issn: 1172-062x new zealand skeptic · 2 new zealand skeptic winter 2001 number 60 contributions...

SKEPTIC

New Zealand Skeptic 1Winter 2001 Number 60

Winter 2001 – NUMBER 60

NEW ZEALANDISSN: 1172-062X

© Nintendo

W H O H A S t h e m o s tdangerous job in prime-

time TV and at the movies? Po-lice officers? Soldiers? Privatedetectives? None of the above,according to one survey of oc-cupational groups in entertain-ment – it’s scientists who aremad, bad and dangerous to know.

In a survey taken in 1987, broad-cast critic George Gerbner foundsome disturbing tendencies in ouron-screen scientists. At that time,ten per cent of scientists featuredin prime-time television enter-tainment got killed and five percent killed someone. Take horrorfilms, and scientists are secondonly to psychotics as the primarytroublemakers, and apparentlycause more problems than zom-bies, werewolves and mummiescombined.

I’m concerned with the image ofscientists here because they are

A Skeptic at the VideoShop

Is there anything on television worth watching? Maybe.

Vicki Hyde

usually the only ones who showany glimmer of critical thinking,however misguided.

For the last fifty years or so it hasbeen the role of the skeptic andthe scientist to act as the fall guys.They’re the ones who are too

busy scoffing to notice the were-wolf creeping up on them, the al-ien aiming a death ray, the dino-saur in the rear vision mirror. Andit’s their hubris which tends tocause disaster to befall their com-panions, if not imperil life onEarth itself.

CONTENTSEditorial........................................................................2

False claims thrive on Internet ....................................7

Book Reviews ............................................................8

First Fee Rise in NZCSICOP History?..........................9

Newsfront..................................................................10

Forum.........................................................................11

Legal Evidence.............................................................12

2001: Are Skeptics Oddities?.....................................13

Hokum Locum.............................................................14

Salting Away the Profits..............................................16

NZ Skeptics Online: http://skeptics.org.nz..................17

Beer and Skittles........................................................18

2 New Zealand Skeptic Winter 2001 Number 60

ContributionsContributions are welcome and should be sentto:

Annette Taylor122 Woodlands Rd

RD1, HamiltonEmail: [email protected]

Deadline for next issue: 10 October 2001

Letters for the Forum may be edited as spacerequires - up to 250 words is preferred. Pleaseindicate the publication and date of all clip-pings for the Newsfront.

Material supplied by email or IBM-compatibledisk is appreciated.

Permission is given to other non-profitskeptical organisations to reprint material fromthis publication provided the author and NZSkeptic are acknowledged.

Opinions expressed in the New Zealand Skeptic are those ofthe individual authors and do not necessarily represent theviews of NZSCICOP or its officers.

THE placebo effect has long been of interestto skeptics for its presumed role in alternative

medicine. The Skeptics’ Dictionary(www.skepdic.com) has a lengthy entry, describ-ing a placebo as an inert substance, or “fake”surgery or therapy, used as a control in an ex-periment or given to a patient for its probablebeneficial effect. It goes on to add the effect hasat least three components.

The first is psychological, due either to a realeffect caused by belief, or to a subjective delu-sion - “if I believe the pill will help, then it willhelp.” Alternatively, the effect may be largelyillusory - an illness or injury will often get betterby itself, whether it is treated or not.

As a third alternative, the process of treatment,involving attention, care, and affection may itselftrigger physical reactions in the body which pro-mote healing, regardless of the nature of the treatment.

The second alternative has received a boost froma study published in May in the New EnglandJournal of Medicine. Danish researchers AsbjornHrobjartsson and Peter C. Gotzsche performeda meta-study of 114 studies in which the experi-mental design included a genuine treatment, aplacebo, and no treatment at all. In these studies,they found a slight effect of placebos on subjec-tive outcomes, such as pain, reported by patients,but no significant effect on binary outcomes.Even the slightly positive subjective outcomeresult could be a reporting effect - patients wantto please the doctor, so say they feel slightly better.

Reaction to the report has been mixed. Someresearchers have said it confirms what they’d sus-pected all along, there is no placebo effect, it’san illusion due to the simple fact that people of-ten get better without treatment. Others arguethat the metanalysis used is inappropriate forsuch a disparate group of studies. But howeverit turns out in the end, the affair raises some in-teresting points. One is the origin of the oft-repeated claim that, on average, a placebo effectwill help 35% of patients. This has attained al-most the status of an urban legend, butHrobjartson eventually tracked its origin to a sin-gle 1955 paper in the Journal of the AmericanMedical Association. Its author, Boston

anaesthesiologist Henry Beecher, based his claimon a review of 12 studies, and, like other articlesread by Hrobjartsson, it did not distinguish be-tween the placebo effect and the natural courseof the disease.

It’s hard to accept there is nothing to the placeboeffect at all. There are reports of people devel-oping addictions to placebos, or demonstratingadverse side effects, and trials showing patientswith placebos do better than others simply lefton waiting lists. But it’s a complex, multi-fac-eted phenomenon. If we are going to assert thatan alternative health treatment is “just a placebo”,we need to be careful about what we mean bythat. Does it mean the patient is experiencing asubjective delusion, or genuine healing throughcare and support, or simply going through thenatural course of an illness? The Danish studywon’t be the last word on this subject, but it hasvery nicely focused an issue which has had somevery fuzzy edges.

Placebos All in Researchers’ Minds?

New Zealand Skeptic 3Winter 2001 Number 60

Part of the problem is thatskepticism can get in the way of a

good story. Who wants to hearabout an old house that isn’t

haunted? Or a dinosaur parkwhere they design decent con-

tainment systems?

The plotlines have followed thesame formula since the 1950s:

Take one scientist with an obses-sion.

Add some radiation, lightning,spare body parts or somesuch andyou’ve got a monstrous menac-ing creation.

Said creation escapes or goesout of control, often with theassistance, unwitting or oth-erwise of the deformed oraged assistant.

Enter the potential victims,usually children – or a youngcouple, if you need a loveinterest. They often try towarn people about the threat,setting up the skeptical unbe-liever for body snatching, disem-bowelment or demon possession.

But eventually these innocentssave the day, often with the as-sistance of the local police, mili-tary, villagers with burningtorches etc.

The Good Old Days

At least during the 50s, whenmad scientists were busy un-leashing all manner of Things,blobs, giant tarantulas, flying pi-ranhas, killer tomatoes and otherhorrors on the planet, there weresome good scientists who wereable to figure out ways of deal-ing with the critters.

These days scientists can’t evendo that. Instead they’re usuallypresented as either incompetentfall guys who have to be outwit-ted by benign laypeople, or evilamoralists willing to do anythingin the name of science.

I’m not sure whether I feel reas-sured or not by the latest take onFrankenstein. Speaking of his re-cent movie version, KennethBranagh said that he wanted

Victor Frankenstein to be seen,“not as a mad scientist but as adangerously sane one”.

But perhaps we’re being too pre-cious. After all, to paraphraseMichael Crichton, everyone getsshort shrift in the movies – poli-ticians are invariably corrupt,

businessmen are crooks, lawyersare unscrupulous. It’s part of tell-ing a story – you have to haveheroes and villains, and mostgeneral-release movies demandsimple plots and cardboard char-acterisation.

Part of the problem is thatskepticism can get in the way ofa good story. Who wants to hearabout an old house that isn’thaunted (see page 18)? Or a di-nosaur park where they designdecent containment systems?Where’s the entertainment inthat?

Yet all is not lost. There havebeen some wonderful momentsof film footage which could beconsidered dear to a skepticalheart.

Cold reading is an important skillfor any self-respecting psychic –using those valuable clues ofcontext, body language and thegeneral similarity of people to re-flect back to them their hopes andfears.

The classic “Wizard of Oz” hasa great example of this, and one

of my favourites as it doesn’t takea genius to figure out what’s go-ing on when Dorothy is runningaway from home and meets thefortune-telling professor. In casehis quick glance at her suitcaseis too subtle, he goes on to rifleher basket in a well-intentionedsearch for clues that he can turn

into a psychic reading whichwill turn Dorothy’s footstepshome.

