James “The Amazing” Randi is returning to Australia to speak at the National Convention. Most readers would be familiar with the life and activities of James Randi, arguably the world’s most prominent skeptic.
The Convention will be held in Melbourne starting on Friday the 30th of November.
The Convention’s organising committee represents several skeptical groups in Victoria. Collectively they are very grateful that Randi has agreed to visit Australia once again.
The most up to date information about the 2012 National Convention, can be found here.
Other news is that there is a project under way to make a documentary about Randi’s life, headed by the well regarded and experienced Justin Weinstein and Tyler Measom. The producers are asking for contributions to help get the project under way. Details can be found here.
The trailer for the documentary.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/36724471]
You should have teh awesome Kylie Sturgess present at your convention, she interviewed the documentary makers of that film on her podcast
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylie_Sturgess
http://www.secularstudents.org/node/3910
Wow, thanks – unexpected! Although I don’t think that’s how you spell “awesome”…
And yes, the interview I did is over at http://tokenskeptic.org/2012/02/18/episode-one-hundred-and-eight-on-james-randis-an-honest-liar-interview-with-justin-weinstein-and-tyler-measom, I was very lucky to snap it up a few days after the documentary was announced.
If the audio is too long for listeners, there’s a transcript I did for an article in my CSICOP column called “Curiouser and Curiouser”:
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/james_randi_an_honest_liar/
Hi Kylie and Alan, There’s lots of lobbying going on, it seems everyone wants their favourite skeptical speaker. I produced a list but was told the conference can’t go for a week 🙁
I’ll definitely pass on the message. More lobbying is welcome via the comments, the conference now also has a FaceBook page.
One of the perks of running a Convention in your own state is that you get to add local presenters to the mix.
In Victoria we have our own monthly Skeptics Café, Mordi Skeptics, The Celestial Teapot and now Borderline Skeptics featuring quality speakers on a regular basis.
So far, Dr Ken Harvey and Lynne Kelly are the only Victorians announced among an already formidable array of international and national speakers. I suspect that our programmers will want to introduce at least some of our many other talented locals to a national stage.
As Mal suggests, the wish-list is long, but the program is limited to just one weekend.