Brain Injury #Concussion

Flyers available from the main foyer display at Dunedin Hospital:

[click to enlarge]

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### ODT Online Sat, 25 Mar 2017
Editorial: Using your head over concussion
OPINION It is the headache that will not go away. Concussion in sport is again in the headlines and has, sadly, shown the vast difference in how two high-impact codes, rugby and league, handle the issue and the welfare of their players. […] It has taken a long time for sports bodies to accept the full impact of concussion. In years gone by it was considered “a knock to the head” and players were encouraged to get back on their feet and into the game. Last year, The New Zealand Herald wrote a compelling series about the long-term effect of head knocks in sport. It discovered five cases of dementia among the successful Taranaki rugby side of 1964, which their families attributed to concussion during their playing days. […] The NZRU this year launched a blue card initiative, which is aimed at getting concussed players off the field. The blue card can be issued when a referee suspects a player has suffered a concussion. The player must immediately stand down for at least three weeks, and obtain medical clearance to return to play.
Read more

[2016 concussion series at nzherald.co.nz]
█ The Longest Goodbye: Rugby and the Dementia Dilemma

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### NZ Herald 5:00 AM Sun, 26 Mar 2017
New study finds stronger necks mean fewer concussions
By Kirsty Wynn – Herald on Sunday
Rugby coaches are being urged to concentrate on improving players’ neck strength in a bid to avoid debilitating concussions. A ground-breaking New Zealand study has found players with weaker and uneven neck strength are more vulnerable to severe impacts that may cause concussion. The experiment by Otago University’s Dr Hamish Osborne and Research Fellow Dr Danielle Salmon used bluetooth sensors behind the ears of 23 players in the Otago Mitre 10 Cup rugby team to measure acceleration, or g forces, during impacts in five games. The neck strength of each player was also measured using especially designed equipment. Salmon said the weaker the neck the more severe the damaging “whip-lash” type movement. A higher acceleration force was also recorded.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Wastewater testing for drug use

[utopiasilver.com]

### NZ Herald Online 12:38 PM Monday Dec 19, 2016
Police to start testing wastewater in NZ for drug use
Police are about to start testing wastewater in Auckland and Christchurch, to get a better idea of drug use in the community. Similar testing in Perth has found 31.6kg of meth was consumed in the city area each week, that’s 1.6 tonnes a year. Now police want to do the same here.
The testing, which will look for methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, alpha PVP, MDMA and Creatinine, will take place in Christchurch and Auckland’s Rosedale treatment plants. Police say the results, which cannot be traced to individuals, will improve their understating of drug use in the population.
Assistant Commissioner Bill Searle … said the results will also inform treatment and enforcement strategies, allow comparison with international data, measure the effectiveness of education and enforcement and provide intelligence data … The testing will be undertaken by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research for one week each month for a year.
Read more

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NBC News: Shocking mugshots reveal toll of drug abuse
Updated 2/25/2011 6:29:15 PM ET
In-your-face photos aim to scare teens straight by striking their vanity.
The pairs of mug shots, which graphically display the damage drugs can do to the face, were collected by the sheriff’s office in Multnomah County, Ore. Faces that were normal — even attractive — in initial photos, shot when addicts were first arrested, metamorphose over years, and sometimes just months, into gaunt, pitted, even toothless wrecks. Link

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‘Everyone experiments at college or school and I want From Drugs to Mugs to show kids that everyone in those pictures started on cannabis, they didn’t just dive head first into heroin.’ –Deputy Bret King, Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, Oregon.

Daily Mail (Australia): The horror of Meth: Before-and-after pictures reveal shocking transformation in faces of users hooked on deadly drug
Published: 02:12 +11:00, 7 Dec 2012 | Updated: 06:53 +11:00, 7 Dec 2012
A new anti-drug advertisement shows the devastating physical transformation addicts experience after years of meth use. The photos, that show a shocking Dorian Gray-like deterioration, were compiled from mug shots of drug users that were arrested repeatedly over the years. The continued drug use caused horrific damage to the drug users’ skin with sores and scarring – that can be caused by uncontrollable scratching during a hallucination when the addict imagines bugs are crawling under their skin. Link

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

U o O please explain!