A more sophisticated ver-sion can be seen in the funSteve Martin film “Leap ofFaith”. Here he plays JonasNightingale, the head of atravelling preacher show,complete with convoy, choirand all the razamatazz of the

circus.

It opens with him doing a coldreading on a cop who has stoppedhis convoy for speeding, pickingup on all sorts of clues to get outof a ticket. There’s nothing sub-tle about this – just before he getsoff the bus, where his crew arelaying bets on his ability, one ofthe newcomers asks plaintively“what’s a cold reading?”.

Nightingale goes on later to wowthe locals of a small town withhis miraculous abilities to knowtheir troubles, utilising old-fash-ioned eavesdropping and thetechnological support of a gooddatabase and radio communica-tions. It’s a great movie based inpart on the real-life cons run byUS preachers like Peter Popoff.

Human nature

Of course it seems to be a part ofhuman nature to want to believe,and that’s what these sorts ofpreachers, psychics and snake-oilsalesmen take advantage of. Dis-ney’s “Pete’s Dragon” has a greatdemonstration of where the de-sire to believe overpowers initial

Winter 2001 Number 60

skepticism, helped along with alittle show biz, as the goodpeople of Passamaquoddy areconvinced to forget their bad ex-periences in the past with two du-bious characters and sign up fortheir latest nostrums.

I can reveal that the snake oilsalesmen come to a bad end, al-beit a comic one (this is Disneyafter all).

Ironically, in looking for positiveimages of skepticism, the bulk ofthe ones I have come across havebeen in children’s programmes.

Scooby DooWhere Are You?

Many of us have grown up withthe derring-do of Scooby Doo,but I hadn’t thought hard aboutthe storylines in this long-runningcartoon series until a couple ofyears ago. The storyline is fairlyconstant – some kind of ghost orwerewolf or Bigfoot or other par-anormal phenomenon scares theScooby Doo team until at the lastit’s revealed to be a hoax.

I do wonder if they hadn’t a closetskeptic in the scriptwriting de-partment. Sadly, the thing whichjogged my memory of this was acri de coeur from a poor skeptic,Tim Madigan, who wailed thatthe most recent movie had soldout.

“No longer do the intrepid inves-tigators prove that the paranor-mal is all a ruse. In their latestincarnation, Daphne is now a TVreporter for an EntertainmentTonight-type show. She goes toNew Orleans to look into re-ported hauntings, bringing herold friends along. She and theother members are once again be-set by a ghost of a pirate, as wellas assorted zombies, werewolvesand vampires. But this time,when Fred and Velma presentpossible rational explanations forthe weird events, they are pooh-poohed by Daphne, who goes sofar as to tell Fred “you’re not askeptic, you’re in denial.”

As Tim goes on to say, “it’s allsuch a sad betrayal of the origi-nal show’s glorious skeptical tra-dition.”

Perhaps there’s hope in other car-toon shows – my kids are ad-dicted to the “Magic Schoolbus”series, which focuses on teach-ing science. I think they killedtwo birds with one stone in a re-cent show covering the conceptsof buoyancy and pressure, whilerevealing the media-inspiredhoax behind a would-be LochNess monster.

Another nice thing about theMagic Schoolbus is that each epi-sode ends with kids critically

questioning what’s shown – theMagic School bus can’t reallygrow fins and go under water –and the show producers explain-ing where they have taken liber-ties and why.

Larry Zimmerman, an anthropol-ogy lecturer at the University ofIowa, gets his students to thinkcritically about documentarieslike “In Search of Ancient Astro-nauts” and “The Mysterious Ori-gins of Man” to critically exam-ine how evidence is presentedand what techniques are used totry and make cult archaeologyand creationism credible.

Handy Questions

The questions are handy ones tobear in mind should you find yournearest and dearest riveted by thewisdom of that famous Old Tes-tament researcher CharltonHeston. Things like:

Why do you suppose that certainsites or evidence always seemsto show up in these videos?

What clues are there that someof the segments are used out ofcontext?

How is the choice of narratorused to boost the credibility of thevideo?

You don’t have to be a Stage Oneanthropology student to get

4 New Zealand Skeptic


something out of a discussionalong these lines. I’ve had simi-lar conversations with my eightand 6-year-old about things theysee on TV.

Of course, it does help to knowwhat they are viewing.

A popular phenomenon of recentyears has been Pokemon, some150 horribly over-commercial-ised little creatures brought toyour television screens courtesyof Japanese game companyNintendo.

For those of you who have hadto endure seeing your children orgrandchildren addicted to collect-ing Pokemon games, tradingcards, models, t-shirts and all theother paraphernalia of fandom, Ican now reveal that all has notnecessarily been in vain.

One of the premises of thePokemon world is that these cutewee things evolve. They adapt totheir environment, with the fit-test surviving and dominant traitscoming to the fore. It’s not strictlyDarwinian but there’s enoughevolution there to offend South-ern Baptists and Saudi Arabianmuftis alike, both of whom havecensured the programme for in-troducing the word “evolution”to 5-year-olds.

In this day and age things tend tomove very fast, so you might saythat Pokemon demonstrate an ac-celerated form of punctuatedequilibrium at anindividual level.That is, each in-d i v i d u a lP o k e m o nevolves into adifferent form.

One suchPokemon is called Abra. ThePokemon website notes thatthough it is psychic, it lacks any

useful abilities except for theability to teleport out of trouble.

Now bearing in mind that thisPokemon is called Abra, wouldanyone care to hazard a guesswhat the evolved form might be?Kadabra – right!

Again, according to the stiltedEnglish on the website, Kadabra“doesn’t have a powerful body,but relies on a strong mind towin. It can send out waves ofmental energy that cause head-aches at close range.”

In addition to a mental attack, thisPokemon sports a rather surpris-ing weapon. Not exactly an M16,but something no self-respectingpsychic Pokemon would be seenwithout, it appears….Yes, it car-ries a bent spoon…

When Kadabra evolves into yetanother higher life form, hisweaponry increases, and he be-comes known as Alakazam…

Now you mightn’t take this veryseriously, but Uri Geller has beenspitting tacks over this utensil-wielding creature and has filedsuit against Nintendo for $100million. Apparently when he vis-ited Japan he was mobbed bypeople wanting his autographon their Pokemon tradingcards. Of course, it

didn’t help that in Japan,Kadabra is known as UnGeller…

“Nintendo turned me into an evil,occult Pokemon character,”Geller complained. “Nintendostole my identity by using myname and my signature image ofa bent spoon.”

My heart bleeds…It was quite in-teresting seeing the response ofthe Pokemon fans to this news.Many of them had never heardof Geller – hardly surprising asthe bulk of fans are under 15, butthe chat rooms and news an-nouncements variously describedGeller as:

a “self-proclaimed psychic andmagician”,

an “internationally renowned conartist”

and an “all-around creepy guy”

One particularly perceptive andindignant young fan remarked “ifGeller really is psychic, howcome he didn’t know there was aPokemon based on him out al-ready before he saw the card?”

I sometimes wonder if our so-called innocent credulous chil-dren are actually the mostskeptical of us all, and that welose this as we get older. Maybethere’s something in the hor-

mones which con-fers an evolution-ary advantage togullibility.

In “Secrets of theSuper Psychics”,skeptical research-ers Dr RichardWiseman has agroup of adults

jumping out of their seats whenglowing objects start to move andfloat above a table in a darkséance room. What they can’t see(and we can, thanks to the rightfilm) is that these things are be-ing moved by the alleged psychic

© Nintendo

New Zealand Skeptic 5


and an assistant, cloaked by thedarkness.

Although programmes like “Se-crets of the Super Psychics” arefar outnumbered by the plethoraof “unsolved mysteries” efforts,I think that few people will for-get Richard Wiseman’s séanceset-up once seen, and they maywell be more critical if ever en-countering that particular scam inthe future.

At least I’d like to think that.

