For those of you in the So. California area, tomorrow (Sunday December 13), our speaker at our monthly Skeptics Caltech Lecture Series is David Skal. Here's the info:

Sunday December 13, 2:00pm, Caltech's Baxter Lecture Hall

SCREAMS OF REASON
Mad Science and Modern Culture

David Skal
Historian of Horror and Monster Films and Popular Culture
Author, Hollywood Gothic, The Monster Show, V is for Vampire, and Screams of Reason

Ever since Mary Shelley created Victor Frankenstein and Victor Frankenstein created a monster, mad scientists have been an indispensible part of our cultural landscape. Noted film historian, acclaimed author, and frequent radio guest, David Skal, explains these larger-than-life icons and reveals the mad scientist's greater cultural significance as a high-tech bogeyman, a lightning rod for otherwise unbearable anxieties about the uses and consequences of modern technology. In his lecture based on his latest book, Skal explores:

The icon of the mad scientist from cloning to AIDS to Heaven's Gate. The pseudoscience folklore of UFO and alien abduction myths (including Skal's own UFO encounter!). The cult of the computer v. the Luddite mania of the Unabomber. The demonization of doctors and modern medicine. How the film Frankenstein spurred the invention of the cardiac pacemaker. A hit parade of Mad Scientists, Demented Doctors, and Assorted Evil Geniuses to help readers catch up on their B-movie classics.

Don't miss one of the most unusual speakers and lectures in the history of the Skeptics Lecture Series!