Skepticamp Colorado 2010 - Impressions, Part One: Criticisms

I'm sure you all noticed I completely failed to live-blog Skepticamp Colorado. The sharper tacks in the box have also likely noticed that it's taken me quite a while to even begin blogging about the event. I could go on and on about needing time to digest all the information we were fed, or I could just get with the blogging and leave the excuses for the next project that gets swallowed up by the passage of time. *coughs*

Before I delve into each of the presentations I attended, I'd like to give a brief overview of my impressions and I'm going to do it in 2 parts. This was my first Skepticamp experience and I went into it without much in the way of expectations or general knowledge. I hadn't had the opportunity to attend any of the planning meetings, didn't know any of the participants (aside from the husbandish, of course), and only glanced at the presentation schedule once it was finalized. Initially my ignorance was just a matter of lacking the time to really sit down and give it a work over, but eventually I embraced the possibility of going in more-or-less blind and getting the full virgin's view of the event. What I found both exceeded my expectations and fell-short of my hopes.

I'm going to go into the difficulties I found with the event first... not because I want to be a prick right off the bat, but because overall my impression was positive and I'd like to leave on that note. I'm splitting my impressions into Part One: Criticisms and Part Two: Praise, because I want to give a forum to discuss both without getting either muddied up. Please keep in mind, however, that I've already stated I was NOT involved in planning the event. These events rely on the participation of attendees. Had I attended those planning sessions it's likely some of the issues I'm about to discuss would have been addressed. I'm offering them only as an insight into what I felt didn't work coming from a position of complete and utter ignorance.

So... here we go.

Wait... what just happened?

The time limit for presentations defaulted at 15 minutes (**see correction below), with more time being granted to those individuals who could show they needed it (the longest presentation ran an hour, and it was the only one to run longer than 30 minutes). 15 minutes is nothing. Many professional public speakers take that long just to introduce themselves and their topic. I completely understand the organizers wanted to give everyone a chance to speak... but I can't help but feel 15 minutes isn't much of a chance. Adding to the strain of the time limit was the general format of Skepticamp - participants are encouraged to ask question during the speaker's presentations. This allows for instantaneous objections to questionable material, requests for references, and input that is often stymied when questions are saved for the end. Unfortunately, this format also seemed to occasionally cause unintentional hijackings as less experienced presenters were led away on tangents they never quite recovered from. Presenters who read directly from previously prepared speeches were especially vulnerable as precious moments ticked by while they attempted to find their place and get back on track after every question.

If I Were Queen: I think I'd extend the minimum presentation time to 30 minutes, allowing additional time in 15 minute increments to those individuals who could demonstrate a need for it. I would encourage presenters to spend the first 5 to 10 minutes of their allotted time introducing themselves and highlighting any points they believe are essential in conveying the intention of their presentation. I would then ask that the presenters give a moment for questions specific to the introduction (such as requests for credentials) before delving into the topic. Lastly, I would ask that each presenter write up a synopsis of their intended talk to be made available to participants before hand as this might help weed out some early questions that are intended to be addressed later on in the presentation.

How This Creates More Problems: The more time that is allotted to each individual presentation, the fewer presentations you can give in a single room during the space of a single day. Running conflicting presentations in separate rooms almost guarantees that participants will be forced to make unpopular choices. Extending the event to encompass two or more days almost guarantees that some participants will miss at least half of the scheduled presentations. Both options also narrow the list of venues where a Skepticamp might be held.

** CORRECTION: 15 minutes was NOT the default time frame.  Presenters were given a choice between a 15 minute time slot and a 30 minute time slot, and longer time slots were available by request to those who could demonstrate need.  My apologies for making the assumption that the 15 minute slots were assigned by default rather than chosen, and thanks to Festivus2007 for pointing out my error. 

Football is For Pussies.

The primary reason I can't stand popular American sports is the feeling that for every 30 seconds of play time, they spend 10 minutes standing around in various huddles chit-chatting or looking at bits of film over and over again to decide if there was a foul, or replacing players, or calling their mothers... or whatever it is they're doing while I'm busy falling asleep. I'm a lacrosse girl... a rugby (I prefer league over union) girl... a "fucking do something while you're out there on the damn field or I'm not going to pay for this shit" girl. Injured? Lay still - we'll come get you after your replacement is out on the field and the team has moved out of the way. Foul? Get your ass to the box - your replacement already has the damn ball.

