Mythbusters, anyone?

[LovesToRead]

Any fans of this show?

 

[USincognito]

Any fans of this show?

I would watch Mythbusters for Kari alone... RRRrrraarrww.

I don't know if I've mentioned this in other threads but I've been involved with organized Skepticism for about 5 years and specifically with the James Randi Educational Foundation which holds an annual conference called "The Amaz!ing Meeting". I attended the first 3, but due to personality conflicts with a few members and a disdain for the seeming atheist litmus test for "true skeptics" disengaged myself from the organization and message board and did not attend The Amaz!ing Meeting 4.

Guess who were there as speakers and availible for photos and to be chatted up? Jamie, Adam and Kari...

Randi has made public statements that JREF is not an organization advocating atheism but skepticism, but I'm not assuaged enough to return to a position of financial support and TAM attendance, but I remain committed to encouraging Skepticism wish more religious believers would join the fight against fraudulent medical claims, fake spirit mediums, impotent telekineticists, non-existant extra-terrestrials, and debunked Urban Legends like Mythbusters investigates.

 

[LovesToRead]

I would watch Mythbusters for Kari alone... RRRrrraarrww.

I don't know if I've mentioned this in other threads but I've been involved with organized Skepticism for about 5 years and specifically with the James Randi Educational Foundation which holds an annual conference called "The Amaz!ing Meeting". I attended the first 3, but due to personality conflicts with a few members and a disdain for the seeming atheist litmus test for "true skeptics" disengaged myself from the organization and message board and did not attend The Amaz!ing Meeting 4.

Guess who were there as speakers and availible for photos and to be chatted up? Jamie, Adam and Kari...

Randi has made public statements that JREF is not an organization advocating atheism but skepticism, but I'm not assuaged enough to return to a position of financial support and TAM attendance, but I remain committed to encouraging Skepticism wish more religious believers would join the fight against fraudulent medical claims, fake spirit mediums, impotent telekineticists, non-existant extra-terrestrials, and debunked Urban Legends like Mythbusters investigates.

You would love talking with my husband! Who knows, maybe he'll get an account some day. BTW, which are you a skeptic or atheist? If that's not too personal a question. If so, no worries!

Anywho...someone you might want to check out is named Andre Kole. He's a Christian illusionist. (I just googled him and he popped right up)

He is definetly very into the kind of debunking you are talking about. I have a book of his, maybe 2. We saw him in person locally several years ago. He makes it extremely clear during his show that everything he does is an illusion.

I like the Amazing Randy - haven't seen him for a long time, is he still around? Actually I just googled him too, so I see what he's doing.

Anyway, yeah we love watching Mythbusters. My son isn't really strong into science and I'm always pointing out how that's what they're doing - well not always, but you know how mothers can be.

I don't think Kari could carry Mythbusters alone, sorry, US.

 

[stonewalljon]

I love Mythbusters!! man they sure do love to blow things up, haha i love it! When they blew u the cement truck, i was totally shocked the explosive power was incredable!!
Jon

 

[LovesToRead]

Yeah, they DO like to blow things up!

Last night they were shooting into the pool. That was a big WOW too!

 

[Z500]

they blew up three mini-hindenburgs too.

 

[LovesToRead]

yes, they did!

That was amazing to see!

Yeah, the gun one was a repeat with the one about swings!

 

[USincognito]

You would love talking with my husband! Who knows, maybe he'll get an account some day. BTW, which are you a skeptic or atheist? If that's not too personal a question. If so, no worries!

I'm a Skeptic and an atheist, but I don't like the tone coming from some prominent voices in organized skepticism (like Dawkins) or some of the forum members at JREF (though I started posting there again recently and it's not really as bad as I'd come to think it was a few years ago).

I'll definately check out Andre Kole (and will post about him over on JREF) and I wish I'd thought to start a thread on the Mythbusters marathon Discovery channel ran on Christmas Day. 18 episodes of viewers choice.

 

[Athene]

See my usertitle! I love mythbustes, its really interesting and scientific and fun.

 

[LovesToRead]

I'm a Skeptic and an atheist, but I don't like the tone coming from some prominent voices in organized skepticism (like Dawkins) or some of the forum members at JREF (though I started posting there again recently and it's not really as bad as I'd come to think it was a few years ago).

I'll definately check out Andre Kole (and will post about him over on JREF) and I wish I'd thought to start a thread on the Mythbusters marathon Discovery channel ran on Christmas Day. 18 episodes of viewers choice.

Would you please tell me what you mean by "skeptic"? Thanks. I know what it means to be an atheist.

Why will you post about Andre Kole at the other board?

 

[USincognito]

Would you please tell me what you mean by "skeptic"? Thanks. I know what it means to be an atheist.

It's hard for me to summarize it without rambling on since there's a lot of nuance (which I'll gladly go into if you have further questions) but here's a link to the Skeptic Society's about us page that does a pretty good job of describing organized Skepticism.

The super Readers Digest version is - if something doesn't sound right or makes your eyebrow arch when you read or hear about something, investigate and see if there's any support or evidence for something.

That compressed nutshell of Skepticism is basically what Adam and Jamie do on Mythbusters. They hear these Urban Legends and then try replicate them and see what the science says. They even apply the scientific method in their verdicts reached from their analysis, possible/plausable rather than happened/proved.

Why will you post about Andre Kole at the other board?

Well, for one thing, about half of the people who appear on stage at The Amazing Meetings are magicians, mentalists, illusionists or amatures (Penn and Teller*, Banacek, Randi himself, Jamie Ian Swiss, etc.) so I'm sure the JREF members would be interested in hearing about him. He's also into the debunking aspect of skepticism so I'm sure they'd like to read about that too.

Hmmm. I've been on a big push to include more religious folks and Christians in particular in organized Skepticism so maybe if Mr. Kole would appear at the next TAM that might help.

*and yes, Teller speaks

 

[LovesToRead]

Well, I find you rather open-minded for a skeptic/atheist.

I've seen so much of the "off with their heads" approach, that I just find it all rather fascinating.

*tries to remember if she ever saw Teller speak - probably not*

Will read more about what you posted (in detail) anon.

Thanks, US!

 

[USincognito]

Well, I find you rather open-minded for a skeptic/atheist.

I've seen so much of the "off with their heads" approach, that I just find it all rather fascinating.

*tries to remember if she ever saw Teller speak - probably not*

Will read more about what you posted (in detail) anon.

Thanks, US!

I'm open minded about people even if I'm not really open minded about some ideas they hold. I looked at Andre's website and while I was a bit disappointed to see him selling a Discovery Institute book on Intelligent Design I was really impressed with his other books on other areas important to organized Skepticism like psychics, Cryptozoology and spirit mediums*. I'm going to e-mail him in the next few days and try and engage a dialogue with him. I also posted over at JREF to see what the opinion of forum members there.

One of these days I really need to write up a boilerplate and save it to my hard drive so I can just cut and paste my lengthy explaination of why more people should be skeptical and involved in Skeptic organizations, but I haven't so I'll compose a message anew tonight when I come back in for work. For now I'll leave you with a quick anecdote.

My buddy Randall is a subdeacon at his Orthodox Church. He listens to the radio at his job as a welder during the week and enjoys talk, but sometimes listens to an Oldies and light banter show hosted by local personality Jody Dean. A few months ago Jody had on John Edward (the "psychic" not Edwards, the Senator) who thought he was going to shill some book or show or something but Jody creamed him asking about cold reading and explaining what a fraud he was to the audience.

I didn't hear the show, but Randall called me soon after it aired, gave me a rundown and I posted links to Jody's show to JREF so they could listen to the audio download. I guess the folks there were thrilled with him and they started e-mailing him telling him how great a job he did. I eventually e-mailed him an explained why he was getting e-mails from all over the country, Europe and Australia. He's an Evangelical and it turns out he's been involved with Ole Anthony's Trinity Foundation for years now.

* This is one area where I would think Christian and atheist Skeptics would agree on, no one is talking to the dead. For atheists, the dead are gone. For Chrisitans, the soul is either in heaven or "on ice" waiting for Judgement Day.

(Oh, and I found a few photos from TAM4 taken by attendees that I thought I'd post here, enjoy)

 

[USincognito]

I realized I hadn't added any Jamie photos. Here's one of him spending some quality time with my friend Kitty's daughter kitten2.

 

[DJ B.K.]

I love this show. I love the explosions! The episode where they get drunk to see if they can fool the breathalyser test was funny.

 

[jerek]

I love that show. Poor buster!!! My favorite episode is the one where they tried to duplicate jumping at the last min. in a falling elevator to save you life.

 

[PureGrace]

I love MythBusters

=)