1 November 2014
The spread of new technologies has caused an upheaval in the world of the media, but gives skeptics many causes for optimism. This article is based on a presentation to the 2013 NZ Skeptics Conference in Wellington.
1 November 2014
This year the NZ Skeptics Annual General Meeting was held separately from the conference, on 7 September in Wellington. Among the business attended to was the election of a new chair-entity, Mark Honeychurch, replacing Gold who takes on the new role of Head Geek, responsible for technological support. The_ NZ Skeptic _took the opportunity to ask Mark a few questions about himself, and his vision for skepticism in New Zealand.
1 November 2014
A new group advocating a strong basis in rigorous science for the provision of safe and effective healthcare has been established in New Zealand. Mark Hanna explains.
1 August 2014
Mark Hanna reports on how to use the Advertising Standards Authority to fight back against the promotion of questionable therapies.
1 August 2014
"… she successfully resisted the forces pitted against her, giving an astounding manifestation of some power other than that making up the ordinary phenomena of nature." So wrote the_ Feilding Star _on 25 October 1899, reporting on an early incarnation of the supernatural showpeople that still tour the world today. But other newspapers took a sceptical line that media today could learn from.
1 August 2014
The proposed Hastings District Plan (November, 2013) includes references to 'matakite walkover', the use of Maori clairvoyant powers as a means of determining an area's cultural or spiritual significance. Vicki Hyde, on behalf of the NZ Skeptics, made the following submission on the proposed plan.
1 August 2014
At the 2013 NZ Skeptic Conference Vicki Hyde presented a series of soundbites and talking points skeptics can use in discussions with others. Here are some of them, presented as a smorgasbord of ideas to be dipped into.
1 May 2014
At TAM 2013 the last talk was by Peter Boghossian and it was on Authenticity. One of the take-away messages I got from that talk was that you should stand by your words and if someone is offended by them let them know that you're sorry that they were offended. But stand by what you said, if you really trust in it.
1 May 2014
Human carbon emissions have been described as a planet-wide experiment with a sample size of one. Are there ways for science to accept uncertainties and just point at what could happen, while not testing the theory? This article is adapted from a talk at the NZ Skeptics Conference, in Wellington, 7 September 2013.
1 May 2014
Daniel Ryan reports from the front line of the battle against the anti-fluoridationists.
1 May 2014
1 May 2014
Martin Bridgstock worries about a new trend which might, in the long run, threaten both science and skepticism.
1 February 2014
"Alkaline and hydrogen-rich" water is being touted as the latest cure-all.
1 February 2014
Most people are very bad at distinguishing genuine patterns from random noise, but fortunately there are statistical methods that can help. This article is adapted from a talk at the NZ Skeptics Conference, in Wellington, 7 September 2013.
1 February 2014
Completely Unnecessary? Hardly. New Zealand's own Completely Unnecessary Skeptical Podcast is celebrating its fourth birthday and has established a niche for itself in the country's digital airwaves.
1 February 2014
Reports of the 'rediscovery' of the Pink and White Terraces may be premature, writes Bill Keir.
1 November 2013
Keith Garratt finds the NZ Homeopathic Society is capable of change.
1 November 2013
A 'Wellness Festival' provides a couple of hours' entertainment, if not much more
1 November 2013
A best-selling book claiming to present evidence of life after death may not be all it's cracked up to be.
1 November 2013
Keith Muir responds to Barry Brill's article, A Climate of Hope, in NZ Skeptic 108.
1 November 2013
A lot of effort goes into science communication, but the effectiveness of much of it is debatable. This article is based on a presentation to the NZ Skeptics Conference in Wellington, 7 September 2013.
1 August 2013
If climate scientists were credit-rating agencies, climate sensitivity would be on negative watch, says a recent article in the_ Economist. _Barry Brill looks at recent climate sensitivity estimates and considers the possibility of a downgrade.
1 August 2013
Michael Edmonds reports on his successful complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority over the dubious science used to promote BioMag underlays. For more on BioMag see NZ Skeptic 91.
1 August 2013
The widespread use of what are basically dowsing rods to detect bombs in Iraq and other trouble spots is a striking example of how a lack of critical thinking can lead to all manner of death and mayhem.
1 August 2013
I agree with Vincent Gray (NZ Skeptic 107), it is not possible to determine an average temperature for the Earth. However it is important to note that even the alarmists agree that the Earth is not warming and has not done so for about 17 years. The British Met Office even predicts it is not going to do so in the near future.
1 August 2013
Martin Bridgstock considers a major work, which gives us all some astonishingly good news
1 August 2013
Hormone supplements derived from plants are widely promoted as more 'natural' than hormones from horses, but they carry the same risks - and some more of their own.
1 August 2013
What is a miracle? In the vernacular we speak of "miraculous" escapes and the like, to characterise events which are extremely unlikely - at odds with the normal course of experience. A miracle in this weak sense just means a very improbable event.
1 August 2013
Stuart Landsborough conducts a small experiment which may land him in big trouble.
1 May 2013
Real science operates by collecting data, inventing theories, developing models and making predictions that can be tested. If predictions fail, theories must be modified or discarded.
1 May 2013
Some Skeptics have been surprised that our organisation has been so restrained in its response to the purported moa sighting near Cragieburn. As we see it, the whole issue is fraught with difficulty.
1 May 2013
Vitamin C is essential to human health, but our understanding of its role has been perverted by practitioners of 'alternative' medicine.
1 May 2013
The history of a word which is very familiar to skeptics carries some important lessons.
1 May 2013
Is wellbeing a subject that can be approached scientifically? The following article is a based on a presentation to the 2012 NZ Skeptics Conference.
1 February 2013
The Advertising Standards Authority provides an accessible platform for members of the public to take on the merchants of woo. This article is based on a presentation to the 2012 NZ Skeptics Conference.
1 February 2013
Do you believe in climate change? Based on my past readings of NZ Skeptic of course not. After all this is the skeptic's magazine.
1 February 2013
This could be the shining hour
1 February 2013
Making a submission to a parliamentary committee proved to be a worthwhile exercise.
1 November 2012
The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young. - Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).
1 November 2012
Michael Edmonds reflects on the 2012 NZ Skeptics Conference.
1 November 2012
A fiasco over a 'Natural Therapy Clinic' at Wanganui Hospital was finally resolved satisfactorily - but for the wrong reasons.
1 November 2012
NZ Skeptic Chair-entity Gold stopped by the NZ Skeptic offices recently on his way from Bluff to Cape Reinga. Looking rather hairier than when he started, and having "worn out a foot" in Palmerston North, he is now travelling by cycle. The original plan was to follow Te Araroa, the walkway that runs the length of the country, but since swapping feet for wheels he has detoured through Napier and Rotorua. The journey is raising money for the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal, Women's Refuge and, of course, the NZ Skeptics, as well as giving the web programmer a chance to recover from the OOS that was threatening his career. He'll be settling in Wellington at the completion of the ride.
1 August 2012
Darcy Cowan takes another look at a subject that just won't go away.
1 August 2012
The discovery of a long-missing body offers a rare chance to put the psychic stars of Sensing Murder to the test.
1 August 2012
Annette Taylor has personal experience of a phenomenon that lies behind many tales of ghosts, demonic possession, and alien abduction.
1 May 2012
How should a skeptic relate to those who have other belief systems?
1 May 2012
Pictures don't lie, right? Of course they do. And they were deceiving us long before Photoshop made the manipulation of images almost child's play.
1 May 2012
Adam van Langenberg gives practical suggestions on how to run a high school skeptical society, based on his own successful experience.
1 May 2012
Ethics and morality are often regarded as beyond the reach of scientific inquiry. But certain values appear to be shared by all humans as species-typical adaptations. This article is based on a presentation to the 2011 NZ Skeptics conference in Christchurch.
1 February 2012
Some time back I noticed that I was getting the first signs of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). I'm a web developer and spend way too much time in front of a keyboard and mouse. It's a common enough thing among people in my industry. From what I can tell one of the best 'treatments' for it is to just stop for a bit. So I am.
1 February 2012
Gold takes local action against PowerBalance, with encouraging results.
1 February 2012
ACC's best-practice guidelines for identifying cases of sexual abuse are not credible.
1 February 2012
Sodium monofluoroacetate (1080) is a proven tool in the New Zealand pest control arsenal, but significant opposition to its use continues, much of it irrational. This article is based on a presentation to the 2011 NZ Skeptics Conference.
1 February 2012
Massive changes are transforming the skeptical movement.
1 November 2011
Having a basic knowledge of the principles of chemistry can help one evade the pitfalls of many pseudosciences - but it's not infallible. This article is based on a presentation to the 2011 NZ Skeptics Conference.
1 November 2011
Earth scientists can forecast the size and frequency of the aftershocks following Canterbury's September 2010 earthquake. But this is very different from earthquake prediction. This article is based on a presentation to the 2011 NZ Skeptics Conference.
1 November 2011
The NZ Skeptics cast the net wide for the 2011 Bent Spoon.
