phact : Messages : 140-169 of 327

People,

On April 20th at 2pm we will hear from Charles Stegeman on:

Critical Viewing Skills

Ear-training is a recognized subject, eye-training is not. It is generally assumed that if nothing physically hinders vision, an individual can see perfectly well. This is an unfortunate misconception.

What evidence suggests that untrained viewing represents a problem? The medical literature notes serious concern regarding partial observations. Perhaps the most telling is the case of six expert radiologists who, having viewed one hundred x-rays six times over a period of three years, each managed to miss all lesions present at least once.

Then what is critical observation? Observation is an acquired skill that is taught, for instance, in art schools and academies over a period of up to ten years. The traditional method for learning critical viewing skills is by continuous repetition, or rote.

How could we teach viewing skills to a wider public, particularly the professions dependent on critical viewing skills? If one logically analyzes the elements of the visual, teaching time could be drastically reduced. In a well-known medical college, I was able to teach the least skilled students to enhance their observational skills over a period of just ten hours, not ten years.

The presentation to PhACT aims to illustrate the parameters for the analysis of the visual vocabulary, the different techniques of observation, and how the visual vocabulary can lead to visual thinking, which can in turn lead to a visual logic. The non-verbal nature of visual logic adds a challenging complement to the more familiar cognitive logic; their successful combination permits a perspective insight and clearer grasp of the physical world.

Charles Stegeman

Professor Emeritus, Haverford College

Concerning the city location, the following are public transit directions from Ed :

- 3 blocks from the Spring Garden Station on the
   Broad Street subway.

- A bit more than a half mile from Suburban Station
   at 16th-17th and JFK. The route 2 bus runs north on
   16th and south on 17th every 20 minutes during the
   day (6 - 6) on Saturday.

- That same bus goes by the end station of the PATCO
   High Speed Line at 15th-16th and Locust. Or you can
   walk to the Broad Street line from either of the
   last 2 PATCO stops.

Then on May 18th, back at our old location in Bensalem, we will have a visit from Robert Park, author of "Voodoo Science".

A number of our more generous senior members have fine collections of skeptical (and related ) books that they are happy to loan out. We will be getting together an official list of such books and their keepers for a "distributed PhACT lending library". It would be kind of like the internet philosophy of distributed sources of information . But, we were hoping to get a PhACT librarian to just be the keeper of a master list of the books, which could be available on the internet to just our members. To check out a book, one would look on the list and email the keeper of the book and the librarian where upon the book could be just brought along to the next meeting.". So if you have a list of your books which deserve more attention of if you are willing to be the central keeper of the list, please contact, eric@...

For example, BILL WISDOM'S wawisdom@... BOOKS FOR SKEPTICS TO BORROW OR KEEP

ALLEN, STEVE. Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, and
Morality. Prometheus Books, 1990.

________. More Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, and
Morality. Prometheus Books, 1993.

BAKER, ROBERT A. and JOE NICKELL. Missing Pieces: How to
Investigate Ghosts, UFOs, Psychics, and Other Mysteries.
Prometheus Books, 1992,

BERRY, ADRIAN (ed.). The Book of Scientific Anecdotes.
Prometheus Books, 1993.

BRUNVAND, JAN HAROLD. Too Good to Be True: The Colossal
Book of Urban Legends. W. W. Norton, 1999.

________. The Truth Never Stands in the Way of a Good
Story. University of Illinois Press, 2000.

BULGATZ, JOSEPH. Ponzi Schemes, Invaders from Mars and More
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
Harmony Books, 1992.

BUTLER, KURT. Lying for Fun and Profit: The Truth about the
Media. Health Wise Productions, 1999.

CAREY, STEPHEN S. A Beginner's Guide to Scientific Method.
Wadsworth, 1994.

FLEW, ANTONY (ed.). Readings in the Philosophical Problems
of Parapsychology. Prometheus Books, 1987.

FRAZIER, KENDRICK (ed.). Encounters with the Paranormal:
Science, Knowledge, and Belief. Prometheus Books, 1998.

________. The Hundredth Monkey and Other Paradigms of the
Paranormal: A Skeptical Inquirer Collection. Prometheus
Books, 1991.

________. Paranormal Borderlands of Science. Prometheus
Books, 1981.

________. Science Confronts the Paranormal. Prometheus
Books, 1986.

FRIEDLANDER, MICHAEL W. At the Fringes of Science.
Westview Press, 1995.

GARDNER, MARTIN. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science.
Dover, 1957.

________. The New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher.
Prometheus, 1991.

________. The Night is Large: Collected Essays 1938-1995.
St. Martin's, 1996.

________. On the Wild Side. Prometheus Books, 1992.

________. Order and Surprise. Prometheus Books, 1983.

________. Science: Good, Bad and Bogus. Prometheus Books, 1981.

________. Weird Water and Fuzzy Logic: More Notes of a
Fringe Watcher. Prometheus Books, 1996.

________. From the Wandering Jew to William F. Buckley Jr.:
On Science, Literature, and Religion. Prometheus Books, 2000.

GRAY, WILLIAM D. Thinking Critically about New Age Ideas.
Wadsworth, 1991.

GRIM, PATRICK (ed.). Philosophy of Science and the Occult
(2nd ed.). SUNY Press, 1990.

HANSEN, GEORGE P. The Trickster and the Paranormal.
Xlibris, 2001.

HOGGART, SIMON and MIKE HUTCHINSON. Bizarre Beliefs.
Richard Cohen Books, 1995.

HUSTON, PETER. Scams from the Great Beyond: How to Make
Easy Money Off of ESP, Astrology, UFOs, Crop Circles, Cattle
Mutilations, Alien Abductions, Atlantis, Channeling, and
Other New Age Nonsense. Paladin Press, 1997.

JACOBS, DAVID M. Secret Life: Firsthand Documented Accounts
of UFO Abductions. Simon & Schuster, 1992.

________. The Threat: The Secret Alien Agenda. Simon &
Schuster, 1998.

KITCHER, PHILIP. Abusing Science: The Case Against
Creationism. The MIT Press, 1982.

KURTZ, PAUL (ed.). A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology.
Prometheus Books, 1985.

Life--How Did It Get Here? By Evolution or by Creation?
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1985

LUDWIG, JAN (ed.). Philosophy and Parapsychology.
Prometheus Books, 1978.

LYNCH, AARON. Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads Through
Society. BasicBooks,1996.

MACKAY, CHARLES. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the
Madness of Crowds. Harmony Books, 1980 (orig. publ. 1841).

MONTAGU, ASHLEY (ed.). Science and Creationism. Oxford
University Press, 1984,

MORRIS, HENRY M. The Remarkable Birth of Planet Earth.
Creation-Life Publishers, 1972.

NICKELL, JOE. Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics,
Stigmata, Visions and Healing Cures. Prometheus Books, 1998.

NICKELL, JOE, BARRY KARR and TOM GENONI. The Outer Edge:
Classic Investigations of the Paranormal. CSICOP, 1996.

NUMBERS, RONALD L. The Creationists: The Evolution of
Scientific Creationism. University of California Press, 1992.

O'NEILL, TERRY. Paranormal Phenomena: Opposing Viewpoints.
Greenhaven Press, 1991.

PARK, ROBERT. Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to
Fraud. Oxford University Press, 2000.

PENDERGRAST, MARK. Victims of Memory: Sex Abuse Accusations
and Shattered Lives. Upper Access, 1996.

PICKOVER, CLARENCE A. The Girl Who Gave Birth to Rabbits.
Prometheus Books, 2000.

RADFORD, BENJAMIN (ed.). Bizarre Cases: From the Files of
the Skeptical Inquirer. CSICOP, 2000.

RADNER, DAISIE and MICHAEL RADNER. Science and Unreason.
Wadsworth, 1982.

RANDI, JAMES. An Encyclopedia or Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes
of the Occult and Supernatural: Decidedly Skeptical
Definitions of Alternative Realities. St. Martin's, 1995.

________. Flim-Flam: Psychics, ESP, Unicorns and Other
Delusions. Prometheus Books, 1982.

RUSE, MICHAEL (ed.). But Is It Science? The Philosophical
Question in the Creation/Evolution Controversy. Prometheus
Books, 1988.

SAGAN, CARL. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle
in the Dark. Random House, 1995.

SCHICK, THEODORE, JR. and LEWIS VAUGHN. How to Think about
Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age. Mayfield, 1995.

SHATTUCK, ROGER. Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to
Pornography. St. Martin's, 1996.

SHERMER, MICHAEL. The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense
Meets Nonsense. Oxford U. P., 2001.

________. Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience,
Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. W. H.
Freeman, 1997.

________. How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of
Science. W. H. Freeman, 2000.

STEIN, GORDON and MARIE J. MacNEE. Hoaxes! Dupes, Dodges
and Other Dastardly Deceptions. Visible Ink Press, 1995.

WILSON, DAVID B. Did the Devil Make Darwin Do It? Modern
Perspectives on the Creation-Evolution Controversy. The
Iowa State University Press, 1983.

WISEMAN, RICHARD and ROBERT L. MORRIS. Guidelines for
Testing Psychic Claimants. University of Hertfordshire
Press, 1995.

WYNN, CHARLES M. and ARTHUR W. WIGGINS. Quantum Leaps in
the Wrong Direction: Where Real Science Ends...and
Pseudoscience Begins. Joseph Henry Press, 2001.

#141

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Wed Apr 17, 2002 3:57 am
Subject: Phact reminder - meeting this Saturday 2pm at the Philadelphia Community College

philipkrieg

People,

On April 20th at 2pm we will hear from Charles Stegeman (Professor Emeritus, Haverford College) on:

Critical Viewing Skills

In other news, some of us are working on a TT practioner for a possible new test. (usually these people run away before agreeing).

Keep May 18th free for Bob Park, author of "Voodoo Science" - this meeting will be back at the Bensalem library.

Then Friday June 21 at 7pm in Philadelphia will be a lecture by Michael Shermer. We could use help promoting this.

The latest issue of Phactum should be in your mailboxes by tomorrow or the next day. Rember to check the subscription date on your address sticker to see if it is time to renew. For only $15 a year, may as well renew a few years ahead.

Special thanks to Mary Shaw who will be updating a lot of our web pages.

