#TAM2014, Day 3, Morning and Afternoon

Stuff to Noon

Pulling my stomach out of bed from last night’s buffet took awhile, but I was up and out at 7:45 to practice my talk once more. Went well, I thought, so I got ready and went down to the main room.

I don’t have a great estimate of the number of people doing the talks, but it was well over 200, which is more than saw the workshop I did last year. I thought the paper sessions went fairly well. I’m of course biased, but besides my own, personally I think the best talks were the first and the last. Robert Stern made a potentially very dry topic (dissociative identity disorder, and whether diagnoses are reasonable or accurate) very humorous through his own research. Meanwhile, Steve Cuno was all about how advertisers know what they know about you, and the secrets of the industry that They Don’t Want You to Know.

We were also well under-time, which I thought should’ve meant Ray Hall (the moderator/”curator”) hold the talks to the schedule so that there was a minute or three of down-time. But, it all worked out because Steve got a lot of questions.

Regarding my presentation, despite remastering it for a 16×9 aspect ratio based on the skewing I’d seen in other presentations, the presentation appeared squished vertically, instead of stretched horizontally. P—ed me off. It was very difficult to hear the audience and read their reactions. Apparently there were some laughs, but my presentation was NOT really the one with a lot of jokes, so there wasn’t that much laughter intended. The reaction I had from people talking with me afterwards was that it was reasonably well received.

It was also really, so far as I can tell, the only basic debunking talk at TAM. There’s a lot of theory, a lot of techniques or tools, but very very little basic exercises in the simple thing that most skeptics spend most of their time actually doing: Going through the exercise of investigating a claim and seeing where the evidence leads.

After decompressing, I was still talking with people through Michael Shermer’s talk, 11-12, so I didn’t see/hear it. The coffee break that followed went from 12 to 12:30 instead of 12 to 12:15. We were told later that Patricia Churchland, who was slated to give the 1:45-2:15 final talk, couldn’t make it, so we’ll end a half hour -> 15 minutes early.

Talk: The Mind of the Science Denier

Donald Prothero gave this talk. I liked it. It was highly opinionated, very anti-Republican because of their anti-science positions (since I know some conservative people read this and I have some friends who are conservatives, it was ONLY the anti-science part of the Republican party that he ranted against).

His basic argument was not really an argument, but rather to talk about some of the basic goals of science, and some of the modern scientific controversies that really should not be controversies. The science is settled. But … politics.

A quote: “An inconvenient truth is always going to get less popularity than a reassuring lie.”

Talk: Amazing!

Massimo Polidoro gave the next talk, another flip in the program. He started at 1:02. I was called out of the room to talk with some people at that point, so I was not able to see the majority of Massimo’s talk. From the bit I did see, it was about his new book project, a biography about James Randi. Appropriate to discuss at TAM.

Talk: Looking into the Psychic Mirror

Richard Saunders, a speaker who has talked at every TAM I’ve been to, gave the final talk. It was good. It was basically some highlights of what he’s been up to as president of the Australian Skeptics in the last year. I think he’s a good speaker, and it was funny and entertaining.

Closing Remarks

I had to run to the Little Astronomers’ Room so missed the beginning of DJ’s closing remarks, getting back when he was announcing that there were 78 walk-ups, for a total of 1110 attendees, and an additional 2 countries represented.

Randi was up on the stage at 2:30 for some closing remarks and developments at the JREF. Among his prepared marks, Randi announced that that they are trying to focus more on the E part of the JREF — Education. That there should be more educational projects coming. He also announced that there will be a new director joining the Board of Directors at JREF, Adam Savage. There were very loud applause to that.

His remarks ended at 2:16, at which point the official events for TAM 2014 concluded. He got a standing ovation except for some shmoes in the front row.

I’ll be back for the Million Dollar Challenge tonight.

#TAM2014, Day 2, Afternoon

Panel: Junk Science, Neuroscience, and Psychological Science

This panel was moderated by a tall guy with lightly greying hair, whose name was not on the program and I didn’t catch if he said it. The panel had Scott Lillienfield, Sally Satel, Carol Tavris, and Robert Kurzban on it. It started just after 2:00 and ended at 3:01.

