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CSI(COP) Renews and Expands Executive Council, Plans for Future Activities Kendrick Frazier and Barry Karr

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CSI(COP) Renews and Expands Executive Council, Plans for Future Activities Kendrick Frazier and Barry Karr SI Jan Feb 11 FINAL_SI new design masters 11/17/10 2:56 PM Page 5 [ NEWS AND COMMENT CSI(COP) Renews and Expands Executive Council, Plans for Future Activities Kendrick Frazier and Barry Karr The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry ence Education), David E. Thomas sources is its group of fellows—outstand- (CSI), publisher of the SKEPTICAL IN- (physicist/mathematician; president, ing scientists, scholars, and investigators QUIRER, promotes “scientific inquiry, New Mexicans for Sci ence and Rea- elected for their “distinguished achieve- critical investigation, and the use of rea- son), Leonard Tramiel (astrophysicist; ment in science and skepticism.” At the son in examining controversial and ex- board member, Center for Inquiry), and October meeting, the executive council traordinary claims” (see box for a fuller Benjamin Wolozin (cell biologist and elected a number of new CSI fellows. version of our mission statement). researcher into degenerative nerve dis- These fellows-elect will be announced CSI’s official policy-making body is eases, Boston University School of after invitation letters are sent out and its executive council. A variety of cir- Medi cine). All but Lilienfeld attended acceptances re ceived. We will report on cumstances had militated against any the meeting. Several additional candi- them in a future issue. meeting of the executive council for dates for the executive council are By the way, the possibility of going several years, but a small CSI planning under consideration. back to CSI’s original name, the Com - meeting was held on October 9, 2010, Much of the discussion at the all- mittee for the Scientific Investi gation at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in day meeting was centered on ideas and of Claims of the Paranormal (abbrevi- downtown Los Angeles. The executive plans for strengthening the reach and ated CSICOP and pronounced “psi- council was reconstituted and ex - increasing the visibility of CSI and the cop”)—which had been in place since panded, and then it met for the rest of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Possible future its founding in 1976—was raised and the day. The meeting was initiated, or- CSI activities and events were also con- briefly discussed, with no action taken. ganized, and hosted by CSI Execu tive sidered. Among the topics discussed The name was shortened by the execu- Director Barry Karr. were better facilitating international co- tive council in a meeting on Sep tem ber Members of the new executive coun- operation and participation, building 23, 2006 (see SI, January/February cil, who will also serve on this magazine’s bonds with skeptical communities 2007). One suggestion was to keep the editorial board, are James E. Alcock (psy- everywhere, supporting local and re- new, shorter name but resume use of chologist, York University, Toronto), gional groups, drawing more upon CSI the CSICOP acronym, which has a Kendrick Frazier (science writer; editor, fellows and scientific consultants, social long and rich tradition and history. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER), Ray Hyman networking interactively with readers Readers’ and supporters’ ideas or com- (psychologist, University of Oregon), and supporters, and helping train small ments about any of the topics ad dressed Scott O. Lilienfeld (psychologist, active groups for investigations. here may be directed to Executive Direc- Emory University; editor, the Scien tific It was decided to resume regular CSI tor Barry Karr at CSI’s Amherst head- Review of Mental Health Prac tice), conferences, ideally in late Octo ber each quarters at [email protected] (or Amardeo Sarma (chairman of GWUP, year. The next one is tentatively sched- through the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER’s the German skeptics group), Eugenie uled for October 27–30, 2011. Various Facebook page), Editor Kendrick Frazier C. Scott (physical anthropologist; exec- sites are under consideration. at [email protected], or any utive director, National Center for Sci- One of CSI’s main intellectual re - of the executive council members. n Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept . Here is CSI’s current, full mission statement as written and approved by its executive council on September 23, 2005: The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry promotes science and scientific inquiry, critical thinking, science education, and the use of reason in ex- amining important issues. It encourages the critical investigation of controversial or extraordinary claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and disseminates factual information about the results of such inquiries to the scientific community, the media, and the public. This shorter version was