The University of Auckland was ranked in the top 151-200 universities, an improvement on 2015 when the institution was ranked in the top 201-300.

### ODT Online Thu, 25 Aug 2016
Otago drops in academic ranking
By Margot Taylor
The University of Otago has dropped in an annual list of the world’s top universities. The university was ranked in the 300-401 band of the top 500 universities in the world in Shanghai Ranking Consultancy’s Academic Ranking of World Universities 2016, the first time in eight years it has not been in the top 200-301. […] Otago University was the only New Zealand institution to drop in the list since it was last ranked.
Read more

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University of Otago Capping Sextet, 2015 [youtube.com]

█ For more, enter the terms *u o o*, *university*, *harlene* or *student* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Election Year. This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image:

No one wants to work for U of O

On campus, nothing much.
Demolition continues at the old dental school.

Received from Carol Roberts
Tue, 28 Jun 2016 at 11:12 p.m.

Artist’s impression [Image supplied]

Dental School
Project manager Aurecon’s project director resigned 2-3 weeks ago. This will be the 4th or 5th PM for this job. Aurecon won the job because of this person’s credentials…. shades of the prior Opus Dental school debacle.

Research Building
The PM for RCP New Zealand, resigned about 2 months into the project 2 weeks ago…. Construction of the ‘Animal Research Support Facility’ for the south campus was scheduled to start in August and be completed in February 2018.

Science Building
Leighs onsite QS/PM has left, the Leighs project director, who is supposed to be onsite 3-4 days a week, goes weeks without a visit, and Leighs general manager, Graeme Earl, has left…. Leighs are looking for a replacement.
Leighs AWOL…and behind programme at Science.

A further development
Local Quantity Surveying firms elbowed out of the way
(not implying the university!) Local Institutions are paying substantial premiums (including 6 figures) to out of town firms.

[ends]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

For women and men —Jean Kittson, author of You’re Still Hot to Me: The Joys of Menopause #sharethis

Women are now in menopause for 40% of their lives. It’s a natural and normal part of life. It’s not about getting old, it’s about growing up.

OK, this evening I got sick of forever lamenting greedy men in connection with the stadium and professional rugby, and stupid city councillors. Instead, I sought out something positive, laughter-inducing in a kind way, discursive, enlightening – for a change, The Change.

Sneaking this in before evangelists Malcolm Farry, Dave Cull, Jim Harland, Athol Stephens, and the likes of Terry Davies, start leading the way on men’s health by taking more doctors along to local Blokes’ Sheds – so in this er tight gap before they try “giving back to humanity”, listen to the audio, read the extract, email it, share it – be generous, buy the book for yourselves, your families, your women friends and men friends. Talk about it.

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### radionz.co.nz Thu, 26 Jun 2014
Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/20140626

Jean Kittson, author of You’re Still Hot to Me: The Joys of Menopause
10:10 Jean Kittson is an Australian comedian, performer and writer who’s on a mission to break the cone of silence she says exists around menopause. She’s written a book about the subject, called You’re Still Hot To Me: The Joys of Menopause, as she insists it’s possible to cheerfully embrace and confidently manage the “change of life”. Published by Pan McMillan.
Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 (28′33″)

█ BRILLIANT EXTRACT | Book information – Pan Macmillan

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Mayor Cull ‘handshakes’ Hodgson

Taxpayers’ Union executive director Jordan Williams questioned whether the Auditor General should be involved. “No wonder this council has a history of financial troubles, they’re running it like a cake stall.”

### Sunday Star-Times Sun, 23 Feb 2014
Mayor Cull defends deal (page A9)
By Hamish Rutherford
Dunedin mayor Dave Cull is defending a “gentleman’s” agreement which saw a former MP paid $3400 for lobbying following a handshake deal. Documents released under the Official Information Act reveal that former Dunedin North MP Pete Hodgson was paid by the council to lobby the Government not to strip core functions of Ag Research Limited from Invermay, near Dunedin.
The council said the main point of contact for the deal with Hodgson was Cull, but could not locate a single email, contract or any other document relating to the agreement. […] “Mr Hodgson did not provide any reports relating to his services,” governance support officer Grace Ockwell said.
See article for more.

[click to enlarge]

█ The Taxpayers’ Union broke the story, read their media release (24.2.14), and later they blogged it.

