Nonsense to the left of me, nonsense to the right
Mark Honeychurch - 8th August 2022
There’s usually no lack of content for our newsletter, and this week is no exception - which is great, as I’m on the newsletter for a second week in a row while Craig’s unavailable. The Alex Jones court case has made the news this week, and it’s good to see the mainstream media focusing on this particular charlatan. When I started reading up on the court proceedings, every article I read seemed to have some new tidbit of information, and it can be a little depressing hearing just how awful Alex Jones is, and how much money he can make in a day. As I say in my article on him below, he’s one man I’d love to see in jail, but sadly I’m not sure that’ll ever happen.
As promised on the latest episode of our podcast, Yeah… Nah!, we’ve managed to convince Dan Ryan to give us an update on water fluoridation in New Zealand. As well as being on the NZ Skeptics committee, Dan’s the founder and current president of Making Sense of Fluoride - a community group that has been working to promote water fluoridation, and counter the misinformation campaign run by the anti-fluoride group Fluoride Free NZ. We’ll be talking to Dan some more on next week’s podcast episode, and we may also be able to quiz him a little about some of the other great skeptical work he does.
Thanks to Ross in our Facebook group, I’ve looked into an abysmal article the Sydney Morning Herald published about an Australian man who’s selling “structured water” devices. It took me about 5 minutes of googling to find out that not only is he not a real scientist, as he claims, but he’s also steeped in nonsense, and runs a company which offers a service that’s a classic form of pseudoscience that skeptics love to hate - see if you can guess what it is before you read the article.
Finally, Bronwyn has written a great article - the first of two parts looking at a fascinating place near Palmerston North called Highden Manor. Expect the second part next week. Bronwyn’s also hoping that, as part of an upcoming skeptical field trip from Wellington to Palmerston North, we’ll be able to pop in to Highden Manor for a visit soon - so she may have more to say on the place yet. However, even if we don’t make it to the manor, we’re still planning to visit the salt cave in Palmerston North… and, for my sins, I have a voucher I need to redeem before the end of the year to receive a colonic irrigation from a Palmerston North based alternative health practitioner. I’m a little nervous about it, but also excited to try a new pseudoscientific therapy. Expect to hear more from me about this after I’ve had 40 litres or more of water pumped into somewhere it really shouldn’t be.