Pontianak at KM 42 Bukit Tinggi, towards Kuantan

Recently, there’s this video of a ‘pontianak’ circulating around the Malaysian web sphere, especially (where else?) Facebook.  A ‘pontianak’ is, according to local folklore, the restless spirit of a woman who died in childbirth.  She is usually depicted with long, flowing hair and a white robe…kind of a typical garb for most restless spirits/creatures around the world, eh?  Go ahead and research if you wish to.  I’ve heard enough stories of pontianaks while growing up in good old Malaysia.

What followed was this video:

Now, is this a vampire? I think not. Check the way the the figure moves as the car drives past at 11seconds. It looks to me like it’s actually suspended from above, swaying in the wind from the on-rushing car. This would explain the way the figure rises in a totally smooth way, why there’s no movement of any of the limbs or the head during the video, and the smooth descent too. In all, looks like a hoax to me, suspended on a wire.

What do you think?

Update: Righteous Indignation listener Non has confirmed this is indeed a fake:

It is fake. Why? The youtube comments will lead you to the production clips for the “Momok the movie” video clip called “MOMOK JPA ROAD TRIP to karak hell”. Start watching at 1:20ish. Link (also added to my name):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZkd5n6prV4

Youtube user angelusDragul was the one who pointed out that it was for the movie.

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(I’d just like to point out that this story is sponsored by Schadenfreude – for all your laughing-at-people-who’ve-gotten-their-comeuppance needs)

This is actually a story that’s been covered in many other places, including by Steve Novella, and I wasn’t going to add to that… but then I saw a few people on Twitter actively saying they were looking forward to what I had to say about it, so how could I disappoint?

So, three guesses which lovable Liverpudlian fraud I’m going to talk about now? That’s right – Joe ‘just popping to your toilet‘ Power. And, to be clear, I can say fraud, as Joe’s served time in the past for fraud. Oh, and ABH, of course. Nice, friendly Joe Power. I’m not saying any of his act involves fraud at all. But then again, I don’t need to, given the fact that Joe Power’s career is going to pieces so fast that people are getting hit by the bullshit shrapnel.

That’s because Joe, as has been extensively covered, had an Edinburgh fringe show throughout the month of August. Things kicked off on a pretty bad foot, you’ll remember, at the Assembly gala – a curtain-opener of an event where fringe acts go on and do 5 minutes of material to demo their show – where Joe Power seemed curiously Powerless.

As the BBC blog reports, he made 2 big mistakes – the first was playing to a room full of people there to see comedy, not bullshit. They didn’t like it when they got the latter, so they provided the former by booing and heckling. The second mistake was to do with the target Joe picked out… looking around the room, he began to connect with a spirit, saying:

“I see Pertoski, Prokoski, Petreski…”, he began.

Of course, in the audience, right by the front was London PR guru Mark Borkowski… who’s book The Fame Formula actually covered the relationship between psychics and publishers, and who’d had a show at Edinburgh the previous year. So, something of a recognisable face then, metres from the front of the audience. Who Joe just happened to try and connect with… massively against Borkowsky’s wishes. As Mark sat stony-faced trying not to get involved, Joe ‘The Power’ Power continued, insisting on “a father in the spirit world, trying to say sorry to his two sons”. Which was a huge miss. Cue a shitstorm of heckling and a quick retreat from the stage.

So, how did Joe ‘does my sister live near here’ Power respond? He blamed the skeptics. After all, he’s had trouble with skeptics before…

“Since the Derren Brown programme I have had threats and had to move home”.

Funny, the only reference he’s ever made to threats turned out to be a lie about me, which the police dismissed out of hand.

“So I was expecting the sceptics at the Assembly launch night but I didn’t think it would be as bad as it was because anything people do should be respected”

That’s right, Joe ‘skeptics are paedophiles’ Power believes that anything people do should be respected. Oh the irony. Oh the fail.

“I only had five minutes to go on stage, say who I am and do a quick connection with someone in the audience. If you are a comedian you are alright because you know what you are going to say but mine’s a live act. I went home that night and told my wife it had gone badly. It is good to have criticism but that kind of bad behaviour should not happen in a venue. My mistake was that I didn’t have the lights on so I couldn’t see the recipient in the audience. I need response and dialogue to keep the energy.”

