Electric cars? They're rubbish aren't they?! Nothing but glorified golf carts that take forever to charge and then run out of power on the way to the shops. Try finding somewhere to charge them. They cost a fortune to buy and another fortune to replace the battery when its range drops to half. You don't want to believe all that nonsense about them being environmentally-friendly. They are actually worse than petrol-powered cars because the batteries are made from dirty lithium and use electricity made from dirtier coal. There isn't even enough lithium in the world to make all the new batteries we'd need anyway. Electric cars are just rubbish. Aren't they? - Robert says no. This evening he'll tell us why he thinks we need to put away our prejudices and think seriously about electric vehicles as the future of transport.

Robert Llewellyn is an actor, writer, comedian, TV presenter and self-described wishy-washy liberal best known for playing the android Kryten in the long-running BBC sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf. He presented Scrapheap Challenge for 10 years and these days he can be seen on TV presenting the shows Car-Pool on Dave and How Do They Do It? on Channel 5. He is probably the UK's most prominent advocate of electric vehicles (EV) and presents a YouTube-based show called Fully Charged which documents current developments in the electric vehicle industry. He also writes a column for the EV website The Charging Point. He has been notably critical of BBC Top Gear's position on electric vehicles - a case in point being the Top Gear "review" of the Tesla V in 2008 which is currently the subject of a lawsuit by Tesla. Last February he debated the motion "This House Believes Electric Cars are the Future of Transport" at the Oxford Union. The motion was carried.

Dowsing dates back hundreds of years and is part of the folklore of many rural communities. Traditionally it has been associated with finding water, with landowners and farmers often calling in the local dowser to help locate new water sources. It has also been used historically to find precious metals and by the military. In more recent times it has become associated with slightly more contentious areas, such as detecting earth energies and use in complementary medicine and therapies.

Chris Farrell is Chair of Cheltenham Dowsers, a group he founded in 2009. He is also a member and registered tutor of the British Society of Dowsers and gives talks on the subject and runs introductory workshops and foundation courses. 

Chris says "Dowsing is a subject that easily divides people. To the public at large most of the evidence is anecdotal and even though the most sceptical are sometimes moved to acknowledge that it works, there is no broadly-based scientific consensus as to how or why…not even within the dowsing community! But work it does and there is a growing amount of verifiable data beginning to be recorded". 

He believes everyone can dowse, even the sceptics among us, it’s just a case of being open to it and suspending our intellectual (or rational) barriers. As he says: "Dowsing goes back hundreds of years and has been practised by many highly intelligent and scientifically minded people. They didn’t do it just to delude themselves".

In this talk Chris will provide some background on dowsing, what it is and what it isn’t, how and where it is used. He will include the more established and practical applications, such as water and archaeology, as well as the more esoteric areas such as earth energies and health and well-being. He will also give some practical demonstrations that all can join in.

In the ‘real world’ Chris is an independent communications consultant and copywriter who has worked for leading international advertising and design consultancies on both sides of the Atlantic. He also practises as a Lifepath Mentor. On a lighter ‘note’, he is a member of UkesAnon, a locally-based Ukulele band!

With Michael Gove and the coalition approving new Steiner Schools to open under the Free School Programme, it is timely to look closely at the origins and beliefs of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the occult movement of Anthroposophy. Steiner was a mystic who believed he had direct clairvoyant access to cosmic knowledge. As such he developed an esoteric belief system based on karma, reincarnation, astrology, homeopathy and gnomes. His visions gave insights into architecture, art, dance, agriculture, medicine, education, science and diet. His racial hierarchy of spiritual developmental resonated in Germany in the early 20th Century turning a personal belief into a worldwide movement. Today we find hundreds of anthroposphically inspired organisations in the UK alone: everything from Steiner Schools, Biodynamic farms to banks, pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies, charities and cheese makers.

Andy Lewis has been trying to lift the veil on the inner secrets of the movement and will discuss how this secretive movement has direct impact on public life.

Deborah Hyde takes an in depth look at the witch trials of Sixteenth and Seventeenth century Europe to discover a mixed bag of serial killers, political murders, fervent religionists and innocent victims. We'll ask 'Who is worse - man or beast?'

Apologies from us and Tom for any inconvience caused

Cheltenham Skeptics in the Pub are proud to welcome Ian D Montfort, Psychic Comedium.

