My Submission I thank the Environment Select Committee for the opportunity to make a submission on the Fast-track Approvals Bill – at least this aspect of the democratic process appears to remain. I reject entirely the proposed Fast Track Approvals Bill (henceforth, the ‘Fast Track… Read more
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The Sixth-Century Treasure of Untersiebenbrunn, Austria
An elite woman who read ‘Migration Woman Vogue’. In January 1910, gold jewellery and bones were accidentally uncovered near the village of Untersiebenbrunn, in Austria (the site is roughly between Vienna and Bratislava, in neigbouring Slovakia). The priceless archaeological site was ransacked by locals before… Read more
ChatGPT Makes Shit Up
An academic asks ChatGPT about New Zealand’s Miocene Manuherikia Group Your narrator dips his toes into this ChatGPT thing With a nod to Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians – ‘I know what I know, if you know what I mean’. One subject where I’m… Read more
New Zealand’s Doggerland
Do we have a submerged ‘Doggerland‘ in New Zealand? In 1950 a boat, the HMNZS ‘Lachlan’ dredged a sample of “lignite” from the bottom of Toitoi (or Toetoe) Bay, at the far south end of New Zealand’s South Island, from a depth of nine fathoms… Read more
Belarus – and that ‘Registration Thing’
The passport control officer at Minsk Airport seemed genuinely shocked to see me (well, OK, I can have that effect on people). For so long, Belarus had seemed to be the hardest country in Europe to visit. This changed suddenly for citizens of many countries,… Read more