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May 2021 NMSR Reports, Vol.27, No May 2021 NMSR Reports, Vol.27, No. 5 www.nmsr.org Page NMSR Reports, David E. Thomas, Editor, 1201 N. Avenida de Chamiso Pl., Socorro, NM 87801 © 2021 local GMX dealer Larry Brown. These are the MAY MEETING: same ineffective devices studied by NMSR in a NEW MEXICANS FOR SCIENCE 2005 project with KRQE TV’s Larry Barker. AND REASON will hear This collaboration involved NMSR’s former treasurer, Nancy Shelton, who went incognito Dave Thomas and guests and wore a hidden camera to capture Brown’s on “They're Ba-ack! Magnetic actual sales pitch. Barker’s blistering takedown of Brown and GMX ran on KRQE on July 27th, Water Conditioning and Other 2005, and mentioned several of the NMSR Pseudoscience Zombies” experiments that were performed by Kim th Johnson and Dave Thomas to evaluate and =>May 12 , 2021 7:00PM<= disprove a claimed magnetic effect on water =>Attend online!<= conditioning. This affair should have been the end of GMX as a business, but Brown’s magnet FUTURE MEETINGS ANNOUNCED! spiel is still making the rounds, like a zombie May 12th, 2021 NMSR Meeting: Dave that won’t die. Thomas and guests on “They're Ba-ack! There are other cases of cheats and fakers Magnetic Water Conditioning and Other being caught dead to rights, only to survive the Pseudoscience Zombies”. scandals, and emerge more popular than ever. For example, Peter Popoff and Uri Geller were definitively debunked by James Randi, but are still peddling their pseudoscientific wares. Zoom in Wednesday the 12th for a lively discussion of these and other examples of the Peripatetic Dead. Because of the ongoing Corona virus crisis, this meeting will be held online, and members can attend from their homes or offices. It will be hosted on Zoom. A Zoom Link will be sent out to all members and potential attendees before the meeting. To get added to the attendee list, simply email [email protected]. th Recent issues of the NM Marketplace Tune in to Zoom at 7:00 PM May 12 , flyer have featured full-page advertisements 2021, On Line! pitching magnetic water conditioners, created by June 9th, 2021 NMSR Meeting: TBD May 2021 NMSR Reports, Vol.27, No. 5 www.nmsr.org Page New Mexicans for Science & Reason (NMSR) PUZZLE TIME! NMSR is a non-profit group with the goals of [Please send solutions to Dave Thomas at: [email protected], or at promoting science, the scientific method, rational thinking, 801 Fitch Ave., Socorro NM 87801.] and critical examination of dubious or extraordinary claims. NMSR meets at 7 PM on the second Wednesday of Cyber-Cypher: MAY PUZZLE each month, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at CNM’s (Submitted by Dave Thomas) Student Resource Center, room 204 (@ Richard Barr The following letters are a simple substitution cypher. If Boardroom). NMSR Reports is its official newsletter. R stands for L, R will stand for L everywhere. Your NMSR officers: Cyber-Cypher Clue: Clue? Oh, well - if you must, see p. 2. Dave Thomas, President 1201 Avenida de Chamiso Pl., Socorro, NM 87801 "KA KL AMN EIJKTS IV DS [email protected] John Covan, Vice-President GODKYKLABGAKIY AI DGXN [email protected] Debbie Thomas, Treasurer NUKONYTN-HGLNO ONTKLKIYL 3205 Alcazar NE, Albuq., NM 87110 WCKONO HS AMN HNLA [email protected] Eddy Jacobs, Resident Neutron Generator GUGKJGHJN LTKNYTN GYO [email protected] Mark Fraser CNM Sponsor OGAG." - EBNLKONYA ZIN [email protected] John Geohegan, Past President HKONY [email protected] Kim Johnson, Industrial Physicist SUPER SECRET WORD! [email protected] However you prefer to do the cypher itself (above Marilyn Savitt-Kring, Science Mom or below), simply duplicate those actions on the Membership: $25/year (hardcopy newsletter), or $15/year alphabetized row of cypher letters below. You’ll build an (downloadable PDF), make your check payable to answer key, and you’ll also reveal - the Super Secret NMSR, send to treasurer (Debbie Thomas). Word! NMSR Advisors: • Mark Boslough, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Physicist (Impacts, Climate Change, Global Warming). Sandia National Labs. APRIL CYPHER SOLUTION IF I CAN'T WORK WITH YOU, I WILL WORK • Kendrick Frazier AROUND YOU." - ANNIE EASLEY, COMPUTER Editor, Skeptical Inquirer SCIENTIST, MATHEMATICIAN, AND NASA ROCKET • John Geissman SCIENTIST Professor of Paleomagnetism Esteemed April Code Crackers: Mike Arms*, • Alan Hale David Kinder*, and Austin Moede*! Southwest Institute for Space Research *Secret Word: "SURE DOWNPLAY MITCH" • Randy Thornhill Professor of Biology, UNM Cyber-Cypher Clue: V = F, X = K Need more Secret Word Cryptograms? Bonus Puzzle Clue: One pound = 12 Troy Oz. New puzzles every week at Oh, and you might want to try a little Calculus! www.nmsr.org/SocorroStumper.h tm WANTED: READER ARTICLES & COMMENTARY Got something to share with NMSR members? Send it in! ATTN: Dave