So... I think it's safe to say I can be rather impatient.

What the hell does this have to do with Skepticamp? By the time we hit the first break, my brain was wanting to know why I was confusing academia with rugby. As one presenter was wrapping up, the next was already setting up their presentation. I felt as though the sound of a cracking whip or a starting pistol would be more appropriate than the sound of the participant's applause. There was no time to digest what I'd just heard, wrap up notes, or prepare for the next speaker... because they were already speaking.

If I Were Queen: 5 minutes. That's all I ask. 5 minutes between presentations. Yes, it creates the same time issues that extending the default time limit would and that sucks... just... please... 5 minutes...

Make the Fucker WORK!

Welcome to the digital age, it's less like Star Trek than we really hoped it would be. My computer doesn't like your computer and neither of them like the projector. Your laptop treats my USB like it has cooties and our programs are busy making demon babies even though they're totally incompatible and it'll never work out in the long run.

Basically, technical issues munched on tight time frames like tasty crisps.

If I Were Queen: Finally, something I actually know how to overcome due to experience! Too bad I didn't show up to any of the planning meetings like a douche, eh?

As a once frequent convention panelist, I learned there are ways to avoid the tech time eater. Attach one laptop to the projector, a laptop that both loves and is loved by the projector. Ask presenters to submit the digital portions of their presentations as soon as possible before the event and charge the projector loving laptop's owner with insuring each presentation will run as intended. Presentations that won't run as intended can then be converted to a format that will. (If you absolutely must, plan to have both a PC and a Mac laptop that will connect to the projector. Make it clear to presenters that they'll need to specify the operating system when they submit their presentations.)

How This Creates More Problems: I've just asked two individuals to subject their laptops to at least a week's worth of trial and error by inundating them with presentations sent in my strangers. For some laptop owners, that's synonymous with asking a man to drag his dick through a fetid ditch frequently used as a toilet by dirty whores with nasty heroin habits. (Some computer owners are more than a touch dramatic... but I digress...) Also, while this method really does work, it also requires both a decent time commitment from the laptop owning volunteers and the compliance of presenters. Lastly, it requires the laptop owners be allowed time to insure their equipment is compatible with a projector that is often owned by the venue rather than an individual... which isn't always possible.

WHAT DID YOU SAY?

When Skepticamp proper concluded, many of the participants migrated to a local sports bar to continue the discussions in a less formal way. Sports bars are horrible places to discuss anything (unless you consider monosyllabic grunts of approval and rage directed at sports programming "discussions"). The difficulty in hearing over the roar of the bar resulted in everyone raising their voices... which resulted in difficulty hearing over the roar of the skeptics. It was a self perpetuating cycle that careened me straight into a headache and an acute sense of claustrophobia. The seating arrangements at sports bars, and many restaurants, also make broad discussion difficult - leaving one to either relegate themselves to the discussions at the table they inhabit or feel like an utter cad by migrating around the room.

If I Were Queen: I'd be hosed. There aren't a lot of venues that allow groups to use private rooms with variable seating that don't charge an arm and a leg. In fact, locations like that feed like vampires off the desperation of groups that simply can't handle congregating in another damn sports bar. There are, of course, venues that do have both the room and the inclination to donate it to groups that need a meeting place... typically libraries and churches. Libraries tend to frown on groups bringing in mounds of food and booze, both of which are substances popular enough to be considered necessary, and churches... well... churches don't like people like me... and there are often a lot of people like me at skeptical functions.

That's it. 4 measly criticisms for a day long event and every damn one of them pretty difficult to avoid (and possibly based entirely on my own pissy preferences). Seriously, the gang that put this together rocked it hard. I can't wait to give them the praise they deserve in part two.

AFA Counteraction Alert - Won't Someone Think of the CHILDREN???

