There's usually no lack of content for our newsletter, and this week is no exception - which is great, as I'm on the newsletter for a second week in a row while Craig's unavailable. The Alex Jones court case has made the news this week, and it's good to see the mainstream media focusing on this particular charlatan. When I started reading up on the court proceedings, every article I read seemed to have some new tidbit of information, and it can be a little depressing hearing just how awful Alex Jones is, and how much money he can make in a day. As I say in my article on him below, he's one man I'd love to see in jail, but sadly I'm not sure that'll ever happen.
Several years ago at a Skeptics in the Pub meeting, maybe back in 2014 or 2015, we got onto the topic of the popularity of baby names. At the time, someone predicted that there were likely to be sudden increases in usage for names that had become well known through popular media, especially names that are either rarely used or fictional. Their examples to illustrate the idea were Luke and Leia, from Star Wars, with the prediction that these names would spike at some point after 1977, the release year of the first Star Wars movie.
This week I take a look at a media attack on our friend Dr Siouxsie Wiles, and talk about the European heat wave and climate change.
I have a good friend who often helps me out by sending me articles that might be of interest to Skeptics - and they sometimes come in handy both for this newsletter, and for my regular weekend radio chats with Graeme Hill on Today FM. He's is one of quite a few skeptically minded friends I have who have no interest in the organised skeptical movement in New Zealand - he just lives his life being wary of the nonsense that surrounds us.
This week I cover the sad news that a local psychic challenge has ended, but with some hope for the future. And last week, the Georgia Guidestones ended their existence after one of them was destroyed by explosives. Thanks to Mark Honeychurch for additional contributions for these items.
Just over a week ago Bronwyn and I, along with another couple of skeptics, visited parliament for the quarterly Prayers at Parliament event - the fourth now that I've attended. I swear that these events are becoming more partisan over time. Despite the organisers' claims that the meetings are cross-party, it seems that not only are the MPs who attend mostly National MPs (at this event it was just Simeon Brown), but the topics we're being asked to pray about are more overtly political, and there's a strong sense of what you should be praying for for each topic - unsurprisingly it aligns pretty well with the National party platform.
This week I've got an eclectic mix of topics. I cover Matariki weekend, the awful Roe v. Wade US supreme court decision and the implications here, and look at my carbon footprint.
I once met Katherine Smith, the Editor of the New Zealand Journal of Natural Medicine (not a magazine I'd recommend reading - it'll make you angry!). We had an enjoyable chat, and as we were at a wellness and spiritual festival, WellFest, she had no idea I was a skeptic. She showed me her folder of photos and cuttings about the “synchronicity” she'd experienced in her life - a series of spirals, stretching from a spiral painting she made as a young child, through to photos she'd taken in the '80s with faint spirals in the background, and a recent picture of a weird glowing spiral in the sky she'd cut out from a newspaper. I told her that I recognised the sky spiral, that it was a picture from Norway of a Russian rocket booster. Of course she was having none of it - the spiral in the sky was a sign for her, part of a message the universe was sending her through a series of events too unlikely to be coincidence. And of course she wasn't interested in reading into this phenomenon any further - she'd decided what it was, and what it meant to her, and that was enough.
Way back when we first started writing the weekly newsletter, one of our earliest topics was the QAnon movement, and the shocking events of the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol in the US. This week, the committee investigating those events held its first public hearings on prime-time TV. I spent a little of my Friday afternoon with the live stream of it playing while I worked. There were some shocking revelations, though I'm guessing that many people already suspected a lot of what was revealed.
I apologise for my lack of inspiration in the title, but at least we have some interesting articles for you:
Hello skeptics, this week I've a few topics to cover - from the horrendous massacre in Texas, to some thoughts on a public lecture, and some reflections on the mis- and dis-information study done by Te Pūna Matatini.
Just over a year ago I wrote a newsletter issue titled “_Beware of Scientologists Bearing Gifts_”, where I talked about an interesting ruse in Auckland. Someone from the Auckland Scientology office had been creating lots of fake MeetUp groups as a way to trick people into visiting their building - with event names such as “Success through Communication”, “How to get RID of STRESS!”, “English Study Group”, “Rubik's Cube Master Class” and “FREE movie night Auckland”.
This week we're covering a few different topics. I look at some potential good news in relation to SIDS and look back at claims made about it in the past. We've got some bizarre claims of paranormal ability related to wind control (don't think I've ever come across that one before), and I look at the recent crash in cryptocurrency markets.
