Victoria Metcalf • Sep 11, 2014 •
Conferences are seen as one of the few remaining perks of a scientist’s life. A chance to step away from academia and to travel, even if only out of one’s earthquake ravaged home city. Sometimes though, as much as they energise and present opportunities to reconnect with the scientific community, conferences can be a harsh reminder of just … Read More
Victoria Metcalf • Aug 22, 2014 •
Antarctic scientist gets close to study subject, a Weddell seal. Antarctic scientists tend to feel passionate about their subject areas. For those of you living in Auckland, New Zealand, happily going about your daily lives you might be blissfully unaware that approximately 1000 Antarctic scientists are currently beginning to infiltrate the city. Think of them like a flurry of … Read More
Eric Crampton • Mar 10, 2014 •
There is one big rule in local public finance. Do not use local income taxes to fund city governments. Ed Glaeser helps explain why:In addition, some cities, like New York and Philadelphia, also have income or wage taxes that generate significant reven... Read More
Michael Edmonds • Jun 23, 2013 •
As the population of Auckland increases there is greater demand for accommodation. Over the past few months debates have gone on over whether the city needs to expand outwards (using more land) or upwards (more intensive housing e.g. apartments). But are these the only two options? Do we really need our biggest city to keep getting bigger? What about some … Read More
Waiology • Apr 02, 2013 •
By Roger Bannister When most people think of Auckland they think of the metropolitan areas, a city containing a third of New Zealand’s population. In fact the Auckland region is a predominantly rural landscape, with rural land uses accounting for 90% of the land area. The contrast of concentrated population and rural activities – horticulture, pastoral farming plantation forestry … Read More
- Wayne Linklater • Dec 11, 2012 •
Elephant in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve, South Africa. Photo credit: Chris Kelly. Frighteningly, resurgent ivory demand threatens elephant with extinction over large areas of their range. It is a world-war for wildlife on a massive scale. Governments, conservation agencies and private landowners are mobilised across Africa and Asia spending enormous amounts of money to … Read More
Ken Perrott • Oct 04, 2012 •
This sort of thing annoys me – not just because it excludes a large proportion of the population from social discussion. But also because it demonstrates a cultural blindness. Some people are so blinkered they won’t even acknowledge that elephant … Continue reading → … Read More
Peter Kerr • Jan 17, 2012 •
In giving a push/shove as Auckland as an innovation or knowledge city, chief science advisor Sir Peter Gluckman reckons the country could expect area like industrial design and digital and media research to have a high presence. In his ‘Auckland … Continue reading → … Read More
Peter Kerr • Dec 13, 2011 •
There’s a certain amount of stalking horse-ishness to Sir Peter Gluckman’s recent ‘Auckland conversation’ (formerly known as Mayoral Conversations; speakers of repute). As the chief science advisor, Gluckman’s past kite-flying thoughts on research and other matters have generally preceded government … Continue reading → … Read More
Chris McDowall • Aug 04, 2011 •
In late January I created an animation of Auckland’s public transport network with data from the MAXX Auckland transport Google transit feed. As I noted in the post, there were several issues with the video. I carved out a little time this week to revise the animation and I am happy with the progress. The new video … Read More