Eideard

A huge crustacean has been found lurking 7km down in the waters off the coast of New Zealand.

The creature – called a supergiant – is a type of amphipod, which are normally around 2-3cm long. But these beasts, discovered in the Kermadec Trench, were more than 10 times bigger: the largest found measured in at 34cm…

The strange animals were found using a large metal trap, which had been equipped with a camera, housed in sapphire glass to keep it safe from the high pressures of the deep sea.

Seven specimens were caught in the trap and nine were captured on film by the team from the University of Aberdeen, in Scotland, and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand.

The largest specimen brought back up to the ship measured 28cm in length, while the biggest spotted on camera was 34cm-long.

Amphipods have been found living in large numbers at the very bottom of ocean trenches, deep, narrow valleys in the sea floor that can plunge down to nearly 11km. The creatures are small, but extremely active, and seem to thrive in this place where the pressure is one thousand times greater than at sea level…

Over the last few years, scientists have been surprised by the life that is found in ocean trenches.

These deep-sea spots were once thought to be barren; too dark, cold and with too much pressure for anything to survive. But researchers have found a wealth of life in the deepest of the deep.

Can you imagine the prawn sandwiches that could be made from just one of these critters?

Thanks, Ursarodinia

Containers on the stern deck of the 47,230 ton Liberian-flagged Rena hang precariously, about 12 nautical miles from Tauranga, on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island October 20, 2011. The recovery of fuel oil from a stricken container ship grounded off New Zealand resumed on Thursday as salvage teams worked to minimize the damage in the country’s worst environmental disaster in decades. Two days of strong winds and high seas had prevented the pumping of oil from the Rena, which has been stuck for more than two weeks on the Astrolabe Reef.

New Zealand police arrested and strip searched a black South African rugby journalist drinking with white colleagues in a pub because he “fitted the profile of a drug dealer”.

Vata Ngobeni, who works for the Pretoria News newspaper and acts as an analyst for South Africa’s national broadcaster SABC, was arrested in the early hours of Monday morning and taken to a police station where he was strip searched.

When he tried to explain that he was a journalist on tour covering the Springboks’s performance in the Rugby World Cup, which New Zealand is hosting, he was told they were following standard procedure when they spot someone who fits “the profile of a drug dealer”.

Colleagues in the bar with him confirmed he was the only black person present.

“I have never been so embarrassed in my life,” he told a South African newspaper after being released. “I have never experienced this kind of treatment in all my travels around the world, so to be singled out as a common criminal in front of so many people is something I will never forget.”

Here in the United States we have so many politicians and populist pimps rationalizing away the possible effects of police profiling – we tend to forget that other nations from Israel to New Zealand have already established such foolishness as standard operating procedures.

Some are on their way out of official racism – which I hope would be the case in New Zealand – while others like Israel are baking institutionalized bigotry into daily life.

The earthquake-devastated New Zealand city of Christchurch has announced plans to rebuild its downtown area as a low-rise precinct dominated by parkland.

Much of the central city remains cordoned off after the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that killed 181 people in February, with the danger of falling debris from damaged buildings making it unsafe for the public to enter.

Christchurch Council unveiled a NZ$2 billion draft plan Thursday to rebuild the shattered city’s heart over the next 20 years, including a memorial to earthquake victims. “It’s a safe, sustainable, green, hi-tech, low-rise city in a garden,” Christchurch mayor Bob Parker told reporters.

Under the plan, buildings would be restricted to a maximum of seven storeys and constructed to rigorous standards to avoid the carnage seen in February, when collapsed office blocks accounted for most of the quake’s fatalities. “We have to build a safe city technically but it also has to feel safe for our community — low rise is what people want,” Parker said…

It calls for extensive parkland on the banks of the Avon river that runs through the city and proposes a light rail system linking the downtown area to the suburbs.

There would also be sporting facilities, including an aquatic centre, as well as convention facilities, a library and a redeveloped hospital.

Parker said the council formulated the plan after receiving more than 100,000 suggestions from residents and it would seek public feedback in the coming months. “It’s not the end of the job by any means, it’s a really strong starting point,” he said.

The only real benefit from a natural disaster is the opportunity to rebuild – better than before.

The Kiwis I’ve known are clearly folks who believe that building a better life for their family includes doing the same for their community. The United States and especially our politicians have given up on that idea.

Christchurch was so badly damaged in last month’s deadly earthquake that parts of New Zealand’s second largest city will have to be abandoned, Prime Minister John Key has said.

Key confirmed 10,000 homes faced demolition after the 6.3-magnitude tremor which is believed to have claimed more than 200 lives, warning that rebuilding would not be possible in some areas.

“We simply don’t know,” he told Radio New Zealand when asked which parts of the city would be deserted. “We know there’s been substantial liquefaction damage.

“It’s a statement of fact that there will be some properties that can’t be rebuilt… the question is whether it (rebuilding) is possible for certain parts of the city, certain streets or houses.”

Key said geotechnical engineers were working urgently to clarify the areas worst affected by liquefaction, caused when the quake’s shaking loosened the bonds between soil particles, turning the ground into a quagmire.

Community worker Tom McBrearty said the prime minister’s comments had increased anxiety among residents still reeling from the February 22 quake. “They interpreted… it as being that the riverside communities would not be allowed to be rebuilt, which is at this stage is incorrect. We don’t know, we’re still waiting for final analysis.”

Key said the government would provide financial assistance to those who were forced to move and was in talks with developers about releasing new subdivisions to cope with the demand for housing in the stricken city.

Christchurch mayor Bob Parker said speculation on the fate of entire suburbs was “alarmist” and urged residents to wait until geotechnical reports were complete.

