Whistle-blowing
After ten years of play on an unregulated field, an umpire has been appointed for the New Zealand telecommunications industry.
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Bombs Away
Foreign Minister Phil Goff has ruled out allowing high-level nuclear waste to travel through New Zealand waters.
Domestic goddess
Christmas brings out the “Nigella domestic goddess” in New Zealand lesbian-crime writer Stella Duffy.
Flat Out
Chaos and interacting sound waves power new-generation flat speakers. New Zealand’s Soundlab is at the head of the pack, in sound-delivery technology.
Go Babies
Two babies per woman is the minimum for population stability – New Zealand, Iceland and the US are the only wealthy nations reproducing at or above replacement rate.
Flight Patterns
“The best of the work in “Flight Patterns” examines the surface detail of social, urban and environmental landscapes to present timely portraits of contemporary life in the Pacific Rim region… Gavin Hipkins’ two dozen…
Wildlife Sting
Flora and fauna around the world are competing against introduced animals – New Zealand’s kaka is losing the battle over food sources to wasps, but island sanctuaries are a success story.
Putting Meat on the Table
“Inexpensive frozen New Zealand lamb enabled Glaswegians to put meat on the table during the misery of the 1930’s. Galloway’s “Empire Lamb Shop”, at the end of Jamaica Street, was open just four days a week,…
Shears, Mate
Among elections, space-stations and UFO conventions, Masterton’s 40th annual Golden Shears competition rates a mention.
Skin Jewels
Seen on Gwyneth, Bjork and Lauren Hill, New Zealand-educated J Maskrey’s Skin Jewelry described as “one of the most original innovations of recent years”. Also check out the fashionUK feature.
Lost Boys
Les Blanchard found his long-lost brother in New Zealand – now he searches for the lost families of others.
3G in 3rd M?
The auction of New Zealand’s 3G radio spectrum frequencies has been an on-again, off-again affair – will it take till the third millennium?
Privy Decision
Attorney-General Margaret Wilson flags the government’s intention to abolish the right of appeal to the British Privy Council, instead creating a highest right of appeal based in New Zealand.
Pharming Drugs
“Pharming” is the name for growing drugs in transgenic animals, like PPL’s New Zealand sheep.
Fatter But Fitter
New Zealander’s average weight is increasing, but so is the general fitness of the population.
Year of the Crowe
What sparked Crowe-mania? “I don’t know mate. Luck?” suggests the man himself, Entertainment Weekly‘s entertainer of the year. Proof of Life co-star David Caruso disagrees: “Once in a generation an actor will come along and…
PPL Piggies
PPL (Scotland, US, NZ) presented the world with five cloned piglets – the beginning of interspecies organ donation and top five important science event 2000.
Sunshine for Sunline
It’s official – Sunline is the Russell Crowe of the racing world. The New Zealand and Australian horse of the year, Kiwi Sunline is also Australasia’s biggest money winner. After her December 17 Hong Kong mile…
First Time
Christchurch Casino has placed a clock in its gaming room – a first for the industry, which usually likes punters to forget the outside world exists.
AL&D ‘indispensable’
“Arts and Letters Daily triumphantly confirms its founder’s original hypothesis – that there is a cornucopia of wonderful writing out there on the web…but its success is mainly due to the way it met…
Sea Dog
Sailing legend Grant Dalton’s a professional: ‘Treat Dalton like a wizened old sea dog and your hand will disappear into gritted teeth. “Romance of the sea? Doesn’t mean a shit to me,” he says. “You get…
Land Ahoy!
Karen Hesse’s teen novel Stowaway chronicles the life of Nick Young, a stowaway on Cook’s ship and the first of the crew to spot Aotearoa
Professional Holiday
New Zealand is a top destination for young professionals seeking “cultural interest” and somewhere they’ve never been before.
Who Supervises the Supervisors?
New Zealand economist Tim Hazledine detects over-supervision – a proliferation in the ranks of “pseudo-managers monitoring their underlings”.
Fruity Retraction
Ten years ago, Rod Stewart declared to Rachel “I found the girl I want, I won’t be putting my banana in anybody’s fruit bowl from now on”.
Museum commerce
“In terms of the interconnections between commerce and culture, the most interesting example is the new national museum of New Zealand, called Te Papa … seen as a model of current museological thinking and…
Manly, subtle Crowe
“We already knew from The Insider that Crowe was a fine, subtle, vanity-free actor, happy to ruin his looks to play pudgy and useless. But Gladiator and Proof of Life prove that he’s also a great movie…
Locally Better
Staying awake with a local anesthetic may reduce surgical complications by 30% states an Auckland University study published in the British Medical Journal.
Immaculate Duffy
New Zealander Stella Duffy, creator of lesbian crime-fighter Saz Martin, tackles God and redemption in her latest Immaculate Conception: “I think it’s ground-breaking to write about miracles as if they’re real. It’s not very…
Sane Dolly
PPL Therapeutics, the company that brought the world Dolly, hooks up with New Zealand company Celentis to clone cows in a BSE-free environment.
Walker Chases Health
1976 Olympic 1500m champion John Walker was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease three years ago. “I would give up all my medals and all the world records for my health,” says the New Zealander who cracked 100…
Bill Doesn’t Pay
Enjoying a New Zealand-sourced organic beer in London, President Clinton left without clearing his tab.
Nail ’em Up
Calcium supplements don’t prevent broken nails according to an Auckland study. Back to the snake oil…
Romper Stomper
Crowe’s “breakthrough film” released on DVD: “Crowe is electrifying as the brutal head of a group of neo-Nazi skinheads who harass the Vietnamese community in contemporary Melbourne”.
Colour in Ireland
Belfast’s Queen Street Studios Gallery is hosting Colour, a group exhibition of New Zealand artists.
Finding Forrester
“I knew that if Gus Van Sant was wanting to make the movie, then it definitely meant there was something special about it,” says Anna Paquin. She plays opposite co-Oscarites Sean Connery and F….
It’s Shirley, Isn’t It?
The Shirley Convention 2001 is expecting “500 Shirleys from across Australia and New Zealand”.
Eco-2001
Seventy-five international teams extreme sport teams will tackle 400km of New Zealand’s roughest terrain at ECO-Challenge 2001. Kiwis are feared competitors in extreme multi-sport, “dominating competitions world-wide”.
Robbie Not Guilty
Too guilty to keep a Ferrari sports car, but OK with flying his New Zealand tattoo artist to Glasgow to create his tenth tattoo…
Brash Blueprint
New Zealand’s Reserve Bank is a model for a proposed independent committee of economic advisors in Britain.
Nuclear Protest
ANZAC protest flotilla to confront Tasman-bound shipment of nuclear waste in early 2001.
Right to Protest
The actions of New Zealand police, removing protesters during the visit of the Chinese President Jiang Zemin last year were “unjustifiable and outside the law”.
Perspective
New Zealand-based singer Lucky Ali’s latest album cover reads: “The artist acknowledges that his success and acceptance is as temporary in nature as his own existence and that there are far more important issues…
Torture Campaigner
Nations that try to bury painful episodes in their history are destined to remain dysfunctional until the past is confronted, says New Zealand-born anti-apartheid activist Michael Lapsley.
Figuring It
Britain’s Chief Statistician, New Zealander Len Cook is “in the hot seat” over the accuracy of official figures.
Go Native?
A beer ad showing beach babes “going native”, (doing a haka), has been withdrawn from British TV after being branded insensitive and racist.
Dot.com Dream
Kiwi Victoria Davies is among the silicon dolls burnt by the dot.com crash. She’s now on a $100,000+ salary, but has less confidence in stock options, “I don’t look at it as my ticket to being…
Download a Friend
Auckland-developed virtual faces read your email in your own voice. Download for free at lifeFX.com.
De-mining for Peace
New Zealander Greg Lindstrom co-ordinates the de-mining operation in Lebanon. “There’s a peace dividend to all this,” he says. “Clearing minefields means that people can come back to their lands”.
Benefits Suspended
New Zealanders, the group with the highest rate of employment in Australia, will lose the right to benefits under new immigration restrictions.
Peace Keeping On
New Zealand peace keepers will remain in East Timor for an extra twelve months, until May 2002.
