Canberra Skeptics Argos: March/April 2003

N.B. Keep the evening of Monday next (24th March) free (see below)

The third function for 2003

Those in the Wig and Pen on Monday 10th March had a most convivial evening. Discussion roved far and wide from the speed of light to quack remedies, from ???.. to ????., and more.

The fourth function for 2003

Those at the Discovery Centre on Thursday 12th March were entertained by Malcolm Gill's lucid exposition on what fire can do to various habitats and selected inhabitants thereof. This included, over refreshments afterwards, an account of how he coped with the fire attack on his own habitat (he lives in Percy Cres, Chapman).

The next function: Monday 24th March   NO CHARGE.

Social at Tidbinbilla Tracking Station, Discovery Drive. 6.00pm -7.30pm.

Daylight saving ends soon! Enjoy the last of the warm evenings. The road is open from both the Cotter end and the Point Hut Crossing end.

Car pool: those needing a lift or able to provide one please ring Vicki/Pete on 63964555.

EITHER bring your own everything for a Barbeque before the tour and talk at the Tracking station. Warning: the electric barbeque on site is slow, so a small portable from Revolve might be useful.

OR enjoy pizza and quiche for $10 at the Moon Rock Café. NB this must be pre-ordered with Pam on 62812190 before 10.00 am Monday 24th March

Monday 24th March  NO CHARGE

Glen Nagle will present a talk at 7.30 pm  "The ins and outs of space exploration
at Tidbinbilla Tracking Station, Discovery Drive (off Paddys River Road) (N.B. NOT at Mt Stromlo)

Glen Nagle is the Education and Public Outreach Coordinator at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) at Tidbinbilla. The Complex is a part of NASA's Deep Space Network, responsible for two-way communication between spacecraft exploring our Solar System. Glen has been responsible for the Visitor Centre at the CDSCC for the past 12 months, and has been redeveloping the museum exhibition and education activities provided by the Centre. Prior to coming to the CDSCC, he managed his own internet web design business, and provided science education services to school educators and students. His involvement in the domestic space science area has included being Executive Director of the National Space Society of Australia Ltd, National Secretary of the Australian Space Industry Chamber of Commerce, and was one of the original organisers of the bi-annual Australian Space Development Conferences. Glen has been a long time advocate of the space program, and has used this knowledge to promote and educate both industry and the public about the value of space science.

Glen's talk will include a brief tour of the Visitor Centre which includes highlights such as a;

Some points open for discussion include;

News from the Committee

The Committee met on March 10th. The program for the 2003 National Skeptics Convention (22nd to 24th August - write it in your diaries now!) to be held in Canberra is slowly coming together. We have a number of confirmed presenters but need more. There are three functions that we are organising for school kids during the Science Festival week. All schools Australia wide are to be notified about these in the very near future. They are:

The Convention proper will start on the evening of 22nd Aug with an open forum "Alternative remedies - the good the bad and the ugly" and then run over Sat and Sun with a dinner on the Sat evening.

The website designed by David Wilson is up and running and is viewable via the www.skeptics.com.au website.

We hope current members will be there at 6.00pm on Monday 24th March to welcome the following new members to the Canberra Skeptics.

Alan Wade, Kambah

Don Fletcher, O'Connor

Ken Hird, Hackett

Michael Evans

Sue Gibson, Queanbeyan

Trevor Gibson, Queanbeyan


Canberra Skeptics has agreed to run a public lunchtime forum (12.15-1.45pm) on Tuesday July 15th as part of a program organised by U3A in association with COTA and SCOA. This will be on Homoeopathy. The venue is Hughes Community Centre.

The next meeting of the Committee will be on ?.April. Please contact me by email, or phone me or Vicki on 6296 4555 if there are any issues you want raised at the meeting, if you wish to be deleted from our mailing list or if you know of someone who might wish to be added to it.

