June 14, 2010

The Mind Body Wallet experience

Once again the Mind Body Spirit Festival came to the Melbourne Exhibition Centre this long weekend (11 – 14 June 2010).
If you’re a local to Melbourne and that last sentence didn’t make much sense, please let me re-phrase: Mind Body Wallet at Jeff’s Shed. That better?

The sights and sounds are quite extraordinary: crystals, Tantric healing, herbs, cults, self-improvement courses, psychic readings, sometimes many of these mixed together on the one stand.  It’s the most extraordinary View More The Mind Body Wallet experience

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June 6, 2010

Spiral “UFO” reports from the east coast of Australia

It was all over our local news yesterday: the reports of a beautiful spiral seen in the predawn light from most of the east coast of Australia.  Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and the Gold Coast were all reportedly excellent viewing locations.
On-line, there are some excellent photos and videos of this event.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XdbkpqtE0Y]
Although the weather was cold and cloudy in Melbourne yesterday, there are reports of some people having seen the same light in the sky from here.
So what was it? View More Spiral “UFO” reports from the east coast of Australia

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June 2, 2010

Acupuncture in the news

In response to a recent ABC “science news” report about acupuncture, Dr Steve Basser writes:
When a skeptic reads that acupuncture ‘works’ the most important question to ask is what specifically the author means by acupuncture?  What exactly is it they are claiming is working, and how have they reached their conclusion?
There have been innumerable papers on acupuncture published over many many years in journals both reputable and less so, but a weakness of many of these is that they do not clearly define what it is they are testing, and fail to detail how they will establish whether it does indeed ‘work’.
Traditional Chinese acupuncture is based upon theories of View More Acupuncture in the news

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May 26, 2010

Dr Ken Harvey, 3rd Monday Talk

Monday June 21st, La Notte Restaurant 140 Lygon Street Carlton 8pm
Balancing Commerce, Choice and Consumer Protection: Reforming Complementary Medicine Regulation.
Dr. Harvey is a medical graduate with a special interest in the regulation of therapeutic goods.
He was a member of the expert group that drafted the World Health Organization “Ethical Criteria for Medicinal Drug Promotion” and was also a member of the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Health and Rational use of Medicines (PHARM) Committee that formulated the quality use of medicines pillar of Australian medicines policy.
He currently holds the position of Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health, La Trobe University. He had been awarded life membership of Choice (the Australia Consumer’s Association), is a member of the National Prescribing Service Research and Development Working Group, and the Governing Council of Health Action International, Asia Pacific.
Pre-reading
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/01/11/why-is-the-tga-supporting-pseudoscientific-nonsense/
http://cpd.org.au/article/policy-change-needed-complementary-medicines
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/05/25/2909031.htm

May 25, 2010

Vale Martin Gardner


As James Randi so magnificently wrote:  “My World is a little darker… Martin Gardner has died.”  James knew Martin personally; I only dearly wish I did…
I became aware of Martin Gardner when I was a brand new Mathematics teacher at Irymple Technical School in 1974.  I quickly befriended the Physics teacher and it was he who showed me some of Martin’s books.  Those which I still have are Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions, More Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions and The Annotated Alice.  I have read these books many, many times over the years.
I would now credit Martin as being the main character in giving me my attitude to mathematics – in that it is my favourite hobby and has been since the mid 70’s.
I’m pleased he lived as long as he did.  It still pains me that he is no more.  He will live on through his prolific published works and I will treasure what he gave me – and he didn’t even know me.  This last sentiment reminds me of how many times over the years I have yearned to meet him – ah well, I’m still so very grateful.
Eric Fiesley

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May 21, 2010

From The Vault

What's So Funny? Last week’s trivia night featured the excellent Alternative Handicap 2010.
We’ve been scouring the vaults and found … the Alternative Handicap 2008!
This one features Oujia Board, Creationist, Feng Shui and lots of others.
The original wax cylinder it was recorded on has been been dusted off and the audio polished up. The sound quality isn’t the best, but I think you’ll agree the comedy quality more than makes up for it.
Thanks, once again, to Ken for his sterling work.

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May 19, 2010

The Wakefield Saga … In Pictures!

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “vaccines cause autism”. It’s the catch-cry of the anti-vaccination movement and a nagging doubt in the minds of worried parents.
And it’s completely and utterly false.
It is, however, believed by many to be true. And for this we can blame one Andrew Wakefield.
Wakefield was the man primarily responsible for linking vaccines with autism in the public consciousness.
And even though his studies have been shown to be ridiculously flawed, his intentions questionable, his conclusions false and his work discredited, the myth lives on.
Blogger Darryl Cunningham has put together an excellent graphical summary of the whole sorry saga. Check it out.
image

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May 19, 2010

Trivia Night, May 2010

On Monday night the Victorian Skeptics ran their annual Trivia Night.
Many thanks to Ken for all the work he did … collating questions, getting prizes, putting the audio of the horse race together, lugging all the equipment, etc, etc…
[slideshow]
As usual, the questions were of a skeptical / scientific bent. They ranged from dowsing the location of “Mystic Park” on a map of Victoria, to identifying anti-vax crusader Meryl Dorey from a fuzzy photo.
One of the highlights of the evening was the running of the Alternative Handicap, which is well worth a listen.

Or download

In the end, the award for Most Trivial Team went to….
View More Trivia Night, May 2010

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May 14, 2010

How to assess evidence beyond your own expertise


Eran Segev, Australian Skeptics President spoke on ABC Radio National’s Ockham’s Razor program recently.
How do you assess evidence if it’s not your area of expertise?  Eran speaks about Skeptics “rules of thumb” to help guide us when assessing evidence.  Rules of thumb such as:

Ockham’s razor

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence

Anecdote and testimonials are not reliable

Experts do know more

Trust the scientific method

Listen:

Or visit the ABC Ockham’s Razor site.

Worth listening to,  Mal.

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