June 15, 2012

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

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May 26, 2012

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)

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May 18, 2012

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

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April 30, 2012

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.

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April 30, 2012

“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

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