The Weekender 25/07/2010
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.
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
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."
Check
out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42
Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
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