Tonight at 8pm EST and tomorrow night at 11pm EST, C-SPAN 2 will air a special taped at the Skeptics Caltech Lecture Series featuring Keay Davidson and William Poundstone, discussing their biographies of Carl Sagan. I introduce the piece with a discussion of how biography can be done scientifically through a content analysis of Sagan's scientific and popular articles, through a comparison of Sagan's c.v. with the c.v.'s of Jared Diamond, Stephen Jay Gould, E. O. Wilson, and Ernst Mayr, and through a personality assessment of Sagan by members of his family, friends, and colleagues, in context of what we know about personality theory. If you miss the show or do not get C-SPAN 2, the next issue of Skeptic magazine, out in two weeks, will feature a review of the two biographies by the astronomer David Morrisson and my essay entitled "The Measure of a Man: Carl Sagan and the Science of Biography," in which all this data will be published.
World Premiere Mini-Series! UFO: Then and Now (January 31-February 3). This news release from the History Channel:
Look up toward the skies for an examination of our encounters with the unknown. This four-part world premiere mini-series chronicles the history of UFO sightings from ancient cave paintings to modern close encounters and man's attempt to make first contact with alien species out in the distant heavens.
From today's New York Times:
By Nina Bernstein
Nine months after New York City began recruiting welfare recipients to work from home as telephone psychics, city officials decidurces Administration, announced the end of the city's arrangement with a company calling itself Psychic Network.
"Though H.R.A. believes people should have the freedom to choose their own employment, H.R.A.'s Business Link has decided not to include the Psychic Network as one of its participating employers," Mr. Turner said in a one-paragraph statement issued yesterday.
The decision to part company with the Psychic Network came on the same day that an article on the arrangement was published in The New York Times. Since April, 15 welfare recipients had been trained to read tarot cards and hired by the Psychic Network through Business Link, a division of the city welfare department set up in 1995 as part of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's welfare-to-work effort.
A barrage of brickbats and belly laughs met the revelation of the city's venture into the telepsychic realm. Stephen DiBrienza, chairman of the City Council's Committee on General Welfare and a vigorous opponent of the mayor's welfare policies, seemed almost gleeful in his outrage.
"It's bizarre," he said. "Remember, this is taxpayer funds. I don't think I could find anything more bizarre and at the same time more disturbing if I tried."
Mr. DiBrienza, who has accused Mr. Turner of failing to answer the committee's questions about the types of jobs the city's welfare-to-work programs provide, added, "It's no wonder they stonewall us if these are the kinds of jobs they're pushing."
Shelley Ackerman, the president of the New York chapter of Astrological Federation of America, was upset for other reasons. "I'm horrified that this is going on," she said, eager to draw a line between a quickie course in tarot and "astrological studies that have been around for thousands and thousands of years." "That a city agency would do this -- it's unbelievable, it's just unbelievable."
Any business that hires a welfare recipient for at least three months can qualify for thousands of dollars in wage subsidies and state and federal tax credits.
"There's no criteria at all," said Carmen Ortiz, national coordinator of the tax credit program said in a recent interview.
Michael Kaufman, a financial economist with the United States Treasury Department, estimated the federal tax credits granted nationwide in the program at $370 million. According to city figures, Psychic Network was one of 161 businesses that successfully recruited with Business Link, which was set up to connect companies in need of workers with welfare recipients in need of jobs.
In his statement, Mr. Turner cited as examples Bell Atlantic, Macy's, Rite Aid, Madison Square Garden and United Airlines. A collection of city recruitment fliers saved by a welfare recipient included three promoting the Psychic Network jobs. Other fliers including jobs as stock clerks, home health aides and, in an October notice, seasonal Christmas wrappers at Tiffany & Company for $7.50 an hour.
City officials have refused to provide a complete list of participating companies on the ground that they were promised confidentiality, unless they chose to go public.