15 January 2012

Canberra Skeptics Lecture: Diagnosis by “Dr Google”

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A Canberra Skeptics Lecture
Speaker: Dr. Rachael Dunlop
Date: Wednesday 15th February 2012
Time: 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Place: Optus Lecture Theatre, CSIRO Discovery Science Centre,
Clunies Ross Street Acton ACT 2601

Free Admission

With so much information proliferating on the internet and no mechanisms in place to check for accuracy, how can consumers distinguish what is right and what is not? This is particularly important when it comes to health information, since 1 in 2 of us now “self-diagnose” and 2 in 3 research our medications on the web. Using the example of vaccination information, Dr Rachael Dunlop sifts through the quagmire of Google and reveals conspiracies involving “Big Pharma”, a New World Order with Lizard People, chemtrails, and a plethora of misleading information. In a time when many parts of the world are experiencing as resurgence in communicable diseases, Rachael offers some tricks and tips for navigating the “bottomless pit of misinformation” that is health information on the internet.

Dr Rachael Dunlop PhD is a medical researcher at the Heart Research Institute Sydney, Vice President of Australian Skeptics, a reporter for the Skeptic Zone podcast, blogs at the Skeptics Book of Pooh Pooh and a member of Mystery Investigators science show for kids.

Dinner will follow the lecture (venue tbc). To RSVP for dinner please email: mail@canberraskeptics.org.au
For further information about Canberra Skeptics please visit our website:
http://www.canberraskeptics.org.au/

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i don’t believe this event will proceed

Gungahlin Al said :

On the Antivax campaigners, see this news today:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-16/whooping-cough-north-queensland/3774096

Would this be the same group of people who brought us Bob Katter?

GeneralMonash7:11 am 16 Jan 12

People should just teach their kids to question everything and filter the bulls***

justin heywood11:20 pm 15 Jan 12

DrKoresh said :

….. inspired by the American podcast ‘The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe’ [SGU] (the greatest podcast in the world), or at least, I assume as much.

Amen to that (no pun intended).

The SGU should be prescribed for fundamentalist whack-jobs of every stripe, conspiracy theorists, believers in Reiki, Homeopathy and Oprah, the anti- vaccination crowd etc. etc.

Best of all, they demolish all this foolishness but still keep it entertaining. I love those guys (and Rebecca).

I’m rather ambivalent towards globalisation. Above all, I think it should happen organically, without people from either side forcing their perspective down our throats. I for one, am happy to spell it ‘skeptic’ but I imagine it will be a cold day in Hell before I swap my ‘S’s for ‘Z’s but that’s not out of any kind of pride or elitism, it’s just how I spell those words. When I was younger I was total grammar nazi and harboured deep anti-U.S sentiments, but as I grew up I got over it. What’s most important to me is that the message gets across, I don’t care so much how it does so.

DrKoresh said :

not to mention that getting pedantic about Anglo-English spelling vs. US-English spelling is a pointless waste of time. That, and sceptic reads too much like ‘septic’.

But I don’t like my sceptics septic, so I’d rather they weren’t skeptics. And do you give in on all aspects of globalisation (sorry, globalization) so easily?

I prefer to call it Australian English, by the way. Oi oi oi. Or is that oy oy oy?

not to mention that getting pedantic about Anglo-English spelling vs. US-English spelling is a pointless waste of time. That, and sceptic reads too much like ‘septic’.

poetix said :

Send a special invitation to Orana. Might make for a very entertaining evening.

And just out of interest, why have you adopted ‘skeptics’ rather than ‘sceptics’?

lol@Orana-n00bs

And they’re the Canberra sKeptics because they were inspired by the American podcast ‘The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe’ (the greatest podcast in the world), or at least, I assume as much.

Send a special invitation to Orana. Might make for a very entertaining evening.

And just out of interest, why have you adopted ‘skeptics’ rather than ‘sceptics’?

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