MetaFilter posts tagged with NewZealand

NZ becomes first country in Asia-Pacific region to approve gay marriage

arcticseal — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 07:47:36 -0800

New Zealand legalises same-sex marriage , becoming the first country in the Asia-Pacific region and the 13th country to do so. The bill was passed with a wide majority, with 77 votes in favour and 44 against. "In our society, the meaning of marriage is universal - it's a declaration of love and commitment to a special person," said Labour MP Louisa Wall. The declaration of the vote was followed by a waiata.

Who are you?

Blasdelb — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:27:41 -0800

Keep an eye on your mates when you're out – You look after them, they look after you. It's all about having fun and making it home safely. It's not about being a hero – it's about doing something small. (7:58) A New Zealand PSA about sexual assault prevention focusing on bystanders [WARNING sexual assault triggers abound]

"The multi media campaign is targeted at young people and those who work or interact with them. It is designed to:
- Improve understanding of issues concerning consent to sex - Encourage individuals to respond to sexual violence in a manner appropriate to the situation - Empower people to help others - Encourage community discussion on sexual violence prevention.
The messages pose these questions:
- What if we looked after each other? - What if we became ‘ethical’ bystanders? - What if we took action that could help keep others safe?
Being an ethical bystander is all about doing little things, long before the point of harm is reached. It’s not about being a hero or putting yourself at risk, but it is about preventing sexual violence. An estimated 1 in 4 women and 1 in 20 men in New Zealand will be victims of a sexual assault at some point in their lives. Sexual violence can often be prevented if someone does something – however small. Offenders are most often known to the victim – and the events leading up to the assault are often witnessed by others. Most of us want to help if we are in an unsafe situation – but we often aren’t sure how to step in and help others."

Walking To Mordor And Back Again

The Whelk — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 08:20:38 -0800

For the release of the Hobbit, Lindsay Ellis of the Nostalgia Chick (previously) has decided to look back at all the LOTR films in order to analyze how they changed genre film-making, expected movie length, extended cuts, the problems of adaptation, and why Eowyn and Merry are made for each other. (Fellowship Of The Ring, Two Towers, Return Of The King Part 1, Part 2) Still need more? Then why not watch Kerry Shawcross and Chris Demarais of Rooster Teeth (previously) try to walk the 120+ mile journey across New Zealand from the filming location of Hobbiton in Matamata to the filming location of Mount Doom, Mount Ngauruhoe in A Simple Walk Into Mordor.

Whips, whiskey, women, work, weapons, cars and cadence. But no hockey.

Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:59:41 -0800

Jump steady, Black Betty! Bam-A-Lam!
Yeah, Black Betty! Bam-A-Lam!
Looky yonder Black Betty! Bam-A-Lam!
Whoa Black Betty! Bam-A-Lam!
Yeah, Black Betty! Bam-A-Lam!
She's so rock steady! Bam-A-Lam!
She's always ready! Bam-A-Lam!
Whoa, Black Betty! Bam-A-Lam! The earliest recordings of the American folk/work song "Black Betty” were made in the early 1930s by American folklorists/musicologists John & Alan Lomax, who first recorded Blues legend Leadbelly. Odetta recorded a version of the song as part of a medley with “Looky Yonder” and “Almost Done”. While several artists in the mid-20th century recorded the song, the 1977 version by Ram Jam became a hit and catapulted the song into much wider exposure, while also becoming the version most cemented in the public’s awareness. More recent versions include Sheryl Crow, Ministry, and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels (with Sebastian Bach & Mick Mars). Volkswagon’s 2001 Superbowl ad featured the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s take on the song. There are many suggested interpretations of the song’s lyrics. One is that it refers to an English marching cadence used by soldiers: Betty was a black flintlock musket, a precursor to the Brown Bess used by the British Army for over 100 years, with “BAM-A-LAM” being the sound of one being fired. Another possible origin is a name for a bottle of whiskey from the English/Scottish border region. In 1737 Benjamin Franklin wrote an article for the Pennnsylvania Gazette titled “The Drinker’s Dictionary” where “He has kissed black Betty” [sic] is listed as a descriptor (among very many) for someone who is drunk. “BAM-A-LAM” could also be evoking the sound of a bullwhip down South on plantations and prison farms like Sugar Land and Angola. The lyrics could also refer to the bumpy ride and/or the slamming doors of the horse-drawn prisoner transfer/police wagon known as the Black Mariah. Ever since the Ram Jam version, groups like the NAACP and the Congress on Racial Equality have considered the song racist for the literal interpretation of the lyrics, specifically that they refer to a black woman and are insulting to Black women in general. While the driving beat and call-and-response aspect of the rock versions are still used at sporting events to get the crowd fired up, in 2006, the University of New Hampshire discontinued the playing of the Ram Jam version before hockey games. The New Zealand A1 Grand Prix racing team uses a reworked cover of the Ram Jam version as a theme song for their car Black Beauty. “Black Beauty” is also the name of the Green Hornet’s car, a bestselling 1877 novel about a horse and kindness to animals, and an archaic street name for stimulants.

