Skeptic Zoners

Yes, there’s a new video on the Skeptic Zone page – and you can hear presenters Richard Saunders and Dr Rachie on Sydney Radio! Here’s the details, which you can catch world-wide: www.2GB.com – Sydney Talkback Radio!

8pm – 9pm on Saturday nights Sydney time – here’s the live web-cam for the studio they’ll be recording in. Expect to see Richard be particularly flamboyant (has he packed his feather boa?) and Rachie laughing her laugh for the sake of science and reason.

Here’s the equivalent times, world-wide for Saturday 8pm -

Melbourne time: 8pm

Saturday Perth time: 5pm

Saturday Adelaide: 7.30pm

Saturday LA time: 2am Saturday (sorry!!)

Denver time: 3am (sorry!!)

Atlanta time: 5am (sorry!!)

New York time: 5am (sorry!!)

London time: 10am

Toronto time: 5am (sorry!!)

Auckland time: 10pm Saturday

For the really-early birds, hope you can catch us especially!! We’ll be Twittering to alert you and hope you send in some feedback to support Skepticism on radio!

Our Facebook Page!

Hello to all our listeners and thanks so much for being a part of making the show fun and informative! By the way – seen all the vodcast films we’ve got on the Facebook page? Go check out Dr Rachie standing on George Hrab and Richard Saunders helping out with the ‘Twitter Song’ at Dragon*Con!

Recently we’ve done two great episodes, #50 and #51 – with insights and information on a number of pro-skeptic activist groups. They’ve included skeptic-parents, skeptics in the pub (both new and established, world-wide), teachers, blog-groups and radio shows… and much more! If you’d like to have your group, blog, idea promoted – DO let us know!

There’s more time left in the year to get your message out. There may be another survey for our listeners on the way, to check that we’re still getting you the interviews and programming that you want.

Speaking of which – send in feedback, pop in a review on iTunes and let us know what else you’d like us to tackle. There’s a great many forthcoming interviews from Dr Rachie’s travels (she’s heading back to the USA in November, so do keep in touch!) and the ever-refreshing Think Tank for your listening palate. There’ll also be Skeptic Zone members on other podcast interview shows, so here’s hoping you enjoy supporting other programs too.

(P.S – The Australian National Skeptics Convention… not long now! See you there!!)

Firstly, Skeptic North is the first blog to have a truly pan-Canadian scope. They have a great team of Canadian skeptic authors from across the country and from a wide-range of backgrounds, both academic and professional. Their site is skepticnorth.com and you should check out the blog interview with Junior Skeptic’s Daniel Loxton, by Skeptically Speaking host Desiree Schell.

The Skeptic Zone is a big supporter of the Parsec award winning 365 Days of Astronomy. Reports include May 14th with Tiffany Day, Kylie Sturgess on July 1st and now Richard Saunders has contributed an episode for September 23rd. The 365 Days of astronomy podcast hope to continue the show in 2010. Head to their site at 365daysofastronomy.org, for more news about donating and contributing further content.

Right now TAM London is happening – and the Rise of Atheism is on the horizon. The Global Convention is held in Melbourne from  12-14 March 2010 and tickets are now selling at atheistconvention.org.au. It will feature Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers, Robyn Williams, Phillip Adams and many more. The Australian Skeptics National convention is happening even sooner, in Brisbane at the University of Queensland from November 27-29. The Australian skeptics website at skeptics.com.au has further details.

The New York Skeptics, who just held the NECCSS conference where Dr Rachie presented, now has a blog too. The Gotham Skeptics Blog is found at nycskeptics.org/blog – and anyone around the world can be a supporter of the New York City skeptics.

Finally, Grassroots Skeptics at ohioskeptic.com/grassrootsskeptics/ – they’re all about activism and also looking for contributing writers. Sign up for news and information on their site.

Thanks to the awesome talents of Perth art director Rikki Burns and photographer Thomas Perry, a skeptically-themed photoshoot starring the Skeptic Zone team members Richard Saunders and Dr Rachael Dunlop was completed this week in Perth! The Skeptic Zone podcast have now produced talks for both the University of Melbourne / Young Australian Skeptics and the University of Western Australia Atheist and Agnostic Society. We’re all looking forward to the final product and you can see a behind-the-scenes video hosted on YouTube, filmed by Skeptic Zone reporter Kylie Sturgess.

I think I can let these pictures pretty much tell the main story.

Yes, that’s Richard Saunders. He has a habit of photographing everything with his phone. And after he’s photographed it? I get an email and Dr Rachie gets an email. And we usually try to fire back some sharp comment about the food he’s got a snap of, or the scenery or how he’s clearly got himself into another pickle of some sort.

Today, however, he appears to have some exciting news for us! What could that be on page nine of today’s

Australian newspaper?

Oh, look! That’s me! I has paper too! Must be a national publication, because he’s in Sydney and I’m in Perth.

Get your copy if you can and you can check out the official site at www.skeptics.com.au.

Today it was revealed that the AVN will be investigated by the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) for alleged breaches of the Public Health Act of 1993. In response, the AVN released a statement reproduced below.

