Month: May 2016

May 31, 2016

June 2016 Puzzles

01
This month we introduce a new category: a Word Quiz called “CROSSWORD CLUES”.

 JUNE 2016 SKEPTICAL CROSSWORD PUZZLE is about General Skeptical issues and has standard and cryptic clues supplied.

JUNE 2016 LOGIC & MATHS PUZZLES is the 47th in the series. If you’d like to catch up on the ones you’ve missed, they start in August 2012 – see PUZZLES ARCHIVE 3;

and go the PUZZLES PAGE for a new lot of  Picture Puzzles (this month they’re all film titles) 

and “Mixed Bag” Questions (Trivia type Questions) for June.

Enjoy!

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May 26, 2016

Keep on Taking the Beads and Mirrors

by Dr Peter Thorne

Dr Peter Thorne was formerly the Head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Melbourne. He has been a member of Tender Boards for major Government IT projects including the re-equipment of the Australian Tax Office and Australian Customs. He was a member of the National Procurement Board established by the Hawke/Keating Government.

peter thorne
Peter Thorne

In the “beads and mirrors game” industrially advanced nations acquire primary products won from the land, or even the land itself, from less industrially advanced nations in return for manufactured goods.
Australia was still an economic colony of Great Britain until the middle of the 20th century. Our principal role in this relationship was as a primary production nation. For the past 50 years transnational corporations have taken over from the UK as our masters in the beads and mirrors game, particularly in the advanced technology business.

View More Keep on Taking the Beads and Mirrors

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May 22, 2016

June 2016 “Crossword Clues” – Answers

SET 1

a. paragraph  b. plinth  c. perish  d. psychopath  e. paunch  f. peevish  g. pariah  h. patriarch  i. polish  j. poach

SET 2

a. troubadour  b. templar  c. twitter  d. titular  e. trouper  f. torpor  g. totalisator  h. toper i . tachometer  j. tricolor

SET 3

a. bipartisan  b. buffoon  c. backgammon  d. bedouin  e. bisection  f. battalion  g. bunion  h. barbarian  i. boatswain  j. browbeaten

SET 4

a. Arthur  b. anchovy  c. archery  d. although  e. amphibian  f. authority  g. alphabetic  h. architrave  i. archbishop  j. Archimedes

SET 5

a. buxom  b. borzoi  c. bullion  d. backhoe  e. bergamot  f. bandwagon  g. bordellos  h. badminton  i. benefactor  j. backgammon

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May 19, 2016

July 2016 Logic & Maths Problems – Solutions

1. 1 in 10 or 10%

2. 8

3. 50 salutes

4. Alice is 10, Bill is 5, Charlie is 9

5. day 20

6. $30

7. 517 inhabitants

8. Answer: 1 minute early:
SOLUTION:
Journey 1:
Speed = 20km/hr = 1/3 km/min
Time = 20 mins late

Journey 2:
Speed = 30km/hr = ½ km/min
Time = 15 mins early

Journey 3:
Speed = 25km/hr = 5/12 km/min

y = the distance to work

speed (s) = distance (d) / time (t)

If the distance to work was (1/3 x 20) km shorter for journey 1 and (1/2 x 15) km longer for journey 2 both journeys would take the same time. Therefore, using s=d/t:

t = (y – 1/3 x 20) / (1/3) = (y + 1/2 x 15) / (1/2)

therefore the distance to work (y) = 35km.

therefore Journey 1 took 35/(1/3) = 35 x 3 = 105 mins.

105 mins is 20 mins late therefore the journey should take 85 mins.

Journey 3 takes 35 / (5/12) = 35 x 12/5 = 84 mins. Therefore he’s 1 minute early for work.

9. 10 teams

10. a. 10 b. 15 c. 9 d. 20 e. 12

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May 17, 2016

June 2016 Logic & Maths Puzzles – Solutions

1. (in order) C, D, B, C, B

2. 91 pencils, 9 jars

3. 37 triangles

4. Four circles

5. 20 triangles

6. a. Ask one robot what the other robot would say, if it was asked which door was safe.
….b. Go through the other door.

7. top to bottom: Chocolate, Vanilla, Blueberry, Bubblegum, Strawberry

8. Position 7

9. 120 Houses
solution: housenossoln

10. a. John b. Peter

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May 16, 2016

A Skeptic’s Guide to Firewalking

This article first appeared here in 2010. It is also available as a classroom discussion pamphlet.
The full range of our discussion pamphlets (and much more) can be downloaded from our  USEFUL INFO page.

What is Firewalking?

Typically, firewalking involves walking with bare feet across a level bed of hot glowing coals, the remnant of a wood fire. On the Pacific Islands, heated stones are substituted for coals. View More A Skeptic’s Guide to Firewalking

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May 6, 2016

The Science Talent Search Search

Are YOU a former Victorian student who earned one or more Science Talent Search bursaries while at school?

Do you know such a person?

If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Please tell us what you’re doing now, and send us your STS reminiscences including your name and school, and whatever you can remember about your entry (how old were you at the time? What category did you enter; models, essays, research, computers, photography or games? What was the title of your entry?)

Send to vic[at]skeptics.com.au.

We will not use any of this information without your permission.

_ _65sts banner

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May 6, 2016

Traditional Chinese Medicine at RMIT: roll up and start a new life in woo

RMIT Open Day TCM 2015

by: Mal Vickers

Imagine you’re in the midst of the stress of VCE and facing those life-changing questions: What do I do with my life? Which university course should I do? You’d want accurate and reliable information, right?

Sadly I witnessed an audience of impressionable, aspiring young people who were considering career moves being given poor information by an Australian university.

In August 2015, I sat in on RMIT’s Open Day presentations promoting a degree courses in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). By the look of the demographic in attendance, most were Year 12 students. About one quarter looked to be the parents, with a few possible mature-age students and one known skeptic, MOI.

Young people are going to be exposed to misleading information and dubious advertising in society, that’s a given. As a society, we’re already taking up a lot of valuable educational time in teaching science and critical thinking, but class time is limited. How much time should we devote to educating students about the many ways people can be misled?
View More Traditional Chinese Medicine at RMIT: roll up and start a new life in woo

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