Archive for January, 2020
Skeptics with a K: Episode #268
Posted by Mike in Podcast, Skeptics with a K on January 23, 2020
Placebo creams, reviving drips, and magical contagion. Plus chewing gum, stray heads, and trampolines. Tossing in a Berocca, it’s Skeptics with a K.
Mixed and edited by Morgan Clarke.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:17:35 — 53.4MB)
Skeptics with a K: Episode #267
Posted by Mike in Podcast, Skeptics with a K on January 9, 2020
Golden tickets, talking to the press, butt-chugging, and skeptical investigations. Plus Star Wars, cardboard crowns, and crashing into a lake. It’s a new year, and a new you, from Skeptics with a K.
Mixed and edited by Morgan Clarke.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02:44 — 43.2MB)
Natalie Bennett – Universal Basic Income
Posted by Laurie Phillips in Skeptics in the Pub on January 7, 2020
When: Thursday, January 16th 2020, 7.30pm – 11.00pm
Where: The Casa Bar, 29 Hope Street
Natalie Bennett was the leader of the Green Party from 2012-2016. Over that time she and the party became known as champions of the policy of universal basic income – a guarantee that people’s basic needs will be met by an unconditional payment to meet their essential needs.
She argues that it is a guarantee of the basic human right to life, a way of providing people with the chance to use their talents well, and ends benefit traps. No one would be left penniless, as far too many are being left now by zero-hours contracts and swingeing benefit sanctions. And it might mean that sewer cleaners are paid more than bankers – as they probably should be.
Trials are underway now in Finland, Holland, Canada, the US and Kenya – it is an idea that is catching on fast, in part because of fears about the impact of automation on jobs.
More information:
Daniel Artus – Vaccine Hesitancy, Confidence and Empathy
Posted by Laurie Phillips in Skeptics in the Pub on January 6, 2020
When: Thursday, February 20th 2020, 7.30pm – 11.00pm
Where: The Casa Bar, 29 Hope Street
Vaccines are a commonly held to be a cornerstone of global public heath, preventing sickness at enormous scale and even eliminating or near-eliminating deadly or debilitating diseases. What, then, leads many people to reject or doubt the safety of a medical procedure that many easily accept?
This talk explores these issues by looking at two large-scale fluctuations in vaccine uptake. Looking at both the Nigerian polio vaccine boycott in 2003 and recent concerns over the safety of the HPV vaccine, both scenarios highlight the complexity of drivers behind different vaccine positionalities.