1 November 2011
After almost 15 years of intermittently tagging along with her parents, Iris Riddell reports on her first official attendance at a NZ Skeptics Conference.
1 August 2011
A 'natural' way to manage teething pain has no plausible mechanism.
1 August 2011
The paranormal field contains both con artists and the well-intentioned. It's often impossible to tell one from the other, but in the end it makes little difference. This article is based on a presentation to the University of the Third Age.
1 August 2011
The following changes to the constitution of the NZ Skeptics have been proposed and will be considered at the Annual General Meeting in Christchurch on Sunday, 28 August 2011. This notice is published in accordance with the society"s rules which require 21 days" written notice of any such change.
1 May 2011
It's not a hopeless cause to engage with proponents of the irrational - but some ways of doing this are more effective than others. This article is based on a presentation to the 2010 NZ Skeptics conference.
1 May 2011
Englishwoman Doris Stokes was a medium - by which I don't mean her dress size was between small and large. She claimed she spoke to people "on the other side," to use the euphemistic jargon of the darkened drawing room. She was a sort of cosmic Telecom operator, only I suspect her charges were a good deal higher than 99c a minute plus GST.
1 May 2011
In the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes, Ken Ring's predictions were widely, though often inaccurately, reported. David Riddell looks at Ring's writings, and compares them with actual events.
1 May 2011
A learning difficulties programme that claims to re-train the cerebellum makes some impressive claims which don't stand close scrutiny.
1 May 2011
NZ Skeptic issues 96, 97 and 98 contained articles presenting different viewpoints on the 'Unfortunate Experiment' at National Women's Hospital and its aftermath. Wellington registered nurse and NZ Skeptics treasurer Michelle Coffey continues the discussion in this web-only special.
1 February 2011
I'm a men's health promoter working out of Christchurch and have some reflections after reading the discussions about the Cartwright report.
1 February 2011
Creationism is not a new problem in New Zealand schools, as this article excerpt from_ NZ Skeptic 18 _(December 1990) illustrates.
1 February 2011
Chiropractic has had a colourful history since its invention in the 19th Century.
1 February 2011
Linda Bryder responds to an article in our last issue.
1 February 2011
Research at Victoria University of Wellington is shedding light on the often irrational processes by which people assess new information. This article is based on presentations to the 2010 NZ Skeptics conference.
1 November 2010
His name is Gold, he describes himself as a post- goth Discordian web developer, and one day soon he hopes to be homeless. He' s also the new chair entity of NZ Skeptics. Annette Taylor finds out more.
1 November 2010
Many people lost a lot of money investing in non-existent data compression software because well:established principles of information theory were ignored. This article is based on a presentation to the 2010 NZ Skeptics conference.
1 November 2010
Rayna Ramsey produced a photographic record of this years NZ Skeptics conference.
1 November 2010
After 17 years as chair-entity of the NZ Skeptics, Vicki Hyde has stepped down. Annette Taylor talks to her about life, the universe and taniwhas.
1 November 2010
This article is a response to_ 'Truth is the daughter of time, and not of authority': Aspects of the Cartwright Affair _by Martin Wallace, NZ Skeptic 96.
1 August 2010
Gold looks back at the first year of Skeptics in the Pub.
1 August 2010
NZ Skeptic 17 (May 1990) included an item taken from the NZ Herald's "100 Years of News", published in 1963, looking back at the great New Zealand airship panic of 1909. This topic, and its parallels with more recent UFO crazes, was covered in more detail in NZ Skeptic 47.
1 August 2010
Eyewitness testimony is commonly regarded as very high quality evidence. But recent research has shown there are many ways memories of events can become contaminated. This article is based on a presentation to the NZ Skeptics conference in Wellington, 27 September 2009.
1 August 2010
When creationists try to harmonise their worldview with certain inescapable facts of geology, the result is chaos.
1 August 2010
The 'Unfortunate Experiment' at National Women's Hospital has entered the national folklore as a notorious case of medical misconduct. But there is still disagreement about what actually happened.
1 May 2010
NZ Skeptics link up with a British campaign against homeopathy.
1 May 2010
Noel Townsley continues our series on the psychic roadshows touring New Zealand.
1 May 2010
At last year's NZ Skeptics conference Bob Brockie reflected on his career as a newspaper columnist and explained why he has no future with the Mormon Church.
1 May 2010
Some fields that claim the authority of science may be in need of an overhaul. This article is based on a presentation to the NZ Skeptics 2009 conference in Wellington, 26 September.
1 February 2010
The dire predictions of the Club of Rome's 1972 report on_ The Limits to Growth _have supposedly been refuted by subsequent studies, but the refutations have serious shortcomings. This article is based on a presentation to the NZ Skeptics 2009 conference in Wellington, 26 September.
1 February 2010
More 'ghosts' than ever are appearing in photos - thanks to digital cameras. This article is based on a presentation to the NZ Skeptics 2009 conference in Wellington, 26 September.
1 February 2010
NZ Skeptic editor_ David Riddell finds Kelvin Cruickshank less impressive in person than he appears on Sensing Murder_. A shorter version of this review appeared in the_ Waikato Times _on 9 December 2009.
1 February 2010
Some claim our society is too materialistic and lacks spiritual values. But what would it be like to live in a society that rejects materialism?
1 November 2009
Yet another_ Sensing Murder _veteran struts her stuff.
1 November 2009
Economics has been called the Dismal Science. But to what extent are economics scientific, and economists scientists? This article is based on a presentation to the NZ Skeptics 2009 conference in Wellington, 26 September.
1 November 2009
Gold gives the inside story of the beginnings of Skeptics in the Pub meetings in New Zealand.
1 November 2009
Loretta Marron exposes an Australian Australian alternative cancer therapist.
1 August 2009
A therapy marketed as a guaranteed way to stop smoking appears to lack a sound theoretical basis and to have little experimental support.
1 August 2009
Presenting numbers with excessive and artifical precision in product labels, newspaper articles and report tables does nothing for scientific credibility and sows confusion in the mind of the reader.
1 August 2009
Stuart Landsborough has an interesting night out with one of the Sensing Murder mediums.
1 May 2009
Ian Luxmoore investigates the claims for BioMag underlays.
1 May 2009
When the Sunday Star-Times decided to survey the nation on how superstitious New Zealanders are and about what, Vicki Hyde got used as a guinea pig. Part One of her responses was published in the last issue of the NZ Skeptic. This is Part Two.
1 May 2009
Placebos may contain no active ingredients, but they have real effects on the human brain. This article is based on a presentation to the NZ Skeptics 2008 conference in Hamilton, September 26-28.
1 February 2009
Today, gonorrhoea infections in young girls are taken as certain evidence of sexual abuse. Yet there is an extensive but now-forgotten literature showing that this is not necessarily the case. This article is based on a presentation to the NZ Skeptics 2008 conference in Hamilton, September 26-28.
1 February 2009
While we were in Fiji recently there was a dengue fever alert. This unpleasant virus is carried by mosquitoes and naturally we were careful to use insect repellent.
1 February 2009
When the Sunday Star-Times decided to survey the nation on how superstitious New Zealanders are and about what, I got used as guinea pig. Having done a lot of survey design and analysis during the course of my hodge-podge of an academic career, I often end up writing more about the questions than answering them. Add to that the tendency for being, as Margaret Mahy once characterised our group, "a person in a state of terminal caution", and you can imagine the result.
1 February 2009
Annette Taylor learns it's not enough to have your cake, you have to test it too.
1 November 2008
The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has upheld a complaint from the Commerce Commission against TV3 current affairs show 60 Minutes. An item, broadcast at 7.30pm on 15 October 2007, presented the story of Ewan Campbell, who had "invented a way to make farms grow faster" but had been prosecuted by the Commerce Commission and faced a fine of "over a quarter of a million dollars for false representation" (see Newsfront, NZ Skeptic 84).
1 November 2008
David Riddell revisits the 2008 NZ Skeptics conference.
1 November 2008
Modern skepticism owes a huge debt to ancient Greece. This article is based on a presentation to the 2008 NZ Skeptics Conference
1 November 2008
A visit to Lake Rotoroa in Nelson Lakes National Park is rewarded with a remarkable sighting.
1 November 2008
Why is Canterbury University fostering an alternative therapy at its Health Centre?
1 August 2008
Extravagant claims are often made for the health-giving effects of anti-oxidants in the foods we eat. But sorting out the truth from the hype is not at all easy.
1 August 2008
Mike Palin queries the judging criteria in a recent high school science video competition.
1 August 2008
Ian Wishart is one of New Zealand's more prominent creationists. In a recent book he takes on evolutionary biology, a task for which he seems ill-equipped.
1 August 2008
Martin Wallace particularly likes two of the five definitions of 'pitfall' in the OED:
1 May 2008
Photos of a bright, slow-moving object over Northland caused quite a stir when they were published in the local newspaper last year, but some patient detective work has revealed the likely identity of this UFO.
1 May 2008
A strange transformation has overtaken the murky world of the creationists. This article is based on a presentation to the 2007 NZ Skeptics Conference.
