Stellar Alchemy

TAM6

The Amazing Meeting 6, Las Vegas, June 2008

Flamingos

A bunch of flamingos outside the Flamingo hotel.

SGU recording live

The folks from the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast recorded their podcasts live during the lunch hour on Friday and Saturday. From left to right they are Bob Novella, Rebecca Watson, Steven Novella, Jay Novella, and Evan Bernstein.

Ben Goldacre

Ben gave a great presentation on Homeopathy. I've seen skeptical homeopathy talks done many times, but this one stood out as especially engaging and interesting.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Hal Bidlack entertains the audience while Phil Plait and Neil deGrasse Tyson iron something out.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Hal Bidlack entertains the audience while Phil Plait and Neil deGrasse Tyson iron something out.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of NOVA Science NOW, author, and astrophysicist (voted sexiest astrophysicist alive by People magazine in 2000). He gave a talk called "brain droppings". Not a dull moment! The guy is hilarious.

Alec Jason

Alec Jason told us about his experiences investigating faith healer Peter Popoff with James Randi.

Penn & Teller

Penn & Teller are regulars at the TAM conferences. They are best known for their magic acts and for their skeptical television show, Bullshit.

George Hrab

This is musician George Hrab doing a "quick take" performance during the conference.

PZ Myers

PZ Myers is the biologist who writes on the Pharyngula blog. He explained some interesting aspects of wing development and genetics in bat embryos.

Richard Saunders

Richard Saunders gave a great presentation on teaching the ideas behind doing a rigorous test of water-dowsing claims, and gave a fun demonstration with volunteers from the audience.

Richard Saunders

Richard Saunders gave a great presentation on teaching the ideas behind doing a rigorous test of water-dowsing claims, and gave a fun demonstration with volunteers from the audience.

Alison Smith and Jeff Wagg

Alison and Jeff both work tirelessly, mostly behind the scenes, to keep things coordinated for the JREF, the $1M challenge, and the conference.

Panel discussion #1

This panel discussion revolved around the idea of identifying oneself as a "skeptic". From left to right the panelists are Michael Shermer (Skeptic magazine), Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack (MC), Phil Plait (badastronomy.com), Michael Feldman (NYC Skeptics), Margaret Downey Jr. (Atheist Alliance International), PZ Myers (biologist, Pharyngula blog), James Randi (magician, skeptic, author, minor deity).

Panel discussion #1

Another shot from the same panel discussion.

George Hrab

This is musician George Hrab giving us a great performance during an evening concert in the main conference hall on Friday. His songs are clever, entertaining, and hilarious.

SGU recording live

Michael Shermer

Shermer's presentation this year touched on bottom-up design, dualism, animism, the perception of agency and the neurology of beliefs, disbeliefs, and uncertainty.

Sharon Begley

Sharon Begley is a senior editor for Newsweek, famous for her coverage of science issues. In her talk she emphasized the difference between the ability to think critically and the disposition to do so.

Derek and Swoopy

Derek and Swoopy are the hosts of the Skepticality podcast.

Steven Novella

Dr. Steven Novalla's presentation looked at two aspects of the woo world that just won't die: dualism and creationism.

PZ Myers

PZ Myers joined in on a popular TAM tradition: making fun of Phil Plait. Poor Phil!

Phil Plait

Phil Plait of badastronomy.com gave an excellent presentation on why the universe is cool enough without having to make up crap about it.

Adam Savage

Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame described for us the incredible effort he went to in order to construct the world's best replica of the movie prop the Maltese Falcon.

Matthew Chapman

Matthew Chapman is an author and journalist. He's also the great-great grandson of Charles Darwin.

Teller

Teller (from Penn & Teller) regaled us with his stories and tips on spoon-bending, including an interesting story about how computer scientist Daniel Hillis once ended up doing a clever spoon-bending trick only to discover that the spoon he had destroyed was of a high monetary and centimental value to his host :P

Mass Spoon Bending

Richard Wiseman organized a mass spoon bending event by bringing hundreds of spoons and having the audience psychically bend them all in unison.

