Greetings from TAM2013!

Currently, it is a little before 11:00 AM on Friday- I’m getting a later-than-expected start due to some interviews that were scheduled this morning, so I missed a couple of the speakers. Sex-therapist Marty Klein just wrapped up his talk called “Junk Science, Moral Panic and Sex.” I missed most of it because I was interviewing the remarkable Susan Jacoby (all of my interviews will be available soon!)

While I’m waiting for the next panel to get started, I’ll give you a rundown on what has happened so far. We got in late Wednesday night, and spent a lot of yesterday getting settled, meeting people and doing a touch of gambling (I won $30 at roulette!). I also had the privilege to interview James Randi and, guys, it was freaking amazing.

We’ll be sure to get that interview uploaded as soon as possible.

Let me interrupt myself, as the next panel is getting started.

Fighting the Fakes: Woo in Martial Arts

Speakers: Evan Bernstein, Dave Jones, Reed Kuhn and Brent Weedman. Moderated by Joh Rennie

The focus of this talk kicked off with the discussion of qi. Besides being incredibly useful in Scrabble, qi is the “energy force” that is harnessed in martial arts. Some claim to be able to knock people out without a touch throwing qi at their opponents. They showed an amusing video showing grown men hitting the floor after the master throws one of these guys at him. More horrifyingly, a guy believed that this magical force could make his skin resistant to blades. After slicing up a defenseless tree, he slashed his own arm with the sword and, unsurprisingly, began bleeding profusely.