Soapbox!
This brief article takes note of an auspicious conjunction of events in May. Both Vic Skeptics and our good friends at Mordi Skeptics have a Soapbox evening as our monthly public meeting.
Month: April 2016
A Skeptic’s Guide to Astrology
This is an edited repost of an article which first appeared here in August 2010. You can also download a similar classroom discussion pamphlet (and a lot more) from our USEFUL INFO page.
The basic proposition of Western Astrology is that your personality and fate are influenced by the apparent positions and motions of heavenly bodies. View More A Skeptic’s Guide to Astrology
May 2016 Puzzles
The theme of the MAY 2016 SKEPTICAL CROSSWORD is Religion and Superstition and as usual comes with your choice of standard or cryptic clues.
The MAY 2016 LOGIC & MATHS PROBLEMS
set is the 46th in the series. If you’d like to use our Logic & Maths sets in the classroom or just to catch up on the ones you’ve missed, please note that we started posting them in August 2012; (see PUZZLES ARCHIVE 3 .)
As always, seven new Picture Puzzles and twenty new “Mixed Bag” Trivia Questions have been placed at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE
Enjoy!
A Skeptic’s Guide to Conspiracy Theories
This article first appeared as a Vic Skeptics discussion pamphlet.
The full range of our discussion pamphlets (and a lot more) can be downloaded from our USEFUL INFO page.
A Skeptic’s Guide to
by Peter Barrett, Canberra Skeptics (2016 edit by Ken Greatorex)
Test 1: Is the argument factually correct?
It’s remarkable how many conspiracy theories are based on arguments which are simply factually incorrect. If you’re presented with a conspiracy theory argument, check the facts.
[Sites such as
http://urbanlegends.about.com/
https://www.truthorfiction.com/
are useful here.]
Many incorrect arguments are repeated in ignorance. But there are also some people who knowingly repeat conspiracy arguments they know are wrong. View More A Skeptic’s Guide to Conspiracy Theories
June 2016 “Mixed Bag”Questions – Answers
1. Italy, Hungary, Germany, Norway
2. Clancy of the Overflow
3. New Zealand
4. hunch
5. Men’s brief swimming trunks
6. “GP” i.e. General Purpose
7. Pat Garrett
8. 40 and 41
9. (a) England (b) Sir Thomas More
10. Colonel Sander’s Kentucky Fried Chicken
HARDER:
11. 120 mm
12. 1936 / Hobart Zoo
13. 8
14. 621
15. 24
16. The Nobel Prize in Physics for (accept any of):
Inventing the transistor
Electronics
Work on transistors
Work on semiconductors
17. Trampoline, Tai-Kwon-Do, Triathlon
18. Caramel (colour)
19. 1946, deposed by the new communist regime
20. Jupiter
June 2016 Picture Puzzles – Answers
1. Home Alone
2. Blade Runner
3. 12 Monkeys
4. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
5. The Lion King
6. An Officer and a Gentleman
7. Portnoys Complaint
May 2016 Picture Puzzles – Answers
1. Dr Doolittle
2. Beat around the bush
3. Split right down the middle
4. Too stuck up for words
5. Get back in bed
6. Altered states
7. Zulu
May 2016 “Mixed Bag” Questions – Answers
1. Illness (TB or “consumption”)
2. Crossword puzzles
3. Annual World Music Festival held in Adelaide, South Australia
4. Gut / Digestive system
5. To treat cuts from shaving
6. The length of her hair
7. 1954
8. Resin
9. Purple to mauve
10. 1985
HARDER:
11. Removing or neutralizing a metal object’s magnetic field / To stop them setting off magnetic mines
12. Hannibal / The Carthaginian army
13. The Potomac
14. The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodson / Lecturer in Mathematics
15. Uniform Resource Locator
16. Charlotte Corday
17. 20
18. 1920 / The Mysterious Affair at Styles / Hercule Poirot
19. New York (USA), Bilbao (Spain), Venice (Italy), Helsinki (Finland)
20. Five