Watch out for the earth shakes here in the shaky isles. Christchurch was hit by a 7.1 earthquake early Saturday morning, more details below.

Sport

Well there were lots of great sporting moments this week - where to begin. I think the basketball. The Tall Blacks started the Basketball World Champs with a couple of loses, to Lithuania & then Spain. But then they started winning. First they thrashed Lebanon 108-76. Then they eliminated Canada, beating them 71-61 and for their third in a row they stunned highly-ranked France 82-70. That leaves NZ ranked third in Group D.

Secondly was the netball. Last Sunday the trans-tasman series started with some new silverware up for grabs - the Constellation Cup. Australia held their nerve and won 48-43 to continue the incredibly tight wins - the difference between the two teams is hardly ever more than 5. And the Australians were gloating - all the way to Thursday. The teams were basically the same but the Silver Ferns obviously put in something a little extra for a 59-40 win. Wow, I don't remember a margin that big before. That certainly rocked Australia & gives the Kiwis some confidence ahead of the Commonwealth Games. Update: Australia have won the cup winning the final game 46-40.

Finally on to NPC rugby. Sonny Bill Williams made his long awaited introduction to national level rugby this weekend helping Canterbury to a 28-9 win over Bay of Plenty. The weekend started with Counties Manukau beating Tasman 23-3, and ended with Auckland beating Taranaki 27-13. The upset of the weekend was shared between the Manawatu Turbos beating the Wellington Lions 36-24, and the Northland Taniwha beating Southland 33-22 - handing the Stags their first loss. Waikato beat North Harbour 36-27.

The Black Ferns booked a spot in the women's rugby World Cup in England with a 45-7 win over France.
In other rugby news, John Mitchell is to leave Perth's Western Force a year before his contract expires, and Australia had a historic high-veldt 41-39 win over South Africa to secure second place in the tri-nations.

Team New Zealand won the MedCup yachting regatta in Cartagena finishing 10 points ahead of Argentina's Matador.

Kiwi surfer Billy Stairmand had a win on the ASP Men's Star-Series, winning the second tier world tour event in Spain this week.

The NZ Warriors carried their winning momentum into the NRL play-offs after beating Parramatta 26-12 & spoiling the farewell for the Paramatta & Kiwi's legend Nathan Cayless.

In the NRL club championship, the Warrior Juniors have won the trophy after thrashing Parramatta 52-6 - four points clear of their nearest challengers.

NZ News

The earthquake was the biggest TV news story on Saturday - but it wasn't the biggest news of the day. Nine people were killed when a light plane crashed on take off at Fox Glacier. A pilot and four master skydivers were among the dead - the team had a spotless record with almost 35,000 jumps between them. Along with the five who worked for Skydive NZ, there were four overseas tourists from Ireland, Australia, Germany & England.

Details on the Christchurch 7.1 richter scale earthquake. It was a huge earthquake, centred 40kms from Christchurch at 4:35am Saturday morning. A couple of people were seriously injured by falling glass & a falling chimney but there were no deaths. The entire city started the day without power, a good many without water, and a fair number with walls fallen down. Many of the cities old buildings have been damaged. It was estimated that this was the biggest earthquake in terms of effect since 1931 in Hawke's Bay. After shocks have continued throughout Saturday with a number higher than 5 on the richter scale. The Earthquake Commission says the bill could hit $2b with the 100 buildings damaged, along with water pipes, sewerage, roads & footpaths.

There is a storm heading Christchurch's way, although the power company was expecting to get power back to around 90% of residents by Saturday night.

A kiwi, Kelby Cheyne, was the only person to walk away from a plane crash in Papua New Guinea which killed another kiwi and three Australians. He was thrown clear as the plane slid off the wet runway.

The NZ Police have taken quite a different tack to the rest of the world in regard to Google's alleged "spying" on open wifi networks as they collected Street View images. After an investigation the police laid the blame squarely with people who didn't put passwords on their wifi. They said that there was no evidence Google committed a crime and that "Anyone using Wi-Fi needs to ensure they have appropriate security measures in place."

A New Zealand-based bid to jetski from London to Auckland (to raise funds for cancer research) has ended due to Terror threats. The group of three kiwis and a Croatian got as far as Turkey but were advised not to travel south of Egypt.

