Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[Barry Karr <SkeptInq@AOL.COM>]

1) The Assault on Reason      http://www.cfiwest.org/

Saturday, June 21st, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.The Center for Inquiry-West announces its inaugural event on June 21, 2003. This will be the first conference to be held at the soon-to-be-completed first floor at 4773 Hollywood Blvd.This one day event is entitled "The Assault on Reason" and will feature Ann Druyan,CEO of Cosmos Studios, author, lecturer, and television and motion picture writer/producer whose work is largely concerned with the effects of science and technology on our civilization. Renowned psychologist and memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus, paleontologist Jere Lipps from Berkeley, Skeptical Inquirer editor Ken Frazier, and philosopher and founder of the Centers for Inquiry, Paul Kurtz.The low $79 registration fee ($39 for students with ID) includes lunch, all programs, and evening entertainment by actress/monologist Julia Sweeney performing her "Letting Go of God" piece, and the Voices of Reason a cappella singing group.Checks should be made out to the Center for Inquiry, and sent to CFI-West, 4773 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90027.Call (323) 666-9797 for more information.



and don't forget these upcoming events:

Skeptics Toolbox in Eugene Oregon    August  14-17
See:  http://www.csicop.org/events/2003-toolbox/

European Skeptics Conference in London, England  September 5-7
See:  http://www.aske.org.uk/congress/

CSICOP Conference: Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias,  Albuquerque, New Mexico,     
October 23-26  See:  Tentative Program at:    http://www.csicop.org/events/conference-2003/ 



2)  Horrified by Friday the 13th? Skeptics say, "Relax!"

Amherst, NY (June 6, 2003)--Only one tragedy is certain for Friday, the 13th
of June: it will be a day full of anxiety for
friggatriskaidekaphobes-especially if they have to say the term for their
phobia out loud. The label, with its origins in Nordic mythology (the
goddess Frigga is the namesake of the fifth day of the week), and ancient
Greek (triskaideka means "thirteen") identifies those who possess an
overwhelming fear of Friday the 13th.

According to a 1996 Gallup Poll, 9 percent of Americans say they are
superstitious about the number 13. That translates into tens of millions of
people living with a nagging angst about this otherwise unassuming number.

The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
(CSICOP), publisher of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, has examined many
numerological superstitions. CSICOP's resident
"friggatriskaidekaphobiologists" have plenty to say about the origins of the
irrational fear of all Fridays numbered thirteen. Superstitions ease fears
of the unknown and unpredictable. Even superstitions that increase anxiety
serve the same purpose. Feeling that you "know" a certain day or object is
unlucky gives you an illusion of knowledge and a false confidence that you
can control outcomes by avoiding certain objects or activities on a certain
day.

British psychologist and CSICOP Fellow Richard Wiseman, writing for the
May/June 2003 issue of Skeptical Inquirer found in his research that being
lucky or unlucky has much more to do with attitude and personality than what
day of the week it is. In an article, titled "The Luck Factor,"  Wiseman
writes: "Lucky people generate their own good fortune via four basic
principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities,
make lucky decisions by listing to their intuition, create self-fulfilling
prophesies via positive expectation, and adopt a resilient attitude that
transform bad luck into good." Superstitions such as Friday the 13th
represent people's attempts to control the elusive factors, according to
Wiseman.

How did thirteen, of all numbers, get a bad reputation? To understand one
needs to know the history of twelve, says CSICOP Senior Research Fellow Joe
Nickell. "The number twelve has traditionally represented completeness in
mythologies and religions around the world," says Nickell. "There are twelve
months of the year, twelve gods of Olympus, twelve signs of the zodiac and
twelve apostles of Jesus. Thirteen exists just one digit beyond twelve, and
is symbolic of the first departure from divine completeness or the initial
step towards evil."

Friday has an equally bad rap, Nickell points out. According to the Bible,
Eve gave the apple to Adam on Friday, the great flood began on a Friday, the
Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday, execution day was Friday in
Rome, and Good Friday exists because it is the reported day of Jesus'
crucifixion. An English schoolboy allegedly proved mathematically that
thirteen, when examined over a 400-year period, falls on Friday more than
any day of the year. He was just a thirteen-year-old, of course.

But for all the fear of Friday the 13th, thirteen has a lesser known role as
a lucky number. At the birth of the United States of America, thirteen
colonies formed the new nation. A baker's dozen is considered a
fortunate bargain, and if you are Jewish, reaching the age of thirteen is
your lucky time for a bar- or bat mitzvah.

Skeptical Inquirer is the official journal of the Committee for the
Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), a 501(c) 3
non-profit educational organization founded in 1976 by Dr. Paul Kurtz of the
State University of New York at Buffalo, in addition to Carl Sagan, Isaac
Asimov and other leading scientists and writers dedicated to scientific
literacy. The official Web site for CSICOP and Skeptical Inquirer is
www.csicop.org.

Contact: Kevin Christopher
Phone: (716) 636-1425 ext. 218
Fax: (716) 636-1733
E-mail: press@csicop.org


3) From Slate Magazine

http://slate.msn.com/id/2083907/
human guinea pig
My Life as a Phone Psychic
Callers are paying $2 a minute for a supernatural adviser. They're getting me instead.
By Emily Yoffe
Posted Thursday, June 5, 2003, at 9:30 AM PTPosted Thursday, June 5, 2003, at 9:30 AM PT