Water, water everywhere.

Catch — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 20:28:04 -0800

A boat blazes on a remote summer-scorched lake shoreline. Onlookers are helpless to save the boat or prevent the imminent explosion of full gas tanks starting a grass fire. Or not. (SLYT - *Warning Bad Kiwi Language*)

Peter Jackson's "Braindead"

Egg Shen — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 14:52:42 -0800

Between Peter Jackson’s penchant for cartoonish unserious gore and Bob McCarron’s off-screen makeup effects manipulations, Braindead achieves something that approaches inspired genius in the heretofore unknown artform of human carnage. The film is filled with moments of joyous slapstick tableaux... And then there is that moment where Braindead finally breaks through to achieve a transcendentally surreal glory of excess where Tim Balme wades into battle against the zombies armed with a lawnmower, drenching an entire room in showers of blood. (Braindead holds the record for the greatest amount of artificial blood ever used in a film). The film is a work of perverse genius. - Richard Scheib

Take me to Barking, driver

MuffinMan — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 06:00:28 -0800

Meet Monty, your designated driver. Don't be alarmed, GOOD BOY! he's trained. You've probably heard of police dogs, guard dogs, drug and bomb detection dogs, dogs for the blind and hearing dogs. But an initiative by the Auckland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to show even unruly dogs can be trained by teaching them to drive has gone viral. They have their own YouTube channel. Can you teach a dog to drive? - Finding the drivers. - Mini dogification. - Basic training. - Training on the rig. Meet the chauwooffeurs. - Ginny. Can she drive? - Monty. Can he drive? - Porter. Can he drive?

The future of file sharing

Egg Shen — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:02:05 -0800

In an attempt to make itself less desirable to copyright infringers, starting November 27, RapidShare will begin capping non-paying users at 1 gigabyte of outbound downloads per day. (Paying users will have 30 gigabytes.) Meanwhile, controversial Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is planning a January debut for his new Mega service - which plans to insure itself against litigation by having all hosted material encrypted by the uploader's browser before transmission.

Hey Guys Ya Wanna Play? No, We Wanna Eat You.

Xurando — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 17:45:36 -0800

Orcas chase black lab. SLYT

2 fried amps, a drummer playing lead, and brains full of boo: The Dead C.'s Harsh 70s Reality turns 20

porn in the woods — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:39:33 -0800

