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 Bill). I wish to make the following comments. I am… Continue reading My Submission on the proposed Fast Track Approvals Bill
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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 word made its way to professionals. At least some of… Continue reading The Sixth-Century Treasure of Untersiebenbrunn, Austria
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 comfortable that I do know what I’m talking about, is… Continue reading ChatGPT Makes Shit Up
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Three Kinds of Volcanic Ash around the Jurassic Fossil Forests of Curio Bay
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 (the general view shown in the featured image. See below… Continue reading New Zealand’s Doggerland
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, and caught me off-guard. For New Zealanders at least, the… Continue reading Belarus – and that ‘Registration Thing’