Psychic Challenge 2012

Our post on Psychic Predictions for 2011 proved to be very popular, so we’re doing it again for 2012!

This time, instead of simply looking at the results of one psychic, we’re going to pit a self-identified psychic against a group of self-identified skeptics, and see who has the better result!

You can read more, and check out all the predictions here.

Darwin Day Barbecue 2012

You are invited to join us in celebrating  Charles Darwin’s birthday with a Barbeque on Sunday, 12th February 2012  from about noon till ??? on the banks of the Yarra at Alexandra Avenue Melbourne.

Melways, 2G D11 Just west from the Morell Bridge and Anderson Street. Next to the Botanic Gardens.

All Welcome

Free BBQ facilities available

BYO food and drinks.

Since the early 1990s, Darwin Day has been celebrated around the world including in Melbourne. Every year we’ve said  ”this year’s celebrations will be the biggest party so far”, and we’ve been pretty much right. Come along and enjoy a summer BBQ by the Yarra.

TEACHERS: for our suite of Darwin Day Classroom Exercises, go here: http://vicskeptics.wordpress.com/for-sale/stuff-for-teachers-education-resources/darwin-day-february-12-classroom-suite-of-exercises/

For a brief article about Charles Darwin, go here: http://vicskeptics.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/about-charles-darwin/

2011 Psychic Predictions … Revisited

Early in 2011 we examined the Psychic predictions of Mr. John Gold, one of Australia’s most respected psychics.

Mr Gold was notable for making some quite specific predictions for the year ahead, which would have been sensational had they panned out.

Usually psychics will throw out a bunch of generic and non-specific “predictions” which can easily be retrofitted to reality later … but not Mr Gold. He went out on a series of impressive limbs with specific events and specific times.

If even half of those predictions had come true, we might have had a serious contender for the Australian Skeptics’ $100,000 challenge.

We are now one year down the track, and it’s definitely worth our time to  examine the predictions and see how Mr. Gold did.

Results below the fold.

January Puzzles

This month’s Skeptical Crossword follows the theme of Religious Symbolism. http://vicskeptics.wordpress.com/puzzles/january-2012-crossword/

Picture Puzzles & Mixed Bag Questions for January are at the top of the Puzzles section; http://vicskeptics.wordpress.com/puzzles/

Where Did the TGA Reforms Go?

by: Mal Vickers

I think everyone is aware of the problem – magnetic underlays, ear candles, homeopathy and bogus weight loss products, to name but a few examples of modern day snake oil; products that make therapeutic claims but are unsupported by evidence that they work. The government agency responsible for protecting consumers from the greed and self-interest of quack medical products, the Therapeutic Goods Agency (TGA) appears powerless to stop it.

For quite some time there have been calls for change and the government appeared to be listening. With the SensaSlim scandal, the deaths of Gloria Sam and Penelope Dingle and the astonishing 90% level of non-compliance found with a random check of the ARTG by the Auditor General, changes seemed inevitable.

What happened? Where did the expected reforms go?

The first week of December saw some strange goings-on at the TGA

Terry Kelly on SYN FM

President, Terry Kelly

Last week our illustrious president Terry Kelly was interviewed on the SYN FM show Strength of Unicorns.

This is an atheist-themed radio show, so it’s actually a rare opportunity to hear a prominent Skeptic talk about issues of religion and spirituality.

Terry also talks about the sort of work in which the Australian Skeptics get involved, like the recent Sensaslim saga and the Australian Skeptics Paranormal Challenge.

It was a great interview and our thanks go to David and Milo for having Terry on the show.

You can listen to the audio here:

or download the MP3 file.

December 2011 Puzzles

December’s Skeptical Crossword, Picture Puzzles & “Mixed Bag” Questions are at the top of our PUZZLES section. We’ve given you extra puzzles to help occupy your holiday time.

PUZZLES ARCHIVE 1 & PUZZLES ARCHIVE 2

All Our Crosswords Here.

Skeptics presenting at STAVCON 2011

By Don Hyatt

The Victorian Skeptics were out in force again this year at the Science Teachers’ Association annual conference STAVCON.

The display attracted a steady stream of interested teachers including, in one case, a former student. Teachers weren’t just attracted by the free Stuff for Teachers DVD or the Skeptics pens, although the new 2012 Skeptics Calendar was a highly prized item. Clearly debunking Kinesiology and the effect of the placebo power wrist band was popular as were fielding the range of “What do you think about ….” questions expertly and wisely addressed by the Vic Skeptics assistants.

The Skeptics also presented a workshop on Real Science for the Real World. Ken Greatorex designed and conducted a unique double blind dowsing experiment, the statists of which matched that of guesswork rather than an ability to dowse. Participants had to ‘dowse’ 5 hidden jars containing water or gravel after ‘calibrating’ their dowsing rod. None of the teachers got all correct, so the $110,000 challenge is still safe! Don Hyatt also covered topics such as homeopathy, power wrist bands, the AVN and SensaSlim. It is fair to say that there was a fair bit of interest in the topics raised.

Don demystifies the trick of Kinesiology to a STAVCON participant. The placebo power wrist band is exposed as a fraud.

A Skeptic’s Guide to The Pyramids

This article first appeared as a Vic Skeptics discussion pamphlet. We’ve added two “Pyramids” classroom activities: a motivational and interactive practical exercise and a crossword. You’ll find the links to these at the end of the article. The full range of our discussion pamphlets can be downloaded here: http://www.skeptics.com.au/resources/educational/or by clicking on the “Useful Info” link at the top of this page.

