Fellow skeptics, humanists, et al.:

According to my publisher today (Tuesday, May 27), after only three weeks on
the market WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE WEIRD THINGS has sold out of its initial print
run of 15,000 copies and is now going into its second print run. This is
considered very good. It's still a little early, however, since return
figures will not be in for another couple of months (all books are sold on
consignment--the book store takes no risk other than shelf space). The latest
issue of Skeptic (Vol 5, #1) hits the bookstores and newstands this week and
features a full page, four color ad for WEIRD THINGS on the back cover so
that should boost sales, as will some more book signings and media interviews
coming up next month.

This new issue of Skeptic features James Randi on the cover (a beautiful
portrait painted by the Skeptic Art Director, Pat Linse) and includes the
premiere issue of SWIFT, the newsletter of the James Randi Educational
Foundation (JREF) produced under the direction of Carol Kroll, Chip Denman,
and Randi, of course. It features Randi's Pigasus Awards, a test of dowsing
in Germany, human magnets, and a wonderful essay on Jonathan Swift,
"arch-skeptic of human folly" by Chip Denman. If you do not already subscribe
be sure to pick up a copy at your local Barnes & Noble, Borders, Crown, etc.,
or order one through the Skeptics Society office ($6.00). 

I encourage all of you, if you have not already done so, to join Randi's new
group. He is really going full steam now, with his own building,
seminar/lecture hall, book and video library, and, most importantly (since
this is what he does best), equipment, space, time, and knowledge to conduct
actual investigations. His snail mail address is: JREF, 201 SE Davie Blvd,
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 3316. 954/467-1112, 954/467-1660 (fax), or e-mail:
76702.3507@compuserve.com

In his lecture at the Skeptics Society conference this past weekend at
Caltech, Randi called attention to the fact that the skeptical movement must
adopt a win-win philosophy. We must all hang together, he noted, or we will
hang separately. The skeptical movement is too small for any one organization
to fall into the win-lose/sum-zero game mentality, with the fear that if one
organization receives a member that means one less member for the other
organization. There are now three major international skeptical organizations
based in America (with others overseas). JREF and the Skeptics Society have
banded together and will do everything they can to help one another, and any
other skeptic's group that requests our assistance. We agree that just like
all of you read more than one science publication, why wouldn't you read more
than one skeptical publication? No one can cover all the things that need
investigating. There is plenty of skepticism to go around. These comments
were triggered, in part, by the discovery this weekend that a certain
individual in Europe was offered special compensation by one skeptic's group
IF he would give up dealing with a certain other skeptic's group. Needless to
say this is hardly a win-win attitude. Its result, in fact, is lose-lose,
especially for any group that makes such an offer.

With the media attention and book tour for WEIRD THINGS, and with an 80%
sell-through rate for SKEPTIC magazine (magazines are also sold on
consignment), Barnes & Noble has doubled their order for SKEPTIC. We are
anxious to see if the sell-through percentage holds at the higher order
number. Our goal is to reach the 30,000 draw that Barnes & Noble has for
Penthouse (we are only about 1/5th of that), whose sell-through is about 45%
(you can only guess what happens to those 16,500 unsold copies of Penthouse
after the bookstore employees rip off the covers and send them back to the
distributors--a different fate, I suspect, than that of the bodies of
SKEPTIC).