We’ve argued for many yearsback and forth about whethersomething as straightforward asviolence on television actually af-fects people. How are we to de-termine the far more tricky ques-tion of television’s role in pro-ducing a gullible society?

It may not come as a completesurprise that there appears to bea correlation between televisionviewing and levels of credulity.Those addicted to “Oprah”, “TheX Files”, reality television andother areas considered entertain-ing viewing are more likely thaninfrequent viewers to hold nega-tive views on science and posi-tive ones towards the paranormalor pseudoscience.

They’re more likely to believe inastrology and think it scientific;more likely to think science dan-gerous; more likely to considerscientists as odd and peculiar.

This is not a simple expressionof education levels, age, genderor any of the other factors likelyto influence attitudes, as the studywhich produced these findingstook those into account and stilldemonstrated that TV fans thinkscientists are mad, bad and dan-gerous to know.

Communications professorWilliam Evans has argued that

increasingly, film and televisionentertainment portrays science asuseless in solving problems. It isseen as a handicap to use reasonand to think skeptically.

Skepticism is all too-often usedas a synonym for closed-mindedness. Take Agent Scullyin “The X Files” – any self-re-specting skeptical scientist con-fronted with quite that much un-equivocal evidence for paranor-mal events would just have tostop and wonder. If I was her, I’dbe off to get James Randi’s one-million-dollar prize like a shot.

One could argue that there isn’tnecessarily a direct causal rela-tionship between what is shownon the screen and the poor imageof skepticism and of science, butI think it’s safe to say that televi-sion and film provide a welcom-ing environment for the paranor-mal and pseudo-science. It getsfar more sympathetic coverage,with little in the way of challenge,than that of science in general.

We had a psychic story in theChristchurch Press a few weeksago. A psychic in Ashburton hadmanaged to find not one, but twomissing dogs. The first, lost on afarm, was predicted to be foundsomewhere near water; the sec-ond, apparently lost on a hikingtrail, was divined as likely to befound near a tree. And you knowwhat? He was right! Astonishingstuff.

This was considered sufficientlynewsworthy to be given two col-umns and a photo in the Press;TVNZ went one better and senta film crew down to Ashburtonand then out to see me. All I cansay is it must have been a veryslow news day…see film at 10…

My thanks to Graham Hill and AlastairBrickell for their information, sugges-tions and videos.

Some Videos of Note

Leap of Faith

The Magic Schoolbus

Pete’s Dragon

Scooby Doo

Secrets of the Super Psychics

Wizard of Oz

Interesting Articles

Science and Reason in Filmand Television

William Evans, Skeptical In-quirer, Jan/Feb 1996

http://www.csicop.org/si/9601/media.html

Screening DNA Exploringthe Cinema-Genetics Inter-faceStephen Nottingham, 1999

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/h o m e p a g e s /S t e p h e n _ N o t t i n g h a m /DNAIntro.htm

The X-Files: Entertainment,Science and SkepticismFredric L. Rice

http://www.skeptictank.org/xfiles.htm

Lost Tribes, Sunken Conti-nents and Ancient Astro-nauts: “Cult” Archaeology &Creationism AnthropologySeminarLarry Zimmerman, University ofIowa

ht tp: / /www.uiowa.edu/~anthro/webcourse/lost/videos.html



HOW many times in the last month were you conned or

approached by a con? Maybe thiscon took the form of a weight lossproduct described in an ad in thenewspaper. Perhaps it was a too-good-to-be-true TV infomercialthat claimed to be backed by sci-ence. Or maybe it was a testimo-nial from a friend.

Even if you didn’t take the bait,it seems that the more often youhear or see something that isn’ttrue, the more likely you are tobelieve it eventually. This is es-pecially so when claims are par-tial truths couched in scientificjargon.

The Internet is loaded with thistype of misinformation. In just amatter of days, contemporary ur-ban legends and outright hoaxesare broadcast all over the world.

These legends are part of a typeof folklore that claims to be true.They may be harmless, contain-ing stories that describe humor-ous scenarios, but many reportterrifying happenings.

Many of these hoaxes are broad-cast over email among friendsand acquaintances. They fre-quently have a sinister or threat-ening side to them. You want topass on this information to thoseyou care about. Of course, thesethings always happened to some-one other than the concernedfriend passing it along.

Food is the topic of many hoaxes.Here are a few we’ve comeacross the last month:

“Costa Rica bananas have beeninfected with a flesh-eating

bacteria. The FDA has been re-luctant to issue a country-widewarning because of fear of anationwide panic.”

This is completely untrue as isindicated on the Center for Dis-ease Control Web site:w w w . c d c . g o v / n c i d o d /banana.htm.

“Aspartame is the cause of lupus,multiple sclerosis, memory loss,Desert Storm health problems,and obesity.”

These claims, said to have beenpresented at a Conference of theAmerican College of Physiciansare untrue. There are hundreds ofwebsites on this topic, making itnearly impossible to discern factfrom fiction. The most reliablesource we could find was ArnoldDias, a respected investigativereporter who actually contactedall of the claimed sources(www.abcnews.com).

“The Mayo Clinic has a weightreducing diet that has been for-mulated to alter your metabolismso that you literally burn fat. Youcan lose 20 pounds of fat in twoweeks.”

Untrue. The fact that there is noMayo Clinic Diet is indicated onthe Mayo Clinic Web site atwww.mayohealth.org/mayo/9806/htm/mayodiet.htm.

This legend has been around fordecades. The most common ver-sion is a very low calorie dietwhich contains lots of grapefruit,eggs, meat, fish, chicken, spin-ach, tomatoes, celery and carrots.You will lose weight quickly butmost of it is water and muscle,not fat.

Today, we encounter tremendousamounts of information. Becauseof the difficulty in discerning factfrom fiction among the info-overload, there is a strong humantendency to just believe whatsounds good.

The next time that you think you’renot being given the straight scoop ormaybe just want some entertainment,check outwww.urbanlegends.about.com, awebsite dedicated to clearing uphoaxes.

False Claims Thrive on InternetThe Misinformation Age has arrived at last

Existence of ESP confirmed

It’s often claimed either that sci-ence doesn’t have the tools toidentify ESP, or that scientistshave a prejudice against thewhole idea. But American re-searchers have recently con-firmed that certain individualsare indeed able to detect an en-ergy field given off by livingcreatures in the absence of anyother sensory cues. The onlything is, those individuals areyoung paddlefish.

This large, shark-like specieslives in the muddy waters of theMississippi, filtering planktonfrom the water with its gills.Young paddlefish use sensoryorgans on the sword-like “pad-dle” which extends in front of themouth to detect prey animals(mostly small crustaceans) indi-vidually by the electric fields theyproduce. Some marine sharks,and the duck-billed platypus,have similar abilities. Still nosign that Homo sapiens can workthis particular trick, however.

New Scientist, 7 April



C: Because Cowards get Cancer too, by John Dia-

mond, Random House, 1998.Reviewed by Bernard Howard.

So John Diamond is dead; at age47 killed by his tongue cancer.He may not be well known inNew Zealand, but was a popularnewspaper columnist and broad-caster in Britain. Soon after de-veloping cancer in 1997 he usedhis weekly columns in the Timesand the Daily Telegraph to reportthe course of his disease. Thisbook, written after he had en-dured some terrible experiences,appeared when he was still un-sure whether he was “cured”. Ofthe many books I have reviewed,this is the first to bring tears tomy eyes.

Of special interest to Skeptics isthat, to put it mildly, he was criti-cal of “alternative” therapies.“....where I stand on alternativemedicine is roughly where thePope stands on getting drunk onthe communion wine and pullinga couple of nuns.” Because ofhis public position, his candouron this brought in many lettersof advice and abuse. He was par-ticularly enraged by those whichtold him to take “a positive atti-tude”, or to “take control of hisillness”.

