Category Archives: Skeptics

New Zealand, Skeptics

26. Palmerston North – Hamilton

Sunday, March 8: Rain and a thunderstorm overnight, clearing before morning with some darker clouds towards the mountains & one or two short showers

Central Green Backpackers, 846 Victoria St., Hamilton 3204, tel.: +64 7 839 1928. Single room ensuite (BBH, $59 + $3)

I was up fairly early and had some muesli, toast and coffee that could be found in the kitchenette. Was fairly quickly packed together and took my leave of Dan and took off towards Matthew’s – one wrong turn but managed to find the street. His daughter Betty answered the door and her dad was having a snooze in the garage after dismantling a trampoline. They are in the middle of a move, so things seemed a little chaotic. The family dog was very forthcoming and in the course of a cup of coffee, his wife Lisa turned up as well as one of Betty’s friends and her mum; only Alice seemed to think it was still night time. Read more…

New Zealand, Skeptics

25. Tawa – Palmerston North

Saturday, March 7: Variably cloudy at first and then a storm blew up in mid afternoon and it rained quite heavily

Dan’s (airbnb, $50)

We were up around 9:00, and there was not much in the way of breakfast (coffee, toast) and Missy & Brian were on their way to the shops to get some breakfast for themselves, and at least some milk for home. I went onto the internet briefly and there was one over the top comment saying how Dell was so disrespectful to the speaker, etc. Hey, it was Skeptics in the Pub! At least no beer glasses flew through the air.

Had my stuff all sorted and gave my hosts a copy of Te Wai Pounamu – for them at least some information will be new. Then just after 10:00 I was on the road. Read more…

New Zealand, Skeptics, Travel Planning

24. Waikanae Beach – Wellington – Tawa

Friday, March 6: Cloudy at first with a few showers, then in Wellington very heavy rain clearing in the course of the afternoon

Missy & Brian’s (airbnb, $45)

At just after 9:00 I was the first up and proceeded to make some coffee, after which Julie got up and offered me some wheatbix and toast as well. I was determined to get as much of a day’s work done as possible and started on scheduling the next few blog posts with pictures so that I can concentrate on organising the rest of the tour. Low tide at Napier seems to be reasonable to do the gannets (Cape Kidnappers) walk in two weeks’ time, so it won’t be on the agenda for next week. Put in a request for kayaking on the Manawatu for the day in Palmy. Read more…

Skeptics

The Skeptics’ Dilemma – 5/5

If I wanted to see if you could play a musical instrument, I might ask whether you played one, which one it is you play. I could then procure an instrument, give it to you and ask you to play, and within a few seconds I would have a fairly good idea of whether you could play or not. I wouldn’t need to bring along years of experience of being on the jury of New Zealand’s Got Talent. Nor would you need to be able to play the most difficult piece of music written for your instrument. And, unless you were playing something by John Cage, the evaluation of your claimed skill would be pretty straightforward. That is the essence of a qualitative test. Read more…

Skeptics

The Skeptics’ Dilemma – 4/5

Science changes people’s minds because it works. Show me some homeopathy that works, some astrology, some psychic power, and I’ll have no problem with it.

At the beginning of 2014 Nature published a paper that claimed to have simplified the process of producing stem cells to the point that only a slightly acidic solution and some pressure was necessary. Now if that worked it would have been a revolution in producing stem cells because no longer would expensive and toxic chemicals be required. It required no psychic to predict that if it worked anyone which wanted to produce stem cells would be doing so in short notice. But guess what? Do you see school biology classes happily turning out stem cells? No? Why not? Can’t remember Big Pharma stepping in and forbidding it because their expensive chemicals had become obsolete. You don’t see it because it doesn’t work. Read more…

Skeptics

The Skeptics’ Dilemma – 3/5

The key to an effective scientific presentation is having the audience think along with you, and that is really just the essence of interest. You need to be able to get the interest of a fair-sized audience possibly by establishing your expertise, but this initial interest is an advance payment by the audience and therefore needs to be repaid in the course of the presentation with some way of thinking about a problem that the audience is not only familiar with by the end of the lecture but are themselves also in a position to apply. Read more…

Skeptics

The Skeptics’ Dilemma – 1/5

Skepticism and science have much in common and skepticism is really nothing more than science applied to extraordinary claims. But trying to make people change their minds about their own extraordinary beliefs is difficult. Therefore the question arises as to what we as skeptics should try to achieve.

Firstly, we can almost never win over the other side, the true believers, or even the victims. How could we? They may have a vested interest in continuing to believe, they may be making a living out of it, so it would be unreasonable to assume that they would accept the scientific method, and the results it comes to. I have heard from dowsers and homeopaths, when investigations of their crafts resulted in a negative outcome for them, that this only proved they are right, because somehow the science must have failed, and not the other way round. Read more…

Photography, Skeptics, Tramping, Travel Planning

Off to New Horizons

Cathedral Rock, Waimangu.
Cathedral Rock, Waimangu. Static. For the last time?

Nau mai, haere mai!

Time to start the blog up again.

Journey to Te Ika-a-Māui is the next project, a trip to the North Island of New Zealand, arriving on February 11 in the wee minutes of the morning and leaving on April 7, 2015. There is still a lot to see and do.

First and foremost on the programme are the remaining Great Walks of the North Island, the Whanganui River Journey and the Tongariro Northern Circuit. Twice on previous visits have I tried to go over the Tongariro Crossing, but to no avail. Having more time this time around and a better season for mountain climbing, this should be doable at some point. Read more…