If you are still uncomfortable with in-person meetings, the online talks are continuing on a twice-monthly schedule.

We are therefore taking the following actions to help do our part:

• The next Skeptics in the Pub Online talk will be about the resurgence of race science. This is a talk we had planned before the recent protests.
• The talk on 2 July will turn the lens on the Skeptics movement itself, examining issues of diversity within our community.
• During the 4 June talk, we did not ask for donations towards Skeptics in the Pub Online’s running costs or wider goals, and instead collected for a Black Lives Matter charity. Between the audience (including GMSS members), Skeptics in the Pub Online itself, and local groups (including GMSS), we raised around £2700.

And here is a story about a nice local statue from @hollyzonehistory.

While this development is unquestionably sad, we’re sure it does not come as a great surprise: the last month has only served to illustrate even more clearly the seriousness of the current situation, and the unlikeliness of a swift resolution that will allow the world to return to normality.

Unfortunately, even if the situation were to improve radically in the UK, we feel there is little chance that a gathering of 700 attendees – many of whom from overseas – would be sensible. It is also likely that attendees might feel nervous about such a gathering, or about spending the associated expense to spend a weekend with us in Manchester, amid so much global uncertainty. There are more pressing priorities in the months ahead.

As a volunteer-led, grassroots event, these are uncertainties that we cannot plan around without putting the future viability of QED, or the potential safety of our attendees, at risk. We have taken the decision to postpone QED until 2021, before any tickets go on sale and before any significant costs were incurred with our suppliers that might affect our ability to hold events in the future.

We also feel that an event that could be achieved under the current conditions would necessarily lack the community aspect that we feel makes QED special, and so we have decided against running an alternative QED in October. We will, however, return in Autumn 2021.

We hope you understand our reasoning behind this difficult decision.

Stay safe, and we look forward to seeing you all in 2021.

Alice, Andy, Marsh, Mike, Nicola and Rick
The QED team

We have now got a Discord server to chat in — if you're a regular then drop one of us a message and we'll get an invite to you. We're also looking at running online events while the restrictions are in place, so please watch this space for details about that, as well as information on future real-life events.

In the meantime, take care of yourselves, and don't be a stranger.

• Ask For Evidence's website;
• AllTrials, Ben Goldacre's campaign to reduce publication bias by getting all clinical trials pre-registered and published; and
• This article on the problem of balance in science reporting.

Claire's talk was about the Freedom of Information Act, what it's for and how it's used. For more information, see:

• The Information Commissioner's Office which oversees FOI requests (as well as being subject to FOI regulations);
• The National Archives, which are what they sound like;
• legislation.gov.uk, where you can read nearly any UK laws since 1267 in full; and
• What Do They Know, a website for making FOI requests.

We've always defined our membership by Meetup or Facebook groups, but that doesn't really reflect reality or the intention — a quorum calculation shouldn't include hundreds of people who've rarely or never attended, and someone who doesn't come to the events shouldn't be voting on how they're run.

So we're trying a new system — if you want to be a full voting member, register on this site and then come and chat to Andrew at an event — for our next meeting that means the Soapbox.

• You can talk about more-or-less anything. Past topics have included ghosts, witches, maths, quantum physics (both real and imaginary), health and safety, linguistics, philosophy and insects. As long as there's a skeptical bent to it, it's probably fine.
• Aim for 10-15 minutes; the exact times will depend on how many speakers we book, etc. We'll have a short Q&A after each talk where it makes sense to do so.
• You can stick to the traditional Skeptics format of talk-with-slides, or you can get cross and rant. One year we had a poem.
• We have a handheld mic, a projector with VGA and HDMI. If you need any other tech then let us know. It's usually fine but worth checking.

If you are aged over 18, I would like to invite you to take part in a research project which I am undertaking as part of a Psychology PhD at the University of Central Lancashire.

The study will investigate what people report hearing when listening to sound clips where it is unclear what is being heard. It will look at connections between a number of different personality measures and characteristics, and see if these affect what people report hearing.

The questionnaires used in the study cover a broad range of topics, which include attitudes and belief in the paranormal and life after death, religion, loneliness, mood, drug use, and other possibly sensitive subjects.

