Our next book club meeting is going to be on Saturday, December 5th, at 2 pm in the Clear Conscience Cafe. Come for the lively discussion, stay for the tea and sandwiches.

While doing some research on our current book (Don’t Sleep There Are Snakes), I came across some media extras that add to the content of the book. The first is an interview conducted with the author Daniel Everett on the Freedom From Religion Foundation podcast on August 22, 2009. From the website: “In an amazing adventure, Everett–a missionary to the Pirahas dedicated to learning their language in order to proselytize them–left the Amazon free of religion.” The interview is pretty interesting and he discusses a little bit more about his own background.

The other media extras I found were some videos produced by Current TV about the struggles of the native Amazonians:

The Amazon Frontier

Slaves of the Amazon

Laura Ling Reports on Amazon Tribe

Only one more week to finish up the book! I have a lot of notes and I imagine there will be a lot of discussion about this book. But don’t be intimidated–everyone is welcome, whether you haven’t finished the book yet or even if you really didn’t like the book. We have a big list of other books to decide on for our next BSBC meeting, so come if you would like to add to the book list or choose our next book.

Check out our new Facebook page. I’ve started a forum for our book list and everyone who has a book suggestion should list it there as well.

Our November Skeptics in the Pub with George Hrab was incredible. And if you missed it (or just want to watch it all again), you’re in luck. Here it is in two parts (the man entertained us for two hours!). We’d like to thank George and remind everyone that his new CD ‘Trebuchet’ is due out soon (and you should buy it!). Without further yackity-yack, here he is. The man-shaped music machine that is… George Hrab!
UPDATE: Bonus! An added bonus. Just watch it… I can’t easily explain. Dapper Ladies

And don’t forget to check out George’s podcast, buy his music (at CDbaby, iTunes or GeologicRecords) and visit his website.

Part 1

Boston Skeptics in the Pub – George Hrab Part 1 – Nov 23rd, 2009 from Maggie McFee on Vimeo.

Part 2

Boston Skeptics in the Pub – George Hrab Part 2- Nov 23rd, 2009 from Maggie McFee on Vimeo.

Q&A

Boston Skeptics in the Pub – George Hrab QnA – Nov 23rd, 09 from Maggie McFee on Vimeo.

Or watch on our Vimeo channel.

I’m sure most people reading this will have heard about Ray Comfort’s doctored copy of The Origin of Species, which includes an all-new, all-stupid 50-page introduction as well. But did you know that Comfort’s group will be on college campuses passing out free copies? Did you know that they’ll be doing so tomorrow, in Boston and Cambridge?

One can hope that students at some of the best schools in the nation will be too smart to fall for Comfort’s malarkey, but let’s not forget also that not everyone has to take college biology. Please, think of the poor English majors and even the assholes getting their MBAs.

Fortunately for us, the NCSE does have those people in mind. They’ve set up a site, Don’t Diss Darwin, with information about the doctored books, a list of targeted schools, and printable handouts and bookmarks for those with the time (surely there are students reading this!) to hang out on college campuses and counter-protest.

According to the Don’t Diss Darwin site, these Boston-area schools are known to be targeted by Comfort’s cronies:

• Harvard
• MIT
• Tufts
• Brandeis
• Boston College

Boston University is conspicuously absent from the confirmed target list, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Comfort Crew shows up there as well. If you attend any of these schools, or if you can take some time out to drop by them with handouts tomorrow, please consider taking some time out of your day to fight back against the Bananaman’s dishonesty.

Skeptics in the Pub: Thanksgiving Special

WHEN
Monday, November 23, 2009
7:00pm – 10:00pm

WHERE
Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square (top floor)
96 Winthrop Street
Cambridge, MA

Facebook event page

Before you head off to visit your family and gorge on turkey (tofurkey and turducken are also acceptable) join your friends in the Boston Skeptics for this month’s Skeptics in the Pub event!

We’re about as thrilled as can be about this month’s guest. Many of you will know George Hrab from his appearances at TAM, TAM London, NECSS, Dragon*Con, and just about every other skeptical event under the sun. But for those of you who don’t, Geo is one talented guy! He’s a skeptical singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist whose music is available on iTunes or here at CD Baby. He also puts out the always-amusing Geologic Podcast, which just hit its 140th episode!