1 May 2008
In our last issue, Hugh Young looked at the practice of circumcision. But how did such a bizarre tradition ever get started?
1 February 2008
Intersecting as it does sex, religion, blood, medicine and masculinity, circumcision is a subject that is hard to discuss rationally.
1 February 2008
Following on from online discussion and debate in the NZ Skeptic, a set of proposed motions to alter the society's constitution were mailed to all financial members four weeks before the conference, and voted on at the conference's AGM. Proxies were received from 24 members, all voting in favour of all four motions, and from two members giving their votes to the Chair.
1 February 2008
Despite a series of studies showing it to be ineffective, ultrasound continues to be widely used by physiotherapists.
1 February 2008
In NZ Skeptic 82, John Welch wrote that there was something about general practice which attracts an interest in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Is it acceptable for medical graduates with a science degree to be allowed to carry on in this manner? Should we amend the medical registration so they can't? Is legislation needed to alter the culture-of doctors and society generally? This article is based on a presentation to the 2007 NZ Skeptics Conference.
1 November 2007
The teaching of evolution in New Zealand schools may seem secure, but it has faced many challenges, and these appear to be on the increase. This article is based on a presentation at the Evolution 2007 Conference, Christchurch.
1 November 2007
This is a transcript of a talk given at the 2007 Skeptics Conference. Parts of it were also published in the NZ Family Physician in early 2007. This paper can be found at www.rnzcgp.org.nz
1 November 2007
Some risks in life are distributed throughout a population, others are all-or-nothing. There's a big difference. This article is based on a presentation to last year's Skeptics Conference.
1 November 2007
It's Bent Spoon time again-the time when the Skeptics highlight the worst-and best-of the year's media.
1 August 2007
Ethnic fundamentalism is a form of 'secular religion', an oxymoron that resists criticism. This article, originally presented at the NZ Skeptics conference in Auckland, September 2006, interrogates the beliefs of those who insist that ethnicity plays the primary and determining in creating the person. Are such beliefs merely old-fashioned and discredited racism in a new guise?
1 August 2007
An article in the Listener makes much ado about very little.
1 August 2007
An Auckland University study reveals the costs-financial and emotional-of telephone psychics.
1 August 2007
It's often said that scientists long rejected the idea of meteorites, but the evidence for this assertion is far from convincing.
1 May 2007
This is a transcript of a talk given at the Skeptics conference in Auckland last year. Parts of it were also presented at the inaugral lecture for Bruce Arroll on being appointed to a personal chair last October. The title of that talk was Highways Through Uncertainty and will be published in the NZ Family Physician in early 2007. This paper can be found on the internet at www.rnzcgp.org.nz
1 May 2007
Judith Goodyear became the youngest ever presenter at the 2006 New Zealand Skeptics conference with this exploration of the chain letters of the average teen.
1 May 2007
There is no point in being gullible. What is so special about believing things that it is more righteous than questioning things?
1 February 2007
Claims about pre-Maori colonisation of New Zealand refuse to go away.
1 February 2007
Attacks on Darwinian evolutionary theory have come from within the scientific community as well as from creationists. Much of this is the normal process of scientific scrutiny, but some bear all the hallmarks of pseudoscience.
1 February 2007
Of all the so-called evidence that has been presented in support of human settlement in New Zealand before the second millennium, only a set of radiocarbon-dated rat bones has appeared scientifically credible. Now even that is coming under close scrutiny.
1 February 2007
The New Zealand Skeptics have launched a competition to encourage critical thinking among Auckland high school students. Entrants are to submit a 100-word summary outlining their proposal for a 10-12 minute presentation on some topic relevant to skeptical inquiry. Suggested topics include:
1 November 2006
It was an eye opener. Under the stern glare of past headmasters of Kings College, the NZ Skeptics were holding their annual dinner that always goes with the annual conference.
1 November 2006
A Listener article on Brazilian medium and 'miracle-worker' Joao de Deus has taken the annual Bent Spoon Award from the New Zealand Skeptics.
1 November 2006
New Zealand has its own version of 'postcolonial science studies'. This is supposed to emancipate those who see themselves as subjects of colonial oppression, but the actual consequences may be very different.
1 November 2006
Louette McInnes found a talk by Richard Wiseman at Canterbury University well worth braving the winter cold for. Professor Wiseman holds the Chair of Public Understanding of Psychology at Hertfordshire University.
1 November 2006
Canterbury University will next year be offering a Stage I course on critical thinking, to be called Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus. Named after a classic book by Martin Gardner, the course, Philosophy 110, will be headed by founding member of the NZ Skeptics, Denis Dutton. Prof Dutton says it will fulfill a demand for a sharp, smart course in critical thinking from a standpoint quite different from that offered by traditional logic and philosophy.
1 August 2006
Jim Ring takes another look at Bishop Ussher's famous date for the creation.
1 August 2006
One of New Zealand's most senior journalists, and a long-standing member of the NZ Skeptics, has announced his retirement (Dominion Post, 2 December, Sunday Star Times, 3 December). Frank Haden has been best known in recent years for his columns in the Sunday Star Times, but his 50 year career in journalism has included time as editor of the Sunday Times and assistant editor of the Dominion.
1 August 2006
Some people are skeptical about UFOs and alien abductions-but for all the wrong reasons.
1 August 2006
Warwick Don celebrated the 21st annual NZ Skeptics conference by presenting a potted history of the society.
1 August 2006
Alternative medical practitioners often start out in the mainstream, but other currents may take them into new channels. This article is adapted from a presentation at the 2006 NZ Skeptics conference.
1 May 2006
"There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents and only one for birthday presents, you know."
1 May 2006
A knockout blow for evolution turns out to be nothing of the sort
1 May 2006
Early in 2005 Professor Kaye Ibbertson, the relentless grand vizier of the Marion Davis Library and Museum, asked David Cole to offer the Medical Historical Society some comments about the history of unorthodox medicine. He was in the process of assembling several convincing excuses, when Ibbertson turned off his hearing aid and any excuses were set aside. This article is based on the talk which resulted.
1 May 2006
A website poking fun at veterinary homeopathy has become the unlikely symbol of a global backlash by conventional vets against their homeopathic colleagues, according to New Scientist magazine. The "British Veterinary Voodoo Society" (BVVS) is a parody, but its creators say they are making a serious point: that the claimed effectiveness of homeopathic veterinary medicine has no more solid scientific evidence behind it than voodoo. They object to a decision by the UK's Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) to publish an official list of homeopathic vets, which they say undermines the credibility of conventional veterinary medicine.
1 February 2006
This is the text of a letter sent to new Minister of Health Pete Hodgson in November 2005 by Keith Garratt, as a follow-up to his submission to the MACCAH committee in 2003.
1 February 2006
Research scientist Hamish Campbell spoke of his experiences as Te Papa's museum geologist at the 2005 NZ Skeptics conference.
1 February 2006
Many pharmaceuticals originate from nature, but their development is very different from that of so-called natural health products. This article was originally presented at the 2005 Skeptics Conference.
1 February 2006
Demands for equal time cut both ways.
1 February 2006
The last of Hamilton's highly successful Café Scientifique series for 2005 examined the issue of dating the Earth and the universe. The date was chosen to be as close as possible to Bishop Ussher's preferred date of October 22 when, he calculated, the creation of the universe began in the year 4004 BC.
1 February 2006
For those of us who learnt of the tragedy through the media, the anguish and grief of the family who lost their two youngest children in the icy depths of Lake Wakatipu is painful even to imagine. We know their lives will never be the same again. So it was comforting to read that the people of Glenorchy are doing what close-knit communities always do in times of adversity.
1 November 2005
In retrospect, it was a cunning move to give us each a Hopi ear candle. Wrapped in pretty cellophane, the little beeswax treats - if used correctly - would ensure people would be in prime mental health. This is essential if you're attending the NZ Skeptics annual conference, as we were. The candles are an amazing elimination technique which improve mental clarity, energy and wellbeing. By inserting them - lit - into the ear canal, they allow glucose and oxygen to enter the brain, restoring neural functions. Of course, expecting a bunch of skeptics to follow instructions was perhaps asking too much. They put them on the ends of their noses. They twirled them and flung them. Anywhere but lit and inserted in the ear.
1 November 2005
The Tertiary Education Commission was suffering from "dilutions of grandeur" when they identified homeopathic training as a nationally important strategic priority for New Zealand. That's the reason the NZ Skeptics have given the TEC the Bent Spoon Award for the most publicly gullible action of 2005.
1 November 2005
Surfing on the massive wave kicked up by the craze for things paranormal is Dunedin's spookiest entrepreneur, Andrew Smith - host of Dunedin's Hair Raiser Ghost Walk. Is it all nonsense, or is there something mysterious afoot?
1 November 2005
Genealogy as normally practised gives us a very misleading view of our genetic heritage. This article was originally presented at the 2005 Skeptics Conference in Rotorua.
1 November 2005
Powermax magnetic water-treatment conditioners have been controversial since they were introduced in New Zealand in 1998. Now they've been withdrawn and the Consumer's Institute believes customers are due a refund.
1 November 2005
Frank Searle, who produced 20 pictures of the Loch Ness monster and did more than anyone to make it a major tourist attraction, died on March 26 aged 84 (Dominion Post, 7 July).
1 August 2005
Occasionally, the Skeptics get correspondence from the general public. Chair-entity Vicki Hyde responds to two such inquiries.
1 August 2005
Psychic scammer Maria Duval failed to foresee trouble over 'her' misleading advertisements. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is funded by the advertising and media industries, and has the stated purpose of ensuring that advertising is socially responsible and truthful. The ASA administers the Advertising Standards Complaints Board, which is the body that hears complaints about ads, and the Advertising Standards Complaints Appeal Board.
1 August 2005
The ACC-sponsored conference Many Faces of Abuse (Auckland, 10-12 August 2005) features a plenary speaker, Anne McDonald from Melbourne, who cannot talk, walk or feed herself. Her minder, Rosemary Crossley, is the inventor of Facilitated Communication - a technique whereby a facilitator supports the hand or arm of a severely disabled person and thereby enables that person point to letters of the alphabet. This technique gives severely disabled people the miraculous ability to spell out words, sentences and even whole paragraphs of astonishing, unlikely and often wildly pornographic prose. As a result of Facilitated Communication, hundreds of families and caregivers worldwide have had their lives and careers destroyed by devastating and subsequently-discredited allegations of sexual abuse. Among responsible organisations and individuals concerned with mental and physical disability there is now widespread agreement that Facilitated Communication is nothing more than a powertrip for manipulative therapists who prey on the vulnerability and dependence of the severely disabled.
1 August 2005
Herald Sun, Australia - 21 July 2005
1 August 2005
On 14 June 2005 the Advertising Standards Complaints Board met to consider Complaint 05/116, filed by Martin Craig for the Consumers' Institute, concerning the Maria Duval psychic services advertisements. This is an abridged version of their deliberations.
1 August 2005
"There's no need for your organisation. We're all skeptics nowadays."
1 August 2005
Bob Metcalfe (Skeptic No 75) might have been reading New Zealand Tone magazine: Bringing Technology to Life, Sept-Oct 2004. The front cover promises "Hi-fi cables: science or hocus pocus", and on page 46 there is an interview with Bob Noble, "sales manager for respected cable manufacturer Chord". On page 47 there is a review of three Chord cables. The only science in the interview is the importance of screening to cables since cheap electronics in homes today are "leaking interference back into the same mains power ring that supplies the hi-fi. This degrades the final sound considerably. If you don't believe me, turn all those other appliances off and see what it does to your hi-fi sound." Nobody puts the case that there is any hocus pocus to cables.
1 May 2005
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1 May 2005
A New Zealander's quest to find Noah's Ark has suffered a double blow, with two samples he gathered in Turkey turning out to be rock, not petrified timber. Ross Patterson delivered the samples to crown research institute Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS) in Wellington. Senior geologist Hamish Campbell, who examined the samples, said they were not wood or fossil material, but volcanic rock. One of the samples had "a lovely platey fabric" and Dr Campbell said he could see why Mr Patterson thought they might be fossil wood. "I'm all for somebody chasing something like this - it makes life interesting. GNS offers a service and we are very happy to sample rock in this way."
1 May 2005
A widely publicised trial which appeared to show prayer was effective in enhancing fertility now appears to have been fraudulent.
1 May 2005
The idea that low self-esteem is the cause of violent behaviour has been current for some time. Many years ago I attended numerous education meetings where I heard that certain (male) individuals "lacked self-esteem" when it seemed patently obvious that this was not true. I argued that these individuals greatly esteemed many of their own behaviours - it was just that these behaviours were those the counsellors thought should be deplored.
1 May 2005
When it comes to environmental issues, it's not always easy for a skeptic to decide where to stand
1 May 2005
There's a stereotype of card-carrying members of the Skeptics Society that we're dour, humour-less, cynical nay-sayers; depressed Eeyores not cheerful Tiggers. Like most stereotypes, it's 95% wrong. I'm often asked what characterises a member of the Skeptics, and I think of the diverse opinions, the range of religious and political beliefs, the spectrum of occupations and interests. Apart from a compulsive inquisitiveness about the world, the only other major thing all Skeptics seem to have in common is a large capacity for laughter.
1 May 2005
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.
1 February 2005
Next time you visit the US don't miss the Museum of Unworkable Devices, the brainchild of physics Professor Donald Simanek from the University of Pennsylvania.
1 February 2005
Ken Ring of Titirangi is New Zealand's best known proponent of the idea that the Moon is an accurate weather forecasting tool. He publicly scoffs at official forecasters and climate scientists for ignoring the lunar effect, and the news media love him.
1 February 2005
The battle between the Enlightenment and Romantic traditions is far from over, though it has taken on new forms. This article is abridged from a presentation to the NZ Skeptics Conference, 2004.
1 November 2004
Don't judge them by their demeanour. The vast majority of people in this business are sincere, well-meaning individuals, and they are very hard to distinguish from the con artists. They might well be honest, but this doesn't mean they can do what they think they are doing
1 November 2004
We've all seen the claims - Spirulina! Nature's Health Solution! The World's Healthiest Superfood! Soulfood!
1 November 2004
A new star on the psychic circuit impressed the makers of TV3's 20/20, but not the NZ Skeptics
1 November 2004
One of our members (who was supposed to be teaching carbon chemistry at the time and wishes to remain nameless!) used Jeanette Wilson's TV performances as a resource for teaching critical thinking to her year ten class. The results were encouraging, and very educational.
1 November 2004
The reading by Jeanette Wilson which featured most prominently on the 20/20 programme awarded the 2004 Bent Spoon (see page 3) was of a woman named Maria. It transpired after the reading that Maria's mother had, two years previously, haemorrhaged to death from a perforated duodenal ulcer. It was Maria who found her, and Maria interpreted Jeanette Wilson's very dramatic performance as relating to that event. But as can be seen from the following transcript, stripped of the histrionics, Wilson appeared to be talking about something quite different - the murder of two small boys.
1 November 2004
Journalists in New Zealand generally show a lack of scepticism when dealing with issues of science and pseudoscience - except for mainstream medicine. This article is based on a presentation to the New Zealand Skeptics Conference, 11 September, 2004
1 August 2004
Occasionally, the NZ Skeptics receive correspondence from members of the general public. Recently, Chairentity Vicki Hyde took the time to reply to one of these. Portions of the original letter are indented.
1 August 2004
We have recently received a message from OZ. Not transtasman Big Brother, but the cousins in France. OZ stands for Observatoire Zététique, a group of skeptical investigators (Zetetic is much the same as skeptic, as every Victorian schoolboy knew. The Greeks had not just one word for it, but two).
1 August 2004
There were more than 20,000 pilgrims packed around ancient Stonehenge for the 2004 summer solstice. Among them were witches, druids, new age healers… and Hamilton journalist Russell Joyce. He reports from the scene.
1 August 2004
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 the pain began, and intensified until something had to be done. No time to send for homoeopathic medicines, no time to summon the healing hands of a Therapeutic Touch practitioner. No! Into an ambulance and delivery into the hands of the conventional medics at Christchurch Hospital.
1 August 2004
Dr Robert R Holcomb was in Wellington in January to announce a technological breakthrough. Before an audience of New Zea-land government, business and environmental leaders, he announced for the first time a revolutionary new technology, Electron Stream Carbon Dioxide Reduction (ESCO2R), commonly called the Carbon Dioxide Converter, that goes to the heart of the global warming problem. The converter is patented.
1 August 2004
Did the ancestors of the Celts sail to New Zealand and establish a network of megalithic survey points and astronomical sight lines? Some think so
1 August 2004
Bob Brockie thinks he can explain why the Skeptic editor gets woken up at 2am every Saturday morning
1 May 2004
One of our members almost spots a UFO
1 May 2004
A Waikato University website on evolution has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from teachers, says biological sciences lecturer Alison Campbell.
1 May 2004
Consumer response to the outbreak of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy has involved a complex balancing of risk and price
1 May 2004
"Energised Water" turns out to be much the same as the other kind
1 May 2004
The US$3.3 billion Cassini mission is about to rendezvous with Saturn, but if some had had their way the robot probe would never have left the ground.
1 May 2004
Bob Brockie gets himself a qualification in acupuncture
1 February 2004
Bill Taylor explains some of the thinking behind the Time-Line installation, "Genesis Aotearoa", at Victoria University (See also Page 13)
1 February 2004
An anonymous contributor to the website, http://mostembarrassingmoment.com, shares her experiences as a professional tarot card reader.
1 February 2004
One possible source of the outlandish reports given by children in cases such as the Christchurch Civic Creche affair was described at the 2003 Skeptics' Conference.
