Statut
pro udělování výroční ceny Sisyfa "Bludný balvan ´NN" (Erratic Boulder
´NN) Statut
pro udělování výroční ceny Sisyfa "Bludný balvan ´NN" (Erratic Boulder
´NN) Pro zvýraznění přínosu jednotlivců i různých spolků k matení české veřejnosti a rozvoji blátivého způsobu myšlení zřizuje Český klub skeptiků Sisyfos výroční ceny.
Návrhy a nominace můžete posílat mj. na tyto mailové adresy :
Martin Bloch (bloch@cslab.felk.cvut.cz)
Pavel Vachtl (univers@comp.cz)
na jubilejni 75. podvecer s vedou a filosofii, ktery se bude konat v budove Akademie ved CR, Narodni 3 [proti Nove scene ND] v sale c. 206 ve ctvrtek 7. ledna 1999 v 17 hodin na tema:
SOCIALNI EKOLOGIE
moderatorem Podvecera bude Mgr. Bohuslav Blaz~ek [ECOTERRA, Praha] a v panelu dale vystoupi: Prof. RNDr. Hana Librova [MU, Brno] Ing. Vera Dvor~akova [katedra humanitnich ved VS~Z, Praha] Doc. PhDr. Jan Keller [MU, Brno]
Doporucena literatura: Jan Keller: Sociologie a ekologie. SLON, Praha 1997 Bohuslav Blaz~ek: Venkov/me~sta/media. SLON, Praha 1998
Pred zahajenim Podvecera bude mozne zakoupit brozuru Ceske astronomicke spolecnosti o uplnem zatmeni Slunce 11. srpna 1999 [cena 25 Kc]
Soucasne zveme na 76. Podvecer [ctvrtek 4. unora 1999 v 17 h] na tema:
VOJENSTVI A ARMADA: SOCIOLOGICKE A PSYCHOLOGICKE PROBLEMY
Moderatorem Podvecera bude PhDr. Jaromir Sedlak [Inst. East-West Studies, N. Y.] a v panelu vystoupi: PhDr. Antonin Ras~ek [genmjr. v zal.] PhDr. Miroslav Purkra'bek [FSV UK, Praha]
Vstup volny [do vycerpani kapacity salu]
Zajemci o elektronicke [prednostne] resp. pisemne pozvanky na dalsi akce EKK necht kontaktuji
RNDr. Veru Suchankovou, Rajmonova 1196, 182 00 Praha 8, tel.byt 688 4499, E-mail: suchanko@vanicek.tm
RNDr. Jiri Grygar, v.r. prof. Jaroslav Valenta, v.r.
sekce pro vedu a filosofii EKK predseda Rady vedeckych
spolecnosti
1. Schuze vyboru 17 XII 98
Ne letosni posledni vyborove schuzi byly projednany tyto body:
a] Clenske zalezitosti; Na vyzvu doplatilo clenske prispevky za r. 1998 30 clenu. Ze seznamu clenu bylo vyrazeno 32 dlouhodobych neplaticu, takze soucasny stav platiciho clenstva je 249 osob. M. Kozdera prislusne aktualizuje databazi. Pisemne pozvanky na verejne schuze Sisyfa budou pro usporu nakladu dostavat nadale pouze prazsti clenove. Na schuzi vyboru byli prijati 4 clenove. Clenske prispevky na r. 1999 zustavaji v dosavadni vysi 100 Kc. Vybor se vsak obraci na ty cleny, kteri mohou prispet vyssi castkou, aby tak laskave ucinili, nebot rozpocet je velmi napjaty.
b] Pobocky; Brnenska pobocka usporadala 4.11. prednasku prof. V. Vetterla o ucincich elektrickych a magnetickych poli na zive organismy. V lednu 1999 se uskutecni vyrocni schuze, spojena s volbou noveho vyboru pobocky. Prof. Her~t usporadal 15. 12. na Palackeho univerzite v Olomouci prednasku o homeopatii. Vzhledem k zajmu studentu i pritomnych fyziku nadeje na ustaveni pobocky stale trva.
c] Sekce; Fyzikalni sekce zasedala 3. 12.. Pekarek pripravuje pro VTM clanek o vysousecich metodach. Paty referoval o uspechu distribuce knihy Veda kontra mystika. Sekce se zabyvala take tematy verejnych prednasek pro jarni beh. Probehla pripravna jednani o ustaveni spolecensko-vedni skupiny mezi dr. Pokornym a ing. Battekem.
