Simon Bridges for Jesus for NZ
12 May 2021
On Monday night I visited parliament, where a group called Jesus for NZ had been invited by National MP Simon Bridges to hold a church service called the Power of One.
Issues
Lies, Damned Lies and shonky Statistics
5 May 2021
A recent article from Radio NZ did a great job of pointing out just how useless online polls are, and raising concerns about how often New Zealand media outlets, including Newshub, the AM Show and the Herald, rely on them as source material for news articles.
Accelerated Nonsense, Christchurch health clinic bans vaccinated customers, Going Underground, Influential Biologist in New Zealand
3 May 2021
A.C.E., or Accelerated Christian Education, is a Christian based curriculum used in New Zealand - both in some Christian schools, and by parents who homeschool their children. The curriculum boasts that it covers from kindergarten to year 13, and that it is recognised by New Zealand universities.
Essential Oils may not be so essential after all, Miami School quarantines vaccinated staff members, TV Psychic didn't see it coming
28 April 2021
Essential oils are concentrated extracted plant chemicals that have a strong smell of the plant they were extracted from - their "essence". These oils are often heated in a diffuser, or evaporated via a wick, in order to spread their smell. Of course, if nice smells were all these oils were about, there wouldn't be much for me to be skeptical about.
UFO Mystery, essential oils, psychic car crashes
27 April 2021
Welcome to the NZ Skeptics newsletter.
Another credulous alt-med article from a Stuff journalist, Are Christian men worried about their penis size?, Are thousands dying from COVID vaccines?, The Exclusive Brethren are spying on ex members
21 April 2021
An article was published by Stuff the other day about cosmetic acupuncture - a discredited idea that sticking needles in your face can be an alternative to paying for a face lift. Half way through reading the article it started to feel really familiar, like I'd already read it but on the topic of a different unproven therapy. Sure enough, a quick search for the reporter's previous work turned up a recent article in stuff about reiki - a "therapy" where someone heals you by holding their hands near you.
Homeopathic Hippo Sweat Sunscreen, Sue-ing the government, The Pope is a hologram, Watch out for this new COVID pamphlet
19 April 2021
Honestly, I don't think I could make up something this daft if I tried. Thanks to an astute member of our NZ Skeptics Facebook group, I now know about a New Zealand company - Hippo Health - who are marketing a fascinating sun block for animals.
How to help those who have lost their way, Sue Grey update, The Prince Philip Movement, UFOs over Melbourne?
14 April 2021
A work colleague reached out to me the other day with an interesting question. One of his close family members has fallen down a conspiracy rabbit hole, and now spends a lot of time talking about QAnon, the "Deep State", etc. Unfortunately, as is so often the case with these kinds of rabbit holes, it's not entirely benign - the family member has now branched into COVID vaccine denial, which has a real chance of negatively impacting on their health.
A timely reminder for schools, Evergreen's sins go beyond blocking the Suez Canal
7 April 2021
The Secular Education Network, a group of parents and others who are passionate about ensuring the Education Act's promise of secular education in schools is realised, have just released a document reminding schools of their new obligations after the law was changed last year:
An Open Letter to Plan B, Beware of Scientologists Bearing Gifts, Should we worry about LED bulbs?
5 April 2021
A new group called FACT (Fight Against Conspiracy Theories) has published an open letter to Plan B about their connection with Voices for Freedom. The letter calls on Plan B to distance themselves from Voices for Freedom and the group's anti-science stance on COVID related issues.
Havana Syndrome, ETs and Penguins and That Ship
29 March 2021
Welcome to the NZ Skeptics newsletter.
Football Index is nothing more than a Ponzi Scheme, Freedom Rally, Oumuamua probably isn't aliens, Prayers @ Parliament
24 March 2021
A UK company, Football Index, has financially collapsed over the last as its users have realised that the entire thing is nothing more than a pack of cards.
Christchurch massacre conspiracy theories, QAnon 2.0?, Should we be worried about blood clots?
17 March 2021
We've just had the second anniversary of the horrific Christchurch massacre, and as skeptics it's sad to have seen over the last two years those in our country who have posted content denying that the attack was real, or claiming that it was a "false flag" operation. It's been hard enough over the last 20 years watching high profile conspiracy theorists, such as Alex Jones, engage in denial in the US for events such as the Sandy Hook massacre and the 9/11 attacks. But to see this kind of wrong headed thinking at home somehow feels worse. I guess we've been able to rest on our laurels watching America suffer from a spread of the conspiracy mindset, and at least for me it seemed implausible that the problem would ever reach our fair shores. I guess I was just too naive.
BOTA FTW, Cat Buttons, More Tamakis, Vaccines and Earthquakes, The Luck of the Cantabrians, Two years
15 March 2021
Today I finally made it to the Builders Of The Adytum, a strange group whose beliefs combine Kabbalah and Tarot into an unusual, but enjoyable, philosophy.
4 Simultaneous Days Rotate In Same 24 Hours Of Earth
8 March 2021
We've just come out of another short spell spent at level 3 lockdown for Auckland, and level 2 for the rest of us. Well done to all of you who managed to follow the rules and help keep us all safe, and a boo to everyone who thought that protesting in large groups and not wearing a mask is an acceptable response.
Ring, Reiki and Natural Medicine
1 March 2021
A big portion of this week's newsletter content was contributed by NZ Skeptics Committee member - Jonathan Harper.
A local Psychic has Guessed Wrong, Billy Te Kahika has Quit, Conspiracy Spam, Grant Robertson has Had Enough, Rush Limbaugh has Died, Your Skeptics Society Needs You
22 February 2021
Lockdown timing predictions from a Hamilton based psychic, Sarah King, have been unearthed and posted to our Facebook group this week:
Talkback and conspiracies
15 February 2021
Conspiracies are in the news a lot lately. In recent newsletters we've talked about them a lot, and there's more to cover this week, both from an international and NZ-based perspective.
An Atheist in Iran
9 February 2021
I like to sum up my style as a combination of brevity and rambling. This time the newsletter will be of the former persuasion.
Goodbye Ngaire McCarthy, Jewish space laser, Reiki is here to save us all
1 February 2021
Last week I attended, online, the funeral of Ngaire McCarthy, who died just over a week ago from cancer. Ngaire was an outspoken Māori atheist, humanist and rationalist who spoke to the NZ Skeptics at our 2014 conference in Auckland. She told us about how the census shows comparable rates of dis-belief amongst Māori and Pākehā in New Zealand, and how Christianity had imposed itself on Māori culture, merging in a way that makes it hard to pick them apart today.
Realisations
25 January 2021
This week has been pretty interesting in the arena of skepticism. As you'll no doubt be aware, this week saw the inauguration of Joe Biden as president of the US and the beginning of his administration. We've seen various pro-science, evidence-based actions taken in just the first couple of days - for example, rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, rejoining the World Health Organisation, and halting the Keystone XL pipeline, which I personally celebrate.
Piña coladas and Protests
18 January 2021
In a world where for some 2021 is already giving 2020 a run for its money, I'm trying to appreciate my freedoms. That includes the freedom to relax, drink cocktails and enjoy the balmy weather, and not get stressed out about where to put cocktail flavoured suppositories to solve make-believe problems invented by the wellness industry.