Live Long and Prosper

13th November 2023

In the last two weeks, since my last newsletter, I’ve been re-visited by Mormon sisters - who stayed to talk with me for an epic three hours, and have promised to come back again with more congregation members. I’ve also managed to catch COVID for a second time. Thankfully the second time round, although just as painful for the first few days, doesn’t seem to have had the long-lasting after-effects (tiredness, lack of taste) that it did the first time.

In this week’s newsletter, Brian Paavo has written about a small but meaningful act of defiance, fighting the nonsense that is Shuzi wristbands. Thank goodness he chose to go after Shizi and not rival band maker Zenteq. When both companies ran stalls at a home show a few years ago, their rivalry ended up in fisticuffs, instigated by the owner of Zenteq.

Bronwyn has written this week about the interesting topic of Blue Zones, which I recently learned is a marketing term used to describe areas where people tend to live longer than average. Unsurprisingly, given that this is a skeptical newsletter, the claims of longevity aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

Finally, I finish off my story of chatting with Agent Patrick Smith from the Publisher’s Clearing House, finding out how the scam works and (yet again) winding up a scammer until they get angry at me.

Mark Honeychurch

Silent Solo Skeptical Activism

Brian Paavo - 13 November 2023

Silent Solo Skeptical Activism

In the social media age the “Am I the A$@&@ole?” (AITA) post sub-genre provides a sincere 'check-yourself' calibration and a moment of schadenfreude. I think it originated in the Reddit dungeons, but has spread across many apps and an endless number of YouTube channels. A recent moral quandary of the AITA variety recently hit me and I thought I'd look for skeptical input.

Are blue zones bogus?

Bronwyn Rideout - 13 November 2023

Are blue zones bogus?

If you follow NZ Skeptics or the Yeah…Nah! podcast on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, then you obviously know that we are still using that particular hellsite for promotional purposes. And every now and then, it springs a surprise on us. This time, it was an article by Dr. Saul Newman linking the existence of Supercentarians (who are over the age of 110 years) to pension fraud and administrative errors rather than other oft-touted markers of longevity such as social connections and diet (although both of these hopefully contribute to a better quality of life).

Running out of Steam: The fake Judy scam, part 2

Mark Honeychurch - 13 November 2023

Running out of Steam: The fake Judy scam, part 2

This is the second part of an article detailing an online scam, which started when I accidentally accepted a friend request from a cloned Facebook account. This led to me talking to a second Facebook account named “Agent Patrick Smith”, and being offered up to $100,000 by Publisher's Clearing House in the US. At the end of part one, I showed off my 9 year old daughter's amazing forgery skills when I asked her to recreate my driver's licence so that I could send it to the scammers as proof of my identity: