Photo at Yahoo shows Te Papa "technician" Mark Fenwick up to his armpits in defrosting colossal squid juices ("brine"). (AP Photo/NZPA, Ross Setford)

"This is the largest eye ever recorded in history and studied," said Swedish professor Eric Warrant of the University of Lund, who specializes in vision in invertebrates. "It has a huge lens the size ( Read more... )

It's Berlinale time here again. We went to see a collection of short films from around the world. Some of the directors are here, answering questions after the screenings.

• Taua described a Maori war party returning from battle... portaging their waka (honking big war canoe) up and down hills through the bush. It's the first movie about pre-contact ( Read more... )

Should I

1. Support Team New Zealand, too confident in their plucky underdog role?
2. Support Alingi, more European, and possibly more professional?
3. Snerk sarcastically about rich boys and their toys?

(www.americascup.com says light winds at the moment, which might favour the Kiwis; also, I have no red socks.)

Waiheke is both more and less lovely than I remember. There's a great regional park with a lovely walk through lots of nikau palms, which we hadn't made it to while we were here. A lot of things are much as I remember them, but the feel of the place is a little more grown up, and gentrified. Or is that just me ( Read more... )

( Of interest to New Zealand readers )

New Zealand works hard to keep a number of its smaller outer islands rat-free. Here's the tale of one rat who survived 18 weeks from deliberate release to eventual trapping

...by a trap baited by penguin meat (how'd they get approval for that?)

...on an adjacent island.

(Rat Race? Rodent 'Razza' Eludes Scientists, and Nature, 437, 1107 (20 ( Read more... )

T. and I spent Sunday with our old housemate, hiking from one pretty West Coast bay to the next. I should say something more about this when it's less late in an evening. Yawn.

So today I was at a car accident. Not in, thankfully, just at. A car had braked suddenly, apparently after some fool attempted an ill-judged U-turn in front of the driver, and the guy behind her failed to stop in time. He crunched up the front of his car badly enough that it couldn't drive off, and made a mess of her back bumper. More ( Read more... )