SkeptiCamp 2022 Schedule

You may think that a flag’s proportions, the ratio of its width to its height, is an insignificant detail, of interest only to the nerdiest of vexillologists. However, in this talk Tom will argue that proportions are very useful, plus he’ll tell us about some of the more exotic ones.

Every so often the internet is split into two warring camps, one claiming 6÷2(1+2) = 1 because just look at it, and one claiming 6÷2(1+2) = 9 because the ancient god Bodmas decrees it to be so. But who’s right, and why is it me? Why do we teach Bodmas in schools but not use it in maths papers? And what does it have to do with a trigger-happy panda?

Here is a recipe to nurture the most peculiar conspiracy theories: A polarised political climate in the middle of two diverse continents, schools ignoring science and critical thinking, a propaganda machine with state-sponsored mainstream media, populist leaders and unquestioningly loyal voters. And just for fun, a widely admired public figure, a globally known evolution-denier, who happens to be an alleged sex cult leader at the same time. Now, we can talk about Conspiracy Theories in Turkey.

Sweden’s approach to the covid pandemic has received scathing criticism from domestic and foreign sources alike. Was it a success or a giant failure? Did the authorities play Russian roulette with the lives of its citizens? Close to three years later we look into what the science has to say and what actually happened.

In the talk I describe the perils and pitfalls that face the working science journalist in the modern age of journalism.

How do headlines come about and why do these sometimes not reflect the content of the article? What is the difference between working for a mainstream publication and a specialist platform? What are some of the pressures science journalists face? Do journalists and editors get along?

Plus some anecdotes and horror stories from my years working as a jorno.

A short introduction to the dark origin of ancient aliens popularised by the television network “History!” starting in 2010. Most might today see Ancient Aliens as a silly show. But the idea about aliens influencing history somewhat begins with a group of nazis in the 50s. It grows into von Dänikens’ race theories in Chariots of the Gods, evolution denialism, and the cultural appropriation of indigenous Americans. Today History still airs these ideas continuing a long damaging tradition.

Some proofs of flat earth involve observing an object a distance away and showing that that would not be possible according to current science. Debunking this claim involves pointing out that such analysis is faulty (eg ignores diffraction) and leaving it at that. In doing so it leaves in place a logically faulty argument that can trap the unwary into thinking the claim might actually have merit. This talk will expose some of that faulty logic and suggest some responses.

Given the grave challenges humanity is currently facing from global climate change to pandemics and the shortage of resources to run our civilisation, we need good ideas to work with and great examples to follow. The world of Star Trek – minus the capability of interstellar travel and a few other, unimportant things of course – could be something we should aim for if we are to survive in the long-run. There are great things in the making, but we’d better give them our support while we can.

I’ll take a piece of memetic content tied to one of the many ongoing moral panics and go through how I would research and analyze the conspiratorial symbolism, especially the antisemitic content, as well as other forms of dog whistles. The goal of the talk is to help digital non-natives learn to navigate and address the proliferation of potentially harmful conspiracism content.

My thesis project on attention was nearly derailed when a month before submission a paper was published with findings contradictory to mine. On deeper investigation of their findings I found several worrying signs and ended up conducting a full reanalyses of their raw data showing one of the worst cases of p-hacking and conceptual misdirection I have ever seen. I think this is a good way to show the scientific process in action, how to spot bad science and p-hacking, and how open science helps.

AI image generation is an exciting technology that has only recently become accessible to the public.

How does it work, how do you use it, and what can it do?

I will explain the basics of how Stable Diffusion (a popular text-to-image model) works. I will give an example of using it to generate and refine an image. I will talk about the potential uses of this technology. I will also discuss the potential dangers and abuses including deepfakes.

Working in education, I am perennially disappointed in how inquisitive children have their curiosity driven from them by a content-driven curriculum; particularly in my field of science.

I wish to talk about the how the pointless drive to learn facts and formulae (that even professionals will often look up) is alienating the scientists of the future. I also want to expose the failed and fallacious fiction that “if you learn the boring stuff now, we can get on to the good bit later…”

Logical fallacies are errors in reasoning that occur often enough to be given a name – you’ve probably heard of ones like Strawman and Slippery Slope. But there’s no central authority or master list of fallacies, so if you identify a new one, you get to name it yourself, just like a disease or a new species of beetle. After many hours of listening to Trump trying to form coherent arguments, Jim and Mark have identified several previously unnamed fallacies and would like to tell you about a few.

The taboo topics series continues at Skepticamp 2022! After previously talking about cannibalism, necrophilia and bestiality, James Williams is back with the next taboo… incest. This short talk will skepically investigate the zoology, psychology, history and prevalence of incest in human populations and across the animal kingdom.

A look at the ways in which your cat may (or may not…) contribute to your death. Do they increase your risk of heart disease? What about lung cancer? Will they give you parasites? What disgusting bacteria do they carry in their mouths and what might happen if they bite you?

The foundational story in placebo research is that Dr. Henry Beecher ran out of morphine while treating soldiers during World War II and resorted to injecting them with saline. He was surprised to find out that it worked just as well. Jonathan, in partnership with the Merseyside Skeptics Society’s Mike Hall, tried to track down the origin of this myth, which involves bad scholarship, the basement of a library, and talking to a writer of the hit TV show M*A*S*H.