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Last week, I packed my bags and went to Las Vegas for five days. I don't gamble. I don't drink. I don't smoke. And I had no intention of partaking of the other thing that's legal in Nevada that some people look forward to when they go to Las Vegas.
So why the hell did I go to Las Vegas? To attend The Amazing Meeting 9, also known as TAM 9 From Outer Space.
The Amazing Meeting or TAM is the annual conference of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), a group of educators, magicians/entertainers, scientists, etc. whose mission is to promote rational thought in our irrational world. This was my first one.
The first TAM was in 2003 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where the JREF was based at that time. It quickly outgrew the modest space and has since been held in Las Vegas, most recently at the Southpoint Hotel Casino and Spa a few miles south of The Strip in Las Vegas, NV. There have also been TAMs held in London and Australia. There have been cruises to the Bermuda Triangle, Alaska, Mexico, and the Galapagos Islands. All of them have been very successful.
Basically, it's a place where a lot of skeptics and freethinkers from all over the world and from all walks of life can come together for four days and make friends, learn, and just hang out. <irony alert>In one of the world capitals of irrational thought. :)</irony alert>
This year, there were 1652 of us in attendance.
One of the many things that skeptics take seriously is public outreach. We do it in many different ways. Some use blogs, others use podcasts, some create websites . . . it just depends on your personality. Still others are very public about their skeptical, rational outlook. These include people like James Randi, Banachek, Jamy Ian Swiss, Penn Jillette (all magicians); Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Dr. Phil Plait, Dr. Lawrence Krauss, Dr. Pamela Gay (all astronomers and/or (astro)physicists); Adam Savage, Bill Nye (The Science Guy), Julia Sweeney, George Hrab (entertainers/muscians); Derek & Swoopy, DJ Grothe, Richard Saunders, Chris Mooney, Dr. Steve Novella, Bob Novella, Jay Novella, Evan Bernstein, Rebecca Watson, Blake Smith, Ben Radford, Dr. Karen Stollznow, Brian Dunning, Robert Price, Joe Nickell (all podcasters); Sean Faircloth, Daniel Loxton, Dr. Richard Dawkins, Jennifer Michael Hecht, PZ Myers, Dr. Richard Wiseman, Dr. Ginger Campbell, Dr. Rachael Dunlop, Ben Radford, Greta Christina, Michael Shermer, Dr. Eugenie Scott, Jennifer Ouellette . . . I could go on and on and on for a good, long time naming people whose names are household words to me, but most of whom the average person has never heard of. Which is tragic.
One of the big issues right now with the skeptical movement is vaccination. When children are vaccinated, it helps protect them (vaccinations are not 100% effective, and there is a small chance of adverse reactions: absolutely no one in the skeptical community has ever claimed that this is not true, regardless of what you might have heard) from a host of terrible diseases that used to kill thousands of vulnerable people annually.
( I'm going to get serious )
Fun fact: Did you know that adults need to get boosters for some of these childhood diseases? For TDAP, it's about 10 years. Why? Because it's not about you. It's about other people, especially children too young to get the vaccination.
So when I went to TAM 9 and they announced that for one day, they had free TDAP vaccines, I jumped out of my chair and went to stand in line, missing the rest of the panel that was very interesting.
The line was out the door and about 30 feet down the hall. I waited.
Eventually, I got the shot in the arm, got a sticker (A STICKER! YAAAAAY!), my picture made with a toy bear, and a certificate saying I got the vaccination. I believe the final count was 305 people who got the TDAP vaccine.
I mentioned this on Facebook.
And got, "Why?" a lot. "Why did you get TDAP?"
Brennan. Seth. Jonah. Nathan. Suzi. Penelope. Nicholas. Caleb. Elias. Kathryn. Julian. Luna. Liliana. Annabelle. Fisher. David. The as-yet-unborn children of two of my coworkers. Those are who I got the booster shot for. I may never lay eyes on many of these children of my far-flung friends (and I know I left out a lot of my friends' young children, and I apologize profusely, but a lot of you don't post their names and . . . I just didn't have the time to research), but on the chance that I do, how terrible would it be to pass on a terrible disease because I didn't do something that took literally 20 minutes and a few days of pain in my arm?
