16 March 2026
Our first article in this week's newsletter is from Patrick, who has summarised a recent Nature article about potential underestimation of sea-level rise over the next 60 years. Patrick's article ends with a quote from Edison that, when I read it, seemed too good to be true. So, like any good skeptic, I jumped onto Google to see if there was any truth to the quote. It turns out that it's likely to be true, at least in broad strokes.
5 January 2026
I would like to make some general observations, and then review a recently published book which synthesises most of what Ben Reid (MEMIA) called a “polycrisis” in his book I previously reviewed.
15 November 2021
In a recent Nature article, some researchers of Chinese origin describe their research into the effects of stimulation at various acupuncture points on the induction of inflammation by bacterial endotoxins (toxic proteins released by some bacteria when they disintegrate). They found that this stimulation has beneficial effects at some acupuncture sites and not others. Despite the use of the word “electroacupuncture” in the title, their abstract in the Nature paper ends with “Our studies provide a neuroanatomical basis for the selectivity and specificity of acupoints in driving specific autonomic pathways.” a normal reading of which strongly suggests that the authors believe that acupuncture is a real phenomenon and is based upon specific neurological pathways which they are claiming to have identified.
24 May 2021
From the hard to believe it's real category, we found out about a revolutionary product being offered in New Zealand - Vortex Water!
1 February 2012
The Believing Brain: how we construct beliefs and reinforce them as truths by Michael Shermer. Times books, New York. 386pp. ISBN 978-0-8050-9125-0. Reviewed by Martin Wallace.
1 May 2005
A widely publicised trial which appeared to show prayer was effective in enhancing fertility now appears to have been fraudulent.
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 August 1996
DARK NATURE -- A NATURAL HISTORY OF EVIL, by Lyall Watson; Hodder & Stoughton, 1995; $19.95
1 August 1989
" 'Alternative' medicine is usually defended by a 'skeptical' argument, that we should keep our minds open." Petr Skrabanek in his article "Demarcation of the absurd"1 looked for guidelines on quite how open we should leave our minds and for how long. As he put it "Anything is possible. 'You have to keep your mind open'—until your brains drop out." He argues that we should be prepared to express unbelief because we can always change our minds, but by being gullible or keeping the mind too wide open we "lose reason from the very beginning."
1 February 1988
Didi you know that the 'principle' of water-divining was used to find people buried under snow? I did not, until I read about it in Nature (letter from Rolf Manne, of Pergen, Norway, in the issue of 4 December, 1986). This practice has been foisted on the Mountain Rescue Organisation of the Norwegian Red Cross, and is also taught in the Norwegian Army.