The Hampshire Skeptics Society

If you believe Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the Internet, then Mel Croucher invites you to think again.

He will reveal a story of two men who met only once. One was a pacifist, the other was a Nazi. One man’s vision was to harness all the world’s data for peace, and long, long ago he built a world-wide-web to deliver exactly that. He called it The Mundaneum. The other man’s vision was to harness information to control the masses, and in 1944 he achieved that too then attempted to destroy all records of the Mundaneum. He nearly succeeded, but not quite.

Mel will take you on the pathway that led him to the evidence that the Internet was conceived in 1891 and fully functional by 1934, when it embraced telephony, radio, television, data discs, remote terminals and millions upon millions of interactive files. He will then explain how and why the Mundaneum and its creator were erased from history, along with parallels of today’s online information wars.

Bio

Mel Croucher is the acknowledged founder of the British computer games industry. He was originally an architect, but moved into the world of computerised entertainment to smuggle his music past an unsuspecting public.

Twice winner of the Game Of The Year Award, he pioneered software broadcasts via radio, geocache games, the first computer-generated movie, the first AI virtual companion and the first million-user viral marketing campaign.

He is the author of text books, computer manuals, fiction and non-fiction, and more than a thousand of his columns and investigations have appeared in print over six decades. His 2024 book Mundaneum is published by Extremis Publishing.

Standard Stuff

Talks are usually on the 4th Wednesday of every month,  at 7:00 for 7:30, at The Winchester Club in Winchester.  Please take a look at the FAQs for more info.

Admission is £5 which also gives you an entry in the book raffle. We take cash and major cards (cards preferred).

The event is in two parts – the talk and then a Q&A after the interval. We encourage you to support the venue by indulging in the available drinks before and during the event.

You are also welcome to join us for a drink in the bar after the event.

We often assume we understand our own environmental impact, but recent research suggests we may be viewing waste through a kind of blindfold. This talk explores how that blindfold forms, what happens when it is lifted, and how clearer messages can support more sustainable choices.

The first study shows that many people are unaware of the true scale and type of plastic they use. When participants counted their actual waste, the blindfold slipped: they saw their impact more clearly and became more concerned and more willing to engage in action.

The second study looks at how decades of advertising have normalised disposable living, reinforcing this blindness by presenting convenience as the default and obscuring the waste it creates.

The third study demonstrates that targeted messages can remove the blindfold in everyday decisions, such as choosing a cup for a takeaway drink. When cafés ina field study highlighted the personal benefit of bringing a reusable cup, such as saving money, customers were more likely to avoid disposables.

Together, these studies suggest that people are not uncaring about waste, but often lack clear cues and feedback. When visibility improves and messages emphasise practical personal benefits, more sustainable behaviour becomes much more achievable.

Bio

Kate Whitman, Ph.D., is a Research Fellow at the University of Portsmouth (UK). A behavioural economist with a background in the creative industries, she explores the psychological mechanisms and cultural factors involved in decision-making and designs interventions to encourage positive behavioural outcomes.

Through experimental research, she seeks to deepen understanding of human behaviour in ways that improve business practices and inform public policy. Her work spans behavioural and experimental economics, behavioural interventions, the creative, games and sports industries, deviant behaviour, corporate social responsibility, environmental psychology, gender biases, moral reasoning, and social decision-making. She is currently applying these interests to develop interventions that promote more sustainable behaviours and address social issues such as social disconnectedness and gender pay gaps.

Standard Stuff

Talks are usually on the 4th Wednesday of every month,  at 7:00 for 7:30, at The Winchester Club in Winchester.  Please take a look at the FAQs for more info.

Admission is £5 which also gives you an entry in the book raffle. We take cash and major cards (cards preferred).

The event is in two parts – the talk and then a Q&A after the interval. We encourage you to support the venue by indulging in the available drinks before and during the event.

You are also welcome to join us for a drink in the bar after the event.

The Future of Personalised Healthy Ageing

Join us for an event exploring the cutting edge of Longevity Medicine – where evidence-based science meets personalised care to help you live not just longer, but better.

Deborah Evans

Deborah Evans is a pharmacist and the owner of REMEDI HEALTH in Winchester.

She served three years on the English Pharmacy Board of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and was appointed a Fellow of the RPS in 2013, a Faculty Fellow in 2015 and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health in 2016. She led the national, award-winning Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP) pathfinder programme, which helped shape the direction of community pharmacy in England.

With a strong passion for women’s health, Deborah is an Independent Prescriber specialising in sexual and reproductive health, menopause care, weight management and travel medicine. Deborah has recently taken her passion for preventative health further and developed as a specialist in Longevity Medicine.

