August 2010
The Weekender 29/08/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 29/08/2010 - 17:54Hi everyone, let's get into it.
Sport
The All Blacks had a week off the tri-nations with the Boks taking out the Wallabies in a 9 try, high scoring - but irrelevant game. While the NPC rolls on.
The NPC or ITM Cup, saw Canterbury start to show their abilities beating Auckland 35-16, Otago showed their abilities being beaten 25-15 by Taranaki and Southland continued their unbeaten run winning 21-16 over Tasman. Counties Manukau's golden run may have run out after Waikato thrashed them 39-3, Hawkes Bay beat Manawatu 17-9 and Wellington beat Northland 31-28.
In the women's rugby World Cup, the Black Ferns marched into the semis with a 41-8 win over Wales. On the way the Black Ferns beat Australia 32-5 and crushed South Africa 55-3.
The Black Caps were knocked out of crickets tri-series with a record low score against India. India reached 223 all out, while NZ crumbled to 118 all out with No 9 Kyle Mills reaching 52 & everyone else getting below 14!
The NZ Warriors made the NRL playoffs in their penultimate match after thrashing the Broncos 36-4. This leaves the top eight as: Dragons 36, Wests Tigers/Titans 32, Panthers/Warriors 30, Sea Eagles/Roosters/Raiders 28.
Kiwi Ben Griffin got a second in the Southern Cup giant slalom race at Cornet Peak - the best placing for an NZer in an International Ski Federation race since Simon Wi Rutene in 1990.
The year hasn't been going great for Scott Dixon but he got a second in last weekend's Sonoma grand prix & is third in the championship.
NZ's world junior champ Jacko Gill had a virus for the Youth Olympics. But despite dropping 3kgs due to being ill & being two years younger than all his rivals, he still claimed the silver.
NZ News
The body of missing four year old Lucas Ward from Gisbourne, was discovered in the river near his house. It was found 400m upstream of his grandparents property. The family were grieving, but relieved that he had been found.
In another strange turn of political events, Act is moving on. Rodney Hide and former deputy Heather Roy have appeared united & are ready to work together & move on!
Chris Carter has decided to see out the current term in office so he won't resign & trigger a by-election in Te Atatu.
The government announced this week that prisoners up for parole will now be screened before they get a parole hearing. Any who are unlikely to be granted release will not get a parole hearing and this would spare victims the trauma of the regular parole hearings. Apparently 70% of hearings are declined, so this will make "the system more victim-centred and efficient" according to Judge Carruthers.
Sir Mad Butcher (or I guess Sir Peter Leitch on the records), officially received his new moniker this week, being made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to business and philanthropy.
2: c/L drop in petrol for both Shell & BP - the 2nd in 2 weeks
2: nd most desired country (NZ is) for potential immigrants according to the Gallup Potential Net Migration Index
15: swine flu deaths so far this season
91: % of voters are enrolled for the upcoming local body elections
100: new paramedics have been hired under new funding as part of the Governments $48m - four year plan to support ambulance services
4,000: repeat drunk drivers have been prosecuted already this year. 7,200 were convicted of at least three drunk driving offences last year
6.5m: $ contract has been awarded for the next stage of development in the Waikato Expressway
50m: tonnes of ice 'calved' off Tasman Glacier this week
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4582 (+0.0045)
EUR 0.5576 (+0.0043)
USD 0.7114 (+0.0068)
AUD 0.7917 (-0.0006)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Sir Graham Liggins
One of NZ's greatest scientists died this week after a long illness. The 84 year old's research changed medical practice for pre-term babies & saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10668665&ref=rss
Prescription Labels
A pharmacy major was taking a course in Dispensing. One day they were discussing the various labels affixed to prescription containers, such as, "Take with food," and "Take with water."
At the end of class, the professor passed out a few sample labels.
Days later he noticed that one member of the class had struck one of them onto his chemistry textbook.
It read:
"Caution: May cause extreme drowsiness."
Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
The
Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website:
www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
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The Weekender 22/08/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 22/08/2010 - 21:30Hi again everyone, I hope you've had a good week.
Sport
The tri-nations returned early this morning as the All Blacks took on South Africa at home. All the All Black's needed was a single point from their last games and they got it with a 29-22 win - which many South African's will be questioning whether they deserved to win. Ritchie McCaw scored off a forward pass and then Israel Dagg scored the winner a minute later off the kick off turn over. The South African's certainly turned up to play however they weren't able to give Captain John Smit a victorious 100th test appearance.
