Articles tagged with "denis"

We've lost another light against the darkness, with the death of Denis Dutton. Carl Sagan, in The Demon-Haunted World, gave us the image of the guttering candle, but I think Denis would be the first to cite another comment from that work: "It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."

Warwick Don celebrated the 21st annual NZ Skeptics conference by presenting a potted history of the society.

With winter almost upon us, the time has come to curl up in front of a nice screen and browse the internet. Speaking of which, congratulations are in order to our chair-entity Vicki Hyde and media spokesman Denis Dutton for having their websites nominated in the sixth annual Webby Awards.

by Gavin East, from Top of the Morning Book of Epitaphs, ed Brian Edwards, Tandem Press, Auckland, 1998.

This is my last newsletter. I am pleased to be handing over the editorship to Denis Dutton. I feel I have been very fortunate in the quality of contributions I have received and to have had regular contributors. A special acknowledgement is due to Mark Davies, Andrew Vignaux and Karen Tumer who physically produce the magazine. I had no idea of the amount of work they undertake until I became involved in it myself.

Dr Campbell's lecture at the 1989 Conference was an excellent piece of science education. The following article has a little physics, but is mainly a behind-the-scenes exposé of scientific show biz. It was prepared for The New Zealand Physicist.

With this issue we farewell our editor Keith Lockett, who has served us so well in the nurturing and development of the New Zealand Skeptic. We have all seen how, from modest beginnings, the Newsletter has grown in stature and contents to a periodical that can hold its head among like journals internationally. Even the bleak patches when Keith was desperate for contributions proved temporary and recent editions demonstrate that we have a lively and informative journal that we will be proud to place in libraries in New Zealand and exchange with groups overseas.

For those who were not at the AGM in Auckland, I should tell you that I was elected as Chairman and Phil Bradley as Secretary at that meeting. Other Committee members are listed elsewhere in this edition. I cannot hope to emulate Denis Dutton or David Marks before him but I'll certainly do my best to keep the momentum of the Skeptics going.