Skeptics Café via Zoom – Update

Vic Skeptics Cafés monthly public meetings will now be on-line, for the foreseeable future.

Join us every third Monday of each month.

Next: Citizen Science with Brendan O’Brien

Monday 15th June 8:15 pm chat, 8:30 pm (1030 UTC) presentation

Details on the EVENTS page

ATTENTION! Skeptics Café via Zoom

We are having our first virtual Skeptics Cafe TONIGHT (Monday 20th April) at 7.30.

From Vic Skeptics President

Hi everyone,

Tonight Clem Stanyon will be giving us a great talk about his work in the biotech industry and the GMO crops that he is involved in producing.

We will be trialling this event on zoom.us. You don’t need to create an account, you should be able to follow the link below.

Cheers,
Chris

Patents and Portents: In Insider View on the Production of GMOs

Born to English migrants from the war generation, English teachers both, I have lived and worked in 5 cities in 3 countries on 3 continents: Perth and Melbourne here in Australia, Detroit and Seattle in the US, and Lyon in France, in which work I have been consistently employed to create DNA constructs for making genetically modified organisms. I currently work in the Victorian government agricultural sector, for the first time making GMOs that are not for research purposes only, but for commercial purposes, working mainly on constructs for canola and wheat.

Clem’s talk starts at 7:30pm sharp.
We encourage questions to be posted on the Q&A chat.

Follow the zoom link:
https://unimelb.zoom.us/j/95223630701

Or join by phone:
Dial (Australia): +61 3 7018 2005 or +61 2 8015 6011

 

Darwin Day 2020

ANNUAL BARBECUE (Melbourne area)

Help us celebrate Charles Darwin’s 211th birthday at the annual Barbecue, from 5 pm at the Studley Park Boathouses picnic area. BYO everything.

THE DARWIN DAY SUITE  

Celebrate February 12 (Charles Darwin’s Birthday) in your classroom!

Charles Darwin Crossword Years 9 to 12

Darwin bio Read and answer

Charles Darwin Wordsearch Years 5 to 8

Charles Darwin Cryptogram Years 7 to 10

Dr.APIS.12.February@Darwin

charles_darwin_by_grichmond [Colouring in}

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Vic Skeptics Trivia Night

It’s the Unconventional Trivia Night.

Why unconventional? We’re glad you asked. It’s on Thursday 5th December. Skepticon doesn’t start until Friday 6th; and you don’t have to be going to Skepticon to come. It WILL cost you fifteen of your hard-earned dollars, however. You don’t have to be a nerd either, although that would certainly be no disadvantage.

It’s our Fifteenth Annual Vic Skeptics Trivia Night, and this year we’re hoping to get it right.

At this stage we’d usually say something about lots of fun, great prizes, bring a team or come by yourself etc, etc, but we’ve said all that fourteen times already, and some things just never change.

Thursday 5th December, 7:15 pm (or join us earlier for a meal), at The Clyde Hotel cnr Elgin & Cardigan Streets Carlton. (For those attending Skepticon, that’s near Carrillo Gantner Theatre, one stop away on the same tram line.)

(click to enlarge)

Skepticon 2019 – Messages from the presenters

Hear from and read about some of our presenters. CLICK on the main headings.

Skeptics’Guide to the Universe

JAY NOVELLA video
https://www.facebook.com/theskepticscafe/videos/766998480384608/
STEVE NOVELLA video
https://www.facebook.com/theskepticscafe/videos/1083614942029593/

BOB Novella VIDEO
https://www.facebook.com/theskepticscafe/videos/367659424114328/ 

 

Susan Gerbic

Susan will be talking about the Guerilla Skeptics Wikipedia Project as well as “Grief Vampires“.
SUSAN GERBIC video
https://www.facebook.com/AustralianSkepticsInc/videos/2347595002149221/

Jo Thornely

Jo is an Australian presenter that will be appearing at Skepticon2019. She is the host of Zealot, a podcast about cults, and author of a book by the same name.
JO THORNELY video
https://www.facebook.com/AustralianSkepticsInc/videos/472968326888337/

Professor Fiona Fidler

Brendan O’Brien

Dr Brad McKay

Bookings and information:

https://skepticon.org.au/

SKEPTICON 2019 update

The Skepticon2019 speaker lineup now includes:

The Skeptics Guide to the Universe

Susan Gerbic

Jo Thornely

Professor Fiona Fidler: The Replication Crisis in the Social Sciences

Dr Sue Ieraci: Medical Anti-Science Bingo

Ross Balch: Of Microbes and Monsters

Dr Brad McKay: Home Remedies That Work?

