Articles from ‘elocal magazine’

The motorcycle world is super hot on semi-automatic and automatic transmissions. The likes of KTM's AMT, Yamaha's Y-AMT, and Honda's E-Clutch are just the tip of the iceberg. With a patent application for a parallel-twin engine coupled to a belt-operated CVT, CFMoto now looks set to join the party. · A continuously variable gearbox permits an infinite number of effective gear ratios within a specified range, in contrast to traditional…

Prosecutors called them the “Amazon” of organised crime. · The thieves, most of them from Chile, allegedly raked in millions of dollars as they criss-crossed the US, stealing Rolex watches, Gucci handbags, iPads and debit cards on what one source described as the “road-trip from hell”. · According to a federal complaint filed last year, the operation was run out of a Los-Angeles car dealership where ringleaders of the gang provided vehicles for…

The opening shots of the first Taranaki War were fired on 17 March 1860 when British troops attacked a pā built by Te Āti Awa at Te Kohia, Waitara. · A minor Te Āti Awa chief, Te Teira Mānuka, had offered to sell Governor Thomas Gore Browne land in 1859. The rangatira Te Rangitāke (also known as Wiremu Kīngi) denied the validity of the sale and his supporters erected a flagstaff to mark their boundary. · Gore Browne overturned previous policy…

Michael Wood’s attempt to paint businessman Jim Grenon as a threat to editorial independence met the axe. · In an ongoing exchange over NZME’s future, Grenon dismissed accusations from the former Labour minister, calling them a “clumsy deception” designed to mislead. · “I note the union has changed what it actually said in my release… That is just clumsy deception,” Grenon said, pointing out how Wood and the E tū union misrepresented his…

In an interview with Joel Maxwell about the future of Māori wards, Pera Paniora, a former Māori ward councillor from Kaipara District Council, suggests that high Māori population areas like the Far North might retain their wards, but elsewhere, “it’s a numbers game.” · Paniora predicts that most of the 42 other councils with Māori wards will see them disestablished due to the referendums. · She cites the numerical disadvantage of Māori, who…

International students at Auckland University are being charged up to $5,730 for a compulsory Treaty of Waitangi course. · The course, part of the university’s new ‘Waipapa Taumata Rau’ (WTR) curriculum, is mandatory for all first-year undergraduates and covers particular views on Māori knowledge systems, history, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. · “It’s no wonder Auckland University is slipping down the international rankings,” said ACT Party…

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated annually on March 17, the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. St. Patrick’s Day 2025 will take place on Monday, March 17. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1,000 years. On St. Patrick’s Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the…

March, the third month in the Gregorian calendar, is well-known for its unpredictable  weather (“in like a lion and out like a lamb”), NCAA basketball (a.k.a. “March Madness”), and, of course, St. Patrick’s Day and Mardi Gras celebrations. But March is also tied to ancient beginnings, historic events and even animal antics. Here’s a closer look. · The Origins of March · The name March comes from the Latin “Martius,” named for Mars, the Roman…

Housing Minister Chris Bishop is pushing a plan to slash housing costs and boost productivity. He observed that New Zealand’s economic performance now resembles nations like Poland and Hungary, which endured decades of communist rule, as opposed to Australia and the US. · Speaking to local government leaders, Bishop blamed restrictive land-use policies and infrastructure funding failures for driving up house prices, which now sit at over six…

Stone Age people might have crossed the Mediterranean on wooden canoes, navigating from island to island by sight.Credit: Sheila Terry/Science Photo Library · Thousands of years before Odysseus crossed the ‘wine-dark sea’ in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, hunter-gatherers might have island-hopped their way to Africa across the Mediterranean. · The first genomic study of ancient people from the eastern Maghreb region — present-day Tunisia and…