Sad, sad tale. Although this earthquake technically was an aftershock of last year’s quake, it blasted along a new fault and being closer to the surface and in a populous area – just did an enormous amount of damage. More than anyone had foreseen.

Police in a New Zealand town who used Segways for beat patrols have been forced to abandon the scooters after they were deemed illegal.

The force in the North Island town of Taupo had embraced the electric-powered devices but had to abandon them after finding it was against the law to use them in public areas, according to the NZPA news agency.

The local Rotary Club purchased two of the Segways, which were then lent to police to make it easier for officers to conduct patrols.

The two-wheeled scooters, which use gyroscopes and computers to remain upright and can reach speeds of up to 12 miles per hour, had proven popular with the community, Inspector Steve Bullock said.

“They are a novel vehicle, I would liken them to a modern-day horse because they engender curiosity and people want to talk to you about them, which is what we want as a police organisation,” he told NZPA…

Insp Bullock said that because there was no separate vehicle classification for Segways, they fell into the same category as cars and had to be registered as roadworthy for use in public areas.

But he remained optimistic the technicality could be sorted out and the Segways, which have proved popular with police in many US cities, could resume their place on the pavements of Taupo.

Leave it to politicians too ignorant to come with an appropriate classification for a vehicle to resort to blocking use altogether. Something that’s simple, easy and useful confounds the bureaucrat.

Alien worshippers are urging the Government to admit extraterrestrial life is out there after the release of thousands of secret files on UFO sightings.

The Defence Force released thousands of documents detailing alleged UFO sightings between 1952 and 2009 on Wednesday. They include a report into the famous 1978 Kaikoura sighting, where a small plane was tracked by a large cluster of fast-moving bright lights for about 20 minutes.

Aetherius Society NZ organiser Frank McManus says the documents prove the New Zealand Government knows about the existence of alien life.

He is calling for a full state investigation of the sightings…

The Aetherius society…members claim to be in touch with alien life, or ‘Cosmic Masters’, who give messages on how to halt Earth’s slide into ruin…

Other nations including Britain and Brazil have also released Government files on alleged UFO encounters.

The New Zealand Defence Force has said it will not comment on the files, as it was only a collection point for the documents and did not have the resources to investigate or verify their contents.

!. The probability of sentient life forms in one or another galaxy shouldn’t surprise or intimidate anyone who’s gotten an hour or two beyond conventional superstition.

2. The bigger question is why would they ever want to visit Earth? Our governments would probably try to kill them.

Would you buy a used car from either of these clowns?

Denmark, Singapore and New Zealand formed a three-way tie as the least corrupt countries in the 2010 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, while Somalia was rated the most corrupt and the U.S score declined.

Those three countries were the leaders last year as well, though in 2009 New Zealand was first, with Denmark and Singapore closely behind. The index, developed for at least the last 15 years by the Berlin-based international anti-corruption group, is widely used by business, civil society groups and others when determining corruption risk across the globe.

This year, the index found that three-quarters of the 178 countries scored below 5 on a Zero-to-10 scale, indicating serious corruption problems. A country’s perceived corruption decreases as its score increases. Denmark, Singapore and New Zealand each scored a 9.3, whereas Somalia scored a 1.1 and the U.S. saw its score drop to 7.1 in 2010 from 7.5 a year ago…

“We need to see more enforcement of existing rules and laws. There should be nowhere to hide for the corrupt or their money,” said Huguette Labelle, chair of Transparency International, in the statement.

Of the hundreds of sources covering the release of this report, I chose the Wall Street Journal – just to peep the conservative moneyboys perception of corruption. The result was predictable – scant mention that the United States continues in decline. BTW, the USA was 14th before George W’s election. Now, we’re 22nd.

Wow. What a wonderful world of choice. Here in New Mexico we have one reasonably courageous senator and one matching congressman [not in my district - so, I don't get to vote for him]. The rest are the same old, lame old story – running against a stereotypical slate of Republicans whose only claim to fame is that they’re presently unemployed in government.

A Turkish man accused of beating his wife has told a court in New Zealand they were actually performing a traditional dance.

Allaetin Can said witnesses mistook the dance for domestic violence as it involved moves that resemble punches, kicks, slaps and choking.

The dance, named the kolbasti, is thought to have been first performed by drunks in a Black Sea resort town. The name translates as “caught red-handed by the police“.

Mr Can said he and his wife Elmas were dancing outside his family’s kebab shop in Hawera on New Zealand’s North Island, to celebrate a good day’s takings when a passer-by called the police…

“We’re always dancing, I’m happy to dance with my wife and family, but people here understand fighting not dancing,” he told New Zealand media outside the court.

The trial judge has instructed police to view a video of the kolbasti before deciding if charges should be dropped.

Har!

What the coppers really need to see is a “blocking the road dance” from southern China. That’s scary.

“When you’re lonely…you cling to the things that bring you comfort”

A drunk driver trapped after overturning his car cracked open another can of beer while he waited for emergency crews to rescue him, a New Zealand court was told.

Paul Nigel Sneddon, 47, pleaded guilty to careless driving and drunken driving after being nearly three times over the legal alcohol limit in a district court in the city of Palmerston North.

Police found Sneddon, a former baker, trapped in his overturned Ford Laser on June 1, drinking a can of beer after he failed to take a corner properly and crashed through a wooden barrier, flipping his vehicle.

Defense lawyer Peter Young said that when Sneddon found he could not open the doors, “he had nothing else to do at that point, so he had another beer.”

When asked by police how much he had consumed, Sneddon replied: “Plenty, I’ve been drinking for four days straight.”

Judge Gregory Ross fined him $780 and disqualified him from driving for 10 months. It was his first offence.

Anyone taking bets on whether or not it will be his last offence?