Randi's Report of Dragoncon 2008

[xinit]

I was listening to a long overdue "The Amazing Show" from iTricks, and Randi reported on how he perceived Dragon*Con on this, his first time attending this huge geek fest.

I'd be a bit surprised if he didn't find it a bit more foreign than the Galapagos trip, honestly... but he sure did seem to enjoy himself, and Random Circumstances Willing, he's plotting a return next year. I half hope someone builds him a stormtrooper outfit...

I transcribed a bit of the talk at foo.ca/wp/2008/09/07/james-randi-on-dragoncon/ based off the podcast at itricks.com/randishow

"First of all I must say that Dragon Con; first time I’ve been to it, first time I’d even ever heard of it, I admit. It was quite a surprise to me. It was not what I expected it would be, it was much much more, and it was much more important than I ever thought it could be."

 

[skepticality]

I was so glad that he came, and he had a good time. I knew it would be something he would enjoy, if he forced himself to come. I've been going to Dragon*Con since 1993, long before I moved here to Atlanta. And, it always has seemed to have a very good undercurrent of anti-woo people, even though you CAN find enough woo-woo to keep you wondering. The anti-woo people though, they are there and have always been big fans of Randi. Just look at places like FARK, they FARK community has always used Randi as one of their meme's and there is always a HUGE FARK party at Dragon*Con.

 

[krelnik]

I'll repeat the story I've told on Twitter and elsewhere about the attitude at Dragon*Con, as an illustration.

This year, a bunch of us were walking through the Marriott lobby enjoying the costumes and whatnot one evening. I was briefly in earshot of a man and his roughly 10-year-old boy. I don't know what they were talking about, but I heard the man say to his son:

"And the more parsimonious explanation would be....?"
This was nowhere near the skeptic track room, and these were not (to my knowledge) people who were there for the skeptic stuff.

Occam FTW!