This is the second of a set of two #QEDCon postings, the first one was yesterday. Well OK, it will actually the second of a set of three because I’d like to do another posting tomorrow to highlight the Ockham awards. In fact, now that I think of it, I also did a skepticamp posting as well, so clearly what you learn today is that I’m not very good at counting. As for the next and perhaps final posting tomorrow, the Ockham winners truly do all deserve the award and so highlighting them is something I feel is important. I’ll get to that tomorrow.
Anyway, on to this posting … what happened at QED on the Sunday 15th Oct 2017?
10:10 – 11:00 Helen Czerski
Coasts, Currents, Conflicts and Kings. The oceans are remote, inaccessible without ships or scuba gear, but they have a huge effect on our everyday life. She looked at how we study the ocean, how our civilisation’s attitude to it could be different and what the future holds for the blue of our planet.
The next one is not exactly my best picture, however I did love one of the suggested names for the buoy … “Pike, because he is a very stupid buoy”. (Only the folks familiar with a specific TV show in the UK from a decade or two ago will get the joke there).
Helen Czerski kicks off #qedcon for us today with a fabulous talk on oceans – coasts, currents, conflicts and kings pic.twitter.com/0mPt94Pw3Q
— Skeptical_Science (@david_gamble) October 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/pluckabee/status/919564654824886272
https://twitter.com/Dragonblaze/status/919668539350503424
11:10 – 12:00 Simon Singh
The Science of Secrecy. Simon Singh, author of the The Code Book, discusses the history of codes and codebreaking, from Ancient Egypt to the Internet. This talk included a demonstration of genuine Enigma cipher machine. Now that generated a bit of excitement, he was surrounded by a large and very interested crowd after the talk.
Just chilling with an Enigma machine. How's your morning? #QEDcon pic.twitter.com/MaQIXMdbCB
— Arakwai, Glaws (@Arakwai) October 15, 2017
#QEDcon #qed Simon Singh and his #enigma pic.twitter.com/6wtO04Hgbp
— zooterkin (@zooterkin) October 15, 2017
13:00 – 13:50 James Ball
Bathing in Bullshit: What’s Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It. Almost everyone agrees we’ve got a problem with fake news, misinformation, pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. This talk dissected what’s gone wrong with our information ecosystem, who’s to blame (spoiler: all of us), and what we can do to fight back.
James Ball on Bathing in Bullshit. @scriberian https://t.co/aV4E4aUx6r pic.twitter.com/n8sRxYuabl
— QED (@QEDcon) October 15, 2017
#QEDcon #qed It's very hard to tell the difference between a pensioner on the Internet and a Russian bot – James Ball pic.twitter.com/lYifrNkYKJ
— zooterkin (@zooterkin) October 15, 2017
14:00 – 14:50 David Gorski
Integrative Medicine: The Best of Both Worlds? Academic medical centres have been embracing “integrative medicine,” which rebrands existing medical lifestyle interventions, such as diet and exercise, as “alternative” or “integrative” while integrating quackery into medicine. How did this happen, and can anything be done?
Integrative medicine, as illustrated by @scriberian #QEDcon pic.twitter.com/UjhNb2XR0I
— Zimba (@zimbabve) October 15, 2017
A classic quote from @MarkCrislip #QEDcon pic.twitter.com/8pZxzlwVGw
— Diana Barbosa (@diraquel) October 15, 2017
"The only reason integrative medicine exists is to integrate Quackery into medicine." It's the pithiest way to say it, says @gorskon #QEDcon pic.twitter.com/M5eHH8hiAB
— Kavin Senapathy (@ksenapathy) October 15, 2017
15:00 – 16:00 Tim O’Brien
The Invisible Universe. Tim told us the story of how technology has allowed us to extend our senses to see beyond the visible and reveal a universe stranger than we ever imagined.
Our last talk on The Invisible Universe by Tim O'Brien from Jodrell Bank. https://t.co/jW6C3wO3Hj pic.twitter.com/fiB4DMv22E
— QED (@QEDcon) October 15, 2017
Of course this turned into a #QEDcon crowd wave! pic.twitter.com/9rLUY53b0T
— Diana Barbosa (@diraquel) October 15, 2017
#QEDcon #qed The Invisible Universe – Tim O'Brien pic.twitter.com/f04Yix2co7
— zooterkin (@zooterkin) October 15, 2017
"Here are my holiday snaps" https://t.co/11HAbmp7mf pic.twitter.com/YGKG9JkOA4
— QED (@QEDcon) October 15, 2017
Hmmm
Hope this audience member enjoys my talk @QEDcon pic.twitter.com/VMoOnyrNPg— Tim O'Brien (@ProfTimOB) October 15, 2017
16:00 Closing Ceremony
And so that was it. Here are the amazing team who put it all together.
It's over already! Thank you to everyone who came, all our guest speakers and volunteers – we couldn't do it without you! #qedcon
— QED (@QEDcon) October 15, 2017
Another Year Over #QEDcon #qedcon2017 #QED2017 pic.twitter.com/tOllsWFIQf
— Dave Alnwick (@davealnwick) October 15, 2017
Other Tweets
The fire alarm went off at approx 9:30am on the Sunday so everybody in the hotel had an informal meetup outside. I also got my exercise for the day … I needed to grab my stuff before things began and my room was on the 13th (14th which was really the 13th because there was no floor 13).
Okay, so maybe I should have left my large collection of antique scented candles at home. Sorry #qedcon #ThisIsActuallyAJokeDontHurtMe pic.twitter.com/IARrGCwUag
— Tango (@TruckerTango) October 15, 2017
#QEDcon exiting morning pic.twitter.com/heSYsgO0hP
— Thomas Askew (@Askwho) October 15, 2017
Not an alternative fact. #QEDcon https://t.co/CSgLnRTk9V
— Natalie Newell (@ncnewell) October 14, 2017
Oh and let’s not forget the other stuff that also happened.
Matt sketched all of the main stage events in detail but here are some sketches of the other events from Saturday @scriberan pic.twitter.com/8p6UU5uDp3
— QED (@QEDcon) October 16, 2017
… and so let’s finish this posting with a glimpse of a QED tradition … Richard Wiseman’s chickens.
Against all probability @RichardWiseman finds ANOTHER chicken gag at #QEDcon 😂 pic.twitter.com/Ks8ZVtCuuZ
— DaveTheDrummer (@DaveTheDrummer) October 14, 2017
The finest chicken ever to appear at #QEDcon! #QED pic.twitter.com/oUvBRt4D3c
— Rob McD (@Your_FunnyUncle) October 14, 2017