The panel started out being asked what they thought was the biggest pseudoscience in their particular field. I was writing out my recipe for candied pecans for a friend of a friend, so didn’t quite catch everything, butI remember that it sounded interesting and nothing I would disagree with.

– “Psychostitutes” are psychologists who just “do it for the money.” And, since he said it and said it has his name on it on Urban Dictionary, the moderator is Sheldon W. Helms.

– An interesting point that was raised towards the end of the panel was that psychologists and psychiatrists – clinicians in general – often see the most severe cases of [insert whatever]. That most people aren’t like that. An example used was that it took an enterprising psychiatrist (psychologist?) several decades ago to think that, maybe gays and lesbians are not all mentally disturbed. Because the only ones that they had seen to that point were ones who were disturbed by the non-normal behavior and concerned about peer pressure and the need to conform and not be persecuted. She went out and thought, “hey, maybe they’re not all ill, maybe it’s just I’m seeing the ones who are particularly disturbed by it because of societal pressure!” And went out into the community and learned that it was just a very small portion.

A non-GLBT example was people who have schizotypal disorders, where the ones you see in hospitals are the ones the medication DOESN’T work for, the ones who are the most severe cases in general. And yes, you should spend your time focusing on those people who are most prone to harm themselves or others, but you have to realize that they are at the end of the spectrum, that most people with [insert whatever] are closer to the societal norm, or very controllable with medication.

Talk: A Year of Skeptic Win

This was supposed to be yesterday’s 3:00, now today, by Jamy Ian Swiss. He started at 3:03. I started this thinking that I would copy his list for you. Let’s see how I do …

Oh, and while he’s giving his intro, I thought I’d mention: One would be Sylvia Brown died. We of course have nothing to do with that, and shouldn’t celebrate death. But, this is definitely a significant event in skeptic stuff over the past year.

0. Swiss opened with a joke that a claimed psychic with a storefront near his home has all these banners and signs indicating clairvoyance, psychicness, etc. And there’s a sign on the door saying “Please Ring Bell.” Um …

1. “Psychic” Rose Marks convicted in Florida. Wikipedia on her.

2. “Psychic Sally” Morgan embarrassed after “contacting” the spirit of a woman who was … sitting in the audience. I remember hearing about this one on Skeptics with a K. Here’s an extended blog post on the event; you should read it, it’s good.

3. James McCormick’s conviction for selling fake bomb detectors was upheld. For the maximum. “You’ve got blood on your hands.” Here’s Jamy’s blog post about it.

4. Jenny McCarthy and Sherri Shepherd are both “leaving” The View. A massive daytime talk show in the US. McCarthy is THE face of the anti-vax movement these days, and Sherri Shepherd is a young-Earth creationist.

5. Dr. Oz and the Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very Bad Day. mmmmmmmmm … Very nice win on this one. I loved John Oliver’s take on this, I highly recommend it.

6. “Cosmos Squashes Creationism Under the Weight of Evidence.” I don’t think I need to provide a link to that one. Do any internet search, and yeah … them creationists ain’t-n’t happy. I’ve listened to several ID the Future podcasts with the IDers ranting against it.

7. Deepak Chopra embarrasses himself by offering a $1M prize. If you haven’t heard about this, it’s great. I’ve been following it on Jerry Coyne’s “Why Evolution Is True” blog. Sharon Hill has also been posting about it on “Doubtful News.” Here’s one of many links talking about it. Of course, Chopra got himself on the HuffPo about it. Jamy got a bit worked up at the end, personally issuing a challenge to Chopra, offering to pay for a suite and to come talk to us at TAM. His “psychic” prediction is that Chopra won’t do it. He also called him as the “Not-so-deep-Deepak.”

Jamie is a showman. His talk was engaging and interesting. Some of my own pet-peeves, however, were on full-display in his talk: (1) He read from his notes. A lot. (b) He went 8 minutes over his allotted time, ending at 3:41. To me, it’s just very rude, thinking that you’re more important than other people so you don’t have to follow the rules everyone else does, or you’re so important that people want to listen to you more than the other speakers. Just a pet peeve … some of us work really hard to make sure our talks fit within the allotted timespan.

