Attention. It is fleeting and near impossible to hold in a culture that scrolls through memes while passing a bowel motion, so the TL; DR of this piece is: Please put your hands down your pants. (In a private place) If you read to the end I’ll give you three hard facts, not hot takes, […]

Okay, as of going to print, we are full steam ahead into the new year, and there is no shortage of global and local political and economic intrigue. Europe/US relations, Iran, Venezuela, Ukraine and so on. Throw a dart at an atlas, and you will likely hit a hotspot. At the same time, throw a […]

If you’ve seen David Lowery’s The Green Knight then you know he has an eye for… Something. He demands a lot of his actors, none more than Anne Hathaway who describes her role in their new film Mother Mary the toughest of her career. “At one point Annie broke down and said, ‘I have to […]

Jacob Elordi is on an absolute tear at the moment. If you aren’t familiar with his face yet, you will be. The Australian born actor has been making the last 12 months his as he first starred in Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein as the creature itself, and now as the lead in Wuthering Heights where […]

Blimmin’ hackers! Always trying to get something for nothing. Breaking rules, squirming through loopholes and generally acting like unwanted raiders in the systems we use every day to survive in this modern world. Um… but before we get too high and mighty, we probably should take a moment to reflect on some of the stuff […]

So, Scott ‘Razor’ Robertson has been sacked as All Black coach. Wow, that doesn’t happen very often. In fact, this was a first. Sure, previous coaches have not had their contracts renewed when they would obviously have liked to have continued; Ian Foster, John Mitchell and Wayne Smith being recent examples. But all those prior […]

Mere minutes before an interview with one of the most successful and iconic boy bands in history, Five, my laptop decided to cark itself, go kaput. Panicked, I tried unplugging and plugging, unplugging and plugging. The time had just turned 7:58am on a particularly chilly Thursday morning and I was severely lacking in spoons. My […]

Social media’s killing us! Dumbing everything down to ‘vibe’ level. Whereas once upon a time we’d say something erudite like; ‘Her promise was like a politician’s handshake: full of conviction but with a firm grip on reality’ – now we just say💁‍♀️👍🤝! Our former love of metaphor, shrewd assessment and, above all, subtlety is gone. […]

The US dollar’s dominance has rested on America’s economy, strong institutions and deep financial markets, which made dollar assets the world’s preferred safe haven. Rising tariffs, a retreat from globalisation, and political pressure on institutions weaken the trade networks that support the dollar’s safe-haven role. Continued protectionism and institutional erosion could push the international monetary […]

Netflix is locked in a bidding war with Paramount for Warner Bros. Discovery, with a $72 billion offer, highlighting the fierce competition in the media landscape. This consolidation reflects the evolution of global media, revealing how corporations shape cultural consumption patterns and influence audience habits. The implications of such mega-deals extend beyond finance, impacting society […]

With his hands covered in white chalk, 40-year-old Alex Honnold walked stoically up to the ruyi-inspired glass-and-steel façade of one of the tallest buildings on Earth, Taipei 101. 508 metres of bamboo-joints, reflective glass, jagged edges, metal beams and decorative fins, rising above the dense streets of Taiwan’s capital. The weather conditions on the 25th […]

2025 felt like a LONG year. Here in New Zealand we kept mostly to ourselves as is our want. We’re like our birds, we do our level best to not be noticed. If we are getting noticed it’s because we’re severely ill and stumbling around on State Highway 1. So I hope you forgive me […]

When Peaky Blinders first burst onto our screens back in 2013 we hadn’t seen anything like it for yonks. After a diet of glitzy shows like Madmen, OTT spectacles like Game of Thrones and beautifully costumed dramas like Boardwalk Empire – here came something genuinely gritty. Every scene seemed to feature belching smoke, thick fog, […]

There’s been a historical heatwave in Australia, and it’s been a pretty hot and stifling summer here too. You could make the most of it, put on some togs and jandels, get an ice cream and go to the beach, or you could go to the other extreme and find somewhere really cold to go […]

The Siena Awards Photo Festival 2025 concluded with a glimpse of what’s happening in the world. From the beautiful to the mundane people’s stories were unspooling in front of people’s lenses all over the world. This is a different look back at the year that was. “The photographs awarded in this edition remind us of […]

Earlier last year, I worked with a team preparing for a winter season in Antarctica. Picture months of darkness, extreme cold, isolation, and the psychological weight of being unable to leave. Most people would immediately see the limits. They would list what will go wrong, how tough it will be, and what they will miss. […]

I had heard of Dillistrate in passing, many moons ago, in my rugged uni days. I knew that they were musical royalty. They’ve been heralded before as legends, ‘musical weapons’ on the kiwi music scene for years. The duo…Henare ‘H’ Kaa and Tim, who had worked together for years and years before Dillistrate. Henare and […]

Four years after the series concludes Netflix has greenlit a feature film directed by Tom Harper. I don’t know what the budget is but I assume the 1% left over after decking out Cillian Murphy’s trailer went toward making one hell of a film. The movie takes place in Birmingham in 1940 at the height […]

Ever since Angelina Jolie took on the role of one of videogames most iconic heroines we’ve had expectations of what to expect from the character. Much like Indiana Jones, they ARE incredibly attractive and Are able to handle themselves in TOUGH situationS. No offence to Alicia Vikander but it didn’t look like she could handle […]

Woah, what’s happening with the markets already? Gold and silver completely spazzed out recently, the Yen just climbed to insane highs and everyone’s talking about the Greenback tanking. I looked up the definition of ‘jittery’ in the dictionary online and it had a screenshot of today’s Nasdaq closing! I.e.: It’s time to diversify your investments, […]

I like to let my nerd flag fly on the back page, so there’s nowhere more appropriate than here to set up a tombstone and tip one out for EB Games closing up shop across the country. We went in on one of the final days to pick through its corpse. It was swarming with […]