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Did anyone do this? My mum sent me this.
Sorry this is a newspaper article,but couldn't resist posting a good news story Reefton Lotto millionaire plans special knees-up He spent the past two years struggling through winter with dicky knees in a cold two-bedroom house, the lack of mobility confining him to a life in front of the TV. But now Harry, a 71-year-old Reefton retiree, is planning to buy a new house and, if the public health system doesn't see him soon, he'll also buy two knee replacement operations. After much speculation around the South Island town, Harry has confirmed he won a $6.1 million share of the $30m Lotto Powerball jackpot two weeks ago. "I wish it happened 30 or 40 years ago," he told the Sunday Star-Times. But the West Coast multimillionaire, who wouldn't reveal his surname, doesn't have any grander plans beyond the house and knees except perhaps a new 4WD to replace his 1996 ute. Life hadn't been too easy for the man who worked in Auckland for 40 years before retiring to Reefton 12 years ago. He'd been on an invalid's benefit and as his knees deteriorated so did his quality of life. As he became less active he put on weight - lots of it and he could no longer buy clothes to fit. Then two months ago he had a small heart attack and took it as a warning to get his knees fixed so he could exercise more and improve his health. Now the future looks brighter, especially for his three adult children and two grand-daughters and for local charities, especially St John Ambulance, to which he plans to donate. And then there's his Jack Russell, Chelsea: "I might buy a new collar."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFs8TnUX9Fs I watched a documentary on these girls last night and what an inspiration they are on how to live life to the full despite their disablity. They and their parents and family are outstanding.
It grieves me and is beyond me this kind of abuse of a little child. How one adult could do this,let alone the number who did. All too familiar,sadly,in this country. 
Disturbing testimony heard at Nia Glassie trial A young witness in the Nia Glassie murder trial, who gave harrowing evidence of regular cruelty inflicted on the three year old, was warned by the alleged persecutors not to tell anyone what she had seen. This was revealed today when a lengthy video-taped interview with the child, whose identification is protected by law, was shown in the High Court at Rotorua. She was questioned by a specialist Child, Youth and Family officer on July 23 last year, the day after Nia was admitted to hospital in a coma. The footage was played to the jury – reduced from 12 members to 11 after a juror arrived late this morning and was discharged by Justice Judith Potter. Nia died on August 3 without regaining consciousness. The witness, who also testified of suffering physical abuse at the hands of the same group, said she was threatened with "a hiding" if she spoke to anybody about what happened in the house when Nia's mother was at work. "They hurt people and smashed them," the girl said. They were "Big Mikes" who she said was Michael Curtis, "Little Mikes" or Michael Pearson and Wiremu Curtis, whom she told the interviewer were then aged 20, 19 and 17. Oriwa Kemp, who the witness said was 16, punched Nia in the back of the head and kicked the toddler when she was watching television. "She says she doesn't like her," the child testified. The Curtis brothers are charged with Nia Glassie's murder, while Pearson, Kemp and Nia's mother Lisa Kuka face counts of manslaughter. Apart from Kuka, the other four are also being tried for wilful mistreatment and assault. The three men "smashed" Nia every day, the child witness said. "She was only three," she said. "Every time she sits down to watch TV they turn it off and throw her on the floor and drop her on her head," she said. "Every time she makes a mistake they just get her and do um, um, they do (pause) body slamming her." She told of seeing the Curtis brothers performing wrestling moves with Nia. They would hold her by the throat until she was "breathing hard," lie her down on a mattress and jump on her face and her stomach. The small victim would cry and would be bleeding from the nose. Although they saw the blood, the men "don't care. They keep on smashing her". Nia would be kicked to a wall leaving bumps on her head "like balls", the child told the interviewer. Michael Curtis would lift the pre-schooler by a leg and an arm until she touched the ceiling and then just let her drop. The witness also saw him punch the three-year-old in the stomach. "He was the worst wrestling with her." All three male accused stood watching and laughing as Nia was spun on the wire clothesline until she fell off and on another occasion put in the clothes dryer which was turned on high. "She goes round and round. Her head gets hot and she starts to bleed. We ran a bath for her to cool down." The men also put the toddler into piles of rubbish and told her there were cockroaches among it, the girl said. Two days before Nia was taken to hospital by an aunt, after she had lain in bed unable to wake up, the witness said she saw the Curtis brothers kicking her in the head. "After they did that, Nia went to sleep." When Kuka came home late that night, Nia could not tell her mother she was hurt "because she couldn't wake up". The witness, who has been kept in another room in the courthouse, will be cross-examined by defence lawyers tomorrow through closed circuit television. There will be no afternoon session because of the long weekend and the trial will resume on Tuesday. - NZPA
