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In a historic move, the Port Hedland Council in Western Australia voted 5-2 to call for the immediate suspension of Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines. The motion is grounded in concerns over DNA contamination found in the vaccines, reportedly 145 times higher than the safety limits set by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). The motion calls for all 537 local councils in Australia to be notified, along with registered health…

A surprise discovery in a remote Australian desert region has given us new clues into the evolution of complex animal life, dating back more than 500 million years. The numerous fossils of the animal now known as Quaestio simpsonorum also show clear left-right asymmetry, concrete evidence of when complex lifeforms took shape on Earth. This fossil find is significant, as the preservation of soft-bodied marine animals from the Ediacaran period –…

The once-hyped lab-grown meat industry is collapsing and insiders are now admitting failure. Julian Mellentin, a food consultant, believes it will be remembered as “one of the biggest failures in food history.” Even test marketing failed. People just don’t want to eat something that came from a bioreactor. Lab-grown meat, originally backed by big names like Bill Gates and Richard Branson, promised to revolutionise farming but couldn’t…

Kinship among nations is not determined in such measurements as proximity, size, and age. Rather, we should turn to those inner things, those intangibles that are the real treasures free men possess. To preserve his freedom of worship, his equality before the law, his liberty to speak and act as he sees fit, subject only to the provision that he trespass not upon similar rights of others, the Londoner will fight. So will a citizen of Abilene. …

Jean Batten left for New Zealand from Kent, England, at 4.20 a.m. on 5 October 1936. Despite the early hour, a large media contingent gathered to see her off; Batten was already famous for her successful solo flights from England to Australia in May 1934, and to South America in November 1935. Batten had installed two extra petrol tanks in her low-winged monoplane, a Percival (Vega) Gull. But to reach Australia she still had to land and refuel…

Boom's XB-1 supersonic jet took its fifth test flight out of Mojave Air & Space Port on Oct 7th, 2024 setting a few new records in the process. The XB-1 is the one-third-scale platform that Boom is using as the foundation for its eventual Overture aircraft that aims to bring back commercialized supersonic passenger flight. It's been over 20 years since the Concorde took its last flight. It went supersonic in 1969, able to fly at Mach 2 (about…

It may seem odd to suggest a 1960s TV sci-fi series can help solve the problem of overcrowded holiday hotspots. But while the “holodeck’’ from Star Trek is still some way off, similar technologies are being successfully employed as a way to deal with overtourism.  Overtourism is a phenomenon common in many tourist attractions all over the world and occurs when the tremendous increase in the number of visitors causes a decline in the quality…

Organic food has many health benefits. A new review in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition states how consuming food produced without harmful pesticides, artificial fertilisers or genetically engineered organisms is associated with a lower risk for health conditions such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure. People who choose organic foods generally make other healthier lifestyle choices as well. It's no surprise, then, that…

**This delicious asparagus salad is the perfect Spring dish! It’s a great one to take to a potluck BBQ.** **Ingredients** 400-500 g kumara skin on, cut into 3cm chunks olive oil a drizzle 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 2 teaspoons sugar ½ red onion thinly sliced 250 g asparagus or green beans, trimmed ¼ cup flat-leaf parsley chopped lightly toasted walnuts chopped ¼ cup Parmesan shaved **Honey mustard dressing** 2 teaspoons…

Writer Dieuwe de Boer notes that New Zealand is facing low birth rates and looming population decline. He writes that while New Zealand has opted to rely on mass immigration: “This only delays the inevitable and we will have to deal with the twin damages of a failed multicultural policy and declining population in coming decades.” The real challenge lies in addressing birth rates that are nearing zero, and GDP per capita that has been…

The closest living relative to a species that went extinct in Europe 400 years ago is coming ‘back from the dead’ in Scotland.  The muscular, long-horned tauros is a close relative of the ancient aurochs – a mega-herbivore which for millennia played a vital role in shaping landscapes and boosting biodiversity across Europe. It was driven to extinction by hunting and habitat loss.  Now the rewilding charity Trees for Life aims to turn…

Global tourism is on track for a strong rebound in 2024, with travel projected to recover fully to pre-pandemic levels.  The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported 790 million international tourists in the first seven months of 2024, an 11 percent rise from 2023, though still 4 percent below 2019 figures. Tourism remains a crucial industry, particularly for developing nations, with the World Travel & Tourism Council forecasting a…

The increase in cancer rates globally has been linked to prolonged exposure to environmental contaminants. Asbestos. Arsenic. Lead. DDT. Silica. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons. These minerals and chemicals have one thing in common: their cancer-causing potential. An estimated 35 million new cancer cases by 2050 would mark a 77 percent rise in the global cancer burden. Approximately 2 to 8 percent of cancers worldwide are related to workplace…

The gangland murder of ‘Mr Asia’ (Marty Johnstone) led to the demise of one of New Zealand’s largest ever drug rings. Johnstone was killed on the orders of drug lord Terry Clark. Divers found his mutilated body in a flooded quarry in England. Clark (also known as Sinclair) and Johnstone had begun working with each other in the mid-1970s, when the Mr Asia drug ring began importing large quantities of heroin into New Zealand and Australia.…

The definition of a vacuum is true empty space – an environment with nothing in it. It is the attempt to create a nothingness within the all pervasive somethingness of the universe. Nothing cannot exist in nature because nature immediately fills that nothing with something. Trying to separate out from everything creates a state so profoundly unstable that it immediately disappears. And this has profound implications for us and what we want. …

Ever since 1917, Passchendaele has been a byword for the horror of the Great War. In terms of lives lost in a single day, the failed attack on Bellevue Spur on 12 October was probably the greatest disaster in New Zealand’s history. Eight days earlier, around 500 New Zealanders died during the capture of Gravenstafel Spur, one of two spurs on the ridge above the village of Passchendaele in Flanders, Belgium. Although this attack was successful,…

Surgical stitches are good for helping wounds heal, but they can pop open with too much movement. Scientists in China have now turned that weakness into a strength, developing stitches that generate an electric charge when stretched and heal wounds faster. Sutures are the standard treatment for large and deep wounds in skin, physically bringing cells on either side of a wound back in contact so they can patch up the damage. Without them,…

In its first venture from Dunedin to Gabriels Gully, near Lawrence, Cobb & Co. reduced the time for the trip from two days to nine hours. The company was founded in Melbourne in 1854; in 1861, its proprietor, Charles Cole, arrived in Dunedin with a luxury American Concord coach, five wagons, a buggy, more than 50 horses, and a reputation for speed and reliability. One week later, the first ‘Cobb & Co Telegraphic Line of Coaches’ service began…

Among superstitions, one of the oldest and most enduring is that crossing paths with a black cat will bring on bad luck. The dark-colored felines have also been folded into modern Halloween symbols, giving them the (unearned) reputation of being spooky. But how and where did the association between black cats and bad luck begin? Here’s what is known about the connection between Halloween and black cats, including the lasting impact of this…

The Labour government created the Tribunal to hear Māori claims of breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. It has evolved ever since, adapting to the demands of claimants, government and public. The Tribunal was created to report on and suggest settlements for contemporary Māori claims, and to ensure that future legislation was consistent with the treaty. Claims were relatively rare in its first decade, and most of the Tribunal’s early inquiries…