It is interesting to note that Meryl Dorey states that she does not consider herself or the AVN to be “health practitioners” in “colloquial” terms. The manner in which Meryl perceives the AVN is irrelevant in this respect, since the law is quite specific about what defines a “health practitioner”.

This is explained in the complaint, reproduced below;

Meryl also claims that she neither she nor the AVN “dispense advice”, despite her extensive lectures, seminars and webinars conducted on a regular basis where she tells attendees that vaccines cause the illness they’re supposed to prevent, that vaccination is not proven or scientific, and that parents who read a few articles about vaccination will know more about the subject than a peadiatrician”.

See Fuzztwin’s blog for more of the transcript to this recent webinar.

According to the statement from Meryl, she has until the end of August to address the complaints from the HCCC.

If you would like to read the entire complaint in pdf form, click here.

Help out the show! The Skeptic Zone Survey is to help us touch base with our demographic and learn more about what you like about the show and what we can improve for your listening enjoyment.

It’s not a very long survey, promise! Just three quick demographic questions and a short overview of what we have on offer and what things you like and would like to see more of. Since the length of the show is something we alternate every week (one slightly over an hour / one slightly under), we’re keen to see how much of that is influencing our listeners’ enjoyment. The The Skeptic Zone Survey is right here.

Don’t forget, a big part of the Skeptic Zone involves networking across Australia and internationally.  A repeat of the lectures done in Melbourne will be heading to Perth on the 8th August at the University of Western Australia, with big thanks to the UWA Atheist and Agnostic Society and the WA Humanists. There will also be a get-together, thanks to the Perth Atheists, on the 9th August at the Flying Scotsman.

Check out the Perth in the Zone Flyer (pdf) on the Skeptic Zone site.

Skeptic Spaghetti Monster Comes to Perth!

We’ve got a wonderful opportunity – and we need your help, Skeptic Zone listeners!

Earlier this year, Richard and Rachael presented at the University of Melbourne, thanks to the generous patronage of the Young Australian Skeptics and their first-class podcast ‘The Pseudo Scientists‘.

Now we’d like to go across country to help bring skepticism to a town that can really benefit from a skeptical-boost!

The University of Western Australia is holding an Open Day in early August (August 9th) and the plan is to have a presentation on the 8th August – thanks to the efforts of the Atheists and Agnostics Society of UWA.

A repeat performance of the highly-successful Richard Saunders‘ talk ‘Skepticism 101‘ and the dedicated Dr Rachael Dunlop with  ‘Dr Rachie Reports: Adventures of a Scientist in an Alternative Medicine World‘ is on the cards – along with a possible student-led activity beforehand, to help raise the profile of the Atheist and Agnostic Society on campus. It’ll be fun, it’ll be informative and it’ll be a don’t-miss show!

In addition, we’re hoping to make an appearance at the Perth Atheists‘ regular pub-event, with an impromptu ‘Think Tank’ session. We’re hoping that can be on the Sunday, 9th August for a late lunch. In conjunction with the WA Humanist Society, it’ll be a great opportunity for everyone to get to know each other and be a part of the show!

That’s where we need donations to help make this happen!

• First – flights over! From Sydney to Perth (and back, as much as we’d love to keep them here!)
• There’s the venue hire at UWA – with about $100 to get space at UWA, for not only the Skeptic Zone presentation but to showcase the Atheist and Agnostic society who will present too.

We’re hoping to keep the door-fees for the UWA event low (as a student myself, I can relate!) by gold-coin donation at the door (every bit helps though) – so please help by pledging at Paypal:

Australian Dollars donation - Paypal – also on the Skeptic Zone site here

US Dollars donation – Paypal

If you’re in Sydney, I know that there’s also an opportunity to chip in via the The Sydney Sceptics Meetup Group – and we’ll keep people tuned in for other events at UWA and online that will help raise funds for this event.

Please, send in ideas, pop the dates in your calendar – and donate to make it happen! 

Thanks to Dahli of YAS for the photo!

Adventures in Melbourne and meeting The Young Australian Skeptics! You can find their site at http://www.youngausskeptics.com/ and do subscribe to their podcast too!

A Grain of Salt – With Eran Segev on (W)Holistic Health Care

Dr Rachie Reports With Dr Rachael Dunlop on radionics, homeopathy/ezcema, the libel court case and Simon Singh (learn more here!)

THE THINK TANK – Richard Saunders, Dr Rachael Dunlop, Dianne, Eran Segev and Dave the Happy Singer

Don’t forget - Those in ADELAIDE – please support Simon Singh. Attend his lecture at Elder Hall, Sunday July 12th, 10:30-11:15 am.

Head to the world-renown podcast 365 Days of Astronomy – to hear a Day present!

Date: May 14, 2009

Title: A Tour of Sydney Observatory

Description: A tour of Sydney Observatory with reporter Tiffany Day and Geoff Wyatt, the Senior Astronomy Educator. We learn about the history and research of the Observatory.

Bio: The Skeptic Zone Podcast – The Podcast from Australia for Science and Reason, produced by Richard Saunders is Australia’s leading skeptical podcast with reports from around the world.