Tags: No Excuse Of Child Abuse
How proud to be Kiwi I watched the rowing when Mahe Drysdale was giving it his all inspite of being very sick with Beijing Belly. He definitely deserves a gold medal for bravery,at the end of his race he achieved a bronze medal,pipped very closely by two other teams. He is not offering any excuses for not winning the gold medal which was in his reach before he got sick. It emerged earlier in the day that Drysdale was receiving intravenous fluids in the lead up to the race to combat severe dehydration brought on by what is being called Beijing Belly. The three time world champion was sick before his semi final appearance but became even sicker later in the week. But that didn't stop him setting the pace through the midway stages of the race. With 250 metres to go he looked set to collect the first Kiwi gold but he was swallowed up by Olaf Tufte and Ondrej Synek in the dying stages. "It was an Olympic final and I guess I rowed myself to a standstill," he said. "It was tough to take bronze in the end. "I felt like I had it with even 250 to go and I just ran out of gas again." After the race Drysdale had to again receive medical treatment after practically collapsing on the dock but he would not allow his sickness to be used an excuse. "It's an Olympic final and you've got to be as good as you can," he said. "That was the best I had today and it wasn't good enough. "I'm not going to make an excuse for my illness. "I was sick but that's the Olympics you've got to perform on the day." and the rowing twins Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell, practically written off for months before the games have achieved gold. Way to go Kiwis.
Tags: Gutsyno Pun Intended
Tuesday, 15 July 2008 Police gear up to fight cyber crims New Zealand police are gearing up to fight increasingly clever cyber criminals. And computer users were warned against complacency following a High Court judge's decision to discharge a Whitianga teenager without conviction in Hamilton today. "It's a type of crime that will become more prolific as time goes on, and something New Zealand police are adapting to address, together with our global partners," police E-Crime Laboratory national manager Maarten Kleintjes said. "Electronic crime is not governed by traditional barriers such as borders or time delays," he said. "When you step in to the internet you step into a borderless environment which knows no boundaries." Mr Kleintjes said technology changed quickly and police staff had to be upskilled continuously to be effective. Police here needed to build up relationships with the various law enforcement agencies overseas. Mr Kleintjes said he had just got the green light to get a national cyber crime centre off the ground over the next 12 months. A key strategy would be to marry up the efforts of different agencies to avoid duplication. The prosecution of Owen Walker, 18, who has Aspergers Syndrome, was the first of its kind for New Zealand, he said. It was a first, too, for Dutch authorities who took part, along with United States law enforcement agencies. "The sentencing today brings a successful conclusion to months of intensive work by a multi-national, inter-agency investigation team," Waikato crime services manager Detective Inspector Peter Devoy said. "The operation would not have been a success without the close co-operation and our relationship with the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) has been enhanced by this case." Asked if any public backlash was expected after Mr Walker's discharge without conviction, Mr Devoy said it was a "very interesting, very unique case" which had attracted wide publicity overseas as well as in this country. "The sentence is a very considered sentence, comprehensively discussed in court today," he said. There was potential interest at this stage in putting Mr Walker's skills to use to fight crime, he said. The teenager had been frank and co-operative, explaining and showing police how to shutdown his unique botnet. "I would certainly like to think that the community will see it as a positive (bringing Walker in to help police tackle internet crime)," Mr Devoy said. Mr Kleintjes said the Whitianga youth had certainly put New Zealand on the world map. "It was a surprise to us, and the rest of the world, too." There were likely to be many more young people experimenting in cyber space but the danger was organised crime pulling them in to join criminal schemes such as fraud. But everybody on the internet left traces somewhere and illegal activity would be found out eventually, Mr Kleintjes said. - NZPA
