Our Puzzles Page , updated for the New Year contains:
Our Puzzles Archives go back to 2010
https://skeptics.cafe/puzzles/puzzles-archives/
ENJOY!
When naturalists started examining the Earth in the 18th century for evidence of its age, they were to a large extent seeking to confirm the suggestion of the Bible that the Earth was several thousand years old; but the closer they looked, the less certain they were that this was the correct answer.
Geologists examined the rocks across Britain, and noted that the same sequence of rocks occurred in different places, suggesting that the rocks had a common source. They also noticed that different levels of rocks contained different groups of fossils, including fossils of animals different from those of today, and not mentioned in the Bible. Yet the fossils were in similar orders in different locations. Rocks were also classified according to how they were made, and by the order in which they’d been created. In the first case, rocks were classified as sedimentary, igneous or metamorphic. Sedimentary rocks are rocks created by grains of mud or sand laid down over the years on lake or sea floors, and compressed into rock by the weight of material lying above them. Igneous rocks are rocks of volcanic origin. Some are from lava which has cooled solid on the surface of the Earth (such as basalt), while others have cooled while still inside the Earth (such as granite), and emerged after they’d solidified. Metamorphic rocks are rocks (usually sedimentary) which have been altered by heat or pressure (such as limestone being converted to marble). View More A Skeptic’s Guide to the Age of the Earth
This month’s Picture Puzzles go to the top of the Puzzles Page as usual;
However the Skeptical Crossword, the Logic & Maths Puzzles and the “Mixed Bag” Questions are all supplied as .pdf files., here and on the Puzzles Page.
As we’re heading into the holiday season, there is a set of bonus puzzles; (mainly word puzzles)
December 2017 Skeptical Crossword (Frauds, Scams and Hoaxes)
88 Dec 2017 Crossword Frauds, Scams & Hoaxes
December 2017 Logic & Maths Puzzles # 65
Logic and Maths Puzzles 65 December 2017
December 2017 “Mixed Bag” Questions (Trivia / General Knowledge)
12 December 2017 Mixed bag questions
December 2017 BONUS PUZZLES
Vic Skeptics Website December 2017 Bonus Puzzles
And don’t forget, our Puzzles Archives go back to 2010
https://skeptics.cafe/puzzles/puzzles-archives/
ENJOY!
Here’s a look back at Vic Skeptics’ flirtation with the Bed of Nails.
Some enterprising Victorian Skeptics made a Bed of Nails and documented the process in the late 1990s. (See Ye Bed of Nails .pdf below)
AUSTRALIAN SKEPTICS CONVENTION 2017 IMAGES
Photography by Mal Vickers
Followers of this site will be well aware that Australian Skeptics are proud long-term sponsors of the Science Teachers Association of Victoria’s annual Science Talent Search.
Here are the statistics for 2017:
2017 was the 66th year of the STS.
3,369 Victorian students entered; the largest level of participation for several years.
704 Cash bursaries were awarded.
There were 42 sponsors, ranging from multinational companies to private individuals.
The Australian Skeptics were a major sponsor: 90 students received bursaries funded by the Australian Skeptics.
We congratulate Janice Teng and her team of volunteers for a great event. If you are interested in STS and would like to know more, go to http://www.sciencevictoria.com.au/sts/
The Bent Spoon, the Thornett Award and the Skeptic of the Year
http://www.skeptics.com.au/2017/11/19/2017-bent-spoon-to-nicm-skeptic-of-the-year-christine-bayne/
by Ken Greatorex
Whack-a-Mole was a popular 1970s arcade game which consisted of repeatedly hitting cartoon moles on the head with a cartoon hammer. Moles nevertheless kept cropping up with undiminished energy more or less at random; so the term Whack-a-mole came to signify “a repetitious and futile task.”
The situation regarding the regulation of therapeutic goods in Australia is unsatisfactory. The complaints process is frustrating, exhausting and often ineffectual. Complaints to the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA) must be made against one product or service at a time. Because such complaints are almost invariably made by volunteers, and there is no financial incentive to complain, only a relatively tiny number of questionable products ever get put under the microscope.
An astonishing 87 % of such complaints have historically been upheld. Yet the offending companies rarely receive more than “a slap on the wrists”.