Issues

Fragment 176–191

2 March 2026

Longtime member Pippa emailed us the other day after she heard Bronwyn talking about Thomas Driver on our podcast. She said:

Before Christmas I suggested to one of our readers that they write an article for us about a visiting climate denier who was giving talks about climate change around the country, hosted by Groundswell. That person has done an amazing job of writing up the event, showing just how bad some of Dr Happer's arguments are. I'd love to thank them by name, but their article is written under a pen name so I will carry the secret of their true identity to my grave.

Unholier than Thou

2 February 2026

Last week Bronwyn and I went to see the Doomsday comedy event in Wellington, featuring ex Jehovah's Witness Norwegian goat farmer Jonas Skogstroll, as well as several other comedians who have left religions and cult groups, such as the Mormons, Steiner schooling and Alcoholics Anonymous. I was expecting a mixed bag, as comedy is hard to do well, but the comedians did a really great job and if the laughter on the night is anything to go by, the audience seemed to really enjoy it. I had a chat with Jonas about his comedy, and he said that his tactic when it comes to countering the Jehovah's Witnesses is to humanise the idea of God, and show just how sad and pathetic God is if viewed through a human lens. He figures that by making people feel sorry for God in this way, it might make it easier to shake off any belief.

What's next, Menopausal Barbie?

20 January 2026

We're back to our normal schedule after taking something of a break over Christmas, so those of you who listen to our podcast should see our next episode come out next weekend. Given that we've skipped a couple of episodes there are quite a few articles to talk about, so it might be a long one!

Japanese Story

5 January 2026

Okay, so the title of this newsletter issue is another reference to a movie I like - but this reference is much more direct. “Japanese Story” is an Australian movie from 2003, starring Toni Collette, that tugged on my heartstrings when I watched it maybe 20 years ago.

Alone in Tokyo

22 December 2025

I'm in Tokyo, but not alone - I'm here on holiday with my family. The title of this newsletter is a failed attempt to be clever - it's a reference to one of my favourite movies, "Lost in Translation". The soundtrack for the movie is great, and has a really nice song by a band called Air that's titled Alone in Kyoto. But the movie was mainly filmed in Tokyo, so I merged the two to give me an obscure reference to the movie. As soon as I'd written it I realised it's way too convoluted to make sense to anyone, hence this lengthy explanation!

Royalty at our AGM

8 December 2025

We had our AGM last night, which was well-attended and ran smoothly. We now have two new committee members, Dave la Rooy and Tony Lord (and as a skeptic I have to assume it's just coincidence that our two new committee members are a Lord and a King). It's great to have them on board, and as a committee we look forward to working with them both over the coming years. Bronwyn will continue on as our capable Chair, and it was pointed out that our new constitution has a five year limit for the Chair role - as a way to ensure we have fresh blood at the helm. This means that we only have three years left to squeeze all we can out of Bronwyn's amazing abilities, although I'm presuming from her passion for skepticism that she'll stay on the committee long after her term as Chair is over. Tim Wright has been reconfirmed as our Treasurer for the next year, and I'm staying on as Secretary - mostly because nobody else seems to want to take on either of these roles! If you're interested in what happened at the AGM, you can read Bronwyn's report on our last 12 months below. I'll also try to remember to add the minutes of our AGM to a future newsletter, once I've written them up properly.

CO3? CO4? How much is too much CO2?

24 November 2025

A couple of weeks ago in the newsletter we let you know about Siouxsie Wiles' fundraising campaign, and we pledged to match our members' donations up to a limit of $2,000. I'm pleased to say that, so far, we've reached over $1,500 in donations so far. But it would be even better if we could hit our $2,000 target! So if you plan to donate to Siouxsie, please let us know when you do so, and if you've already donated, send us evidence of your donation and we'll add you to our list. Just forward your donation email to news@skeptics.nz.

Help us to help Siouxsie

10 November 2025

When I wrote my article about the MENZ website a couple of weeks ago, I briefly mentioned John Potter, the site's admin, and his connection to the Centrepoint commune/cult as the son of guru Bert Potter. I provided a couple of links to further information, and mentioned that readers should look into Centrepoint if they weren't already familiar with the details of just how bad things became. Journalist and DeCult conference founder Anke Richter messaged me and suggested that readers might want to read her interview of John Potter, the “absent father” of the MENZ website, that came out in North & South magazine in 2021. It's a fascinating read, and gives some useful background that may help to explain why John runs a men's advocacy website full of misinformation and woman-hating rhetoric.

More UFO books than credible sightings

28 October 2025

We've had a request from longtime member Jan Feike de Bock, who has emailed us with a fascinating offer of a large collection of UFO books.

It was the Weirdest of Times

13 October 2025

We're living in strange times, with so much upheaval in the US that it's already having global repercussions.

Are We the Scabs?

29 September 2025

I've just spent an enjoyable week on holiday in Taupō celebrating my 50th birthday. It's amazing to think that this massive lake is actually the caldera of a supervolcano that, for the last 30,000 years or so, has erupted on average around once every thousand years, and that it last erupted about 1,800 years ago. Staying in a property overlooking the lake certainly made me think a little about my own mortality, and my family's wellbeing. Given that, according to Wikipedia, the last eruption “devastated much of the North Island”, I guess it's more than just the local residents who will be affected when the volcano next erupts.

Oops, I forgot

15 September 2025

In the last newsletter, one of the articles that I said was included was a piece by Bronwyn, the third and final in her series about The Telepathy Tapes. Unfortunately I forgot to actually add the article to the newsletter! So, in this issue we have two articles about Facilitated Communication. The first of them is the second part of Janyce Boynton's article on whether FC has changed since the early days, and the second is Bronwyn's article.