It's not OK to hit someone. Ever! these are words to a TV ad campaign against violence,a TV presenter has fallen from grace because of the telling of his violence against a former partner where he broke her back in 4 places. My question is, Why isn't he in jail? One rule for celebrities and one rule for everyone else. It's not OK to hit someone. Here's what I think. If you assault a woman by kicking her on the ground until her back breaks, the question isn't whether you lose your job. The question is how long you spend in jail. Let's see. Man kicks woman on floor. Four broken vertebrae, four months in a wheelchair. Assault. Why don't we start with grievous bodily harm and work down? The reason Tony Veitch paid his ex- partner $170,000 was because it was a bargain. An absolute steal. His ex-partner's reasons to take the deal don't come into it. Yes, there are emotional complexities when someone you know and love assaults you. This is why wife- beaters (and child abusers) stay out of jail. This is why crimes by loved ones go unreported. Forgiveness, loyalty and shame work in mysterious ways. But violence is violence, assault is assault, regardless of the location. In the home, doesn't make it better. Handier, yes, but not better. In this case, kicking a woman on the floor and breaking her back is not made better by the fact it was your bedroom floor. The law applies in every room, in every suburb. That bedroom is a crime scene, and the payoff was a cover-up to pervert the course of justice. When I visualise this event, it makes me queasy. Imagine if there was a video of it. Do I need to spell it out again? Woman on floor. Meaning assault has already happened. Then, man kicking her in the back till back breaks. Of course, straight away, he's horrified. Regretful. Aren't they all? This is followed by negotiations about the story they will tell when, hours later, he takes her to hospital. Imagine it's in the street. Imagine if a guy kicks a woman he doesn't know, in the back, in the street. What would the justice system do? Even if the victim was unable or unwilling to talk about it, the justice system would hunt this guy down. Here's the question: should a violent criminal be able to buy his way out of prison? The fact the wifebeater, the bully, the criminal, is a popular celebrity should be irrelevant. This is how he can afford the hush money. But do we want one justice system for the rich and one for the poor? Do we want to live in a society where victims prefer to sidestep the justice system for money? Maybe money should be exacted on top of the justice system. Imagine the scale of damages she could sue for if this was America. A hundred grand wouldn't touch the sides. I can't believe his employers knew and did nothing. Talk about hollow men. Do they have no conscience, no sense of right and wrong? Could they not make the leap of imagination to wonder what they would feel if this woman was one of theirs? Once again, loyalty, and worse, commercial interests, twist what's right. Would they have turned a blind eye if the victim had been the celebrity instead? At his press conference he said he didn't want this to play out in public. Of course he didn't. Because then the truth would be known. The police would arrest him. Not wanting something to play out in public is why murderers hide bodies. If it plays out in public, you go to jail. The phrase suggests this incident was part of their private life. Something two adults could consent to. But this is not a victimless crime. This is not a man dressing up as a woman on Sunset Boulevard and soliciting. This is not Hugh Grant with Divine Brown. This is not the cast of Celebrity Treasure Island doing drugs. This is a vicious crime, a violent assault. If someone did this to a woman behind the counter of a dairy, we'd be outraged. Do celebrity criminals have some special level of sensitivity, whereby a press conference expressing remorse from a statement wipes the slate? Good grief. And really, would the press conference have been held if the media hadn't broken the story? The hush money is an admission of how vicious this attack was. This was a criminal act. The criminal should be brought to justice. As for his jobs, well, his shameless employers obviously didn't think it was a problem that he was a wife-beater. But I imagine crossing live might be a bit harder when he's in jail. taken from Stuff.co.nz, report on Tony Veitch case. The Veitch affair has put New Zealand's media in the full glare of the camera. Adam Dudding reports. Efforts by Tony Veitch and his employer The Radio Network (TRN) to manage the sports presenter's fall from grace have demonstrated the resources a media organisation can call into play when something goes wrong close to home. Yet at the same time, the mixed messages emerging from TVNZ suggest that Veitch's television employer is finding the task far more irksome.
