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 ... (2509 words)

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 ... (4755 words)

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 ... (2253 words)

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 ... (3162 words)

Psychic and TVNZ join forces to profit from child's disappearance When Sensing Murder psychic Deb Webber announced on TV One's Breakfast show that missing Auckland toddler Aisling Symes was in "a ... (1282 words)

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 ... (4091 words)

Mexican cancer clinics continue to do a roaring trade, despite their poor track record. When civil rights leader Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, the world lost a voice for decency and ... (744 words)

Should we trust psychologists and psychiatrists, especially as expert witnesses in court cases? This is an important question because, depending on their opinions, a person can inherit vast sums of ... (412 words)

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, ... (487 words)

The Geller case has ended -- the "psychic" is to begin a court-ordered payment of up to $120,000 to CSICOP USA. Skeptics will be pleased to know that Uri Geller has paid the Committee for the ... (311 words)

Thanks to a member who was present, we now have a set of audiotapes which record the complete proceedings of the 1994 CSICOP Conference in Seattle, on The Psychology of Belief Topics discussed ... (92 words)

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 ... (900 words)

Late in his life, in answer to a question, Freud compared the human condition approximately to the contents of a baby's nappy. When I first heard this story, it seemed to mark a bitter old man. That ... (562 words)

The following message from James Randi was posted to the Usenet newsgroup sci.skeptic on February 4th by Jim Kutz. A few years back, Philadelphia "psychic" Judith Richardson Haimes was awarded US$1.6 ... (529 words)

Letter from India The Indian Skeptics sometimes seem to be up against some very big opponents. Our Chair recently received the following letter: Dear Friend, [There have been] 6 murders in the ... (704 words)