d] Zpravodaj; Pro tisteny zpravodaj chybeji clanky; budou prevzaty uryvky z vyrocni zpravy ECSO a take otiskneme nove stanovy.
e] Ceska televize; Generalni reditel nereagoval na predesle vyzvy a podnety, takze fyzikalni sekce pripravi dopis pro Radu Ceske televize
f] ECSO; Evropska koordinace vydala tisteny prehled o cinnosti evropskych skeptickych organizaci, jehoz vytisky dostali vedouci funkcionari Sisyfa. Je potrebi vyslat naseho zastupce na zarijovou konferenci ECSO v holandskem Maastrichtu.
g] Vykazy o cinnosti; Udaje o prednaskove a publikacni ci jine aktivite vyboru bude shromazdovat a archivovat jednatelka ing. O. Kracikova.
h] Konference Sisyfa; Na navrh prof. Herta se na podzim 1999 uskutecni narodni konference Sisyfa jako priprava na evropskou konferenci v Praze v r. 2001.
i] Vyrocni ceny Sisyfa; Byla ustavena pracovni skupina pro vypracovani statutu vyrocnich cen Sisyfa ve slozeni: Grygar, Kracikova, Lemez~, Noskova, Vachtl.
2. Sbornik prednasek Veda kontra iracionalita
Oproti predesle informaci se ukazalo, ze sbornik s prednaskami 1. behu dosud rozebran neni a je stale k dostani v prodejne nakl. Academia ve Vodic~kove ul. v Praze 1 [narozi Vacl. nam.].
3. Prednasky pro verejnost v jarnim behu 1999
V ramci cyklu Veda kontra iracionalita probehnou ve spolupraci s Tiskovym odborem AV CR v Praze prednasky, jez se konaji v budove Akademie ved na Narodni 3 v Praze 1 v sale 206 vzdy 3. ctvrtky v mesici od 17 h:
21. I. Hnizdil: Medicinske a pravni aspekty; Radvansky: Doping ocima sportovniho lekare
18. II. Kote~s~ovec: Znecistene ovzdusi a zdravi obyvatel; S~evc~ik: Vztah vyzivy ke zdravi
18. III. Pekarek: Magnetismus a jeho ucinky na zivy organismus; Hnizdil: Terapie pulsnim magnetickym polem
21. IV. Karmazin: Bylinarstvi a racionalni fytoterapie; Kubica: Zpusob regitrace a posuzovani ucinnosti leciv
Vstup na prednasky je volny az do vycerpani kapacity salu
4. Radostny skepticky novy rok v kratochvilnych utkanich s jurodivymi vsech barev a odstinu preje /jg/
============================================================================
RNDr. Jir~i' GRYGAR, CSc. Dr. Jiri GRYGAR
Fyzika'lni' u'stav Institute of Physics
Akademie ve~d C~eske' republiky Czech Academy of Sciences
Na Slovance 2 Na Slovance 2
182 21 Praha 8 - Liben~ CZ-182 21 PRAGUE 8
C~eska' republika The Czech Republic
Tel.(zaznamnik): 02-6605 2660 Phone (answ. mach.): +420.2.6605 2660
FAX: 02-858 5443 resp.-821 227 Facsimile: +420.2.858 5443 or -821 227
E-mail: grygar@fzu.cz
http://www-hep.fzu.cz/~grygar/jiri
http://www.astro.cz/people/grygar
Call for Papers (please distribute)
The European Skeptical Congress of 1999 wil be held in The Netherlands. The place will be Maastricht, and the time will September 17-19. The location will be Maastricht University.
Maastricht is in the southernmost tip of the Netherlands. It lies very close to Germany and Belgium, and boasts of a rich artistic, historic and culinary culture, and is worth a visit.
The language of the congress will be English.
This theme has many subthemes. We welcome both case studies and broad analyses. We hope that contributors will in all cases provide both empirical underpinnings of their messages, and visions of how to apply their findings in the future.
The 21st century will bring new challenges for everybody, hence for skeptics too. On the brink of this new century it seems a good idea to try to look into the future and prepare for it.
