Guest wish list for TAMIII

I would like to have one kind of guest at TAMIII - a claimant. Maybe it could be done one day prior to the conference, and reservations should be made so there isn't much of a crowd. Of course the claimant would have to agree on that, as long as we promise to send bad vibes...

Then we could witness a test being performed. Later, we could have a panel with the people involved so that each could tell of specific moments of the test, suggestions for improvements, general feeling after the whole thing.
 
Luciana,

I agree, but I seriously doubt it will happen. We might get some lesser-known woowoo to do it, but they will bail out just before the meeting. And you don't have to be psychic to know that.

Didn't Randi say at TAM2 that about 80-90% never show up at all, even though they have agreed to?

We could, however, say that this is not just Randi, but the world's most predominant skeptics....could they claim that we were all unreliable scum?

Hmmmm...yeah, they could. :)
 
cosmic said:
Massimo Pigliucci-- this guy seems to know his science and philosophy. Just because he writes for SI and FI doesn't mean he can speak at TAMIII-- right??
http://fp.bio.utk.edu/skeptic/default.htm
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I second Massimo Pigliucci. I saw him do an excellent job debating Duane Gish several years ago in a big church in Mobile, AL. Afterward, he went to dinner with us dozen or so heathens that attended. I heard him speak at Alabama Freethought's big 4th of July event in 2002. He's an excellent speaker and a great guy. The fabulous Italian accent doesn't hurt, either.
 
On my "pink sheet," I listed perhaps half a dozen folks. Some of them have been named already.

Number one on my list is Prof. John Allen Paulos, author of "Innumerancy" and a columnist for ABC (USA) News. I would very much like to see a presentation about some common mathematical misunderstandings.

I also recommended Alan Alda, host of Scientific American Frontiers, Matt and Trey from "South Park," and John Stossel.

I wish I had remembered to mention Bill Nye. The folks who put together the Snopes web site might be interesting, too.
 
Luciana Nery said:
I would like to have one kind of guest at TAMIII - a claimant. Maybe it could be done one day prior to the conference, and reservations should be made so there isn't much of a crowd. Of course the claimant would have to agree on that, as long as we promise to send bad vibes...

Then we could witness a test being performed. Later, we could have a panel with the people involved so that each could tell of specific moments of the test, suggestions for improvements, general feeling after the whole thing.
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Originally posted by CFLarsen
I agree, but I seriously doubt it will happen. We might get some lesser-known woowoo to do it, but they will bail out just before the meeting.
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Actually, I rather like this idea, and I think it can be arranged. For example, I would be willing to have my "psychic" power tested. I claim that I can identify which of ten closed containers holds a set of five Kennedy half dollars. I do not claim 100 percent accuracy, but I do claim that I can find the coins without the use of my senses about 30 percent of the time. About half of the time, I can narrow it down to two or three containers.

I offer no theories as to why this works. As far as I know, I am unaffected by "bad vibes," stray electrical or magnetic fields, flowing water, or anything like that.

So. How would you test me?

I think that would be a swell demonstration.
 
Jaime Hyneman and/or Adam Savage from Mythbusters might be interesting guests. They spend a lot of time investigating the kinds of things that lots of people believe who would never give John Edward and his ilk a second thought. I think that is as important to skepticism and critical thinking as looking into the paranormal.
 
Originally posted by Brown
Actually, I rather like this idea, and I think it can be arranged. For example, I would be willing to have my "psychic" power tested. I claim that I can identify which of ten closed containers holds a set of five Kennedy half dollars. I do not claim 100 percent accuracy, but I do claim that I can find the coins without the use of my senses about 30 percent of the time. About half of the time, I can narrow it down to two or three containers.

I offer no theories as to why this works. As far as I know, I am unaffected by "bad vibes," stray electrical or magnetic fields, flowing water, or anything like that.

So. How would you test me?

I think that would be a swell demonstration.
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Sounds like a workshop in the making. Although I didn't attend this years workshop since it was already going by the time I arrived.

BTW, I think Snopes.com is run by the Mikkelsons ...
... just checked, Barbara and David Mikkelson.
 
I agree that it would be very interesting to meat a claimant at the next TAM but I do not think it is going to happen. I would not like to be the only omnivore at a conference for vegetarians or the only theist at an atheist convention. It is likely that all possible claimants would feel a bit intimidated by a huge crowd of sceptics looking over their shoulder and then wanting to discuss why what they claimed did not work and how anyone could ever be stupid enough to think that it would.

