Tag: reader

When I wrote my article about the MENZ website a couple of weeks ago, I briefly mentioned John Potter, the site's admin, and his connection to the Centrepoint commune/cult as the son of guru Bert Potter. I provided a couple of links to further information, and mentioned that readers should look into Centrepoint if they weren't already familiar with the details of just how bad things became. Journalist and DeCult conference founder Anke Richter messaged me and suggested that readers might want to read her interview of John Potter, the “absent father” of the MENZ website, that came out in North & South magazine in 2021. It's a fascinating read, and gives some useful background that may help to explain why John runs a men's advocacy website full of misinformation and woman-hating rhetoric.

Last week we received a request from the editor of the Katikati Advertiser asking for our response to a story that was being written about a psychic:

A few weeks back I published an item that reviewed the book A Manual for Creating Atheists, by Peter Boghossian.

If you're a regular reader of our weekly newsletter you'll know by now that we're running a conference in conjunction with the Australian Skeptics. Because of COVID-19 restrictions we made the decision to run it entirely online.

Debunked! by G Charpak & H Broch, translator BK Holland. Johns Hopkins University Press, Reviewed by Bernard Howard.

Mind the Gap! The book title is intended to remind all who have waited on curved London Underground railway platforms of the risk a careless step poses. The risks Dr Trask warns of are those which can label the writer as illiterate, ignorant of the nuances of English usage, or at least possessed of cloth ears. In offering this review to New Zealand Skeptic I do not imply that readers are particularly in need of the author's advice; rather, his comments have a distinctly skeptical slant, which should be music to skeptical ears (see entry: cliches). Consider the following entries in his alphabetical list.

The other night, after a particularly fine feed of nachos, my friend pulled out her numerology book and proceeded to do my chart. I'd done some things wrong in a past life, and there were a number of lessons I hadn't picked up on -- but generally I was happy to learn my soul was a fairly evolved one.

Readers familiar with Stephen Fry only for his TV comic appearances (A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, Blackadder) may be surprised to meet him as author of a novel, and even more surprised that such a novel should be reviewed in New Zealand Skeptic. Squash your doubts -- this book is full of paranormal mysteries to delight the skeptical reader.

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.

The Treasurer reminds readers that members' subscriptions to NZCSICOP for 1988 are now due. If you receive a renewal notice, please don't put it where it might be forgotten, but deal with it promptly. Your subscriptions are NZCSICOP's blood.