August 23, 2005

SSSSSSS

Sceats’s Specially Selected Southern Skeptics’ Social Snippets

(by Rosemary Sceats, April 2003)
As regular readers of this prestigious publication would be aware, Melbourne Skeptics have an informal gathering at Pugg Mahones Irish Pub in the CBD, on the third Monday of each month. In March, this coincided with St Patrick’s Day on the 17th, and since we figured that there would be standing room only at Puggs that day, decided to hold the event at The Whitehorse Inn, Hawthorn, instead (the new venue for our quarterly dinner/speaker meetings). Whether it had anything to do with St Patrick or not, there was a bumper turnout at the Burwood Road venue, and a jolly good time was had by all in attendance. Perhaps it had more to do with the fact that we were welcoming a pair of visiting Skeptics from the USA, Marilyn and Len Levine, who were on their first visit to Australia and were keen to meet and exchange notes with some “Down Under” Skeptics.
Len kept us all entertained with a nifty, vaguely boomerang-shaped, apparently simple little plastic gadget that appeared to work by magic. No matter which way it was initially set in motion, it seemed determined always to spin in the same direction, reversing the direction of spin if necessary. It had Lynne Kelly (a physics graduate and science teacher) both fascinated and stumped.
Len also distributed copies of a useful document to those present – a “Get Out of Hell Free” card , to be kept in the wallet “Until Needed or Sold“. They say “You can’t take it with you“. I wonder if this applies to the non-monetary contents of your wallet!

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