[Editor's Note: This is the first in a three part 2011 Year In Review. Watch for the next two installments on the following two Wednesdays.]
With the end of the year we must mark the passing of many personalities that shape skepticism. The year 2010 was overshadowed by the passing of Martin Gardner, and in 2011 the person most talked about is certainly Christopher Hitchens. Many tributes to him have been posted across the skeptic and atheist blogosphere, with more no doubt to come.
But as I research skeptic history I think it is important we also pay attention to the other lesser-known personalities that help shape both the skeptic community as well as our cultural competitors, who we lost in 2011. These people helped shape what we know as skepticism.
Watch this incredible talk on neuroscience and consciousness by JREF Senior Fellow Steven Novella, M.D. at The Amaz!ng Meeting 6, new on the JREF's Youtube channel. Stay tuned to Randi.org for more videos from previous TAMs, provided free by the JREF.
Full disclosure: I made up that last part. The fact is, I cannot prove Mr. Obama isn't a shape-shifting lizard. Score one for the conspiracy theorists.
But the belief that the president belongs to a royal line of reptilian overlords may not be the strangest conspiracy theory about him. Last November, the website Exopolitics published a stunning exposé on Mr. Obama's secret past as a government "chrononaut" sent as a teenager to confront deadly beasts on the surface of Mars. Despite the mind-bending implications of this story, it took several weeks for most people to notice. This could be evidence of a massive government effort to keep a lid on the revelation. Or it's possible that not very many people read Exopolitics, a site devoted to the "science of relations between intelligent civilizations in the Universe".
Regardless, the world has taken notice. Wired.com even managed to force a comment out of the Obama administration, which denies the president has ever visited Mars.
Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo in medicine.
Few have lived as eventful a life as James Randi, and he has the stories to prove it! Join him in San Francisco this Thursday, January 12, as he shares one of his remarkable tales at Porchlight, the Bay Area's premiere storytelling series.
For nine years, Porchlight has offered a stage to dozens of luminaries and regular folks from all walks of life to share their unfiltered, unscripted recollections with the world. Previous storyteller have included writer Stephen Elliott, comedian Rob Baedeker, poet Bucky Sinister, and mythbusting friend of the JREF Adam Savage.
Randi will be performing as part of a special Harry Houdini tribute edition of Porchlight, where a cast of magicians and mentalists will be sharing their stories of brushes with magic.
The show will be held at the Contemporary Jewish Museum on Mission St. at 7:00pm. For ticket information, click here.
