Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[Barry Karr <SkeptInq@AOL.COM>]

From Jim Underdown, Director of the Center for Inquiry West

I'll be appearing on AMC's "Movies at Our House" this Saturday (March 6) at 8 PM ET/PT opposite the guy who leads the ghost tour of the Queen Mary. We will spar during the commercial breaks of Amityville Horror. It will be both informative and entertaining... I hope.
 
Please tune in if you can.
 
James Underdown
Executive Director
Center for Inquiry-West
(323) 666-9797 ext 101
www.cfiwest.org
  
 
    Every Saturday at 8PM ET/PT, drop by Rachel and Jimmy's place and be a 
guest at their live screening party. It's intimate, unpredictable and even bizarre. 
Each week, enjoy a great movie, meet our hosts' special guests and get in on
the conversation all from the comfort of Rachel and Jimmy's cushy living room. 
Relentless in their intention to entertain, our hosts will do everything they can 
to encourage sparks to fly!     

Saturday, March 6,   Amityville Horror                  
            
            It's Psychic vs. Skeptic in this installment of Movies at Our House. A renowned soothsayer defends the existence of the confused spirits he tries to counsel while a local leader of an international skeptics organization founded by Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov challenge him beat by beat for proof. Jimmy and Rachel want to know if their house has ever been haunted, and, according to our psychic, the answer is yes! 
more  
    
        
Articles of Note

Experts Say New Desktop Fusion Claims Seem More Credible
New York Times  March 3, 2004
By KENNETH CHANG 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/03/science/03FUSI.html?ex=1079318672&ei=1&en=b546c7667ddf0a4a


Scientists are again claiming they have made a Sun in a jar, offering perhaps a revolutionary energy source, and this time even some skeptics find the evidence intriguing enough to call for a closer look. 

Using ultrasonic vibrations to shake a jar of liquid solvent the size of a large drink cup, the scientists say, they squeezed tiny gas bubbles in the liquid so quickly and
violently that temperatures reached millions of degrees and some of the hydrogen atoms in the solvent molecules fused, producing a flash of light and energy. 


Polio jabs a US plot, claim Nigerian Muslims
by Jeevan Vasagar
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1155223,00.html

"A campaign to wipe out polio in Africa is being jeopardised by suspicions 
among Muslim leaders in Nigeria that the vaccination programme is an 
American plot to make Muslims infertile."


Polio boycott is 'unforgivable'
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3488806.stm

"A senior United Nations official has cPolio jabs a US plot, claim Nigerian Muslims
by Jeevan Vasagar
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1155223,00.html

"A campaign to wipe out polio in Africa is being jeopardised by suspicions 
among Muslim leaders in Nigeria that the vaccination programme is an 
American plot to make Muslims infertile."



Smith School parent wants book removed
By LAURA TODE
Helena Independent Record
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2004/02/25/helena/a01022504_05.txt

"A concerned parent has called into question a library book about horses 
and wants it removed from an elementary school library."



Darby School Board prepares for potential lawsuit; meeting set with lawyer:
By JENNY JOHNSON
Ravalli Republic
http://www.ravallinews.com/articles/2004/02/23/news/news02.txt

"With a potential lawsuit looming, the Darby School Board will meet Tuesday 
with attorneys who might defend the district in the event that it is sued 
over recent policy changes."


Objecting to 'origins': Darby student protest highlights concern over new 
policy
By JENNY JOHNSON
Ravalli Republic
http://www.ravallinews.com/articles/2004/02/26/news/news01.txt

"After the Darby School Board Tuesday made another move in the process of 
adopting an objective origins policy, students came out to express their 
opposition."


CWRU scientist threatens court fight if state approves biology lesson plan
by Scott Stephens
Cleveland Plain Dealer
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1077796629165810.xml

"A Case Western Reserve University scientist says he will go to court if 
the State Board of Education approves a 10th-grade biology lesson plan he 
claims will give teachers a green light to teach "intelligent design.""


Ohio Darwin Groups Enlist Help of Controversial Legal Expert
Press Release
Discovery Institute
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040226/sfth061_1.html

"Ohio's pro-Darwin groups have enlisted the help of a professor known for 
his "far out" legal views in their effort to censor a proposed science 
lesson on evolution."



