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How to cure cancer advice for sufferers

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:51:26 GMT

Conversations with a science visionary
>>

Richard Dawkins skeptical message popular draw on college campus tour
>>

What's the point of the arts?
>>

UFO could be top secret plane
>>

Where angels no longer fear to tread
>>

Al-Qa’eda’s secret UK gangs: terror as a ‘playground dare’
>>

Psychic's clues to missing Shannon
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[Regulated] Chinese remedies can take away pain
>>

How to cure cancer advice for sufferers
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Birmingham, where frogs rain from the sky and aliens drop in
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DID 'UFO LIGHTS' HERALD LINCOLNSHIRE EARTHQUAKE?
>>

Is there anybody there who isn’t being rude?
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As a scientist I used to think meditation was hokum. Not any more!
>>

How to Find a local Skeptic

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:59:17 GMT

Why won't people take Fergie seriously?

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:00:15 GMT

Royston Cave: a secret Templar and Masonic shrine?
>>

Spiritual Connextion Awards
>>

Stage is set to flush out theatre's resident ghost
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Documentary Of The Week Alternative Therapies: Hypnotherapy
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Neuro-linguistic programming is becoming more prevalent at the top of organisations.
>>

Why won't people take Fergie seriously?
Ask Eric, her ghost
>>

Trick of light or proof of haunted Town Hall?
>>

Journeying through the unseen
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James Randi: Our skeptical angel
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Shadow environment secretary joins Gangotri debate
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Programming Pioneer Weizenbaum
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Advertising Authority Upholds Complaint against "Psychic" Zara
>>

The gathering brainstorm

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:32:53 GMT

EEK! WE'RE IN A TWILIGHT ZONE - AND IT'S OFFICIAL
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WEB OF INTRIGUE
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NATALIE PORTMAN LEFT UNEASY AFTER A VISIT TO A PSYCHIC
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Herbal remedy ‘cures’ eczema
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Neal's Yard seeks to transform into high street leader with 50 stores
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The gathering brainstorm
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Time for different view to tackle rural crises (Homeopathy for bluetongue?)
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Britain's top 13 supernatural spots
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Catholic bishop accused of religious 'fundamentalism'
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Prisoner cashes in with an account behind bars
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World tiger population shrinking fast, WWF warns
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Pharyngula London meetup on Saturday 15th

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:01:30 GMT

Pharyngula London meetup on Saturday 15th March

Meet-up has now been set for ....

London, England: Saturday, 15 March, 7:00pm, at the Doric Ach near Euston station.

Quake: Did your pet act strangely?

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:17:16 GMT

Quake: Did your pet act strangely?
>>

How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic
>>

MoD inquiry into Archway UFO mystery
>>

JK Rowling: Homophobia is a fear of people loving
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There's a ghost in my house
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The spectre of reason
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Living TV's new medium from King's Clipstone
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Alfred Haber tracks down Ghost Hunters Int'l
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Missing Shannon Matthews' mum told by psychic: You know the person she's with
>>

Skeptics in the Pub - 18th March 2008: Regulating Alternative Medicine

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:02:41 GMT

Regulating Alternative Medicine: Are the Quacks Ducking the Issues?

Hosted by:: The Skeptic Magazine

Speakers:: Prof David Colquhoun, University College London
Andy Lewis, The Quackometer

Starts:

Location:

The Penderel's Oak, The Cellar Bar, 283 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7HP United Kingdom

Maps:

Street map

Description

2008 is going to see a big battle between various groups as to who gets to pretend to regulate alternative therapists. The Government, through Prince Charles’ Foundation for Integrated Health, is setting up The Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council, a voluntary federal register. The problem is, no one appears to want to join.
Various homoeopaths’ Membership Groups are setting up their own ‘Single Registers’. More fundamentally, no group looking at this issue appears to want to tackle the inconvenient problem that most alternative therapies do no work and their practitioners hold strange and sometimes dangerous beliefs.
Two sceptical bloggers will explore the issues.

David Colquhoun is a pharmacologist at University College London who writes the Improbable Science blog at DC Science.
Andy Lewis is the creator and writer of The Quackometer blog.

Registration required:: No

Additional information

A £2 donation is requested to cover the guest speaker’s travelling expenses and sundries.
Non-skeptics are welcome.
Turn up at any time during the evening.
The room is open from about 5.30pm.

For more information

Contact person:: Sid Rodrigues
Phone:: 020 8943 7540
Email:: pub [ at ] skeptic.org.uk
Website:: Regulating Alternative Medicine: Are the Quacks Ducking the Issues?