Thomas, Editor, NMSR Reports. REMEMBER, our next NMSR meeting is ONLINE, May 12th at 7PM, on Zoom! May 2021 NMSR Reports, Vol.27, No. 5 www.nmsr.org Page May Bonus: “Pirate Treasure” “Biblical value.” The story was actually a Submitted by Dave Thomas parody based on statements made by New You have been Mexico creationists. But, as the story was captured by Pirates while forwarded from person to person, all of Mark’s sailing the Carribean, and deliberate hoax hints were deleted. have been brought before their gruff Captain. With a After a brief video showing the latest sinister snarl, he barks “I've mention of “Alabama p” on Jeopardy! (April 1st, a chest here that holds 120 2021) (online at https://www.youtube.com/watch? pounds of pure gold coins. v=AgFSv3kI6_4), Mark read the original story live. Some of these coins be decloons [10 Troy ounces The reading, and the entire April meeting, is on each], and the rest be YouTube, at https://www.youtube.com/watch? triploons [three Troy ounces v=bnRVr2urkVc). each]. Now, mate, if ye can In Mark’s parody, Alabama legislator tell me exactly how many decloons and triploons are in Leonard Lee Lawson was modeled after real-life NM my chest, ye walks away a free man. Get it wrong, and state senator Leonard Lee Rawson, who argued in ye'll be walkin' the Plank!” After another pirate suggested the ‘90s against evolution on the floor of the NM that the riddle was perhaps overly challenging, the Captain Senate by brandishing a stuffed monkey and saying snorted, and then offered a hint: “Awright, matey - the "that's not my uncle." Rocket scientist Marshall number of decloons times the number of triploons couldn't be larger!” Bergman was modeled after physicist Marshall The May Bonus: For your life - how many Berman, who ran against (and defeated) creationist decloons and how many triploons are in the chest? board member Millie Pogna (Lily Ponja in the parody). Prof. Kim Johanson was based on the very April Bonus: “Herd Immunity” male Kim Johnson. Propulsion technician Russell Submitted by Dave Thomas Humbleys was patterned after New Mexico creation If a new disease-causing virus comes along with a physicist Russell Humphreys. And, Solomon Society “spread factor” R0 of one new infection per infected member Roger Learned was cut from the mold of individual, a possible pandemic will fizzle out, with no NM State Board of Education member (and need for mass vaccination. For R0 = 10 new infections per celebrated creationist) Roger X. Lenard. Learned each infected person, however, about 90% of the was quoted as follows. “These nabobs waltzed into population will need to be vaccinated to prevent a new pandemic. the capital with an arrogance The April Bonus: If the novel coronavirus of 2019 has an that was breathtaking. Their prefatorial deficit resulted in R0 of 3, what percent of the population should be vaccinated to prevent a new pandemic? a polemical stance at absolute contraposition to the Answer: 2/3 of the population, = 1-1/R0 . legislature's puissance.” Here Congrats: Earl Dombroski (NM), Paul Braterman is a similar-sounding (UK), Keith Gilbert (NM)! pronouncement from the April 14th, 2021 NMSR Meeting: Dr. real-life Roger Lenard: “The Mark Boslough on “The True Story of proponents of the bill [Senate Bill 155] swept into Santa Fe Alabama p”. with an arrogance that was On April 1st, 1998, Dave Thomas posted breathtaking, even within the an April Fools news story by Mark Boslough on puissance-laden halls of the Legislature.” talk.origins. The story was about the Alabama Dave mentioned how he tracked the legislature, which had just voted to make the evolution of the parody over the Internet, and how a mutation in Alabama’s Auburn University replaced value of p to 3.0, to bring it in line with the New Mexico names with Auburn academics. Mark May 2021 NMSR Reports, Vol.27, No. 5 www.nmsr.org Page mentioned how interesting it would be to trace the allosaur and human skeletons found together, phylogeny of the “virus”, which made the May 1998 disproving evolution. Mark also discussed the Talk Origins Post of the Month (“NM Physicists “Christmas Roast” prank he authored about a worker Create Artificial Life on Web!”). Dave showed how who cooked himself with microwaves while trying to Nick Matzke did derive a stay warm by standing next to a large dish, This one phylogeny of creationist made the front page of the Denver Post, to legislation, which Boslough’s amusement. The worker was allegedly included several bills employed by Northern Manitoba Signal Relay presented in New Mexico (NMSR). between 2007 and 2011. The discussion closed with remarks about Another example of future pranks, perhaps a 25th anniversary celebration textual evolution was of “Alabama Pi” in 2023. revealed in the 2005 NMSR thanks Mark Boslough for a highly Dover trial, where entertaining discussion.
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