Ramblings from the President

The last edition of the Argos elicited from the readership the fact that "Argas is also a genus of ticks. The most common species is Argas persicus, a blood-sucking parasite that attacks chickens. Sounds like some people I know" (don't we all) from Bruce Halliday.  While David Vernon writes "I was the founding editor (along with Simon Brown) of The Argos from 1987 until 1993, so I am rather chuffed that you have kept the title (it was quite substantial in those days - about 8 pages printed).  I have a full set of copies somewhere in my bookcase at home, so I shall dig them up for you.  Those early days of the Skeptics in Canberra were a lot of fun. We had quite an active bunch of people (mostly from the ANU) who were more than willing to picket 'Alternative Health Fairs', attend 'healingcrusades' and do some ghost-busting".   David didn't mention fire walking but I bet they had a go at that too.

I have long been of the view that humans are, through natural selection, hard-wired to be fascinated with fire. Control of fire was probably one of the earliest of Homo sapiens' tools and certainly the most powerful. Those of you who were at Malcolm Gill's talk last week now appreciate how many 1kw electric bar heaters are needed to equate with different bush fire levels.

These days I guess the colour television probably is a substitute for the hearth, which could explain why in some establishments TVs are left on with nobody watching, but with eyes nevertheless flicking to the screen at frequent intervals. A German TV channel worked this out and has (or had) used a burning log fire as its station signal. Some years ago The Age's odd spot reported that one viewer had called the fire brigade because she thought her TV was on fire.

We have just had a Nectre Mega wood burner installed so that yours truly can continue his passion with playing with fire. As winter approaches the annual debate on wood heaters in Canberra will no doubt resurface in the Media. While the smoke may well be aggravating the greenhouse effect, I would be interested to know whether anyone has done the calculations on what leaving degradation of dead trees to termites (with the production of large amounts of methane) is likely to do to the climate. My understanding is that methane is worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.

Just as I started to write this piece the website http://www3.sympatico.ca/zoroastrian/fire.htm floated into my computer - clearly there is still a place for the paranormal in our Humble House. It seems a religious sect, the Zoroastrians, have a fascination with fire; they state "Fire, the provider of heat and light and the source of life and growth, was the center of all religious rituals of the ancient Indo-Iranians, and till this day, fire plays an important role in the religious ceremonies of the Hindus and Zoroastrians."  Those who were at Narendra Nayak's performance last year at the RSL will appreciate the impact the odd bit of flame and smoke can have on religious scams let alone a lecture, especially with the possible activation of sprinklers by smoke detectors of unknown sensitivity in mind.

Now the preoccupation of the ancients with fire etc can be gauged by a quick count of the times burn, fire and flame (plus their various suffixes) appear in the King James Version of the Bible. Unlike my father - an atheist who knew the KJV backwards and would delight in winding up proselytisers with counter quotes - for this I needed a search engine (at http://www.hti.umich.edu/k/kjv/simple.html). We find burn, fire and flame appear 771 and 681 and 51 respectively. While those other great human passions die, love, blood, death and kill appear less regularly (649, 610, 508, 491 and 255 respectively) with the basics of survival (bread, drink, fruit, meat, wine, sleep) appearing even less so (481, 445, 338, 333, 296 and 116 respectively).

The religion report this Wednesday (Radio National, 19th March) explored the possibility that George W Bush's little adventure in Iraq has more to do with his conversion to fundamental religion and his need for a crusade than much else. Which brings me back to the control of fire and its use as a powerful tool being an integral part of our evolution. I reckon the obsessed President of the US of A has been reading the wrong bits of his Bible and just likes playing with fire and human sacrifices. Let's hope the whole conflagration does not get out of control. Otherwise our most powerful tool - turned into weapons of mass destruction - might just turn heaven (853 mentions in the KJV) into hell (64 mentions).

Pete Griffith
President, Canberra Skeptics
20 Mar 2003
igriffit@bigpond.net.au
6296 4555

Canberra Skeptics Inc
Committee 2002-2003
Pete Griffith (President)
Peter Barrett (Vice President)
Vicki Moss (Secretary)
David Wilson (Treasurer)
Arno Mikli
Michael O'Rourke
Jennie Louise