You should be aware that this study does focus on themes concerning the paranormal and life after death, and if you think this amy upset you, you may not wish to participate.

If you are interested in taking part, or would just like to know more, please email Ann Winsper (study researcher) on arwinsper@uclan.ac.uk for further information. The study supervisor is Moke Eslea, whi can be contacted at MJEslea@uclan.ac.uk

1. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. Thrones
3. Battlestar Galactica (2003)
4. Star Trek: Deep Space 9
5. Star Wars (Episode 4: A New Hope)

1. Luke Skywalker
2. Cercei Lannister
3. Rick Deckard
4. Dave Lister
5. Jean-Luc Picard
6. Sarah Connor

1. Christian Doppler
2. Jupiter
3. Insulin or glucagon
4. Ag
5. 8 minutes
6. 60,000

1. Simon Singh
2. Richard Wiseman
3. David Aaronovitch
4. James Randi
5. Penn Jillette
6. Susan Blackmore

1. "Every carbon atom in every living thing on the planet was produced in the heart of a dying star." – Brian Cox
2. "For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love." – Carl Sagan
3. "An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men." – Charles Darwin
4. "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination." – Albert Einstein
5. "We cannot, of course, disprove God, just as we can't disprove Thor, fairies, leprechauns and the Flying Spaghetti Monster" – Richard Dawkins

1. "The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air."
2. “What do you expect? They're savages. One lot steals a goat from another lot, before you know it they're ripping each other to pieces.”
3. “Are you alive?”
4. “Resistance is futile. You will disarm your weapons, and escort us to Sector 001. If you attempt to intervene, we will destroy you”
5. “Did you hear that? They shut down the main reactor. We'll be destroyed for sure. This is madness”

1. Sulky Wreak Elk
2. Linear Secret Sin
3. Red Crack Kid
4. Devil Tears
5. Jail Cup Dancer
6. Arson Anchor

1. What physicist discovered that a wave's frequency changes when the source and the observer are in motion relative to one another?
2. Which planet in the solar system has the most moons?
3. Name one hormone that the pancreas produces.
4. What is the chemical symbol for silver?
5. How long does it take for light to travel from the Sun's surface to the Earth?
6. Roughly, how many miles of blood vessels are in the average human body?

1. Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine
2. Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There
3. Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History
4. Flim – Flam!
5. God, No! Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales
6. Beyond the Body: An Investigation of Out-of-the-Body Experiences

1. "Every carbon atom in every living thing on the planet was produced in the heart of a Christmas pudding." – Brian Cox
2. "For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through Christmas pudding." – Carl Sagan
3. "An American monkey, after getting drunk on Christmas Pudding, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men." – Charles Darwin
4. "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but Christmas pudding." – Albert Einstein
5. "We cannot, of course, disprove God, just as we can't disprove Thor, fairies, leprechauns and the Christmas pudding" – Richard Dawkins

• Occasional Skeptics attendee Katie Steckles is this year's science communicator in residence, and is running the Megapixel project, which aims to demonstrate how a computer display works using pens and a massive window. She also gave the Josh Award lecture (which you can't go to because it's in the past).



• Katie is also running After School Science Club again, this time on the theme of colour.



• Engineering Showoff is this Wednesday, and features engineers turning their hands to comedy, including GMSS webmaster, me.



• Also on Wednesday, the Robot orchestra is performing.



• There are several days of competitive science demonstration at Science Showdown.



• Lastly, if you want to look as cool as our noble leader Geoff does here, find the Virtual Reality Playground this afternoon. The space-station repair simulation is very good.