This past weekend was the annual Skeptics Society Conference at Caltech. It
went off much better than any of us suspected it would. We nearly filled the
300-seat Baxter Lecture Hall, and it seemed that every speaker tried to top
the previous speakers in terms of humor, wit, and general entertainment value
(they were all, of course, first-rate educational experiences). Frank Miele
opened with a fabulous investigation of Pontius Pilate that included an
imitation of Bill Clinton  as a Roman prelate. Miele also offered his
thoughts on what it means to be "skeptical," which brought new insight into
the subject since he does not come from a traditional "skeptical" background.
Vincent Sarich lived up to his reputation of generating controversy as he
free-associated his way through numerous controversies in anthropology and
society, including race and IQ, affirmative action, race-based quota hiring,
meritocracy in the military, etc. Yours truly recapped the book tour in the
context of the "science gap" in the media, with lots of anecdotes, some of
which I've posted to this list. James Randi was at his entertaining best when
he was introduced by Bernard Leikind, who was crazy enough to actually
attempt a magic trick with Randi as the "volunteer" subject in front of
nearly 300 people. Carol Tavris gave a brilliant exposition on the difference
between therapists and experimentalists in the field of psychology,
particularly noting the general acceptance amongst therapists that whatever
patients describe as "what happened" in their past is to be accepted as
"true," including bizarre stories of Satanic Ritual Abuse, torture,
mutilation, sexual molestation, etc. Her lecture included video clips of
therapists explaining that it doesn't really matter whether these things
REALLY happened or not. What is important is that the patient THINKS they
happened. Well, as Tavris pointed out, if THINKING that they happened results
in someone being thrown in the slammer for life for sexual molestation, then
it most certainly DOES matter. Frank Sulloway showed precisely how historians
can practice scientific history, with several fascinating examples including
a statistical "content analysis" he performed on Darwin's Beagle notes and
letters. Sulloway discovered that Darwin's intellectual "shift" to the theory
of evolution was not based so much on pure empirical evidence as it was on
his confidence in himself and his ability to interpret that evidence.
Following dinner the keynote speaker, Jared Diamond, summarized his 480-page
book, GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL, in 36 minutes, leaving, as he said, about 7
minutes per continent to explain why the world turned out as it did.
Specifically he answered this question: why did Europeans conquer Native
Americans and Australian Aborigines, rather than Native Americans and
Australian Aborigines sailing to Europe to conquer Europeans? 

Before Diamond's lecture, Randy Cassingham, author of the two volumes of THIS
IS TRUE and a columnist for SKEPTIC magazine ("DUMBTH NEWS"), gave the DUMBTH
AWARD for 1996, that included the top 10 runners up (I'll post these awards
later this week and they will appear in the next issue of Skeptic).
Cassingham was hilarious as he rifled through example after example of
stupidity, of which there is no shortage. Serious award winners included:

John Mosley, of the Griffith Observatory, who won the Gardner Award for the
"Best Investigative Journalism in Honor of Martin Gardner's Critical Analysis
of Claims," for his article in Skeptic entitled "The Millennium is Coming."

Tom McDonough, from Caltech and the Planetary Society, who won the Spinoza
Award, AKA the "Skeptical Scholar in Honor of Baruch Spinoza's Efforts to
Understand Human Actions" for his delightful reviews of films related to the
paranormal and UFOs, entitled "Extraterrestrial Hollywood." 

Both of these awards were presented by Skeptic Senior Editor Bernard Leikind.

Patt Morrison won the Murrow Award, the "Media Skeptic of the Year in Honor
of Edward R. Murrow's Courage to Challenge Irresponsible Claims," for her
thoughtful and sensitive coverage of controversies as a Los Angeles Times
columnist and PBS commentator on "Life and Times." This award was presented
by Jessica Yu, former Murrow Award winner and recent Oscar winner for Best
Short Documentary.

Frank Sulloway won the Randi Award, for "The Skeptic of the Year in Honor of
James Randi's Commitment to Science and Critical Thinking," for his
application of science to history in his magnum opus, BORN TO REBEL. James
Randi presented this award.

A good time was had by all and the participants seemed to have nothing but
positive things to say about the conference and the speakers. Here are just a
couple of comments that came in the e-mail today:

To the Skeptic Staff!
Last year was my first Skeptic conference and the speakers were so brilliant,
I had impossibly high expectations of this year's conference. But once again,
you and your guests outdid yourselves.  The speakers were OUTSTANDING, the
information priceless and the program ran smoothly (I know the problems with
the PA were just some kind of psychology experiement
implemented at Dr. Tavris' request). Anyway, fantastic job, everyone!
--Copil Yanez, cyanez@primenet.com

Dear Michael and Company,
Just a line to say how inspiring Saturday's immersion into the Skeptics
Society was for me -- I think I even felt my dendrites growing! All the
speakers were marvels, and I especially appreciated the talks given by
yourself, Frank Miele, Carol Tavris and Vincent Sarich. Truly heady stuff!
Plus, all of it monumentally entertaining. As long as my schedule holds, I
plan to attend John Horgan's lecture on the 8th. If you need any volunteer
help, I'm a fairly able tabler and receptionist. Feel free to ask.
--Best, Holland VanDieren, netherland@earthlink.net


Until next time,

Michael Shermer