Blog Archives

Moa Manipulation

Moa Manipulation

Digital manipulation is an example of Stephen Jay Gould’s ‘Great Asymmetry’: creation takes much longer than destruction or consumption. “It takes millions or billions of years for evolution to produce a species well-adapted to its environment, while…

See You Latte

See You Latte

Once you’re safely at the cafe, you can order an extra frothy latte, courtesy of a herd of cows deep in the heart of New Zealand. The milk of these cows has been found…

LA Love

LA Love

The LA Times runs a triumvirate of New Zealand travel features: Compact New Zealand, Wellington and comment from Fabio, King of Hearts: “They have the most amazing lakes. They’re huge and as deep as the mountains are high”.

Kiwi Water Winner

Kiwi Water Winner

The gold medal in women’s 470 sailing class at Sydney went to Australia – with a Kiwi doing the work. New Zealander Jenny Armstrong teamed up with Barbara Stowell, originally from Zimbabwe, to win Australia’s 50th medal.

Fishy Dispute

Fishy Dispute

The science of salmon conservation is muddy, but, as New Zealand’s introduced salmon show, the king of fish is an adaptable beast.

Elegy in Utah

Elegy in Utah

Chris Graves present’s Douglas Wright’s AIDS-lament, Elegy, in Salt Lake City.

Dogs of Auckland

Dogs of Auckland

Robert Creeley’s Dogs of Auckland sequence grew from the poet’s extended stay in his wife’s native New Zealand: “Isolation seduces and terrorizes” him. But at times, as toward the end of Edges, Creeley rediscovers…

Truman to Simone

Truman to Simone

Oscar-nominated Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, The Truman Show) has scripted and will helm Simone. Al Pacino stars alongside a mysterious actress who may or may not be real.

That’s Not a Camera Flash

That’s Not a Camera Flash

PM Clark ventured on a guided tour of the Sydney Harbour Bridge super-structure. Was that an admirer taking a picture? Was it an apparition of Roger Kerr? No, the sudden illumination was lightening striking the bridge, narrowly…

Aria noms for Shihad

Aria noms for Shihad

Shihad, hard edge rockers of Wellington, now Melbourne, have three nominations for the Australian Recording Industry Awards, the Arias: best group, best album and best rock album.

Jumpin’ Jai

Jumpin’ Jai

With a name like Taurima, he must be one of us. Jai Taurima, the Queensland-born son of a Maori father, just missed the gold in the long-jump, but a personal best of 8.49 metres was enough…

NZ Economy Surged

NZ Economy Surged

New Zealand’s economy surged two percent for the June quarter, Statistics New Zealand has revealed.

Purapurawhetu: Shining Stars

Purapurawhetu: Shining Stars

Purapurawhetu, Briar Grace-Smith’s 1997 award-winning play, has completed a successful tour of  Canada and is now on its way to Delphi in Greece. This has been a mega year for Grace-Smith, who received an…

Menace Knox in Chicago

Menace Knox in Chicago

Truly edgey Chris Knox described as “an acerbic, forceful wit, accomplished tunesmith and almost menacingly extroverted showman.”

Why do it yourself when you can play a CD?

Why do it yourself when you can play a CD?

Wellington coffee czar Geoff Marsland has issued a CD aimed at the neighbours – at annoying them that is. The CD features the noise of a lawnmower and runs for 64 minutes. “If your neighbours have…

Reading Edge in US

Reading Edge in US

Over the last twenty years, many young New Zealanders have benefited from “Reading Recovery”, the revolutionary learn-to-read programme created by Dame Marie Clay. Now the programme is spreading into American schools.

Framing the truth

Framing the truth

Wrestling with the Angel, Michael King’s bio of Janet Frame, has generated acclaim, column inches and voluminous sales in New Zealand and overseas. Stephanie Dowrick describes Frame as “(one of) the two great 20th-century…

Through Now

Through Now

Seepower, global/ Wellington IT company Compudigm’s data visualisation software, delivered smooth connection of more than 500,000 calls from Stadium Australia on the opening day of the Olympics.

NZ 3-D LCD

NZ 3-D LCD

Images on your monitor create the illusion of depth, but remain flat. Now a Kiwi company, Deep Video Imaging, has created a new kind of double-skinned monitor which delivers true depth of field and allows the display…

Dunkin’ Dream

Dunkin’ Dream

Kiwi Kirk Penney describes 2000 as “just dream after dream” after playing in the NCAA final four and the Olympics in one year.

