The next BSBC meeting is next Saturday, May 22nd, although there has been a slight time change. (If any of you attended Boston Skeptics in the Pub, Liz already announced this.) Just this once, I have to change the meeting time to 1 pm rather than the usual 3 pm (a personal conflict came up at the last minute). Anyway, I hope this doesn’t mess up too many schedules, it’s just a one time change.

Meeting place is still TBD until the date is closer so we can see if the weather is good enough to meet outside. Keep checking back here for details, and happy reading!

Just a quick reminder that the Boston Skeptics’ Book Club is meeting tomorrow, Saturday, April 24 at 3 pm at the Borders bookstore on Boylston Ave, up in the cafe on the second floor.

Everyone is welcome, whether or not you’ve read Neil Shubin’s Your Inner Fish. Come to discuss evolutionary science and eat delicious muffins! Also, if you have any book suggestions, bring those and I’ll add them to the master list.

For anyone who can’t make it, if you really want to come but Saturdays are always bad for you, let me know in the comments and I’ll try to find a date that works for everyone.

See you tomorrow!

It’s a beautiful day out, my cats are sitting around melting away in the sunbeam, and I know you all have one thing on your mind: What happened at last week’s BSBC meeting?

Last Saturday, we met at the cafe in Borders to discuss Jonathan Goldstein’s Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!. I picked it because it was short, funny, and irreverent, and who doesn’t need a bit of a mental break every now and then? The stories of the book were all modern reinterpretations of stories from the Old Testament, and being raised a Lutheran I honestly wasn’t as familiar with the Old Testament mythology, so I enjoyed this book. Goldstein wrote most of the characters in such a way that I felt sympathy for the traditionally evil ones and got irked at the traditionally good ones. God is portrayed as a voice in one’s head, and most of the time he either asks rhetorical questions or is a tad passive-aggressive.

Next BSBC book is: Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin (credit goes to Liz for selecting it). Shubin is a paleontologist who describes how various parts of humans evolved. If you know anyone who says that there is no beauty in evolution, point them to this book. Shubin not only uses the fossil record to show readers how evolution works, but his writing style keeps the reader interested and you don’t have to be an expert to understand his concepts.

Our next meeting is at 3 p.m. at Borders on Saturday, April 24th, at 3 pm at the Borders bookstore on Boylston Ave in Boston (two blocks from the Arlington T-stop on the Green Line). The cafe section is up the escalators on the second floor and the back in the corner near the science books. Be there, or be somewhere else that isn’t nearly as fun!

In the future, since the weather is so great, we may plan a BSBC outing in the park instead. Keep your eyes open and if you have any suggestions, state them in the comments!

Hey gang!

First, we just want to thank everyone who came to SitP last night. Jeff Lieberman was fantastic, and we’re very grateful to him for speaking to us! And in case you stayed home in favor of watching the video version of this month’s event: sorry, but there IS no video this month! You really missed out this time. Plus, our videos don’t tell the whole story, so it’s always worthwhile to come out and meet your fellow skeptifriends!

We also announced next month’s SitP speaker: Kimball Atwood IV! Kimball is a practicing anesthesiologist, a blogger at Science-Based Medicine, and was named a CSI (Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) Fellow! We’ll have more information about this event closer to the date, as Kimball is scheduled to speak on Monday, March 29th at 7PM. This will be an excellent opportunity to meet him prior to his appearance at NECSS the following month.

Lastly, this week’s BS Book Club meeting is at 2:00 PM, not 2:30 as had previously been announced in yesterday’s post. That post has already been redacted down the memory hole, and we have always been at war with Eastasia. The venue and book have not changed, so check yesterday’s post for the details!

That’s it for now. Thanks again for your support!

Hi everyone! Do you have plans for tonight? Well, I certainly hope not, unless those plans involve stopping by Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square for tonight’s edition of Skeptics in the Pub!

That’s right! It’s finally time for this month’s talk, featuring Jeff Lieberman of the Discovery Channel’s Time Warp, the band gloobic, and all those other projects we talked about here! So just in case you forgot, well, that’s happening tonight at 7 PM. Get there early!

