Bernard Howard

Genesis: The Scientific Quest for Life's Origin, by Robert M Hazen. Joseph Henry Press, Washington, DC, USA. Reviewed by Bernard Howard. There's one thing I hope for before I die; to hear of some ... (387 words)

"There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents and only one for birthday presents, you know." A quotation is always a useful heading to an article, and one ... (387 words)

A knockout blow for evolution turns out to be nothing of the sort AS JBS Haldane famously said, God must have an inordinate fondness for beetles, he made so many of them. Of all the tens of thousands ... (714 words)

Debunked! by G Charpak & H Broch, translator BK Holland. Johns Hopkins University Press, Reviewed by Bernard Howard. For a refreshingly new look at some familiar skeptical themes, try this ... (492 words)

"There's no need for your organisation. We're all skeptics nowadays." Anthroposophy in Darmstadt Children's Hospital The Darmstadt Children's Hospital in Germany has acquired an "Anthroposophical ... (400 words)

The medical community in Britain is suffering a severe attack of lèse majesté, and it is feared some distinguished heads will roll on Tower Green. Prince Charles, in his untiring care for the health ... (474 words)

A widely publicised trial which appeared to show prayer was effective in enhancing fertility now appears to have been fraudulent. In 2001 an extraordinary paper, from the highly regarded Columbia ... (908 words)

A French test of a therapeutic touch practitioner generates sympathy, but no positive results We have recently received a message from OZ. Not transtasman Big Brother, but the cousins in France. OZ ... (569 words)

It began like any other Saturday morning, out of bed even later than on weekdays, a leisurely breakfast, dismembering the 10 sections of the Press, and settling to a good long read. It was then that ... (309 words)

"Energised Water" turns out to be much the same as the other kind Grander water indeed, than the ordinary stuff from the tap; Europeans are paying more than the equivalent of $NZ20 per litre for it. ... (577 words)

The universe we live in is vast, in both space and time, so vast as to be beyond human comprehension. Mathematicians have devised a way in which the large numbers involved can be manipulated, the ... (439 words)

A DEVIL'S CHAPLAIN: Selected Essays. Richard Dawkins. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003. ISBN 0 297 82973 4. We Dawkins fans have been waiting since "Unweaving the Rainbow" in 1998 for this. Unlike its ... (344 words)

Mind the Gaffe, by RL Trask. Penguin, 2002. $24.95. Mind the Gap! The book title is intended to remind all who have waited on curved London Underground railway platforms of the risk a careless step ... (398 words)

Proceedings on Saturday were meant to be opened with a talk from Elric Hooper, but we were denied the opportunity to hear that leader of New Zealand theatre. In order to keep appointments in the USA ... (88 words)

Snake Oil And Other Preoccupations, by John Diamond. Vintage, 2001, $29.95 I recently reviewed for NZ Skeptic this author's previous book (C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too), which described his ... (377 words)

When I spoke at the conference two and a half years ago, argument was rife as to when the next millennium would begin. Now, there is no doubt we are well launched into the third thousand-year period ... (1818 words)

The Psychology of the Psychic, 2nd edition, by David Marks. Prometheus Books. When David Marks and Richard Kammann published the first edition of this book in 1980, it rapidly became a standard ... (517 words)

Because Cowards get Cancer too, by John Diamond, Random House, 1998 So John Diamond is dead; at age 47 killed by his tongue cancer. He may not be well known in New Zealand, but was a popular ... (922 words)

Bernard Howard reports from the Skeptics' World Convention, Sydney, 10-12 November 2000 John Clarke's gaze had been mercifully averted, so we were spared a TV series "The Congress", showing all that ... (990 words)

Members attending the Annual Dinner on 26 August last saw a bemused retiring NZCSICOP Secretary, even more tongue-tied than usual, responding to an unexpected gift. A collection of skeptical books, ... (206 words)

UFOs & Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery, by Robert E. Bartholomew & George S. Howard; 1998. Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, US. ISBN 1-57392-200-5 Readers of NZ Skeptic will have seen ... (768 words)

IT IS WELL, at the start of a discussion, to declare an interest. So, I begin by admitting that my fascination with the year 2000 was aroused nearly 70 years ago. Like many mechanically-minded lads ... (1917 words)

UFOs & ALIEN CONTACT: Two Centuries Of Mystery, Robert Bartholomew and George Howard. Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, USA. READERS of NZ Skeptic will have seen R.E. Bartholomew's article "The ... (764 words)

CHINESE CANCER THERAPY. This title of a modest advertisement in the Sunday Star-Times last September caught my eye. Two statements in the ad surprised me: the first, that "usually only three ... (852 words)

Bernard Howard has pointed out a typing error in his Summer editorial: there were seven founding member of the NZ Skeptics, but only five were named. The piece should have included Mr Ray Carr and Dr ... (90 words)

Founding member Bernard Howard reminisces on the Skeptics' history in this guest editorial. I belong to the constipated school of literary composition, so when the Editor invited me, only days before ... (1744 words)