Paleontology museum launches new Web site on evolution
Press Release
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/02/26_evolve.shtml

"The debut this month of a new University of California, Berkeley, Web site 
devoted to evolution provides a much-needed resource for teachers as 
schools across the nation are being challenged to kick evolution out of the 
classroom or pair it with instruction in non-scientific alternatives, such 
as "intelligent design.""


Don't Be a Savya Hata!     
BY FRANK LEWIS
Cleveland Scene
http://www.clevescene.com/issues/2004-02-25/news2.html/1/index.html

"Ohio scientists are circulating a document they say proves that Christian 
activists are trying to sneak their teachings into public schools."




Regulation regulation regulation
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,12980,1155986,00.html

"There are a few alternative therapists out there with plenty of time on 
their hands to do some extra reading."


Queen turns back on Harley Street for 'alternative' GP
By Charlotte Edwardes and Andrew Alderson
The Telegraph [UK]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/22/nqueen22.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/02/22/ixhome.html

"He offers his patients massage, acupuncture, yoga and aromatherapy, but 
his latest client is not a pop star or an actress - it is the Queen."


Autism is a mystery, not a medical conspiracy
by Gerald DeGroot
Scotland on Sunday
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=237982004

"THE knives are out for Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who linked autism to 
the MMR vaccine. Over the last few weeks, various reports have indicated 
serious flaws in his research. News has also emerged that he received (but 
did not disclose) £55,000 from a legal aid project set up to look for links 
between the vaccine and the disorder. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, 
admitted that his journal would not have published Wakefield’s paper in 
February 1998 had it known about his conflict of interest. Stated simply, 
for the last six years parents have been tortured by a myth."


Doctor demands apology for MMR claims in Lancet
By Julie Henry
The Telegraph [UK]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/29/nmmr29.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/02/29/ixhome.html

"Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who first raised fears of a link between 
autism and the MMR vaccine, has hired a libel lawyer to demand an apology 
from The Lancet after claiming that the medical journal has cast doubt on 
his honesty."


Prof sees light at end of death's tunnel
By Sarah Stanton
Arizona Daily Wildcat
http://wildcat.arizona.edu/papers/97/102/01_3.html

"The existence of an afterlife is a mystery that has plagued religion, 
philosophy and psychology since their conception - until now."



NATIONAL PARK SERVICE EMBRACES CREATIONISM
Press Release
http://www.ems.org/rls/2004/02/26/national_park_se.html

"The leadership of the National Park Service is ignoring calls by its own 
senior scientists to withdraw approval for a creationist book now being 
sold in park facilities, according to documents released today by Public 
Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Instead, the book, which 
claims that the Grand Canyon is only 6,000 years old, has been re-ordered 
and is being marketed on the web as "natural history.""


The Junk Science of George W. Bush
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040308&c=1&s=kennedy

"As Jesuit schoolboys studying world history we learned that Copernicus and 
Galileo self-censored for many decades their proofs that the earth revolved 
around the sun and that a less restrained heliocentrist, Giordano Bruno, 
was burned alive in 1600 for the crime of sound science. With the 
encouragement of our professor, Father Joyce, we marveled at the capacity 
of human leaders to corrupt noble institutions. Lust for power had caused 
the Catholic hierarchy to subvert the church's most central purpose--the 
search for existential truths."


Professor wants to find out if you were born lucky
by RUTH ARMSTRONG
Edinburgh Evening News
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=226302004

"A PSYCHOLOGIST is to carry out a massive study in Edinburgh to find out if 
some people are born lucky."



Psychic 'misled actress to hopeless cancer death'
Expatica News
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=19&story_id=4821

"Accused of misleading Dutch actress Sylvia Millecam to a "chanceless" 
death from cancer, psychic medium Jomanda was confronted on Wednesday with 
news that the Public Prosecution (OM) is set to launch a criminal 
investigation."



Woman Burns to Death in Apparent Ritual Gone Wrong
By Lucy Yang
WABC
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/wabc_022404_womanburned.html

"A woman was found dead tonight in a Bronx apartment badly burned, and 
police believe it was the tragic result of a religious ritual turned deadly."

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