Category: Announcements

September 3, 2018

Professor Susan Blackmore

Professor Susan Blackmore is a psychologist, lecturer and writer researching consciousness, memes, and anomalous experiences, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth.

She is a TED lecturer, blogs for the Guardian, and often appears on radio and television.

The Meme Machine (1999) has been translated into 16 other languages; more recent books include Conversations on Consciousness (2005), Zen and the Art of Consciousness (2011), Seeing Myself: The new science of out-of-body experiences (2017) and a textbook Consciousness: An Introduction (3rd Ed 2018).

Professor Blackmore is visiting Australia in October. Her appearances will include:

Melbourne: (One night only) Thursday October 11 Royal Society of Victoria

Booking info: https://memes-n-tremes.eventbrite.com.au

Sydney: Australian Skeptics National Convention October 13 &14

https://convention.skeptics.com.au/

Canberra: Monday October 15 (Details to be announced)

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July 31, 2018

Puzzles for August 2018

The Skeptical Crossword for August 2018 is themed to Religious Ideas.

96 August 2018 Crossword Religious Ideas

Our Skeptical crosswords generally have two sets of clues, one “standard” and the other “cryptic”. These monthly crosswords are all available in archive, are all based on themes related to Skepticism, and go back to 2010.

Other crosswords, wordsearches and cryptograms specifically for classroom use are available here: https://skeptics.cafe/useful-info/

Our Mixed Bag Questions have a format of twenty trivia-type questions, (ten “easy”and ten “harder”), with answers supplied.

08 August 2018 Mixed bag questions

All of our previous sets of Mixed Bag Questions are available in archive.

Our Logic & Maths Puzzles consist of ten questions of varying levels of difficulty. Solutions are supplied.

Logic and Maths Puzzles 73 August 2018 

There are now over seventy such puzzles available in archive

A new set of Picture Puzzles can be found each month at the top of the Puzzles Page.

Enjoy!

PUZZLES ARCHIVES

https://skeptics.cafe/puzzles/puzzles-archives/

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July 17, 2018

Vyom Sharma, Doctor, Magician and Mentalist

     Dr Vyom Sharma

After gaining his medical degree in 2008, Vyom Sharma completed specialist training and currently works in Melbourne as a General Practitioner. However alongside his clinical work, he has carved out a career in show business.

As a magician and mentalist, he has performed live stage shows at the Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and was a grand finalist on Australia’s Got Talent.

His knowledge of medicine, combined with his experiences with the psychology of deception have afforded him a rare insight into the human experience of truth and persuasion. He explores the neuroscience of deception and beliefs as a regular Guest Lecturer at Monash University’s school of biological sciences.

He has debunked pseudoscientific therapies in the media, including Fairfax newspapers, Triple R radio and medical trade magazines.

Vyom Sharma will be our featured speaker at next Skeptics Café  (Monday August 20)

He will also appear at Australian Skeptics Annual Convention in Sydney over the weekend of October 13 & 14

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June 30, 2018

Puzzles for July 2018

Fresh Picture Puzzles are at the top of the  Puzzles Page.

Mixed Bag Questions, Skeptical Crosswords and Logic & Maths Puzzles now come in pdf form and can be reached from here or from the Puzzles Page.

For July:

07 July 2018 Mixed bag questions

95 July 2018 Crossword Famous Scientists

Logic and Maths Puzzles 72 July 2018

The PDF format requires the Adobe Reader for viewing. The Adobe Reader is free software and may be obtained at this website: http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Enjoy!

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May 25, 2018

Sharon Hill’s Spooky Geology

We have much pleasure in announcing Sharon Hill as our June Skeptics Café speaker. Sharon is a Pennsylvanian geologist who researches the paranormal, pseudoscience, and anomalous natural phenomena.

As well as being a prolific columnist and speaker she is a co-founder of

Doubtful News

and hosts the podcast 15 Credibility Street.

She is the author of Scientifical Americans: The Culture of Amateur Paranormal Researchers.

Skeptics Café is a regular monthly event and members of the public are welcome.

Monday  June 18, The Clyde Hotel Carlton, 8pm (or join us for a meal from 6 pm)

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May 22, 2018

At May Skeptics Café

We’re pleased to have been visited by Dr Pauli Ohukainen from Finland. He’s a cardiovascular research scientist from Finland working in Melbourne (Baker Institute) until June 1st. He’s also an avid skeptical activist with his own blog in Finnish with 7000 followers on Facebook, (which is not too bad in a small country of 5M), and he’s also active on Twitter, which is his international forum: https://twitter.com/POhukainen. He was keen to meet some skeptics while in Melbourne, and took “selfies” at May Skeptics Café with two of our distinguished members, Francesca Folk-Scolaro (L) and Elida Radig (R).

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April 30, 2018

Puzzles for May 2018

Whilst we continue to put our monthly Picture Puzzles at the top of the  Puzzles Page, our Mixed Bag Questions, Skeptical Crosswords and Logic & Maths Puzzles come in pdf form.

For May:

05 May 2018 Mixed bag questions

93 May 2018 Crossword Astrology

Logic and Maths Puzzles 70 May 2018

The PDF format requires the Adobe Reader for viewing. The Adobe Reader is free software and may be obtained at this website: http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Enjoy!

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April 17, 2018

Recommended Health & Medical Info Sites

About five years ago we posted Recommended site: Itsmyhealth.com.au. We had a lot of nice things to say about the site. On review, we’ve found that the URL given now forwards to http://www.mydr.com.au/

The site describes itself as follows: Reliable Australian health and medicines information
myDr provides reliable Australian health information, health tools and calculators covering symptoms, diseases, tests & investigations, medicines, treatments, nutrition and fitness.

A quick review of the site confirms its bona fides: Some of the contact information is useful only to Australian residents, but there is a large body of universally applicable information and advice available under pull-down menus for Conditions, Medicines, Symptoms and Health Tools. View More Recommended Health & Medical Info Sites

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April 3, 2018

Review – Surfcoast Skepticamp 2018

It was a glorious, sunny day in Airey’s Inlet for the annual Skepticamp where we were privy to a range of fascinating talks to hone our critical thinking skills. For a $5 donation we were treated to a delicious, healthy lunch and many of us also took the opportunity to socialise over dinner at the nearby pub afterwards.

First up was Geelong Skeptics Society Co-founder and Speech Pathologist Zola Lawry who spoke about the importance of being skeptical about “Facilitated Communication”. Questions have been raised over who is actually communicating. Could it be the well-meaning facilitator rather than the severely disabled client? Zola presented the claims and the evidence for such cases as Anne McDonald of “Annie’s Coming Out” fame and her facilitator Rosemary Crossley. View More Review – Surfcoast Skepticamp 2018

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