SIDIGEST 3-16-99
SkeptInq@aol.com
Tue, 16 Mar 1999 12:07:18 EST
SKEPTICAL INQUIRER ELECTRONIC DIGEST
March 16, 1999
SI Electronic Digest is the biweekly e-mail news update of the Committee for
the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.)
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and Reason. The Jan/Feb 1999 issue features a Special Report on Armageddon
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In this week's SIDIGEST:
--Upcoming Center for Inquiry-West Events in Los Angeles
--CSICOP to Present at Collegiate Honors Association Conference
--Council for Media Integrity to Take Part in National Media Conference
--Discovery Channel to Air BBC "Science Mystery" Series
--Asteroid Named After CSICOP Fellow Phillip Klass
--Fox Network's "Opening the Lost Tomb" Promotes Myth and Legend
UPCOMING CENTER FOR INQUIRY WEST EVENTS IN L.A.
This Sunday is the grand opening of the Center for Inquiry-West in Los
Angeles, the West Coast bureau and programming center for CSICOP and Skeptical
Inquirer magazine. The Center is located at 5519 Grosvenor Boulevard, Marina
Del Ray, Los Angeles, off of Jefferson Blvd., between Centinela and Lincoln.
All Events are FREE and there is FREE PARKING. Contact Matt Cherry at
310-306-2847.
March 21, Sunday, 2-5pm
GRAND OPENING featuring the lecture "Beyond Reason" by UC-Berkeley
Exobiologist Jere Lipps.
April 11, Sunday, 2:30pm.
"Apocalypse Now"
Lecture by USC professor and noted biblical scholar Gerald Larue.
May 1, Saturday, 7pm.
"The Future of the Book: Celebrating Thirty Years of Publishing."
Join Paul Kurtz, Steve Allen, and a myriad of authors from Prometheus Books,
the world's leading publisher of books on science and skepticism. In a
lecture, CSICOP founding chair and Prometheus publisher Kurtz will explore
whether the printed page has a future, and what bibliophiles can do to
maintain the diversity of the publishing industry. FREE admission, drinks,
and food.
CSICOP TO PRESENT AT COLLEGIATE MID-EAST HONORS CONFERENCE
In Ann Arbor, MI, March 27-28, CSICOP will be in attendance at the annual
meeting of the Mid-East Honors Association, a conference involving college
honors students from some two dozen colleges and universities. To launch the
conference on Saturday, CSICOP Senior Research Fellow Joe Nickell will give
the keynote lecture on the topic of "Investigating the Paranormal." On
Sunday, CSICOP Public Relations Director Matt Nisbet will present a workshop
on starting campus skeptics groups.
COUNCIL FOR MEDIA INTEGRITY TO TAKE PART IN MEDIA CONFERENCE
On Friday, March 26, CSICOP and the Council for Media Integrity will take
part in the Cultural Environment Movement(CEM) national conference to be held
at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Headed by CSICOP fellow and Annenberg
Communication Dean Emeritus George Gerbner, the CEM is a national network of
scholars, organizations, and activists concerned with the state of the media
and its international influence on culture and society. At the conference,
CSICOP chair Paul Kurtz, Joe Nickell and Matt Nisbet will take part in a panel
discussion on the media's portrayal of the paranormal and pseudoscience. One
of the major topics to be discussed at the the conference will include new
funding methods for public broadcasting, an important issue for any skeptic
who has been appalled by Deepak Chopra and Caroline Myss specials during local
public television channel fundrives.
DISCOVERY CHANNEL TO AIR BBC "SCIENCE MYSTERY" SERIES
In April, May, and June the Discovery Channel will be running an excellent
series of BBC documentaries on the paranormal that will feature several CSICOP
fellows including psychologists Robert Baker, Joe Nickell and Richard Wiseman.
Nickell was a special consultant to the BBC on several of the episodes.
Unlike recent documentaries to hit Discovery, the Learning Channel, and the
major networks, this series shows science and scientists unraveling the
mysteries of the unknown while staying away from hyping the extraordinary.
The two episodes we've seen are great examples of entertaining, educational
programming on the paranormal...Check with your local listings.
April 1 9pmEST Buried Alive
April 3 5pmEST Buried Alive
April 8 9pmEST Spontaneous Human Combustion
April 10 5pmEST Spontaneous Human Combustion
April 15 9pmEST Previous Lives
April 17 5pmESt Previous Lives
May 13 9pmEST Levitation
May 15 5pmEST Levitation
May 20 9pmEST Open to Suggestion
May 22 5pmEST Open to Suggestion
June 10 9pmEST ESP
June 12 5pmEST ESP
June 24 9pmEST Physical Feats
June 26 5pmEST Physical Feats
ASTEROID NAMED AFTER CSICOP FELLOW PHIL KLASS
Astronomer and CSICOP consultant James McGaha reports that the asteroid
formally known as 1983 RMZ\ 7277 is now named "Klass" in honor of CSICOP
fellow and UFO investigator Phillip J. Klass. The formal citation follows:
Klass 7277 Phillip J. Klass, U.S. author/aerospace journalist
(7277) Klass = 1983 RM2
Discovered 1983 Sep. 4 by E. Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station of Lowell
Observatory
Named in honor of Phillip J. Klass (born 1919), for more than thirty years
the Senior Avionics editor of Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine.
Klass is best known to the public for his work in skeptically evaluating
sensationalist claims about UFOs, having made numerous television appearances
and written five books on the subject. He has also written extensively on
surveillance satellites. Name and citation provided by Robert Sheaffer.
FOX "OPENING THE LOST TOMBS" PROMOTES LEGEND AND MYTH
Dozens of skeptics have written into our website concerned by the March 2 FOX
television presentation "Opening the Lost Tombs: Live from Egypt." To read a
mini-review of the show by Mara Greengrass of the American Anthropological
Association, go to CSICOP's Council for Media Integrity site at:
http://www.csicop.org/cmi/reviews/opening-lost-tombs.html
You can send comments and concerns to FOX at: askfox@foxinc.com
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