So Joe needs to be able to see people to pick up on their energy? That’s funny, his website sells psychic reading over the phone at £1.50 per minute, and via text message at the rate of up to £3 per reply (more on this in a future blog).

Still, that’s what happens when Joe ‘John Lennon wants peace’ Power plays a room full of ‘skeptics’ – for which you can read people who don’t believe he’s talking to the dead, which is pretty much anyone who’s ever seen him pretend to talk to the dead. But how does his luck fare in front of a more forgiving and believing, and more well-lit audience? Well, the reviews weren’t so good… with many skeptical or comic blogs tearing Joe’s stage act to pieces.

However, most interesting in my opinion is the review in The Edinburgh Spotlight, who actually gave him enough benefit of the doubt to send a supposedly “REAL” medium to see his act and pass verdict – so we’re talking here about someone who actually believes SOMEONE can do what Joe claims to do – and the results were equally scathing:

Joe doesn’t look to any spirit world as he channels messages, he looks direct into the audience. In a Scouse voice, he tells the audience to put up their hands if anything sounds familiar and the audience are here in the hope that they will get a message from a loved one. Joe’s starting message is to a row of ‘older’ women in the front and he asks if their parents are in the spirit world. Without meaning to be rude about their ages, even I could have told you that their parents were no longer in this world.

The women reply no to all the information he is relaying to them, with a brief confirmation when he says “five” which equates to the amount of brothers one of the relatives had. He channels some distant in-law and mentions a young man, the number 62 and yellow flowers which are all met with a negative response from the woman who is willing a message from the spirit world.

This routine continues another couple of times with different audience members, once with the subject of two miscarriages. Joe channels the energy he is receiving and asks if the lady concerned had tests afterwards, before moving on after this ’success’. Again, this is common sense and did not convince the audience he was receiving any information from the spirit world.

Joe didn’t give up. He continued with generic questions to audience members and the next to ‘receive messages’ is a man who told him it meant nothing to over a dozen questions Joe channelled. At one point a joke is attempted to be cracked to ease the tension in the room, but Joe just comes across as an abrupt man who is not entirely convincing.

Just when the accuracy rate was plummeting downwards, he received a message for one half of our review team. He asks about a family member in bad health, which is confirmed and if there is a birthday soon – which there is – but that’s about as successful as it gets.

I had to laugh when he asked one volunteer if she had connections in America, to which she replied, “no, but I live in Hong Kong”. His following message from the spirit world was: “I see you living in a tall building apartment” – yes, indeed the lady did, along with the millions of others in the city.

A German man was then chosen and needed a little help with translation from his friend, but again, rather than dealing with this in a light-hearted manner, Joe ploughed on abrasively asking if he lived on a cliff, or somewhere with a view. The man stated he lived in a little flat in the middle of the city, the polar opposite

So, how did this believer sum up Joe ‘I can’t see people’s cars if I’m speaking’ Power?

Joe thanked the audience for his time and announced he would be in the courtyard selling books and available for private readings. After his performance, I completely by-passed the stall and discussed the show with other audience members who had been picked, who concluded that their money would have been better spent elsewhere.

Joe claims to be ’The Man Who Sees Dead People’ and despite going in completely open minded, neither of us were convinced by his medium skills, but there is a little something in his psychic abilities. Our spiritualist medium concluded with a comment that couldn’t possibly be printed but it’s safe to say your money would be better spent elsewhere during the Fringe.

So, not only are the skeptics against you, Joe Power, but even the believers don’t believe. Once you lose the believers, I’m not sure what you have left.

Once again, this story was brought to you in association with our sponsors ‘Schadenfreude’. Schadenfreude – available from any good medium – try some today!

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Just the other week, I touched on the amazing story of Robin Alexis, the psychic who claims to be able to psychically shoehorn the spirit of Michael Jackson into the unborn foetus of a couple of strangers. You’d think that would be as ridiculous as psychics can get, right?

