June 2022
The
Uses of Delusion:
Stuart Vyse, PhD
Saturday, June 4, 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
Although
reason and rationality are our friends in almost all
contexts, in some cases people are better off putting
reason aside. In a number of very important situations, we
benefit by not seeing the world as it is, and by not
behaving like logic-driven machines. Sometimes we know we
aren’t making sense, and yet we are compelled to act
against reason; in other cases, our delusions are so much
a part of normal human experience that we are unaware of
them. As intelligent as we are, much of what has helped
humans succeed as a species is not our prodigious brain
power but something much more basic.
https://www.ncas.org/2022/05/june-4-uses-of-delusion-why-its-not.html
Speaking of Hubbard, here's an interesting 1968 episode
of a UK investigative journalism TV series, World in
Action, entitled "The Shrinking World of L. Ron
Hubbard," which includes interviews with him:
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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:
NCAS
Public Lecture Series
The
Uses of Delusion:
Why It’s Not Always Rational to Be Rational
Stuart Vyse, PhD
Contributing Editor, Skeptical Inquirer
Saturday, June 4, 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:
Although
reason and rationality are our friends in almost all
contexts, in some cases people are better off putting
reason aside. In a number of very important situations, we
benefit by not seeing the world as it is, and by not
behaving like logic-driven machines. Sometimes we know we
aren’t making sense, and yet we are compelled to act
against reason; in other cases, our delusions are so much
a part of normal human experience that we are unaware of
them. As intelligent as we are, much of what has helped
humans succeed as a species is not our prodigious brain
power but something much more basic.In behavioral
scientist Stuart Vyse’s new book, The Uses of
Delusion: Why It’s Not Always Rational to be Rational,
he looks at the aspects of human nature that are not
altogether rational but, nonetheless, help us achieve our
social and personal goals.
Stuart Vyse
is a behavioral scientist, teacher, and writer. He taught
at Providence College, the University of Rhode Island, and
Connecticut College. Vyse’s book Believing in Magic:
The Psychology of Superstition won the 1999 William
James Book Award of the American Psychological
Association. He is a contributing editor of Skeptical
Inquirer magazine, where he writes the “Behavior
& Belief” column, and a Fellow of the Association for
Psychological Science and of the Committee for Skeptical
Inquiry.
Refreshments and
socializing after the talk.
NCAS Board
Elections: Electronic Voting
The 2022 NCAS election is underway. In mid-May, your e-mail inbox should've received a single-cast secret ballot from "elections@ncas.org via SurveyMonkey <member@surveymonkeyuser.com>". (NCAS will receive information indicating who voted, but nothing to indicate who cast each ballot.) Please vote by June 15, 2022.
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/
The 2022 NCAS election is underway. In mid-May, your e-mail inbox should've received a single-cast secret ballot from "elections@ncas.org via SurveyMonkey <member@surveymonkeyuser.com>". (NCAS will receive information indicating who voted, but nothing to indicate who cast each ballot.) Please vote by June 15, 2022.
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
Congressional Hearing on "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena"
By Scott Snell
Congressional Hearing on "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena"
On May 17, 2022,
the "C3" Subcommittee of the US House of
Representatives Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence held an open hearing on UFOs (also called
UAPs, "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.") Following the
open portion of the hearing, the C3 (Counterterrorism,
Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation)
Subcommittee held a closed, classified briefing.
Testifying were Ronald S. Moultrie, Under Secretary of
Defense for Intelligence and Security, and Scott W.
Bray, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence.
Video of the open
portion of the hearing is available here:
Moultrie was tasked
in 2021 by US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen
Hicks to "establish the Airborne Object Identification
and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG
[pronounced "aim sog"]) to synchronize efforts across
the [Defense] Department and the broader U.S.
government to detect, identify and attribute objects
of interests [sic] in Special Use Airspace (SUA), and
to assess and mitigate any associated threats to
safety of flight and national security."
In addition to
Moultrie and Bray providing status on the
establishment of AOIMSG and answering questions from
House members, Bray showed a UAP video:
(Right-click the
video and select "Speed" of 0.5x for best results.
Pause the video to find the three frames showing a
UAP.)
Later, Committee
for Skeptical Inquiry Fellow Mick West commented on
the video:
West also
participated in a discussion about the hearing:
Perhaps the closed,
classified hearing was more interesting, but of course
we can only speculate. It's also worth noting that
AOIMSG (which Moultrie said will likely be renamed) is
just getting started. But as of now, nothing very
interesting has emerged publicly.
Notably, this was
the first Congressional hearing about UFOs since July
29, 1968, when the US House Committee on Science and
Astronautics held its "Symposium on Unidentified
Flying Objects."
The ncas.org site
hosts an online edition of the 1968 symposium record,
created and proofread by a team of NCAS volunteers:
Torn From Last
Month's Headlines
By Scott Snell
The Joke that Got Away
By Scott Snell
The Joke that Got Away
The previous Shadow
of a Doubt displayed the 1950 Census listing for
L. Ron Hubbard...
...but I neglected
to make a joke about the entry for Hubbard on "What
was this person doing most of last week - working,
keeping house, or something else?" ("Wk" = working,
"H" = keeping house, "U" = unable to work, "Ot" =
other)
"I wonder if
Scientologists would interpret 'OT' as 'Operating
Thetan?'"
(Hubbard's
"Operating Thetan" concept didn't exist, at least not
publicly, until he debuted Scientology in 1952.)
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
https://press.aboutamazon.com/news-releases/news-release-details/amazon-launches-amazonsmile-simple-automatic-way-customers
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