Happenings – June 2012
by Ken Greatorex
Nuns Fight Back! In last month’s Happenings, we reported on an attempt by The Vatican to rein in America’s fifty thousand nuns. Here’s the latest. Meanwhile, Australia’s last openly progressive Catholic bishop, Canberra’s Pat Power resigned, citing the Vatican’s inability to listen, clergy sex abuse and the shortage of priests as the biggest issues facing the church.
In Australia, a supreme court judge has forced Jehova’s Witness parents to allow their four-year-old daughter to receive a blood transfusion, without which she had a life expectancy of a few weeks. View More Happenings – June 2012
Australian Skeptics 2012 Convention
Bookings are now open
Information and bookings HERE
Mixed Bag June 2012 Answers
1. a. Late date, b. Glum plum, c. Current currant, d. Grape gripe
2. a. Anthony Perkins / Psycho; b. Anthony Hopkins / The Silence of the Lambs; c. Jack Nicholson / A Few Good Men
3. Divination using cheese
4. Three
5. They were topless
6. The Spruce Goose
7. Gecko
8. La Perouse
9. less
10. (a) Sydney- Much more rain (1200mm v 650mm); (b) Melbourne – more days of rain (147 v 139)
Happenings
by Ken Greatorex
This is a collection of odds, ends and newsy bits that have taken our attention in the last month.
- The Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne was as big an event as predicted. There was even an appearance by both militant Christians and Muslims. HERE. For Dick Gross’s review, see HERE
Eugenie Scott The GAC was big enough to have its own fringe, in fact. Our own April Skeptics Café was billed as just such an event, featuring the delightful Eugenie Scott. It may not have represented an enormous crowd for Ms Scott – she is much in demand internationally as a speaker – but it set a record for La Notte’s Club Room. View More Happenings
May Puzzles
This month, we have again snared the talent of guest cruciverbalist Roy Arnott. As a result, the May 2012 Skeptical Crossword comes in two versions: with standard clues and with cryptic clues. There’s an unusually large crop of Mixed Bag questions to mark Trivia month at Skeptics Café, and seven new Picture Puzzles. Click on the Puzzles tab at the top of the page.
“Mixed Bag” May 2012 Answers
1. a. Basic / sick bay; b. Welfare / farewell; c. Zero / rosy d. Germaine / manger
2. a. 6 Strings on a guitar; b. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover; c. 4 Suits in a deck of cards; d. 1 Giant Leap for Mankind; e. 9 Lives of a Cat
3. Keeps an eye out for police
4. a hermit
5. John Stonehouse
6. Barbara Cartland
7. Prince Charles
8. Pnom Penh
9. Holding / storing liquids (oil or wine)
10. Jimmy Carter
11. Jimmy Hoffa
12. Fear of the number 13
13. Phar Lap (Australia’s most famous race-horse)
14. The Harbour Bridge
15. Wooden Heart
16. Five
17. Calculus
18. Aluminium
19. Octavian a.k.a Augustus
20. The Melbourne Cup
21. 1966
22. A free shot which your opponent allows you after you’ve made a bad shot
23. Bravo
24. Belgian
25. Tyro