I grow weary of the AFA. I still feel their consistently vapid and exaggerated Action Alerts are worth combating (it must be nice for the companies and individuals targeted by these idiots to field a few comments from sane individuals now and again), I just don't have the energy to take them seriously anymore - after all, they don't even take themselves seriously. If they did, their Action Alerts and articles would contain actual facts rather than frenzied rhetoric. From now on I'll merely be using comedic translation to lampoon them like the clowns they are. I'm being generous, ridicule is more than they deserve.

The original text of the AFA Action Alert appears in italics, my helpful "translation" appears in bold.

Dear Friend,

Dear like-minded zealot,

Clad in rainbow colors and Human Rights Campaign stickers, these Home Depot employees help promote the company's outspoken pride for homosexuality.

Home Depot is proud they treat the gays like humans. They don't even have the decency to be ashamed of their disgustingly non-discriminatory attitudes.

According to the 2010 Southern Maine Pride website, Home Depot signed on as a major sponsor of its 2010 Gay Pride event. But simply financing the event wasn't enough for the big box chain.

Giving money to the gays is bad enough, but just wait until you get a load of what we're about to reveal...

Home Depot also signed on as a vendor, conducting kid's craft workshops for children in the midst of loud and boisterous gay activities.

Holy fuck! Did you catch that? CHILDREN! and GAYS! in PUBLIC! TOGETHER!

To this end, Home Depot is basically encouraging the attendance of children at events which openly expose them to transvestites, cross-dressers, and homosexual activists.

There weren't any children at these things until Home Depot showed up to entertain them! It's not like the queers have families! Home Depot must be luring kids in from NORMAL families whose parents are too stupid to realize they've just wandered into a Pride event! (Also, we're horribly confused by transgender terminology and have no idea that transvestite and cross-dresser are culturally synonymous terms.)

Unfortunately, Home Depot's participation in the Southern Maine Pride Festival doesn't stand alone. It has also sponsored and participated in the 2010 Boston Gay Pride parade.

They're everywhere! No where is safe! Why, if we don't stop them, YOUR town might be the next to be exposed to their filthy message of equality! And crafts. Filthy, filthy crafts.

Homosexuals often exploit young children in their desire to 'normalize' their gay lifestyle.

Those bastards! WE get to decide what's normal! Otherwise, kids might grow up thinking logic and equality trump prejudice and dogma!!! It's exploitative! Children don't have anything to gain from equality!

Gay pride events have a long track record for offensive public displays of homosexual conduct.

Have you seen them? It's disgusting! They have the gall to act like NORMAL couples! All huggin' and holdin' hands and stuff! And if you wade through thousands of totally decent photos you'll eventually come across a couple that are almost, very nearly, risque! It's revolting!

Obviously, Home Depot is OK with the idea of exposing children to an unhealthy and risky environment. So much so, it is willing to also celebrate it by participating in its promotion.

They're exposing these defenseless, innocent, CHILDREN to their own PARENTS, FAMILIES, and FRIENDS!!! Can you believe it??? It's unhealthy! It's risky! We can't say why, but... but... it is!!! CHILDREN!!!

TAKE ACTION

Bolster your sense of self-righteousness without exposing yourself in public where your bigotry might be recognized for what it is.

Send an email to let Home Depot know you are sickened by their support and approval of children at homosexual events.

Let Home Depot know that you vomit at the sight of families that aren't carbon copies of your own.

If you are a customer, please add an additional personal line to our prepared letter to Home Depot.

Also, tell them that you'll be buying your wholesome supplies at a store more sensitive to your bigotry.

After sending your email, make an extra effort to protect children by calling Home Depot personally. Brad Shaw is the Vice President of Public Relations. His direct number is 770-384-5350.

If you're comfortable outing yourself as a moron who can't tell the difference between danger and normal human behaviors, clog up Brad Shaw's phone lines in an attempt to protect children from their own friends and families.

Yes... that was far more enjoyable for me than logically dissecting their bullshit. There is one bit in the companion article I'd like to seriously comment on though:

"While homosexuals, who make up about two percent of the population, might applaud Home Depot for its actions, AFA contends the corporation is taking the risk of offending and losing business from the other 98 percent of the public."

