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.
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
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.
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…
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
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…
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…
NZ Economy Surged
New Zealand’s economy surged two percent for the June quarter, Statistics New Zealand has revealed.
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
Truly edgey Chris Knox described as “an acerbic, forceful wit, accomplished tunesmith and almost menacingly extroverted showman.”
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.
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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”.
Golden Moment
Edge machine Rob Waddell takes the Olympic gold in rowing’s glamour event, the men’s single sculls.
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…
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.
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…
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.
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…
Murderball 2
Cage fights? Question time in the New Zealand Parliament is being broadcast live on the net.
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
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
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
The Waikato Management School has launched an innovative scheme to counter the supposed Brain Drain.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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
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…
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.
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…
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.
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…
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…
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
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…
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…
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…
Licensed to Squirt
A unique initiative has seen New Zealand kindergartens offering “licences” for toy guns in a bid to instil the “use guns responsibly” message in youngsters. Police have tacitly endorsed the scheme, but will not…
Braces, John
John Bracewell, the New Zealander who has coached the Gloucestershire County Cricket team to the top of the sport in England, says that he has been preparing himself to become an international coach. Though his first loyalty…
Better, But Not Good Enough
Helen Clark addressed a UN meeting of world leaders, stating: “We recently announced that our next governor-general will be a woman, our prime minister is a woman, the leader of the opposition is a woman, the cabinet…
Malaysia and New Zealand: Becoming Closer Neighbours All the Time
Trade between New Zealand and Malaysia totalled over NZ$1 billion for the year ended June. As well, there are major cultural and social links between the two countries. “Over the years, tens of thousands of Malaysians…
Brain Gain: Happy Consultants Flock In
On-island media has been hyping the “Brain Drain”, but check out the opposite story: “Last year, a few of my friends from Gujarat migrated to New Zealand. They are very happy. I was thinking to procure…
Moa Simulation: The Strange World of Canterbury Ecology
New Zealand has more small-leaved, tangled shrubs than anywhere else in the world. Some experts think the plants evolved like this to deter the now-extinct moa from making them dinner, but Canterbury University ecologist Dave Kelly doesn’t…
