Picture Puzzles and “Mixed Bag” Questions are in their usual spot at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE
December’s Skeptical Crossword is our largest yet. It’s theme is Alternative Healing Practices, and you have your choice of “straight” or cryptic clues. DECEMBER 2013 SKEPTICAL CROSSWORD
And finally, there’s DECEMBER 2013 LOGIC & MATHS PROBLEMS
Enjoy.
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
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.
We are the Victorian branch of the Australian Skeptics, a science-based organisation run by volunteers.
The Skeptics encourage people to be careful about what they believe. Things that sound “too good to be true” – usually aren’t true! Science has revealed many amazing things, but amazing claims are also used to deceive and to rip-off innocent people.
The Skeptics also encourage thoughtful, rational exploration of the world around us, especially in matters considered ‘paranormal‘. To this end, the Skeptics are keen to promote scientific education and a sense of wonder in the natural world.
Weird and Wonderful – Read about all manner of supernatural and scientific matters on our Articles page including these popular topics
Creation v Evolution – Sensing Murder – Bed of Nails – Murders and Clairvoyants – Homeopathy
(Yes, “sceptical” & “sceptics” are the correct spellings but we’re so clever we spell them with a k instead. 🙂
Take Your Partners for the Sixth Annual Vic Skeptics Trivia Extravaganza
La Notte Restaurant
140 Lygon Street Carlton
Monday 17th May 2010
at the special time of 7.30 pm .
or join us for the traditional Third Monday meal at 6pm.
Previous Trivia Nights have been among our most popular events; – this year, get your team organised early , and if you’re having a meal at the restaurant before the Trivia, please arrive and order early.
If you can’t come equipped with a ready-made team, don’t stay home and mope! We can organise consortia of suitable intellects on the evening.
Lotsa individual and team prizes!
A donation is requested from each participant.
Commenced in 2010, with regular events planned. Go to http://www.meetup.com/Mordi-Skeptics-in-the-Pub/
Details of meetings may also be shown on the Australian Skeptics national site http://www.skeptics.com.au , “Upcoming Events” .
Commenced in 2010 with an enthusuiastic following. Regular events are planned. Contact Ron on 0424376153 or at Saleskepticsinthepub@hotmail.com
At January 18th’s Skeptics Cafe, Dr David Vaux, (Senior Principal Research Fellow at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) drew attention to a number of examples of lack of integrity by the authors of mainstream scientific research papers, including the manufacturing of data. These articles had been published in peak academic journals and had escaped their editorial processes. He attributed this largely to a lack of an Office of Research Integrity of the kind that exists in other countries. Dr Vaux’s talk caused concern among some of his listeners for the status of Australian research. Statements in 2004 (see Nature Article Feb 2004 )by the then opposition Senator Kim Carr, were supportive of such an oversight body. Senator Carr is now Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research but his government seems to have no immediate plans to proceed. If you wish to send a letter to your local MP in support of the enhancement of standards of research integrity in Australia, please click letter to MP to view and download an example. Contact details for Federal MPs can be found here: http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/memlist.pdf
Ken
Take Your Partners for the Sixth Annual Vic Skeptics Trivia Extravaganza
La Notte Restaurant
140 Lygon Street Carlton
Monday 17th May 2010
at the special time of 7.30 pm .
or join us for the traditional Third Monday meal at 6pm.
Previous Trivia Nights have been among our most popular events; – this year, get your team organised early , and if you’re having a meal at the restaurant before the Trivia, please arrive and order early.
If you can’t come equipped with a ready-made team, don’t stay home and mope! We can organise consortia of suitable intellects on the evening.
This year even the prizes are more trivial!
A donation is requested from each participant.
Ken
NATURE|VOL 427 | 19 FEBRUARY 2004
Misconduct row fuels calls for reform
Carina Dennis,Sydney
A fierce row over misconduct allegations has prompted Australian researchers to call for an office of research integrity to be set up. The issue came to a head on 10 February, when Senator Kim Carr, research spokesman for the opposition Labor Party, released to parliament an unpublished report of an inquiry into allegations made about an immunologist at the University of New South Wales.
The case centres on Bruce Hall, a transplant immunologist working on graft tolerance. In 2001,Hall was accused by four complainants in his laboratory of fabricating and falsifying experimental results in an abstract and paper, providing false data in a grant application, misattributing authorship credit and workplace bullying. The experiments in question involved the use of cells from the immune system � called CD4_ T cells � to transfer graft tolerance to rats with transplanted hearts.Hall emphatically denies the allegations. View More Nature Article Feb 2004