Happy Skeptical Easter

Mark Honeychurch - 2 April 2024

I hope everyone’s had a good long weekend, and was able to spend it doing the things they love. I was able to spend a day hanging out with friends, put some finishing touches to a fake tourism plaque I’ve been making for a prank in Wellington, and spent some time sorting and photographing my vintage necktie collection. As part of doing this I learned more than I ever needed to know about the history of tie manufacturers in New Zealand, including Parisian, John Webster, Klipper, Sander and Eskay.

Facebook is shovelling more and more nonsense at me these days, and I thought I’d share one of the daft adverts I was presented with recently:

Some of this advert I don’t understand - is 115/200 meant to be a range, from 115 to 200? Or is it a fraction - because an IQ of 0.57 presumably is somewhere between impossible and functionally dead. On the other side, I also find it hard to believe that 70% of Americans are below average. We’re talking about IQ, which has a normal distribution with a mean of 100, so if this is an American-based IQ we’re talking about, then 50% of Americans will be below average. If we are comparing Americans to a global IQ, then as far as I can tell they’re still not far off having an average of 100 - apparently around 98. So, without having to do any gnarly maths, I’m pretty sure this still doesn’t equal 70% of Americans - probably more like 53% or 54%.

The assigning of particular traits to low and high IQ people seems problematic. I find it hard to believe that there would be much of a correlation between dietary/lifestyle choices and IQ.

I looked up Brainety, and it appears to be one of these websites that tries to sell you on the idea that they can make you clever by giving you daily puzzles to solve. And, from at least one review I’ve seen, once you’ve given them your credit card details, they’ll be quick to take their first annual subscription from you without your express permission. Yay for predatory companies!

Anyway, in this weekend’s newsletter, we start with an otherworldly request for help from someone who used to be a member back in the days of Denis Dutton. Brad from the committee has had enough of St Patrick’s Day nonsense. Sticking with religious events I, with my tongue firmly in my cheek, answer a topical theological question about Jesus and Easter. Bronwyn has written a book review about Rebecca Priestley’s new book. Craig has also written about a book, looking into a shonky American bible salesman. I’ve vented my spleen about a somatic sexologist’s daft claims. And finally Bronwyn has produced another mammoth effort, finishing off her probing investigation into Pascha - yet another daft person who thinks they’re channelling some mythical long-dead guru.