- December 11 Lecture - Mass Extinction Events and What Causes Them, Prewented by Paleontologist Thomas R. Holtz. 1:30pm B-CC Regional Services Center
- Message to current and prospective members - Free year of membership ends December 31, 2021
- January Lecture - Skeptical Inquirer investigator, folklorist, and Research Fellow Benjamin Radford will discuss his recent book, Big–If True: Adventures in Oddity, January 8, 2022.
- Belgian Skeptics win court case.
- Amazon Smile - Support NCAS with no cost to you.
- Shadow Light
- Time to Renew?
Shadow of a Doubt - December 2021
Shadow of a Doubt - December 2021
December 2021
NCAS
Public Lecture Series
Mass
Extinction Events and What Causes Them
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.,
PhD
Principal Lecturer, Department of Geology, University of
Maryland
Research Associate, Department of Paleobiology, National
Museum of Natural History
Saturday, December 11, 1:30pm - 4:00pm US/Eastern
(UTC-05:00)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
Also a YouTube Live
Event with Q and A
NCASVideo
YouTube Channel:
Mass
extinctions are catastrophic overhauls of the diversity of
life on land and sea. There are five well-attested such
events in the history of life, and evidence we could be on
the cusp of a sixth. We'll look at the record of past
events, what we know about how they happened, and what
might have caused them. These environmental crises might
serve as warnings for our own future. What might a "sixth
extinction" mean for human society?
Dr. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. is Principal Lecturer in
Vertebrate Paleontology at the Department of Geology,
University of Maryland, College Park. His research focuses
on the origin, evolution, adaptations, and behavior of
carnivorous dinosaurs, and especially of tyrannosauroids
(Tyrannosaurus rex and its kin). He received his Bachelor's
in Earth & Planetary Geology at Johns Hopkins in 1987
and his Ph.D. from the Department of Geology &
Geophysics at Yale in 1992. He is also a Research Associate
of the Department of Paleobiology of the Smithsonian
Institution National Museum of Natural History and serves on
the Scientific Council of the Maryland Academy of Science,
which operates the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore. In
addition to his dinosaur research, Holtz has been active in
scientific outreach. He has been a consultant on museum
exhibits around the world, and on numerous documentaries. He
is the author of award-winning popular audience books. He is
the current editor of the Life of the Past series at
Indiana University Press.
Health & Safety FAQs:
CDC guidelines and Montgomery County regulations
will be followed, as specified here:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/about-face-coverings.html
https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/face-coverings.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/about-face-coverings.html
https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/face-coverings.html
- People who have a condition or are taking medications that weaken their immune system may not be fully protected even if they are fully vaccinated. They should continue to take all precautions recommended for unvaccinated people, including wearing a well-fitted mask, until advised otherwise by their healthcare provider.
- If you are fully vaccinated, to maximize protection from the Delta variant and prevent possibly spreading it to others, wear a mask indoors in public if you are in an area of substantial or high transmission.
As of Friday, December 10, Montgomery County is
an area of substantial community transmission:
(This applies to vaccinated and unvaccinated people.)
A face-covering
exception is made for "giving a speech or performing for
broadcast or an audience, if no one in a location
accessible to the public is within six feet of you."
Seating will be
arranged to separate each person by six feet or more.
Refreshments will not be served; instead, bring
your own beverage, or use the water fountain in the
hallway.
I'd rather not ride
the elevator to the meeting room, is there a stairway?
Yes, there's a stairway
near the elevator.
Message to Current and
Prospective NCAS Members
January NCAS Lecture
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/p/shadow.html. 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/p/shadow.html
In response to the economic hardship and other
uncertainties that our members may be facing, in 2020 NCAS
automatically extended by one year all memberships that
expire in 2020 or later. Payment will be accepted for new
memberships as well as renewals for 2019 and before: new and
renewed will have a bonus year added. Each life member may
sponsor a new one-year membership at no charge. (Double
life memberships may sponsor two.) Send your sponsored
member's name and contact information to ncas@ncas.org.
This offer will end on December 31, 2021.
Skeptical Inquirer
investigator, folklorist, and Research Fellow Benjamin
Radford will discuss his recent book, Big–If True:
Adventures in Oddity, which guides readers on an
open-minded, science-based examination of 70 mysteries,
including curses, Bigfoot, reincarnation, chupacabras,
Icelandic elves, conspiracy theories, UFOs, miracles, the
Goat-Man, crop circles, subliminal advertising, sea
serpents, wandering trees, medical mysteries, and hypnotist
thieves—plus a 1990 Elvis sighting. Saturday, January 8 at
1:30 PM ET, live on the NCASVideo YouTube channel.
AmazonSmile: Thanks to our members who are supporting
NCAS!