The Sources of the Book

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:28:50 GMT

THE SOURCES OF THE BOOK: An Anatomy of the Literary Beginnings of Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Starts:
Monday, May 5th
Ends:
Saturday, May 10th

Lecturers:

Professor R. Joseph Hoffmann, Senior Vice President of the Center for Inquiry and Head of The CFI Institute; Adjunct Professor of History at the State University of New York, Buffalo.

Ibn Warraq, MA, distinguished author of Why I am Not a Muslim, and Whose Koran? Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Inquiry, Amherst, New York.

This six day course is an intensive exploration of the literary origins of the books that define the Jewish, Christian and Islamic world-views. It is sometimes thought that the sacred scriptures of the book religions emerged from the pages of history as a fully developed canon. In fact, the materials themselves were the product of disagreement, heresy, rivalry between sectarian perspectives, and attempts to glorify their founders and beliefs. Join R. Joseph Hoffmann and Ibn Warraq for an unusual tour of the “origins” of the books and learn what critical modern scholarship has to tell us about the dating, origin, and purposes of the Bible and the Qur’an.

Registration fee: £30.00 for all six classes; £7 for individual classes.
Advance booking and payment preferred, but payment at the door is acceptable. Registration is limited.

May 5-10th
7-9 PM at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1
tel. 020 7242 8037 fax 020 7242 8036
http://www.conwayhall.org.uk

http://www.centerforinquiry.net/london/events/the_sources_of_the_book/

Are you a female, 50+ believer in telephone telepathy?

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 22:44:30 GMT

Are you a female, 50+ believer in telephone telepathy?

If so,
(a) we would love you to take part in the collaborative investigation (between ourselves and Rupert Sheldrake) into telephone telepathy
(see http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/apru/research.php for further details) and
(b) "Yours" magazine would be interested in interviewing you.

In either case, please contact Mark Williams (mark.williams[at]gold.ac.uk) for further details.

Best wishes,

Chris French

Teller Speaks!

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 17:16:34 GMT

Teller Speaks!
>>

UFO Conspiracy Nut Barry Chamish Gets Clobbered
>>

Penguin borne aloft by the power of Oprah's persuasion
>>

The great happiness myth: The more we strive to be happy, the more miserable we are
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Alien doctors treated my cystisis

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:19:13 GMT

Alien doctors treated my cystisis
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How Hitler's defeat really was down to the stars
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The myth of runner's high revisited with brain imaging
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Data on Homeopathy Usage Around the World
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When blasphemy bit the dust
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New ghost series on the way to Living
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ONLY HOPE IS FOR MIRACLE
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Ming has a secret weapon to speed recovery _ Chinese medicine
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Coca-Cola Exploring Chinese Medicine for Beneficial Nutrients
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UFO spotter claims cover-up
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Don’t try to predict it, embrace it
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Written in the stars?
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Get your cocaine from Superdrug
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Ben Stein smart-bombs Darwinian bunker
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Moses was stoned when he set Ten Commandments, researcher claims
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Mythbusters kicks off with Bond tests
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Reader tries to pass off fake UFO picture
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'PSYCHIC' DOG PREDICTS QUAKE
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Bungling cop spreads strawberry meth myth
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Are balls of light at Newstead Abbey paranormal?
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MoD releases secret files on UFOs
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Hitchens foreword to God: The Failed Hypothesis by Victor J. Stenger

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:18:55 GMT

Foreword to Paperback Edition of God: The Failed Hypothesis by Victor J. Stenger

Christopher Hitchens

Until relatively recently, the argument between theists and atheists or (to adopt my own self-description) between theists and anti-theists, was largely based on two implicitly shared assumptions. The first was that science and religion belonged, in the famous words of Stephen Jay Gould, to “non-overlapping magisteria.” The second was that science and reason could not actually disprove the existence of a deity or a creator: they could no more than show that there was no good or sufficient evidence to justify such a belief.

One sometimes suspects that the acceptance of the “non-overlapping” verdict was a cause of some relief to many non-scientists such as myself, who prefer to argue with religion from different premises. But with the arrival on the scene of Victor Stenger’s book, the already-revived and extended argument for unbelief has undergone a sort of quantitative and qualitative acceleration. One side in this dispute is going to have to yield.

Before I say more about how important I think this contribution is, I’d like to say a word for the lay or non-scientist infidel community, who are now so much in Victor Stenger’s debt. Until 1834 the very word “scientist” was not in common circulation. Men like Sir Isaac Newton were considered, and considered themselves, to be “natural philosophers”: men of scientific bent to be sure, but men of a wider and deeper learning as well. Arguments about greater cosmic purposes were all of a piece with calculations and experiments, and the tyranny of specialization had not imposed itself on us. As a result, by the way, many scientists held completely “unscientific” views. Newton himself was a secret alchemist who believed that the Pope was anti-Christ and that the true dimensions of the Temple of Solomon might yield crucial findings. Joseph Priestley, the Unitarian discoverer of oxygen, was a devotee of the phlogiston theory. Alfred Russel Wallace liked nothing better than a good spiritualist séance.

It is not really until the figure of Albert Einstein (and perhaps Bertrand Russell also) that we start to find that very powerful synthesis between scientific method and a more general “humanism”; a synthesis basing itself upon reason and daring to make the connection between physical and natural evidence and the conclusion that an ethical life, as well as a rational one, is best lived on the assumption that there is no supernatural dimension.

In recent years, a number of scientists – physicists, biologists, neurologists, and others – have become, in effect, “public intellectuals” for the cause of atheism. They have transcended the bounds of their respective disciplines in order to defend the general proposition that free scientific inquiry, and the sort of society that can both support it and benefit from it, is worth defending from the assaults of ignorance and bigotry and terrorism. Thanks to these volunteers, from the brilliant Richard Dawkins in Oxford to the truly exceptional and brave Pervez Hoodbhoy in Islamabad, there is now a wide cultural resistance to those who would force stultifying creationist nonsense into the schoolroom, or those whose only interest in science is the plagiarism of technology for the purposes of criminal “faith-based” violence.

Attending a recent conference that included many such figures, I was interested to find that, when their experience of debating with the faithful was “pooled,” there was really only one argument from the other side that was considered to have any interest or bear any weight. This was the question of “why is there something rather than nothing?” with its attendant suggestion that the laws of physics and the universe have been somehow “fine-tuned” in order to create the conditions most optimal for life.

I first came across this “argument” in a book published in 1993. Credible Christianity: The Gospel in Contemporary Culture, was written by a man named Hugh Montefiore whom I slightly knew and rather liked. A senior bishop of the Church of England, he had been converted from Judaism as a schoolboy by the appearance of a white-robed figure who commanded him to “Follow Me.” Here is how the bishop phrased the matter:

For example, if the strong force which keeps the nucleus of an atom together had been only 2 per cent stronger, the universe would have blown up: if it were slightly weaker, nuclear fusion, which keeps the stars burning, would not have happened. There are many such coincidences, signal examples to the eyes of faith of the wisdom and providence of the Creator.

If you turn to pages 137 to 164 of Victor Stenger’s book, you will find a fairly comprehensive rebuttal of this attempt to update the old argument from design, which was originally cast in more purely terrestrial terms by William Paley in his Natural Theology. It becomes ever-clearer that the scientific and the supernatural explanations of matters are not so much “non-overlapping” as doomed to overlap, and to contradict one another, or perhaps better say, to be incompatible or irreconcilable with one another.

Let me adduce a couple more examples of my own – or rather, adaptations of my own from the work of others – to support Victor Stenger’s case that the god hypothesis has actually been conclusively discredited. Suppose we take the hypothesis at face value for a moment. Edwin Hubble long ago demonstrated that the universe is exploding away from its “big bang” starting point. Persuaded by the “red light” evidence that this was indeed true, the scientific community nonetheless thought, for what might be called Newtonian reasons, that this rate of expansion would slow down over time. To the contrary, and as Lawrence Krauss had predicted, it has now been found that the universe is exploding away from itself at a rapidly increasing rate. Among the non-trivial consequences of this will be that we shall one day be unable to observe anything in the whirling galaxies that will any longer confirm that the “big bang” ever took place. Meanwhile, the Andromeda galaxy, already visible to the naked eye in the night sky, is headed directly towards our own and will collide with it in five billion years. What sort of “fine tuning” is this? (Perhaps the same tuning that has made all the other planets just in the tiny suburb of our own solar system either too hot or too cold to support life.) At least, however, it provides a good demonstration of how a great deal of “nothing” is all set to come out of our brief “something.”