Remember, Remember the 4th of September

1 September 2025

Just over a week ago we hosted two segments of the second annual Global Skeptics in the Pub Online - an event organised by Californian skeptics to coincide with their annual conference. It was a fun event again, with some really interesting perspectives, and it's always nice to hear what other skeptical groups are up to.

Conference Clarity

18 August 2025

In lieu of my usual blathering, this week we have an update from our chair, Bronwyn, about our plans for our conferences this year and next:

A Ray of Sunshine

4 August 2025

We received an email the other day from none other than (in)famous ex-Christchurch street preacher and evangelist Ray Comfort. Ray had found Bronwyn's article about him and emailed us, very briefly, to let her know that he liked the article:

Some very new news

21 July 2025

Thank you to everyone who filled in our recent survey about the possibility of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast hosts coming over to New Zealand next year, and whether this might have an effect on our conference plans for this year and next. We've been discussing your responses as a committee, and will be able to let everyone know fairly soon what our plans are.

Midwinter Musings

7 July 2025

I had a fun time this weekend with friends coming over to my house to celebrate Christmas. No, this email hasn't been delayed six months, or arrived from the future - it's July, not December. Like me, most of the friends that came over on the weekend are from the Northern hemisphere, and there's something that just feels right about having a second Christmas celebration every year when the weather's cold and miserable, just like it was in the “good old days”. We eat brussels sprouts and roast potatoes, drink mulled wine, and open presents - all while the TV plays YouTube videos with cheesy Christmas songs as the audio track and logs burning on an open fire as the video track. For one of our few Southern hemisphere guests, Aaron, not only is this mid-year “Midwinter Christmas” an alien idea, but he also never celebrated the usual December 25th Christmas when he was growing up. This is because he was brought up as a Jehovah's Witness, and they famously avoid celebrating events like Christmas, Easter and birthdays. I met Aaron through the NZ Humanists a while after he'd “faded” from the organisation, and it's been great to be there to see him find his feet and move on with his life since then.

Live Long and Prosper

23 June 2025

After Bronwyn's article in the last newsletter about cryonics, Katrina and I have decided to get in on the action and write our own articles on related topics to accompany the second part of Bronwyn's series. It's been interesting to learn more about longevity and preservation - both the real science, and the pseudoscience. And thankfully there were a couple of fascinating documentaries I was able to watch to help me flesh out my article, so it wasn't all just reading for me.

We're still here!

9 June 2025

It's been interesting to see the world's richest man going toe to toe with the world's most powerful man. Nope, actually, interesting isn't the right word. I'm not sure what you call it when you can't tear your eyes away from two influential grown men acting like spoiled children. Maybe disappointing? Like when you tell your child you're disappointed in them. Anyway, Trump's still not pressed the big red nuclear button, and we're already nearly an eighth of the way through his presidency, so maybe we'll survive this yet.

Skeptic or Geese?

26 May 2025

In my efforts to wrestle with the push to include AI content in our newsletter, I've been chatting recently with our newest regular contributor, Patrick Medlicott, about why I prefer content that is written by humans. One new reason that popped into my head is that I know, from editing people's stories every fortnight, that each of our writers leaves their own distinct fingerprints on each and every article they write. Bronwyn, Katrina and Patrick each have their own tell-tale signs that they have written an article - certain repeated typos, punctuation choices, use (or lack of use) of commas, sentence length, repeatedly used words and phrases, etc. Each of these things has become very familiar to me, and through my editing I try to clean up each article without losing too much of these fingerprints.

I'd like to be... under the sea

12 May 2025

The world now has a new Pope. He's American, which seems to have pleased Donald Trump, but it seems that nobody's quite sure where he currently stands on the issue of treating gay people fairly. There have been some old comments that suggest that, a decade ago at least, Robert Francis Prevost (now known as Leo XIV) wasn't too keen on equality, but there's also hope that maybe the last pope, Francis, has softened Leo's heart in the last decade.

Papal Mor(t)ality

28 April 2025

As I'm sure you're all aware, although I'd question whether it really should be international news, the Catholic Pope has died. So we're all now going to be eagerly awaiting the white smoke that tells us the Catholic cardinals have chosen their new leader. I wish this wasn't news - a small group of senior (both old and high-ranking) people choosing which of them gets to be in charge of a pre-scientific organisation with supernatural beliefs doesn't seem to be something we should have to care about. But…

What's your Horsenality?

14 April 2025

In Wellington, we're hoping to take a trip to the Abundant Life church early next month. The church's pastor, Hamish Thomson, recently took over the running of the quarterly Prayers at Parliament meetings that myself and other skeptics have attended in the past, but this isn't why we'll be visiting. On May the 4th, in the evening, the church will be hosting guest speaker Mike Collins (no, not the astronaut who didn't land on the moon, this one's a speaker for Creation Ministries International (CMI)) giving a talk titled “How Evolution Hurts Science and People”. With a title like that, I think we'll be in for a real treat - a fairly major bending of the truth to fit a conservative religious narrative.

The Machines are Revolting

31 March 2025

After having written in the last issue about the committee's hesitance to let people submit articles for inclusion in the newsletter that include significant AI content, I wasn't totally surprised to receive an email from Peter Harrison, who we've had on our podcast before talking about AI. What did surprise me, though, was the formal tone of his letter - which at first I took to be a little passive-aggressive. However, this and the Americanized spelling still didn't tip me off as to the real author of the email: