Branches

Bryan Walpole is a sailor and adventurer who dabbles in medicine for a living. He is currently serving 14 months without parole on Macquarie Island where he is Surgeon, Barber, Brewster and Flag Monitor. He owns a share of a famous ocean racing yacht and has been to all manner of insalubrious places like the Southern Ocean and the North Pole. When ashore, he has been seen in a white coat, wandering the Emergency Department of the Royal Hobart Hospital dodging Administrative types seeking to check his timesheets. He recently evaded the thought police and boarded the "Aurora Australis" mid river and incognito, but listed on the manifest as the Ship's Monkey. He was judged as being perfect to proffer homeopathy, chiropractic and advice on the correct crystals for astral travel to the good scientific chaps and chappesses on Macquarie Island, a penal colony of Tasmania. He keeps in touch with reality by shaving the heads of fellow prisoners, interpreting their phrenological bumps, practising on the wounds so created, making the beer for the expeditioners and hoisting the national flags of all the ships which visit Macquarie Island. He keeps his head together by reading The Skeptic on the web and perusing his Skeptic CD. Unless very careful, his reputation may be scorched by controversy as he is Chairing the Committee which may be responsible for organising the 2004 Skeptics convention in Hobart. He will do this when he touches land (briefly) in April 2003 before sailing on his yacht across the Atlantic to join in the Fastnet Race.

Chris Sharples is a geologist who actually believes that the scientific method of testing hypotheses against the evidence is the only means we have of obtaining reliable information about the objective reality beyond our minds. Indeed, in contrast to post-modernists and the like, he considers that the balance of the evidence strongly supports the contention that such an objective reality exists! Chris is fascinated by religious belief and its causes, and as a result of this fascination he has in the past spent altogether too much time arguing with Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. He knows better now, and prefers to devote his energy towards encouraging people to understand the power of the scientific method of knowing. He lives in hope that humanity is slowly evolving into a rational species.

Fred Thornett J.P. Retired Gentleman. Born Cunderdin, W.A. 28/11/38. Teacher's Certificate (Claremont Teachers' College), B.A., Dip.Ed., (U of WA), M.Soc.Sci. (U of Tas). Sometime soldier, salesman, teacher, psychologist, management consultant, personnel manager and federal official. Former sidelines as Army Reserve officer, part-time businessman (importing), part-time teacher at Hobart Tech., one semester at the Shanghai U of Science and Technology, etc. Last gainful employment. Director (Benefits and Health) for Dept. of Veterans Affairs in Tasmania. Current hobbies: Bench Justice in Traffic, Bail and Committal Hearing Courts, Eclectic Scientific Dilletante, Ballroom Dancer, Ulysses Club (For elderly motorcyclists), New Town Croquet Club, Web Surfer, Bush Stroller (with a very small pack), and Traveller to cheap places. Publications include: "The Tasmanian War Memorials Data Base" and a few journal articles. Career highlight: surviving to collect his superannuation. Sceptical interests: scoffing at creation "science", persons who pretend to tell fortunes and "psychic" ripoffs generally. Seeking to gain adherents to belief in the scientific method, the true holy grail which has delivered us the modern world for good and ill.