Two Quick Quizzes

Your Personality Profile

You are dependable, popular, and observant. Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness. In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do. You are unique, creative, and expressive. You don't mind waving your freak flag every once and a while. And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming!

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Your IQ Is 115

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional Your General Knowledge is Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Bra-covered fence owner won't back down

The article below is from the Herald.

I'm in two minds about this: first of all, if the guy wants to have bras on his fence, on his land, who's to stop him? It does all seem to be PC nonsense and a sad symptom of the mess our country is in. On the other hand, isn't it a bit sad that a bunch of underwear is referred to as a celebration of our Kiwi culture? Can't we do any better than that? I've seen the fence - it is a novelty, I'll give it that. This whole issue sounds like a fuss being made about nothing.

****

The owner of a bra-covered fence in Central Otago's Cardrona Valley has said he has no plans to take it down following claims it needs a resource consent.

The bra fence started in 1999 when four bras appeared on the fence between Christmas and New Year. The fence now has more than 800 bras, some with names, addresses and phone numbers attached.

The Queenstown Lakes District Council sought a legal opinion after a Cardrona Valley resident complained about the fence.

The council was advised that the fence required a resource consent.

John Lee, who owns the fence, said tourists from all over the world stopped in the Cardrona Valley to photograph the fence and it regularly featured in overseas media.

"It's given us our identity," he said.

He said most of the community supported the fence and he would not take it down unless they objected. He was taking legal advice on the issue of resource consent.

National Party local government spokesman John Carter said the suggestion a resource consent was needed was "PC rubbish".

He said yesterday that the incident highlighted the need to reform the Resource Management Act.

"My advice to the council is to ignore the advice and the objectors and see if anyone is stupid enough to take it to the Environment Court," he said.

"It's these quirky little things that make us New Zealanders."

Council chief executive Duncan Field said the situation was unfortunate, calling it "an unintended consequence of the way the District Plan was drafted", but said the council was obliged to resolve the issue between the complainant and the fence owner.

"Both parties have rights here," he said.

Recipe: Champion Cheese Muffins (Alison Holst)

These muffins are yummy, easy to make, and becuase of the cheese in them, you add no butter to the mixture. Apparently it makes 12 medium sized muffins - I ended up with 10.

Put 2 cups (200g) grated tasty cheese, 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour*, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp sugar and a pinch of cayenne pepper into a large bowl. Mix lightly with your fingers to combine.

In a small container beat 1 egg and 1 cup milk until evenly combined. Pour all the liquid onto the dry ingredients, then fold the two mixtures together, taking care not to overmix.

Spoon the mixture into 12 medium muffin pans, which have been buttered or sprayed with non-stick spray.

Optional toppings: Sprinkle with a little extra cheese and paprika or chilli powder.

Bake at 210 degrees celcius for about 12 minutes, until the muffins spring back when pressed in the middle and are golden brown.

*If you don't have self-raising flour, you can just use ordinary flour and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder.

NZSO at the Town Hall, Auckland

I was lucky enough to win free tickets to this concert on Saturday (thanks TVNZ!) It was fantastic. I was a little bit wary about the first piece, as it was obviously modern. I’m not a fan of much written after the 19th century. The contemporary item is usually at the beginning of programmes, and most often I sit through it, waiting for the items to follow before I begin enjoying myself. This piece however, John Adams’ “Short Ride in a Fast Machine”, was amazing. From the first beats of percussion to the frenzied finale, this was action-packed and scintillating. As we broke into applause I had an involuntary smile on my face.

Our conductor, Hannu Lintu, took enthusiasm to a whole new level.

Next, our violin soloist Cho-Liang Lin appeared, and Brahms’ sublime Violin Concerto was executed with grace and precision. The concerto progressed through many moods and showed the dynamic skill of Mr Lin, and the orchestra. The theatre of the concert then took place, with Mr Lin making about 5 trips on and off the stage before finally raising his bow (which had lost a good deal of its hair during his performance) for an encore. It was “Gavotte”, a dance by Bach, and very pleasant indeed.

After the intermission, we were treated to Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony, which was also superb. With Mr Lintu literally jumping up and down towards the end, the orchestra responded magnificently. At its conclusion applause burst out, and Mr Lintu exited the stage promptly - presumably to get some oxygen. He appeared again several times, but alas the orchestra was not roused for an encore. Still, a fantastic night had by all, judging from the comments from fellow patrons.

For an official review from the Herald, click here. Also an article on Lin here.

New White Tiger Cubs!

Must get up to Whangarei at some stage to see them!!



The birth of three white tiger cubs in Whangarei has boosted the animal's fragile numbers worldwide - and helped save a fellow feline in the process.

The latest litter of royal white Bengal tigers at the Zion Wildlife Gardens run by "Lion Man" Craig Busch is crucial because the cats have been extinct in the wild since 1958, and only 120 survive in captivity worldwide.

With the three latest additions, Mr Busch now has seven in his Northland sanctuary.

He said two of the as-yet-unnamed cubs would be sent to a reserve at the Cradle of Humankind, a world heritage site in South Africa. The other cub would be kept at Zion for its breeding programme.

Sending the cubs will complete an agreement Mr Busch had with the South African reserve to exchange four white tigers with four white lions, which are a similarly endangered species.

Tigress Rewa's first litter of two are already in Africa, and her second litter of two males and a female, born on October 2, are doing well.

The cubs now weigh an average of 5.5kg, up from a birth weight of just 1.2kg. They are suckled and bottle-fed at the moment, but Mr Busch expects them to graduate to solids such as chicken in a fortnight.

Unlike the first birth, where Rewa rejected her cubs - quite common among first litters - "this time she was the best mother in the park".

