Our guest speaker this month is Amanda Knief, Government Relations Manager of the Secular Coalition for America. Amanda will tell us “true tales of working as an atheist on Capitol Hill and with the Obama administration, and also how we need everyone to get involved.”

Could there be a better lead-in to Zombie and Vampire Season than the inside scoop on working in Washington?

We will be meeting at our regular time and place, at 7 PM on Monday, September 26. 2011, upstairs at Tommy Doyle’s, 96 Winthrop St in Harvard Square.

Our book club meeting this month is again at the usual place and time, 3 PM Saturday August 13 on the lawn just north of Harvard Yard, between Memorial Hall (the big ugly pseudo gothic building) and the Science Center (the big ugly modern building that looks like a flight of giant stairs to nowhere.) It’s supposed to be warm and sunny, but if it rains, we’ll move indoors to the cafeteria of the Northwest building up Oxford Street just past the museum.

The book is about the birth of forensic science (CSI: Lyon, as in Lyon, France, circa 1894.) I’m about 1/2 way through, the prime suspect is about to go to trial, and is attempting an insanity defense. It’s a pretty compelling story, all the more so because it’s true. The author alternates chapters between the story of the criminal, Joesph Vacher, and the history of forensics, mostly focusing on Professor Lacassagne of the Lyon Medical School, who was the leading forensic scientist of the time.

Our book club meeting this month is in the usual place and time, on the lawn just north of Harvard Yard, between Memorial Hall and the Science Center. If it rains, the meeting will be indoors in the cafeteria of the Northwest building a little way up Oxford Street.

Our book this month is The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. It appears to be a fairly quick and fun read, so it’s not to late to start it! Even if you haven’t, we always value uninformed opinions :-)

Bring a snack to share or at very least, bring your appetite! No coffee this month (sorry), unless someone else steps up to the plate.

Place: Harvard Yard
Time: 3:00 PM Saturday July 9, 2011

Skeptics in the Pub: Mothers’ Day Special

WHEN
Sunday, May 9, 2010
7:00pm – 10:00pm

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

Facebook event page

Good news, Everyone! You’re all invited to a SPECIAL Boston Skeptics in the Pub this Sunday evening, when our guest will be the FANTASTIC Jon Ronson.

Jon is probably best known as the author of the book “The Men Who Stare At Goats,” which became a movie starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor. Jon’s written several other books, and his journalistic work has appeared widely in print in the UK and elsewhere. Additionally, Jon has appeared several times on Public Radio International’s “This American Life,” and has created documentary series for TV and radio.

Jon is a charismatic, funny, self-deprecating speaker, and while we KNOW Sunday is Mothers’ Day, you could still cap off the day by bringing your moms to Tommy Doyle’s to listen to Jon’s talk! And yes, while the event is FREE OF CHARGE, your mom doesn’t have to know that… tell her you got her a ticket as a present! BONUS!

Either way, as Jon himself said on Twitter, “[W]e’ll have just the greatest time,” so don’t miss out!

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!

Skeptics in the Pub: February Edition

WHEN
Monday, February 22, 2010 (pronounced “twentington”)
7:00pm – 10:00pm

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

Facebook event page

Well, it’s been a few months since we’ve had a speaker here at Skeptics in the Pub, so we’re absolutely JAZZED to be able to bring you Jeff Lieberman as February’s special guest!

Jeff will no doubt be familiar to some of you as the host of Time Warp on the Discovery Channel! Time Warp uses high-speed photography to show you ordinary things in extraordinary detail. If you’ve ever noticed a strange amount of Cambridge-area content, well, that may be because Jeff is a local!

In addition to his work on Time Warp, Jeff is a renaissance man, and is well known in several fields! He’s an MIT trained scientist, with degrees in Math, Physics, Engineering, and Media. He plays electronic music in the group “gloobic,” makes his way through the art world for both photography and sculpture, and is also a roboticist who MAY be building a robot to TAKE OVER THE WORLD. Well, I made up the “taking over the world” part… or did I?

At any rate, come on out for Jeff’s talk, and you can ask him questions about any and all of those things! Get there early, we’re sure this going to be a popular talk. RSVP in the comments or over on Facebook to let us know you’re coming, so we can let Tommy Doyle’s know how many people to expect. We hope to see you all there, as the material covered WILL be on your final exam! :)

NB: Don’t forget about our Brunch this Saturday! The fact that we’re bumping that post is NO excuse for slacking!

Apologies for the rather late OFFICIAL notice, but the latest Boston Skeptics Brunch will be taking place this Saturday, February 13th at 11:00 AM, at the Asgard in Central Square. If you’ve never been, our brunches are really informal gatherings where we just eat, drink, and spend time getting to know other cool skeptical people. So come on out, if the tardiness of our announcement hasn’t put you off!

Besides, if we didn’t wait until now, we’d have missed out on the fantastic term “waffle frolic.”

According to Wikipedia:
“Thomas Jefferson brought a waffle iron from France, and waffle frolics or parties became popular in the late eighteenth century.”

Is it true? WHO CARES? It’s an awesome name. So come, hang out, relax, and eat yummy things with us this Saturday! Be sure to RSVP on Facebook so we know how many people to expect!

* NOTE * The Asgard may not actually serve waffles, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a waffle frolic IN OUR HEARTS.

Hey gang!

If you don’t follow us on Twitter or belong to our Facebook Group, you might not already know that we’ve got another Skeptics in the Pub night going on tomorrow!

We’ve all been shagged out since the Richard Wiseman event earlier this month, so we have to apologize for the late notice! But just because we don’t have another guest speaker doesn’t mean we can’t still get together for some fun times, right?

SO: Tomorrow night (Monday, Jan. 25th), join your Boston Skeptics friends for an exciting night of trivia! Stop by Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square at the usual time (7:00 PM) and join forces with your friends and fellow skeptics for some geeky trivia fun! We’re even trying to coordinate a surprise for you, though WE PROMISE NOTHING.

RSVP here on the Facebook Event page to let us know you’re coming, and we’ll see you all there tomorrow!

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!