• Susan Blackmore: psychologist and lecturer who was one of the earliest figures of the UK skeptical movement. Her work has explored the transmission of memes in culture, investigated paranormal phenomena and examined reports of ‘out of body’ experiences.
• Michael Blastland: freelance writer and broadcaster who created the BBC radio series ‘More or Less’, examining statistical errors in the news. His books ‘The Tiger That Isn’t’ and ‘The Norm Chronicles’ quantify the role of risk and probability in our lives.
• Petra Boynton: Social Psychologist whose work in International Health Research focuses on sex and relationships during pregnancy, pregnancy loss, and parenthood. She has been an Agony Aunt for the past 14 years, the last three of which have been at The Telegraph.
• Alexis Conran: actor, magician and presenter whose show ‘The Real Hustle’ showed viewers how easy it is to be conned, and how to spot a scam. He has worked with the Office of Fair Trading in exposing fraud, and has a weekly radio show where he uncovers scams.
• Captain Disillusion (aka Alan Melikdjanian): independent filmmaker examining viral videos to expose hoaxes and special effects. With over 8,000,000 cumulative views, he debunks the most widely spread hoax viral videos, demonstrating techniques involved in producing them.
• Timandra Harkness: comedian, writer and presenter whose work for the BBC has covered the psychology of ideology, the role of technology in future-proofing our lives, and the challenges of Big Data. Her first book ‘Big Data: Does Size Matter’ will be out later this year.
• ‘Dr Karl’ Kruszelnicki: one of Australia’s most recognisable broadcasters and science communicators, his BBC Radio 4 show ‘Up All Night’ sees him answering science questions from listeners on almost any topic, with focus on his specialisms of physics, medicine, surgery, and engineering. In 2002 he won an Ignobel prize for research on belly button fluff.
• Sally Le Page: host of the ‘Shed Science’ YouTube series exploring the world of biology, from genetics to behaviour, produced from her garden shed. Her video ‘Without Evolution’, won the national The Guardian and Oxford University Press Very Short Film Competition in 2013. Sally also teaches life science to children at the Oxford Museum of Natural History.
• Cara Santa Maria: broadcaster, podcaster and science communicator whose podcast ‘Talk Nerdy’ interviews figures from the world of science. She has worked for the Huffington Post, Al-Jazeera America and Fox, as well as appearing on the ‘Skeptics Guide to the Universe’.
• Mark Stevenson: writer and comedian whose book ‘The Optimist’s Tour of the Future’ took him in search of the technological breakthroughs which could help tackle the biggest threats of our age, from climate change and disease to energy and food security.
• Matt Parker: comedian and mathematician who appeared at the very first QED, and will be returning this year as host and MC.
• And much more, soon to be announced.

• Tomorrow's social will be in the snug at the Lass O'Gowrie.
• The talk in February will be upstairs at the King's Arms.

• There should be at least one ale available.
• For the talks, we would like a separate room, preferably with a screen and projector, big enough to hold a decent crowd.
• We'd really like somewhere accessible — this has proved weirdly hard so far.
• It should be handy for public transport, as many members live out of town.

• His "talks" page
• Powerpoint slides
• PDF slides
• Slides on Scribd
• References

• The Girl Geek Dinner (October 22). These aim to give women and girls a space to geek out without feeling like (or actually being) the only female in the room. They're also running a Show And Tell on November 1.
• The Infinite Monkey Cage is a Radio 4 show with Brian Cox and Robin Ince recording on October 22.
• Manchester Bright Club veteran Chella Quint is hosting events about menstruation and space, because of course she is.
• Festival of the Spoken Nerd (October 25) is a comedy show featuring Helen Arney, Steve Mould and past Manchester Skeptics speaker Matt Parker. There may or may not be any tickets left.
• Pint Of Science has featured several GMSS members and past speakers over the years, and they're running a "best of" night on October 26.
• MathsJam is a monthly pub night and annual conference (which there is just about time to nab the early bird rate on). They're hosting a mish-mash of the two on October 27.
• Bright Club is a research-based comedy night which is always good for a laugh. They're running a "Big One" on October 29.
• The inaugural After School Science Club, run by MathsJam and Bright Club alumnus Katie Steckles, is on October 30.

[This post has been legally vetted and will not humor responses 26/08/15]

A Final Response

I’m going to assume that most understand how this community split into two but a basic reminder is the fact that a guy gets warned about website bill and doesn't pay it on time. Now cut to guy asking for it back, new owners don't give it back which is really the crux of this tension. Why would a team of people do that, why would they not trust the old people and their ways?

It was briefly mentioned why before but lets go deeper without provoking argument and drive towards a new conclusion. You may have noticed I use the word team and I think that has really gone unnoticed. We discuss together, plan together and follow our choices together to the end.

