For those who didn't manage to catch the Ms. Information movie about skeptic and scientist Siouxsie Wiles back when it was doing the Film Festival circuit a couple of months ago, the good news is that it's due for general release in cinemas from the 26th of October. Siouxsie has let me know that there's also a pre-release screening happening next week (on the 17th) at the Rialto cinema in Newmarket - you can book tickets for that showing at the cinema's website.
Alison Campbell learns some interesting facts about water chemistry
James Randi has demonstrated that a water diviner has a 94% chance of success in finding water for the simple reason that 94% of the land surface has fresh water immediately below its surface. The diviner is likely to fail miserably when he/she is asked to find a dry spot. The notion that water flows in rivers underground is only true for some exceptional places, usually associated with limestone deposits. Normally, water is trapped in microscopic pores and only moves a few centimetres to a few hundred meters per year. Similar misconceptions and statistics are seen in oil divining.