So does that answer the question in a way that everyone can understand? If you don't like "because I wanted to," or "to counteract the stupidity of the anti-vaxers," or any of a number of other very good reasons, does this make it abundantly clear?
So why the hell did I go to Las Vegas? To attend The Amazing Meeting 9, also known as TAM 9 From Outer Space.
The Amazing Meeting or TAM is the annual conference of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), a group of educators, magicians/entertainers, scientists, etc. whose mission is to promote rational thought in our irrational world. This was my first one.
The first TAM was in 2003 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where the JREF was based at that time. It quickly outgrew the modest space and has since been held in Las Vegas, most recently at the Southpoint Hotel Casino and Spa a few miles south of The Strip in Las Vegas, NV. There have also been TAMs held in London and Australia. There have been cruises to the Bermuda Triangle, Alaska, Mexico, and the Galapagos Islands. All of them have been very successful.
Basically, it's a place where a lot of skeptics and freethinkers from all over the world and from all walks of life can come together for four days and make friends, learn, and just hang out. <irony alert>In one of the world capitals of irrational thought. :)</irony alert>
This year, there were 1652 of us in attendance.
One of the many things that skeptics take seriously is public outreach. We do it in many different ways. Some use blogs, others use podcasts, some create websites . . . it just depends on your personality. Still others are very public about their skeptical, rational outlook. These include people like James Randi, Banachek, Jamy Ian Swiss, Penn Jillette (all magicians); Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Dr. Phil Plait, Dr. Lawrence Krauss, Dr. Pamela Gay (all astronomers and/or (astro)physicists); Adam Savage, Bill Nye (The Science Guy), Julia Sweeney, George Hrab (entertainers/muscians); Derek & Swoopy, DJ Grothe, Richard Saunders, Chris Mooney, Dr. Steve Novella, Bob Novella, Jay Novella, Evan Bernstein, Rebecca Watson, Blake Smith, Ben Radford, Dr. Karen Stollznow, Brian Dunning, Robert Price, Joe Nickell (all podcasters); Sean Faircloth, Daniel Loxton, Dr. Richard Dawkins, Jennifer Michael Hecht, PZ Myers, Dr. Richard Wiseman, Dr. Ginger Campbell, Dr. Rachael Dunlop, Ben Radford, Greta Christina, Michael Shermer, Dr. Eugenie Scott, Jennifer Ouellette . . . I could go on and on and on for a good, long time naming people whose names are household words to me, but most of whom the average person has never heard of. Which is tragic.
One of the big issues right now with the skeptical movement is vaccination. When children are vaccinated, it helps protect them (vaccinations are not 100% effective, and there is a small chance of adverse reactions: absolutely no one in the skeptical community has ever claimed that this is not true, regardless of what you might have heard) from a host of terrible diseases that used to kill thousands of vulnerable people annually.
( I'm going to get serious )
Fun fact: Did you know that adults need to get boosters for some of these childhood diseases? For TDAP, it's about 10 years. Why? Because it's not about you. It's about other people, especially children too young to get the vaccination.
So when I went to TAM 9 and they announced that for one day, they had free TDAP vaccines, I jumped out of my chair and went to stand in line, missing the rest of the panel that was very interesting.
The line was out the door and about 30 feet down the hall. I waited.
Eventually, I got the shot in the arm, got a sticker (A STICKER! YAAAAAY!), my picture made with a toy bear, and a certificate saying I got the vaccination. I believe the final count was 305 people who got the TDAP vaccine.
I mentioned this on Facebook.
And got, "Why?" a lot. "Why did you get TDAP?"
Brennan. Seth. Jonah. Nathan. Suzi. Penelope. Nicholas. Caleb. Elias. Kathryn. Julian. Luna. Liliana. Annabelle. Fisher. David. The as-yet-unborn children of two of my coworkers. Those are who I got the booster shot for. I may never lay eyes on many of these children of my far-flung friends (and I know I left out a lot of my friends' young children, and I apologize profusely, but a lot of you don't post their names and . . . I just didn't have the time to research), but on the chance that I do, how terrible would it be to pass on a terrible disease because I didn't do something that took literally 20 minutes and a few days of pain in my arm?
So does that answer the question in a way that everyone can understand? If you don't like "because I wanted to," or "to counteract the stupidity of the anti-vaxers," or any of a number of other very good reasons, does this make it abundantly clear?
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