Tag: injury

According to Life Extension, a website selling brain-boosting supplements called nootropics, our brains can be hacked (known as “neurohacking”) through “a variety of complementary strategies, including dietary and lifestyle changes and the use of nootropic drugs and supplements, brain-training activities and games, and neurotechnologies (e.g. electrical stimulation devices) designed to increase brain fitness”. Their Australian branch will sell you 30 pills for about AU$30. The pills contain gotu kola, bacopa, and marigold extract.

One of the more controversial treatments the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) currently pays out for is acupuncture. This is controversial partly because of the lack of clinical evidence for acupuncture's efficacy, a fact that ACC has admitted in a past meeting.

I was talking to a friend last weekend who works as a tradesman. He asked me, as a skeptic, what I thought of the coronavirus vaccine - did I think it was dangerous? And was COVID real? He's pretty sure the scientists aren't lying to him, but he's talked with a lot of colleagues who aren't so sure. Most of my friends are fairly skeptical, and a lot of the time I breathe the rarefied air of skepticism, so it was interesting to hear a perspective that I don't really come in contact with in my daily life - a friend who's intelligent, but has heard enough misinformation from the anti-vaccine crowd that he's becoming a little unsure.

In this week's newsletter I spend far too much time debunking a baseless vaccine injury claim about Celine Dion, convince my wife to use tin foil to treat what ails her, and talk about a tragic, and avoidable, death in New Zealand from COVID. And, after all of that, committee member Bronwyn has returned with another great article, this time looking with a critical eye at some claims that have been made about the damage fireworks can cause.

I've just been reading my Summer 2012 edition of New Zealand Skeptic, but I think there is a piece missing from my version.