September 2011 Crossword Solution
Month: August 2011
Picture Puzzles September 2011 Answers
1. What Goes up, Must Come down
2. Rumpelstiltskin
3. Superior
4. One Man Banned
5. Holy Rollers
6. Tapestry
7. Lie In Weight
“Mixed Bag” September 2011 Answers
1. a. HEEL, HEAL, HE’LL b. SENSE, SCENTS, CENTS c. SEAS, SEIZE , SEES.
2. 7 on a Telephone keypad
3. Kinds of fruit
4. A Lion; He was Cross-eyed
5. Arthur Beetson
6. Adonis
7. POUND
8. Shane Gould
9. Lille
10. Dancers
Leo Igwe in Melbourne
Humanist Leo Igwe, currently touring Australia will be in Melbourne from Thursday 25th to Saturday 27th of August. Leo is a tireless campaigner against witch-hunting and other superstitions in his native Nigeria.
Subscribers to The Skeptic Magazine will be familiar with Leo through his frequent Reports From Nigeria
- Listen to ABC Local Radio 774’s Drive Time program at 4:30 pm on Thursday for a live interview between Leo and host Lindy Burns.
- There are still a few limited spaces available for Thursday evening’s Dinner with Leo Igwe at La Notte Restaurant, Carlton. You must book by ‘phoning 9378 4414 or emailing vic@skeptics.com.au. It’s La Notte’s famous Smorgasbord at $50 per head.
- Leo Igwe will speak again at a public meeting on Saturday. The Humanist Society of Victoria is joining Vic Skeptics in staging this event. It’s at 2pm at Victorian Trades Hall New Council Chambers at 54 Victoria Street Carlton South. $10 at the door, ($5 concession). Refreshments will be available.
Leo has undertaken that his Thursday and Saturday presentations will be different in content.
For information about Leo Igwe, please see
http://newhumanist.org.uk/2548/witch-hunt-saboteurs?sms_ss=twitter&at_xt=4dcaeb01c8d28212,0
and our previous posts
http://skeptics.cafe/2011/04/02/leo-igwe-tour/
http://skeptics.cafe/2010/07/14/support-for-leo-igwe
Previous Product Reviews
or,
Blasts from the Past
Given that many of our readers have only recently become acquainted with us, we thought we’d revisit some of the more entertaining product reviews that Vic Skeptics has performed in past years.
The Electrostatic Gravitator
Our mate Barrie Johnson combines his two greatest loves, electronics and fossicking: and he knows a bit about electronics – most of his working life was spent as electronics maintenance officer in a major Melbourne hospital.
In semi-retirement in the early 2000s, Barrie opened a business in the heart of the Victorian goldfields, servicing and repairing detection equipment. One day a friend brought in a flash-looking device called The Electrostatic Gravitator.
He’d been so impressed by a prominent advertisement in a glossy American fossicker’s magazine that he bought one, notwithstanding its considerable expense. Unfortunately, once unpacked it failed to live up to expectations.
Barrie promised to look into it (literally). What he discovered was a maze of components and wires. The weird thing was that most of the circuits were open. Things weren’t connected to other things.
Barrie concluded that not only could the Gravitator not work, it was never designed to work. He reported back to his disappointed customer, then went to the trouble of posting a warning to the magazine that it was hosting ads for a dubious product, including technical details. That, he thought, was that.
A Skeptic’s Guide to Free Energy Machines
This article first appeared as a Vic Skeptics discussion pamphlet. It was written several years ago by our good friend Peter Barrett of Canberra Skeptics, but it’s up to date: from time to time these machines still get promoted in niche magazines and websites.
The full range of our discussion pamphlets can be downloaded here: http://www.skeptics.com.au/resources/educational/or by clicking on the “Useful Info” link at the top of this page.
Imagine you have an ordinary one litre jug. Two things which I’m sure you’d agree with are that you couldn’t pour more than a litre of water into it or empty more than one litre out of it.
Now imagine you had two such jugs, one full to the brim with water and the other empty. Pour the water from one jug to the other and back again. Repeat this process as often as you like. Is there any way you could imagine that you’d end up with more than one litre of water split between the two jugs? 
The logical answer is “No.” In fact, due to spillage and evaporation, it’s more likely that you’d end up with less than one litre of water.
This is a fairly accurate representation of one of the most basic principles of physics, known as Conservation of Energy. This principle states that energy can change form, but can’t be destroyed or created. A good example of this is the production of household electricity in Australia. Most electricity in Australia is generated by burning coal. The coal has chemical energy. When it’s burned, it releases heat energy.
This energy heats water to steam, which turns a turbine (kinetic energy). The turbine drives a generator, producing electrical energy. We then use this electrical energy for heating, cooling, running the TV, and so on. View More A Skeptic’s Guide to Free Energy Machines
The Census and Question 19
Tuesday 9th of August is Census Night in Australia. Question 19 asks What Is the Person’s Religion? It’s the only optional question.
Skeptics generally do not get involved in mainstream religious matters, preferring to concentrate on pseudoscience, fraud and the paranormal. However, from time to time we react to perceived abuses; examples include teaching Creationism in Science classes, government spending taxpayer’s money on a papal visit, and arguably unconstitutional School Chaplaincy programs at the expense of secular ethics classes.
The Census Form’s Question 19 may well be considered such an abuse. Whether by design or accident, it is almost a text-book example of push-polling in favour of entrenched interest. Our advice, if you believe in the principle of enlightened self-interest, is to answer Question 19 honestly, for yourself and for every member of your household. View More The Census and Question 19
August Puzzles
New Picture Puzzles and “Mixed Bag” Questions have been added to the Puzzles and Diversions page. This month’s Crossword Puzzle is here: http://skeptics.cafe/puzzles/august-2011-crossword/ Enjoy.