Or take a quite different order of instance, again from the sort of scientific knowledge and discovery that has not been available to us for more than a few years. Now that we have mapped the human genome, we know that all our common ancestors left Africa about 60,000 years ago, and that we all share the genetic markers to prove it. Allow me to quote from an essay by Spencer Wells, the director of the Genographic Project at the National Geographic:

What set these migrations in motion? Climate change – today’s big threat –
seems to have had a long history of tormenting our species. Around 70,000
years ago it was getting very nippy in the northern part of the globe, with ice
sheets bearing down on Seattle and New York; this was the last Ice Age. At
that time, though, our species, Homo sapiens, was still limited to Africa; we
were very much homebodies. But the encroaching Ice Age, perhaps coupled
with the eruption of a super-volcano named Toba, in Sumatra, dried out the
tropics and nearly decimated the early human population. While Homo
sapiens can be traced to around 200,000 years ago in the fossil record, it is
remarkably difficult to find an archaeological record of our species between
80,000 and 50,000 years ago, and genetic data suggest that the population
eventually dwindled to as few as 2,000 individuals. Yes, 2000 – fewer than fit
into many symphony halls. We were on the brink of extinction.

Ponder this arresting finding, even with its misuse of the word “decimate” (which means “reduce by one tenth” rather than “eradicate”). There are, really, only two ways of assimilating and analysing it. The first way is to see the survival and escape and later population spread of the endangered 2,000 as a miracle: a form of the Exodus story that alas never managed to get written on any tablets or papyri. The second way is to remember something else that we didn’t know until recently: that almost 99 per cent of all species ever recorded as having lived on this planet DID become extinct. If you bear that in mind, then any author of any miracle must also have been the deliberate author of the ice-sheets and the Sumatran explosion – “the wisdom and providence of the Creator,” as Bishop Montefiore put it so fulsomely – and then have stayed his hand until just the point when the population of his preferred creatures dipped below the 2,000 mark. That could, I suppose, be called “fine tuning.” It could also be thought of as a very laborious and roundabout and inefficient and incompetent (and somewhat cruel and capricious) method of ensuring human survival.

In other words, none of these god-centred “hypotheses” can do any more than replace, or attempt to restate, the original fallacy of the “design” arguments. Meanwhile, our advances in knowledge and technique simply place these efforts under an ever more pitiless and skeptical gaze. Now we know roughly the age of our species. Richard Dawkins has put it as high as a quarter of a million years, while Francis Collins (the extremely genial and decent C.S. Lewis fan who oversaw the Human Genome Project) once in my hearing said that it could be as little as a hundred thousand. No matter. Let us take the lower figure, and use it to illustrate the truth of revelation. On this model, our species emerged and for tens of thousands of years cowered in the few climatic refuges of the globe that were hospitable to it. Life expectancy? Perhaps a couple of decades. Infant mortality? Extremely high. Death from tooth decay or diarrhea? Commonplace. Terror of micro-organisms in general? Intense. Fear of death from earthquake, tsunami, volcano and flood? Extreme, and again compounded by ignorance. Wars between tribes and clans, for food and territory? Grim and frequent. Religion? Not known to us, but probably involving human and animal sacrifice to propitiate weird idols.

And for a minimum of ninety-five thousand years, heaven watches this with folded arms! Stony, lofty indifference attends the striving and the suffering and the agonising deaths of infants and innocents, to say nothing of the sadistic and genocidal violence and the worship of bogus shrines and false gods. And then, at long last, after nine thousand and five hundred decades or so (in instant in evolutionary time, to be sure, but quite a long time for frightened mammals), it is decided that heaven must intervene. By direct revelation. But only in certain illiterate and backward parts of the Middle East. As I say, you may choose to believe this if you so desire, but that is what you must now believe. Until an amazingly recent date, science would not have compelled you to face the absurd consequences of your faith in quite this way.

In any case, and as Victor Stenger points out quite early on in his marvellous book, there is a big difference between being a deist and a theist. You may still, to your own satisfaction, decide that none of nature’s observable processes could have got under way without a prime mover. But alas, all your real work as a religious person is still ahead of you. How can you get from this prime mover or first cause to a deity who cares who you sleep with, what you eat, what holy day you observe or how you mutilate your own (or your children’s) genitalia? From the big bang of the great beginning to the small and sordid bang of the virgin-hunting suicide bomber is still quite a step. Nobody has even come close to showing how this step could ever be taken. And it is highly unlikely, now, that anybody ever will. The simple reason for this is that we have better and clearer and more impressive explanations for things, as well as explanations that are more beautiful, elegant and harmonious. To look the facts in the face is not to surrender to despair and nihilism: we know that the world will come to an end and we even know how, but it is only the religious who look forward to this event with relish and relief.

