the stand out couple hours included the "Future In Space" Panel and Neil deGrasse Tyson's keynote address. The panel included a rather heated disagreement between Lawrence Krauss and the rest of the panel on the necessity of manned space missions (as opposed to purely robotic). There was an AWESOME moment when Pamela Gay, tired of getting talked over, shushed the rest of the panel (notably Neil deGrasse Tyson) so she could finish her point. She's so cool. Neil deGrasse Tyson's keynote was a funny, energetic, and call to arms review of the science illiteracy he's come across in his professional career. From serving on jury duty to the Pluto kerfuffle.
- Saturday, like Friday, is also full of speakers and panels. Richard Wiseman and Bill Nye seemed to be popular favorites, but personally I am in love with Carol Tavris. Go buy her books, send her fan letters, and take Oprah's network away from her and give it to Carol Tavris. We also were treated to a preview of some of the pages of Richard Dawkin's new book "The Magic Of Reality." Yes, Dawkins is a VERY dry speaker, but always fascinating to hear him talk.
- Last year Sunday was dead quiet at TAM8. So this year I scheduled my flight back to Texas Sunday night. Of course then this year they schedule activities through Sunday night! Damn my stupid thumbs!!! Well I was able to see a lot regardless. Sunday morning is when unknowns get to present 10-15 minute papers. Some can be kinda blah, but it was a good and entertaining mix this year. Including friends of the show Susan Gerbic-Forsyth and Phil Ferguson. There were several good speakers despite the doomed Sunday afternoon time, but I felt the stand outs were the "Communicating Skepticism" and "Diversity In Skepticism" panels. I made it as far as the closing remarks by DJ Grothe and James Randi, but I had to give some quick goodbye hugs and head out for the airport shuttle before they finished. To my surprise I found another TAMite (TAMmer?, TAMmian?, TAMareno?) was on the same connection flight with me! I could experience TAM for another hour!!
But in the end TAM had to come to an end. There's so much to take in at TAM that this post just scratches the surface. In fact I recommend you (faithful listener and reader) go get the TAM speakers list and just start googling, they're all awesome. Some of them have even reproduced or reposted their talks or panel discussion points on their blogs.
Don't be too depressed that you missed out on TAM this year. I've found out that a lot of TAM8's recordings are available on a site called vimeo.com. There's already rumors that many, if not all, of the TAM9 panels and talks will be available online eventually. I'll post links when I find them.
Even the discussion of the panels and speakers only scratches the surface of the TAM experience. You find yourself surrounded by over 1600 wonderful people all happy to chat with you about almost anything you want. For me TAM8 was just about meeting people and getting my foot in the door. TAM9, personally, was about making friends and a real connection to the skeptical movement. As great as all the official events are, it's the people at TAM that make it AWESOME.
(PS: I'll explain the "Norway...YEA!!!" bit and let you know if there were any elevator issues on this week's show. So tune in!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)