Earth scientists can forecast the size and frequency of the aftershocks following Canterbury's September 2010 earthquake. But this is very different from earthquake prediction. This article is based ... (2742 words)

Geller offers to exorcise artwork The Scottish border city of Carlisle says a stone artwork commissioned to mark the millennium has brought floods, pestilence and sporting humiliation, but an ... (1389 words)

When it comes to environmental issues, it's not always easy for a skeptic to decide where to stand Over the last few years, there has been a growing community of "environmental skeptics", who ... (2189 words)

Skeptics Blown It? Prior to attending the NZ Skeptics conference in Wellington this year, I read the discussion paper on the role of science in environmental policy and decision making, Illuminated ... (1149 words)

"Dr Jaz" Dies Dr Neil McKenzie, better known to music lovers as Dr Jaz, died in May following a long battle against a brain tumour (Bay of Plenty Times, May 15 2003). Neil McKenzie was also a ... (1323 words)

PSEUDOSCIENCE AND THE PARANORMAL, by Terrence Hines. 2nd edition, Prometheus. ISBN 1-57392-979-4. This book thoroughly demolishes the pretence that laboratory experiments in ESP have produced ... (607 words)

For almost half a century, it's seemed like human destiny to go into Space. When we were kids, everyone wanted to be an astronaut when they grew up. The loss of the Columbia space shuttle hasn't ... (517 words)

Children & Quackery It is hard to be sure what Mike Houlding is on about in his rather opaque letter but I gather that he is lumping the use of clairvoyants, homoeopathic remedies and ADHD under ... (486 words)

False Memory re Subs? In the latest NZ Skeptic, beside the chair-entity's report, there is a false history of subscriptions. From written records: the sub was $10 for '86 to '88, then $20 for '89 to ... (703 words)

Sometimes the most successful prophets are the ones that don't even try In the aftermath of the Challenger disaster and the death of Princess Diana, the world was quickly awash with black humour and ... (879 words)

Another year, another millennium. We saw the old century out in a very quiet manner, watching Stanley Kubrick's 2001 with friends in Auckland. A few fireworks exploded from the top of the Sky Tower ... (515 words)

Vicki Hyde presents the year 2000 chair-entity's Report I'm pleased that we all appear to have survived the Millennium melt-down and will have to wait another thousand years for the sky to fall in. ... (592 words)

Despite being clairvoyant Angel Destiny admits she was taken by surprise when her 1920s house collapsed around her as she soaked in the bath. The International Express (15 August) reports the 44 year ... (81 words)

Cathie Comments I just wanted to make a comment on the clipping from the Christchurch Star concerning "nuclear extinction" which appeared on p.9 of the NZ Skeptic periodical. In the clipping, a ... (369 words)

Remember the '90s? It was the decade when: scientists discovered an anti-aging drug that stretched the normal lifespan to 150 years Madonna gave birth to quintuplets earthquakes transformed both San ... (885 words)

Premonitions As a born-again skeptic, I find it hard to write about an experience which challenges my entire values system; dead men don't talk, dreams and premonitions tell you nothing except, ... (214 words)

IT IS WELL, at the start of a discussion, to declare an interest. So, I begin by admitting that my fascination with the year 2000 was aroused nearly 70 years ago. Like many mechanically-minded lads ... (1917 words)

Rats carrying the deadly bubonic plague will overrun Los Angeles, sparking mass evacuations Patsy Ramsey will confess that she and her husband killed JonBenet Ramsey Bill Cosby will quit show ... (588 words)

John Riddell contemplates how the newspapers would read if psychics really had the powers they claim Missing Persons Department Disbanded (WELLINGTON) In a press conference held this morning Police ... (764 words)

Following the mass suicide of the Heaven's Gate cult, Alan Hale, co-discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp, released a statement at a press conference in Cloudcroft, New Mexico. He began by reading from Carl ... (995 words)

_1996 was an interesting year. Rush Limbaugh became the Republican nominee for President; Roseanne killed off her popular TV character; cures for baldness, arthritis, and AIDS were _ Gene Emery _ If ... (643 words)

The world's best psychics seem to have cracks in their crystal balls, says the Skeptical Inquirer. Top psychics who published their prognostications in US supermarket tabloids such as the National ... (887 words)

Picking Winners? When the short list for the Booker prize was announced there was much chortling about the fact that Jill Paton Walsh had been unable to find a publisher in Britain for Knowledge of ... (1351 words)

From a Skeptics' mailing list comes a record of psychic slip-ups for the previous year. If you thought 1994 has already featured some amazing events, wait until you see what's in store for the final ... (871 words)

At the last conference I was elected editor of the New Zealand Skeptic. Some of you will have read my pieces in Metro magazine or in NBR over the years, or heard my "Soapboxes" on World Service ... (504 words)

Vicki Hyde suggests (Skeptic 30) that we are in for a lot more doomsday predictions as we approach the year 2000. I am afraid she is right, but why should fundamentalists get so excited about a round ... (637 words)

A detective with long experience in tracing missing persons gave the 1993 Skeptics Conference the word on how useful psychics are in police work. During the last 25 years a number of police ... (1424 words)

Nostradamus -- The 1994 Annual Almanac by V.J. Hewitt. Random House, $15.95 This book explains an approach to interpreting the French "prophet" Nostradamus's predictions. It is the culmination of 16 ... (762 words)

Are the End Times drawing nigh? Are fires and floods from heaven on the brink of seething down in wrathful purge, damning the damned and raising the faithful? Is God's finger poised on the panic ... (464 words)

For those of you who didn't notice, the end of the world came and went on November 14th. It also ended on November 24th, and is set to do so at the end of this year. If you've got a Christmas trip to ... (615 words)

President Bush was not re-elected. Madonna did not become a gospel singer, and a UFO base was not found in the Mexican desert. These were just a few of the many predictions that had been made for ... (1145 words)

The failure of clairvoyants to locate the missing Wellington man, Michael Kelly, or to know the manner of his death, will not startle many skeptics. No major missing persons case in the history of ... (658 words)