There has been lots of discussion from the South African Rugby Union this week about how they want to get out of SANZAR - again. They've done this before when they feel like they are getting the short end of whatever stick they happen to be looking at.
On to rugby's ITM Cup National Provincial Championship. Auckland beat Northland 26-13, Southland continued their unbeaten run with a 23-20 away win over Hawke's Bay. Tasman caused an upset when they beat Canterbury 27-25 and Counties Manukau continued their great run with a 35-14 win over Manawatu. The Wellington Lions have a new coach with Andre Bell and beat Waikato 26-14, Taranaki beat Bay of Plenty 24-15, and North Harbour beat Otago 35-23. Last week Taranaki beat Waikato 33-23.
Table: Southland 17, Counties Manukau/Taranaki/Wellington/Auckland 14, Canterbury 13, Northland 10, Tasman/Waikato/North Harbour 8, Bay of Plenty 7, Hawke's Bay 3, Manawatu 2, Otago 1.
In the final rugby story, the Black Ferns kicked off their Women's Rugby World Cup campaign with a 55-3 win over South Africa in England.
On Wednesday the Silver Ferns had a netball test against Jamaica on Wednesday and won 58-35, on Saturday night there was another & they won 62-40. They are building up to a three test series against Australia starting in a week. The Silver Ferns have had a few 'old hands' return to the side with Temepara George back as well as Anna Scarlett back after three years on the international volleyball circuit.
The Warriors will have to wait another week to see if they will make the play-offs after losing 19-16 to the Manly Sea Eagles.
NZ hadn't won a medal at the Pan Pacific swimming champs for 13 years until Emily Thomas got a bronze medal in the 50m backstroke in California on Friday.
The Wellington Phoenix got their first win of the season in their second game & the third round, with a 2-0 win over the Central Coast Mariners.
NZ News
There is another young child missing, this time four year old Lucas Ward from Gisbourne. After six days the police are winding down the search, 99% sure that he isn't in the nearby creek. The boy went missing from his grandmothers house as she unloaded groceries and answered a phone call, and he hasn't been seen since.
During the recent round of law changes over alcohol, the government didn't go far enough for quite a number of people. So as this government tends to do - when enough people start complaining, they do something and they've announced that raising the alcohol purchase age from 18 to 20 will be covered by new legislation due within two weeks and it will be a conscience vote for the National Party.
While on law changes, the government is changing the Holidays Act to ensure that workers don't lose four day's leave when companies shut their doors over Christmas and New Years.
They have also made changes to the welfare system including sole parents having to look for part time work when their youngest child turns 6.
The news of the weeks was to do with one of National's coalition partners, the Act party. For the second time recently, Act's deputy leader, Heather Roy, tried to organise an coup against party leader Rodney Hide. It didn't work and the party kicked her out. It didn't stop there though with someone who worked for Roy releasing a "confidential" dossier on all the terrible things Rodney Hide did and describing him as bullying and menacing. Don't forget that this was all months after she tried to overthrow his leadership so sounds like sour grapes on her behalf. Her dossier on Rodney Hide was basically surrounding his request to view a defence report she had written. She tried to block him seeing it as she wasn't sure if he had the security clearance (although all MP's have that security clearance). He was trying to check it because she had produced a defence paper containing swear words and other inappropriate language. Act founder & former Labour MP Sir Roger Douglas was a supporter of Roy, so his re-involvement with the party is at a cross roads.
Not really NZ news, but Australia had a hung election the other day. One suggestion I heard was that England should send over a jailer to look after things till they get it sorted out.
2: c/L drop in petrol from Shell & BP this week
49: whales died after stranding themselves on a Northland beach & are to be buried by DOC & the local Ngati Kahu iwi
200: mm of rain for the area between Whakatane and Opotiki last week, lots of flooding & evacuations
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4537 (+0.0007)
EUR 0.5533 (-0.0005)
USD 0.7046 (-0.0015)
AUD 0.7923 (+0.0009)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Rewi Alley
GUNG HO
Rewi Alley, social reformer, educator, fireman, writer, poet, translator, great internationalist, industrialist, revered citizen, potter, soldier, hero and friend of China. Edgar Snow: "Rewi Alley is unique because he has achieved greatness in a country where few foreigners ever manage to achieve an authentic ripple." The man who introduced ‘Gung Ho’ into the Western idiom.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/alley.html
Store Safety
While attending college, I worked evenings at a retail store. On slow nights my co-worker Susan would often sing along with the radio while we did paperwork or restocked merchandise.
