Skeptic events in Europe - The European Skeptics Podcast

Are you an organizer of a Skeptics in the Pub, a conference or any other kind of event that skeptics might find interesting or you happen to know of gatherings like that? Let us know by sending an email to info@theesp.eu!

	January 2021
Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13 [SUSPENDED] WINCHESTER: Skeptics of the Round Table [SUSPENDED] WINCHESTER: Skeptics of the Round Table January 13, 2021 @ 20:00 - 23:00 The Bishop on the Bridge, 1 High St, Winchester SO23 9JX, UK Link: http://www.hampshireskeptics.org/?page_id=1374 See more details •	14 UK SITP ONLINE: Too dangerous to publish? Navigating the high-stakes nature of AI research - Rosie Campbell UK SITP ONLINE: Too dangerous to publish? Navigating the high-stakes nature of AI research - Rosie Campbell January 14, 2021 @ 19:45 - 22:00 twitch.tv/sitp Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/182635523550619/ Join us at twitch.tv/sitp for this event As AI becomes increasingly advanced, it promises many benefits but also comes with risks. How can we mitigate these risks while preserving scientific inquiry and openness? Who is responsible for anticipating the impacts of AI research, and how can they do so effectively? What changes, if any, need to be made to the peer review process? In this talk, we'll explore these tensions and how they are playing out right now in the AI community. AI is not the first high-stakes, 'dual-use' field to face these questions. Taking inspiration from fields like cybersecurity and biosecurity, we'll look at possible approaches to responsible publication, their strengths and limitations, and how they might be used in practice for AI. Rosie Campbell leads the Safety-Critical AI program at the Partnership on AI, a multistakeholder nonprofit shaping the future of responsible AI. Her main focus is on responsible publication and deployment practices for increasingly advanced AI. Previously, she was Assistant Director of the Center for Human-Compatible AI at UC Berkeley, a Research Engineer at BBC R&D, and cofounder of Manchester Futurists. Her academic background spans physics, philosophy, and computer science. Rosie is also a productivity nerd and enjoys thinking about how to optimize systems, and how to use reason and evidence to improve the world. About Skeptics in the Pub - Online We are a coalition of UK-based Skeptics groups. Formed as the Covid-19 epidemic brought our country to a standstill, we are working to deliver high-quality online events focussing on Science, reason, and critical thinking. New to Skeptics in the Pub or Twitch or both? We anticipate that Twitch or SitP may be new for some of you so we will have early doors at 6:45 to welcome new attendees and answer any questions you may have. A useful guide to Twitch here: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-twitch-4143337 You don't need a Twitch account to watch the talk only if you want to take part in the chat. You won't need an account to ask questions in the Q&A though. More details on accessibility, inclusion and safety here: https://sitp.online/online-safety See more details •	15	16	17
18	19	20	21 UK SITP ONLINE: Pseudo-Archaeology: Fake news and new fakes - Mirko Gutjahr UK SITP ONLINE: Pseudo-Archaeology: Fake news and new fakes - Mirko Gutjahr January 21, 2021 @ 19:45 - 22:00 twitch.tv/sitp Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/410863380119995/ Join us at twitch.tv/sitp for this event. Light bulbs in antiquity? UFO landing sites in Peru? Giant pyramids in the Balkans? Authors like Erich von Däniken or TV shows like "Ancient Aliens" accuse archaeologists of hiding important discoveries and masking the truth. According to them the monumental buildings of the past were created not by our ancestors but by aliens or extradimensional beings. At first glance this appears harmless - fantasies written by science fiction authors. However, those claims are deeply rooted in creationist and racist ideas. In times when fewer and fewer people trust in science such views become more popular and thus give rise to right-wing esoteric ideologies. This talk sheds light on the problem of "pseudo-archeology" and will try to prove that real archeology is much more exciting - and true - than archaeological fantasies. Mirko Gutjahr is an archaeologist and historian working at as a scientific advisor at "Luthergedenkstätten", a Martin Luther memorial foundation with five museums and UNESCO World Heritage Sites at three locations in Saxony-Anhalt. He also produces German language podcasts about curious facts from history. One of his podcasts has been translated into English at https://play.acast.com/s/secretcabinet About Skeptics in the Pub - Online We are a coalition of UK-based Skeptics groups. Formed as the Covid-19 epidemic brought our country to a standstill, we are working to deliver high-quality online events focussing on Science, reason, and critical thinking. New to Skeptics in the Pub or Twitch or both? We anticipate that Twitch or SitP may be new for some of you so we will have early doors at 6:45 to welcome new attendees and answer any questions you may have. A useful guide to Twitch here: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-twitch-4143337 You don't need a Twitch account to watch the talk only if you want to take part in the chat. You won't need an account to ask questions in the Q&A though. More details on accessibility, inclusion and safety here: https://sitp.online/online-safety See more details •	22	23	24
