NCAS
Public Lecture Series
Everyday
Extraordinary:
Inspiring Critical Thinking
Using Paranormal Claims
Barry Markovsky, PhD
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of South
Carolina
Saturday, September 10, 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:
The presentation
will include readings from a book in progress, followed by
an open discussion.
With this book, Barry hopes to reach a wider audience that
normally wouldn't pick up a skeptical approach. Each chapter
opens with a first-person "Front Stage" account of a true
extraordinary experience. Then it goes "Back Stage" to show
how perfectly normal events can deceive us into inferring
something supernatural. Chapter topics are familiar to most
NCAS members—ghosts, astrology, dowsing, ESP, UFOs, etc.
What Barry hopes will differentiate this book from other
skeptical works is its approach: Telling the stories with
heart and humor, and explaining what really happened instead
of leaping to paranormal conclusions.
"For the discussion, in addition to any feedback you'd like
to offer, I'd like to brainstorm with you about strategies
for maximizing the impact of this kind of endeavor. Given
it's aimed at non-scientists, what's the optimal vocabulary
level and pedagogical style? How 'sciency' should it get
without the risk of losing too many readers? Is there even a
market for it? These are questions I struggle with every day
as I write, so your input will be much appreciated."
Barry Markovsky's
research areas include group processes, social psychology,
social networks, methods of theory construction,
experimental research, and computer simulations. His most
recent work has addressed social status, identity, fairness
perceptions, cooperation, and influence in small group
contexts, and he has developed online tools for building,
evaluating, and disseminating sociological theories. He has
taught courses in group processes, pseudoscience and
paranormal beliefs, and theory construction. Prior to his
position at the University of South Carolina, he was
Sociology Program Director at the National Science
Foundation, and Assistant, Associate and Full Professor at
the University of Iowa.
Results of June's NCAS
member vote on candidates for the board of directors have been
tabulated. Re-elected and incumbent members are: Tom Bridgman,
Nelson Davis Jr, Chip Denman, Grace Denman, Brian Gregory,
Curtis Haymore, Beth Kingsley, J. D. Mack, Mary Pastel,
Melissa Pollak, Walter F. Rowe, Scott Snell, and Marv
Zelkowitz.
At its June 29 meeting, the NCAS board of directors selected
its officers, who are: Scott Snell, president; Melissa Pollak,
vice president; Walter F. Rowe, secretary; and Marv Zelkowitz,
treasurer.
Annual Membership Meeting
Following the talk and the question-and-answer/discussion
segment, the annual meeting of NCAS members will begin.
This will be limited to in-person participants.
Prez Sez
By Scott Snell
Our 2022-2023 lecture series begins with an
in-person/online event. However, in this case I urge you,
if at all possible, to attend in person. This won't simply
be a talk followed by Q&A. It will be much more of a
discussion with the audience. As the emcee, I'll do all I
can to convey the questions and comments from our online
participants, but I may not be able to actually "converse"
on their behalf. Our in-person audience will have access to
the microphone and can speak at length.
There's another reason I hope you can be there. We're
holding our annual membership meeting because we're hoping
to attract a participative, thoughtful audience for
discussing Barry Markovsky's book-in-progress. I think that
frame of mind could come in handy for discussing the future
of the skeptical movement and NCAS. Our #1 priority is to
support Barry as he develops his book to reach an audience
of potential future skeptics. But let's keep the ball
rolling afterwards to sketch out our next steps in the
months and years to come.
It's true that COVID-19 is still among us. Wearing a
well-fitted N95 mask will probably protect you. I'm also
relieved to see that community levels in Montgomery County,
DC, and surrounding counties are currently low. So your
risk for attending in person is, at least for now,
relatively small.
(Photo by Susan Gerbic)
As you may already know, prospects are good for having
safe public gatherings in the months to come: The FDA has
authorized bivalent COVID-19 vaccines for use. "The mRNA in
these vaccines is a specific piece of genetic material that
instructs cells in the body to make the distinctive 'spike'
protein of the original virus strain and the omicron variant
lineages BA.4 and BA.5. The spike proteins of BA.4 and BA.5
are identical."