1 February 2004
Hokum Locum talks with one of the unsung victims of the Christchurch Civic Crèche
1 February 2004
It may be time to expand the principles of the Hippocratic Oath
1 February 2004
Bob Brockie considers the enduring influence of the founder of Anthroposophy
1 February 2004
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 "exponent"1, but it can mislead us into thinking we comprehend more than we really do. It can blind us to the true difference between two numbers whose exponents differ by only one unit. Thus, if my bank balance grows from $102 to $103, I am richer by $900, but if it grows from $106 to $107, I have gained $9 million.
1 November 2003
The Eugenics movement in New Zealand had legislative successes greater than anywhere in the world outside the USA and Nazi Germany
1 November 2003
Bob Brockie looks at the link between genius and eccentricity
1 November 2003
Claire Le Couteur reports from the 2003 Skeptics' Conference in Wellington.
1 November 2003
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is calling for submissions on the role of science in environmental policy and decision-making. This article is based on a paper presented at the 2003 New Zealand Skeptics' Conference in Wellington.
1 August 2003
The Word-based submission to the CAM discussion document which was sent out in our (NZCSICOP) name is now available for you to read at http://skeptics.org.nz/cam
1 August 2003
The young earth creationists have been active again ... the Australian-based group Answers in Genesis (AIG), has been doing the circuit in New Zealand. Warnings on the Skeptics email list had alerted us to the fact that Carl Wieland, the head of AIG, was coming over to pollute young Kiwi minds so this was an opportunity we couldn't and shouldn't miss. Wieland is very influential in creationist circles, having produced many books, pamphlets and videos, and is really the driving force behind their main publications Creation Ex Nihilo and the impressively, but inappropriately, named Technical Journal (or "TJ" as they lovingly refer to it). It thus promised to be a good chance to see Wieland in action first hand and to get some clues as to how to handle him next time he appears on our shores.
1 August 2003
Ancient Phoenicians in New Zealand? A recent book makes the claim, but the evidence doesn't bear scrutiny.
1 August 2003
Should we trust psychologists and psychiatrists, especially as expert witnesses in court cases?
1 May 2003
A British man considers himself unlucky because the week he won the lottery, another person did too. So he had to share the £8 million ($NZ23 million) winnings instead of taking home all the money himself.
1 May 2003
From the path we gaze down at them. From their grassed mound they turn an occasional incurious gaze back - primate watching primate. I have seen very few chimpanzees. For them we are just part of an eternal procession of their depilated, camera-toting, child-accompanying, gawping kin. Behind the idling chimps, beyond the grassed enclosure with its climbing poles, beyond the zoo, rise the hills and houses of Wellington.
1 May 2003
Increased litigation will do nothing to reduce the rate of medical misadventure
1 February 2003
This article was originally presented on National Radio's Sunday Supplement
1 February 2003
In New Zealand Skeptic No. 64, Warwick Don critiqued Ian Wishart's article Walking with Beasts, published in Investigate, June 2002. This is Wishart's response.
1 February 2003
The Painted Apple Moth spraying programme in the western suburbs of Auckland has generated considerable controversy. An alternative programme was evaluated at last year's Skeptics
1 February 2003
Insecurities about water quality have led to a boom in sales of bottled water. But the health benefits of the phenomenon are probably minimal.
1 February 2003
In this issue Ian Wishart responds to Warwick Don's critique of his article on Intelligent Design.
1 November 2002
Skeptics - always in two minds about something…
1 November 2002
This article is based on an address to the Skeptics Conference 2002. A condensed version has also been produced for the NZ Listener.
1 November 2002
This is the press release (slightly edited) which announced this year's Bent Spoon Winner. Most of the reports used only a small proportion, and included a quote from Ms Fitzsimons saying that the Skeptics could "do whatever they like with their silly bent spoon".
1 August 2002
Mass screening programmes have generated considerable controversy in this country. But these programmes have inherent limitations, which need to be better understood
1 August 2002
A critique of "Walking with Beasts", by Ian Wishart, Investigate Magazine, June 2002
1 August 2002
Whether or not you believe in the paranormal may depend entirely on your brain chemistry. People with high levels of dopamine are more likely to find significance in coincidences, and pick out meaning and patterns where there are none.
1 August 2002
Vicki Hyde reports from the 4th World Skeptics Conference
1 May 2002
Owen McShane examines last year's Great Soya Sauce Scare
1 May 2002
University days are a great time to explore new directions. But sometimes you may end up a long way from where you thought you were going.
1 May 2002
This article is drawn from interviews with Allan Coukell on the NZ National Radio science programme "Eureka!" in 2001.
1 May 2002
Damian Thompson argues that a tangle of folklore and urban legend, allied to a particular horror of paedophilia, has blinded many to the scientific facts
1 February 2002
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 since something important was supposed to have happened.
1 February 2002
In the second of a two-part series, Jim Ring looks at what evidence means to different people
1 February 2002
When Raymond Richards included a lecture on the Mormon Church in his course on American history he ran foul of not only the Mormon community but also the University of Waikato heirarchy. He told his story at the NZ 2001 Skeptics' conference in Hamilton.
1 November 2001
Warfare has always been stressful for its participants. Before the psychological impacts of the conflict in Afghanistan became apparent, our regular medical columnist looks at the history of post-war syndromes
1 November 2001
Sometimes the most successful prophets are the ones that don't even try
1 November 2001
This Bravo Award-winning item originally appeared as the editorial in the March 23 issue of the New Zealand Medical Journal
1 August 2001
Is there anything on television worth watching? Maybe.
1 August 2001
The Misinformation Age has arrived at last
1 August 2001
Skepticism is very much concerned with assessing the quality of evidence in support of a particular claim. But evidence means different things to different people. In the first of a two-part series, Jim Ring examines the legal profession's view of the matter.
1 August 2001
The marketing of sodium chloride should be taken with a pinch of salt
1 May 2001
A new book on alternative medicine has little to add
1 May 2001
Howard Bezar and Denis Curtain
1 May 2001
Being a skeptical parent in New Zealand isn't always easy, but it has its rewards. This was originally presented to the Skeptics' World Convention in Sydney, in November.
1 May 2001
Goethe's Faust is a tale of the supernatural. According to a famous passage, on Walpurgisnacht a witch's sabbat was celebrated on top of the Brocken, a mountain in the Black Forest. Old maps show this point circled by witches on broomsticks. Although probably not a very ancient tradition, it grabbed the imagination of 19th century romantics. They claimed at certain times magical visions could be seen from the peak. Even though no witches were visible on the mountain, gigantic shadowy figures were projected onto the clouds; the Spectre of the Brocken.
1 February 2001
The old creationist claim that there are no transitional forms in the fossil record is starting to look a bit tired
1 February 2001
Bernard Howard reports from the Skeptics' World Convention, Sydney, 10-12 November 2000
1 February 2001
The following is an abridged version of a paper presented at Skeptics 2000, Dunedin, New Zealand. The author would like to thank NZCSICOP and NZARH for sponsoring this visit to New Zealand.
1 November 2000
An old mystery now looks rather less mysterious
1 November 2000
Wherein intrepid ace reporter Vicki Hyde spills the beans on what Skeptics get up to at their annual meetings…
1 November 2000
Presenting the evidence just isn't enough
1 August 2000
The risks of third-generation contraceptive pills have been much in the news. But assessing risk can be a tricky business.
1 August 2000
Christian fundamentalists usually come to the notice of the Skeptics when they make pronouncements on scientific matters, as with creationism. But, as Ross Miller indicates, fundamentalism results in junk religion, not just junk science.
1 August 2000
As Professor Cole explained at the last Skeptics' Conference, "Quantum Booster"-like devices have been around a long time.
1 August 2000
What red-blooded skeptic could turn up an invitation to stay in a haunted house and meet the inhabitants -- certainly not your intrepid chair-entity....
1 May 2000
Here's an idea that WINZ have yet to suggest -- but it may not be far off!
1 May 2000
Remember the '90s? It was the decade when:
1 May 2000
The recent decision by the Kansas (U.S.A.) Board of Education to discourage the teaching of evolution in public schools raised the question "what would Darwin think"? In search of an answer, I asked three amateur psychics to contact Darwin and to film the encounter. Well, these three psychics took my large cash advance and disappeared, never to be heard from again. Their videotapes were found several days later. Here, for the first time, are the transcripts of their tapes, which are soon to be released in a major motion picture coming to a theater near you.
1 May 2000
At last year's conference, John Scott spoke on the problems of mixing misinformation and medicine.
1 February 2000
Sceptics have put up $100,000 in a bid to make a controversial Australian spiritualist eat her words over claims she does not need food.
1 February 2000
The Swedish chemist Berzelius coined the term "organic" for substances that could only be made by living organisms and not synthesised by humans. His German friend Wöhler synthesised urea in 1828 proving Berzelius wrong: there was no such distinction. Another brilliant German chemist, Liebig, then used "organic" to mean carbon-compound chemistry, extending this to include the chemistry of living organisms and so beginning biochemistry.
1 February 2000
Paper prepared for the 1999 Skeptics Conference, Auckland, 28-29 August.