Talk: A Rare and Beautiful Thing

Talk by Daniel Loxton. Started at 3:43. This talk was about his work with Junior Skeptic Magazine. His talk was based somewhat on – or at least informed by – that work, talking about how “skepticism is beautiful.” I stayed for a few minutes, but then had to leave to take care of something for work. The life of a scientist …

I did stay long enough to hear him comment about how he was losing his notes off the screen, and he had to pause a few seconds to get them back. I’ll repeat a pet peeve from yesterday with Karen’s talk: You need to be prepared to give your talk without notes. It’s the mark of a good speaker, and you never know what A/V issues there may be when you get up there on-stage.

Talk: How to Think Like a (Skeptical) Neurologist

This was given by Steve Novella, and he started right on 15-minute-late time at 4:30 (because of Jamy running late). Steve finished at 5:04. See my previous rant about Jamy.

I thought Steve’s talk was reasonably good and interesting. Topical. And generally about the topic of the doctor telling the patient that they are wrong. Well, more about why the doctor has to ask the questions they do, because the patient’s memory and thoughts about what is expected are different from reality.

Talk: Playing with Deception: Frauds, Hoaxes, Pranks, and Urban Legends

This was a talk I was looking forward to, given by Eugenie Scott. Other than Phil Plait debunking FOX “news”‘s docudrama on the Apollo moon “hoax” stuff in the late 1990s, and before his interview with Art Bell debating Nancy Lieder in 2003, Eugenie Scott was one of my very early forays into skepticism. I was introduced to her through my GEO/BIO/[etc.] 225 class, Evolution, taught by Patricia Princehouse, in the Fall semester of 2002 (there, I’ve dated myself a bit). Prof. Princehouse had Eugenie come to the university to give a talk, and I went to a reception for her, and got really interested in her work at the NCSE. I got the opportunity to tell Dr. Scott that at the first TAM I went to in 2012.

– “Just because you sincerely believe something doesn’t make you any less wrong!”

– “There’s a difference between ignorance and stupidity. Ignorance is curable.”

The thrust of Dr. Scott’s talk was frauds versus hoaxes, and how hoaxes are very different from frauds. I’m not going to get into the difference here, but perhaps at a most basic level, hoaxes she classified as more harmless and done in fun, frauds are more done with malice to hurt someone or something.

Scott’s talk ended at 5:28, and Randi came out at 5:29 to come out and present her with the JREF Award for Skepticism in the Public Interest. In my never-humble opinion, LONG over-due. She got a standing ovation by about 2/3 of the audience.

THE Keynote Talk: by Bill Nye

Bill Nye Giving Keynote Talk at #TAM2014

W00t! Started at 5:31, ended at 6:30.

The A/V people couldn’t even get Bill Nye’s stuff right, focusing on him instead of the very few slides that he wanted at very few portions of his talk. Like a picture of him on stage with Ken Ham.

Obviously, the keynote talk focused on Nye’s recent (February) highly publicized debate with Answers in Genesis’s Ken Ham. I wrote about my thoughts previously on this debate on my WND Watch blog. He transferred about half-way through to talking more about science literacy and his advocacy as CEO of the Planetary Society of space exploration and asteroid hazard mitigation.

I was engrossed in the keynote so didn’t really jot down notes. All I’ll say is that Nye lives up to the hype. Very good speaker, very good topic, very much in control of the audience, and even good slides. Well, I did get one quote, when talking about the necessity to have 10-11 new species every single day based on Ham’s beliefs, since the Ark: “Wow! And they trust you to drive?!”

And another: “One test is worth a thousand expert opinions.” –Tex Johnson.

Afterwards

I dashed out right after the Nye keynote so that I could meet some people to go to a buffet dinner on the Strip. That also meant I didn’t go to the speakers’ dinner or the LGBT meet up. But, the buffet was very … filling. And worth going to once.