Edge Message #22 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM TO NZEDGE.COM COMMUNITY Good morning/afternoon/evening Today in NEWZEDGE more stories about New Zealanders rocking equilibriums around the globe, including: The Hollywood Reporter on Lord of the Rings and other film projects in “Wellywood” …
Female hackers have proved so elusive that they slip under the radar of sociologists. ABC News investigates part of an underground subculture better known for the misogynistic stink of a high school boys’ locker room – geek girls using hacktivism to overcome sexism …
Mountain biker Yuri Kuzyk takes issue with an Ottawa Citizen article claiming that mountain biking erodes mountain trails in Gatineau Park. He cites the hard science of a 1995 New Zealand Department of Conservation Study that shows mountain biking causes no more damage …
“The only cast-iron certainty in golf right now is that New Zealand veteran, Bob Charles, will finish in the top six in the British Seniors Open.” The Belfast Telegraph correctly placed its bet on the Kiwi left hander whose record in an event …
The Times profiles New Zealander Carrie de Duluin, Personal Assistant to Serena Rees and Joseph Corré (son of Vivienne Westwood), creators of Agent Provocateur, the label that gave new meaning to “naughty, but nice” underwear chic. Rees describes her as …
Looking to get in shape for her acting career Kiwi supermodel Rachel Hunter enlisted the help of SunWoman who came up with a brilliant eating plan which included Hunter’s favourite foods: Crunchie bars, Frosties, curries and oysters washed down with …
“Eventually, excellence of all sorts is rewarded, and one day New Zealand will be able to show off its medals.” The New York Times explores the success of New Zealand’s contender in the wine making Olympics: Sauvignon Blanc – “the best of them …
Natural History New Zealand writers Ian McGee (who won NZ’s first Emmy last year) and Quinn Berentson were nominated for their for an episode “The Rat” in the 13 part series Twisted Tales co-produced by Animal Planet and the acclaimed …
The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Dracula is slaying audiences across the Tasman. Described as “grand gothic entertainment layering gloom, psychological gutsiness and new eroticism over a hackneyed old plot” it has opened in Melbourne to A-Positive acclaim: Dracula is “taking …
An official inquiry has only just been launched into the infamous Thai massacre where Kiwi Brendan Mahoney was almost killed eight years ago. He was staring up towards Bangkok’s democracy monument on a balmy May night in 1992 when he …
Sucking the marrow out life isn’t quite as easy as it seems: “I once sat for a whole day fishing on New Zealand’s Lake Taupo, enjoying the sunshine and the superlative smoked salmon … pretending to be Ernest Hemingway … in a matter …
Blanchett, Academy Award nominated for her performance in Elizabeth is in the final stages of filming another Queen, the role of elf Galadriel in Lord of the Rings. Blanchett explains why an attraction to Jackson’s filmic edge vision caused her …
New Zealander David Fong was earlier this year appointed President of Toronto advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day and along with Creative Director Jamie Way has turned the agencies flagging fortunes around with the attraction of some big-name clients.
In a Chicago Tribune survey of readers’ favourite man-made destinations, Christchurch came in tied for 14th as the place most readers would like to travel to, ahead of the Taj Mahal, Leaning Tower of Pisa and Disney World. Milford Sound was the 8th …
Not doing a great deal to dispel the stereotype of the loud-mouthed ocker, an article on the art and science of noise in the Sydney Morning Herald looks at the menace of noise pollution, admitting that Australia’s building code has …
A Palmerston North, New Zealand-based firm ORBS (Open Relay Behaviour-Modification Service) is joining the crusade to save the suffering masses from the indignity of spam. Identifying culpable open servers, ORBS then persuades their administrators to close them by blacklisting that site.
