Help us celebrate Charles Darwin’s 211th birthday at the annual Barbecue, from 5 pm at the Studley Park Boathouses picnic area. BYO everything.
Celebrate February 12 (Charles Darwin’s Birthday) in your classroom!
Charles Darwin Crossword Years 9 to 12
Charles Darwin Wordsearch Years 5 to 8
Charles Darwin Cryptogram Years 7 to 10
charles_darwin_by_grichmond [Colouring in}
Come and enjoy the glorious location at Aireys Inlet and a variety of speakers at this grassroots event on February 29, 2020. It’s free but please register via the Eventbrite link: https://tinyurl.com/SkepticampVIII
The Intelligence Trap: Why smart people do stupid things and how to make wiser decisions
By David Robson
Reviewed by John Barrett
This book presents a challenge to any person of proven high intelligence. As the author says in his introduction, “Smart people may be even more vulnerable to certain kinds of foolish thinking.” High intelligence inappropriately applied can be like a high performance car with faulty brakes. The author provides examples of foolish thinking by some famously smart people such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein. He also provides examples of smart people who avoided thinking foolishly: Socrates and Benjamin Franklin. Interestingly, the great strength of both was their preparedness to recognise the limits of their own knowledge.
The author introduces some useful concepts, including:
· Dysrationalia: a mismatch between intelligence and rationality;
· Earned Dogmatism: a perceived “right” to be closed-minded;
· Motivated reasoning: a tendency to apply our brainpower to affirming a predetermined goal.
The book deals tangentially with issues of interest to Skeptics such as astrology, extra-terrestrial visitations, séances, complementary medicines, vaccination, climate change, and evolution. Its emphasis is on clear thinking and how some highly intelligent people can come to believe some ridiculous things.
I recommend this book to all Skeptics. A useful summary is available here: https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/intelligence-trap
I also recommend this review: https://irishtechnews.ie/the-intelligence-trap-review/
The box at left contains eight bonus puzzles: each decodes to a word or a phrase. The answers are HERE
Otherwise, for the month of January 2019 we’ve put the usual Picture Puzzles, Mixed Bag questions, a Crossword about Greek Mythology and a set of Logic Problems with solutions at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE . Enjoy!
I Belong to You
The Inside Scoop
Tenuous
The Devil is in the Detail
Behind in My Work
About Face
Stagger the Imagination
I Understand
To help you tide over the holiday season, here are two offerings:
This is an 11 page compendium of twenty puzzles of various kinds, with answers supplied.
113 January 2020 xword Skepticon
This is the crossword puzzle designed for the Skepticon 2019 booklet, with one important difference – this one has the correct clues!
It’s based on the names of the presenters and announcers at Skepticon.
Enjoy!
For the month of December 2019 at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE we’ve placed seven new Picture Puzzles, a set of Mixed Bag questions, a crossword themed to General Skeptical Issues and a set of Logic Problems with solutions. In other words, business as usual. Enjoy!
https://skeptics.cafe/puzzles/puzzles-archives/