Fridays the 13ths

16^th March 2026

Our first article in this week’s newsletter is from Patrick, who has summarised a recent Nature article about potential underestimation of sea-level rise over the next 60 years. Patrick’s article ends with a quote from Edison that, when I read it, seemed too good to be true. So, like any good skeptic, I jumped onto Google to see if there was any truth to the quote. It turns out that it’s likely to be true, at least in broad strokes.

Bronwyn has had no luck managing to arrange to talk on live TV about Friday the 13th, so instead she’s decided to write us an article about this curious superstition. I’ve written about unspoken quirky things that happen to most of us, and whether a beloved book by Douglas Adams needs a rewrite in the digital age. Katrina has watched Louis Theroux’s recent documentary Inside the Manosphere, and written a review of it. I’ve been keeping an eye on a local MeetUp group, the Auckland Deep Thinkers, that sadly doesn’t seem to be living up to its name - it turns out the group is backed by a (minor) political party. And, lastly, Dan Ryan has been keeping an eye on a strange group dressed in yellow at his local market - the Falun Dafa.

Mark Honeychurch

Sea level much higher than assumed in most coastal hazard assessments

Patrick Medlicott - 16 March 2026

Apart from the war in Iran, which of course has dominated everything over the week, there has been some interesting news on the climate - albeit rather disturbing for New Zealand and the Pacific.

Friday the 13th x 3: The mayhem, the meme, and some math

Bronwyn Rideout - 16 March 2026

I was originally approached by a television producer in January who wanted someone from the NZ Skeptics to talk about Friday 13th and superstitions. It's been a cavalcade of mutual missed phone calls and messages since then, and I decided that if the powers-that-be don't think I'm ready for primetime or the big screen (or that I just have a face for radio), then you, dear skeptic, have the bad luck of benefiting from my research.

The Deepest Meaning of Liff?

Mark Honeychurch - 16 March 2026

A while ago a work colleague told me that she had a strange connection with a friend of hers, where they had been talking late into the night and found out that both of them would sometimes wake up just before their alarm goes off in the morning, especially if there's something important happening that morning. When I told her that I also have this ability, she was surprised - there were three people all with the same unusual ability. At this point I let her know that this, like many of the quirky things in her life, is likely to not actually be very rare at all - it's just that we don't often talk about these odd everyday things that happen to us.

Inside the Manosphere – Louis Theroux

Katrina Borthwick - 16 March 2026

Louis Theroux's latest documentary, Inside the Manosphere, dropped on Netflix on March 11th. In it, Theroux hangs around a few notable influencers to see what's really going on.

Auckland Shallow Thinkers

Mark Honeychurch - 16 March 2026

The Auckland Deep Thinkers is a group on the MeetUp website that meet both in-person and online. The group's description states:

A Cult has infiltrated my Market

Daniel Ryan - 16 March 2026

Last month I was at a market, helping my wife with a stall she runs. It was a lovely, sunny day at one of the biggest NZ markets I've been to, packed with stalls along the main streets and bustling with life. At my wife's request, I won't name the market or out any of the pseudoscience stalls making bad therapeutic claims*.