One evening as the manager was leaving I expressed my concern to him about our safety, being two women working alone at night.
"Oh, you'll be fine," he said, waving of his hand. "If you see anybody who looks suspicious, just warn him that Susan knows karaoke."
Check
out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42
Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
The
Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website:
www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
{If
these just fill up your junk mail, then send me an email & I'll
take you off the list | The Weekender is not a verified news source,
sometimes it's even just an opinion}
The Weekender 15/08/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 15/08/2010 - 18:24Hello everyone!
Sport
With the tri-nations taking a break this weekend, lets get on to the NPC. Auckland beat BOP 11-6 in terrible wet conditions at the Mount. Southland retained the Ranfurly Shield by beating the former chart leaders Counties-Manukau 13-9 with a Jason Rutledge try near the end. Tana Umaga (who is player/coach for Counties) has still never won the Shield. Canterbury had their best outing, beating North Harbour 44-22, Tasman surprised & thrashed Hawke's Bay 21-7, and Northland thrashed Manawatu 77-8.
Bay of Plenty has bowed to public pressure and has banned the use of vuvuzelas at home games.
The Tall Blacks may have looked to the All Whites for a bit of inspiration when they pulled off a stunning 104-103 double overtime opening game win over Slovenia. Kirk Penny put on a fantastic 42 points.
Wow the Warriors do so much better when Manu Vatuvei is playing & playing well. He scored a hat-trick this afternoon to help the Warriors to a 22-10 win over Newcastle & put them one step closer to the playoffs.
Our most decorated soft-baller Mark Sorenson is to be admitted into the United States Hall of Fame.
In their first game of the one-day tri-series NZ humbled India by 200 runs after reaching 288. In the Black Caps second game they fell to Sri Lanka by three wickets.
NZ News
The Independent Police Conduct Authority did an investigation into the disappearance of Ben Smart & Olivia Hope from the Marlborough Sounds back in 1997. They criticised three parts of the investigation but found those three aspects didn't affect the outcome.
Labour tried to kick a hornets nest this week when they accused Tony Ryall, the Health Minister, of "sneaking into hospitals to spy on staff". A spokesman said the visits were spur-of-the-moment and he usually introduced himself to patients to chat about their experiences. One medical union said it was a "storm in a bedpan". I wonder how the accuser, former Health Minister, Labours Annette King used to find out how things were going in hospitals? Perhaps she just emailed them from the beach she was lying on.
During the week I happened to read a story about London preparing for the Olympics. They mentioned that Kiwis & Aussies might refer to the English as "poms" but not to worry because it was a term of endearment. Ironically, the next day a story came out about the Rugby World Cup, saying "Be nice to visitors - and don't call them Poms".
The government is giving DIY'ers an early Christmas present by cutting the red tape out of the house building sector, relaxing rules on minor jobs. However builders and designers will be forced to stand by their work, liable to provide warranties and fix things if disputes arise.
A kiwi pilot, Steve Morrissey, went missing a week ago in Hong Kong and after a long search his body was finally found. The Air NZ pilot almost made the end of the track with a friend and then didn't meet up at the hotel and also missed his flight the next day.
Labour MP's seem resigned to not winning next years election after Labour MP Winnie Laban accepted a job at Victoria University before telling her party leader she was leaving.
5: th NZ to die from swine flu this year was a 22 year old Hawke's Bay man - with an underlying health condition
10: % more health insurance claims in the year ending June
28.7: % support for John Banks in the race for the Super City mayoralty - Sir John Walker has joined the race for the mayoralty
29.6: % support for Len Brown in the race for the Super City mayoralty (margin of error 3.5%)
50: % of kiwi adults now have a tertiary qualification - we are getting smarter
965: $ stolen from a Palmerston North Kiwibank led to jail for the robber, he was sentenced to three years and four months (are bank robbers getting dumber?)
1200: skiers were trapped on Mt Hutt for the night after 200kph winds closed the road
4.37m: is now the population of NZ after it grew an estimated 1.2% in the year to June 30
30m: $ to be set aside for road safety programmes
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4530 (-0.0074)
EUR 0.5538 (+0.0011)
USD 0.7061 (-0.0276)
AUD 0.7914 (-0.0084)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Te Rangi Hiroa/Sir Peter Buck
AOTEAROA ANTHROPOLOGIST
Peter Buck’s achievements are astonishing for their diversity: pioneering and internationally renowned anthropologist, the first Maori medical doctor, a politician, administrator, soldier, sportsperson and leader of the Maori people. Through exploring the cross-cultural advantages of his birth and excercising a self-taught scientific rigour, Buck extended the edges of knowledge.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/buck.html
Dangerous Cargo
Our Supply Clerk at the factory where I work, discovered a box that was left on the loading dock with this warning printed on it: DANGER DO NOT TOUCH!
