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Richard Prebble has resigned from the Waitangi Tribunal, calling it “a rogue entity,” and a “self-perpetuating industry of grievance,” rewriting history to suit a radical agenda. “The Tribunal now says Māori were promised economic equality. No government anywhere has ever delivered economic equality. As we will never have it, the Tribunal has created an endless grievance that can never be met,” Prebble said. He says the Tribunal has “turned…

Dr Jay Bhattacharya, the Stanford epidemiologist renowned for his criticism of Covid-19 lockdowns, appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labour, and Pensions (HELP) Committee on 5 March. His nomination to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH) came under intense scrutiny, with senators grilling him on vaccines, lockdowns, and the agency’s funding priorities. Bhattacharya’s opening statement set the tone. “I will establish a…

Scientists have identified new gene modifications that can make tomatoes and eggplants grow bigger, which could help boost yields in developing countries. Humans have been genetically engineering crops for thousands of years – but where the process used to involve simply selecting bigger or more fruitful plants to grow next year, in recent years scientists have been able to hack the genomes of crops and tweak specific genes to improve size,…

It is an ancient dream of humankind – the dream of eternal youth. No surprise, then, that the world is full of all kinds of “anti-ageing treatments.” A Google search for this phrase brings up myriad cosmetic products, medical procedures, diets and lifestyle hacks, all claiming they can help hold back the signs of advancing years. But do these really help us live healthier for longer? Often, the term 'anti-ageing' is used to promote…

Aspirin is one of the most well-known over-the-counter drugs, but there are a lot of misconceptions about it. For example: While it’s true that willow bark played a role in the history of aspirin, the tablets in your cabinet do not come from tree bark—modern aspirin is made with benzene derived from petroleum. Aspirin was never really made directly from willow bark, either. The first known person to produce acetylsalicylic acid—aka…

The quest to resurrect the woolly mammoth on Earth has taken another, well, small step with the creation of the Colossal Woolly Mouse. The lab-engineered rodents have seven genes that have been tweaked by scientists, giving them "core traits" of the grand extinct beasts. Readers may be familiar with US startup Colossal Biosciences, which has made headlines in recent years for various mammoth-related genetics feats. Back in 2021, it announced…

New Health Minister Simeon Brown pushed back against questionable media coverage of a Public Service Association (PSA) survey on health worker stress. While Christopher Luxon chuckled in the background, Brown called out the press gallery for reporting partisan distortions designed to embarrass the government. The survey, led by PSA head Fleur Fitzsimmons—a former Labour candidate who lost Wellington’s Rongotai seat to the Greens—was sent to…

Remember the AC Cobra? Yup, the iconic car that pays homage to the iconic Shelby Cobra of the 1960s. It’s set to make its North American debut in the form of the new Swedish-made Cobra GT Roadster, at the ModaMiami auto show later this month. AC Cars – which is still around – is one of the oldest independent carmakers in the world. But for the past few years, the British brand underwent numerous name changes and liquidations thanks to a series…

Professor Elizabeth Rata argues that New Zealand’s curriculum has been hijacked by ideology, and Education Minister Erica Stanford is trying to take it back. For years schools have operated without a standardised curriculum, allowing teachers to push sociocultural beliefs over academic subjects. Rata says the result has been widening inequality, with some students excelling while others are fed propaganda. Rata argues that Stanford’s…

Political columnist Damien Grant argues that Christopher Luxon’s decision to sacrifice Bayly shows his obsession with media optics over real governance. “Luxon could have chastised his minister for being an idiot while recognising the offence was trivial and the media reaction disproportionate. He didn’t,” Grant writes. “He seems to care more about managing media coverage and TikTok,” he quips. In contrast, according to Grant, former Prime…

March is named for the Roman god of war, Mars. However, in the northern hemisphere it as the beginning of spring, so March brings the vernal equinox, the Full Worm Moon, and the return of Daylight Saving Time. For us here in the southern, it is the end and the start of Autumn.  The Month of March March is named for Mars, the Roman god of war, because this was the time of year to resume military campaigns that had been interrupted by winter.…

March 5th 2013 New Zealand’s five-yearly census had been scheduled for 8 March 2011. But after Canterbury’s devastating February earthquake (see 22 February), Government Statistician Geoff Bascand and Statistics Minister Maurice Williamson announced that it would not go ahead. Statistics New Zealand’s Christchurch operations had been significantly disrupted, and the exodus of people from the city would have skewed the results. Cancelling the…

Cheese seems to make everything better, doesn’t it? In a recent study, scientists at the University of Oxford looked at the environmental elements that appear to increase, or decrease the risk of early death. It found there was a positive benefit from eating cheese. Hurrah. From buttery sharp cheddar to gooey ripe Camembert, cheese is delicious in all its guises, whether the molten star of a warming meal, a tangy salad component or a quick…

The world's first "biological computer" that fuses human brain cells with silicon hardware to form fluid neural networks has been commercially launched, ushering in a new age of AI technology. The CL1, from Australian company Cortical Labs, offers a whole new kind of computing intelligence – one that's more dynamic, sustainable and energy efficient than any AI that currently exists – and we will start to see its potential when it's in users'…

On March 4th, 1855, shepherds searching for 1000 missing sheep in the upper reaches of the Waitaki Valley apprehended suspected rustler James Mackenzie, one of New Zealand’s first and most enduring folk heroes. Caught red-handed, Mackenzie denied the theft, claiming he had been hired to drive the sheep to Otago. After escaping from his captors, he walked 160 km to Lyttelton, where he was recaptured on 15 March. The Supreme Court found…

A new movement aims to connect creators from every country across the world, asking if art could be the ‘one language that unites us all’. Project 195, launched by art platform 13AM Studio, began on 17 February and will run until 31 August. Creatives from 71 nationalities are already on board. George Ripton, founder of 13AM Studio, explained: “Art is the purest form of connection – it crosses borders, cultures and languages without…

How should the government fund the billions more dollars needed to improve New Zealand’s infrastructure, boost defence spending and much else? It must be done by some combination of cutting other spending, raising taxes, borrowing, or selling assets. Raising tax rates rubs against the government’s growth objective. Borrowing is troubling because the public debt is already imprudently high. Asset sales should be in the mix. This week, the New…

In the US, a whistleblower has claimed that the National Security Agency (NSA), the US government’s electronic surveillance and codebreaking agency, has been infiltrated by radical gender activists. In response, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard ordered an investigation, demanding that participants be identified, fired, and stripped of security clearances. The controversy arose after City Journal exposed an NSA sex chatroom…

In 79 A.D, Mt. Vesuvius erupted, killing thousands of people in the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Currents of hot gas and volcanic matter, ash and gases, as well as subsequent earthquakes caused brutal, widespread devastation. Archaeological evidence even reveals the brain of one young man who died lying in his bed became the only known example of a person’s brain vitrifying—i.e., turning to glass. Finding brain tissue in an…

A new global satellite study confirms what many suspected—New Zealand isn’t even on the map when it comes to the world’s biggest methane emitters. The study, which analysed data from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-5P satellite, found that the worst methane emissions come from massive wetlands and fossil fuel extraction sites overseas. The Sudd wetland in South Sudan tops the list at 4.5 million tons per year, while Argentina’s Iberá…