February, 1998 February, 1998| NATIVE AMERICAN CREATION STORIES |
| Dr. David Murray |
| Director of Research |
| Statistical Assessment Service (STATS) |
| and social anthropologist by training |
Dr. David Murray will present a talk exploring Native American creation stories, their value, their limitations, and the challenge these alternate cultural forms pose to Western empirical disciplines, such as history.
Dr. Murray is a social anthropologist by training, who has conducted field work amongst Native groups, and is currently Director of Research for the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS), a non-profit organization dedicated to improving media coverage of scientific and statistical information.
Everyone Welcome -- Members and Non-members -- No admission charge
An exciting NCAS weekend workshop on "How to be a Citizen Skeptic" will take place at the Holiday Inn in the picturesque setting of the Solomons Island, Maryland, about 90 minutes from the Washington Beltway. The workshop will be on Saturday March 14th and Sunday morning, March 15th. There will be some surprises and optional Saurday evening social dinner at a scenic local restaurant. The last NCAS workshop was a lot of fun as well as informative, so mark your calendars for the March Friday-the-13th (of course!) weekend.
| Friday | Arrival in evening. Early arrivals can go for an informal dinner together. |
| Saturday 9am-5pm | Tentative topics: Experiences with grassroots skepticism -- How to cope with school boards, newspaper articles, parent groups. Several examples, such as the "Quadro Tracker" will be used as case studies of how spurious claims can be dealt with. -- Several hands-on sessions where attendees are split into small groups to develop means to find out more about and test certain claims and products. -- How to research such claims? What resources are available? -- Responding to the media, writing letters, thumbs up or down. |
| Saturday -- 8pm | An entertaining show of magic (ok, so its only illusions, but fascinating anyway) by Jamy Swiss |
| Sunday -- 9am--noon | Continuation of Saturday program. |
| Name1 | : |
| Name2 (if any) | : |
| Address | : |
| Address | : |
| Phone | : |
| : | |
| Dinner? | We will also go to dinner on Saturday with the group at a scenic local restaurant. (Dinner costs are not included in registration fee.) |
Jamy Ian Swiss, one of NCAS' founding members, will be seen Wednesday, February 11, at 9:00pm on WETA. The Art of Magic is the name of the show.
Inphomation Communication Inc., which operates the Psychic Friends Network, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday. The Baltimore company listed liabilities of $26 million and assets of about $1.2 million. With all of their employed psychics, it seems strange that they couldn't foresee this happening.