🚀 go-pugleaf

The flyer for this year's Caltech conference goes out to 11,000 people at
the end of this week, and with just 300 available seats in the lecture hall
it is going to sell out within a few weeks, so I strongly suggest signing
up soon (see the order form below). You can do this via e-mail (we need
your name, address, phone, Visa or Mastercard number and expiration date,
how many are coming, and if you are a member or not, and if not if you
intend to join--which you should because it gets you the discounted price
which is the same as the membership!). You can also fax this information
(626/794-1301) or mail it (P.O. Box 338, Altadena, CA 91001). Sometime this
week you will also be able to register for the conference on our web page's
secure shop cart program at www.skeptic.com

Michael Shermer
---------------------------
1999 SKEPTICS SOCIETY CALTECH CONFERENCE

REINVENTING EVOLUTION
The Great Debate at the High Table of Evolutionary Theory

Plus: James "The Amazing" Randi
& Richard Milner: "Charles Darwin--Live & in Concert"

Friday and Saturday
May 21-22, 1999

FRIDAY NIGHT, MAY 21
PASADENA HILTON HOTEL
7:00-9:00pm  SOCIAL EVENING OF COCKTAILS & MAGICIAN: Danny Sylvester "the
Jester" the living cartoon. He does things previously only seen on Saturday
morning cartoons.
Meet with our speakers, staff, and fellow skeptics in a casual setting at
the Pasadena Hilton Hotel

SATURDAY, MAY 22
Baxter Lecture Hall, California Institute of Technology

7:45-8:45: Registration with coffee and bagels 

8:45-9:00: "Is Evolution in Trouble?" Introductory Remarks by FRANK MIELE,
Conference Moderator, Senior Editor, Skeptic

9:00-10:15: "What Americans Believe About Evolution." DR. EUGENIE SCOTT,
Executive Director, National Center for Science Education, Recipient of the
1998 Isaac Asimov Science Award from the American Humanist Association.

Break

10:30-11:30: "Gould's Dangerous Idea: What Really Scares People About
Evolution." DR. MICHAEL SHERMER, Publisher, Skeptic, Author, Why People
Believe Weird Things, and forthcoming O Ye of Little Faith: The Search for
God in the Age of Science.

Lunch Break 11:30-12:45 (Catered: $6.00 per person)

12:45-1:45: "A Century of Pseudoscience: A Look Back at 20th-Century
Nonsense." JAMES "THE AMAZING" RANDI, Executive Director, James Randi
Educational Foundation, Author, Flim Flam!, The Faith Healers, The Mask of
Nostradamus.

Break

2:00-3:15: "Why People Don't Believe in Evolution?" DR. JACK HORNER,
Curator of Paleontology, Museum of the Rockies. Author, Digging Dinosaurs,
The Complete T. Rex, Digging Up Tyrannosaurus Rex, Dinosaur Lives.

3:15-4:30: "Is There a Revolution in Evolution?" DR. NILES ELDREDGE,
Curator, American Museum of Natural History, Co-discoverer of Punctuated
Equilibria, Author, The Miner's Canary, Reinventing Darwin, The Pattern of
Evolution.

Break

4:45-6:00: "Mystery of Mysteries: Is Evolution a Social Construction?" DR.
MICHAEL RUSE, Professor of Philosophy and Zoology, University of Guelph,
Ontario. Author of Darwinism Defended, The Darwinian Paradigm, Monad to
Man, Mystery of Mysteries.

6:00-6:30: Panel Discussion with Speakers and Audience. Moderated by Frank
Miele

Dinner Break 6:30-7:45 (Catered: $6.00 per person)

7:45-8:00: Skeptics Society Dumbth Awards with Randy Cassingham. "Dumbth
News" columnist for Skeptic, author of This is True books and syndicated
column.

8:00: KEYNOTE ENTERTAINMENT: RICHARD MILNER: "CHARLES DARWIN--LIVE & IN
CONCERT." Charles Darwin is brought to life by historian of science,
songwriter, author, anthropologist, and entertainer Richard Milner, in a
musical theater experience that is one of a kind. Includes such songs as
"The Book!," "Let Him Be First," and "Why Didn't I Think of That?"

Tony Randall: "These offbeat songs about Darwin and evolution are
absolutely wonderful--and Richard Milner performs them with surprising
skill and panache."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
One price includes all lectures, entertainment, and activities except for
drinks at the Friday night event (there will be a no-host bar), and lunch
and
dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday (on-site meals from our popular
caterer, Burger Continental, for only $6.00 each).

_____Skeptics Society Members and Guests: $85.00 each
_____Nonmembers and Guests: $110.00 each
_____Conference Discount Membership Rate New or Renewal: $25.00
Your conference badge will be mailed to you. Your badge will admit you to
the
conference.
_____Check here if you plan to attend the Friday night event.
__________Total Enclosed

MASTERCARD/VISA #_________________________________________________ 
Expiration date___________________

Name________________________________________________
Address______________________________________________
City_________________________________State______ Zip_______
Phone___________________________________________________

Charge it! FAX your credit card order to 626/794-1301 or place a credt card
phone order at 626/794-3119. To order by mail send a check made out to
Skeptics Society, or your credit card number to: Skeptics Society, P.O. Box
338, Altadena, CA 91001. You can also e-mail your credit card number and
order to: skepticmag@aol.com

YOU CAN NOW ALSO REGISTER ON THE SHOP CART PROGRAM ON THE WEB PAGE:
www.skeptic.com

To reserve a room at the Pasadena Hilton, the host hotel, call
626/577-1000, and ask for the Caltech/Skeptics rate of $124.00 a night.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

