Articles from ‘elocal magazine’

On 20 November 1841, Maketū Wharetōtara, the 17-year-old son of the Ngāpuhi chief Ruhe, killed five people at Motuarohia in the Bay of Islands. In March 1842 he became the first person to be legally executed in this country. · Maketū worked on the farm of a widow, Elizabeth Roberton. His killing spree began when he attacked another farm worker, Thomas Bull, with an axe while he slept. Maketū went on to kill Roberton, her two children, and…

Asparagus season is here, and there’s no better way to celebrate than with this fresh and vibrant pasta dish! Perfect for the warming weather, it’s quick and easy to prepare, making it a delightful addition to your spring table. · Ingredients · 100g lemon laganelle (this is available from specality stores, or you can just cook your chosen pasta shape in lemon water) · 1 bunch asparagus, sliced into 1cm pieces · 100g  preserved lemon, pith…

Researchers have had their first-ever look at samples brought back from the Moon’s far side — and they detail a history of volcanic activity that spans billions of years. · The results are the first scientific analyses of samples retrieved by the Chinese mission Chang’e-6, which scooped up nearly two kilograms of lunar soil and returned it to Earth in a capsule in June. Independent research teams in China published separate papers in Science1…

Stress makes mice form big bundles of neurons in the brain that disrupt memory formation, making them fearful of harmless situations1 — which might help to explain why stressed people often feel threatened in safe environments. · Researchers have long known that stress or trauma can lead people to fear harmless situations. For instance, after burning a finger on a hot pan, a stressed individual might subsequently avoid not only hot pans but the…

It's nearly 15 years since the first air fryer as we know it hit the market, but food companies and consumers are still catching up when it comes to food safety and these game-changing kitchen gadgets. Experts say better instructions and user awareness will lower the risk of food-related illness. · While the first air fryer was patented in 1945 by William Maxson – called the Maxson Whirlwind Oven – it was Dutch inventor Fred van der Weij who…

The Pike River underground coal mine is located in the rugged Paparoa Range, on the West Coast of the South Island. The mine workings were reached via a 2.3-km-long tunnel that intersected with the Brunner coal seam. · At 3.44 p.m. on Friday 19 November 2010, the mine exploded. Twenty-nine men underground died immediately or soon afterwards from the blast or because of the toxic atmosphere this generated. Two men who were some distance from the…

A scientist who successfully treated her own breast cancer by injecting the tumour with lab-grown viruses has sparked discussion about the ethics of self-experimentation. · Beata Halassy discovered in 2020, aged 49, that she had breast cancer at the site of a previous mastectomy. It was the second recurrence there since her left breast had been removed, and she couldn’t face another bout of chemotherapy. · Halassy, a virologist at the…

The unassuming yet popular white button mushroom has cancer-fighting abilities, according to the results of a human clinical trial on the use of food as medicine. Not only does it slow tumor growth, but it also allows cancer-fighting immune cells to do their job effectively. · Coined in 1989, the term nutraceutical, a portmanteau of ‘nutrition’ and ‘pharmaceutical,’ has become somewhat of a buzzword. Used to denote food, or parts of food, with…

There is dignity and value in work. You who live in America once knew this. You did not think lesser of a man because he got his hands dirty with honest toil. To the contrary, you thought it a grand thing to build and to create. But all that has changed. · Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, and the other great poets of ancient Greece, Rome, and the Middle Ages had been given the gift, not only to peer into the…

Donald Trump was elected to shake things up, to undo the damage that the left has been doing to our society, our culture, and our government. But when you staff a government with entertaining names, how does that affect the cause of effectively changing policy in a more positive, liberty-oriented direction? · Cabinet members tend to be obscure. Quick—who is the Secretary of Health and Human Services? Who is the Secretary of Defense? People…