1. (in order) C, D, B, C, B
2. 91 pencils, 9 jars
3. 37 triangles
4. Four circles
5. 20 triangles
6. a. Ask one robot what the other robot would say, if it was asked which door was safe.
….b. Go through the other door.
7. top to bottom: Chocolate, Vanilla, Blueberry, Bubblegum, Strawberry
8. Position 7
9. 120 Houses
solution: 
10. a. John b. Peter
This article first appeared here in 2010. It is also available as a classroom discussion pamphlet.
The full range of our discussion pamphlets (and much more) can be downloaded from our USEFUL INFO page.
Typically, firewalking involves walking with bare feet across a level bed of hot glowing coals, the remnant of a wood fire. On the Pacific Islands, heated stones are substituted for coals. View More A Skeptic’s Guide to Firewalking
Do you know such a person?
If so, we’d love to hear from you.
Please tell us what you’re doing now, and send us your STS reminiscences including your name and school, and whatever you can remember about your entry (how old were you at the time? What category did you enter; models, essays, research, computers, photography or games? What was the title of your entry?)
Send to vic[at]skeptics.com.au.
We will not use any of this information without your permission.
by: Mal Vickers
Imagine you’re in the midst of the stress of VCE and facing those life-changing questions: What do I do with my life? Which university course should I do? You’d want accurate and reliable information, right?
Sadly I witnessed an audience of impressionable, aspiring young people who were considering career moves being given poor information by an Australian university.
In August 2015, I sat in on RMIT’s Open Day presentations promoting a degree courses in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). By the look of the demographic in attendance, most were Year 12 students. About one quarter looked to be the parents, with a few possible mature-age students and one known skeptic, MOI.
Young people are going to be exposed to misleading information and dubious advertising in society, that’s a given. As a society, we’re already taking up a lot of valuable educational time in teaching science and critical thinking, but class time is limited. How much time should we devote to educating students about the many ways people can be misled?
View More Traditional Chinese Medicine at RMIT: roll up and start a new life in woo
This brief article takes note of an auspicious conjunction of events in May. Both Vic Skeptics and our good friends at Mordi Skeptics have a Soapbox evening as our monthly public meeting.
This is an edited repost of an article which first appeared here in August 2010. You can also download a similar classroom discussion pamphlet (and a lot more) from our USEFUL INFO page.
The basic proposition of Western Astrology is that your personality and fate are influenced by the apparent positions and motions of heavenly bodies. View More A Skeptic’s Guide to Astrology
The theme of the MAY 2016 SKEPTICAL CROSSWORD is Religion and Superstition and as usual comes with your choice of standard or cryptic clues.
The MAY 2016 LOGIC & MATHS PROBLEMS
set is the 46th in the series. If you’d like to use our Logic & Maths sets in the classroom or just to catch up on the ones you’ve missed, please note that we started posting them in August 2012; (see PUZZLES ARCHIVE 3 .)
As always, seven new Picture Puzzles and twenty new “Mixed Bag” Trivia Questions have been placed at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE
Enjoy!
This article first appeared as a Vic Skeptics discussion pamphlet.
The full range of our discussion pamphlets (and a lot more) can be downloaded from our USEFUL INFO page.
A Skeptic’s Guide to
by Peter Barrett, Canberra Skeptics (2016 edit by Ken Greatorex)
Test 1: Is the argument factually correct?
It’s remarkable how many conspiracy theories are based on arguments which are simply factually incorrect. If you’re presented with a conspiracy theory argument, check the facts.
[Sites such as
http://urbanlegends.about.com/
https://www.truthorfiction.com/
are useful here.]
Many incorrect arguments are repeated in ignorance. But there are also some people who knowingly repeat conspiracy arguments they know are wrong. View More A Skeptic’s Guide to Conspiracy Theories
1. Italy, Hungary, Germany, Norway
2. Clancy of the Overflow
3. New Zealand
4. hunch
5. Men’s brief swimming trunks
6. “GP” i.e. General Purpose
7. Pat Garrett
8. 40 and 41
9. (a) England (b) Sir Thomas More
10. Colonel Sander’s Kentucky Fried Chicken
HARDER:
11. 120 mm
12. 1936 / Hobart Zoo
13. 8
14. 621
15. 24
16. The Nobel Prize in Physics for (accept any of):
Inventing the transistor
Electronics
Work on transistors
Work on semiconductors
17. Trampoline, Tai-Kwon-Do, Triathlon
18. Caramel (colour)
19. 1946, deposed by the new communist regime
20. Jupiter