The challenge of our age is the same that confronted all previous ages. How shall we live the good life and how shall we know virtue? In the past millennia of primeval ignorance, pattern-seeking primates proposed a totalitarian solution to this question and threw all the responsibility onto a supreme dictator who demanded to be loved and feared at the same time. The story of human emancipation is the narrative of our liberation from this evil myth, and from the greedy, ambitious primates who sought (as they still seek) to rule in its name. Many forces have contributed to this emancipation, from philosophers to satirists, but it is perhaps to the natural and human sciences that we have come to owe the most, and Victor Stenger is prominent among those whom we must acknowledge.

Events for Locals

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:16:59 GMT

Still the Opium of the Masses? Religion and Radicalism

The Institute of Ideas and Bishopsgate Institute present a series of three panel debates (7 February, 6 March, 3 April 2008) that will interrogate the state of secularism today. Taking inspiration from Bishopsgate Institute’s renowned collection on free-thought and secularism, the debates aim to continue in the long tradition of critical inquiry of religion and of its opponents.

We’re told that religion today is radical. Islamic extremists, evangelical fundamentalists, Catholic militants – the threat that faith poses to secular society is an aggressive, assertive and vehement one. Historically though, the faithful were slated by humanists for their conservatism, believing that where religion went wrong was in its opposition to change, not its advocacy of it. So are the religious now radical or has secular society simply taken on the conservatism of its God-fearing forebears?

Speakers will be Rashad Ali (Director, Quilliam Foundation - think tank of former Islamists), Dolan Cummings (Research and Editorial Director, Institute of Ideas; Editor, Debating Humanism), Maryam Namazie (spokesperson, Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain; National Secular Society ‘Secularist of the Year’ 2005) and Andrew Scott (Student Christian Movement). Alex Hochuli (Web Editor, Institute of Ideas; postgraduate student, King’s College London) will chair the debate.

For further information on the Institute of Ideas please visit www.instituteofideas.com.

Flogging a Dead Horse: Can We Make a Positive Case for Atheism Today?

From the Renaissance through to the twentieth century, intellectuals have challenged religion and religious privilege. The past few years have seen the ‘New Atheists’, as they have been dubbed, take up the mantle. But why has religion persisted for so long? Are religious believers just wrong, or does religion answer questions that secular society can’t? What do today’s atheists propose, beyond mere unbelief? Can one make a positive case for atheism?

Speakers will be Dr Michael Fitzpatrick (GP and author), Mark Vernon (journalist and author, Science, Religion and the Meaning of Life) and Martin Summers (corporate affairs advisor). Robin Walsh (science conference producer) will chair the debate.

For further information on the Institute of Ideas please visit www.instituteofideas.com.

Richard Wiseman on psychology and Quirkology

The psychology of humour and The Laughter Experiment at The Hayward
Gallery (11 March, 7pm, Southbank, London)

Quirkology at the Cambridge Science Festival (18 March, 8pm, Babbage
Lecture Theatre, Cambridge University)

Quirkology and The Name Experiment at the Edinburgh Science Festival
(25 March, 6pm, Reid Concert Hall).

If you do come along, please come and say hello.

Best wishes

Richard

www.richardwiseman.com
www.quirkology.com

2008 Ig Nobel Tour of the UK

The 2008 tour will happen in (and ever-so-slightly preceeding) National Science and Engineering Week, March 6-14, 2008.

This is the sixth annual tour.

March 6, 2008, Thursday, 7:30 pm
Oxford, Martin Wood Lecture Theatre

March 11, 2008, Tuesday, 6:00 pm
London, Imperial College Great Hall

March 12, 2008, Wednesday, 6:30 pm
London. Guardian Newsroom Archive and Visitor Centre

March 14, 2008, Friday, 6:00 pm
Newcastle, Centre for Life, Conference and Banqueting

More details

Earthwatch Lecture - Dolphins across the Med

Thursday 27 March 2008, 7.00pm - 8.30pm

Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR

Joan Gonzalvo Villegas & Ricardo Sagarminaga van Buiten

Two talks by leading scientists, who, with Earthwatch volunteers, are monitoring the status and health of dolphin populations in Greek and Spanish waters, and implementing plans to secure their future.

Doors open at 6.00pm (cash bar); lectures followed by a second cash bar, 8.30-9.30pm

Entrance free to Earthwatch supporters; otherwise a donation will be requested on the door.

For tickets and more information, please contact our Events Department on (01865) 318856; events@earthwatch.org.uk ;

www.earthwatch.org/europe/events08/dolphins.html

American Faith Healer and Evangelist Benny Hinn Comes to Town

London

March 20, 2008
Thu 7:00PM

March 21, 2008
Fri 10:00AM & 7:00PM

http://www.bennyhinn.org/events/default.cfm

Stonehenge and beyond: the sky and ancient cultures

Talk to be given by Clive Ruggles, Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy, University of Leicester.