TVNZ's deputy political editor, Francesca Mold resigned this week and is apparently considering a senior position in the Labour Party media team. Makes me wonder about bias in the news.

The
Numbers Game

12: people dying each week from accidents in their homes - alcohol is estimated to be a factor in nearly 25%
15: years jail for the man who killed undercover police officer Sergeant Don Wilkinson

15: % decrease in tobacco demand at supermarkets after the tax rise in April
50: % fewer cars on the road in Auckland on Saturday as a key part of the southern motorway was closed for the finishing touches on the Newmarket viaduct

100: bioplastic spoons can be made from one kiwifruit after a Crown research institute developed a new technical process
100,000: NZers are now using our "third" mobile phone operator "2degrees"

3.5m: $ to be spent by the government on improving the Pacific tsunami warning systems

6m: $ bill for convicted fraudster Michael Swann, he will have to forfeit his $4.4m properties bought from money from Otago District Health Board
13m: overseas visitors use Auckland airport every year

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4669 (+0.0087)
EUR 0.5596 (+0.0020)
USD 0.7213 (+0.0099)
AUD 0.7874 (-0.0043)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Kate Sheppard
SUFFRAGIST
The leader and main figurehead of the suffragist movement in New Zealand, the first country in the world to grant universal adult suffrage to men and women equally. Kate was a source of inspiration to suffragists, both in New Zealand and throughout the world.

http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/sheppard.html

Joke
of the Weekender

Watch This 
A C-130 Hercules cargo plane was lumbering along when a cocky F-16 flashed by. The jet jockey decided to show off. 
The fighter jock told the C-130 pilot, 'watch this!' and promptly went into a barrel roll followed by a steep climb. He then finished with a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier. The F-16 pilot asked the C-130 pilot what he thought of that? 

The C-130 pilot said, 'That was impressive, but watch this!' The C-130 droned along for about 5 minutes and then the C-130 pilot came back on and said: 'What did you think of that?' Puzzled, the F-16 pilot asked, 'What the heck did you do?' 

The C-130 pilot chuckled. 'I stood up, stretched my legs, walked to the back, went to the bathroom, then got a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun.' 

Weekender
Photos

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}

Hi 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. 

The
Numbers Game

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

Joke
of the Weekender

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/
{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}

Hi 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.

The
Numbers Game

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

Joke
of the Weekender

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." 

Weekender
Photos

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}

Hello 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.

The
Numbers Game

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

Joke
of the Weekender

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!

Weekender
Photos

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}

Welcome 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.

The
Numbers Game

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

Joke
of the Weekender

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." 

Weekender
Photos

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}

August 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.

The
Numbers Game

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

Joke
of the Weekender

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?" 

Weekender
Photos

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}

Here we go then. It's been quite a good week weather wise, some lovely sunny winter days - but the wind has been cold!

Sport

Sam Warriner won her third half ironman this year. This time the win was in Racine Wisconsin.

Daniel Vettori has been rated the second-best test all-rounder in the ICC's latest rankings.

The Warriors were aiming for their sixth win in a row but it was one step too far as they lost 38-28 to South Sydney.

The NZ men's hockey team, the Black Sticks, have beaten France 4-2 in the first of three internationals in Paris.

Julian Dean had his second second in the Tour de France in the 18th stage. That wasn't his only drama recently. In a case of mistaken identity a policeman crash-tackled him to the ground when he was warming up for the 16th stage!

The Wellington Phoenix the junior team from a formerly top Argentine club side Boca yesterday, winning the A-League warm-up 2-1. The Boca Juniors beat the A-League champions Melbourne Victory 1-0 last week.

Fifteen year old Jack Gill from Takapuna Grammar became the youngest winner of a junior title at the under 20 world junior shot put champs. If he was 10 days younger he would have been ineligible to enter as too young!

The All Blacks had a weekend off in the tri-nations, but Australia thrashed the Springboks 30-13. Australian Quade Cooper was banned for two tests for a dangerous tackle and Springbok Jaque Fourie was banned for four weeks for a dangerous tackle.

