Shadow of a Doubt - Special April 2022

 Two Great Events:

    April 27, 5:30 PM: Award Dinner and FREE Magic Show to Celebrate Susan Gerbic (Please let us know if you are coming: rsvp@ncas.org)
    April 30, 1:30 PM: Susan Gerbic Presents "Grief Vampires, Wikipedia and More"

NCAS presents: Philip J. Klass Award Dinner and Magic Show to celebrate Susan Gerbic

Wednesday, April 27, 5:30 - 8:30 pm
Busboys and Poets, Takoma
235 Carroll St NW, Washington, DC 20012
(one block from the Takoma Metro on the Red Line)
FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members.  Be sure to RSVP at rsvp@ncas.org

The Philip J. Klass Award honors outstanding efforts to promote critical thinking and scientific understanding.

All are invited as NCAS celebrates Susan Gerbic and the efforts of her “guerilla skeptics” team of editors who keep watch on Wikipedia, especially on issues of science and pseudoscience.

NCAS is hosting an award dinner in her honor, including a show by magician Peter Wood. The event is free and open to all. Food and beverages can be purchased from the menu at the event.

Susan Gerbic is the founder and leader of "About Time," a project to find, mentor, and train people to promote science and scientific skepticism through crowdsourced and educational activities worldwide.  It features "Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia" (GSoW), a group of editors who create and improve Wikipedia articles to reflect scientific skepticism. This year, the total written pages surpassed 2,000 in 15 languages, with over 100 million views. Gerbic is also known for her research and sting operations against psychic mediums, whom she calls "grief vampires" for cynically claiming to communicate with dead loved ones.  Gerbic's work with GSoW led to her becoming a consultant for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), and later, a fellow.  James "The Amazing" Randi presented her with awards in 2013 and 2017.

Magician Peter Wood is a "collector of the impossible" -- he presents incredible, unique, and magical objects with unparalleled showmanship. On their national television show, Penn & Teller called Peter’s act “beautiful, subtle,” saying “I don’t think we’ve ever said this before on the show: it was really, really enjoyable to do your thinking along with you.”

NCAS Public Lecture Series

Grief Vampires, Wikipedia and More

Presented by Susan Gerbic

Saturday, April 30, 1:30 - 4:00pm
Central Library
Barbara M. Donnellan Auditorium
1015 North Quincy Street
Arlington, VA [map] [directions]
(Virginia Square-GMU Metro station)
FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members

 Also a YouTube Live Event with Q and A 

NCASVideo YouTube Channel:

https://youtu.be/b6_dVTsBcxA

Susan Gerbic, having received the 2022 Philip J. Klass Award for outstanding contributions in critical thinking and scientific understanding on April 27, will provide an update on her projects.

"About Time," a nonprofit she founded in 2018, recruits, mentors, and trains people to promote science and scientific skepticism through crowdsourced and educational activities worldwide.  It features "Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia" (GSoW), a group of editors who create and improve Wikipedia articles to reflect scientific skepticism. This year, the total written pages surpassed 2,000 in 15 languages, with over 100 million views.

She'll also present the latest news about her sting operations against psychic mediums, whom she calls "grief vampires" for cynically claiming to communicate with dead loved ones.

In addition to receiving the Klass Award, Susan Gerbic is the recipient of the James Randi Educational Foundation's "James Randi Award for Skepticism in the Public Interest" in 2013, and the "JREF Award" in 2017.

A fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, she is also co-founder of Monterey County Skeptics, a frequent contributor to Skeptical Inquirer, and a fellow for GWUP, the German-speaking skeptics' society.

Refreshments and socializing after the talk.

https://www.ncas.org/2022/04/april-2022-ncas-awards-philip-j-klass.html

The underground parking garage entrance is located at the library's NW corner.  Surface lots are north and east of the building.

June NCAS Lecture

Psychologist Stuart Vyse, "Behavior & Belief" columnist for Skeptical Inquirer, will discuss his new book, The Uses of Delusion: Why It's Not Always Rational to Be Rational.  Saturday, June 4 at 1:30 PM at Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center.

NCAS Board Elections: Electronic Voting
The upcoming 2022 NCAS election will use electronic voting.  When voting begins, each member will receive an email from NCAS (via surveymonkey.com) containing a unique web address usable as a single-cast secret ballot.  (NCAS will receive information indicating who voted, but nothing to indicate who cast each ballot.)

Note that voters will not be at risk for spamming as a result of participating...SurveyMonkey has a zero-tolerance spam policy:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/legal/acceptable-uses-policy/

Torn From Today's Headlines
By Scott Snell
Release of the 1950 US Census

Per the "72-year rule," the records of the 1950 Census were released to the public on April 1, 2022.  They can be accessed free of charge at https://1950census.archives.gov/.

Recently I searched for a person and place of note, and a person and place of notoriety.  I was successful on both counts.

First, notoriety...where was L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) in April 1950?  He, his wife, and newborn daughter are listed by Census enumerator Eugene Burphy, who visited the rented house at 666 [insert joke here] East Avenue in Bay Head, New Jersey on April 13:

(Columns 7 through 20b are shown here, with descriptions at https://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/index_of_questions/1950_population.html)

Just a few weeks later, Hubbard's book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, was released with a book launch party held at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City.  Hubbard wrote the book at the house, finishing in February 1950.

https://www.nj.gov/dep/hpo/1identify/nr_nomntns_07_20_2017/L%20Ron%20Hubbard%20House_WEB_2017-05-12.pdf

The world got a sneak peek at Dianetics on April 19 when the May issue of "Astounding Science Fiction" hit newsstands:

https://archive.org/details/Astounding_v45n03_1950-05_cape1736

The entry for "What kind of business or industry was he working in?" was originally listed as "fiction novels," but then was changed to "text book publishing."  I wonder if Hubbard's wife provided the first response, and then Hubbard spoke to the enumerator.

Next, notable.  Where was James Van Allen (1914-2006) in May 1950?  He, his wife, and two daughters are listed by enumerator Mary Kelso, who visited their home at 1105 Meurilee Lane in Silver Spring, Maryland on May 1:

Van Allen was a physicist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which at that time was located at 8621 Georgia Avenue, near the intersection with Colesville Road in Silver Spring.

Just a few weeks earlier (April 5), the Van Allens hosted a dinner party here, at which the plan for an International Geophysical Year (IGY) for 1957-1958 was originated and a strategy for proceeding was reached.  Guests were Sidney Chapman, Lloyd Berkner, S. Fred Singer, Harry Vestine, and J. Wallace Joyce.  Among many accomplishments during the IGY was the first US satellite, Explorer 1, which discovered the radiation belts encircling Earth, known as the Van Allen belts.

https://www.jhuapl.edu/content/techdigest/pdf/V06-N04/06-04-VanAllen.pdf

Van Allen and his family lived here from 1948 to 1951, when he accepted a position as chair of the University of Iowa physics department.

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 fourth quarter of 2021 came to $44.68, meaning that nearly $9000 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 two hours 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

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