Was Stonehenge, as many have suggested, some form of ancient observatory? There is no simple answer or be revealed just by scrutinising the stones.

Professor Ruggles will describe how astronomers and archaeologists can get some important clues by looking more broadly at how ancient cultures worldwide related to what they saw in the sky.

In the absence of written evidence, these clues are man-made objects, human debris, and the layout of monuments and buildings.

There are also valuable insights from beliefs and practices that have survived among indigenous peoples in the modern world.

Professor Ruggles will look at evidence from across the world: from Ireland to continental Europe, the USA, Australia, Polynesia and Ethiopia, before returning to prehistoric Wessex.

More details

Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit Invited Speaker Series 2008

11 Mar

Dr Ciarán O’Keeffe
Research Associate, Université de Paris 8, Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale
The Truth About Mediums
More details.

More lectures and events for the UK can be found at the Lecturelist or Upcoming websites.

The BBC Abandons Its Complementary Medicine Website

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:39:46 GMT

The BBC Abandons Its Complementary Medicine Website Due to Pressure
>>

Interview: David Icke
>>

Enemies help darts players hit the bull's-eye
>>

The moment when aliens decided to land in Enfield
>>

Mystical fundraiser for local lad Phillip
>>

Steven Spielberg's new network is far out
>>

Church exhumes corpse of saint famed for stigmata and miracles
>>

Houdini exhumation to test for poison
>>

Marion Cotillard 'in shock' over 9/11 row, but will not apologise
>>

Marion Cotillard U-turns on 9/11 conspiracy
>>

Revealed: How MI5 recruited an astrologer in plot to outwit Hitler
>>

WOODFORD GREEN: MoD appeals for calm after UFO sighting
>>

The Sixth Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture - 12th March

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:02:07 GMT

The Sixth Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture
supported by the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and Ed Victor Ltd

Wednesday 12 March 2008 at 7.30pm (doors open at 6.30pm)
Royal Geographical Society, South Kensington, London
Click here for a map

Steven Pinker: “The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature”
Join us for another excellent lecture of the Douglas Adams Memorial lecture series, this year by controversial author and cognitive scientist Professor Steven Pinker. Language is the main channel in which human beings share the contents of their consciousness. It thereby offers a window into human nature, revealing the hidden workings of our thoughts, our emotions, and our social relationships. Steven Pinker will explore an example of each: everyday metaphor as a window into human cognition; swearing and taboo words as a window into human emotion; and indirect speech—veiled threats and bribes, polite requests, and sexual come-ons—as a window into human relationships.

30th Anniversary of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
Following the lecture, a very special live performance will mark the 30th anniversary of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. On March 8th 1978 the funniest and most thought-provoking science fiction comedy ever was premiered on BBC Radio 4 and to mark its anniversary the original cast members, who worked on all the "phases" of Hitchhikers, from Primary to Quintessential, reunite for a one-off performance.

The lecture is in aid of Save the Rhino International and the Environmental Investigation Agency, two charities supported by Douglas Adams. Douglas developed his deep-seated interest in wildlife conservation during a 1985 visit to Madagascar, which eventually resulted in a book (Last Chance to See) about the plight of species facing extinction. Douglas Adams died unexpectedly in 2001 at the age of 49. These Memorial Lectures continue to explore the themes in which Douglas was so interested.

Auction Item - Want to have your own personal Vogon?
A rare handcrafted model of Vogon Commander Kwaltz will be auctioned at the event, with proceeds going to Save the Rhino and the EIA. If you are unable to attend the event then we are happy to accept absentee bids. Please click here for more information and to download an absentee booking form.

After Lecture Meal
After the lecture join us for a delightful three-course, hot and cold buffet at Ognisko where you will have the chance to discuss the thought-provoking lecture with other like-minded people or just relax and enjoy the delicious food. Ognisko opened in 1943 and is situated across the road from the Royal Geographical Society in an elegant listed building. You will enjoy the modern Polish cuisine in the grand dining room of the Polish Hearth Club. To get your taste buds tingling, the menu includes Poached escalope of salmon with dill sauce, Goujons of chicken with fresh tarragon and white wine sauce and Chocolate mousse with Grand Marnier – the full menu can be downloaded below. Dinner tickets include half a bottle of wine per person.