NZ News

Three directors of a Hawke's Bay company that employed illegal workers in orchards have been jailed for three years. They admitted a charge of conspiring to aid and abet foreign nationals to work and stay in NZ illegally.

The film of a group of long-boarders (longish skateboards), boarding down the Bombay Hills hit the internet this week. It's an interesting one to watch as they hope they don't need to stop suddenly!

Gun killings in NZ have declined dramatically. A US publication said NZ had "the most pronounced decline in firearm homicide over the past two decades".

The government has responded to the overwhelming public opinion on mining DOC land and have said they won't be reclassifying land, however Northland and West Coast councils say they would welcome mining lower-value conservation areas. Northland alone has more than $20b in minerals.

New Zealand domain names will from tomorrow be allowed to use macrons enabling te reo Maori to be correctly used.

There have been two news stories hanging around all week & I've left them till last. The first is how Auckland council has been fining people for using bus lanes when turning. Legally they are allowed to use a bus lane for 50m, however many people have said that is not enough time, many (including a former builder & spatial design lecturer) have said estimating 50m is difficult, meanwhile anyone stuck in Auckland traffic is willing to risk a fine to make it to that corner a bit quicker. The council has issued $4.2m worth of infringement notices over the past 12 months.

The second ongoing story is another change the government wants to make to the labour laws. They have announced that employers can ask for (& pay for) medical certificates from staff whenever they are sick. Although there is no documented proof apparently employers up & down the country have been asking the government for that option to help prevent staff "throwing sickies". The current law requires an employee to be sick for three consecutive days before the employer can request a medical certificate. I guess that makes it easy to take every Monday off (hangover Monday?) without any proof of any actual sickness.

The
Numbers Game

3: murders only, in Counties-Manukau so far this year - attributed to an increase in police staff and new policies
3: year contract was won by Massey University to teach members of Brunei's armed forces a diploma course in defence and strategic studies

39: was the median age of a constable last year, it was 34 in 1999 and is expected to be 43 by the year 2019
80: new jobs have been added to a Canon call centre in Auckland after they closed down the Sydney call centre

1,200: parents dropped out of the work force due to Labour's $1.5b Working for Families package - achieving the opposite of it's aim, but it has reduced child poverty
6,000: $ shoplifting spree by some Australian schoolboys in Queenstown just before they flew home

20,000: $ fine for a North Canterbury farmer who made written threats against the Prime Minister
1m: $ in cash & a Lotus Elise have been seized from a man at the top of an organised crime ring importing & distributing P

68m: $ worth of new plane for Sir Peter Jackson after he upgraded to a Gulfstream G550

72m: $ in white-collar crime for the first half of this year - more than for all of 2008

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4720 (+0.0071)
EUR 0.5639 (+0.0137)
USD 0.7278 (+0.0167)
AUD 0.8130 (-0.0060)warmup

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Frances Alda
INTERNATIONAL DIVA
Born Christchurch in 1879, grew up in Melbourne, to Europe in 1902. Sang at La Scala, and triumphed at the New York Metropolitan Opera. A proud New Zealander, recorder of traditional Maori songs. Famous across America as an opera star, showered with widespread tributes on her death in 1952. 

http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/alda.html

Joke
of the Weekender

Air Boss 
Activated from the Army Reserves for a joint service Arctic exercise, I was assigned to the air reconnaissance section. 
Although I had recently been promoted, I was feeling rusty, and wanted to get started learning my duties so as not to appear too "green." 

I confided to the Air Force lieutenant colonel who greeted me that I was anxious to meet the Air Boss right away. 
"Don't worry, son," he said reassuringly, "the Air Boss is a real professional, knows his stuff cold and works well with his people. Great guy." 

"Terrific!" I replied. "What's his name?" 
Looking through the roster, the welcoming officer replied, "O'Hara." 
"Oh, no," I groaned. "That's me." 

Weekender
Photos

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}

Welcome to the week that was.

Sport

Well the Football World Cup is over. The worlds biggest sporting event has finished and little old NZ came out as the only unbeaten side. With the Netherlands losing the final, all teams in the competition lost at least once - except for the All Whites with their three draws. The All Whites - Unbeatable!

