Stuff New Zealand: Attorney-General asked to investigate National Library-Internet Archive deal. “Authors and publishers have asked the Attorney-General to investigate the legality of the partnership between the National Library and the Internet Archive ahead of a looming New York City court case which could see the archive cease to operate.”
BBC: New Zealand cinema worker left red-faced after voicemail blooper. “The man was trying to inform customers that the Movie Max in Timaru was closed due to Covid restrictions. But, the employee struggled to get his words out and that left him frustrated. Instead of deleting his failed attempts, the employee’s bloopers were accidentally uploaded to the voicemail.” Mostly video, mostly captioned.
Midland Daily News: New Zealand wages high-stakes effort to halt virus outbreak. “Since the pandemic began, New Zealand has reported only 26 deaths from the virus in a population of 5 million. The death rate per capita in Britain and the U.S. is about 400 times higher. Remarkably, life expectancy for New Zealanders actually rose in 2020 as virus measures helped reduce other seasonal ailments like the flu.”
New York Post: New Zealand COVID-19 minister’s x-rated gaffe goes viral. “New Zealand’s COVID-19 lockdown is really heating up. The country’s pandemic response minister unintentionally gave Kiwis some x-rated advice during a live COVID-19 press briefing Sunday — reminding residents to social distance when they get outside to ‘spread their legs.’”
Auckland War Memorial Museum: While the doors of Auckland War Memorial Museum are closed, visitors can still experience some of their favourite parts of Tāmaki Paenga Hira online.. “Launched in the initial 2020 COVID-19 Level Four lockdown, Auckland Museum at Home is an online hub filled with stories, activities, videos and jigsaw puzzles for the whole family to enjoy. It’s been updated with fresh content for the current lockdown, with the most popular to date being the Museum’s jigsaw puzzles, virtual tours and activities for kids.”
BBC: Covid: New Zealand pandemic strategy in doubt amid Delta spread. “The arrival of the highly infectious Delta variant “does raise some big questions” about New Zealand’s pandemic response, a minister has said. Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said the variant ‘changes the game considerably’ and makes existing protections ‘look less adequate’ It comes as the country announced a further 21 confirmed cases in the latest outbreak of the virus.”
CNN: New Zealand announces it’s locking down the entire country … over one Covid case. “New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced a nationwide lockdown after the country confirmed one coronavirus case — the first locally transmitted Covid-19 case in the community since February. Ardern told a press conference Tuesday authorities were assuming it was the contagious Delta variant, although genome sequencing is still underway.”
BBC: Larry Page: Google co-founder granted New Zealand residency. “Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and one of the world’s richest men, has been granted New Zealand residency under a category for wealthy investors. Applicants are required to invest at least NZ$10m ($7m, £5m) in New Zealand over three years. Mr Page entered New Zealand in January, when its borders were still closed because of Covid-19.”
New Zealand Herald: Google billionaire visited New Zealand while the country’s border was closed. “Google co-founder Larry Page travelled to New Zealand to get hospital treatment for his young child despite the country’s borders being closed. The billionaire does not have New Zealand citizenship, but according to multiple reports is spending the Covid-19 pandemic on an island in Fiji.”
Hawke’s Bay Today: Quake confusion: Hawke’s Bay residents thrown by Google cellphone alert issued after 5.1 magnitude earthquake. “It wasn’t just the 5.1 magnitude earthquake which woke many residents across the east coast of the North Island. Many bleary-eyed Android users were left confused by the shake just after 1am after receiving a Google mobile phone alert which described it as a 6.0 magnitude quake off the coast.”
Stuff New Zealand: A wish to see fiance’s overseas war grave sparked a mission to document every one. “Dennis Kerins had a vision. He wanted to photograph all war graves and primary memorials of New Zealanders who died in conflicts overseas and create a digital archive so biographical information and images are available online. Kerins, with the help of fellow New Zealand War Graves Trust trustee Derrick Bunn, has now gathered 40,000 images of headstones and cemeteries.”
Stuff (New Zealand): National Library signs ‘historic’ agreement to donate 600,000 books to online archive. “The National Library will donate 600,000 books that it was planning to cull from its overseas collection to a United States-based internet archive that will make digital copies of the works freely available online. National Librarian Rachel Esson announced the ‘historic’ agreement on Monday, saying books left at the end of the library’s review process would be donated to the Internet Archive, a digital library with the self-stated mission of universal access to all knowledge.”
Stuff New Zealand: Major project to allow digital access to 130 years of The Press archives. “The Press archives up to 1995 will be digitised and made freely available for searching online under a landmark agreement with the National Library. The library’s Papers Past website already publishes editions of The Press from 1861 to 1945 which can be searched by words, phrases and dates. They are part of a substantial catalogue of 167 historic newspapers dating from 1839 to 1950, plus magazines, letters and Parliamentary papers.”
CarBuzz: Kids Have Stolen Hundreds Of Mazdas Because Of A Dumb Social Media Challenge. “Earlier this year, Mazda was named the best car brand of 2021, but we doubt that New Zealand citizens will feel quite so good about the Japanese automaker a year from now. See, the Australasian country, specifically the province of Taranaki, has been going through a strange phenomenon: the theft of older Mazda cars. Apparently, there’s some sort of social media challenge that is going viral, and this is causing teenagers to film themselves stealing cars that are easy to break into. Most of the cars being targeted are small Mazda runabouts, as they are perceived to be easy to get going with just a little hot-wiring.”
Science: New Google effort uses cellphones to detect earthquakes. “…the internet giant announced that users of its Android phones in New Zealand and Greece will receive warnings of damaging earthquakes about to strike their locations. And those earthquakes will be detected not by the usual seismometers, but by the phones themselves.”
