The Monthly Calendar of the National Capital Area Skeptics
February 2019
Mind Control
Jared B. Adams
Saturday, February 9, 1:30pm - 4:00pm
Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center
2nd Floor (West Room)
4805 Edgemoor Lane
Bethesda, MD [map] [directions]
(Bethesda Metro station)
FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members
Since its founding during the Eisenhower presidency, DARPA has been the rightful recipient of scorn and praise for investing in and developing military technologies as varied as Agent Orange and the ARPAnet, precursor to today's internet. And while much of the agency's key contributions to science and national security have been well documented in books such as The Pentagon's Brain, The Imagineers of War, and The Department of Mad Scientists, myths about DARPA's work still abound on social media and in the mainstream press.
In this talk, you will hear from Jared Adams, DARPA's chief of communications, about some of the popular and humorous myths regarding the agency's research, including how it controls the world's weather, is building AI-equipped super soldiers, and is actively managing Facebook to read people's thoughts. Also, Adams will discuss the importance of transparency in government public affairs and how, when dealing with contentious areas of scientific research, the best tack is often to be open, honest, and direct.
Jared Adams joined the DARPA Public Affairs Office in 2014, first serving as the agency's press secretary for three years before becoming the chief of communications in July 2017. Prior to DARPA, Adams served in senior public affairs positions in the Washington, D.C. area with Harris, SAIC, and Raytheon. In addition to his in-house communications experience, Adams has provided public relations counsel to several high-profile organizations, including Dell, Microsoft, Verizon, U. S. Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and U.S. Northern Command.
https://www.ncas.org/2019/01/february-9-mind-control-and-other.html
March NCAS Lecture
Are you an NCAS member who wants to take a leadership role in the skeptics movement? The NCAS annual board of directors election is fast approaching. As a board member, you can channel (non-psychically) your talent and energy (the non-woo kind) into educating the public, and pick up some fun skills along the way. Send an email to ncas@ncas.org by March 31 for more information.
(Photo credit: Scott Snell)
Even "UFO believers" like Leslie Kean and Hynek biographer Mark O'Connell have panned the series. Kean writes, "It's already hard enough for those trying to understand the truth about government involvement with U.F.O.s without mixing fact and fiction."
Robert Sheaffer's review of the premiere:
When shopping at smile.amazon.com, you'll find the same low prices, vast selection, and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that a portion of the purchase price (0.5%) goes to NCAS! It's simple and automatic, and it doesn't cost you anything!
AmazonSmile's disbursements to NCAS in the third quarter of 2018 came to $21.25, meaning that over $4200 of purchases were designated in support of NCAS. (As an example of how NCAS can put that money to good use, it's more than enough to cover an hour of a Montgomery County lecture room rental.)
Thanks again to our members who have chosen to support NCAS!
For more information:
http://smile.amazon.com/about
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1870185
Shadow Light
Some members and contacts of NCAS receive a postal notification of this and every new monthly Shadow of a Doubt. The Shadow Light postcard announces the monthly lecture and highlights of the electronic Shadow of a Doubt, which is available online at ncas.org/shadow. NCAS thereby reduces Shadow production and postage costs. To further reduce costs, members and contacts can opt out of postal notification altogether, while continuing to receive Shadow of a Doubt via e-mail. To opt out, send us an e-mail at ncas@ncas.org.
Time to Renew?
NCAS Public Lecture Series
Mind Control
and other things DARPA has never done
Jared B. Adams
Chief of Communications and Public Affairs
U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Saturday, February 9, 1:30pm - 4:00pmBethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center
2nd Floor (West Room)
4805 Edgemoor Lane
Bethesda, MD [map] [directions]
(Bethesda Metro station)
FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members
Since its founding during the Eisenhower presidency, DARPA has been the rightful recipient of scorn and praise for investing in and developing military technologies as varied as Agent Orange and the ARPAnet, precursor to today's internet. And while much of the agency's key contributions to science and national security have been well documented in books such as The Pentagon's Brain, The Imagineers of War, and The Department of Mad Scientists, myths about DARPA's work still abound on social media and in the mainstream press.
In this talk, you will hear from Jared Adams, DARPA's chief of communications, about some of the popular and humorous myths regarding the agency's research, including how it controls the world's weather, is building AI-equipped super soldiers, and is actively managing Facebook to read people's thoughts. Also, Adams will discuss the importance of transparency in government public affairs and how, when dealing with contentious areas of scientific research, the best tack is often to be open, honest, and direct.
Jared Adams joined the DARPA Public Affairs Office in 2014, first serving as the agency's press secretary for three years before becoming the chief of communications in July 2017. Prior to DARPA, Adams served in senior public affairs positions in the Washington, D.C. area with Harris, SAIC, and Raytheon. In addition to his in-house communications experience, Adams has provided public relations counsel to several high-profile organizations, including Dell, Microsoft, Verizon, U. S. Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and U.S. Northern Command.
https://www.ncas.org/2019/01/february-9-mind-control-and-other.html
Journalist Erik Vance will discuss his book, Suggestible You: The Curious Science of Your Brain's Ability to Deceive, Transform, and Heal. Saturday, March 16 at 1:30 PM at Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center. (See above for complete address and directions.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibO2Nx6Cfy4
NCAS Board Elections: Call for Candidates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibO2Nx6Cfy4
NCAS Board Elections: Call for Candidates
Are you an NCAS member who wants to take a leadership role in the skeptics movement? The NCAS annual board of directors election is fast approaching. As a board member, you can channel (non-psychically) your talent and energy (the non-woo kind) into educating the public, and pick up some fun skills along the way. Send an email to ncas@ncas.org by March 31 for more information.
HISTORY's Project Blue Book Draws Viewers, and Brings UFO Believers and Skeptics Together (Against It)
by Scott Snell
Last month, HISTORY (formerly the History Channel) heavily promoted a new scripted drama series about 1950s UFO cases, Project Blue Book, scheduled it immediately after the #1 cable TV show (The Curse of Oak Island), and reaped the benefits in viewership, at least in the first weeks of its 10-week run.
For a few days in early January, it was hard to avoid ads for the show. I heard one on WJFK-FM on the evening of its January 8 premiere. There was an ad displayed on the Capital One Arena scoreboard screens during intermission of a Capitals hockey game. A billboard at the intersection of New York Avenue and North Capitol Street NE in Washington is still in place as of February 3:
(Photo credit: Scott Snell)
For all the money that HISTORY has spent in producing and promoting the series, what have they gotten in return? In retrospect, it appears to be a better fit for the science-fiction channel Syfy. True, there's a bearded (but missing his ubiquitous smoking pipe) astronomer character named J. Allen Hynek, who has a wife named Mimi and a son Joel (the only one of their five children depicted) and other occasional historically accurate details, but otherwise there's nothing pertinently fact-based about the show.
Many of the fictionalization choices seem arbitrary and hard to justify for dramatic purposes. Some are unintentionally hilarious, such as Air Force Captain Quinn taking Hynek in a plane to replicate the flight path of a UFO witness, and ending up crashing (with both men suffering only minor injuries, of course). Another episode depicts a modified V2 rocket being launched from Huntsville, Alabama, which has never been a launch site for any type of high-altitude rocket. (The actual launch site was in White Sands, New Mexico.)
The inaccuracies extend deep into the details of each episode's UFO case. As skeptic Robert Sheaffer noted in his review of the series premiere, "Public discussions of this case will now be hopelessly polluted by the made-up elements that people will now firmly believe to be part of the actual story."
Fortunately, viewers may be tiring of the show and its "X Files" cliches already...despite having the most popular cable TV series as its lead-in, its viewership numbers have been declining the past few weeks. Hopefully the series won't be picked up for another season and will fade into obscurity.
Robert Sheaffer's review of the second episode:
Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean discuss the series:
Hynek biographer Mark O'Connell weighs in:
TV viewership data for January 8:
AmazonSmile: Thanks to our members who are supporting NCAS!
AmazonSmile's disbursements to NCAS in the third quarter of 2018 came to $21.25, meaning that over $4200 of purchases were designated in support of NCAS. (As an example of how NCAS can put that money to good use, it's more than enough to cover an hour of a Montgomery County lecture room rental.)
Thanks again to our members who have chosen to support NCAS!
For more information:
http://smile.amazon.com/about
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1870185
Shadow Light
Some members and contacts of NCAS receive a postal notification of this and every new monthly Shadow of a Doubt. The Shadow Light postcard announces the monthly lecture and highlights of the electronic Shadow of a Doubt, which is available online at ncas.org/shadow. NCAS thereby reduces Shadow production and postage costs. To further reduce costs, members and contacts can opt out of postal notification altogether, while continuing to receive Shadow of a Doubt via e-mail. To opt out, send us an e-mail at ncas@ncas.org.
Time to Renew?
Be sure to check your renewal date above your postal address on the Shadow Light postcard. Send any queries to ncas@ncas.org. Use the online membership form to renew.
https://www.ncas.org/shadow
https://www.ncas.org/shadow
