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New Zealand Number 114 Summer 2014 Skeptic New Zealand Number 114 Summer 2014 Skeptic Mathematics and Pseudoscience A mathematician’s experiences with mathematical cranks The TPP and its Impact on the NZ Health Sector ACC and Acupuncture Mark Hanna investigates skeptics.nz New Zealand Skeptics CONTENTS ABOUT US 3 Editorial The New Zealand Skeptics form a network of New Zealanders including 4 Newsfront scientists, health professionals, teachers, magicians and many others from all walks of life. Members have 6 Letters a variety of religious faiths, economic beliefs and political leanings, but are all 7 Mathematics and Pseudoscience interested in examining what objective Steven Galbraith writes about his experiences scientific support there is for claims with mathematical cranks of such things as psychic abilities, alternative health practices, creationism and other areas where science, pseudo- 12 The Trans-Pacific Partnership and science and shonky science interact. its Impact on the NZ Health Sector 14 A tribute to Warwick Don CONTRIBUTIONS Contributions are welcome and should be 15 BioBlog by Alison Campbell sent to: P.O. Box 30501 17 Science-Based Healthcare Lower Hutt Mark Hanna investigates the ACC and 5040 acupuncture email: [email protected] Deadline for next issue: 21 Complaining Cheat Sheet 10 April 2015 23 Science-Based Medicine Letters for the Forum may be edited Steven Novella talks about the latest bogeyman as space requires – up to 250 words is preferred. 26 Infectious Thoughts by Siouxsie Wiles Please indicate the publication and date of all clippings for Newsfront. 27 The Humanist Material supplied by email or CD is 28 The Loose Change Range appreciated. Luke Oldfield discusses the art of engaging with a ‘Non-Opinion’ Permission is given to other non-profit skeptical organisations to reprint material from this publication, provided the author 30 Skeptacular! by Mark Maultby and NZ Skeptic Inc. are acknowledged. Opinions expressed in the NZ Skeptic are NZ Skeptics Committee those of individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of NZ CHAIR Mark Honeychurch Barry Lennox SECRETARY Craig Shearer Keith Garratt Skeptic Inc. or its officers. TREASURER Matt Beavan Matthew Dee MEDIA Vicki Hyde, Michael Edmonds Steven Galbraith All references and citations for this issue can OUTREACH Lisa Taylor Brad MacClure be found at skeptics.nz/journal/114 TECHNOLOGY Daniel Ryan David Riddell Robert Woolf Committee members can be emailed by clicking on their name. 2 | NZ SKEPTIC From the Editor Christine Jaurigueis the editor of NZ Skeptic. She is a teacher in Wellington and the current news team editor for Atheist Alliance International. Email her at [email protected] Where have all the skeptics gone? found out what a skeptic is when I was living in didn’t take long for me to start feeling like I was… I London. My husband Mark listened to a weekly well, weird. podcast called The Skeptics’ Guide To The Universe hosted by a bunch of brothers and their friends. And then something happened. I was listening to After Mark finally persuaded me to arrive at the the SGU podcast and they mentioned that they 21st century and purchase myself an iPod, the first were coming to New Zealand for the NZ Skeptics thing he did was subscribe me to the podcast. Conference. Say what?! Click, click, click, tickets When I listened to my first SGU show, I purchased, flight to Auckland booked. discovered that there was actually a word for Knowing about Steven Novella’s love for birds, someone who, when they sit there listening to Mark sent the SGU an email asking them if they a colleague or acquaintance talking about their wanted us to take them around Zealandia in horoscope, can only reply with “Really?! That’s Wellington. To our great surprise, they said yes. very interesting. Not.” So the week before the Auckland conference, Now here was a podcast, hosted by people Mark and I were taking Steven, Bob, Jay, Evan who were saving the world from evil one crank and their families around Zealandia. There I also at a time, and people actually listened to them. It met Mark Honeychurch and Matt Beavan, and we was one of those lightbulb moments for me. That got talking about the NZ Skeptics and where it podcast opened the door to an entire world of was and where it was headed. My passion for the people who thought like me and were passionate skeptical movement was reignited. about the same stuff as me. The NZ Skeptics Conference in Auckland a week London was a great place to become a skeptic. later was fantastic. Not only was it because the There was always something going on. I went to SGU were there and I got to totally geek out The Amaz!ng Meeting in 2010, and a comedy gala with them, but also because it drove home to me hosted