Really, I wouldn't have thought you could pack so much propagandist crap into a single sentence. There are a number of tactics commonly used by anti-equality groups like the AFA at work here:

1 - Using the term "homosexuals" when discussing queer organizations and events.

When attempting to properly cultivate an "Us vs. Them" mentality it's important to eliminate all shades of gray, and Pride events are brimming with shades of gray. The queer community isn't composed only of individuals who primarily identify as homosexual, it includes individuals across the entire spectrum of sexual and gender identity. By only mentioning the opposite end of the spectrum from what they consider "normal", anti-equality groups neatly avoid discussing the fact that sexuality isn't black and white. Hinting at the existence of non-homosexual individuals like myself who identify as queer* only leads to a realization that human sexuality is too complex to be simply categorized as "Us" and "Them".

2 - Asserting that homosexuals "make up about 2% of the population".

2% is such a tiny little percentage, isn't it? Let's pretend for a moment that their percentage is accurate (it's not - even the most conservative studies estimate that 5% of the population self identifies as gay, lesbian or bisexual), 2% of the American population equals about SIX MILLION, ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY ONE THOUSAND, FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY TWO people. That's a whole lot of people who "might applaud Home Depot for it's actions". It's hard to marginalize a minority using hard numbers (especially when they're HUGE) so anti-equality groups only advertise the fuzzy, conceptual ones.

3 - Suggesting that supporting homosexuals offends all heterosexuals.

After pulling out the supposed 2% of individuals anti-equality groups oppose, they then try to suggest that the other 98% of individuals agree with their bigotry. The facts simply don't hold up to the rhetoric, however. Recent polls suggest that as many as 49% of Americans support same-sex marriage** and it's pretty damn unlikely they're okay with marriage, but radically against corporations that support queer-equality and rainbow-themed crafts. I couldn't find any poll results for "percentage of Americans that are blatantly bigoted against homosexuals", but I imagine it's a great deal smaller than the remaining 49%.

Also, let's be clear - if you're offended by the notion that a business sponsored a craft booth for kids at a Pride event I think you qualify as a blatant bigot.

4 - Suggesting that businesses who support queer equality will lose money.

Anti-equality groups love to threaten that since the vast majority of consumers are heterosexual, the vast majority of consumers will deprive any business that dares to support queer events and organizations of their hard-earned cash.

Bollocks.

Only a small percentage of consumers will even be aware that a business they visit supports queer equality. Of that small percentage of aware consumers, an even smaller percentage will be offended. An even smaller percentage of offended consumers will participate in a boycott. Finally, an even smaller percentage of boycotting consumers will continue their boycott long term. Blips that small don't even show up on the radar of big corporations - and once you take into account the fact that a similarly small percentage of consumers go out of their way to support businesses who openly support equality, the blip disappears entirely.


Before I step off my soapbox I'd like to take one final parting shot at the AFA:

The American Family Association boasts a membership of some 3,400,000 people.

That's approximately 21% of the conservatively estimated total of American GLB individuals and only 2% of the number of Americans in favor of same-sex marriage.

Somehow I don't think Home Depot has anything to worry about.



*I choose "queer" as my orientation because the term "bisexual" falsely suggests there are only two gender identities available.
**April 30, 2009 ABC News/Washington Post poll - PDF

Sudsy

So... I'm in the bathtub.  I'm writing this in between YouTube videos as the thoughts come to me.  Going through my YouTube subscriptions while soaking in the tub is one of my favorite personal rituals.  Odds are good that, come late Saturday morning, this is where I'll be.  Also, I'll be happy. 

Speaking of which...

Glee

I missed the series the first time around (much to the annoyance of some friends who are avid fans of the show) but now that the network has decided to start over again and show the full season over the summer I'm making sure to record it.  I've only seen the first episode so far, but there are already two characters I want to torture until they die out of desperation to escape the pain and I'm loving the way they use songs to create mood and comment on the story.



Webcomic Theory - Sex vs. Masturbation

I have this theory that comics fall into one of two categories - sex and masturbation.

