Alternative medicines - from the perspective of a player in the pharmaceutical mainstream
Speaker: Dr Susan Walters
Time: 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Place: Lecture theatre, Innovations Building, Eggleston Rd, ANU
From a mainstream (evidence-based) perspective, this talk will discuss:
The speaker is a retired pharmacist who specialised in the quality of medicines. After a short period in the pharmaceutical industry, she spent the remainder of her career reviewing pre-market data on the quality and bioavailability of prescription medicines. The talk will conclude with a series of slides entitled: If I ruled the world, this is how alternative medicines would be regulated.
Issues which divide skeptics
Speaker: Dr Martin Bridgstock, Griffith University
Time: 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Place: Lecture Theatre 2, Manning Clark Centre, ANU
Belief in the paranormal, according to a wide range of polls and measures, hovers at about 80% of the Australian population. The Australian skeptics are a small network of people who keep demanding evidence for paranormal phenomena. They test dowsers and psychics, criticise creationists, and expose quackery in alternative medicine.
Despite all this activity, skeptics disagree on some fairly fundamental issues. What is the link between skepticism and atheism, if any? What should skeptics think about human-induced climate change? Should there be a national organisation, to which all Australian skeptics can belong? These are questions about which skeptics disagree sharply, and sometimes angrily.
In this talk, for the first time, a prominent skeptic tackles all of these issues head-on. The aim will not be to push a particular viewpoint, but to open up the issues for profitable thinking and discussion. By the end of the talk, you will know what the speaker thinks about the issues, and why, and you will also have the chance to articulate your own views.
Dr Martin Bridgstock, a Senior Lecturer at Griffith University, has been associated with the skeptical movement for more than 25 years. He runs the highly successful course Skepticism, Science and the Paranormal, which has won several teaching prizes. He is a former joint Australian Skeptic of the year, a consultant to CSI, and has also won the Australian Skeptics’ Prize for Critical Thinking. His skeptical book Beyond Belief was published by Cambridge University Press last year.
This event is an ANU Public Lecture and is made possible by a grant from National Science Week.
Canberra Skeptics and the Australian Science Foundation presented Skeptics in the Pub
Experiences of a science investigator:
how science can explain claims of the paranormal and other strange phenomena
Speaker: Richard Saunders
Time: 2.00 - 4.00 p.m.
Place: King O’Malley’s Irish Pub, 131 City Walk, Canberra City
Richard Saunders, half of the Mystery Investigators, will talk about his adventures investigating the paranormal here in Australia and some of the tricks of the trade he has picked up along the way.
Have you ever wanted to amaze family and friends with your 'mystical' power to make them stronger or give them more balance? Richard's demonstrations will show you how to fool them all. This is also your chance to test your ability to divine for water. Got what it takes? If so, there is a $100,000 prize waiting for you.
This fun-filled event promises to be full of laughter and learning. We may even get a visit from fellow Mystery Investigator, Dr Rachael Dunlop.
Richard Saunders is the author of over 30 books for children covering such topics as nature, magic, sports, and origami, and he has appeared on many kids' TV shows. In 2008 he was the Skeptical Judge on Channel 7's The One. He is one of Australia’s leading investigators into claims of the paranormal and the supernatural. A documentary maker, Richard recently produced the definitive DVD on the history of water divining in Australia.
This event was made possible by a generous grant from the National Science Week 2010.
Skepticism and the climate change debate
Speaker: N.G. Ware
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Lecture theatre, Innovations Building, Eggleston Rd, ANU
The question of climate change arouses passionate discussion with arguments from alarmists, activists, sceptics, [sic] and deniers. The scientific establishment finds itself in the middle of this spectrum of opinion and is embarrassed both by the excesses of the alarmists and the disinformation of the deniers. This talk will examine the evidence in the anthropogenic global warming debate from the viewpoint of the Skeptic. [sic]
The speaker is a retired chemical microanalyst and mineralogist. He has managed analytical laboratories in the UK and at the ANU and has developed novel spectrometric techniques.
How do we know when we are at war?
Speaker: Lieutenant-General Peter Leahy, AC
Time: 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Place: Lecture theatre, Innovations Building, Eggleston Rd, ANU
War is no longer clearly defined by state, size, scale, and soldiers in uniform. The old indicators of war - declaration, mobilisation, and large scale conflict between states - are no longer a reliable guide. Instead we have new indicators - undeclared, come as you are, among the people, asymmetric, against non-state actors, and involving all elements of national power. We are also trying to comprehend the security implications of new threats such as transnational criminals, climate change, and food, water and energy shortages. What do we make of the convergence of war and crime? Will these events lead to war or are they part of a larger war we have yet to comprehend?
There are limitations on what the military can achieve in this new type of war. Our politicians and national security community must adopt a more prominent role. We used to say that war was too important to be left to the Generals. We now need to say that war is too important not to involve the civilians.
Peter Leahy retired from the Army in July 2008 after a 37-year career as a soldier. As an infantry officer the focus of his career was with soldiers in command, training and staff appointments. He was fortunate enough to command at almost every level in the Army and to serve on exchange in Hong Kong with the Gurkhas and in the United States at the Army’s Command and General Staff College.
Peter concluded his career in the Army as the Chief of Army. He served in this appointment for 6 years, which was the longest period of service as Chief since General Harry Chauvel in the 1920s. His period of command was marked by the continuous global deployment of Australian soldiers on high-tempo, complex, and demanding combat operations. During his tenure as Chief of Army he was responsible for the rapid expansion and development of the Army to enable it to cope with the many changing demands of modern conflict. His focus was to provide a hardened and networked force with increased adaptability and flexibility.
Since leaving the Army Peter has joined the University of Canberra where he was appointed as a Professor and the foundation Director of the National Security Institute. Peter is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has been appointed to the Boards of Codan Pty Ltd and Electro Optic Systems Holdings Pty Ltd. He is a Director of the Kokoda Foundation and a member of the Defence South Australia Advisory Board.
Skeptical activism
Speaker: Eran Segev, President of Australian Skeptics (Sydney)
Time: 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Place: Lecture theatre, Innovations Building, Eggleston Rd, ANU
Various groups with a variety of agendas have all kinds of ideas about autism. Looking at their claims can be one step towards active skepticism.
Eran Segev is a father of 3 boys, an IT consultant, and the President of Australian Skeptics Inc (Sydney Skeptics).
Is bullshit just the opposite of truth?
A review of Frankfurt's On Bullshit, with implications for informatics
Speaker: Craig McDonald
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Lecture theatre, Innovations Building, Eggleston Rd, ANU
The author of the little book On Bullshit is Harry Frankfurt, an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. This book starts: "One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share". He argues that "we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, we have no theory". I want to argue that while Informatics theory, particularly Popper's* 3 worlds and the theory of reference (aka the correspondence theory of truth), does provide some conceptual context within which to place his analysis (and the entertaining works of Don Watson), it doesn't account for it and an extension to Popper's 3 worlds is needed.
* The Austro-British philosopher Karl Popper died in 1994. He had taught during the 1940s at Canterbury University College, Christchurch, New Zealand (as it then was), but was passed over for the chair of philosophy at Sydney University. From 1949 he was professor of logic and scientific method at the University of London. His Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963) deals with 'falsificationism' as an account of scientific method. He discussed the idea of "3 worlds" in his Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach (1972; revised edition, 1979).
Craig McDonald is Associate Professor of Information Systems at the University of Canberra.
Terrorism conspiracy theories and the 1978 Sydney Hilton bombing, Lockerbie, 9/11, and the London 7/7 bombings
Speaker: Adjunct Professor Clive Williams
Time: 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Place: Finkel Theatre, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Building 131, Garran Rd, ANU
An ANU Public Lecture presented by Canberra Skeptics and the ANU Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.
Terrorism has been an increasingly visible part of life for the last 40 years, and following 9/11, one of the defining features of the early 21st century. There are, however, many who believe that terrorist acts are the result of insidious covert governmental organisations seeking to control the people they claim to be acting on behalf of.
Adjunct Professor Clive Williams from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the ANU will examine the nature of conspiracy theories, particularly in relation to terrorist incidents - including 9/11. Discover the covert role played by aliens, neo-cons, shape shifters, Israeli agents, spin doctors, or neo-Nazis in the significant events that have shaped our world.
Clive Williams has a career background as an officer in the Australian Intelligence Corps, which included a number of overseas intelligence appointments. After leaving the Army in 1981, he pursued a civilian career in Defence Intelligence, working mainly on transnational issues. He was a Chevening scholar at the War Studies Department, King's College, London, in 1987. He has worked and lectured internationally on terrorism-related issues since 1980, and started running terrorism courses at the ANU in 1996. He left Defence in 2002, and has since run terrorism and national security-related Masters course electives at the ANU and a number of Australian and overseas universities. He became an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism (PICT) at Macquarie University in 2006. He also became a Visiting Professor at the School of Human and Social Sciences (HASS) of the University of NSW at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in 2006. He is a member of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators (IABTI), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers (AIPIO), and an Associate of the International Academy of Investigative Psychology (AIAIP).
The lecture on YouTube.
Fighting the scammers: how the ACCC tackles scams
Speaker: Therese Dupé
Time: 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Place: Lecture theatre, Innovations Building, Eggleston Rd, ANU
Every year thousands of Australians fall victims to all manner of scams and scammers. The victims come from all walks of life and all have lost substantial amounts of money - in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Therese Dupé will be speaking about how the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) deals with scams and scammers. Along the way she will discuss the background of the ACCC and provide an overview of scams and why they succeed. She will also provide information about the SCAMwatch website and the Australian Consumer Fraud Taskforce.
Therese Dupé is the Assistant Director of Enforcement Operations for the ACT and National Projects, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. She has been in the ACCC for 10 years, 7 of them dealing with scams.
N.B.: any media enquiries about SCAMwatch should be directed to the ACCC. Click here to go to their Web site.
To order a free copy of The Little Black Book of Scams, click here.
For events and activities of previous years, click here.