A recent article from Radio NZ did a great job of pointing out just how useless online polls are, and raising concerns about how often New Zealand media outlets, including Newshub, the AM Show and ... (450 words)

Martin Bridgstock considers a major work, which gives us all some astonishingly good news Most of us are used to being deluged with bad news. The economy is on the slide again. Violence has burst out ... (1650 words)

The dire predictions of the Club of Rome's 1972 report on The Limits to Growth have supposedly been refuted by subsequent studies, but the refutations have serious shortcomings. This article is based ... (1968 words)

Having recently joined the happy hordes of mp3 player owners, our household has been getting an object lesson in the nature of random events. For those who have yet to succumb to the charms of these ... (483 words)

When the Sunday Star-Times decided to survey the nation on how superstitious New Zealanders are and about what, Vicki Hyde got used as a guinea pig. Part One of her responses was published in the ... (1944 words)

Some risks in life are distributed throughout a population, others are all-or-nothing. There's a big difference. This article is based on a presentation to last year's Skeptics Conference. Many ... (2399 words)

The World Health Organisation has issued a new warning against non-essential travel to the entire Western Hemisphere following renewed concerns about the spread of Severe Loss of Perspective Syndrome ... (242 words)

Mass screening programmes have generated considerable controversy in this country. But these programmes have inherent limitations, which need to be better understood In 1996 the Skeptical Inquirer ... (2096 words)

Chances are, you're worried about all the wrong things. What are the chances of slipping on a banana skin, choking on a fishbone or being struck by a meteorite? These are not the sort of unlucky ... (965 words)

One of the arguments presented in favour of this year's Bent Spoon award was that the NZ Skeptics increasingly provide an early warning system against strange notions from abroad. For example, ... (981 words)

This year's Bent Spoon Award has ruffled a few feathers. In a controversial decision, what the Skeptics described as an "alarmist" Justice Department report on domestic violence in New Zealand has ... (729 words)