It's been a busy time for Bay Area Skeptics.

There was a large San Francisco Bay Area skeptics contingent at the recent The Amaz!ng Meeting. This is the critical thinking conference hosted by the James Randi Educational Foundation held annually in Las Vegas.

WDIDNDaniel Loxton of "Junior Skeptic" fame (http://www.skeptic.com/junior_skeptic/) with the assistance of 13 prominent skeptics, has prepared a document intended to encourage skeptics to become "skeptical activists", sharing their ideas about science, skepticism, evaluations of the paranormal, etc.

"Wonderfest" is an annual Bay Area science festival featuring talks and discussions about science. Held in the fall on adjacent days at Stanford University and the University of California-Berkeley, the 2008 Wonderfest was particularly well attended. For those of you who were unable to attend, you now can see three of the discussions online.

Go to www.wonderfest.org to see

Does Anything Happen at Random?
A discussion between Persi Diaconis, Prof. of Statistics & Mathematics, Stanford and Daniel Fisher, Prof. of Applied Physics, Stanford

Couldn't make it to Tuesday's Ask a Scientist lecture on Bigfoot? Well, eventually you'll be able to watch it on fora.tv, but until then, here's a bit of blog coverage to tide you over:

The Snitch (SF Weekly): Ask a Scientist: Sorry, Bigfoot Probably Doesn't Exist. But If He Did, He Would Be Taller Than a Bear

BAS member and skeptical satirist, Paul DesOrmeaux, has published a new article, "The Evolution of Intelligent Design," in the Skeptical Briefs newsletter. He presents a concise, chronological, and arbitrary timeline that more or less accurately presents the history and ???facts??? behind the development of creationism, creation, science, intelligent design, and more importantly, scientific illiteracy. He claims that the article???s contents have been painstakingly researched, and for all intents and purposes, the information provided is ???hysterically??? correct. You be the judge.

We're on Facebook!

We've started a Bay Area Skeptics page on Facebook so we can connect with more Bay Area skeptics, and you can interact with us.

Joining our group is another way that you can find out about our upcoming events; our Skeptics in the Pub gatherings, our lectures, and other activities. It's also a great way to meet other skeptics, both local, and global.

See you there!

Last weekend I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to interview Ben Radford, Managing Editor of the Skeptical Inquirer, for the Skeptic Zone Podcast.

Radford, an intrepid scientific paranormal investigator, got his revenge when he sprung an interview on me!

BAS advisor Andrew Fraknoi is giving a lacture on "Your Fiction Science Defense Kit: Dealing with Astrology, UFO's, and Other Astronomical Pseudo-sciences" later this month. Details are below the cut.

Wonderfest is the San Francisco Bay Area Festival of Science.
This is a fun and informative weekend of seminars, discussions, debates, competitions, comedy and much more.

Tucker Hiatt, a member of our Board of Directors, is also the Director of Wonderfest 2008!

BAS member and BASIS contributor Paul DesOrmeaux has an article in the November/December Skeptical Inquirer titled "More Cool Careers for Dummies: Ghost Hunter". Gotta admit, Paul sure has that Halloween vibe. BASIS readers will recall Paul's acupuncture article, available at http://www.baskeptics.org/category/medicine/acupuncture .