By Peter Barrett (Canberra Skeptics)

Think of Egypt and you think of pyramids. These impressive objects have fascinated people for centuries; they were even tourist destinations for the ancient Greeks and Romans. What amazes people today is their massive size combined with the precision of their construction. There are people today who believe that this size and precision is evidence that the ancient Egyptians couldn’t have built the pyramids unaided, and that they instead were assisted by aliens or people from Atlantis.

The Sixtieth Science Talent Search

by Ken Greatorex

Victoria’s mainstream media have pulled off a remarkable feat! It was the Diamond Anniversary of an annual Good News event involving thousands of intelligent, motivated Victorian children, staged in a city which thrives on Major Events; and yet, the Media still pretty much managed to keep it quiet!

The Science Talent Search celebrated its 60th birthday this year with the theme “React to Chemistry“. Students entered original projects in categories of creative writing, experimental research, inventions, working models, photography, posters, games, computer programs and video productions. The adjudged cream of Victoria’s budding young scientists made the annual pilgrimage to Latrobe University to receive cash bursaries and other rewards from prominent local scientists.

Terry Kelly and I attended Exhibition Day on behalf of Australian Skeptics Science and Education Foundation. ASSEF funded more than seventy bursaries this year along with other major sponsors including The Department of Early Childhood Development, Swinburne and Latrobe Universities,  the Catholic Education Office, The Royal Society of Victoria, Rio Tinto, CSIRO and BHP Billiton. It was impossible for us to meet all of the hundreds of bursary winners; however we were able to interview a small cross-section whose contributions intrigued and impressed us.

Skepticism in the Bush

by Russell Kelly

There is plenty to keep a skeptic busy in the bush; alternative medicine abounds and belief systems involving the weather and animals are plentiful.  The recent drought spawned a plethora of water diviners but lacking confidence in the Bureau of Meteorology, many believe that the best indicator of impeding precipitation is the squawking of Black Cockatoos. The myth has been around for at least 100 years but for some reason the squawking during the drought seemed to have less effect than the nude dance in the paddock.

Emu oil is currently very fashionable to cure a wide variety of maladies and snake-oil salesmen find easy pickings especially with weight loss scams. A long-running study has confirmed that rural women are more obese than their city cousins and they are more likely to use alternative medicines, so there are plenty of candidates for the wacky products.

Medical conditions triggered by pollens and sprays are endemic in the bush and so are the charlatans who peddle ‘natural’ allergy therapies including the instruments to test allergy susceptibility. The TGA has recently closed down the web site of one of our local operators who with her gadgetry could diagnose the offending allergen and then provide a rapid cure using the latest in homeopathy potions.

November Puzzles

November’s Skeptical Crossword, Picture Puzzles & “Mixed Bag” Questions are at the top of our PUZZLES section.

PUZZLES ARCHIVE 1 & PUZZLES ARCHIVE 2

All Our Crosswords Here.

Giving the Tiger Some Teeth – A Forum

It’s no secret that this site has been heavily involved in Alt Med issues recently – partly due to circumstance, and partly because we’ve taken some initiatives.

A great source of frustration is that statutory regulatory bodies like the Therapeutic Goods Administration can’t (or won’t) provide real consumer protection in ensuring that alternative medical products live up to their claims.

Vic Skeptics have arranged a forum to investigate this issue, on Wednesday evening 16^th November at La Notte Restaurant in Carlton, featuring a distinguished panel:

Dr Stephen Basser

 Dr Ken Harvey

Dr Michael Vagg

Loretta Marron 

Further details, including how to book: HERE

The Pharmacy Guild Deal with Blackmores

by
Dr Ken Harvey

The Pharmacy Guild says its deal to promote Blackmores complementary medicines (CMs) has been withdrawn in view of “media reporting of the endorsement which was ill-informed and inflammatory”. My own view is that the deal itself was ill-informed and inflammatory. It involved an undisclosed payment by Blackmores to enable GuildCare dispensing software to prompt pharmacists entering prescriptions to on-sell Blackmores “Companion” products.

The four Guild-endorsed Blackmores products were a probiotic to be promoted with antibiotics, zinc with blood pressure drugs, coenzyme Q10 with vitamin D3 for statins and magnesium with proton pump inhibitors.

Dr Ken Harvey

The National Prescribing Service (NPS) and others have pointed out that there is no good evidence to support the routine use of these supplements with the prescription drugs targeted.

In addition, this practice would unnecessarily add to the “medication burden” experienced by many patients taking multiple drugs, including compliance difficulties, increased cost and potential drug interactions.

Finally, it presents ethical problems for GuildCare (who were recommending one brand only) and for individual pharmacists (who would benefit financially if they went along with prompts that may not be in their patient’s best interest).

Several polls have shown that

Skeptics In the Pubs – How are We Travelling?

You’d have to say “very well”.

Victoria has adopted the “Skeptics In The Pub” idea with enthusiasm. If you turn to the back page of your latest Skeptic magazine , you’ll see that of the eight new Australian regional groups listed, six are in Victoria.

We’ve discussed Skeptics in the Pubs before;

Your Very Own Skeptics In the Pub

Great Ocean Road Skeptics

New Skeptics in the Pubs

Here’s a brief look at each group in alphabetical order.