Crazy science letter of the week part 8
This one contains so many inaccuracies, exaggerations and irrational thoughts its clear someone isn’t thinking straight in the deep south… From The Press, May 11th
MoreEnvironment
BP's big plug – what the plan was…
The big concrete and steel pill box BP was banking on to plug the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico failed after hydrate-like crystals formed blocking the top of the dome and making in buoyant. The oil ended up spewing out of the container, leaving engineers looking for a plan B that could include […]
MoreOld ship log books dusted off for whale conservation
New Zealand and Australia are these days passionately opposed to commercial whaling, a stance that in recent weeks has put them at odds with significant trading partner Japan. But it wasn’t always that way – the 1830s and 1840s were the golden age of whaling in New Zealand and Australia as whalers, predominantly from America, […]
MoreOzone hole 25 years on – signs of recovery?
The journal Nature this week features a very interesting article from Jonathan Shanklin, head of the Meteorology and Ozone Monitoring Unit at the British Antarctic Survey and one of the three scientists who discovered the hole in the ozone layer 25 years ago. As Shanklin explains in the piece, which is summed up pretty well […]
MoreCrazy science letter of the week part 6
This one’s short, but not so sweet. From yesterday’s Dominion Post letters page.
MoreThe Mexican Gulf oil spill in infographics
The disastrous oil spill in the Mexican Gulf represents a complex story with lots of different angles. Newspapers have taken a stab at tackling these angles, which include the ecological impact on sea and coastal ecosystems and the work underway to try and stem the flow of oil. Graphic design departments have been working overtime to […]
MoreIs New Zealand prepared for a major oil spill?
UPDATE: New Zealand is facing its own potential environmental crisis as a stricken container ship remains grounded on a reef near Tauranga Harbour, with 1700 tons of heavy fuel oil onboard… From last year… The ecological disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico has reminded us of how fragile our natural environment is and the […]
MoreWhen is an experiment a ‘bungled’ experiment?
I wasn’t in the sharpest frame of mind on Saturday morning after a big night on the town in Auckland with some journalist friends the previous night. However I couldn’t help but notice the headline screaming out from the front page of the New Zealand Herald frontpage as I passed an inner-city dairy. The headline […]
MoreClarity from the Gisborne Herald on climate science
As far as I can tell, this is the first New Zealand editorial from a mainstream media outlet to reference the University of East Anglia inquiry into Dr Phil Jones and his colleagues. From Saturday’s Gisborne Herald…
MoreClimategate’s final act ignored by NZ media
When I was reporting for the Herald on convoluted and long-running stories like the dismantling of Telecom’s monopoly on the phone and internet market, I felt obliged to cover each major phase of the story through to completion. It seems the same isn’t true of the New Zealand media in general when it comes to […]
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PETER GRIFFIN 
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