The Weekender 31/01/2010

Sport

There hasn't been much sport but in cricket a new coach has been appointed to the Black Caps. I think as far as coach statistics go Daniel Vettori has probably done very well! But the appointment of former great, Mark Greatbatch will take some of Dan's load away and with any luck Mark will teach the other Black Caps how to actually bat.

The Wellington Phoenix have moved much closer to A-League play-off contention with a win over Adelaide United. The game was in Christchurch and it left commentators wondering whether Canterbury has switched sports with 19,000 packing out the newly rebuilt AMI stadium (a NZ A-League record). That win follows a 2-0 loss to Perth and a 4-0 loss to Melbourne.

Ali Williams lasted only four minutes for his comeback. Ali took last year off to recover from a surgically repaired Archilles tendon, but ripped it again in his come back pre-season game for the Blues against the Chiefs. He is now expected to be out for 6 to 12 months and he may struggle to get back to top level before for the Rugby World Cup.

The kiwis all crashed out of the ISA junior world surfing champs at Piha this week. They all performed well but couldn't quite keep up with the international competition. The final day saw a Brazilian wonderkid Gabriel Mandina win the boys' under-18 division and collected the event's only perfect 10-point ride.

The NZ Breakers beat the Townsville Crocs 91-86 in Townsville this week.

Brendon Hartley is back in the hunt for an Formula One drive after being named as a reserve driver for the Red Bull team.

Eddie Dawkins capped off NZ's World Cup track cycling with a gold medal win in the men's sprint.

Ben Townly wrapped up the NZ Supercross title. He is using the series to build himself up as he comes back from his shoulder injury.

NZ News

Last Monday there were extensive power cuts throughout Auckland as commuters headed home for the day. Common sense would indicate that with no traffic lights the traffic would be terrible. But as many people found (including one lady took photos), the traffic was flowing much better, & the commuters were better behaved. Perhaps common sense should now dictate fewer traffic lights?
One of the biggest stories of the week was the reason behind the power cuts. A farmer just out of Hamilton has had an ongoing problem with Transpower regarding the upkeep of the powerlines over his property. The farmer warned Transpower 5 years ago there would be a fire because their powerlines were sagging but all they wanted to do was chop his trees down rather than fix their lines. He eventually had discussions with them last year, and Transpower came up with a list of rules they would follow about notifying him of who was doing the work & what they were doing. But Transpower never followed their own rules, so they never got onto the property. Last week there was a fire & because maintenance was happening on another line, Auckland lost power. But it took five hours before Transpower workers could get onto the property with a police escort because they felt "scared" of the farmer. Armed with a cellphone and a beard he did look quite menacing, any little girl would have been frightened.

Pauly Fuemana died this week after a short illness. The musician & member of OMC or Otara Millionaires Club, was best known for his hit song How Bizzare. The song did very well in NZ but also hit Number 1 in Australia, Ireland, South Africa and Austria & made top 10 in eight other countries to become NZ's biggest hit export.

Saturday morning saw Telecom finally get it's new XT network up & running fully. They've had big problems since 11am Wednesday, again only for customers south of Taupo. That is two big problems in two months for a new network that they told everyone was world class. Lots of customers are very angry!

Friday saw the Hamilton City Council let everyone know that if they don't save water then there will be more water restrictions. Saturday night saw lots of rain that has continued on & off till Monday morning at least!
As usual people have been complaining about the rain & wondering where summer has gone, but last year at this time I was in Australia and I can't be anything but happy with the rain we've got!

Labour leader Phil Goff needed to get his name in the news again this week, so made a stand against the "privileged elite", claiming that Labour would cap salaries of public sector bosses, to that of the Prime Minister (currently just under $400,000). Prime Minister John Key said he had more important things to do than focus on those 16 people.

Air New Zealand have made waves in the sky with some new amazing designs for seats for their new Boeing 777-300's. The business class seats look great (like I'll ever get to sit in one!) but the kudos goes for the changes in the economy seats. While the seats don't actually take up more space, the typical three side seats can be made into a cozy (read: almost big enough) bed for two. Apparently they will be offering couples an extra seat for half price - a tempting offer for a chance to sleep on flights to the northern hemisphere!

The government has announced a compulsory electronic livestock tracing scheme - but they will pay for it. Most of the affected groups have applauded the move, except for Federated Farmers whose members will have to pay slightly more than for non-electronic ear tags. Although surely most farmers must already be looking at electronic tagging by now.

The Numbers Game

6: driveway fatalities last year
14: weeks jail, a $5,000 fine & deportation for a German man trying to smuggle 44 wild geckos & skinks out of NZ in his underwear
16: kiwis were trapped by a mudslide near Machu Picchu, all safe but just a little worried
49.8: % of people surveyed want cigarettes banned (completely) by 2020, 30.3% don't. Even 26.2% of smokers approved the ban!
50: people arrested in Wellington during & after the ACDC concert, 10-20 more than usual & 50 more than for Parachute
52: windmills for a newly approved wind farm near Taihape - it will be NZ's second biggest and will be able to power up to 50,000 homes
420: undersized paua were found with three South Auckland men near Tairua on the Coromandel, they face fines of up to $250,000
23,700: people went to the Parachute music festival this year - a fine Saturday but a wet Sunday must have hit numbers a bit
270,000: $ worth of cannabis seized by police in raids this week
10m: $ bequest given to Auckland Museum from a former Blenheim businessman who lived modestly & was a very private person
1.12b: $ is spent on early-childhood education - up from $428m six years ago

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4389 (-0.0022)
EUR 0.5062 (+0.0036)
USD 0.7015 (-0.0087)
AUD 0.7943 (+0.0053)

The Weekender NZer of the week

Alan MacDiarmid
PLASTIC FANTASTIC
"Information Age pioneer," Alan MacDiarmid and his colleagues discovered that plastics could conduct electricity. Application of the research is seen to be the future of information technology. Awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize for chemistry, MacDiarmid lives by the sign in his study: "I am a very lucky person and the harder I work the luckier I seem to be."
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/macdiarmid.html

Joke of the Weekender

Broken Bone
While leading a tour of kindergarten students through our hospital, I overheard a conversation between one little girl and an x-ray technician. 
"Have you ever broken a bone?" he asked. 
"Yes," the girl replied. 
"Did it hurt?" 
"No." 
"Really? Which bone did you break?" 
"My sister's arm." 

Weekender Photos

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Darren Harrison: darren@harrison.gen.nz
The Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website: www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
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