CSICOP Albuquerque Conference Has Fun Exposing Hoaxes, Myths and Manias

The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) came for the first time to the American Southwest with its conference "Hoaxes, Myths and Manias" Nov. 23-26 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The region has a rich scientific heritage going back to Robert Goddard's rocket experiments near Roswell in the early 1930s, the birth of the nuclear age here in the 1940s, two world-famous national laboratories pushing the frontiers of applied science and technology, new astronomical observatories sprouting up on mountain peaks, and a Ph.D. per-capita ratio greater than any other state. It also, ironically, has always attracted more than its share of New Agers, mystics, and seekers, and of course it is home to that most famous of all modern myths and associated hoaxes, the Roswell crashed flying saucer story. [continued]