Category: Third Monday – vic skeptics

Victorian Skeptics are hosting our 4th Annual Trivia Night at La Notte Restaurant on Monday May 19th.
The Trivia starts at 7.30 pm.

• NOTE: the earlier than usual start.

As usual, we’ll start gathering for a meal from about 6pm (or earlier!)
Last year’s Trivia Night was our most popular event;
– this year, get your team organised, and if you’re having a meal at the restaurant before the Trivia, please arrive and order early.
As we are offering a number of prizes, your monetary donation will be gratefully received!

Links

Other advertising for the event: http://www.getalife.com.au/ViewActivity.aspx?Activity_Id=10664&ref=myrddin

See text of The Purple Economy Perpetuated , an article in The Age newspaper of November 16 2007
Max Wallace on Separation of Church and State in France You-tube presentation (sorry this video no longer available on You-Tube)
(As an alternative, see this more recent video of Max, Admin edit Sept 2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adcf6AaNVXA

As opinion polls from around the world repeatedly show, levels of belief in the paranormal are high and show no signs of falling.  Skeptics remain unconvinced by the scientific evidence put forward in support of paranormal claims but it is clear that members of the public are not basing their opinions upon such evidence. Either, at least some of these experiences are based upon genuine paranormal phenomena, or people are misinterpreting non-paranormal events as involving forces that do not exist.
Anomalistic Psychology attempts to explain these types of experiences in terms of psychological and in some cases physiological phenomena. This talk will present some examples of the systematic biases in the way in which we process information that may help to explain why so many believe in the paranormal and report ostensibly paranormal experiences. One such example is the role of memory biases. Thirty years of research has shown that memory is not the reliable store that was once thought. Memory is in fact a constructive process, vulnerable to all kinds of misinformation, suggestion and individual biases.
I will illustrate how far individual differences might render someone more susceptible to distortions of memory and in particular how belief in, and experience of the paranormal impact on both perception and memory.

Catherine Deveney is a comedy writer, columist, author, cultural Catholic, born again atheist and mother of three from The People’s Republic Of Moreland. One of her recent campaigns has been against the proliferation of 4WD’s.
On Monday 15th October, Catherine will be discussing her conversion to atheism for The Australian Skeptics at La Notte Restaurant, 140 Lygon Street Carlton at 8pm (Meal from 6pm, donation requested).

 I have been interested in the human population factor in environment since I was a teenager in the 1960s. This came about through an interest in the environment and seeing a threat to wild life at that time as well as a push for and awareness of the need for National Parks in the face of “progress“, population growth and development in Australia. Around that time Paul Ehrlich’s rather alarming but seminal book, The Population Bomb came out and I read it with a large measure of disquiet. Although population was not the main preoccupation of my early adulthood, I later became concerned when it seemed to me that it was not being adequately addressed by environmental groups because it had become a taboo topic: yet population was already having such a huge impact on our environment.
It was and is a continual trade off between development and the environment and it seemed then as now that development was non -negotiable. I heard about Sustainable Population Australia some time in the 1990s and joined in that decade. I was Vice President of the Victorian Branch in 2004 – 5 and I am currently the Victorian President of Sustainable Population Australia, having been elected in 2006 and 2007.
The last four years have been packed with experience and learning. In that time, the current Vice President of SPA Victoria, Sheila Newman and I began using electronic video to record and investigate issues which are related to or dependent upon population growth. This has exposed much discontent which needs to be reported and publicized in the areas of development, democracy, population and environment.
My academic qualifications include a sub-major in philosophy and a degree in Arts/Psychology and French, Audiology and Librarianship along with about 3 years of study in Art, but my current interests are in population, energy and environment as these factors will shape the future of our world.

Skeptics Cafe, 20th of November 2007, – “Towards a Nuclear Future” Dr Colin Keay

The Electromagnetic Bomb – a Weapon of Electrical Mass Destruction
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/kopp/apjemp.html
High Power Electromagnetic Pulse generation techniques and High Power Microwave technology have matured to the point where practical E-bombs (Electromagnetic bombs) are becoming technically feasible, with new applications in both Strategic and Tactical Information Warfare. The development of conventional E-bomb devices allows their use in non-nuclear confrontations. Dr Kopp will discuss aspects of the technology base, weapon delivery techniques and propose a doctrinal foundation for the use of such devices in warhead and bomb applications.

Well-known Sydney personality Richard Saunders was born in Kurri Kurri NSW and now just loves to eat it. He is known far and wide as an international author and origami expert with 30 books published. Richard enjoyed his time as President and is now the Technology Consultant for the Skeptic.
Richard was awarded Life Membership of Australian Skeptics in 2001 for his work on The Great Skeptic CD and since then he has created the Great Skeptic CD2, the Great Water Divining DVD and video, created the Skeptics online shop, designed the “card carrying skeptic card“, designed and created the “2005 Babes of Skepticism Calendar“, founded “Sydney Skeptics in the Pub“, initiated “The Skeptic Tank” radio show, produced the Australian Skeptics collection on TV”s “Theories of Everything” and created several of the Skeptics convention DVDs.
Richard delights in investigations, teaching critical thinking to school students and uncovering quackery.

Peter Pentland
Getting the message across
Peter Pentland is the Programs Coordinator of Physical Sciences for Museum Victoria and is based at Scienceworks museum.
Peter trained as a Mathematics and Physics teacher and taught in Victorian schools for about 20 years. He has worked at Museum Victoria for the past 10 years. His position at Museum Victoria involves interpreting exhibitions for education and general public audiences. This has involved consulting with relevant scientists, writing text panels, preparing education kits for schools, writing and presenting shows for education and general public audiences. It also involves delivery of professional development for teachers.
Peter has also been involved with teams that have published Physics textbooks and series of science library books for primary aged children. Three of these projects have won awards in the Australian Awards for Educational Publishing.
The main themes of Peter’s talk will be how to effectively communicate with audiences and how we can raise the level of scientific literacy in the community.

(Text Version)
Australian Skeptics Present Mark Mayer “Alison Dubious- Criminal Profiler, Research Medium OR Medium Criminal With a Profile? ”
Monday 21st August La Notte Restaurant 140 Lygon Street Carlton 8pm (meal from 6pm) (Gold Coin Donation)
More about Mark Mayer: (Go to this page For the Press and scroll down)
Allison DuBois is an American psychic on whom the “true life” tv show “Medium” is loosely based. Allison DuBois has claimed to have helped the Texas Rangers and Arizona police solve crimes but both organisations claim to have never used psychics. (See http://www.twopercentco.com/rants/archives/2005/03/medium_the_dubi_4.html )