Deborah is married, has four children and three grandchildren, and lives in Winchester. She is passionate about health and wellbeing, and keeps active through working out, cycling, walking and yoga.

What the talk will explore

• What Longevity Medicine is — and how it differs from conventional care
• The risks to health and what we can do to reduce heart attacks, strokes, cancer, dementia and metabolic diseases such as diabetes
• The role of advanced diagnostic testing in revealing your unique ageing blueprint
• How we assess and support hormone balance, metabolic health, inflammation, cardiovascular risk and biological ageing markers
• Tools to enhance your healthspan (not just lifespan) – including activity, nutrition, supplements, hormone optimisation, weight management and lifestyle strategies
• Insights into sleep therapy, stress reduction and how to maintain mental sharpness

You can safely ignore this if you’ve read it before

Talks are usually on the 4th Wednesday of every month,  at 7:00 for 7:30, at The Winchester Club in Winchester.  Please take a look at the FAQs for more info.

Admission is £5 which also gives you an entry in the book raffle. We take cash and major cards (cards preferred).

The event is in two parts – the talk and then a Q&A after the interval. We encourage you to support the venue by indulging in the available drinks before and during the event.

You are also welcome to join us for a drink in the bar after the event.

 

“Have you been naughty or nice?

St Nicholas brings good children rewards, but he has a companion who has
different clients.

Krampusnacht, usually celebrated on December 5th, involves dressing up as the demonic creature Krampus, and roaming the streets frightening hildren with chains and bells.

Come and discover this central European creature whose popularity is rising again.

Close your eyes and wish for gifts … if you dare.

Brief Bio

Deborah Hyde is an author, presenter and producer who has written for periodicals such as The Guardian and The Fortean Times, and who specialises in the subject of weird belief.

For ten years, Deborah was Editor-in-Chief of The Skeptic and is a fellow of The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

She makes frequent TV appearances, being a regular contributor to ‘Strange Evidence‘ and ‘Mysteries at the Museum‘, and has presented sceptical insights in two of BBC iPlayer’s most successful recent podcasts ‘Uncanny‘, ‘The Battersea Poltergeist‘ and ‘Lady Swindlers‘.”

You can safely ignore this if you’ve read it before – but this one is on the 2nd Wednesday in December!

Talks are usually (December is always an exception) on the 4th Wednesday of every month,  at 7:00 for 7:30, at The Winchester Club in Winchester.  Please take a look at the FAQs for more info.

Admission is £5 which also gives you an entry in the book raffle. We take cash and major cards (cards preferred).

The event is in two parts – the talk and then a Q&A after the interval. We encourage you to support the venue by indulging in the available drinks before and during the event.

You are also welcome to join us for a drink in the bar after the event.

We’re all members of a very strange species. But where lots of human peculiarities – from art to warfare and beyond – have analogues across the animal kingdom, we stand alone as the only religious species.

Yet, within our otherwise religious species, atheism is currently flourishing in large parts of the world.

Will  will discuss research highlighted in his recent book, Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species, showing how people’s intuitions about morality lead them to assume the worst of atheists – with problematic implications for our scientific understanding of atheism, religion, and human nature.

Will Gervais

Will Gervais (Centre for Culture and Evolution, Brunel University London) is a cultural evolutionary psychologist and has been a global leader in the scientific study of atheism for over a decade.

Dr. Gervais’s research has been featured in media such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, Der Speigel, Psychology Today, Vox, and Scientific American.

His interdisciplinary work, lying at the intersection of cultural evolution, evolutionary psychology, and cognitive science, has garnered international scientific recognition.

He was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science and is the recipient of the Margaret Gorman Early Career Award from the American Psychological Association and the SAGE Young Scholar Award from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology.

Will likes cooking, camping, and his dog.

Standard Stuff (You’ve probably read this before)

Talks are usually (December is always an exception) on the 4th Wednesday of every month,  at 7:00 for 7:30, at The Winchester Club in Winchester.  Please take a look at the FAQs for more info.

Admission is £5 which also gives you an entry in the book raffle. We take cash and major cards (cards preferred).

The event is in two parts – the talk and then a Q&A after the interval. We encourage you to support the venue by indulging in the available drinks before and during the event.

You are also welcome to join us for a drink in the bar after the event.

Science has transformed the quality of human life. But Philosophers have sometimes struggled to define what makes science, science.

In this talk Simon will consider this problem from an ethical perspective to show that rather than a topic of study, science is more an attitude to the world around us.

He will discuss how this attitude is promoted within current scientific processes to emphasise that although we can never be 100% sure about anything, there are things we can do to uncover reliable information and hopefully make better decisions.

