CSICON is no con; Ladendorf launches anti-gun violence movement in Vegas

At the Committee for Scientific Inquiry's (CSI) conference called CSICON in Las Vegas last weekend at the Excalibur hotel, scientific skeptics like myself - meaning adhering to the scientific method to investigate claims of the paranormal and pseudoscience - were treated to a number of speakers from Richard Wiseman on deception and self-deception and Maria Konnikova on con artists to a panel of women scientists and science educators discussing many topics, including sexual harassment in the sciences. I've attended these conferences for years, and they recharge my batteries towards working for science and reason in all aspects of life. I also had worked for CSI's parent organization, which was started by scientists such as Sagan and Asimov, for 12 years at its L.A. branch and volunteer there now. (The L.A. branch closes this week but moves to a new location in L.A.)

Here are just a few of the current conclusions of CSICON: Climate change is real and caused by humans; ghosts are not real; GMOs are not harmful, contrary to current hysteria about them; naturopathy and homeopathy don't work; and much more. For more information, follow the CFI Web site, Skeptical Inquiry magazine, and this latest newsletter: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_92

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After the Las Vegas conference, I walked from the Excalibur past the Luxor and stopped at the Mandalay Bay, the site of the mass shooter on Oct. that cost the lives of 58 and injured hundreds. Outside the Mandalay Bay, where various victim remembrances, such as photos of victims and mementos, I launched my "Repeal & Replace the 2nd Amendment" movement by conducting an hour-long silent protest against gun violence. I received some thumbs up and talked to some supportive CSICON attendees. While my senators and representatives in California all support various control measures, I now feel that nothing less than a total revision of the 2nd Amendment is needed to ensure that we have a more uniform system of laws nationwide and that the convoluted language of the amendment is clarified. I would like to see a national commission come up with a suggested replacement amendment that would include at minimum a guarantee of home defense with certain guns, a ban on assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines although they could be confined to gun clubs, a banned-gun buyback program, and universal background checks.

I'll be updating my movement on a separate page under "Works" in the near future.

CSICON Conference in Las Vegas tackles paranormal, pseudoscience issues

This weekend, I'm heading to Las Vegas to attend the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry conference "dedicated to science and skeptical inquiry," with a number of well-known speakers, including physicist Lawrence Krauss; Prof. Michael E. Mann, co-author of The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy, which I reviewed in Skeptical Inquirer magazine earlier this year; Maria Konnikova, author of The Confidence Game; psychologist Richard Wiseman, also author of several books and who gives excellent - and funny - talks: author Richard Dawkins; Harriet Hall, MD, and many others, CSI is an affiliate of the Center for Inquiry, which I worked for until recently for 12 years.

There's still time to go to the conference, which I will report about in a future blog. The Web site is www.csiconference.org

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The Bad and Good Boys of Summer

POWERFUL MEN - STOP IT!

While I knew that bad boy movie producer Harvey Weinstein had an awful temper and pushed hard to win movie awards, I was not aware of the apparent open secret that he was an alleged sexual predator. While I sometimes seem to be the last to know a lot of things, this news, obviously, was a surprise, not a shock, after all the sexual harassment charges leveled at powerful men in business, government and entertainment over the years. What a shame that so many women apparently had to endure his power over them.

Yet, what mystifies me is after all these years and years of many sexual predators being exposed that so few victims come forward to expose the open secrets about Weinstein, or if they did, why law enforcement and prosecutors were not more diligent in pursuing cases. As I understand, eight women took money to keep silent about Weinstein. If just one of them had pursued a sexual harassment case legally and openly, many other women may have been forewarned and avoided what others had experienced. Another brave woman who wore a wire for the police deserves praise. But not having experienced such harassment, I certainly can't make any judgment as to how an individual has to cope with such degrading and embarrassing actions and guard a psyche and career at the same time. I will continue to monitor developments and hope that these revelations will finally change the attitudes and behavior of powerful men who seek power through sexual predation.

Since the 1990s when I worked for the state of Illinois and the non-profit Center for Inquiry, we employees had to take periodic classes in the laws protecting sexual harassment accusers of retaliation by bosses. The information helped change attitudes and behavior when employees learned how physical behaviors and verbal exchanges, such as telling unwanted dirty jokes constantly, constituted sexual harassment. Sounds like the entertainment industry, among others, needs that training.

GO CUBS!

On a lighter note, I've been a Die-Hard Cubs Fan all my life and, obviously, relished its first World Series Championship in my lifetime last year. Having experienced my first baseball playoff game in my life last year in Dodger Stadium when the Cubs trounced the Dodgers 10-2 in the 4th game of the National League Championship, I went back to this year's playoff game at Dodger Stadium last night, witnessing a loss but, nevertheless, seeing a thrilling storybook ending by Justin Turner with his two-out-in-the-bottom-of-the-9th walk-off homer. Surrounded by Dodgers fans in this photo in the left field Pavilion (L.A. euphemism for "bleachers"), I had a good time teasing them, and vice versa, while they and fellow fans yelled incessantly "Let's Go, Dodgers!", booed one kid with a San Francisco Giants jersey, and failed to ignite "The Wave" for the ballpark. Then the homer and a deafening roar, the loudest I ever experienced at a game. Come on Cubs, let's get three in Chicago!