Katrina Borthwick is a huge science nerd and her main interests are in psychology, astronomy and science fiction. She has been a skeptic ever since she read ‘Demon Haunted World’ by Carl Sagan in the 90s and is super interested in what makes people think the way they do. She lives in Wellington with her husband Alan, her two young daughters and two annoying cats.
18 August 2025
Sometimes I get weird MSN 'News' landing pages that are chocka with adverts. One of the linked pages I saw recently was this one. It lists piles of gadgets that I apparently urgently need, and which are going to sell out soon. Being curious, I had a look.
4 August 2025
There we go. There's that word we hear so often as skeptics, 'quantum'. It seems likely Ky is referring to a state called 'quantum entanglement' that results in entangled particles (and photons) having their states correlated over theoretically limitless distances, through tiny wormholes.
21 July 2025
According to Life Extension, a website selling brain-boosting supplements called nootropics, our brains can be hacked (known as “neurohacking”) through “a variety of complementary strategies, including dietary and lifestyle changes and the use of nootropic drugs and supplements, brain-training activities and games, and neurotechnologies (e.g. electrical stimulation devices) designed to increase brain fitness”. Their Australian branch will sell you 30 pills for about AU$30. The pills contain gotu kola, bacopa, and marigold extract.
23 June 2025
How long can humans really live without changing their actual form, for example by doing something drastic like a brain transplant, cloning, or uploading themselves to the cloud?
9 June 2025
On 27 January POTUS (the President Of The United States) signed an executive order to create an “Iron Dome” of defence against ballistic, hypersonic, cruise missiles and other advanced aerial attacks. This was renamed “Golden Dome for America” on 24 February. Surprisingly, the renaming isn't about POTUS' preference for golden things. Apparently “Iron Dome” is a registered trademark, owned by an Israeli defence firm.
26 May 2025
I have an out-of-town meeting, and the other party is bringing a lawyer. I print a recent court decision that I think could be very relevant. I read it, this takes a while, but I come to the conclusion that nope, it's not relevant to my case. Time wasted. I'm in a rush and there is no recycling bin near me, so I put the court decision in my bag and start driving.
12 May 2025
I wonder if, in the dark night of the sea, the octopus dreams of me.
28 April 2025
In part one of this series I recapped the core beliefs of sovereign citizens, and where those beliefs come from, as well as some of the mischief being caused for Councils and the Police. In part two I looked at their interactions with Justices of the Peace. In this final part I explore what's been happening in our Courts. The focus is mainly on NZ Courts, but I will also delve briefly into a couple of Canadian cases, one of which is drawn upon extensively in most NZ Court rulings around sovereign citizen behaviour.
14 April 2025
In part one I recapped the core beliefs of “Sovcits” (Sovereign Citizens) and where those beliefs come from, as well as some of the havoc being caused for local Councils and the Police. I really do recommend you read that part first if you are curious about the 'why' of Sovcits.
31 March 2025
Buckle up for a deep dive on Sovereign Citizens and the law in New Zealand.
17 March 2025
When cyclone Alfred hit Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the North of New South Wales recently, I was watching the news coverage closely. My sister lives on the Gold Coast and, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, she was going to be in the zone predicted to be hit with the most damaging winds. She was pretty sure this was no big deal for her, and fortunately she was right.
3 March 2025
This week I accidentally stumbled upon an excellent resource created by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) called Keep It Real Online. This website has content targeted at youth, as well as content for teachers in Primary and Intermediate/Secondary School.
18 February 2025
The new Australian mini-series Apple Cider Vinegar was just released on Netflix. The series dramatises the true story of Australian Belle Gibson, who was a wellness influencer who falsely claimed to have cured her terminal brain cancer through diet and alternative medicine. She released an app, and later a recipe book, called The Whole Pantry, and pocketed $300K in donations meant for charity.
3 February 2025
It's not a good day when a closer analysis of the path of a near-earth approaching asteroid doesn't rule out impact, but instead shows that it might actually hit earth in 2032.
21 January 2025
_After 6 weeks of searching, the scammers gave to me…
6 January 2025
What are the chances that we will make contact with an alien civilisation?
9 December 2024
In part one of my delve into obscure local cryptids we looked at the Kabagon, which bore more than a passing resemblance to an elephant seal, the Roa Roa, which was likely a case of mistaken identity of livestock, and the Rotomahana Saurian, which may well have been a floating tree. Here are three more cryptids I found that appear to have rational explanations:
25 November 2024
I'm taking a break from my post conference daze to write about something completely unserious – New Zealand Cryptids. Cryptids are animals whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated, such as the Yeti or the Loch Ness Monster.
11 November 2024
I went to the Go Green Expo in Wellington on the 2nd of November, along with Mark, Bronwyn and my two tiny sidekicks. Mia had a great time having her own little disco on the power company's display, and they both enjoyed all the free samples. However I had to steer them clear of the booze, and there was a surprising amount of that. That and mushrooms. I think I must have missed a memo somewhere – when did mushrooms become a thing?
