The next European Skeptics Congress will be held on 16–18 October 2026 in Liverpool!
The congress will be organised in collaboration with the Merseyside Skeptics and will build on the successful QED format. See escliverpool.org for general information and the latest updates. Early bird tickets are now available! Get yours today!
News from Europe and beyond
News headlines from Europe about skeptical activism, mythbusting, science related policy decisions, consumer protection, frauds, health scams, alternative medicine, bad scientific practices, pseudoscience. and more!
These are the ECSO’s founding documents: the Establishment Agreement and Charter, as adopted on 25 September 1994. They were drafted during the sixth European Skeptics Congress that was held in Oostende, Belgium. At earlier conferences and in letter correspondence in the run-up to this weekend, extensive negotiations had taken place between eight organisations from different (Western) European countries with the same goal: to protect the public against harmful misinformation, to investigate extraordinary claims and to promote evidence-based science policies. As it happened, the French skeptics’ representative had to return home due to grave family conditions, so seven organisations (including the U.S.-based CSICOP) became the founding members (with the later approval of the national and regional organisations’ boards). Here is a photo of the people who signed on behalf of each (you may recognise some of them):
The seven signers of the founding documents (left to right): Amardeo Sarma (GWUP, Germany/Austria/Switzerland) Michael Howgate (UK Skeptics, Britain), Miguel Angel Sabadell (ARP, Spain), Paul Kurtz (CSICOP, USA), Tim Trachet (SKEPP, Belgium), Arlette Fougnies (Comité PARA, Belgium), Kees de Jager (Stichting Skepsis, Netherlands).
22 years later, the thus established European Council of Skeptical Organisations has grown and expanded to include many more groups across the continent, especially the east and north. Ten more Congresses and several symposia and campaigns have been held in support of transnational skeptical activism. The ECSO is currently looking to cooperate with associations in countries where organised skepticism is still relatively new and could use the support and know-how of the old family. Internationalisation requires skeptics to work together, because pseudoscience and extraordinary claims have also profited from fading boundaries and new technologies.
The Finnish association of skeptics have released most of their back catalogue of Skeptikko magazine free of charge and for everyone to read or download. Full issues of the magazine are available from the year 1988 up to the year 2014. Get full PDF-versions of the magazine from the home page of Skepsis ry and have fun learning about the history and current state of our activities and skeptical topics in Finland.
Despite being widely condemned for what it essentially is, industrial bleach, MMS has been cropping up a lot lately among the regular smorgasbord of SCAMs (Supplements, Complementary and Alternative Medicines).
José Ramón Alonso is Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Salamanca and Director of the Laboratory of Neural Plasticity and Neuro-repair at the Neuroscience Institute of Castilla y León. In this article he explains what MMS is, its origins as a “therapy” and why it’s dangerous.
Norwegian food retail giants Rema, Coop and Norgesgruppen requests government to stop the import of GMO corn, (corn 1507).
The corn is mostly used to feed livestock, and is not actually in use in Norway. The reason for the proposed ban, is that the norwegian environmental department have proposed that the corn should be allowed for import.
The food retailers claim that the norwegian consumers are fearful of GMO products and pesticides. And that the norwegian market therefore do not want GMO products.
The norwegian government currently does not allow import or harvesting of GMO plants to feed human or livestock, but the government will be reevaluating this fall.
On 20.9.16 people near Dartmoor in South West England were shocked when a UFO was spotted over their area. The object, ‘a bizarre light’ can be seen hovering in the distance in amateur footage taken by Tanya Davis and her daughter Charlee. They claim that it remained there for around two to three minutes, after which it slowly disappeared into the distance. ‘Friends told them that the light could have originated from a drone, but the pair said that it was “too big” and “silent” for that to be the case’.
However, a police officer dismissed the UFO theory, announcing that the lights were caused by a source closer to home and planet Earth. ‘I can confirm there are no #UFOs over #Okehampton. @BritishArmy have an exercise ongoing with flares. Countless 999 calls now… #WordsFail’ – he tweeted. (See Aliens are not launching an attack on West Devon – it’s just an Army exercise)
Dartmoor is used mainly for training exercises by Royal Marines and other forces.
