I recently wrote a report about TAM 8 for the Naked Skeptic column.
The Amaz!ing Meeting did a grand job of unifying the major US skeptical organizations, the James Randi Educational Foundation, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and the Skeptics Society.
These might be the major organizations, but they’re certainly not the only ones around. There are magazines, foums and blogs, grassroots organizations, campus groups, meetups and Skeptics in the Pub events, so we don’t have to ‘belong’ to only one group.
Which skeptical groups do you associate with?
How do you show your affiliation? (e.g., subscribing to a magazine, attending Drinking Skeptically events, etc.)
There should be only one.
I hang out here, and I have two t-shirts. (Even though I didn’t order the monkey-one with skepchick on the bag that Rebecca made after I whined about it.)
I hang around the JREF forum, and went to TAM London (and got the t-shirt), and am going to TAM London.
I’m a member of Skepsis, the Norwegian skeptics society, and hang around their forum, and intend to eventually go to one of the meet ups.
And I teach physics, where the state mandated syllabus all but demands I say woo stuff is bullshit.
Okay, actually it demands I teach them a teensy bit about how to tell utterly unscientific woo from science, and it’s the students who label it bullshit. I think our book uses as example an explanation of a fictitious medical talisman called a Quantumquark.
@ptah: Skepchick is looking for organizations to take heads from, then undergo the skeptening. There can be only one.
None. I really don’t know other skeptics in real life.
I just want to point out that I’ve noted I wrote “bag” instead of “back” up there, and I can only blame my steadily deteriorating brain. It’s what I get for living past 35.
I actually thought about starting one on the Adirondacks (we desperately need one), but had no assistance, and it ended up being too much work to coordinate alone. I currently am not a member of any Skeptic groups. I want to be, and since I will be in DC in a month, and there are several, I plan to be soon. Woot!
The Dax still do need some skeptical help, however. If anyone does intend to start something here, I extend an offer to help in any way I can. Even at a distance. This place is a skeptical black hole.
I’ve subscribed to Skeptical Inquirer since 1985, but didn’t know any local skeptics. Most of my friends were somewhat skeptical, but areas of wooish beliefs, such as chiropractic, herbal and “natural” medicines, ESP. UFOs are alien spacecraft, etc. (Not all in one person, I’d just shake my head and get the “you’re no fun” look back.
About 10 years ago, I discovered the Bad Astronomy web site, which led to a bunch of other places and ultimately here.
About 18 months ago I heard about the Boston skeptics in the pub group, but due mostly to scheduling conflicts and lack of awareness, I was only able to attend one meeting for the 1st six months or so. (I do remember dodging one woman who was making a determined bee-line for the bar, and thinking “Hey, that looks like Rebecca Watson!” who I knew of from a couple of Phil Plait’s posts.)
About a year ago, I started going more regularly, and about 6 months ago joined the book club, which is a much better venue for actually meeting people. Imagine my surprise meeting a bunch of smart and skeptical people who mostly shared my views on lots of subjects, ranging from scifi to entertainment to politics (except they know lots more about these subjects than I do) as well as enjoying the same sorts of sciency books we read for the club. And did I mention they are all wicked nice people? Sick! (as I heard my 10 year old neighbor recently describe his little brother’s birthday present, an awesomely cool Clone Wars Ultimate Blaster http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Clone-Ultimate-Blaster/dp/B002453JW0/ref=pd_sim_t_3
Special thanks to all the people who made this possible, especially Liz and Mary!
I drink skeptically. Every day.
Atlanta Skeptics and St. Louis Skeptics. It’s a hell of a commute.
HJ
I don’t believe in skeptical groups. I don’t think they exist.
I post here, listen to the SGU, subscribe to Skeptic magazine, buy Surly stuff occasionally, and plan to go to one of the Cal Tech lectures but never do – that’s it.
I subscribe to almost every skeptic podcast available, and I follow a couple dozen blogs by skeptics. Not to mention the “Skeptic” bumper sticker (which is next to my “Secular Humanist” one and below my scarlet A “OUT Campaign” sticker). But I don’t belong to any organizations currently – there don’t seem to be be any around these here parts (Southeast Wisconsin). Sad – I’d like to hang out with some like-minded people. And I don’t drink and don’t like bars, so Drinking Skeptically is pretty much out.
@Garbledina: Let me know if you set something up in the Adirondacks. This area is beyond black hole level. I know of an Earth Science teacher who has young earth tracts in the classroom.
@Buzz Parsec: We <3 you too!
I host Boston Skeptics in the Pub, organize brunches, and go to our book club. I have a great group of friends, and we all run Boston Skeptics together (thanks Rebecca). I also try to attend as many skeptical functions as I can, although my limited budget sometimes makes that difficult (*cough* TAM).
I am also a big SGU fan…and got to be on it once:) That was cool…
@kitty: You made a wonderful Faux-becca :)
I subscribe to Australian Skeptics magazine, and sometimes even read it.
I’ve also formed a club where we ride around Sydney on bikes looking for preists and homeopaths and smashing them in the head with nun-chucks.
Ok, there’s no club, it’s just me.
Well I was going to TAM Australia, but the bloody tickets sold out on the first day of open release (I didn’t qualify for the early bird).
And I was going to the New Zealand Sceptics conference except that I have a schedule conflict so that won’t be happening either.
I do attend the Wellington Sceptics in the Pub though.
Hmm, I mostly hang around here and on the Skeptic sub-reddit.
Apart from that I have been to the occasional Center for Inquiriy meetups in London, as well as one skeptics in the Pub.
I mostly go to the Humanist pub night outs tbh.
Posting on Skepchick is about it.
@Skept-artist: Thank you! It was a lot of fun :)
I’m on the board of Women Thinking Free, and I go to the Chicago Skeptics Meetup every month.
Subscribe to Skeptical Inquirer & Skeptic magazine, JREF member, gone to 3 TAMs. Can’t make Boston Skeptics in the Pub due to it’s start time & work night.
That’s it unfortunately.
@Tervuren: It may be far too late for you to ever see this, but where are you, if you don’t mind my asking?