Jonah Joins the Kids

Jonah Joins the Kids

Eighty school children from around the world joined in the “Forever Sports Challenge” during the Olympics. Some major sporting metal flew in to assist with the challenge, including Jonah Lomu as specialist warm-up coach.

Kissin Pad Goodbye

Kissin Pad Goodbye

New York-based New Zealander, restaurateur and business partner of Sir Terence Conran, Joel Kissin, sold his four-storey townhouse at 53 West 68th Street for US$7million. His new home is “is opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is…

Kiwi Coach Conquers in Rowing Eights

Kiwi Coach Conquers in Rowing Eights

The Olympic eights were taken out by the British for the time in 88 years and it was a Kiwi who pushed them to their win. The team cited Harry Mahon, their assistant coach, as a…

Dame Kiri Star Attraction at Arts Fundraiser

Dame Kiri Star Attraction at Arts Fundraiser

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and her “velvet voice” joined Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, raising $200,000 for the NAC. The Ottawa Citizen describes her as “one of the world’s great opera stars”.

Crushing Cushing

Crushing Cushing

Ansett International is looking to expand into Asian and European routes, challenging Australian giant Qantas. Asked how worried Qantas executives should be about the new competition, Air New Zealand executive chairman Selwyn Cushing advised them to “take…

Ultra Careful

Ultra Careful

Sarah Buckley, a New Zealand-trained family doctor looking into pre-natal care, has produced research that challenges the safety of ultra-sound scans routinely performed on pregnant women.  

Ski Bunny Finds Roads Funny

Ski Bunny Finds Roads Funny

Amy Chavez of Japan visited the NZ recently to ski. She found some of the mountain roads a little too close to the edge for comfort.

A Long Way to Deliver a Letter

A Long Way to Deliver a Letter

Jules Brown from The Observer takes a scenic trip up the stunning Whanganui river on some rather usual transport – a mail bus.

Mr Parsons’ mystery

Mr Parsons’ mystery

New Zealand-born thriller writer Julie Parsons featured in a British TV series, True Lives. She was filmed returning to New Zealand, the scene of her father’s mysterious disappearance all those years before…

Seeding Change

Seeding Change

New Zealand scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research have been collaborating with their Australian and British counterparts in experiments that may hold the answer to global warming. By adding extra iron to the…

Golden Moment

Golden Moment

Edge machine Rob Waddell takes the Olympic gold in rowing’s glamour event, the men’s single sculls.  

Tamahori: Edge iconoclast

Tamahori: Edge iconoclast

The Boston Globe profiles the Boston Film/Video Foundation, mentioning Kiwi Lee Tamahori, along with Rose Troche (Go Fish) and Whit Stillman (Barcelona) as an “international iconoclast” from their “Meet the Director” series.

Murderball 2

Murderball 2

Cage fights? Question time in the New Zealand Parliament is being broadcast live on the net.  

McKinnon Calls for Debt Relief

McKinnon Calls for Debt Relief

Commonwealth Sec-Gen Don McKinnon has called on G-7 countries, the World Bank and the IMF to “just do it” on the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative which would write off debts owed by some of the…

Taylor Tailor

Taylor Tailor

“Citrus silk wool bell-bottoms, lilac silk lace cardigan and a soft grape lace print cami-dress with lavender shearing were eternally pretty,” in Kiwi style-queen Rebecca Taylor’s New York Fashion Week show.

#27 NZEdge People

#27 NZEdge People

Edge Message #27 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM TO NZEDGE.COM COMMUNITY SHORT AND SWEET THIS WEEK: 64 NEW EDGE STORIES FROM THE GLOBAL PRESS INCLUDING: Tua readies for Kiri dazzles Dallas Team NZ seeded first Rings Rings Rings Flaming Kerry Fox Flaming Poi…

Soft-soaping Protector

Soft-soaping Protector

Waiuku orchardist Chris Henry has created the world’s first organically acceptable soft-soap fungicide. The product, branded as Protector, is “just what environment conscious growers and customers have been demanding”.

Well done

Well done

NZ-bred Fay Weldon needn’t have the Rhode Island Blues over reviews for her latest book: “she writes thoroughly modern fables that throw light and cast doubt on the meaning and wisdom of contemporary pieties.”