Since most people already mentioned the most obvious names I can only regret that I did not start this thread yesterday as I was considering. Having to come up with new interesting names is not easy.
Thinking of people it would be interesting to see at TAM III and also about scepticism and the media I thought of one guest speaker especially appropriate if we end up in Las Vegas next year as well. There are several drama series on TV there the paranormal has no part what so ever but the only series I know that actually deal with evidence based research is C.S.I. It would be nice if we could have the producer or a writer as a speaker. I think that C.S.I. is one of the more popular TV-series if I am not mistaken.
 
Can I get an answer to this?

Was Jeff McBride at TAM2? I thought I spotted him, but I'm not sure (it was the guy who walked by me saying "nice jacket!").

If he wasn't, we can always invite him to TAM3.
 
deBergerac said:
I agree that it would be very interesting to meat a claimant at the next TAM but I do not think it is going to happen. I would not like to be the only omnivore at a conference for vegetarians
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Try being one of the few vegetarians at a conference full of omnivores! ;)
 
deBergerac said:
I agree that it would be very interesting to meat a claimant at the next TAM but I do not think it is going to happen. I would not like to be the only omnivore at a conference for vegetarians or the only theist at an atheist convention. It is likely that all possible claimants would feel a bit intimidated by a huge crowd of sceptics looking over their shoulder and then wanting to discuss why what they claimed did not work and how anyone could ever be stupid enough to think that it would.
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What might be even more interesting, if it can be arranged, would be to have someone speak who already attempted to claim the million but failed - someone whose failure caused him to doubt woo-wooism, and who came to critical thinking "the hard way".
 
bignickel said:
Can I get an answer to this?

Was Jeff McBride at TAM2?
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Yup, he was there, briefly. I have proof: I had my picture taken with him.
 
exarch said:
Sounds like a workshop in the making. Although I didn't attend this years workshop since it was already going by the time I arrived.
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Great idea. When you have a claimant who asserts that his ability is not infallible, but is significantly better than what he could accomplish by guessing randomly, how would you test such an ability? What sort of success rate would be significant? Would you do one trial or multiple trials? And if multiple trials, how many trials?

I submit that questions like this would require some elementary understanding of statistics, but I also submit that the basic concepts could easily be presented in a workshop.
 
Nyarlathotep said:
Jaime Hyneman and/or Adam Savage from Mythbusters might be interesting guests. They spend a lot of time investigating the kinds of things that lots of people believe who would never give John Edward and his ilk a second thought. I think that is as important to skepticism and critical thinking as looking into the paranormal.
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FABULOUS!!!! These guys are very watchable, they could actually test some myth! They are very fun, visual, and appeal to the younger crowd we need to get out to skeptic meetings. Plus, they are TRUE skeptics. When they tested the body paint myth (as in the movie "Gold finger") the guy actually did get sick. It didn't matter that they were testing what was a "myth", the guy got sick, so it STILL isn't a good plan to coat yourself in body paint.
 
Chaos said:


What might be even more interesting, if it can be arranged, would be to have someone speak who already attempted to claim the million but failed - someone whose failure caused him to doubt woo-wooism, and who came to critical thinking "the hard way".
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Good idea! Only thing is to find some one who fits the description. :)
 
kittynh said:




FABULOUS!!!! These guys are very watchable, they could actually test some myth! They are very fun, visual, and appeal to the younger crowd we need to get out to skeptic meetings. Plus, they are TRUE skeptics. When they tested the body paint myth (as in the movie "Gold finger") the guy actually did get sick. It didn't matter that they were testing what was a "myth", the guy got sick, so it STILL isn't a good plan to coat yourself in body paint.
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Yes, I have to agree, these guys would make great presenters.

I wonder if they can tell any tales about people who INSIST that the myths are true, too?
 
Great suggestions so far, I'm already planning my budget...

For someone from "the other side", may I suggest Jim Moseley or Karl Pflock of "Saucer Smear". While they believe that there is "something out there", they have no patience with much of the UFO community and have done much to support the debunking of of the Roswell story.

Plus, based on reading the newsletter, I doubt they would be intimidated by a crowd of skeptics and probably would join us for a beer or six.

For more on Moseley, try this site:

www.martiansgohome.com/smear
 
Having read his web page, what about Alton Brown?

I wonder if George Carlin could be enticed? It ought to offer him pleanty of material. :D
 
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