This development presents at least a respite from the
pandemic, likely to provide actual immunization instead of
just minimizing the severity of infection.
Finally, I'll quote our 2022 Klass Award recipient, Susan
Gerbic, who completed a cross-country tour of local skeptics
groups a few months ago. "Whatever the goals are for the
group, the answer is always to find ways to get people to
attend events, have some common experience, and allow people
to form relationships." (Read more about this in the next
item.)
2022 NCAS Philip J.
Klass Award Presentation Event and Lecture
On April 27, NCAS members and guests gathered at the
Takoma Busboys and Poets in Northwest DC for the 2022 Philip
J. Klass Award presentation dinner and show. NCAS president
Scott Snell presented the 2022 NCAS Philip J. Klass Award for
outstanding contributions in promoting critical thinking and
scientific understanding to Susan Gerbic, the foremost citizen
skeptic, founder and leader of "Guerrilla Skepticism on
Wikipedia."
In his remarks, Mr. Snell
noted the parallels between Ms. Gerbic and Paul Kurtz, to whom
he had presented a Klass Award in 2009. Kurtz, generally
regarded as the father of the modern skeptical movement, was a
leader, organizer, and publisher. Kurtz's Prometheus Books
and Skeptical Inquirer still exist, but what is the
future of publishing? Decades from now, Wikipedia may still
exist, and the work that Ms. Gerbic and her colleagues began
and continue may still be valuable for educating the public
and protecting consumers. Ms. Gerbic was recognized for
"successful and ongoing efforts to ensure the accuracy of
Wikipedia and for protecting the public from psychics who
exploit the vulnerable."
The evening's entertainment
was provided by Peter Wood, "Collector of the Impossible."
Susan and her guest (Adrienne Hill, a fellow member of the
Monterey County Skeptics) and NCAS members witnessed a show
that Penn Jillette had described as "beautiful, subtle"... a
presentation of incredible, unique, and magical objects with
unparalleled showmanship.
Susan and NCAS reconvened on
April 30 at Arlington Central Library for her presentation,
"Grief Vampires, Wikipedia and More." Her talk is available
on the NCAS YouTube Channel at:
In August, Susan told the
tale of her cross-country skeptical journey, including her
NCAS visit:
https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/susan-gerbic-back-on-tour/ 
NCAS president Scott Snell and Susan Gerbic.
(Photo by Adrienne Hill)
NCAS created the Philip J.
Klass Award in 2006. Previous recipients were Michael Shermer,
James Randi, Robert L. Park, Paul Kurtz, Ray Hyman, Joel
Achenbach, Penn & Teller, Phil Plait, Steven Salzberg, and
John Mather.
The 2022 NCAS Philip J. Klass Award
(Photo by J. D. Mack)
September PhACT
Lecture
Our skeptical neighbors to the
north, the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking
(PhACT), will present their next event on Saturday,
September 17 at 2 PM ET. After two years of online-only
presentations, they are resuming in-person events, but are
working to continue their live YouTube stream. Their
speaker will be behavioral scientist Stuart Vyse, discussing
his book,
The Uses of Delusion: Why It’s Not Always
Rational to be Rational, looking at the aspects of
human nature that are not altogether rational but,
nonetheless, help us achieve our social and personal goals.
As he did for his CFI and NCAS lectures, Dr. Vyse will focus
on yet another chapter of the book, rather than covering the
same topics again. Event details at
http://www.phact.org/meetings.php.
Also see PhACT's YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePhiladelphiaAssociationforCriticalThinking/videos
AmazonSmile:
Thanks to our members who are supporting NCAS!
When shopping at
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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 first quarter of
2022 came to $24.35, 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:
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Barry Markovsky's
research areas include group processes, social psychology,
social networks, methods of theory construction,
experimental research, and computer simulations. His most
recent work has addressed social status, identity, fairness
perceptions, cooperation, and influence in small group
contexts, and he has developed online tools for building,
evaluating, and disseminating sociological theories. He has
taught courses in group processes, pseudoscience and
paranormal beliefs, and theory construction. Prior to his
position at the University of South Carolina, he was
Sociology Program Director at the National Science
Foundation, and Assistant, Associate and Full Professor at
the University of Iowa.