To view Ognisko’s website please click here

Prices

Lecture tickets: £12

Lecture followed by the meal at Ognisko: £12 + £35 (the lecture ticket and meal need to be paid for separately & separate order forms filled in)

Purchasing Lecture Tickets

There are 3 methods to purchase lecture tickets:

1. On-line: please click here to purchase lecture tickets on-line

2. Download the ticket order form below and return it to Fiona Macleod at Save the Rhino International, 16 Winchester Walk, London, SE1 9AQ.

3. Call Fiona on 020 7357 7474 to purchase tickets over the phone.

Purchasing Meal Tickets
There is only 1 method to purchase dinner tickets.
Download the order form below and send a cheque made payable to "Ognisko", with your card number written on the back of the cheque, to Fiona Macleod, Events Manager, Save the Rhino International, 16 Winchester Walk, London, SE1 9AQ.

For more information, please e-mail: fiona@savetherhino.org

Creation Tour of Northern Ireland and Ireland

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:00:10 GMT

Myth of the antipsychotic
>>

Supercomputer works on cracking the mystery of the universe
>>

Marion Cotillard's 9/11 conspiracy theory
>>

Animal telepathy podcast
>>

Protests at ‘high priest of atheism’
>>

Ken Ham radio interview in Belfast [RealPlayer audio]
>>

Nutrigenomics?
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Creation Tour of Northern Ireland and Ireland
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Nothing for something

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The author and skeptic, Robert Rankin ready reckoner
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The myth of 'biodegradable' plastic bags
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This could be a case for Mulder and Scully...
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Sell-out double for Derren Brown
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Derren Brown Mind Reader: An Evening of Wonders tour
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Dogs Are Intelligent, But Not Telepathic
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Ginkgo biloba and stroke risk
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Taking evidence seriously
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Placebos, our voodoo
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Fighting Faith with Facts
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Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:12:05 GMT

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Creating controversy
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Google and Facebook founders at TED
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Telephone Telepathy Study: Participants wanted

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:43:17 GMT

Dear All,

As some of you may already know, the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit is currently engaged in a collaborative research project with Dr Rupert Sheldrake investigating the phenomenon of "telephone telepathy". This is the fairly common experience of feeling that you know who is calling you on the telephone before you answer it - even on occasions when you had no particular reason to expect a call from that person. Obviously, sceptics and believers in the paranormal have different explanations for what is going on in such situations, but Rupert Sheldrake claims to have demonstrated that a genuinely paranormal phenomenon may be in operation here. The only way to find out is to carry out well controlled empirical studies and that is what we are doing.

We are looking for volunteers to act as participants in this experiment, people who feel that telepathy is possible in relation to phone calls - knowing who is ringing before they answer the phone. Each volunteer is asked to find 4 people who this might happen with. The test itself should take less than an hour and a half. During this period, the volunteer will be in one building, being filmed on videotape, and the four callers will be in another building. They will be selected at random by the throw of a dice for a series of ten trials. The person who is selected to make the call will also be filmed on video while calling the participant.

These videos are for research purposes only, and will not be shown in public unless those involved give their permission. All those who take part will remain anonymous in any publications or reports about this work. We have limited funding for this project but are offering a payment of £50 total to each group of people who take part, that is to say the volunteer and his/her four callers. We can also cover some travel costs, and can provide more details if requested.

Note that we only want people who genuinely believe that they often have this experience to take part as the "receivers" in this study. Obtaining null findings from a bunch of sceptics wouldn't really prove anything...

If you might be interested in taking part (or know someone who might be), further details can be found at http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/apru/telephone-telepathy.php

You can sign up for this and other projects at http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/apru/participate-research.php

Best wishes,

Prof Chris French

The Amaz!ng Meeting 6 - I, Skeptic: Modern Skepticism in the Internet Age June 19 - 22, 2008