Well, you’d be entirely wrong. I present to you exhibit A – Lisa Greene, and exhibit B – Ellen Kohn. Both are perfect examples of their trade, and both featured in newspapers in the last couple of weeks. Let’s take Lisa first.

As Newsweek asked us:

What’s your Pooch Thinking?

Sorry, should have mentioned – Lisa is a pet psychic. Which doesn’t mean she’s a psychic you keep in a cage and feed dead mice to now and then, she’s a psychic who specialises in contacting pets. Which makes me wonder if Newsweek should have changed their title from ‘what’s your pooch thinking’ to ‘what’s our editor thinking?’

“Horses are the most gossipy,” says Lisa Greene, a pet psychic from Houston. “They’ll always tell me everything that’s going on in the barn. Snakes usually have a pretty bizarre sense of humor. And rodents like to spell for me.”

Recently on the schedule: a reading for a whale.

I’d call this whole thing batshit crazy, but Lisa would probably point out that bats are in no way crazy and they actually most love to test her with fiendish logical brainteasers.

Greene, who has worked as a pet psychic for just over 10 years, may, in a busy week, receive anywhere from 15 to 40 calls. “Not all the animals want to talk to me,” she says. “I have some animals flip me the paw.” She considers her services a luxury item, with rates of $120 for an hourlong telephone consultation during which she speaks with the owner, who asks her questions to communicate psychically to the animal, and $240 for in-home/in-barn treatment.

Now, let’s pause for a moment – and that’s not a reference to animals flipping her the paw – and consider what she makes here. For her to come see you, she makes $4 per minute, or around $1 every 15 seconds, to tell you vague and vacuous thoughts your animal had (one animal psychic is quoted in the article as having astoundingly communicated that a dog wanted to ‘see Grandma’ because ‘Grandma feeds me eggs’). But not only that, she can psychically connect with your animal OVER THE PHONE. And what if you’re skeptical, or want support? She deals with that on her website PetPerceptions.com:

“You are welcome to have someone with you during the reading, both in person or over the phone, but please limit the number to two people. Lisa is able to connect with your animals through your energy, so if you have many other people with you, it may be their animals that come through and not yours. Also, if you have someone who isn’t interested in the reading, negative about it or even just having a bad day, their energy will affect your reading.”

Oh, and what’s more:

“During the reading, please let your animals be free to do what makes them comfortable. THEY DO NOT HAVE TO BE NEAR YOU OR THE PHONE FOR A GREAT READING!”

Any ideas how any of this works? Well, here’s a clue, from Lisa’s tips on gaining a great reading:

“Lisa likes to work with specific questions as you get more out of a session when you ask what you want to know. Make a list of questions for each animal. They can be as specific as you like, but please don’t have a specific answer in mind as the answer may not be what you think! If you have certain issues you want to concentrate on, please mention it during the initial phone call, but understand that Lisa will never start a session with problems. Another point to consider is that Lisa cannot change your animals behavior.”

AND

“If you have health concerns with your pet, please just let her know that you’d like her to scan for problems. Normally if there is a health concern that’s really bothering your animal right then, Lisa will pick up on it before she even calls you. She will normally not pick up on health issues or disabilities that your animals are used to. She only picks up on what’s bothering them now and what is coming up.”

AND

“You never know who’s going to come through in a session with Lisa! It’s been known to happen that an animal or person in spirit comes through to relay messages to you. Know that if they expend the energy to come through, there is a reason for it.”

And this is beautiful:

“Lisa does ask that you, the client, pay attention to the time spent in session. During her reading, it’s very hard for her to concentrate on both your animals and the time, so it’s up to you to wind it up in the time you have allotted to spend with your animals. You are always in control of how long a session lasts and you are only charged for the time spent in session.”

Translation – if we go over the time alloted, you’re paying. And Lisa will do what she can to make that happen.

So, that’s exhibit A. What of Ellen Kohn, of Enlightened Animals.com? Well, she was recently featured on AOL News…

“Animal Psychic Searches for Reincarnated Pets”

Yeah.

“Pet psychics are serious about their jobs. Dead serious. In fact, to find a missing pet, pet psychics like Ellen Kohn will turn to reincarnation — looking into an animals’ past lives — for clues to where it might be.