25 KÖLN: 16. virtueller Kölner Skeptiker-Stammtisch KÖLN: 16. virtueller Kölner Skeptiker-Stammtisch January 25, 2021 @ 19:30 - 21:30 Zoom at us02web.zoom.us Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/459308222099245 Es wird wohl noch ein wenig dauern, bis wir uns wieder im Herbrands treffen können. Die Zeit bis dahin überbrücken wir online - das hat den Vorteil, dass auch Menschen zu uns stoßen können, die ein wenig weiter weg leben. Kommt zur lockeren Plauderei vorbei. Beim letzten mal haben wir bis 2 Uhr morgens geplaudert. Es lohnt sich also, mal rein zu schauen. Skeptics in the Pub Köln lädt Sie zu einem geplanten Zoom-Meeting ein. Thema: 16. virtueller Kölner Skeptiker-Stammtisch Uhrzeit: 25.Jan..2021 07:30 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rom, Stockholm, Wien Zoom-Meeting beitreten https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82947010080... Meeting-ID: 829 4701 0080 Kenncode: 569539 Schnelleinwahl mobil +493056795800,,82947010080#,,,,569539# Deutschland +496938079883,,82947010080#,,,,569539# Deutschland Einwahl nach aktuellem Standort +49 30 5679 5800 Deutschland +49 69 3807 9883 Deutschland +49 695 050 2596 Deutschland +49 69 7104 9922 Deutschland Meeting-ID: 829 4701 0080 Kenncode: 569539 Ortseinwahl suchen: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbu5Qnqrqg See more details •	26 SITP Online: Teaching Critical Thinking in an Era of Disinformation SITP Online: Teaching Critical Thinking in an Era of Disinformation January 26, 2021 @ 18:30 - 21:00 https://www.twitch.tv/vof_online Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/5052015398205797 THE EVENT IS IN ENGLISH, organized by the Swedish Skeptics, VoF – with Philippe Longchamps, Teacher of the Year in Sweden 2020 (OBS, detta event är på engelska) Evenemanget sänds online här: https://www.twitch.tv/vof_online. Starttid 18:30, det går bra att ansluta 15 minuter innan. Philippe Longchamps is a French-Canadian teacher who has sailed up as somewhat of a celebrity in education in 2020, not just in Sweden where he is based. Recipient of the Swedish award “Teacher of the Year” in 2020, his burning passion is critical thinking and how to convey that do his students. All his lessons incorporate this in one way or another. Philippe looks at everything from sales and marketing to sports and arts and his personal experience from attending a Catholic boarding school, both for inspiration and for examples of what not to do. He also collaborates internationally with a number of resources and organizations. In his lecture Philippe will talk about the importance of developing teenagers’ critical thinking skills as an integral part of any school curriculum. He will provide examples from his methods to generate a constructive debate and discussion. There will be opportunities for the attendees to ask questions and interact online during the event See more details •	27 UK: Skeptics in the Pub Quiz! UK: Skeptics in the Pub Quiz! January 27, 2021 @ 20:30 - 0:00 Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/258734695635667 We're organising a general knowledge pub quiz, which is once again online! Join your hosts, Dr Sarah Clement and Kat Ford, for a night of rational enquiry; it's free to enter and you can join from the comfort of your own home! Everyone is welcome, feel free to share and invite your friends! The Zoom room (https://zoom.us/j/98993657247...) will go live on Wednesday 27th January at 7.30pm, and the quiz starts at 8pm, giving us all a little time to grab drinks, ask any questions about how the quiz is going to work, and to say hello! The quiz itself will be livestreamed by our hosts quizmasters Sarah and Kat at https://www.twitch.tv/merseyskeptics Teams: If you are part of a team, please edit your zoom name so that it includes your quiz team name and looks something like this: “Mark - The B Team.” This way we can easily assign you and your team mates to your own zoom breakout room. If you are not part of a team but would like to be, we will assign you to a team on the night. If you want to play as an individual but still want to be part of the video call you are more than welcome to join us (and chat in the main room/and we will set up a break out room for individual players so you can still socialise) Streaming: We have done some test runs and we recommend