For those of you who listen to our fortnightly NZ Skeptics podcast, Yeah… Nah! (which is based on this newsletter), you'll be aware that I tested positive for COVID recently. It's been a week now since my first day of symptoms, and I'm feeling a lot better than I did a week ago. Craig was kind enough to cover for me on the radio talking with Graeme Hill last week, but thankfully I was feeling good enough to get back in the saddle yesterday afternoon. For those of you who listen to the radio, I highly recommend listening to Graeme's “Hill's Weekend” show on Sunday afternoons - Graeme always manages to line up a set of fascinating people to talk to, and I'm always grateful to be able to talk with him about skepticism and some of the nonsense we find out there in the world.
This week we take a look at the Broadcasting Standards Authority decision about a complaint from NZDSOS against Seven Sharp. We look at the Sovereign Citizen "Sheriffs" disruption of an ANZAC service, and Bronwyn continues her series delving into MLMs - this week looking at Arbonne.
This week's newsletter feels nicely well-rounded, like we've managed to cover several of the core areas that skeptics are interested in. I start with a topical story about a new psychogenic illness that appears to be affecting teens around the world, including here in New Zealand. Bronwyn then delves into the background of one of my most hated MLMs, dōTERRA. (I've talked to company reps for dōTERRA at several events over the years, and each time I've been told some of the most outrageous claims about the medical benefits of their essential oils. I even left one event smelling like a breath mint, after telling someone I had a headache and being treated with a liberal amount of concentrated peppermint oil smeared onto my forehead.) I was contacted on the weekend about a new scam I'd not heard of before, that appears to be an evolution of the classic Nigerian 419 scams, so you get to hear all about that. And finally I talk about a new branch of Satanism - and this one seems to believe in pretty much any nonsense you can think of, as well as being horribly anti-Semitic.
I hope you're enjoying a few days off at Easter weekend, maybe enjoying some Hot Cross Buns dripping with butter, and some chocolate eggs.
Today's newsletter includes a fun evening myself and some other skeptics spent meditating, a rant about my junk email, and the daft convoy that's on its way to Marsden Point. I take a deep dive into Arise church, looking at their preaching of horrible prosperity gospel nonsense, and the horrific way they treat their interns. Also Bronwyn Rideout has written about a UK charity promoting the discredited CEASE therapy for “treating” autistic people, and finally I ask you all for help with finding skeptical dates in New Zealand history.
This week I delve into fringe groups becoming politically involved (as I expected they would do so). I look into website hacking for good, and also feature some pieces from guest authors on the Russian/Ukraine war and Putin's motivations.
This week's newsletter seems to have ended up being mostly about acronyms. I've written about how to determine what is and isn't a cult, using the BITE model, drawing from a recent visit I received from a pair of Sister Missionaries. I also try to get to the nugget of truth at the centre of the NESARA conspiracy. Bronwyn takes a look at one of my favourite skeptical topics, MLMs - the scam I love to hate. She's even promising to write more about some of the MLMs we see in New Zealand, which I'm really looking forward to. Finally Bronwyn wonders whether Finland exists.
Welcome to the NZ Skeptics Newsletter.
It's nice to be reminded sometimes that the number of skeptics in society is likely to exceed the number of Skeptics in our Society by several orders of magnitude. I was reminded of this recently after seeing a couple of interactions on social media, one where a friend tackled misinformation, and another where it was the friend that was spreading misinformation. In both interactions, the misinformation was quickly and easily debunked, with references given to sources. The first one was about Ukraine's president Zelenskyy being a Nazi, as “proven” by a picture of him holding up a football (I'm from England, so for all you kiwis I mean soccer here) shirt with his name and a swastika on it. The second is about the recent parliament protest, with an image of a child who had supposedly been pepper sprayed by the Police.
We have a bumper issue of the newsletter this week, with contributions from quite a few people. And what a week it's been! The main event of the week, here in our country, has been the end of the protest at Parliament in Wellington. It came to a fairly quick end once the police moved in. In a previous newsletter, I'd expressed concern at how much leeway the police were giving protestors. I think, with the actions of last week, it was becoming clear that the protestors needed to be moved on.
Welcome to the Skeptics Newsletter!
Welcome to the NZ Skeptics newsletter.