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 second quarter of 2021 came to $24.84, meaning that nearly $5000 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:
Belgian Skeptics Win Court Case
You may recall that over the past year the Belgium
skeptics group SKEPP sought crowdfunding for two SKEPP
authors who "criticized the content of the
pseudo-scientific master classes as well as the
marketing tricks [Carl] Van de Velde [similar to Tony
Robbins] uses to attract participants." The authors won
the lawsuit brought by Van de Velde, but Van de Velde
took the case to the Court of Appeals.
(See https://www.ncas.org/2020/12/shadow-of-doubt-december-2020.html,
"Belgian Skeptics Seek Crowdfunding after
Multimillionaire Takes Lawsuit to Appeals Court.")
On December 9, the president of SKEPP emailed NCAS
and other skeptics groups:
It has taken
quite some time but today the Appeals Court in
Belgium judged that free speech and well-founded
criticism are more important than the perceived
wrongs of the commercial organization being
criticized. The claim of our adversaries was soundly
rejected by the court.
The court ordered Van de Velde to pay SKEPP's court costs (as it turns out, amounting to only a small portion of the costs). Crowdfunding and SKEPP's "war chest" will, fortunately, be able to cover the remaining costs.
https://skepp-be.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=nl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US
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 second quarter of 2021 came to $24.84, meaning that nearly $5000 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:
https://smile.amazon.com/about
https://press.aboutamazon.com/news-releases/news-release-details/amazon-launches-amazonsmile-simple-automatic-way-customers
https://press.aboutamazon.com/news-releases/news-release-details/amazon-launches-amazonsmile-simple-automatic-way-customers
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/p/shadow.html. 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/p/shadow.html
Shadow of a Doubt - November 2021
- Bizarre Psychological Disorders, Part 2 - Presented by Brian A. Sharpless, Saturday, November 6, 2021, 1:30pm
- Message to Current and Prospective Members - Free year of membership to end December 31, 2021
- November PhAct (Philadelphia) Lecture
- December NCAS Lecture - Paleontologist Thomas Holtz will present "Mass Extinction Events and What Causes Them" on Saturday, December 11.
- Torn from today's headlines - James Webb Space Telescope
- AmazonSmile - Thanks to our members for supporting NCAS (At no cost to themselves)
- Shadow Light
- Time to Renew
To read the full November Shadow, click here.
Shadow of a Doubt - November 2021
November 2021
Bizarre
Psychological Disorders, Part 2
Brian A. Sharpless
Saturday, November 6, 1:30pm - 4:00pm US/Eastern
(UTC-04:00)
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
People
are nothing if not confusingly complex, and some end up
thinking, acting, and behaving in unusual, odd, and
extreme ways. Some of the strangest psychological
disorders that they can acquire are not well-known to the
public or even many mental health professionals, despite
some – such as isolated sleep paralysis – actually being
fairly common in the general population.
In a continuation of his November 2019 NCAS lecture, Brian A. Sharpless will focus on five interesting psychological conditions and phenomena. Some you may have heard of. For instance, Fear of Missing Out or "FOMO", though not a recognized disorder, has received a great deal of popular attention in social media circles. Other conditions, such as Body Identity Integrity Disorder (BIID), are a bit more obscure. People with BIID wish to intentionally damage healthy body parts (e.g., amputate a limb) and/or become physically disabled. Needless to say, certain treatment options have raised ethical issues. Dr. Sharpless will not only describe these and other fascinating conditions, but will also place them in historical and cultural contexts and summarize their respective scientific literatures.
An author and licensed clinical psychologist with a practice in the Washington DC area, Dr. Sharpless currently holds academic appointments as a visiting research fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London and as an adjunct professor at the Washington DC campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology . He was formerly on faculty at Pennsylvania State University, Washington State University, and the American School of Professional Psychology. He received his PhD in clinical psychology and MA in philosophy from Pennsylvania State University and completed post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Sharpless has broad interests in abnormal psychology and psychotherapy. He has over 50 publications on common and lesser-known disorders, psychodynamic therapy, professional issues, and the history/philosophy of clinical psychology. His three books, Sleep Paralysis: Historical, Psychological, and Medical Perspectives (co-authored with Dr. Karl Doghramji), Unusual and Rare Psychological Disorders: A Handbook for Clinical Practice and Research, and Psychodynamic Therapy Techniques: A Guide to Expressive and Supportive Interventions are all available through Oxford University Press. This research been featured on TV, radio, and in other media outlets, and he is a frequent speaker at conferences and public events in the United States and abroad.
Twitter: @briansharpless
website: www.briansharpless.com
From the CDC:
Seating will be arranged normally. Attendees are
encouraged to avoid sitting close together if
possible.
