IN THE NEWS

2014 Conference
Friday Dec 5 to Sunday December 7, 2014
University of Auckland

This year the conference will feature international guests from two popular skeptical podcasts: The Skeptics Guide to the Universe and The Geologic Podcast. Their hosts Dr Steven Novella, Evan Bernstein, Jay Novella, Rebecca Watson, Bob Novella and George Hrab will be attending and running various talks, panels and special events, including a live recording of the SGU Podcast.

Early bird ticket pricing is available now being $195 for waged people and $155 for unwaged/students/retired people. There`s also a $10 discount for members of NZ Skeptics.

Tickets can be purchased online at /register.

(If you don't know who SGU is, take a look and listen up here.

ALSO: Special SGU Recording Session
Take up your 15 minutes of fame by being a part of the private recording of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe. This will happen after the conference dinner (Dec 6); just 50 tickets available.
More info here.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
If you can't make it to Auckland, see if you can attend the Special Pre-Conference DInner, in Wellington on December 1st.
The SGU hosts and George Hrab will be touring the North Island, starting in Wellington. As part of this we`re having a special dinner event in Wellington on Monday 1st December. This will be limited to twelve people who will have dinner with the six hosts. Tickets for this are being auctioned in a blind auction where you can submit your bid. Bids can be placed on the conference registration site as part of the conference registration. (If you only want to bid for the Wellington dinner you can do this by purchasing a "No Conference Ticket" ticket.)

The conference will be a fantastic opportunity to hear some excellent talks by local and international speakers and to network with other like-minded folk. Keep checking the conference website for details. Or join the Facebook group.
Sign up to the Skeptics Alert at left to get an early heads-up on this and other topics of skeptical interest.

Homeopathy -- There's NOTHING in it

The 10:23 campaign aims to demonstrate that there is nothing to homeopathy other than exploitation of the placebo effect.
During the year, there will be a range of activities in New Zealand, and around the world to raise awareness, highlight consumer protection gaps and discuss what informed consent means in the alternative health industry.
For an international view, see 10:23 Global Challenge.
See more in our Homeopathy Campaign section.

Should Traditional Chinese Medicine Be Regulated?

The TCM industry wants to be included under the Health Practitioners Competency Assurance Act, The NZ Skeptics believe that this would give the industry a suprious legitimacy misleading to the general public. We argue that TCM is largely a culturally driven patchwork of products and services, rather than an evidence-based set of health practices and, as such, should not be included under the Act.
Download our submission here (PDF).

Should Natural Health Products Get a Free Ride?

We think New Zealanders deserve better consumer protection and greater oversight in the fast-gorwing area of natural health products and services, particularly with regard to health/therapeutic claims and misleading or deceptive labelling and advertising. Read our submission on the proposed Natural Health Products Bill here.