Rewi Alley: social reformer, educator, fireman, writer, poet, translator, great internationalist, industrialist, revered citizen, potter, hero and friend of China. He is “unique for achieving greatness in a country where few foreigners ever manage to achieve a ripple"…
Paying tribute to the emblematic (and Kiwi conceived) Arts and Letters Daily, Jenny Lynn Bader writes, “There are entire publications on the Web that are just indexes of other publications … an imaginatively hyperlinked site should ideally have the beauty …
Putting more Kiwis in Kangeroo skins and calling them Aussies, news.com.au reports that four more ‘Australian’ actors have been added to the cast of George Lucas next Star Wars movie, including Martin Csokas, formerly of Shortland Street fame. The cast …
Edge Message #21 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM TO NZEDGE.COM MEMBERS Late last week the senior writer at nzedge.com, Paul Ward (he’s 24) came to me with a worried look. “The Alley story is getting to be longer than Rutherford’s,” he …
No, not the Lord of the Rings … amidst speculation about upcoming productions of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, New Zealand soprano Margaret Medlyn has been picked to sing the part of Kundry in the State Opera of South Australia’s production of …
New Zealand listed corporate raider Guinness Peat’s edge proved too sharp at Young & Co (Britain’s oldest brewery), after chairman John Young turned the screws on them using megaphone diplomacy. Despite having support from ‘A’ investors, private shareholders revolted: one investor said Guinness …
“It just may spell the end of the world’s ugliest headgear: that staple of the Australian tourist shop regular, the cork-fringed hat.” Two researchers from Massey University have developed a technique that kills female fruit flies in the laboratory. The research may single …
Imagine a countryside filled with possum traps, not designed to kill, but to entice the pesky pest in for a quick facial spray to vaccinate them against bovine TB. Hailing some edge thinking the Guardian writes: “It is not that fanciful. Tests in …
From tree-pruning to atom bombs, on the death of physicist Sir Mark Oliphant the Guardian remembers the contribution his friendship with Sir Ernest Rutherford made to Twentieth Century science, “[Oliphant’s] greatest personal triumphs in science came in the 1930s, when his friendship with …
The South China Morning Post’s took the North to South bicycle route through through the magnificent volcanic landscapes, tumbling glaciers and rugged coastlines of Aotearoa, and reflected back in the office: “Already I was yearning to be back in the saddle again, with …
Two years after the death of Michael Hutchence, Australian rock legends INXS have announced that they will return with former Noiseworks lead-singer Kiwi Jon Stevens at the mike. “We’ve got to get on with our lives and we feel that …
An international effort to find biological life in the stars, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (‘Sophia’), a joint project between NASA and the German Aerospace Centre, will spend two months of every year in New Zealand, the place from which they can observe …
The Guardian explores the new linguistic imperialism and the effects of media on language: a New Zealand researcher has found that, under the influence of programmes like Eastenders, increased glottalisation of the dialect has occured. “Pass the budder” had been transformed …
“The jagged edge is back to New Zealand’s game, the legal violence of execution beneath the blades of the All Black harvester,” writes the Sydney Morning Herald. We couldn’t have said it better. Shell-shocked Aussie captain John Eales: “I doubt if there’s ever …
Kiwi World Champion Rob Waddell confirmed his Gold Medal prospects for the single sculls at the Sydney Olympics by winning the World Cup in Zurich. The Kiwi four also caused a oarsome upset becoming the first crew to beat Steve Redgrave, in the …
Hobbits boost the local carpentry trade: “They haven’t begun construction of a new Hollywood sign yet on the steep hills that encircle New Zealand`s capital city of Wellington, but it would not be surprising if they did. Wellington is hometown …
Dr Christopher de Hamel has been appointed to one of the world’s most prestigious library posts at Cambridge University’s Parker Library. Formerly a senior valuer at Sothebys, de Hamel is the first Donnelly Fellow Librarian at Corpus Christi College, overseeing …
‘Echelon’, a mysterious spy network between the United States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, has come under fire from the European Union, as well as defenders of civil liberty. The station at Wahopai, in the South Island, featured prominently in a report to …
Well, hardly on the edge, but a Canadian tourist bicycling through New Zealand has managed to tear his eyes away from the scenery long enough to notice the benefits of the firm application of the metric system. “It was refreshing to ask individuals …
Organic farmer Evelyn Eng-Lim is introducing the organic lifestyle to Singapore and hopes to set an example for other farmers to follow, “If other farmers see that it is commercially viable, then they will be convinced to go organic as well.” For advice …
