Speakers: András G Pintér, Annika Harrison, Claire Klingenberg, Pontus Böckman!

https://bond.zoom.us/j/96246943879
Meeting ID: 962 4694 3879

This month’s work is the 2008 book „Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts About Alternative Medicine“ by Edzard Ernst and Simon Singh. This book is a pillar of skeptical thinking and a must-read for anybody concerned about alt-med.

Trick or Treatment evaluates the scientific evidence for acupuncture, homeopathy, herbal medicine, and chiropractic, and briefly covers 36 other treatments. It finds that the scientific evidence for these alternative treatments is generally lacking. Homeopathy is concluded to be completely ineffective: „It’s nothing but a placebo, despite what homeopaths say“.

For this talk, Kato will be drawing from two of his more recent books: The God Business and the Death of Reason in Africa (2021), and: Modern Humanism, and How to make it work for the People.

He will explore the history of religion in Africa, both traditional religions and those imported by colonists, and the effect that religion has had on the lives and the thinking of people in Uganda and further afield throughout Africa.

Kato will also talk about his view of practical Humanism, how it should not be restricted to conferences and lecture theatres, but be taken to the grassroots where it can be seen in action. Modern Humanism is more concerned with activism and there are several ways through which Humanism can be made more relevant

Kato Mukasa is a Ugandan lawyer; he is the Executive Director of Legal Relief Frontiers LTD, a non governmental organization which provides Legal Relief services to the poor in Uganda. Over the years in his practice as a lawyer he has handled human rights cases which involve supporting LGBTQ rights, abused children, rape victims and victims of land evictions among others. He has espoused these views on local media and has a number of published books, such as „Challenging the myths about homosexuality“.

Kato is also a humanist in a country where only 0.2% of the population identify as non-religious. Having had a keen interest in religion in his early teens, he was eventually expelled from his Catholic high school for refusing to attend mass.

He is the chair of Uganda Humanist Association the oldest Humanist organization in Africa, and a former member of the board of directors of the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

In 2007 he co-founded the Humanist Association for Leadership, Equity and Accountability to promote critical thinking and human rights. Its monthly campus discussions are attended by people of faith and non-believers. It also sponsors students and assists young mothers in acquiring entrepreneurship skills, among other programs. He is the founding director of Pearl Vocational Training College and Pearl Mukasa Memorial High School, schools which provide education to the marginalized urban and rural poor, young mothers and needy students.
Sadly it is perhaps not surprising that views such as these, in a very traditional and religious country, have made him the target of attacks.

We are surrounded by stickiness. From the bike tyre that grips the road and the Post-it note that’s become an office mainstay, to your non-stick frying pan, and the ice that transforms waterways each winter. All of these things are controlled by tiny forces that operate on and between surfaces, with friction playing the leading role. In this talk, Laurie will explore the role of friction in both the manufactured and natural worlds. She will describe how our understanding of surface science, and our ability to manipulate stickiness, have developed throughout history, transforming the world around us. If you’ve ever wondered how the ancient Egyptians could move colossal stone blocks, or why earthquakes happen, you might find the answers here.

This talk is inspired by Laurie’s latest book, ‘Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces’. Published by Bloomsbury in the UK and Europe on 11 November 2021, it will reach other markets in early 2022.

Laurie Winkless is an Irish physicist and author. After a physics degree and a masters in space science, she joined the UK’s National Physical Laboratory as a research scientist, specialising in functional materials. Now based in New Zealand, Laurie has been communicating science to the public for 15 years. Since leaving the lab, she has worked with scientific institutes, engineering companies, universities, and astronauts, amongst others. Her writing has featured in outlets including Forbes, Wired, and Esquire, and she appeared in The Times magazine as a leading light in STEM. Laurie’s first book was Science and the City. Her second, Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces, is available now (in hardcopy, e-book and audio formats) from all good bookshops.

What’s the harm in people believing in psychics and mediums? It’s all fun and games, isn’t it?
Well, until you lose your life savings to a con-artist, and your life is destroyed. In this talk, Rob Palmer will reveal the consequences – up to personal financial ruin – that frequently befall the vulnerable victims of these predators. The presentation will provide real-world examples of this type of crime, show why these beliefs are so prevalent in the 21st century, explain why it is easy for most anyone to become a victim, and discuss the battle being waged by skeptical activists to fight this largely unrecognized scourge.

When 2020 brought with it a new strain of coronavirus, the world was plunged into confusion and uncertainty. While most people accepted the realities of the virus, little white stickers began to appear in public around the world claiming COVID-19 was a hoax concocted by the governments of the world to instil fear into their people, as a pretext for introducing new, permanent totalitarian laws. The graffiti was part of a co-ordinated grassroots campaign by a group calling itself The White Rose, urging members of the public to join their encrypted messaging channels to learn more about what was really going on.

So that’s what Michael Marshall, full-time skeptical investigator and activist, did. After spending months undercover in the messaging app Telegram, he has reported on the various conspiracy theories spread by the White Rose, and how groups used the Covid crisis to radicalise vaccine hesitant members of the public into a dangerous ecosystem of misinformation and extremism.

Michael Marshall is the Project Director of the Good Thinking Society, Editor of The Skeptic, and President of the Merseyside Skeptics Society. He regularly speaks with proponents of pseudoscience for the Be Reasonable podcast, and presents investigative reporting on the Skeptics with a K podcast.