Email Wes Powers any lists of skeptical books that you want to make available for the distributed PhACT lending library. His email address is wes.powers@...

#142

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Tue May 7, 2002 11:50 am
Subject: PhACT - May 18th lecture in Bensalem by author of best selling book, "Voodoo Science"

philipkrieg

http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=106498&messageid=1020140299

People,

the following is a copy of a Philadelphia Inquirer article about our previous speaker's appearance:

The following is a recent Inquirer article by Mark Bowden lamenting growing scientific

ignorance and belief in the paranormal.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/special_packages/sunday_review/3201611.htm

Volunteers will be needed with running the June 21 7PM appearance by Mike Shermer at

the Philadelphia Free Library at 17th and Vine. Email me to offer help.

But the big news is: Please don't miss the May 18th lecture by Bob Park, president of the

American Physical Society and author of the hysterical and thought provoking book,

"Voodoo Science" (which was reviewed in a past issue of Phactum). He is an excellent

writer and speaker. This is the kind of meeting to invite non-skeptics to. It will be held

back at the Bensalem Public Library. Actually a kook has threatened to show up and prove

Park wrong about energy.

THE SEVEN WARNING SIGNS OF VOODOO SCIENCE

By Robert L. Park Department of Physics The University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742

A best-selling health guru insists that his brand of spiritual healing is firmly grounded in quantum theory; half the population believes Earth is being visited by space aliens who have mastered faster-than-light travel; and educated people are wearing magnets in their shoes to restore their natural energy. Have scientists set people up for this? In our eagerness to share the excitement of discovery, have we conveyed a message that the universe is so strange that anything can happen? What can we tell non-scientists that will help them judge which claims are science and which are voodoo.

(that being said, you can see Joel Kauffman's negative review of Voodoo Science posted at:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=106498&messageid=1020768859

#143

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Tue May 14, 2002 4:31 am
Subject: Phact - reminder of great lecture this Saturday at 2pm in Bensalem

philipkrieg

People,

I got the following email:

> There's a great FREE event coming up on Saturday, June
> 8th called the Real X Files. It features TV journalist
> Linda Moulton Howe discussing crop circles, UFO
> sightings and Tom Carey, Roswell researcher. It's at
> the Free Library 1901 Vine St. at 1PM.
>
As said before, put June 21 7pm on your calendars. That's a Friday night and

the only chance in a long time to meet Michael Shermer - editor of skeptic magazine.

That will be 5$ suggested donation. We will be mailing out remind post cards for this.

Then a final reminder for Bob Park's talk this Saturday 2PM. I've been trying to get him

to come up for years. His book "Voodoo Science" was absolutely engrossing. His message

about bogus science and how to recognize it is important. A write up on his talk

appears at:

I think only James Randi has more entertaining critics than Bob Park. But here's a sampling:

Dennis Lee says of Bob Park,

"he is a stupid man who only calls himself a scientist and is afraid to debate me face to face"

the following came from donsm1@... Don Smith, one of the free energy kooks out there:

Please Post and Repost World Wide and All News Services

See that Every Senator, Representative and The Commissioner for Patents Knows

Bob Park is the Known Goon that intimidates and slanders the US Patent
Office when they use their intellect in place of Dogma. Sad to say Park
usually wins. He uses all sort of lies and fact twisting, a sample of which
is the statement below where he knowingly lies about Joe Newman. A very
famous Federal Court Case, over the stupidity tribute extracted by Park
through intimidation of the US Patent Office was reversed by the Federal
Judge, who sided with Newman and ordered a Patent awarded. Park is
fully aware of this and knowingly rape's the media as a form of self gratification
in perpetuate his Dogmas. A Class action suite for this ridicules posturing and it's
harm to society by denighing useful technology is paramount.
He should be ordered into Exile as a Traitor against humanity, declared
Persona Non Grata and stripped of all His Degrees, acquired wealth and sent
penniless into exile, preferably where the headhunters practice their Dogma.
He has just started his song and ritual of intimidation of the Patent Office
with regards to the MEG. They should immediately get a Court Order requiring
a Huge Bond be Posted by the APS and Park such that if they interfere in
any way, arms length or associates who have the same Dogma's that they
all end up paying Horrendous Damages to all those previously caught in
their web. Park is already involved in Several Legal Actions. Simply join
forces. The Patent Office should be asked publicly in such a way that
they can not crawl in their Hole. I bet they would love to get Park of their
back is high on their list of things to do.

Take Care, Dr. Smith

======================================================================

You may think "Dr Smith" does not quite have all cylinders firing, but the following kook

is a real piece of work, I still don't know what percentage of his rants come from stupidity

vs insanity. It seems that any self respecting nut on the web insists on ranting in all caps:

JCarey9622@... JACK CAREY: REPLY IT STILL WORKS IT IS JUST TOTALLY OBSOLETE NO ONE SAID IT DID NOT WORK YOU WOULD HAVE FOUND THAT OUT IF YOU WOULD HAVE TESTED THE UNIT AUG.11 AT DENNIS'S SHOW.

AS I SAID YOU IN FOR A VERY RUDE AWAKING ALONG WITH BOB PARK AND ERIC AND THE REST OF THE LINEAR ELECTRICAL SKEPTICS IT WOULD HAVE TO BE IN THE AFTERNOON CALL FIRST 810 744 9587 OR 810 701 0233 YOU WILL BE TAPED PLUS OUR WEB SITE WILL BE UP THIS WEEK PERFECT TIMING

I MAY NOT HAVE TO GO TO PA. THE CURRENT ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING WORLD IS TOTALLY OBSOLETE NOT JUST CHANGED A LITTLE PLEASE DO NOT GO HOME AND SHOT YOURSELF BECAUSE YOUR KNOWN TECHNICAL WORLD TOTALLY DISAPEARS IN FRONT OF YOU. AS I KNOW IT WILL I LOVE IT OUT WITH THE OLD IN WITH THE NEW.

- I have asked him not to come and politely explained to him why his magnet demonstration

is not proof that main stream physics is obsolete but rather a simple effect that has been

well known for over 90 years.

Eric Krieg

Reply | Messages in this Topic (2)

#144

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Tue May 14, 2002 4:31 am
Subject: Phact - reminder of great lecture this Saturday at 2pm in Bensalem

philipkrieg

People,

I got the following email:

the only chance in a long time to meet Michael Shermer - editor of skeptic magazine.

That will be 5$ suggested donation. We will be mailing out remind post cards for this.

Then a final reminder for Bob Park's talk this Saturday 2PM. I've been trying to get him

to come up for years. His book "Voodoo Science" was absolutely engrossing. His message

about bogus science and how to recognize it is important. A write up on his talk

appears at:

I think only James Randi has more entertaining critics than Bob Park. But here's a sampling:

Dennis Lee says of Bob Park,

"he is a stupid man who only calls himself a scientist and is afraid to debate me face to face"

the following came from donsm1@... Don Smith, one of the free energy kooks out there:

Please Post and Repost World Wide and All News Services

See that Every Senator, Representative and The Commissioner for Patents Knows

Bob Park is the Known Goon that intimidates and slanders the US Patent
Office when they use their intellect in place of Dogma. Sad to say Park
usually wins. He uses all sort of lies and fact twisting, a sample of which
is the statement below where he knowingly lies about Joe Newman. A very
famous Federal Court Case, over the stupidity tribute extracted by Park
through intimidation of the US Patent Office was reversed by the Federal
Judge, who sided with Newman and ordered a Patent awarded. Park is
fully aware of this and knowingly rape's the media as a form of self gratification
in perpetuate his Dogmas. A Class action suite for this ridicules posturing and it's
harm to society by denighing useful technology is paramount.
He should be ordered into Exile as a Traitor against humanity, declared
Persona Non Grata and stripped of all His Degrees, acquired wealth and sent
penniless into exile, preferably where the headhunters practice their Dogma.
He has just started his song and ritual of intimidation of the Patent Office
with regards to the MEG. They should immediately get a Court Order requiring
a Huge Bond be Posted by the APS and Park such that if they interfere in
any way, arms length or associates who have the same Dogma's that they
all end up paying Horrendous Damages to all those previously caught in
their web. Park is already involved in Several Legal Actions. Simply join
forces. The Patent Office should be asked publicly in such a way that
they can not crawl in their Hole. I bet they would love to get Park of their
back is high on their list of things to do.

Take Care, Dr. Smith

======================================================================

You may think "Dr Smith" does not quite have all cylinders firing, but the following kook

is a real piece of work, I still don't know what percentage of his rants come from stupidity

vs insanity. It seems that any self respecting nut on the web insists on ranting in all caps:

JCarey9622@... JACK CAREY: REPLY IT STILL WORKS IT IS JUST TOTALLY OBSOLETE NO ONE SAID IT DID NOT WORK YOU WOULD HAVE FOUND THAT OUT IF YOU WOULD HAVE TESTED THE UNIT AUG.11 AT DENNIS'S SHOW.

AS I SAID YOU IN FOR A VERY RUDE AWAKING ALONG WITH BOB PARK AND ERIC AND THE REST OF THE LINEAR ELECTRICAL SKEPTICS IT WOULD HAVE TO BE IN THE AFTERNOON CALL FIRST 810 744 9587 OR 810 701 0233 YOU WILL BE TAPED PLUS OUR WEB SITE WILL BE UP THIS WEEK PERFECT TIMING

I MAY NOT HAVE TO GO TO PA. THE CURRENT ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING WORLD IS TOTALLY OBSOLETE NOT JUST CHANGED A LITTLE PLEASE DO NOT GO HOME AND SHOT YOURSELF BECAUSE YOUR KNOWN TECHNICAL WORLD TOTALLY DISAPEARS IN FRONT OF YOU. AS I KNOW IT WILL I LOVE IT OUT WITH THE OLD IN WITH THE NEW.

- I have asked him not to come and politely explained to him why his magnet demonstration

is not proof that main stream physics is obsolete but rather a simple effect that has been

well known for over 90 years.

Eric Krieg

Reply | Messages in this Topic (2)

#145

From: "Eric Hamell" <stripey7@...>
Date: Mon May 20, 2002 3:04 am
Subject: Good opportunity to promote Shermer event?

stripey7

Hi everyone,

While visiting Philadelphia's main public library today, I noticed they're
soon presenting talks by some "fringe" writers, including our old
acquaintance Tom Carey of MUFON. I didn't write down the dates, but I think
the sign said June 8 and 9.