Masturbation comics do well on the web.  They're quick and instantly gratifying and, for the most part, you "finish" at the end of each strip - they stand alone fairly well.  This isn't to say that they don't have heavy moments of expertly crafted plot, the story line involving Davan's mother in Something Positive, Faye's father in Questionable Content, or Harmony in Jazz and Jess come easily to mind as examples.  While you certainly could be expected to have a more intense emotional reaction to those arcs if you'd been following the comic long enough to care about the characters, each individual comic stood on it's own.  The emotional impacts were encapsulated in each individual comic, as well as spread out over the entire arc.

Sex comics do well in print.  They're often long stretches of entertaining valleys punctuated by occasional peaks.  Their impact is mostly spread over an entire arc, or even the entire comic, and newcomers are likely to lose out without backtracking and putting in the same kind of effort long time readers have.  You want to spend time with them, get to know them.  They're intimate.

Let's be clear - there's a ton of crossover.  Comics that are insanely popular on the web also tend to sell a lot of books if they're made available.  I believe their sales are tied to the fan desire to own something that their favorite comicker created.  Likewise comics that sell hundreds of books tend to have a decent following on the web as well.  Their web presence is often populated by fans "keeping in touch" until the next book is published.  By in large, however, I think web-only audiences (those who rarely or never buy print comics) are attracted to "masturbation" style comics and print-only audiences (those who rarely or never follow a comic online) are attracted to "sex" style comics.

Why bother with the differentiation?  If you're putting out a quality comic on the web and your numbers are abysmal, maybe it's because you're sex trying to market to a masturbation crowd.  Conversely, if you've got stacks and stacks of print comics lying around that have gotten great reviews and few sales, maybe it's because you're masturbation trying to market to a sex crowd.

Just a thought.


Pity I'm a Reader...

Should there actually be any Theists out there reading this, please do me a favor and spread this around.  It's for your own good, really.


While I cannot speak for all Atheists, I can say the following piece is representative both of myself and those Atheists I've encountered (even only in passing or online).  I am not an idiot.  If you quote me a passage from your holy book that I am unfamiliar with, I will not only read the passage but several passages both before and after the passage in question.  If you tell me that a particular book was written at a specific time by a specific person I will fact check that assertion.  Assuming that I will not almost assures you will come out of the debate looking like a disingenuous ass.  If you insist that evolutionary theory, geology, astronomy, the big bang theory, M theory, etc... asserts something that it does not I will find out if I don't already know and you will come out of the debate looking like either an ignorant git or a liar or both.

Don't insult my intelligence and I won't insult yours.  It's a fair trade.


Everyone Draw Muhammad Day - Disappointed Thanks

I learned a great deal from Everyone Draw Muhammad Day.  Unfortunately, one of the most poignant lessons I learned was that a few people I honestly admired and respected are apparently unashamed bigots.  I feel the day itself and many of the drawings it inspired were important.  It's important that we drive home the fact, as often as necessary, that in America no one has the right to not be offended.  It's important that we drive home the fact, as often as necessary, that in America nothing is beyond the reach of criticism - including religion.  It's important that we drive home the fact, as often as necessary, that in America your personal freedom extends only as far as it's ability to negate the freedom of another.  I believe with all I am that all our freedoms rest upon the strength of our freedom of speech.  I believe in the core of Everyone Draw Muhammad Day and I thank all those who participated.

Throughout the time period in which the day was being promoted and "celebrated", and now extending to the debate surrounding the plans to build an Islamic cultural center in the general area of "ground zero", a few individuals have risen to prominence for me.  Some have stood out by virtue of their honor, dignity, tolerance, and sincere desire to educate.  Others have stood out by virtue of their ignorance, bigotry, hatred, fear, and desire to spread propaganda and obscure information.

All-in-all, I'm disappointedly thankful.  One of the reasons I so champion freedom of speech is that it makes the vile amongst us easier to spot.  It's simply a shame that I now count a handful of previously respected individuals amongst the vile.


It's No Longer Saturday

I somehow managed to skip the "click the Publish Post" step before stepping out of the bath and continuing my day.  Bugger all.