January 2013 Freethinker Meeting

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Dardedar
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January 2013 Freethinker Meeting

Post by Dardedar »

Time for our January freethinker meeting! Sorry for the late notice, we've been busy.

We've had a surge of interest in our group and requests to get on our email list due to the January 10th article
in the local papers about Doug Krueger and our group (subscription required): http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2013/jan/ ... -20130110/

Some of those who have written in have said they didn't know our group existed but they were very glad to find out.
We can look forward to meeting some new friends at upcoming meetings.

At our meeting tomorrow we'll have guest speaker Greg Klebanoff start things off. One of the founders of our group from way back,
he has a doctorate in philosophy but now keeps himself busy as a criminal defense attorney. He will talk about how to conduct yourself, in your best interest,
should you find yourself in a testy situation with the police. And he'll give us some unvarnished reality and behind the scenes reports of
how those who end up tangled up with the law are often treated by our legal system.

Darrel will introduce a new regular segment entitled: "Let's hear it for the optimists!" He's about had it with the whiners and pessimists and he
is going to put them over the knee and give them a good thrashing with the optimist stick.

We were very pleased to learn that Dr. Doug is now teaching a new college class specifically on critical thinking. And just in time to save the world! Instead of going into
detail about one specific logical fallacy he is going to cover a handful of cognitive biases that all humans (including all freethinkers) necessarily struggle with,
constantly (and usually unsuccessfully). It's just the way our brains are wired. Sorry about that.

See: "The 12 cognitive biases that prevent you from being rational" http://tinyurl.com/cbe86kc

These presentations, along with some of the best new clips should make for a good first meeting of 2013. Who ever thought we'd be living so far in the future eh?

***
Meeting Details:

When: Saturday, January 26, 2012.

Where: The Fayetteville Public Library. 401 W. Mountain
St. (two blocks west of the town square). Library phone: 571-2222.

Time: 2:00 - 4:30 pm

Room: The Walker Room, the main meeting room. Go in the front door, through the
lobby and to your right. You can bring a snack or coffee from Arsaga's in the library lobby.

Map: http://tinyurl.com/b3sfgf
"I'm not a skeptic because I want to believe, I'm a skeptic because I want to know." --Michael Shermer
User avatar
Dardedar
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Posts: 8191
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:18 pm
Designate the number of cents in half a dollar: 0
Location: Fayetteville
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Re: January 2013 Freethinker Meeting

Post by Dardedar »

Clips played at this meeting:

No Trials Necessary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTakd_inB-g

Asch Conformity Experiment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo
"I'm not a skeptic because I want to believe, I'm a skeptic because I want to know." --Michael Shermer
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