People may or may not be interested in hearing these speakers; like most
PhACT members, I wasn't too impressed by Carey when he addressed us. (This
doesn't excuse the rude way a few members treated him on that occasion, as
Dave Leiter pointed out in the last Phactum; although he neglected to
mention that the chair told those members to behave themselves.) But either
way, it seems that this might be a good occasion to promote our own event a
few weeks later. Quite possibly the library by that time will be doing so
itself with another sign; but it still wouldn't hurt to flyer people on
their way in, who might not notice said sign.

Eric Hamell

_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com

#146

From: "Eric Hamell" <stripey7@...>
Date: Fri May 31, 2002 3:06 am
Subject: Treating ancient wisdom with all the seriousness it deserves

stripey7

Seen recently in a Center City weekly:

Tommy Gentekos Hair Salon

Tommy thinks he has mastered the ancient art of feng shui... he will cut and
color your hair any feng shui you like

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos:
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx

#147

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Wed Jun 12, 2002 12:22 pm
Subject: Phact - don't miss Mike Shermer June 21

philipkrieg

Hey, Hey,

Did anyone see last nights Simpsons? It was the one where Homer sees an ET and Lisa shows her copy of "Jr Skeptic Magazine" . . . now a reality (or at least as an insert in Skeptic Magazine) . . . that thanks to our speaker June 21 - Mike Shermer. You can't miss this one. I've been trying for 5 years to get him in. Details are found at:

By the way, Mike would like it if someone could be on hand to pick him up at the airport 10:30 pm Wed night June 19th. Any volunteers, call me. We may be able to modify that to picking him up at one of the stations that the airport line goes to. He has to get to the "Club Quarters Hotel" 1628 Chestnut Street. Contact me if you live in the city and may be able to help him out.

Also put our picnic on your calendars, Saturday Aug 24 3pm at the south east corner of Mondauk Common Park in Upper Dublin. Every year we've been having cook outs and games at a nicely shaded pavilion on a corner of a park that has playing fields and a mile loop walking paths.

Eric Krieg

#148

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Tue Jun 18, 2002 3:57 am
Subject: PhACT - Mike Shermer speaking this Friday at 7pm

philipkrieg

People,

Our annual picnic will be Aug 24th at the south east corner of Upper Dublin's Mondauk Common

Park.

Don't miss a chance to hear Mike Shermerthis Friday at 7pm . I've been trying to get him to our

city for 5 years now. Donations of $5 to get in at the door (discounts for students and

seniors)

The following is from Shermer's email list publicizing the coming event:

E-SKEPTIC FOR JUNE 17, 2002
Copyright 2002 Michael Shermer, Skeptics Society, Skeptic magazine, e-Skeptic
magazine (www.skeptic.com and skepticmag@...). Permission to print,
distribute, and post with proper citation and acknowledgment. We encourage
you to broadcast e-Skeptic to new potential subscribers. Newcomers can
subscribe to e-Skeptic for free by sending an e-mail to:
join-skeptics@...
---------------------------------
SKEPTIC (SHERMER) LECTURE IN PHILADELPHIA

Friday, June 21st, 7:00 p.m. - "The Borderlands of Science - Where Sense
Meets Nonsense", by Dr. Michael Shermer
Location: Philadelphia Free Library, 17th & Vine

Dr. Michael Shermer, the Publisher of Skeptic magazine, columnist for
Scientific American, and the author of Why People Believe Weird Things and
How We Believe, turns his skeptical eye in his latest book, on which this
lecture is based, to the fuzzy borderlands of science--the fuzzy fringes and
blurry edges between science and pseudoscience, science and nonscience,
normal science and revolutionary science, and between science and nonsense.
Dr. Shermer turns his critical thinking from the pseudoscience he has
investigated in his previous works, to that gray area between science and
pseudoscience, where it is not clear whether a claim will turn out to be the
next great revolution in science or the next big hoax in pseudoscience.

For more information go to www.phact.org
SKEPTIC (SHERMER) SEMINAR FOR NSF IN PHILADELPHIA
For those with a lot of time on their hands, I'll be putting on a two-day
seminar for the National Science Foundation this Thursday and Friday,
entitled "Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking About Why
People Believe Weird Things, June 20-21 (9-4:30 each day) at Temple
University in Philadelphia. For more information contact Dr. Leonard
Muldawer, 215/204-7668 or muldawer@...

#149

From: "Eric Hamell" <stripey7@...>
Date: Thu Jun 20, 2002 2:18 am
Subject: *TAL* on Recovered Memory Therapy

stripey7

FYI:

On *This American Life* this week (on right now, 10-11pm, 90.9fm) they have
a show about Recovered memory Therapy.

Eric Hamell

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos:
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx

#150

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Sat Jun 22, 2002 2:59 pm
Subject: Phact update on the Shermer night

philipkrieg

People,

What a night last night. We had over 100 people - Mike Shermer did a great job, people loved him and we easily sold every one of the books he brought.

Special thanks to

Bob G for driving Mike to the airport this morning
Jen K. for manning the book and ticket tables
Eric H. for promotional help
Tony R. for producing the outrageous musical intro tape
Elaine B. for picking Mike up at the airport late Wednesday
Al E. for being our photographer
Ray H. for setting up the cheese and crackers
Martin Z. for handling unscheduled errands.
Becky S. for setting up the dinner and getting the door prize

Shermer sounded interested in our idea to debut Jr Skeptic (in a new form) at the March National Science Teachers convention in Philly. We need ideas on how to help promote such material to actually get bought by schools. To justify a booth (over a grand for the national show) we'd have to help move enough material and negotiate commissions. This is something where the schools, the kids, and the skeptics groups could all benefit. At the last show in Hershey, there was considerable interest from teachers on how to present more critical thinking to kids. The teachers think we are great - but we need more than just that. Contact me if you want to participate in an email dialog about how to make this happen.

Finally, we are off for July - But don't forget Sat. Aug 24 3pm - the 4th annual Phact Phamily Phun Picnic. Its off Broad Street in the south east corner of Mondauk Common Park in Upper Dublin. We have a field and the pavilion in a wooded area to ourselves. There is a playground, Basket Ball and V ball nearby. Bring food to cook out and objects to throw. Someone announced a precognition of another alien appearance. Take 309 N from the turnpike, exit and right onto Susquehanna, left at 2nd light on broad, left into second parking lot.

More later on our Sept, Oct and Nov speakers - all on 3rd Saturdays at 2pm.

best wishes,

Eric Krieg

#151

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:57 am
Subject: Phact Picnic reminder - this Saturday

philipkrieg

People,

It will again be in Upper Dublin, I predict the weather will be cooler. We will be in the pavilion of the south east corner of Mondauk Common park. There are cook out grills, we have the baseball field to ourselves and are right along the mile loop walking-jogging path. There are also near by play grounds, V-ball and B-ball courts and plenty of room for all kinds of sports. Bring some communal food. I'll be cooking vegetarian burgers on a grill fueled by local sticks. Hey, fun for the whole family.

Directions: From the turnpike, 309 N, take 2nd exit to turn right onto Susquehanna, going south. Make a left onto Broad St. at your 2nd light. Turn left after a quarter mile into the 2nd park parking lot (right before dead end). The pavilion will be directly ahead of you across a little foot bridge. It should be fun - hope to see you there.

The September 21 meeting is the 3rd Saturday in Sept back at the Community College of Philadelphia. This time it will include a video and discussion of a recent TV appearance on UFO's and that things that go bump in the night by our own Bob Glickman.

As I mentioned, we are interested in getting some fresh ideas into how to help science teachers during the coming national science teachers convention in our city next year.

Eric Krieg

#152

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Mon Sep 9, 2002 3:39 am
Subject: Phact - meeting Sept 21 meeting: Glickman vs the flying saucers

philipkrieg

People,

you should have gotten the last issue of Phactum - It had a great article by young Katherine Merow who did a great test to see what psychics would have to say about a long lost sibling.

The PhACT picnic went well, Allison Lester made an "alien autopsy" cake. It remains to be seen if the pictures taken were out of focus.

Among reflections to make during moments of silence on the 11th could be "golly, would be nice if the world had more reason and less nuts".

We start up another Phact season Sept 21st at 2pm in room W2-48 of the Community College of Philadelphia. We will play a tape of Bob Glickman's appearance on Channel 8's "It's Your Call". Bob held his own on the topic of UFOs last August. Should be some unworldly discussion following.

hope to see you there,

Eric Krieg

#153

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Fri Sep 20, 2002 4:39 am
Subject: PhACT reminder to show up this Saturday, notes on false memories

philipkrieg

http://www.moonmovie.com/10things.html

Next Meeting

September 21, 2:00 p.m. - Bob Glickman vs. The Flying Saucers
Location: West Building, RM W2-48, Community College of Philadelphia
In August, PhACT member Bob Glickman made it onto CN8's It's Your Call with Lynn Doyle to discuss UFO phenomena. The producers were kind enough to give Bob a copy of the tape, and he's kind enough to let us all watch it. Afterwards, Bob will entertain questions, which will inevitably lead to an animated discussion of UFOlogy.
Directions: From I-95 or I-76, get onto I-676 and take the Broad Street exit. This will put you onto 15th Street. Take the first available right, drive one block, and turn onto 16th Street. Continue straight and turn left onto Spring Garden Street. Drive one block and turn left onto 17th Street. The College's parking garage is about 200 yards down on your right (next to the Winner Building).

In other news, - we got a brief mention in Bob Park's email column "What's new":

WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 13 Sep 02 Washington, DC

1. PERPETUAL MOTION: FAULTY WHEEL BEARING SPOILS DEMONSTRATION.
Yes, it's another one. Inventor Carl Tilley rented the Nashville
SuperSpeedway on Saturday to demonstrate his amazing electric
generator. He took a 1981 DeLorean and replaced the engine with
a conventional electric motor. The motor is connected to twelve
ordinary 12-volt batteries. Here's the good part: the motor not
only runs the DeLorean, it also runs a generator that charges the
batteries, so the car just keeps going. Can it do that? Well,
not without a good generator. As Tilley explains, "it utilizes
the generation of static electricity rather than cutting magnetic
fields which has been common practice to date." Further details
are not available. Eric Krieg, the relentless foe of perpetual
motion quacks at PHACT, the Philadelphia Association for Critical
Thinking, predicted that the DeLorean would suffer mechanical
failure after 25 miles or so. Actually, Tilley stopped the
demonstration at 52 miles, explaining that a wheel bearing had
failed. That happens when you lubricate bearings with snake oil.

