Robert Hasting is going to be speaking at my college this week.
The flyers posted at school about the lecture are fairly vague, something about the government's coverup of UFOs.

I am definately going to this lecture because I just am a glutton for punishment but I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on "psuedoscience" and conspiracy theories.

We used to invite whackos of all stripes to come and lecture at our student union back in the 70s just for a laugh. They were really grateful for a day out and they even enjoyed the heckling, which made them feel properly persecuted. Don't let him cadge too many drinks, though. Twinkies can be fun if properly disciplined, but they will try to take advantage.

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Fin
Skep-ti-cult® member #488-28303-790

Ask if he has ever shot an elephant in his pajamas and if so, what was the elephant DOING in his pajamas?

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Dr. Roger Fleming: Ranger Brad, I'm a scientist, I don't believe in anything.

If you are really cruel ask why the CIA hasn't swept him off to the UFO Gulag.

A search on "Robert Hastings UFOs" results in a remarkable number of articles about him in college newspapers, as if all he does is speak on campuses.

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:wink:

Your college just threw away $1500+.

He came to Sonoma State University a couple of years ago. His talk was awful. Not just bad in the typical-UFO-coverup-nonsense sort of way, but just bad. He used slide projectors, had no images at all (the UFOs shown were drawings), and at one point ran a tape recorder which played various themes from Close Encounters while a narrator (presumably Hastings, I don't remember) talked about the "coverup".

Here is my summary of his talk here.

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:-k Interesting.
Maybe I found a new career which does not require too much effort.

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papageno


"Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous?" - Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes)

"It's all about context!" - Vince Noir (The Mighty Boosh)

"I've never heard of such a brutal and shocking injustice that I cared so little about!" - Zapp Brannigan (Futurama)

"...because the logic of the lines traced from reality is as poor of aesthetic value as it is strict in consistency. " - Paolo Bozzi (Naive Physics - free translation)

Anyone want a talk on Ashmore's Tired Light theory? Papageno could come too!

Lyndon,
Please don't try to hijack this thread...


Thanks!

BTW: I think I found a great BA quote!

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"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
-- Charles Babbage

Hah-rumpfh. [-X [daughter of college professor gets up on soapbox]

Fill in the blank:

• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...racism.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...the rise of the Nazis.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...the Holocaust.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...the modern rise of white supremacists.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...the KKK.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...eugenics.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...human cloning.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...women's rights.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...gay rights.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...abortion.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...fetal rights.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...manned expeditions to Mars.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...interstellar flight.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...the military-industrial complex.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...the Black Sea/Noah's Flood theory.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...plate tectonics.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...theories of Stonehenge.
• I am surprised a college would be hosting a lecture on...theories of the Great Pyramid.

This is an important part of what colleges do, people--they open the door to Big Ideas on behalf of the student body (and also on behalf of the community at large in which the college exists), whether the Big Idea in question happens to be part of the current cultural mainstream or not. Plate tectonics used to be considered outrageously woo, too, remember? As did human cloning. "Total sci-fi. Never happen." Ditto "landing a man on the moon". And the Black Sea/Noah's Flood theory.

And sometimes it costs $1,500 to get the door opened to a Big Idea, so folks can come in and browse.

I wouldn't consider that money "wasted", any more than I'd consider money spent on bringing in the Grand Dragon "money wasted". Where else are students gonna have an opportunity to hear his ideas at first hand, in a non-confrontational setting, with no editing, so they can make up their own minds?

Easy, there, Jigsaw, I think you're about to pop the blood pressure cuff! :wink:

Do you really not see a difference between a colloquium on UFOs and one on, say, the Holocaust? What if the latter was by a Holocaust denier?

I don't think anyone is advocating censorship or suppression of ideas. But if I had the job of finding speakers, I think I could find better ways to use that $1500 than handing it to a UFOlogist. Don't we get enough of that on Discovery Channel?

But that's the point... a University should be a place for open discussion of ideas. If you do not expose students to the entire specturm of ideas how are you going to teach them to think for themselves. It reminds me of when I was a child and my father, a college professor, use to be angry that communist ideology could not be discussed in many classes because it was considered a diseased idea that would corrupt minds. Ideas don't corrupt minds... minds corrupt reality (or something like that... #-o )

Dude!

