CSICOP Events in Boston and L.A.
SkeptInq@aol.com
Wed, 21 Oct 1998 16:04:28 EDT
CALL 1800-634-1610 to register.
The following includes summaries of upcoming CSICOP seminars to be held:
**October 23-25, Boston, MA Conspiracies & Hoaxes: A Skeptical Review**
Featuring best-selling JFK and MLK author Gerald Posner, CSICOP Senior
Research Fellow Joe Nickell, investigative archeologist Ken Feder and Steve
Novella of the New England Skeptical Society. RESERVATIONS STILL AVAILABLE!
*November 13, Los Angeles, CA Hollywood, the Media and the Supernatural*
With author/entertainer Steve Allen, Communications Professors Glenn Sparks
and William Evans, UC-Berkeley scientist Jere Stokes, television director
Peter Bonerz, Sci-Fi Channel Host Justin Gunn and special effects creator Trey
Stokes
***Call 1-800-634-1610 or e-mail SINISBET@aol.com. Include Credit Card
Number and expiration date, as well as numbers attending.***
______________________________________________________________________
CONSPIRACIES AND HOAXES: A SKEPTICAL REVIEW
October 23-25, 1998
Sheraton Colonial Hotel and Golf Club
One Audobon Road
(781) 245-9300
RESERVATIONS STILL AVAILABLE!
Co-Sponsored by the New England Skeptical Society (NESS)
PRESENTERS
Gerald Posner is author of _Killing the Dream_, an investigation of the
Martin Luther King assasination. He is also author of the award-winning _Case
Closed_, a re-examination of the JFK assassination. Posner is a former Wall
Street lawyer and lives in NYC with his wife and collaborator Trisha.
<A HREF="http://www.posner.com/homeframe.htm">http://www.posner.com/homeframe.
htm</A>
Daniel Pipes is founder and editor of the Middle East Quarterly and senior
lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. The author of ten books,
including _Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where it Comes
From_ and _The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy_. He currently
lives in Philadelphia and contributes frequently to newspapers and magazines.
Joe Nickell is Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.) He is the author or
editor of sixteen books on historical, forensic, and paranormal mysteries, and
is investigative columnist for Skeptical Inquirer.
Steve Novella is the co-founder and president of the New England Skeptical
Society (NESS). He edits the New England Journal of Skepticism, and is a
consulting editor for Quackwatch.com. He is an assistant professor of
neurology at Yale University School of Medicine.
Kenneth Feder is a professor of archeology at Central Connecticut State
University and the author of _Pseudoscience and Archeology_. He is a CSICOP
Fellow.
Perry DeAngelis is co-founder and executive director of NESS. He is co-
editor of the New England Journal of Skepticism and chairman of the New
England Committee for Paranormal Research.
SEMINAR SCHEDULE
--Friday Evening, October 23--
630 Meet the presenters and CSICOP Fellows Dinner at the MIT Faculty Club
The Faculty Club is located at 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, Massachusetts
--Saturday, October 24--
900 Opening Remarks
945 The Thinking and Paranoia that Fuels Conspiracy Theories
1045 Break
1100 The "Face on Mars" and Other "Signs"
Following the Saturday luncheon there will be a brief presentation on the
Center for Inquiry and the program growth made possible by the Fund for the
Future
200 The Politics of Conspiracy Theories
300 Conspiracy and Health Care
400 Panel Discussions
--Sunday, October 25--
930 Famous Hoaxes and Human Gullibility
1045 The Salem Witchhunt and Dark Episodes Since
1145 Closing Remarks
There will be an excursion to Salem, Massachusetts, on Sunday afternoon,
coordinated by the New England Skeptical Society.
The seminar registration fee is $69.00 per person. The cost of seminar
materials plus breakfast, lunch and refreshments are included in this fee.
Members of NESS may register at $49.00. CSICOP Associates can register at
$62.00. The Friday MIT Dinner is an additional $42.00 per person. Tickets for
the Salem excursion may be purchased at the seminar.
The Sheraton Colonial Hotel is located just north of Boston in Wakefield, MA.
You can book rooms for the CSICOP conference rate of $139. Call 781-245-9300.
***To register for the conference, call 1-800-634-1610 or e-mail
SINISBET@aol.com. Include Credit Card Number and expiration date, as well as
numbers attending.***
________________________________________________________________________
THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! Hollywood, the Media and the Supernatural
Saturday, November 14
Los Angeles, CA
LA Renaissance Hotel
9620 Airport Blvd.
310-337-2800
Daily the world public is offered a steady diet of uncritical media
presentations of the paranormal ranging from The X-Files to psychics on Larry
King Live and Oprah Winfrey. Lucrative media promotion of the paranormal
abounds with examples including blockbuster films like Independence Day and
Men In Black, Art Bell's top rated radio mystery mongering , syndicated
pseudo-documentaries like Dan Akroyd's Psi Factor, and network specials
including NBC's The Mysterious Origins of Man and Fox's Alien Autopsy.
Why is media promotion of the paranormal and pseudoscience so profitable?
What can be done about the negative portrayal of science and the uncritical
presentation of the paranormal? Do media presentations of the paranormal
influence what people believe?
Join CSICOP and the Council for Media Integrity for an informative and
entertaining discussion of these topics involving top media researchers,
scientists and members of the entertainment industry.
Launched in 1996 at the World Skeptics Congress, the Council for Media
Integrity is an international network of prominent scientists, academics and
members of the media dedicated to the balanced portrayal of science in the
media. The Council for Media Integrity is sponsored by CSICOP and Skeptical
Inquirer, the Magazine for Science and Reason.
<A HREF="http://www.csicop.org/cmi/">http://www.csicop.org/cmi/</A>
SCHEDULE
9-920 Introduction: The Council for Media Integrity
920-10 Critical Perspective from Hollywood
Author/Entertainer Steve Allen
10-1100 The Need to Sensationalize
Justin Gunn, host of Sci-Fi Channel's The Web
11-1200 Scientific Illiteracy in America and the Mass Media
Jere Lipps, Professor of Integrative Biology, Unversity of California,
Berkeley
12-100 Lunch
(Includes grilled breast of chicken with proscuitto ham and mozzarella,
marsala wine sauce)
1-200 Alien Autopsies from Across the Globe
Trey Stokes, special effects creator, whose credits include Starship Troopers
2-300 Science and Reason in Film and Television
William Evans, Professor of Communications, Georgia State University
3-400 Reflections from a Skeptic in Hollywood
Peter Bonerz, television director, whose credits include Friends, Murphy
Brown, and Home Improvement.
4-500 Media Portrayals of the Paranormal: Do They Effect What People
Believe?
Glenn Sparks, Professor of Communications, Purdue University
5-545 Roundtable Discussion and Q&A with Sparks, Evans, Stokes, Lipps,
Bonerz, Gunn and others
***To register, call 1-800-634-1610 or e-mail SINISBET@aol.com. Include
Credit Card Number and expiration date, as well as numbers attending.***
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