Katrina Borthwick

Last night I was watching the first episode of a 2024 TV legal drama called 'Matlock'. For those who are old enough to recognise that name - it isn't a remake of the detective show. Anyway, what caught my ear in this show was when the main character Madeleine Matlock (played by Kathy Bates) said she had managed to get past law firm security and stand unnoticed in a partners' meeting because older women are 'invisible'.

It's about to be Halloween - an imported celebration of sorts that has creeped its way over to New Zealand. I have written about the pagan origins of Halloween before, but if I was to talk about the modern version of All Hallows Eve then I guess I would only need to say “costumes and candy” and you would know exactly what day I'm referring to.

No, not an 'epiphany'. I'm talking about its occasionally evil twin, apophenia, which is the human tendency to perceive meaningful patterns or connections in random or unrelated data. An 'epiphany' on the other hand is the eureka moment where a complex problem or situation suddenly makes sense from a new perspective. An 'apophany' can sometimes feel the same, but it's leading you up the garden path. Pareidolia is a specific type of apophenia where we tend to see a meaningful image, face or pattern in a random or vague visual or auditory stimulus, such as a face on mars or the moon. While that in itself is a very interesting topic, in today's exploration I want to dig into the wider pattern-seeking that feeds conspiracy theories.

I downloaded Kate Northrup's 'Do Less' book on audible, because the algorithm threw it at me. For context, I had recently read books like Flow State and Stolen Focus, both of which deal with attention and modern overload. So, when Do Less surfaced in my stream, it looked like it belonged in that same mental neighbourhood. A book about reclaiming attention. I just clicked 'buy' and let it run while I was doing some housework. Easy.

In July 2026, a curious announcement was made by the U.S Federal Communication Commission's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB). They added two new categories of equipment to the national security 'covered list'. The second category captures foreign‑produced advanced robotic devices, including robot vacuum cleaners.

I was fascinated recently to read about an ancient classical archaeological attraction, known variously as the Berico Amphitheatre, Anfiteatro Berico, Anfiteatro Marittimo Berico, Anfiteatro Porta degli Angeli, and Porto degli Angeli. It is located on a scenic hillside near Arcugnano, in the province of Vicenza in Italy's northern Veneto region. Verona's amphitheatre is just 64 km to the west. This massive site has been marketed to tourists as dating from around 393 AD, with Neolithic, Greek and Roman artefacts. Franco Molasso claims he discovered it in 2005 following a landslide. But none of this is the reason I am writing about it. Because it turns out… it's totally fake.

On 27 July, Australians experienced the first nationwide test of AusAlert, a new civil defence emergency warning system designed to deliver urgent messages directly to compatible mobile phones during bushfires, floods, terrorist incidents, and other major emergencies.

In late February the police issued an updated chapter in their manual on sovereign citizens (SovCits). This is a 24-page chapter aimed at assisting police officers in managing problematic behaviours from SovCits in a professional and respectful way.

After listening to a podcast which said some people only enter the 'flow state' of consciousness a couple of times in their lives, I became a bit curious.

Are we going to get trapped on earth by a swarm of colliding space debris?

I was excited to read about a bit of a home-grown science breakthrough this month. An artificial egg made of a silicone membrane lattice has been used to hatch 26 chickens.

This article is inspired by reading Nexus, a science fiction thriller by Douglas E. Richards and Joshua Calvert. I won't ruin the story, but it's a page turner for sure, and draws on a bunch of dubious pseudoscience including the origin of the pyramids, near death experience (particularly the well-known Pam Reynolds case), and something called 'tukdam'.

The Cochrane Reports are comprehensive reviews that summarise and evaluate the results of clinical research on healthcare interventions. They are produced by an international network of researchers and healthcare professionals called the Cochrane Collaboration. These reports are widely respected for their sound scientific approach, and often include meta-analyses of multiple studies.

What a headline! MSN and the Daily Mail Online report that a former NASA-affiliated scientist, Ivo Busko, supports claims that unusual light flashes seen in 1950s sky photographs could indicate “non-human intelligence.” They report that his argument builds on earlier research by astronomer Beatriz Villarroel, who identified mysterious “transient” lights in archival images taken before satellites existed. This suggests the phenomenon is real and not a data error. Some of these lights appeared reflective or rotating, leading to speculation they could be objects in orbit. Because the observations predate the 1957 launch of Sputnik, proponents argue they cannot be human-made and may point to extraterrestrial technology. Here's that headline:

Tiny microplastics are making big headlines. Are they a ticking time bomb for human health, or just another overblown environmental scare?

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.

In 2016, Florent Montaclair was the proud recipient of the Gold Medal in Philology, awarded to him by the International Society of Philology. This award is equated with the Fields Medal or a Nobel prize… or so he would have us think.

Do you ever get the creeps from a robot that's just a bit too lifelike, or feel a shiver run down your spine when a CGI character seems like it's almost - but not quite - human? This weird feeling is called the uncanny valley effect.