From small things, shall bigger things grow - per ardua ad astra!
First, a great many thanks to James Randi, one of our first readers of the Skeptics of Carlos Circle, who pointed out that the Dr Paul Willis’ interview has misspelled José Alvarez’s name! Yike! Thanks, ‘dad of skepticism’, much appreciated. Don’t wait up, we’ve got a party to go to!
Thus, with a quick edit and wonderful (and damned fast considering the short time-frame!) whip-around of some of the most proactive young, upcoming, fast-talking, hard-writing, keen-thinking and critical Australians around – we now prepare for your reading and reflecting pleasure, the very first Skeptics of
Carlos Blog Circle!
To break out from the cynical, curmudgeonly and (quite frankly unfair) stereotype, we’re checking out what blog entries meet the circle’s criteria – and encourage them to be willing to move beyond the ‘blogosphere’.
The Australian Skeptic Website is looking for writers and the Australian Skeptics Journal is open for contributions – so are a great many university and college campus magazines and street-press publications. We actively encourage contributors and writers who promote critical thinking to consider submitting to such publications, to get the word out.
But first! Let’s get this started with just a handful of what you can find out there for the first turn of the blog circle:
The South Australian Skeptics are active – online! The fine and beautiful City of Skeptics does indeed exist and they’re not afraid to blog it. They are also providing a range of items, from the contribution of the recently departed Arthur C. Clarke – with Dave, My Mind Is Going (“…the hope that computing machines become less useless and more like a person, warts and all) -
They also feature a more Australian-flavoured piece called ‘Earth hour’ Stupidity… yeah, we got it too, over here. *sigh*. Thankfully, Nigel Dobson-Keeffe and the South Australian Skeptics won’t let it go unquestioned.
Speaking of flavour, take a taste of another side of the country – The Griffith University Society for Skeptics and Freethinkers. Like many great and flourishing critical thinking youth groups worldwide, they network on Facebook and Meetup.com, hold pub nights and lectures and get the intellectual juices flowing! On their blog, they present A Summary of Intelligent Design Lecture with Thomas E Woodward:
One week before the official registration of this group my university campus Griffith University Gold Coast Campus was “fortunate” enough to be a stop over on the East coast tour of the self proclaimed premier historian of the Intelligent Design movement, Thomas E Woodward…
Want more? Read more! And thus get reading this next item by what can only be described as truly a howler by Australian Skeptic and living lady legend Dr Karen Stollznow – aka The Skepbitch:
I have currently been trying to arrange a visit with a pet psychic, to investigate this as a belief and practice. An internet search revealed Diane London – pet psychic. I never thought I’d need proof of the claim before I could even ask for proof of the claim, but here’s what happened…
Her entry on Litigious Pet Psychics will get you begging for more. So to speak! Er, or not. Look, just read it, you won’t regret it.
Naon Tiotami from Homologous Legs shows you’re never too young to question what on earth the Institution of Creation Research is trying to make people believe – and speaks out, with Answers in Genesis: Evolution and Chemistry:
If water was the only thing needed to split proteins into amino acids, we would all be dead. Some intelligent design that would be…
Want intelligence? Energetic and fiesty Skelliot of Skelliot’s Weblog is radio-ga-ga about what podcasts have to offer. Not only for the next generation but the current, with a review round-up of Our New Messiah – Podcast Run-down!
Podblack Blog supports the networking spirit with Superstition Gets Your Goat – with additional Perth Atheist Meetup too!
And Say We Did Blog brings in the firepower, with a two-parter critical reflection on the problems separatist sects pose for the societies in which they exist – in particular, the problem of how these sects should be dealt with when they are suspected of breaking the laws of a country. The keen mind dissects the case of the Yearning For Zion ranch in Texas, and the Exclusive Brethren in Australia – with Something’s Wrong in The Village: Issues with Separatist Sects - Part One and Part Two.
It’s been brilliant, it’s been DARN fast turn-around and I cannot say just how much I appreciate these people taking part. If you’re an Australian blogger with a keen mind and a more than willing approach to getting the word out – remember that the next round will be hosted here on the 13th of June.
Don’t forget Skelliot’s new project (as seen in the lovely logo at the top of the page) – the Young Australian Skeptics Website. This is the first site to proactively outreach to the new wave of young people, those who are burgeoning philosophers, cool cats, dark knights, slinky students, questioning warriors and just plain unable to keep it quiet anymore on what weird stuff there is out there.
See you next month and watch out for updates – and pass on the word. Because it’s up to you too.
