Talks

Time is running out for the most endangered group of birds on the planet – the vultures. With threats including persecution and poaching, over 70% of the world’s 23 vulture species are facing extinction. But vultures, often referred to as nature’s clean-up crew, are critical to sustaining healthy environments by controlling disease. We must fight desperately to save these maligned birds, starting with changing people’s minds (and hearts) about them.

Join members of the Merseyside Skeptics Society in attending QEDcon, the UK's leading science and skepticism convention, which takes place in Manchester each year.

For those who aren't familiar, QEDcon is a two-day celebration of science, reason and critical thinking. It's an event where 500 skeptics from around the world gather in a hotel in Manchester to enjoy a mix of fascinating speakers, lively panel discussions, interactive workshops, and live podcast recordings. It’s a great social event, and it’s always a huge amount of fun.

Whether this is your first QED or your tenth, we’re sure you’ll enjoy attending – it’s a great opportunity to learn, share ideas, and foster discussions, in a fun, social environment.

Speakers at QED will include: magician and psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman; journalist and investigator of wellness culture Rina Raphael; archaeologist and ‘ancient aliens’ debunker Dr Flint Dibble; health tech and wearables expert Professor Bola Grace; medical doctor and social media health myth debunker Idrees “Dr Idz” Mughal; open-source intelligence investigator and disinformation specialist Joe Ondrak; and security expert and ‘people hacker’ Jenny Radcliffe, and much more.

Alongside the mainstage line-up of speakers, there will be lively panel discussions, interactive workshops, and live podcast recordings, plus an evening of comedy and entertainment.

Tickets for QED are available at qedcon.org/tickets, at an early bird price of £164 (or £189 after September 2nd).

There will also be a FREE one-day Skepticamp event taking place at the hotel on Friday 18th October, where speakers from the audience will present a series of short talks on a wide variety of subjects. For more details visit sitp.online/skepticamp.

There will be plenty of Merseyside Skeptics Society members there, so we look forward to you joining us!

Please note, this is a joint event put on with the Greater Manchester Skeptics Society. It is being held in Manchester, not Liverpool. Our usual monthly events will return in November in our usual location.

In this talk, Noah Lugeons combines two of his passions; video game history and terrible Christian media. In so doing, he explores both the history of Christian video games and the larger role that Christianity has played in the development of secular games. In a who’s who of the worst video games of all time, Noah will guide the audience through a half century of digital cross-gathering, Sunday school attending, Christ-praising, Bible-verse collecting, and baby throwing.

Against the backdrop of the presidential election, 27 year-old British journalist Layla Wright traveled from her hometown in Liverpool to the US, to meet a new wave of women using social media platforms and podcasts to champion extreme views on social media, including content that is increasingly shocking and, surprisingly, anti-feminist.

From Nashville to the Arizona/Mexico border, Layla immersed herself with the ultra-conservative influencers who see themselves as on the frontline of a war against progressive politics. As part of a new documentary for the BBC, she attempted to understand exactly what is driving young women, including some close to her own age and others as young as 16 years-old, to advocate for a movement that is looking to roll back the clock on hard-earned rights.

Layla Wright is a multi-award winning documentary presenter and maker from Liverpool, mentored by Louis Theroux. She has made a range of films from investigations into alternative cancer treatments to a BBC Panorama looking into failings at the Champions League Final featuring Liverpool FC and Real Madrid.

If you would like to watch the documentary beforehand, it is available on BBC iPlayer here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022mrd

There are numerous well documented instances of coincidences occurring that seem to be so unlikely that many people are tempted into concluding that something more than the blind laws of probability is at work. In many contexts, including ostensibly precognitive dreams and so-called telephone telepathy, explanations involving paranormal abilities are invoked. This talk will address the question of whether or not it is reasonable for sceptics to explain away such instances as nothing more than “mere coincidences”. This will involve consideration of both the mathematics and the psychology of coincidences as well as addressing the issue of why coincidences have such powerful emotional impact.