December 5, 2010

Victorian Skeptics at STAVCON 2010

The Victorian Skeptics made their way to the annual science teachers’ conference STAVCON 2010 on Monday and Tuesday 29th – 30th November held at La Trobe University. We displayed our wide range of resources and entertained passers-by with all things skeptical as we competed with book vendors, museums and other educational providers for the teachers’ attention. It was pleasing to see some familiar skeptical faces that we have seen in previous years. ‘Stuff for Teachers’ the CD, was again highly popular as was the recently released Skeptics Victoria fridge magnet calendar.
We also presented two talks titled ‘Science Education – maintaining a perspective in an ever changing world’ at which placebo wrist bands, mobile phone radiation shields and water dowsing were generally debunked.
Many thanks to the Skeptic volunteers: Charles, Don, Ken, Paul, Roy and Terry.
The photograph below shows, President Terry Kelly explaining that he found  not only one wristband didn’t work, but neither does three.
Don

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December 1, 2010

TAM Australia wrap up

The post conference high is beginning to wear off and life starts to get back to a normal routine again.
For those Victorian Skeptics lucky enough to go to The Amazing Meeting the experience was quite amazing – and as a skeptic; it’s not easy to say that.
(If you’d just like to see a nice slide show of photos from TAM Oz and you don’t much care to read a summary – skip to here)
Expectations were high: so many big name skeptics where on the bill. Would it work?  Such a lot happened it’s difficult to summarize.  I’ll just mention some highlights in no particular order.

My favorite session was one that had to be put together quickly to fill in for a speaker who couldn’t make it – the twitter quiz.  Rebecca Watson quickly researched some questions. A panel of experts, mainly from the SGU, were pitted against the audience in a race to give the correct answer first.  The panel had the advantage of being able to answer directly into the microphones whilst the audience had to post the answer to twitter using the #TAMQuiz hashtag.  Audience answers were displayed real-time on the big screens.  What ensued was glorious, hilarious mayhem that left the audience with sore stomach muscles from laughing.  For instance, in answer View More TAM Australia wrap up

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November 28, 2010

"Mixed Bag" December 2010 Answers

1. Three cats
2. (a) noon; (b) madam; (c) level; (d) peep; (e) gig
3. Jean-Claude van Damme
4. There is no legal precedent on which to base an answer; peacocks don’t lay eggs.
5. LBJ (It’s the initials of US Presidents counting backwards from Barak Obama)
6. Sam has 21 balls and Fred has 15 balls.
7. He will never do it.
8. Honduras
9. The top of the mast
10. One shilling

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November 26, 2010

Religion and Science: a View

Earlier this year Terry Kelly was  interviewed by the RoyalAuto . It was a great opportunity to get the skeptical message out to the wider community.  However, with such a large readership the article was bound to have some detractors.
One letter took Terry to task for his views on religion and science, in particular the statement:

But really, science and faith are contradictory.

With due respect to the author of that letter, we’re not going to reproduce it.
We thought Terry’s response was worth posting.

President, Terry Kelly

Dear (RoyalAuto Reader),
Thank you for taking the time to write and I am pleased you read the article in RoyalAuto. While there were some hostile letters published afterwards, and a supportive one, I have to say that we have had a lot of formal and informal positive response. Several people I’ve spoken to expressed surprise that the article could be considered controversial at all. You may be alarmed to learn that a hell of a lot of people think like I do.
To address some of your points :  I know a lot of Scientists had/have religious and other superstitious beliefs. I think Newton believed View More Religion and Science: a View

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November 23, 2010

Ian Enting talk


Ian Enting drew quite a crowd on the 15th of November at La Notte.
Here is the abstract of Ian’s talk:

The science of climate change has come under public attack through what has been described as asymmetric warfare. Public communication has been flooded with a deluge of misinformation. In parallel there have been attempts to distract, intimidate and gag climate scientists. In 2009 Ian Plimer’s book, Heaven + Earth – Global Warming: The Missing Science, claimed to demolish the theory of human-induced global warming due to the release of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. A careful reading of Heaven + Earth reveals extensive examples of fabricating numbers, distorted and misattributed graphics, misrepresentation of the content of cited references and a sprinkling of plagiarism. In spite of its blatant flaws Heaven + Earth has gained considerable political traction in Australia.

The talk was quite an eye-opener.   Ian has done a huge amount of work tracking down the mathematical distortions of those arguing climate change is not man-made.   Ian has kindly made his presentation slides available in PDF form for those that wish to look back through them.
[File size: 1.04MB]
Ian’s home page can be found here.
Mal.

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November 18, 2010

Sceptic Science in The Age

Journalist Brad Newsome has today launched a new blog, “Sceptic Science“, in The Age’s National Times section.

With a dearth of skeptical content in the mainstream media (indeed, a dearth of anything resembling skepticism), it’s fantastic to see this kind of content getting a run on that kind of forum.
Archaic spelling aside (what, no “k”?) Brad’s blog is shaping up to be an interesting, accessible look at a broad range of skeptical issues.
Right out of the gate, Brad bravely namechecks a number of potentially controversial topics (anti-vax, alternative medicine, chemtrails) before even bravelier (seriously? – Ed.) putting out the call for comments.
We wish Brad all the best with the new blog, and we’d like to encourage our readers to run on over, have a read and indeed leave a comment.
Be quick, though. With any luck the conspiracy-theory-laden-anti-science hordes will be descending soon. This should be fun!
Matt

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November 16, 2010

TGA calls on Power Balance to withdraw claims and advertising

The promoters of Power Balance wrist bands are in trouble again. This time the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has ruled against them. 
In part the decision says:

In reaching this conclusion, the Panel noted that the claims made in the advertisements were extraordinary to such a degree that no reasonable retailer could publish them on the basis of assurances from the product sponsor, without requesting evidence that such claims could lawfully be made about the product.

The TGA are asking for the: Withdrawal of representations, Withdrawal of advertisement and the Publication of a retraction.
To re-cap;  Power Balance wrist bands are coloured silicone rings with two small plastic holograms glued on.  The popular silicone bands sell for about $60 (Aus).  A pendant version of the Power Balance sells for about $90 (Aus). The promoters of Power Balance claim View More TGA calls on Power Balance to withdraw claims and advertising

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