CSICon 2018 - Bigger and Better with a Great Lineup of Guests!

Unfortunately Mac King doesn't perform on Sunday.

What are you thinking of on Sunday? The indoor skydiving sounds interesting.

By the way, for people staying at Harrah's or another hotel along the monorail, you want to look into multi-day passes:
$29 for 3 days
$36 for 4 days
$43 for 5 days
 
Just catching up on this. I get in Wednesday night and head back home on Monday. No idea what I am doing in the evenings yet except that some poker will be involved at some point.
 
SkepticScott said:
What are you thinking of on Sunday? The indoor skydiving sounds interesting.
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I've done it before. It's cool, and takes a bit of getting used to. The LV location might be a bit outdated compared to other, more modern facilities I've been in. But, even if they didn't update it, it is still fun experience.

I am open to other ideas, as well.

There are some Cirque shows I can see again: O, KA, Beatles: Love. I haven't looked up, yet, if they run on Sundays.

There aren't any new shows I am particularly interested in. But, I could see some of them, anyway.

The Central Scrutinizer said:
I'm busy during those times
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That's okay. We understand. We won't interrupt the negotiations with your bookies.
 
The forum just got a plug from Mick West on stage. He is talking about iron microspheres and mentioned the JREF and International skeptics debunking 9/11 in 2008.
 
Doubt said:
The forum just got a plug from Mick West on stage. He is talking about iron microspheres and mentioned the JREF and International skeptics debunking 9/11 in 2008.
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See attached photo of one of his slides. He DID say that the Forums is now called the ISF.

ElMondoHummus got a special mention.
 

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I used the old header, but a current search result - the get the flavor of JREF circa 2008.
Metabunk_2018-10-22_10-53-37.jpg


And then this quote, about microspheres debunking ten years ago.
Metabunk_2018-10-22_10-56-04.jpg
 
So, that was a very good conference, eh?

Anyone disagree?
gerdbonk said:
Sorry. I stayed up late, got no sleep and crashed after the presentations. Stupid Vegas!
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That's alright. I got to see "O" for the second time, and it was still great! Last time I saw it was about 12 years ago or so.

Perhaps next year we will put more effort into formally planning these activities.

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gerdbonk said:
The “old white guy” contingent is here.
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Way less than in past years. I lasted 5 minutes at the opening reception at CSIcon 4 (2 years ago). Thought I had wandered into death's waiting room. There was a fair number of younger people (under 40) there this year.
 
Wowbagger said:
So, that was a very good conference, eh?

Anyone disagree?
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I do. A high number of crap talks this year.

Starting at 11:00 Friday (I was hungover for the earlier ones):

Jen Gunter was good.
Troy "Dr. Weepy Pants" Campbell was....not good. A "corporate team building-type talk", the kind that no one ever wants to go to.
Craig Foster was good.
Deborah Hyde - awful slides, as in unreadable. A disjointed collection of ideas with no unifying theme.
Steven Pinker was awesome.
Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik were also awesome. I've seen them several times, always interesting.

Saturday, starting at 11:00 (hungover again):

Joseph Uscinski was good.
Kavin Centapthy was....an embarrassment. How on earth was that ever presented at a Skeptics conference?
Abby Hafer - Part 1 on gender was quite interesting. Then she tacked on a weird "part 2" on morality that had nothing to do with anything. I have no idea what that was about.
John Cook was...OK
Italian Massimo was bad. Again, disjointed tidbits about DaVinci with no overarching theme other than "I wrote a book".
Bertha Vasquez was great - kind of short on content, but loved her enthusiasm for the work she does.
Dawkins and Fry were terrific, if for no other reason than the Warriors got all butthurt.

Sunday:

Randi & panel - better than I thought it would be. Actually heard a few stories I hadn't heard before. Felt sorry for Ray - he kept repeating himself, but he is 90
Papers were generally good, especially Dr. Hupp, who also spoke at TAM XIII. Claus's talk...ummmm....left something to be desired.

So, the bad outweighed the good.

Location sucked. Next year we're back on the strip.
 
The Central Scrutinizer said:
So, the bad outweighed the good.
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I disagree. Some presentations weren't as polished as they could have been. But, the content was generally very good, overall.

I understood the arguments from the "moral" section of the gender talk, but it was awfully redundant, basically saying "you can't use The Bible for this stuff" over and over again in different ways. I guess that was my biggest complaint.

Massimo Polidoro might have been better if he wasn't rushed. He's done good presentations in the past.

Did you see Adam Conover? He was a highlight.

The Central Scrutinizer said:
Location sucked. Next year we're back on the strip.
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Yeah, but the year after next year we might be back at the Westgate, again.
 
The Westgate was a very "meh" hotel.

The food was... edible, at least. (I heard the Benihana was good, but sloooow, so I ended up not bothering with it.)

Access to the monorail is a plus, and the fact that its platform had a leftover Star Trek logo visible on it scores a nostalgia point in my book.

But, the best thing about the hotel was its Smoke Free sports lounge! Being able to breathe while socializing is kinda important, you know.

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