As an example of some of the growing scientific ignorance in the country is this ad for

information proving the moon landing never happened:

A rational response to such complete nonsense is found at:

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

In other news, we here from George Hansen there will be a New Jersey UFO conference Oct 12-13

Ingo Swann, David Jacobs, Tom Van Flandern, Jim Moseley, Bruce Maccabee and others will be speaking at
a UFO conference in Bordentown, NJ on October 12 & 13.
Details are at--
http://www.drufo.org

Below is email I got from another skeptic's group in NY:

Hi Eric,

I'm currently working on responding to upcoming appearances of Ellen Bass,
co-author of The Courage to Heal, in Syracuse. I was looking at her Web site
and noticed that she is going to be in Philadelphia later this month. I

thought your group might want to do something to respond. Here's
the info from the Web site:

September 30, 7:30 PM
Poetry Reading at Barnes & Noble
720-30 Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, PA
610-520-0355

October 1, 5:30 PM
Poetry Reading at Giovanni's Room
345 S. 12th St., Philadelphia, PA
215-923-2960

Below is a copy of the letter I'm sending to the organizations involved
in bringing Bass here. I will also send editorial letters to the local papers.

I hope your group will be able to organize a response to Bass. It's a
crime that her book is still in print.

Best,

Lisa Goodlin

-----------------------------------
Lisa Goodlin, President
Central New York Skeptics
www.cnyskeptics.org

EDITORIAL

On September 26 and 27, Ellen Bass, the co-author of The Courage to Heal: :
A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, will be a featured at "An
Evening of Healing with Ellen Bass" at Syracuse University and at the Women
Artists Datebook 10th Anniversary Party, and will be holding a workshop for
those who work with survivors of sexual trauma, at Temple Society of Concord.

While I am sure that the events are well-intentioned, I seriously question
your choice of Ellen Bass to conduct workshops for professionals who work
with survivors of sexual trauma and to give the featured address in a

celebration for survivors. Ms. Bass's book, The Courage to Heal: A Guide for
Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, promotes the recovery of repressed
memories of childhood sexual abuse. This book encourages women to conclude
that they were sexually abused as children although they lack memories of
abuse or corroborating evidence. In the words of Bass and Davis, �Many women
who were abused don't have memories, and some never get any. This doesn't
mean that they weren't abused,� and �If you think you were abused, and your
life shows the symptoms, then you were." Serious questions have been raised
regarding the �memories� recovered in therapy.

The American Psychological Association's Working Group on the Investigation
of Memories of Childhood Abuse issued a report in 1995 that notes recovered
memory is rare. It states that "there is a consensus among memory
researchers and clinicians that most people who were sexually abused as
children remember all or part of what happened to them although they may not
fully understand or disclose it....At this point," according to the APA, "it
is impossible, without other corroborative evidence, to distinguish a true
memory from a false one." Thus, says the APA report, a "competent
psychotherapist is likely to acknowledge that current knowledge does not
allow the definite conclusion that a memory is real or false without other
corroborating evidence" (www.apa.org/pubinfo/mem.html). In Britain, the
Royal College of Psychiatrists has officially banned its members from using
therapies designed to recover repressed memories of child abuse.
Ms. Bass also presents information on "body memories" and "satanic ritual
abuse," the existence for which there is no evidence. By evidence I mean
data that has been obtained using scientific methods. Ms. Bass�s book is
filled with heartrending and gut-wrenching stories, but it is important to
remember that anecdote is not evidence.

In response to first-person accounts like those found in The Courage to
Heal, FBI Special Agent Ken Lanning investigated more than three hundred
cases of alleged satanic cult activity and found no evidence of the
existence of such cults. He wrote, "Until hard evidence is obtained and
corroborated, the public should not be frightened into believing that
babies are being bred and eaten, that 50,000 missing children are being
murdered inhuman sacrifices, or that Satanists are taking over America's day care
centers or institutions. While no one can prove with absolute certainty
that such activity has not occurred, the burden of proof is on those who
claim that it has occurred." Should this not make us question other
�findings� of this type of therapy? Lanning goes on to say that it is "up to the
mental health professionals, not law enforcement, to explain why victims are
alleging things that don't seem to have happened" (Investigator's
Guide to Allegations of Ritual Child Abuse).

In the mid-1990s, after books like The Courage to Heal began to appear and
therapists started �training� in these methods, there was a rash, some would
say an epidemic, of abuse allegations by women who had recovered memories in
therapy. Many of these women later retracted their stories but not before
many lives were destroyed.

It is because of these destroyed lives that I urge you to provide at least
some alternative information at these events so that Ms. Bass�s ideas may be
tempered by the findings of scientifically conducted studies.

To lean more about recovered memory therapy, I recommend these books: The
Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual
Abuse, by Elizabeth Loftus, a well-regarded researcher of memory and professor
of psychology; Making Monsters: False Memories, Psychotherapy, and
Sexual Hysteria, by Richard Ofshe, professor of psychology at UC Berkeley
and a Pulitzer Prize winner; and Carl Sagan's chapter on therapy in The
Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.

On the Web you can find critical information at these sites: The False
Memory Syndrome Foundation <www.fmsfonline.org/> and The Skeptics'
Dictionary entries on repressed memory therapy
<skepdic.com/repress.html>
and repressed memories ,skepdic.com/repressed memory.html>

Lisa Goodlin, President
CNY Skeptics
201 Milnor Ave.
Syracuse, NY 13224
446-3068

We have had people from the local False Memory Syndrome Foundation speak to PhaACT.

The thought of some of these new age victimization-industry flakes tearing apart families with

such horrible nonsense is repugnant to me. Anyone willing to nicely pass out counter

literature at either of the local book signings, let me know. It's also something to tell media

people - there's a good controversial story there.

#154

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Thu Sep 26, 2002 2:33 am
Subject: Phact - general updates

philipkrieg

www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00034DF5-683F-1D7E-90FB809EC5880000&catID=22

Hello Phactors,

Sept. 28th, the Hatboro borough hall will be haunted by the South Jersey Paranormal Psychic Research group investigating reports of ghosts. They will have tape recorders, video and still camera's on hand. Oh boy! On Oct 22, they will present their findings. During October there will be ghost tours. argggh!

Did everyone see the tape of the lady who was on video beating her kid in a car? Well she's a member of an Irish Gypsy group known as the "travelers". Our next speaker, officer Lou Sgro arrested her husband in 1998 for home repair fraud. Naturally, we of Phact don't engage in stereotyping and would not want to imply that all members of the Gypsy people groups are crooks. But next meeting, you can hear Lou talk about different kinds of scams foisted on the public and efforts by the law enforcement community to protect us. You can catch him Oct 19th.

Then November 16th, we will have The pitfalls of polygraph testing, by professor John Ruscio The lecture will mention the difficulties in detecting deception and on the general scientific framework by which diagnostic decisions can be evaluated and improved.

It looks like the hall we used for the solstice party is closed on the solstice - but there is a good chance we will have our annual party Sunday Dec 15th - more on that later.

PhACT got a passing reference in the most recent issue of Scientific American - see:

Don't forget to make any contributions to Phactum to Greg Lestor at greg_lester@...

We are getting together a distributed Phact-library. Email a list of books that you could make available (or even ones you are looking for) to Wes Powers at: wes_powers@...

Anyone at all near Horsham who would like to get together for a lunch sometime weekday, email me.

Eric Krieg

"there are two kinds of people - those who say tautologies and those who don't"

#155

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Tue Oct 15, 2002 4:02 am
Subject: Phact - update list - meeting this Saturday Oct at 2pm

philipkrieg

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skepticed/join

Hi,

I heard that the Phactum article from young Katharine Merow was on the cover of

Skeptical Briefs. The article was on her first hand test of local psychics - and their widely

varying accounts of Katharine's nonexistent sibling. Way to go Katharine!

Don't forget the Phact lending library - If you have skeptical books you are willing to loan

to others, send a list of them to Wes Powers at wes.powers@...

I just found out the Jarrettown Inn near me has a haunted room - I'm going to ask them

if I can stay in it some night. Speaking of local kooky things, former big-time Philly new age

promoter, Ira "I was wondering what was in that box" Einhorn has been in the news again -

At one point with a psychic as a witness.

The new issue of Phactum should be out soon. PhACT got a reference on page 41 of the latest

issue of Scientific American

Work is still going on to arrange for a joint PhACT-CSICOP booth at the coming March 2003

Science Teachers' Convention in Philadelphia. If you want to join in this effort to eventually

help the next generation learn about critical thinking, there is an email list at:

Some of Amanda's other efforts to give CSICOP's a younger reach are at:

http://www.youngskeptics.org/

A good way to encourage CSICOP (who is hurting for money during the recession) to do more of

this would be to make tax deductible donations to CSICOP earmarked for this program.

Our next meeting is
October 19, 2:00 p.m. - "Con Men", by Detective Lou Sgro

Location: Room W-47, Community College of Philadelphia (southwest corner of 17th & Spring Garden)

Detective Sgro will speak on con men and elder crime. Lou has been on the force helping to defend us from various crooks for 37 years. He is presently working with elder crime in the Major Crimes unit in Philadelphia. He last spoke to PhACT in April of 1996.

Lou has particular experience tracking down and prosecuting people perpetrating what is sometimes called "gypsy crimes". This includes fortune telling, home repair scams, robbing stores, or ripping off the elderly. Lou is one of the rare law enforcement people who understands the workings of criminal clans who have been perfecting techniques for generations. Several gypsy curses placed on him seem to have had no effect. Come hear a riveting discussion of how these crimes work and the law enforcement techniques needed to uphold justice.

