Penn Jillette — the louder, bigger 2/3 of Penn & Teller — has made a short video talking about the live testing of the Million Dollar Challenge the JREF will be holding at The Amaz!ng Meeting 7 in Vegas; the meeting is from July 9 – 12, with the live test being on Sunday the 12th.
Awesome. You should come.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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May 19th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I totally should. They should have, like, an essay contest where the winner gets a trip to TAM, ’cause the new transmission took all my TAM money. …Not that I can get my husband on a plane, anyway…
May 19th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I can’t go to TAM, Phil, because it’s bloody well sold out.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Daniel, this is the TAM in Vegas, not London.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Heck yeah!
May 19th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
BTW, Penn will be on Glenn Beck’s show today @ 5PM EST (which should repeat later in the night, I think) — and that’s in ~17min. The topic will likely be politics, but hopefully he’ll get in some words about skepticism & critical thinking.
May 19th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Wow, I want to go to this so much, but it is incredible how much this would cost me.. I live in Israel, so the flight alone is $1,200 at least.. And I just checked, there’s a Zero-G flight from Las Vegas at just the right time!! I’ve been wanting to do that ever since I heard of it… But man, that’s expensive.. I could easily buy half a car with the amount of money it would take me to enjoy those 2 weeks…
I figure the whole ordeal would be… $8,000 or so.. Which is for me two and a half months salary… Which I have.. But wow, it seems insane to spend all this on just 2 weeks…
May 19th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
I stopped listening to anything Penn says when he started hanging out with America’s #1 @$$-hat, Glenn Beck. Being a guest on Beck’s show does not do anything for their credibility.
May 19th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Penn does have some good points once and while, but on others I can not agree with him. He is like everyone else on Earth not perfect.
May 19th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Wow. Vegas in July. Do they have AC on the streets yet?
May 19th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Penn made the statement “I’ve never been to one of the live million dollar challenges before”, indicating that perhaps, there were “other” live challenges?
If so, when and where can I get those videos? Would love to see them (I’ll go Google for them now, but if someone’s got linkage, that would be super).
May 19th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
@Oded, TAM is like nothing else. The only thing I’ve found to top it is a JREF cruise. If you can swing it, you’ll probably not regret it.
May 19th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Penn’s comment was actually “I’ve never been to one of the *real* million dollar challenges before.” The JREF has conducted many of these challenges over the years, but they’re not usually open to the public.
May 19th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
CURSE YOU, EMPTY BANK ACCOUNT
Why can’t I have superpowers huh? Then I’d have a million bucks and I’d go to TAM!
May 19th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I could swear I heard the Blue-Nosed Gopher say “Billion Dollar Challenge”.
I can confidently predict the outcome of the challenge though; after all, the applicant is being tested by one of the most amazing mentalists around – I’m rather surprised that anyone would claim to demonstrate psychic abilities in front of Banachek – could it be she’s never heard of him? On the other hand, if she can pull one over Banachek she probably deserves the money and should probably go into the magic entertainment business.
May 19th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I did not know he was from Nova Scotia.
(click my name)
May 19th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
I find it pretty sad that Penn goes on a show like Glenn Beck. If there is one person on TV that is against rationality, critical thinking, and science, it’s Glenn Beck.
The first time I thought he was on there I assumed it must be because he didn’t realize all of the conspiracy laden nonsense Beck puts on his show. Now that he’s been on there a bunch of times, the only thing I can conclude is that Penn is just fine with the guy.
May 19th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
@Beelzebud:
Beck has been around a long time. His radio show has been on for years before he went on TV. What irks me, is that every time I have seen Penn on Becks show, he ends up agreeing with Beck. That’s not good.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:02 am
Of course Penn is on Beck’s show. He’s a Libertarian, and a rather forceful advocate of it. He’s also a freaking genius in my mind (and no, I don’t always agree with him, but the guy has stones and dares to speak out). Check out his show Bull**** on Showtime (you can rent it from Blockbuster). Awesome.
He’s not just a magician. He’s one of those freaky out of left field guys that makes you actually think about some of your previous assumptions. But speaking of the magician stuff – if you have to be dragged to that false front town of Vegas definitely see his show. I went and it almost made my trip worth it.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Penn is an entertainer, and says and does whatever he thinks will win him viewers. I recall how he and Joe Rogaine (or whatever his name is – the Fear Factor guy) ganged up on Phil over the moon hoax stuff on his radio show (a few episodes before Penn got bored with the radio show and dropped it). So much for being a “cheerleader for Science”. It’s great that Phil appears to have gotten over it. I’m not sure I would have.
May 20th, 2009 at 8:31 am
I’ve stopped caring about anything Penn has to say since his second hand smoke episode on Bull****.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Being a Libertarian doesn’t make one a critical thinker. Especially when your libertarian friends are the likes of Glenn Beck.
And as for his show, Bullshit is a great name for it. His episodes about NASA or endangered species was all I needed to see to know that he’s no friend of science. He criticizes others for using emotional pleas, and then pretty much made a whole series of shows doing just that.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:39 am
I allow me to complain about the soldout London TAM too. It was sold out even before I saw your announcement.
*grumbles*
May 20th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
What some of you are practicing in these comments is not skepticism, but cynicism. Tsk tsk.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Sigh…I live in Phoenix. Vegas is SO close, and TAM is SO tempting. But balanced against the very real possibility of layoffs in my department later this summer, I think I’d better stash that money away for a rainy day instead.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
BTW, Penn’s appearance was almost all politics, with only a little about GW.
[Methinks the new comment-numbering here is a plus, BTW.]
[Ooooh, and the edit feature!] — [though the timer may be set a little high]
May 20th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
I kind of like time limit because there a few here posting from work and sometimes you have to something else for a few minutes.
May 21st, 2009 at 5:51 am
Is this thing even working anymore? My comments are not showing up.
May 21st, 2009 at 6:54 am
@Robbie Clark: So?
(Click my name for a history lesson.)