Browsing: carousel
Ashburton mayoral candidate Jeff Ryan doorsteps the finance minister asking for road user charges to stay in the region – and gets firmly turned down. Nicola Willis says the government needs to money for new state highways. To add insult to injury he gets flak from his own townmates as well. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” says Ryan.
Tyre-to-tyre recycling is still very much the exception rather than the rule. However, innovative technologies do exist. The EU-funded BlackCycle project established a full circular value chain from collection to tyre production. Jean-Michel Douarre, BlackCycle Consortium Director and research programme leader on sustainable raw materials at Michelin, talked with WMW about the project’s outcome, the future of tyre recycling and how 100 percent sustainability is possible.
Hamilton Council has plans to introduce a bylaw with $20K fines for sleeping on park benches but it’s OK to sleep on the grass alongside. Funny, if it wasn’t so tragic for the homeless. Whakatane district councillors question why cemeteries, public toilets, animal control, liquor licenses and consents are not considered core services for councils in the Government (Systems Improvement) Amendment bill. Minister Simon Watts says the government is “refocusing” councils to prioritise essential services first, rather than nice-to-haves”. So much for toilets and cemeteries.
While momentum for enterprise AI is building in Australia and New Zealand, businesses are increasingly relying on external experts to address skills shortages and develop scalable AI infrastructure. Dell Tech and NVIDIA commissioned a comprehensive analysis on AI adoption by enterprises, with specific insights for Australia and New Zealand. The full report outlines how organisations can overcome adoption challenges and includes trends in enterprise AI, how to drive AI, GenAI and machine learning adoption or see reports on home pages.
Life sciences, or biology as many older readers know it, is crucial for advancement in medicine and agriculture. It is the study of living organisms, their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution. Capital expenditures grew 13 percent a year from 2022 to 2024 as biopharma and medtech firms committed billions of dollars to expand production capacity and improve supply chain resilience. But capital alone doesn’t drive outcomes and McKinsey outlines what traditions need to be broken.
Nothing is surer than the fact the AVs are coming, like it or not. So says Russell King in an article on AVs and how cities will remain sustainable. The nightmare scenario is that we privately owned vehicles with privately owned AVs, inducing demand for more car use and creating more congestion in our cities. There is a way to coexist if we get the planning right.
Managers already use generative AI tools more than anyone else, and it’s boosting confidence in their ability to lead. But what makes for a good AI coach – versus one that may lead you astray? From spotting the difference between an evidence-based AI coach and one that just says yes, to leveraging conversational AI to practice tricky conversations before they happen, Culture Amp has put together insights to help you proceed with confidence.
NZX listed Property for Industry Ltd has delivered a strong result for the 12 months ended 30 June, posting a $106.5 million after-tax profit on its $2.17 billion portfolio. It reflects the company’s “strategic positioning and the resilience of its core industrial portfolio,” says Chief Executive Officer, Simon Woodhams.” With the valuation cycle turning and floating interest rates now nearing projected cycle-lows, the operating environment has become increasingly supportive.” Read the Annual Report
This research report provides guidance to road agencies on potential approaches for implementing Automatic Crash Notification (ACN) systems, such as eCall, in Australia and New Zealand. Several decisions will influence the scale and effectiveness of ACN deployment, with each pathway differing in government involvement, costs, and impacts on ACN uptake. The report outlines factors affecting large-scale deployment, including the roles of key stakeholders, technological considerations, and implementation pathways
Ducan Cotterill looks into the proposed new income threshold for unjustified dismissal claims and what this will mean in practice. There are also reports on the proposed reinstatement of pay deductions for partial strike action and the call for submissions on the full suite of employment law changes under consideration.
New Focus on Psychosocial Risk: Moving from Awareness to Action in NZ Workplaces. As awareness of psychosocial risks is growing, businesses are asking: what can we do now? A new approach centres on turning current guidance into real-world action through better risk assessment, leadership engagement, and meaningful controls that go beyond surface-level fixes.
When first invented, the popular soda 7Up had a secret “mood-enhancing” ingredient — lithium. Though this was swiftly banned by the FDA, the metal has regained prominence as a drug for bipolar disorder. A new study reported in Science Adviser suggests yet another use for lithium as a treatment for Alzheimers.
Large language models (LLM) usage is increasing across all domains and as AI technology has advanced and authors who use it have become more proficient at covering their tracks, spotting its handiwork also has become harder. One study from 2023 found, for example, that researchers who read medical journal abstracts generated by ChatGPT failed to identify one-third of them as written by machine.
More than 18 million workdays were lost to injury last year in New Zealand. The longer someone is off work, the harder it is for them to return. After just 70 days, the likelihood of returning drops to 35 percent. ACC has linked up with CHASNZ and is seeking organisations to participate in a six-month Recovery at Work trial to test a new approach to rehabilitation. Register for the webinar on Wednesday 20 August.
New Zealand’s civil construction sector is stressed with just 16 percent of businesses expecting a positive business outlook, according to The 2025 Construction Industry Survey. The annual report is developed by Teletrac Navman and Civil Contractors New Zealand to provide an in-depth look on the current state of New Zealand’s civil construction sector.
The smart talk on the cocktail circuit is all about US$6.7 trillion of worldwide investment McKinsey analysis indicates data centres will need by 2030 to keep pace with the demand for compute power — around 70 percent of which will come from AI workloads. What is a Data Centre and what does it do. McKinsey equips you with the knowledge to carry off your contribution to the conversation with aplomb.
Is there anyone out there who does not feel at least a little dread reading a question like this: In a triangle △ABC, AB = 86, and AC = 97. A circle centred at point A with radius AB intersects side BC at points B and X. Moreover, BX and CX have integer lengths. What is the length of BC? Interesting fact: Cats sleep for most of their lives.
Tomatoes and potatoes don’t only sound similar and taste good together. They’re the closest of relatives, even though one has edible fruit and the other tubers. Turns out they’ve got an even stronger connection than scientists thought, says Science reporter Erik Stokstad
