We've just come out of another short spell spent at level 3 lockdown for Auckland, and level 2 for the rest of us. Well done to all of you who managed to follow the rules and help keep us all safe, and a boo to everyone who thought that protesting in large groups and not wearing a mask is an acceptable response.
My first news story involves a political figure, Jami-Lee Ross. We've received a complaint that I, and possibly others who write this newsletter, sometimes venture into political territory, and that our political views are not shared by everyone in our organisation. I will admit that I lean to the left (as do many people I know who are active members of the NZ Skeptics) but, despite this, as much as possible I try to keep my political views out of my writing. If I'm criticising or commending politicians, my aim is to be mentioning them because the things they're saying or doing are of skeptical interest (and sadly, more often than not it's because what they're doing flies in the face of good skeptical thinking). If I ever fall short of this, and fail to give a skeptical angle when I mention politics (or religion or any other topic, for that matter), feel free to pull me up on it.
We have also been asked about a right of reply, especially as to an extent this newsletter has replaced our journal, and the journal used to have a Letters section. Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago I added a note to the bottom of our newsletter which lets you all know that if you have something of interest that you want to see published in this newsletter, you can send it to us and we'll look over it and add it to the next week's newsletter (unless you're uncritically reviewing the TimeCube website, that is). The more skeptical voices we can promote, the stronger we'll be as an organisation - and the more you all do my job for me, the happier I am ;)
_Mark Honeychurch
Secretary, NZ Skeptics_