Panel discussion #2

This panel discussion revolved around the limits of skepticism. From left to right the panelists are Dr. Steven Novella (The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast), Benjamin Radford (author and skeptical investigator), Banachek (mentalist/magician), Adam Savage (MythBusters), Richard Saunders (Australian Skeptics and the TANK vodcast), Daniel Loxton (Junior Skeptic magazine), George Hrab (musician), and James Randi (magician, skeptic, author, minor deity).

Party

This is a shot from the forum party. It was organized and hosted by Rebecca Watson, and was quickly broken up by security when noise levels got a little out of hand.

James Randi

Randi is the king. Enough said.

Shane Killian, Alan Conradi, and Rachel Macalpine

At this TAM I met Shane from the Bogosity videos, and Alan and Rachel who traveled all the way from Australia to attend!

Mike Lacelle

Mike, a fellow Ottawa skeptic, manned the table for the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast. He's also the creator of the SGU Fans website.

Jerry Andrus memorial

Jerry Andrus was a brilliant and fascinating character. He passed away in August of 2007, and now there will be a small memorial to him at each TAM conference from now on.

John Edward

The Flamingo hotel had a number of John Edward posters up here and there. This is the closest we might ever get to stopping this guy from claiming to talk to the dead :(

Adam Savage

I didn't get to meet Adam Savage at TAM5, but this time around I finally did, and passed on an idea I had for Mythbusters: shoveling snow from a driveway with a flame thrower.

Alison Smith

Alison Smith works for the JREF in a number of ways including helping them with their $1M challenge.

Banachek

This is the awesome magician and mentalist Banachek.

Brian Dunning

Brian Dunning is a prolific skeptic. He puts out the Skeptoid podcast each week, he authored a book by the same name, he produced and hosted Here Be Dragons, he's the executive co-producer and host of a skeptical television series pilot episode called The Skeptologists, and he found time amidst all that to give a presentation over the web to my mini-course class on Homeopathy. Go Brian!

Matthew Chapman

I managed to nab a photo with Matthew Chapman.

Derek Colanduno

I stopped Derek to thank him for his great work on the Skepticality podcast and to nab a photo.

Greydon Square

I attended the Friday evening concert put on by Greydon Square and George Hrab. Greydon is an atheist/skeptic hip-hop artist with in-your-face and intelligent skeptical lyrics! He posed for this shot just before his performance began.

Hal Bidlack

Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack is the primary MC for TAM, and is running for congress in Colorado. He was kind enough to pose for... hey, wait a minute... damn you Hal!

Jeff Wagg

You could probably count the number of minutes of free time Jeff had during TAM6 on one hand. I managed to find him during one of those minutes.

Mooeypoo

Mooeypoo has a cool youtube channel where she posts some unique science videos, such as one in which she demonstrates how to measure the speed of light with a chocolate bar and a microwave!

Rebecca Watson

This is the great and wonderful Rebecca Watson from Skepchick.org and my favorite podcast: The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe.

Richard Saunders

Richard Saunders from Australia is co-host of the TANK vodcast and master of all things origami.

Michael Shermer

Michael Shermer is a skeptical author and editor of Skeptic magazine.

Steven Novella

Dr. Steven Novella is the host of my favorite podcast: The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe.

Richard Wiseman

Richard Wiseman is a magician, author, and professor of the public understanding of psychology at the university of Hertfordshire, you can find out more about him at Quirkology.com.

James Randi and Shane Killian

James Randi is the reason the TAM conferences exist in the first place. "The Amazing" Randi is a magician, author, and skeptic extraordinaire. Shane Killian produces and hosts the skeptical Bogosity videos.

Celebrating afterwards

A small group of us went out for drinks and chow on Sunday afternoon, and again in the evening.