Revisiting Drake
6 January 2025
What are the chances that we will make contact with an alien civilisation?
Articles tagged with "light"
X39 Patches, brought to you by LifeWave
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?
NZ lightworkers can save the world
25 December 2023
This is the cover image of one of NZ's own lightworkers, J. Lee Frisbee. He works at “Explore Daydreaming Inc”, and describes himself as “Multidimensional Navigator - I Am Light Zen Master”.
Hell Houses, Trunk-or-Treats, and Light Parties: How Hallowe'en alternative spread the gospel during the spooky season
30 October 2023
As a major fan of Fall and Hallowe'en, the sudden absence of the holiday from my calendar was one of the few points of culture shock I had when I migrated to New Zealand. I soon found out that nothing could unite the members of this fine nation more than a chorus of tut-tutting about how corporate and how American Hallowe'en was, how tacky it was to send your kids out begging for treats, how much the holiday glorified chocolate, and so on and so forth. It can get a little grinchy sometimes, especially in the comments section of the NZ Herald website.
NZ's other Light Workers
26 June 2023
Following on from my last article, I decided to see if I could ferret out more “light workers” in New Zealand – the sort of people who worship Trump, and who believe the golden age is “coming real soon now, and we'll be able to laugh at the sceptics”. For the sake of clarity I'll refer to these people henceforth as Light Warriors – you'll see why in a moment.
New Zealand's own Light Worker
29 May 2023
Sierra Roberts is a New Zealand-based ambassador for the Galactic Federation of Light. She is a dedicated “light worker”, committed to helping humanity ascend from a 3-dimensional environment to a 5-dimensional one (they always seem to skip the 4th dimension!).
I am a Starseed
7 November 2022
A couple of weeks ago I went to the Upper Hutt “Mind, Body, Spirit” Fair with Bronwyn, as well as Skeptics in the Pub regulars Alexander and Tim. We were there to gawk at the weird and wonderful stalls, and all that they offered.
NASA to investigate UAPs - what are they, and are they real?
15 August 2022
NASA recently held a press teleconference where they announced that they will be investigating UAPs - Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. This is a new term being used instead of UFOs, given that UFO suffers from both not being very descriptive (Unidentified things people see in the sky might not be Flying, and they might not be Objects - planets, clouds and aurora are often mistakenly thought to be mysterious objects, but none of them are flying; and the Northern and Southern aurora aren't objects, just cool light shows caused by solar particles), and having a lot of baggage attached to it - when people read UFO, they instantly think aliens. Here's NASA announcing their project:
Veritasium
29 November 2021
Back on YouTube channels again - you may have heard of the YouTube channel Veritasium. This one is a generally good science channel which has nearly 11 million subscribers.
Proof of UFOs is "just around the corner"...
23 June 2021
Now that I've found out about Rebel Wisdom, I'm hooked. I usually have to go hunting for my nonsense, but the Rebel Wisdom website has everything in one place: Rupert Sheldrake (who has silly ideas about supernatural mental powers), Alan Watts (who has silly ideas about religion and philosophy) and Jordan Peterson (who has silly ideas about all sorts of things) are all featured.
Triangular UFO “mystery” solved
27 April 2021
An interesting video has appeared on YouTube which gives a rational explanation for a UFO video taken by US Navy personnel.
Should we worry about LED bulbs?
5 April 2021
Stuff published an article recently about the dangers of LED light bulbs, arguing that the blue light from LED bulbs disturbs our circadian rhythm and disrupts our sleep, with wide ranging knock-on effects to our health. My skeptical radar beeped at reading this, as I've looked into this issue in the past and found much speculation and very little actual science.
LED lights are apparently not safe for us
24 June 2018
It seems that every new advance in technology is accompanied by people who are willing to warn the world of made up dangers. Anti-vaccine advocates have been around since the beginning of vaccine use over a hundred years ago. People have warned others about the dangers of artificial sweeteners, GM foods and the LHC - all of which have a very low risk profile, and confer major benefits to society.