not for everyone obviously iPhone 3G pricing announced 10:12AM Tuesday July 08, 2008
By Matt Greenop Vodafone this morning announced the pricing plans for iPhone 3G, which goes on sale after midnight on Thursday. Its website went down as Kiwis clamoured to get information on the new device. New Zealand will be the first territory to offer the second generation Apple phone for sale, as it is rolled out around the world on July 11. The phone will start at $199 for a two-year plan, with three different options getting progressively more expensive. A petition against the pricing of the iPhone 3G is already online here. (Be warned, some of the language in the petition comments will be offensive to some readers). To buy the iPhone outright will cost $979 for the 8G model, or $1129 for the 16GB. The iPhone 250MB plan means the biggest 'on account' price for the handset, and costs $80 per month. On this plan, there's 250MB of data, 120 minutes of talktime and 600 text messages. An 8G version will cost $549 and the 16GB version a hefty $699. The $130 per month iPhone 500MB option puts the 8GB at $449 and the 16MB at $599. It gives users 250 minutes of voice, 600 texts and 500MB of data. To get the iPhone 3G for the magic $199 price point that Apple boss Steve Jobs talked about when it was revealed at the company's Worldwide Development Conference, means forking out $250 per month. The iPhone 1GB plan obviously comes with a gigabyte of data, but ups the oncall minutes to 600 MB. The 600 outgoing SMS remains the same as other plans. The 8GB handset will cost $199 and the 16GB will cost $349. Overflow charges are 10 cents per megabyte for the 250MB and 500MB plans, and 3 cents on the already-expensive 1GB plan. Call minutes above plan limits will cost 69 cents on the 250MB plan, 55 cents on the middle plan and 53 cents on the 1GB plan. Extra texts are 20 cents across all plans. Despite some reports to the contrary, prepay users will be left out when it comes to using the iPhone 3G in New Zealand. iPhone-specific SIM cards will mean that only account holders will be able to use the device, and that it simply won't work on pre-pay, according to a Vodafone spokesperson. But other account users can use them by purchasing a full-price handset, and adding on of Vodafone's mobile broadband plans, which start from $29.95 for 200MB for the term of the existing plan. Three Vodafone stores will open at one minute past midnight on Friday - Queen Street (Auckland), Lambton Quay (Wellington) and Colombo Street in Christchurch. The phone will allow faster internet than its predecessor using Vodafone's 3G network, which the company says covers 63 per cent of New Zealanders. The first iPhone was not offered for sale in New Zealand, although there are estimated to be thousands of 'hacked' versions of the device already in use here.
TradeMe is New Zealand and Australia's equivalent of Ebay,strange things get auctioned sometimes,people's lives, now ~ a Soul ~ Man's soul sold to heck He may not believe in the afterlife but the soul of Wanganui man Walter Scott is going to Hell. heck Pizza that is. The company, famous for its edgy marketing campaigns, today bought the soul of the 24-year-old Wanganui storeman for $5001.00. heck Pizza's Head of Marketing Rachael Allison said if a person was game enough to sell their soul then it deserved a good home. "The soul belongs to Hell; there is simply no better place for it," she said. "We always strive to embrace the very personality that has made us loved by so many pizza eaters, and this is great. The idea of selling your soul fits well with our brand. It's what we're all about." The auction was pulled down late this morning after it received a staggering 32,000 hits and over 100 bids. Bidding was at $5000 before the auction was taken down. Mr Scott said the auction was started as a bit of a joke and he was not worried about the consequences. "Its not serious, I'm not religious or anything. The soul does not mean anything." Mr Scott had not made any preparations to buy his soul back should he regret the sale in the future. "I haven't put anything in there and hopefully I don't regret that and hopefully what happens to Bart doesn't happen to me." Mr Scott said he was not worried about the repercussions selling his soul might have on him in the afterlife. "No nothing at all. I'll worry about that in a few years. Another 50 years or so." Earlier he said he planned to buy a suit with the money as he had a reunion to attend this weekend.
Tags: Tradebuysellauction
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