Birmingham Skeptics

Some Views of "A Skeptical Look at Atheism"

2012-01-25T22:06:00.002Z

As many ofyou are aware we had Professor Andy McIntosh come and talk to us at BirminghamSkeptics in the Pub on “A Skeptical Look at Atheism”. Andy is an EmeritusProfessor in Physics, specialising in thermodynamics and is also a Young EarthCreationist on the speakers list for Answers in Genesis. His talk was, to saythe least, different to the usual that we have at Skeptics in the Pub. The Qand A session wasn’t nearly enough to address everybody’s questions andcomments and so we thought we would crowd-source a few for interest. I wasgoing to summarise and edit the views sent in but I don’t think I can do thatfairly and keep all the excellent points that the contributors made. Iapologise therefore for this mammoth post but please stick with it as there aresome great points made and some interesting news at the end.

Our first review came from Andy McIntosh himself via none other than Ken Ham ofAnswers in Genesis! Surely we’re the first Skeptics in the Pub group to get areview by that particular person. Imagine if we could get him over to talk!

You can read Andy’s reviewhere, he seems tohave enjoyed his opportunity of preaching to the largely unconverted and washappy that his combination of scientific and philosophical argument waslistened to and may have planted seeds of faith.

Lets contrast that with this excellent review sent in by Mil:

“OK, beforeI start I should mention that I didn't stop for the second, Q&A part. Ineeded to catch a train - I don't live in Birmingham, because, given thechoice, you don't live in Birmingham.

The thing about Professor McIntosh's talk - and I honestly don't say this tomock - is that it felt like watching someone go incrementally insane. Puttingaside his opener about the feather (presumably included because he could notresist catching Richard Dawkins saying that he, Dawkins, had 'faith' insomething), the first half of the lecture was informative and within strikingdistance of well-reasoned. Whether one finds McIntosh's conclusions soundand persuasive or not, it did address the matter of the creationist invocationof the Second Law of Thermodynamics as a bar to evolution. The typical responseto a creationist saying entropy must increase is to simply reply by finishingthe sentence - 'in a closed (or isolated) system'. And that's generally the endof it: the creationist goes off to find another half of a sentence to use, andyou can sit back and have a biscuit while you wait. Professor McIntoshexplained why such a brisk dismissal of his position mischaracterised it. He,of course, is aware of what the law states and that the Earth isn't an isolatedsystem; his argument rests, rather, on energy that's 'useable' by what herefers to as 'machines'. This is all fair enough as a clarification of asubtler argument, drawing on established scientific principles and so on.

That was the starting point. The finish was that Jesus is our Lord and theeye-witness accounts in the Bible prove it.

It really was like watching someone descend into delusion before your eyes. Myinternal response to the things he was saying followed this sort of path:"OK... Ahhh... Um... Eh...? What...? *What*...? WHAT...? ARGGGHHH!"At the beginning what he's saying at least appears plausibly worth addressing;in the middle he's, for example, telling us that atheists have no response to thearguments CS Lewis puts forward in 'Miracles' (so he's now reached what onemight - generously - call 'shaky ground'); by the end it's the kind of stuffthat wouldn't fly in a Year 10 classroom debate - I expected at any moment tohear the words 'Pascal's Wager', 'There are more of us than you', and 'Hitler'.

Professor McIntosh seems like a decent chap, he has genuinely-held beliefs,he's laudably keen to engage with those of differing views, and he's no doubtorders of magnitude a better mathematician than I am. Yet as the talk went onhis reasoning simply fell to bits in breath-taking fashion. The room listened,and everyone really, really wanted to be polite, but towards the end there wasa distinct rippling noise from the crowd - no one was actually interrupting, itwas rather the sound of two hundred people all furiously trying to bite theirtongues.

It was great to have a speaker who wasn't preaching to the choir, though. I'mvery glad the Birmingham SitP invited Professor McIntosh, and I'm glad I wentto listen. I have, however, not changed my position on the place of'Intelligent Design' in school science lessons.”

It might come as a surprise to some but not all the skeptic regularsare atheists. One of our greatest supporters is the wonderful Abby who sent usthis review from a Christian Skeptic perspective:

“As Christians neither me nor the friends who joined meon Weds, are literal creationists, and I have heard that nearly all mainstreamChristians within the sciences refute creationism too (one even wrote of beingcured of it) so I had my doubts as to how we’d find the evening, but thatparticular argument wasn’t really dwelled on during the evening. As I’m nothighly qualified in science, here’s a more technical response from a couple of myfriends who came along from church, one’s a physics teacher, and one’s a biologist, currently doing aPhD in immunology.

Both friends said that there was nothing contained within the evening that theyhadn’t already thought about themselves. However, they said the science didseem to have a point:

The physics teacher says that indeed, "Thermodynamics says that entropywill always increase (everything tends to a state of maximum disorder) - whichis seen in nature (physics at least).

The biologist tells me; in agreement with a sceptical counter-argument I heardfollowing the talk, that entropy actually increases the amount of information.However, she said we have to ask ourselves what kind information there is inrandom noise, something structured / self-producing... It’s all very well itbeing 'information' but it’s got to be the right kind and that’s where theentropy argument comes in as it also refers to energy. To create the structuresof life, you have to have energy.

However, both people, like myself, thought that the talk could have beenpresented in a much more clear and engaging way, making the relevance of whathe was pointing out a little more self-evident (without needing a residentphysicist and biologist on hand, guilty as charged). The biologist said “I wasa little annoyed he didn't delve deeper. He was almost a little patronisingconstantly saying that he 'wouldn't go into that”. We all said we know this isdifficult though, as by its very nature it’s specialist stuff, and he didn’t alwayshave the time to expand.”

From our comments section Tituslivius gave us this succinct andpointed view of the night:

“I was expecting something a bit more heavyweight thanthis. I was mystified by one of the arguments presented (actually an ad-hominemattack) concerning Richard Dawkins' response to a question about the structureof a feather. We were only given half a sentence, without context, of whatDawkins was supposed to have said, and then invited to draw the inference thathis entire stance was thereby compromised. Nothing was proved or evendemonstrated by it. I would be interested to hear from people who stayed forthe question session”

Also from the comments, Gurbie0 addressed some of the scientific and moralarguments presented by Professor McIntosh:

“His comment on how, according to an atheist view on thehuman mind (in that atheists don't believe in a separate 'soul' and ourthoughts are just 'chemical reactions'), it would be possible to tell whatsomeone was going to think using a large enough supercomputer was veryinteresting. I don't know enough about brain mapping or supercomputers to knowwhether this would be possible, but I can see how hypothetically it could be.However, even if it were possible I don't see what McIntosh's point was. Heseemed to think that just because he found the idea disturbing that the ideawas therefore flawed. He used a similar argument when talking about anotheraspect of the human mind, where he said that seeing humanity as 'chemicalreactions' seemed 'miserable'. I'm sure some people do find the idea miserable,but that does not mean it's not true. Just because you don't like an idea doesnot decrease its validity.

He spoke about 'information', the point of which (as far as I understood it)was that a 'code' (such as that carried in DNA) could not exist unless amessage existed prior to it. Then the message could be put into code, and theninterpreted somewhere else. Of course if this were true then DNA could not haveevolved or appeared naturally, as it would need a message provided by somethingelse. McIntosh suggested that this initial message must have been provided byGod. This idea can be debunked using a simple analogy: I, or a computer, couldwrite down 20 entirely random letters, without any 'message' written into it orany code devised. This could then be given to someone, and that person coulddevise a random letter substitution system in order to 'decode' my sequence ofletters (e.g. a=t, b=e, k=d). This, almost certainly, would just give a sequenceof letters just as random as the original code. However, if the person did this10 million times, devising a new decoding system every time, then one of thosetime would almost certainly result in a sentence with meaning, and'information', even though the was no 'information' in the original code. Thatis how DNA could arise, with natural selection 'picking out' the meaningfulsequences from the nonsense.

He seemed to think that atheism gave no explanation for 'morality' or altruism.Of course these things are easily explained by evolution, but since he hadalready decided the science proved evolution impossible he must not haveconsidered this. He also assumedthat atheists agreed with the idea that there is an absolute morality, which ofcourse many do not, and many have very different ideas on the meaning of theterm 'morality'.”

Our previous contributor Mil postedthis response to Gurbie0’s comments:

“... your mention of McIntosh saying onecould “tell what someone was going to think [in fact, be able to tell*everything*, not only thoughts, in advance] using a large enoughsupercomputer.” What he was doing there was simply giving a microprocessor faceto ‘Laplace’s Demon’. The notion can be criticized on the basis of it being,mathematically, impossible for any such ‘all knowing predictive thing’ toexist. Which, IMHO, misses the point very badly – it’s like saying that‘infinity’ is a false concept because you can’t build infinity as there’d benowhere to put it. The other major criticism of it is that causal determinismis mugged by quantum randomness. Now, some argue that so called quantumrandomness isn’t, or has not been demonstrated (and could never bedemonstrated) to be truly random - Galen Strawson, for example. That, IMHO,again, misses the point too, though less badly. What’s at issue here isfreewill, and introducing randomness doesn’t save freewill – chance is notchoice. So, it doesn’t matter very much that you (and I) aren’t experts onbrain mapping and supercomputers. You’re gleamingly correct: the real rubbingnub of the issue is McIntosh’s focus not on whether something is correct ornot, but on whether it’s preferable. He might as well say, “Reality worries me,so I’m going to believe in something else instead.” Which – I’m sure you’reahead of me here – could explain his position on quite a few other things too.”

Personally I wondered how somebody so sure about their ultimate answer(God) could look at any science totally objectively. It seemed to me that thescience of the talk quickly gave way to his faith and that the latter was thestronger of the two. He obviously has a better grasp of physics than I do butto establish the kind of belief that he has you would have to discredit orignore the consensus of scientists from multiple disciplines including geology,biology, astronomy and palaeontology to name but a few.

This topic is far from over and you don’t need to let me have this final word.You can continue to contribute to the discussion, we welcome any comments thatyou would like to make. For those of you that couldn’t make the event, oraren’t quite sure you did actually hear what you thought you heard, we’veproduced a DVD of the entire talk which should be available at our Februarymeeting. It has a snazzy cover designed by Paul Bryant (@thebigyeti),photos by SimonBrettell (@simonbrettell) and video editing by Chris Richardson(@christheneck). You can watch the talk and the questions unedited, free tothrow peanuts or shout at the screen from the comfort of your arm chair Let usknow if you want a copy and we'll try to bring enough along. The cost will be£3 if you buy direct, £4 if we post to the UK and £5 - £6 anyone across the waters depending on where you are.You can email us at birminghamskeptics (at) gmail (dot) com or via our contact page.

We’renot uploading the talk because the speaker doesn’t want us to and because wedon’t want to. We appreciate the work that our speakers put into their talks soif we do video them we’d rather not dilute their future impact by uploading,(although if it was a homeopath perhaps diluting would make it more effective).If you’re interested in buying one of the videos any profit made will, asalways, be put back into Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub so that we can continueinviting great speakers and plan for even bigger and better future events.

Patrick (@paddyrex)

Weekly Round Up w/e 22/01/2012

2012-01-21T16:06:00.003Z

Howdy all and welcome once again to the BirminghamSkeptics weekly round up, gathering the good the bad and the faintly ridiculousfrom all corners of the web. I did think of having a lie in this week and justposting up a black page in protest to SOPA and PIPA, butwith support for those measures rapidly waning I’d better just get on withit.

Let’s start with the trials and tribulations of Rhys Morgan. Notunaccustomed to having to defend his views Rhys found that the use of an imagefrom the online cartoon JandMoas his Facebook status attracted the attention of people around him that had,at best, only an ironic grasp of the notion of freedom of speech. Rhys used theimage in support of the UCL Secularistand Humanist Society who had been forced to take that image down and whosepresident resigned over the matter.

Rhys eventually had to remove the Facebook image after pressure from his schooland a disgusting level of threat from his so-called peers but you can readabout it on his blogand the clear and admirable way he addresses these issues. It’s difficult notto be reminded of the kind of horrific abuse that Jessica Ahlquist hasbeen undergoing since beginning her stance to have a prayer banner removed fromher school. There is a reasonable summaryof events here, but have a scan down herblog to contrast her measured approach to that of those who pile invectiveand hate upon her.

Oh those crazy homeopaths always something to chuckle about with them. Whenthey’re not treating aids with water and sugar pills, headaches with water andsugar pills in fact, most anything with water and sugar pills they’re providingall kinds of unscientific and damaging medical advice. Read these Short andSpiky posts hereand herefor a reminder of the sheer insanity of this ridiculous treatment. The secondone is a whole new level of stupid.

It’s time to go down under for our next couple of items. No, we’re not talkingabout Australia; we’re talking derrieres and their emissions. In these days of heightenedsecurity and identity theft it’s good to know that scientists are unafraid toprobe novel areasof recognition. And finally on this topic, have you ever stopped toconsider astronautflatulence? No, why not, are you weird or something?

Here’s aremarkable story of scientist, Paul Callaghan, trialling an alt med curefor cancer on himself. I’m not sure why he’s bothering though because as thispost in the Telegraph explains, a mere lack of scientific evidence ofeffectiveness isn’t actually a lack of evidence of effectiveness, or some suchnonsense.

There’s another twist on the ongoing Burzynskidebacle from Andy Lewis over at the Quackometer.I don’t know why but the words to the Pseudo-Scientist’sSong pop into my head at this point. Andy’s just launched a Facebook page too so ifyou’re on that particular mode of social media head on over and “Like” it.

In an interesting sting Which?asked several nutritionists for health advice and found them sadly lacking. It’sa good read and well worth scanning down to the comments where we can see ourold friend David Colqhoun performing his usual stirling defence of science. Youcan read his take on it over at his ownblog.

I find that just balancing my budget is hard enough, but it must be eventrickier for a whole US State. It’s good to know that Kentucky GovernorSteve Beshear has his priorities so well sorted to guide him. “Get your coats on kids, we’re heading toBible Land, don’t worry if you can’t read the signs you don’t need education inheaven.”