This was the case last year when Christine Horowitz lost her 13-year-old golden shepherd, Dina, to cancer. Distraught, Horowitz remembered Kohn, who had mentioned contacting animals in the afterlife during a previous consultation about her mother’s missing cat.”

I have worked with other animal communicators, but I didn’t know any that could find pets reincarnated,” Horowitz said. “I trusted [Kohn], but I was like, ‘How would we find this puppy? Thousands are born every day.’”

And as pet psychics know, there’s one born every minute… enter Ellen Kohn:

“When Kohn began channeling the deceased dog and asked Horowitz about Dina putting her paws on her shoulders, Horowitz was sold — she and Dina would often dance around, always with Dina’s paws on her shoulders.

Sure enough, Kohn kept talking with Dina’s spirit, who led her to a picture on Petfinder.com of a puppy that jumped out at her, and Horowitz eagerly visited Dina’s possible incarnation.

Nine months later, Horowitz is sure this new dog, a foxhound-mix named Annie, is Dina.

“Even my husband, who normally doesn’t believe these things, is like, ‘Oh that’s what Dina use to do,’” Horowitz explained.

New dog does stuff the old dog used to do – hardly a surprise. For one thing, the range of potential doggy activities really isn’t that broad. For another thing, the owners had 9 months of treating this dog like their dead dog, plus 9 months of confirmation bias and animal training. I’m not surprised in the slightest that the two dogs have some traits that could be seen to be alike…

“The animal doesn’t even have to be present for Kohn to chat them up.

After “grounding” herself with a Kabbalistic prayer, getting her prayer stone (a quartz) and touching base with her animal spirit guides, she can be shown a photo or even just talk to the pet owner to make a connection.

Kohn then silently projects messages to the pet, all while taking notes on the words, pictures or feelings the pet sends back.”

How did Kohn find her amazing skills?

“Kohn met a healing touch professional who encouraged her to work with animals. Kohn trained with mentors, first learning to do energy healing and then eventually began communicating when the animals she was working on began to talk to her, telling her what ailed them.

Kohn says talking to deceased pets ended up being a lot like talking to the living.”

I’d agree with this, in a way – talking to dead pets IS a lot like talking to living pets, in that you can do it all you like and the pets are never going to talk back to you.

So, again, I headed over to her website… and buried on the contacts page is Ellen’s advice on how to get the conversation going:

“For interspecies communication, please click on the “Let’s Chat” button to familiarize yourself with the general guidelines I use when we first begin together.”

This opens a PDF, which reads:

“This is an example of some of the general questions that I might ask your animal to get the communication flowing. Then, specific questions might be asked for you or your animal’s needs or concerns.”

Want to hear the questions that help her get the conversation going?

Are you willing to communicate with me?

Share with me what your favorite meal is (or favorite snacks).

Tell me what your favorite activities are.

Share with me your dislikes.

Tell me who your best friend is.

I’d like to know where your favorite place in the house is.

Tell me what your home (barn, outside area for farm animals) looks like.

I’d like to know how you feel physically.

Share with me what you like about being a dog (cat, horse, etc).

Tell me if there is anything you’d like to change about your environment.

I’d like to know what your purpose in life is with your person.

Share with me if there is anything you want me to tell your person.

Tell me if there is anything additional that your person can do for you.

Share with me your age.

Share with me anything about your past you would like me (and your person) to know

I can imagine, once Ellen has answers to all of those, it’s actually a pretty easy conversation from that point onwards…

Amidst the accusations of cyberman-dressing-denialism aimed at Hayley Stevens, who graciously supplied the photo, there were some good answers this week.

Lard supplied this disconcertingly real parody of the kinds of letters paranormal investigators must hate receiving:

“hi my name is Angela and im sending yuou this photo becuase i like yoiur site and your alwats have good ghost pictures this picture was takem by my mother as a picture of some nice greenry and plants she thought was nice but in the window is a ghost figure that wasnot there when the picture was taken.The house where the picture was taken was where some one may have died once and there was no one in the house wehn the picture was took. you can see the ghost is wearing old silver cloths like they did in olded times and a old hat or something.”

