Rob Lyons, author of Panic on a Plate: How Society Developed an Eating Disorder discusses the unjustified anxiety present in society around the topic of food.

Rob is deputy editor of spiked, the online current-affairs magazine. He has been writing about food and health issues for a few years now. He has written for a wide range of publications including The Australian, The South China Morning Post, City AM and Times Online and he frequently takes part in debates on TV and radio.

There are many non-standard ideas – most of them ‘hyper-diffusionist’ and many of them sensationalistic – about the origins, relationships and histories of languages, especially ancient languages. These ideas are rejected by those professional linguists who are aware of them but often attract support among fringe historians and indeed among the general public.

This talk will provide a brief critical overview of these non-standard claims and theories, in my capacity as a professional linguist associated with the world-wide skeptical movement.  Theories of two broad types are discussed here: claims and theories about ancestor languages, historical relationships between languages (involving alleged common origin and/or contact), the etymologies of specific words (including onomastics), ‘out-of-place’(spoken) languages, etc.; and claims and theories involving the identification and decipherment of texts or alleged texts in unfamiliar scripts or familiar scripts used in unfamiliar contexts, said to represent familiar or unfamiliar languages – including claims about‘out-of-place’ written languages.

Mark Newbrook was born and brought up on the Wirral, and obtained a BA (Hons) in Classics from Oxford and an MA and a PhD in Linguistics from Reading; he then spent many years as a linguistics lecturer and researcher in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.  His main areas of interest include historical linguistics, dialectology, sociolinguistics, semantics and skeptical linguistics.

 Building on recent scientific discoveries, Mark Lynas explains that there are nine 'planetary' boundaries that humanity must not cross if Earth is to continue to support life and our civilisation. Climate change is one, but others - like ocean acidification, nitrogen use and biodiversity loss - are less well known, though equally crucial.

But this is no depressing lamentation of eco-doom. Instead Lynas presents a radical manifesto that calls for the increased use of controversial but environmentally friendly-technologies, such as genetic engineering and nuclear power, as part of a global effort to protect and nurture the biosphere. Ripping up years of 'green' orthodoxy, he reveals how the prescriptions of the current environmental movement are likely to hinder as much as help our vitally-needed effort to use science and technology to play God and save the planet.

Mark Lynas is the author of The God Species: How the Planet Can Survive the Age of Humans, published by Fourth Estate in July 2011. He has previous written two major books on climate change – High Tide: News from a warming world (2004) and Six Degrees: Our future on a hotter planet (2007).

High Tide was long listed for the Samuel Johnson Award for Non-Fiction, and short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award. Six Degrees was long-listed for the Orwell Prize in 2008, and won the prestigious Royal Society Prize for Science Books in the same year. Six Degrees became a TV hit for National Geographic, whose Six Degrees Could Change the World – voiced by Alec Baldwin – has been watched by tens of millions around the globe on the National Geographic Channel. The book has now been translated into 22 languages around the world.

In November 2009 he was appointed advisor on climate change to the President of the Maldives, His Excellency Mohammed Nasheed, and is involved in the Maldives’ effort to be the first carbon neutral country on Earth by 2020. He is a frequent speaker around the world on climate change science and policy, focusing in particular on how carbon neutral targets can break the international logjam on climate mitigation, and how emissions reduction should be seen as an opportunity not a sacrifice. He is also a Visiting Research Associate at Oxford University’s School of Geography and the Environment.

Why do more children get to university from Sheffield than Bristol?

A few years ago, when Britain was booming, politicians didn’t want to talk about inequality as long as everyone paid their taxes (and even when many didn’t). Now that has all changed and there is more and more talk about equality and fairness.

- Excluding people’s first home and their pension, the richest 1% of people in Britain now hold just over half of all the ‘spare’ wealth of this country. The other 99% hold less than half between them all.

- Secondary education spending in Britain is more unfairly distributed than anywhere else in the rich world but Chile.

- There are now over a million people aged under 25 in Britain who are unemployed.  It would cost less than £20 billion to employ them. At the same time, in real terms, we are spending some £200 billion a year on our pay bill more on the top 10% of earners than we did in our parents’ time.

- High and rising numbers of children have to share their bedroom with someone of the opposite sex aged over 10. At the same time the number of bedrooms in Britain has never been higher, at around two per person. 

- Britain now has one of the lowest overall life expectancies in Western Europe. It is cheaper, more efficient and fairer to raise it most where most people die young, not where most now live into their 90s.

Could rising inequality explain much more than just unfairness? Including why more children get to university who grow up in Sheffield than in Bristol? Or does an unjustified sense of superiority help a British Prime Minster make more stupid decisions? Is there anything in human life which cannot be usually linked to inequality?

Danny has lived in Oxford, Newcastle, Bristol, Leeds and now Sheffield. He has written quite a few books, mostly with others. His latest book is titled “Fair Play”.

No speaker this month but we do have a quiz (with prizes) and we'll throw the floor open to you guys to discuss / debate / argue various topics if you wish.

What is the make up of the sex industry in Britain today? How prevalent is trafficking? What is the point of the law on sex work? What does it aim to do, and does it work? Belinda Brooks-Gordon will be talking about the myths and stereotypes that surround sex work by examining the evidence base, case studies, and policy to show how the law is working, and where it isn’t.

