19 September 2022
At-home testing is not a new concept. More than likely you or someone you know tests their blood sugar levels regularly and needs to treat a low blood sugar at some point. Home pregnancy and ovulation tests are also ubiquitous.
1 August 2022
I've always been interested in IQ tests and how they work. There's an interesting, and deep, conversation to be had about the issues with IQ tests. Without going into too much detail, although IQ tests appear to have some utility, there are problems for example when it comes to cultural differences among the people being tested. If an IQ test has been written from a single cultural perspective, and makes assumptions based on that culture, people who haven't been brought up in that culture can do badly on tests because of their differences in understanding of the questions being asked.
25 July 2022
I know my contributions tend to call back to the prehistoric time of 2002 to 2006, when I was completing my first of three (and in three years, fingers crossed, four) degrees. This time, rather than being a ploy to justify my continuing procrastination on the next instalment of the MLM series, my inspiration came from the recent skeptics in cyberspace meetup. Discussion arose around Mensa and whether they were a viable, alternative audience for persons unsuccessful in promoting their pseudoscience via NZ Skeptics. As with any topic where I have a personal stake and Mark Honeychurch, like a moth to a flame, is drawn to its more absurdist elements, anyone on that Zoom call was treated to an awkward, albeit brief, verbal tussle about who was going to write about what.
30 May 2022
Over the past few months, I've been contacted a few times by one of our members sending information about Covid from the popular podcast TWiV - This Week in Virology. The podcast is hosted by Dr Vincent Racaniello with a number of co-hosts. Dr Racaniello has spent 40 years in virus research at Columbia University.
14 December 2020
Renowned Otago researcher, Jim Flynn has died, aged 86. He discovered a very interesting effect - now named after him - the Flynn Effect, which states that IQ scores are increasing decade by decade. Basically, people are scoring better on IQ tests than they did in the past. This has had the effect of moving the 100 score - which is, by definition, the average IQ score upwards. There is speculation on the reasons for the Flynn effect, but nothing completely conclusive. But it is interesting to ponder.
15 October 2017
The prevailing scientific opinion on lie detector tests is that they don't work well enough to be relied on in courts as evidence - in fact, they're probably not even a good way of discerning the truth. Unfortunately a Christchurch based private detective is selling tests to couples as a way of finding out whether a partner has cheated.
18 December 2016
The Society for Science Based Healthcare were asked about Applied Kinesiology this week and I helped to write this response to questions:
1 May 2004
"Energised Water" turns out to be much the same as the other kind
1 February 1989
The recent revelations that the United States President's wife consults astrologers in scheduling important presidential events have embarrassed the U.S. Yet this startling discovery reveals only the tip of the iceberg. Throughout the world people make investments, change jobs, select their mates, and seek medical treatment on the basis of astrological forecasts. Virtually everyone knows the "sun sign" under which he or she was born. Yet very few people understand the origins and tenets of this ancient practice. Especially disturbing is the fact that according to a 1986 Gallup poll, 52 percent of teenagers polled accept astrology as true.
1 May 1987
We now have nearly ninety subscribing members. When | divide them according to their addresses, and also for the difference in population between the North and South Islands, it appears that South Islanders are about four times more skeptical than are North Islanders.