Directions: From I-95 or I-76, get onto I-676 and take the Broad Street exit. This will put you onto 15th Street. Take the first available right, drive one block, and turn onto 16th Street. Continue straight and turn left onto Spring Garden Street. Drive one block and turn left onto 17th Street. The College's parking garage is about 200 yards down on your right (next to the Winner Building

Then put on your Calendar for Nov 16th at 2pm:

"The Pitfalls of Polygraph Testing."

by Professor John Ruscio

Distinguishing honesty from dishonesty is an incredibly important yet fiendishly difficult task that challenges individuals and institutions at all levels of our society. One popular technique used to detect deception is the polygraph, or "lie detector," test. The validity of conclusions drawn from polygraph examinations can vary substantially depending on the specific procedures that are used to conduct the exams and interpret their results. In addition to these sources of variance, the base rate of deception in the population being tested has a significant influence on the validity of conclusions that can be easy to overlook. Rather than simply accepting polygraph testing as an infallible guide to truth or dismissing it as a hopelessly flawed practice, cost-benefit analyses should weight the probabilities of various outcomes by their real-world consequences to determine whether such testing is advisable out for a particular purpose. Unfortunately, realistic cost-benefit analyses presented in an explicit and honest manner appear to be the exception rather than the rule. Based on an overview of the general scientific framework for evaluating diagnostic decisions and a summary of relevant empirical research, I would like to suggest that we often hear the most strident calls for polygraph testing in the very circumstances when it is least likely to yield a net benefit.

BIO: John Ruscio is a member of the Psychology Department at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County, PA. His primary areas of research and teaching interest include human judgment and decision making, the classification and diagnosis of psychopathology, and statistical methods to study boundary issues involving qualitative vs. quantitative individual differences. He is also author of Clear Thinking with Psychology: Separating Sense from Nonsense and Applying What We Have Learned:

Then Dec 15th is annual solstice party at the great place Jack Rohr gets us.

The following show sounds like a worthy victory by CSICOP:

>
> Critical Eye
>
> This series hosted by William B. Davis (The X-Files-smoking man), looks into
> the science behind the paranormal, new age philosophies, and the unexplained.
>
> The series will investigate 34 topics including, subliminal messaging, alien
> abduction, acupuncture, ghosts, astrology, exorcism, Stonehenge, near-death
> experiences, and the lost city of Atlantis. Each topic will be addressed by
> leading experts and scientists. These subjects will be brought to life
> through lively debate and extraordinary visuals in order to shed light on its
> scientific relevance.
>
>
> Critical Eye will premiere on Monday Oct 28 at 8pm/ET. A second hour of
> the series will also air on 10/28 at 9pm. Please see schedule below for
> more details. http://science.discovery.com/tuneins/criticaleye.html
>
> 10/28 (8pm) - Mind Games
> 10/28 (9pm) - Dark Side (repeats Thu 10/31 at 10pm)
> 11/4 (8pm) - Alternative Medicine
> 11/11 (8pm) - Legendary Myths
> 11/18 (8pm) - Fortelling the Future
> 11/25 (8pm) - Mystical Wonders
> 12/2 (8pm) - Death Zone
>

#156

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Tue Nov 12, 2002 5:41 am
Subject: PhACT - don't forget coming meeting this Saturday

philipkrieg

http://www.space.com/leonids/

The Leonids meteor shower around Nov 19th will not be quite as good as last year - but still of interest:

The following is information on the coming meeting this Saturday 2pm at the Philadelphia Community College:

The Pitfalls of Polygraph Testing."

by Professor John Ruscio

Bob Glickman and I will probably go to the James Randi "Amazing Meeting" the weekend of Jan 31st:

http://randi.org/jref/conference.html

Darwin day is coming up this February 12.

www.darwinday.org

Perhaps we could do a press release and get the word out to schools. Ideas for promotional events are found at:

http://www.darwinday.org/events/ideas.html

People willing to make books available for the distributed PhACT library should send submissions to:

<wes_powers@...>

Skeptical sites of interest:

http://www.youngskeptics.org/ - new effort to reach young people with critical thinking

http://www.csicop.org/ CSICOP

http://randi.org/ James Randi Educational Foundation

http://skeptic.com/ Skeptic Society

http://www.phact.org Us

http://www.network54.com/Forum/106498 our discussion board

#157

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Wed Dec 4, 2002 4:43 am
Subject: Phact update - Party on the 15th at 5pm

philipkrieg

http://www.darwinday.org/events/ideas.html

People,

the now annual PhACt Winter Solstice (also known as Newtonamas) Party will again be at the

in the retirement community building near Jack Rohr's place in North Wales.

From 202 North, go through the light at Sumneytown Pike, bear around to the left.

Then take a left at the light on to Hancock. After about a half mile

take a left before the church onto Prospect Ave. Then right onto Farm Lane. The meeting room is

on the right hand side. Bring some eats and even friends and family. 5pm - be there or be square.

Then January 18th, we have Dr. Barrie Cassileth speaking on alt. health claims.

It sounds like we will likely have Joe Szimhart Feb 15th for an update on cults.

Darwin day is coming up this February 12.

www.darwinday.org

Perhaps we could do a press release and get the word out to schools. Ideas for promotional events are found at:

People willing to make books available for the distributed PhACT library should send submissions to:

<wes_powers@...>

Bob Glickman and I will probably go to the James Randi "Amazing Meeting" the weekend of Jan 31st:

http://randi.org/jref/conference.html

join in the fray - check out the phact board:

http://network54.com/Forum/106498

Let me know if you'd like to be in on a informal lunch at the Jarrettown hotel during the week (they have a room said to be haunted)

Eric Krieg

#158

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Tue Dec 10, 2002 4:45 am
Subject: Reminder - PhACT party Dec 15th 5 pm - Ghost lunch in Jarrettown Inn Jan 3rd

philipkrieg

quick reminder here, oh ye of little faith:

December 15th at 5pm at the Farm lane meeting room (near Jacks) in North Wales will be

the scene of our winter solstice (or as close as we could get) party. Bring some food - maybe

even a gag gift. We'll have a shortened form of "Skepardy" MC'd by local radio personality,

Tony Romeo and maybe even a contest of best short personal stories of encounters with

weird people. Goofy Xmas clothes are encouraged.

Then for people who work in the northern burbs: 12:15 at the Jarrettown Hotel on Limekiln

Pike near Dresher, a bunch of us will "do lunch" . We will make sure to check

out some of the upper rooms said to be haunted by spirits including a "lady in White". It the

lady in white doesn't appear - at least our own Sue White is said to be willing to appear

(actually, she is white - damn, this is getting too spooky already!) That's Friday January 3rd.

Then Satuday, 2 pm January 18th will be a lecture by Dr. Barrie Cassileth talking about

Alternative Health Claims.

Eric

#159

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Tue Dec 31, 2002 4:08 pm
Subject: Phact reminder Jan 3rd lunch 12:15 in Jarrettown, Jan 18th alt medicine

philipkrieg

http://www.msnbc.com/news/852029.asp?cp1=1

People,

Jan 3rd will have at least 8 of us so far at the Jarrettown Inn at 12:15. One topic to discuss there, Howard W. will bring along his middle school child who plans on doing a proper test to answer the question, "can people sense (paranormally) if they are being starred at?". Another thing needing more discussion is CSICOP pulling out support for the 2003 Science Teachers convention in Philadelphia.

Keep open Jan 18th 2pm in the W2-48 room of the West Building at the Community College of Philadelphia: Dr Barrie R. Cassileth will speak about Complimentary and Alternative Medicine. She is from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and is said to be a great speaker and a real authority on the subject.

Thanks to Jack Rohr's planning, the Winter Solstice party was a lot of fun. We had a great assortment of food and drink. Elaine Brody not only was the winner of Tom Napier's Skepticology contest, but had one of the goofiest holiday decorations. Greg Lester won the "King of the Leiter Bashers" award which included a congratulatory statement from Leiter's wife. Filling the musical gap by the absence of Wisdom's musical trio was skilled bag pipe player, Jeff Clarke. Other music included some excellent Xmas song parodies. KYW reporter Tony Romeo MCed a rousing contest of "Skepardy" complete with sound effects. Leiter demonstrated his small reciprocating alcohol powered motor and some neat gifts were exchanged.

If you look at:

The Phoenixville area school district has been under pressure to add "intelligent design" as "an alternative to evolution". Anyone who wants to help jump in the fray, give me a call.

There is plenty of repartee, debating, mocking, reporting, kvetching, wise cracking and soul searching always going on at the Phactboard:

http://network54.com/Forum/106498

a happy new year to all,

Eric Krieg

#160

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Mon Jan 13, 2003 12:35 pm
Subject: Phact - reminder this Sat Jan 18th 2pm -alternative medicine

philipkrieg

http://nccam.nih.gov/clinicaltrials/factsheet/index.htm

People,

On the 18th, we will hear from Dr. Barrie Cassileth author of "Alternative Medicine Handbook: The Complete Reference Guide to Alternative and Complementary Therapies" . She is affiliated with the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine, the American Cancer Society, and two medical schools.

Although most alternative health claims are placebo at best with no valid support from proper double blind tests, there are some treatments considered fringe at one time that are finding some scientific basis: A few herbs have been found to have some medicinal value. Also Coley's Toxins from the turn of the century (usually listed with fraud like shark cartilage) are now thought to have been the then unknown workings of bits of bacterial DNA (the CG oglionucleotide) that we now know are detected by the immune system. The trick is how to use the tools of science to separate the wheat from the chaff. Our speaker for next Saturday sounds more on the belief side than most of us. She has been associated with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine which according to the following web site, claims to be in favor of the proper scientific testing :

That being said, many skeptics have serious reservations the NCCAM and the new NIH office of alternative medicine. Of course the kooks always claim that established medicine is only about preserving established assumptions. I'm sure the Q&A of this lecture should be interesting.