On the occasion of the millennium British Open the Royal and Ancient celebrated past champions, including Kiwi Bob Charles: “Thirty-seven years after he became the first left-hander to win the title, New Zealander Bob Charles still swings with a calm assurance that allows …
A world record crowd at Stadium Australia witnessed what was acclaimed as one of the great test matches. A waltzing Jonah scored the winning try in injury time in a miraculous end to a thrilling match, “one of the most explosive and dramatic …
New Zealander Sam Chisholm, deputy chairman of the New Millennium Experience Commission, operator of the beleaguered Millennium Dome, is supporting a proposal to ship contents of the Dome to the Sydney Olympic complex, including the giant pink Body Zone, concepted and designed by …
Asked to describe his most memorable trip, Dodo Cu-Unjieng, CEO of Philippine Fujitsu Xerox, answers (of course): New Zealand. “We were constantly overwhelmed by the beauty of the country. We would comment that when God created the world, he reserved the very …
The discerning readers of the Guardian and Observer have voted New Zealand as their favourite long-haul travel destination. “It is the Caribbean and the English countryside, Antarctica and California, Sydney and Gleneagles all rolled into one. It is the department store of …
Facing dwindling tourism numbers and the problem of how to overcome the bad service and the apocryphal deep-fried Mars bars, the Scotsman’s Peter Irvine is looking to the edge: “one threat to tourism in Scotland comes from unlikely places like Costa Rica, New …
Sean Bean has trodden the tightrope between Hollywood Bond villain and small budget independent movies enough times to know that the movie world has its ups and downs, but he says “it’s definitely worth the risk” to be involved in …
Ian Holm, the British actor who plays Bilbo Baggins, oozes enthusiasm about Peter Jackson’s big-budget adaptation of the Lord of the Rings. “There are 130 special effects people and it’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant.”
On the verge in London, Mark de Clive-Lowe’s album Six Degrees continues to spread the vibe. “[De Clive-Lowe] has assembled a collection of spacy tracks ornamented by his elegant Rhodes commentary. Popular on the club scene, this is another one …
New Zealand’s tourism campaigns play on the myth of its clean, green image, but soon the truth may be stranger than fiction. A proposal for clean air producers, such as New Zealand, to sell “carbon sinks” to pollution producers, could turn into a …
Paquin stars in Bryan Singer’s blockbuster adaptation of the comic X-Men. In the high tech parable of good and evil, Paquin offers “a surprisingly poignant performance.” Expressing well the hazards of being an adolescent mutant, Rogue, when embracing a boyfriend, …
“If ever one man won the Battle of Britain, he did.” On the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Britain TheTimes remembers the New Zealander who was the key man in defending Britain and Malta during World War Two. Sir Keith Park “as a …
Zespri gives the Kiwifruit the golden touch, hoping to strike it lucky in the lucrative American market. The new yellow cultivar is, “much like the green variety on the outside, but its mustard-hued flesh has a custardy texture and almost melonlike taste.”
Unfortunately it wasn’t a tennis player: “New Zealand’s profound influence on international sport goes beyond the haka and influencing the bidding of World Cup football finals. Consider, for example, Aorangi Park, the area of the All England Club’s grounds north of the Centre Court.” …
The New York Times scuds along at 31 knots on board the world’s quickest ocean-going sailboat. For Club Med, skippered by Kiwi Grant Dalton pushing the boundaries of speed is plain-sailing: “You never get sick of going over 30,” he shouted. “I haven’t …
Internet advertising that works has become the advertising industry’s holy grail. Futurist Kevin Roberts says that solution remains the same as always: good web advertising will play on emotional connections. Roberts cites examples that have successfully made the connection, from …
It sounds like a line from a bad personal ad, but a team of New Zealand biologists, led by Dr. Michael Walker, in an upcoming issue of Nature, report findings from innovative research into ‘the sixth sense.’ Investigating how animals navigate using magnetic …
The mariner soon learnt his lesson, but it doesn’t seem to have rubbed off on today’s fishermen, with one of the world’s most majestic seabirds threatened with extinction from long-line fishing, and environmental and habitat pollution. The wise ANZACS are rallying: “Australia and …
“She is perfect and I think most people agree.” Efficiency, accuracy, reliability and above all loyalty are the words the Sydney Morning Herald uses to describe Sue Hutchinson, the first female to hold the position of assistant clerk of the scales and assistant …
Four hairs stuck in a depiction of an outrigger canoe on a harbour may help decide whether an oil painting is the work of Paul Gauguin. A New Zealand family claims that the painting is the legacy of a friendship …
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