Bernard Howard proposes an answer to a curly question. During the recent drought I was asked by a friend if I could explain why her cucumbers were growing with such a pronounced bend. Some indeed ... (196 words)

I was recently reflecting on my career as a scientist, and realised that this year is the 50th anniversary of my first scientific paper.1 In 1947 I was a "scientific civil servant" in London; I ... (249 words)

I have just visited another universe; it seems a much more interesting place than the dull old world we are forced to inhabit. "What is it like?" you ask eagerly, "and how did you get there?" ... (464 words)

IN an article entitled "Unravelling The Indian Rope-trick", in Nature, English researchers Richard Wiseman and Peter Lamont describe their systematic investigation of one of the world's best known ... (265 words)

THE committee notes with sadness the sudden death of George Errington. George and his wife Helen joined NZCSICOP in 1986 and have been active, enthusiastic members. He was a "behind the scenes" ... (100 words)

**RIVER OUT OF EDEN: A DARWINIAN VIEW OF LIFE by Richard Dawkins. ** Reviewed by Bernard Howard ** We start by setting this book into its two contexts. In the publishing context it is the fourth in ... (451 words)

The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry; Arrow Books Ltd, 1995; xi + 356 pp; $19.95 pbk Readers familiar with Stephen Fry only for his TV comic appearances (A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, ... (467 words)

Sorry -- not a 50% price reduction on BMWs, not even gratis cases of Bernkastler Beerenauslese. But: For only the price of a stamp, learn of two life-prolonging offers from Herr Wolfgang Dog of ... (162 words)

Post-mortem on the autopsy or autopsy on the post-mortem? Post-mortem undoubtedly. There could hardly be a deader duck than the supposed Roswell autopsy film, whatever species of being or inanimate ... (383 words)

The media were quick to cry "Wolf" when concerns were raised about the fungicide Benlate. On 9 December, 1993, the people of Canterbury read an alarming headline in the Christchurch Press: "Herbicide ... (1077 words)

That arbitrary slice of the continuum of time known as 1993 has been a busy one for the New Zealand Skeptics. High spot of the year was the visit of James Randi in early July. Unfortunately, his ... (447 words)

Rejuvenation! The wish of many a tired old man, and not so old: to regain the physical and sexual vigour of youth. During the early decades of this century it was widely though not universally ... (1692 words)

Several copies of each issue of our newsletter are sent to the international skeptical movement's headquarters in Buffalo, New York. Many of these are distributed to our sister organisations around ... (133 words)

A Sprite in your Spirit, a Bogle in your Benzine, a Fury in your Fuel, a Greyhound in your Gasoline. With acknowledgement to the oil company which, many years ago, urged us to "Put a Tiger in your ... (500 words)

There is something in the German psyche which has a peculiar fascination for the medieval... Corn Circles As the northern summer of 1991 progressed, the corn circlers struck again. Von Dfaniken is ... (628 words)

by V. J. Hewitt & P. Lorie; Bloomsbury Press, 1991; $49.95 Reviewed by Bernard Howard The arcane writings of Nostradamus have been a happy hunting ground for crackpots for many years. This is the ... (244 words)

Zealand Publishing House, Tauranga Reviewed by Bernard Howard Feeling inadequate? No matter in which department you fall short of your ideal, the Zealand Publishing House has the answer to your ... (138 words)

by David Fasold. Sidgwick and Jackson, 1990. 331pp. $39.95. Reviewed by Bernard Howard Did Noah build his Ark using a measuring unit derived from the metre and an accurate value of pi? Most of us are ... (401 words)

A Bit of Bloody Nonsense Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine Making the green one red. Macbeth, on ... (327 words)

On Thursday evening, 26 June 1990, a large number of members and friends gathered at the University of Canterbury Staff Club in Christchurch, to hear Prof. T.W. Walker, late of Lincoln University, ... (179 words)

by John Allen Paulos. Vintage Books, 1990. 180pp. $23.95 (Reviewed by Bernard Howard) "Math was always my worst subject" "I can't even balance my checkbook." "I'm a people person, not a numbers ... (248 words)

The following item was sent by Bernard Howard of Christchurch. It appeared in the (Christchurch) Observer of 22 January 1990 under the headline "Hagley visits on UFO agenda—claim". Sceptics may find ... (450 words)

The German physician, H. Rheder described the following clinical trial in 1955. In the local hospital were three patients under his care; one suffering from chronic gall bladder disease, a second ... (303 words)

Early on Saturday, 2 September, on a bright but cold Christchurch day, over one hundred and fifty members and others met at the University of Canterbury for NZCSICOP's Fourth Annual Conference. After ... (204 words)

Didi you know that the 'principle' of water-divining was used to find people buried under snow? I did not, until I read about it in Nature (letter from Rolf Manne, of Pergen, Norway, in the issue of ... (201 words)

After we have marvelled at the endurance shown in "The Wooden Horse, and thrilled to the weekly plottings of "Colditz," can we be expected to be interested in yet another prisoner-of-war story? ... (599 words)

We now have nearly ninety subscribing members. When | divide them according to their addresses, and also for the difference in population between the North and South Islands, it appears that South ... (182 words)