WinSitP: Simon Singh on Alan Turing and the Cracking of the Enigma Code

Winchester Skeptics in the pub has now been up and running for two years.

We have had two years of fantastic talks and as more and more people have heard about us, it has become increasingly hard to accommodate everyone in the biggest available pub we could find in Winchester. Following our hugely successful sell-out Christmas Special at the Intech Planetarium we will therefore be moving to an exciting new venue.

The Winchester Discover Centre is the perfect new home for Winchester Skeptics in the Pub. WInchester Skeptics in the Discovery Centre is however a little unwieldy, so we'll probably just stick to Winchester Skeptics in the Pub, or even just Winchester Skeptics.

The success of Winchester Skeptics in the pub can be traced back to our very first (and packed) meeting in January 2010. Our inaugural speaker on that occasion, despite still going through a somewhat misconceived libel trial at the time, was of course Simon Singh. We are therefore delighted to welcome Simon back as the inaugural speaker at our shiny new venue in the year that marks the 100th anniversary of Alan Turing's birth to give an enthralling talk on Alan Turing and the cracking of the Enigma Code.

Simon will also be brining an original working Enigma machine to demonstrate how the cunning little buggers work.

You can take a 360 degree virtual tour of our new venue here.

Do come along next Thursday and fill your brains.

Skeptics in the Planetarium

The Hampshire Skeptics Society cordially invite you to join them on the 8th of December, 2011 at Winchester's premier nightspot*, Intech Science Centre and Planetarium!

Tickets Available Here

We are immensely proud to announce that we will be joined by the following esteemed guests:

Sheila Kanani - Mullard Space Science Laboratory

Sheila is a PhD student at UCL (Mullard Space Science Laboratory) who, when not building spacecraft like the Cassini Probe, analysing the data from such probes before anyone else on the planet gets to see it, inspiring the next generation of UK physicists and teaching at Space School UK , likes to unwind by entertaining the masses at events such as Bright Club and Spacetacular!.

Helen Arney - Physicist, Festival of the Spoken Nerd, musical comedian, all round good egg

For anyone that attended this years sell-out Uncaged Monkeys tour, Helen needs no introduction. Unless of course you suffer from short term memory syndrome. In which case; brilliant! You are going to enjoy Helen's set even more as every song will break over you like the first flush of love and each, frankly, disgusting aside will make you blush like a sixteen year old debutante who has accidentally stumbled upon her fathers secret cake stash. If you would like a sneak preview, check out Helen's fantastic work here.

Helen Keen - Space Enthusiast! Robot Enthusiast! Tea Enthusiast! Survivalist!

Quite frankly how we managed to blag an appearance from Helen, now that she is the comedian in residence at Newcastle's Centre for Life and following her hit Radio 4 show It IS Rocket Science is beyond me although our threat to release the compromising video of her throwing a diva hissy fit and smacking long suffering writing partner Miriam Underhill across the upper arms until she cried, may have something to with it (Thanks Kash, I owe you one buddy!).

Robin Ince - Science Groupie, Scientist Herder, President of the Richard Feynman Appreciation Society

I don't need to even write anything here, do I? If you don't appreciate how amazing it is that Robin is joining us this evening then you are dead to me, dead...

We will have a fully licensed bar and some really cheap food and if we ask Dr. Jenny Shipway really nicely she may even put on a planetarium show for us all on a night that promises to be one you will never forget!**

*(If looking up at the stars is your thing)

**(Short term memory syndrome - see Helen Arney) 

Many thanks to James Thomas for arraigning the venue and special guests and providing the above text.


We also plan to be publishing a new exciting calendar of speakers for 2012 at Winchester Skeptics in the Pub here soon.

Winchester #SitP 25th August with Alice Sheppard

Winchester #SitP 30th June 2011: Jon Ronson

Click poster to embiggen

Winchester #SitP 26th May 2011: Mark Stevenson

Next Winchester SitP moved to Thursday 1st April 2010

The next Winchester SitP has been put back a week and will now be held on Thursday 1st April 2010, when we are very pleased to have Deborah Hyde talking about Cultural & Physiological aspects of the religious and superstitious experience. Answering questions like:

When do the dead chew in their graves?
Why do vampires strike in autumn?
Why do ghosts live in electric clocks?

Deborah Hyde who has been writing about the folklore of the macabre for eighteen years. Her book, ‘Unnatural Predators’ will be published this year. She blogs on belief in the supernatural as ‘Jourdemayne’, but often suffers from mission creep. Her daytime, grown-up job is a makeup effects coordinator in the film industry – more vampires and zombies, then.

Winchester SitP: 25th Feb 2010 with Richard Wilson

Sceptics are people who are prepared to ask difficult questions, and point out uncomfortable truths. In societies where freedom of speech is denied, such habits can be seen as subversive, and even dangerous. One of the most famous sceptics in history, the philosopher Socrates, was sentenced to death for “corrupting the young” by encouraging Athenians to question accepted wisdom. Even in democratic states, sceptical thinkers can face difficulties. Journalists who expose quackery and corruption may find themselves on the receiving end of crippling libel suits, while scientific advisers are sacked for questioning government policy.

Societies that exclude scepticism become incapable of acknowledging and correcting their mistakes. At the extreme, the consequences can be fatal. In Soviet Russia and Maoist China, millions starved through the imposition of pseudo-scientific agricultural policies that few could question freely. In the modern era, the application of archaic media laws can allow corporate negligence and malpractice to go undiscovered.

Yet while today’s sceptics still face many challenges, modern technology also creates new opportunities for defending and extending the freedoms on which scepticism relies. In “Don’t Get Fooled Again”, Richard Wilson highlights the relationship between scepticism and freedom of speech, and talks about the tools that modern-day sceptics can use to help preserve it.

The Roebuck Inn, 57 Stockbridge Road, Winchester, SO22 6RP
7:30pm Thursday 25th February 2010

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Post Something You Lazy Cornish Git

Sorry for the lack of new posts in the last week, I’ve been awfully busy working on some other stuff in my spare time.

Firstly I’ve been working with Dave to set up Winchester Skeptics in The Pub. We’ve found a great venue (The Royal Oak, Winchester Town Centre), and have already booked some awesome speakers. The first meeting of Winchester Skeptics in the Pub will be on Thursday 28th January 2010. We are planning to have some very eminent guests for our inaugural meeting so please come along. More information on Winchester Skeptics in the Pub is available on the Hampshire Skeptics Society Web Page. I will be doing lots of WinSitP pimping over the next few weeks, and any help to promote these events would be most appreciated.

Also, as it’s getting near the end of the year, so I’ve been working on my 2009 album review. Not really much to do with Science, Reason & Critical Thinking, but I love music as well as science. Anyway, Rebecca Watson took a look at the list and told me I’d got it all wrong. I therefore rechecked the facts and, it turns out that she’s wrong and I’m completely correct.

I’m also working on a few other things, but hope to get back to posting my normal dubious nonsense again soon.