The second day of TAM 5, was the first day of speakers. It was quite a day.

Hal Bidlack opened the day, as usual. He informed us that people from all over the world were attending. A group of people from both New Zealand and Australia made it here. One gentleman spent three days flying from Kabul, Afghanistan just to be here.. As usual, Bidlack was funny and very comfortable in front of the crowd. He is now retired from the Air Force after twenty five years, and, as he put it, is now able to speak candidly about President Bush. Much laughter from the crown ensued.

James Randi made an unscheduled appearance next. The show is named after him, so he can pretty much do what he wants, and I mean that in the most respectful way. He updated the crowd on his health issues for the past year. He had a double bypass soon after TAM4, and spent much time recovering. There are two months of his life that he basically has no recollection of. He thanked everyone for their kind words and support over the year he was recovering.

Daniel Dennett, who was a speaker at TAM 4, also suffered some health problems this year and is still recovering. Randi read a quote from Dennet, where Dennett, thanks, not God, but goodness. “Goodness” is the help and support he received from doctors and well wishers. One need not thank god, for all the help people here on Earth gave.

Randi’s famous Million Dollar challenge is undergoing some revisions this year. The vast number of applications from people unable to effectively articulate what they can do, is swamping JREF resources. So to fix this, the Challenge is being revised. Also, the JREF would like the challengers to be more high profile.

In the future, applicants to the challenge must meet two requirements: 1) They must have a substantial media profile 2) They must have their claim endorsed by a qualified third party. In addition, the JREF will be issuing formal challenges to Uri Gellar, Sylvia Browne, John Edward, and James Von Praagh. There will be subsequent press releases to inform the public about the progress. Also, the JREF will be pursuing legal action against those who defraud the public. Expect class action suits.

Michael Schermer was up next, and his walk was on “Evolution Economics” and why it is okay to be a libertarian (small ‘l’), just like it’s okay to be an atheist. It was a very good talk, and I couldn’t keep very good notes, because I was so interested in the material. Schermer puts forth the idea that evolution and economics are analogous systems, both derived from the idea of complex adaptive systems. His new book on this subject should be very interesting.

I know Eugenie Scott from the Point of Inquiry podcast. I thought she was one of the best guests on that long time running podcast. Her talk was focused on the media, and how it reports stories She broke it down into the following categories: It’s gonna kill you, It’s gonna cure you, mad scientist story, bad scientist, anything having to do with religion or abortion. She focused somewhat on evolution and the recent story about a creationist book in the book stores of the Grand Canyon. She also gave a quick background presentation of creationism and intelligent design. One problem with the media, as she sees it, is that the media focuses on narratives and conflicts, and often times injects a controversy where none really exists. Scott was very interesting, and it was a good presentation.

James Randi came back on to tell us that he will be on Anderson Cooper tonight, and that Nick Gillespie and Ron Bailey from Reason magazine have been rescheduled until tomorrow.

I’ll continue in my next post tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 27th, 2007 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Science, Skepticism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.