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Roy Arnott, long-standing treasurer for the Victorian Skeptics, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the recent Queen’s birthday honours list. He received the honour for his service to the preservation of military history and to veterans.
Also honoured was Australian Skeptics co-founder and patron DickSmith, who was created a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).
Dick has supported a range of humanitarian, social welfare and conservation organisations, medical research and the arts, among them Australian Skeptics
I love the Mind Body Spirit Festival – I really do. But I don’t love having to part with the (grrrr…..) twenty dollars just to get in. My partner tried her hand at The Secret or the power of positive thinking and attempted to get in for nothing, but the security guard shattered her confidence.
Clear Thinking
Luckily an essential oil called Confidence was readily available from the nearby Pro-Oils stand. This place made it all worthwhile. I happened to find a bottle of Clear Thinking – perfect for a Skeptic like me. I took one long, deep sniff, right to the bottom of my lungs. Somehow my world appeared better, sharper, colours were more vivid, my mind cleared, my thoughts were more focused, yes… I just inhaled a bunch of liquid herbs. You too can buy a 12ml bottle of Clear Thinking on Show special for just $13.60; a bargain as it’s normally $17.00 per bottle. I was also tempted by a bottle of Clarity / Concentration, but no, my mind was
Anxiety
now clear. Just looking at a bottle of Anxiety helped produce the desired effect at $13.60 and Fairy Magic was a spellbinding $20.00. Perhaps I’d accidentally inhaled a hint of ‘Critical Thinking’.
In the meantime, my partner was busy haggling over the price of a bottle of Happiness. “What? $13.60? I’m not happy about that!” she protested. I think she’d caught a whiff of Confidence. The bloke on the till didn’t crack a smile. Perhaps it was a blend of Headache and Fear. It might have been time for him to D-Stress and Chill Out at a total of $54.40.
Chill Out
At another stand my partner wanted to try some makeup that would highlight her eyebrows. The saleslady worked her magic with a little brush. “That looks better; what’s it made from?” my partner enquired whilst looking into a mirror. “Natural sea minerals from Italy” said the saleslady. I piped up, “Possibly View More Mind Body Spin-it Festival 2015
I was recently asked, “Does osteopathy work? Is it scientific?” The short answer is: osteopathy is unlikely to be effective for most health conditions. It’s a form of alternative medicine. I wouldn’t put it in the category of a science–based medicine. Read on if you’re interested in why I would think such a thing.
It’s difficult to definitively answer questions like this for three reasons.
One – Science is all about probability.
Two – it’s hard to prove a negative.
Three – it’s not a very clear question.
If the idea is to sort the wheat from the chaff in medical treatments, there are better/tougher questions to ask.
APRIL 2015 CROSSWORD PUZZLE, appropriately for an April 1 posthas Cryptids as its theme, and comes with standard and (again, appropriately) cryptic clues;
Remember, we are looking for the smallest possible number of blonde, blue-eyed females given the available data. 60% of the population is female. 40% are therefore male. It’s POSSIBLE that all the males are blonde. In that case, 40% of the population would be blonde females, and 20% would be females who are not blonde. 70% of the population has blue eyes. It’s POSSIBLE that all the males have blue eyes (40% of the population), and that all non-blonde females have blue eyes (another 20 % of the population) That leaves only 10% of the population who MUST be female, blonde and blue-eyed.
Roy Arnott, long-standing treasurer for the Victorian Skeptics, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the recent Queen’s birthday honours list. He received the honour for his service to the preservation of military history and to veterans.