Management was called and all employees were told to stay clear of the box until it could be analyzed.
When the foreman arrived, he donned gloves and safety glasses, and then, very carefully opened the box. Inside were 25 signs that read: DANGER! DO NOT TOUCH!
Check
out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42
Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
The
Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website:
www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
{If
these just fill up your junk mail, then send me an email & I'll
take you off the list | The Weekender is not a verified news source,
sometimes it's even just an opinion}
The Weekender 08/08/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 08/08/2010 - 17:01Welcome to the week!
Sport
The NZ men's hockey team haven't been doing too well in the Champions Trophy despite a good warm up against France. After a 1-9 loss to the world champs they then lost 2-5 to the Olympic champs Germany. They then had a 3-1 win over Netherlands. However they've missed out on a spot in the finals after losing 4-3 to England.
Last weekend the Warriors had another hiccup in their fight for the play-offs after being beaten 28-20 by the Gold Coast Titans. However this weekend they thrashed Cronulla 37-10.
Table: Dragons* 30, Panthers*/Roosters*/Titans/Wests Tigers 28, Sea Eagles/Broncos/Warriors 26. Outside of the top eight: Rabbitohs 24, Eels 22, Knights*/Raiders* 20, Bulldogs* 18, Cowboys/Sharks 14, Storm 0. (* 19 games compared to 20).
Last weekend in the NPC Wellington beat Tasman 20-11. This week Canterbury just snuck past Manawatu 27-26, and Southland defended the Ranfurly Shield against Otago 16-12. Waikato had a last minute 21-18 win over Auckland when Dwayne Sweeney scored 50 seconds after the final siren. Bay of Plenty thrashed Hawke's Bay 30-11 and Taranaki beat Tasman 33-11. And finally at half time Counties-Manukau lead Wellington 23-3. Update: Counties-Manukau are on the top of the ITM cup table after a 31-25 win over Wellington!
All Whites star Winston Reid has signed a great deal with English Premier team West Ham. The deal was worth around NZ$8.7m which makes a mockery of all the NRL wage caps & rugby players wages. Perhaps when Winston retires he could buy an NRL club.
Valerie Vili has changed her coach but hasn't yet been able to regain her form. In March Valerie's two and a half year winning streak was ended by Belarussian Nadezdha Ostapchuk and Valerie has lost four more times.
The Silver Ferns kicked off their Commonwealth Games build up with a 92-28 thrashing of Samoa in only the fourth time the teams have met.
The All Blacks had their fourth tri-nations game last night - and had a terrible game. Australia had a fantastic game doing far far better than the last week. And the All Blacks still won 20-10. The game started the same with three quick tries, but then it turned into a real test match. The All Blacks seemed to kick more than normal - so perhaps they were testing their defence, and the defence held. So that's nine wins in a row over the Wallabies - record equalling, and the All Blacks retain the Bledisloe Cup.
And in the record of the week, Tony Woodcock became the highest capped test prop on 67.
NZ News
After the large amount of public concern over the sale of farmland to overseas companies, the government has signalled that their review of foreign investment rules are unlikely to result in many changes. The review was launched last year & hoped to encourage more foreign investment.
In a humorous tale (if politics can be at all humorous), there was a story this week how Labour leader Phil Goff has weighed into the Auckland Super City mayoral race by giving the "left" a rark-up to rally them against the "National pawns". Rather funny since he was doing so by addressing the 'Labour pawns'.
In a crazy follow up to the Chris Carter saga, he has taken two-months of taxpayer-funded sick leave. And wow! if he is absent from parliament after that, his pay of $2800 per week is docked - by $10 per week. Sounds like a great job to me! In a TV3 survey people were asked if Chris Carter was correct that Phil Goff was a nice guy but he couldn't lead the Labour party to victory in the next election. Of the voters, 42% said he was correct, a further 32% thought Labour couldn't win regardless of who the leader is.
A New Zealand soldier, Lieutenant Timothy O'Donnell, was killed and two others injured in Afghanistan this week, while on a routine patrol.
