May Quiz

The questions for the May quiz are here. You can start getting an idea about where you went wrong in April, because the quick answers for that month are here.

Sydney Dinner

On Saturday May 17 you are invited to The Chatswood Club (11 Help St, Chatswood) to hear Denis Gojak talk about Secret Visitors Revealed: tracking the hidden and forgotten discovery of Australia.

You might have thought that Australia was made known to the rest of the world by the Dutch on their way to Batavia and Captain Cook's voyage up the east coast. Others think that Australia was visited in the past by a range of voyagers from the Vikings, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Romans, Chinese, Portuguese and Spanish, among others.  Since 1788 people have speculated on whether the First Fleet was the first non-indigenous occupation of Australia, or whether there were secret visitors forgotten in our past.  This view persists to the present, even though there is no historical or archaeological evidence that supports it.  This talk follows the history of the secret visitors idea, some of its key people and theories, and discusses serious issues they raise.  Where do these ideas come from?  How do archaeologists and historians deal with these ideas?  Are they dangerous?  If they happened to be true how would you prove it?  Can you be a sceptic and still believe this stuff?

Denis Gojak, a long-time Skeptic subscriber,  is an archaeologist and heritage consultant with more than 25 years' experience in uncovering and conserving Australia's history. This includes a long stint at the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Department of Planning as well as running a small but busy consultancy.

You can book your seats at the Online Shop, or get a paper form here.

Those amusing creationists!

Creationists keep asking about gaps in the fossil record. Dr John Long had the answer at the Australian Skeptics 2006 National Convention. You can buy a DVD of his presentation from the DVD section of our online shop.

Speaking of creationists ...

Are there any questions that creationists can't answer? The Naked Skeptic column in the May edition of Australasian Science magazine has a few that seem to confuse them. You can see the list here.

Write stuff. Get published.

The Web Wrangler can't do all this by himself. He has a life, a job and his own projects, so contributions to this site are always welcome. The only restrictions are that the material must have something to do with the aims and objectives of Australian Skeptics and must not expose us to legal action. Get writing.

As an example, you can go here to read an excellent article by Philip Peters about panthers in the woods in his neck of those woods.

Why we are banned from hotels

Richard Saunders tries to avoid the bill at our hotel by showing how his super powers can destroy cutlery. The ladies in reception were very impressed but we still had to pay.

Convention DVD

The DVD with the presentations from the 2007 National Convention is now on sale. Get it at the Skeptics shop.

New Richard Dawkins DVDs

Some new DVDs by Richard Dawkins were released in February (almost but not quite on Charles Darwin's birthday). Reviews and more details will be available here shortly. Adding to The Root of All Evil? are Enemies of Reason (a look at uncritical thinking in general), uncut versions of the interviews used in TRoAE, and Rational Thought, a boxed set of all three. Anticipate! Enjoy!

the Skeptic

The latest version of that fine journal of fact and opinion, the Skeptic, is hitting mailboxes even as we type.. If you haven't got yours yet it could be because you haven't subscribed. You can fix this dreadful oversight here.

The Challenge

We want to give away $100,000. Nothing would please us more than giving away $100,000 to someone who can prove that they can do the things we suspect cannot be done. Click here to read about our challenge to psychics, clairvoyants, dowsers and other practitioners of the paranormal arts. You can also click here to get some cards you can print out to invite your friends to apply.

Don't forget the bookshop

There are many books on several subjects dear to the hearts of skeptics available from our bookshop. Want to find the latest reading about pseudoscience, religion or critical think (plus other topics)? If so, you have come to the right place. Commission from the sale of books through Amazon goes towards the costs of running this site. Enjoy!

The Australian Blog

See Barry Williams' latest blog in The Australian.