“Prime Minister, there is a report that an elephant has escaped from the zoo and is sitting in your office,” said the Prime Minister’s first advisor. ¶ “That’s terrible!” said the Prime Minister. “Voters will not like it at all.” ¶ “We…
It’s easy to believe that race relations in New Zealand are in a pretty happy place. Especially when you’re white. My own experience is probably typical of that. ¶ Growing up in the Hutt Valley suburbs of Naenae and Alicetown meant…
It's hard to overstate the significance of The Clean's Boodle Boodle Boodle in the history of Flying Nun, the label that released it, and in the context of New Zealand music in general. In some ways, it's the reason there…
The government's announcement that e-cigarettes and the vaping liquid to go with them will be legalised and regulated is welcome. But it doesn't change as much as it might at first appear. And some of the changes it does make…
I’ve just hung up the phone from a courtesy call the guy probably really really regrets making. ¶ He was calling from the company which has won the contract to transport our daughter Claudia, who has special needs, to and from…
It hasn't been a good week for YouTube. It's not the content: that continues to be added at a rate of hundreds of hours of video every minute – and a billion hours of YouTube video are watched every day. It's…
If Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's rich, nuanced 2011 documentary Prohibition does anything, it is to show how complex both the causes and effects of America's "Great Experiment" really were. ¶ The coalition that achieved the 18th Amendment to the US…
On Tuesday, Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson released Hit & Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the meaning of honour. The book details a 2010 raid in Afghanistan, carried out New Zealand SAS troop, with assistance from US air…
I didn't go to Adele's first show in Auckland last night and, short of the freebie fairy paying a late visit , I won't be going to the others either. I don't mind Adele, but I don't have $300-a-ticket worth…
Dr Brian Greene is known both for a series of revolutionary discoveries in his field of superstring theory – he is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University – and as a skilled communicator of the wonder of theoretical physics…
'The ugly side of Polyfest' blared TVNZ's headline about two fights near PolyFest in South Auckland last weekend. It was a horrible headline which appeared to imply that violence was somehow part and parcel of this annual cultural festival, now…
One of the most important characteristics of good journalism is is also its plainest: simple persistence. It's worth bearing that in mind in light of Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson's new book, Hit and Run. ¶ As Andrew Geddis explains here,…
When I started SciFilms about this time last year, it wasn't really a change of direction so much as a narrowing of focus. I've always loved doing science and technology stories, and I really wanted to put my flag in…
Music has always been part of my life and it’s in my blood – my great, great grandfather came down this way in a travelling orchestra, jumped ship and stayed. A career in music was always on the cards. ¶ It's been…
I don't know much about French Kiwi Juice, other than that his real name is Vincent Fenton and he lives in Paris and apparently grew up here. But I can tell you that I really like his new, self-titled album.…
Last night I joined an interesting crew of people – Kirsty Johnston, Kym Niblock, Troy Rawhiti-Forbes and Chris Keall – on a Social Media Club Auckland panel talking about fake news. You can watch the video here on Facebook. ¶ The discussion, inevitably,…
It would be wrong to say the results of New Zealand's first pilot study analysing wastewater to estimate public drug use tell us what we already knew. It's a characteristic of studying illicit drug use that there's always a lot…
It's been a while since we last threw some seasonal photos up here . Summer's sliding fast into Autumn, so fast I can't deny it any longer. Looking back over summer I see a lot of time on beaches, in…
If you ride a bicycle in traffic, you've probably had the experience of returning to the road after a couple of weeks away and thinking "what the hell is this?" The reality of sharing the road with flying two-ton chunks…
Back in 2010, when the Pixies last played Vector Arena, we all thought this would be the last, and ultimate, Pixies concert of all time, and that seeing them re-formed with Kim Deal made life worth living, and nothing could…
Lorde has busted out another preview from Melodrama and it's a touching, impressive piano ballad called 'Liability'. Seems like there might be a lot of piano on this album. ¶ ¶ She also revealed Melodrama's release date – June 16 – and she'll be…
I cannot begin to think about International Women’s Day, or indeed the experience of being a woman, without first acknowledging the role that disability plays in my life. I am a woman with a disability, a disabled woman. ¶ Both identities…
The picture below is a screenshot of my last nine followers on Twitter, as of about 10 minutes ago. You'll note that they are all "eggs" – that is, accounts that lack a personal avatar and instead carry the default Twitter…
The National government's bold move to bind a future government, nearly 20 years hence, to phase in a rise in the age of elibility for National Superannuation, from 65 to 67, invites a yawn on its face. But it's significant…
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a cricket game at Hagley Oval, because that’s what I do in summer. The oddest thing about it wasn’t that the Black Caps won, it was the toilets. For the second time…