The very Welsh and wonderful Dean Burnett entertained us with not one, but twoGuardian articles this week. Firstly he explained why BlueMonday is a depressing day of pseudoscience and humiliation, and then wenton to challenge some PRguff masquerading as science. Good work that man!

Don’t forget that we have the Birmingham Skeptics Socialcoming up and not long after the wonderful Alice Sheppard will be entertainingus with her talk “Whenthe Universe came to the People – Citizen Science for Skeptics” and it’d bewonderful to see you there.

They're not new but they are a lot of fun so we'll leave you with some of Richard Wisemans quirky science tricks.

This week's round up was put together by Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub co organiser Patrick Redmond (@paddyrex) with helpful suggestions from regular attendee and all round great guy Roy Beddowes.

Weekly Round-Up w/e 15/1/12

2012-01-15T20:32:00.001Z

Welcome tothis week’s round up and well, would you take a look at us? We’vebroken through the 300 mark of people who ‘like’ us on Facebookand we’re pretty darn pleased with ourselves, however, there’llbe none of that dining in hell stuff for us tonight – no, sir. Ifyou’d like to meet up for drinks though, have some interesting chatwith some friendly people, share your views on the latest speakermaybe, then you could always come along to our next BrumSkeptics Social at the SquarePeg, Corporation St. on January 24^that 7.00pm – loin clothsand daggers are, of course, optional.

Failingthat, meander over to our usual Victoriavenue on 8^thFeb where our next speaker, AliceSheppard, will betaking us through some of the best and worst of Astronomical history.We’ll also be looking into citizen science and GalaxyZoo withWhenthe Universe Came to the People.

Stampingrampantly into the first of our Round-up articles:
a group ofgeologists at Oxford University have baked ageologicaltime-spiral cake replete withmarzipan beasties. I’ll have two slices of KTBoundary with Ammonitetopping – to go. (At Sitp we love cake)

Naturally,too much of the sweet stuff isn’t good for you, fortunately,there’s a new diet guru in town; MaryAscension Saulnier-theFat Whisperer. “Ilisten to what emotion is in the cell membrane, then I talk to it,”Saulnier says. “I tell the cell which way to move out of the body.”For those without the Mary’s skill set (ahem), hereare the actual directions- Fat Nav if you like.

Respectingrespectful insolence: Following up on the AndrewWakefield sues BMJ story, Oracgets amused by BrianDeer alongthe way.

Newsfrom the BritishHumanist Association:The government's recent revisions to the "model fundingagreement" for free schools mean that it would notbe possibleto establish a school that would teach creationism and IntelligentDesign as Science; Creationistsnot happy. Stop sniggering at the back...

A couple ofinteresting stories have turned up from India this week, one serious,and the other, well, preposterous:-

People in several parts of Uttar Pradesh spent a sleepless night on Monday and police remained on high alert as a rumour that those who slept would turn into stone spread like wildfire. Think that’s weird? A group from Birmingham have been turning to stone for years - for you not coming home! YOU!

Worrying news: Suggesting that inappropriate treatment at private clinics is to blame, a hospital in Pindu has detected four people with totally drug resistant tuberculosis, the first such cases in the country since November last year.

From ChinaPress: Notall dragon babies are successful in lifeand childrenborn on certain dates are prone to autism according to Feng Shui andGeomancy master Prof David Koh.

Accordingto the UK popular press, new figures showed that the use ofanti-depressants and sleeping pills is soaring. Neuroskeptichas a lookat the data and suggests a rewording of the headline is in order.

FromThe Globe and Mail: We now have the potential to banish the genesthat kill us, that make us susceptible to cancer, heart disease,depression, addictions and obesity, and to select those that may makeus healthier, stronger, more intelligent. The question is,shouldwe?

Pickingup on a point in our most recentPodcastwith Becs O' Neilland the how to describe Skepticism question; Austin Cline's Bloghasthis interesting article that I’d like to add to the mix,ConnectingSkepticism and Atheism:AtheistsShould Practice Skepticism Broadly.It’s at this point I feel like the Tubular Bells Master ofCeremonies - Patrick on slightly shrill tin whistle (at 1:15)

QualiaSoup’s videos have for a long time been some of my most watched andfavourite YouTube content. Have alook at Open-mindednessand CriticalThinking by way ofan introduction.

From EdzardErnst at The Guardian: A 'college'founded last year appears to be a smokescreen behind whichalternativemedicines can hide.Looks like reincarnated Royal woo from where I’m sitting.

Youremember Peter Harrison’s excellent talk on The Science of LucidDreaming way back in September? Of course you do. Apparently anyonecan learn to have lucid dreams, and this e-booktells you how, courtesy of Mind Hacks. The book is on a pay what youwant basis, and is CreativeCommons licensed so you can copy it and share it as youwill.

Book youradventure holidays here:

Reactor Park: Oohh, Aahh, that's how all of this starts, but then later there's the running and screaming” – and puking.

Tobogganing on Nicaragua’s active volcano Cerro Negro: There’s nothing worse than gravel in your mankini.

Whoeverdid this - you just made my day.(Wipes away tear of gratitude). Ourposturing’s, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that wehavesome privileged position in the Universe, etc., etc.

Over thefence, through the tunnels and pipes; now this is RocketScience.

Someunusual articles from the natural world:-

So you think you know the answer to where do fish live?
New dinosaur species discovered in unusual place.
Mystic Mutts at the Daily Mail.

Something tothink about: There are three common Irish names, McEntaggart,McAnespie and McNab that translate as 'son of the priest', 'son ofthe Bishop' and 'son of the Abbot'.
For theintelligent drinker: You may have sampled the award winning alesserved at The Victoria such as ButtyBachand MadGoose, however, if you’re feeling a bit mischievous, hereare a rangeof beveragesto bring out for when your Creationistcousinscome to visit.

Treatmentfor neck pain: Filling a void in the scientific literature of whatthe most helpful treatments are, a research professor atNorth-Western Health Sciences University in Minnesota has found thatlight home exercises were about as effective as chiropracticsessions. Today’sscore: Physical Therapists 1, Spine Wizards 0.

Inspiredby the 2009 bicentenary of Darwin's birth, a group of scientists andsailors decided to createa replica of HMS Beaglethat would serve as a 21st century icon to inspire a new generationto engage with science.

From Aljazeera: People& Power go undercover to investigate the alternativetherapy clinicsin Mexico offering cancer patients little but false hope.

Looking atad like the Blockbustersgame board from the 1980’s TV Show: Interactivetimeline of 2011 - The science year in brief.

Right,that’s almost it then for this week’s blog, just a plug to finishoff with then a movie.

If youattended the talk with Andy McIntosh on Wednesday and have somethingyou’d like to offer then please let us have your feedback at thisresponse page set up strictly for this subject.Or, if you wanted to attend but couldn’t, you’ve now only got ashort while to wait for the video, which is being edited as we speak,to then give us your impressions.

Finally, 2videos; the first one quite appropriate as we’re a ‘in the pub’group: Guinness"Evolution",followed by a group of crazy Fins whogofishing under theice in Lake Saarijärvi in Vaala, Finland.

This week’s round-up was compiled by Sitp regular Roy Beddowes.

A Skeptical Look at a Skeptical Look at Atheism

2012-01-14T20:34:00.001Z

Hi Folks

What did you think of Andy McIntosh's talk?

We're asking for your thoughts or observations to collate into a full blogpost. They need not be fully formed blogs in themselves as that would be too much to ask of everyone but it will be interesting to see what impressions people came away with and whether you thought his presentation was consistent or not.

If you want to leave us your thoughts you can email us at birminghamskeptics (at) gmail.com or use our contact form.
You could also comment below this, mention @Brum_Skeptics on twitter or post on Facebook but of course those comments would be immediately public.

Needless to say we will not publish people's email addresses, but pleaseindicate if you wish to remain anonymous.

Thanks in advance

What's it all about?

2012-01-07T22:01:00.000Z

Pleaseforgive this rather hastily written blog but I feel I need to write something downquickly. There’s been a bit of chat about our next speaker at BirminghamSkeptics in the Pub on Twitter, which in itself isn’t bad but some of it I’vefound, a bit confusing and a little insulting.

I’m the person that invited Andy McIntosh to speak. He is a physicist and aYoung Earth Creationist. I find it incredible that he can be both and I’minterested to hear how he can hold such apparently disparate positionstogether. The title of his talk is “A Skeptical View of Atheism”. I want to hear him speak and I think that in alllikelihood I, and many of the regular skeptics, will disagree with his views, buthopefully it will be interesting to hear them nonetheless.

It’s been suggested that we have invited him to set him up for ridicule. That’snot true. Other people seem to think there may be trouble of some sort. What dothey imagine, a mob of angry skeptics, torches blazing, carrying the limp bodyof the creationist away for a lynching? The speaker knows the audience and heis willing to come and talk. I respect him for that.

Last year Intelligent Design proponent Steve Fuller asked us what we wereskeptical about? He called us “polite angry people”. Maybe we don’t have to beso polite, but surely the main weapon of the skeptic is logic and reason (or isthat a Vulcan?). I don’t think that thecontent of that talk was world changing but it certainly created a buzz thatlasted a good while. People still talk about it. I would be shocked anddisappointed if there were people in the room that resorted to plain rudenessand I don’t think it will happen and it wouldn’t be allowed to happen.Argument, yes, debate, yes, disagreement of course, rudeness and troublemaking,no. In my latest podcast Becs O’Neill describes skepticism as something like “theexamination of extraordinary claims.” I like that definition and sometimes it’sworth inviting those claims in to have a look at them.

What is Skeptics in the Pub for? It’s a debate that I usually keep out of, butfor the record here are my views. It’s a place where you can be challenged orwhere you can go to be with people you know think similar things to you. It’s aplace where you might learn things and it’s a place where you will hopefully beentertained. Everybody should be able to come through that door and I haveinvited people from evangelical churches to come and join in. Should they beworried if they come? Of course not! We are Skeptics in the Pub not fanaticalfactual fascists in the boozer. I think that this has the potential of being avery interesting evening and I hope that you’ll come. If you do you’ll be very welcome,whoever you are.

This rather hasty blog was put togetherby Patrick Redmond (@paddyrex) and doesn’t attempt to reflect the views of anyother @Brum_Skeptics organiser or anybody else in particular.

Weekly Round-up w/e 8/01/2012

2012-01-07T16:32:00.004Z

Welcome to the latest round-up. Let's have a look what the first fullweek of 2012 has for us. Hmm.

A quick reminder first that Andy McIntosh will be joining us at the Vic for our firsttalk of 2012. He's a Professor of Thermodynamics but also adevout Christian and Young Earth Creationist, so expect the night to be lively.Also later in the month we have our first Socialofthe year on Tuesday 24^th at the Square Peg in Corporation Street,and make a note of future dates as we have AliceSheppard (@penguingalaxy) inFebruary and DeborahHyde (@jourdemayne) inMarch.

In local news a new group called Birmingham Girl Geekslauncheson Saturday 21^st January at the Urban Coffee Company in ChurchStreet with guest speaker DeniseJacobs and Birminghamnow has a MathsJam which meets on the last Tuesday of the month atthe Tap and Spile in Gas Street. It clashes with our Social this month but youcan go next month can't you?

Slightly further afield, the speakers at Thinkcon on 17^th March in Cambridge have beenannounced with an impressive line-up (FB & Twitter). It's a week after QEDconinManchester, so for those who wanted another QED the weekend after last year's,here's your chance.

Skeptic news on the net includes the launch of a monthly page of actions tofamiliarise yourselves and others of psychic's tricks and scams. This month ison newspaperastrology & Barnum statements.

Also just released are ProfessorBruce Hood's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. All of them appear to be upand here's thefirst.

One of the big stories of the week is the instigation of legal proceedings bythe disgraced ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield who claimed a connection between theMMR vaccine and autism and was struck off for unethical procedures carried outon children from which they gained no benefit. He claims his reputation hasbeen, err, damaged byan article published a year ago. A running round-up of articles is being collatedby @lizditz here and forthose of a legal bent I'd recommend the thoughts of theSkeptical Lawyer and of Ken atPopehat highlighting Texas's new anti-SLAPP statute designed to stop actionslike this. There are some interesting theories on why Wakefield might be takingthis action using a non-specialist lawyer despite his small chance of success.As Orac says, the plotthickens.

This case may seem far removed from us, however libelthreats and actions continue to surface on a weekly basis. Vaughan Jones from Nuneatonhas a case goingthrough the High Court as I type. There's more on the casehere,but as the review and articles in question have been removed from public viewwe'll have to wait until matters conclude to see what all the fuss was about.We wish him well. Here's his take on the state of our current libel laws and why itshould matter.

Also this week, news has reached us of William Foxton who has lost his job atChamber Report, a magazine highlighting the great and the good (and the bad) inthe legal profession, for green-lighting a story in which the facts do not seemto be in question. The story involves an individual who, despite having beenhung out to dry by his own legal firm in Dubai, has an awful lot of money. It's adesperately sad indictment of how our libel laws currently work.After reading that I'll just leave this here. It's the homepage of the Libel Reform Campaign.They have a donations page. Just saying.

There is also disquiet in the psychiatric profession as preparation of DSM5,the latest Diagnostic andStatistical Manual of Mental Disordersreferred to by Jon Ronson when he visited us in July, seems tobe being hindered by the legal insistence of confidentialityclauses and commercialism.

Right, let's point and laugh at things religious for a bit. Always fun, but thefirst are not aimed at the believer but at the atheist or skeptic. Many will have heard of the fact that radical islamic extremists who blow themselves andothers to pieces in the name of their deity ascend to paradise to be greeted by72 virgins. Well, I say “fact”. If I were you I'd take a look at this from skepchicks. Maybethose who recently explained to someone how Christmas was stolen from the storyof Mithras or Dionysus or Horus should have a wee look here and here too.

The Telegraph reported this week that Scientology“is becoming a hollow moneymaking machine run by an autocratic ruler”as yet another senior devotee takes a pop at the top dog claiming that the cultlonger adheres to the “teachings” of L Ron Hubbard. Here's hoping they implode.

Some outright idiocy now as someone muses as to what would havehappened had Jesus not existed. It reads like it should be a Poe, but I suspect not.