NCAS
Public Lecture Series
Bizarre
Psychological Disorders, Part 2
Brian A. Sharpless
Visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of
London
Adjunct Professor at the Chicago School of Professional
Psychology
Saturday, November 6, 1:30pm - 4:00pm US/Eastern
(UTC-04:00)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
Also a YouTube Live
Event with Q and A
NCASVideo
YouTube Channel:
People
are nothing if not confusingly complex, and some end up
thinking, acting, and behaving in unusual, odd, and
extreme ways. Some of the strangest psychological
disorders that they can acquire are not well-known to the
public or even many mental health professionals, despite
some – such as isolated sleep paralysis – actually being
fairly common in the general population. In a continuation of his November 2019 NCAS lecture, Brian A. Sharpless will focus on five interesting psychological conditions and phenomena. Some you may have heard of. For instance, Fear of Missing Out or "FOMO", though not a recognized disorder, has received a great deal of popular attention in social media circles. Other conditions, such as Body Identity Integrity Disorder (BIID), are a bit more obscure. People with BIID wish to intentionally damage healthy body parts (e.g., amputate a limb) and/or become physically disabled. Needless to say, certain treatment options have raised ethical issues. Dr. Sharpless will not only describe these and other fascinating conditions, but will also place them in historical and cultural contexts and summarize their respective scientific literatures.
An author and licensed clinical psychologist with a practice in the Washington DC area, Dr. Sharpless currently holds academic appointments as a visiting research fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London and as an adjunct professor at the Washington DC campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology . He was formerly on faculty at Pennsylvania State University, Washington State University, and the American School of Professional Psychology. He received his PhD in clinical psychology and MA in philosophy from Pennsylvania State University and completed post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Sharpless has broad interests in abnormal psychology and psychotherapy. He has over 50 publications on common and lesser-known disorders, psychodynamic therapy, professional issues, and the history/philosophy of clinical psychology. His three books, Sleep Paralysis: Historical, Psychological, and Medical Perspectives (co-authored with Dr. Karl Doghramji), Unusual and Rare Psychological Disorders: A Handbook for Clinical Practice and Research, and Psychodynamic Therapy Techniques: A Guide to Expressive and Supportive Interventions are all available through Oxford University Press. This research been featured on TV, radio, and in other media outlets, and he is a frequent speaker at conferences and public events in the United States and abroad.
Twitter: @briansharpless
website: www.briansharpless.com
At the speaker's request, this live-streamed event
will not be recorded for the NCAS YouTube channel.
Health & Safety FAQs:
Will the event be streamed or recorded?
Streamed, yes. Not recorded.
What measures will be taken to protect the
health of all attendees?
CDC guidelines and Montgomery County regulations will be followed, as specified here:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/about-face-coverings.html
https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/face-coverings.html
CDC guidelines and Montgomery County regulations will be followed, as specified here:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/about-face-coverings.html
https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/face-coverings.html
- People who have a condition or are taking medications that weaken their immune system may not be fully protected even if they are fully vaccinated. They should continue to take all precautions recommended for unvaccinated people, including wearing a well-fitted mask, until advised otherwise by their healthcare provider.
- If you are fully vaccinated, to maximize protection from the Delta variant and prevent possibly spreading it to others, wear a mask indoors in public if you are in an area of substantial or high transmission.
As of Friday, November 5, Montgomery County is
an area of moderate community transmission:
Montgomery County has suspended its mandate
requiring face coverings indoors in locations
accessible to the public.
Refreshments will not be served; instead, bring
your own beverage, or use the water fountain in the
hallway.
I'd rather not ride
the elevator to the meeting room, is there a stairway?
Yes, there's a stairway
near the elevator.
Message to Current and
Prospective NCAS Members
AmazonSmile's disbursements to NCAS in the second quarter of 2021 came to $24.84, meaning that nearly $5000 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:
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/p/shadow.html. 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/p/shadow.html
In response to the economic hardship and other
uncertainties that our members may be facing, in 2020 NCAS
automatically extended by one year all memberships that
expire in 2020 or later. Payment will be accepted for new
memberships as well as renewals for 2019 and before: new and
renewed will have a bonus year added. Each life member may
sponsor a new one-year membership at no charge. (Double
life memberships may sponsor two.) Send your sponsored
member's name and contact information to ncas@ncas.org.
This offer will end on December 31, 2021.
November PhACT Lecture Our
skeptical neighbors to the north, the Philadelphia
Association for Critical Thinking (PhACT), will host their
next online event on Saturday, November 20 at 2 PM ET.
Microbiologist Elisabeth Bik is an image forensics
detective who left her paid job in industry to search for
and report biomedical articles that contain errors or data
of concern. She has done a systematic scan of 20,000 papers
in 40 journals and found that about 4% of these contained
inappropriately duplicated images. Event details at http://www.phact.org/meetings.php.
