Well I'm done. That's it. When Jeremy and I started this club it was just two guys who met on the bus to the RIT inn to discuss the weird stuff people believe, and now it's like 10 people that meet each week in a room to discuss the weird stuff people believe.

I think the club is being left in good hands for the future. Good luck guys, and don't let the meetings get too normal. We wouldn't be the same club without some level of zany joking around.

Things of a skeptical nature have been sent to our mailbox in the last few days.
CFI informs us that James Randi, (yes, THAT randi) will be in Buffalo this friday for a lecture. We're planning a delegation.

In response to the people claiming that the soon activation of the LHC will be the end of the world, Ben wrote:
I was noodling about with a list of things that are more likely than the LHC
destroying the world earlier, so here it is in roughly descending likelihood
of possibility.

1) Winning the lottery.

2) Being struck by lightning.

3) Winning the lottery and being struck by lightning in the same day.

4) Climate change is completely unrelated to human activities.

5) The Law of Attraction works.

6) Brittany Spears regains her lost dignity.

http://www.skepdic.com/acupunc.html
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/167/17/1892?maxtoshow=...
http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=362

Dr. Stephen Novella says:

Taken as a whole, the pattern of the acupuncture literature follows one with which scientists are very familiar: the more tightly controlled the study the smaller the effect, and the best controlled trials are negative. This pattern is highly predictive of a null-effect - that there is no actual effect from acupuncture.

The SFGate is running a story about a Judge's ruling that the University of California can reject requests for science course credit if their courses in a religious school didn't actually teach science. Seems like common sense to me: if you don't learn science, why should you be given credit for it?

"It appears the UC is attempting to secularize private religious schools," attorney Jennifer Monk of Advocates for Faith and Freedom said Tuesday.

Here is an informative video about diagnosing computer problems. I'm forwarding this to RIT's ITS.

Looks like our hosting with humanists.net is about to go down. We're looking at other options like SG hosting, but we don't know yet. Sean is going to try to backup the data we currently have, so we'll try to make the transition as smooth as possible.
Skeptically yours--

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717211651.htm
"Nature/Nurture Gene Link Sheds New Light on Autism"

This headline is an example of how sloppy reporting can result in a misleading report. The title and the article equate the word nurture with environmental influence. The terms are related, but non-identical. Nurture should only refer to that subset of environmental factors which are the direct result of human human interaction. In this case environmental influence is not necessarily
human in origin.

 BCCD (Bee Colony Collapse Disorder) is a relatively recent phenomenon with unknown causes, the
effect being the widespread disappearance of bee populations. Since
2006, BCCD has affected colonies throughout North America and beyond,
threatening roughly 1/3 of human food sources which rely on
pollination by bees. This problem gain's its importance by the number
of people it potentially affects, and the estimated resources that
would be required to combat the problem. By taking steps to combat
the problem now, we can avoid potentially disastrous future
consequences.

http://ask-a-skeptic.mevio.com/

In this episode:
Philosopher Peter Singer
$500 speaker cables
Doritoes in Space!

That's right! An all new episode of the best podcast the RIT Skeptics have every produced: Ask a Skeptic. We're trying to do them every week over the summer, so stay tuned for more skeptical fun!

Note: if you are a member of the Skeptics, past, present, or future, please feel free to send me jmb2397(a)rit.edu your skype name to be included in future podcasts.

Ask a Skeptic Episode 4: Rickshaws of Love
http://m.podshow.com/media/16220/episodes/115185/ask-a-skeptic-115185-06...

I just got back from driving Lori Lipman Brown to the airport. She arrived yesterday, gave a talk to the skeptics and a numbers of people who aren't members of the group and stayed overnight at a local motel.

The talk was good. She covered topics relating to her job lobbying for the rights of non-theistic Americans. She also showed some clips of times she appeared on Fox News. I think that the most interesting part of the evening was the discussion. The questions people brought her during the Q&A, and the answers she gave were very interesting.

There has been a recent hubbub on campus with people wearing shirts that say "I Agree with Josh". This is, at best, an underhanded attempt at proselytizing on campus, and at worst, deceptive. In fact, this tactic is not unique to RIT, and is quite common among US universities.

A quick search on Google brings up many hits for other campuses' "I agree with" campaign. Syracuse University had "I agree with Craig" last year, while other campaigns have used Ryan, Sam, or Rachael as their name. This recycled tactic is designed to stir curiosity on the campus, and make people question the shirt-wearers. In return, the shirt wearers start their speech on Jesus.

You can now vote for Kari Hazzard at sg.rit.edu/vote.

She has the most clearly thought out, intelligent, practical ideas.

This company claims that they can test your DNA and develop a nutritional plan based on the findings. Sounds great right? Until you critically examine their claims, they do.

Keep in mind, nothing in this post should be considered medical advice. Go to your docotor for that.

They claim that by looking for SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) it is possible to identify nutrient deficiencies caused by the poor functioning of protiens.