One of New Zealand's greatest-ever exports of experimental music, The Dead C. have built a huge catalog of challenging "rock" music over the last 25 years that offers massively dosed psychedelic excess, improvised all-night flights, blistering free noise and deconstruction of blazing garage punk for adventurous listeners. They've cheekily called themselves "The AMM of punk rock" and it's not far from the truth. Their high-water mark -- the double-LP Harsh 70s Reality -- has reached twentieth anniversary status and has just been reissued on vinyl by legendary US imprint Siltbreeze, restoring a few cuts that didn't make it to the late 1990s CD re-release and offering this fearless free music to a new generation of fans. A trio featuring guitarists Bruce Russell, Michael Morley (also vocalist) and drummer Robbie Yeats, The Dead C. formed in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1986. After a few small-run cassettes on Bruce Russell's Xpressway label and an LP on Flying Nun (DR503, 1988), their music -- at this time, a hall-of-mirrors take on downer songcraft a la The Fall's Dragnet and Grotesque and This Heat's Deceit -- began circulating amongst North American tastemakers. Flying Nun released their second LP Eusa Kills in 1990, and their first American release hit the streets when Siltbreeze released the Helen Said This 12" EP, which showed off the band's love of the extended techniques of Sonic Youth's EVOL/Sister period (the Xpressway label derives its namesake from SY's "Xpressway To Yr Skull")
After several years of gestation, their "desire to really push what we were doing beyond any nice idea of a formula of song" produced Harsh 70s Reality. Opening with the sidelong improvisation of "Driver UFO" and wrapping up with somewhat more conventional song structures ("Constellation," "Baseheart" and "Hope") where the muffled emotional weight of Morley's mumble hotwires affecting songcraft to the group's free rock, it was with this LP where the group made their greatest impact with United States audiences. In the next 2 years, Siltbreeze pushed out a CD reissue of the 1990 Trapdoor Fucking Exit cassette (originally released in an edition of 50), featuring DC favorites like "Sky" and "Mighty" -- blasted garage punk like you've never quite heard it -- along with a pseudo-live LP (Clyma est Mort, a canny reimaging of The Fall's Totale's Turns) and the zonked drone/psych of the Operation of the Sonne LP.
Since the mid-1990s, they've pushed out a release every few years, and the 2006 compilation Vain, Erudite and Stupid compiles tracks from all major releases. Still an active group, although the three members live in separate cities, they will be playing at All Tomorrow's Parties in Melbourne, Australia in February 2013. Michael Morley's solo project Gate has released a small stack of LPs and cassettes since the very early 1990s, while Bruce Russell has several solo albums and collaborations to his name, as well as his duo with Alastair Galbraith, A Handful of Dust.

New Zealand loves its "precious"

reenum — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 11:34:20 -0800

In anticipation of "The Hobbit" movie, New Zealand has issued "Lord of the Rings" themed coins that are legal tender.

Helpa helpa helpa the kids!

av123 — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 16:54:51 -0800

Bret and Jemaine of Flight of the Conchords interview some New Zealand schoolchildren to find inspiration for their new charity single, Feel Inside.

Charles de Thierry: man of many lands, king of none

filthy light thief — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:30:53 -0800

Charles Philippe Hippolyte de Thierry lead a storied life, and many of those stories are ones he made up. His family was associated with the French court, though there is doubt to his claims of noble lineage. In England, he met two Maori chiefs and an English missionary from New Zealand, and attempted to purchase a northern portion of New Zealand in 1820. He then sought to turn this land into a colony first for Britain in 1822, then the Dutch government in 1824 when the English offer fell through. The Dutch, too, turned him down, so in 1825 de Thierry made the same offer to the French government, and was similarly refused. Fleeing creditors, he left for America. In 1834, he traveled south, where he was granted concession for cutting the Panama Canal. That, too, fell through, and he sailed west, reaching Tahiti in June 1835, where he elected himself king of Nuka Hiva. The kingdom was never his, and so he continued west and south, arriving at his plot in New Zealand in 1837, where again he offered land up to France for a colony. His efforts to claim a colony and a kingdom came to an end in 1840, with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, sealing a deal between the British Crown and the Māori. Born of in 1793 to French parents who were associated French court, the family left France to escape the French Revolution, first to the Netherlands, then England. It was in England that de Thierry's father, Charles Antoine de Thierry, assumed the title of baron. This was a title the younger de Thierry would claim for his own, too. The family was close enough to nobles that during a visit to Edinburgh in 1796, Charles Philippe Hippolyte became the godson of the exiled comte d'Artois (later Charles X of France). In 1814, the younger de Thierry accompanied the Portuguese delegation to the Congress of Vienna, and in 1816 served briefly as an attaché at the French embassy in London. He married Emily Rudge in 1819, and the couple would have four sons and a daughter. In 1820, de Thierry met the Māori chiefs Hongi Hika and Waikato, who had traveled to England with missionary Thomas Kendall, who had returned to work on the book A grammar and vocabulary of the language of New Zealand (Google books). De Thierry, possibly posing as an exiled French adventurer, arranged for a purchase of a portion of New Zealand, with Kendall working as the intermediary between de Thierry and the Māori chiefs. De Thierry gave Kendall £800 worth of goods to buy "all the land from North Cape to Tauranga." Depending on the telling, this purchase was made with 36 axes, or possibly 500 muskets plus powder and ball, though it could be that Hongi Hika convinced Kendall to take him to London, where he sold gifts to acquire at least 200 muskets, playing a pivotal role in the Musket Wars of from 1818 and the early 1830s. However it worked out, de Thierry had the deed for 40,000 acres at Hokianga executed in 1822. According to the 1966 Encyclopedia of New Zealand,

