A Skeptical History for this week

Our year in NZ Skeptical History is still moving along, with the goal of getting it finished (or as close as possible) by the end of 2022. December 5th to December 11th is surprisingly full of interesting skeptical events.

December 5th - Young Earth Creationist and banana enthusiast, Ray Comfort, is born in Christchurch in 1949.

December 6th - In 1952, students from Otago University fake a series of UFO sightings across the country, known as the Great Interplanetary Hoax.

December 8th - In 1920, Sherlock Holmes creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, arrives in Auckland to begin a whistlestop tour of Aotearoa, which included a meeting with a clairvoyant dog in Christchurch.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Darkie, the psychic dog

December 9th - In 1993, The Press publishes an article claiming that 3 babies born in Christchurch with defects all had parents that worked with pesticides.

December 10th - The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is officially gazetted by the NZ registrar-general of births, deaths, and marriages in 2015. Marriages can now be performed for adherents. R'Amen. Also, while not entirely skeptical, this is a big day for NZ science history as Ernest Rutherford wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908, and Pongaroa-born Maurice Wilkins shares the 1962 prize with colleagues James Watson and Francis Crick for their investigation into the structure of DNA. Georgina Beyer became the first transgender woman elected to parliament in 1999.