I know the difference between a lecture at a college about issues addressing human right such as racism or genocide and a lecture about UFO conspiracy theories.

Anyway, I am not afraid to ask questions of Mr. Hastings.
I had a meeting awhile back with astronaut Edgar Mitchell and questioned him about his UFO theories(which were very interesting to hear).

I'm just curious to find out which department scheduled Hastings to speak.
I will drop dead if I find out it was the astronomy department.

[quote]Sorry but that was not my intention at all (it was the money)
However, being culturally separated from Hastings? (who is he?) and reading BA's comment about 'no pictures' surprised me. I was in Russia for the summer and went to a Russian lecture on UFO's. The thing, I found boring was that it was all pictures. Video after video of sightings. I don't believe in any of it but none the less, they were not 'normal' occurances. With more explanation it could have been made into something reasonable. Maybe Hastings should get himself to Russia, after all remember the spacecraft that crashed in Siberia? (sorry for that)
Cheers Lyndon

Yes, but that's beside the point. The whole point I'm making here is that it's a mistake to allow only "mainstream", accepted, opinions--opinions that have "proof" of some kind--a turn at the microphone, a public venue.
I'd authorize him $1,500 to come speak, too. Because...

Thank you, Lurker.

End of story, as far as I'm concerned. That's what colleges are for, see? There's no other place, no other time in your life, where a student can experiment with ideas in such a controlled environment, and an environment, moreover, where there is instant feedback. If the lecturer is F.O.S., it's dollars to donuts that during the Q-and-A period, that fact will come out, and the alert student will have a chance to rebut, to consider, to turn the F.O.S. idea over in his mind and decide for himself, aided by feedback from others in the audience, whether it is in fact F.O.S. Or whether it has merit.

But see, you are. What you are exercising (or would be, if you were the person holding the purse strings) is a kind of censorship; it is a kind of suppression of ideas. You are deciding what is--and is not--worthy to be submitted for consideration to the student body.

I firmly believe that a well-rounded education includes having any and all ideas, no matter how peculiar or repulsive, submitted for one's consideration. And I believe it's the college's unique job to do this, to allow even the peculiar and repulsive ideas free rein to be aired publicly.

Now, yes, at some level, because of inevitable budgetary considerations, somebody somewhere is going to have to decide, to prioritize--who shall we have *this* year? Shall it be James Randi, or Kent Hovind, or a panel on homeopathy?

I believe that the college that customarily, invariably, opts for the mainstream viewpoint, for the "safe" lecture--for NASA instead Hoagland, for the traveling Holocaust exhibit instead of David Irving--is doing a disservice to their students.

Jigsaw, that's sort of what I was saying. With the single important exception that you check out the market rates for that particular species of woo-woo and haggle 'em down (grief, I thought the US was the home of capitalism!). Buy 'em a couple of pints too while you're chatting, why not, greases the wheels, eh?

Most will be happy to get £200 and the attention for the most part (or are you saying you really really need mega quality woo-woos? OK, £500 tops, that's my Final Offer and I'm Cutting My Own Throat.)

So what's with all that ponsey stuff about Free Speech? :wink:

(posted from a nation of shopkeepers)

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Fin
Skep-ti-cult® member #488-28303-790

Yes. And $1500+ could have bought: a couple of well made 200mm Dobsonian telescopes for the science department - or some excellent eyepieces - or another desktop computer - or a bunch of important new books - or a lecture from a real visiting scientist who isn't famous but knows an area of research that is important - or helped pay for a proposed student astronomy experiment - or - or ... :roll:

Jigsaw,

the BA's point was that
The money was wasted because of the low quality of the talk, not because of the topic.