Concern for environmental issues (greenhouse effect, pollution of various kinds, radioactivity, electrosmog) will continue to grow. This field is rife with uncertainties and conflicts. Economic activities, which yield concrete benefits in the near future, clash with the much more uncertain long run environmental risks they entail. Health issues further compound the problem. In the face of so many unknowns a major risk is that irrational solutions are sought, and that what passes for scientific consensus actually is politically engineered mass hysteria.
In the field of health many new developments will occur. One is that scientific improvements and a rising age of the population will make the costs of health care go up. This will encourage people to look for low cost alternative solutions for health problems, and also to privately shop around for things that the public health care cannot provide. This will result in much irrationality.
Another development that the 21st century will bring is a better understanding of psychosomatic diseases and the placebo effect. Both belong to the mysterious realm of mind-body interaction. The past two centuries or so have seen the rise of mesmerism and the discovery of the placebo effect and an endless succession of fad diseases. It is to be expected that scientific research will proceed to unravel these mind-body relations. What is known in this respect? Is science up to this challenge at all?
The secularisation of European society will increase. In other words, the traditional forms of official religion will continue to decline gradually. The void they leave is filled with a great number of new religions, each with their own mixture of humanitarian values, revelations of uncertain origin and testable (and probably false) claims. The traditional religions seem to fall back on ever more uncompromising positions. The skeptical movement usually steers clear of religious issues and takes a definitely agnostic point of view. But skeptics are often seen as unromantic cold cynics, and their passion for truth is not understood, or they are seen as wanton spoilers of pleasant illusions. At best they are seen as somewhat otherworldly people. Should `skeptics' try to appeal more to widely understood humanitarian values and offer a coherent world view instead of merely sticking to `It ain't necessarily so'?
Entertainment will continue to increase. There's a growing tendency in all media (books, newspapers, movies, radio, tv, internet) to confuse amusement and information. Possibly this is related to the enormous efforts that are being spent on trying to attract the attention of the public. It is not something of recent times either, because (at least in The Netherlands) `lying' and `printing' are proverbially identified. Anyway, the trend of mixing entertainment with information is likely to increase. The general public is less sophisticated than the media makers and often thinks that what's on tv is true when it isn't. How serious is this problem? What can be done about it? What are the possibilities for promoting a clear distinction between amusement and information?
Nonsense is spreading in academia. Certain departments have lax standards, specifically in management `science' and other soft fields. The need to attract attention and get anything published, no matter what the quality, is cited as explanation for this. In the `hard' sciences political pressure to produce quick results for little money leads to questionable quality. Companies hire gurus to provide for their personnel an uncertain mixture of education, motivation, entertainment and crypto-religion, and seem to be unable to judge the merits of what they get. Are universities up to the task of guarding the integrity of science?
The old superstitions are certainly not going to vanish, but they are changing. Astrology is a case in point: the astrologers that call themselves `serious' retreat to unfalsifiable positions, and lose interest in tests. The public never bothers to question glossy astrology columns either: it's just as amusing as sitting in a merry-go-round on a wooden horse and going nowhere, but all the while enjoying new sensations and - temporarily - a new look on the world. What is the skeptic comment on that? Parapsychology has been around for a century. Has it produced anything worthwhile. One might think of parts of parapsychology that have been incorporated into ordinary psychology or the setting of standards for the design of experiments.
Any speaker who wishes to comment on the skeptical challenges of the 21st century in the fields of environment, physical and mental health, secularisation and the media is welcome. Any progress report on old issues is welcome. Any suggestions how to meet these challenges, (for instance by school education) is welcome.
The Dutch organization Skepsis customarily publishes proceedings of its conferences in book form. Also for this conference such a publication is planned. Contributors will be asked to submit a full length paper before the beginning of the conference. The standard time for presenting the essentials of these papers will be 20 minutes. Proposals are expected before February 1, 1999.
Please send proposals for papers to:
Dr. J.W. Nienhuys Dommelseweg 1A 5581 VA Waalre Netherlands
telephone: +31.40.2216791 email: wsadjw@urc.tue.nl
The Scientific Committee for the Congress consists of J.W. Nienhuys, A. Sarma and T. Trachet.
If you want a one or more copies of a printed version of this call for papers, please request them from J.W.Nienhuys.
