Have you ever ...
-visited the former DC residence of "psychic" Jeanne Dixon?
-stood on the sidewalk where Houdini escaped from a straitjacket while suspended upside down 100 feet in the air?
-paid your respects to the remains of the world's leading academic Bigfoot researcher?
On Saturday, May 11, you can!
The National Capital Area Skeptics is compiling a skeptic's guide to the area. This isn't JUST the DC edition of Tobin's Spirit Guide; it includes landmarks of scientific, pseudo-scientific and cultural significance to skeptics. On Saturday, May 11, we will publish the first edition of the online guide, and celebrate by taking it to the streets for a leisurely 2.5 mile walk featuring highlights from the guide.
We will meet at Dupont Circle Metro north entrance (Connecticut Ave. and Q St, NW) at 1:30 pm (Look for Chip and Grace Denman, who should be holding something with our Skeptical Eye logo). Approximately 90 minutes later, we will end at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History on the Mall. Along the way, we will point out locations corresponding to famous, infamous and just plain weird goings-on in the nation's capital.
The tour is free, and all are welcome. We encourage you to take Metro -- we start and end near Metro stops. PLEASE RSVP BY EMAIL SO WE HAVE AN IDEA OF HOW MANY ARE COMING.
The guide is an ongoing project for the National Capital Area Skeptics, and will include locations across the VA-MD-DC area. If you'd like to contribute suggestions, please write to SkepTour@ncas.org.
If you're coming to SkepTour! by Metro, be sure to check this page for any service disruptions:
http://www.wmata.com/rider_tools/metro_service_status/rail_Bus.cfm
SkepTour is still a GO, but you may want to bring an umbrella.
Facebook event notice.
Meetup event notice.
National Capital Area Skeptics
Promoting Critical Thinking and Scientific Understanding
20/20 Since 1987Apr 13 - Steve Gimbel - Einstein's Jewish Science? Looking at Physics, Politics, and Religion
Saturday, Apr 13, 2013, 1:30pm
Bethesda Regional Library
7400 Arlington Rd Bethesda, MD [map]
Presented by Steve Gimbel, Chair, Department of Philosophy, Gettysburg College
Between the world wars, Nazi sympathizers tried to denigrate the theory of relativity by calling it "Jewish science." The Nazis, of course, were wrong. The notion of "religious science" usually brings to mind creationism, but our two best theories of gravitation before Einstein, those of Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton, bore indelible marks of their founders' theology. How did science change in the time leading up to Einstein to remove theological influence from physics?
Dr. Steve Gimbel is author of Einstein's Jewish Science: Physics at the Intersection of Politics and Religion and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Edwin T. and Cynthia Shearer Johnson Chair for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities at Gettysburg College.
FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members. Refreshments and socializing after the talk.
Free limited parking is available. The Bethesda Library is Metro accessible.
Bethesda Regional Library
7400 Arlington Rd Bethesda, MD [map]
Presented by Steve Gimbel, Chair, Department of Philosophy, Gettysburg College
Between the world wars, Nazi sympathizers tried to denigrate the theory of relativity by calling it "Jewish science." The Nazis, of course, were wrong. The notion of "religious science" usually brings to mind creationism, but our two best theories of gravitation before Einstein, those of Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton, bore indelible marks of their founders' theology. How did science change in the time leading up to Einstein to remove theological influence from physics?
FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members. Refreshments and socializing after the talk.
Free limited parking is available. The Bethesda Library is Metro accessible.
Shadow of a Doubt - April 2013
The Monthly Calendar of the National Capital Area Skeptics
- Einstein's Jewish Science?: Looking at Physics, Politics, and Religion - Steve Gimbel
- SkepTour -- A Skeptic's Field Guide to the National Capital Area: Saturday, May 11
- Save the Date -- Thursday, May 30 Event
- NCAS Board Elections: Electronic Voting
- Feel The Power of the Dork Side - A Review by W.T. Bridgman
- Drinking Skeptically, April 10
- New Postal Address, New Phone Number
Mar 9 - David H. Gorski - Quackademic Medicine
Saturday, March 9, 2013, 1:00 pm
National Science Foundation
Room 110
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA [map]
"Complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) or, as it is increasingly called, "integrative medicine," is infiltrating our medical schools and academic medical centers, not to mention even the NIH itself. Acupuncture, reiki, healing touch, herbalism, and even homeopathy are less and less being viewed as quackery and more and more tolerated if not accepted in what should be bastions of science-based medicine. Dr. Gorski will discuss how this sad state of affairs came about, where we are now, and, hopefully, what can be done about it.
David H. Gorski, MD, PhD, FACS is the managing editor of the sciencebasedmedicine.org blog, as well as a contributor both under his own name and the pseudonym "Orac." He is a surgical oncologist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute specializing in breast cancer surgery, where he also serves as the Medical Director of the Alexander J. Walt Comprehensive Breast Center and Cancer Liaison Physician for the American College of Surgeons Committee on Cancer. Academically, he is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Oncology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, where he serves as Chief of the Section of Breast Surgery, and is a member of the faculty of the Graduate Program in Cancer Biology. Additionally, he serves as Treasurer for the Institute for Science in Medicine. An investigator whose primary research interests include tumor angiogenesis and the role of glutamate receptors in promoting the growth and metastasis of breast cancer, Dr. Gorski also runs an active research laboratory and has recently taken an active interest in the problems of breast cancer overdiagnosis and overtreatment.
NOTE: THIS TALK BEGINS AT 1:00 PM INSTEAD OF THE USUAL 1:30 PM.
This talk is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served after the talk.
National Science Foundation
Room 110
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA [map]
"Complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) or, as it is increasingly called, "integrative medicine," is infiltrating our medical schools and academic medical centers, not to mention even the NIH itself. Acupuncture, reiki, healing touch, herbalism, and even homeopathy are less and less being viewed as quackery and more and more tolerated if not accepted in what should be bastions of science-based medicine. Dr. Gorski will discuss how this sad state of affairs came about, where we are now, and, hopefully, what can be done about it.
NOTE: THIS TALK BEGINS AT 1:00 PM INSTEAD OF THE USUAL 1:30 PM.
This talk is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served after the talk.
Shadow of a Doubt - March 2013
The Monthly Calendar of the National Capital Area Skeptics
- NCAS Public Lecture Series - Quackademic Medicine - David H. Gorski, MD, PhD, FACS
- NCAS Board Elections: Call for Candidates
- NCAS Board Elections: Electronic Voting
- Your Email is Requested
- Drinking Skeptically
- New Postal Address
- New Skeptic Line Number
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