We’ve uploaded the now-traditional monthly Picture Puzzles, “Mixed Bag” Questions, themed Skeptical Crossword Puzzle and Logic & Maths Problems to the PUZZLES PAGE.
The Crossword Puzzle this month is about Alternative Medicine. It’s a big one, running to six pages of .pdf file which you will have to print off and complete using the primitive technology of a pen or pencil.
Previous puzzles going back to 2010 may be accessed by scrolling down the puzzles page or using the archive at the bottom of the page, now expanded to include puzzles to April 2021.
July’s Skeptical Crossword Puzzle dabbles in Cults and Sects.
Then there are the usual Picture Puzzles,“Mixed Bag” Questions (Trivia and General Knowledge); and Logic & Maths Puzzles.
All previous puzzles are easily found by scrolling down the puzzles page or accessing the archive at the bottom of the page, now expanded to include puzzles to April 2021.
The 2021 Australian Skeptics Annual National Convention – Skepticon for short – will be held this year on November 20-21. As a first, it will be held simultaneously by Aust Skeptics from Sydney, Australia; the NZ Skeptics from Wellington, New Zealand; plus online participation from everywhere else. There will be face-to-face presentations in Sydney and Wellington, the Sydney event being held at the University of Technology and the Wellington event to be announced. This year attendees will be able to participate in a truly international event, mixing with those speakers who will be physically present in one of the two main venues (COVID willing, of course), and interact with speakers in other cities and countries . Details of the speakers and ticket prices will be available soon.
June’s Skeptical Crossword Puzzle is (almost) all about Greek and Roman Mythology.
For our seven Picture Puzzles this month we’re trying a slightly larger format. There are twenty new “Mixed Bag” Questions (Trivia and General Knowledge); and June’s Logic & Maths Puzzles have the usual format of ten questions of various types and degrees of difficulty. These sets include not just the answers but also a step-by-step worked solution for each question.
All previous puzzles are easily found by scrolling down the puzzles page or accessing the archive at the bottom of the page, now expanded to include puzzles to April 2021.
May’s Skeptical Crossword Puzzle has “Strange Notions” as its theme.
We’re back to seven Picture Puzzles this month, and twenty “Mixed Bag” Questions (Trivia and General Knowledge).
Logic & Maths Puzzles for the month of May 2021 follows the usual format of ten questions of various types and degrees of difficulty. These sets include not just the answers but also a step-by-step worked solution for each question. All previous L&Ms are easily found by scrolling down the puzzles page or accessing the archive at the bottom of the page.
All on the PUZZLES PAGE. NOTE: Puzzles from January 2020 to April 2021 have been used to create a new archive: PUZZLES ARCHIVE 9.
This archive includes both the usual monthly puzzles sets for that period, plus the special “lockdown” sets posted during 2020.
There are twenty more “Mixed Bag” Questions (Trivia and General Knowledge); first ten “Easy”, second ten “Hard”.
The Skeptical Crossword Puzzle is a little pot-boiler based on a theme of “Religious Ideas“.
Our Logic & Maths Puzzles is the 105th such set. These sets now include not just the answers but also a step-by-step worked solution for each of the ten questions, enhancing their educational value. All previous L&Ms are easily found by scrolling down the puzzles page or accessing the archive at the bottom of the page.
It’s now too late to announce that the annual Melbourne Darwin Day picnic has been cancelled due to the Victorian government’s decision to impose a five-day lock-down to counter a small but worrying spike in Covid-19 infections.
Bummer. It’s a high point in our social calendar, and many of us were looking forward to it and planning to attend.
So obviously, all that remains is:
(a) to CONGRATULATE the Victorian government in following the Science. Darwin would have been proud.
(b) to do a bit of value-adding to our virtual Darwin Day.
Here’s a presentation about Charles Darwin by Tina Hanigan at Skepticon 2019.
Skeptics and other “free-thinkers” around the world are inclined to mark two special days in each year.
One, of course is December 25th. (That’s Isaac Newton’s birthday). The other is the anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birthday, in Shrewsbury England on February 12th 1809.
Quite a lot of useful, informative and entertaining stuff about Charles Darwin already exists on this site. Rather than add to it, this year we’ll just provide the links.
February’s Skeptical Crossword Puzzle returns to a favourite theme of Foretelling the Future. A new set of Picture Puzzles, a set of “Mixed Bag” Questions, and a set of Maths & Logic Puzzles accompany at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE, or if you’d like to go straight to the crossword, go here:
We start the new year as we left the old one: with a set of Picture Puzzles, a set of “Mixed Bag” Questions, a Skeptical Crossword Puzzle and a set of Maths & Logic Puzzles.
They’re all blog-style at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE, or if you’d like to go straight to the crossword, which is about 2020 in Review (how could it not be?) go here:
Of the twenty-three people featured in this month’s crossword, all but one are different to the twenty-six skeptics of the 2016 crossword. That common link, fittingly, is James Randi.
There’s also a new batch of Picture Puzzles, Mixed Bag Questions (Trivia/General Knowledge), and a Logic & Maths Problems set with worked solutions.
Thanks to the Science Teachers Association of Victoria’s Janice Teng and her team of volunteers, the Victorian Science Talent Search has continued its unbroken run of sixty-nine years. The question was never “Can STS continue, given the unprecedented restrictions imposed by the Corona virus?” but “How should STS run in 2020 to best effect?”
Each year, a theme is set for the thousand or so entries that are submitted for judging. This year, the theme was Deep Blue – Innovations for the future of our Oceans.
Vic Skeptics and Australian Skeptics Inc. have jointly supported STS for many years, and are consistently among its major sponsors.
Here’s an announcement – or a reminder – about the motivational student worksheets available in .pdf from this site. They take the form of crosswords, word searches and cryptograms and are pitched variously at age groups from primary to senior secondary.
Topics include General Science, Astronomy, Biology (including Evolution and Human Reproduction), Botany, Chemistry, Health, and Physics.
This material, which was designed for classroom use has been in unexpectedly high demand for home schooling and enrichment during 2020. There’s a lot of great stuff available on the www; we hope you find our contribution useful.
Patrick Stokes, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Deakin University. Contributor to New Philosopher, The Conversation, ABC Radio Melbourne, Radio National.
Vic Skeptics is run by volunteers. We welcome your donation. (Calculated in Australian dollars) Thanks.
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We’ve uploaded the now-traditional monthly Picture Puzzles, “Mixed Bag” Questions, themed Skeptical Crossword Puzzle and Logic & Maths Problems to the PUZZLES PAGE.
Posted by keng2 
July’s Skeptical Crossword Puzzle dabbles in Cults and Sects.
For our seven Picture Puzzles this month we’re trying a slightly larger format. There are twenty new “Mixed Bag” Questions (Trivia and General Knowledge); and June’s Logic & Maths Puzzles have the usual format of ten questions of various types and degrees of difficulty. These sets include not just the answers but also a step-by-step worked solution for each question.