Dr Belinda Brooks-Gordon C.Psychol, is a Reader in Psychology and Social Policy at Birkbeck, University of London. A chartered psychologist with a PhD from the University of Cambridge Law Faculty, Belinda’s research focuses on the safety, health, welfare and human rights of vulnerable workers. Belinda’s book The Price of Sex: Prostitution, Policy and Society  was short-listed for the British Society of Criminology Book Prize 2007. Other books include: Death Rites and Rights; Law and Psychology: Current Legal Issues; and Sexuality Repositioned: Diversity and the Law. She also writes in the mainstream broadsheet press and sometimes on legal blogs.

In 1999 Ray Kurzweil published "The Singularity is Near" claiming that in 2045 artificial intelligence would surpass human intelligence and our society would enter into a period of exponential technological growth, changing the human race beyond all recognition.

This would be easy to dismiss as science fiction, but Kurzweil holds 17 doctorates and was described Bill Gates as "the best man I know for predicting the future of artificial intelligence."

The talk covers an introduction to the technological singularity and transhumanism, a look at Kurzweil and his predictions on the singularity, alternative theories and critics of the ideas.

Chris Worfolk graduated from the University of Leeds in 2008, having studied computer science, specialising in artificial intelligence. He is also founder of Leeds Skeptics and Leeds Atheist Society and co-founder of the Humanist Action Group and National Federation of Atheist, Humanist & Secular Student Societies.

Cold reading is a psychological skill that is used by people such a fortune tellers, astrologers, clairvoyants and mediums.  By the methods of cold reading it is possible to convince people who have never met you before that you are able, just from their presence, to divine accurate details of their history, their personal life and their personality, and even to contact the spirits of loved ones who have passed away.

This workshop will provide participants with a basic grounding in the techniques of cold reading which they can practice in their everyday lives.

Tony Youens has already presented a talk at Sheffield Skeptics in the Pub (‘Adventures in Skepticism’).  He has appeared on a number of television and radio programmes over the years including: Kilroy (okay he's sorry), Central Weekend Live, National Geographic, Vanessa, Lowry, Everyman and The Heaven and Earth Show. He posed as a tarot reader for Meridian Focus and an astrologer in The New Zodiac.  His favourite was The Ultimate Psychic Challenge which meant working with James Randi.  He is a founding member of ASKE, the Association for Skeptical Enquiry (Est. 1997).

In this talk it will be argued that consciousness is something of a 'bolt-on goodie' for the brain, which does most of its work before consciousness ever gets a look in.  As a result, changes to how that hidden working takes place can lead to changes in conscious awareness.  Two particular examples that will be described are hypnosis and false memory.

Peter Naish has degrees in the so-called hard sciences (Physics and Chemistry) and Psychology, and as well as working in academia has carried out research for the Home Office and Ministry of Defence.  This broad background makes him an omnivorous consumer of science, but for much of his career he has focused on the nature of hypnosis.  He is Chair of Council of the British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis, President-Elect of the Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board to the British False Memory Society, and Communications Officer for the Psychology Section of the British Science Society.

We have 2 short talks on the 15th, the first being Thomas Evans speaking for us about fluoride and the second Mary Langridge about altruistic social behaviours.

Thomas Evans

Fluoride - do we want it in our water? Dental students will attempt to pin down the evidence and ethics behind water fluoridation in 20 minutes. What does fluoride do? Does fluoridation work? Is it harmful? Why isn't all water fluoridated? - these are just some of the questions that will be  addressed, as well as the reasons behind the vitriol that is directed against it. Arguments for and against putting fluoride in the water will be examined with a critical eye, with the aim to entertain and inform.

Mary Langridge

Explaining social behaviours such as cooperation and altruism is one of the greatest challenges facing the biological and social sciences. Darwin’s theory of natural selection provides an excellent framework within which to examine theories across the disciplines. This talk will lead you through the basic theories in this area, explaining how benefits to our relatives, our reputation and our self-concept lead us to perform bizarrely altruistic acts; from giving money to charity, to donating blood or laying down our life for others - acts which appear to be detrimental to our own reproductive success. 

Mary Langridge is an Associate Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, co-founder of Psychology in the Pub Sheffield and a PhD student at the University of Nottingham. Her research aims to unify theories across economics, biology and psychology in order to understand cooperation, costly punishment and how our moral and religious values influence our moral decisions. 

In recent years skepticism has established a definite presence in the public domain and the media, and on the Internet. Those involved often refer to themselves as ‘skeptics’, signifying that they support critical and scientific thinking and oppose the promotion of irrational, supernatural and unscientific ideas, claims and practices. Must a skeptic be an atheist? Or is it possible for someone who is committed to a religion also to be ‘a skeptic’?

Everyone is welcome to join in a lively and friendly debate on this question. There are no invited speakers but Mike Heap will start the ball rolling with a (very) short description of the current skeptical scene and why it’s important to ask this question.

According to The Skeptic webpage, the Skeptics movement is about, ‘Pursuing truth through reason and evidence’. How sceptical is that? This presentation will try to persuade you (hopefully using reason and evidence) that pursuit of truth is unreasonable. Jon will argue that not only is truth a myth but that it is often a nasty one!

Tony Blair claimed to know the truth about WOMD. The crusaders ‘delivered truth’ to those they defeated. Parents and teachers regularly put the epistemic boot in with kids (guilty). This presentation is a call to you Skeptics in the Pub: abandon truth – be radically sceptical!

Dr Jon Scaife teaches and researches about how people learn. He has degrees in maths and engineering physics and taught in schools before coming to the Physics department at Sheffield University. He now works in the University’s School of Education. Over the years he has moved from an objectivist to a constructivist view of knowledge, which will be evident in his presentation. He plays guitar and fiddle in folk clubs and ceilidhs and is an unjustifiably optimistic golfer.