23 December 2024
Maybe it's the day drinking, uni students on summer break, or NZ tourism has gone intergalactic, but it seems that December is prime UFO time for New Zealand. So, for the next couple of issues of the newsletter, we're going to focus on otherworldly things, starting with three December UFO events:
25 November 2024
In early August, MediaWatch in Australia released a segment about low-level laser therapy, an Autism treatment now available in Queensland, that had been profiled in local media as successful in helping non-speaking Autistic children speak.
14 April 2021
Disappointingly, despite the excitement, I'm sure many listeners will already have figured out what the rational explanation for this string of lights in the sky over Melbourne was: Elon Musk's Starlink, a company that is providing satellite based internet - with a few tens of thousands of satellites planned to be deployed over the next few years. There are valid questions about whether these devices are damaging to astronomy, and have the potential to clutter earth's orbit, but they're definitely not visiting aliens. If you are able to get out and see these satellites as they maneuver themselves into their operational orbits, I'd definitely recommend it. I saw them late last year, and it was an impressive sight - a real testament to modern technology.
27 November 2016
There have been a few stories in the news recently about earthquakes that have left me feeling skeptical:
1 November 2010
One of the main reasons for the success Al Qaeda has had in getting bombs past checkpoints in Iraq is that the main device used to detect explosives is a uselss fake (NZ Herald, 24 July).
1 November 2000
An old mystery now looks rather less mysterious
1 February 1997
A conversation off the Skeptics newsgroup.
1 February 1995
Seeing shouldn't always be believing, as a Nelson skeptic discovered thirty years ago.
1 May 1993
From Jerusalem comes news that Israel's former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has ruled that trained monkeys may turn off lights or do other domestic chores forbidden to Jews on the sabbath. But only a borrowed monkey -- or a dog or other animal capable of performing such tasks -- can be used because their own beasts must be allowed to rest.