January 2016 Puzzles

jan 2016 framed

This month as a bonus we’ve given ten pre-loved code-type puzzles for you to solve (see left)

You’ll find the answers HERE

The JANUARY 2016 SKEPTICAL CROSSWORD is about job titles and descriptions. It features job titles related to the paranormal, high-falutin’ job titles found on the internet and other interesting, lesser-known  job titles.

There’s the JANUARY 2016 LOGIC & MATHS PROBLEMS

and new sets of Picture Puzzles and “Mixed Bag” questions have found their way to the top of the PUZZLES PAGE

Enjoy!

Age Editorial

We seem to be riding a wave of mainstream support for a Skeptical / rational view of health policy. The following is an editorial from The Age Newspaper of 22/12/15. The highlights are entirely down to us!

Well done, THE AGE !

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The_Age_logo.svg

You cannot argue against the science

The science is clear. It is beyond argument. It is accepted. For hepatitis C sufferers, there is no dispute, only relief. The federal government announced yesterday that drugs to combat the disease will be placed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The drugs can cost a patient $100,000 but, for Australia’s 230,000 sufferers, they will now be accessible for the PBS co-payment cost of $37.70, or $6.10 for concession.

According to Health Minister Sussan Ley, 10,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. She hopes that the drugs will not only halt the spread of Hep C, an infectious virus that attacks the liver, but in the long term eradicate it.

It is a welcome, and enlightened, move to alleviate suffering.

And then we move, in a historical paradox, from the enlightenment to the dark ages. The science is still clear. It is still beyond argument. It cannot be repudiated. And yet it is. The subject, of course, is the vaccination of children.

View More Age Editorial

“Letter to the Editor…”

FRIENDS OF SCIENCE IN MEDICINE
FRIENDS OF SCIENCE IN MEDICINE

We’re pleased to re-post, with the kind permission of the authors, the following letter. It was published in The Australian newspaper on 18/12/15.
[We note with interest that at the time of posting The Australian is running with this issue on the front page.]

The government is struggling to find savings and about to make real inroads into pathology services, prescriptions and other valuable medical benefits of proven effectiveness. The Treasurer asks for suggestions as to where alternative savings might be made, so here are three. View More “Letter to the Editor…”

February 2016 Logic & Maths Problems – Solutions

1. Amanda has 5 lollies and Krystal has 9

2. 24 black and 24 white. The black rectangle is 4 tiles X 6 tiles

3. 35

4. Prancer: Brisbane, Green sleigh
Dancer: Sydney, Yellow sleigh
Comet: Melbourne, Orange sleigh
Vixen: Perth, Blue sleigh
Rudolph: Adelaide, Red sleigh

5. $2000

6. 58

7. 12

8. 9

9. One quarter

10. Ages are 9, 2 and 2
Reasoning: The census taker could not figure out the children’s ages because, even with knowing the number on the house next , there were still two possibilities.
The only way that the product could be 36 and still leave two possibilities is when the sum equals 13. These possibilities being 9, 2 and 2 and 6, 6 and 1.

When the home owner stated that her “oldest” child is sleeping she was giving the census taker the fact that there is an “oldest”.

The children’s ages are therefore 9, 2 and 2.

January 2016 Logic & Maths Problems – Solutions

1. Alex is 10, Bill is 5, Charlie is 9

2. Losing
(eg start with $1000. It will decrease to $900, then increase to $990)

3. $8.70

4. 15

5. 150 km

6. Shape d. Shapes a, b and c are rotations of each other; d is a non-superimposable mirror image.

7. 500 litres (actually about 524)

8. 4 cubes

9. 8

10. 24 minutes

“Mixed Bag” Questions April 2016 – Answers

1. Rockets, aerospace etc

2. a) 2 Weeks in a fortnight
b) 4 Years in an Olympiad
c) 5 lines in a limerick
d) 13 Buns in a bakers dozen

3. Svetlana

4. Piano

5. Carnival, Rio De Janeiro

6. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

7. A. 1897

8. The brain

9. B. Gentle way

10. False: (there was one of 26 days and one of 5 days)

HARDER:

11. 1907

12. Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation

13. It’s the old postal address of the Eau-de-Cologne factory in the German town of Cologne (Koln) when under French occupation

14. Light Rum, Southern Comfort. Triple Sec, Lemon juice, Dash Bitters

15. All have been official events in at least one Olympics

16. 1959

17. Reagan, Goneril, Cordelia

18. Pete Conrad

19. Beeswax

20. Three months

“Mixed Bag” Questions March 2016 – Answers

1. David Duchovny / The X Files; Buddy Ebsen / The Beverley Hillbillies; Vivian Vance / I Love Lucy

2. Jones, Brown, Williams, Taylor

3. Telescopes

4. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

5. B. DeHavilland Comet

6.Michigan

7. Sissy Spacek

8. Norwegian

9. 1971

10. Tourism

HARDER:

11. Trampolining, Tai-Kwon-Do, Triathlon

12. Caramel colour

13. King Zog, 1946, deposed by the communist regime

14. Jupiter

15. The Boston Strangler

16. Caraway

17. Raymond Chandler

18. The senior, as in longest-serving State Governor

19. (a) Jack Kelly, James Garner, Roger Moore
(b) Warner Brothers
(c) Mel Gibson

20. Appears in: The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2
Mentioned in: Henry V

“Mixed Bag” Questions February 2016 – Answers

1. Athletics and Tennis

2. A. Red-back

3. Because France pulled out of NATO

4. South Australia

5. Architecture

6. Nepal

7. Arlo Guthrie

8. Lolita

9. A house

10. Juan Antonio Samaranch

HARDER:

11. 20

12. 1920, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Hercule Poirot

13. New York, Venice, Bilbao, Berlin and Abu Dhabi

14. 5

15. (a)120 millimetres (b)15 millimetres

16. 1936, Hobart Zoo (Tasmania)

17. 8

18. 621

19. 24

20. John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley