Where have I been?

I've been out of town for the past few days, in Las Vegas attending a gathering at The Amazing Meeting 4. Where a distinguished list of panel of speakers discussed the politics of science. Primarily concerned with the creeping 'Intelligent Design' on our schools, it also had lectures and papers from many distinguished figures.

Presentations included a lecture by Nobel Laureate Murray Gell-Man (the man who named the Quark), James Randi, Phil 'The Bad Astronomer' Plaitt, Richard Wiseman, Penn Jilette (of Penn & Teller), the crew of the show 'Mythbusters', representatives from the ACLU and the American Atheist Society, and too many others to name.

Almost all the presentations were incredible. I was never bored for a moment. I wish I could try to describe their lectures but I would fail utterly to do them justice. Even the papers, which were presented by minor players, were impressive in their presentation (the best of which was by Robert Lancaster, who started the Stop Kaz! website after researching a con artist claiming to have survived the WTC collapse despite being on a floor above the impact. No surprise, she was actually in California at the time).

This event stems from a gathering of the JREF (link on the side of my blog) message board, where I have been active for some years now. Their efforts started the first TAM, which was a small affair. This one was the first one I could attend, and it had grown to some 800 attendees. A good portion of which were board members.

Best of all were the other events that took place after the lectures. Many dinners and lunches, and a few parties and pub crawls. I am amazed I did not return 5 pounds heavier than I left. But at the very least I can now say that I have gotten drunk with a genuine Nobel laureate. Yee-Haw!

This was a last minute thing for me. I was not planning to attend, but I signed up after recent events pretty much left me doing nothing at the end of January. I am very glad that I went. I only wish I could have had more time to chat with the various attending http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifSkepchicks who were present. I'll have to settle with singing Dresden Doll songs with one of them while she used me for a seatback.

My thanks to those who made it easy for me to attend. Now I need to catch up on sleep.