Fair Go, Mate!
Game theory is used by many branches of the social sciences to help explain some the seemingly irrational behaviour of humans. Paul Walker, a New Zealand academic, has constructed a time-line of the development of games theory…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Stirling Effort
British energy companies are looking at the Stirling engine produced by NZ company WhisperTech. By 2025, 13m households in Britain could have their own little power station installed with this technology.
Genie Rubs Up Well
Genie Systems’ OrderWare is now running in 10 US Babies ‘R’ Us stores, and is set to fully installed by next year. “Australasian software businesses have a unique style of software, and therefore I think there are many…
Banking on Success
39 year-old Stuart Grimshaw used to put his body on the line for New Zealand, playing hockey at top international level. These days, as the new CEO of the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks, his eyes are firmly…
Learning from Grandma and the “Notorious” Truby King
A expectant grand-daughter ponders generational attitudes to child-rearing, musing on her grandmother’s strict training under New Zealander Truby King”: ” is the Aunt Sally for almost all post-war child-rearing books … His doctrines were adopted across the…
Cancer Clue in Birthmarks
New Zealand researchers led by plastic surgeon Swee Tan have found a gene they believe helps shrink a benign tumour. The gene, they hope, may do the same thing in cancerous tumours. Their research involved investigating…
Kiwi Cunning Conquers IQ Test
In a Sunday Times report noted science commentator Bryan Appleyard ponders the limits of DNA science and why ‘designer intelligence’ is not such a good thing, using the evidence of New Zealander James Flynn and his…
Sir Ron Brierley: 61 Not Out
Sir Ron described by the Financial Times as the “cricket mad corporate raider” and “one of the most controversial corporate figures of the past twenty years” knocked the London Stock Exchange for six when his Guiness Peat…
New Zealand Firm to Introduce CNG Equipment to Pakistan
Prescon Technology Limited has been chosen to introduce quality Compressed Natural Gas equipment to Pakistan, as well as introducing new and cheap water filters for domestic and commercial treatment plants. The aim of the enterprise is to…
NZ Research Finds Anticholesteral Drug May Modify Stroke Risk
Pravastatin, a drug used to help lower blood cholesterol levels, may have a role to play in stroke prevention according to research (published in The New England Journal of Medicine) led by Dr Harvey D. White of…
‘Human’ Cow Milk an MS Aid?
The lush pasture of some of New Zealand’s finest farming land will soon be home to a special herd of cows. New Zealand’s state-owned agricultural research institute has just won government approval for a five-year field trial…
Kiwi Banker Helps Bosnia Rebuild
As the Bosnian economy struggles to recover from the ravages of war, its citizens are struggling to accept the recovering local currency. “The most telling detail on the new Bosnian currency is the signature on every…
Cyberpunk Sisters
Female hackers have proved so elusive that they slip under the radar of sociologists. ABC News investigates part of an underground subculture better known for the misogynistic stink of a high school boys’ locker room – geek…
Anti Spam Crusade
A Palmerston North, New Zealand-based firm ORBS (Open Relay Behaviour-Modification Service) is joining the crusade to save the suffering masses from the indignity of spam. Identifying culpable open servers, ORBS then persuades their administrators to close…
The End of an Aussie Icon: Hats off to NZ Scientists
“It just may spell the end of the world’s ugliest headgear: that staple of the Australian tourist shop regular, the cork-fringed hat.” Two researchers from Massey University have developed a technique that kills female fruit flies in…
Guinness Peat Told to Bugger off and Have a Beer
New Zealand listed corporate raider Guinness Peat’s edge proved too sharp at Young & Co (Britain’s oldest brewery), after chairman John Young turned the screws on them using megaphone diplomacy. Despite having support from ‘A’ investors, private…
Immunising Roadkill to Protect Livestock?
