Category Archives: Lectures

March 2013 Meeting

Karen Schwarz, “The Myths and Magic of Hypnosis”
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 7 PM
DeWitt Library at Shoppingtown Mall

The Talk
Karen Schwarz will speak about the myths and magic of hypnosis and hypnotherapy. Karen will discuss the issues for which hypnosis is useful as well as those for which it is not, what makes someone a good – or bad – candidate for hypnosis, the history of hypnosis, why hypnosis has a “bad rap”, and more. Karen welcomes questions.

The Speaker
Karen Schwarz is a practicing psychotherapist with twenty-eight years of experience in the private and public sector. She received 210 hours in hypnosis training at the American Hypnosis Training Academy in Maryland, is a National Board Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, and has been using hypnosis in her practice, along with traditional therapy, since 2006. She is also a recipient of hypnosis and credits it with helping her win a 1987 National Powerlifting Championship.

January 2013 Meeting

January 2013

Portrait of David Cay Johnston

David Cay Johnston, “The Fine Print: Your Pay Shrinks as Monopolies Prosper”
Monday, January 14, 2013, 7 PM
DeWitt Library at Shoppingtown Mall

Please note that this talk will occur on Monday instead of Wednesday.

We are happy to welcome back Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.

The talk
The average income of the bottom 90 percent of Americans has fallen back to the level of 1966 while the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent has seen their incomes grow more than five fold. David Cay Johnston will explain how government policies make this happen while destroying jobs, fostering monopolies, and risking massive disasters from crumbling pipelines, bridges and dams.

The speaker
David Cay Boyle Johnston is an American investigative journalist and author, a specialist in economics and tax issues, and winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting.

Since 2009 he has been a distinguished visiting lecturer who teaches the tax, property and regulatory law of the ancient world at Syracuse University College of Law and Whitman School of Management.

From July 2011 until September 2012 he was a columnist for Reuters, writing, and producing video commentaries, on worldwide issues of tax, accounting, economics, public finance and business. Johnston has been board president of Investigative Reporters and Editors since June 2012.

Damian Allis on “A Most Unlikely Obvious Molecule”

Damian Allis on “A Most Unlikely Obvious Molecule: DNA And Its Consequences,” November 2012

Listen to Damian Allis’s talk (40 MB). The file is large; please be patient while it loads.

DNA is Nature’s medium of digital information storage and access from which cellular machinery produces life itself. The 60 years of advances in our understanding of DNA have run in parallel with advances in computer technology and information science, and we are now entering an age of whole-genome maps, customized diagnoses, medicines, and dosages from genetic testing, and genetic modification that may eradicate some disorders completely. From super crops to super humans, the genetic information age offers humanity many different possible outcomes. This lecture will cover some of the history, machinery, possibilities, and consequences of DNA life.

Dr. Damian Allis is a research professor in the Department of Chemistry at Syracuse University, esearch fellow with the Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute, and bioinformaticist for Aptamatrix, Inc. He contains approximately 20 billion miles of DNA.

Kitty Mervine on “Alien Abduction: Betty and Barney Hill”

Kitty Mervine on “Alien Abduction: Betty and Barney Hill,” September 2012

Listen to Kitty Mervine’s talk (34 MB). The file is large; please be patient while it loads.

Kitty Mervine shares with us her insights as an alien abduction specialist and her recent research into the Betty and Barney Hill abduction using the archival material at the University of New Hampshire.

Kitty is a professional artist and teacher. Her artwork has appeared in shows and galleries in both the US and Europe. She is also a long time skeptic and has attended every TAM (The Amazing Meeting, a skeptic conference put on by the James Randi Educational Foundation) that has been held in the US.

Kitty is currently is in charge of investigations for the Granite State Skeptics and has lectured on aliens and UFOs at several JREF events and on podcasts. She also appears as the “Alien Expert” on Maxim satellite radio on occasion. For the past eight years she has served as a UFO/Alien expert on many web sites, answering questions using her back-up team of experts. She runs the web site badalien.org which is geared toward people who believe that they have been abducted by aliens. badalien.org offers alternative explanations for the abduction experience and a place where abductees can share their experiences without the fear of being ridiculed.