Author Archives:
Ockham’s Razor with Eran Segev
The importance of evidence The president of the Australian Skeptics Inc., Eran Segev, talks about the importance of assessing what is true or false by evaluating the evidence and touches on global warming. Segev appeared on the long running ABC Radio National show, Ockham’s Razor hosted by Robyn Williams. You can read the transcript of the talk and hear … Read on »
A Matter of Balance
Richard Saunders finds some amazing inventions at Mind Body Wallet and puts them to the test. From the pages of The Skeptic March 2010 In November 2009, a group of Australian Skeptics and friends headed for the Festival of Mind Body Spirit in Sydney. An overview of this adventure can be seen in the previous issue of The Skeptic. … Read on »
A case of Bad Science
From The Sceptics’ Book Blog Homeopathy as good as Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer — and non toxic! When this (an alert from Homeopathy Plus!) appeared in my inbox yesterday, courtesy of Richard Saunders (who was kind enough to ask me if I was sitting down first) I initially *facepalmed*, then sought about getting the original paper where this apparent break through … Read on »
Homeopathy Protest
On the 30th of January 2010, at 10:23am, skeptics in cities across the UK, New Zealand, USA and Australia, took part in the first ‘ten23’ protest against homeopathic pills being sold in pharmacies. The ten23 Campaign aims to raise awareness of homeopathy, a multi-million dollar industry based on a long discredited 18th century ritual, selling remedies to … Read on »
The Dark side of Divining
News has reached us that the boss of a British company that sold million of dollars worth of “bomb detectors” to Iraq’s security forces has been arrested on suspicion of fraud. These detectors were based on the same principal as water divining rods. Read the report from TimesOnline here. Also, this is what our friend James Randi has … Read on »
Power Balance Test
The Today Tonight a current affairs show on TV Ch.7 recently (Dec. ’09) ran a story on the amazing and instant results to improve one’s balance, flexibility and strength, by simply wearing (anywhere on the body or even in a pocket) the Power Balance Bracelet. This bracelet, made from plastic, is embedded with a tiny … Read on »
The ‘Fred’ Award 2009
The Australian Skeptics were delighted to award the first annual “Fred” (or The Thornett Award for the Promotion of Reason) at the Skeptics’ Convention at the University of Queensland in Brisbane on the 28th of November 2009. David McCaffrey — Ludmila Thornett — Toni McCaffrey The “Fred” is named after Fred Thornett, a noted member of Australian Skeptics from Tasmania, who died … Read on »
Homeopathy gets the Boot?
Our friends in the UK from the Merseyside Skeptics Society have written an open letter to Alliance Boots who describe themselves as; “…a leading international pharmacy-led health and beauty group offering a wide range of products and services to our customers working in close partnership with manufacturers and pharmacists. Our two core business activities are pharmacy-led health … Read on »
Is ‘coma’ man really conscious?
By now most of the world has heard of Rom Houben, the unfortunate man who has been in a coma for the last 23 years. Much to the amazement of doctors, Mr. Houben now seems to be able to communicate via the assistance of a computer and, more importantly, a human helper. James Randi Many are horrified to think … Read on »
More vaccine scare-mongering from the UK tabloids.
The UK paper the Daily Express has been forced to issue an apology after a front page article last week declared “JAB AS DEADLY AS THE CANCER”. The article was referring to the cervical cancer vaccine, known as Cervarix, and was a reaction to the death of 14 year old Natalie Morton from a malignant tumour … Read on »
Subscribe to the world’s second oldest skeptical magazine! Released quarterly and packed with fascinating stories of a skeptical bent.
