Peter Clemerson has retired from a career in IT and is now studying for a PhD in Evolutionary Psychology at Massey University
Darwin Day visit to Stone-Henge Aotearoa
6 March 2023
I visited your admirable monument to early astronomy today as one of a party. You may remember that someone asked if you could source your comment that at some time since Christianity was introduced to England, some of its adherents had tried to destroy Stonehenge, given its pagan origins. As that visitor, I regarded your comment as quite plausible in principle but I had my doubts. If this was true, it would likely have featured prominently in many of the documents, films, videos and TV programs that have covered Stonehenge in recent decades. I had never heard this idea before today and given the coverage just mentioned, I was sceptical. You stated that you believed some contemporary accounts of such destruction exist and we agreed that I should be able to find some documentary evidence with suitable internet searches.
Deception in High Places
15 November 2021
In a recent Nature article, some researchers of Chinese origin describe their research into the effects of stimulation at various acupuncture points on the induction of inflammation by bacterial endotoxins (toxic proteins released by some bacteria when they disintegrate). They found that this stimulation has beneficial effects at some acupuncture sites and not others. Despite the use of the word “electroacupuncture” in the title, their abstract in the Nature paper ends with “Our studies provide a neuroanatomical basis for the selectivity and specificity of acupoints in driving specific autonomic pathways.” a normal reading of which strongly suggests that the authors believe that acupuncture is a real phenomenon and is based upon specific neurological pathways which they are claiming to have identified.
What do we mean by marriage?
1 August 2017
A series of reports in the New Zealand Herald in late 2016 and early 2017 covered the domestic violence offending of Pakistan-born Mr. Yasir Mohib and the sequence of Mr Mohib's court appearances. As a Humanist marriage celebrant, my interest in the case, and perhaps that of some other Humanists, lies in Mr Mohib's marital arrangements. He has a family consisting of five children born in New Zealand to their two New Zealand-born mothers, who are referred to in the newspaper articles as his “wives”. I wondered how such a situation could have arisen as the procedure for obtaining a marriage licence for the second marriage would have required Mr Mohib or his “wife-to-be” to have made a false statutory declaration about Mr Mohib's marital status when applying for the license. Had a license been issued in such circumstances and the marriage taken place, Mr Mohib would have committed bigamy, a criminal offence. In an interview conducted by TV 3 (1) it was made clear that while his first wife was married to Mr Mohib according to Australian and therefore also NZ law, the second “wife” was not. Only a religious ceremony has taken place (2). She calls Mr Mohib her husband but admits that she is not married to him according to NZ law.
Peddling Wellness
1 November 2013
A 'Wellness Festival' provides a couple of hours' entertainment, if not much more