6 January 2025
Share International is an organisation that I've been interested in for quite a few years now. Whenever I see their stands at wellness events and local fairs, I make a beeline for them and have a chat about aliens, UFOs, crop circles and more. It's always seemed a little weird that their membership is predominantly retirees - I tend to associate UFO belief with younger people who have a passion for science and technology, but without the critical mindset or understanding of the complexities involved with interstellar travel to understand that their beliefs are implausible.
24 October 2023
In my newsletter article last week, one of the dates referred to the 2018 trial of Zholia Alemi, a former Auckland University medical student who was able to practise psychiatry across the NHS and evade discovery for two decades before being undone by her own greed. I was reminded about two other, peculiar cases of fraudster doctors in NZ and thought that it would make a good article and segment in the most recent episode of the Yeah...Nah podcast.
28 August 2023
I've mentioned the Voices for Freedom bunch a few times in this newsletter, but looking at the latest Reality Check Radio had me amused. From their email:
27 December 2021
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has successfully launched!
13 December 2021
Our recent Skepticon saw Richard Saunders, from the Australian Skeptics, present the results of The Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project.
1 May 2020
Interview with Dr Jane Millichamp, Registered Psychologist and Professional Practice Fellow at the Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago
25 February 2018
Liza Schneider has written an article for the BoP Times, printed online in the Herald, which promotes nonsense therapies for animals.
1 November 2015
In December 1952, letters appeared in the Otago Daily Times reporting sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects across the length of New Zealand. The story was apparently quite convincing, as the correspondents were relatively respectable people scattered widely around the country.
1 November 2015
From the NZ Skeptics Conference November 2015...
1 February 2012
The NZ Herald (10-14 January) must have been having trouble filling its pages during the silly season, looking at its recent series on alternative therapies.
1 May 2011
There are times when the world seems to run along quietly from day to day, with very little happening. Then there are times like these. There are the ongoing aftershocks in Christchurch, many of them big enough in their own right to qualify as major quakes at any other time. There was the far larger earthquake in Japan, with its ensuing slow-motion nuclear disaster. There are wars and revolutions across the Middle East and North Africa which seem set to transform the politics of those regions. Millennial anxieties are on the rise once more.
1 May 2011
In the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes, Ken Ring's predictions were widely, though often inaccurately, reported. David Riddell looks at Ring's writings, and compares them with actual events.
1 November 2010
One of the main reasons for the success Al Qaeda has had in getting bombs past checkpoints in Iraq is that the main device used to detect explosives is a uselss fake (NZ Herald, 24 July).
1 May 2010
Noel Townsley continues our series on the psychic roadshows touring New Zealand.
1 February 2010
NZ Skeptic editor_ David Riddell finds Kelvin Cruickshank less impressive in person than he appears on Sensing Murder_. A shorter version of this review appeared in the_ Waikato Times _on 9 December 2009.
1 August 2007
After years of planning and fund-raising among the faithful, the Creation Museum has finally opened in Kentucky (Los Angeles Times, May 31).
1 August 2006
One of New Zealand's most senior journalists, and a long-standing member of the NZ Skeptics, has announced his retirement (Dominion Post, 2 December, Sunday Star Times, 3 December). Frank Haden has been best known in recent years for his columns in the Sunday Star Times, but his 50 year career in journalism has included time as editor of the Sunday Times and assistant editor of the Dominion.
1 February 2006
For those of us who learnt of the tragedy through the media, the anguish and grief of the family who lost their two youngest children in the icy depths of Lake Wakatipu is painful even to imagine. We know their lives will never be the same again. So it was comforting to read that the people of Glenorchy are doing what close-knit communities always do in times of adversity.
1 November 2004
It will be interesting to see how the government handles the latest health scare which is being helped along by the usual sensationalist media reporting. How about this example: "The men who made the poisons that blighted a New Plymouth community…." (Sunday Star Times, 12 September 2004).
1 May 2003
These are nervous times. By an astounding coincidence, as I wrote that line and paused to think of what to put next, I had a call from a friend to tell me there was a Sars case at the Waikato Hospital and to ask whether, in my other role as a subeditor at the Waikato Times, I would want to pass that on.
1 May 2001
Recently returned from a posting in Saudi Arabia and now suffering from a cold and a bleeding nose, John Welch continues his column on medical matters.
1 February 2001
Astronomy is the science of stars and outer space stuff. Not everybody knows this and so astronomers get insulted when they get called astrologers. Astrologers will tell you that astrology is also a science, but is it?
1 May 2000
Here's an idea that WINZ have yet to suggest -- but it may not be far off!
1 November 1999
Well, that's another year in the "hot" seat, and more "interesting" times. I've had over 250 messages in my Skeptics email folder build up since January, and that's only the ones I wanted to keep. It provides a form of diary for what we've done throughout the year.
1 May 1998
IT'S nothing short of a miracle that this issue has made it to the mailbox. For the last six months the family, including our cat and retired cattle dog, have been living in a small housetruck. (Just as well we farmed out the rabbits, mice and fish). The reason for our spartan existence is we are in the middle of building a rammed earth house. Not only do we fill buckets with the best of the builders, we, or should I say I, also feed them. (Nothing is too good for our boys.)
1 May 1998
Perhaps it's a coincidence, but many experts in non-proven schemes fall on their own swords. For example, Hoxsey died of cancer, and recently a Lower Hutt clairvoyant went bankrupt (due to unforeseen circumstances). Dr Rajko Medenica, the Yugoslavian specialist whose unorthodox treatments created devoted patients and determined enemies, died at the early age of 58 (Bay Of Plenty Times December 3 1997). He practised in South Carolina and drew patients from around the world, including Muhammad Ali, the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran and the late Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia. He served 17 months in a Swiss prison two years ago for fraud, many saying that his unusual methods were not based on science, but that he preyed on those that had lost hope. He obviously didn't do the three guys mentioned much good either.
1 November 1997
In the first of a new series, Tauranga GP Neil McKenzie comments on recent examples of pseudoscience relating to medicine.
1 February 1997
Names have been concealed to protect them from the international legume conspiracy.
1 February 1995
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 Angels. She had to publish it herself.
1 November 1994
One of the perpetrators told the story behind the Grand Interplanetary Hoax of 1952 to the 1994 Skeptics' Conference.
1 February 1994
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 button?
1 May 1993
Magic potions made from natural ingredients are generally hailed as environmentally friendly. But is this necessarily true? Not if you're a rhinocerous!
1 May 1991
A strange phenomenon is again manifesting itself in the pastoral areas of our borough. October has once again brought appearances of what we Mt Eden Skeptics call "Crop Rectangles" — bare, rectangular patches of earth amongst the normally verdant parklands. They have no reasonable explanation, but they do have a common, peculiar feature, which leads us to believe that they are associated with some sort of meteorological cult.
1 November 1990
(From the London Sunday Times Supplement)
1 May 1990
Dr Campbell's lecture at the 1989 Conference was an excellent piece of science education. The following article has a little physics, but is mainly a behind-the-scenes exposé of scientific show biz. It was prepared for The New Zealand Physicist.
1 August 1988
The Dominion Sunday Times, 4 October 1987
1 May 1988
The New Zealand Skeptics are offering $10,000 for a paranormal person.
1 May 1987
This tape was very intermittent and parts of this account will seem disconnected and bitty. In addition, Gordon had some excellent slides and diagrams which obviously we can not reproduce here.
1 May 1987
I return this born-again spoon to you as a symbol of the power of the press. I assure you I have no knowledge of what sleight of hand unbent it. I only left it in the newsroom for a few moments, too.