Related Post and Comments (today):
12.9.13 Dunedin community v government-led centralisation

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: pocketbook.co.uk – handshake; en.wikipedia.org – Dave Cull, Pete Hodgson (re-imaged by whatifdunedin)

University of Otago: Starter questions for Harlene

Updating . . .

Anonymous is asking questions of University of Otago Vice-Chancellor Harlene Hayne, and threatening to make this a weekly feature. What if? happily and loosely accommodates regular questions so long as they’re narly.

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There’s the big question about university sponsorship of the Highlanders. Understandably, this leads to questions for our bluestocking about her appropriateness or not for the role of vice-chancellor, turning on research, teaching and funding priorities, marketing, and decision-making processes within the local ivy league.

Who is Harlene Hayne?
She is a psychology researcher by training, and her work has focused on field memory development in infants, children, adolescents and adults. Prof Hayne was born in Oklahoma, raised in Colorado, and earned degrees at Colorado College and Rutgers University. She was recruited to the University of Otago after doing a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University. With a decade of teaching at Otago under her belt, Prof Hayne recently assumed the University’s Vice-Chancellorship. She is the first woman selected to lead the institution in its 142-year history. Outside the University, she sits on the Innovation Board of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, and serves as co-chair of the Prime Minister’s Science Advisory Committee Working Party on Reducing Social and Psychological Morbidity during Adolescence.

University Announcement: Professor Harlene Hayne to lead Otago and becomes first woman Vice-Chancellor of New Zealand’s first university. Link

Channel 9 (now Ch39) February 10, 2011 – 7:21pm
Prof Harlene Hayne is both excited and passionate about the prospect of her new role as Vice-Chancellor. She talks candidly about her hopes and aspirations for the future. Video

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Anonymous
February 11, 2014 at 5:14 pm
Ask Harlene about senior managers from University Union getting tickets/trips to All Blacks tests and whether or not Frucor still makes loyalty payments.

Anonymous
February 15, 2014 at 11:57 am
Ask Harlene, 15/2/2014 (this will be a weekly feature)
How many staff are being made redundant from Marketing and Communications? What are the proposed retrenchments in the current year? Have any staff been threatened with termination for non-performance on medical grounds?

Anonymous
February 16, 2014 at 6:53 pm
Ask Harlene, 16/2/2014
Do you approve?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152222730813139

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2014 Orientation Hyde Street Fire. Video by Critic – Te Arohi 15.2.14
[screenshots by whatifdunedin]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: Harlene Hayne with longer hair… re-imaged by whatifdunedin

Otago Museum: H D Skinner Annex + returning exhibition!

### ODT Online Sat, 4 Jan 2014
Museum to keep annex open all year
By John Gibb
Otago Museum is planning to keep its recently redeveloped H D Skinner Annex open to the public throughout the year, to allow increased community use. The recent ‘Heritage Lost and Found: Our Changing Cityscape‘ exhibition, displayed in the Postmaster Gallery at the annex, had been “very well received” by the community. This show, which was developed with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, would now be reinstalled, and, in response to “public demand”, would return to public display from March. Read more

● Otago Museum H D Skinner Annex (building background and facilities)

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Comment at ODT Online:

Lost and found
Submitted by ej kerr on Sat, 04/01/2014 – 11:03am.

The significance of the recently closed exhibition for local residents and city visitors was perhaps, at the time, under-appreciated by the exhibiting parties. Dunedin City has formerly lacked such an insightful, rational and easily grasped interactive exhibition on the historical layers of the built environment – signposting the form and change to our cultural heritage landscape and urban context, for better or worse since early days.

This is a planned city (thank you, surveyor Charles Kettle) – we should always honour Dunedin’s uniqueness and intricate textures representatively and graphically; know the ‘before and afters’, the losses, additions and discoveries; be able to quickly recount how the cityscape has evolved, with just these type visual aids and new evolving IT. ‘Heritage Lost and Found’ exactly captures the spirit of where we are!