What kind of team are we though? It’s relevant to ask and may help you understand our prefered motives. We are all very liberal people and I mean that specifically, in the sense that we all range from libertarian to anarcho-capitalist. Meaning we all favour less authoritarian control in the majority of circumstances. A sidenote to this is that England is very uneducated on this philosophy for a myriad of reasons but it’s a powerful part of how america defected and became a super-power.

Upon obtaining the large group we immediately felt this was something of value to be looked after. We also had a deeply positive view of the brand/label skeptic, we all felt skepticism and the like were part of our core values throughout life. We immediately did a ton of planning and made vast changes to the group before we were even asked to return it. We did forsee risk as being new owners and factored that into to our plans, yet we were still surprised at the lacking that occurred in the old team.

A lot of people have cited when we criticise anything that we are attacking people, this couldn't be further from the truth. We are pretty against singling out people unless there's no other way and most of our comments are aimed at citing the problem with the way of doing things not the person doing it.

As mentioned before we noticed a very authoritarian philosophy dripping from every orifice of the group. We have criticised some of the specifics of that before so won’t overdo it here but an example is the long list of stipulations we deleted. This spoke of an attitude that there has to be a rule for people to act right instead of lets just negotiate, ask, etc. when we would prefer the group to go a certain way. It ties back to our preferred philosophy that we believe is the most empowering to the free market growth of anything.

Now lets cut to after experiencing the main brunt of the transitional period and its responses. It has been an overwhelming time that has taught us more than we could have imagined. Firstly It’s important to frame this by the fact that there has been little response from the 700-1000 members that have some sort of connection to the group. This does not mean there hasnt been a lot of response though but it is actually stemming from very few people(less than 20). I don't point this out to undermine their sentiments but to say that most people have said with their inaction that they either don't care or are not bothered by the change enough to respond.  I remind you that this is the case despite an aggressive rally to make people do so.

So in the case of this meetup group it’s not as controversial as you may wish to believe, as mentioned before its a common occurrence on meetup and we are no way near the first to experience this. I use the term meetup group very specifically also, remember to us this was about emboldening the face to face group. It had nothing to do with taking over a brand or there events/endeavors.  If that was true we would have actively bought out your copyright and shut you down completely which we could have easily attempted. This isn’t something we would never do but the point needs to be made that we only cared about the meetup.

So lets get more into the responses which were surprising to us. We expected some anger and there certainly was some of that but much more common was an attitude far more twisted than that. Rarely was it a case of fuck you (though there were some death threats #youhavebeenreported) it was more an aggressive attempt to breakdown the human beings in front of them at any cost. Interestingly, I recently heard a lot about this kind of behaviour from the man who wrote the psychopath test Jon Ronson. He recently did a TED talk that is highly relevant to our situation and experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAIP6fI0NAI

Our team is good with computers so we have been monitoring everything, if this worries you too late we got the evidence and have ceased watching anyway. The point being that we have a great overall picture of how things played out. The best example of this comes from the worst offender known as poylp. One of our team is a  programmer and has been monitoring his behaviour a lot after the aggressive attempt to do the same to Sophie.

Overall we can say our response to his behaviour and his persona is just wow. A terrible and manipulative bitter old man that puts his crusaderism before anyone no matter the cost. If you think you know this guy you really don't realise the extent to which his negativity extends. He has continually actively instigated haterdom, doxing and the support of ad-hominem attacks. He is also currently under observation by meetup for abuse.

Maybe if you agree with dirty  tactics the ends justifies the means but when you actually do your research on this guy his philosophy and lifestyle habits are horrendous. We won't cite them here due to legal and ethical reason not wanting to engage in his same tactics we are expressing refrain from. People like this often latch on to weakness and exploit it for their personal gain, we noticed the unfortunate demise of a few people falling into his ridiculous ideology.

We fear in reflection that maybe the crux of this is the nature of the word skeptic. It seems harmless as a word at the forefront of a movement towards reason. But I wonder and worry from our experience, is that it’s an easily tainted word. Science or data etc needs conclusions for good and that's often where the importance of philosophy comes into play. This may explain the situation here or similar like the public's expressed disgust for the as coined “Angry Atheist” or even “Self Righteous Vegan”.