Ian's alter ego, Tom Binns has been working in stand-up comedy for 20 years and appeared in shows such as "Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge" and on Radio 2. He has been nominated at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

For more details see his web site: http://www.tombinns.com/

 Our good Friends and previous SiTP performers will be at the Town Hall on Hallowe'en night, We didn't think we could possibly top that as an end of October Skeptic Event, so we'll be going along and we hope you can all come too. Spooky costumes strong encouraged. 

Link to the event and ticket booking can be found here

http://www.cheltenhamtownhall.org.uk/item/events/2012/cbc/comedy/festival-of-the-spoken-nerd/30067/

A bit more about FotSN for those who are unlucky enough not to have seen them before

Stand-up mathematician Matt Parker, geek songstress Helen Arney and experiments guy Steve Mould present a comedy night for the fearlessly inquisitive. After selling out West End theatres and science festivals around the country, they’re now taking their unique mix of facts and fun on tour. Join three of the UK’s best (and nerdiest) performers for an evening of comedy, science, music, maths and interactive experiments as they ask those all-important questions:

- How does the angler fish make love?
- Can you use a satellite dish to set stuff on fire?
- And how dangerous can things get with just numbers?

If you want to know how a musical saw, liquid fireworks, a problematic pizza and some non-spherical balls can be used to create in an unforgettable night of comedy and science fun, then join us for Festival of the Spoken Nerd. 

Watch highlights on YouTube: http://youtube.com/fotsn
 

The current government's current 'Free Schools' scheme allows for special interest groups to take a direct hand in running schools. Among those who have expressed an interest are several creationist groups. Although not allowed to teach creationism in science lessons, there is deep concern that the ethos f these schools mean creationism will be sbuck in via the back door.

Martin will be speaking on the dangers of voodoo science in the classroom, the danger to the British education system and what the skeptical community can do make sure this doesn't happen

Martin Howrwood is the Liveral Democrat MP for Cheltenham and a Humanist. Martin was first elected to represent Cheltenham in Parliament on 5 May 2005. Martin is chair of the Liberal Democrat parliamentary committee on international affairs. In this role he keeps in close touch with coalition ministers in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development and puts the Liberal Democrat party’s position in debates on a wide range of international issues.  As shadow environment minister in the last parliament, Martin contributed to his party’s policymaking process on both climate change and the natural environment, areas about which he still cares deeply. 

What?

A talk addressing the myth that adult entertainment causes violence (and specifically sexual
violence) against women. There is wide publicity surrounding studies that claim to show connections between lap dancing and rape, between Page 3 and domestic violence. Brooke wll show why they are both methodologically flawed and taking funding and attention away from the real problems.

Who?

Brooke Magnanti, one of Observer’s “Faces of 2009” and Guardian newspaper's “Best British Weblog 2003,” is a scientist and author. She is writer of the bestselling Belle de Jour series of books, which were adpated into the hit ITV show "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" starring Billie Piper. She is also the writer of The Sex Myth.

Brooke has been featured by more than 100 media outlets including the Sunday Times,Telegraph, New Scientist, Grazia, The Scotsman, Sky News, This Week and Newsnight. She was formerly a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph and Erotic Review as well as contributing pieces to the Guardian, Big Issue, and Town. Brooke was featured in an episode of Stephen Fry's Planet Word and is a popular public speaker on the themes of biometric and forensic science, sexualisation and popular culture, and internet anonymity and identity.

Dear all,

Just a quick note to say I'm afraid we haven't managed to sort a speaker out for tomorrow, so we'll be having a night off. Sorry for lack of notice. I'll see you all soon.

As you know, Will has managed to arrnage us some additional speakers on 6th, and 9th of October, of which I will post full details here shortly.

Thanks,

David

 Alom Shaha is a science teacher, writer and film-maker. He is also the author of The Young Atheist's Handbook, an account of his journey from being raised in a Bangladeshi Muslim community to becoming an outspoken atheist. Along the way, Alom also attempts to share his ideas for how to live a good and happy life without god. One of only a handful of high profile public "ex-Muslim" atheists, Alom believes that atheism should be a way of life that should be available to all, regardless of their background. He was inspired to write the book following his experiences as a school teacher and a conversation with A.C. Grayling in which the philosopher told him "you should write a book".  The Young Atheist's Handbook is a celebration of atheism rather than an attack on religion and presents ideas from science, philosophy and theology in a way the author hopes is accessible to a wide audience and refreshingly different to the other books on atheism out there. 