Also worth noting: This coming Saturday (Feb. 27th) is the next meeting of the Boston Skeptics Book Club! There’s still time to read this month’s book, 59 Seconds by our good friend Richard Wiseman. It’ll take you longer than 59 seconds, I suspect, but it’s still a quick and entertaining read. So be sure to come to the Clear Conscience Cafe in Central Square at 2:00 PM to join in the discussion!

And finally, a bit of a head’s up: Do you have plans for the early afternoon on Sunday, March 14th? Well, congrats on planning things so far in advance (a skill we could stand to cultivate!) but you MAY want to keep some time open. We HOPE to have more about this soon.

So there’s a quick summary of our upcoming events! We’d love to see you (yes, YOU!) at all of them!

We had an awesome meeting two Saturdays ago (yes, I am a lazy blog poster) on Saturday, January 23rd to discuss Mary Roach’s Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s basically the author’s attempt to research all of the different ways that people try to understand the afterlife, and the chapters include topics such as reincarnation, mediums who allege that they can speak with the dead (who always seem to have very banal things to say), and how modern technology is co-opted into the search for ghosts. Mary Roach’s style of writing is interesting, as her footnotes could be chapters unto themselves. I found the book to be light-heartedly skeptical (she seems a little reluctant to label herself as a skeptic and let go of her irrationalities) and a mostly fun read.

Our next book is Richard Wiseman’s 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot, in which Wiseman discusses various topics (e.g. relationships, parenting, motivation, etc.) from a psychological point of view and backs up all of his arguments with scientific literature. Each chapter is accompanied by a summary which can presumably be read in less than a minute. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in town to have more sex see Richard Wiseman when he came to Boston, so I picked this book in his honor.

If you’d like to come to our next meeting, we are meeting on Saturday, February 27th at 2:30 pm in the Clear Conscience Cafe (same bat time, same bat channel). The cafe is nice and warm and the conversation is skeptical and scintillating!

On a related note, as our book club grows we are always looking for new coffee shops or other places to host it in. If you have any suggestions, please comment below. I drive into Boston from New Hampshire, so I don’t know the local places as well, but any place that could accommodate 8-12 people and is good for facilitating conversation would be awesome. (Or if anyone wants to host a book club meeting, I promise to bring pastries and tea and stay to clean up!)

Just another quick post to remind you all that tomorrow is the next meeting of the Boston Skeptics Book Club! Join Mary and the rest of the Book Club at 2:00PM at the Clear Conscience Cafe in Central Square. I’m sure there will be plenty to talk about regarding this month’s book, Spook by Mary Roach, so stop by and check it out!

And don’t forget to RSVP here if you’re going to see “Creation” with the Boston Atheists and the Atheists of Greater Lowell tonight!

UPDATE: Just a reminder. We will be meeting up at Tommy Doyle’s this Monday at 7pm for BS Trivia-thon. Bring your thinkin’ brain!

First, we’d like to thank everyone who came out to see Richard Wiseman at the Brattle! You guys made this event a huge success for us, and we hope to plan many more things like that in the future. If you have any ideas, leave us a comment!

Second, don’t forget that the Boston Skeptics Book Club will be meeting on Saturday, Jan 23rd at 2:00 PM at the Clear Conscience Cafe in Central Square. This month’s book is Spook by Mary Roach, and it’s a quick read, so you’ve still got time to pick it up and join the group next weekend! And even if you can’t read this one, feel free to drop in, listen to the discussion, and help pick next month’s book.

Finally, if you were at the Richard Wiseman show you’ll already know this, but we’ve scheduled another Boston Skeptics Brunch for this Saturday, Jan. 16th at 11:00 AM. Our brunches are low-key, informal events where we eat pancakes and socialize. Yes, SOCIALIZING IS MANDATORY! Plus, it’s a great excuse to drink booze in the morning without being mistaken for an alcoholic!

So join us this weekend at The Asgard in Central Square, but be sure to RSVP in the comments or at the Facebook event page so we can give the restaurant a head count!

We look forward to seeing you all there!