29 October 2024
My eldest daughter is Spider-Man crazy. She has the shoes, bag, outfit, and our house has stickers......so many stickers....
14 October 2024
Halloween wasn't really a thing growing up in New Zealand over 40 years ago, but it seems to have taken off in the last few decades. No trick or treaters have been determined enough to find their way to the top of the hill where I live, and I've now stopped buying lollies to save our waistlines at home. If we do ever get one, we'll need to think of a really good trick - or worse, give them fruit.
30 September 2024
As part of my postgraduate Psychology course, I had to take a course called Multivariate Data Analysis.
16 September 2024
MDMA assisted psychotherapy is looking a little rocky lately. The Journal of Psychopharmacology has recently retracted three research papers supporting the treatment over data integrity concerns, and the FDA has rejected it as a treatment for PTSD.
16 September 2024
It has been reported that former supermodel Elle Macpherson refused to follow the medical advice of 32 doctors to have chemotherapy following a breast cancer diagnosis, instead opting for holistic alternative therapies.
2 September 2024
A recent paper on the overuse of spinal imaging (usually X-rays), titled “_An investigation into the chiropractic practice and communication of routine repetitive radiographic imaging for the location of postural misalignments_” and led by New Zealand researcher Brogan Williams (in collaboration with others from Australia and the US), has criticised the distributor of a chiropractic product called Denneroll. Denneroll is a US company, but their products are distributed in New Zealand and the contact given for distribution here is a Hawke's Bay Chiropractor – Rosina Walker.
5 August 2024
The first batch of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccinations hit New Zealand in February 2021. That means we have now had 3.5 years to study the side effects.
5 August 2024
There was a bit of a fuss this week with a scene of Greek gods being said to be blasphemous, poking fun at Da Vinci's last supper. The comparison has presumably been made because people were sitting at a table, in a row (although I note that it's quite difficult to do it any other way!)
22 July 2024
In February it was announced by researchers that non-verified cell lines and misidentified nucleotide sequences were cited in hundreds of papers. This got picked up by the media in May:
15 April 2024
Recently there has been a bit of media coverage about the show 'Country House Hunters' New Zealand being faked. It has been proven that at least some of the house hunters were already the owners of the properties they were viewing.
19 February 2024
Previously I wrote about the Therapeutic Products Act which was due to replace the Medicines Act 1981 and the Dietary Supplements Regulations 1985. The NZ Skeptics Society made a written and oral submission.
27 November 2023
In his introduction to the Newsletter in late July Craig mentioned the materials science news around the possibility of room temperature superconductivity, with a compound called LK-99 being announced out of a research team in South Korea. At the time there was a lot of skepticism about this claim.
11 September 2023
26 June 2023
Reading some of the latest research on chronic pain management led me down a rabbit hole of further reading, and the discovery of just how damn weird and counterintuitive pain is.
19 June 2023
Bronwyn suggested I do a bit of psychology myth-busting. So here goes. There are so many I could write a book, so I've picked five. You will notice I haven't included any that relate to actual mental health disorders, I will leave that to the professionals.
6 June 2023
On the 26th of May Elon Musk's brain chip firm, Neuralink, announced that they had received FDA approval to launch their first in-human clinical study of a brain implanted device.
1 May 2023
Curiosity is part of the human condition, and we are always seeking out information. We devour it. But the world is overflowing with information, and it is really hard to work out what is worth spending our time on and what is not.
1 May 2023
Well, hello there! Craig isn't looking and Mark is busy writing, so I thought I would slip in here and write the editorial for this week.
1 May 2023
The ketogenic (keto) diet is based on reducing carbohydrate intake drastically, usually to less than 50g a day, and increasing protein and particularly fat intake.
13 March 2023
This is about my unexpected adventure in skepticism a very long time ago in a galaxy not so far away.
20 February 2023
P-hacking is a data analysis technique that can be used to present patterns as statistically significant when there is really no underlying effect. It is a misuse of statistics and a misrepresentation, plain and simple, and disappointingly it's usually perpetrated by scientists.
7 February 2023
No, I'm not talking Skynet here or robots overrunning the earth. I'm talking about the more subtle tools in the background that tend to do a bunch of boring administration. You probably haven't even thought of them overly much. But they might be responsible for what your doctor decided to prescribe you on your last visit, that job you never got shortlisted for, your acceptance into a programme of study, or the reason your bag was searched at the airport.
30 January 2023
Henry VIII was the sixteenth century Tudor king famously known for having six wives with mainly scandalous fates - divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, and survived. It is less known that he also had an interest in amateur medicine. This interest went further than most, fuelled in particular by a painful and persistent ulcerous sore on his leg that came upon him early in his reign, and what appears to be some sort of unpleasant sexually transmitted infection.