Articles from ‘elocal magazine’

On 9 November 1769, James Cook helped his astronomer Charles Green observe the transit of Mercury at Te Whanganui-o-Hei (Mercury Bay), Coromandel Peninsula. · When the planets Mercury and Venus pass across the Sun, they are visible as small black dots. Timing these ‘transits’ from different locations was the first accurate way to determine the distance between Earth and the Sun. · After observing the transit of Venus from Tahiti, Cook sailed…

In an unmarked cemetery in northern Poland, a young woman was laid to rest centuries ago in a manner both unique and grim: with an iron sickle pressed to her throat and a padlock on her foot.  · Her burial spoke of a community steeped in fear, eager to prevent what they saw as an evil resurrection. Known now as “Zosia,” she was one of several “vampire” burials from the time, each steeped in a potent mix of local lore and superstition. · Zosia…

In a recent rally in Wisconsin Tim Waltz, the Democratic nominee for Vice-President, called Elon Musk a ‘dip-shit' and mocked the billionaire's appearance with Donald Trump. · Pictures of Musk manically cavorting on stage oblivious to Trump's apparent side-eye, quickly ‘meme'd' their way around the internet. It's easy to ridicule the awkwardness of the world's richest person, but treating Musk like a clown only distracts from the real danger he…

More than 2.6 million people visited the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition, which ran for six months at Rongotai, Wellington from November 8th 1939. It was the centrepiece of the centennial of the signing of the Treaty of the Waitangi. · The exhibition covered 55 acres (22 ha) of land between Wellington’s airport and Rongotai College. Architect Edmund Anscombe designed the centennial fair to illustrate the progress of the country. His striking…

Some might argue that George Washington should hold the record for the greatest margin of victory of any American president. In the very first presidential election in 1789, Washington won 100 percent of the electoral college—all 69 votes. Washington had a distinct advantage, though. He ran unopposed. · Here are seven landslide American presidential elections with the greatest margins of victory, ranked from smallest to largest. · 1. Lyndon…

Einstein locked horns with Niels Bohr and younger physicists over their controversial ideas, as a superb new book, Quantum Drama, explains · Viewers of Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-hoovering biopic about the physicist J Robert Oppenheimer will have learned a lot about the race to build nuclear weapons, but not much about the hero’s involvement in arguably a much more important debate: what science ought to be able to tell us about reality.…

His speech spoke of the need to unite the country. Whether he fulfils this promise or not, the fact of his election must be respected · At least it was all “thank yous” and no threats. Plenty of gratitude to his friends and family – and Elon Musk – and no mention of his enemies. At least not yet. At the very end, when Trump was clearly returning to the script, he said that it was “time to unite”: to “put the divisions of the past behind us”.…

New Zealanders spent over 27.6million on gambling products such as Pokies, sports betting, racing, lotteries, casinos in the year ending 2023 and while not as bad as Australia who lead the world as the leading country for per capita gambling losses; it is a growing problem.  · Increasingly, we’re aware of effects of these losses: Family breakdown and separation, domestic violence, loss of assets, neglect of children, crime and imprisonment,…

On November 7, 1990, long-haired Christchurch mountaineers John Glasgow and Peter Gough became the first people known to have scaled the 2000-m Caroline Face of Aoraki/Mt Cook. They declared it a ‘triumph for the hippies’. · The Caroline Face of Aoraki/Mt Cook was the last unclimbed face of the mountain. Four climbers lost their lives in the 1960s while trying to scale it. Two of those who died, John Cousins and Michael Goldsmith, may have…

Despite stories of "wasps getting drunk" and "beetles consuming beer," it has been thought that alcohol consumption in the non-human animal world has not been particularly widespread, deliberate or sought out for a physiological benefit. Now, ecologists challenge this theory, saying it's far more commonplace and strategic than scientists believed. · A team of international ecologists has made the case based on the fact that ethanol is a…