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Archive >> June 2000
Harold Williams
New Zealander Harold Williams was listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s greatest linguist. He is said to have spoken over 58 languages fluently, as well…
Robert Burchfield
Dr Robert Burchfield was a world-renowned scholar. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “the greatest living lexicographer”, he played a crucial role in the study of the sources and…
Giesen Estate Best White of the Show at Prestigous US Awards
Giesen Wine Estate Double Gold 1999 Sauvignon Blanc, from Marlborough, has won best white of the show at America’s most important wine-judging event, the San Francisco International Wine Judging Competition. With 2,800 wines…
Building Rome and other literary Pastimes
“I like computer games – of the world domination kind.” She-Devil/New Zealand reared novelist Fay Weldon, in the Independent’s 50-best list, admits she has a soft-spot for empire building,…
Cyborg creatives
New Zealand artists working with cutting edge computer-based new media technology feature in Art Asia Pacific’s feature “Interface: visions of the body and machine”. Mauren Lander and John Fairclough…
Whatever you do don’t go in the water
More bloody innovation saw Colenso pick up a Golden Lion at the Cannes Advertising Festival. The campaign to promote the opening of the movie Scream, unlike another Kiwi winner…
Phil Keoghan Spot on as Adventure Crazy Host
Remembered in New Zealand as host of Spot On, 3.45pm Live, Phil Keoghan has made a name for himself in the US as host and executive producer of Phil…
Breath of fresh air from ideas company wins Cannes award
Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland won a Golden Lion at the renowned Cannes Advertising Festival for its innovative solution for the Auckland Regional Council Anti-Pollution campaign. The campaign involved local…
Stories from the Diaspora
“I write to give voice to those who are otherwise lost or forgotten completely in Pacific literature: young girls and women.” Pasifika Press in New Zealand snapped up Sia…
Romance and roadkill in
Director Alison Maclean’s edge aesthetic gets sharper: described by the New Yorker as having a “big messy emotional talent”, she is thrilled that audiences are connecting with the romance…
New Zealand Edges into the Top-twenty, but Gives Women a Fair Go
For the seventh consecutive year, Canada ranks overall as the best place in the world to live according to the UN Human Development Report 2000. New Zealand is in…
Kiwi Bomb Victim Determined to Rebuild His Life
Gary Reid, whose body was devastated by a nail bomb explosion at the Admiral Duncan Pub (London) last year, vows to recover fully and without malice, “I am looking…
Rogue Anna Paquin is Premiere Cover mutant
Playing the character of ‘Rogue’ in Bryan Singer’s (Usual Suspects) blockbuster adaptation of comic legend X-Men, Anna Paquin makes the special edition cover of July’s Premiere. Like Paquin’s Oscar…
#19 World’s Greatests
Edge Message #19 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM
TO NZEDGE.COM COMMUNITY
Greetings on this last day of the half year. Voyeurs will enjoy the 60 new messages in the Mailbox. Thank…
Kiwi Linguists Chart Man’s Journey Across the Pacific
University of Auckland linguists Russell Gray and Fiona Jordan, “may have solved one of the greatest mysteries in human prehistory – how people managed to colonise the Pacific”. Writing in the…
“I’m Quite a Fearful Person Actually”
Sir Ed might have to do some convincing – he will go down in history as one of the Twentieth Century’s great adventurers. The Independent asks if the 81 year-old has…
From One Edge to Another to Take up the Haka Challenge
From Vancouver on the edge of the Atlantic, director Jonathan Tammuz will continue a global roll to the edge of the Pacific to direct “Haka” an 1850s-set $30million British…
The Ubiquitous Crowe Tabloid Dispatch
“Hollywood’s golden girl Meg in marriage split … Crowe has become Hollywood’s latest heart-throb since starring as Maximus, in the summer’s most successful blockbuster. Ryan is reported to have…
Danyon Loader: The Retiring Type?
New Zealand double Olympic swimming gold medalist Danyon Loader has announced his retirement, “I’ve been swimming competitively since 1987 … and the desire and incentive to race has diminished,” said Loader, 25,…
Sam Neill: walking with the dinosaurs … again
Kiwi Neill has become the first major actor to sign on for more encounters with a blue screed/rampaging dinosaurs in Jurassic Park 3. He will reprise his role as…
Pete Sampras Follows Historic Kiwi Footsteps at Wimbledon
Kiwi contribution to a tennis legacy: “No man in this century has dominated the world’s only important grasscourt tournament quite like Sampras. Not Hugh Doherty. Not the dashing New Zealander Tony…
New Zealand Versus the Mother Country: A Titanic Struggle
We’re obviously not talking rugby, but earthworms. Visitors to the University of Dundee’s Botany Department got to see a titanic struggle of earthly proportions, with the New Zealand flatworm attacking and…
Simply the best: Dame Kiri: the Tina Turner of the opera world?
Dame Kiri talks about her Maori heritage, playing to an audience of 600 million people, her forthcoming concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and how long she can keep…
Bryan Gould: Best Belletrist on the Left
The New Statesman’s literary editor uses his position to weigh up the relative literary merits of the Tory MPs compared to their Labour counterparts, and finds that the Tories are up…
University of Canterbury, (Kuala Lumpur)
The University of Canterbury, New Zealand, held its inaugural overseas graduation and degree presentation in Kuala Lumpur with officials, 60 alumni and 200 guests attending. The universities strong ties…
Hollywood Hobbit Brings Trouble to Middle Earth
Literary fans who are devoted to the purity of Tolkien’s Middle Earth ouevre are angry at rumours that Frodo Baggins is ready to flirt. The introduction of glamorous Hollywood…
Vodka and herb, a très moderne kiwi potable
The Guardian blows away the myth that herbs are restrained by the cooking pot and salad bowl and offers some herbal cocktails for the urban sophisticate, including herb-based martinis…
Fusion eating: Kiwi food produce makes for great Italian fare in Malaysia
“The start to original Italian food is to use all fresh ingredients … the juicy New Zealand mussels in Amatricana sauce are to die for … the imported New…
Graham Henry First Non-British Coach of the Lions
Call it post-colonial, call it usurping, but New Zealander Graham Henry will be charged with giving the British Lions Rugby-Union team a new roar for their tour of Australia next year….
Neighbours no more: Kiwi pop culture export success reverses the flow
Aussie girl-group Bardot, the most manufactured band in the history of pop, have become a sensation. “Popstars”, the hit TV show that followed their evolution from nobodies to Spice…
Maori Culture Previewed on USA Today
“The indigenous people of New Zealand are spotlighted at Maori Culture including historical background, portraits and even a cookbook.”
#18 Kiwis Making International Headlines
Edge Message #18 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM
To NZEDGE.COM MEMBERS across the globe
We have over 50 new stories this week about New Zealand internationalists.
Grant Dalton pure speed across the…ANZACS Cautious in South Pacific
New Zealand and Australia in recent years have turned their attention away from the South Pacific, and increasingly cast it towards Asia. Two coups in as many weeks, in Fiji and…
Helen Clark: Good Bloke
“Good bloke” politics is playing well in “reform-fatigued” Australian electorates. The new model is not gender-specific. Prime Minister Helen Clark in New Zealand may like to imply that it is, but she…
Global Leader in 3d Paint Technology Brings Texture to Cyberspace
Auckland company Right Hemisphere has released ‘Texture Weapons’ its latest imaging product said, “to represent a breakthrough in 3D content creation for broadcast, game developers and industrial design.” What was once…
Dotcom Carnage Paves the Way for Kiwi Hard Science
USA Today speculates that the dotcom slump will see investors’ interest return to science-based research companies, including LifeF/x, which is creating realistic-looking, computer-generated talking heads for use on Web sites. The company…
Maclean movie puts the art before the horse
Feed gets a shot in the arm from director Alison Maclean. “We all know what to expect from ’70s smack movies. So why is Jesus’ Son so unexpectedly good?…
Large Natural Gas Field Discovered, NZ’s Second Largest
Newly discovered by Fletcher Challenge Energy, the gas field Pohokura may be New Zealand’s second largest and help underpin a sustainable gas supply for New Zealand’s future.
Kevin Roberts Punts Saatchi & Saatchi into the Premier League
The ideas shop meets ‘La Difference’ when it was announced that Saatchis was to merge, for £1.24 billion, with French giant Publicis. Celebrating the merger, as well as scooping creative awards…
Kiwi Comics Turn Fringe Festival Into Laugh-fest
The All New Kiwi Stand-up Experience has gained a reputation as one of the funniest acts in town at Ottawa’s Fringe Festival. But be warned that “the routines of…
Dallas Cowboys in the Super 12?
Rugby, the sport of choice in countries like New Zealand and Australia is gaining a strong foothold in the States, and particularly in Dallas, Patricia Lowell finds out why. “Rugby may…
Kiwi King is Queen of the Waves in Singapore
Jane King may only be 8 years old and 1.45 meters tall, but she is already a wakeboarding champion: in an adult category. She recently out-jumped and out-tricked four…
Kiwi Whispering on Stewart Island
The New York Times experiences the thrill of the chase in Kiwi country. “I realised I had been holding my breath, so I exhaled. The whole experience had lasted less than…
j’accuse! Greg Turner and the European PGA
When Greg Turner left last week’s Wales Open before it even started he accused, in his unique way, the European Tour of stifling healthy debate by placing commercial interests before course…
Tolkien epic is lord of the net
The $200m epic, in production in New Zealand and not due for release for a year and a half, is already burgling box-office treasure and causing a storm on the…
Walking with the Gods: Tiger Wood’s Kiwi caddy
When Tiger Wood’s completed his historic US Open victory by an absurd 15 strokes the first person he turned to to celebrate was his advisor, New Zealand caddy Steve Williams. Earlier…
Mike Moore Wants to Give Globalisation a Human Face
The cherubic WTO head Moore, readily likened to a panda in caricutures, admitted that the free-traders were losing the PR battle after the “Seattle Debacle” and failed consensus, but vowed to do…
Elemental Design Lets House Take Care of Itself
Professor Brenda Vale and Dr Robert Vale of the Sustainable Design Centre Research Centre at the University of Auckland, use The Times to forward their manifesto for environmentally friendly…
Kiwi Innovation Solution to Indian Sea Erosion
“The State Minister for Minor Irrigation Kumar Bangarappa informed that a permanent solution to arrest sea-erosion in the coastal belt of the Mangalore district would be evolved as per the New…
Party-on in ‘one of the Hippest Cities on the Pacific Rim’
The Guardian reports that Auckland, ‘more like the Riviera than the outskirts of Polynesia’, is having a hard time coming down from the highs of the America’s Cup victory. All part of…
Cruising New Zealand: Come Aboard We’re Expecting You …
Cruising is the ideal way to see New Zealand, in nine days The Times correspondent saw things exciting and new: the spectacular Marlborough Sounds, dazzlingly beautiful Picton Harbour, Wellington, “a city…
All Black’s Blunt Edge in 95 World Cup Final Attributed to Poisoning
A former major in the South African Police has backed up claims that the All Black team was poisoned on the eve of the 1995 World Cup final, “I only have the…
Teddy Tahu Rhodes: Kiwi man singing Houston
Teddy Tahu Rhodes, “a New Zealand baritone well known in Sydney for his Opera Australia appearances”, is playing the lead role of Joe in the Houston Grand Opera’s rendering…
NZ Study Shows Women on Pill Face Increased Health Risk
Dr Skegg from the University of Otago, (in a study published in medical journal Lancet) found that although the risk of a fatal clot is still extremely low, women on the…
Tex Morton
New Zealander Tex Morton lived a life of breath-taking achievement. He attained fortune and huge international fame in several careers: a recording star (300 songs), singer-songwriter, stage artist (touring…
#17 Amazing International Kiwi Achievements
Edge Message #17 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM
To NZEDGE.COM Community
Today in HEROES we publish the story of Tex Morton, the extraordinary New Zealander who was one of the…