In other news:

Right near us in Princeton is the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research labs. They have long claimed to have proof of the paranormal. The following is a skeptical investigation: http://www.sfu.ca/~sbishopa/soapbox/pear.pdf

The media acted with complete credulousness to a cult that claimed to have cloned a person. A goofy cult known for making false claims said they have made a very difficult scientific break-through. Before giving the group free publicity, the press should have asked for real evidence, instead -they gave the story undeserved publicity just because cloning people is controversial. In the process, people have been conditioned to fear a general area of science and technology that could hold potential advancements. Speaking of cults:

Remember February 15, when we will learn about "Harmful Cults" from Joe Szimhart :

Joe Szimhart has worked as a consultant internationally
regarding harmful cults since 1986. He began helping people
to reject cultic influences in 1980 as a deprogrammer or
exit counselor. He has lectured and written widely on this
topic and has appeared in dozens of media presentations. His
reviews and articles have appeared in the Cultic Studies
Journal (www.csj.org) and the Skeptical Inquirer regularly.
He has had a long career as an artist. Currently he is
employed at a psychiatric emergency hospital as an intake
and crisis manager. He resides in Pottstown, PA with his
wife and daughters. He maintains a website about his cult
related work at <www.users.fast.net/~szimhart>

Joe will present a summary of the cult controversy and how
it has changed in the past 30 years. He will address social,
medical, scientific and legal aspects of the problem, and he
will comment on recent news about the Raelian "cloning" sect
with short video clips. Reading list to be provided.

Longer bio:
Joe Szimhart Careers Description:
Cult Information Specialist/Thought Reform Consultant
engages in consultation, education, research and
non-coercive intervention regarding controversial, high
demand groups, cults, psychotherapies, or relationships that
use undue influence or thought reform and mind control
techniques.
As an artist he continues to produce and exhibit paintings,
drawings and prints.
Currently, Szimhart is employed by a psychiatric emergency
hospital.

Experience:
Joe Szimhart's deep interest in the problem of harmful
cult activity began in 1980 when he rejected a system of
esoteric sects that he pursued. He began helping persons to
exit cults by the end of 1980. His professional career began
in 1986 when he first worked with intervention specialists
(deprogrammers and exit counselors) nationally. Szimhart was
chairman of an interdenominational cult information group in
Santa Fe, NM from 1985-92, and he supported a local CSICOP
group during that period. His continuing education in the
field comes from extensive research, experience, conferences
and workshops.

Szimhart has appeared in court as a witness on behalf of
cult victims four times and has defended himself
successfully against civil and criminal charges connected to
his work with victims.

He has personally helped many hundreds of people impacted by
a wide spectrum of cult activity.

He has lectured widely at colleges, prep schools, high
schools, Native American tribal centers, and conferences
about the dangers of groups that use thought reform and mind
control. Szimhart has also delivered papers for the
Association of Sociology of Religion in 1996 & 1997. He has
lectured many times for American Family Foundation
conferences and for many unrelated cult-awareness
organizations.

Exposure:
Since 1983 he has appeared on dozens of TV and radio
programs worldwide and has been consulted by the media
regularly, including 20/20, A Current Affair, TV2 Chicago,
the Canadian Broadcasting Network and the Black
Entertainment Network. The October 17, 1994 NBC TV movie
that has aired repeatedly, "Moment of Truth: A Mother's
Deception," is based on a Szimhart case--he consulted for
the production. More recently he has been consulted by
Dateline re. Rama Lenz; Court TV re. Chung Moo Quan. He
appeared on A&E TV in June 1997 criticizing Church Universal
& Triumphant's Elizabeth Prophet. In 1991, September DETAILs
magazine feature article on Szimhart called "New Age
Exorcist." He has been consulted by Newsweek, the London
Telegraph Review, The New Mexican, Forbes, the Washington
Post , the West Australian, the New York Times and the
Pottstown Mercury to name a few.

Several books have mentioned Szimhart including:
Understanding the New Age by R. Chandler (1988), What Do We
Mean When we Say God? by D. Sullivan (1991), Captive Hearts,
Captive Minds by Tobias & Lalich (1994), Snapping (1995) by
Conway & Siegelman. Many of Szimhart's book reviews and
articles have appeared in the Cultic Studies Journal, the
Skeptical Inquirer and other publications.

Szimhart wrote the introduction for Cult Encounter by Helen
& Rick Larsen [1997], and for 400 Years of Imaginary
Friends: A journey into the world of adepts, masters,
ascended masters, and their messengers by Kenneth and Talita
Paolini [2000].

#161

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Sun Feb 9, 2003 6:21 am
Subject: Phact - lecture on "Harmful cults" Feb 15th. 2pm

philipkrieg

http://www.phact.org/images/map2.gif

People,

Don't miss our coming meeting Feb 15th 2pm with a lecture by Joe Szimhart on "Harmful Cults" at the Philadelphia Community College. (more details at the end of this email)

The newest issue of Phactum is out. If you don't subscribe or have an expired date on the address label on your issue, just send $15 (payable to Jack Rohr) per year plus any donation to PhACT P.O. Box 1131 North Wales PA 19454-0131 That's not asking for much.

Send me any submissions to our PhACT lending library.

It looks like things are on for PhACT manning a booth at the March 13th National Science Teachers convention at the convention center. This effort is mostly paid for by CSICOP. We learned from last years convention for just PA that many teachers are worried about the freedom to teach the central tenet of biology and not sure how to respond to all kinds of goofy misinformation infecting the minds of their students. Anyone with good ideas on this subject, we have an email discussion list at:

Phact member Debbie Goddard managed to get Darwin Day (this Feb 12th) listed on the Penn State U. calendar.

www.darwinday.org

The JREF "Amazing Meeting" was really great. For those skeptical about my claim of going, I offer the following photographic proof:

Feb 15^th at 2pm

see following link for directions

"Harmful Cults" by Joe Szimhart :

Joe Szimhart has worked as a consultant internationally regarding harmful cults since 1986. He began helping people to reject cultic influences in 1980 as a deprogrammer or exit counselor. He has lectured and written widely on this topic and has appeared in dozens of media presentations. His reviews and articles have appeared in the Cultic Studies Journal (www.csj.org) and the Skeptical Inquirer regularly. He has had a long career as an artist. Currently he is employed at a psychiatric emergency hospital as an intake and crisis manager. He resides in Pottstown, PA with his wife and daughters. He maintains a website about his cult related work at <www.users.fast.net/~szimhart>

Joe will present a summary of the cult controversy and how it has changed in the past 30 years. He will address social, medical, scientific and legal aspects of the problem, and he will comment on recent news about the Raelian "cloning" sect with short video clips. Reading list to be provided.

Longer bio:
Joe Szimhart Careers Description:Cult Information Specialist/Thought Reform Consultant engages in consultation, education, research and non-coercive intervention regarding controversial, high demand groups, cults, psychotherapies, or relationships that use undue influence or thought reform and mind control techniques. As an artist he continues to produce and exhibit paintings, drawings and prints. Currently, Szimhart is employed by a psychiatric emergency hospital.

Experience:
Joe Szimhart's deep interest in the problem of harmful cult activity began in 1980 when he rejected a system of esoteric sects that he pursued. He began helping persons to exit cults by the end of 1980. His professional career began in 1986 when he first worked with intervention specialists (deprogrammers and exit counselors) nationally. Szimhart was chairman of an interdenominational cult information group in Santa Fe, NM from 1985-92, and he supported a local CSICOP group during that period. His continuing education in the field comes from extensive research, experience, conferences and workshops.

Szimhart has appeared in court as a witness on behalf of cult victims four times and has defended himself successfully against civil and criminal charges connected to his work with victims.

He has personally helped many hundreds of people impacted by a wide spectrum of cult activity.

He has lectured widely at colleges, prep schools, high schools, Native American tribal centers, and conferences about the dangers of groups that use thought reform and mind control. Szimhart has also delivered papers for the Association of Sociology of Religion in 1996 & 1997. He has lectured many times for American Family Foundation conferences and for many unrelated cult-awareness organizations.

Exposure:
Since 1983 he has appeared on dozens of TV and radio programs worldwide and has been consulted by the media regularly, including 20/20, A Current Affair, TV2 Chicago, the Canadian Broadcasting Network and the Black Entertainment Network. The October 17, 1994 NBC TV movie that has aired repeatedly, "Moment of Truth: A Mother's Deception," is based on a Szimhart case--he consulted for the production. More recently he has been consulted by Dateline re. Rama Lenz; Court TV re. Chung Moo Quan. He appeared on A&E TV in June 1997 criticizing Church Universal & Triumphant's Elizabeth Prophet. In 1991, September DETAILs magazine feature article on Szimhart called "New Age Exorcist." He has been consulted by Newsweek, the London Telegraph Review, The New Mexican, Forbes, the Washington Post , the West Australian, the New York Times and the Pottstown Mercury to name a few.

Several books have mentioned Szimhart including: Understanding the New Age by R. Chandler (1988), What Do We Mean When we Say God? by D. Sullivan (1991), Captive Hearts, Captive Minds by Tobias & Lalich (1994), Snapping (1995) by Conway & Siegelman. Many of Szimhart's book reviews and articles have appeared in the Cultic Studies Journal, the Skeptical Inquirer and other publications.

Szimhart wrote the introduction for Cult Encounter by Helen & Rick Larsen [1997], and for 400 Years of Imaginary Friends: A journey into the world of adepts, masters, ascended masters, and their messengers by Kenneth and Talita Paolini [2000].

#162

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Fri Feb 14, 2003 7:00 am
Subject: waahhhhh!! PhACT snow day - meeting cancelled this Saturday

philipkrieg

People,

Looks like the weather is going to be bad tomorrow so we are canceling the Phact meeting. So hold out for March 15th 2pm. As consolation, you should have at least gotten your Phactum in the mail.

Any submissions to the Phact lending library, send to Wes at wes_powers@... so we can keep our book list up to date.

Hope people had a happy Darwin day. Phact is going to man a booth at the National Science Teachers

Association's national convention in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, March 27-30 Let me know if you want

to help out.

Eric Krieg

#163

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Wed Mar 5, 2003 5:08 am
Subject: Phact update March 15th - lecture on "harmful cults" by Joe Szimhart

philipkrieg

http://www.youngskeptics.org/

People,

On March 27th - 30th, a bunch of us will help CSICOP people man a booth at the National Science Teacher's Convention in Philadelphia. We will be making Science teachers aware of a wide range of critical thinking resources available from the skeptical community. (we learned from our partipation in last years PA convention that science teachers are as frustrated as we are with growing belief in the paranormal amoung school kids)

Friday March 28th at 6:30 pm will be an informal dinner for a "meet Amanda Chesworth" night at a soon to be determined center city restaurant. Amanda is CSICOP's closest thing to a "youth ministry leader". Her popular dynamic web pages get young people interested in Science and skepticism:

Check out or add to our growing distributed Phact loaning library at:

http://www.phact.org/books.html

Hold out April 19th for another 2pm lecture and June 14th for the 4th annual PhACT Phamily Phun day picnic in Upper Dublin.

