Launceston Skeptics

02/04/2026

This discussion highlights the danger that disinformation brings to our society. Nordic countries are proactively taking on the challenge to counteract disinformation. The recently retired Australian Electoral Commisioner joins this discussion and gives examples of attempts to derail Autalian democracy.
Vital listening for Skeptics and our role in educating the public in thinking critically.

Misinformation, disinformation, deep fakes, false news — do you feel confident spotting them? They’re doing real harm to our relationships, our communities, our health, even to the future health of our democracy. New research has found 73% of Australians believe disinformation will be a major th...

15/03/2026

The generation of fake scientific credentials and research papers has been reported on for a few years now. There is some new research from Northwest University USA on the scale of this problem which shows it is getting worse. There are semi-criminal gangs operating 'paper mills' producing fake scientific papers, selling authorships, and manipulating journals to mass-publish fraudulent research.
How do Universities and real Research Institutions counter this problem?

A sweeping new study from Northwestern University reveals that scientific fraud is no longer just the work of a few rogue researchers—it has evolved into a global, organized enterprise. By analyzing massive datasets of publications, retractions, and editorial records, researchers uncovered network...

16/02/2026

Something to be concerned about.
Christian fundamentalist Charlie Kirk's 'Turning Point' organisation is expanding in Australia. Encouraged by Nigel Farage of the UK's Reform party, the organisation here wants to "persue rightwing issues including “mass migration”, net zero, trans issues, the persecution of Christians and the fear that western culture will be replaced."
Turning Point Australia aims to establish chapters across the country, including in high schools and universities.
This article in The Guardian elaborates on the situation. It also offers hope in that Australia is more resistant to such fundamentalism and Australian youth less religious than their cohort in he USA.

Emboldened by major successes in the US and UK, the conservative Christian organisation Turning Point has its sights set on Australia’s political ecosystem

02/12/2025

Are you a Skeptic who enjoys musicals and/or movies? This talk might interest you...

Science has advanced enormously in the past 500 years, guided by experimental tests of theory and practice. In that same time, science teaching and education—guided primarily by tradition and dogma—has remained largely medieval. Carl Wieman will discuss research from university classrooms that r...

22/11/2025

The US Health Secretary, Robert Kennedy Jnr, contradicts science and orders the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) to update its website to say that the statement 'vaccinations do not cause autism' is not evidence-based.
To see the CDC in action, watch the star-studded 2011 movie 'Contagion', made in consultation with the CDC.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/21/rfk-jr-cdc-vaccine-autism
In 2019 the measles epidemic in Samoa killed over eighty people (mostly children) was linked to Robert F Kennedy’s statements on the measles vaccine. Robert F Kennedy Jr’s anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense bolstered a local Samoan anti-vaccine movement which had emerged in response to the 2018 deaths of two children after vaccine administration errors. The anti-vaccine movement misrepresented the vaccine itself as the cause of death, leading to a significant decrease in vaccination rates.

Canada now has over 5,000 cases of measles where there were almost none in previous years. This is due to declining vaccination rates in the USA and the spead of measles there.

US health secretary said he told agency to update website to claim the fact vaccines do not cause autism is not evidence based

23/10/2025

There is an inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups happening in Victoria right now. One proposition is that here be a “consumer law model” under which groups would be required to publish a statement of beliefs and their expectations of members. Members, in turn, would have protection against deceptive conduct.
Lex de Man, a former detective who investigated 'the Family' in the 1980s, put it bluntly: “Tell me the definition of religion. Tell me a definition of a cult. Some would say they would be very close.”

Inquiry hears of boom in cult activity as coercive groups promise recruits ‘simple answers to complex problems’

19/10/2025

There is little doubt that the relentless technological race we humans have become obsessed with has no winning line, and that this unconsidered, unregulated and ever accelerating race can only end in a crash.
Not only that, but we've handed the steering wheel of human progress to an unlicenced, inexperienced driver, AI.
Our best bet for survival is to take control and take our foot off the accelerator. Then, instead of delegating control of our destiny, reclaim it, and concentrate on developing our own wisdom as our individual and collective paramount task. Now is the opportunity, possibly the last and final opportunity to avoid calamity and build a better world. This article is a signpost pointing in that direction.

All of us, no matter what our circumstances, have the ability to be more wise, more just, more courageous and more moderate

17/10/2025

There have been 11,668 cases of measles reported across 10 countries in North and Latin America. This is a 34-fold increase in the number of cases reported in the North American region this year.

The disease was eliminated across the Americas in 2024, but urgent vaccination drives are now under way as cases rise from Mexico to Bolivia after outbreaks farther north

13/10/2025

Beware! We are reliably informed that this SCAM health proponent is currently being advertised in Launceston health food shops and alternative lifestyle locations. Barbara ONeill has no qualifications yet provides information to vulnerable people like pregnant mothers and cancer sufferers which is dangerous and may cause death. O'Neill has been banned by health authorities from doing this but continues regardless.
Read this article for more details and how O'Neill herself has been used by other unscrupulous people for financial advantage.

Australian Barbara O’Neill’s ‘natural self-healing’ remedies found a certain audience through her own efforts. But her image has run wild thanks to unaffiliated groups exploiting her name on social media

16/07/2025

Your Launceston Skeptics editor has gone walkabout, in case you hadn't noticed! The journey has been rather random, and he has been following his nose and unhelpful signposts such as this one as to where he goes!
After a couple of months travel he has just caught up with himself in Istanbul. So, with a week or so to laze around in the kasbah there is time to catch up on some messaging.
There are still a couple of months to go before your errant editor is likely to return, Tassie seasonal weather being relevant to the return date!
There maybe a newsletter or two if your editor can manage it, but with plenty of distractions out in the big wide world they will probably continue to be as sparse as they have been the last few months.
This means that meetings will not resume until October at the earliest, on the third Thursday, 16th Oct. All the best until then!

16/07/2025

This weekend is the centenary anniversary of the Scopes Trial. The event is being commemorated by a Centennial Conference, hosted by the Center for Inquiry (CFI) and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). The historic Scopes “Monkey Trial,” was a landmark case in 1925 that pitted biblical literalism against evolutionary science and argued whether American schools would be places of science education or religious indoctrination.
You can read about it here: https://centerforinquiry.org/scopes-trial-centennial-conference