Octopus takes Camera

While reading one of my old home-town papers on-line I came across this article and video.
Its about an Octopus that took a divers camera for a joy ride and occurred in the area where I learned to dive... many many years ago ;)

Although I didn't have any experiences with an Octopus I did get to experience both playing dolphins and seals on 2 different occasions in that same area. Those in themselves were freaky but amazing experiences for a new diver. This is especially true for the day the Seals came and played... They used the kelp to hide in and came rushing out at us when we least expected it only to swim around us a couple of times and then go in and hide again. They did this all afternoon... you can bet that I got hooked on the diving thing :) The Dolphins on the other hand were just show-off's they swam around us hopping in and out of the water making us realise just whose element the water was... a humbling experience.

You can read the article concerning the Octopus ... here... in the Dominion Post.

The octopus escapades can be seen in the video bellow

More Kiwi

A little test to see how much "kiwi" you understand ;)

I'm a New Zealander

Couger warning

an oldie but a goodie

I'm pleased I use a PC

Kiwi Music XV

Todays group is called "The Mint Chicks"

Cloudy with a chance of...Fish??

Those of you out there that have kids..or are just big kids yourselves have probably seen the animated film "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs" where a wacky guy invents a machine that causes it to rain pre-determined food stuffs.
Well the town of Lajamanu in the Australian Northern Territories must be wondering if such a machine really exists and if so is the case...why on earth did they wish for fish?? The town.. situated 100s of kilometres away from any lake or coast had an unexpected downpour..containing... you guessed it...fish.
On two occasions within the space of a week the inhabitants experienced live fish falling from the sky.

One local resident exclaimed; "I haven't lost my marbles. Thank god it didn't rain crocodiles"

Weather experts say a tornado from a nearby region may have been the culprit although no such tornado was reported near Lajamanu. An updraft containing both water and its inhabitants can theoretically reach heights of 60,000 or 70,000 feet (18 - 21km).

  Photo: Newsbreaker

Kiwi Music XIV

Today's group is  "Nesian Mystik"

Sirocco- Spokesbird of New Zealand.

Sirocco- one of 124 Kakapo (a large flightless parrot) and now spokesbird for conservation in NZ.

You can find out more about our conservative star ...here... where you also become one of his 5000 fans on facebook. Or you can check him out in the videos bellow.



To see what all the fuss is all about you can see the film that made him famous bellow.
Here I am trying to convince people that we Kiwis do think of other things... and this shows up..hmmm..
Though He will have to explain his sexual preferences himself...

Yippie!!!!

Kiwi Music XIII

Today's group is called "The Feelers"
Oh and yeah...it's another rugby video..I know... but hey... quess what.. I like rugby..

A New Rugby VS Soccer (Football)

Naughty Bits

Something that has always amazed me is the nicknames which are used when referring to people's "naughty bits"

Take the Swedes and their use of the word "mus" (mouse) which they use when talking about the female naughty bit... Why??? does it squeek?.. is it partial to cheese?

Some analogies I can understand... others... I just don't have the foggiest... Fanny.. what's with that?.. why not Ethel, Victoria?

If there is a Swede out there that could explain to me the origin to the use of "mus" .. I'm all ears... no pun intended.

Firefox Essentials I - Coral IE Tab

With this blog series I thought I would share with you all which addons I feel are essential for Firefox.

Why choose Fire fox at all?
Apart from the fact that it is competitor to Microsoft Explorer there are other benefits as well. It is more stable, less prone to attacks and more flexible than Explorer.

Unfortunately there are some websites that still have problems with Firefox... most commonly these problems appear when trying to watch a video clip. The addon bellow provides a solution to that problem. What it does is reopen the "tab" or site you are trying to see in Explorer still using Firefox as a shell. This means you don't have to open Explorer, find the page, read it, close Explorer and open Firefox again.

All That is required is that you push the button on the left (which appears in your navigation toolbar) and hey-presto the site is now in explorer and you don't notice the difference.

This addon can be found ...here...

The next installment.... getting rid of all those ads... see you then..

Kiwi Music XII

Today's group is called "Salmonella Dub"
The video bellow is of their song "Push on thru" from 2006

Is That Seat Taken?

Winter Olympics... a kiwi perspective

This cartoon is from Tom Scott, a New Zealand cartoonist..
It just happens that I enjoy watching curling... but it is a pretty accurate description of the game..

You ask... I Answer 1

New Zealand (Aotearoa)

Land Of The Long White Cloud

Is located in the south-western Pacific Ocean approx 2000km south-east of Australia.

 New Zealand has a total land area of 268,680 km² , being 1600km long.

The indigenous people are called Maori. Polynesian in origin, they arrived sometime around 1280 AD. 

The First European to discover NZ was Dutchman  Abel Tasman in 1642. Several of his crew were killed in an encounter with the Maori. It wasn't until 1769 that the Europeans returned in the form of Englishman James Cook, who mapped almost the whole coastline.

New Zealand became part of the British empire after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi the 6th February 1840 between the main tribes of NZ and the British. Discrepancies in the translations of both copies are to this day a major cause of dispute, mainly of landownership rights. This date has now become the day we celebrate our nation's birth.

1947 became New Zealand officially independent, although it had been self governing since 1856. New Zealand was in fact the first country in the world to give woman the vote (1893).

New Zealand's geographic isolation helped it create a unique fauna dominated by birds being free from mammals except for three species of bat until the arrival of the Maori people who brought with them, among other things, the pacific rat.

3 notable species are:
1: The Giant Moa; an Emu like bird that could grow to a height of 3,7m and weigh 230kg.(extinct)
2: Haast's Eagle; the largest eagle ever to exist weighing approx 10-15kg.(extinct)
3: The Kiwi, not the fruit but the bird after which we Kiwis call ourselves.

New Zealand's highest peak: Mount Cook/Aroaki: 3754m (Kebnekaise 2111m)

New Zealand's climate is described as mild.. with temperatures rarely falling bellow 0 °C or rising above 30 °C

Current population: 4,356,555
of which 78% European, 14.6% Maori, 9.2% Asian and 6.9% of Pacific peoples.

The official languages are: English, Maori and New Zealand sign-language.

Government: Parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy (British)
Welligton is the capital city while Auckland is the country's largest city

New Zealand's population of sheep have declined from 70 million in 1980 to 39 million 2008. New Zealand has 50% of the world lamb meat trade.

Main sport/religion: Rugby


Sorry but I can't be bothered writing anymore... for more facts you can read them ..here.. or in Swedish ...here..

Any more Questions you would like answers to? just ask and I will see what I can find out...

You ask... I Answer.

I have, as I said in the previous blog, had trouble finding something interesting to write about today...

I have had an idea of a way to solve this dilemma....

How about you, all my readers, if you have a question about something going on in the world, whatever the subject, that you are curious about, ask me, and I will spend a couple of days researching the subject and hopefully be able to come back to you with an answer.

I see this as a chance for both myself and hopefully you all to broaden our knowledge base... so we can develop and grow into well informed intellectuals.

So don't hesitate... drop me a line!!!!