About the Speakers

Randy Cassingham is the author of the syndicated newspaper column "This is
True" and a regular columnist for Skeptic magazine. His books collecting
Dumbth stories have become classics of skeptical literature and include
Deputy Kills Man With Hammer, Glow in the Dark Plants Could Help Farmers,
Pitbulls Love You--Really! and Artificial Intelligence Like Real Thing

Dr. Niles Eldredge is curator in the Department of Invertebrates at the
American Museum of Natural History. He is the coauthor with Stephen Jay
Gould of the 1972 paper that proposed the theory of punctuated equilibria,
and the author of numerous popular science books, including The Miner's
Canary (a New York Times Book Review "Notable Book of the Year" for 1992),
Reinventing Darwin, The Pattern of Evolution, Time Frames,
Macroevolutionary Patterns and Evolutionary Dynamics, Unfinished Synthesis,
Dominion, Life in the Balance, and many more.

Dr. John R. "Jack" Horner is the curator of paleontology at the Museum of
the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, where he lives. He is a recipient of a
MacArthur Foundation fellowship and holds an honorary doctorate of science
from the University of Montana. He has been featured on countless
documentaries about dinosaurs as one of the world's experts on dinosaur
behavior. His discovery of the first dinosaur eggs in North America won him
critical acclaim and international recognition. His books include Digging
Dinosaurs, Maia: A Dinosaur Grows Up, The Complete T. Rex, Digging Up
Tyrannosaurus Rex, and his latest, Dinosaur Lives, in which he challenges
conventional evolutionary wisdom on the classification of dinosaur species
and genus.

Frank Miele is Senior Editor of Skeptic magazine who has contributed
numerous cover stories and interviews since he joined the staff in 1994.
His articles have encompassed the Holocaust revisionists, evolutionary
psychology, overpopulation and environmental debates, and his upcoming
cover story on cloning and genetic engineering. His interview subjects have
included E. O. Wilson, Richard Dawkins, Lionel Tiger, Robin Fox, Garrett
Hardin, Julian Simon, Charles Murray, Robert Sternberg, and Jerry Brown.

Richard Milner is a historian of science, songwriter, anthropologist,
entertainer, and Senior Editor of Natural History magazine at the American
Museum of Natural History. His essays and articles on Darwin have appeared
in Natural History and Scientific American. He is the author of
Encyclopedia of Evolution: Humanity's Search for Its Origins and Charles
Darwin: Evolution of a Naturalist. His live stage show has been performed
at colleges and universities all over the world. His show has been highly
praised by Stephen Jay Gould, Penn & Teller, Sir David Attenborough, and
Tony Randall.

James "The Amazing" Randi is the Executive Director of the James Randi
Educational Foundation, professional magician, author, lecturer, and the
world's most famous and respected investigator of paranormal claims. His
books include Flim Flam!, The Faith Healers, The Mask of Nostradamus, The
Truth About Uri Geller, Houdini: His Life and Art, Conjuring, and An
Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural.
He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate and won a prestigious
MacArthur "genius award" fellowship. Isaac Asimov called Randi "a national
treasure." His $1,000,000 prize for anyone who can prove a paranormal power
under controlled conditions keeps him busy testing all manner of claims.

Dr. Michael Ruse is Professor of Philosophy and Zoology at the University
of
Guelph, Ontario. He has appeared on "Quirks and Quarks," the Discovery
Channel, and countless documentaries on evolution over the years, as well
as in William F. Buckley's PBS "Firing Line" debate on evolution and
creationism. Ruse is well-known as an expert on the evolution-creation
debate, and testified in the critically important Arkansas Creationism
Trial, alongside Stephen Jay Gould, as they defeated the creationists in
what was called the "Scopes II" trial. He is the author of The Darwinian
Revolution, Darwinism Defended, The Darwinian Paradigm, Monad to Man,
Taking Darwinism Seriously, But Is It Science?, and most recently, Mystery
of Mysteries.

Dr. Eugenie Scott is Executive Director of the National Center for Science
Education, a pro-evolution nonprofit science education organization with
members in every state. She holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology from
the University of Missouri and taught at the university level for many
years before assuming her job at NCSE. Dr. Scott has received the
Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Missouri, the Isaac
Asimov Science Award from the American Humanist Association, and was
elected to the California Academy of Sciences. She is a consultant on
science education, advising school districts and states on curricula and
church/state separation issues. She serves on the National Advisory Council
of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, on the National
Advisory Council of Americans for Religious Liberty, and is on the Board of
Directors of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study. She is frequently
called upon by the media to comment on a scientist's view of pseudoscience,
and is an internationally-recognized expert on the creation/evolution
controversy.

Dr. Michael Shermer is Publisher of Skeptic magazine, Director of the
Skeptics Society, and author of Why People Believe Weird Things (W. H.
Freeman, 1997). His next book is about the search for god in the age of
science. Shermer is also the author of Teach Your Child Science
(Contemporary Books, 1988) and co-authored Teach Your Child Math and
Mathemagics (1990, 1993 with Arthur Benjamin). He has his own radio show,
"Science Talk," on Wednesdays from 6-7pm on KPCC, 89.3FM, the NPR affiliate
for Southern California. Since his creation of the Skeptics Society he has
appeared on such shows as Charlie Rose, Tom Snyder, Donahue, Oprah, Sally,
Lezza, Good Morning America, Dateline, 20/20, Unsolved Mysteries, and
others, as a nationally-recognized expert on scientific and
pseudoscientific controversies. 


Michael Shermer
Publisher