1 November 1999
THE 1999 Skeptics Conference in Auckland was a conference looking for a theme, and in the end none presented itself. We ended up with an eclectic mix of papers, ranging from "Reading Cats' Paws" (Ken Ring) to the paper on philosophical skepticism based on the work of David Hume (James Allan).
1 November 1999
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 of the 20s and 30s, I was a keen reader of "The Meccano Magazine". One issue of about 1930 looked forward to the distant future, and to what life would be like in 2000. I have forgotten the text, but a picture remains in my mind of tall, elegant buildings lining a wide street, along which glided, speedily but noiselessly, clean streamlined trains. The pictures and accompanying description appealed to the young Howard, and I dreamed how wonderful it would be to grow so phenomenally ancient as to be around at that splendid time.
1 November 1999
New claims that pollen grains on the Shroud of Turin link it to pre-eighth-century Jerusalem were made in August by researchers at the International Botanical Congress in St. Louis. In fact, the claims are based on earlier, scientifically discredited data.
1 August 1999
Did a British regiment really vanish mysteriously at Gallipoli?
1 August 1999
More from last year's Skeptics conference.
1 August 1999
Three sketpics go head to head with a creationist lecturer.
1 August 1999
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 treatments are needed", ie, it is implied that the therapy is a cancer cure, and the second, "...we are currently arranging a scientific Control Group with the Ministry of Health".
1 May 1999
Research is revealing how people can develop memories of things that never really happened.
1 May 1999
THROUGH various articles, books, radio and TV programs, most New Zealanders will be familiar with the name Richard Pearse. Many are convinced that Pearse flew before the first official flight in history, made by the Wright brothers on 17th Dec 1903. Some are indignant that Pearse has not received the recognition that he deserved. The best book on the subject is The Riddle of Richard Pearse by Gordon Ogilvie first published in 1973 and revised in 1994. Ogilvie provides an objective account and he personally discovered some of the most important evidence in this case. Nevertheless he draws some strange conclusions at times.
1 May 1999
ROBERT Temple's book The Sirius Mystery suggests that astronauts from Sirius visited Earth in ancient times, 5000 years or more ago. These beings were amphibious humanoids, with the lower body fish-tailed. The evidence for this amazing assertion hangs largely on legend and folklore plus one piece of very puzzling astronomical evidence.
1 May 1999
Tarot readings really do work -- for the reader.
1 February 1999
Around 300BCE there started a school of Greek philosophy called Skepticism. It continued for centuries, but was more like dogmatic doubt than the modern version. Bertrand Russell put their creed as "Nobody knows, and nobody can know". They may simply have a bad press. Carneades, one-time head of the skeptical academy, was accused of denying the possibility of all knowledge. In fact he seems to have denied the possibility of certain knowledge, a very different thing.
1 February 1999
New Zealand was recently treated to a visit by what was proclaimed as "probably the best known archaeologist in the world", a chap by the name of Ron Wyatt. He was claiming to give us evidence that he had found the site of Noah's Ark, among many other things.
1 February 1999
Rats carrying the deadly bubonic plague will overrun Los Angeles, sparking mass evacuations
1 February 1999
This is an abridged version of Professor Hill's presentation to the 1998 Skeptics' Conference.
1 February 1999
James Randi has demonstrated that a water diviner has a 94% chance of success in finding water for the simple reason that 94% of the land surface has fresh water immediately below its surface. The diviner is likely to fail miserably when he/she is asked to find a dry spot. The notion that water flows in rivers underground is only true for some exceptional places, usually associated with limestone deposits. Normally, water is trapped in microscopic pores and only moves a few centimetres to a few hundred meters per year. Similar misconceptions and statistics are seen in oil divining.
1 November 1998
AS A CONFIRMED, but lightweight, sceptic, I have had to endure many jibes from friends and colleagues as I questioned information reported in the newspapers and on the news. Equally, I have had to explain what being a sceptic is really all about -- not straight dismissal of, but the opportunity to question information that is presented as fact.
1 November 1998
Vicki Hyde told the Conference how the Skeptics' complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority had progressed.
1 November 1998
IN THE beginning (specifically on October 23, 4004 B.C., at noon) out of quantum foam fluctuation God created the Big Bang out of inflationary cosmology. He saw that the Big Bang was very big, too big for creatures that could worship him, so He created the earth. And darkness was upon the face of the deep, so He commanded hydrogen atoms (which He created out of Quarks and other subatomic goodies) to fuse and become helium atoms and in the process release energy in the form of light. And the light-maker he called the sun, and the process He called fusion. And He saw the light was good because now He could see what he was doing. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
1 November 1998
Oh My God, it's the End of the World! Again!
1 November 1998
NEW AGE theory holds that practically all cultures had a tradition of using medicines (mostly herbal) and that there is a danger that "Western medicine" will replace these, so losing irreplaceable knowledge.
1 August 1998
Bernard Howard proposes an answer to a curly question.
1 August 1998
Jim Ring takes a look at canonisation and finds the lives of the saints less than miraculous.
1 August 1998
The Skeptics make their first-ever complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
1 August 1998
Chances are, you're worried about all the wrong things.
1 August 1998
EMILY ROSA of Loveland, Colorado, designed and carried out an experiment two years ago that challenges a leading treatment in alternative medicine. Her study, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has thrown the field into tumult.
1 May 1998
As a counsellor and psychotherapist also trained in science and in scepticism I have been disappointed in the apparent lack of depth to the sceptical analysis of counselling that seems to be present from time to time in the NZ Skeptic. This lack of rigour in analysis goes back some way. In June 1995, for example, an article appeared in this publication saying counselling was no use. This judgement was based on a single study conducted in 1939.
1 May 1998
Jay Mann delivered this address with accompanying liquid refreshment (with and without MSG) at last year's conference.
1 May 1998
THE YEAR 1909 was a tense time for New Zealanders. For centuries, Britain had the world's unrivalled navy, and an invasion of the motherland was unthinkable. Her colonies and outposts enjoyed similar protection. But all of that changed in 1908, and with an unnerving suddenness, as grave concerns were expressed in Great Britain over Germany's rising military strength which prompted fears a surprise invasion might be launched at any time.
1 February 1998
Annette Taylor spends an afternoon checking out the alternatives.
1 February 1998
One of the memorable presentations at the 1997 Skeptics' Conference was David Novitz's assessment of whether organised scepticism has a place in a liberal democratic society.
1 February 1998
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
1 November 1997
IN THE United States, creationists have long waged a strong political campaign to have their ideas recognised by the courts and the educational authorities. But in this part of the world, it seems, their strategy is rather different. The Creation Science Foundation, the largest Australasian creationist organisation, regards the "top down" approach of their American counterparts as unproductive: it is more effective, says CSF's Carl Wieland, to work first on developing a broad base of popular support. In an article titled "Linking and Feeding," Wieland outlines their strategy of making contact with people ("linking") through subscription to their magazine Creation, and then providing them with ongoing creationist material ("feeding"). This material is then read by the recipients' friends and family
1 November 1997
Jim Ring continues his investigations into the Fijian paranormal scene.
1 November 1997
I have just visited another universe; it seems a much more interesting place than the dull old world we are forced to inhabit.
1 November 1997
The Bible (or, more precisely, the Torah) is a heavenly word-find puzzle, according to Israeli mathematicians.
1 November 1997
AS MOST readers will now be aware, the Ian Plimer/Allen Roberts court case has been adjudicated, and the results for Ian were not as he had hoped. The case was brought under federal Trade Practices legislation and state Fair Trading legislation and concerned two issues. The first was a breach of copyright action, where Ian's co-applicant, David Fasold, alleged that Roberts had used a diagram, Fasold's intellectual property, without permission. The second issue alleged that, in his lectures and sale of tapes, etc, Roberts had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in pursuit of trade.
1 August 1997
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 paranormal exhibitions. There are many accounts, some first-hand, yet when investigators have searched for performances of the trick, even offering rewards, no one has come forward with a demonstration.
1 August 1997
EARLY in 1996 Mrs Carol McDonald and her family of Halswell, near Christchurch, were party to an apparent supernatural event, an event that became quite topical at Mrs McDonald's workplace, the Canterbury Agriculture and Science Centre at Lincoln. This centre is home to a number of Crown Research Institutes, including the home offices of Landcare Research Ltd. and Crop and Food Research Ltd., branches of AgResearch and HortResearch, and a number of smaller organisations.
1 August 1997
THE opening salvos in the US Skeptics' new Council for Media Integrity's campaign to improve the treatment of science in television entertainment programming were fired in Los Angeles -- the heart of the TVand movie entertainment industry.
1 August 1997
Following the mass suicide of the Heaven's Gate cult, Alan Hale, co-discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp, released a statement at a press conference in Cloudcroft, New Mexico. He began by reading from Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World...
1 August 1997
The largely unremarkable hairless apes of Sol 3 really are largely unremarkable: the myth of the wandering womb.
1 August 1997
THE line which sharply demarks mainstream medicine from alternative medicine is the line of science. It is possible to cross that line, however. Any alternative treatment which is tested in a rigorous scientific manner and found to be safe and effective will be incorporated into mainstream medicine; it will have crossed the line.
