NZ Skeptics Articles

Brad MacClure

Brad is a piano tuner, and a multi-instrumentalist - playing guitars, mandolin, fiddle, keys, and many more instruments.

Parelli Natural Horsemanship: Horsing around with pseudoscience?

14 April 2025

I just got back last week from my third experience riding in the Cavalcade. This year it was held in Twizel and, the same as last year, we rode with the heavy wagons. To clarify, we rode our horses alongside and around a bunch of wagons, carts, and buggies of all shapes and sizes. Part of the deal when you get to ride with the wagons is you should be ready to jump off and assist at times. For example, when a buggy with no brakes had to ascend a steep slope, another person and I had to jump off and be the brakes by hanging onto a rope tied to the back of the buggy. I can feel the anxiety just recalling the memory.

Hip-singing and vocal fry; why do I hate them so much?

21 January 2025

Okay, now I know my title is a loaded question. The answer could be that I'm a curmudgeonly old boomer who pays way too much attention to musical trends. Or it could be that I reject the premise. It's the latter, I don't really hate hip singing or vocal fry.

Post Conference Thoughts

25 November 2024

About a week ago (November 16th-17th 2024, for those reading way in the future) we held our annual NZ Skeptics conference, and for the first time the conference was a joint effort with the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists (NZARH).

Equine Touch

29 October 2024

Equine Touch (ET) is a horse therapy modality started in 1997 by Scotsman Jock Ruddock. Ruddock, who passed away in 2011, was an interesting character. Here's a brief list of his past occupations:

Weaponising Words

14 October 2024

I was thinking the other day about the lyrics of the Mark Knopfler song “Sailing to Philadelphia” . It's a gorgeous song, recorded as a duet by Knopfler and James Taylor. It's all about the chaps who surveyed the Mason-Dixon line. You should have a listen.

Ārepa: great minds drink alike? Or a storm in a drink bottle?

30 September 2024

A few days ago I tuned eight pianos in one day. That has nothing to do with this article. I just wanted to let you know that, because I think it's impressive. The pianos were all in one location, at a venue/arts complex in Queenstown, and all regulars, and of high quality, so maybe not that impressive I guess, but it was a long day. While there, a kind lady who worked in the complex handed me a bottle of Ārepa. Reading the label on the glass bottle, I instantly sensed that a deep dive might be in order.

A steaming pile of Horse Homeopathy

16 September 2024

I stated on the podcast a few weeks ago that I think I could cover a different horse pseudoscience in each issue, and keep going for an entire year. That was before I looked into it…

Richard Dawkins is officially a curmudgeon

2 September 2024

I realise this is pretty old news now, and I apologise for that, but just in case some of you missed it when it happened, or you didn't feel it was attention-worthy, I wanted to discuss this thing that happened a month ago.

Stop crediting the placebo effect, it doesn't make you better!

8 July 2024

Over a year ago my wife and I were on a cavalcade. Present on the same cavalcade was a woman who was an equine vet. While we were discussing various 'alternative' treatments and such she happened to say “but I'm a real believer in the power of placebo, though…”. I found that statement a little surprising, coming from (I assume) a qualified medical person, but perhaps in a way this is telling.

St. Patrick's Day

2 April 2024

Have you noticed how in action movies, on any day of the year, at any time of the day, if you're running from someone you can always hide in a Saint Patrick's day parade? There must be something about St Patrick, that his legend is not even subject to the laws of physics, the space/time continuum bends around him. Seriously though, that's not how it works of course. There must be many cultural phenomena which are celebrated of which you could argue there's little or no way to tell how much of the story is historical truth and how much is just myth. So does it matter? Christmas is an example. A christian origin story fully laced with lots of extra-biblical and pagan stuff and for probably the majority of us, no 'spiritual' significance at all, but we all love it (unless you're the grinch). It's become purely culture and tradition. Most of us don't really believe a twelve year old Jewish girl got pregnant without the 'help' of a human man.

Kambo

31 July 2023

Recently on facebook a friend posted “Kambo, My first ceremony…” or some such, with an attached photo. Until then I'd not heard of this thing, but it seems it's been around in NZ at least since 2016. It's claimed to be at practice from Amazonian tribes (that's their feeble attempt at an appeal to antiquity). Although no doubt there's truth in that, Brazil banned the sale/marketing of the substance in 2004 so, if you have used genuine Amazonian giant monkey frog poison (yes that's what it is) just know that someone may have committed a crime in Brazil so you could poison yourself and purge though multiple orifaces…you're welcome.

432Hz: What the freq do we know?

3 July 2023

Music is an amazing phenomenon. It's something probably every neurotypical person feels connected to. You rarely hear someone say “I hate music” or “that person hates music” and, if you do, I suspect it's not really true. I think it's more likely that that person dislikes loud music, or being in a crowd listening to music, or certain types of music they've been over-subjected to. Perhaps even it could be that they had a bad, maybe humiliating experience related to music when they were young. There are many reasons I can think of that someone might say “I hate music”, and that not actually being true. Music isn't unique to humans either. Many birds are amazing singers. Only I suppose when a bird is singing it's most likely interpreted as “who wants to get laid?”...so… not much different to humans then. All this to say that being such a ubiquitous thing, so universal, and yet how it works is so poorly understood by so many, you know that sooner or later someone will invoke magic or spirituality to define it, and cash in on ignorance to sell something.

The sceptical piano tuner

24 January 2022

Ending on a positive note (no pun intended) this week, NZ Skeptics committee member Brad MacClure was featured in an article on Stuff about piano tuning, and skepticism. There's a nice write-up and associated video.