I’ve made another appearance on the Pod Delusion, this time talking about the return to Twitter of Ricky Gervais. I briefly go over what I consider to be the pros and cons about his reappearance on the Twitter scene. On one hand, he come be a great force for atheism, as he writes very well … [Read more…]
This coming Tuesday, October 11th, I’ll be giving my “Scientific Method: Uses and Abuses” talk at Liverpool Cafe Scientifique. It’s held at the Hope Street Hotel, and will be kicking off at 7:30pm. I believe anyone who turns up gets 10% off at the bar! In the talk I will cover the scientific method itself, … [Read more…]
Recently Project Barnum, a group campaigning against psychics, was launched by RI podcast host Hayley Stevens. I totally agree with the aims of the group, and I’ve signed their petition calling for theatres to consider the evidence and think twice before allowing a psychic to perform at their venue. There’s been some debate in the … [Read more…]
Last week, I gave a talk on flags at Ignite Liverpool 7. It’s an exciting format, with each speaker given 5 minutes and 20 slides to talk about whatever they want. The slides progress automatically every fifteen seconds, so you don’t have control and it’s very easy to lose your place. I can thoroughly recommend … [Read more…]
Last night saw a fantastic double header of speaking events in Liverpool, kicking off with Ignite 7 and ending with Stuart Ritchie giving a critical analysis of pornography at the Merseyside Skeptics Society. The Ignite format was new to me, each speaker gets 5 minutes to give a 20-slide slide show on any subject that … [Read more…]
This Thursday (September 15th 2011) I’ll be giving a 5 minute talk on flags (yes, flags) at Ignite Liverpool. The event is upstairs at Leaf on Bold Street, starting at 6pm. I’ve not been to one of these events before, but it sounds like great fun. Lots of speakers have 5 minutes and 20 slides … [Read more…]
Following Channel 4’s screening of Four Lions at the weekend, I thought I’d contribute a report to the Pod Delusion on the film and it’s surrounding controversy. You can listen to it here. As well as myself, the show features reports on the 50p tax rate, abortion counselling, racism and synchotrons, and there is an … [Read more…]
This evening (Sunday September 4th) Four Lions, the début film from director Chris Morris, gets it first UK screening on Channel 4. The film, which tells the story of four bumbling Jihadists from Sheffield, caused controversy when it was first released in cinemas, and the Daily Mail thinks the screening will cause outrage because it’s … [Read more…]
The #ten23 hashtag on Twitter is currently full of homeopathy skeptics currently up in arms over a Daily Mail article claiming that the EU are to spend 2 million euro on researching the use of homeopathy in livestock farming. However, rather than being another piece of Mail right-wing euro-bashing, it is in fact true. Fernando Frias kindly … [Read more…]
A few months ago, the Wirral Primary Care Trust (PCT) made the extremely reasonable decision to cease funding for homeopathy. This was done at a meeting of the Professional Executive Committee (PEC), which followed a public consultation (which I attended). John Cook of Northwest Friends of Homeopathy presented the case for homeopathy in both the … [Read more…]