Dr Kolstoe

Dr Simon Kolstoe is an Associate Professor of Bioethics at the University of Portsmouth. He chairs Research Ethics Committees for the NHS, Ministry of Defence (MOD), and UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

His research looks at ethics, integrity, and governance processes, and how these can be used to ensure high quality research in medicine and healthcare.

Standard Stuff

Talks are usually (December is always an exception) on the 4th Wednesday of every month,  at 7:00 for 7:30, at The Winchester Club in Winchester.  Please take a look at the FAQs for more info.

Admission is £5 which also gives you an entry in the book raffle. We take cash and major cards (cards preferred).

The event is in two parts – the talk and then a Q&A after the interval. We encourage you to support the venue by indulging in the available drinks before and during the event.

You are also welcome to join us for a drink in the bar after the event.

Hearing loss is the most prevalent sensory condition, with a large genetic component. In particular, Age-Related Hearing Loss is an ever-growing issue for a steadily ageing population; about 25% of those over 65 years of age suffer from it, and this doubles for every further 10 years of life.

Over the last couple of decades, we have identified a number of genes that condition the development of deafness, but it is clear that the picture is far from complete.

At the Ear Institute, we are working towards identifying genes involved in Age-Related Hearing Loss, and how their dysfunction is linked to the development of brain disorders such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease.

Carlos Aguilar PhD MRSB AHEA

Originally from Mexico City, Carlos did a BSc in Biomedical Research and a MSc in Biochemistry at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Later, he obtained an MPhil Neuroscience from Manchester University and finally a PhD in Genetics from The Open University.

Currently, he works for UCL as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Ear Institute.

His main research interest is the discovery of new deafness genes, particularly those involved in Age-Related Hearing Loss, and their functional link to brain disorders.

Standard Stuff

Talks are usually (December is always an exception) on the 4th Wednesday of every month,  at 7:00 for 7:30, at The Winchester Club in Winchester.  Please take a look at the FAQs for more info.

Admission is £5 which also gives you an entry in the book raffle. We take cash and major cards (cards preferred).

The event is in two parts – the talk and then a Q&A after the interval. We encourage you to support the venue by indulging in the available drinks before and during the event.

You are also welcome to join us for a drink in the bar after the event.

What geology and archæology can tell us

After a short discussion of the county’s geography and the types of geological and archæological evidence John will summarise what is known about Hampshire and the geological processes that led to its present structure.

Brief Bio

John Firth has lived in Berkshire, near the border with Hampshire, for thirty-three years. His books on geology and archæology were born during walks round both counties, finding interesting places and trying to tell people how to find them and what to look for.

He is neither a geologist nor an archæologist.

John is the author of “Geology and Archaeology of Hampshire: For People Who Aren’t Geologists or Archaeologists” and is a member of the Newbury Geology Society.

Standard Stuff

Talks are usually (December is always an exception) on the 4th Wednesday of every month,  at 7:00 for 7:30, at The Winchester Club in Winchester.  Please take a look at the FAQs for more info.

Admission is £5 which also gives you an entry in the book raffle. We take cash and major cards (cards preferred).

The event is in two parts – the talk and then a Q&A after the interval. We encourage you to support the venue by indulging in the available drinks before and during the event.

You are also welcome to join us for a drink in the bar after the event.

How the basic tools of scientific scepticism should be applied in the post-truth digital era

This talk will start with a quick reminder of the genesis of Winchester Skeptics, followed by an overview of how the skeptical basics of science, reason and critical thinking honed predominately on extraordinary and paranormal claims, are desperately needed in the modern post-truth world to to get a more critical perspective of what the heck is going on.

Profile

Crispian is a semi-retired IT consultant from Cornwall currently taking things relatively easy in a thatched cottage somewhere on Salisbury Plain.

He is the co-founder of The Hampshire Skeptics Society and Winchester Skeptics in the Pub and the author of the satirical sceptical blog, The Reason Stick.

Following his stage 4 kidney cancer diagnosis in 2015 he is also the author of the award winning cancer blog, Incurable Rationalist, in which he describes his nonsense free, evidence based approach to dealing with this most inconvenient affliction.

Standard Stuff

Talks are usually (December is always an exception) on the 4th Wednesday of every month,  at 7:00 for 7:30, at The Winchester Club in Winchester.  Please take a look at the FAQs for more info.

Admission is £5 which also gives you an entry in the book raffle. We take cash and major cards (cards preferred).

The event is in two parts – the talk and then a Q&A after the interval. We encourage you to support the venue by indulging in the available drinks before and during the event.

You are also welcome to join us for a drink in the bar after the event.