It’s great news the exhibition is set to continue – in a broader sense, the exhibition is something to build on and develop into the future as a permanent visitor display worthy of any sensitive location for public education. It can take special refreshes and add-ons as research into the merits and quirks of the architecture (our collective legacy) continues through the work of New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Dunedin City Council, Otago Museum, related city archives and collections, archaeologists, building owners, researchers, and professional architectural historians of the calibre of Peter Entwisle and David Murray. The combined effort, its coordination, contains so much power, potential and publishing opportunity. Boggles the mind, then there’s the overwhelming ‘pasture’ for design excellence to cover the brief…
[ends]

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Former Dunedin North Post Office before work started, photo by Benchill via Wikimedia Commons. (below) Proposed building redevelopment rendered by McCoy and Wixon Architects, 2012.

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Links to earlier stories copied from another thread:

● ODT 11.7.13 Museum annex set for opening [after delays]
The $1.6 million redevelopment of the former Dunedin North post office as an Otago Museum exhibition area is nearing completion, and the first display is expected to open next month. Titled ‘Heritage Lost and Found: Our Changing Cityscape’, the first exhibition to be displayed at the annexe was developed in partnership with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. The display would showcase “important aspects of Dunedin’s built heritage that have been demolished or redeveloped”.

● ODT 7.7.13 Work near end on old Post Office
● ODT 18.5.13 Museum’s ‘old post office’ annex nearly ready

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image – opening graphic, view from Museum reserve by Whatifdunedin

A museum. Laying poor management, bullying, and much more, to rest.

First, we received a very fair assessment:

ODT 2.9.13 Peter Entwisle – Art Beat, Opinion (page 9)

And now, this week’s tidy and brave acknowledgement:

ODT 25.9.13 Letter to the editor (page 17)

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Ommmmmmmmmm.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr | What if? Dunedin… A blog about the social and built environment at Dunedin.

Dunedin community v government-led centralisation

Local farm animals marooned on a specially constructed grassy knoll for want of truth, no bungy cord was available today as an alternative solution.

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### ODT Online Thu, 12 Sep 2013
Grilling likely for Key
By Dene Mackenzie
Prime Minister John Key can expect to face tough questions about the southern economy and the planned job cuts at Invermay when he visits Dunedin today. Mr Key is in the city to present awards at the Otago Daily Times Class Act function. Before Class Act, Mr Key will address an Otago Chamber of Commerce-organised function at which Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull expects to be seated next to the prime minister. Asked whether he would raise the issue of AgResearch’s restructuring of Invermay, Mr Cull said: ”Too bloody right. It would be remiss of me not to take the opportunity”.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image via fanpop.com

Stadium: Accountability, paper trail leads unavoidably to NEWS

Stadium under construction [photo via espnscrum.com]

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Comments received.

Bev Butler
Submitted on 2013/07/30 at 2:25 pm

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8981153/Phone-records-given-to-inquiry
Parliament’s speaker, David Carter:
“I view any actions that may put at risk journalists’ ability to report very seriously.”

Both Sir Eion Edgar and Sir Julian Smith have some explaining to do as to their “actions” in preventing the reporting of the information contained in the press release below which one of the ODT reporters contacted me about on 3 July 2013, asked me questions, then nothing being published in the ODT.

PRESS RELEASE
“Philanthropist” reneges on promised $1m donation
Full independent enquiry sought

The deceptions surrounding the Forsyth Barr Stadium continue to be revealed by official documents released on 11 June 2013.

The public, on many occasions raised doubts that the promises of private funding for construction of the stadium, had been met, but were assured by Mr Malcolm Farry, Chair of the Carisbrook Stadium Trust as reported in NBR and ODT 2007 that in fact several substantial donations had been promised. Indeed he went so far to tell the public that he had promises of three individual donations of $1 million each to be put to the costs of construction. Sir Eion Edgar also confirmed in DScene in 2009 that he would be making a donation of $1m.

That, as has now been revealed officially, was untrue.

It was also untrue as Mr Farry claimed when leading the project, that advance ticket or product sales revenue could be counted as construction capital. This was nothing other, as many ratepayers pointed out, simply advance operational revenue which could not be charged in the future. While Mr Farry denied this, the PricewaterhouseCoopers investigation found that there was little or no capital raised from ‘private funding’ for construction.