Musings on theatre and superstition
1 August 2017
As I sit here with my laptop in my home office reflecting on the past few months and the time that has passed since my last editorial I am stunned at how much time has flown over the past year! I am happy to announce that I have now completed my undergraduate studies at Victoria University, with my Bachelor of Arts with a double major in English Literature and Religious Studies. Does that make me a theologian as well as ESOL (English speakers of other languages) teacher and theatre practitioner?
Bioptron call me
27 November 2016
After last Sunday's show, when I talked about Bioptron at the Go Green Expo, a Bioptron rep called up RadioLive and asked for me to contact them. I called, and was then contacted the next day by a Division Manager for Bioptron - David.
NZ Herald prints article saying that taking selfies can damage your skin
26 June 2016
A dermatologist at a recent anti-ageing conference has said that regularly exposing the face to the light and electromagnetic radiation from smartphones can speed up ageing and wrinkles. Doctors even claim they can tell which hand a person holds their phone in just by looking at which side of the face is most damaged.
Peddling Wellness
1 November 2013
A 'Wellness Festival' provides a couple of hours' entertainment, if not much more
The coming of the phantom airship
1 August 2010
NZ Skeptic 17 (May 1990) included an item taken from the NZ Herald's "100 Years of News", published in 1963, looking back at the great New Zealand airship panic of 1909. This topic, and its parallels with more recent UFO crazes, was covered in more detail in NZ Skeptic 47.
An Identified Flying Object off Abut Head
1 May 2004
One of our members almost spots a UFO
Not Eating May be Hazardous to Health
1 February 2000
Sceptics have put up $100,000 in a bid to make a controversial Australian spiritualist eat her words over claims she does not need food.
Genesis Revisited: A Scientific Creation Story
1 November 1998
IN THE beginning (specifically on October 23, 4004 B.C., at noon) out of quantum foam fluctuation God created the Big Bang out of inflationary cosmology. He saw that the Big Bang was very big, too big for creatures that could worship him, so He created the earth. And darkness was upon the face of the deep, so He commanded hydrogen atoms (which He created out of Quarks and other subatomic goodies) to fuse and become helium atoms and in the process release energy in the form of light. And the light-maker he called the sun, and the process He called fusion. And He saw the light was good because now He could see what he was doing. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Auras by Polaroid
1 August 1995
At the Festival of Possibilities in Nelson, all the usual New Age paraphernalia were on display. A current vogue is "pulsing" which is already available in at least two varieties, holistic and Tibetan. (I later experienced a pulsing; it's a variety of massage involving having different parts rocked or shaken, quite pleasant.) People at one stand tried to sell me Matol, a mixture of herbal extracts "that works at the molecular level" to increase the uptake of oxygen by my blood. I told them I trusted my body to take up just the right amount of oxygen.
Some UFO Experiences
1 August 1995
Recently I had a UFO experience in the comfort and privacy of my own home. Or rather, I would have had a UFO experience if it had been a UFO. Unfortunately, however, I found a rational explanation for it, which means this story's not nearly as interesting as it could have been.
Forum
1 November 1992
Your main article in the March issue (Skeptic, #23), "The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Vincent Gray, is perhaps the worst I have ever read. It consists almost entirely of bald assertions, all un- referenced and mostly false, vilifying unspecified "environmentalists". I shall take room to correct only the worst of these assertions; my main complaint about the piece is more formal, namely that it is unrelated to the NZCSICOP's aims, and on that ground alone should never have been printed in the magazine.
Editorial
1 August 1989
Several members have sent me cuttings which I am afraid we can not use but which I am always glad to get. Malcolm MacCleary especially has sent me some good stuff on how to be a winning punter, news from the Order of the Magical Rose, Nelson and some more remarkable extracts from the Melchizadek Manuscripts. See how many clangers you can find in this passage: