31 March 2025
It was announced this week that RFK Jr. has hired David Geier as an analyst on a new study into the links between Autism and vaccines. A link that was debunked years ago, which even its most profitable holdout, American charity Autism Speaks, disavowed about a decade ago. This decision is just another in a series of attacks the White House has made against the disabled, and against science in general.
30 September 2024
A few days ago I was scanning my spam folder, making sure nothing important had been accidentally classified as spam, when I noticed a cryptic email:
24 June 2024
On Saturday afternoon I joined an old friend and fellow nonsense junkie, Tim Atkin, as we attended a creationist talk in Wellington, organised by Creation Ministries International (CMI - the group that run the creation.com website). Now, Tim has been spending a lot of time over the last few years learning mandarin, and this was to come in handy as the meeting was at the Wellington Chinese Methodist Church on Boulcott Street. We arrived just before the 4pm starting time, and were greeted by a large creation.com banner featuring one of CMI's favourite topics, dinosaurs (presumably this is seen as a way to capture the imagination of kids).
8 January 2024
At the Society for Science Based Healthcare, we spend a lot of time looking at dodgy therapeutic claims. Most of these claims are made by practitioners of alternative therapies. A few months ago Mark Hanna, a colleague of mine at SBH, messaged me with a curious thought:
9 October 2023
Over the past week or two, I've been having email conversations with a person from the other side of the skeptical fence. This person I'll refer to as Mark - which is his real name, but I'll not give any more information about him. (By the way, our skeptical newsletter writer Mark Honeychurch has sworn he's not running some elaborate joke on me!)
4 September 2023
It all started with noodles. During a work call with a Chinese colleague of mine, Evelyn, I was asked what I would be having for lunch. I told her that I would be having instant noodles and she berated me, saying that I should make noodles from a Chinese recipe instead. A couple of minutes later, several links to YouTube videos appeared via SMS, all showing similar recipes being made, with English subtitles to accompany the Mandarin instructions.
1 May 2023
Well, hello there! Craig isn't looking and Mark is busy writing, so I thought I would slip in here and write the editorial for this week.
5 December 2022
It has been a while since I edited a newsletter, and what better time than near the end of the year to take on the mantle again.
19 September 2022
This past weekend has been a pretty skeptically-active weekend for me.
15 August 2022
It's me again, Mark, for a third week running - as Craig is unavailable to do the newsletter again. This time it's COVID, and I can't blame him at all for not wanting to write a newsletter while getting over it.
11 July 2022
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.
24 November 2021
Last night at about 1am a friend of mine sent me a link to a brand new COVID website called Wanaka Health Bridge. I clicked on the link, and saw that the site talks about the risks resulting from Wanaka being three and half hours from a major hospital, and what that means for COVID-19 treatment. The website says:
8 June 2021
Welcome to the NZ Skeptics newsletter.
19 April 2021
After chatting with Graeme Hill on Magic Talk recently about Sue Grey, co-leader of the conspiracy minded Outdoors Party, and her threat to sue the government, I found out that Sue was planning to give a talk on the steps of parliament the next day. So, during my lunch break, I wandered up to the Beehive to see more about why Sue thinks the government's rollout of the COVID vaccine needs to be stopped.
14 April 2021
After talking about Sue Grey's threat to sue the government last week, I found out that Sue was planning to give a talk on the steps of parliament the next day. So during my lunch break last Thursday I wandered up to the Beehive, to see more about why Sue thinks the government's rollout of the COVID vaccine needs to be stopped.
30 November 2020
Thank you Mark Fletcher for letting us know that you had a copy of the video of James Randi's 1993 Christchurch talk. He'd even transcoded the video from VHS to DVD several years ago, which made it a lot easier for me to get it onto YouTube. Thanks Mark, I owe you a beer!
1 February 2019
Skeptic summary: Good work all those who complained. Fluoride is not a "Neurotoxin" and claims it is spread fear, uncertainty and doubt. Complaints said it was "scaremongering" and "misleading".
11 February 2018
Companies in the US are selling "raw" water, which means the water has been untreated. At $50 for 9 litres, it seems pretty expensive for something that's likely to leave you sick.
26 March 2017
Mark Hanna of the Society for Science Based Healthcare and I had an exchange over IM a few months ago, where we realised that there are so many bad claims being made for alternative therapies that if you picked a random combination of condition and treatment, chances are high that someone in NZ is making illegal claims that the treatment can successfully treat the condition.
18 September 2016
Mark Hanna at the Society for Science Based Healthcare has complained recently about the Napier Courier's column written by a local homeopathy business, called "Homeopathy Hub". the weekly column made many daft claims about the effectiveness of homeopathy, such as:
1 February 2015
Where popular culture is given a skeptical mark
1 February 2015
I found out what a skeptic is when I was living in London. My husband Mark listened to a weekly podcast called The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe hosted by a bunch of brothers and their friends. After Mark finally persuaded me to arrive at the 21st century and purchase myself an iPod, the first thing he did was subscribe me to the podcast.
1 February 1991
This is my last newsletter. I am pleased to be handing over the editorship to Denis Dutton. I feel I have been very fortunate in the quality of contributions I have received and to have had regular contributors. A special acknowledgement is due to Mark Davies, Andrew Vignaux and Karen Tumer who physically produce the magazine. I had no idea of the amount of work they undertake until I became involved in it myself.
1 February 1987
12 - 2 p.m., Press Conference,
1 November 1986
Denis Dutton (University of Canterbury) Secretary, NZCSICOP.