The trouble started with a lump.No need to worry, said the doc-tors, you have a 92% chance it’sharmless. Unfortunately, Dia-mond was of the other 8%. Thelump became a tumour; no needto worry, said the doctors again,radiotherapy will give you an x%chance of a cure. Again unfor-tunately, Diamond was of the(100-x)%. And so, to the sur-gery, described in almost unbear-able detail. Because of the effectof the surgery on his speech andability to swallow, this man, whopreviously had spent much of hisworking day in a broadcastingstudio or on the telephone, wasreduced, in his words, to “a honk-ing, dribbling fool”. A dreadfulfate.

Despite the fact that conventionalmedicine did not, in the long run,save him, Diamond never ac-cepted that alternative treatmentswould serve him better. Althoughhe earlier admitted that, in ex-tremis, he might visit “that wellof alternative solace”, there is nosign that he ever wavered in hisopposition to those he called“scatterers of pixie dust”.

Diamond’s writing is full ofinsights expressed with wit.What text-book could explain for

the general reader the differencebetween cancer cells and normalcells as pithily as this:- “A can-cer cell is the one that nevergrows up....[it] bears all the nas-tier traits of reckless youth...[amember] of some wacky reli-gious cult obsessed with immor-tality.” And metastasis: “..spreading the good word roundthe body...to share the secret ofeternal cellular life with othercells.” These apparently light-hearted words were written bythe “honking, dribbling fool”.

He disliked the warlike meta-phors used in discussing disease;“battle” and “brave” he avoidedin his writing, claiming that thisstigmatised those who suc-cumbed to the disease as cowardsor losers.

The Canterbury Public Libraryhas five copies of this book, andI have had to join a longish queueof borrowers. It is gratifying thatthe author’s views and experi-ences are being widely read; Ihope readers are as impressed asI, and accept the message. Nodoubt some of us who hold “al-ternative medicine” in derisionwill also die of cancer. Let uslook to John Diamond as our in-spiration when courage andsteadfastness may falter.

TELLING LIES FORFATHER MOON

With acknowledgement to Ian Plimer

Icons of Evolution: Science orMyth? Why Much of What WeTeach About Evolution isWrong, by Jonathan Wells.

This is an important book. Lookout for it, for example, in places

where young minds could be in-fluenced, such as high school li-braries, or other places wherecreationists might care to spendUS$27.95. The text may be un-remarkable, the usual misquota-tions, selective omission, distor-tions, etc. The important thingis the credentials of the author;surely the holder of a doctoratein biology from one of the USA’s

finest universities cannot bewrong?

However, there is more to DrWells than his biography in thebook tells. Thanks to some as-tute websearching on the part ofthe biologist who reviewed it forNature, we are now aware of thefollowing:

Book Reviews



1. Wells has been a member ofthe Unification Church (theMoonies) for upward of 25 years.

2. He was chosen by the founderof the church, Sun Myung Moon,to study for a Ph.D., in prepara-tion for his life’s work, destroy-ing Darwinism.

3. He appears to have gonethrough the entire post-graduateprogramme of course work anda substantial research projectwithout his teachers or supervi-sor knowing of his beliefs and in-tentions.

Distasteful though it may seem,it could be possible for a studentto go through an undergraduatecourse, passing examinations onexisting knowledge without ac-cepting its validity. The situationis greatly different when tacklinga research project for a post-graduate qualification. Those ofus who have been through thisacademic mill know the dedica-tion required, not only of time,

but of the mind, to the search fornew knowledge. I find it hard tocredit that one could do researchin developmental biology, asWells did, while believing thatgrowth of a life is somethingquite different.

But perhaps one should not besurprised. With the example ofAustralian geologist Dr AndrewSnelling before us, who believesthe Earth is billions of years oldwhen writing for geological jour-nals, but only a few thousandwhen concocting creationist lit-erature, the capacity ofcreationists for deception or self-deception seems limitless.

In preparing this note, I am indebted toDr J. Coyne, University of Chicago, forhis excellent review in Nature, and forsubsequent correspondence.

Bernard Howard

First Fee Rise inNZCSICOP History?

In 15 years of operation, we’vekept the NZCSICOP member-ship fees at the same level.However costs have risen since1987 (you can’t be skepticalabout that!) and that and ournew Web initiative means thatthe committee will be recom-mending the AGM accepts amodest subscription increasefor 2002.

The standard individual mem-bership for 2002 is proposed tobe $35, with the unwaged/re-tired membership at $20. Webelieve that this is still very rea-sonable, and hope that you willall continue your support forthe society.



NEWSFRONTDavid Riddell

If I Could Talk to the DeadAnimals

PET psychic Carol Schultz ofChicago has been gaining a

lot of international attention,with identical reports featured inJune editions of the Cairns Postand Evening Post. JournalistMarilynn Marchione seems tohave written the piece with eye-brows permanently raised, asSchultz talks of her ability tospeak with dogs, cats and horses,even if they’re dead. She evenreads cats’ paws! Yes, it’s true!

The article goes on to tell of a dogtrapped in a cat’s body – it didn’thelp that he was named Duke.Schultz also helps people get intouch with their departed lovedones – one woman who had hadtwo dogs die recently wanted toknow why they needed to leaveher.

Consultations cost $35 for anemail consultation, $50 byphone, or $75 plus travel for apersonal visit. That’s US dollars.

Evening Post, 16 June, Cairns Post, 5June

Seagull healed

Not to be outdone by the Ameri-cans, New Zealand also has itsresident pet psychics. Paul andVictoria Woodward of UpperMoutere charge only $15 a ses-sion to lay hands on an animaland unblock its energy channels,which is a lot more reasonable.Victoria Woodward says animalsseem to know the healing couldhelp them.

“I’ve even treated a seagull, Ididn’t touch him, but he got closeenough for the treatment to workand simply flew off when he’dhad enough.”

How she knew the bird was ill(or male), or had been healed, shedidn’t say.

Nelson Mail, 8 May

Open wide, please

The British Dental Journal re-ports that an acupuncture needle,inserted into an anti-gaggingpoint on the ear is just the thingto overcome fear-induced nauseaduring a visit to the dentist. Somepatients are so apprehensive, ac-cording to Dr Janice Fiske of theGuy’s, King’s and St Thomas’Dental Institute, they develop agagging reflex, which causestheir jaws to clench. The needleswere tried on 10 subjects, and itworked every time. Without theneedles, six could only bear toopen their mouths after sedation.Now if they could just come upwith something to deal with afear of needles...

Evening Post, 14 June

Aromatherapy all in the mind

The placebo effect (see page 2)was in the news again with a re-port on a team of German andAustrian scientists, who foundthat oils used in aromatherapyimprove mental ability – but onlyif you believe they do. The team,led by Josef Ilmberger of theLudwig-Maximilians University,Munich, sprinkled water ontosurgical masks worn by volun-teers, then tested their reaction

times. Essential oils used to pro-mote alertness, such as pepper-mint, jasmine and ylang-ylang,were then sprayed on the masksof some of the volunteers, whileothers had water, and reactiontimes were again tested. No dif-ference was found in reactions insubjects treated with oil or wa-ter, suggesting the oils do nothave a direct influence on thebrain when inhaled. However,when asked to rate how stimu-lating, strong or pleasant theyfound each liquid, those subjectswho gave high ratings showedsmall improvements in their re-action times. Ilmberger con-cluded the effects of essential oilson basic forms of attentional be-haviour were mainly psychologi-cal.

Dominion, Evening Post, 20 April

Exorcism goes awry

One of the grislier news items ofrecent times concerned the deathof 37-year-old Joanna Lee inDecember. Pastor Luke Lee wascommitted to trial for Ms Lee’smanslaughter in June after alleg-edly strangling her during an ex-orcism. Neighbours heardscreams and chanting prayersfrom the Auckland house, butdidn’t think anything of it, assuch noises were common. Sixdays after the exorcism, policefound Ms Lee’s fly-blown body,still lying in bed while membersof Pastor Lee’s Lord of Allchurch prayed over her, occasion-ally wiping her body with alco-hol to keep the smell at bay. Leetold police she had been sick andwas sleeping.