The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Runners

The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Runners

Jonathan Wyatt (1998 Champion) took out the Mountain Running World Trophy at the Bavarian village of Bergen, while the New Zealand Women successfully chased Gold as well.

Entrepreneurial Drive

Entrepreneurial Drive

The Waikato Management School has launched an innovative scheme to counter the supposed Brain Drain.

Dollar for Dollar

Dollar for Dollar

Ian MacFarlane, Governor of the Australia Reserve bank, has been positive about the idea of currency union with New Zealand, but has left the initiative firmly on the Kiwi side of the ditch. Earlier this month…

Virtual Hobbits

Virtual Hobbits

“In a nondescript suburb of New Zealand’s capital, the team at Weta Digital, an offshoot of Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Films, is producing more than 1,200 visual effect shots for the three Lord of…

Kudos for Kiwis

Kudos for Kiwis

Messages of thanks and congratulations poured in from all over the world in response to New Zealand’s decision to take the Afgan refugees. “By accommodating our homeless and stranded children and mothers, New Zealand…

High Dependency Unit and Loraxx play Chicago

High Dependency Unit and Loraxx play Chicago

The Chicago Independent Arts Festival begins in early October. New Zealand bands High Dependency Unit and Loraxx are going to be there, giving Chicagoites a taste of the Edge.  

Post-punk Beat

Post-punk Beat

“New Zealand post-punker Chris Knox and Austin, Texas-based cult figure Daniel Johnston are as indie as indie gets. Both write unflinching lyrics about love, life and madness. Both record their ditties on low-fidelity four-track…

Top of the Pots

Top of the Pots

New Zealand plants have a distinctive look to them, and the tree-fern is perhaps one of the most unusual. Ponga trees are a hot item in the UK. Home Front TV gardener Diarmuid Gavin highlights them on…

Tiger Almost Tamed Almost by Waite’s Deft Strokes

Tiger Almost Tamed Almost by Waite’s Deft Strokes

The New Zealander gave golf’s biggest star a few worried moments at the Canadian Open. Grant Waite stayed with Woods the whole day until the closing strokes of the final round. “If you make a mistake, he’ll…

Biking Across the World

Biking Across the World

Kiwis turn up in the most extreme places. The Copper Canyon region of Mexico is hardcore: the roads are rocks-strewn, pot-holed and dusty. Typical terrain includes dizzying curves, steep switchbacks and narrow passageways. Intrepid mountain-biking Kiwi Blair…

Are You Reading This Now?

Are You Reading This Now?

New Zealand ranks among the most literate countries in the world, according to a study released on September 8. The Scandinavians, with their long winters by the fire, ranked at the very top of…

Dame Kiri at the Meyerson Symphony Centre

Dame Kiri at the Meyerson Symphony Centre

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, star soprano, is appearing in a recital in Dallas. “In recitals it’s a partnership—you and your pianist partner performing for each other. I love that give-and-take, that wonderful feeling of…

Fair Go, Mate!

Fair Go, Mate!

Game theory is used by many branches of the social sciences to help explain some the seemingly irrational behaviour of humans. Paul Walker, a New Zealand academic, has constructed a time-line of the development of games theory…

Sweet Sugar

Sweet Sugar

Peter Gordon is the man who launched a thousand experiments with seaweed, noodles and kangaroo. His latest book, “Cook at Home with Peter Gordon”, applies the same eclectic principles, offering something for cooks of…

Pask Bask

Pask Bask

Where do you go for the top Bordeaux? Edge Hawkes Bay winery CJ Pask makes the best Bordeaux-style wine in the world, according to the world’s premier wine judging event.  

Home Run

Home Run

Shane Hunuhunu plays baseball for the Ashland (Ohio) Bombers’. The fireplug slugger imported from New Zealand features in “Fastpitch”, a new film by first-time film-maker Jeremy Spears. The footage was shot over a summer Spears spent playing…

#26 Taking The Edge To The Middle

#26 Taking The Edge To The Middle

Edge Message #26 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM TO NZEDGE.COM COMMUNITY “I live at the edge of the universe, like everybody else. Sometimes I think congratulations are in order…” – Bill Manhire, from The Milky Way Edge Message #28: four…

Team NZ Pickup Pace

Team NZ Pickup Pace

Having carried off the wine prizes, we’re now taking skippers. Bertrand Pace, who skippered the French boat in the last America’s Cup, has signed on with Team NZ. “I am very pleased and excited to join the…