His work has seen him organising international homeopathy protests, going undercover to expose psychics and quack medics, and co-founding the popular QED conference. He has lectured at universities across the world on the role of the media, and has written for the Guardian, The Times, New Scientist and the New Statesman.

Skeptics in the Pub Online

You have a choice. There’s the long way: boring, repetitive, hard work. Or the shortcut: a cunning, less intuitive path to your goal. In this talk, Marcus is going to be giving you the map to the fantastic shortcuts that mathematics has come up with over the last two thousand years to get to you to your destination in the most efficient and fastest manner. Shortcuts have enabled so much of human progress, whether in constructing the first cities around the Euphrates 5,000 years ago, using calculus to determine the scale of the universe or in writing today’s algorithms that help us find a new life partner. Based on my new book, Thinking Better is a celebration of mathematics as the art of the shortcut.

Marcus du Sautoy is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. He is author of seven books including his most recent book Thinking Better: the Art of the Shortcut. He has also published a play I is a Strange Loop which was performed at the Barbican in London in which he was also lead actor. He has presented numerous radio and TV series including a four part landmark TV series for the BBC called The Story of Maths. He works extensively with a range of arts organisations bringing science alive for the public from The Royal Opera House to the Glastonbury Festival. He received an OBE for services to science in the 2010 New Year’s Honours List and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016.

Přednášející:  Úžasná a jedinečná Susan Gerbic

Thomas John Flanagan, známý spíše jako Manhattanské médium nebo Jasnovidec z bezpečnostního pásu, byl zapojen do akce známé jako „Operace Pizza Roll“, která vyústila v článek v New York Times.

Během lockdownu se Flanagan stejně jako ostatní média věnoval výkladům na Zoomu. Susan Gerbic se většiny těchto akcí účastnila a zaznamenávala je, a která se později stala „Operací Lemon Meringue“.

Při posledním pátrání Susan zjistila, že Flanagan začal pořádat čtení pro děti ve věku od pěti do dvanácti let. Susan se s vámi podělí o toto poslední píchnutí nazvané „Operation Onion Ring“.

Susan Gerbicová, wikipedistka, je spoluzakladatelkou Monterey County Skeptics a samozvanou skeptickou narkomankou. Susan je také zakladatelkou projektu Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW). Je členkou Committee for Skeptical Inquiry a píše pro něj sloupek Guerilla Skepticism.

Program:
6:30 – 7:00: Setkání a přivítání; kouzelnický trik
7:00 – 8:00: Přednáška
8:00 – do: Obecná diskuse

Přiveďte kamaráda a pomozte nám oslavit kritické myšlení v rámci mezinárodně oblíbeného formátu Skeptics in the Pub! Přijďte s otevřenou, ale kritickou myslí, vědomím vlastních předsudků a úctou k bližním.

Nastražte uši a připojení!

Wikipedie je známá jako mezinárodní encyklopedie. Je to ale také celosvětová síť s tajnými členy, která se snaží ovlivnit lidstvo? Nebo je to webové fórum, kde může člověk zveřejnit svůj názor? Jak Wikipedie funguje? A jak můžete něco změnit?
Dokonce i mezi skeptiky se na Wikipedii stále pohlíží s nadhledem. Je spolehlivá? Existují mechanismy a procesy, které by Wikipedii učinily validnější a chráněnější?
Na všechny tyto a další otázky odpoví prezentace The Skeptics in the Pub Online.
Annika Harrison je členkou německé organizace skeptiků GWUP. Je také hrdou členkou European Skeptics Podcast (ESP) a píše rozhovory a reportáže pro online sekci Skeptical Inquirer. V roce 2017 se připojila ke Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia a nejraději nahrává zvukové úvody, které dále obohacují stránky týkající se skepticismu.
Profesně působí jako učitelka angličtiny a dějepisu na všeobecné škole poblíž Kolína nad Rýnem v Německu. V soukromí je vdaná a je matkou jednoho dítěte.

https://sitp.online/show/the-woos-and-woes-of-wikipedia-an-opportunity-for-skeptical-activism-or-a-conspiratory-club-annika-harrison

Skeptics In The Pub online

The 1700s was a period when the people of England seemed to be especially gullible. They believed a woman could give birth to rabbits; a man could climb inside a two pint bottle and sing inside it; and where a blond-haired European could write a book claiming that he was born in Taiwan. These hoaxes weren’t just written about extensively in newspapers and journals but also brilliantly and amusingly depicted by satirical artists such as William Hogarth and James Gillray. Based on his recently published book, Ian demonstrates how 18th century hoaxes are memorable not only for their imaginative nature but also because of the differing motives of the tricksters.

Ian Keable obtained a first-class degree from the University of Oxford in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, qualified as a chartered accountant and then became a professional magician. A member of The Magic Circle with gold star, he has won several awards for his unique brand of comedy magic. Keable has also performed on television and has written and presented programmes for BBC Radio. An accredited lecturer for The Arts Society, he gives talks on magic history, cartoons and eighteenth-century hoaxes. Keable’s other publications include Stand-Up: A Professional Guide to Comedy Magic and Charles Dickens Magician: Conjuring in Life, Letters and Literature. He lives in London.