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2001 Skeptics ConferenceRegistration Form

Name/s (for nametag):_______________________________________________Postal Address: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Tel:___________________ Email:______________________________________

I’d like my receipt mailed as confirmation of enrolment OR I’m happy to collect my receipt on the day (pick one)Conference Fee (Full / unwaged) _____ @ $50/25 = ________(Single-day registrations ($20) are available from the registration desk on the day- Fri 7:00 pm, Sat 8:00 am, Sun 8:00 am)

Conference Dinner (Sat September 22nd) _____ @ $25.00 = ________

LunchSat September 22nd _____ @ $10.00 = ________

Vegetarian food or other (state):______________________________Please book meals by September 5th!

AccommodationWaikato Diocesan School for Girls, 660 River Road, HamiltonPlease book by September 5thFriday night/Saturday breakfast _______@ $18 dormitory bunkroom = _____________ _______@ $28 twin share = _____________ _______@ $35 single room = _____________Saturday night/Sunday breakfast _______@ $18 dormitory bunkroom = _____________ _______@ $28 twin share = _____________ _______@ $35 single room = _____________ GRAND TOTAL:_____________

Cheques are payable to “NZ Skeptics”.Print this form and mail to:NZ Skeptics Conference,

c/- Martin Wallace,9A Sandwich Rd,

St Andrews,Hamilton

with your fee.

For late registrations, e-mail: Martin Wallace - [email protected] Skeptics Website: http://www.skeptics.org.nz

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“We are innocent. God knows.If we pray, Joanna will comeback. God knows,” Lee said.

Church members said in writtenstatements that Lee regularly per-formed exorcisms on them, onenoting that for a small man heused a lot of force. Most of his30-strong congregation was gath-ered from Queen St on Fridaynights, though many who did joinquickly became disturbed byLee’s aggressive behaviour andleft again. Joanna Lee, who hadarrived from Korea six weekspreviously, was described bychurch members as “a verysmiley person”.

AdvertisementWeather Forecasting

by the Moon

An evening talk by Ken Ring

Sunday 19 August, 7pmRationalist House64 Symonds StAuckland

Dominion, 12 June

“Yeti” hair passes genetic test

British scientists on the trail ofthe yeti have found some of thebest evidence yet of the existenceof the mythical Himalayan crea-ture - a sample of hair that hasproved impossible to identify.

The hair was gathered from a treein eastern Bhutan, and matchesno known animal, raising thestrong possibility that it was froman unknown species.

An “official yeti hunter” led theexpedition, working on the docu-mentary series To the Ends of theEarth, to an area where he wasconvinced an animal was at large,

and collected the hair from a hol-low in a cedar tree.

Bryan Sykes, professor of humangenetics at the Oxford Instituteof Molecular Medicine said thehair wasn’t human or bear, oranything else they’d been able toidentify.

“It’s a mystery and I neverthought this would end in a mys-tery. We have never encounteredDNA that we couldn’t recognisebefore.”

Of course, it may not have comefrom a large hairy primate. Won-der if they compared it withFiordland moose hair?

Dominion, 3 April

FORUM

More Brocken sightings

I enjoyed Jim Ring’s “the Spec-tre of Kahurangi” (Autumn2001). In Kahurangi NationalPark there is a bridge called“Brocken Bridge”, quite close toGhost Creek. Could this be anindication of supernatural forcesemanating from this enchantingregion?As a NZFS park ranger there fortwo years, I discovered a moreprosaic explanation, at least forthe bridge. It seems that some-one stampeded a herd of cattle onto the old bridge during a flood,and the cattle – and bridge – werelost in the floodwaters. The namethen became “Broken Bridge”.We Forest Service staff were notrenowned for our literary skills,and various track junctionsstarted sprouting signs saying“Brocken Bridge”.Rather disappointing, really.

Piers Maclaren

Homoeopathy test?

As a result of an accident on StateHighway One recently a quantityof rat poison was tipped into thesea near Kaikoura. At first sightthis seemed to me to be MotherNature setting up a large-scaletest of homoeopathy. My reason-ing was as follows: we have apoison diluted with an enormousvolume of water (tides are strongand the sea very deep off theKaikoura coast), and we havesuccussion (see the surf breakingover the rocks). The rat poison,brodifacoum, like the betterknown warfarin, is an anti-coagu-lant, causing death by extensivebleeding. So, by homoeopathicprinciples, a very high dilutionshould have the opposite effect,causing strokes and heart failureamong the seals, dolphins andwhales, brought on by clottabilityof their blood.I could see that measuring thiseffect could be difficult, but I per-sisted with my calculations.

Sadly, I abandoned the project,chiefly because the concentrationof rat poison in the sea turned outto be far too high. The amount ofmaterial dumped in the sea, 18tonnes, was quite large, and evenallowing for only a low propor-tion of active ingredient in thebait, and assuming it to have beeninstantly and uniformly dispersedin deep water of some thousandsof square kilometres in area, thefinal concentration was in the or-der of one molecule of poison inten litres of sea. This is, of course,far too high for homoeopathic

Forum Continued on page 12



work, where concentrations ofone molecule in a volume equalto that of the Earth are normal.Regretfully, I shall not be issu-ing an invitation to marine mam-mals to volunteer for a study ofthe after-effects of this accident.

Bernard Howard

FORUM

OUR knowledge of the world is never certain, so what

should count as evidence that aclaim is true? For many peopletrained in science the legal sys-tem contains some very strangeanomalies. Material can be ac-cepted as evidence in court eventhough it would be given noweight at all in a scientific con-text.

People are sometimes impris-oned because juries are preparedto accept the unsupported wordof witnesses. David Doughertywas in jail three years for rapinga young neighbour. She said hehad done so. No other evidencepointed to a conviction; tests onDNA were inconclusive. Later,better tests indicated that the girlhad had sex with a man other thanDougherty.

Peter Ellis (the Christchurchcrèche case) was jailed becausesome small children told thecourt he had done dreadfulthings. The same children toldquestioners that some womenhad done dreadful things, butthey were not believed. They alsotold stories about Ellis that couldnot possibly be true and thesewere edited out of the story putto the jury.

In science experiments a controlis a most important feature. Un-fortunately controls are generallyruled inadmissible by judges. Inthe Ellis case there was an excel-lent control for the children’scredibility. How reliable were thechildren’s stories about thewomen, and how reliable were

their stories about Satanism andblack magic?

Eyewitness accounts are givengreat weight in our justice sys-tem; yet in the US it has been es-timated that mistaken eyewitnessevidence is responsible for about80 per cent of the wrongful con-victions that occur. The trial ofScott Watson (MarlboroughSounds New Year murders) wasunusual in that eyewitness evi-dence was treated in a differentmanner. The prosecution heldthat part of the evidence of oneof their own witnesses was in er-ror. He had a distinct memory ofa two-masted yacht; the prosecu-tion argued that he must haveseen one with a single mast. Infuture will eyewitness evidencebe treated as less conclusive?

In New Zealand a cell-mate canclaim to have received a confes-sion of guilt from a person await-ing trial. That such an anecdotecan be accepted as evidence incourt would be beyond belief –except it happens!

It was reported last year in theUK that a judge instructed a jurynot to bother about statistics andjust to use their common sense(let us hope this report was inac-curate). But common sense is nota reliable guide in complex mat-ters. Science and statistics oftenproduce results that are quitecounter-intuitive.

A conviction is only supposed totake place when evidence is be-yond all reasonable doubt. InNew Zealand people are some-times convicted in spite of rea-sonable doubt.

Legal EvidenceJim Ring

Skepticism is very much concerned with assessing the quality ofevidence in support of a particular claim. But evidence means

different things to different people. In the first of a two-part series,Jim Ring examines the legal profession’s view of the matter.

Continued from page 11

Sensitive Issues

In the last issue of the Skeptic(Autumn 2001), I quoted the re-action of the Commissioner forChildren, Roger McClay, to thenews of Liam Williams-Holloway’s death:

“Whether a different course ofaction would have been better,there’s not much point in worry-ing about it now.”

