Newsfront

Psychics get credit for body discovery

Two psychic mediums have been credited with helping to find the body of a Stratford man who drowned in the Patea River last September (Taranaki Daily News, 1 April).

Coroner Tim Scott said in his ruling that the part played by the mediums in assisting to locate the remains of 36-year-old beneficiary Stephen Murphy provided an interesting twist to an otherwise sad event.

Murphy was last seen with his dog Roxy on 1 September, after drinking whisky with a friend. Friends and family contacted two mediums after they realised he had not been seen for a number of days. The mediums directed them to the area of King Edward Park where Murphy's body was found the next day (NZ Herald, 1 April).

The NZ Police website reported that Murphy was last seen by his sister in the vicinity of Brecon Road, near where he was found, and had his dog with him. His dog was found wandering later that evening at around 5:30pm by Dog Control.

:Mr Murphy regularly walked his dog along the riverbank not far from where his body was found.:

So an intoxicated man takes his dog out for a walk. One of the places he normally walks the dog is a park with a river running through it. He's last seen on a road near the park. He goes missing; the dog turns up alone. At what point is a psychic necessary to figure out what happened?

Reports of the body's discovery at the time (Stuff, 12 September, Stratford Press, 13 September, Taranaki Daily News, 14 September) make no mention of any psychic involvement. Funny how stories grow with the telling.

Oil say it's a miracle!

Olive oil is being promoted as part of a religious cure-all treatment by an evangelical church (NZ Herald, 28 March).

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God says its "holy oil" has helped cure tumours, mental illness, stomach and bladder problems, marriage difficulties, strokes and heart defects. It had, they said, been blessed at the sites of biblical miracles in Israel.

The oil was promoted in a mass mail drop in Auckland which claimed the oil had helped to fix people in situations where doctors had been unsuccessful. The newsletter claimed the oil helped cure one church member's pancreatic tumour. "After anointing herself for a period of time with the oil, [she] went back to the doctors for a check-up. The doctors couldn't find anything! No trace of the tumour was detected," her story read.

Herald reporter Sam Boyer asked for evidence and was told in an emailed statement by Bishop Victor Silva that the oil could not cure illness. Using it was an act of faith, and faith could help in the restorative process, he said.

A "generous amount of oil", in cross-shaped bottles, would be free to whoever attended an event at the Vodafone Events Centre in Manukau on Sunday 30 March.

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God has congregations in Otahuhu, Pukekohe and Porirua. It arrived in New Zealand in 2005, having originated in Brazil. Bloomberg says church founder Edir Macedo has become a billionaire from the tithes of his followers.

The church has previously claimed its "divine healing" could help cure HIV, homosexuality, epilepsy and depression.

Speaking of miracles…

An ice storm could not keep the crowds away as US science communicator Bill Nye and Answers in Genesis president Ken Ham debated before a packed audience at the Creation Museum in Northern Kentucky,a region known by some as the buckle of the Bible Belt (Dominion Post, 2 February).

The reportedly captivated crowd of almost 1000 were joined online by a further million viewers; at one point the debate was one of the top four trending topics on Twitter.

Ham, a former Queensland high school science teacher, believes in a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis, and that the Earth is 6000 years old.

Nye, known in the US as Bill Nye the Science Guy, has long opposed that view and warned of the dangers of creationism spreading in the school system.

Ham spoke first, and talked about observational science and what he called historical science. No one was around to watch ice layers form, or the rings of ancient trees being created, therefore scientists could not claim to be sure how it happened.

Nye replied that this distinction between observational and historical science was one unique to Ham and showed photos of still living trees that would have drowned in "Ken Ham's flood". He asked whether it was reasonable to believe that Noah and his family truly did build the largest wooden vessel ever to sail and put 14,000 animals on it. Did Noah have super powers?

Ham was unmoved and kept referring back to the Bible as evidence for many of his arguments. The debate continued for three hours.

Mark Gregor, a Bill Nye fan, travelled all the way from Boston. "I love this sort of thing, you never get to see this," he said. He believed the Creation Museum, which displays animatronic dinosaurs grazing happily alongside people to demonstrate that all life was created at once, is evidence of the decline of religion in America.

"I think it is the last spark of deep religion. Religious people are feeling threatened, that's why you have something like this."

Moon man beats advertising complaint

Long-range forecaster Ken Ring has defeated an Advertising Standards complaint over his weather forecasting website (The Press, 23 February).

Wellington geochemist Douglas Sheppard complained about the site to the Advertising Standards Authority, which rules on the acceptability of ads.

Ring, Sheppard said, "is quite unable to make accurate long range predictions - this has been demonstrated many times".

In response, Ring gave four examples of accurate long-range forecasts. Among them was a tweet he said he sent on September 7, 2010 - "more big earthquakes in 6 months time" - which he said predicted the earthquakes of 22 February 2011, and 20 March 2014.

He also pointed to an item on his website from 14 February 2011, which predicted a big earthquake in Christchurch between February 15 and 25.

Ring told the ASA he did not claim 100 percent accuracy, "only … 80 to 85 percent. But I am obviously able to make accurate predictions, so the complainant's claim that I am 'quite unable to make accurate long-range predictions' is false."

The ASA said it was not "an arbiter of scientific fact". Instead, its role was to consider the ads from the perspective of the likely audience and decide whether claims were substantiated by the advertiser. It said Ring's website carried a disclaimer that the information was "opinion-based".

The ASA said the likely "consumer take-out" from Ring's advertisement was that he could make opinion-based weather predictions, which were "often but not always accurate", and this was clear to consumers.

Bad posture 'could shorten your life'

Chiropractic got a plug on TV One's Breakfast programme recently (TVNZ, 4 April). "Dr" Tammy Hume of Vital Chiropractic (her website lists her qualifications as a BSc in Human Nutrition from Otago University and a Bachelor of Chiropractic from the NZ College of Chiropractic) told viewers how slumping over modern technology such as smartphones could cause people to develop spinal and respiratory problems.

"Sitting to our spine is like sugar to our teeth - it causes decay and dysfunction," she said.

"The cool thing about chiropractic and where we have a really big impact is that by actually accessing that spinal structure we're able to restore integrity to the nervous system."

She said she was particularly concerned for children who are "getting plonked in front of technology" from a very young age.

Maybe she has a point about that at least.