Seattle SkepticsSeattle Skeptics #106 - Rebecca Watson!
Rebecca Watson, founder of Skepchick and Co-Host of The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe joins the Seattle Skeptics to talk about the science of women and behavior!
Recorded August 17th, 2012.
Can I Haz Seattle Skeptic Surly-Ramic?
Yes you can! We have asked Skepchick (Surly) Amy Davis Roth to produce a custom Surly-Ramic just for the Seattle Skeptics and she has hit it out of the park! These will be available for sale at the next Seattle Skeptic Meetup for $20 each with 100% of the proceeds going back into the club. We have only a limited supply, but we can order more once these have sold out.
If you are unfamiliar with Amy’s work, please check out her website: http://surlyramics.com . She has created a cottage industry of fashion jewelry catering to the lovers of science, skepticism and free thought. We are honored to be represented by our own local Surly-Ramic!
Why I am a Skeptic
It was 1981 and I was 12 years young. Commercial TV back late 70’s and early 80’s was ripe with pseudoscience nonsense. TV shows like “In Search Of” were increasing popular with topics covering far out ideas like Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle, the Loch Ness Monster, alien visitations and psychic abilities. One show popular amongst my classmates was “That’s Incredible!”
The ability to move objects using your mind is sometimes called “Telekinesis” and one episode of That’s Incredible featured a young man who not only could demonstrate it, but had a martial arts studio that could teach it to others. This man was James Hydrick. Needless to say, at my young age this all seemed very compelling, and it was the talk of the playground the day after it aired. The next time I saw James Hydrick on television, everything changed.
I will not go into details of the two clips below, but when I finally revisited them on YouTube some 25 years later, I was amazed of how well it played out exactly as I had remembered it over all these years. This was my first exposure to James Randi and his challenge (back then it was $10K written on a personal check he carried in his wallet). It was also the first time I saw the practical application of performing an experiment using controls. This really hit home for me. After that night on broadcast television, I adopted a “put up or shut up” attitude with people making extraordinary claims. It might seem hard to believe that one’s world view could be so radically changed over one crappy 80’s TV show, but because of these clips, I have been a skeptic my entire adolescent and adult life. Enjoy.