Thierry requested British protection for the colony he was then assembling in London, but was rebuffed by the Colonial Office. He next approached the Dutch Ambassador in London in February 1824 with a proposal to purchase Holland's “rights” in New Zealand for £50,000; in April with an offer “to secure to the King of the Netherlands the Sovereignty and possession of New Zealand, which would … ensure His Majesty a yearly revenue of upwards of Five Millions of Pounds Sterling”. He modestly suggested that his appointment as “Viceroy of New Zealand” would be a fitting reward for his services, adding that he was born in Brussels and descended from the Counts of Flanders.

This effort also failed, and in October 1824, de Thierry was in France, where his godfather was now king. Despite this fact, he had no more luck getting support for his colony-to-be in France, and was again "financially embarrassed." He returned to England to again attempt to gather a colonizing party, only to fall short of his goal. He headed to the United States in 1827 with his family. Little is recorded about this period until de Thierry's family left from Virginia in 1832, possibly heading for Brazil, though de Thierry would later tell that New Zealand was always his destination. Thierry went through the Caribbean, gathering followers, subscriptions and supplies, stopping in Panama in December 1834. There, de Thierry received a franchise for a canal at Panama from General Simón Bolívar, the President of the Republic of (New) Granada. "Baron" Thierry was more enterprising than practical in his thoughts, and was unable to raise the required capital to make the necessary surveys and begin the work (Google books). Later, a more organized and qualified French group would actually start work on a canal, which the US would take over and complete. De Thierry was not done yet, and on his journey towards New Zealand he stopped in Tahiti in June 1835, where he elected himself king of Nuka Hiva, which two decades earlier, Captain David Porter of the United States Navy tried to annex in the name of the US. Porter, the first American imperialist, renamed the island Madison's Island, and named the American military settlement Madisonville (Google books preview), in tribute to President Madison. Neither Madison nor Secretary of State James Monroe ever acknlowedged Porter's unauthorized annexation. De Thierry fared little better, raising a flag and mustering a military force, but Robert FitzRoy denounced de Thierry as an imposter and unfit to have a military force at his disposal. FitzRoy was not de Thierry's only opposition of this sort. News of de Thierry's land claims and plans for a colony traveled faster than he did. De Thierry reached Sydney, New South Wales in July 1837, with British Resident James Busby striking the first three blows against de Thierry in a duel with quill pens, culminating in the 1835 Declaration of Independence of New Zealand, with support from 34 northern chiefs. Though Governor Bourke of New South Wales referred to the Declaration as ‘a paper pellet fired off at Baron de Thierry,’ the Declaration was a first step towards the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, which formalized the British sovereignty over New Zealand, annexed the country, protected the Māori, regulated British subjects and secured commercial interests. That was still five years away, and de Thierry had a colony to set up. He recruited colonists and money from Sydney, and sailed for Hokianga, arriving in northern New Zealand on November 4, 1837. Nene and Patuone denied the validity of Kendall's purchase of 40,000 acres, but Nene and Te Taonui granted Thierry 800 acres at Hokianga on condition that he give up his larger claim, much which was already claimed by other European settlers. His claim greatly reduced in size, de Thierry lost the confidence of his assorted colonists. Again down, but still not out, de Thierry sent inflated accounts of his success to France, still hoping to win support for his plans for a French colony. The Treaty of Waitangi ended de Thierry's hopes of being any sort of ruler in any land. The Flagstaff War (also known as Hone Heke's Rebellion, the Northern War, the First Māori War and the War of 1845–46) sent de Thierry south to Auckland, where he lived in meager conditions until news of the California gold rush hooked him, and he sailed off in hopes of riches. His luck was now on a sour streak, as he was left behind with four other passengers, stranded Pitcairn Island for a month. Their ship, headed to Honolulu, stopped to get fresh water. The tides turned or the winds picked up, and the captain decided it was better to leave than endanger the ship. But de Thierry did make it to California, though he only stayed for six months. He returned to Honolulu to work at the French Consulate until March 1853, when news of his wife's ill health took him back to Auckland, where he taught piano. In 1856, the New Zealand Government presented de Thierry with one hundred and six acres of land, in compensation for his claim of 40,000 acres. He continued to teach music until his sudden death on July 8, 1864. If this story is too short, or lacking in narrative flourishes, you might well enjoy Check to your King, which reads like an enthralling historical novel rather than conventional biography.... [Also offering] clear insight into the relations between white men and natives, by Robin Hyde, the most common pen-name for Iris Guiver Wilkinson, one of New Zealand's major poets (1906 – 1939). And you can read more of de Thierry's lineage at Lessels Website, a genealogy site for Lynly Lessels Yates. Note: many links lead to PDFs.