created in 2009 (either may be used): The mission of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry is to promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims. Skeptical Inquirer | January/ February 2 01 1 5 SI Jan Feb 11 from home_SI new design masters 11/12/10 11:56 AM Page 6 CSI Cracks Manhattan UFO Mystery Benjamin Radford New Yorkers are used to odd sights, but what hundreds of people in the Chelsea district of Manhattan’s West Side saw in the sky on October 14, 2010, sur- prised even them. A cluster of silvery, shiny lights ap- peared. Initial descriptions of the sup- posed UFO varied widely. One person said that it was “an oddly shaped object d full of lights, flying slowly through the n o m a evening sky,” while others saw (and i d n o recorded) three distinct objects. Still s a j @ others saw upwards of six. However m o r f many clusters there were—and what- r e t t ever their nature—the city’s 311 emer- i w T a i gency line received dozens of calls V about the mysterious, “extraordinary” Mysterious light clusters appeared over the Chelsea district of Manhattan on October 14, 2010. lights. Aliens in spacecraft were of course a popular theory, though most New Yorkers seemed to take the lights escaped (shortly before the sightings) in stride. Officials said that the objects from an engagement party held for a were not detected as a security threat. teacher at the school. “It was just a freak I was asked by a reporter from ABC thing. Frankly, I’m shocked by it,” said News to analyze video footage of the Aliens in spacecraft Angela Freeman, head of the school. mysterious lights in the sky, and a closer were of course a “The kids had an engagement party for look offered clues about their identity. a teacher, and a mother brought four The lights moved independently like popular theory, dozen balloons, and she’s coming floating objects, unlike fixed lights on though most through the door. It is very windy in an aircraft or spacecraft; they moved to- Mount Vernon. Suddenly, twelve of the gether in the same direction as the wind New Yorkers seemed balloons let loose.” The wind patterns and did not show up on radar. Further- to take the at the time would have taken the bal- more, the objects were not emitting loons to within sight of people in Man- light but instead reflecting sunlight. lights in stride. hattan’s Chelsea area. I told the ABC reporter that the The sightings were also very similar lights looked identical to those seen in to a famous UFO report from New Jer- a reputed UFO video from Buffalo, sey’s Morris County on the evening of New York, that Joe Nickell and I ana- January 5, 2009. An eleven-year-old lyzed several years ago. We determined girl noticed some bright lights in the that those lights were caused by silver cials also suspected that the objects night sky: three lights grouped together Mylar balloons. Of course I could not were balloons, “but so far [there is] no and another pair some distance away. conclusively prove that the Manhattan confirmation. As they said on the X- The lights, which glowed red, moved “UFOs” were balloons, based upon the Files, the truth is out there.” silently and slowly, then disappeared one limited information available and video - In the late afternoon of the day after by one. That case, which I also investi- tape evidence, but I offered it as my best the sightings, officials from the Mile- gated and solved, was some months later professional opinion. On the Early Show, stone School in nearby Mount Vernon, revealed to be a hoax created “as a social anchor Erica Hill reported the story, New York, identified the “UFOs” as experiment” (see “CSI Solves New Jersey n concluding that law enforcement offi- some of the helium balloons that had UFO Mystery,” SI, July/August 2009). 6 Volume 3 5 Issue 1 | Skeptical Inquirer SI Jan Feb 11 from home_SI new design masters 11/12/10 11:56 AM Page 7 [ NEWS AND COMMENT Maryland’s Highest Court Strikes Down County Law Forbidding Fortune-Telling Businesses Scott Snell Montgomery County’s 1951 ordinance exchanges is sufficient, and it is not re- against fortune-telling for profit has strictive of protected speech. Nefedro’s been struck down by the Maryland legal team also stated, “Rather than Court of Appeals. The June 10 opinion being narrowly tailored, the For- overturned a lower court’s judgment up- tunetelling Ban is substantially over- holding the ordinance’s constitutionality. broad, in that it criminalizes payment Fortune-teller Nick Nefedro, represented for all fortune telling—whether or not in part by the American Civil Liberties actually fraudulent.” Union (ACLU) Founda tion of Mary- This viewpoint was reflected in the land, argued that the fortune-telling or- court’s majority opinion: dinance violates his right to freedom of ... the County repeatedly asserts . .. speech under the First Amendment to that fortunetelling is “inherently the United States Con sti tution and Ar- fraudulent” and, as a result, should not ticle 40 of the Maryland Declaration of receive any First Amendment protec- Rights.
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