1 August 1997
AROUND 40 years ago, at Hull Fair in England, I saw a man dip his fingers in molten lead. He also poured it into his palm and ran it through his fingers. He seemed to suffer no harm although it was real lead; I found a solidified splash and checked. In my vacations I used to work for one of the showmen at the fair, so I found my boss. "That fellow with the molten lead, why doesn't he burn his hands?"
1 May 1997
This article is abridged from a paper prepared for the "Day of Contrition-Revisited Convocation," convened by The Justice Committee, Salem, Massachusetts, January 13-14, 1997.
1 May 1997
About the time this issue makes it to the letterbox, those Americans not glued to chat-shows or the latest update on alien abductions will be treated to a documentary on recreations of ancient monuments, in which New Zealand's infamous Fridgehenge features.
1 May 1997
Home water treatment systems are often promoted on the basis of the purported health (rather than aesthetic) benefits of using them. This is particularly in relation to urban drinking water given the full treatment -- coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection -- where such claims usually constitute misleading advertising. In this review I will focus on a number of misconceptions about the health benefits of water treatment, examining each assertion in its wider context. The ensuing discussion applies less to rural water supplies, where valid reasons often exist for use of treatments -- eg removing nitrate or protecting against giardia.
1 May 1997
Britain's The Skeptic magazine celebrated its tenth anniversary with a Top-Ten survey of paranormal phenomena of the decade.
1 February 1997
NZCSIOP does not take a stand against religious belief, per se, and many Christians are committed Skeptics. While Mr van der Lingen's essay may appear to contradict this stance, he is not arguing that religious belief is incompatible with being a Skeptic; he is only challenging some claims and methodologies adopted by those who take a particular set of positions regarding the relationship between evolutionary science and contemporary Christian belief.
1 February 1997
The social vision associated with the name Walter Nash, or for present purposes Jack Marshall, has crumbled. The most secure and decent high culture, which flowered for some decades, is now on almost every measure except GNP in rapid decline2.
1 February 1997
A crown-of-thorns starfish can cause severe pain if the spines penetrate your skin. Local remedies include placing the offending animal over the injury, presumably in the belief that the sucker feet will pull detached spines from the wound.
1 February 1997
1996 was an interesting year. Rush Limbaugh became the Republican nominee for President; Roseanne killed off her popular TV character; cures for baldness, arthritis, and AIDS were
1 February 1997
Names have been concealed to protect them from the international legume conspiracy.
1 November 1996
The media love to manufacture a mystery, and the Kaimanawa Wall is a great example of this. Watch closely, as a perfectly natural rock formation becomes a megalithic structure...
1 November 1996
One of the interesting things about the Skeptics is the wide range of opinions that can be found in our group -- not to mention the ever-readiness to express them. So I was interested to read Frank Haden's column on the conference and how he found it.
1 November 1996
It often seems as if home schooling is the domain of hard-line Christians. In fact, they're not the only people who feel that their children are better taught at home than in school.
1 November 1996
A skeptical look at the Natural Law Party provided to journalists in preparation for the election.
1 November 1996
Malcolm Carr, from Waikato University's Centre For Science, Mathematics & Technology Education Research, talks to Annette Taylor about the nature of science education and the new science curriculum following his address at this years' conference.
1 August 1996
This is the second half of the article begun in the last NZ Skeptic
1 August 1996
Yes, it is frustrating, even positively nauseating. There you are struggling day in day out, doing your best and striving for the real breakthrough in science. Yet the real breakthrough never comes. Lack of talent, originality, or just not the right friends? Who knows? And who cares?
1 August 1996
The Mysterious Origins of Man showed earlier this year on TV3 as a "documentary". It is likely to be a contender for this year's Bent Spoon Award.
1 August 1996
A physicist with hidden motives writes something unexpected for a "cultural studies" journal.
1 August 1996
Some police are still guilty of scepticism, but retraining is on its way
1 May 1996
When I received through the mail a coloured brochure from Time/Life advertising a series of videos and cassettes titled "Growing Younger", I was surprised to see that I could learn from Time/Life via their series how to develop an "ageless body". In addition I could learn to "help reverse ageing" and that the series could "open the door to a life free from the effects of aging" (sic).
1 May 1996
This article originally appeared in the excellent US magazine_ Skeptic_, edited by Shermer, (Vol 2 No 3) and also forms Chapter 4 of Shermer's book_ Hope Springs Eternal: How Pseudoscience Works and Why People Believe in It_. It's a thought-provoking piece which should be handy reference for any skeptic's library. This is part one of three.
1 May 1996
It is rare that Nelson interests the world's news media. The "sheep suspended from pine trees" story was sufficiently bizarre to get their attention.
1 May 1996
Folie-a-deux can be defined as a paranoid disorder in which the same delusion is shared by two (or more) persons. The delusion is thought to be transmitted from a dominant but paranoid person to his or her dependent intimate(s), and the latter may recover "normal" reality testing after separation from the former.
1 February 1996
Skeptics can take an active stance in their daily lives, according to this abridged version of the Chair-entity's after-dinner speech from the Conference.
1 February 1996
Since the call for responses to the awarding of the Bent Spoon to the Justice Department's Hitting Home report, we've received responses from 16 people, some of which of which have been published in this and the previous Skeptic. Others were in the form of private commentaries or conversations. One member contacted the authors of the report directly for clarification and further comment, and passed on the correspondence that ensued.
1 February 1996
Australian creationist Peter Sparrow toured New Zealand recently.
1 February 1996
The world's best psychics seem to have cracks in their crystal balls, says the Skeptical Inquirer.
1 November 1995
We have made a big mistake. Hitting Home is careful, thorough, mainstream scientific research. It may be alarming, but it is not, as we said, "alarmist". It is a serious attempt to measure men's attitudes towards, and the extent of, their violence. It is social science, not "hard" science, but it has done its best to attach figures to subjective psychological statements. If it can be criticised, it is for accepting the men's reports of their own violence at face value, when the biggest problem associated with men's violence is men's denial. ("I just gave her a bit of a tap" -- and she spent three weeks in hospital.)
1 November 1995
For those of you who have not been involved in selection of a Bent Spoon, here's how it is generally done and how this year's selection was made. Throughout the year, people propose likely candidates -- suggestions are passed on in the form of newspaper clippings, phone-calls, letters, email or, occasionally, videotape. Denis coordinates the discussion, which involves the Skeptic's executive officers and often members of the committee and members with appropriate expertise.
1 November 1995
This is a copy of a presentation given to the New Zealand Skeptics 1995 Conference in Auckland
1 November 1995
A sceptical mini-history of the crashed flying saucer saga
1 November 1995
This year's Bent Spoon Award has ruffled a few feathers. In a controversial decision, what the Skeptics described as an "alarmist" Justice Department report on domestic violence in New Zealand has received the award.
1 November 1995
Back in March, when the police seemed to be making no progress in hunting down South Auckland's serial rapist, a community newspaper ran a story effectively chiding the police in general and Detective Inspector John Manning in particular for taking no notice of the advice being given him by one of Auckland's leading clairvoyants, Ms Margaret Birkin, who has her own programme on Radio Pacific.
1 August 1995
At the Festival of Possibilities in Nelson, all the usual New Age paraphernalia were on display. A current vogue is "pulsing" which is already available in at least two varieties, holistic and Tibetan. (I later experienced a pulsing; it's a variety of massage involving having different parts rocked or shaken, quite pleasant.) People at one stand tried to sell me Matol, a mixture of herbal extracts "that works at the molecular level" to increase the uptake of oxygen by my blood. I told them I trusted my body to take up just the right amount of oxygen.
1 August 1995
For a host of reasons which the NZ Skeptic will examine further in a later issue, the so-called "natural health" industry is enjoying a remarkable resurgence. One cannot refute the argument that we should take responsibility for our own health and that we should not expect modern medicine to provide on demand pills to cure all our ills, particularly those which are self-induced or the result of old age. Moderation in all things (including moderation) will generally help any of us to lead a vital and active life.
1 August 1995
Surprising results from a US study of the effectiveness of counselling on reducing juvenile crime.
1 August 1995
Recent issues of the Skeptic have contained expressions of puzzlement at some subjects being taught to tertiary students in New Zealand. The worst example is the Degree in Naturopathy planned for Aoraki Polytechnic. But is this really all that surprising?
1 August 1995
Recently I had a UFO experience in the comfort and privacy of my own home. Or rather, I would have had a UFO experience if it had been a UFO. Unfortunately, however, I found a rational explanation for it, which means this story's not nearly as interesting as it could have been.
1 August 1995
National Radio has scored a first by becoming the first public, non-commercial radio service in the English-speaking world to feature regular astrological advice. Every Monday evening around 8:40 pm Wayne Mowat and Linda Rose make fools of themselves by asking an astrologer earnest questions about listeners' fate for the coming week.
1 May 1995
This is a Feynman Commencement Address given by Richard Feynman at Caltech in 1974. This message is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago, especially for those who add their committed "science" to the cause of apocalyptic environmentalism.
