HURRICANES v BRUMBIES (Mark Lawrence) These two sides have played 17 times with the Brumbies ahead by just one game with eight wins. Of the seven games against the Brumbies played in Wellington the Hurricanes have won four, lost...

What was the most radical thing you did as a teenager?I was 17 and freshly strung out by Bursary exams - that's year 13, youthful readers - when I left home to live in Italy.I had no grasp of the language, no concrete ideas as...

Warriors' playmaker will come head-to-head with veteran star Benji Marshall tonight. Win or lose, Shaun Johnson can learn a lot in tonight's match.The young Warrior will look across the pitch and see, in Benji Marshall, a player...

TV3 is taking a big hit with the departure of programming boss Kelly Martin next month and there is speculation she may turn up in a senior role at Television New Zealand.Martin - who buys TV3 programmes and decides when they are...

Peter Lyons reckons he has what it takes to be the best teacher south of Tokyo. A key rule of economics is that incentives shape human behaviour for better or worse. I am starting to like the idea of performance pay for teachers.I...

You can't just walk away from your funding obligations, said Peter Atkinson this week. And the government will no longer be allowed to shortchange families of people with disabilities who require respite care, thanks to Mr Atkinson...

The New Zealand dollar has already fallen over three weeks from over 82c to around 76c, mainly on the back of fears over Greece. But that may only be the start of its impact on us. If Greece ultimately departs from the Euro as its...

Teachers measure pupils' skills yet object to taxpayers measuring theirs. Once upon a time on a very cold night a very clever chap had a very bright idea. He was sitting in his little sod cottage, watching the kettle boiling on...

Fancy a pizza with a sausage-crammed crust, drizzled in mustard?If the answer's yes, then you're bang out of luck unless you've got a trip to Britain planned.Pizza Hut in the UK recently added a Hot Dog Stuffed Crust option to...

Comedy is a funny thing. No movie genre is more subjective. How much you get out of a comedy can be drastically affected by what kind of day you're having, who you see the movie with, which pants you're wearing and so on.From any...

1. Here's a four-minute preview of the probably unnecessary Spider-Man reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man . I dunno ... I can't decide ... okay, yep, you persuaded me, I'm going to go see it. But only because the always awesome

The eight-season veteran knows more about coaching than most but has a daunting All Black record to repeat. My All Black memory is focusing on 2003 - although colleagues kindly suggest it struggles to recall what happened yester...

I have long suspected that recycling is a farce. It was created by waste producers in response to criticism as an excuse to consume more - "don't worry - it's recyclable." A

The chief coroner, Judge Neil MacLean, has expressed the frustration of all coroners when their recommendations are not taken up by governments and their agencies. He would like to see the law make it mandatory upon authorities to...

Strange name for a lettuce ... "does it have a soporific effect on women?" wonders Caroline. Golf newbie tees off mates Colin writes: "It was my father-in-law's first time playing golf with his buddies... out they went, whacking...