That response troubled me as itseemed so out of character, so Irang the office and asked MrMcClay about it. It seems thatnews of Liam’s death was sprungon Mr McClay while he was at aconference and he was asked tocomment on the spot. The newsupset him but he didn’t think itappropriate to take the family totask at that time, and this was theresult.

The question now is, having hadtime to think about the implica-tions of the whole saga, what willthe office’s/commissioner’s re-sponse be next time?

We’ll get a chance to find out atthis year’s conference when anadvocate from the Office will bespeaking, so come to Hamiltonwith your own questions!

Vicki Hyde



2001: Are Skeptics Oddities?

WE truly don’t know - but suggest you get yourself along to this year’s annual Skeptics’ Confer-ence and find out.

To be held in Hamilton, this year’s conference promises to be bigger, brighter and better thanever before! (Honest! Trust us.)

The conference committee have worked hard to bring together a great line-up of speakers andtopics, including:

When worlds collide – science meets commerceTreating Mr Ed – animals and the New AgeSai Baba – when gurus go badInformed Consent – dangerous doctors and desperate parents... but wait, there’s more.

The ever-popular Bent Spoon and Bravo Awards (nominations are still open) and Saturday nightconference dinner will be followed by Who wants to be a millionaire skeptic? A quiz designed totruly sort out the skeptics from the sheep. Put together a team of four, and fame and fortune couldbe yours (well, a small amount of fame anyway).

Venue: Waikato Diocesan School for Girls - the school lies just 3km from the centre of Hamilton,along the banks of the Waikato river. The boarding accommodation is in five individual houses,ranging from back-packer style to more up market. Set in seven hectares of attractive grounds withbeautiful old trees and gardens.

Timetable

Friday: Registration and social get-together

Saturday: Papers, conference dinner, quiz

Sunday: Papers, AGM

See enclosed sheet for more information, costs and registration form, [email protected] or check out the website at http://skeptics.org.nz

Register NOW! Right NOW! This very minute.

Chocolate fish for the first registration.

Rebirth of Quackery

G B Shaw once said that the onlydifference between animals andhumans was that humans liketaking pills. It’s clear thingshaven’t changed since his timewhen you visit a library and seethe number of books on how tobe healthy.

Many quack medicine producershave made their money here out

of our gullibles and have movedon. Bowel cleansers, hair restor-ers, nail hardeners, bust develop-ers and fat loss treatments toname a few.

As one example, Black strap mo-lasses’s only virtue was that dueto insoluble matter it acted as abowel irritant with laxative re-sults. Now if you have a lot ofmolasses left over from sugar re-

fining, use it to make rum orstock lick and get rid of the restas a good health supplement.

When deer lose their antlers inthe wild they recycle them, butwhen farmed the antler is a dan-gerous weapon so they are re-moved at the velvet stage. Nowbecause the Chinese have usedthem for medicine for thousands

Continued on page 15



HOKUM LOCUMJohn Welch

Re-birthing Finale

A COLORADO colour therapistwas jailed for 16 years after be-ing found guilty of causing thedeath of a 16 year old girl. Itmust have been quite traumaticfor the jury who watched avideotape of the session “inwhich the girl begged for air andscreamed that she was dying”.

What we need in New Zealandare equally tough laws that pro-tect children from acts of omis-sion, particularly where childrenare denied safe and effectivemedical treatment in favour ofludicrous quackery.

Dominion June 20th

Hokum Locum #59

Weight-loss scam

The diet business is worth a lotof money and the latest scam hasbeen to persuade people to partwith up to $300 for a three monthsupply of plasters containing aseaweed extract guaranteed to“lose between two and four kilo-grams a week”.

This degree of weight loss is notonly unsafe but extremely un-likely as there is no possiblemechanism for it.

I have been on a self-imposeddiet which involves modest re-striction of food intake and amodest increase in exercise andI have lost 7 Kg over a fourmonth period. This is within di-etitian’s guidelines that recom-

mend no more than 500g weightloss per week. It has been easyand not involved spending anymoney.

It appears that all I need is abeard, a website and a catchy ti-tle for my diet (suggestionsplease) and hordes of gullibleNew Zealanders will pay me vastsums of money. The secret is togive no guarantees and avoidbreaches of Consumer laws.

Dog-boy?

An enduring urban myth has beentales of children being raised byanimals. The latest such story bycredulous journalists appeared inthe Dominion 20 June 2001.

The 10 year old was alleged tohave lived in a cave with wilddogs and suckled from one of thefemales. However, a Policespokesperson put an appropriatespoke in this suggestion by stat-ing “we can’t tell whether he hadbeen suckled or not.”

This story will now enter popu-lar mythology along with all theother stories that have been re-peated since the days of Romulusand Remus, two Roman orphanswho were fed by flying pigs.

True lies

This is the title of an article ap-pearing in New Scientist 7 April2001. Experimental Psycholo-gists found that 30% of a groupof children recalled “uncomfort-

able touching” episodes whichhad not happened to them butwere mentioned in a story sce-nario. Their recall accuracy waseven worse when they wereasked questions that required ayes/no answer.

This was the problem in theChristchurch Civic Creche casewhere faulty interviewing tech-niques were used by people (thenew witchfinders) who had a par-ticular belief structure and lookedfor evidence to prove their loonytheories (aided by a loony com-plainant). In the process theyruined the lives of a group of chil-dren and their caregivers, andcontrived to send Peter Ellis toprison. The Judicial review waslaughable but carried out with thesame careful examination of evi-dence as would have been ac-corded a claim of alien abduc-tion.

The Australasian Journal ofIntegrative Medicine

I have forwarded my copy of Vol.1 No. 1 to the Editor. It couldbecome a valuable archival itemin our reference collection.

I am not going to botheranalyzing the content but onething that bothers me is the arrayof recognized training forpseudo-scientific rubbish. Vari-ous Medical Colleges award re-accreditation points for courseson homeopathy, acupuncture and



herbal medicine. It seems that aslong as a training process hasbeen set up it doesn’t matterabout the content. Skeptics havealready successfully attacked aproposal in NZ for a BSc inNaturopathy.

The overall method of practisingalternative medicine is to spendabout an hour with patients tak-ing a detailed history which in it-self is a form of psychotherapyand engenders a very powerfulplacebo effect. You then throwin a gimmick such as herbs, acu-puncture, or homeopathy to addthe “magic” which produces agrateful patient who “feels” bet-ter.

When skeptical investigators testall of these things by controllingfor the placebo effect, they findno change in objective measure-ments of health parameters.

More on Buteyko Breathingtechnique (BBT)

This is a belief that asthma canbe treated by deliberate shallowbreathing which raises carbondioxide levels in the lung. Therespiratory rate is closely con-trolled by CO2 levels. When youhold your breath, CO2 levels riseand eventually you are forced totake a breath. If you deliberatelyover-breathe then CO2 is “blownoff” and this causes people to feeldizzy and peculiar (hyperventila-tion).

Professor Buteyko believes thatthe fundamental cause of asthmais hyperventilation and hismethod is aimed at getting pa-tients to deliberatelyhypoventilate. Several studieshave been done and one wouldobviously expect to find raised

levels of CO2 in people practis-ing BBT. There was none.

Patients practising BBT felt bet-ter but there was no change intheir use of asthma medication.

BBT produces a classic placeboeffect which is what one wouldexpect since the cause of asthmais known to be inflammatorychanges in the airways of thelung.

Advertisements

I thought it would be interestingto review what’s on offer fromthe Sunday News on July 1st.

“Stop snoring or your moneyback”....not a good claim to makewhen it’s very hard to see how a“natural blend of enzymes andherbs” can possibly stop snoring.This preparation is marketed as“Dr Harris Snore Tablets”.Shouldn’t that be “anti-snore?”

Clive Clinics have been aroundfor decades and their itineranttrichologists are promising assist-ance through hair analysis which“can indicate vitamin, mineral ortoxic problems...” It is claimedthat “your parents are the reasonfor your baldness” but there maybe “treatments that block the ge-netic messages...”

