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Articles tagged with "rod"

Recharging Disposable Batteries

It was a relatively well known practice in WW2 (and possibly before) that if your torch/flashlight battery was getting a little flat, a few quick touches to a vehicle battery would restore a fair bit of charge. This information became more public knowledge in the UK, post WW2 when times were tough, and a number of articles were published on it. I cannot now find any, but the earliest article I have read was a 1953 one in "Wireless World" by R W Hallows with some designs and an analysis of these simple methods.

NZ Skeptics investigate Dowsing!

NZ Skeptics investigate Dowsing!

In early January 2019, NZ Skeptics were alerted by an eagle-eyed supporter in Wellington to the almost unbelievable sight of a city-infrastructure employee apparently dowsing for water pipes on Willis Street! The employee was clearly wearing a 'Downer NZ' hi-vis jacket. Downer is an infrastructure company contracted by Wellington Water, the arm of the Wellington City Council which is responsible for maintaining the city's water system as a whole. Initially, we contacted the Wellington City Council, and were told they knew nothing about the dowsing. Our phone number was passed onto Downer, who contacted us, and seemed pleased to field enquiries which appeared to be other than complaints about noise. Downer eventually confirmed that the person really was an employee, and that they were indeed 'dowsing' for water pipes!

Ark Man

Ark Man

On Wednesday a group of us skeptics visited the Ark Man, Rod Walsh, who has been over in New Zealand from Australia on tour. Rod's schtick is that god told him in the '90s to build a scale model of Noah's Ark from Genesis. Apparently the day after he was told this by god, he turned on the radio and two people were having a conversation about the ark - which proved to him that god's voice had been real. Rod has now built 6 scale replicas of Noah's Ark over the last 20 years, and has been touring the world with his scale models since the '90s.