Victorian Skeptics Treasurer Awarded OAM

Roy Arnott, long-standing treasurer for the Victorian Skeptics, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the recent Queen’s birthday honours list. He received the honour for his service to the preservation of military history and to veterans.

Continue reading HERE.

 

Also honoured was Australian Skeptics co-founder and patron Dick Smith, who was created a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

Dick has supported a range of humanitarian, social welfare and conservation organisations, medical research and the arts, among them Australian Skeptics

Continue reading HERE

Photos from Auskeptcon14

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Recommended – see these photos full screen mode on Flickr.

The photos in the above slide show are from the recent Australian Skeptics National Convention 2014, held in Sydney. A huge thanks to the Sydney based organisers with ASI, they did a fantastic job. The convention featured the likes of, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, Dick Smith, George Hrab, Peter Fitzsimons, Michael Marshall, Dr Rachael Dunlop, Peter Hadfield, Dr Amanda Bauer, the entire Skeptics Guide to the Universe crew and most of the team from ABC’s consumer protection program, The Checkout. A full list of speakers can be found here. Heck – even James Randi dropped in for a cameo!

The convention was held at an excellent venue in The Concourse, Chatswood where everything ran perfectly.  Well done to all involved for an entertaining and inspiring convention.  We look forward to Brisbane next year.

 

Happenings – June 2012

by Ken Greatorex

Nuns Fight Back! In last month’s Happenings, we reported on an attempt by The Vatican to rein in America’s fifty thousand nuns. Here’s the latest. Meanwhile, Australia’s last openly pro­gressive Catholic bishop, Can­berra’s Pat Power resigned, citing the Vatican’s inability to listen, clergy sex abuse and the short­age of priests as the biggest issues facing the church.

In Australia, a supreme court judge has forced Jehova’s Witness parents to allow their four-year-old daughter to receive a blood transfusion, without which she had a life expectancy of a few weeks.

A Skeptic’s Guide to Dowsing

This article first appeared as a Vic Skeptics discussion pamphlet.
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.

Dowsing, (also known as Divining) is widely practised in Australia. Dowsers claim the ability to detect useful substances in the ground using processes which are not able to be explained by current scientific principles.

The most frequently dowsed substance in drought-prone Australia is water. Many Australians can claim a friend or relative who is a water-diviner.

Australian Skeptics have long been interested in dowsing. It clearly lies within the range of paranormal activities which come under scrutiny. We offer a sum of money, (currently $100,000) to anyone who can demonstrate paranormal ability of any kind. Our only stipulation is that candidates must pass a proper scientific test, the protocols of which have been agreed upon by all parties before the test commences. Most acceptors of this challenge have been water-diviners; probably because they are genuine people who believe in their abilities, and are as interested in being tested as we are to test them.