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My thoughts about the meeting

Well, d*mnation fire&brimstone...butter wouldn't melt in your mouth, there, would it, Phil?






...'course, after that weekend, there's 250 or so of us walking around dripping margarine off our chins, so...

Great weekend! Hope that the DVD's come out soon, and that I can get permission to play your and the self-proclaimed StarGeezer's presentations for the local astronomical society. They're perfect for our group. Good work!!!
 
The Bad Astronomer said:
I finally posted my thoughts about TAM. Here ya go.
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Great summary. I particularly enjoyed "getting inside" your head to discover what you were thinking about during the Planet X presentation.

As one of the "several other fascinating people" you got to talk to at the conference, I just wanted to go on record as appreciating your accessibility at TAM. Seems like everytime I bumped into you, you were surrounded by a group of people asking questions about Astronomy that you eagerly answered between nibbles of your dinner. (By Sunday morning I couldn't help but wonder if you were getting enough to eat! :) ) I would go so far as to say that it was that accessibility on the part of all the main speakers that made TAM so enjoyable.

And going with the humor was, I think, a daring move that proved to be exactly what we all needed at the time. You reminded me of Asimov in that. (Although you lack his ego. The man said one thing to me the one time he acknowledged my existence, "Aren't these monsterously beautiful sideburns?")

S9K

(BTW, you autographed my copy of Bad Astronomy with a mention of "Da U.P." How did you know? Do you get up here occasionally? (He asks hopefully, working for a university in dire need of cheap guest speakers.))
 
Phil,

Reading your account of Saturday brought it all back. You should know that when you went up there to talk, and were so wonderful, so insightful, and so funny, I leaned over to Randi and said "this is exactly what this conference needes right now." He nodded and replied "absolutely correct." You awed Randi, he was so very, very impressed. He told me later that for next year's conference, the invited speakers would be you, and other folks as he thought of them. Be proud, you kicked butt.
 
After catching up on the latest scientific research, I want to express what a pleasure it was to finally meet all of my Forum friends in person at TAM. I'm sure you will all remember the witty conversations we had between presentations, and the good times together on the skepchick pub crawl. I also want to thank all of you for the compliments about the T-shirt with my avatar on the front. I worked hard on it.
 
hal bidlack said:
Be proud, you kicked butt.
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I totally agree. IMO, Phil's speech was the best by far. Highly entertaining, informative and dynamic. Also, he showed a special ability to put rather complicated matters in simple words, without unnecessary jargon, which made his talk even more attractive.
 
Thanks Phil! You were right; we needed the humorous Planet X presentation at that time. Your presentation was great, but where are you going to find an equally silly belief to report on next year? :)
 
SkepticScott said:
Thanks Phil! You were right; we needed the humorous Planet X presentation at that time. Your presentation was great, but where are you going to find an equally silly belief to report on next year? :)
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There's certainly no shortage of silly beliefs.

SkepticScott, thanks again for the 'Get Out of Hell Free' card you gave me at TAM. I will cherish it.
 
arcticpenguin said:

There's certainly no shortage of silly beliefs.
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Silly me, I forgot that. We'll have something for Phil next year.

SkepticScott, thanks again for the 'Get Out of Hell Free' card you gave me at TAM. I will cherish it.
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You're welcome! I knew people would get a kick out of them.

Question: Should we all celebrate 1 June 2003 as "X-Miss" (for "Planet X-Missed-Us") day? ;)
 
arcticpenguin said:
After catching up on the latest scientific research, I want to express what a pleasure it was to finally meet all of my Forum friends in person at TAM. I'm sure you will all remember the witty conversations we had between presentations, and the good times together on the skepchick pub crawl. I also want to thank all of you for the compliments about the T-shirt with my avatar on the front. I worked hard on it.
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I haven't got around to posting that embarassing picture of you yet. But believe me I will get around to it. Then you will be sorry.

Walt
 
Phil, that was an absolutely wonderful summary. I tried to do one for the North Texas Skeptics newsletter and it ran nearly 4 pages in Word using 3 sentence snippets for most of the speakers. Yours was far superior.

I have mentioned in previous threads (specifically your photo thread) that your enthusiasm for TAM was infectious. I recognized you almost immediately and it was wonderful for me as an attendee, to see you, a speaker, giddily chatting with the very same folks I'd come to see.

One comment about your presentation. It was fast, informative, filled with humor and fully debunked the claims of the Planet X crowd. And then there was the punch line. When you showed that infamous video still of Marshall Applewhite and discussed how some Planet Xers were already advocating the euthanization of pets, it really struck home how important the fight against woo woo beliefs is.

Your presentation was magnificent.

For those of you who didn't get to attend TAM, Phil had another presentation that might be overlooked, but was one that deserves mention and applause. Phil has been fighting the Moon Hoax people for a long time and Sunday, using his wit, some digital photos and PowerPoint, he "proved," using the same baseless accusations of the Moon Hoaxers, that the Amazing Meeting was a hoax.

You'd have to see his presentation to really get the gist of it. Perhaps, if he has time, Phil will bless us with a downloadable version of it. It was priceless and an example of, what for me, is the most valuable debunking tool out there - "I can do the same."

Kudos Phil, and thanks for including Hal's Columbia comments in your summary. :)
 
Thanks, everyone, for those kind comments. I wanted to write so much more, but found that it was getting too long. I will be putting in links to other people's essays and pictures soon too.
 
I wrote a way to lengthy summary of the meeting that doesn't warrent it's own thread or even being posted in it's entirety, but I thought the opening paragraph was mildly clever so I thought I'd share it with you guys.

There was more slight of hand than palm reading and objects seen in the sky were identified by the three astronomers in attendance as over 250 skeptics gathered in Plantation, Florida from Jan. 31st to Feb. 2nd for the James Randi Educational Foundation’s Amaz!ng Meeting. From a seed planted on the JREF web site’s message board for members to get together grew a conference that assembled a who’s who of the skeptic movement. Presentations covered a wide range of topics of interest to skeptics and there was entertainment ranging from card tricks to a rather avant-garde presentation by a surprise guest.
 
Is there a transcript somewhere of your talk, BA? So the rest of us who weren't able to be there can share in the humor? :D
 
I believe the JREF will be selling video of the event. I haven't heard anything about that since the meeting though. I want to see it too! :-)
 
a video/DvD is in the works, but it's a huge editing job, and may take a while (several months perhaps)
 
A DVD?

I can't wait to see the special features and deleted scenes.
 
Re: A DVD?

phiend said:
I can't wait to see the special features and deleted scenes.
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Yeah, them outtakes of BA showing the real existence of Planet X, Hal wearing a Thomas Jefferson Fan Club T-shirt, and Randi summoning the spirit of Conan Doyle at that seance are worth the wait for the DVD's...:D
 
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