Susan Blackmore – Genes, Memes, Tremes from Biology to AI
This is Professor Susan Blackmore speaking at the Royal Society of Victoria in October 2018
[youtube=https://youtu.be/b3uJ7AfOb0U]
Thanks to Adam Ford.
Surfcoast Summer Skepticamp
Saturday February 23rd 2019 at Aireys Inlet
The Surf Coast Summer Skepticamp (SCSSC) is Australia’s longest running Skepticamp. This year we are celebrating our 7th year.
Skepticamps are designed to give many members the opportunity to briefly (10 – 15 minutes) present on a topic of their choice. Skepticamps have been run in hundreds of locations and many countires since the first one was held in 2017 in Denver. Such is the status of the SCSSC it is even mentioned on the international skepticamp wikipedia site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkeptiCamp.
So, if you want to share something on a skeptically-related topic in which you are interested, highlight some practices that you see as dubious that need to be bought to the attention of the skeptics community, just something that we might find interesting please offer to share your thoughts. This is a sharing event, where many contributors combine to a great day. View More Surfcoast Summer Skepticamp
Puzzles for November 2018
November’s Skeptical Crossword (with standard and cryptic clues} is based on Mythology.
Each month there’s a new set of Picture Puzzles, Mixed Bag Questions (Trivia / General Knowledge) and Logic & Maths Puzzles. Look at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE.
Scroll down the Puzzles Page for monthly puzzles going back to January 2018
Our earlier puzzles, going back to 2010 can be found at:
https://skeptics.cafe/puzzles/puzzles-archives/
Enjoy!
Puzzles for October 2018
Each month we publish a themed Skeptical Crossword (this month on Homeopathy), a set of seven Picture Puzzles, a set of twenty Mixed Bag Questions (Trivia / General Knowledge) and a set of Logic & Maths Puzzles. They can be found, blog-style, at the top of the Puzzles Page.
A bonus three picture Puzzles are shown at left. The solutions can be found HERE.
Our earlier puzzles can be found at:
October 2018 Bonus Picture Puzzles – Answers
FLATULENCE
EUTHENASIA
HOOK, LINE & SINKER
Homeopathy – a Useless Treatment
Homeopath practitioners believe that by diluting a solution of a substance that mimics the effect of a disease the diluted concoction will cure the disease. The solution is usually diluted so many times that chemists calculate there may be no molecules of the original substance left in the final medication.
Homeopaths claim this doesn’t matter as the water has a “memory” of the dissolved curative substance.
Scientifically this makes no sense whatsoever. Nevertheless homeopathic treatments have been clinically tested to see if they are effective. When tested under rigorous double blind conditions the results show homeopathy is no more effective than a placebo.
The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia recently released a report on homeopathy. After reviewing over 200 research papers that it considered worthy of inclusion (many studies of homeopathy are of such poor quality that their conclusions are unreliable) the NHMRC concluded:
“The review found no good quality, well-designed studies with enough participants to support the idea that homeopathy works better than a placebo, or causes health improvements equal to those of another treatment.” View More Homeopathy – a Useless Treatment
The TGA Complaints (lack of) process
Here are reposts from two recent pieces by Dr Ken Harvey: Both examine Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Authority (TGA).
The first is a letter written to Melbourne’s Age newspaper.
The second, published on Dr Harvey’s own website is about Detox Foot Pads and more than adequately demonstrates the contention, made in the first piece, that the TGA is not really interested in consumer protection.
– – – – – –
Letter to The Age 5/9/18 Spotlight on regulators
Your editorial (4/9) says the government should have a more rigorous process to protect consumers from ineffective treatments and products. There are government regulators that are meant to do this job but they are weak and ineffective. View More The TGA Complaints (lack of) process
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)
Puzzles for September 2018
Each month we publish a themed Skeptical Crossword, a set of seven Picture Puzzles, a set of twenty Mixed Bag Questions (Trivia / General Knowledge) and a set of Logic & Maths Puzzles. They can be found, blog-style, at the top of the Puzzles Page.
There hundreds of earlier published puzzles. They can be found here:
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/