Lastly, as we're talking religion, there's obviously some nastiness ashighlighted in this piece on the practise of muddyingthe waters between science and religion toindoctrinate children.

Awonderful blog now, from Richard Wilson (@dontgetfooled) on the problems of “policy-basedevidence-making”, how those in public life cherry-pick evidencewith no qualms and what is being done about it.

A question sometimes raised at Skeptics in the Pub meetings to speakerswho are active in the realms of alternative medicines is why skeptics seem togravitate towards alt med and not take on broader spheres such as politics, Thereasons why the latter are difficult is discussed in the above blog however,specifically, people blog about CAM because the mainstream media in thiscountry predominantly give it a free ride as shown here by @jdc325

Isuppose that now gives me licence to point out that taking Vitamin D will nothelp people avoid heart attacks or cancer and the horrendousunpleasantness of publishinga book aimed at “4-10 year olds on... ...the ineffectiveness of vaccines”(sic).

On a slightly related note, this is one reason why you shouldn't have certainNew Year's Resolutions.

Asfor the mainstream and printed media you could learn from the Telegraph (again)that there are no longerany homeopathy degree courses in Britain and that other CAM coursesare in steep decline however it is bewildering to see that Nature seem to haveallowed inclusionof a supplement in their magazine on Traditional Asian Medicine(sic) and seem happy to state that they carry “sole responsibility for alleditorial content”. I wonder if the cash was worth it.

Following on from Sense about Science's Celebritiesand Science pdf as mentioned last time (worth a look if youmissed it) we can now bring you the ClimateCrock BS of the Year Awards. There are some fun (and occasionally funnyvideos) and the usual suspects are therealthough there is a slant towards Americans. And Republicans. And Christians.And people with lots of money and oil companies. Prepare to facepalm orheaddeak (your choice).

This last blog blows a hole in the “more expensive is better” meme that seemsto permeate society but this time in music. Do you think you could tell thedifference between a Stradivarius violin and a new one? Ed Yong shows that youcan't, andneither can the experts. That said, to some people especially Paypal, value matters.

As I mentioned virgins above, I thought I'dleave you with a video of a virgin birth in fact the fourth virgin birth infour years. There's the minimum of pain and gloop though, very littleintervention during the birth and it is unlikely to give anyone nightmares.

Unless you're a shark.

This week's round-up was written by Chris Richardson (@christheneck) withadditional links provided by Roy Beddowes.

Round-Up W/e 1/1/12

2012-01-02T13:03:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to the first round-up of the year. We're looking forward to 2012 as we have a host of interesting speakers lined up as well as some very special guests that we've not managed to pin down to an exact date yet. Happy New Year to you all, here's the round-up.

Here’s Richard Dawkins talking about our next speaker, Professor Andy McIntosh of Leeds University. Andy will be with us on Wednesday 11th January at The Vic as always. The talk is entitled ‘A Sceptical View of Atheism’ and we’re looking forward to some lively debate. Details of the talk are here.

Hertfordshire Police have begun to use polygraphs to detect lies told by sex offenders. Bruce Burgess, a former chairman of the British Polygraph Association (BPA) is in favour of this you’ll be surprised to learn. Independent tests have found it to be little better than chance. For those that require a little more evidence than the word of those with interests, then here’s a review of the current scientific status by the British Psychological Society.

Lie detection has never fared well when subjected to scientific rigour, the Department of Work and Pensions trialled Voice Risk Analysis (VRA) software in 2008 to detect benefit cheats. They found it to be not sufficiently reliable and therefore decided not to introduce it. The company that supplied the VRA software got upset and sent the lawyers in, another example of libel threatening science in the UK.

Cee-Lo green has spoketh, all ye atheists repent. According to that bloke that sang that song last year, you know the one that had swearing in it sometimes, all religion is true. He decided to cover John Lennon’s Imagine and change the bit that goes “and all religions too” to “and all religion is true” the prat. FU Cee-Lo (DYSWIDT?)

JOB SECTION: Famous physicist requires computer genius to maintain wheelchair with integrated custom-built computer-controlled voice synthesiser.

PAREIDOLIA CORNER: Another Jesus one (Isn’t it always?), this time in the Telegraph, perhaps they’d run out of pictures of pretty young women or bashed the BBC all they could this week. So, Jesus has appeared in the crumple of a sock, thanks for that The Telegraph.

It’s the Sense about Science (SAS) annual review, always good for a laugh and a cry. SAS correct some of the bullshit spouted by celebrities throughout the preceding year. According to one ‘famous’ person, the sea is salty due to whale sperm. Another regurgitates the old detox stuff and, more dangerously, the anti-vax myths are squirted into our ears. Tracey Brown talks about the review here.

Nice to see the BBC prominently reporting the detox is claptrap story. My Facebook feed is always full of discussion of detox products at this time of the year, sadly not concerning the evidence base.

Police time is wasted by people requesting information of reports into zombies, UFOs, werewolves etc. That is according to Chief Constable Ian Arundale of Dyfed Powys Police of course, maybe he’s just saying that because he’s scared that people are cottoning onto the truth that these things are among us. “There’s no evidence for it, but it is scientific fact” Dr ‘Neil’ Fox.

Suzanne Somers is famous in America and she survived breast cancer. She underwent a lumpectomy and radiation treatment. Oh, and she also had injections of mistletoe extract. In her opinion, it wasn’t the evidence-based treatment she received that helped her survive, it was the mistletoe. Now she has become a scientific guru touring the talk show circuit and selling her book. Joe Schwarcz writes about Pseudo-scientific blather and star power, a crazy mix.

Fresh from taking on ‘mongs’ and ‘the PC brigade’, Ricky Gervais has turned his attention to more worthy targets, fundamentalist Christians. This is not in anyway a PR move after his recent bad press.

Rebecca Watson calls out inappropriate behaviour in atheist reddit groups.

Cracked ran a list recently of 4 things both atheists and believers need to stop saying. Kazim responds to this.

It seems that the Righteous Indignation podcast has come to an end, at least for the moment. Hayley Stevens talks here about ‘Talk about Strange’, her new podcast which is a relaunch of the Ghost Field Guide.

The Telegraph is not looking good in this week’s round-up, now we have someone who believes the war on Christmas is real, and on top of that, the atheist barbarians are winning.

God has announced crab 2.0, now with forward motion.

Sadly, Tim Minchin's excellent Woody Allen Jesus song got cut from the transmission of Jonathan Ross' ITV show. Here it is:

This week's Round-Up was patched together by Birmingham Skeptics co-organiser Paul Bryant (@thebigyeti)

Weekly Round Up w/e 18/12/2011

2011-12-19T19:51:00.002Z

T'was the week before Christmas and all through the… no wait, that'sprobably the wrong audience. Welcome to the weekly round up of skepticalgoodness - plenty of stuff to fill your stockings and keep you busy right upuntil Christmas!

Far from being humbugs, every good Skeptic enjoys a bit of festive joy thistime of year. Coventry Skeptics are meeting on Wednesday (21st Dec) tohear about a Skeptic's Guide to Christmas anddespite what ol' Dave says, there's a place for godlessness at Christmas as NewHumanist launches the Nine Days of Godless ChristmasPodcasts and Lauren at Friendly Atheist describes how to decorate your tree atheiststyle. Plus The Royal Institution's ChristmasLectures this year return with experimental psychologist ProfBruce Hood who is delivering a three part series called Meet Your Brain. Personally I'm hoping for at least one mention of zombies…

Oh and if you're still looking for Christmas presents, shame on you. Butthe Brain Pickings 11 Best Sciencebooks might be a good pick, alternatively a DVD box-set of TVseries The Big Bang Theory if you want to get youngsters into physics,according to this article in the Observer. But you might want to stay away from candles (burning ones might cause cancer) or crying baby ringtones which havebeen claimed boost breast size.

Enough about Christmas though. Apparently the Large Hadron Collider hasfinally proven useful by finding Brian Cox's car keys. And if you don't know what the LHC and its efforts to find the Higgs boson areabout, then this article in New Scientist mightbe of some interest. It's, like, something to do with physics and ourexistence or summat. But even if the Higgs Boson isn't found that'sa-okay according to Jon Butterworth at theGuardian.

You can't help but have heard about the whole #Burzynski and his antieoplastinsas a "cancer cure". British media, including the BBC, the Observer and most latest the London Evening Standard (whoat least have a sentence alluding to criticism about the clinic), have beenpromoting fundraising efforts by British patients to get to the clinic in theUS, despite wide-spread criticism from skeptics, scientists and CancerResearch. In fact there's a whole heap of skeptical blogposts on theBurzynski Clinic and its favourable media coverage from Quackometer, TwentyFirstFloor, Ministry of Truth andthe Science-Based medicine blog andare knocking about and worth a read. The Nature has alsocovered how the press might be under pressure in regards to scientificignorance in British press too.

Speaking of alternative and complementary medicines (CAM for short), the British Acupuncture Council haveprovided an info pack on how they might be able to set up NHS acupunctureservices. Quite why you'd lay out your arguments for theopposing side to rip to pieces is beyond me, but its worth a look. There's a fairly interesting Freedom of Information request about current useof acupuncture in the NHS in there. Seems the local PCTs (B'ham East andNorth, Heart of Birmingham, but not South Birmingham) use acupuncture, but mostinteresting are the barriers to use with evidence being cited quite alot. Although Quackometer did blog to warn aboutthis as a possibility back in 2010.

UK Skeptics have also stumbled across the Spirit Release Foundation who talk aboutspirit attachment (although really it's just their guidance that the website isbest viewed in MS Explorer 5 or better that pains me). And over in the USthe Chicago Tribune reports on the troubled study at heart of therapydebate.

And whilst most of the skeptical community would like to see strongerregulation of CAM, a recent beheading of a women inSaudi Arabia for 'sorcery' as religious police said she trickedpeople into claiming she could treat illnesses is really not the way to go.

It can't have escaped your notice that it's nearly the end of the year, which ofcourse means it's time to get voting for The Skeptic Magazine's Skeptic Awards 2011. There are fivecategories this year including best podcast and blog, with the awards ceremonybeing held at QED in March. There doesn't seem to be a closing date onthe website for nominations, but better get voting sooner rather thanlater. If you're stuck for a podcast, might we remind you to glance rightat that box a few inches down…

And to round off a humorous and definitely not safe-for-work video from ZOMGGitsCriss on why she is notagnostic-athiest and why atheism and agnosticism aren't thesame thing.

Here at Brum Skeptics we like any excuse for a knees up, so godless or not we'dlike to wish you happy holidays and see you all next year for "A Sceptical View of Atheism."

This week's round up was compiled by Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub organiser Laura Creavan

Weekly Roundup week ending 11/12/2011

2011-12-11T22:14:00.001Z

Hello and welcome to the Birmingham Skeptics weekly roundupof the good, the bad and the sometimes ridiculous from the world of science andskepticism. We had our last meet of the year this week with David Allen Greenand it was great to get chance to chat to people at the end. Make sure you checkour website and join the Facebook group to keep up with all upcoming events andsocials.

Time for business, we’ll kick off with an excellent bit ofparadolia as the Mail brings us this wonderfully creepy image from beneath theground. Sticking with fantastic images over at the Friendly Atheist we havesome controversy as the combination of the Bible, Lego and explicit sex scenes(albeit with no genitals) proves too much for some retailers.

A nice post here looking at the correlation between religiosity and the declineof science literacy in the States. In a similar vein the Turkish government feelthat the young need protecting from Darwin and evolution.

I’ll insert a quick and shameless plug for our latest podcast here. This one has a bit of swearingin it but it’s a good one. You can stream it here or find the iTunes details here. It’s me interviewing a couple of skeptical podcasters from America and it’slively and funny. Look out for upcoming podcasts, the next one will have Becs O’Neillthe Skeprechaun.

A serious and sad article from the Observer next, although it’s a story and themelong covered by Private Eye, so let’s tip a hat to them. It’s the case ofCarole Myers who died amidst claims that she had suffered satanic abuse at the handsof her parents. Chris French features in here and anyone who saw him at the talkhe gave at the Brum Skeptics will know his interest and scepticism aboutrecovered memories.

We’ve just passed the anniversary of the death of John Lennon. I can’t believeit was 31 years ago! This blog marks that sad event but finishes on an upbeatnote that’s worth a read by those involved in skepticism.

Another well known speaker on the skeptics circuit had an article out thisweek. Nick Pope writes about unexplained structures, aliens and conspiracieswith some great photos.

If you weren’t already excited enough about theupcoming QED conference in March, they’ve just announced that there will be a skeptical award ceremony there. Even if you can’t make it to the event you can still tryto ensure that your favourite skeptical endeavours receive the reward and recognitionthat they deserve.

And finally a video. It’s not particularly skeptical but I love octopuses and I’veput this together so you’re going to have to put up with it. Besides,it is very very cool. Give them a few million more years of evolution and theymight be moving into a neighbourhood near you. That is how it works right? Just enjoy the video and don't worry whether it's octopuses, octopi or octopodes, it's an eight legged wonder!

This week's roundup was put together by Patrick Redmond (@paddyrex)

Birmingham Skeptics Weekly Round-up: w/e 04.12.11

2011-12-04T10:04:00.001Z

We’ve rounded up a big round thing again this week for you nice people at Birmingham Skeptics; and with a surplus of great links stewing in the skeptic pot from November’s cultic milieu we’ve decided to roll them all up into nice little bite-size chunks for your digestion.

There’s a lot to get through, here’s the first of our offerings..

In a classic example of medieval thinking, a Chinese firm has decided Scorpios and Virgos are too moody and critical, telling job seekers with those star signs they need not apply. Capricorns, Pisces and Libras, on the other hand, are welcome.

Charlatans and quacks beware - Joe_Schwarcz has an extra $5.5 million to help put you out of business. Joe gets right down to the task at hand; Pyramid Mat, Homeopathy, Have the fruit and some cynicism, Case to keep chemical soup in baby's soap are great places to get acquainted with Mr Schwarcz.