Dutch Defence Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert is a nominee.
During its 1 October symposium, the Dutch Society against Quackery, Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij, will announce who has won this year’s Master Quack Award (Meester Kackadorisprijs). Nominated are:
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Minister of Defence Military personnel has, without their knowledge, been given a health insurance, where alternative care has been included in basic care.
Dutch Royal Society for Veterinary Medicine (KNMvD) The organisation lets alternatively operating vets, united in the Study Group for Complementarily Operating Vets, practice freely. Nominated for the third time.
André Rouvoet, chair of VEKTIS VEKTIS registers alternative healthcare providers, which they require in order to be eligible for compensation by health insurance companies. According to the Society, VEKTIS’ assessment procedure is a farce.
Huub Savelkoul, professor at Wageningen University Nominated for a second time, this year for his cooperation to a course on ‘orthomolecular dietetics’.
The prize is meant for the institute, person or enterprise that has contributed most to the spread of quackery in the Netherlands last year by means of act, word or writing. On skeptical blog KloptDatWel.nl, you can vote for whom you think should receive the 2016 ironic award until Friday 16:00 CET.
The Dutch Health Council (Gezondheidsraad) is letting babies and their parents down in the fight against rotavirus, medical experts say. While all surrounding countries have adopted a vaccination policy against the diarrhoeal disease, that annually kills up to half a million young children around the world, the Netherlands are yet to develop an immunisation programme.
In 2010, the Health Council, which advises the government on medical matters, actually held a majority vote in favour of adopting the rota vaccine, but it wasn’t carried out. The minority, who held that the consequences weren’t severe enough and the project too expensive, had their way. Emeritus professor in child medicine Ronald de Groot adds that ‘there are fears of rising opposition to vaccination in society. But you simply need to inform people well. (…) [Since 2010] we’ve added to the record dozens of dead children and thousands of hospitalisations that could have been prevented.’
If you are in Madrid on Saturday 24th September at 19:00 you can enjoy the first talk of this season “The Hyper credulous mind or the brain that doesn’t search for the truth” at Moe Club.
Giving the talk is Manuel Martín-Loeches, Professor of Psychology at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid and responsible for the Cognitive Neuroscience section at the Mixed Centre UCM-ISCIII of Evolution and Human Behaviour.
The Ask for Evidence Campaign has been making the case to politicians and civil servants in the UK that evidence matters when it comes to policy-making. The Speaker of the House of Commons has now agreed to make his rooms in Parliament available for a meeting on November 1st at 12.30. Ask for Evidence is calling for people to send in their reasons why evidence matters to them, in preparation for the meeting, and to come to the meeting to discuss this with politicians and civil servants.
The ARP – SAPC (Spanish Skeptics) is sorry to announce that the Skeptics in the Pub session due to take place on the 17th September in Barcelona has had to be cancelled. Due to the recent, tragic loss of his brother Sergio (see previous post), Alfonso López Borgoñoz is unable to give the previously planned talk.
Alfonso and all their family and friends are in our thoughts at this difficult time.
News headlines from Europe about skeptical activism, mythbusting, science related policy decisions, consumer protection, frauds, health scams, alternative medicine, bad scientific practices, pseudoscience. and more!
They were drafted during the sixth European Skeptics Congress that was held in Oostende, Belgium. At earlier conferences and in letter correspondence in the run-up to this weekend, extensive negotiations had taken place between eight organisations from different (Western) European countries with the same goal: to protect the public against harmful misinformation, to investigate extraordinary claims and to promote evidence-based science policies. As it happened, the French skeptics’ representative had to return home due to grave family conditions, so seven organisations (including the U.S.-based CSICOP) became the founding members (with the later approval of the national and regional organisations’ boards). Here is a photo of the people who signed on behalf of each (you may recognise some of them):
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