The Bear's Progress
SkeptoBear's trip to James Randi's Amazing Meeting 2004
 Michael Shermer |
 Eugenie Scott |
 Hervey Peoples |
 An Australian in a colourful shirt |
 Banachek |
 Penn & Teller |
Day Eight
Speakers, heroes, magicians! What a day!
Because the conference sessions were starting early, breakfast was in the hotel today. SkeptoBear had apparently had a successful night at the gaming tables after leaving the SkepChicks' Pyjama Party, because when he was asked why he was wearing the same clothes as yesterday and looking a bit weary and unshaven he replied with an enigmatic comment about Las Vegas being a good place for getting lucky.
After the official opening of the conference by Mr Randi, the first speaker was Michael Shermer from the Skeptics Society. Dr Shermer spoke about the subject of his latest book, The Science of Good and Evil. It seems that Dr Shermer is unfamiliar with some of the rich heritage of moving pictures, as he appeared to be a little puzzled when The Bear quoted to him, with a straight face, those famous words by that great actor Jerry Lewis: "Why do I need a book? I already have a book". In fact, SkeptoBear is quite literate and he received one of his doctorates for a thesis on the relationship between de Saussure's sign/signifier dialectic and the symbolic representation of the American grizzly bear in the works of James Fennimore Cooper.
The next two speakers addressed the same topic - the curse of creationism. First was Eugenie Scott from the National Center for Science Education. Dr Scott is rather uncompromising in her opposition to the threat of creationist nonsense in schools and she told us about the work of the NCSE and the slipperiness of the opponents of reason. The other speaker on creationism was Hervey Peoples, who talked about research she had conducted into what she sees as the fundamental question asked by all humans - "Where did we come from?". In her book, The Human Question, she examines the way that what people believe can be very different from what they know, or, put another way, how people very often believe "what ain't so". It was scary to hear how many people reject reason and science. Following these two talks, SkeptoBear was quite downcast at the size of the problem still ahead in the fight against this particular form of mental illness. Dr Scott had mentioned that the Institute for Creation Research was planning an extension to their San Diego headquarters, and The Bear remembered that when he had been there it didn't look like the sort of place that was short of money. Tragic.
As an aside, SkeptoBear would like it publicly recorded here that on behalf of all Australians he apologises to the rest of the world for Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis.
The first speaker after lunch was going to be The Bear's companion. Remember the Office XP debacle which caused said companion to be at Kinko's at midnight making a CD? Well, lunch time was the first chance anyone had to see if the CD could even be read on the borrowed computer, let alone whether the file would work in the later version of PowerPoint. As it turned out all was well, but there was, of course, no chance to do a timing rehearsal for the speech. Still there was enough time to relax and get into the right frame of mind to talk to a room full of strangers. As he walked to the stage the mood was broken when he was told that he would not be able to use the radio lapel microphone and would therefore be firmly tied to the lectern and the highly-directional microphone on it. This made it a bit hard to be heard if he turned his head away to, for example, look at his notes or point to the screen. Things were made worse by the fact that the audio speakers were in front of the stage, so there was no audio feedback to the person on stage. Still, the talk went ahead. It has been translated from Australian into English and you can read it here.
You can listen to my talk at Radio Ratbags
And why wasn't he able to use the lapel microphone? There was a certain quality of preciousness and pretentiousness about the several-man production team on hand for the Penn & Teller slot in the conference, and the microphone was needed for Penn Jillette who was to appear an hour later. Penn wasn't even in the room until after this particular talk, and the usual time allowed in a television studio for fitting and testing a lapel microphone is about thirty seconds.
The next speaker was Banachek, who did a great mind-reading act. Old-timers will remember that in a previous life Banachek was Steve Shaw, one of the Alpha Kids who fooled some supposed scientists who were doing research into the paranormal. The way that these scientists almost unquestioningly accepted any evidence which fitted their preconceptions should be a warning to all that science is about finding out what reality is doing, not about confirming how we would like things to be.
Next up were Penn & Teller, who performed some wonderful magic tricks. It was good to hear that Penn's microphone was working well. It didn't go unnoticed that when the pair were getting ready to answer some questions the usually silent Teller put on a lapel microphone without any external help. It took him about thirty seconds. The day finished with a panel discussion entitled "Bringing Skepticism to the Masses" which demonstrated that just about everyone on the stage had a firm idea about how best to spread the skeptical word and that no two ideas were the same.
The day was not yet over. A large contingent was going to see Penn & Teller's act at the Rio casino, but first there was the dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. The Australian contingent had organised this to show off the culinary highlights of the place that everyone except Australians calls "down under". Expectations were not high however, as when The Bear's team had gone to the eatery during the week to make a reservation they were not recognised as Australians. If Mexicans who could not speak English could pick where they were from, then surely the staff of a pretend Australian eatery should be able to do so, but no. The low expectations were met when the group of about thirty turned up only to be told that nobody had actually arranged a table for the reservation and the group would be spread throughout the restaurant. To his joy, The Bear's male companion was given a table with a great view of the awful fountain at the Mirage casino. The menu was almost Australian, although nobody in that country calls mushrooms "shrooms" and nobody would dare admit to eating New Zealand lamb, but the food was hot, the drinks were cold and the service was quick enough so nobody complained too much. Diners at one table were amazed at the ability of one of The Bear's companions to perform card tricks not with playing cards but with the advertising cards for those ladies who come to hotel rooms to perform services. Australians are a resourceful people. SkeptoBear was a little puzzled when a local referred to the cards as "hookers' business cards", and he wondered how anyone could confuse the ladies in the pictures on the cards with rugby league football players.
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After dinner, everyone went to the Rio to see Penn & Teller. Inside the casino there is a huge sign which shows why Las Vegas is so prosperous and why skeptics should not gamble and expect to win. The sign was about two metres tall and announced that the Rio was the best casino in town because it returned 97% to gamblers. SkeptoBear did a quick calculation and figured that this meant that if you stayed long enough you would have $97 left out of every $100 you brought with you. You could then use that $97 until there was only $94 left. The Rio must, however, be complemented for their openness. Most places which take your money like to keep the potential loss a secret.
After missing the magicians at the Magic Castle, SkeptoBear was very pleased to be going to see Penn & Teller. There was one small disappointment before the show, however. It looked like one of the goals of the trip had been achieved when a long necked bottle of Rolling Rock Pale Ale was seen on a shelf in the bar. This brew had come highly recommended, but unfortunately this was the only bottle anywhere in the Rio and it was warm. The show was good, although it didn't have the glitz and glamour that are normally associated in the public's mind with the term "Las Vegas show". As one of The Bear's companions had seen Siegfried and Roy on a previous trip his expectations may have been a bit high.
It was on the way back to the hotel that disaster struck. Everyone will be familiar with the expression "to lose one's shirt", meaning to lose heavily at gambling. Well, SkeptoBear lost his cape. He had been warned, both explicitly by his companions and subliminally by the sign in the Rio, but he did not pay attention. His companions were distraught at the loss, and retraced their steps to see if it had just fallen off in one of the places where they had stopped for refreshments, but no, it was gone forever. The one consolation was that SkeptoBear had lost his cape in the Bellagio, so at least he had done it in a place with class. The team stood looking forlornly at the fountain, and The Bear promised never to be so foolish again.
Few words were spoken during the walk back to the hotel. It was late, there was another early start the next day, and it looked like The Bear's luck had run out.
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