1 May 1995
Visitors to Fiji are still being told that village people have the hereditary ability to walk on white-hot stones. This is quite untrue (see Hot Footing it in Fiji,Skeptic 26). A tourist promotion video for airline passengers features the ceremony. It is pretty obvious to the discerning viewer that the stones are not white-hot, but how many tourists give more than a cursory glance?
1 May 1995
An abridged version of the Skeptical Enquirer's report of the session dealing with "alien abductions" at the Seattle CSICOP Conference on "The Psychology of Belief"
1 May 1995
We need to immunise ourselves against this virus too.
1 February 1995
When the short list for the Booker prize was announced there was much chortling about the fact that Jill Paton Walsh had been unable to find a publisher in Britain for Knowledge of Angels. She had to publish it herself.
1 February 1995
Lately -- my last few airline flights -- I've been listening to the in-flight comedy channels. This was how I discovered Bob Newhart and his monologues. These are things where he takes one side of a conversation and leaves you to imagine the rest. There's one that shows up quite often, where he takes one side of a conversation with Sir Walter Raleigh, who has just discovered tobacco and is sending eight tons of it over to England as an early sample.
1 February 1995
From a Skeptics' mailing list comes a record of psychic slip-ups for the previous year.
1 February 1995
Tertiary institutes around the country are beginning to offer courses, and even entire degrees, in subjects that are pure pseudoscience.
1 February 1995
Seeing shouldn't always be believing, as a Nelson skeptic discovered thirty years ago.
1 November 1994
In a landmark case on September 30, a 59-year-old man, Bill1, was acquitted by a jury in the Auckland High Court on charges of sexually abusing three of his daughters about 20 years ago. The complainants alleged sodomy and rape, and indecent acts such as the insertion of a coat hanger in the vagina causing bleeding and loss of consciousness. The women claimed they had suppressed the memories which had only resurfaced in later life. All three daughters had attended therapy and made claims for damages from the ACC before they laid the criminal charges against their father. Two of the daughters reported memories of events happening in their cots when aged one year old or less. Bill was defended by Mr Peter Williams, QC, who dismissed evidence based on "recovered memories" as dangerous and fallacious.
1 November 1994
One of the perpetrators told the story behind the Grand Interplanetary Hoax of 1952 to the 1994 Skeptics' Conference.
1 November 1994
A friend of mine once visited a faith-healer, one of the religious variety from the United States who periodically come to New Zealand to swell their bank balances. She attended the meeting because of a persistent pain in her elbow. Despite my suggestions that it was only tennis elbow, she was worried and thought perhaps the pain was serious. She had an aisle seat near the front and during the proceedings the "healer" approached her and asked about the pain in her arm. Apparently she hadn't told anyone why she was there. She was impressed.
1 November 1994
The New Zealand Herald of 5 September carried the headline "Ozone gap to lift skin cancer 7 per cent".
1 August 1994
What is the link between chemicals and cancer?
1 August 1994
The media were quick to cry "Wolf" when concerns were raised about the fungicide Benlate.
1 August 1994
Can traditional Maori knowledge be considered scientific?
1 May 1994
What can events 100 years ago tell us about a modern disorder?
1 May 1994
Vicki Hyde suggests (Skeptic 30) that we are in for a lot more doomsday predictions as we approach the year 2000. I am afraid she is right, but why should fundamentalists get so excited about a round number of years?
1 May 1994
What is it that keeps superstitions going in the face of our increasing knowledge about the world?
1 May 1994
Attempts to interpret the results of quantum mechanics in ways people can understand can themselves lead to confusion.
1 February 1994
A couple of weeks before my medical finals late last year I sat down in the waiting area of the Christchurch rheumatology clinic. I struck up conversation with the only other person there, a man in his late forties. The story he told me about his arthritis made my few remaining strands of hair stand on end.
1 February 1994
Award-winning author and long-time Skeptic Margaret Mahy delivered the after-dinner speech at the 1993 Skeptics Conference. This is an abridged version of her talk.
1 February 1994
A detective with long experience in tracing missing persons gave the 1993 Skeptics Conference the word on how useful psychics are in police work.
1 February 1994
For those of you who didn't notice, the end of the world came and went on November 14th. It also ended on November 24th, and is set to do so at the end of this year. If you've got a Christmas trip to Los Angeles planned, don't bother going -- a massive earthquake wiped out the city of the Angels as well as neighbouring San Diego at 7pm on May 8th.
1 February 1994
Lights in the sky are not always aliens on the lookout for earthlings to abduct. Sometimes they are mostly a load of hot air.
1 November 1993
The New Internationalist Review, a magazine not normally known for gullibility beyond the political, decided not all that long ago to examine the paranormal. Our intrepid reporter Peter Lange decided to have a look.
1 November 1993
On Thursday, 19 August 1993, the Christchurch Press carried a full-page advertisement for the initial New Zealand opening of the "Matrol Opportunity".
1 November 1993
There is a worldwide epidemic of satanic child abuse allegations. Are they true? Has satanic child abuse happened here in New Zealand?
1 August 1993
The British Independent recently ran an editorial not worth reproducing in the Skeptic. The editorial did, however, generate a vigorous response from Richard Dawkins which is worth thinking about.
1 August 1993
Rejuvenation! The wish of many a tired old man, and not so old: to regain the physical and sexual vigour of youth.
1 August 1993
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 Tank."
1 August 1993
This article is an abridged version of the fourth article in a series on philosophy and the paranormal. Here Dr Grey discusses David Hume's analysis of miracles and his view that belief in miraculous events is always unjustified. He also investigates the nature, virtues and dangers of different skeptical viewpoints.
1 August 1993
On open access computer bulletin boards, any entity with a theory can expound on it at length. Many do -- usually to a very unappreciative audience. A seemingly-large proportion of such expositions are surprisingly similar in style. The following scale (tentatively attributed to John Baez of Usenet sci.physics) will help readers establish just how crackpotted something is...
1 August 1993
John Cole, editor of Creation/Evolution, recently wrote of his tendency toward hair-pulling, in the National Centre for Science Education Reports, Vol 12 No 2 (Summer 1992).
1 May 1993
In the medical magazine Patient Management, Denis Dutton last year presented a tongue-in-cheek account of how GPs might incorporate alternative techniques into their practices. The article generated an interesting exchange.
1 May 1993
Our everyday "cuppa" comes from the plant Camellia sinensis and it, together with a number of other common drinks including coffee, cocoa, guarana and maté contain small quantities (10-100 mg per cup) of caffeine, a mildly stimulatory alkaloid. In addition many people enjoy hot and cold beverages made from a wide variety of other herbs such as chamomile and dried raspberry leaves.
1 May 1993
President Bush was not re-elected. Madonna did not become a gospel singer, and a UFO base was not found in the Mexican desert. These were just a few of the many predictions that had been made for 1992 by famous "psychics", but were dead wrong, as chronicled by the Bay Area Skeptics.
1 May 1993
Many people will remember Dr Bill Morris's entertaining autobiographical talk at the last Skeptics' conference in Wellington. From his presentation, we extract this discussion of what is still the most persistent and potent medical effect known to the human race.
1 February 1993
Can a cotton wristband and a plastic button alleviate seasickness? The British Consumer's Association thinks so, but scientific evidence indicates otherwise.
1 February 1993
This is a summary of a talk given at the 1992 Skeptics conference by_ Dr Eric Geiringer.
1 February 1993
New Zealand Skeptics walk happily on red-hot embers, protected by the laws of physics. Fijian firewalkers, however, are said to stroll across white-hot stones. How do they do it?
1 February 1993
Brew up a miracle for fun and profit, in the comfort of your own kitchen.
1 February 1993
Dr J.F. De Bock gave the 1992 Conference an update on the study of UFOs.
1 November 1992
After seeing a demonstration of cold reading at the Skeptics Conference in 1989 I thought this was something I could have fun with, so I boned up on the list of commonplaces provided at the time:
1 November 1992
Not surprisingly, the awarding of the Bent Spoon to Consumer magazine saw a vigorous defence mounted by the Consumers' Institute.
1 November 1992
Do horses really have a distinct set of personality types or is it just a load of equine excreta?
1 November 1992
The Bent Spoon Award this year created more controversy than usual when it was awarded to Consumer magazine. Why did we feel it necessary to bite our consumer watchdog?
1 November 1992
At the Skeptics Conference in Christchurch in 1989, Denis Dutton mentioned that women's magazines offered horoscopes but men's magazines did not. There were two significant exceptions: the feminist magazine Broadsheet did not, but the gay (and nominally lesbian) Pink Triangle did -- a particularly bland and space-wasting one:
1 August 1992
A colouring book for young patients of chiropractors says "A is for alligator and adjustment. B is for bells and for back. C is for caterpillar and for chiropractor. D is for dog and for doctor." The latter two may have more in common than is apparent at first glance.
1 August 1992
Creationists are winning hands-down in the publicity stakes, despite, one presumes, no real assistance in the form of Divine Guidance.