6 November 2023
In the past few months I've been watching a website that makes some quite extraordinary claims, at least in my opinion. It's immersioncosmetics.co.nz What has really piqued my interest is a new product recently advertised. It's Shungite, a relatively rare black stone with fairly high carbon content, usually 30-95% but often with many impurities and fullerenes, a spherical carbon molecule usually known as buckyballs. It was originally discovered in Shunga, in the Karelia region of Russia, but is more widespread than that,
21 August 2023
Back in November last year, I wrote a critique of a Safe ICT questionnaire I picked up at the Go Green expo. We recently received a copy of Safe ICT's most recent newsletter where they responded to my criticisms. I'm not going to rebut their rebuttal, as this kind of to and fro rarely ends up being productive, but suffice it to say that Safe ICT's overly cautious advice for people using technology is not in alignment with our understanding of the science, and is not based on any scientific evidence of harm.
5 December 2022
Recently I received an email that purported to be from the anti-virus company Norton that was blatantly a scam, but I decided to follow through as much as I could to see what the scammers were trying to do. There's often a side effect of doing this, which is that I can waste the time of the scammers - the more time they're on the phone to me, the less time they'll have for scamming people who are at risk of falling for the scam. Plus maybe, just maybe, the scammers will start to question their career choice if many of their potential marks end up making their life a frustrating misery. Below is a series of events that, all in, might have taken about an hour from start to end.
21 November 2022
Craig wrote last week about his experience at the Auckland Go Green Expo, and I also mentioned that myself and Bronwyn, along with Daniel Ryan, attended the Wellington Go Green Expo a couple of weeks ago. As I mentioned briefly on last week's podcast episode, apart from the frustration of the fact that the vast majority of stalls have nothing to do with going green, one particular stall annoyed me more than any other.
1 February 2019
For the New Zealand organisation which has shown the most egregious gullibility or lack of critical thinking in public coverage of, or commentary on, a science-related issue
16 September 2018
I had a phone call this week from "Spark". I spoke to a couple of Indian gentlemen who explained that my private IP address had been made public, and that this meant that my internet connection was compromised.
18 December 2016
Fijian government representatives, including leader Frank Bainimarama, were at a lavish launch event a couple of weeks ago to announce the launch of a new app which is set to revolutionise our mobile phone use.
26 June 2016
A dermatologist at a recent anti-ageing conference has said that regularly exposing the face to the light and electromagnetic radiation from smartphones can speed up ageing and wrinkles. Doctors even claim they can tell which hand a person holds their phone in just by looking at which side of the face is most damaged.
16 August 2015
Most of the serious claims have already been removed, after I talked to them on the phone, but Resene still talk about crystal energy and other nonsense concepts.
1 August 2007
An Auckland University study reveals the costs-financial and emotional-of telephone psychics.
1 August 2007
Followers of Ben Goldacre's Bad Science blog (www.badscience.net), will be aware of the recent panic in Britain over wi-fi radiation in schools.
1 February 2004
An anonymous contributor to the website, http://mostembarrassingmoment.com, shares her experiences as a professional tarot card reader.
1 May 2001
I would've thought the main hazard from mobile phones was the increased risk of accident when using one in the car. No-one seems to worry about this, however, instead many are deeply concerned that a few milliwatts of radio waves are going to fry their brains. This has opened tremendous opportunities for the enterprising.