Things are gathering pace here at QED HQ - with tickets selling rather nicely and a palpable sense of anticipation amongst those already coming, we're feeling a real momentum build. That said, when we announced our first round of speakers we promised you more names would be added soon... and we're not ones to go back on a promise. So, with that in mind, we're pleased to announce three more excellent speakers to add to the QED bill for 2012:
- Ophelia Benson is an uncompromising advocate for truth, a dyed-in-the-wool skeptic and co-author of The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense, Why Truth Matters, and Does God Hate Women? Author of the influential website Butterflies and Wheels, her work deals with the necessity of defending objective and scientific truth against the threats to rational thinking posed by religious fundamentalism, pseudoscience, wishful thinking, postmodernism, and relativism.
- Richard Saunders, podcaster and professional origamist, is the current Vice President of the Australian Skeptics. He's also featured numerous times on radio and TV - notably on the Australian psychic-search TV show The One - and hosts the hugely-popular Skeptic Zone podcast. An expert spoon-bender, Richard was instrumental in the Australian Skeptics' inspiring takedown of Power Balance bracelets earlier in the year, and has brought skepticism into the classroom with his many presentations to schoolchildren.
- Massimo Polidoro is an internationally-recognized "mystery detective" and prolific writer. With more than thirty books to his name, Massimo began his career as an apprentice of James Randi. He's also an accomplished magician and is co-founder and head of the Italian skeptics group CICAP. Massimo was the first professor of Anomalistic Psychology in Italy, at the University of Milano. With an extensive knowledge of a wide base of skeptical topics he's often called on TV as an expert or a host for shows related to mysteries: his latest series was Legend Detectives for the Discovery Channel. He is a Research Fellow for CSI and a long-time columnist for its magazine, the Skeptical Inquirer.
We're sure you'll agree that the line-up for the weekend is shaping up to be an exciting and varied affair, and well worth the admission fee - just £89 for the full weekend, or £68 for students.