NZ Skeptics Articles

Editorial

1st November 2015

This issue we have a Guest Editorial piece by Lisa Taylor. Lisa is a proofreader and writer for NZ Skeptic, and is an active member of Wellington’s Science-Based Healthcare Activism and the NZ Skeptics Committee.

In November 2015, the annual New Zealand Skeptics Conference was held in sunshine-filled Christchurch. The weekend was enjoyable, meeting up with skeptics from all over New Zealand, and indeed all over the world. I think the puzzled look on my face when Associate Professor Colin Gavaghan started speaking must have showed how little I think about accents in written text. We had ‘spoken’ online for a long while before the conference, but I had little to go off accents-wise. It made for an amusing few moments of confusion. In my own defence written text does not have its own accent. Accents are generally spoken about in a linguistic sense; unless someone has written something in the IPA system it would not be clear that an accent other than your own is necessarily involved – (International Phonetic Alphabet, not the beer, sorry!)

Although there was plenty of beer on the Friday night - we had the Nerd Degree podcast as our entertainment. We podcasters noted that they were exceptionally better organised and prepared than our own podcasts Skepticism Today and the CUSP.

Saturday and Sunday were both filled with a number of interesting speakers who simultaneously wowed and horrified us with new diseases we hadn’t ever seen before. Saturday evening had the added excitement of having the Society for Science Based Healthcare’s first meeting and they are currently in the process of becoming an incorporated society. I was elected on their committee to be the Secretary. Its purpose is working on ASA complaints and other complaints about various healthcare-based issues in New Zealand – the vast majority of this is battling pseudoscience. SBH also placed a submission into the Pharmacy Council which said in part that “we only support changes that maintain the consumer’s right to be properly informed about the evidence for alternative health products.”

On Sunday evening we held the AGM for the NZ Skeptics. New members of the committee were voted in and I extend another warm welcome to Clive Hackett, Nichola Williams and Sheree McNatty. It is always good to have fresh blood to keep us vibrant.

When not listening to talks we were given plenty of time for mingling. I was glad for the mingling as I could then put faces to the names I regularly see on the NZ Skeptics Facebook groups. It also meant we could talk to the speakers more about their area of expertise.

A huge thank you must go to the Conference organisers who were absolute stars in their own right. I hope to see you all at the next New Zealand Skeptics Conference which will be hosted by the Southland skeptics who will host us in Queenstown / Invercargill. It will be held in November 2016. Exact dates and times to be confirmed.

Lisa Ryan

Letters to the Forum

1 November 2015

At first I thought this was a windup (my emphasis) – then I realised it was for real! (and happening in Auckland in September):

Newsfront

1 November 2015

The Government is hoping to attract more private money into science and improve how public science grants are spent. Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce released the Government's National Statement of Science Investment, its first national science strategy, in Wellington on Monday.

Submission to the Pharmacy Council

Mark Honeychurch - 1 November 2015

In early October the NZ Skeptics submitted a response to the Pharmacy Council's consultation on a proposed change to their Code of Ethics. It had recently been pointed out to the Pharmacy Council (by the Society for Science Based Healthcare) that many pharmacies sell unproven health products, in breach of their current Code of Ethics. The Pharmacy Council's proposed solution is to alter their code to remove the part of the clause that is being breached.

A Quiet Rebel: Sir John Scott

Robert Woolf , Steven Galbraith - 1 November 2015

In December 1952, letters appeared in the Otago Daily Times reporting sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects across the length of New Zealand. The story was apparently quite convincing, as the correspondents were relatively respectable people scattered widely around the country.

The Anti-Fluoride Circus

Luke Oldfield - 1 November 2015

The anti-fluoride circus made a new home this spring in the Coromandel locality of Thames (population 6,700). This circus did not feature any elephants though, or monkeys, or even humans performing under duress, neither were there any dramatic highwire acts or somersaults, unless you were to count the verbal gymnastics of those seeking to remove artificial fluoridation from the town's supply. In the hours before the referendum results were released, the Advertising Standards Authority found that Fluoride Free New Zealand (FFNZ) and their supporters had made a series of misleading claims during the campaign.

Low Energy Sweeteners and Weight Control

Steven Novella - 1 November 2015

Low Energy Sweeteners and Weight Control

A new systematic review published in the International Journal of Obesity looks at the totality of evidence investigating whether consuming low energy sweeteners (LES), such as aspartame, sucralose, or stevia, is a net benefit or detriment for weight control.

Palmerston North Skeptics in the Pub

Matthew Willey - 1 November 2015

With its scenic miniature railway, the National Rugby Museum and the country's second-largest ball of string, Palmerston North is often wrongly described as “the Armpit of New Zealand”.