We will decide who comes to fish here, and the circumstances under which they fish

Mezentian — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 01:29:14 -0800

A new, controversial super-trawler, the Dutch-owned FV Margiris, has set sail for Tasmania, off the south-east coast of Australia, to take a haul of jack mackerel and redbait, prompting concerns it is going to decimate several Australian fish stocks as factory fishing has done elsewhere in the world. Greenpeace claims the industrial super-trawler is part of the European Association of pelagic freezer trawlers (PFA), responsible for "some of the worst fishing excesses on the planet.'' It is scheduled to be roaming between the Tasman Sea and Western Australia this spring. The 9,600-tonne vessel is more than twice the size of the previous largest ship licensed to fish in Commonwealth waters, the 4,400t Ivan Golubets, which briefly fished in deep southern waters in 1992. It was delayed by Greenpeace by up to a week in Dutch port of Ijmuiden, Senegal, but is now steaming to Australia to be re-flagged. JV partner Seafish Tasmania says the 18,000 tonne quota is sustainable is based on egg surveys that show fish stocks can withstand a larger haul, however Tasmanian Greens have obtained several documents under freedom of information laws, relating to the Government's decision to expand the Jack Mackerel East total allowable catch from 4,500-t to more than 10,000-tonnes in June. It says the quota is just 5% of the total Australian fishery for small pelagic fish. Tasmanian Independent MP Andrew Wilkie claims the quota for the trawler is unlawful and invalid as Seafish Tasmania's Gerry Geen was at an Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) meeting finalising the quota for the super trawler and that many questions need answers before the ship is approved for operations in Australian waters. Opponents (such as the Australian Conservation Foundation) claim that such large-scale catches will drastically affect local fisheries based on larger fish that depend on the small pelagics. They claim that surface schools of jack mackerel that were once common off south-east Tasmania have not returned after the collapse of that fishery over 20 years ago, and that "tonnes of by-catch – unwanted marine life like dolphins, seals and seabirds" will be thrown back dead. Conservationists, recreational, smaller professional fishers and tourist operators recently formed a flotilla of some 500 vessels and are prepared to deliver petition with more than 33,000 signatures to the Prime Minister to stop the ship's certification. Australia's Environment Minister Tony Burke has weighed into the debate, concerned that the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) usually focuses on number of fish caught, not the size of the ship, and is concerned there is a risk of over-fishing within a localised area. It will also be difficult to police the quota, as seen by New Zealand recently. It allowed a Korean super trawler in a joint venture with a local New Zealand operator under strict conditions, only to find a fleet of vessels chartered from Korea busted the quota. The captain fled NZ and has been convicted in absentia. NZ has been concerned by foreign-flagged operations recently and is to end the practice following the 2010 sinking of Korean fishing boat the Oyang 70 which cost six sailors (possibly underpaid Indonesian national "slave fishers") their lives (More). NZ is planning to make some changes, Furthermore, fishing practices mean that the world's smallest and most endangered dolphin 'will die out' unless radical changes are made. It would be the first time in history a cetacean would have been wiped out by human activity. A new documentary, The Price Of Fish, is looking at the alleged plundering of NZ fish stocks. Southern Bluefin Tuna Association CEO Brian Jeffriess says the trawler could set up opportunities such as providing feed for tuna farming. Others say it will be good for job creation. Others say factory ships are exactly what the world should expect. Pacific Tuna stocks are also in decline. The European-flagged ship also raises wider concerns about over-fishing and industrial-scale exploitation. With the collapse of European fisheries, processors have moved into Africa and the South Pacific. Greenpeace claims that over-fishing by super-trawlers means almost all the species targeted by foreign trawlers are now fully exploited or overexploited, and the super-trawlers need to find new fisheries. Greenpeace argues that the super-trawlers would be uneconomic without subsidies from European taxpayers (PDF). - TL;DR? There is a comprehensive podcast on the ABC's Background Briefing.

Is Kim Dotcom Ayn Rand's love child?

i_am_joe's_spleen — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 01:52:51 -0800

Kim Dotcom: suddenly a portly, shady, German entrepreneur becomes a New Zealand folk hero. Or does he? As it becomes clear that there was something dodgy(pdf) about those search warrants, and the charm offensive bears fruit, questions arise. Explanatory notes for main link: Simon Power. Campbell Live interview. TPPA.

Gibbs Farm

maxwelton — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 23:21:05 -0800

"With respect to landscape design, art, and the quality of spectacle, the picturesque 1,000 acres of Gibbs Farm afford one of the most intriguing, tastefully presented, and well-thought-out private collections of site-specific sculpture of the modern era." - Sculpture Magazine One of the installations commissioned by Alan Gibbs is the world's largest tesla coil (video).

Bowerbirds: intentional architects, and accidental farmers

filthy light thief — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:44:03 -0800

Bowerbirds, a family of 20 species in eight genera, are a fascinating bunch of birds who range from New Guinea and Australia. Some are flashy, others drab, but all are named for the "bowers" (avenues, huts, or towers of sticks; source) that the males craft and decorate to attract a mate. There are regional styles (PDF) in the design of the bowers, and the male Greater Bowerbirds even employ optical illusions. Some, like the Vogelkop Bowerbird, add mimicry vocal to their repertoire of courting methods. Add accidental cultivation to the list of fascinating features of the bowerbirds. Bowerbirds in Taunton National Park, Central Queensland were observed with a higher numbers of Solanum ellipticum, or potato bush, plants around their bowers than in other locations. The locations for bowers weren't chosen with more of these plants. Instead, bowerbirds selected the brightest green fruits to decorate their bowers, casting aside the fruit when they had dried out. With that chain of actions, bowerbirds are credited as the first animal beyond humans to (accidentally) cultivate plants for appearance only. Other species that "farm," in a fashion, include some social insects: some ants and termites (Google books) display a mutualistic symbiosis with fungus, as do some beetles, and some ants herd aphids. But these relationships are established for food, not beauty.

