Articles from ‘elocal magazine’ in ‘General Interest’

Winston Peters says New Zealand's nuclear-free policy strengthened national identity but also carried costs that deserve examination. His remarks raise a wider question about whether New Zealand's foreign-policy independence should be measured by its willingness to disagree with powerful allies or by its ability to make decisions in its own national interest Report by eLocal · Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has challenged the…

Your dog looks up from his food bowl and speaks to you with the voice of your best friend. A lover you haven’t seen in years has appeared at your door with a bundle of roses. Or, perhaps, you’re screaming and flailing your arms and legs as you plummet from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Dreams can be moving, hilarious or terrifying by turn, but they are almost always absurd. It only adds to Freud’s mystique that he put stock in them as a source…

As the two most popular pets in the world, it’s impossible not to compare cats and dogs. We talk about which species is the better companion and which is the best cuddler, and there’s also the age-old debate of which animal is smarter. While dog people will always refer to canine trainability, we can’t discount a cat’s independence and problem-solving. · Pet owners could debate the merits of each species all day, but thankfully, scientists have…

Humans do it, monkeys do it, even polar bears do it. And now researchers have reconstructed the evolutionary origins of kissing. Their study suggests that the mouth-on-mouth kiss evolved more than 21 million years ago, and was something that the common ancestor of humans and other great apes probably indulged in. The same research concluded that Neanderthals may have kissed too – and that humans and Neanderthals may even have smooched one…