Tag Archives: Science

Simon Singh on Evan Harris.

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Simon Singh circulated the following message via his mailing list, regarding Dr Evan Harris, one of the newest members of our Editorial Advisory Board and MP for Oxford West and Abingdon.
 

Hello Everyone,

Apologies for the mass mailing, but you are receiving this email because you are either a scientist or a skeptic or someone connected with Oxford, or maybe all three. I am writing because you might be able to help British science by helping Evan Harris MP to retain his seat in parliament.

Along with Richard Dawkins, AC Grayling, Colin Blakemore, Lisa Appignanesi and many others, I am supporting the campaign to keep Dr Evan Harris in Parliament as a voice for science, secularism and free expression.

Evan has been the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West & Abingdon since May 1997 and he is the Lib Dem spokesman for science. But our support for him is not party political; and it goes beyond the interests of his constituency. Indeed, you can see further below a long list of the vital issues that Evan has championed.

Ordinarily, Evan should be safe at the election, but boundary changes and an aggressive campaign to unseat him mean that we might be about to lose science's best friend in Parliament.

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    Think Week: humanism, faith, religion, science and politics from 22nd to 28th Feb.

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    Think Week is a week-long series of free events from Monday 22nd to Sunday 28th February, exploring humanism, faith, religion, science and politics. Organised jointly by the Oxford Atheist Society, Oxford Secular Society, Oxford Humanists, Oxford Sea of Faith and Oxford Skeptics in the Pub, the aim of the week is to expose the type of discussion and debate that these societies offer to a wider audience and to make people think about issues they probably haven’t thought about before. Refreshments will be provided at all events. Attendees are welcome to bring food to lunch time events.

    We are also intending to post a daily summary of the events on The Skeptic Blog, contributed by the organisers of Think Week.
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      James Randi discusses his childhood, jailbreaking, science, mortality and miracles.

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      If you already subscribe to The Skeptic you should receive the relaunch issue of the magazine very shortly. Inside the issue is an interview conducted with James Randi on Sunday 20th April 2008, the day after his first presentation to a British audience in over a decade.

      Randi kindly allowed our small group into his Vauxhall hotel room, where we filmed the interview prior to his departure to visit the Magic Circle. He was a very gracious and accommodating host.

      In the 52 minute interview, Randi discusses his Canadian education, walking out of an English Literature exam, truancy, magic and his 22 jailbreaks, Uri Geller, Project Alpha and fooling scientists, exposing Peter Popoff and miracle healing, thinking critically and independently, mortality, heart bypass surgery and medical science.

      The resulting film has now been released to accompany the print version of the interview. It forms part of the Media Archive but has been split into six parts, starting here (from http://youtube.com/theskepticmag).

      Please comment, subscribe and circulate this as widely as possible. Most of all, enjoy.