100 years before STORM; here’s a skeptical ditty on homeopathy penned by William Crosswell Doane, the first Episcopalian Bishop of Albany (1832-1913):-

“Stir the mixture well Lest it prove inferior, Then put half a drop Into Lake Superior.
Every other day Take a drop in water, You’ll be better soon Or at least you oughter.”

There’s nothing about spinning on dimes in there, however, it’s good for a bit of a chuckle.

From the World Wildlife Fund: In India use of owls in black magic and sorcery driven by superstition, totems and taboos is one of the prime drivers of the covert owl trade.

Over to Eastern Indonesia for this disturbing link: Doctors pull 28 nails from girl's body.

In Australia: Parents who do not have their children fully immunized will be stripped of family tax benefits under a scheme announced by the Federal Government. Yes ABC News, that picture in the article really helps.

Kate Smurthwaite and the unmoderated site comments that followed her appearance on the religious debate show The Big Questions: My Atheist Bitchslap and the Internet.

Robot wardens are about to join the ranks of South Korea's prison service. A jail in the eastern city of Pohang plans to run a month-long trial with three of the automatons in March; probably a bit too late to be saying this then.

A Swedish man has demanded that local officials in Dalarna in central Sweden create a “radiation-free zone” to protect his health that may leave half the county without mobile phone coverage.

You should all by now be familiar with William of Ockham’s law of parsimony, so here’s a surprising first: From The Rogues Gallery- Skepticism courtesy of the Daily Mail...Seriously , to a bit of wishful thinking over at Short and Spiky.

As this was covered quite extensively by Chris in last week’s round up, here’s a mini round-up of the Burzynski Clinic’s more recent shenanigans: Should you invest in Burzynski stock? , Orac, Blaghag takes a look at the Burzynski Clinic's publications, white coat underground, Skeptic Park 4 and Token Skeptic Podcast with Andy Lewis, and there are so many, many more.

One of the sites we frequently visit is that of Psychologist Bruce Hood, you may have seen him alongside Robin Ince and Brian Cox on the Bristol leg of the Uncaged Monkeys tour. The good news is that Bruce is currently preparing to present this year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, the subject of which is The Brain; finally, one Brucey thing I’ll be looking forward to watching over this festive period. If the TV gets too much you could always dive into Bruce’s rather excellent book Supersense – add it to your Christmas reading list right now.

Many ghost hunters believe that strong support for the existence of ghosts can be found in modern physics. Specifically, that Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientific minds of all time, offered a scientific basis for the reality of ghosts.

You may remember way back in March we had Matt Lodder visit us with his talk ‘A Skeptical Look at Media Perceptions of Tattooing in the West’. For those of you who have both an interest in science and a nagging urge to get inked, here’s a book by Carl Zimmer that may inspire you to have your passion immortalized somewhere on your bod.

Well this is just great, an excellent site combining comics and commentary – Sci-ence. Here’s a taster: A list of red flags to help you identify a pseudoscience or quack modality. Dive in, swim around a bit, enjoy. This nicely leads into…

Quantum Chiropractor, Deepak Chopra, not content with abusing physics, has now got his foot in the door of the games industry with his XBox 360 Chakra balancing game Leela, and is making a move on your third eye. (GET BACK CHOPRA!) "I think the way technology is moving right now, we could probably, with a little deeper understanding, accelerate the evolution of the human brain within a few months [to equal] what might take hundreds of years of biological evolution” says Deepak. Orac refuses to go Ommm.

Lateral thinking is the catch of the day for Canadian grad student Chris Charles: Lucky fish reduces anaemia in Cambodian village.

From NAIROBI, Kenya: A typical prize for a children’s contest might be a backpack, a lunchbox or maybe some toys. Not in Somalia.

The Prince of Wales refuses to accept the failings of alternative medicine despite compelling evidence that it provides little benefit to patients because he is 'ideologically fixated', one of Britain's leading science writers warned.

Turbo Snort - exactly what I did when I read this article on the world’s first caffeine infused homeopathic high performance brain cocktail nasal spray.

Did you know that the internet weighs the same as a strawberry, or an egg? Or that 4GB of Kindle books weigh the same as a small virus?

From CNN: Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says schools should teach children about evolution and intelligent design because “the best thing to do is to allow all scientific facts on the table.” The I.D bubble has burst according to Science Blogs.

Truth and lies: Conspiracy theories are running rampant thanks to modern technology.
Government cover-ups, faked dictator deaths, secret messages in the Wingdings font...Nick Harding from The Independent reports on a mental contagion.

Shaun Ryder to hunt aliens on TV: The Happy Mondays singer has signed up to front a History Channel series; might be worth watching if Gillian McKeith was co-presenting.

There seems to be a trend developing here where we bring things to a close with a video of something popular, scientifically exceptional or just downright quirky; this week is no exception. Here’s 'Brinicle' from the BBC’s Frozen Planet series. If that’s not enough how about the Starfish inspired Soft robot walking and crawling from Harvard?

That’s it for this round-up. Don’t forget to join us for our final festive meet up on THURSDAY 8th December at 7.30pm where David Allen Green will be joining us to talk about Birmingham and free thought from Joseph Priestly onwards.

This week’s round-up was compiled by Roy Beddowes.

Would you kick a dying man?

2011-11-29T16:05:00.001Z

The skeptical community is buzzing with news and views on the Burzynski Clinic with many well known bloggers rightfully lining up to deplore their bullying tactics and lack of evidence. It's a scientific battle though in which most of us are not always directly touched but there are those that are. Those claiming to heal cancer will happily parade hopeful people willing to give testimony on their behalf so it's worth stopping to listen to the other side. Below is an introduction by one of Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub's regular attendees with a link to her blog about her family's experience. Please take the time to look through it.

"When sceptics challenge cancer quackery they are often accused of robbing people of their hope. Sceptics are made to feel mean for taking away the ‘last chance’ of a dying person, as if they don’t want to see the dying person recover. This is my blog where I talk about my dad who is dying of cancer and the harm that is being done to him and my family by this cancer quackery. Much of the cancer quackery he has encountered is from individuals who are using their status as doctors or nurses to advertise their businesses yet they are selling treatments that are outside of the medical establishment. I find it upsetting that my mum will say ‘well she is a nurse so it’s not quackery’ when describing the herbal supplements and remedies she is getting for my dad, if these people feel so strongly that the ‘establishment’ is wrong they should not use it to add legitimacy to what they do."

Would you kick a dying man?

Weekly round-up w/e 27/11/11

2011-11-27T09:16:00.001Z

Welcome to this week's round-up. First up, we are looking forward to hosting, David Allen Green, Lawyer, Blogger as Jack of Kent, Legal correspondent of New Statesman, media correspondent of The Lawyer, convenor of Westminster Skeptics, Brummie and Villa fan on Thursday 8th December (yes Thursday) who will be taking time out from his obviously empty schedule to talk on Birmingham and free thought - from Joseph Priestley onwards. Things kick off at 7.30pm at The Vic with drinkies and chat before, during and after so get yourself along. This is our last meet until the New Year when we will return to Wednesdays (and not Thursdays).

A lot has come up this week, some silly, some foolish and some plain vile but as always there's fun to be had along the way.

First up,
here's a wonderful little interactive thingamabob created by Colin Jenkins showing in stark detail the workings of herd immunity and the dangers of antivaxxers. Have a play, it's fun.

Less fun is the seeming eagerness for politicians to get their name and/or faces seen in inappropriate places. This week has seen Andrew Lansley appearing on hospital TVs every few minutes telling patients that their care really matters to him and the Department for Education has announced that a copy of the King James Bible will be sent to every school in the country with a foreward lovingly crafted by The Secretary of Education, The Rt Hon Michael Gove. Quite why someone would wish to be connected with a book in which genocide is fine and dandy but incest isn't and which gives you the rules for enslaving immigrants or selling your daughters is anyone's guess. The six-figure cost will be met by the taxpayer of course but as the DfE says the “bible continues to shape our culture” so that's alright then.

The Secretary of Education has also come under fire from chef and school dinners' campaigner Jamie Oliver because academy schools are not obliged to follow the basic nutritional standards for the food they serve to their pupils.

Meanwhile, in the machinery that is Westminster there is a petition requesting that the country's education system should teach Evolution not creationism. Should you need to make up your mind whether to sign or not, you would do worse than to review the arguments for and against as shown on Channel 4 this week (probably UK only, sorry). Both clips are about 1m50s long and may make you laugh for entirely different reasons.

You can also find an Early Day Motion from Keith Vaz. I'll merely draw your attention to the Amendment beneath it from Tom Watson.

A quick zip round a bit more religion now, as the Synagogue Church of All Nations has been found to have been advising HIV+ patients to stop taking their medication which has reportedly led to 6 deaths (so far). Video here from Sky. Meanwhile a village vicar has been told he has no legal redress against his employer due to alleged bullying by his parishioners. Apparently he's not employed by the church but by their invisible (or is that indivisible) friend, and you can't sue sky fairies. Who knew?

Elsewhere the National Secular Society is preparing for their test case on whether said deity should be implored prior to each Council meeting to ensure that Councillors don't make silly decisions, and the Girl Guides may be set to drop religious references in the Girl Guide 'Promise'. Judging by the comments under that Telegraph piece they may need some support. Sigh. Here's the petition.

A bit of the joy of stats now, as we find one of our previous speakers Matt Parker, writing in the Guardian, on a Facebook stats announcement. Needless to say Facebook is found wanting and Matt does a big “maths” on their parade. Also this week Fullfacts.org threw cold water on the evergreen standard news-pieces that do the rounds on the release of excess winter deaths figures.

The world of Alternative Medicine has been dominated this week by one issue, but before that, some great news as Power Balance LLC. the makers of a holographic “energy” bracelet, have been forced into bankruptcy by some great work not least by Australian Skeptics. Sadly, as I write, there still seem to be plenty on the market.

You may have heard this week of someone called Dr Burzynski. He first appeared on our radar via Keir Liddle at the 21st Floor, however at the weekend the good Doctor became a focus of attention when the Observer published a heart-rending story of Billie Bainbridge, a four year old girl with an inoperable brain tumour. A clinic in America had raised hope of a cure and the family and with the help of acquaintances including Peter Kay and Badly Drawn Boy were holding concerts to raise money for a trip to the States. They were asked and they, and many more, gave of their time and their property towards this aim. Who wouldn't.

The problem arises in that the “pioneering treatment” of which the Observer speaks has not been subjected to a scientifically rigorous peer review process and Dr Burzynski has been accepting sick people onto trials he has been running for up to 30 years. His fees for accepting people onto such trials are currently reported to be up to 6 figure sums. The Observer suggested £200,000 needed to be raised.

Another of our former speakers, Andy Lewis (@lecanardnoir), who runs the Quackometer website, blogged this piece detailing his concerns over the situation and unfortunately swiftly felt the need to pen another. The follow-up detailed the legal threats he had received from someone claiming to legally represent the Burzynski Clinic and threatened his family including his unborn child along the way. This person also asserts that “the rest of you Skeptics [sic] days are numbered”.

Needless to say this didn't go down well and thanks to the Streisand Effect these events have been blogged widely on both Alternative Medicine issues and Libel Chill/Reform, and on at least three continents (so far).

A fuller overview can be found here, written by Josephine Jones and SitP speaker Kat Arney has blogged from the Cancer Research Uk website amongst many others as listed here and here.

A petition to have the work of te Burzynski Clinic brought into the public domain can be found via this blog. In the interests of balance you can view Dr Burzynski's movie here but I should warn you not to read the critique on that page as it may be... well... a tad negative.

We can only wish the family well.

On a lighter note in the middle of this furore Andy both managed to find out that the General Regulatory Council for Complementary Therapies appear to be sticking two fingers up at the ASA and, more importantly, did indeed become a father again. She is the prettiest thing you'll see.

That is unless you're a parent as I am, as we all know our kid is the best.

Or indeed as Robin Ince thinks as he explains in his long awaited TED talk.

Stop press. Another threat from Burzynski's 'representative'.

As it's almost nowhere near Christmas, I'll leave you with a new animated version of Tim Minchin's “White Wine in the Sun”.

This week's Round-up was put together by Chris Richardson (@christheneck)

Weekly round-up w/e 20/11/11

2011-11-20T11:15:00.001Z

Welcome one and all to this week’s round-up. Not much to say up here except to remind you all that next month's talk by David Allen Green will be on Thursday 8th December and not on the usual 2nd Wednesday of the month like you’ve come to expect. There’s some festival of the Church of Consumerism on later that month and as a result people like to have something called fun in the lead up to it meaning our pub is booked up. Some people even like to start celebrating months in advance, not much else on I suppose. Anyway, we’re back to normal in January.

I was talking to this bloke the other week, he said
he bought the Daily Express because it was anti-EU and so was he. I asked how he knew he was against the EU if he only read arguments against the EU. I needn’t have worried, he reassured me that the Daily Express offer both sides of the argument just like they did with their story “EU SAYS WATER IS NOT HEALTHY”. Martin Robbins checks that the evidence for this is water-tight.

Another Express narrative, ‘the nanny state’ reared it’s head again this week when the British Medical Association (BMA) called for a ban on smoking in cars. The story started looking shaky when the BMA revised their headline grabbing statistics. But what about the rest of the evidence? Normally distributed takes a look behind the smokescreen.

Measles sweeps through Brighton and Hove. In response to this story, the mother of a boy that wasn’t vaccinated and nearly died of mumps urges parents to get their children vaccinated.

I suppose like many atheists, you’ve had the old ‘atheism is a religion and Dawkins is the pope” from unimaginative people regurgitating an unimaginative opinion like it was some astounding original observation that they were unleashing upon the world. Well, this opinion piece by Benjamin O’Donnell that suggests the “new atheists” aren’t anti-religion but anti-dogma is rather good.

Competition time! Sceptics Vs Believers dowsing challenge. Archaeological dowsers, those who claim to be able to locate archaeological features from maps, along with sceptics have been offered the chance by to find archaeological remains from their armchair in a challenge by The Megalithic Portal.

Boots the chemist got their arse kicked recently for listing medical conditions on their in-store homeopathic displays. They’re not the only people doing it though. If you want to help stop other shops doing the same, here’s what you can do.