Imagine a countryside filled with possum traps, not designed to kill, but to entice the pesky pest in for a quick facial spray to vaccinate them against bovine TB. Hailing some edge thinking the Guardian writes: “It…
Rutherford and Oliphant: the Physics of the Affair
From tree-pruning to atom bombs, on the death of physicist Sir Mark Oliphant the Guardian remembers the contribution his friendship with Sir Ernest Rutherford made to Twentieth Century science, ” greatest personal triumphs in science came in…
The Truth is Out There
An international effort to find biological life in the stars, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (‘Sophia’), a joint project between NASA and the German Aerospace Centre, will spend two months of every year in New Zealand, the…
Organic Expert Export
Organic farmer Evelyn Eng-Lim is introducing the organic lifestyle to Singapore and hopes to set an example for other farmers to follow, “If other farmers see that it is commercially viable, then they will be convinced…
Kiwis Have the Secret to Animal Magnetism
It sounds like a line from a bad personal ad, but a team of New Zealand biologists, led by Dr. Michael Walker, in an upcoming issue of Nature, report findings from innovative research into ‘the sixth…
How to Command Attention, Change Minds, and Influence People
Yes! we can finally tell you how to be the better you: the Dallas Morning Herald business section offers their guide to summertime self-improvement, including this “top investment” from Harry Mills of Lower Hutt, Artful Persuasion: How…
Human Gene in Kiwi Sheep
We get enough flak for our supposed close relationship with sheep, but this is ridiculous. Thousands of sheep are walking around with a gene inside them which, it turns out, came from a blood sample donated…
New Zealand High School Dropout Blazes a Trail in Bit Valley
Terrie Lloyd runs one of Bit Valley’s (Tokyo’s answer to Silicon) most successful start-up companies, Daijob.com, the largest on-line recruiting firm in Japan, as well as his English- language J@pan Inc magazine, which has virtually no competitors….
Fortified Cereals May Reduce Heart Risk
Researchers from University of Otago report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that folic acid supplements and fortified cereals are more effective than a diet rich in naturally occurring folates in reducing levels of the heart…
Want Twins? Ewe May be in Luck
New Zealand scientists at the AgResearch Institute have found a gene responsible for twins in sheep, a discovery that could lead to understanding human fertility treatments and contraceptives, as well as increased agricultural production. Sue Galloway…
Out of Africa Theory of Evolution
The Economist ponders the ‘where did we come from’ question, referring to the out-of-Africa theory first developed by New Zealand biochemist, the revolutionary Allan Wilson, and his colleague Rebecca Cann. They studied genetic material from a variety…
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 journal Nature they analysed 77 languages…
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 an arduous task is now 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 is building on years of…
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 at Cannes and the company’s…
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.
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 Zealand model.”
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 pill are nearly ten times more…
Kiwi Wave Expert Helps the Brits Hang Ten in Bournemouth
The stereotype of the stoic sunburnt pommie enduring another much-mocked English summer is all about to change thanks to a world expert kiwi who specialises in making artificial waves. It might still be cold, but Professor…
“Brain Drain Clouds NZ’s Future” – Refuse the Hype and Get to the Edge
More centric thinking, this time from London’s Observer, “New Zealander’s are leaving their country in droves, placing a strain on the economy and painting a grim picture for the future.” Our opinion: New Zealand Edgers of the…
Odious Vampire’s Kiss: NZ Researchers Investigate Garlic Mystery
Kiwi research team Rex and Christine Munday claimed in New Scientist magazine that eating half a clove of raw garlic a day could help protect against cancer. They believed the key ingredient was a substance called…
Kiwi’s Big Fightback in the War of Whiteware
They might have won the eponymous netball cup, but at least someone’s beating the Aussies: Fisher & Paykel increased its Australian market share and boosted its annual profit above expectations to A$43 million, a 290% improvement…
Innovative Computer Mapping to Curb Crime
New Zealand police are, introducing a high-tech solution to beat burglaries. They are using a NZ$6million computer-mapping programme to allow police to zero in on burglars’ homes as well as break-in hot spots, said…
From the Edge to the (Medical) Centre: Kiwi Brings Tibetan Medicine to Chelsea
New Zealand born Christopher Hansard, is medical director of the newly opened Eden Medical Centre in London’s King’s Road. It aims to blend Dur Bon, a Tibetan form of medicine, with Western conventional and complementary systems.