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:52:50 GMT

Keynote speaker Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist, and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. He served on George W. Bush’s Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry, and was awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal for his work. He is President of The Planetary Society, and has authored eight books, including his memoir, The Sky is not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist. Tyson is the host of the PBS program Nova, and is a regular guest on The History Channel’s The Universe. full bio
Dr. Michael Shermer Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine ( www.skeptic.com ), the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, the host of the Skeptics Distinguished Science Lecture Series at Caltech, and Adjunct Professor of Economics at Claremont Graduate University. full bio	Matthew Chapman Matthew Chapman is a journalist, director, and author. He is the great-great grandson of Charles Darwin, and has written widely on the creation-evolution controversy in the United States. He authored 40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, Oxycontin, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania, which focuses on the dissention surrounding the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial. full bio
Adam Savage Since 1993, Adam has concentrated on the special-effects industry, honing his skills through more than 100 television commercials and a dozen feature films, including Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Episode II: Attack of the Clones and currently co-host of Discovery Channel's MythBusters. full bio	Dr. Paul Zachary Myers PZ Myers is a biology professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris. He is an outspoken critic of intelligent design, and is an activist in the creation-evolution debate. Myers maintains the blog Pharyngula, where he writes on creationism, biology, evolution, and scientific development. In 2005, Pharyngula won the Koufax Award for Best Expert Blog, which Nature describes at the top-ranked blog written by a scientist. full bio
Christopher Hitchens Christopher Hitchens is an author, journalist, and literary critic, and was a columnist for Vanity Fair. He is a political activist, outspoken atheist, and authored the bestselling book God is Not Great, which was nominated for a National Book Award. full bio	Richard Wiseman For over a decade, Professor Wiseman has worked with the media to help bring science and psychology to a wide and diverse audience. His research has been featured in a large number of television programmes, including Horizon, Body Shock, 20/20, and Dateline. full bio
Penn & Teller Ever at the ready to uncover more "Bullshit!" from their hot Showtime series, will update us on their latest adventures. full bio	Steve Novella Dr. Steven Novella is the Director of General Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine, President of the New England Skeptical Society, host of The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, and is a contributing editor for Quackwatch, a blog that uncovers unethical medical practices. full bio
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE
There are many more presenters than the ones you see above. Also scheduled to attend are: Phil Plait (The Bad Astronomer), Sharon Begley, Greydon Square (hiphop artist), George Hrab, Dr. Art Benjamin, Benjamin Radford, Banachek, Paul Provenza and Richard Saunders. For full list with bio information visit the TAM 6 presenters page here

Workshops & Shows
Workshop: The Real X-Files: Scientific Paranormal Investigations w/ Ben Radford Scheduled for: Thursday from 12:00 - 2:00 Ever wondered how a person goes about investigating a haunted house, a Bigfoot sighting, or a crop circle? In movies and on television it looks easy, but how do real-life paranormal investigators discover what really happened, separating truth from myth? (Hint: Ghost Hunters ain't it!) Come find out in a unique, two-hour intensive workshop taught by CSI investigator Benjamin Radford. Radford is managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, columnist for LiveScience.com, and author of three books and hundreds of articles on science literacy, investigation, and the paranormal. He will share his experience and insights gained over a decade of first-hand field investigations of mysterious phenomena. Drawing from dozens of case studies involving lake monsters, psychics, and ghosts, Ben will explain the step-by-step process in investigations, including critical thinking, evaluating unusual claims, interviewing eyewitnesses, and conducting field experiments.
Workshop: Master Mneumonic Memory w/ Banachek Scheduled for: Thursday from 2:30 - 4:30 Banachek has stunned corporate, college, and television audiences for years with his amazing abilities. As one of the original "Alpha Kids," he fooled scientists for years. Now, he'll share some of his secrets with you. Learn memory techniques from master mentalist Banachek when for the first time at TAM he works directly with workshop participants. What seems impossible now becomes second nature when Banachek shows you how.
Show: Mathemagic w/ Dr. Art Benjamin Scheduled For Thursday 9:00 pm Dr. Arthur Benjamin is both a professor of mathematics and a magician. He has combined his two loves to create a dynamic presentation called "Mathemagics," suitable for all audiences, where he demonstrates and explains his secrets for performing rapid mental calculations faster than a calculator. Reader's Digest calls him "America's Best Math Whiz". He has presented his high energy talk on over a thousand occasions to audiences throughout the world. Dr. Benjamin has appeared on many television and radio programs, including: The Today Show, CNN, Amazing Discoveries! and National Public Radio. He has been profiled in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Scientific American, Discover Magazine, Omni Magazine, Esquire Magazine, People Magazine, and Reader's Digest.
Show: George Hrab/Greydon Square double-bill Scheduled for Friday 8:00 pm Join George Hrab and Greydon Square as they team up for an evening of music, humor, and skepticism. George Hrab (www.geologicrecords.net) has employed his musical talent and acerbic wit to produce many albums and videos, several of which are on YouTube (youtube.com/user/geologicrecords). Listen for yourself and see why George has become one of our most requested performers. Greydon Square's brand of free thought rap has been turning heads and raising eyebrows across the Internet, and now he'll ply his wares for you. We'll let him speak for himself at myspace.com/greydonsquare. A recent article about him proclaimed "Atheist Rapper-African American Hip-Hop Artist Shatters Stereotype Tackling Age Old Theological Positions in Unique Form of Rap." Don't miss this.
Full Schedule of events available Here