“Those who want power without responsibility don’t respond well to scrutiny” says the opening line to next month’s Birmingham Skeptics speaker David Allen Green’s latest blog post. In it, he posits a new ‘law’, Jack of Kent’s law concerning the cries of witch-hunt we usually hear from people under sustained scrutiny. Here’s Dave the Happy Singer’s take on the ‘law’. (Remember, David’s talk in December is on Thursday the 8th. We’ll be back to our usual format of 2nd Wednesday of the month from January).

I would imagine it won’t be long until Nadine Dorries MP invokes Jack of Kent’s law if she hasn’t already after this compelling series of blog posts by Tim Ireland entitled ‘The MP who cried wolf’. I can’t recommend this highly enough. It has MPs, alleged fraud, alleged burglary, journalists, smearing, false allegations, Carter-Ruck, lobbyists, cover-ups.

Neutrinos are still faster than light say new results from CERN.

Jaw dropping time-lapse footage from the International Space Station (ISS) of Earth as it passes over.

Brilliant, Prince Phillip is into his UFOs and here’s me thinking he wasn’t a fan of people from other places. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised about the Royal Family’s interest, after-all Prince Philip’s (and the Queen’s, incest fans) great-great-grandmother was Queen Victoria, and we all know she established Torchwood.

The science of sarcasm is giving us insight into how the mind really works as research into how we separate sincerity from sarcasm takes place. The temptation now is to make some sarcastic remark about the article, what an hilarious thing to do that would be.

According to The Telegraph, the BBC drops climate change episode of Frozen Planet to enable it to sell better abroad. However, with all stories in the right-wing press about the BBC, it's probably not as close to the truth as you'd hope, see a BBC clarification here.

Run, Jedi Squirrels are coming!

Don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but our next talk is on Thursday 8th December and not the 2nd Wednesday of the month as per usual.

This week’s round-up was put together by Paul Bryant (@thebigyeti).

The Weekly Round Up Week Ending 13/11/2011

2011-11-14T09:23:00.001Z

It's time for another round up and what a week. Firstly we've had the numeric palindrome day, 11/11/11, which has apparently seem a rush for caesarean section deliveries according to the Hindustan Times. Whether this is the case or not, the 11/11/11 babies frenzy seems to have eclipsed last year's 10/10/10 babies, and no doubt they'll be more of the same for the 12/12/12 babies next year. Given that this month's talk was about newspapers and the PR industry we might suggest that this is all just an excuse for a photo op of cute babies in the paper. Cynical, us?

This week also includes Remembrance Sunday. By now you've probably heard all about the white poppies as an alternative to the red poppy. But did you hear the British Humanist Association's chief executive, Andrew Cospon, has expressed his disappointment in the group's exclusion and called for humanists to be included amongst representatives laying wreaths at the Cenotaph commemorations in London? Humanist representatives have been officially included in similar services in Edinburgh and Belfast since last year.

It's also getting into flu season and your friendly local NHS service will be advertising flu jabs to at-risk groups. But if a flu jab isn't up your street then maybe an alternative medicine iPhone app is the way to go. Although why you need an app to tell you how to breathe is beyond us. But it's okay, now you can bulk buy your homeopathy!

PZ Myers throws down with Deepak Chopra about his article on The Trouble With Genes and Edzard Ernst's writes in a Guardian article that alternative medicine is endangering patients. But if you like your medical information to come from the world of celebrity instead of biology professors and doctors, then maybe Chuck Norris's article on childhood vaccinations in the US is the way to go. No, we don't know when Mr Norris got his medical degree either.

More on the medical front as the National Geographic claims that new research suggests that using your mobile phone might actually fight Alzheimer's - although the study used mice and the scientists cautioned it was not a perfect replication in humans.

And some more myths about the mind are busted in this BBC article as part of their Radio 4 Brain Season.

But if you fancy something a bit lighter, Erik Davis looks into the Screaming Man in the scan phenomena, suggesting that maybe this is just a case of pareidolia (bet'cha you don't know what that is).

You thought Project Champion's CCTV in Birmingham and NOTW phone hacking was bad, well maybe God should be the one to worry about illegal monitoring says UK spoof news and satire site, News Thump.

And if all that reading is a bit much for you, check out this YouTube video showcasing Japanese company Neurowave's communication tool for humans; cat ears. The company claim they have brainwave sensors that can read the wearers emotions and react accordingly…and are apparently the latest fashion accessory in Japan.

And finally, two guys and a jigsaw and nothing more.

This week's round up was compiled by Laura Creaven

Weekly Round-up w/e 06/11/2011

2011-11-06T22:20:00.001Z

So what’sbeen happening around the world of skepticism and science over the last sevendays then? I suppose there is only one place to start and that’s with thetesting (or not testing) of Psychic Sally. This generated a bit of discussion amongst skeptics and Kylie Sturgess gives a great overview of this and links to themain protagonist posts on her blog Token Skeptic

Ben Goldacre is taking a break from the Guardian to finish his book. Hesummarises his learning from the last eight years of interactions with nonsensein this concise final article for a while.

You can find a Facebook group for most everything these days, even the sharingof contagions via Pox Packages. More madness from the distrusters of vaccination.

It might seem a bit early but for busy parents such as myself tips on Christmaspresents for the kids are always useful. Here’s a corker from Daniel Florienover at Unreasonable Faith.

I get a kick out of big science experiments and there aren’t many that come muchbigger than this one, a laser that could tear apart the fabric of space!

We’ve written before on this very blog about the satirising and depiction of Mohammed and Islam. It’s always a controversial area and there are still peoplethat respond with violence and intimidation.

Sex and ghosts over at the Huffington Post. Here is a fine example ofnon-skeptical reporting and researching of the paranormal.

Up until the end of November you can access the Scientific American archive forbetween the years 1845-1909 . It’s an incredible resource with documentspresented in their original format but still fully searchable. There are around75,000 articles for your amusement with some real gems hidden within. Use them quick as they start to charge onNovember 30^th.

I’m sure I’ve seen it etched in stone somewhere that “Thou Shalt Not Defy theLaw of Thermodynamics.” It doesn’t stop people trying though as Cold Fusion pops up once again.

Finally don’t forget it’s the excellent Michael Marshall this Wednesday withhis talk on Bad News – How PR came to rule modern journalism.

This week’s round-up was compiled byPatrick Redmond (@paddyrex)

Weekly Round-up weekending 30/10/11

2011-10-30T09:27:00.000Z

It’s weekly round–up time again for you lovely folks at Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub, and it’s another double helping; so welcome, welcome to the Halloween link fest, or as Frank-N-Furter would say “So come up to the lab and see what’s on the slab. I see you shiver with antici…pation.”

Let’s start off with a brain-picking story from the US: Psychic James Van Praagh claims to be able to talk to the deceased but gives zombies the silent treatment. Go team Randi.

Well would you look at this? Our favourite headphone tester, Psychic Sally, is appearing at the Alexandra Theatre next June, right next door to our Skeptics venue, and on the second Wednesday of the month to boot. How should we celebrate this momentous occasion? Suggestions welcome.

From the Daily Mash: Psychics censoring our abusive messages, say dead people.

On the same theme, and it’s quite a mouthful: Simon Singh suffers a session of the Psychic Sally show. I do like this point he makes; One hundred complaints to Trading Standards Offices around the country (or perhaps one office in particular) would probably persuade the regulators to look into this.

From a Yale University study: Women can expedite or delay spontaneous births, within a limited time frame, in response to cultural representations. Here’s the question: Are pregnant women refusing to give birth on Halloween? Nice witchy symbol on the graph X-axis too.

Turning rattling chains into art? Yeong-Deok Seo.

Edinburgh's Spiritualists have a new home and some bold claims. “About eight out of ten cases reported to us are genuine – something that you can’t put down to the fact that someone else is causing it or can be rationally explained.”

Some shameless milking (!) of a weak story here: Casper the friendly ghost appears in Cardiff coffee.

Two words we don’t usually see together: werewolf cathedral. Investigate further and you will also see werewolf radio. Have a listen; unleash your inner beast in this highly secret society! Go to their easy to find website now. Werewolf? There, Wolf.

Sky confirms "shining moon" behind Frankenstein: A Texas astronomer has used science to confirm one of the most famous tales in western literature, the "bright and shining moon" over Lake Geneva that inspired an 18-year-old Mary Shelley to write “Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus."

Fear is one of the most universally understood human emotions, yet the neural underpinnings of fear remain something of a mystery: How Scientists discovered the 'fear centre' of the brain.

Scientists who have spent their careers studying the behaviours of liquids are putting forensic techniques to the test: Halloween science: The bleeding edge of forensics.

Boosting mental performance with fish oil? Whoa! Slow down there. Didn’t you see the question mark? Let’s tease out the actual result of this study. Contrary to popular belief, these results suggest that taking omega-3 or fish oil supplements may not have an immediate or measurable impact on mental performance in healthy young adults; and relax.

Two local science stories this week: In a survey of 3000 people, launched at the start of National Science and Engineering Week, Birmingham Science City aimed to see just how blurred the lines between science and fiction really are. Also, Edgbaston school pupil wins national science award. Well done we say.

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Ben Goldacre recommends a book.

More free here: Here be dragons is a free-to-download 40 minute video introduction to critical thinking written and presented by Brian Dunning, host and producer of the Skeptoid Podcast.

The future will be digitised. (Sorry Gil): South Korea, one of the world's highest-rated education systems, aims to consolidate its position by digitising its entire curriculum.

Former Church of Scientology executive Marty Rathbun has been spilling the beans on the religious sect's detailed surveillance of the Emmy-winning 'South Park' creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

Well I quite like the sentiment behind this story, sending Reiki to everyone that has been negatively treated by the church throughout time, but really… “Imagine the healing energy going across time and space causing healing to everyone’s DNA.” Oh, please! More on Reiki can be found at Orac.

Baseball players extol the virtues of Powerband's bigger, thicker, brother: Here’s the woo behind it. Featuring Phiten's exclusive Aqua-Titanium technology, this product helps to promote stable energy flow throughout the body. The benefits of this are longer lasting energy, less fatigue, shortened recovery time and more relaxed muscles.

Things that make you go ooh! In a highly impressive video courtesy of the Association of Science-Technology Centers, Tel-Aviv University demos quantum superconductors locked in a magnetic field: Quantum Levitation.

Ooh No.2. Microsoft’s Kinect based Augmented Reality 3D HoloDesk Lets You Play With Balls In Real Time: Well, if you must.

Recent Human Evolution Detected in Quebec Town History: According to University of Quebec geneticists, other possible explanations, such as changing cultural or environmental influences, don’t fit. The changes appear to reflect biological evolution.

Got any gallbladder or gynaecologic procedures on the horizon? Then make sure your surgeon has a regular 3 to 4 hours a week of gaming under his belt: Why your surgeon should be a gamer.

Stereotypes challenged: Bestiality saddled with the wrong image.

Cat Physics: Even falling and skulking cats obey the laws of physics, research shows.

BBC criticised by deaf groups over computer generated subtitling errors: The Arch 'what' of canterbury? Leave it alone, I say.

Not long now until our next Sitp meet on November 9th where we have Michael Marshall: Bad News, How PR came to rule modern journalism. Go to our Facebook page and tell us if you’re going to be there.

This week's round-up was compiled by Roy Beddowes

Podcasts, Communicators and Coventry Skeptics

2011-10-18T16:08:00.001+01:00

A Blog Post by Patrick Redmond

This blog post is a shameless plug for theBirmingham Skeptics Podcast. I try to feature a range of people and subjects onthe podcast from authors and scientists to some of the interesting people thatI meet at the events that I go to. You don’t have to have a book out or atelevision series to have something worth hearing.

A case in point is Lucy Harper who I talk to onthe latest podcast. A scientist turned science communicator, working for the Society for Applied Microbiology, who, when her busylife allows, comes along to Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub. She works withscientists the world over helping them to talk to each other and to talk to us.Increasingly, groups like ours show that the divide between the white coated eliteand the masses is narrowing as our public appreciation of science grows, andperhaps conversely as science’s appreciation for the public also increases.

You’ll find that interview sandwiched between some rather random sounding shortinterviews I did at Coventry Skeptics in the Pub inaugural talk with AndyLewis. I couldn’t get hold of Andy who was on a tight schedule with his trainbut his talk was brilliant. I’d had a few beers and the people I suddenlythrust a microphone at and asked to speak were a bit startled and shellshocked, but I think the sense of fun and excitement from the night comesacross. If you live anywhere near to Coventry please support them, a greatbunch of people and a great night out.

I’m not sure how many people listen to the podcasts and I’m hopeless atpromoting them. I can’t do one every week as family and life are just too busybut they will keep coming. So please listen to them, let me know any thoughtsyou have and you can get the full back catalogue here and subscribe and get thelast twelve from iTunes here.

Thanks

Patrick Redmond (@paddyrex) - Born in Stoke and moved the vast distance to live in Birmingham. He is one of the organisers of Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub.

Weekly Round-up w/e 16/10/11

2011-10-16T21:00:00.000+01:00

The Weekly Round up is here and we’ve cast our net wide again, with past and present links featuring some big fish, little tiddlers, and some, quite frankly, we should have thrown back in as we ought to know better.

Let’s start with a fishy story that’s still causing a bit of a niff.

Simon Singh explains why he hopes psychic sally will take up an offer to demonstrate her powers in a test.

Also: Psychic Sally to sue someone – maybe. It’s all a bit vague.

In a completely non-psychic related story: The illusory three-faced cow.

Almost everyone is familiar with some version of the following maxim: you're more likely to die in an accident on the way to the airport than you are in a plane crash: From Discovery Magazine.

Internet time guide scotched by astrology firm: A database that many Unix-like computer systems use to provide an authoritative source for time zone and daylight-savings data has been taken offline by a lawsuit from an astrology software company alleging copyright infringement.

Man drinks colloidal silver as home remedy – turns blue. Also at Science Blogs.

From IBM's Emerging Technologies lab in Winchester: Real life Jedi

Fifty years on, Psychedelic research returns: Can the mystical states of mind occasioned by psychedelic drugs help alleviate anxiety and depression in people with terminal and recurrent cancer?

