National Capital Area ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ S○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○KEPTICAL EYE • encourages critical and scientific thinking • serves as an information resource on extraordinary Vol. 16, No. 1 claims • provides extraordinary evidence that skeptics are cool 2004 CS TV: Crime Science on Television by Walter F. Rowe, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Forensic Sciences The George Washington University n the last few years television pro- CSI has many positive features. The pro- grams about forensic science have gram focuses on the use of physical evidence become very popular. On cable TV to solve crimes; the witnesses interviewed by channels there are documentary series police often hamper the investigations more coming events 2 such as Forensic Files, The New De- than they help them. Eyewitnesses are often Itectives, and Secrets of Forensic Science. The shown to be mistaken or lying. The problem- prez sez 3 The UFO major networks have dramas such as NBC’s atic nature of eyewitness testimony has been Evidence 4 Law & Order and Crossing Jordan and CBS’s evident to thoughtful investigators for many Precursors of CSI and CSI: Miami. CSI, (Crime Scene In- years. It is valuable to have the lay public fre- Flying Saucers 9 vestigation) now in its third season, is one of quently reminded of its many deficiencies. Lucky Day 10 the most popular programs on television. Cur- On TV and in popular culture in general, Secret Origins rently, it wins its time slot in the Nielsen ratings. educated people are sometimes portrayed as of the Bible 12 The series is set in Las Vegas and follows effete snobs who can barely function in the Bits and Pieces 19 the activities of a team of crime scene investi- real world. The CSI characters have quirks In Memoriam: gators as they investigate suspicious deaths. and hang-ups (Willows has substance abuse Doris Bloch 20 Gil Grissom (played by William Petersen) is problems in her past and Brown has a gam- the supervisor of the night shift at the Field bling problem), but they are generally pre- Service Office. Grissom has a Ph.D. in biol- sented as regular people who are highly ogy from UCLA; he specializes in forensic competent at their jobs. Each week on CSI entomology (the use of insects in forensic sci- bright, well-educated good guys ence). His team includes second-in- command beat bad guys through sci- Catherine Willows (B.S. in medical technology ence and the power from the University of Nevada—Las Vegas), of reasoning. Al- Sara Sidel (B.S. in physics from Harvard), though the CSI in- Warrick Brown (B.S. in chemistry from the vestigators Law CSI:& Order University of Nevada—Las Vegas) and Nick carry weapons Stokes (B.S. in criminal justice from Rice Uni- they rarely use Crime Scene Investigation versity). I have highlighted the college degrees them: Their provided for the CSI team members as part of critical thinking skills are Forensic Files their back stories because CSI is one of the more important than CSI: MIAMI few TV programs to emphasize the educations their pistols. And for of its characters. those who like to dwell on continued on page 14 coming events Friday the 13th Join us for a fun-filled evening on Friday, February 13th at Mayorga Coffee in Silver Spring, MD, from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Enjoy this year’s superstitious day with fellow skeptics. Future Lectures Lectures currently scheduled for 2004 are: February 21—Univ. of Maryland “Critical Thinking” course students presenting papers/projects March 27-28—Annual NCAS Weekend Workshop in Leesburg, VA. Details to follow soon. April 15—Ian Rowland, amazing entertainment. Details to follow soon. Special venue. April 17—Melissa Pollack of NSF May 15—Sally Satel from American Enterprise Institute, on PTSD as a “real” mental disorder. Lectures for the 2003-2004 year will be held at the B-CC Services Center in the Multipurpose Room. The Center is at 4805 Edgemoor Lane in downtown Bethesda, MD. Directions to the Center are at: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/RSC/bcc/directions.asp. (Map to B- CC Services Center) 2003/2004 Board of Directors of the National Capital Area Skeptics at November 2003 meeting. Left to right, bottom row: Paul Jaffe, Grace Denman, Sharlene Deskins, Chip Denman. Top row: Scott Snell, Tim Scanlon, Walter Rowe, Eugene Ossa, Marv Zelkowitz, Chris Wanjek, Jim Giglio Cancelled! For more information, go to: http:// www.ianrowland.com/NewsSchedule/News&Schedule.html Helen E. Hester-Ossa National Capital Area Skeptical Eye (ISSN 1063-2077) NCAS Board of Directors Editor/Designer is published by the National Capital Area Skeptics, Executive Committee Photographer PO Box 8428 , Silver Spring, MD 20907. Marv Zelkowitz, president Helen E. Hester-Ossa Copyright © 2004 National Capital Area Skeptics. Gary Stone, vice president Eye Coordinator Signed articles are the opinions of the authors. Grace Denman, treasurer Sharlene Deskins Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the Sharlene Deskins, secretary position of the editors, the Board of Directors, or the Paul Jaffe, past president National Capital Area Skeptics. Other Board members 24-hour phone number: 301-587-3827 Jonathan Boswell Walter Rowe e-mail: [email protected] Chip Denman Tim Scanlon Skeptical Eye input: [email protected] Jim Giglio Scott Snell Internet: http://www.ncas.org Stephen J. Goodson Jamy Ian Swiss NCAS discussion group: [email protected] Neil Langdon Inglis Chris Wanjek Eugene Ossa recycled paper ○○○○○○ 2 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Skeptical Eye Vol. 16, No. 1 2004 prez sez by Marv Zelkowitz Dear Skeptical Eye reader: i! As your new president, I guess I anonymously, I want to publicly thank those should introduce myself. I first heard responsible for its timely production: Chip Habout NCAS when Jamy Swiss and Denman produces the front side with the Chip Denman, two of NCAS’s founders and monthly lecture notice, Eugene Ossa produces current Board members, were on radio dis- the flip side with the calendar information, and cussing skepticism around 1992. Shortly Scott Snell does the printing and mailing. Jim thereafter I saw Randi at the National Institute Giglio has been coordinating speakers for each of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, monthly lecture. We all should thank them and I was hooked. I joined and within a year since the Shadow is the glue that keeps the or so I was on the NCAS Board, Secretary of organization operating. Incidentally, if you the group, and since August 1994 I was editor have recommendations for speakers, please of the monthly calendar, Shadow of a Doubt. send Jim your recommendations. (Remember In my “day job” I am Professor of Com- that our budget for this is rather meager.) In- puter Science at the University of Maryland formation to the NCAS Board can best be where I am interested in software engineering conveyed using the email [email protected]. and technology transfer—how to get new NCAS is a volunteer organization. That technology in use for producing better com- means we need volunteers from among our puter software. I was a member of NCAS for members. This in turn requires members who almost 10 years before realizing that my uni- can volunteer. As Shadow editor for many versity research and interests in NCAS are years, I saw a slow decay of our membership. really the same. At the University most of my Reversing this is my major goal as president. research is in experimentation in validating We need more volunteers to help the Board claims of grand new technologies. Does the produce programs and publications for your latest “buzzword” of my field—the Java lan- interest—monthly meetings, annual work- guage, object oriented programming, function shops, Friday the 13th socials, this Skeptical points, XML, Windows XP—really improve Eye, Shadow, and other events of interest to computer technology or is it just hype? Re- you. Putting the 1968 Condon Report on place these buzzwords with terms like home- UFOs on the web has made NCAS known opathy, alternative medicine, therapeutic internationally. We also need more members. touch, and you have a skeptical agenda. Per- So, please try to volunteer, come to our haps it is obvious to others, but I only realized events, and if you know of others with a simi- about 2 years ago that I have been a profes- lar outlook, encourage them to come to a few sional skeptic for the last 33 years. lectures and join the group. After 7 or 8 years I finally wanted to give See you at our next event! the Shadow to someone else—but no takers. It seemed like becoming president of the group Marv was the only way to get out of that task, so here I am. Since the Shadow is published See Marv’s article, “Secret Origins of the Bible—a review” on page 12 of this issue. ○○○○○○○○○○ Skeptical Eye Vol. 16, No. 1 2004 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ 3 The UFO Evidence: Burdens of Proof by Jim Giglio and Scott Snell This is a revision of a piece that Jim and Scott wrote for the “ufoskeptic” web page a couple of years ago. The page is maintained by Bernard Haisch, a University of California physicist; it contains articles from both sides of the UFO issue, mostly “pro.” e start where any scientific debate submitted to the National UFO Reporting Cen- over the UFO evidence ought to ter in 1999 (who also seem to regard it as Wstart, with the 1968 University of typical and informative, since they chose to Colorado report to the Air Force, Scientific publish it) and refers to an event that allegedly Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, also occurred in 1976 near Hydes, Maryland: known as the Condon Report.