So overall its not looking good for the future of our attachment to the label. If we don’t feel the language best leads the cause, how can we truly get behind a movement long term. So what are we going to do about that…

Our team personally has put tons of effort into this group as we usually do and in this case for free and at our expense. In this time we feel very abused and disappointed in our treatment, not to play the victim but to cite that this has been draining. Overall we hate the idea that a continuation of this group may eventually lead towards becoming what the old group propagated. Therefore promoting the negativity that seems to derive from either the word or the exploiters of it.

Its with this deeply throughout consideration that we will be ending our pursuit of this label permanently. That said we are glad for the experience we have gained despite the struggle. It has been a unique and empowering in many ways, you maybe be excitedly wondering well what are we doing with the group then. Don't get your hopes up as we feel this group is tainted and an impossible mess to truly reform 100%. A story that helped us decide what to do was the old solomon tale about a baby. Two mothers claim both are the owners and when they fight over the fact solomon cuts the baby in half and gives them a piece.

This baby is dead and can't recover so we will be perma deleting the group to stand our ground in our beliefs. This draws a line in the sand for us and the new/old group. The date your new skeptic group formed will be a constant reminder that debatably to some degree your group wasn't doing as well as you thought. Hopefully your new group will make reforms on its ways and the kind of members it allows in, though we personally doubt much will change, we do hope you succeed. We do ultimately value skepticism we just disagree on its use and place in the world. Consider we likely have more in common with you than the average joe blog.

Before we disappear into the night we wanted to express empathy towards those who struggled with the situation. Anyone who refrained from abuse, tried to see both sides or responded politely thank you for that. An example that we partly derived some sympathy was Victoria's post which was the only post that showed a sign of self reflection that was arrogantly missing from most. There was expressed honest feeling there and we empathise with some of those sentiments and anyone else who felt that way. We would apologize to those who felt that way and acted civilly in the wake of our ship's path. They say people who want to be leader shouldn't be and maybe if you insist on an authoritarian system she alone maybe a good idea.

Anyways this long post is nearly over as is this phase and I hope it gives a wealth of things to reflect on and move forward. We will be ceasing to follow or respond to anything anymore, leaving you all alone and burying the hatchet. Hopefully we have been clear and shown some empathy towards all involved. This is mainly for us about coming towards a final truce on the matter and moving towards our separate ways. Hopefully most will take our response as civilly as possible, If you still feel hate towards us just remember the best thing you can do is ignore us and empower your new group and future. So forget the old group forget us and focus on that future, life is short.

Now here is an ep of Cosmos to relax and enjoy, Goodnite & Good Luck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap63fu1N3qI

Fin

• drug synthesis
• evidence-based healthcare choices
• the string quartets of a 20th-century Russian composer
• resistance to renewable technologies by the Australian coal industry
• using digital technology to optimise consumer purchase behaviour
• portrayals of the British in the media of Nazi Germany
• Alzheimer's research
• reducing food waste

Welcome to your new skeptic meetup

So you may have noticed a lot of changes to the group lately and have many questions. I hope in satisfy your curiosity and hopefully inspire you back into the skeptic community so lets begin.

Firstly we have acquired this group after the overly bureaucratic leadership team failed to make the small payment fees that are accosted to the organizers. In the several days left to fix the issue no one coffed up the 15£ and just as in real life if you don’t pay your bills your house gets repossessed. Finally to our surprise meetup.com gave us full ownership, this is actually a common occurrence on meetup when groups are failing.

We

Who is we you say, we are two passionate meetup organizers that already run two fast growing active meetups in Manchester. We live here and support the community via scientifically driven food and mental health groups. We also have been interested in science and the like for many years and have a large collection of materials to share/recommend which to our surprise we notice was totally vacant from the group more on that soon in the pages section.

Out with the Old

Briefly here are some clues as to why the group was failing to grow which likely lead to it changing hands.

One fact that resonates this point most is the very poor active members rates of the group. If you don't run a meetup you won't know about this hidden feature but it gives clear graphs and insight into how much your members actually care about the kind of group you create.