The words and language in thisadvertisement illustrate how thepromoters incorporate scientificadvances into their sales pitch.The before and after photographsare great and I recommend read-ers check out the website<www.cliveclinics.com>

Dr Archer’s FATBUSTERS is agood example of the classicweight loss promotion. Using anew dietary supplement “morethan 25 000 Nz’ers have lostweight!” The pills “soak up fat from

food and stop fat being absorbedinto the body...Just eat your usualmeals”. This is an irresistible for-mula for the obese – an eatingcure! Although there are two‘before’ photographs of “Tania”and “Mike” there are no ‘after’pictures. Could this mean thatthe product failed to work? Cu-rious readers should call 0800-78-2000 to find out.

of years there is money to bemade out of this by-product.

Bee keepers and retired politi-cians are extolling the benefits ofpollen, bee venom and propolis.Their claims for vitamin, mineraland amino acid content are wayover the top. All the bee venomrubs which claim to be the pana-cea of all our skeletal and muscu-lar remedies have added counterirritants which give the impres-sion that this wonder of beevenom is being absorbed, whichfortunately it is not. Finally, wecome to propolis, bee glue, a darkbrown resinous substance col-lected by the bee from trees. Thisphenolic resin is used to seal thehive and retain warmth, theantispetic properties of the resinwill have some effect in keepingthe bacterial integrity of the hiveintact.

These are but a few of the non-sense claims to which we couldadd, electrical devices, magnets,emu oil, homeopathics and aplethora of herbals. If proof ofefficacy could be established thensuch items would be added to theorthodox medicinal armoury.Meanwhile remember “ashes toashes and dust to dust, if the liq-uor don’t get you the free radi-cals must.”

Alan Pickmereretired pharmacist

Continued from page 13



SODIUM chloride is a very simple chemical and cannot

decay. Excess is harmful thoughit is an essential part of our diet.These days many people seem tobelieve that some forms are bet-ter than others.

Years ago an idea developed thatall white foods were bad: bread,sugar, milk, salt. Similarly it washeld that all refined substanceswere bad: (because they wereunnatural), while food addi-tives were worse (though ofcourse diet supplements do notcount).

Table salt is white, it is refined,anti-caking agent is added to pre-vent clogging in damp weather,and a tiny amount of potassiumor sodium iodide is added forhealth reasons. Thus it offendsagainst a host of popular preju-dices.

Many people’s diet is short of theessential element iodine, whichis added to salt to prevent defi-ciency. In particular, without suf-ficient iodine, children’s brainswill not develop properly andthey suffer a form of mental re-tardation called ‘cretinism’. Ithas been claimed that non-io-dised salt is better for preservingfood (though I know of no scien-tific justification for this), so thisis available in bulk packs.

In most countries salt is obtainedfrom underground deposits, ei-ther by mining or by dissolvingit in water. It is not generally

extracted from seawater becausethis is so dilute that huge amountsof energy are needed to evaporatesuch large quantities of water. Adry climate at low latitudes al-lows solar energy to be used, butlarge areas are needed so landneeds to be cheap.

These requirements are margin-ally met at Grassmere in theAwatere valley, Marlborough,

where evaporation exceeds pre-cipitation in nine months of theaverage year. A long-establishedsolar salt industry is a prominentfeature, visible to travellers be-tween Picton and Christchurch.However the suitable area is lim-ited and New Zealand has alwaysimported salt.

Solar salt is of sufficient purityfor most purposes but not all.Vacuum salt is more highly re-fined and is produced both atGrassmere and Mt Maunganui;the latter uses imported salt asfeedstock.

A fad starting in Europe held thatsea salt was healthier than otherkinds, being ‘more natural’, andit was believed this came as largecrystals. Fashionable restaurantsprovided salt grinders, whichheld large crystals of sodiumchloride, rather than the old dis-

pensers of fine crystals in ashaker. One advantage of seasalt, it was argued, was that it was‘more salty’ and thereforehealthier because less would beneeded.

It is possible that relatively largecrystal fragments have a morevigorous assault on the palate,however most salt is added incooking, and in solution all salt

is equally ‘salty’. Salt ionshave no memory so do notknow what size crystal they in-habited.

The underground deposits inEurope are remains of dried-

up seas, so all their salt is ‘seasalt’; while in NZ the cheapestform of table salt is locally pro-duced, and made directly fromsea water. Furthermore it is notreally ‘highly refined’.

It may be of concern that someparents refuse to use iodised salt,and so expose their children to arisk of iodine deficiency. It isclaimed that in New Zealand, io-dine intake has been dropping fortwenty years. In the 1990s intakestwice fell below internationallyrecommended levels (NM 17th

May Report quoting ElizabethAitken in NZ Dietetic Associa-tion Journal).The decreased useof iodised salt in our diet is to bedeplored.

On Sale Now

I had a look at what is availablein Nelson and the results werequite interesting.

The marketing of sodium chloride should be taken with a pinch of salt

The decreased use of iodisedsalt in our diet is to be de-

plored.

Salting Away the Profits

Jim Ring



The cheapest salt available wasSkellerup Marlborough in bulkpacks at $0.80 per kg. It could bebought either iodised or non-io-dised. Prices for similar qualityin other brands ranged up to$1.00.

Salt in dispensers was naturallydearer because of the packaging;the price range was $2.10 - $3.60per kg.

The dearest salt was MaldonSea Salt from Essex, England,declared to be ‘Unrefined andNatural’. Various NZ writers onhealth and food have touted thisas a superior product. It needs tobe good, as the price was $38.75per kg.

Other imported products were:

Celtic Sea Salt produced in Brit-tany and packaged by Lotus inAustralia priced at $13.46 per kg.This claimed to be ‘Hand har-vested and Unbleached’ (what-ever that means). It consisted oflarge brownish crystals and wasvery sticky. The pack carried ananalysis showing it to be only83% sodium chloride with 7%water. Other elements (found inseawater) amounted to around3% so what else the stuff con-tained we do not know.

Also available was Lotus Aus-tralian Sea Salt. This was onlyavailable as a fine grade; but arelative bargain at only $2.50 perkg.

Some small New Zealand firmswere selling salt.

Solar Sea Salt was from KaioraOrganics, Napier and certified byBio-Gro (organic salt is a splen-did idea). These large crystals at$8.81 per kg were ‘unrefined,unwashed’.

A Nelson firm provided ‘SafeEarth Unprocessed Sea Salt,

“The way Nature created it” Notaltered, Not refined, No addi-tives, Natural Minerals retained.Bio-Gro certificate currently be-ing sought’.

They have a leaflet that is a mix-ture of good sense and outra-geous claims. Stating that saltcannot be organic, but also;‘unprocessed sea salt is a naturalantihistamine’. In a health shopit was $18.00 per kg for bothlarge crystals and normal grade.At a supermarket it was $15.88per kg; still hardly a bargain.

Presumably for legal reasons thepamphlet refers to an overseaswebsite rather than makingdirect claims – nevertheless un-der ‘Prevention and Cure’ it man-ages to refer to most human dis-eases except cancer, includingsuch refractory problems as‘Altzheimer, Multiple sclerosis,and Insulin Independent Diabe-tes’ (sic).

It also includes the delightfulthought; ‘Without sufficient wa-ter to wet all parts equally, someparts of the body will not receivethe vital elements that water sup-plies’.

Bargain price

Large crystals of Empire RockSalt by Hansells NZ were at abargain price ($1.25) in one su-permarket. Apart from the claim‘no additives’, there was no fur-ther information. Without label-ling on the packet, this was ofdubious legality.

The large companies are also inon the act and their products la-belled ‘Sea Salt’ are muchcheaper than those sold by thesmall companies; though moreexpensive than their own sea saltwithout the label. This is a trulywonderful way of adding value.

Saxa and Cerebos have fine ‘SeaSalt’, not iodised but with addedanti-cake which sells at a rangeof $1.20 - $1.55 per kg depend-ing on the supermarket. This isgenerally around 20-35c morethan their similar (possibly iden-tical) product not labelled ‘SeaSalt’.