December NCAS Lecture
Paleontologist Thomas Holtz will present "Mass Extinction Events and What Causes Them." We are in the 5th or 6th mass extinction in Earth's history. We'll look at the record of past events, and what we know about how they happened. What are the possible implications for humanity’s future? Saturday, December 11 at 1:30 PM at Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center.
Paleontologist Thomas Holtz will present "Mass Extinction Events and What Causes Them." We are in the 5th or 6th mass extinction in Earth's history. We'll look at the record of past events, and what we know about how they happened. What are the possible implications for humanity’s future? Saturday, December 11 at 1:30 PM at Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center.
Torn From Today's Headlines
By Scott Snell
Launch Preparations Begin for the James Webb Space Telescope
By Scott Snell
Launch Preparations Begin for the James Webb Space Telescope
NASA's next flagship
observatory is scheduled to launch on December 18 from
European Spaceport, located near Kourou, French Guiana. On
October 21, JWST senior project scientist/Nobel laureate
(and 2016 Klass Award laureate) John Mather sent the
following message to the JWST team:
“On behalf of all
scientists and all curious people everywhere, thank you to
the team who made the Webb telescope possible! It
represents decades of work by over 10,000 of us, putting
our hearts and minds and fingers together through
troubles, nights, weekends, and COVID.
“Now we’re near launch, and everyone wants to know if I’m worried – will it work? My opinion has no effect on the hardware, but we did what it takes to win. We sketched, we argued, we worried, we analyzed, we made a plan, we wrote down everything, we made checklists, we built the parts, we put them together, we tested as though our lives depend on it. We have backup electronic systems for everything where we can. Everyone on the team knows how much this mission matters to the world.
“Our scientific colleagues are ready to go. We’ve decided where we’re going to look for the whole first year of scientific observations. We’ll be hunting for the first objects that grew out of the primordial big bang material, we’ll be looking at distant galaxies to see back in time, we’ll be looking inside dust clouds to see stars and planets being born today, we’ll be looking at planets around other stars to see if they have atmospheres, and we’ll be looking close to home at everything in the solar system from Mars on out.
“But before we do that, we have to set up the equipment. We’ve got an hour-by-hour plan, and it takes 6 months. First, we unfold the observatory by remote command, then we wait for its plastic sunshield to dry out, then we let the telescope cool down, then we focus it, then finally we check out the four instruments. They come from the U.S., Europe, and Canada, and they will make images and spectra, spreading out the light into rainbows that tell us what’s happening inside the stars and galaxies – what’s their chemistry, how hot are they, how are they moving? The data will come back by radio to the computers and scientists around the world. We’ll be asking and trying to answer: Where did we come from? How is life possible here on Earth?
“It will be worth the wait.”
“Now we’re near launch, and everyone wants to know if I’m worried – will it work? My opinion has no effect on the hardware, but we did what it takes to win. We sketched, we argued, we worried, we analyzed, we made a plan, we wrote down everything, we made checklists, we built the parts, we put them together, we tested as though our lives depend on it. We have backup electronic systems for everything where we can. Everyone on the team knows how much this mission matters to the world.
“Our scientific colleagues are ready to go. We’ve decided where we’re going to look for the whole first year of scientific observations. We’ll be hunting for the first objects that grew out of the primordial big bang material, we’ll be looking at distant galaxies to see back in time, we’ll be looking inside dust clouds to see stars and planets being born today, we’ll be looking at planets around other stars to see if they have atmospheres, and we’ll be looking close to home at everything in the solar system from Mars on out.
“But before we do that, we have to set up the equipment. We’ve got an hour-by-hour plan, and it takes 6 months. First, we unfold the observatory by remote command, then we wait for its plastic sunshield to dry out, then we let the telescope cool down, then we focus it, then finally we check out the four instruments. They come from the U.S., Europe, and Canada, and they will make images and spectra, spreading out the light into rainbows that tell us what’s happening inside the stars and galaxies – what’s their chemistry, how hot are they, how are they moving? The data will come back by radio to the computers and scientists around the world. We’ll be asking and trying to answer: Where did we come from? How is life possible here on Earth?
“It will be worth the wait.”
A recap of the 2016 NCAS
Philip J. Klass Award Presentation Dinner for John Mather:
AmazonSmile:
Thanks to our members who are supporting NCAS!
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 second quarter of 2021 came to $24.84, meaning that nearly $5000 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:
https://smile.amazon.com/about
https://press.aboutamazon.com/news-releases/news-release-details/amazon-launches-amazonsmile-simple-automatic-way-customers
https://press.aboutamazon.com/news-releases/news-release-details/amazon-launches-amazonsmile-simple-automatic-way-customers
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/p/shadow.html. 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/p/shadow.html