It’s Saturday night and Science Showoff, the night where anyone can do anything about science, is crashing into town, bloodstream full of booze and head full of youthful naughtiness. And science. I meant science, really. We’ve sold out in London so many times that we’ve decided to give Cheltenham a go. You’re nice people, right?

Come and join us at D’Fly in Cheltenham (that’s 1A Crescent Place / 40 Clarence St GL50 3NX) where, with our hosts the lovely Cheltenham Skeptics in the Pub, we bring you a night of science-themed anarchy, genius, entertainment, comedy and, possibly, tragedy.

Doors will open at 7pm on June 16th, and entry is free, but we will be collecting to pay for the event, with any left over going to a local charity. We’d suggest £5 each. Otherwise Suze will have to sleep in the street.

And what do you get for that money?

You get our compere Steve Cross (from Bright Club), on a one-man quest to prove that science is hilarious, that chemistry is rubbish and that you can best understand the human psyche by dating every human, and with inside gossip and secrets from across the science communication world to share. He’ll be joined by 10 amazing (we hope) acts who have signed up to perform at this, our very first gig outside the South-East.

They are:

Oliver Broadbent (an engineer and Science Showoff veteran) – “Who needs Brunel, Telford or Eiffel to get the youth excited about engineering when a little double entendre will do”

Suze Kundu (a chemist and the “good cop” of the Science Showoff team) – “A look at the science behind the flying trapeze, complete with photos of my first attempt at it. Gravity will feature heavily...”

Helen Arney & Rob Wells (the marvelous funny people behind “Domestic Science” and 1000000 other great science projects) – “Helen Arney and Rob Wells are a pair of physics graduates, and also a real-life couple. In 9 minutes they'll tackle a cosmological conundrum, solve a microscopic mysteries and try to maintain their own domestic bliss. Fingers crossed then.”

Jamie Gallagher (Chemist and the man who should have won Famelab UK this year) – “Energy is important, nothing worse than seeing your iPhone slip into the red. The hot and powerful Jamie will show you how we can stop this happening again as he talks about humans as batteries (Yes, like The Matrix).”

Radu Sporea (Bright Club Guildford veteran and technology guru)  – “The first electronics revolution happened thanks to one unbearable scientist. Revolution number two is just around the corner and is inspired from buttered toast!”

Simon Watt (TV presenter and all-around science badass) – “Shark vs Croc” (simon declined to tell us more! – Ed.)

Lizzie Crouch (LaCrosse player and science communicator) – “Lizzie and Suze learn how to fly: Part 2. After me and Suze bravely learn how to fly in trapeze school we will analyse our efforts scientifically. I will step up and look at the psychological aspect behind our brave efforts; using Suze as a case study of fear and trust!”

Adam Strang (The Howling Mad Murdoch of scicomm from Science Made Simple) – “Sanger, a lover of chillies and shunner of danger, will explain why these marvellous peppers give us that burning feeling.  He will also demonstrate the physiological effects of super-hot chillies on a human male idiot”

Simon Foster (who brings some class to Imperial College’s science outreach) – “When science attacks: We all know that science has, for the most part, benefitted mankind (nuclear weapons aside), but what happens when science doesn’t play by the rules and decides to attack? Find out how Pikachu, the LHC and helium balloons have all declared war on the human race.”

David Jones (the Natural History Museum’s number one bug guy) – “An evolutionary arms race among insects. Get up close and personal with the good, the bad and the ugly”

Do come visit us at www.scienceshowoff.org or www.facebook.com/scienceshowoff or follow us on Twitter @ScienceShowoff to find out more!

Jon Tustain, proprietor of the UK's specialist 3D media website 3DFocus.co.uk,  is one of the country's leading experts on all things 3D. A graduate of Ravensbourne Media College, London, what Jon doesn't know about the world of 3D in cinema, isn't worth knowing. He regularly speaks at conferences around the world on the topic and is an active promoter of the new advances in the industry. If you want to know when glasses-free TVs will be available, or whether passive is better than active glasses, then this talk will give you all the answers. The talk will intro you to the science behind the 3D 'illusion', give practical examples and explain the jargon. After the talk, there will be the opportunity for you to have a glasses free 3D 'look around' portrait taken which you can buy to be printed to your chosen size & send to you later.