The relevance of this should not be lost when the evidence supplied to the High Court in Christchurch by the Carisbrook Stadium Trust through the DCC also stated that substantial private donations had been made for construction. At the time of the Stop The Stadium court case in April 2009, Mr Farry had stated publicly that more than $30m of the required $45m had already been contracted in private funding for construction of the stadium. It appears that evidence in the High Court case was also not truthful.

The role played by Forsyth Barr and its Chair, Sir Eion Edgar also come directly under a brighter spotlight from the release of the documentation. Sir Eion Edgar promised a substantial donation of $1m as reported in DScene 2009, but again this has proven not to be true. But this lack of philanthropy also extended to an obscuring of the facts surrounding the naming rights of the stadium. Despite Sir Eion Edgar claiming in the National Business Review (29/01/09) that a “substantial cheque” had been written for these rights, and The Marketing Bureau commissioned by the CST reporting to council the naming rights were worth $10m, the fact was that instead the stadium was named after his company for a period of two and a half years before any revenue was received. It has already been reported in the media that the naming rights were no more than $5m. An upfront substantial sum in advance reported in PwC peer reviews was somehow altered to a much lesser sum in monthly arrears payments which didn’t begin until late 2011.

Sir Edgar also had a significant role as President in his connections with the Otago Rugby Football Union when a fundraising function for the ORFU in August 2011 at the new Forsyth Barr Stadium defaulted in its payments to the Dunedin City Council leaving ratepayers to pick up the tab for booze, food, hireage and cleaning while the ORFU pocketed the gross income less a substantial organisational fee paid to the wife of the Deputy Chair of the ORFU, Laurie Mains.

While the PwC investigation was not intended to be a forensic audit of all financial matters surrounding the stadium, sufficient grounds now exist for such a full independent investigation to be carried out, and it is difficult to see just why this should be resisted unless some have got matters to try and continue to conceal. Doubts have also been expressed over the laxity of the billing and payment processes whereby blanket monthly CST accounts with no detail were passed for payment by the then CEO of the Dunedin City Council, Jim Harland, and there remains uncertainty over the validity of many of the expenses and other monies claimed for and paid by the ratepayers of the City.

[Response 1]

Elizabeth
Submitted on 2013/07/30 at 2:46 pm

Bev, quite apart from the content of the Press Release, are you saying the ODT journalist who contacted you about the release was lined up to do a story based on the content of the press release? Or that the editorial team did not support the reporter and canned the story as filed? Or for the newspaper’s own reasons there was never a story?! In other words, something of a spying mission took place?

Media can choose whether or not to cite the content of press releases in whole or in part.

Should a newspaper decline to reference a press release in its general news coverage, surely that leaves the writers of the release free to pay for an advertising statement. This is exactly what has been required with The Press in Christchurch over the fight to restore the Christ Church Cathedral – paid advertising by Cathedral advocates tied to education of the Press editor underlining the editorial bias which has run to the benefit of the Bishop and the CPT. We consider The Press’s stance deliberate to force use of paid advertising. The Press has softened since being SPOKEN TO.

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[Response 2]

Russell Garbutt
Submitted on 2013/07/30 at 8:25 pm

Bev’s post needs as wide a circulation as possible and I would urge any readers to pass on the URL of this post to as many of their friends as possible, but it is as sure as God made little green apples, that the ODT will neither investigate nor publish anything that is detrimental to the interests of those that have certain influence and connections. I wonder if Sir Julian would be willing to show his phone records? Particularly those from the Central Otago region?

All of the material that Bev mentions regarding the naming rights is backed up by documentation – in fact so much of what Bev is talking about is now being played out in National politics with the Henry inquiry and Vance’s phone records. The story has to be dragged out before it is grudgingly admitted that a great wrong was done. And even then the perpetrators can’t get their story straight.

This is what I mean by accountability in many ways. Many have claimed that deceit, lies and obfuscation were just part of the normal business around the CST, DCC, ORFU and associated parties and it has also been suggested that this culture of deceit and lies extended to the High Court. Who am I to argue that this was not the case? But the same people’s names turn up time and time again. Reported are Farry, who continues to harangue from the side-lines, Edgar promising much and apparently confused between what is a donation and what is part of a payment for a sweetheart deal with the organisation of which he was part, or Harland, in the middle authorising payments on behalf of the ratepayers to the CST – a private Trust that remains a closed window.

