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The gangland murder of ‘Mr Asia’ (Marty Johnstone) led to the demise of one of New Zealand’s largest ever drug rings. Johnstone was killed on the orders of drug lord Terry Clark. Divers found his mutilated body in a flooded quarry in England. · Clark (also known as Sinclair) and Johnstone had begun working with each other in the mid-1970s, when the Mr Asia drug ring began importing large quantities of heroin into New Zealand and Australia.…

The definition of a vacuum is true empty space – an environment with nothing in it. · It is the attempt to create a nothingness within the all pervasive somethingness of the universe. · Nothing cannot exist in nature because nature immediately fills that nothing with something. Trying to separate out from everything creates a state so profoundly unstable that it immediately disappears. · And this has profound implications for us and what we…

Ever since 1917, Passchendaele has been a byword for the horror of the Great War. In terms of lives lost in a single day, the failed attack on Bellevue Spur on 12 October was probably the greatest disaster in New Zealand’s history. · Eight days earlier, around 500 New Zealanders died during the capture of Gravenstafel Spur, one of two spurs on the ridge above the village of Passchendaele in Flanders, Belgium. Although this attack was…

Surgical stitches are good for helping wounds heal, but they can pop open with too much movement. Scientists in China have now turned that weakness into a strength, developing stitches that generate an electric charge when stretched and heal wounds faster. · Sutures are the standard treatment for large and deep wounds in skin, physically bringing cells on either side of a wound back in contact so they can patch up the damage. Without them,…

In its first venture from Dunedin to Gabriels Gully, near Lawrence, Cobb & Co. reduced the time for the trip from two days to nine hours. · The company was founded in Melbourne in 1854; in 1861, its proprietor, Charles Cole, arrived in Dunedin with a luxury American Concord coach, five wagons, a buggy, more than 50 horses, and a reputation for speed and reliability. One week later, the first ‘Cobb & Co Telegraphic Line of Coaches’ service began…

Among superstitions, one of the oldest and most enduring is that crossing paths with a black cat will bring on bad luck. The dark-colored felines have also been folded into modern Halloween symbols, giving them the (unearned) reputation of being spooky. · But how and where did the association between black cats and bad luck begin? Here’s what is known about the connection between Halloween and black cats, including the lasting impact of this…

The Labour government created the Tribunal to hear Māori claims of breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. It has evolved ever since, adapting to the demands of claimants, government and public. · The Tribunal was created to report on and suggest settlements for contemporary Māori claims, and to ensure that future legislation was consistent with the treaty. Claims were relatively rare in its first decade, and most of the Tribunal’s early inquiries…

Taking a pill is the easiest, least invasive way to take medicine, but unfortunately, not all drugs work that way. Now, Stanford scientists have found “an embarrassingly simple solution” that could make almost any drug molecule effective in oral pill form, testing it in mice with chemotherapy drugs that are normally administered through IV infusion. · In essence, what the team has developed is a small molecular tag that can be attached to most…

Two researchers who developed tools for understanding the neural networks that underpin today’s boom in artificial intelligence (AI) have won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics. · John Hopfield at Princeton University in New Jersey, and Geoffrey Hinton at the University of Toronto, Canada, share the 11 million Swedish kronor (US$1 million) prize, announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on 8 October. · Both used tools from…

The New Zealand Medical Council issued a “Guidance Statement” (see below) to doctors, in April 2021, stating “there is no place for anti-vaccination messages in professional health practice”, then enforced it vigorously, at a time when the Government was urging people to get unbiased advice from their doctors. For instance here is an excerpt from one of those ads: “For trusted information about the COVID-19 vaccine, visit your family doctor or…