by the irrepressibly-atheist Robin Ince. that, yes, New Zealand may be small, but there Everyone knew who I was talking about when I is very much a skeptical presence that I didn’t mentioned Darwin, Dawkins, Cox, Hitchens and know about. The likes of Mark Hanna with his Gervais. A lot of the people I met were skeptics constant campaigning, Toby Ricketts and his film themselves or atheists, or just loved science and on tax and religion, and Michelle Dickinson as the geeky things. inspiring Nanogirl, makes me hopeful that there are New Zealanders out there who are fighting When I came back to New Zealand in 2011, the good fight. Not to mention the NZ Skeptics things changed somewhat. I found that it suddenly Committee and all the grassroots skeptical clubs wasn’t very easy to be a skeptic. Although I love out there that tirelessly work together to bring New Zealand with its easy-living pace, its beautiful important issues to the forefront. environment and friendly people, it isn’t exactly the centre of the skeptical movement. I was slightly So if you’ve picked up this magazine off someone’s bemused to find myself plonked in the middle of a coffee table, and you’re looking for someone to talk town where practically everyone I knew belonged to who thinks that, you know what? – actually, to a Christian church, and the highlight of their vaccinations are important, and acupuncture is evening TV viewing was not Cosmos, but Shortland ridiculous, and science is real, come join the NZ Street. Skeptics. Go along to your local Skeptics in the Although this lack of commonality never Pub. Help us grow. Change the world for the stopped me from voicing my opinions when it better (or even just New Zealand). q came to climate change, vaccination or religion, it skeptics.nz| 3 Newsfront Read something of interest? Share it with us. Email [email protected] (Please indicate the publication and date of all clippings) US AIRFORCE CONFIRM AUCKLAND UFO WAS TEACHER CENSURED AND DEREGISTERED AFTER JUST A CLOUD FAILED PONZI SCHEME NZ Herald, 22 Jan 2015 | Recently released NZ Herald, 20 Jan 2015 | A teacher who was jailed United States Air Force files have confirmed that after losing about $1.5 million of investors’ money a suspected UFO photographed in the skies above in a failed Ponzi scheme has been censured and Auckland more than 60 years ago was actually just deregistered by the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal. a cloud. Rene Alan Chalmers was sentenced in Auckland The Project Blue Book files, which have recently District Court in January last year to serve four been made available online, related to USAF years and three months in prison after pleading investigations from 1947-1969. One of the images guilty to 14 charges of theft by a person in a shows a circular disc shape in the sky, which special relationship, dishonestly using a document, thecid.com UFO website reported as being above and making false statements to investors. Many of Auckland in mid-1951. This image was titled his clients were family, friends and colleagues. “Winter 1951”. In a recently released decision, the tribunal said The photographer believed it to be a flying saucer, Chalmers’ offending was “dishonesty at the highest but the USAF concluded that it was in fact a level”. lenticular cloud, the Daily Mail reported. “In our view, we would not be discharging our The lens-shaped formations were the result of responsibilities to the public and the profession moist air that had condensed at a high altitude. were we to allow this teacher to retain his The clouds were formed when the air temperature registration.” dropped and moisture droplets were pushed up a The offending was so serious, the tribunal said steep slope by high winds, the paper said. if Chalmers was to attempt to reregister in the Another famous image was of the Lubbock Lights, future, they would be surprised if the application which was reported in Texas in 1951, that were was treated “sympathetically”. likely to be plover birds, which had white breasts The Pukekohe teacher’s convictions stemmed from that reflected light from cities below. trading foreign currency and misleading banks The Project Blue Book investigated more than when buying three Bay of Plenty properties. 12,000 suspected UFO encounters. More than When obtaining loans for these he showed bank 700 cases remain unsolved, accounting for 5.5 per accounts from his company, Chalmers Cameron cent of the files. Investments, passing off the balance as his own money, not that of investors. He also made 519 false statements to 64 investors about his company in which its parlous financial position was not disclosed. During sentencing, prosecutor Dale La Hood said the operation was never viable and was a Ponzi scheme.
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