And who is going to push for exposure of all the facts? We should be forever grateful for Bev’s assiduous work in prying out the necessary documentation and proof of what many have alleged for years. I can only hope that Bev Butler is, within the near future, able to ensure that any serious wrong-doing by those connected with the greatest waste of ratepayer funds, is put forward in a high profile way.

And if it can be shown in a separate jurisdiction that the allegations are well-founded – and I’m sure it can by the documentation that exists in private and on public record, then hopefully these people will be made accountable. But I’m not holding my breath.

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[Response 3]

Bev Butler
Submitted on 2013/07/30 at 10:11 pm

Elizabeth, to now answer your questions – just briefly for now.
“The Edgar Story” was first published on Stuff News on Wednesday 3 July 2013. About an hour later the story was “pulled”.
Rarely does a story get “pulled” – it is generally due to major factual errors or a threat of defamation. As I know the information was correct then I assumed the latter.
I wrote to Fairfax management then emailed Forsyth Barr/Edgar’s lawyers. Two days later the story was published in The Mirror – a Central Otago Fairfax publication.
Interestingly, also on Wednesday 3 July an ODT reporter contacted me, questioning me about the Stuff News item. The reporter wanted to know who else I had sent the press release to. At the time I thought this was unusual – what did that have to do with reporting the news? I suspected that someone was wanting to do damage control behind the scenes. A week later I then heard from a good source that this was the case.
What really concerns me, apart from the serious issues in the press release, is the behind-the-scenes manipulation of ‘freedom of the press’. Dunedin citizens are no longer able to rely on the local media for local news. The damage done by this behind-the-scenes manipulation is dangerous. How this can be allowed to happen in a democratic society should be a concern for all in Dunedin. I don’t blame the reporter as he/she would have been instructed to question me.

[ends]

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Related Posts and Comments:
18.7.13 ODT won’t touch Fairfax story
3.7.13 [Pulled!] Call for Dunedin stadium cash
24.12.12 A Christmas Tale
7.6.12 Stadium: Forsyth Barr naming rights
6.7.09 Eion Edgar on ‘stadium haters’

ODT Online:
11.5.12 $100m hotel for Dunedin waterfront [Edgar support]
11.5.12 Harbour hotel proposed for Dunedin

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Architecture + Women • New Zealand

Updated post 26.10.14 at 6:57 p.m.
The following information is reproduced in the public interest.

Architectural Theory Review, 17:2-3, 280-298

█ LIMITED VISIBILITY – Portraits of Women Architects (PDF, 721 KB)
By Sarah Treadwell & Nicole Allan

Version of record first published: 08 Feb 2013

This paper considers the visibility of women architects across three New Zealand sites: the institutional architecture journal, the national architecture award system and a local website that allows for self-representation. The website, Architecture + Women, was set up in 2011 in anticipation of an exhibition of the work of New Zealand women architects planned for 2013 as an anniversary of an earlier event, ‘‘Constructive Agenda’’, held in 1993. The website accumulates images of women in New Zealand who identify as architects. The paper considers the portrayal of women architects in each of the three sites, juxtaposing a sociological viewpoint with the biographical, seen as distinct yet overlapping modes of representation. Five portraits from the website are selected for detailed discussion as they reflect upon representations of femininity, colonial encounters, nature and the limits of the discipline—issues that are persistent for women architects in New Zealand.

To cite this article:
Sarah Treadwell & Nicole Allan (2012): Limited Visibility: Portraits of Women Architects, Architectural Theory Review, 17:2-3, 280-298

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Architectural Theory Review, founded at the University of Sydney in 1996, and now in its eighteenth year, is the pre-eminent journal of architectural theory in the Australasian region. Now published by Taylor and Francis in print and online, the journal is an international forum for generating, exchanging and reflecting on theory in and of architecture. All texts are subject to a rigorous process of blind peer review.

