September 8, 2011

Leo Igwe, Interviews and Photos

by Mal Vickers

I had the rare privilege of meeting Leo Igwe during the Melbourne stage of his speaking tour around Australia. Leo is one of my personal skeptical heroes.

There really is no easy or fun way to deal with the issue of witch hunting in Africa.  It’s awful on every level. Mostly the targets are older women and young children.  Being labelled a witch often means a death sentence if you’re the unlucky one.  At the very least, you’ll become ostracised from your family and community.

Whilst being an outspoken skeptic here in Australia can be difficult (just ask Dr Ken Harvey), Leo has been beaten up and put in jail for speaking out against something we’d regard as a ridiculous and monstrous superstition. View More Leo Igwe, Interviews and Photos

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September 1, 2011

September 2011 Puzzles

Picture Puzzles and Mixed Bag Questions for September 2011 have been added to our Puzzles and Diversions page.

September 2011 Crossword here: http://skeptics.cafe/puzzles/september-2011-crossword/

Links to all Crossword puzzles: http://skeptics.cafe/puzzles/crosswords-links-to-all-crosswords/

Puzzles Archive 1: http://skeptics.cafe/puzzles/puzzles-archive/

Puzzles Archive 2: http://skeptics.cafe/puzzles/puzzles-archive-2/

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September 1, 2011

Flogging a Dodgy Cancer “Cure”? Say What You Like, the TGA Won’t Stop You

by Dr Mick Vagg, Clinical Senior Lecturer at Deakin University School of Medicine & Pain Specialist at Barwon Health

This article has been reprinted from The Conversation website where it appeared on 1/9/2001.

If a manufacturer claimed its product was “clinically proven” and could relieve your symptoms of bloating and fatigue, would you believe it? What about if you were chronically or terminally ill and had tried almost everything else?

The latest audit of complementary therapies found as many as nine out of ten companies made misleading claims about their weight loss products, vitamins, lotions, pills and gadgets.

The release on Tuesday of the Australian National Audit Office’s (ANAO) report on the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA)
performance as regulator of complementary medicine products makes for alarming reading. View More Flogging a Dodgy Cancer “Cure”? Say What You Like, the TGA Won’t Stop You

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August 21, 2011

Leo Igwe in Melbourne

Humanist Leo Igwe, currently touring Australia will be in Melbourne from Thursday 25th  to Saturday 27th of August. Leo is a tireless campaigner against witch-hunting and other superstitions in his native Nigeria.

Subscribers to The Skeptic Magazine will be familiar with Leo through his frequent Reports From Nigeria

  • Listen to ABC Local Radio 774’s Drive Time program at 4:30 pm on Thursday for a live interview between Leo and host Lindy Burns.
  • There are still a few limited spaces available for Thursday evening’s Dinner with Leo Igwe at La Notte Restaurant, Carlton. You must book by ‘phoning 9378 4414 or emailing vic@skeptics.com.au. It’s La Notte’s famous Smorgasbord at $50 per head.
  • Leo Igwe will speak again at a public meeting on Saturday. The Humanist Society of Victoria is joining Vic Skeptics in staging this event. It’s at 2pm at Victorian Trades Hall New Council Chambers at 54 Victoria Street Carlton South. $10 at the door, ($5 concession). Refreshments will be available.

Leo has undertaken that his Thursday and Saturday presentations will be different in content.

For information about Leo Igwe, please see

http://newhumanist.org.uk/2548/witch-hunt-saboteurs?sms_ss=twitter&at_xt=4dcaeb01c8d28212,0

and our previous posts

http://skeptics.cafe/2011/04/02/leo-igwe-tour/

http://skeptics.cafe/2010/07/14/support-for-leo-igwe

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August 17, 2011

Previous Product Reviews

or,

Blasts from the Past

Given that many of our readers have only recently become acquainted with us, we thought we’d revisit some of the more entertaining product reviews that Vic Skeptics has performed in past years.

The Electrostatic Gravitator

Our mate Barrie Johnson combines his two greatest loves, electronics and fossicking: and he knows a bit about electronics – most of his working life was spent as electronics maintenance officer in a major Melbourne hospital.

Barrie Johnson with gold nuggets

In semi-retirement in the early 2000s, Barrie opened a business in the heart of the Victorian goldfields,  servicing and repairing  detection equipment. One day a friend brought in a flash-looking device called The Electrostatic Gravitator.

He’d been so impressed by a prominent advertisement in a glossy American fossicker’s magazine that he bought one, notwithstanding its considerable expense. Unfortunately, once unpacked it failed to live up to expectations.

Barrie promised to look into it (literally). What he discovered was a maze of components and wires. The weird thing was that most of the circuits were open. Things weren’t connected to other things.

Barrie concluded that not only could the Gravitator not work, it was never designed to work. He reported back to his disappointed customer, then went to the trouble of posting a warning to the magazine that it was hosting ads for a dubious product, including technical details. That, he thought, was that.

View More Previous Product Reviews

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August 10, 2011

A Skeptic’s Guide to Free Energy Machines

This article first appeared as a Vic Skeptics discussion pamphlet. It was written several years ago by our good friend Peter Barrett of Canberra Skeptics, but it’s up to date: from time to time these machines still get promoted in niche magazines and websites. 
The full range of our discussion pamphlets can be downloaded here: http://www.skeptics.com.au/resources/educational/or by clicking on the “Useful Info” link at the top of this page.

Imagine you have an ordinary one litre jug. Two things which I’m sure you’d agree with are that you couldn’t pour more than a litre of water into it or empty more than one litre out of it.

Now imagine you had two such jugs, one full to the brim with water and the other empty. Pour the water from one jug to the other and back again. Repeat this process as often as you like. Is there any way you could imagine that you’d end up with more than one litre of water split between the two jugs?

The logical answer is “No.” In fact, due to spillage and evaporation, it’s more likely that you’d end up with less than one litre of water.

This is a fairly accurate representation of one of the most basic principles of physics, known as Conservation of Energy. This principle states that energy can change form, but can’t be destroyed or created. A good example of this is the production of household electricity in Australia. Most electricity in Australia is generated by burning coal. The coal has chemical energy. When it’s burned, it releases heat energy.

This energy heats water to steam, which turns a turbine (kinetic energy). The turbine drives a generator, producing electrical energy. We then use this electrical energy for heating, cooling, running the TV, and so on. View More A Skeptic’s Guide to Free Energy Machines

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