Blue Collar Scientist

Check it out:

Phil Plait says it best:

We’re also working behind the scenes, putting together ideas and getting ready to pitch the show. But we still need your help! If you support this idea (and if you read this blog, then you do) then please let it be known! The more signatures we get, the more likely a studio executive will listen to us.

We need more critical thinking on TV, not another credulous ghost hunting show. Let’s see if we can get this one on, and maybe raise the bar a bit.

I’ve previously posted about the TV show Skeptologists, and how you ought to go send them an e-mail of support so that they can get their pilot aired and hopefully get picked up by a television network.

Now Skeptologists has a website, where you can go to learn about the show, who is involved, and so on.

Trivia question: Two of the cast are friends of mine. Can you guess which ones?

I meant to post about this days ago - and I did, sort of, scheduling a post in the queue to appear a few hours after I’d written it, to kind of smooth out the blog traffic. But I made a mistake and somehow scheduled it for the wrong month, and didn’t notice that it hadn’t appeared. Mea culpa. So here it is, hopefully better late than never:

The Skeptologists was announced, as far as I know, at TAM 5.5. It’s a proposed TV show, the pilot was recently shot, and it features a bunch of accomplished skeptics and cool people. I’m guessing - I have no inside information - that it is going to be a rational approach to the ghost hunting, conspiracy-theorizing, metaphysical crap-umentary shows that have been hitting the television in such profusion lately.

Head over to Phil Plait’s blog for a teaser trailer of the pilot, and take note of the letter there from the director:

Raise your voice! Let it be known that it’s time for a TV series that focuses on the real, the intelligent and important advances in science, critical thinking and skepticism. The Skeptologists will be pitched to major networks soon, and we want to give the programming executives a sense of what kind of support they can received if they invest in a TV series of this kind.

We have started an email campaign to have fans of the show write-in in support of this show idea and let us know why you would watch a show about critical thinking, science and skepticism! We will compile the emails and present to the executives along with our all-star cast, entertaining pilot program and solid production background to seal a great TV deal to give the Skeptics of the world a show they can stand behind, and be proud of!

Take a moment, and send a brief email to skeptologists@newrule.com. You email will be collected and will help support the show.

Do it!

Some of the members of the brand-new Science and Skepticism in Anchorage group descended upon a local restaurant for food, drink, and talk last Friday, and we had a great time. The discussion was stimulating and wide-ranging - at my end of the long table, we talked about

• asymmetrically-drawn pterosaurs;
• dinosaur skulls;
• Apple Newton vs. Apple iPhone (and yes, this did involve the sighting of a Newton in the wild!);
• the validity of Homo floresiensis as a taxon (consensus: we think it is valid);
• how a Mac with a drawing tablet would be really cool for some of us (it isn’t clear to me, but then, I lack imagination);

and a bunch of other stuff. Someone there, who hadn’t read it, asked me about my blog post about the supposed Sumerian observation of an asteroid impact. I gave a description of the problems with the impact hypothesis, as well as an explanation of why I felt several of the details were implausible in the extreme, and then was asked to sum up my views in one sentence or less. I replied by saying “I doubt it very much.”

So I got a big laugh today when I saw that The Greenbelt linked here drawing attention to that post, saying:

…Blue Collar Scientist’s look at a new book claiming that Sumerians observed an asteroid impact on Earth (hint: he doubts it very much).

Yes, that is exactly how I talk….

SSA has also embarked on a modest project. Scott and Zach, the two dinosaur experts in the group, have agreed to cook up a reading list on dinosaurs that will allow the interested layperson to get a good understanding of the subject. I’ve been picking up books on dinosaurs for a few years now, looking for a good title, and never quite sure whether I’ve got one, because I don’t have enough knowledge to evaluate my sources. So this will surely help me, at least. We’re going to set it up as a static webpage or PDF or something and host it for the world to use.

Next, I’m going to try to figure out how to get our entomologist to make a similarly-spirited contribution. :-)

Our next formal event will be in a few weeks, unless one of our members sets up something before then - which I encourage.

If you are interested in science, the skeptical movement, or rational thinking; if you read and enjoy Pharyngula (see also here), the Bad Astronomy Blog, or Skepchick; and if you want to meet other such people, here’s all you have to do:

Go to the coffee shop at Barnes and Noble, tonight, Thursday, March 20, at 7:00 PM.

This meetup is co-sponsored by Zach Miller of the blog When Pigs Fly Returns, Scott Elyard of Coherent Lighthouse, and by yours truly.

If you don’t know any of us, just look for the MacBook with the JREF sticker on it:

The meeting will be informal and social, but we’ve got a couple activities on deck. According to Zach:

Scott is going to show everybody how to draw Euparkeria and I’m going to teach people how pterosaurs folded their wings. Jeff (the BCS) will be giving the keynote speech, and I’ve heard that…whisper it softly…he’s made of cheese.

Zach must have at least some of his tongue in his cheek, for Scott was last seen complaining about his drawing of Euparkeria, and I do not actually have a speech prepared (although it is possible I am made of cheese - it seems we could somehow experimentally verify this at the meetup). I do look forward to a pterosaur demonstration from Zach and some dinosaur art from both Zach and Scott. I will have a couple videos to play regarding Mythbusters. And if I remember, I’ll bring my Atlas of Creation so we can all see the gorgeous pictures of fishing lures that they used in place of living insects.

We will also be discussing the next meetup - we’ll probably be doing this biweekly or monthly - and soliciting opinions on whether we want to pick a regular venue. But mainly, we’re there to have good conversation and a good time.