From the Editor

Wally Hartshorn

When it came time to start thinking about this issue, we had no articles ready, none on the horizon, and no speaker for our August meeting. Now, not only do we have a speaker, but I had to postpone one article and remove some items from REALLity Check for lack of room! Things can change quite a bit in a couple of weeks.

In mid-July, I attended the 4-day Internet World conference in Chicago. Lou Dobbs, former anchorman for CNNfn, was a keynote speaker on July 20, the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Taking advantage of the symbolism of the moment, he announced the official launching of his new web site, www.space.com. With plenty of news about space exploration, it looks like it will be a very nice site to visit. And right there, in with the other main topic areas, you will find a link labeled "Area 51," which leads you to news about UFOs, alien abductions, and similar dubious claims. I leave town for four days and I still can’t escape this stuff!

Our feature article is a bit by David discussing a recent eruption of psychic junk-mail in our mail box. Aside from the irony of a psychic not realizing to whom they’ve sent their pitch, there is the added mysteries of the identity of Leo and the reason why we got all of this at the same time!

A considerably more welcome (and useful) bit of mail came to us from Kevin Vost, commenting on the topic of memes which we discussed at our July meeting.

Lastly, David has provided us with another installment of the always informative REALLity Check. Topics this time include alternative medicine, repressed memories, and Audrey Santos.

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