The flurry of media and social media interest that greeted news of the landing of the Perseverance rover (and, incidentally, Ingenuity, the first helicopter on Mars) shows the enduring fascination that the Red Planet exercises over the popular imagination. The endless fascination with Mars seems strangely contrary to that of
Dear Ashley Bloomfield and PM Jacinda Ardern, Whenever we, as the New Zealand public, receive information from the Beehive or the Ministry of Health or from scholars, it is always touted that our authorities or esteemed scholars are following the science to keep us safe, and obviously we would like
Science writer Matt Ridley caused quite the stir when he published The Myth of Basic Science, arguing that the bulk of scientific discovery came from technological innovation – and rarely from government. Naturally, Ridley’s argument sent a million lab-coated troughers into a fit of the screaming mee-mees. But, much as
James Scott University of Otago NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully touched down on Mars this morning, and has already begun beaming back images. But people might be surprised to learn there have been another 48 missions to the red planet so far. Of these, more than half failed at stages
I once had the dubious pleasure of being harangued by an elderly hippy about “Nibiru”, the supposed mysterious planet that was going to collide with the Earth in the next year. That was several years ago, so I can chalk that up to yet another end-of-the-world that I’ve survived.
Ever since ditching the execrable Malcolm Turnbull, the Coalition under Scott Morrison has steadily been turning a paler shade of the deep teal it had become. Although reviled by the left-media as a deep-blue conservative, Morrison is steadily flushing greener as he endlessly panders to the shrill left on issues
Just how many times do we have to say it? How many scientific studies have to be published, proving it? Lockdowns. Do. Not. Work. We’ve been reporting the evidence that lockdowns are a lunatic policy for nearly a year now. From the moment real-world data was available, the science
We are currently in the grip of not one but two, virus-like predicaments. One, COVID-19, is very obvious because of the way it is constantly drawn to our attention by our prime minister and her minions, the news (or should that be views) media. COVID-19 is a very real problem
Dr John Maunder sunlive.co.nz Monthly rainfalls for Tauranga have been recorded at several recording sites during the last 123 years. From January 1898 to December 1904, the observation site was described as the Tauranga Harbour, from November 1904 to April 1907 the site was described as simply ‘Tauranga’
Marc Grey Are COVID Vaccines…Vaccines? In a previous article, the 4 COVID vaccines coming to New Zealand were discussed in some detail. In this one, we examine some common questions that people have about these vaccines. Firstly, because most of them are made via novel technology (in particular the
Alice Gorman Flinders University Associate Professor in Archaeology and Space Studies, Flinders University On January 31, 1961, an intrepid chimpanzee called Ham was launched on a rocket from Cape Canaveral in the United States, and returned to Earth alive. In this process, he became the first hominin in space. In
The Wuhan plague sure is a tricky little virus. It seems particularly determined to show up the arrogant bullshit of “experts” and public health bureaucrats. An endless parade of lab-coated media tarts posturing as our sole sources of truth have been continually confounded by the Chinese virus. Whether it’s
The common perception of Australia as a land inhabited mostly by vicious, poisonous animals is not entirely unearned. After all, we have sharks, taipans, redback spiders and Clementine Ford. But, to us country folk especially, it can all seem a bit too much ado about nothing. But, then you read
The discovery of the depletion of the ozone layer in the late 1970s and the subsequent Montreal Protocol of 1987 are often cited by climate alarmists as the paradigm case to support their delusions. But, in reality, it’s mostly an object lesson in everything that’s wrong with climate
