Dragon*Con: Days 3 & 4

I was too tired to post last night after dodging Atlanta's thriving downtown hobo community. (Why do they always ask me where I'm going when they obviously don't intend to follow me there and rape/murder me? Seems like a tease, that's all.) Yesterday's festivities included a live recording of "Point of Inquiry" which somehow morphed into a panel on science podcasting. I made an unintentional pun involving penis length in front of a crowd of my friends and heroes. Good times. The highlight of Saturday had to be the skeptics vs. believers debate. James Randi, who was accused by Graham Watkins, a paranormal investigator and part-time Muppet, of being a fraud was able to directly confront his accuser in an exciting display of reason-based incredulity and hilariously feeble exercises in making excuses. In other words, Watkins directly refused Randi's million dollar challenge for reasons that really amounted to nothing more than "I don't wanna." More good times. There are pictures, which will be posted here at some point. Though I don't know if anyone captured on (digital) film Randi's fumbling with the microphone as he struggled to bring it down to gnome height. The rest of Saturday included missing a panel on "Firefly" due to a line so long it became a Mobius strip and suffering through a two-hour "Star Trek" fan film that can only be described as eye-gouging. Plus, Ben Radford took us on a tour of his paranormal investigations, and Phil Plait and Kevin Grazier explained bad science in science fiction.

Today I interviewed Richard Saunders from the TANK Vodcast (soon to be re-named) about Australian skepticism and his wacky suspenders. Look for that soon. I also attended a live recording of "The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe", whereupon facial tics were placed to disembodied voices. Who knew Evan was so good at a double take? Also, Ben Radford examined the claims of psychic detectives and was later murdered for his trouble. I'm receiving a vision of his body somewhere near water. In a wooded area. Plus, Randi, Alison Smith, and Jeff Wagg from the JREF conducted a live million dollar challenge demonstration on dousing with the help of TV paranormal investigator Patrick Burns. The whole presentation was recorded, and you'll hear the highlights as soon as I can edit them for you. A psychic-loving Randi-hater showed up at the very end, and the results were priceless. Later, Jeff Wagg led a discussion on the differences between science and dogma, and the evening closed with a panel that was supposed to be Alison Smith talking about faulty ghost hunts but instead turned into a group discussion about the nature of ghosts with both Alison and the aforementioned Patrick Burns. Burns, by the way, proved himself to be a really great guy who just happens to be more willing to believe silly things than some others. He's exactly what the paranormal investigation field should strive to be. For the most part. I still think my rebuttal of his EVP explanation was pretty airtight. You hear that, Burns! Airtight! (I'm assuming Mr. Burns is reading this post instead of, for instance, enjoying time with his family. Maybe that's not a fair assumption.)