Tina Hanigan: Should Darwin have been surprised at the spread of Skeptism in Europe following his publication ‘On the Origin of Species’?

Brendan O’Brien: The Explosion of Citizen Science

Matt Nurse: Motivated numeracy – why smart people reject the facts they don’t like

and “Australia’s Honest Con Man” Nicholas J Johnson: Bullshit For Skeptics

SKEPTICON 2019’s dedicated website for information and booking is at https://skepticon.org.au

Important SKEPTICON 2019 dates:

5th December: Skeptics Trivia Night at The Clyde Hotel. Hosted by Tony Pitman and Ken Greatorex, this is a fund-raiser, at $15 per head. It’s not strictly a Skepticon event, and not just for Skepticon visitors. However, with our regular locals and regional, interstate and overseas visitors participating, this fifteenth annual Vic Skeptics Trivia night should be fun. Meal from 6:00 pm, eyes down at 7:15.

6th December: Conference commencement and “meet and greet” at The Dan O’Connell Hotel.

7th December: Two Day conference commences at Carrillo Gantner Theatre, University of Melbourne Swanston Street

7th December: Conference Dinner (sold out!)

8th December: Final day of conference

With Leo at The Dan

By Ken Greatorex

Vic Skeptics recently moved Skeptics Café to the new venue of The Dan O’Connell Hotel (a.k.a. “The Dan”) in Carlton. We’ve been fortunate in the past with long tenures at good venues.

I arrived chez Dan with a few misgivings:

Could I park within a comfortable distance of the venue?

Would the venue suit us?

Would enough people turn up?

Would the topic be sufficiently relevant and interesting for such a “landmark” Skeptics event?

For Schools: Darwin Day February 12

THE DARWIN DAY SUITE of CLASSROOM EXERCISES

Celebrate February 12 (Charles Darwin’s Birthday) in your classroom!

Charles Darwin Crossword Years 9 to 12

Darwin Web Sites

Darwin Day poster

Darwin Day poster 2

Darwin bio Read and answer

Charles Darwin Wordsearch Years 5 to 8

Charles Darwin Cryptogram Years 7 to 10

Dr.APIS.12.February@Darwin

charles_darwin_by_grichmond [Colouring in}

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Complementary Medicines, Advertising Reform and the TGA

by Dr Ken Harvey, with an introduction by Ken Greatorex

To set the scene for those not familiar with the glacial machinations of Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration: Until recently in Australia we had a complaint process whereby if you wanted to complain about the advertising of a particular listed medicine, you submitted. to the Complaints Resolution Panel. It was woefully under resourced, but it did its job, carried out inquiries then reported established breaches in conduct to the TGA. The TGA acted – sometimes.

Then things changed. Against the urging of such groups as The Australian Skeptics, Friends of Science in Medicine, Choice and other consumer advocates, the TGA became the body which dealt directly with such complaints. 

As one who attended and absorbed the excellent review from Professor Harvey and three of his students, the result of this change has been:

• totally predictable
• disappointing

 

(left to right: Mal Vickers, Kithmini Cooray, Mary Malek, Ken Harvey)

Speakers:

• Mal Vickers, Analysis of old and new advertising complaint systems
• Mary Malek, TGA consultation on “low risk” products
• Kithmini Cooray, Bright Brains (Bacopa Monnieri) TGA complaint

Discussion:

The audience did not agree that the ongoing advertising of ‘Bright Brains’, illustrated by Kithmini, had achieved compliance with the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code 2015. In short, they disagreed with the TGA outcome statement about this complaint.

