You’ll find a new lot of Picture Puzzles and “Mixed Bag” Questions in the PUZZLES PAGE ;
September 2016 Skeptical Crossword Puzzle is about general skeptical issues;
while the September 2016 Logic & Maths Problems feature dice, cats, cigarette butts, photo albums and a ring around the Earth.
Enjoy!
This brief article takes note of an auspicious conjunction of events in May. Both Vic Skeptics and our good friends at Mordi Skeptics have a Soapbox evening as our monthly public meeting.
The theme of the MAY 2016 SKEPTICAL CROSSWORD is Religion and Superstition and as usual comes with your choice of standard or cryptic clues.
The MAY 2016 LOGIC & MATHS PROBLEMS
set is the 46th in the series. If you’d like to use our Logic & Maths sets in the classroom or just to catch up on the ones you’ve missed, please note that we started posting them in August 2012; (see PUZZLES ARCHIVE 3 .)
As always, seven new Picture Puzzles and twenty new “Mixed Bag” Trivia Questions have been placed at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE
Enjoy!
March 2015 saw the release of the Australian Government’s National Health and Medical Research Council’s Statement on Homeopathy. It concluded:
“..that there is no good quality evidence to support the claim that homeopathy is effective in treating health conditions.”
That’s as good a reason as any to revisit the following article, first seen here in 2010.
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Homeopathy is an “alternative medicine” invented in the early 19th century by German doctor Samuel Hahnemann. Despite numerous experiments showing homeopathy to have no effect, it has become a multi-million dollar international industry with its own special rules in advertising law.
Affectionately called The Wikipediatrician, Susan Gerbic is the co-founder of Monterey County Skeptics, and a regular contributor to SKEPTICALITY podcast and the founder of the GUERILLA SKEPTICISM on WIKIPEDIA project. She received the “In the Trenches” award at CFI’s 2012 Skeptic’s Toolbox, and the James Randi award for Skepticism in the Public Interest in 2013. Gerbic’s efforts to clean up pseudoscience on Wikipedia and create pages for well-known skeptics has made her a “super villain” in the eyes of the paranormal community. You can contact her at SusanGerbic.com
7.30 pm
The Club Room,
La Notte Restaurant 140 Lygon Street Carlton
($5 entry)
(Join us for an al fresco meal from 6pm)
The Victorian Skeptics are delighted to host a presentation by well known cosmologist and author Lawrence Krauss.
Update – SOLD OUT! If you would like to go on a waiting list in the event of late cancellations, send an email to vic@skeptics.com.au
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
View More 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
View More Victorian Skeptics at STAVCON 2010
Suddenly the Vic Skeptics blog has got bigger, though you probably haven’t noticed. We’ve gone from 80 posts to 220. Our old “keypoint” site will eventually be shut down. Ahead of that, rather than dump the old stuff, a big effort has gone into moving it from the old site to this one.
If you have a little spare time and feel like reading some re-born old posts try these:
How to make your own bed of nails
Homeopathy for Pets???
How to put together a class exercise on astrology, if you’re a teacher
Saddened by Channel Ten’s screening of Sensing Murder (from 2006)
Also on the same subject “Sensing Nothing” by Christopher Short.
Dr John Long spoke to the Victorian Skeptics in 2005
An embarrassing question on a psychology exam
View More Bigger blog
The Victorian Skeptics are at Scienceworks this weekend, helping out and showing our support for science week. It’s always interesting to experience first hand public reaction to us. Perhaps the people that come to Scienceworks are a biased sample, but I generally find people are quite supportive and interested in what we do.
Illusionist Simon Tayor is also giving us great support by putting on regular shows in the theater within Scienceworks.
And now I have the perfect excuse to show you the bed of nails video, our great crowd puller is back once again.
Mal.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXj24tYimOI]