165 million years ago in Peterborough, England: GRAAAR, I don't remember eating those! -Regurgitalites.

Nigerians reassured over killer phone numbers: Nigeria's authorities have been forced to reassure the public that a mobile phone number cannot kill, after rumours were spread by text messages.

Iszi Lawrence: pimp-my-book

It now appears that on top of all of the other potentially catastrophic, costly, damaging, or dangerous impacts of human-caused climate change, there is a very serious risk that it will threaten the production of chocolate: the final chocolate straw.

A Japanese company has developed a miniature version of Noah's ark in case Japan is hit by another massive earthquake and tsunami: Japanese Noah’s ark disaster capsule.

What we learned from 5 million books: Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel show us how Google Labs Ngram Viewer works, and a few of the surprising things we can learn from 500 billion words. But what about the books?

Indonesians seek railway therapy: HO - meopathy!

Palaeontologists unearth Dino: dog fossils show early relationship with humans.

The Doctor and the pomegranate: Once a rare fruit requiring a complicated eating strategy, its derivatives are now stationed on every grocery shelf based on their promise of an antioxidant punch.

Lab-Grown Meat: Would you eat test tube burgers?

Over at Alter Net: Is_atheist_money_too_controversial_for_the_american_cancer_society?: The American Cancer Society may have turned down a potential half-million dollar donation because it came from a non-theistic organization.

What's on Jim Fallon's mind?: Neuroscientist who studies the biological basis of human behaviour finds a Psychopath in the family.

The Onion from, oh, ages ago, but worth resurrecting: Evolutionists flock to Darwin shaped wall stain.

Uk-releases-ufo-files: One of our previous speakers, Nick Pope, concedes there's still no written evidence confirming alien visits to Earth.

Continuing the UFO/Aliens theme: Is this all part of the great deception? 10 reasons why aliens are actually fallen angels demons.

South Park upsets ‘Age of Autism’ with a spoof on vaccine fears. What's up at South Park and CBS?

P Z Myers on Deepak Chopra's review of The Magic of Reality. : “It's largely an exercise in name-dropping and the profession of bleary, vacuous misinterpretations of science on his part, which he then turns around and uses to accuse Dawkins of error because he doesn't share his inoculation of the ideas with pseudoscience.”

In Minnesota: Evangelical biologists who question the existence of Adam and Eve asked to resign: "Evolution makes it pretty clear that in nature, and in the moral experience of human beings, there never was any such paradise to be lost" says Evangelical. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/npr.php?id=138957812

Not had enough reading yet? Then head on over to Austin Cline's excellent blog and the Top Books on Skepticism/ Critical Thinking and Logic review page. Post us your favourites if you have any after the links.

Don’t forget we have Michael Marshall at the Victoria on November 9th with ‘How PR came to rule modern journalism’. Let us know if you’re coming on our Sitp Facebook page.

This week's Round-up was put together by Birmingham Skeptics regular Roy Beddowes.

Weekly Round-up w/e 2nd October 2011

2011-10-02T09:28:00.000+01:00

It’s that time of the week once more and we’ve had our resident link elf scour the magical land of interwebs again so you don’t have to. Here’s what he’s gathered together plus some additional interesting articles from the archives you may have missed. So sit back, tune in; insert into your ear your Psychic Sally Earpiece of Denial, close that window, and make contact with the Birmingham Skeptics Weekly Round-up.

To successfully complete this week’s round up you will need a printer, a pair of scissors, some Pritt-Stick and a full set of fingers. Oh, and also a passport type photograph of yourself as we’re going to regress your physiognomy by 3.7million years.

With the academic year in full flow, what better way to start things off than with a few light revision aids:

In Psychology: Brainstem.

In Evolutionary Biology: Lisa Simpson - Skeptic.

In Art/Neuroscience: erm, Neuroscience as art..

In a convergence of Photography, Astronomy and Stir-fry: Christopher Jonassen: an investigation of worn out frying pans.

Did your Mom ever tell you not to scratch it or you’ll make it bleed? Here’s a fascinating and disturbing article From The New Yorker/ Annals of Medicine 2008: - The Power of The Itch. Resist if you can.

A new study by researchers at the University of Oslo investigates whether there is a connection between changing our minds and feelings of regret.

In Chemical Engineering: Of all the lab equipment available, the baldy man, is, by far, one of the finest accessories; comes in a range of handy sizes too for easy storage; the Van de Graaff generator is also pretty cool.

Yellow sea sponge maligned - maybe: SpongeBob (is ready) to, temporarily, consume your children's cognitive resources.

From the excellent TED conference series and also mentioned in Mark Stevenson’s recent Sitp talk: Richard Resnick shows how cheap and fast genome sequencing is about to turn health care (and insurance, and politics) upside down.

I’ll admit to a nostalgic fondness for the original series of Scooby Doo from way back in the 1970’s where all the mysteries had natural explanations and it was either the janitor or that creepy Old Man Cargill; however, I don’t recall this ever being an episode – The Case of the Haunted Scrotum. Here's the PubMed paper. Zoinks!

It's a cryo shame. Ginger swimmers shunned.

The Wizard of Oz is wicked: explained in the only way he knows how by Pastor David Grice.

Over at AOL Healthy Living: Individuals who overeat, over-consume and hoard may be poorly balanced spiritually. Get your Chakra’s Balanced at Bannantyne's for £46. Let me tell you where I am - I won’t be investing my grandchildren’s inheritance on some goofy spa treatment quackery – I’m out!

Detox: flushing out poison or absorbing dangerous claptrap? Edzard Ernst weighs in and asks, if this is something we can measure, where are the measurements?

A new book about evolution that couldn't get published in the United States has won a Canadian book award. Creationists demand to know why Daniel_Loxton's book doesn't give "equal time" to their point of view.

European Philosophers recreated as magical anime girls. Blimey, you can see Spinoza's pants!

Carl Sagan - Look at that dot...

This week we have a ‘Things to make and do’ section: Grab your tools and follow the link to weepaperpeople.blogspot where you can print off and assemble your very own Jon Ronson, Uncaged Monkeys and Tim Minchin from the expanding list of Skeptic types on offer. Here also are some figures for the junior skeptics in the family. Have your very own Sitp meeting, just not on the second Wednesday of the month.

In local news: Two of Birmingham's historic giants who led the 18th Century Industrial Revolution are to be featured on the new £50 note.

Facial hair is forbidden at unaccredited diploma mill - Scientology High. No bores in beards there then!

Frank Skinner - Atheists are as big a threat as climate denialists

Got a sludge dryer? – Poo flakes give you energy.

DNA is 100% foolproof and it doesn't lie. A Mother’s DNA doesn’t match her children’s even when tested in the delivery room; therefore, you are part lion, part goat, and part serpent.

Did - we – forget – to - mention - Psychic Sally - last – week? Go to 5:44 for the earpiece shot. (Tip o’ the hat to Jon Donnis for the video)

Rational groups are on the rise in India: Prabir Ghosh, son of late Prabhat Chandra Ghosh & late Suhasini Ghosh offers up a Randi type challenge to all supernatural and paranormal power holders.

I’m sure at some time you’ve all wondered what you would have looked like as a mouth-breathing Homo heidelbergensis. No? Then wander over to the Open University’s Darwin pages, upload your passport type picture and click devolve to find out.

Scientists go on trial over Laquila earthquake. A lawyer for one of the scientists said it is possible his client will be convicted.

An A to Z of scare stories: The Daily Mail's list of things that give you cancer.

Finally, three film recommendations for your Skeptic movie library: The Man from Earth – a low budget sci-fi from Jerome Bixby, Agora with Rachel Weisz – revolves around the story of the philosopher Hypatia and the Library of Alexandria, and Whatever Works - a Woody Allen film with Larry David.

Don’t forget the next Sitp event is on October 12th with Martin Poulter: How to Create Your Own Cult the Scientology Way. Let us know if you're coming or not on Facebook.

This week's round-up was compiled by Roy Beddowes.

Weekly Round-up w/e 25/09/11

2011-09-26T10:07:00.002+01:00

Hello and welcome to this week's weekly round-up. After last week's sterling effort by Roy, this one is only a brief one to try and keep you up to date with what's going on. Don't forget, this week we have Mark Stevenson coming to Birmingham to present his Optimist's Tour of the Future talk. If you've not already, get over to our Facebook page and click 'yes, I'm attending' on the event page. Only if you're coming though, click no if you're not. Anyway, here you go:

Can neutrons exceed the speed of light? If so, I will eat my boxer shorts on live TV.

First Irish case' of death by spontaneous combustion.

Double whammy gene therapy clears HIV from body.

As a world centre of fashion, if any country was going to introduce a dress code, then France would be it. As with all arbitrary laws such as this, the target is a minority.

Tearing pages from Bibles makes atheists ugly according to someone I’m not interested in. It may be just paper with words on it, but it’s needlessly provocative.

Sub-nuclear particles may move faster than light, who says homeopathy can’t work?

UC Berkeley Invents Mind Reading Machine Called 'Natural Movies'

Coronation Street are to have visitors from another planet as UFOs are spotted by a couple of the characters. You won’t find any Gail Platt ET jokes here.

Prescribing Jesus. Is it really appropriate for a doctor to offer Christianity as part of the treatment?

xkcd, topical as always: http://xkcd.com/955/

Newly set up Project Barnum has a nice looking website with some good resources and useful information on the sort of tricks used by psychics to con their customers. It also has a campaign to get theatres to stop booking psychics if you’re into that sort of thing. I quite liked the Magicians Vs Psychics poster.

This week's round-up was rounded-up by Paul Bryant (@thebigyeti)

Weekly Round-up w/e 18/09/2011

2011-09-17T15:43:00.000+01:00

Welcome once again to the Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub round up of internet things that are collected by us to amuse or bemuse; a smorgasbord of thoughts and ideas that you can take away and mull over for a while until the next interesting thing comes along to displace them.

This week’s blog is slightly different and it’s something we’ve been actively encouraging, a guest blog by a regular member of the Sitp audience; hi, my name is Roy, and I’ll be your skeptic sub-contractor this week right down to the end of this page. If you’re interested in contributing to any future blogs, including this one, please form an orderly queue behind me. Let’s begin - hardhats on.

I guess you’re still feeling a bit fragile after Wednesday’s incredible talk with Peter Harrison on The Science of Lucid Dreaming, so allow me to ease you slowly into the links with the most recent auto-tuned offering from the Symphony of Science - The Quantum World: A musical investigation into the nature of atoms and subatomic particles.

Picking up on a familiar face in the above video; based on the increasing number of students entering for Physics A Level, commentators are suggesting that there is now a new phenomenon called The Cox Effect, also here at The Bad Astronomer. That pesky Hadron Collider is photo-bombing everyone lately. Here it is again sneaking into shot behind popular satirist Chris Morris. We’re going to have to invent a Hadron repellent spray!

If you attend Skeptics on a regular basis you’ll have noticed that many of our audience members wear their Science heroes proudly emblazoned across their chests, myself included (a Darwin ichthys fish). Here’s some Controversy and Rock inspired T –shirt alternatives. I’m very tempted by the Teapot Tee based on Bertrand Russell's analogy.

A local story of interest is that, as part of the Great Read Initiative, Birmingham University has taken the step of buying 6,000 copies of Professor Mark Pallen’s excellent book The Rough Guide to Evolution and will be giving a copy to every new undergraduate student at the start of the academic year. Hurrah! And there will be talks. Outstanding! But the warehouse is now empty and the book could go out of print. Well we can’t have that. This is an important book and deserves to get back into circulation. Get tweeting people.

Wi-Fi is coming - Run, run for the hills

For a moment there I thought this was a picture of Miss Molly Slocombe from Are you Being Served.

News from Mumbai: The push to pass the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Evil Practices and Black Magic bill has not received unanimous support.

The Daily Mail is incredulous? We’re incredulous! The standard argument for crop circles is that they are too complex to have been created by humans. I’ll let Skeptobot take over from here “Every time someone makes this argument, I imagine them saying it whilst sitting in a giant metal wasp that was exploding 300million year old animal remains in order to spin 40cm blades fast enough to hover perfectly stationary in the air which allowed the photograph to be taken.” Cereologists – are we done yet?

It’s unlikely that you’ve missed this but Richard Dawkins has a new book out, aimed at a younger audience. I’d like to give you more information here and a first impression but Amazon has let me down on the delivery. If your copy turned up on time please let us have your initial views after the post.

Get your certificates here. Follow the link to begin your journey towards an online bachelor, masters, or doctorate degree. You can complete the entire program in seconds. http://thunderwoodcollege.com/ Ooh, there’s one for Feng Shui. I’ve recently experienced a dose of Feng in the UK workplace and it wasn’t pleasant. All I’ll say is that Post hoc ergo propter hoc carries no weight when confronted with the argument from authority; but that’s a story for another time.

Some of you, however, may feel inclined to study for one of these more unusual qualifications.

A week hasn’t gone by yet and Crispian Jago has been waving that soiled reason stick of his around again. Here he takes on performance enhancing prayer abuse. In case you haven’t noticed, last year’s excellent Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense is now gloriously interactive.

This is a first I think, a Skeptic blog with a maths question. Don’t worry; it’s only a bit of fun and just a tiny bit tasty. Complete the equation: If a pizza pie has a radius of z and a thickness of a, its volume is equal to ________. That’s Amoré.

Psychic Sally's audience can also hear the voices she hears. Wonder why they had to open a window?

Something to ponder on: Over at Geeks are Sexy they ask the question: What do you want to happen to your online personality once you're gone for good?

Cells could make it possible to improve reproduction and genetic diversity for some species, possibly saving them from extinction, or to bolster the health of endangered animals in captivity. And the animals went in by two according to The Scripps Research Institute.

Taking my cues from the Mark Pallen story, Baba Brinkman, the award winning Canadian rap artist (The Rap Guide to Evolution) has created a snappy (and free) mp3 with accompanying video called Off That (Rationalist Anthem) wrapped around a Jay Z track. The 4-minute video plays out like a heavily compressed Sitp night; Ben Goldacre and Simon Singh feature: Some NSFW lyrics.

On the subject of rappers.

