Articles tagged with "card"

Angel Numbers are patterns you may notice when looking at the numbers around you - maybe the digital readout on your oven's clock, a number plate of a car on your street, or the total of your dinner bill at your local Indian restaurant. These special numbers are supposed to be sent by your angels to guide you in life. Most of the number patterns you're meant to look out for are pretty simple - either the same number repeating, like 2:22 or $88.88, or a simple run of numbers, such as RKH123. The numbers are meant to have significance, letting you know about your life, in a kind of fortune telling way.

A few weeks ago I was up in Auckland for the NZ Association of Rationalists and Humanists' AGM, and as soon as I walked into their building, Rationalist House on Symonds Street, I noticed that something was different. The picture of Ernst Haeckel hanging on the wall in front of me, as I walked into the main room on the ground floor, had a new info card that had been added to it, declaring the image part of a series on “Dead Old White Men”.

At the beginning of April I received a friend request from none other than Jason Momoa, star of the Aquaman movies, the Conan the Barbarian remake, and Jacques Villeneuve's recent version of Dune. Of course, this wasn't the real Jason Momoa - just another Facebook scam, something that's becoming more prevalent as Meta appears to have given up on even their half-hearted attempts to combat fraud on their platform.

This is the second part of an article detailing an online scam, which started when I accidentally accepted a friend request from a cloned Facebook account. This led to me talking to a second Facebook account named “Agent Patrick Smith”, and being offered up to $100,000 by Publisher's Clearing House in the US. At the end of part one, I showed off my 9 year old daughter's amazing forgery skills when I asked her to recreate my driver's licence so that I could send it to the scammers as proof of my identity:

It's been a while since I've written about the former president of the US, Donald J Trump, but he's recently announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential elections, likely in an attempt to shield himself from potential legal consequences of investigations into his involvement with the January 6th insurrection, and the Mar-a-Lago classified and top-secret documents case (and likely many other crimes).

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Upper Hutt “Mind, Body, Spirit” Fair with Bronwyn, as well as Skeptics in the Pub regulars Alexander and Tim. We were there to gawk at the weird and wonderful stalls, and all that they offered.

For those readers who are members of NZ Skeptics (as off 1st April 2021 - that was our cut-off date), you will have, by now, (hopefully) received your Skeptic Card in the mail, along with a couple of stickers.

The website of an organisation called the Maori Ranger Security Division is currently selling ID cards that they claim can help you avoid being arrested by police, protect you from Child Services, make you exempt from fisheries quotas, and may even let you travel without a passport - and all for the low, low price of $50.

If you're a regular reader of our newsletter, you'll know that we're publicising annual membership of NZ Skeptics, which is extremely attractively priced being only $40, or $20 if you're unwaged.

For those of you who like the work we do enough that you want to support us financially, it's that time of the year when membership subscriptions are due. Membership is only $40, or $20 if you're unwaged, and the money we receive will be spent on worthy causes, allowing us to help make New Zealand a more skeptical place.

NZ Skeptics membership runs on a calendar year basis and we're about to switch to a new system for collecting subs. If you're enjoying these newsletters and you're not a member, we encourage you to join us - it's a very reasonable $40/year for individuals and only $20/year if you're unwaged.

At the 2019 NZ Skeptics conference I had the pleasure of meeting a student of Applied Mathematics and Statistics and SGU fan, Melissa Bather. I was impressed by her fan art of the SGU which she presented to them at the Gala Dinner. Luckily, we were dining at the same table in the Great hall, (along with two speakers – Jacinta Cording and Cara Santa Maria!) and Melissa and I got to talking.

Matthew Willey finds it difficult to get into the spirit of the holiday season.

The widespread use of what are basically dowsing rods to detect bombs in Iraq and other trouble spots is a striking example of how a lack of critical thinking can lead to all manner of death and mayhem.

An anonymous contributor to the website, http://mostembarrassingmoment.com, shares her experiences as a professional tarot card reader.

Tarot readings really do work -- for the reader.

New York may be the slickest and sharpest of cities, but its smartest citizens are turning to tarot cards, psychics and inter-species communicators to solve their problems. Shirley Lowe has tuned in.

Enlightenment or deception? Illusion or delusion? HOWARD WARNER paid $25 for 30 minutes to find out.