30 September 2024
Today is the last day to get early bird tickets for our annual NZ Skeptics Conference, this year in partnership with the NZARH, in Auckland from the 15th to the 17th of November. If you're keen to come and listen to some fascinating talks about skepticism, covering a diverse array of topics (and with something of a focus on religion, given this year's partnering with the Rationalists), make sure you get your tickets today to save a little money. The regular authors of this newsletter will be there, as we'll be recording a live episode of our Yeah… Nah! Podcast at the event. If you're able to make it, be sure to come over and say hi to us as it's always good to chat with people and make new connections at these events.
31 October 2022
This week I take a look at Halloween - today!, talk about Elon Musk's Twitter purchase, the Just Stop Oil campaign, and Bronwyn gives us an update about Highden Estate and ISTA.
13 September 2021
Billy Te Hakiha is in the news again. You'll recall that he was recently arrested, with his “partner in crime” Vinny Eastwood, for violating the lockdown, and holding a protest. Billy and Vinny spent some time in jail, but are now out on bail awaiting trial.
21 June 2021
Welcome to the NZ Skeptics newsletter.
22 March 2021
I read a very good article today in The Atlantic explaining some of the subtleties around the COVID vaccine. In particular we shouldn't be surprised when vaccinated people get infected.
23 November 2020
My personal journey into skepticism began back in the early 90s before the internet was publicly available, but podcasts now form a significant chunk of the skeptical content that I consume. My particular favourites are The Skeptics Guide to the Universe (a great weekly roundup of science and skepticism), Oh No, Ross and Carrie (weird and often humorous investigations into fringe groups and claims of the paranormal), and Sawbones (fascinating medical history of dubious devices and cures, but firmly science-based). But there are many others, and tastes vary.
21 January 2018
I'm in Nelson on holiday at the moment, and at a market today I saw a lot of nonsense - many bad medical claims being made about honey, jewellery, etc.
1 August 2005
All life has a common ancestor. Or to put it another way, every creature alive today, including ourselves, has an unbroken chain of ancestors going back almost four billion years. At certain points along the path from then to now, lineages have split, and split again, to give rise to the millions of species alive today.
1 August 1996
**RIVER OUT OF EDEN: A DARWINIAN VIEW OF LIFE by Richard Dawkins.
1 August 1990
From Ancient Skies, Vol 16, No 6. (1990)
1 August 1987
When I entered medicine more than fifty years ago, few maladies could be effectively treated. Lobar pneumonia, diabetes, pernicious anaemia, malaria and a few others. Patients with other disorders received careful medical attention while the illness ran its natural course,' unless the doctor made it worse. A warm relationship with the doctor eased the burden of serious illness for the patient and his family. Relentless killers which raged then have now vanished; poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, diphtheria, syphilis and smallpox. Childbirth was hazardous to mother and baby. There was no specific treatment for psychotic illness. Psychiatric research related mainly to taxonomy. A quarter of asylum inmates had general paresis, which killed them in a few years; today, thanks to penicillin, it is rare. 50 years ago, surgeons could treat many life-endangering conditions. They thought that physicians were pretentious tinkerers whose professional high spot was a brilliant diagnosis confirmed by a brilliant post-mortem.