Wild Weather
New Zealander Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section of the Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder Colorado, is in the middle of the wild weather/global warming storm.
New Zealand Firm Hails Taxi Innovation in India
Tait Electronics is launching in India an innovative two-way radio communication service using using cutting edge technology. The ‘Mega Cab’ service, using a satellite based global positioning system is set to revolutionise the business of catching…
Kiwi Goes AWOL with Marvel of Medical Handiwork
After acquiring a new hand in a revolutionary operation, he was meant to lie back, take his drugs and recover. Instead Clint Hallam hit the US chat shows, spent 20000 pounds on another patient’s credit card, then…
Counting on Sheep
A flock of mentally deficient sheep in New Zealand are providing scientists with vital clues in the search to find a cure for Batten disease. Dave Palmer of Massey university has spent nearly twenty years breeding sheep…
Kiwi Chosen to Restore Sparkle to Britain’s Millennium Crown
Kiwi Former head of British pay-TV operator BSkyB, Sam Chisholm, has been appointed the new head of the much hyped, but troubled, Millennium Dome. Despite anger from Labour backbenchers at its public cost, Chisholm insists he will look to…
Manimal Farm: Science’s Brave New World
New Zealand government researchers have developed a herd of super-producing cattle.
Moving Places: Peter Carr
Peter Carr has been promoted to chief financial officer and chief actuary of Pearl Assurance, the life and pensions arm of AMP. Carr joined Pearl as chief actuary from AMP New Zealand.
Wall Street Gets Emotional Rescue from the Edge
Kevin Roberts says there is a challenge for the ‘anti-social medium’ of the web, traditional advertising and product design in general. That is, to get emotional and to create mystery and sensuality in order to re-connect…
You Can’t Grow Money on Trees … but Cabbages?
Extracting gold from plants sounds like modern day alchemy, but 26 yr-old Massey University of New Zealand scientist Chris Anderson has managed to do it in the laboratory – extracting gold from cabbages.
A Funeral to Die For
Death is finding new life on the web: a New Zealand-based Web site, www.funeralstodiefor.com, will plan a customer’s last rites down to the choice of music and type of flowers–and promises to help make the ceremony happen…
Grey Power? Not Unless You Drink More Milk
Auckland University researchers have found that women who go grey earlier have lower bone density and are more at risk from osteoporosis.
From the Z-files: Kiwi Squeezes Gold from Cabbages
26 yr-old PHD student Chris Anderson has developed a way of extracting gold from cabbages grown on old mine tailings – and he is confident that the method will be commercially viable.
Travelling with Cruise Control
If Kiwi Jonathan Kruse has his way, road-tripping tourists will never have to fumble with the map or guide-book again. Using global positioning systems, information about your location and relevant tourist attractions, meshed with evocative music and…
Buttery New Zealand invention Spreads the word
As British consumers have become more concerned about food safety, Anchor has taken advantage of New Zealand’s clean, green image to promote its spreadable butter – a product invented by the New Zealand Dairy Board.
Kiwi Innovation Helps Blind See the Future
A Christchurch company has taken computers for braille users from the age of the typewriter to the age of the super-computer, with Braillenote, the first notebook computer for the blind. Asiaweek (CNN) profiles the innovation in its…
“She is Right Mate” New Zealand Sheep and Cattle Reap Benefit of Revolution
Immense changes under way in NZ farming, ranging from challenges of e-commerce and overseas trade restraints, to the costly introduction of organic produce and changing market demands, mean that NZ farming is poised for one of its…