Join our web discussion board fracas at:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/106498

But this email's big announcement is for the 2pm lecture at CCP on March 15th on

"Harmful Cults" by Joe Szimhart :

Joe Szimhart has worked as a consultant internationally regarding harmful cults since 1986. He began helping people to reject cultic influences in 1980 as a deprogrammer or exit counselor. He has lectured and written widely on this topic and has appeared in dozens of media presentations. His reviews and articles have appeared in the Cultic Studies Journal (www.csj.org) and the Skeptical Inquirer regularly. He has had a long career as an artist. Currently he is employed at a psychiatric emergency hospital as an intake and crisis manager. He resides in Pottstown, PA with his wife and daughters. He maintains a website about his cult related work at <www.users.fast.net/~szimhart>

Joe will present a summary of the cult controversy and how it has changed in the past 30 years. He will address social, medical, scientific and legal aspects of the problem, and he will comment on recent news about the Reliant "cloning" sect with short video clips. Reading list to be provided.

Longer bio:
Joe Szimhart Careers Description:Cult Information Specialist/Thought Reform Consultant engages in consultation, education, research and non-coercive intervention regarding controversial, high demand groups, cults, psychotherapies, or relationships that use undue influence or thought reform and mind control techniques. As an artist he continues to produce and exhibit paintings, drawings and prints. Currently, Szimhart is employed by a psychiatric emergency hospital.

Experience:
Joe Szimhart's deep interest in the problem of harmful cult activity began in 1980 when he rejected a system of esoteric sects that he pursued. He began helping persons to exit cults by the end of 1980. His professional career began in 1986 when he first worked with intervention specialists (deprogrammers and exit counselors) nationally. Szimhart was chairman of an interdenominational cult information group in Santa Fe, NM from 1985-92, and he supported a local CSICOP group during that period. His continuing education in the field comes from extensive research, experience, conferences and workshops.

Szimhart has appeared in court as a witness on behalf of cult victims four times and has defended himself successfully against civil and criminal charges connected to his work with victims.

He has personally helped many hundreds of people impacted by a wide spectrum of cult activity.

He has lectured widely at colleges, prep schools, high schools, Native American tribal centers, and conferences about the dangers of groups that use thought reform and mind control. Szimhart has also delivered papers for the Association of Sociology of Religion in 1996 & 1997. He has lectured many times for American Family Foundation conferences and for many unrelated cult-awareness organizations.

Exposure:
Since 1983 he has appeared on dozens of TV and radio programs worldwide and has been consulted by the media regularly, including 20/20, A Current Affair, TV2 Chicago, the Canadian Broadcasting Network and the Black Entertainment Network. The October 17, 1994 NBC TV movie that has aired repeatedly, "Moment of Truth: A Mother's Deception," is based on a Szimhart case--he consulted for the production. More recently he has been consulted by Dateline re. Rama Lenz; Court TV re. Chung Moo Quan. He appeared on A&E TV in June 1997 criticizing Church Universal & Triumphant's Elizabeth Prophet. In 1991, September DETAILs magazine feature article on Szimhart called "New Age Exorcist." He has been consulted by Newsweek, the London Telegraph Review, The New Mexican, Forbes, the Washington Post , the West Australian, the New York Times and the Pottstown Mercury to name a few.

Several books have mentioned Szimhart including: Understanding the New Age by R. Chandler (1988), What Do We Mean When we Say God? by D. Sullivan (1991), Captive Hearts, Captive Minds by Tobias & Lalich (1994), Snapping (1995) by Conway & Siegelman. Many of Szimhart's book reviews and articles have appeared in the Cultic Studies Journal, the Skeptical Inquirer and other publications.

Szimhart wrote the introduction for Cult Encounter by Helen & Rick Larsen [1997], and for 400 Years of Imaginary Friends: A journey into the world of adepts, masters, ascended masters, and their messengers by Kenneth and Talita Paolini [2000].

be there or be square, man!

Eric Krieg

#164

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Fri Mar 14, 2003 3:50 am
Subject: PhACT reminder - this Saturday 2pm "Harmful Cults" speaker, Joe Szimhart

philipkrieg

People,

This Saturday we have a fascinating talk by a cult "exit counselor" (maybe better known as "deprogrammer") speaking on Harmful Cults at 2pm at CCP. As always, details on our events are found at:

http://www.youngskeptics.org/

Then Friday March 28, at 6:30, a chance to have dinner in Philadelphia with CSICOP's rising star, Amanda Chesworth. Amanda is doing a great job promoting skepticism, science and critical thinking to young people - her very popular web page is :

Eric Krieg

#165

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Wed Mar 26, 2003 4:50 am
Subject: Phact announcements

philipkrieg

http://www.phact.org/books.htm

People,

This Friday at 6:30 is "Meet Amanda Chesworth Night" - a dinner. Amanda is a dynamic CSICOP person doing a great job of extending skepticism to young people. Becky says we have reservation at an exotic Burmese restaurant called, Rangoon....112 N. Ninth st (in Chinatown). Phone is 215-829-8939.

This Thursday is the big day when a number of Phact members will go down to the city for the National Science Teachers convention to promote skeptical materials and critical thinking to teachers for a few days. We may still need one volunteer with at least a station wagon to help get a table and some boxes Sunday late morning. Email me if you can be on call for that.

Our lending library book list is coming of age. You can see the current list at

Just contact people on the list to borrow anything or submit additions to: wes_powers@...

I got a chance to rail about Jonathon Edwards to a newspaper reporter in Easton doing a story, more on that later.

Our next meeting is April 19th and the speaker is Walter Rowe from the Capitol Area Skeptics. He is speaking on Junk Science in Court

Then in May we expect to have local Inquirer Science Editor, Faye Flam talk about issues about journalism covering Science.

Put June 14th 3pm on your calendar for the 4th annual Phact Phamily Phun day - a picnic in a rented pavilion in a park in Upper Dublin.

If you have a web site, give a link to Phact's at http://www.phact.org

Eric

#166

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Thu Apr 10, 2003 3:22 pm
Subject: Phact meeting coming up April 19th & recent news

philipkrieg

People,

Phact's and CSICOP's booth at the National Science Teachers Convention in Philadelphia went quite well - we had a constant flow of interested teachers. A story about our efforts at the end of this message will likely run in CSICOP's "Skeptical Briefs".

I got a good reception for my speech on "how to use PseudoScience to teach Science" to the Bucks County Science Teachers Association" tonight.

Dr. Walter Rowe will give a talk on "Junk Science in Court" April 19th at 2pm:

http://www.phact.org/books.htm

Dr. Rowe, a chemist, is an expert in forensic sciences who teaches at George Washington University. He has been involved in a least one case where junk science led to the conviction of an individual who was later shown to be innocent. He has also served as a consultant in the debate over the efficacy of the proposed fingerprinting of firearms.

Dr. Rowe is a long-time member of the National Capital Area Skeptics and has served on their Board of Directors.

We hope to have Philadelphia Inquirer Science editor, Faye Flam speak on Science in Journalism May 17th. If she's out of the area on a possible special project, we will fill in with a showing of a hysterical episode of Penn and Teller's skeptical hard hitting series "BullSh**"

Don't forget June 14th 3pm - 8pm, our Phact Phamily Phun Day picnic in Upper Dublin.

Consider participating our Phact distributed book library at:

In recent news, 30% of Americans surveyed believe in Astrology.

The following is the write up on our recent outreach effort in Philadelphia (we could use donations to do more of the same)

CSICOP would like to thank volunteers from PhACT for encouraging CSICOP's involvement in the recent National Science Teachers Convention in Philadelphia and for their excellent representation of our programs and resources. The following is a report on the success of outreach efforts at the convention.

CSICOP and PhACT join forces for the science teachers' big Philly weekend.

by Becky Strickland, Eric Krieg, Tom Napier

One of CSICOP's newest efforts to spread skepticism is Amanda Chesworth's creative outreach program for young people. Amanda is a major force behind programs like Darwin Day and Inquiring Minds. Reaching children is an important mission for skepticism. The young are naturally inquisitive and have yet to reach the stage of, "My mind is made up, don't bother me with the facts." Besides, they have a lifetime of critical thinking ahead of them; today's skeptical activists are notoriously long in the tooth and won't be around forever.

In their quiet way America's science teachers are a priceless resource for the skeptical cause. Teaching critical thinking is part of their job; offering whatever we can to help is a no-brainer.

The Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking (PhACT) was encouraged by the response to our appearance at the 2001 Pennsylvania Science Teacher's convention in Hershey, PA. We could hardly believe our good luck (or was it kharma?) when we heard that the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) convention would be held in Philadelphia in March 2003.

Discussion about representation at the NSTA convention were initiated by Eric Krieg with CSICOP agreeing to foot the bill and use the experience to gather data for directing further outreach and programming for the Inquiring Minds Program and increased collaboration with local skeptic groups. Becky Strickland, Tom Napier, Bob Glickman, Richard Slade and Eric Krieg from PhACT volunteered to set up and man the booth for Thursday through Sunday. Amanda had most of our materials shipped ahead of time and flew in from New Mexico to get things set up.

Our turn-over was the envy of some better funded, larger, booths. Unlike the majority, which were glossy, brassy and commercial, ours was a friendly little nook strewn with skeptical information -- all under the ever-watchful eyes of our trade-mark inflatable alien. Teachers interested in ordering books or in getting more information filled up many sign-up pages.

Being on a corner lot we had two display tables. One we dedicated to the Skeptical Inquirer. There was nearly always someone perusing the piles of back-issues; we gave away about two hundred pounds of free issues! Such was their popularity that by halfway through Friday we were having to ration magazines. Luckily we had plenty of subscription leaflets.

