Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[SkeptInq@aol.com]

CSICOP In The News
 August 22, 2000

 July 31, 2000, U.S. News & World Report (Washington, DC)
 “Cloudy Shroudy: Is the linen a holy relic or just a pious fraud?”
 By Jeffery L. Sheler
 Joe Nickell blasts Leoncio Garza-Valdes’ hunch that microbial
 contamination on the Turin shroud’s fibers may have skewed the 1988
 radiocarbon dating, which placed the shroud between AD 1260 and 1390.
 Sheler writes, “Not everyone buys Garza-Valdes’s theory. Joe Nickell,
 senior research fellow with the Committee for the Scientific
 Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and a leading shroud skeptic,
 argues that for there to be sufficient contamination to make the shroud
 2,000 years old instead of a mere 700, ‘there would have to be twice as
 much [bioplastic] debris, by weight, as the shroud itself!’”

 August, 2000, Discover (New York, NY)
 “Heresy”
 By Brad Lemley, Photos by Polly Borland
 Lemley and Borland delve into the bizarre, telepathic universe of Rupert
 Sheldrake and morphic resonance. Bob Baker is quoted and Skeptical
 Inquirer is cited in response to Sheldrake’s staring trials: “…skeptics
 view Sheldrake’s conclusions as highly suspect. Robert A. Baker, a
 professor emeritus of psychology from the University of Kentucky at
 Lexington, conducted his own “sense of being stared at” trials and
 published his findings in the March/April 2000 issue of Skeptical
 Inquirer. His results were no better than chance. Baker says, ‘I think
 people really cheat at these tests.’”

 August, 2000, www.scifidimensions.com
 “The Joe Nickell Files: The Shroud of Turin
 By John Snider
 John Snider’s fourth interview with Joe Nickell is online. Nickell lays
 out the case for the Turin shroud’s 14th century origins.

 August 1, 2000, APB News.com
 “FBI Debunks Spontaneous Human Combustion”
 By Todd Venezia
 APB.com reporter Todd Venezia revisits the mysterious case of Mary
 Reeser, found reduced to ashes in her easy chair on July 2, 1951 by her
 landlady. This case has long fueled wild speculation among those who
 believe in Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC). In an FBI investigation of
 the case, the bureau concluded that Reeser body was consumed by the wick
 effect—a theory corroborated by a test more than nearly five decades
 later by fire expert John De Haan. Venezia quotes Joe Nickell’s skeptical
 response to those who still think “fire lines” or “pyrotrons” are at
 work: “‘What’s happening is a lot of people who are putting out the
 notion of spontaneous human combustion are primarily mystery mongers, and
 they are in the mystery-mongering business,’ said Joe Nickell, a writer
 for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. ‘They are trying to convince you that if
 you don’t know what the explanation is, therefore it’s supernatural, and
 that is a logical fallacy.’”

 August 9, 2000, KGO radio, San Francisco
 "The Pete Wilson Show"
 Pete Wilson interviews Andrew Fraknoi

 CSICOP Fellow Andrew Fraknoi was on the Pete Wilson Show for an hour,
 answering
  science questions and discussing science issues. See
 http://kgoam810.com/viewentry.asp?ID=56382&PT=programsummaries. KGO is
 the ABC-owned talk show station in Northern California and with the
 largest listenership in the region. According to Fraknoi, Pete Wilson is
 a popular TV news anchor in San Francisco, who has just recently added an
 afternoon talk show to his repertoire.  He is a great skeptic and has
 encouraged skeptical TV news stories over the years.  (He first
 interviewed me Fraknoi a TV news story debunking astrology back in the
 early 1980s.)

 In response to questions fielded by Pete Wilson and call-ins, Fraknoi
 discussed a number of pseudoscience issues, including the "Face" on Mars,
 and UFO's, and talked for some while about the good work CSICOP is doing;
 the station gave out CSICOP’s web address several times.

 August 18, 2000 WIVB Channel 4 (CBS affiliate in Buffalo, NY)
 “The Morning Show”
 “The Why Guy” Kevin O’Neill interviews Massimo Polidoro

 Massimo entertained guests to the Center for Inquiry International on
 Tuesday, August 15 with his wry sense of humor and stories of his
 investigations into psychic and miracle claims. Earlier that day he
 interviewed with Channel 4’s “Why Guy” Kevin O’Neill. Polidoro
 demonstrated the classic spoon bending trick and how to appear to use the
 powers of the mind to move a pencil on the edge of the table. O’Neill
 discussed the Center for Inquiry and gave a favorable mention to
 Skeptical Inquirer magazine. The Interview appeared in four segments on
 WIVB’s Morning Show (6am-8am)

 Below are upcoming dates for remaining appearances for Massimo Polidoro’s
West
 Coast Tour (e-mail contacts for those interested in attending are listed
 in parentheses):
 August 23: Seattle, WA (tl@gte.net)
 August 24: Sacramento, CA (kitray@quicknet.com)
 August 25: CFI West, Los Angeles, CA (cfiwestju@aol.com )

 August 21, 2000, Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
 “Coloradans believe truth is out there, poll shows”
 By Bill Scanlon
 Is it the thin air up there in Denver, or just part of human nature? A
 “Colorado News Poll”—conducted for the Denver Rocky Mountain News and
 News 4 by Talmey-Drake Research & Strategy Inc.—surveyed 607 Coloradans
 on their belief in paranormal phenomena. One in ten of those
 college-educated believed that space aliens live among us: one in seven
 who didn’t attend college do. Nearly half of the Coloradans surveyed
 believe that ghosts exist, and one in four think modern-day witches have
 mystical powers. Rocky Mountain news staff writer Bill Scanlon turned to
 Dr. Bob Baker, to see what a skeptic and psychologist has to say about
 all of this paranormal belief. Baker cites the inexorable human need for
 explanation—even the wrong explanation. describing him as a skeptic and
 member of CSICOP, Scanlon paraphrases Baker: “Their belief in ghosts or
 aliens, pyramids or crystals give them psychological closure on matters
 they can’t explain. ‘they’re not left dangling in the wind.’” Baker also
 blames the media, citing the press’ attraction to the least like
 explanation in cases like UFO sightings.

 -30-

 Kevin Christopher
 Public Relations Director
 CSICOP/Skeptical Inquirer
 SIKevinC@aol.com