that once you and your team are in your own zoom room, one person gets the Twitch feed up and shares their screen, this means you don’t have to switch between windows to see both the quiz and your team mates’ lovely faces. Marking: We rely on your honesty to keep things simple and ask that you mark your own answers. Since there are no prizes, why cheat? Tech support: Members of the MSS board will be around for the whole night, so if you need help don’t be afraid to ask. We will also give a short “how to” guide at the beginning of the night, so if you don’t know how to share a screen or don’t really know what a breakout room in zoom is, don’t worry, we will explain it all again on the night. See more details •	28 UK SITP ONLINE: Resisting Incarceration: Prisons, Activism and Abolition - Prof. Phil Scraton UK SITP ONLINE: Resisting Incarceration: Prisons, Activism and Abolition - Prof. Phil Scraton January 28, 2021 @ 19:45 - 22:00 twitch.tv/sitp Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/221775462733458 Join us at twitch.tv/sitp for this event. Since Michael Howard's pronouncement that 'Prison Works' the prison population in the UK has doubled with the current Government planning to build several more multi-occupancy 'Titan' prisons to incarcerate thousands more men and women. This reflects an ill-founded commitment to what became a cross-party mantra. In what sense does ‘prison work’? Does the claim stand scrutiny? Or, as Jonathan Simon suggests, does locking away an ever-increasing number of women, men and children amount to ‘social warehousing’? Derived in three decades of activist work and academic research Phil Scraton will address the harms of imprisonment for those locked away, their families and their communities. He will critique the reformist ‘rehabilitation’ agenda and explore the potential for prison abolition. What would decarceration look like? What are alternatives and how would harms caused to individuals and communities by ‘criminal’ and ‘anti-social’ acts be addressed without the ‘punishment’ of incarceration? Phil Scraton PhD, DLaws (Hon), DPhil (Hon) is Professor Emeritus, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast. He has held visiting professorships at Amherst College, USA, the Universities of Auckland, Monash, New South Wales and Sydney. Widely published on critical theory, incarceration and children/ young people his books include: In the Arms of the Law - Coroners’ Inquests and Deaths in Custody; Prisons Under Protest; ‘Childhood’ in ‘Crisis’?; Hillsborough The Truth; Power, Conflict and Criminalisation; The Incarceration of Women; Women’s Imprisonment and the Case for Abolition. He co-authored reports for the NI Commissioner for Children and Young People (Children’s Rights) and the NI Human Rights Commission (Women in Prison) and a member of the Liberty Advisory Committee on deaths in custody. He led the Hillsborough Independent Panel’s research and was principal author of its ground-breaking 2012 Report, Hillsborough. Seconded to the families’ legal teams throughout the 2014-2016 inquests, in 2016 he published a revised edition of Hillsborough: The Truth. Consultant on, and contributor to, the 2017 BAFTA winning documentary Hillsborough, he holds a Leverhulme Fellowship addressing the unique work of the Panel and the legal processes that followed. In 2018, with Rebecca Scott Bray at the University of Sydney, he initiated a community-based international research programme on coroners’ inquests into deaths in custody. He was a member of the JUSTICE Working Party into inquests and public inquiries: When Things Go Wrong: The Response of the Justice System (2020). Also in 2020 he edited ‘I Am Sir: You Are A Number’: The Report of the Independent Panel of Inquiry into the Circumstances of the H-Block and Armagh Prison Protests 1976-1981. He is lead investigator for the Irish Council of Civil Liberties’ research project Deaths in Contested Circumstances and Coroners’ Inquests. Having refused an OBE, he was awarded the Freedom of the City of Liverpool in recognition of his Hillsborough research. About Skeptics in the Pub - Online We are a coalition of UK-based Skeptics groups. Formed as the Covid-19 epidemic brought our country to a standstill, we are working to deliver high-quality online events focussing on Science, reason, and critical thinking. New to Skeptics in the Pub or Twitch or both? We anticipate that Twitch or SitP may be new for some of you so we will have early doors at 6:45 to welcome new attendees and answer any questions you may have. A useful guide to Twitch here: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-twitch-4143337 You don't need a Twitch account to watch the talk only if you want to take part in the chat. You won't need an account to ask questions in the Q&A though. More details on accessibility, inclusion and safety here: https://sitp.online/online-safety See more details •	29	30	31

January 2021