We also noticed a very large users base hasn't even checked the meetup in over a year (insome cases 6 years!), very poor by our standards. It's often a clear reflection that users aren't happy with the group's direction. Meeting new people especially critical thinkers can be fairly daunting if not handled properly. One worry sign of this was how common a users had attended once and never come back, another statistic that is only viewable by organizers.

“Too many cooks spoil the broth” they say and there was a lot we noticed about the overly bureaucratic nature of the organisation. Many leaders and a lengthy list of rules etc seemed very authoritarian by design. We personally prefer conversations in almost all cases whether conflict or nurture. In our previous meetups we have had much success with taking a true liberal attitude. Being down to earth in way that makes members feel they are equal to the organisers seems lacking here and something we really want to change. At the end of the day meetup is a tool that we are part of and nothing more. We want to embolden the group's properties to be the most conducive conduit towards real human connection within the skeptically inclined whether you’re an old member or brand new.

The leadership team has indeed messaged us for a second chance but we feel that it would be doing a disservice to the group's quality to go back to the old ways. Meetup takes a lot of effort and if it’s not there meetups evitable becomes a stagnate contact lists which is mostly what we found. You may have noticed this effect present in a lot of “Top” meetup groups that have over 1000 members but only 10 people at their events.

Last msg sent below by old leader(in our group ther wont really be leaders)

“Hi Sophie, I'm the current elected chair of Greater Manchester Skeptics (and have been for the past three years or so - you can see that I'm the event organiser from the Meetup page). I'm currently on my holidays in Cornwall so have been away from technology for a couple of weeks. I'm sure you have stepped up and taken over our Meetup group with the best of intentions, however could you please step down as organiser so we can carry on using our group. As you can see we are more than a Meetup group, as we also have a website and Facebook page.If you're interested in attending future events you are more than welcome and you can put yourself forward for election at the AGM.”

Unfortunate but no accident...

In with the New

Overall I hope you are starting understand the fact of the matter that it was high time this group needed to relaunch whether it was us or others. I hope you also see that we make a lot of careful consideration towards any aspect possible that we can tweak in terms of quality.  We have already begun to implementing and planning many of our ideas to get the group going with a bang.

We have already and will continue to embolden the ascetic of the meetup which members have already told us has a much fresher look. Notable also was the low quality photography which will be rectified as we have access to high quality DSLRs to make some memorable moments.

We also want to improve the quality of members without compromising on the openness needed to have open skepticism.  Obviously anyone should be able to come along and challenge the strength of the groups skeptical nature that said flakes are flakes. I was reminded of this just this week in a recent Tony Robbins video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfDTdKH1GhY

The point being not only logically but in our experience culling members that no show or never attend helps the health of the group. We hate the idea of acting like a group that is big when really we have many faux members.

Last to mention will be the improvement of locations the Church Inn being a perfect example of everything that we don’t want. Old, low quality and it has the word church in it. We like the idea of constantly changing the location as there are many quality places in Manchester to explore. Currently we are looking towards Font Chorlton its basically a brand new contemporary facility with high quality service at a similar price.

Lets get together

I hope this honest message takes a good chunk of your queries away and makes you feel safe in our hands. We also hope this message pumps some much needed excitement into your future social life.

As mentioned we want to be leaders only by administration as we feel members should feel equally valued. Equal in conversation and opportunity to speak their views so tell your friends and join for some exciting conversations and connections at our next social.

Cheers.

p.s.

We realise there will always be those opposed to change as a counselor I can speak with experience that change is gross to most people. So inevitably we expect some drop off from the hardcore fans of the old group maybe even some flames. Ultimately we took over the group without breaking any laws or even meetup.com policy. So threats etc don’t cause us to have any hard feelings either way so if you want to leave the group and think of other options we still support that and you're still always welcome.

Life is too short to be angry.

Good luck in life and everything you aspire to be.

1. Because we still hope to get the old domain pointing here and this would ease the transition.
2. Because it feels weird not to mention such an obvious change.
3. Because if the blog is a sort of record of what we do and therefore this should be on it.
4. Because I have better things to do than make a Wordpress theme that gracefully handles a blog with no content.