In other ratings, captain fantastic Ryan Nelsen was named by ESPN in the "World Cup Best 11" for his "defiant" and "heroic" defence, while the Sunday Times in Britain rated the All White's game against Italy as "the match of the World Cup".

Ricky Herbert, legendary All Whites coach, has finally announced that he will be staying in NZ as coach for the Wellington Phoenix. Talks about his role with the All Whites are continuing.
Everyone was a little surprised when Shane Smeltz announced he was leaving for the Chinese Super League. However after only five days he has returned to the A-League. Clearly there was an issue but he isn't yet saying what it was. And now fellow All White Ivan Vicelich is heading to China! Ivan has signed a four month contract with Shenzhen Ruby FC.

Finally, the new FIFA rankings are out and NZ has jumped 24 spots to be ranked 54th in the world. They were ranked 47th in 2002.

Rowing regattas continue, and NZ continues to do well. This time at Lucerne in Switzerland, we got six medals including three golds. Mahe Drysdale got bronze with golds for women's pair Rebecca Scown & Juliette Haigh, men's pair Hamish Bond and Eric Murray and lightweight double scull duo of Peter Taylor and Storm Uru.

Is shearing a sport? Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick won the open final at the Lakeland Shears in England. David Fagan & Cam Ferguson finished second & third in the machine shearing, and blade shearers Brian Thomson and Allen Gemmell finished first and second.

In the Cothi Open at the Royal Welsh Show, David Fagan put in his best performance in 20 seasons to win. I think that means he now has his 600th open-class title!

I've got the game recorded & all ready to watch but Ron & Rachel's wedding was more important than watching the All Blacks live this week. For the second week in a row the All Blacks hammered the Springboks, this time 31-17 for a second bonus point win. Everyone expected the boks to bounce back & while the second test was a more even contest the end result was never in doubt.

The Springboks continued to play "their" game with the yellow card coming out after only a few minutes and wing Jean de Villiers being suspended for two weeks.

The Warriors are on a hot streak, this time beating the troubled Melbourne Storm 13-6. The win pushes the Warriors into the top 5. Melbourne's fall out from their salary cap problems look to continue, first this week with the final announcement that the salary breaches totalled $3.17m, much much bigger than previously estimated $1.7m, and star Greg Inglis looks set to sign with the Brisbane Broncos.

Thomas Saunders won the hotly contested Laser Radial class in the youth sailing world champs and Alexandra Maloney and Sam Bullock won silver in the Open 20ers skiff class.

Julian Dean was in the Tour de France news again this week - but not for his excellent finishing. Australian rider Mark Renshaw took exception to Dean and illegally head-butted him in the final sprint on the 11th stage. Dean was leading the pack & Renshaw apparently didn't want him there - Renshaw was "removed from the competition for a particularly serious case" - perhaps he watched the Aussie vs All Whites pre-world cup game for inspiration?

NZ News

Two police officers were shot & injured and a police dog was killed during a routine call-out in Christchurch this week. The dog handler Senior Constable Bruce Lamb was shot in the jaw and Constable Mitchel Alatalo was shot in the upper thigh. They both managed to escape and call for back up. The armed offenders squad arrested a 34 year old man.

Peter Bethune arrived home last week after five months in jail, after the anti-whaling incident in the southern ocean. Unfortunately he's not also anti-whining after he came back complaining about everyone & everything, saying things like "I remain disgusted with the way Murray McCully has treated us from day one" & claiming NZ had "become a fat little lap dog" to Japan. Prime Minister John Key quickly responded that Bethune was "downright ungrateful" for the large amount of support he received from NZ officials. Obviously it would have been inappropriate for NZ to intervene in the Japanese judicial process. John Key noted that Mr Bethune had got himself into the situation and that "he had a letter that said 'I do not want to be taken off the boat under any circumstanced and I do want to be taken to Japan' and he was". Mr Bethune received a two year sentence suspended for five years.

The government is set to extend the 90-day trial scheme to all companies. The basic idea is that companies can employ people and fire them with the first 90 days without the workers allowed to bring a personal grievance case against the employer (unless on discriminatory grounds). For anyone in a small business who has to hire new people, it used to be a nightmare. It is almost impossible to fire bad employees, regardless of the damage they might be doing to your business. So as with most things, National is on one side & Labour on the other. Businesses call it a "safety belt", a "brilliant idea" & 87% of employers thought the trial period worked "very well" or "quite well". Forty percent of employers said they would not have hired the worker if the scheme wasn't available. But on the other side the Unions (& Labour) are being vocal about the changes & are upset at the moves suggesting that the survey was rigged - simply because they were refused a request of the copy of methodology and the questionnaire.

You may remember a story from back in May about a four year old boy "roughed up" in Whakatane for wearing a red shirt - the colours of the rival to a local gang. Well it turns out the Police now think the story was made up. The fathers story was inconsistent and the alleged assailant had a fairly good alibi.

The
Numbers Game

-6.8: degC overnight temperature for Taumarunui - the coldest since records began in 1947, Queenstown had -7.2C, it's third coldest in 139 years
2: % drop in food prices for the past year - the biggest annual fall on record (50 yrs worth)

5.3: richter scale earthquake near Wairoa

99: penalties against the Warriors for the first 18 rounds of the NRL - more than any other team, do the Aussie refs target the Warriors unfairly?
240: bed new $40m ward for Middlemore Hospital has been opened to cope with the population boom in South Auckland

60,000: $ fines for two BOP farmers for dirty dairying
5.2m: $ deal for Massey University to train 250 Asian public health workers in bio-security for the World Bank

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4649 (-0.0074)
EUR 0.5502 (-0.0128)
USD 0.7111 (-0.0002)
AUD 0.8190 (+0.0080)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Eric Batchelor
One of NZ's most highly decorated World War 2 soldiers died in Waimate this week. He was twice awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
Follow the link below to read more about the man, who with three others captured 19 prisoners when they attacked a house, only to find about 30 Germans inside.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10658266&ref=rss

Joke
of the Weekender

Flight Observation 
On a recent flight, an elderly passenger kept peering out the window. Since it was totally dark, all she could see was the blinking wing-tip light. Finally, she rang for the flight attendant. 

"I'm sorry to bother you," she said, "but I think you should inform the pilot that his left-turn indicator is on and has been for some time."

Weekender
Photos

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}

Welcome to the week that was!

Sport

In probably the best sporting news for years, Vevuzelas have been banned at Eden Park and in Christchurch!

Julian Dean will be back on the bike for the third stage of the Tour de France. He was among three of his teams riders to be taken to hospital after crashes. He is well off the pace but can hopefully get some time back.

Update: The team has since got a fourth the next day, followed by a fifth and second - Julian got onto the podium with a second!

Mahe Drysdale retained his single sculls title & Eric Murray and Hamish Bond won the doubles by 15 seconds, at the Henley rowing regatta in London.

The NZ Warriors put in a huge defensive effort to beat the Penrith Panthers 12-6. Table: Dragons/Panthers 26, Wests Tigers 24, Roosters/Titans/Warriors 22, Rabbitohs/Sea Eagles 20, Broncos/Knights 18, Bulldogs/Eels*/Raiders 16, Sharks 14, Cowboys* 12, Storm 0 (* 15 games vs 16)

In Origin football, Queensland won 23-18 for the first 3-0 whitewash for their first time in their five-straight series wins.

The Waikato/BOP Magic couldn't quite make the final step and were well beaten by the Adelaide Thunderbirds in the ANZ trans-tasman champs tonight. The Thunderbirds kept ahead almost the entire match to win 52-42.

Well the Springboks were supposed to be the form team this year. After the Super14 they were supposed to have all the options. But it didn't look like it on the scoreline at the end of the first Tri-nations match. The All Blacks won 32-12 getting a bonus point win, and the Springboks couldn't even get a try. I'd like to mention all the players who had great games, but that would be most of the team, a really outstanding complete performance! Bakkies Botha has got himself a 9 week ban for head butting due to his history of offending.

In other rugby, Southland retained the Ranfurly Shield with a 48-3 win over North Otago last night.

Shane Smeltz is the first All White to move on after the Football World Cup. The A-League's best scorer will be moving to a Chinese club in the Chinese Super league.

NZ News

I don't know what to say - nothing really stood out for national news this week. There are a few below in the numbers game, and it was a rather cold weekend. My wife & I went caravanning for a few days and woke to frozen everything while staying at Tongariro National park on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful clear day but everyone everywhere had frosts like they hadn't seen in a long time.

The
Numbers Game

2: year jail term for a Kerikeri man on his 20th drink-driving conviction (& 35th for driving while disqualified)
3: c/L drop in petrol from Shell & BP
30: boy racers arrested in Christchurch

53: % support for National in the latest Roy Morgan poll, up 2.5%, Labour is down four to 29%
1.5m: $ donated for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Appeal

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4723 (+0.0186)
EUR 0.5630 (+0.0145)
USD 0.7113 (+0.0223)
AUD 0.8110 (-0.0078)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Tex Morton
BOUNDARY RIDER
Tex Morton lived a life of breath-taking achievement, attaining mastery, fortune and international fame as a recording star, stage artist, circus entrepreneur, Hollywood screen actor and world authority in hypnotherapy. He was a first original antipodean voice. Tex is a legend from the edge. 

http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/morton.html

Joke
of the Weekender

Leaky Pipe 
A lady answered her front door to find a plumber standing there. "I'm here to fix the leaky pipe," he announced. 
"I didn't call a plumber," said the lady. 

"What?" huffed the plumber. "Aren't you Mrs. Frobisher?" 
The Frobishers moved out of this house over a year ago," explained the lady. 
"How do you like that," grunted the plumber. "They call you up and tell you it's an emergency and then they move away!"

Weekender
Photos

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}

Welcome to this week, I hope you are all going well!

Sport

The accolades for the All Whites continue! English news paper the Guardian posted some performance rankings for the top 10 performances during the pool play at the Football World Cup. And New Zealand had four spots. Ryan Nelsen was placed third for the Italy game and fifth for the Paraguay game, and Mark Paston was ranked seventh & tenth for the same two games.

The White Ferns beat England by nine runs in their third & final Twenty20 cricket match to wrap up the series 2-1 this week.

The NZ men's rowing eight knocked out the Cambridge crew from the Grand Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta yesterday. The kiwis dominated the race & will face the British number one eight in the semi final.

Steve Price requires more surgery and the icon of NRL will not be able to play at all in his final season. He hasn't made it onto the field this year at all so far, so maybe it's just as well he wasn't supposed to be captain! He played a total of 313 NRL matches - 91 for the Warriors.

The Waikato/BOP Magic beat the Southern Steel in the ANZ champs minor semifinal in Auckland this week. They now face the NSW Swifts who crashed to a 52-38 defeat - a huge shock for the Swifts who were unbeaten for the entire regular season.

UPDATE: News just in, the Magic have also beaten the NSW Swifts and are through to their second grand final appearance. The title favourite Swifts were beaten 54-49.

The NZ Warriors got their third consecutive win thrashing the Parramatta Eels 34-6 today.

NZ News

This week the suggestion floating around the political arena is that MP's travel entitlements should be scrapped, however John Key has dampened those suggestions saying that a equivalent 10% pay rise to compensate for stopping the perks, would be an outrage to the public.

The stand-off between schools and the government over the national standards policy continued this week. Education Minister Anne Tolley met with 550 principals in Queenstown this week pleading with them to get on with implementing national standards instead of "going to the media" and "making threats". The general view (according to the Principal's Federation vice-president) was that national standards were not working and there was need for change. The standards were introduced this year and Canterbury, Auckland and Southland are now refusing to participate in training (which surely must make it hard for them to know how to implement them properly?). The Labour-friendly unions have been completely against national standards since it was announced & seem more interested in making sure it fails than even giving it a fair hearing.

The first section of John Key's NZ-long cycle way was opened this week. A 200km track from Ruapehu to Wanganui will take four to six days going through Tongariro & Whanganui National Parks & past the 'Bridge to Nowhere'.

The government is planning a ban on smoking in prisons. One warden who contacted the media said banning lighters in prisons would have benefits that would far outweigh threats of violence which have been reported will occur if there is a ban. He said "I'm not a mean dude but, at the end of the day, they get a cell with underfloor heating, a fully supply of bedding, three meals a day, free healthcare and free courses. The inmates get whatever they want, whenever they want, and there are no consequences. We shouldn't treat them like princes."

Tainui is teaming up with Hoyts to build a multimillion-dollar cinema complex at The Base in Hamilton. The new complex will be the first purpose-built, fully digital cinema venue in New Zealand.

New Zealand is now officially Aussie mozzie free! We are the first country in the world to wipe out the southern salt-marsh mosquito after an 11-year eradication programme. The mozzie carries the Ross River Virus.

A British conman was told by a judge that he should "consider taking up work as an actor" as he wept while being jailed for two years after conning kiwis out of nearly $70,000.

Cadbury made enough mistakes this year for the company to drop down the list of NZ's most trusted brands. Bad publicity around their brief replacement of cocoa butter with palm oil, and moving production of our favourite chocolate bars to Australia have put their "trustedness" into free-fall & after six years at number one, this year they dropped to 36th equal. Food producer Watties claimed the number one spot this year. Toyota came in second place and won the car category. Sony came third and won both electronics and computer categories. As if Cadbury's drop wasn't bad enough for the company, their rival, Kiwi chocolate company Whittaker's debuted at number five on the list.

The Readers Digest also polled NZ's most trusted & least trusted people. SAS hero Willie Apiata took out the number one most trusted person spot for the third year in a row. As far as the jobs we trust the least, at the bottom was telemarketers, closely followed by politicians! The top ten professions are Firefighters, Ambulance officers, Pilots, Nurses, Doctors, Pharmacists, Veterinarians, Armed forces, Police officers & Teachers.

Greenpeace has been denied charitable status by the Charities Commission (I bet Auntie Helen didn't see that coming when she set it up!) They have appealed but they were initially turned down because Greenpeace's promotion of "disarmament and peace" was political rather than educational.

The
Numbers Game

1: # voted vege is the spud. Potatoes were closely followed by tomatoes - silver-beet and spinach were in both the top ten and the most disliked 10
3: c/L increase in fuel due to the newly introduced Emissions Trading Scheme - the AA warns a 7c increase due to GST in October will have more of an impact

5.1: richter scale earthquake for Fiordland this week
7.4: out of 10 rating for NZ in the happiest country in the world Gallup poll - that puts us eighth in the world
8: % increase in renewable electricity from 2008 to 2009

50: year ban from watching league for an angry fan who knocked out a linesman during a junior league match in Sydney (just spotted that was Australian news, but there was no bad NRL news this week so I'll keep it in!)

50: years of TV news had people voting on the biggest stories in the past 50 years - runaway winners were September 11 followed by Princess Diana's death
19,000: $ for a lock of hair cut from French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in an Auckland auction this week - it was sold to a private collector from London

50,000: extra homes have been insulated after the initial target of 27,500 homes started last July
100,000: $ has been pledged by the government towards NZ hosting of the taekwaon-do world champs next March
100,000: $ bonus per player for the All Blacks if they win next years World Cup - I wonder what the All Whites would have got?

15m: $ Government research grant for scientists to study in Antarctica over the next four years
9.7b: $ aviation industry in NZ has been growing strongly in recent years & is set to continue expanding

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4537 (-0.0208)
EUR 0.5485 (-0.0293)
USD 0.6890 (-0.0254)
AUD 0.8188 (+0.0010)

The
Weekender NZer of the week

Peter Jackson
MADE IN NEW ZEALAND
NZEdge presents a personal account of the Peter Jackson story by filmmaker Costa Botes (written May 2002). His account of Jackson's journey is a steadfastly idiosyncratic case study of innovation, focus and energy from the edge. "In giving himself something to watch, Peter Jackson has given the rest of us good cause to shake off complacency and start thinking about how to realise a few other 'impossible' goals."

http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/jackson.html

Joke
of the Weekender

Dewey Check 
I walked into my sister's kitchen and found my nephew, Dewey, having a snack. 
"Where's your mother?" I asked. 
"She said she was going to have a shower. Just a second, I'll see." 

Dewey went to the kitchen tap and turned the hot water on full blast. 
An indignant yell came from above. 
Dewey calmly turned off the tap and said, "Yep, she's in the shower." 

Weekender
Photos

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}