Science, Superstitions and Skeptical Life

What do I do after enjoying a great session of the 2011 #Ig Nobels (a live-Tweet marathon where I surprisingly managed to get the attention of Tim Minchin, who is currently dealing with a cold while on tour and was helpfully distracted by the Coffee-shop Opera breaks -- get well soon, Tim!)?

Today, I’m heading off into town in order to do the final checks on students who are attending Work Experience Week, involving on-site and hands-on involvement with careers that they well might make their own some day. Although, to be honest, my work experience once involved a detective agency and I didn’t end up in that career, but it was brilliant fun regardless. It’s nearly the school holidays and I’m looking forward to the break.

Here’s three things to keep you intrigued while I’m gone: firstly, I didn’t announce it on the blog, but I donated both audio and funding to the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast recently!

September 23rd: A Star Party With A Noisy Astronomer – An Interview With Nicole Gugliucci. Nicole’s site can be found at www.NoisyAstronomer.com.

That episode will also feature on the Token Skeptic podcast today, so even if you don’t subscribe to ’365′ (and you should, it’s fantastic!), you can download it off my show and enjoy the interview with a really talented and inspirational astronomer.

The 365 Days of Astronomy podcast is seeking both contributors and funding, so if you can help out, please do! I’m going to see if I can make one more interview-episode before the end of the year, but you can do a essay, an investigation, a lecture, all sorts of things to help out with content. Even just sending a few dollars their way will help maintain the show, one that has been nominated a number of times and even won a Parsec Award for podcasting.

Secondly -- Long- Live The Book Shop -- Embiggen Books Re-Opens October 7th!

Now, I’ve just finished an article for the CSICOP website, which mentioned in passing my habit of recording things for short films…

…such as this with fake Australians; this with Minties being squashed in front of a audience; this one heading into the far north of Western Australia and driving through an out-of-control fire; this one with an Impossible Triangle in a traffic island in Claisebrook; torturing Americans at Dragon*Con with musk sticks and this travel diary in London with Peter Pan…

…even one with dozens of Dachshunds in Parliament…

…okay, perhaps all my filming is a little overwhelming at times, but it’s a fun record of things I do and I appear to have a great audience for my travel documentaries. Thanks, subscribers!

There’s also times that I don’t film things. My first visit to Embiggen Books was such a time, because it was damaged by a really awful flood due to the apartments above and I thought it was such a shame to take photos or film it when it wasn’t at its very best. I really, really hope to make it back there and do one of my films in the future -- and now it seems that this will happen!

On October 7th, the shop will reopen! If you can make it, do so and support the best rationalist bookstore in Melbourne and probably the world…  mind, I haven’t done any tours of other rationalist bookstores, but I’m sure that it measures right up there with the very best. Go prove me right and check it out when it’s open next month!

Finally -- check out this article by Ben Radford -- not only a great wake-up call for those who blame the media for horror stories-hysteria, but because my blog-post on Dungeons and Dragons gets a mention! Yay!

Self-Claimed Vampire/Werewolf Accused of Murder -- Benjamin Radford, Discovery News:

Already there is talk about a “vampire cult” in this case, and as often happens, entertainment media is blamed. The news media loves stories like this, but the fact is that 99.9 percent of kids — even those fascinated by vampires — have a pretty good grasp on reality.

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