You must've heard of a few

vidur — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 21:00:31 -0800

The Most Powerful Women You've Never Heard Of 1. Helen Clark, Administrator, U.N. Development Program | New Zealand 2. Liu Yandong, State councilor | China 3. Lael Brainard, Treasury undersecretary for international affairs | United States 4. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Finance minister | Nigeria 5. Mary Schapiro, Chair, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission | United States 6. Theresa May, Home secretary | Britain 7. Fatou Bensouda, Incoming chief prosecutor, International Criminal Court | Gambia 8. Marisela Morales, Attorney general | Mexico 9. Kim Kyong Hui, Politburo member | North Korea 10. Valerie Amos, U.N. emergency relief coordinator | Britain 11. Ann Dunwoody, Commanding general, U.S. Army Materiel Command | United States 12. Atifete Jahjaga, President | Kosovo 13. Lubna Al-Qasimi, Minister for foreign trade | United Arab Emirates 14. Gleisi Hoffmann, Presidential chief of staff | Brazil 15. Cecilia Malmstrom, European commissioner for home affairs | Sweden 16. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chair, House Foreign Affairs Committee | United States 17. Peng Liyuan, Major general, People's Liberation Army | China 18. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Former finance minister | Indonesia 19. Fayza Abul Naga, Minister of international cooperation | Egypt 20. Marina Berlusconi, Chair, Fininvest | Italy 21. Josefina Vázquez Mota, Presidential candidate | Mexico 22. Valentina Matviyenko, Speaker, Federation Council | Russia 23. Viviane Reding, European commissioner for justice, fundamental rights, and citizenship | Luxembourg 24. Lindiwe Mazibuko, Party leader, Democratic Alliance | South Africa 25. Hanan Ashrawi, Member, PLO executive committee | West Bank

Pikachunes.

Nomyte — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:58:36 -0800

Out-of-context-filter: the sometimes dorky, sometimes sweet (and sometimes quite competent) music and videos of New Zealand's Pikachunes. Album. Interview. End.

Not your average commute

Sonny Jim — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:50:20 -0800

On February 22, [2011], 13 [bus passengers] were crushed by an unreinforced brick building at 603-13 Colombo St. I broke half a dozen bones or so, severed a tendon, spent two months in hospital and six months off work. And I was lucky. Twelve people died. I did not know them, but they forever travel with me.

Just after midday, North Carolina native and political scientist Ann Brower boarded the no. 3 bus to Canterbury University. Shortly afterwards, falling masonry from the 2011 Christchurch earthquake trapped her and the other passengers in the bus. She was the sole survivor. Now, nearly a year later, she describes her rescue and her recovery. Additional links: Brower giving evidence at the Royal Commission into the earthquake earlier this year. A statement by one of her rescuers, the injured driver on the bus behind hers. An earlier interview, conducted in the days following the earthquake. Youtube footage: [1]; [2], taken while Brower was still trapped; [3], the scene after the evacuations were over.

RIP Shrek the Sheep (1994-2011)

juliplease — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:15:58 -0800

Shrek the sheep taught us all that if you really, really don't want to do something, you don't have to.

RIP Shrek the Sheep (1994-2011) (Disclaimer: The Deadspin article makes its own unfunny sheep sex joke so we don't have to, and I apologize on its behalf.)

Why this Kolaveri Di, NZ-style

embrangled — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:51:22 -0800

Kiwi fans of the hit Tanglish song 'Why This Kolaveri Di?' surprise shoppers in Auckland's main square. (Previously).

God creates Man. Man creates Indie. Indie kills Man. God inherits Indie.

kethonna — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:35:01 -0800

Tired of the same old renditions of the Christmas Story? Try this video and its prequel, produced in the vein of Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are.

"You know I can't grab your ghost chip!"

nicolas léonard sadi carnot — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 07:51:20 -0800

A jolly drunk driving PSA from our cuzs over in New Zealand. SLYT.

Photographs of the Christchurch earthquake recovery

doublehappy — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:53:19 -0800

Ross Becker's photographs of Christchurch. The central business district reopens this weekend for the first time since the earthquake (Previously: 1, 2, 3) on February 22, 2011. Funded by the National Library of New Zealand, the project "aims to help the people of Christchurch and Canterbury and other New Zealanders make sense of what happened and provide a disciplined record of the progress of recovery." See also quakestories.govt.nz.