Spelling mistakes most likely intended.

Lard came very close to winning, but the verisimilitude of the woo in ‘Angela”s letter unfortunately just made us depressed, so we had to cheer ourselves up with a more upbeat caption (never let it be said that we’re fickle).

In the end, we decided to hand the trophy to Lucas Randall for this entry:

“Shit – did I just hear The Doctor?”

Well done, Lucas.

So, from cybermen to crustaceans now, as we bring you this photograph of Merseyside Skeptic and InKredulous host, Andy Wilson, enthusiastically showing off a lobster:

What should be the caption for the picture below?

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Many readers of this site will be familiar with Joseph Mercola. He’s the shiny-toothed, perma-tanned quack who spat out his dummy in spectacular fashion when people decided Dr Rachie of the Australian Skeptics knew more about genuine health advice than he did, culminating in her Shorty Award win back in March. Full details, including Mercola’s spectacular meltdown, can be found at Skepticsbook.com. (Spoiler: Mercola describes Rachie as ‘Big Pharma’s wet dream’. No comment necessary from me I think).

Mercola is an odd figure, it’s fair to say, and one not above our ridicule, not least for having a website which looks like it’s set up by someone satirising the persona of a snake oil salesman. I mean, his white-toothed grin shines out from every inch of the site, with an expression which screams: ‘I was in an accident which wasn’t my fault, and Shyster & Shyster got me over £10 000 compensation for my imaginary whiplash!’ What’s more, his ‘Meet Dr Mercola’ page is actually titled ‘Why trust me?’. I defy anyone to beat that.

Still, not content with spitting out the dummy at awesome Australians, Mercola also appears to do a sideline in strawmen, as this wonderful cartoon ‘The Town Of Allopath‘ (original story by Mike ‘Health Danger’ Adams) attests. The less I say about it, the less I’ll spoil the surprise (for ‘surprise‘ read ‘mind-boggling, face-palming incomprehension‘) so all I’ll say is that the Youtube blurb inaccurately describes it as:

The video parodies the drug companies and conventional healthcare system and many are furious about the truth being exposed. Hopefully the humour will open some eyes.

Oh, and that Mercola – so enraged at those greedy doctors who keep you ill just so they can make all of their lurid profits – lives in a mansion with a pool and it’s own private island (sourced from public records). Enjoy!

There are also some show related factoids as well as the full length version of our theme tune, Blues Walk by Lou Donaldson.

Thanks for listening and look out for a rip roaring episode 7

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It’s been a little while since the furore over the pro-homeopathy EDMs and David ‘hand in the till’ Tredinnick‘s one-quack crusade to have homeopathy recognised as the greatest thing since succussed bread, but one name that stood out to me on the roll-call of signatories and seconders was that of Luciana Berger MP, and it was a name I couldn’t let lie.

You see, Luciana is MP for Wavertree, Liverpool – not more than a couple of miles from my home, and the constituency in which I’ve spent much of my 9 years in Liverpool. What’s more, Luciana seems to be a pretty reasonable MP – she’s in favour of equal rights for women, equality for those of all sexualities, against all forms of racial discrimination and generally appears to be a fairly-well-informed MP, certainly when compared to Mr Tredinnick, whose EDMs she’s signed.

It struck me that rather than based on ideology, Luciana’s support for Tredinnick’s pet pills might well be a simple case of her not knowing what homeopathy is really about – which is relatively understandable, given the high percentage of the public who think ‘homeopathy’ is just another term for ‘herbal medicine’ and aren’t acquainted with the scientific literature.

Clearly, then, the best approach would be to politely offer to engage over the issues and present the science, rather than berate Luciana with the intensity and single-mindedness we ought to save for those whose belief in homeopathy is blindly ideological (Tredinnick, yes, we mean you). To this end, on the 11th of August I took it upon myself as representative of the 10:23 Campaign and the Merseyside Skeptics Society – a pro-science group with significant numbers in her very constituency – to contact Luciana and offer her our side of the story.