Vyom Sharma, Doctor, Magician and Mentalist

     Dr Vyom Sharma

After gaining his medical degree in 2008, Vyom Sharma completed specialist training and currently works in Melbourne as a General Practitioner. However alongside his clinical work, he has carved out a career in show business.

As a magician and mentalist, he has performed live stage shows at the Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and was a grand finalist on Australia’s Got Talent.

His knowledge of medicine, combined with his experiences with the psychology of deception have afforded him a rare insight into the human experience of truth and persuasion. He explores the neuroscience of deception and beliefs as a regular Guest Lecturer at Monash University’s school of biological sciences.

He has debunked pseudoscientific therapies in the media, including Fairfax newspapers, Triple R radio and medical trade magazines.

Vyom Sharma will be our featured speaker at next Skeptics Café  (Monday August 20)

He will also appear at Australian Skeptics Annual Convention in Sydney over the weekend of October 13 & 14

At May Skeptics Café

We’re pleased to have been visited by Dr Pauli Ohukainen from Finland. He’s a cardiovascular research scientist from Finland working in Melbourne (Baker Institute) until June 1st. He’s also an avid skeptical activist with his own blog in Finnish with 7000 followers on Facebook, (which is not too bad in a small country of 5M), and he’s also active on Twitter, which is his international forum: https://twitter.com/POhukainen. He was keen to meet some skeptics while in Melbourne, and took “selfies” at May Skeptics Café with two of our distinguished members, Francesca Folk-Scolaro (L) and Elida Radig (R).

Review – Surfcoast Skepticamp 2018

It was a glorious, sunny day in Airey’s Inlet for the annual Skepticamp where we were privy to a range of fascinating talks to hone our critical thinking skills. For a $5 donation we were treated to a delicious, healthy lunch and many of us also took the opportunity to socialise over dinner at the nearby pub afterwards.

First up was Geelong Skeptics Society Co-founder and Speech Pathologist Zola Lawry who spoke about the importance of being skeptical about “Facilitated Communication”. Questions have been raised over who is actually communicating. Could it be the well-meaning facilitator rather than the severely disabled client? Zola presented the claims and the evidence for such cases as Anne McDonald of “Annie’s Coming Out” fame and her facilitator Rosemary Crossley.

Images from the Australian Skeptics Convention 2017

Apologies for the lateness of this posting – but I think you’ll agree – worth the wait.

From the very talented Mal Vickers: click on this link.

AUSTRALIAN SKEPTICS CONVENTION 2017 IMAGES

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We’ll take this opportunity to announce (or remind you of) the early arrangements for the 2018 Convention. It will be in Sydney again, on the 13th and 14th of October.

We’ll provide you with more details and a direct link to the Convention site as they come to hand.

Regular Public Lectures, Workshops, etc.

Melbournians are fortunate to have access to many regular events which exist to stimulate inquiry and promote Science, Philosophy and Critical Thinking. These events are open to the public. They are mostly free.

Here are some of them.

ANZAAS Free Public Lectures: Monthly, with weeknight and date as advertised on the website http://www.anzaas.org.au/victoria/

ROYAL SOCIETY of VICTORIA Lecture Program: Fourth Thursday of each Month plus other events as advertised https://rsv.org.au/lecture-program/

UNIVERSITY of MELBOURNE Free Public Lectures: Several each month,  weeknights, early evenings as advertised.
http://events.unimelb.edu.au/all/free-public-lecture

Skepticon 2017

Tickets are now available for Skepticon, the 33rd Australian Skeptics National Convention, November 2017

The Skeptical highlight of the year, our 33rd convention is being organised by Think Inc, and will be held on November 18-19, 2017, at the City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney.

This promises to be a great event, with speakers including: science media star Dr Karl; astronomer Prof Alan Duffy; YouTube super-debunker Captain Dissolution; comedian and MC Lawrence Leung; former naturopath and now critic of alt med Britt Hermes; doctor and TV personality Dr Brad McKay; award winning documentary maker Sonya Pemberton; Walkley award-winner journalist Kathy Marks; and doctor-cum-magician Dr Vyom Sharma.

More great speakers will be announced soon.

Tickets HERE