Last week, DispatchPolitics.com published a cap to the whole Freshwater debacle:
The unfortunate experience should be a cautionary lesson to other school districts dealing with teachers whose personal beliefs get in the way of their responsibility to educate: Don’t look the other way for years, even if the teacher is well-liked and personable. The mistake was not in firing Freshwater but in waiting so long to do it.
I mention this not only because it’s a good piece skeptics would be interesting in reading, but also because this was the incident that led me to find more local skeptics, and, eventually, organize and mobilize them. Hopefully, this situation won’t arise again in central Ohio anytime soon – but if it does, it’s nice to know we have an established group here with a voice to help fight it.
Thanks to David at the Ohio University Skeptic Society for sending me the link.
In a time of economic uncertainty, it’s nice to see businesses are spending their money on something useful…
(click above for video)
“What I do is I give hopefully most of the time accurate information. Sometimes in the future.”
That’s what Laura Day said on Nightline the other night. Confident as ever. This psychic, or ‘intuitive’ as she calls herself, is giving these fortune 500 companies advice on how the should invest, amongst other important things – like the weather. But it doesn’t stop there, she also teaches people and companies classes on how you too can be an ‘intuitive’.
Laura has been known for her “prediction” of the stock market crash. When asked by the reporter, ‘why not just go running down the streets screaming the market’s going to crash?’
“Um – lots of reasons. I wouldn’t be able to make a living.”
Or… because you’re a fraud.
It’s really hard not to get mad at these people. Now, not that I think using a psychic is justified in any way, shape or form, but this case especially bugs me because it’s not just an individual – it’s large companies. And if her claim is true, multi-million dollar companies.
I can’t help but wonder how many people on Wall Street are seeing these people every week or calling into someone like Miss Cleo so they can get their investment advice.
Thoughts?
We’ve started planning for our first SkeptiCamp Ohio! Here’s a list of relevant links and groups to help keep you informed and up-to-date on the event:
I’ll also be annoucing in-person planning meetups at our Meetup.com group, so if you haven’t joined up over there yet, go ahead.
For some general information on what SkeptiCamp’s all about, check out the main SkeptiCamp wiki page, and don’t hesitate to contact me at jmyers@ohioskeptic.com with any questions!
Come meet up with us at 6 PM, Q Bar (map). You can also RSVP on Facebook.
Here’s what October looks like for us so far:
Friday, October 10:
A few of us met up with the Omnipresent Atheists group to see Religulous last Friday, and it was a pretty good time, so we’re going to go again next Friday, October 10 at the AMC Lennox theater. I think there were already a couple of votes for the 9:35 PM time, but if you want to go and have a conflict with that, let me know and we’ll see if we can adjust accordingly. For the time being, we’re planning for 9:35.
Saturday, October 11:
We’re heading to COSI! We’ll meet up at 10 AM in the founders atrium, a big open space right behind the pendulum exhibit. (Map: http://www.cosi.org/visitors/map/) We don’t have to all stick together the entire time (some of us will have our kids, and will probably be running all over the place), but I thought we could get together at the beginning, and make plans for meeting up later for lunch. It’s also Columbus Days, so go to http://www.experiencecolumbusdays.com/ to print off a coupon for 50% adult COSI admission.
Saturday, October 18:
Drinking Skeptically, 6 PM, Q Bar (map). You can also RSVP on Facebook.
Thursday, October 30:
Neil deGrasse Tyson will be giving a lecture at Ohio State University, as part of their First Year Experience series. We have a limited number of tickets set aside for our group (contact me for details), and beyond that you can pick up tickets when they’re available to the general public at 120 Enarson Hall, 154 W 12th Ave. on OSU campus starting October 23 at 8:00 a.m. The lecture itself is at 7 PM, at Weigel Hall Auditorium. We’ll work out details of distributing tickets and meeting up closer to the event.
Our very first Drinking Skeptically Columbus is tonight, Friday 19, at Q Bar and Nightclub 6-7ish PM. Come on by and party with other central Ohio skeptics!
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September 10, 2008 | By: Jen | Category: Admin | No Comments
Okay, here we are with a brand-new blog. Look for more pages, links, and bloggers coming soon.