Sarah Treadwell is Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Planning (National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries), University of Auckland. Sarah’s research investigates the representation of architecture in colonial and contemporary images. Motels, gender and volcanic conditions of ground are also subjects of interest. Sarah has published in various books and journals including Architectural Theory Review, Architectural Design, Space and Culture, and Interstices. Her book Revisiting Rangiatea was the outcome of participation in the Gordon H Brown Lecture Series in 2008. Professional association: NZIA

Nicole Allan is an Architectural Graduate Practicing. Nicole works in the Christchurch Studio of Warren and Mahoney architects.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Science funding, National be praised

### ODT Online Tue, 11 May 2010
$321m science boost announced
Research, science and technology will be a major recipient of funding with the Government pumping $321 million into the sector in next week’s budget. Prime Minister John Key announced today the funds have been allocated for new initiatives over the next four years, of which $225m is new funding and $96m is reprioritised.

“The budget will focus squarely on building faster and sustainable economic growth – it’s the only way we can create the jobs, higher incomes and the better living standards New Zealanders deserve,” Mr Key says. “Research, science and technology will help us achieve that goal.” NZPA
Read more

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### tvnz.co.nz 8:16AM Tue May 11, 2010
Big spend on research, science and technology
Source: ONE News/NZPA
Bright sparks are getting a helping hand from the government in one of its biggest spending pledges. Nine days out from Finance Minister Bill English delivering his second Budget, he has revealed the government will pump $321 million into research, science and technology. The government says a large chunk of that will help medium and large businesses to grow.
Read more + Video

Post by Elizabeth Kerr

Energy Roof Perugia, Italy

Eco Factor: Self-sufficient structure generates solar and wind energy.

### http://www.designboom.com 15 January 2010
Coop Himmelb(l)au Energy Roof in Italy
By ridhika db
Wolf D. Prix, design principal and CEO of Coop Himmelb(l)au presented the design for the ‘Energy Roof’ in Perugia, Italy, today.

Energy Roof is part of a research project for the University of Perugia called, “Walking through the history”. The roof serves as canopy along Via Mazzini in the centre of Perugia and at the same time creates the entry point to the archaeological underground passage leading through the history of Perugia.

The architect developed the design of the roof with the goal to generate energy for the city. While the orientation of the west wing is optimised in relation to solar radiation, the east wing captures wind. The roof consists of three layers: the energy generating top layer, the structural layer in the middle and a layer on the bottom as a combination of laminated glazing and translucent pneumatic cushions.

The top layer includes transparent photovoltaic cells to generate electricity and shade the sun. The orientation of the individual cells is generated and optimised by a computer-driven scripting programme. Furthermore five wind turbines placed inside the structural layer are generating additional energy. Both the roof and the underground passage are energy self-sufficient.
Link plus photos

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The new paradigmatic design of the Energy Roof creates a distinctive and highly recognisable icon for the city and a statement for aesthetic sustainability corresponding with the ancient buildings of Via Mazzini. -David K.
Read more at plusmood.com

So, we’re not getting a high-tech eco roof at Dunedin’s stadium?

Post by Elizabeth Kerr

New Zealand’s plan (bigger than a ball chase)

The alliance, proposed by Prime Minister John Key at the United Nations General Assembly in September, has been heavily promoted by New Zealand as an initiative that brings developed and developing countries together on reducing emissions from live-stock, cropping and rice production.

Copenhagen Summit 2009

### nzheraldco.nz 10:05 AM Thursday Dec 17, 2009
Govt puts $45m into emissions plan
-NZPA With Eloise Gibson
New Zealand will contribute $45 million to the Global Research Alliance on agriculture greenhouse gases following the announcement that at least 19 countries will sign up to the initiative. Associate Climate Change Issues Minister Tim Groser and Agriculture Minister David Carter announced the contribution yesterday in Copenhagen, where ministers from 19 countries joined New Zealand’s plan to bring together public and private researchers from some of the world’s largest economies.
Read more

RNZ News Link Foundation members of the alliance will meet in New Zealand early next year to establish working groups and set priorities.

Post by Elizabeth Kerr

The Chronicles of Yarnia

With apologies to CS Lewis, the thread formerly known as “What else! Future options for Dunedin include…”.

Or, How We Ascend/Descend (Your Choice) Into Mud And Cloud Data, Again.

In the (slight but positive) delay to launch duned.in, the multi-author blog Paul is working to develop, I’m starting this new thread – it’s a BRAINSTORMER looking-forward place for your ideas and comments.