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papageno


"Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous?" - Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes)

"It's all about context!" - Vince Noir (The Mighty Boosh)

"I've never heard of such a brutal and shocking injustice that I cared so little about!" - Zapp Brannigan (Futurama)

"...because the logic of the lines traced from reality is as poor of aesthetic value as it is strict in consistency. " - Paolo Bozzi (Naive Physics - free translation)

Well, I'd have to disagree with that, too, even on that level, because the students who did come to his lecture nevertheless learned a valuable lesson, even if they didn't learn anything about UFOs--they learned that many woowoos are disorganized, illogical, and unable to present their cases coherently. They saw one in action, and ever after, their reaction to "UFOs" will be, "UFOs? Nah, I heard this guy give a lecture on them one time, and man, was it boring..."

To me, this would be worth $1,500 right there, for students to be able to experience at first hand that "woo is boring".

Agree with rest of post, sure. $1,500 still seems a bit steep to me, but I guess it's a supply/demand graph - maybe we have a lot more spare woo-woos with time on their hands over here. Or maybe they've formed a union or something in the US?

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Fin
Skep-ti-cult® member #488-28303-790

I would agree it seems a little high, but then its hard to know what the market is in these sorts of things, and what is covered in the price. So I am not outraged. In addition, it’s possible that there were students who wanted him to come and expose the cover ups. In that case I think $1500 is a bargain price to have him come and let students see him face to face.

The idea of the University is to prepare students to think critically. Students are there to make mistakes and learn in a controlled atmosphere. I would rather see $1500 spent there and have students streaming out saying what a nut, then have someone who never got the chance to make mistakes in school, appoint the nut to some high government post.

i'd have to disagree with that. why waste $1500 on something that could have the same effect by reading a book, watching a tv show, listening to a radio pregram, etc? i mean you don't have to actually listen to a woowoo in person to learn the properties of woowoo? you think $1500 is worth the price but like Chip says $1500 could bought the university more valuable stuff, be it a better equipment, more books or better quality lecture talk.

and more importantly, where do they get that $1500 from? From us the students! did they ask us whether we want to have such guest speakers? I'd much rather have phil than Hasting and i think that speaks for most of the people here.

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"We live in a society where it's considered okay for intelligent people to be scientifically illiterate." -- Lawrence M. Krauss

I'm all fine with opening for big ideas, but the problem is the quality of the lecture. Say there are two speakers for UFOlogy. One could present his ideas, theories, observation in a very clear manner and easy for all levels of audience, whereas the other speaker doesn't even know what he's talking about. the question is, which speaker would u want to invite?

i'd like to attend to lecture about UFOlogy, planet X, etc, but the quality of the lecture is always a problem for pseudoscience. your chances of getting a poor quality lecture is much higher than lecture on real science.
umm... i don't think critical thinking is like that. the speaker presented in a boring manner thus making the students lose their interest is the least thing university wants. What critical thinking should look like is if a speaker presents UFOlogy in an interesting, organized, logical (somewhat) manner such that the students would do their own researches about the said topic then decide on their onw. THAT is critical thinking.

so my conclusion is it's not the topic that is important, but the quality of the lecture (or speaker).

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"We live in a society where it's considered okay for intelligent people to be scientifically illiterate." -- Lawrence M. Krauss

Maybe it is somekind of a parody.

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I'm a little surprised at some of the responses to this...let me see if I got it right...

It's OK for a University to pay $1500 to a speaker who is obviously full of BUNK, just so the student body will have a chance to see a "quack" in action?

I was unaware that "schools of higher learning" had that much money to throw around...

...and of course the "speaker" doesn't care if he's believed or not...he's just looking for a check...

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Yeah. That is basically my quibble. I completely agree with Jigsaw's passionate appeal to freedom of speech and the educational nature of the event. Let them speak, by all means.

But this money usually comes from either student fees or from the taxpayer. Woo-woos always claim to be espousing some urgent cause - well, they're usually saving the planet. Since they are serving such a higher cause, they should be taking any opportunity to get the word out - which means lecturing for free if need be. Anything else shows insufficient committment, in my opinion. This should offer a degree of economic leverage. Like I said, haggle...

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Fin
Skep-ti-cult® member #488-28303-790

I agree also...it's the "money angle" that bothers me..

...or from parents!!!

Or from attendance?

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