Tim O'Donnell was awarded the Distinguished Service Decoration for an incident while serving in Timor Leste in 2007. He was NZ's first combat casualty in Afghanistan.
1: % per day discount (up to 50%) now required by councils who are late in processing resource contents, this may help with more than a third of resource consents being delayed
3.5: m squid washed by on a Wellington beach
5: people have died on mountains around the country this winter. A climber on Mount Ruapehu & a snowboarder at Mt Hutt are the most recent
59: % of kiwis polled either agreed or strongly agreed that New Zealand should be a completely Smokefree nation by 2020 (down from 64% who thought so in May)
94: $ expected to be saved on the cost of a trip to Australia if NZ & Australian governments could agree to drop immigration checks & passenger charges
440: metre & $340m Victoria Park Tunnel project is on track
33,000: $ civil law suit against a vandal for graffiti damage by the Auckland City Council
81,521: pupils have been stood down or suspended from NZ schools for drug use, verbal or physical assaults, since 2007
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4604 (-0.0022)
EUR 0.5527 (-0.0020)
USD 0.7337 (+0.0102)
AUD 0.7998 (-0.0028)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Eric Tindill
Eric died on Sunday aged 99. The legend is the only kiwi to both play and officiate in test matches for both rugby and cricket.
Read more about him here http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10663042&ref=rss
Foot Snuggle
On a chilly winter evening, my husband and I were snuggled together on the floor watching television. During a commercial break, he reached over and gave my foot a gentle squeeze.
"Mmmmm," I said. "That's so sweet."
"Actually," he admitted sheepishly, "I thought that was the remote."
Check
out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42
Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
The
Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website:
www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
{If
these just fill up your junk mail, then send me an email & I'll
take you off the list | The Weekender is not a verified news source,
sometimes it's even just an opinion}
The Weekender 01/08/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 01/08/2010 - 16:20August already. Who would have thought.
Sport
The National provincial rugby champs have kicked off and defending champs Canterbury were held to a 23-23 draw against Hawke's Bay last night. Northland made the most of their chances for an upset 26-19 win over Taranaki. Waikato beat the Bay of Plenty for the first time in a few years but only by 13-10, and Southland beat Manawatu 37-23. The biggest upset was Counties-Manukau thrashing Otago 29-13 after being inspired by their new player/coach Tana Umaga
Kiwi Cameron Appleton & his Team Aqua have won the matching racing part of the RC 44 Valencia Cup in Spain this week.
The Black Sticks completed a three match clean sweep of France in warm up matches for hockey's Champions Trophy. They won 3-0, 4-2 and 4-0. Previous to that they drew a series against Belgium losing 3-5 and winning 1-0.
All White's striker Chris Killen looks to be heading to China to the Shenzhen Ruby FC club in the Chinese Super League.
Scott Dixon hasn't been doing great this season but he won the Edmonton Indy in controversial circumstances after the last-lap leader was penalised for blocking his team mate.
Sarah Walker won silver at the UCI BMX world champs in South Africa this weekend.
You never really know at the start of an international rugby season, just how things are going to turn out. Last years results don't really matter and it's not until you've played 80mins of rugby against the old foes that you know if the All Blacks have (yet again) what it takes for a good season. Sure they did well against South Africa but then Australia thrashed the Springboks as well - how would the All Blacks fare. What an amazing game. Australia scored first after a knock down, barely minutes later Dan Carter caused a knock down & got a try back & then we quickly got another to indicate the game was to be unlike any we had seen in a long time. It truly was a crazy game. The All Blacks seemed to score whenever they needed to and although Australia sometimes scored after sustained pressure, the All Blacks defence was incredible. As far as attacking goes, if you didn't watch the game you should try & catch a replay of Cory Jane's incredible side line skill where he kicked the ball forward, while being tacked & staying in, for Mils Muliaina to score. The All Blacks crushed Australia 49-28 for their third tri-nations bonus point win - the bonus point coming in the first half & the AB's getting seven tries in all, Muliaina got 2 while there was one each for Corey Jane, Rokocoko, Carter, McCaw, & Flynn.
The game also saw a record broken. Joe Rokocoko became the most capped winger in All Black history with 64 & is second equal on 46 test tries - only three behind Doug Howlett.
NZ News
If I had another jokes section I think this would've made it in. A Tuhoe delegation has assured a UN visitor that the iwi would not practise apartheid, should they regain ownership of Te Urewera National Park. Other than Tuhoe's comments, it's probably also a sad joke that the UN's special rapporteur on human rights and indigenous peoples is investigating a breakdown of treaty negotiations. The UN is ignoring true human rights abuses in Africa but have time to stick their noses in part way through negotiations when both National & Labour governments have previously shown willingness to settle treaty claims (ignoring for now, my Grandfathers comments that this round of treaty negotiations was the third time Maori have been paid out for the same past wrongs).
Well the news of the week had to be the ruckus within the Labour party. A strange letter was anonymously handed to the press this week saying that there was a move within Labour to remove Phil Goff as leader of the opposition. The perpetrator turned out to be non-other than recently demoted MP Chris Carter. The Labour party was quick to go on the attack - along with a really silly move of having Phil Goff filmed at a school sing along, purely for PR purposes. Phil Goff was quick to say Chris Carter had been caught out with unauthorised travel to Tibet and was probably about to be sacked anyway. In Chris Carter's defence the travel was paid for by the Chinese government & during a recess in parliament so that attack sounded like Labour was simply trying to make him look bad. Chris Carter was suspended & probably by now is kicked out of the Labour Party. While it was a silly attempt at an overthrow, the question remains whether Phil Goff can do anything to increase Labour's popularity.
A man had a P-fuelled 13 hour crime spree across Auckland stealing two cars from petrol stations. The following day North Shore police released images of him, unaware that he was in custody of South Auckland police after a collision the night before. He had driven the wrong way down an off-ramp and crashed and then he was restrained by members of the public until police arrived and arrested him - good on the road-workers who grabbed him!
I was talking to my cousin this week who mentioned how safe & nice NZ seems. Unfortunately it's not always the case, we do have vicious bank robbers. This week a shirtless man entered a Hamilton bank and demanded $10. When the teller said she didn't have any money he asked for 50c before crouching into a starting race position and running from the bank. A passing police officer caught the man who is being assessed by mental health staff. Surely it had to be a dare!
An update on Auckland City Council and the bus-lane rules. Apparently the government warned the council against being "too pedantic and bloody-minded" and they have backed down and said they will begin a trial using markers to indicate where the 50m mark is.
The government are making some changes to the drink driving rules. An alcohol watch dog says they haven't gone far enough but they are strengthening penalties for a range of offences including doubling the maximum prison term to 10 years for dangerous or reckless driving causing death. They are introducing a zero limit for repeat drink-drivers and drivers under 20.
7: % increase in fee-paying international students for the first four months of this year compared to last year
8: wins in a row for the All Blacks over the Wallabies ;-)
16: floor high fall for a 15 year old in Auckland, he fell through a car port roof & survived!
46: students from Seddon School in Marlborough have been affected by swine flu - out of a roll of 107
54: charges against NZ fishing company Aurora Fisheries & Japanese Kanai Fishing for breaking quota rules on a $2.4m catch
60: cents to be the cost of sending a domestic letter from October 1 according to NZ Post
10,000: litres of petrol spilled by three companies have resulted in a fine of $160,000, court costs of $80,000 and maybe $200,000 for clean-up costs
2m: $ fraud charge against a Kapiti Coast accountant by the Serious Fraud Office
230m: $ Mangere Bridge upgrade has completed the first stage with three of the four South bound lanes opened, the old bridge will be refurbished over the next month
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4626 (-0.0094)
EUR 0.5547 (-0.0092)
USD 0.7235 (-0.0043)
AUD 0.8026 (-0.0104)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Colin McCahon
THE LUMINARY
Colin McCahon is the region's most revered artist. He reconceived Aotearoa, to paraphrase Australian author Murray Bail, as the land of the long black shadow. Squinting into the hard sun, McCahon saw, "something logical, orderly and beautiful belonging to the land and not yet its people. Not yet understood or communicated, not even really yet invented. My work has largely been to communicate this vision and to invent the way to see it."
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/mccahon.html
Waiting for Dark
Preparing for a family vacation, Kathy and Matt explained to their young children that they would be sitting in the car for a very long time. The kids were told they would not be arriving at their destination until after dark, and were warned not to keep saying, "Are we there yet?"
After a few minutes of peaceful driving, four year old Rachel perked up, "Is it dark yet?"
Check
out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42
Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
The
Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website:
www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
{If
these just fill up your junk mail, then send me an email & I'll
take you off the list | The Weekender is not a verified news source,
sometimes it's even just an opinion}