What if? threads will flow into the new duned.in so nothing’s lost. Time to ‘generate’. I’ve copied over comments received at High Street Cable Car to start things off. Away we go.

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Peter November 25, 2009 at 11:22 am

Is the High St cable car option the only other one available if the upper Stuart St option is not viable? Isn’t it possible to run a rail car of some description – somewhere flat – like up to the North End, past the uni and Botanical Gardens to, say, the bottom of Baldwin St or out to South Dunedin / St Clair? It strikes me that the cost of going uphill makes the project more prohibitive because of health and safety issues and engineering difficulties. I’m no expert or authority on this. Just a curious citizen.
Whatever happens we need a railcar system that is practical and cheap for both city commuters and tourists. The Christchurch tram system is expensive to run, and to buy tickets for, and just seems to do a little meander around a relatively small area for the tourists. You may as well walk. There’s something kind of fake about it too.
For those real visionaries who are promoting this project – as opposed to the ’stadium visionaries’ – I don’t fancy the chances of anything happening soon or at least for many many years. (We know why, don’t we). I wouldn’t feel encouraged, but nevertheless good on them for persisting. Call me cynical, but the council’s response seems a nice way for gently letting people down and not completely dashing their hopes. If I was a cunning politician I would give such a sop to a sincere and dedicated group who are seen to be promoting something that is beneficial for ALL the people of Dunedin. The city kitty, unfortunately, has already been plundered – and the council knows it.

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Phil [Cole] November 25, 2009 at 8:57 pm

I have to agree with you there, Peter. I think the idea of a cable car or tram system is great. And I congratulate Richard and the team for their work to date. Bill Campbell must be as pleased as. I’m not convinced about the route, however. Ok, it’s historical. So maybe it will mean something to the people who live in the area. But is that the target audience? No, I don’t think it is. The market, if not for commuters, is the tourist market. And the history of a tram route means absolutely nothing to them. I just wonder, when they get to the top of High Street, what are they going to do? What are they going to spend their tourist dollars on during the 24 hours they have in Dunedin, when they are spending 2 or 3 of those hours in Mornington? And, to be fair, the view on the way up is not going to make it onto a lot of video cameras to show back home.

Brilliant idea, and I don’t want this to appear as a brickbat. I do question that we have the best location for the market we’re hoping to attract. Stuart Street would have been ideal, down to the Railway Station, through the CBD, or a route to the beach. But no one will get past Don I suspect.

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Elizabeth November 25, 2009 at 10:11 pm

I diverged off the Dunedin Cable Car organising group before it formed the charitable trust to do further investigation. A very nice group all up.

I hesitated at the time to take on another trusteeship due to workload and priorities – but also, as discussed with the group members, I’m interested in contemporary forms of transit, design and engineering, mobility access (the accessible journey) – and yes, BEST future market(s)… they being on the “flat”, and via route(s) looped, as I see it.

I can’t live in museums. San Francisco is a great experience. Christchurch trams are not. What can Dunedin do differently with new forms of public transport into the future, utilising the city’s great engineering base!!?? Remains one of my deepest interests.

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Richard November 26, 2009 at 8:22 am

Now that’s the line of thinking, I applaud. One in which I am trysting with ‘Pukeko’ at ODT Online. His interest is an aviation musuem on lines (planes?) that have little connection with Dunedin.

I’ll come back and develop my thoughts on cable cars, trams et al when I get some time. The sort of things that form part of what Dr. Rodney Wilson sees as making Dunedin “a heritage city”.

“Big thinking does not happen in small spaces.”

We need a new thread, EK?

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Calvin Oaten November 26, 2009 at 9:47 am

I can’t believe that anyone genuinely thinks that a cable car would fit into the modern transport modes of this city. On the basis of economics, the hopeless task of integration and so called novelty factor, it wouldn’t get past first base. Move on, get over it. Look to the future, not the past. Think outside the square, and outside current traffic ways. For a similar amount of expenditure a gondola from Bethunes Gully up to Mount Cargill would give an experience to die for. The trip would be memorable, the views from the top are 180 degrees, and the overview of Dunedin total. Take a trip up by road and see if I am not right. But hey! don’t forget, the stadium has put paid to any of these dreams.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr