The Grand Elf

That’s what I think of when I see James Randi. He is just a wee bit of a thing. Never tall, even in his youth, and age has curved his spine and shrunken his body even more. Yet, he looms large in the skeptical community (Wikipedia).

He’s been through much in the past few years, not the least of which was cancer and chemo. He was given a clean bill of health, and he moved well this year, navigating the hallways and the stairs without pause.

At the close of The Amaz!ng Meeting, he made one concession to his advancing years: a “wrangler” would be brought on to assist him.

This year, we were all invited to a special showing of “An Honest Liar,” a documentary of Randi’s life (trailer). I highly recommend it. We also learned this year that his biography is in the works as well. That gargantuan effort is in the hands Massimo Polidoro (Wikipedia)

The clock is ticking.

I’m still recovering . . .

Four days in the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for The Amaz!ng Meeting 2014, with a midnight arrival home on Sunday night, then back to work immediately on Monday hasn’t left me much time to catch my breath. I finally got through all the photos I took and posted them to Facebook and to SmugMug. I just unpacked today, sorted the dirty laundry and got the first load in the machine. The pantry is bare, so there’s that to do too, but I didn’t want anyone to think I’d abandoned the blog.

The Amaz!ng Meeting – from the web site:

The Amaz!ng Meeting (TAM) is organized by The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Over the last 15 TAMs, this event has become the leading conference in the world focused on scientific skepticism. Well over 1,000 people from around the world come to TAM each year to share learning, laughs, and the skeptical perspective with their friends and a host of distinguished guest speakers, panelists, workshop presenters, and entertainers.

Around 1,100 people attended this year.

Here are some of my favorite photos from Thursday, which was full of workshops. There are eight, but one person can only attend four workshops each as two run in the same time slot.

Teaching Skepticism for K-12 with Ani Aharonin, Barbara Drescher. and Daniel Loxton.

Barbara demonstrating the trick that is behind Power Balance Bands and other such “balance enhancing” items. See this video about Applied Kinesiology (link) in the

Advancing Skepticism in the Media – panelists: Sharon Hill, Jim Underwood, Richard Saunders, and Dr Karl Kruszelnicki (Dr Karl is basically the Bill Nye of Australia – or you could say Bill Nye is the Dr Karl of the United States!) The guy is awesome, and I got to chat with him a bit on Sunday morning at breakfast.

Rhetoric and Argumentation for the Skeptic with Miranda Celeste Hale, Robert Blaskiewicz, and Eve Siebert

Science-Based Medicine – How to Deal with Believers with Drs Harriet Hall, David Gorski, and Steve Novella.

Daily Prompt: Groupthink

Write a post that includes dialogue between two people — other than you. (For more of a challenge, try three or more people.)

Link: Photographers, artists, poets: show us a GROUP.

The Amaz!ng Meeting: Parting Shots

My last post on the subject.

Sara Mayhew, Manga artist. ” A Life of Art and Skepticism”

There were lots of people sporting Amy Davis Roth’s wearable art, Surly-Ramics. (I have three!)

I like this shot from the afternoon taping of The Skeptics Guide to the Universe

Lawrence Krauss, theoretical physicist and author of A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing

Saturday Night’s keynote presentation was a conversation with Penn & Teller.

After dinner we went to Kelly Carlin’s one-woman show, “A Carlin Home Companion,” a reflective journey of her life as George Carlin’s daughter.

Okay, well, there are lots more at my SmugMug gallery, if you are so inclined.

The Amaz!ng Meeting, Part II

Just a few from Friday . . .

At eight in the morning we all gathered for a live show of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe.

George Hrab, musician, skeptic, host of the Geologica podcast, and emcee of the conference, gets things started with a song and video.

Eugenie Scott, Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education (and a personal hero of mine).

James Randi having a laugh during his conversation with Jamy Ian Swiss.

Jamy Ian Swiss cracking up over something or ‘nother.

Carol Tavris gave Friday night’s keynote, “A Skeptical Look at Pseudoneuroscience.”

After the keynote we had a Friday the 13th mirror-breaking. Funny thing, this guy had a dickens of a time actually breaking the mirror as he was not whacking it hard enough!

Said mirror breaking was followed by a pinata . . .

. . . which was followed by the Skeptics Guide to the Universe fundraising dinner. Sweetie and I attended.

Four out of five of the hosts of the SGU podcast, Steven Novella, Bob Novella, Jay Novella, and Evan Bernstein.

The highlight of the evening had to be when Evan auctioned off his New York Jets jersey with the #15 on it, but instead of Tebow, the name across the back was “SKEPTIC.”

Evan’s demonstration for the people at the dinner who had no idea of who Tim Tebow is.

There are lots of photos in SmugMug gallery, but I think my favorite capture of the night was this shot of Bob and Steve Novella.

By this time, Sweetie and I were exhausted, so we headed to our room. We thought of attending Penn Jillette’s Bacon and Donut Party (start time” 11pm), but we were just too pooped.

Lots more photos at the TAM SmugMug gallery.

The Amaz!ng Meeting, Part 1

The Amaz!ng Meeting is sponsored by the James Randi Educational Foundation and is a four-day conference that celebrates science and critical thinking. We’ve gone twice and likely will attend again next year. It is four days long and packed full of interesting workshops, panels, guest speakers, and lots of fun.

I’m working hard on completing the Amaz!ng Meeting gallery and only have one more day of photos to go through. I hope to have it completed by tomorrow. Here are a few..

James Randi schmoozing with an attendee on Thursday.

Thursday is reserved for workshops. I attended four.

This is Leo Igwe. He participated in a workshop called “From Witch-burning to God-men: Supporting Skepticism Around the World.” His stories of the horrors of the belief in witches in Africa were stunning.

Attendees at this workshop.

This is Tim Farley, web master of the web site What’s the Harm Check it out. He and Derek Colanduno (the host of the podcast, Skepticality) led a workshop on skepticism online.

An attendee at one of Thursday’s workshops.

Attendees at the workshop entitled: “Dr. Google – How to find reliable health information online and elsewhere, and skeptically evaluate the information you find.”

The coalition-building workshop broke us out into groups.

The workshops were followed by dinner, the Welcome Reception and the game show “Wait, Wait, Don’t Fool Me.” It was a late night, but we were all up bright and early for the 8am taping of The Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast.