November Puzzles
The
NOVEMBER 2015 SKEPTICAL CROSSWORD PUZZLE
has ASTROLOGY as its theme
Click here for NOVEMBER 2015 LOGIC & MATHS PROBLEMS
with new PICTURE PUZZLES and MIXED BAG QUESTIONS at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE
Enjoy!
The Skeptic’s Guide to Tarot
This post revisits a post from 2010.
Our “Skeptics Guides” are also available in .pdf and can be downloaded from our USEFUL INFO page
The appeal of Tarot as a method of fortune telling seems inextricably linked to the exotic nature and large number of cards which make up the deck; they seem so ancient and unfamiliar to people used to the standard, modern, boring 53 card deck of four suits plus joker that their origins must surely be mystical. View More The Skeptic’s Guide to Tarot
Pointing the Bone at RMIT Osteopathy
by Mal Vickers
Readers of this blog will already know I’m somewhat skeptical of the claims made by the proponents of osteopathy. If you’re at all unsure about where osteopathy sits in relation to current science, I’d recommend reading my previous post on the topic.
RMIT University offers a degree course in osteopathy. I went along to RMIT’s Open Day to take a look at how osteopathy is promoted to prospective students looking for an interesting career in the health sector.
Osteopathy is a kind of quaint, old-fashioned, pre-scientific health care system. Practitioners generally offer forms of joint manipulation and massage in addition to the usual advice offered by many health practitioners – lifestyle, exercise and food. It can be quite hard to distinguish the treatments offered by osteopaths from those of chiropractors. The main difference between osteopathy and chiropractic is historical. The founder of osteopathy was Andrew Taylor Still (1928 – 1917). He appears to have worked by intuition alone and his pronouncements sounded plausible at the time. View More Pointing the Bone at RMIT Osteopathy
October Puzzles
The OCTOBER 2015 SKEPTICAL CROSSWORD PUZZLE
is all about PARANORMAL PASTIMES;
Click for
OCTOBER 2015 LOGIC & MATHS PROBLEMS:
and there are new PICTURE PUZZLES and MIXED BAG QUESTIONS at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE
Enjoy!
A Skeptic’s Guide to Homeopathy
March 2015 saw the release of the Australian Government’s National Health and Medical Research Council’s Statement on Homeopathy. It concluded:
“..that there is no good quality evidence to support the claim that homeopathy is effective in treating health conditions.”
That’s as good a reason as any to revisit the following article, first seen here in 2010.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Homeopathy is an “alternative medicine” invented in the early 19th century by German doctor Samuel Hahnemann. Despite numerous experiments showing homeopathy to have no effect, it has become a multi-million dollar international industry with its own special rules in advertising law.
Dr Ken Harvey on the Radio – Chiropractic Advertising
By Mal Vickers
Dr Ken Harvey, a friend of the Vic Skeptics was recently interviewed on ABC Radio National. (play the interview below)
The subject up for discussion was advertising by chiropractic businesses. The interview was prompted by an article Dr Ken Harvey recently authored for the MJA (Australian Medical Journal).
In the article, Ken expresses his concerns that not much has changed in the last five years since the regulator, AHPRA (incorporating the Chiropractic Board of Australia, CBA), issued a warning via a newsletter for chiropractors to clean up their advertising.
AHPRA stated:
The Board asks all chiropractors to review their advertising including their websites as a priority to ensure that the content meets the advertising requirements of the National Law and the provisions of the Guidelines on Advertising. There are criminal penalties for breaching section 133 of the National Law, which is set out in the attachment to this communiqué.
AHPRA newsletter, Aug. 2010
Since then, a CBA statement has also reminded chiropractors about their advertising obligations “in more than six publications in the past three years…” View More Dr Ken Harvey on the Radio – Chiropractic Advertising
“Mixed Bag” Questions December 2015 – Answers
1. Moonstruck
2. Jimi Hendrix
3. Jim Henson
4. Tigris
5. Economics
6. He was president of the American Confederate States
7. True. There was a 17 month period between the 1932 and the 1934 ceremonies.
8. Lewis Carrol
9. Gymnastics
10. Snake
HARDER:
11. Walk in space
12. Paris
13. Champagne & peach juice
14. An (imaginary) talking mongoose
15. 7151
16. Zorro
17. Carmen
18. Pope Pius II
19. The Austrian Army accidently attacked itself (with 10,000 casualties)
20. Georgia
“Mixed Bag” Questions November 2015 – Answers
1. Butcher, baker, candlestick maker
2. parties, pastier, (piaster OR piastre), traipse
3. The Moon
4. Three times (spring, summer and autumn)
5. 1965
6. B. Its scales close
7. The Pope
8. C. Goodbye to meat
9. A shovel
10. Lord Of the Flies
HARDER:
11. 1838
12. Nepal
13. To avoid paying his mobile phone bill
14. He was dead when he crossed the finish line
15. Malacandra
16. Archie
17. Letters written by Prince Charles to UK Government ministers
18. Pope Francis’s Ford Focus
19. His cane (he was blind)
20. No “E”s
“Mixed Bag” Questions October 2015 – Answers
1. Round Australia Trial
2. A baby
3. Two Spaniards, one Italian
4. capes, paces, scape, space
5. Tuberculosis
6. liver
7. Painting
8. Austin
9. 1967
10. Carp
HARDER:
11. Shane Gould (the former Olympic Gold medal winning female swimmer)
12. The life-saving reel
13. Ohio
14. Get Smart TV series theme
15. He was a Chinese bush ranger
16. Honduras & El Salvador
17. Speed skating (Munich 1936)
18. The ghost of an American college student who died after a drinking bout
19. Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain
20. Mr Waverley, Leo G Carroll