She hasn’t yet responded, which is what has prompted me to share this letter with the MSS readers, to not only convey what I believe to be the best way to engage with those who may not fully understand what homeopathy is, and also to prompt Luciana into the response I sincerely hope she is willing to provide. To reiterate – I don’t believe she deserves abuse, or indeed anger, but wish to simply open the lines of dialogue to put forward the science on homeopathy. Perhaps when given the chance to hear what homeopathy is, and why it’s implausible, the evident common-sense Luciana displays in other policies will win out on the subject of the sugar pills. The full letter is provided below.

Dear Luciana

May I first of all offer my congratulations on much of the work you have taken part in whilst an MP. I’m glad to see a local MP supporting gay rights, fighting child abuse and child abusers, campaigning for the equal rights of women and supporting the value of the arts. All of these policies I find to be excellent, and supported by both good reason and good conscience.

However, I must admit to being a little disappointed at what appears to be the only real blip on your recent record – your support for NHS funding of homeopathy, and support for evidence put forward by those who sell it. It’s this point, unfortunately, that I’m writing to contest – amongst the sensible and reasonable policies you support, this one stands out. As a health campaigner in your city (I am a founding member of the Merseyside Skeptics Society, and our ’10:23 Campaign’ earlier in the year set out to raise awareness of homeopathy, the science, the evidence and the dangers), I thought it best to engage with you directly, rather than criticise you unhelpfully from afar.

I can understand where you might be coming from: many people see appeals by doctors, pharmacists, scientists and pharmacologists to remove something from the NHS as the ordinary patient ‘losing’ something. I know patient choice was recently cited by the Government as the most important factor in what gets funded on the NHS, placed ahead of effectiveness even. This I find to be a baffling position – for the Government to promote a pill based specifically on the fact that it doesn’t work (a fact accepted without contention in the recent response to the Science and Technology Committee report) but that it should be available for choice alone seems to be a remarkably strange position to take, and one open to all manner of extrapolations. If effectiveness is no longer a concern, then the argument used to justify the funding of homeopathy can be applied to all manner of other disproven therapies – Reiki, voodoo, blood-letting and the casting out of demons, for example.

While the above may seem a glib extrapolation, it is in fact sound: by promoting choice ahead of usefulness, the very foundations of modern medicine are upturned, with potentially disastrous results. While homeopathic pills – being chemically and literally identical to unprepared blank sugar pills – are not intrinsically dangerous in themselves, the implicit reliance upon them to the abandonment of real medicine is incredibly dangerous. Examples are not hard to find – the death at 4 months old of Gloria Thomas from treatable eczema, the recent colon cancer death of Penelope Dingle, the studies conducted in Kenya by members of the UK-based Society of Homeopaths into using homeopathic pills to attempt to treat AIDS and malaria. People die when directed at placebo pills over real, proven medicine.

To clarify, I contact you with this not to berate you, but to understand your position and open dialogue. My suspicion is that you may not entirely acquainted with the literature and history of homeopathy – indeed, this is far from a crime, as we discovered in researching prior to starting the 10:23 Campaign that more than 80% of people questioned are not able to define homeopathy, and are inclined to believe it is an alternative modality akin to herbalism. This lack of clarity in the population is almost certainly behind the continuing support the treatments receive, and I suspect it’s also behind the support this system receives in parliament.

I urge you to engage with the literature on homeopathy, to acquaint yourself with what is involved in making the pills, and the ludicrous nature of this practice. A ‘layman’s terms’ explanation can be found at (http://www.1023.org.uk/what-is-homeopathy.php) with an explanation of the objections to homeopathy here (http://www.1023.org.uk/why-you-cant-trust-homeopathy.php).

In a time of economic belt-tightening, and where science-literacy is falling in the face of assaults from many different pressure groups, I feel this is one particular area where common sense can prevail. To this end, I would be more than willing to spend some time face-to-face discussing these issues with you, in order to best put forward the scientific side of the debate.

Yours sincerely
Michael Marshall
Merseyside Skeptics Society / QED
http://www.qedcon.org
http://www.merseysideskeptics.org.uk

I will update you all should I receive a reply.

‘QED: Question. Explore. Discover.’ proudly announces 9 of the spectacular speakers who are taking to the stage in front of 500 skeptics and fans of science in The Piccadilly Hotel, Manchester (UK) on the 5th and 6th of February, 2011.

In addition to George Hrab’s unique abilities as host, the following exciting and original speakers span an eclectic, diverse line-up covering issues such as alternative medicine and health, religion, media, conspiracy theories, scams, psychology and the sciences: a body of topics and personalities that will convince and energize all skeptics and critical thinkers:

Given the recent controversy around faith schools including anti-science and anti-evolution in their curriculums, Eugenie Scott, Executive Director of the US National Center for Science Education, is a perfect voice of critical reason on some of the most pressing issues in the UK today.

Jon Ronson is the former, sometime keyboard player in Frank Sidebottom’s band, manager of The Man from Delmonte and more recently an investigative journalist and documentary maker, with fame both nationally and internationally. His work includes The Men Who Stare At Goats, a book, documentary and most recently a hugely successful Hollywood film that charts Jon’s experiences with surreal elements of the US Army. At QED Jon will be revealing never-before-seen material from his upcoming book.

Co-host of the recent C4 web series The Science of Scams, Kat Akingbade is a passionate communicator of science and educator in the public arena whose history has included posts at Oxford University, The World Health Organisation as well as working with the BBC for both TV and radio.

Bruce Hood, director of the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre, is a well-known skeptic and psychologist whose work with superstitions led to the publication of Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable and his most recent work The Science of Superstition: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs.

The co-founder and twice editor of The Skeptic magazine, blogger and journalist Wendy Grossman is an exciting addition to the festival from the founding of the skeptical movement in the UK. Speaking about ‘policy-based evidence’, Wendy will to show the danger of letting ideology lead the research.

Director of both BAFTA nominated Taking Liberties and the 2009 tour-de-force Starsuckers, Chris Atkins is a clear voice in accessibly exposing how the public are manipulated through the real-world motivations of the media in creating and perpetuating news and celebrity. As the perpetrator of the recent ‘Urban Fox Hunter’ hoax, Chris demonstrated the ease by which the national and international media can be fooled.

Next up: Juggling. Or, specifically, science and mathematics explained by Colin Wright via the medium of juggling. This is a unique talk, comically covering what are often thought of as dull subjects in an incredibly engaging and enjoyable way. Having been around the world and beloved by all who see it, now it’s time for QED!

Simon Singh is the particle physicist and former producer of Tomorrow’s World who has published several outstanding books, including Fermat’s Last Theorum, The Code Book and Big Bang. These excellent works have recently been outshone by the legal maelstrom that surrounded his work with Edzard Ernst in Trick or Treatment and the Guardian article that developed those themes with regard to chiropractic: Beware The Spinal Trap. After almost losing his house in the lottery of a libel trial and touring the country to campaign for libel reform, Simon is taking to our main stage in February – to talk about the subjects he’s passionate about, putting aside the horrors of libel!

Last but not by no means least, is the star of 3 science series on BBC TV during 2010 Jim Al-Khalili. His easy style and clear explanations are making science and the history of science, including Islam’s major, but often overlooked influence, ever more accessible to both young and old.

The above list is enough to sate the needs of any hungry rationalist, while the bar will take care of their thirst… but this newly established feature of the skeptical and science festival calendar has one more, unique feature to introduce to the thousands of people who are already keenly following what QED has to offer: The amazing price.

• Standard: £99
• Students: £75
• Gala Dinner with Celebrity Special Guests: £45

QED is affordable by all, easily accessible from every part of the country by road, rail or air and, even with the cost at an incredibly low level, it will raise a significant sum for two amazing causes that are much in the minds of anyone with an interest in science, rationalism and skepticism: Sense About Science and the National Autism Society.

Tickets can be purchased from the QED website from: http://www.qedcon.org/tickets/

Colin: Duuuude.

Mike: Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuude.

Thanks to Lene Taylor for that one.

This week’s picture comes courtesy of Hayley Stevens of the Righteous Indignation podcast. You may need to look closely at this one.

What should be the caption for the picture below?