Visit this great site for heaps of science events:
Other Victorian organisations of interest that regularly have public events:
Chris Krishna-Pillay one of Australia’s most prominent science communicators and performers. Chris has performed across Australia, as well as in the UK and New Zealand. In his writing credits he includes, “Howard Florey – a Tale of Tall Poppies“, “Somnium” and “Pre-Coital, the Science of Dating“. He also writes and performs the “Great Big Science Gigs” performed across Australia each year as part of National Science Week.
Chris’ energetic presence, quick wit and engaging demeanour have made him a much sought after performer and MC. He is frequently called upon as a speaker and has been MC for countless events from orchestral concerts to corporate award presentations. Recent engagements have been with BHP Billiton, Bunnings, ABC, Siemens, State Library of Victoria and CSIRO. Chris has experience in television, drama, musicals, stand-up comedy and radio.
He was the science consultant for children’s television series “Wicked Science” (Network Ten), and has appeared on television on “Today“, “Scope” and “Totally Wild“. He is also a regular panelist on popular radio program “Einstein A Go Go” (Triple R radio).
Chris is Victorian Manager of CSIRO Education where he has worked for more than 15 years, and is Secretary of the National Science Week Victorian Coordinating Committee.
Margaret has over 30 years experience as a teacher and librarian in a range of government and private schools, predominantly in Queensland.
Back in the late 1970s, while working as a librarian at a large metropolitan high school, she had a number of run-ins with fundamentalist Christians, biblical literalists who tried their hardest not only to get “creation science” material placed in the school’s library, but to get what was already there relocated to a science number. For those familiar with Dewey, this means somewhere in the 500s. She had placed their material in the 200s (the division for religion), specifically at 213, the number for “creation”.
Things that upset her are people who think they know everything about education and teaching because they once went to school; people who believe that there are “magic bullet” solutions to complex issues in educating children out there which just need to be imposed on to recalcitrant teachers. In February 2006 she had a “close encounter of the first kind” with one such purported “magic bullet” solution: Brain Gym: a set of fun exercises purported to help people “Learn ANYTHING faster and more easily”.
The question which interests her is just how can something grounded in pseudo-science (Applied Kinesiology and Traditional Chinese Medicine are two key components) gain so much traction in educational circles.
Victorian Skeptics are hosting our 4th Annual Trivia Night at La Notte Restaurant on Monday May 19th.
The Trivia starts at 7.30 pm.
As usual, we’ll start gathering for a meal from about 6pm (or earlier!)
Last year’s Trivia Night was our most popular event;
– this year, get your team organised, and if you’re having a meal at the restaurant before the Trivia, please arrive and order early.
As we are offering a number of prizes, your monetary donation will be gratefully received!
Other advertising for the event: http://www.getalife.com.au/ViewActivity.aspx?Activity_Id=10664&ref=myrddin
Dr Krissy Wilson has just emigrated from the UK and taken up a position as lecturer in psychology at University of Tasmania.
She completed her PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Her main areas of interest are the psychology of belief, the unreliable nature of eyewitness testimony, false memories and the impact of belief.
She has recently published articles in Personality and Individual Differences, The European Journal of Parapsychology and The British Journal of Psychology.
She has also written a recent review of the medium Sharon O’Neill for the Skeptic (UK).
Krissy regularly appears on TV and on radio discussing a variety of paranormal subjects and has recently co-presented �Believe it or not’ for ITV West Country (UK), and hopes to do much of the same here.
See text of The Purple Economy Perpetuated , an article in The Age newspaper of November 16 2007
Max Wallace on Separation of Church and State in France You-tube presentation (sorry this video no longer available on You-Tube)
(As an alternative, see this more recent video of Max, Admin edit Sept 2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adcf6AaNVXA
As opinion polls from around the world repeatedly show, levels of belief in the paranormal are high and show no signs of falling. Skeptics remain unconvinced by the scientific evidence put forward in support of paranormal claims but it is clear that members of the public are not basing their opinions upon such evidence. Either, at least some of these experiences are based upon genuine paranormal phenomena, or people are misinterpreting non-paranormal events as involving forces that do not exist.
Anomalistic Psychology attempts to explain these types of experiences in terms of psychological and in some cases physiological phenomena. This talk will present some examples of the systematic biases in the way in which we process information that may help to explain why so many believe in the paranormal and report ostensibly paranormal experiences. One such example is the role of memory biases. Thirty years of research has shown that memory is not the reliable store that was once thought. Memory is in fact a constructive process, vulnerable to all kinds of misinformation, suggestion and individual biases.
I will illustrate how far individual differences might render someone more susceptible to distortions of memory and in particular how belief in, and experience of the paranormal impact on both perception and memory.
Darwin Down House
These pictures are of Down House, Darwin’s home where the majority of his writing was done.
It is located in the pleasant Kent countryside approximately 40 km due south of London. The Darwin Day website contains more information.
1. Darwin married Emma Wedgwood, granddaughter of Josiah Wedgwood I. Darwin’s maternal grandfather was the same Josiah Wedgwood. Emma and Charles were first cousins. An interesting genetics match as they had 10 children, a number of whom led highly successful careers.
2. Darwin never ‘worked‘ for a living. His father being a very wealthy surgeon. In fact he paid for his passage as a young man on the Beagle more or less to be a companion of the Captain. This was a way to finance the voyage and Captains did not want to associate with the underclass of the crew and to a lesser extent the officers. This was also true of Sir Joseph Banks’ voyage to Australia with Cook.
Thanks to Don Hyatt for the photographs.