Royal whites are a subspecies of India's Bengal tiger. A double recessive gene causes the animal's striking coloration of cinnamon stripes, blue eyes and pink noses.

Mr Busch said the public would be able to see the litter in a week's time, and the cubs would also have names by then.

The Whangarei big cat sanctuary is now home to the southernmost pride of white tigers and lions. The four white lions will play a vital role in the sanctuary's breeding programme, and for breeding programmes worldwide.

The lions originate in Southern Africa's Timbavati region, although, like white tigers, none exist any more in the wild.

The animal is not an albino nor a subspecies, but an African tawny lion with a recessive gene. Mr Busch said its origins were shrouded in mystery.

"It's always been a legend or myth - no one ever thought they were real. It's quite a big thing, really. In the African eye, the white lion is the most spiritual of all of Africa - a sacred animal, I should say."

Mr Busch said many people worldwide were trying to preserve these endangered creatures.

"The biggest thing is to teach people what's going wrong in the world. It's what we're here for."

From the Herald.

Just Grab Your Pistenflitzer

Combine a boogie board with an air mattress, throw in some fresh snow and a fast slope, add a lot of fun and you've got airboarding, the new snow sensation from Switzerland.

Airboarding is being introduced to New Zealand by Snowplanet, the country's first indoor snow resort, on November 7. Later in the month, Snowplanet will add Pistenflitzers, a toboggan-style slide aimed at families, to its new summer season.

Airboarding is one of the fastest growing snow activities in Europe and the US, attracting people of all ages and ability.

"Airboarding is a great way to have fun in the snow without the skills required for skiing and snowboarding," explained Snowplanet spokesman, Eduard Ebbinge.

"You don't need to have lessons or equipment. You can just turn up, hop on your airboard or pistenflitzer and zoom down the slope."

Airboard users simply lie or sit on the air-filled boards in much the same way as a boogie board and propel themselves down the slope.

In keeping with their policy of catering to the entire family, Snowplanet has also introduced Pistenflitzers, easy to use toboggans that will appeal to the young and old.

"'Pistenflitzers' will be hard for kids to say, but really easy to ride," Ebbinge predicted.

The toboggans have a central control stick which allow the users to steer and manage their speed.

The two new activities will complement Snowplanet's existing skiing and snowboarding programmes.

From Xtra.

Sounds like fun - just hope they don't get in the way of us skiers!

No Life Without Wife

I finally watched Bride and Prejudice this week, leant to me on video. If you have seen it, you'll recognise my subject line. Having never seen a Bollywood film before, I was a little taken aback at first with the raucous dancing and singing numbers, but in no time at all I was really enjoying it. Being a fan of musicals in general probably helps.

It was nice to see mostly fresh faces on the screen, including New Zealand's Martin Henderson sporting an American accent. Opinions about India and its place in the world were also interesting, if somewhat preachy at times. The most refreshing (and sometimes amusing) aspect was the modesty - the most intimate moment of the entire film was a kiss on the forehead. I applaud this stance - but it is a bit funny when the leads are gazing into each other's eyes, and then suddenly the whole world breaks into song and dance. The sudden emergence of a gospel choir on the beach, complete with singing lifeguards and swaying surfboards was hilarious, as was Darcy's stint as a drummer at the end.

Speaking of Darcy, the plot stuck relatively close to the original, in an Indian kind of way. The elements of the second half of the story were all kind of jammed into the last half an hour - due to the long musical numbers in the first part - but it wasn't too jarring.

I'll keep this review short - I just wanted to mention how much I enjoyed the film. If you haven't seen it, make sure you do - it's of particular interest to Jane Austen fans or those who like lively quirky musicals.

Official site

It's official - Musicians are wired differently

Don’t be offended if musicians ignore what you’re saying while music is playing - the language part of their brains could be already fully engaged, research from the University of Auckland shows.

PhD student Lucy Patston from the faculty of science has discovered that musicians hear music as a language.

"Past research has shown that musicians process music on the left side of their brain as opposed to non-musicians who process music on the right side," said Ms Patston, who is doing her research through the faculty’s department of psychology.

"The left hemisphere is predominantly used to process language, so my research has been trying to find out if musicians actually process music as language."

Ms Patston tested 36 expert musicians and 36 non-musicians, using a battery of cognitive tests.

Each participant had to do two visual and two language tasks under three different testing conditions to see if their performance was enhanced or impeded.

"They had to do the tests with no music, while listening to music played with the right notes and while listening to music played with the wrong notes."

When the musicians did the language tests in silence, they scored better than the non-musicians. However, under the two music conditions their performance significantly dropped.

The performance of non-musicians was not significantly different in any of the conditions, suggesting they were not affected by the presence of music.

"The evidence from these initial tests suggests that musicians hear music as language because they have difficulty processing both language and music at the same time. The brain is competing for the same resources," Ms Patston said.

An unexpected finding of the research was that musicians scored higher in the test in silent conditions.

This might have repercussions for the way children are taught, she suggested.

Ms Patston recently received top prize in the faculty of science’s Postgraduate Society Poster Competition for her current research work.

The competition provided an opportunity for students to display their research in a manner that non-scientists could easily understand.

She said the competition was a good way of developing skills to explain the technical aspect of her study to non-specialist audiences.

In the next phase of her research Ms Patston hopes to put candidates through the university’s functional magnetic resonance imaging machine, which will show the specific parts of the brain working.

Using similar testing methods the machine will be able to further explore her findings.

- NZPA

Music and language

* Most people use the left side of their brain for analytical tasks such as language.
* The right side is used for more creative experiences, such as appreciating music.
* Musicians process music with the left side of their brains, suggesting they hear the notes as language.