From Scientific American: Seeing your life pass before you and the light at the end of the tunnel, can be explained by new research on abnormal functioning of dopamine and oxygen flow

Woo trinkets abound these days, what with the Powerband, Q-Link, and magnets for your man pants. Here's another one found on E-bay that claims to reduce acidity-based ailments. Pseudo-Accessorize coming to high street near you.

Calamities of Nature is another cartoon based website promoting science, philosophy, critical thinking and … bacon – click the link for my personal favourite or immerse yourself in their huge archive. Another splendid single pane cartoon that is pretty much guaranteed to make you smile is the Dino Ark One More Theory from http://bizarrocomic.blogspot.com. I liked this so much it’s now my Screensaver.

Psychic Sally told the audience members that feathers materialising is the sign a spirit is close by. What would she make of this I wonder? BBC News - Dinosaur Feather

Nobel prize-winner and Royal Society president Paul Nurse: Stamp out anti-science in US politics.

Here's a neat idea from Rebecca Watson at Skepchick: let’s start a fund for cryptozoologists to go on a basic photography course.

With Martin Poulter coming to Skeptics next month to talk about Scientology, here's this week's final link on the same topic – some of those naughty words again so cover up any little ears that may be listening. Enjoy.

Don’t forget, there’s a second helping of Skeptics this month with Mark Stevenson on the 28th with An Optimists Tour of the Future.

This week's round-up was compiled by Birmingham Skeptics regular Roy Beddowes.

Weekly Round-up w/e 04/09/2001

2011-09-04T00:07:00.001+01:00

Hi folks, welcome to the Birmingham Skeptics round-up ofthings that we’ve stumbled across and enjoyed over the last week or so. Thefirst piece is s bit of scientology news from the southern hemisphere. This isa new angle of attack and if it works out could prove very difficult for theseThetan clearing adherents. Don’t forget we’re looking forward to hearing Martin Poulter on Scientology in October

I make no apologies for including Orac for a second week running. Most of usknow the essentials of homeopathy and how it works. There is nothing in it andit doesn’t. But just when you thought therewas little more to read on the subject Orac comes up with a very amusing postabout something that is ridiculous by even homeopathic standards

You know how you wait ages for a bus and then two come along at the same time?Yes, it’s probably an example of confirmation bias but I promise I wasn’tlooking for this in particular when I came across not one but two postsinvolving Big Foot. The first is from a group of Minnesota skeptics who linkedto a video of somebody who firmly believes in the existence of the creature. It’sinteresting to then pop across to Brian Dunning at Skepticblog to see how hetakes apart the main arguments of the proponents.

Now I only came across this next item this morning via Greg Laden over at ScienceBlogs. TheNasa website has been responsible for losing many hours of time and I don’tthink that this is going to change much with the introduction of the ability toexplore the solar system from the comfort of my armchair. I found the controlsa little difficult at first but worth the time and effort to experiment and getto grips with them.

Crispian Jago has a wicked sense of humour and a creative bent to match. Checkout his endorsement of the Detox 2000 (Patent Pending) for proof of this.

Climate change has never been a controversial area has it? The Guardian reporton a remarkable geoengineering experiment looking to mitigate the effects ofglobal warning. Read the comments below and you’ll find a lively discussion onall aspects of this subject.

The final link is a shameless plug for my posting about meeting the Asian Rationalist Society of Britain and the great Narendra Nayak.

We’re always looking for guest bloggers on our site so if you haven’t blogged before and fancy a go, or you'rea regular blogger but would be willing to contribute your talents to our page,then please get in touch at birminghamskeptics@gmail.com,we’d love to hear from you.

This weeks round up was compiled by Patrick Redmond (paddyrex)

Skeptics in the Punjabi

2011-08-30T00:00:00.001+01:00

Dr Narendra Nayak

A Blog Post by Patrick Redmond

On Saturday I had the pleasure to meet Narendra Nayak. He is, amongst other things, the president of the Federation of Indian Rationalists. He was on a tour of the UK and had already met up with Skeptics in Glasgow and Edinburgh and was taking part in an event organised by the Asian Rationalist Society of Britain to promote critical thinking and encourage blood and organ donation amongst the Indian community. I went along for the end of the day and it was brilliant.

I slipped in at the back and watched an entertaining doctor present an excellent talk on quack remedies, the placebo effect and the need for critical thinking that would not have been out of place in any Skeptics in the Pub meeting. Dr Dihal’s lecture slipped between English and Punjabi and although my Punjabi is non-existent the accompanying PowerPoint and what I already know of the subject filled in the gaps. The people in the room were entertained and the atmosphere was great.

I chatted quietly to one of the people next to me about the group and he said it had been going for some time but each year got bigger and stronger. The reason for this, he figured, was education. He was born in India but raised in England and he didn’t believe in all the superstitious stuff. Because he was educated his children also don’t believe in it and then in turn their children won’t. We know that educated or not there are still plenty of people able to be convinced of all kinds of magic and nonsense, but I think that he’s right, education is the key and that is what this group is about.

Debunking is an important aspect of their work. In between speakers Dr Nayak slipped out and we recorded a quick interview that will go out on the podcast soon. However difficult we might think the role of the skeptic is over here, in western society, it’s very different in India. Superstition and religion are far more significant factors in daily life. Holy men perform miracles persuading people of their supernatural abilities to advise and heal. Amidst all this non scientific medicines are not only available but given governmental approval. Rationalists have to face much more the powers of religion and the powers of state in their battle. If you search YouTube for Narendra Nayak you will see many videos of him replicating the feats of these so-called holy men to demonstrate that their power is anything but divine and that their effect is to stop people seeking medical or professional help when it is needed with all the consequences that might hold.

Ash Performing Psychic Surgery

Lottery Tickets from Eggs

I’d missed his earlier demonstrations of psychic surgery, an ordeal I had performed on me by Edinburgh’s Ash Pryce only a few months ago, but I did watch him cracking eggs open to remove lottery tickets from their centre and reading minds.

The mood was one of amusement but the message was serious, as was the underlying main theme of the meeting. The religious beliefs of many in the Asian community prohibit them from donating organs or blood. The need for these organs is urgent and the supply isn’t there. Superstition is directly leading to preventable deaths as opportunities to save lives are lost.

One of the aims of Dr Nayak’s visit was to help unite groups within the rationalist community. That was why he made contact with the Birmingham Skeptics and I’m really glad he did. Here on our doorstep is the main office of the Asian Rationalist Society of Britain. I’m ashamed to say that I’d totally missed their existence and it took a visitor from another continent to get us together. They made me very welcome. Now that we’ve made contact I’m very much looking forward to working with them in the future.

Patrick Redmond (@paddyrex) - Born in Stoke and moved the vast distance to live in Birmingham. He is one of the organisers of Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub.

Weekly Round-up w/e 28th August

2011-08-27T22:00:00.000+01:00

Well, after a week’s break the final weekly roundup for August is here, so sit back, relax and enjoy our selection of interesting items from the web chosen especially for you.

We’ll start with the irrepressible Prof Edzard Ernst. A short and pithy blog illustrating that the chiropracters have far from succeeded in manipulating the quackery from their profession.

Over at the ever informative BBC they report on a new fossil discovery that rewrites the timelines on some aspects of mammalian evolution. So much information from such a little thing, and I love how each new discovery gives us a more complete fossil record.

I’ve always been drawn to Orac’s blog. Partly for the masterful handling of such stories as this further nail in the anti-vaccination argument. A big part of it though is that I loved Blake’s 7 and I get a bit of a kick from that transparent box of wires and lights up in the corner.

I have to admit to a bit of ignorance here, I hadn’t come across the Desteni until I stumbled over Muerto’s blog on the subject. Since then I’ve had some interesting reading searching around the Internet on this peculiar cult.

If you don’t know Daniel Loxton yet then shame on you. He does outstanding work spreading a love of science and critical thinking to that most important part of society, the young. He has a new book out called Ankylosaur Attack (Tales of Prehistoric Life) and it’s even available over here in the UK too.

Ben Goldacre hardly needs our plugging, but this is a very interesting study he describes and just in case you missed it,here’s the link.

I like to see some science writing from Birmingham and so here is Russell Beale with What is Science? or Here be Dragons. If you look over at the right hand column you’ll see Lucy Harper who wrote a blog post for us some time back.

Like some old Vaudevillian I like to finish with a song. Rationally Speaking Out Loud found this one buried in YouTube and handily provides the lyrics. I’m sure it expresses the sentiments of many skeptics out there and It’s well worth a listen. Enjoy and don't forget our next two speakers in September, Peter Harrison andMark Stevenson.

This weeks round up was compiled by Patrick Redmond (paddyrex)

The Weekly Round-Up (w/e 14th August 2011)

2011-08-13T21:43:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the increasingly accurately named weekly round-up.

It's been a strange week as we had to cancel our regular meeting, which this month was to feature Mark Stevenson (@OptimistOnTour). We are hoping to reschedule this talk in the near future, replacing one of our socials. There will be 2 SitPs in that month and hopefully as few people as possible will miss out.

We would like to thank you all for your support in this decision which was made predominantly on the basis of safety and for a variety of reasons. On previous nights there had been serious problems at the Mailbox - a mere spit away from the Victoria and public transport in the City Centre had been non-existant, so we thought it inappropriate to entice people into what could potentially be a looting zone if we didn't have to. It is rather concerning to note that, as most of our information from people on the ground regarding the safety of the area was received using social media, these are the channels of communication which the Prime Minister is investigating to close during times of trouble. Hmmm. (Petition here, should you feel the need)

The looting has had an effect elsewhere, with the Birmingham branch of the Church of Scientology allegedly calling for action as they “are the ONLY people who have the actual technology to handle the source of (the looting)”. So that's alright then.

Also on the subject of the antisocial, here's a piece by Ed Yong relating to Broken Window Theory which suggests that one type of disorder breeds another. There has been little hard evidence so far until this series of inventive experiments from the University of Groningen.

In other news, a paper by Von Schuckmann and Le Traon (2011) has severely dented the claims of the proponents of Ocean Cooling (at least until next time). The trend of ocean temperatures is unfortunately still upward.

The world of Astronomy has uncovered an interesting quandary this week with an exoplanet being found which reflects next to no light at all. It's nice to see that even Dr David Kipping pronounce that “It's weird”. Answers on a postcard to his Astrophysics department at Harvard University.

Dr Tom Williamson (@SkepticCanary) has released a preview of results of his homeopathic survey which we covered several weeks ago. We'll be sure to let you know when the full results are published.

This week we published a guest blog from Ronald Green on the meaning and importance of “nothing”. It's an interesting piece. Let us know what you think.

Finally, we've come across an interesting and accessible video on the problems associated with our current libel laws and libel tourism recorded when Ian Hislop (Editor of Private Eye & “him off of the telly”) gave evidence to the Joint Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill covering aspects across the board ranging from Trafigura to Simon Singh's case with the British Chiropractic Association. It certainly makes interesting viewing both for those well versed in the problems in the current libel system and laymen alike.

This week's round-up was compiled by @christheneck.

Why Nothing Matters

2011-08-08T10:33:00.000+01:00

By Ronald Green

Why should nothing matter? If anything matters, why should nothing matter? And yet it does, for there isn’t anything, it seems, that nothing does not touch, or anything that does not touch nothing. History, philosophy, religion, science, art, literature, music – all look towards nothing at some point, stimulating questions that would otherwise not be asked.

What is this nothing, that we can’t actually see, touch or feel? Is it absolute? Is it relative to everything else? If we are able to think about it, write and read about it, is it something, and if so wouldn’t it then not be nothing?

This is precisely the mystery of nothing – that the more we think about it, the more there is to it.

The struggle to understand the concept of absolute emptiness, the absence of everything, has been going on for some two thousand years, for at least as long as there have been written records of what people thought is important. Those who have made it their business to think have been puzzling at "nothing", wondering what it was, whether it was anything at all, whether it existed, in fact, and if it did, how it affected things around it.

There is patently a fundamental human need to pursue the mystery that is the negation of everything, for as soon as one questions nothing, one is led to that most basic of questions: what does it mean to exist? As the opposite of everything, does nothing exist? If it does, then how does anything exist?

From the time of Parmenides and Melissus of Samos in the 5th century BCE there have been objections to the possibility of emptiness, a void, existing at all, in the way that an object exists. Full of conviction, Melissus said: "Nor is there any void, for void is nothing, and nothing cannot be". Aristotle, whose arguments against the very possibility of emptiness were so persuasive that due to the Catholic Church’s embrace of Aristotelianism, Western science and mathematics were held back for some 600 years in the Middle Ages when the Church refused to allow the new numerical system containing zero, even while it was being used in Muslim Europe. For the Church, zero was associated with “nothing”, which was a theological no-no. Zero and “nothing” are, in fact, not the same, as should have been clear and was, in fact, pointed out by Fibonacci and other leading mathematicians at considerable risk to themselves. In any case, the result was an advanced Muslim world and a backward Christian one – all because of nothing.

By the 20th century, the problem of treating "nothing" as something had still not been dealt with, even though it was more the effects of "nothing" that were looked at, rather than defining what it might be, with philosophers such as Jean-Paul-Sartre and Martin Heidegger making it the backbone of their speculations.

They were all barking up the wrong tree, or, rather, different trees. As difficult as it is to tackle a concept that implies non-existence, the task is made even more so if one frequently and erroneously uses terms that seem to be similes but confuse the issue; there was Aristotle's refutation of the void, with the Stoics and Hero of Alexandria arguing vacuums, while Galileo, Kepler and Descartes referred to the notion of empty space, as did Newton, whose law of gravitation assumed the whole universe to be filled with a subtle substance. Then along came Einstein who referred to space as an abstraction, in that it exists only because there are objects and that the objects affect space itself. And as mentioned, both Sartre and Heidegger referred to nothing and nothingness, with seemingly no differentiation between the terms.

Really it should come as no surprise that ferocious arguments have continued over the millennia, when discussions supposedly about absolute emptiness were actually about a "nothing" that was far less than absolute. People were beating their heads against a wall because mostly they weren't discussing the notion of nothing, the absence of everything. They thought they were, but they weren't. It wasn't nothing they were arguing about, but a different "nothing", that has attributes which I have preferred to call nothingness. Mostly they were investigating the absence of something, not the absence of everything.

