stathmk

Who: Purdue Skeptics Society
What: January Callout
Where: Psychology room B127 or there will be a message taped downstairs about what room the meeting has switched to. (Enter through the doors of the hallway between Psychology and Pierce Halls if the other doors are locked.)
When: January 25th, 2007 at 6 pm

In the past we sometimes talked about the possibility of having another debate similar to this one: http://www.campusfreethought.org/press/22mar04.htm, which attracted nearly 4,000 students. We don’t plan to have our own debate of Evolution VS Intelligent Design anymore. It takes a lot of time and resources for a debate.

Purdue Skeptics Society started in the end of 2004. In the past, there have been guest speakers, Penn & Teller videos, supposed UFO videos that I’ve found were made by frauds and crazy people (no kidding), some discussions, a field trip, and other things.

We have different majors, and it didn’t really matter before what political group you’re from. The plan is for one meeting a month, and you can put a presentation together for part or all of a meeting if you contact my faculty fellow and I ahead of time. For example, you could do a hot topic such as how you think that man’s influence on global warming is exaggerated because of misinterpretations, solar cycles, ice age cycles, and volcanoes in different decades spewing chemicals like sulfur dioxide or carbon monoxide. Or a presentation could be about how when law-abiding citizens own guns then it deters rapists, stalkers, robbers, and other criminals because citizens can defend themselves; which is the opposite of what some preachers, politicians, and reporters say to get sensationalism. It could also be about Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Science, History of a certain organization, Atlantis, crypto-zoology, ghost hunters, UFOs, Psychics, Pseudoscience myths, weirder Religious groups, Scientology, Intelligent Design, Sun Yung Moon, misleading statistics about human behavior, or etc.

Some Related Web Sites
The Purdue Skeptics Society web site is in progress.
My web site about bad Science in the Bible
Center for Inquiry: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/
Point of Inquiry podcasts: http://www.pointofinquiry.org/
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal: http://www.csicop.org/

I will show Science videos for the theme of most of this meeting. There will also be a free magazine issue for each person, pamphlets, cookies, chips, and soda. The plan is for the meeting to be about 60 to 70 minutes.

===================
Matt Stath
Purdue Skeptics Society
President and Webmaster
===================

stathmk

Hello.

Somebody already requested that room for testing, which means there's been a change of the room for us. It's 6 pm in Psychology room 3187.

Matt

stathmk

This is pretty much the same as the email update that I sent on March 26th:


Skeptics,

Since I'm graduating, I'm starting to transfer files over to the permanent "/~skeptic/" web space account. If you didn't go to our previous Skeptics meeting, we showed the James Ossuary video from 60 Minutes for about 13 minutes of the meeting. You can find it here: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~skeptic/.../James60min.mp4 . You will get a question about Quicktime and MIME types. Click yes.

It's a large video file and if I run out of space over summer vacation, then I'm deleting the video.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday, April 3rd at 6 pm in Psychology 3187. Guest Speaker Alan York will present "Be a Skeptic. Not a Cynic." Brian Harris is new and will introduce him. We've both met him before.

We have activities planned on the days of April 3rd, an April 7th get-together, April 14-15th, and April 17th elections. For information about these activities, click on http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~skeptic/April2007.htm . Email me if you want to help with any of these activities. This web page also has some unusual alien information that you will either think is hilarious or just plain disturbing.

Go to our April2007.htm page that I've listed above. Would you rather that we talk about "Dan Brown's Angels & Demons" in October or that we have a meeting about something else in October? Just a suggestion.

-Matt S
Current President

stathmk

Skeptics,

We have a guest speaker tonight. It's Tuesday, April 3rd at 6 pm in Psychology 3187. Guest Speaker Alan York will present "Be a Skeptic. Not a Cynic." Alan York is an Entomology Professor and has also taught a course about critical analysis of pseudoscience. Brian Harris is new and will introduce him. We've both met him before.

I try to get the largest turnouts for the meetings that are the January or September callouts, or that have a guest speaker. I want as many students as possible, so please stop by for this meeting if you are able to. There will be refreshments, and a free magazine or book for each person.

After the meeting, I can show you my project from History class if you're interested.

-Matt S
Current President

stathmk

-Purdue Skeptics Society Callout
-Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
-7 pm
-Psychology Room 3187

We are also looking for a new Vice President. I graduated as the President and then the Vice President at the time took my place as President.

Today we will have some videos shown, free stuff, talk about a possible field trip, and more talking about plans for this year.

You get to learn about some hilarious or amazing stuff in The Skeptics Society. In last October, the meeting was "Hilariously Awry UFO Videos!" I took the most hilarious or weird UFO clips that I've ever found and had them shown for the meeting. We talk about other topics at the other meetings too.

I've posted this in the Spring 2007 Skeptics message board. I thought it would be easier to find if the rest of the Skeptics meeting times are all in the same place.

stathmk

-Guest Speaker Karen Kosiba on "Global Warming and other Popular Atmospheric Science"
-Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 7 pm
-Psychology Room 3187

I believe in global warming, but I don't believe in the global warming apocalypse. The Earth has ice ages, natural cycles, and we are leaving an ice age. It's partly that volcanoes contribute more carbon dioxide in each year than mankind in a year.

In "The Economist" in 2004 or 2005, they said that 15 of the 20 most polluted cities in the World are in China. I believe that it's their infrastructure, regulation, and technology. I strongly disagree that the U.S. is the leading producer of greenhouse gases or of pollution in general.

We might spend a couple minutes again at this meeting talking about future field trips.

This is the first time that we will have dues. Dues will be $10 per half-year.

From now until at least April, all meetings will be at 7 pm on every second Tuesday in Psychology Room 3187, unless otherwise specified.

dmbrunner

and bump

stathmk

-Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 7 pm
-Psychology Room 3187

We will probably have a theme about near-death and out-of-body experiences.

stathmk

We watched and talked about some cool, amazing, and funny stuff yesterday.

OK. For the 4th meeting:

-Guest Speaker Cindy Sarault
-Director of the Lafayette Chapter of the Indiana Ghost Trackers. You've read that correctly; there's an actual organization called Lafayette Ghost Trackers.
-Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 7 pm
-Psychology Room 3187



It sounds like fun.

That's the plan for now anyways. I'm not 100% certain yet that this would be the day she arrives. It possibly could be moved to a Sunday or a different Tuesday. I'll post something if there's a change of plans.

I'm surprised that there hasn't been a comedian yet that's said, "How do we subpoena a ghost to testify evidence that ghosts exist?"

If you like to see things debunked, then you might like Mythbusters from the Discovery Channel. We have no plans to go as a group, but I might go by myself.

stathmk

I have gotten a message today that there's been a change. The speaker for October 16th is Dr. Schweickert from The Psychology Department, who will be talking about dream research.

stathmk

The meeting about dreams was interesting. It's hard for me to believe that some some people have recorded in dream journals for over 50 years and given the journals to researchers.

October 30th: supposed videos and pictures of ghosts

stathmk

A message I've received from Brian:You might be interested that the Purdue Non-theists are having a Darwin fish sale on November 14th and 15th. I'm not actually a member of The Purdue Non-theists, but I've communicated with them and I think that they're interesting.

stathmk

7 pm in Psychology room 3187.

It's a Virtual Lecture with Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com. The Topic will be Homeopathy.

stathmk

Today, I've received an email that tonight's meeting is canceled.