A surprising number of visitors were lapsed subscribers -- let's hope we've encouraged them to return to the fold. Some teachers wanted to Xerox SI articles as case studies for students so we urged them to take back-number order forms.

Our other table had a selection of skeptical and scientific books published by Prometheus. We had arranged them by the intended age of the reader and it was immediately obvious that, while there was a good selection of books for young children and many for adults, there was a distinct lack of the books most teachers wanted, ones suitable for middle-school grades.

Given a stock of books and permission to sell them we'd have done a roaring trade. We soon ran out of short-form catalogs and had to make do by handing out the Prometheus Books web address. One young lady appeared seven or eight times, each time pleading to be allowed to take one of our sample books with her.

Teachers entering the Convention Center ran the gauntlet of fanatics plying them with anti-evolution materials. Word soon got around that we had the antidote available. Amanda had left reels of "Darwin Day" ribbon printed with a DNA double-helix pattern. We must have handed out miles of it to teachers who wanted to make class awards from it.

A devout anti-evolutionist stopped by our booth to hold an amiable but unavailing debate with our staff. He made a tactical blunder by citing the Second Law of Thermodynamics as evidence against evolution -- to a physicist. We removed the "anti" book which apparently arrived on our display table when our backs were turned -- no point in giving a mixed message.

A more welcome visitor was Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education and a frequent speaker at CSICOP conferences. Luckily her visit didn't overlap with that of the anti-evolutionist, we might have been hurt in the cross-fire.

Reactions from teachers we spoke to included: "How can I order this book?"; "I wish I knew about your group before."; "If I come back at the end of the show, could I take this book."; "I'm sick of all the pseudoscience garbage my kids are believing."; "I don't like taking heat for teaching evolution." and even, "I wish I could teach evolution but my state won't let me." Many teachers were interested to hear of local skeptics' groups in their areas and one even said, "This is the best booth in the place."

The Fox TV program alleging we never landed on the Moon was a frequent talking point. Our inside insight into what it takes to be hailed as an "expert" on Fox: a crazy idea, no credentials, a vanity-press book and lot of chutzpah, was widely appreciated. Programs like this almost do a service to skeptics, offering teachers such a good example when teaching their pupils to think scientifically.

A young guy from Florida presented a workshop on science vs pseudoscience; he directed people to our booth. We spoke to teachers from all over the USA as well as from Singapore, the Netherlands, Mexico and Puerto Rico. A couple of non-critical thinkers stopped by to argue but most visitors were interested and enthusiastic. We heard so often, "I've been looking for this kind of information," "Critical thinking is so important," and "I'm so glad you are here!"

As for the future, Eric Krieg has been invited to speak to a county group of science teachers on, "How to use pseudoscience to teach real science." PhACT hopes to have a booth at the New Jersey Science Teacher's convention in the fall. Next year's NSTA conference is scheduled for April 1 - 4 in Atlanta, Georgia and CSICOP hopes to be there.

A skeptical presence at conventions greatly helps teachers respond to irrationality but it does cost money. CSICOP (and PhACT) will be very grateful for donations to help us continue to guide children towards a more rational future.

Online Sites to Visit:

Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking (PhACT): www.phact.org

Inquiring Minds: www.inquiringminds.org

#167

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Wed Apr 16, 2003 4:20 pm
Subject: Reminder about PhACT meeting this Saturday at 2pm

philipkrieg

http://www.phact.org/images/map2.gif

People,

Dr. Walter Rowe will give a talk on "Junk Science in Court" Saturday April 19th at 2pm at room W2-48 of the West Building of the Community College of Philadelphia. directions at:

Dr. Rowe is a long-time member of the National Capital Area Skeptics and has served on their Board of Directors.

Eric

#168

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Sun May 11, 2003 12:00 pm
Subject: Phact - next meeting is in Bensalem, May 17th 2pm with local Science writer Faye Flam

philipkrieg

http://www.phact.org/books.htm

People,

We are coming up on our last 2 meetings of the season: This coming Saturday in our old location, the Bensalem Public Library, we will hear from local Philadelphia Inquirer Science writer, Faye Flam. She will speak on "Science in Journalism". Before she goes on, we will hear a brief mini-speech on the subject of Epidemiology by David Cragin.

Don't forget June 14th 3pm - 8pm, our Phact Phamily Phun Day picnic. It will again be in Upper Dublin in the middle of Montgomery County. We will be in the pavilion of the south east corner of Mondauk Common park. There are cook out grills, we have the baseball field to ourselves and are right along the mile loop walking-jogging path. There are also near by play grounds, V-ball and B-ball courts and plenty of room for all kinds of sports. Hey, my kids will be there. We'll do the communal food thing .

Directions: From the turnpike, 309 N, take 2nd exit to turn right onto Susquehanna, going south - turn left onto Broad St. which is your 2nd light. Turn left after .25 miles into the 2nd park parking lot (right before dead end). The pavilion will be directly ahead of you across a little foot bridge. It should be fun - hope to see you there.

Consider participating our Phact distributed book library at:

If you have a website, add a link in it to ours at:

http://www.phact.org

Jump in the fray - check out our discussion board at:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/106498

Eric Krieg eric@...

#169

From: "eric" <eric@...>
Date: Mon Jun 2, 2003 3:38 pm
Subject: PhACT - updates. Keep open June 14th.

philipkrieg

The last meeting featuring Faye Flam went really well. The next issue of Phactum should be out maybe late this week.

In other news, Bob Glickman hopes to stay in a haunted old prison with people from The Learning Channel working on a show about mystery hauntings.

The thing to remember is that Saturday June 14th from 3pm till 8pm is our 5th annual picnic. Its off Broad Street (not "the" Broad street) in the south east corner of Mondauk Common Park in Upper Dublin. We have a field and the pavilion in a wooded area to ourselves. There is a playground, Basket Ball and V ball nearby. Bring food to cook out and objects to throw. Someone announced a precognition of another alien appearance. Take 309 N from the turnpike, exit and right onto Susquehanna, left at 2nd light on broad, left into second parking lot. Bring family and/or friends.

We will be off till the start of next season on the 3rd Saturday of September.

The following is an open letter from David Leiter (local guy who is "skeptical of the skeptics") which didn't

make it into Phactum:

Leiter�s Believe It or Not�: A Thank You to Several Skeptics

In the April/May 2002 issue of Phactum, Greg kindly published my �Commentary�, re. the understandable reluctance of certain speakers to address Skeptics� organizations, and specifically, to address PhACT. My comments therein drew �righteous fire� from two PhACTors, Joseph Olszewski and Tom Napier, in separate Letters to the Editor, in the June/July 2002 issue of Phactum. That was the same issue of Phactum in which Armardeo Sarma of CSICOP (and of other skeptical affiliations) was granted space for a very lengthy rebuttal to my JSE essay, �The Pathology of Organized Skepticism�. I say �very lengthy� because it consisted of about 1650 words, only 50 words shy of my essay�s length! That�s some rebuttal, and some �latitude� on the part of Phactum! When, long ago, I submitted a rebuttal to Phactum, to a ridiculing review which appeared there of my address to PhACT, I was granted exactly zero words of space in that same newsletter by its former editor. Hmmmm? I guess some people are more equal than others. Anyway, it was very gratifying (and rather surprising) to get under Sarma�s skin that much, since he apparently needed all that space to vent his thinly-veiled indignation.

I say �rather surprising� above because he was snorting mainly about my few references in the essay to CSICOP, but the primary focus of the essay was PhACT, from which there was nary a peep of official rebuttal. I wonder if Sarma charged PhACT a fee for acting as their spokesman? Sarma�s presentation of his complaints in Phactum, rather than as a formal rebuttal in JSE is also surprising. It is normal professional practice to submit rebuttals to the publication in which the �offending material� was originally published. Of course, by so doing, Sarma would have exposed himself to a simultaneous formal response from me in JSE, as is common practice in such journals. Also, his ramblings would have needed to be far more brief and concise to be accepted for publication in JSE. On the bright side for him would have been the fact that the circulation of JSE is about 10 times that of Phactum, and his rebuttal would have been directly available to the majority of actual readers of the essay, and not just the few PhACTors who read it. Ah, well, his choice!

Per the above comments, I appreciate the efforts of these three responding Skeptics in confirming my contention (in my JSE essay) that organized Skeptics �can dish out criticism, but they certainly can�t take it� (at least without a whole lot of grousing on their part)!

I am especially indebted to Mr. Olszewski for a further confirmation. In his Letter to the Editor he said, �After all I was a believer in such things (paranormal phenomena) long before I became a skeptic.� Dr. Henry Bauer, Editor-in-Chief of JSE, in his editorial comments about my essay, specifically regarding my central hypothesis, that Skeptics �result� from youthful disappointment with a faith-based philosophy, said: �I would extend his (Leiter�s) observations beyond the realm of initial religious belief. I have noted that if those who believe strongly in some anomalous claim lose their belief, they too do not become balanced moderates, rather they become dogmatic disbelievers; �� Thus it would seem that Dr. Bauer had quite accurately anticipated Mr. Olszewski�s conversion from believer to disbeliever.

Hopefully, some day, Olszewski, Napier and Sarma will find intellectual peace �� in a middle ground I would call rational balance.�, between those two extremes. The preceding quotation is from my above essay.

L. David Leiter

For what ever it is worth, I respect Greg's editorial decision to decide where to cut off discussion on subjects. In discussion on the Phact board about Leiter's theory on what causes people to become active skeptics, we found that some members meet Leiter's model of having been young people traumatized by finding cherished paranormal beliefs to be groundless as well as plenty of members who would be described as "naturally born skeptics". I for one have found little good that has come from attempts to trace adult quirks to childhood disappointments. I've found a fairly high degree of heterogeneity among skeptics - only a fairly high incidence of smart people, educators, computer people and physicists. I don't understand Leiter's insistence that skeptics are closed off to critics. The two major world skeptics publications give a number of pages every issue to dissent, Phact has had dissenting voices at our meetings, in Phactum on our Phact board and emails like this. Why should a critical thinker fear any point of view. On the contrary, as a skeptic I have long gotten completely ignored or banned from proparanoral email lists, web pages, radio show, magazines and meetings. I think a number of us would happily become believers in the paranormal, should proper evidence ever arrive.

Eric Krieg