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A recent child extortion case illustrates the importance of parental support in helping young victims face online abuse. A convicted child sex offender from Northern Ireland, posing as a teen online, used manipulation to extort children for images and then blackmail them. · Alexander McCartney targeted 3,500 children globally, including some from New Zealand. Many young victims, overcome with shame, failed to notify caregivers or authorities…

The United Nations has just listed more things the world needs to accomplish. It should be asking why it hasn’t reached its current goals. · On 22 September, delegates at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City applauded after approving the Pact for the Future. Comprising 56 promises — on issues such as peace and security, sustainable development, climate change and human rights — the pact would more aptly be named the Laundry…

An analysis of the searching patterns of nearly half a million people browsing Wikipedia suggests that the site’s users demonstrate three unique styles of curiosity. · There’s the ‘hunter’, who pursues specific answers, the ‘busybody’, searching for diverse nuggets of new information and the ‘dancer’, who links unrelated concepts through the process of exploration. The study, which was published in Science Advances on 25 October1, is the first…

It's getting warmer! Time to start creating wonderful summer salads to accompany food cooked on the BBQ. This is a delightful, fresh, classic Greek salad with a homemade Greek Salad Dressing. Bright zesty and fresh, this is a classic recipe everyone should know! It is also a wonderful accompanimemt to Greek Marinade Butterfly BBQ lamb · Ingredients  · Salad · - 3 tomatoes (size of a tennis ball) - 4 Lebanese / Persian cucumbers (about 8"/20cm…

The government’s reintroduction of the three strikes law has faced criticism for being a watered-down version of its original form. · Sean Plunket and Stephen Franks discussed how the coalition government’s attempt to bring it back falls short. · While ACT campaigned to reintroduce the policy, the current version still allows judges to override sentences if they find them “manifestly unjust.” · The original three strikes policy aimed to deter…

This is a terrific, bold Greek marinade for lamb that both tenderises and infuses it with garlicky, herby, lemon flavours.Butterflied lamb leg is a fantastic way to enjoy lamb because the flattened shape means it can be cooked relatively quickly compared to roasting a whole leg. In fact, I think that butterflied lamb leg is one of the best cuts of lamb for the BBQ! · Ingredients · - 1.5 – 1.8kg / 3 – 3.6 lb butterflied (ie. boneless) lamb…

It remains the third deadliest shipwreck ever in New Zealand waters: 121 lives were lost in 1894 when the steamer Wairarapa struck Miners Head, the north-west point of Great Barrier Island, 90 km north-east of Auckland. · Despite thick fog, the Wairarapa was travelling at 13 knots (24 kph), nearly full speed, when it slammed into cliffs. Water began to flood in through a hole in the hull, and the Wairarapa listed to one side. Many of those on…

The default position with Shakespeare is to favor bold revisions over the poetic wisdom in the plays themselves. Why not let Shakespeare be what he is? · In a recent piece for the New York Times, Drew Lichtenberg, the artistic producer at the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, laments the closing of the California Shakespeare Theater and the widespread decline in productions of Shakespeare across the country. The reasons, he suggests,…

“It is a fact that New Zealand’s news market is rapidly shrinking if measured by the number of players,” states Dr Merja Myllylahti, co-director of Auckland University of Technology’s Journalism, Media, and Democracy Research Centre. · She writes that New Zealand’s news market is facing a rapid decline in the number of publicly accessible news websites. · In the wake of the recent closure of Newshub.co.nz, Myllylahti says this is a pivotal…

The first Labour Day celebrated the struggle for an eight-hour working day. Parades in the main centres were attended by several thousand trade union members and supporters. · New Zealand workers were among the first in the world to claim the right to an eight-hour day. As early as 1840 the carpenter Samuel Parnell famously won an eight-hour day in Wellington. The provision was soon extended to other centres, but it was a custom, not a legal…