I forgot to mention a couple of weeks ago that Ken Ring, the moon forecaster, died on the 21st of October. If anyone had any dealings with Ken and would like to write an obituary for this newsletter from a skeptical perspective, I'd be happy to publish it.
The other day my eldest daughter shared an image on TikTok with me from an account called Genknowladge (@genknowledge1), claiming that sand looks like this under a microscope:
Those who know me well know that I have a thing for painful, uncomfortable experiences - I'm finally planning to redeem my colonic irrigation voucher in the next few weeks, I've enjoyed stabbing myself with acupuncture needles and joining interminably boring cult meetings. So for some it's no surprise that I'm a big fan of bad movies - some of my favourites are Twisted Pair (or anything really) by Neil Breen, Champagne and Bullets, Jurassic Shark, Dangerous Men, Dolemite, Tammy and the T-Rex, and Birdemic. Yep, these movies are so bad that The Room doesn't even make the list.
Due to circumstances outside of my control, the edition of the newsletter in which Part 1 was published had to be removed from MailChimp - there were issues with a different article in that edition. If you were unable to read/access Part 1, send us an email (at newsletter@skeptics.nz) and we'll either send you a copy or find an alternative format to share it.
Somebody asked Sandra Clair from Artemis, who writes for the Herald and sells natural remedies:
An Australian woman with a newborn has passed whooping cough onto her daughter, and now wishes she'd taken the vaccine she was offered:
Australian Anti-vaccination activist's 11 week old daughter hospitalised for whooping cough, which kills 1 in 200 children who pick up the infection.
Former accountant turned psychic took $250 thousand from an elderly couple in a rest home who had been friends with him for 30 years. The money was taken over a period of 12 years.
Bernard Beckett (Skeptic 95 , p8) says the ability of Creationism to make the same predictions as evolutionary psychology shows that the latter is not a scientific process. But the same is equally true of evolutionary biology. ("God made cats resemble tigers, and apples resemble pears, because He felt like it.") The fault is with Creationism, not evolution. An omnipotent Creator can be used to explain/predict absolutely anything, not only the universe as it is, but any other universe, possible or im-. You might say that Creationism, like Nostradamus and astrology, is very good for predicting the past. That is their fundamental failing.
Garfield was right-there's nothing like a piping hot lasagne on a winter's night. Especially when eaten with good wine and fine people.