The difference between the absence of everything (nothing) and the absence of something (nothingness) is not a technicality. It is essential if we want to get any way towards finding out about what it means to exist and where we as humans fit into it all. It puts a new complexion -- both for religion and for science -- on the mystery of the universe supposedly coming from nothing, and gives fresh insight into the difference as to how Western monotheistic religions and Eastern faiths deal with "nothing." The movement from nothing to something in the former, as against movement from something towards nothingness in the latter, makes sense in the light of the difference between nothing and nothingness.

So does nothing matter? It certainly does. Shakespeare, brilliant as he was about everything else, was as lost as the rest when it came to nothing. So when Macbeth says, "Nothing is but what is not," we now realize that it is not that simple.

Disarmingly invisible, the point of nothing – to paraphrase Bertrand Russell on philosophy – is to start with something so simple as to seem not worth examining, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.

Ronald Green is the author of "Nothing Matters – a book about nothing" (iff-Books). Philosopher, linguist, university lecturer and ESL teacher, with 13 ESL books published, Ronald has lectured and given workshops in Europe, North and South America and the Middle East on linguistics, ESL and the use of the Internet in education. His short stories have been published in Nuvein magazine, Tryst, Aesthetica, the Sink and Unholy Biscuit. He has completed a philosophical novel and co-authored a psychological thriller with strong philosophical underpinnings. For the past five years he has been thinking seriously about nothing, culminating in his recently-published book.

You can pre-order the book from Amazon here

The Weekly Round-up w/e 07/08/11

2011-08-06T10:04:00.000+01:00

Time to sit back, relax and soak up the delights gatheredfor you by the us good folk at Birmingham Skeptics. Yes, it’s time for theweekly roundup and once more we’ve herded the good and bad into one easilydigestible post for your discerning skeptical consumer.

To kick us off the excellent Heather Doran @hapsci tackles a summery story and takes on one of thosescience sounding reports that we are all too familiar with in the media. Youknow the type I mean. “This or that seemingly random object has been found to have thisor that seemingly random effect.” There’s no end to them. Well Heather has a go at setting the recordstraight over on her blog with Wine and Grapes Will NOT Prevent Sunburn.

We had to include the next story for a number of reasons. One is that itinvolves particle physics which featured in our last Podcast. The next isthat it was written by David Gregory the BBC Midlands Science correspondent andone of our previous speakers. Thirdly it involves scientists from Warwick andit’s always nice to see local people at the cutting edge. Read and enjoy abrief post about some lovely neutrino events.

The next post is longer but nonetheless fascinating and momentous. The UN isofficially declaring a disease as eradicated for only the second time ever. Thedisease is one that affects cattle but when you look at the intricate way thatcattle relate to humans throughout time and society this is noinsignificant moment. The history of what has led up to this incredible situation isdescribed beautifully in this piece by the New York Times.

If you got the link to this blog through Facebook then beware. Cover yourchildren’s eyes lest they be corrupted and don your tinfoil beanie for fear yourbrain be sizzled by the ravages of the Internet. Heed well the warnings ofMartin Robbins as, with tongue firmlyplanted within cheek, he warns that Facebook will destroy your children’s brains.

Here are two articles of interest that relate to our very own fair city Firstly there is this one on a researchproject at Good Hope Hospital involving... I can barely bring myself to typeit, spiritual healing. Then hot on the heels of that the revelation thatBirmingham Schools are shelling out on alternative therapies for the students.

Whether you love or fear chemicals will often depend upon whether you read theDaily Mail. The fact is they are all around us, and in fact they are us. Did you know it’sthe International Year of Chemistry? Join us with Scientific American tocelebrate some of the elements and molecules that make life what it is.

There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. This oft quoted mantra is initself a case in point that you shouldn’t always take things at face value. Ihad this in my head as coming from Disraeli but a quick check on its originshows that this is very possibly tosh. What isn’t tosh though is Ben Goldacre’swonderful critique of the use and abuse of statistics in the media.

This final link caused me no end of trouble. If you’re not familiar with thecartoons of Abstruse Goose they are brilliantly geekily funny. My problem camein choosing one to put down on here. As an old DC Comics fan I picked this one,but feel free to hit Random and be transported to alternative dimensions offun.

This weeks roundup was compiled byPatrick Redmond with considerable help from the other organisers.

The Weekly Round-up w/e 29/7/11

2011-07-29T14:52:00.001+01:00

Would you look at us, another weekly round-up only a week after the last one, we're getting good at this. We've got various things on offer to you this week for your reading pleasure. Before we move on, just a quick reminder that Mark Stevenson's 'An Optimist's Tour of the Future' talk fast approaching so make sure you've made a note in your diary, second Wednesday of the month as always. Have a look over there to the right of the page for further details. Here's what you've been waiting for:

A body fit for a freaky-big brain. Human biology reorganized itself to cope with the punishing burden of our oversize thinking parts. That shift completely reshaped who we are. 

The evolution of generosity. The human impulse to be kind to unknown individuals is not the biological aberation it might seem. This new model suggests we develop this kindness towards people because there’s a good chance we’ll meet them again.

What’s it like being a bat? Where did my consciousness come from?

Michael Specter on the Danger of Science denial

I think we’ve all had moments when we’ve had to tell ourselves to stop reading the comment threads at the bottom of online news stories and blogs as well the torrent of abuse that swarms around twitter. Twitter is always angry about something. Tim Adams in the Observer talks about how the internet created an age of rage.

Video games designer Jason Rohrer has designed a video game that would turn into a religion. Contained on a USB stick is the only copy of the game called ‘Chain World’ and the person in possession of it is God. Some believe it has revealed several things about games, religion and human behaviour.

Particle Physics: Brilliant. Birmingham Skeptics’ pin-up Patrick Redmond talks to phyicisist Steve Goldfarb who works at the Atlas Experiment, the largest accelerator at the Large Hadron Collider.

There’s been some sad news for those, like myself, who studied or intend to study at the Open University. Courses that previously cost £700 per year will, from 2012, increase to £2500 per year. Fellow OU alumni Kash Farooq charts the end of the Open University as we know it.

OK Climate skeptics, here’s the raw data you wanted. Anyone can now view the data that was at the centre of last year’s ‘climategate’ scandal.

Mathematician Marcus De Sautoy says there’s a ‘geek chic’ about maths now, that’s not one of his chat up lines by the way, it’s what he says in this interview about maths finding an audience outside of Open University circles.

Planet of the Apes is going to come true, well, you’d think it was judging by the media response to a report by the Academy of Medical Sciences. Neuroskeptic gives a more realistic portrayal of this report.

This week's round-up was put together by Paul Bryant (@thebigyeti).

Particle Physics: Brilliant!

2011-07-26T22:49:00.000+01:00

A Blog post by Patrick Redmond

One of the problems with doing a podcast is that you get tohear your own voice a lot. Each episode takes a surprisingly long time to editand it can be tortuous if, like me, you’re not keen on hearing yourself speak.One of the things that I’ve noticed about myself is a tendency to enthuse, topronounce things frequently to be “Fantastic” or “Brilliant” like that Paul Whitehouse character from the Fast Show.

This is partly inevitable given that I tend to pick subjects and people aboutwhich I am genuinely interested and excited. So it comes out in my attitude.The problem comes when you tackle a subject like the Atlas Experiment. How canyou talk about the biggest and coolest experiment in the world without slippinginto superlatives?

I had the privilege to talk to physicistSteve Goldfarb who works at the Atlas Experiment. The excitement of those workingon this is almost palpable as they push at the frontiers of what we know. Thereis a real sense of a continuum of knowledge as they build on the legacy of earlierphysicists and scientists adding to our understanding of the origins andworkings of the universe.

The Atlas Experiment is the largest particle detector at the Large Hadron Collider. As billions of protons clash within the detector they gather the datafrom the most likely suspects and piece together the evidence searching forwhat might or might not be there to answer some of the most fundamentalquestions about matter and the universe.

Everything about this project is astounding. From the magnificent physicalscale of the mechanical equipment to the the subatomic stature of the objects observed and the breathtaking scope of the possibilities within its reach, it is amazing.Not everyone feels the same about particle physics I know. Have a look at thesecomments from the Fox News website, brought to my attention by @kashfarooq.

Thankfully though the human race will continue to progress thanks to scienceand scanner101 and flowerpot will be able to reap the benefits regardless.

The other great thing that you get from talking to Steve isn’t just thepassion for the project but the insight of what it's like to be one of the the community. They’re people that work hard but they also play hard. It’s a working,living group of people. For instance one of the things that Steve does in his spare timeis to play in a blues band called the Cannettes. They play traditional bluesbut they’ve managed to combine their love of physics and music in some oftheir songs. I’ve included a copy of TheAtlas Boogie at the end of the podcast, but it’s well worth having a look atthe video. Listen to the podcast and enjoy the video embedded below.

Patrick Redmond - Born in Stoke and moved the vast distance to live in Birmingham. He is one of the organisers of Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub

The Weekly Round-up w/e 24/07/2011

2011-07-23T10:43:00.000+01:00

Are Nanobots the Future?

There’s been so much good stuff out there on the web thisweek that tweaking it down to just these few chosen links has been a tricky job,but that hasn’t put us off trying.

Our next SitP is Mark Stevenson author, comedian, science communicator... I’d better stop there his résumé is extensive and we could be some time. He’ll be taking us on An Optimist’s Tour of the Future. Many of the topics he discusses in his book and no doubt his talk pop up in this thought provoking post, The Singularity is Far: A Neuroscientist's View, over at Boing Boing.

You may remember that a few posts ago we discussed the questionof the portrayal of images of Mohammed. Now the excellent Heresy Corner tacklesthe same question inspired by the BBC’s approach to the issue on their currentdocumentary series, The Life of Mohammed in this post titled The BBC: Falsifying Art and History in the Name of Respect.

Whether somebody is a hero or villain often depends on your standpoint. Hackergroups Anonymous and Lulzsec have attracted both admiration and approbationfrom different sections of society. Evan Bernstein of the New England Skeptical Society and Skeptics Guide, to the Universe gives us his reasons why hebelieves the hackers and the skeptics are not singing from the same sheet in A Little Less Anonymous Today.

Many moons ago David Gregory, the West Midlands BBC Science Correspondent cameto talk to us about science and the media. One of the points he made was how fringe or irrational ideas are often given too much time and space in a mistaken idea of balance.It seems he’s not the only one to think this as this piece from the Guardian illustrates.

What does patient choice mean to you? It depends on whether you’re a quack witha remedy to sell really. Read what AndyLewis has to say on the government’s recent announcements over at the Quackometer.

In that previous post Andy mentions the use of Honey on wounds and it’sinteresting to cross reference that with another blog post that came out recentlyby podcaster and Science Based Medicine contributor Mark Crislip entitled simply Honey. Could it beQuackometer vs. Quackcast?

If the unlikely combination of camping, water sports and humanist/skeptical typeactivities appeals to you, check out Questival. A great event in a beautifularea for all you active free thinkers. They’ve even got SitP favourite MattParker there. You can listen to an interview with one of the organisers on our upcomingpodcast. Check the webpage soon to see when it’s been uploaded and to listen topast episodes.

We’d like to take the chance to thank Bayani Mills for the blog he wrote for uson way that the South Korean medical establishment handles chiropractors. He’s akeen skeptic and there is lots of other good stuff over at his site. Remember,if you have something interesting to say and you’d like to feature it on oursite just get in touch with us to discuss it. We’re always happy to havecontributors.

Finally, it’s not exactly skepticism but it’s a great story. At our jam packedSkeptics in the Pub with Jon Ronson he amused the crowd with this tale of the worst swear word in the world. We’ll leave the last word with Jon’s son.

This weeks round up was put together by Patrick Redmond (@paddyrex) with help from others that contributed suggestions.

South Korea's Medical Professionals Crack Down on Chiropractors

2011-07-18T14:53:00.000+01:00

A blogpost by Bayani Mills (@bayanimills)

Members of the Korean Chiropractic Association in South Korea are inuproar at the scrutiny of their profession, after an investigation of formalChiropractic clinics by local health authorities has led to more legalproceedings. Taeg Su Choi, KCA president since 2003, who has faced fiveprosecutions himself since that time, claims the proceedings are a result ofcomplaints from two of South Korea's professional medical associations, the KoreanMedical Association and the Oriental Medical Doctors' Association.

Disputes about the Chiropractors have been ongoing since its introduction inthe 1990's when South Korea's first Chiropractor, Yong Serb, returned afterattending the Palmer College of Chiropractic in the USA. Serb, the founder andfirst president of the Korean Chiropractic Association has been convicted threetimes for breaking South Korean laws.

Under the law, It is illegal for independent Chiropractors to practise. If youwere a Medical Doctor who took some seminar classes in Chiropractic or similarmanipulative therapies, you could legally practice those techniques, however,someone who just went to a Chiropractic college in America, the UK, orAustralia could not legally practice in Korea.

According to the World Federation of Chiropractic, the Korean ChiropracticAssociation once had over 60 members, which has since fallen to 17 as a resultof the convictions of so many of its members. On 30^th June 2011 aWorld Federation of Chiropractic media release explained the argument used indefence of their practice at appeals at the Constitutional Court: "Theirargument has been that Koreans have a constitutional right to choose andreceive natural forms of health care that relieve pain and suffering, and thatChiropractors have a constitutional right to offer those services."

Appeals from the Members of the KCA claim that the law is unconstitutional,however, while this defence erroneously characterizes the law as being"anti-Chiropractic", South Korean law doesn't state that Chiropracticis illegal. Rather, the law states Chiropractors can't practice theirtechniques unless they're qualified Medical Doctors.

The issue of right to choice has been the crux of many appeals by"alternative" health advocates, and in South Korea Chiropractors arenot alone, with Acupuncturists also feeling the sting dealt out by the courtsfor not practising within the law.

... apparently, robust evidence-based medical training is too much to ask inother parts of the world too.

BayaniMills is an amateur skeptic with an interest in science and technology. More ofhis promotion of critical thinking and skeptical activism can be found at hiswebsite.