But in one Supermarket I foundCerebos Sea Salt as large crys-tals at $1.20 per kg. It is moreexpensive to produce large crys-tals so this is very reasonable. Itmakes ‘Maldon Sea Salt’, essen-tially the same product but3000% dearer, look rather over-priced.

NZ Skeptics Online:http://skeptics.org.nz

Ever had someone ask youfor information on, say, ho-meopathy or the KaikouraUFOs and spent ages tryingto track down an article in theNew Zealand Skeptic?Help is at hand with thenewsletter now online andsearchable. Some of the ma-terial will be available for thepublic to see, but memberscan access all the last dec-ade’s worth of back issuesusing the password RANDI.(This password is valid untilthe end of 2001; make sureyou rejoin to get the pass-word for 2002!)Also available at the site arelinks to other sites of inter-est, information on lecturetours or other newsworthyitems, and information on re-sources the NZ Skeptics canprovide.

http://skeptics.org.nz Pass-word: RANDI



Fo

BEER AND SKITTLES

WHEN I was just a youngskeptic our family used to

go to big Christmas family get-togethers at my great aunt’shomestead. There were alwayslots of fun things for kids to do.There was a swimming pool withwater the colour of rotting leavesand a ghost room upstairs in thehouse. When we thought thegrown ups weren’t looking, wewould sneak upstairs for a peekinto the room. The door wasnailed closed, but the big kidsknew how to bend the nail backand open the door just a bit.Every year a new group of 8-year-olds would try to scare thebewhatsits out of the 5-year-oldswith tales of the ghost. Therewere also stories that the last kidsto enter the room had not leftalive through the door. Of course,this was because the room had nofloorboards and they had slippedoff the rafters and fallen throughthe ceiling to the dining roombelow.

I don’t remember if we believedthe story of the ghost, but I doremember not wanting to slip andput a hole in the dining room ceil-ing. Since then the house hasbecome an historic place andbeen done up to cater for wed-ding receptions and garden par-ties. The “Ghost Room” has hadnew floorboards installed and thenail has been replaced with adoorknob. But the stories of the

Ghosts, Mediums and theArgument from Omniscience.

ghost still continue. One of theuncles takes groups of visitorsthrough and keeps them enter-tained with rumours of the ghost.

The story started as a way ofkeeping children from going intoa dangerous room, and has con-tinued as a means of entertain-ing the tourists, but with plentyof drunken wedding guests pass-ing through, it won’t be long be-fore we have a sighting.

There are people who believe inghosts. Life after death and allthat.

There was a scientist in the pa-per the other day who thought hehad found evidence for life afterdeath. He interviewed a lot ofpeople who had nearly died onthe operating table. According todoctors trying to save their lives,these people had no detectablebrain function at some point.

The scientist found that they hadmemories that he thought wereof that time when they had nodetectable brain function. A lotlike the fourth form.

It would be very cool if there re-ally was good evidence of a warmand fuzzy place after death, butunhappily, this guy hasn’t foundit. There are some other expla-nations. It might be the doctorshad more important things toworry about than making sure thepatient had absolutely no brain

function. So maybe the brainshadn’t really stopped. Or it couldbe the memories of a bright lightand feelings of happiness weremanufactured either before or af-ter the no-brainer. The patientsdidn’t die, so we don’t reallyknow.

The world’s leading authority onNear Death Experience(NDE ) isSusan Blackmore. For more infoabout NDE. see http://www.a r t h u r c h a p p e l l . c l a r a . n e t /ndes.htm I thought it was inter-esting that “Children who havealmost died don’t see deadfriends and relatives on the otherside, but live ones. They haven’tlived long enough to know toomany people who have died.”

However, before we give up onlife everlasting, there are alsomediums. They think they talkto people who really are dead.There was a bloke on DiscoveryChannel who sat in the middle ofa circle of people and gave themmessages from their dearly de-parted. But the messages werenot very impressive.

I mean if he said something like“Now Susan, I have a messagefrom your mother Sarah-May.She says don’t have an affair withBilly-Bob coz he has a social dis-ease, and if ya do, that no-goodhusband of yours will find outand then there’ll be trouble.”

In which John Riddell reminisces about happy childhood days and reflects on thestories we tell to grown-ups



If that was the sort of messagefrom the other side even I mightget interested. Assuming ofcourse that Billy-Bob really didhave the disease, but nobody elseknew. Instead of providing in-formation that nobody in theroom could know without check-ing, the medium always comesup with something the client/au-dience already knows. He says“I’m getting something aboutSusan.” Anyone in the audiencewho is called Susan, or whoknows a dead Susan automati-cally assumes he is talking tothem. “ How did he know that?”Well he didn’t. You told him. Themedium proceeds by throwingout a word or phrase and seeingif someone picks up on it. Themedium creates an illusion thathe is telling the client things thatonly the client could know. Infact, the client tells the medium,not the other way around.

It just isn’t good evidence. Butthe client thinks it is good evi-dence.

They use what is usually calledthe “Argument from Ignorance”.It goes like this. “I don’t knowhow he could possibly know that.There couldn’t be a natural ex-planation. It has to be supernatu-ral.”

The ignorance of how “it” hap-pened is used as evidence. I pre-fer to call this the “Argumentfrom Omniscience” which goeslike this.

“I am infinitely intelligent and Iknow everything and if I can’tthink how this could have oc-curred naturally, then the expla-nation must be supernatural.”Now this would be a good argu-ment if the speaker really was in-finitely wise and all knowing.Unfortunately I don’t know any-one who is. Even so, this argu-ment is used to explain belief in

ghosts, Creationism and lots ofother subjects that interestSkeptics. In the case of the me-dium, the client thinks “I can’tfigure out how he did it, so hemust be psychic.”

The same applies to people whothink they see a ghost. “I knoweverything, and I can’t figure outwhat it was if it wasn’t a ghost.”People don’t normally say the bit

about knowing everything. Theyassume it though.

The scientist who thinks thatmemories of a Near Death Ex-perience (NDE) are good evi-dence for the afterlife is no dif-ferent.

Sometimes it is better to just say,“I don’t know.”

THE Gallup Organization re-leased the results of its new pollon paranormal beliefs in June,which indicate increases in thepercentage of Americans whobelieve in communication withthe dead, ESP, ghosts, psychichealing and extraterrestrial visi-tation (see www.gallup.com/poll/releases/pr010608.asp).

“This latest Gallup Poll is dis-turbing,” says Paul Kurtz, chair-man of The Committee for theScientific Investigation of Claimsof the Paranormal (CSICOP),“because it shows an increase insuperstition in the US – particu-larly in regard to communicatingwith the dead, haunted houses,ghosts, and psychic healing.”

According to the study, the mostnotable increases between 1990and 2001 are beliefs in psychicor spiritual healing (up eight percent to 54 percent); hauntedhouses (up 13 per cent to 42 percent); communication with thedead (up 10 per cent to 28 percent); and witches (up 12 per centto 26 per cent).

Kurtz blames the media for in-creased credulity. “These resultsmay be traced directly to the massmedia, especially sensationalizedTV shows, films, and the tabloid

press and publ ishers . I t ’sregrettable that Americans showlower scores in scientific literacyamong their young people incomparison with other demo-cratic societies. The poll alsopoints to the urgent need, we sub-mit, for teaching critical thinkingin schools and colleges. Thatshould have a high national pri-ority.” The National ScienceBoard’s 2000 Science & Engi-neering Indicators survey foundan abysmally low understandingof the scientific method and gen-eral science knowledge amongAmericans (see http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/frames.htm).

CSICOP Senior Research FellowJoe Nickell feels that the pollasks the wrong questions. “Thepoll asks people whether theybelieve in a phenomenon, whichamounts to asking them whetherthey want to believe. They’repolling the heart, not the head. Ifrespondents had also been askedwhether they have experiencedthese phenomena themselves, orwhether they thought there wasgood scientific evidence support-ing these beliefs, I suspect thosescores would have been muchlower.”

CSICOP Press Release

Belief in the Paranormal on the Increase amongAmericans


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