If that’s not enough, George is an incredible humorist and raconteur. When he joins us on Monday, Nov. 23rd, be sure to wear your laughing pants. And if you don’t own laughing pants a) what’s wrong with you? and b) you’d better buy some! Geo will be at our usual location, Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square, from 7-10 PM. He will be singing some songs, telling some stories, and hanging out to answer your questions!

So once again, join your host Liz Gaston and the rest of the Boston Skeptics for what we HOPE will be a rocking, fun filled way to kick off the holiday season! We hope to see you ALL there!

Hey everyone, our next brunch will be happening this weekend! We will be meeting up Saturday, November 14th at 11am at The Asgard in Central Square, Cambridge.  I know we always hype the pancakes, but I for one am looking forward to some delicious eggs benedict! Does that make me a traitor? Check out our Facebook event page to rsvp.

Saturday was the first meeting of the Boston Skeptics’ Book Club. We managed to grab a couch and some decent chairs at the Clear Conscience Cafe in Central Square, and we all had a decent discussion about what books and authors we want to add to the reading queue. Some of the books mentioned:

• Stiff and Spook by Mary Roach
• 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman (due out in January 2010)
• SuperSense by Bruce Hood
• Trick or Treatment by Edzard Ernst
• Psychic Mafia by M. Lamar Keene
• How We Know What Isn’t So by Thomas Gilovich
• Breaking the Spell by Daniel C. Dennett
• Jesus, Interrupted by Bart Ehrman

The first book we’re going to start reading is Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle by Daniel L. Everett. From what I’ve read about the book, it’s half memoir about living in the Amazon and half about the science of linguistics and the unusual language of the people. One of the reasons I wanted to read this book is that there is also a storyline about how he came to the Amazon as a Christian missionary to convert a tribe of the Pirahã (pronounced pee-da-HAN) Indians, but instead ended up being converted himself into an atheist.

Our first meeting went well, and in addition to discussing which books we want to read, we also geeked out for a while (Star Trek, Science, and Games, oh my!) and sampled some of the food and beverages at the cafe (from what I hear, the Apple Cider is awesome). Our next meeting will be on Saturday, December 5th at 2 pm, also at the Clear Conscience Cafe (so far, we plan on meeting once a month around the aforementioned time). If anyone has any book suggestions, please email me [mary.brock (at) gmail.com] and I’ll add it to our discussion list for next time. I enjoyed meeting everyone, and I hope I will see everyone back (and maybe a few new faces) next month to discuss our latest book!

Hi folks! Just thought I’d pop in here to remind you all of a few upcoming events!

First, a few Boston Skeptics will be getting together (as was suggested on our Twitter feed, which you SHOULD be following) to watch The Men Who Stare at Goats. This is the film adaptation of skeptic (and super best friend of our own Rebecca Watson) Jon Ronson‘s book of the same name. We’re going to the 8:30PM screening at the AMC Boston Common theatre (across from the Boylston stop on the Green Line). This is a very informal get-together, so if you’d like to meet up, get there early and look for us in the lobby. At the very least, let us know you’ll be there in the comments section and maybe we can all grab a drink and discuss the film afterwards!

Second, the inaugural meeting of the Boston Skeptics Book Club will be taking place this Saturday, Nov. 7th at 2:00 PM at the Clear Conscience Cafe in Central Square. Join Mary Brock and Liz Gaston in kicking off what (we hope) will be a great forum for reading and discussing the vast canon of skeptical and scientific literature!

Finally, don’t forget about this month’s AWESOME Boston Skeptics in the Pub event featuring the amazing George Hrab! That’s coming up on Monday,  Nov. 23rd (the Monday before Thanksgiving), at our usual place and time. We’ll put up a full post about that soon, but for now you should head over to the Facebook Event page and RSVP so we can give Tommy Doyle’s a rough head count.

That’s it for now, but if you have any ideas for events or speakers, feel free to let us know in the comments! Hope to see you all soon :)