No big bang as sci-fi comes close to a Best Picture Oscar, writes KYLIE KLEIN-NIXON.

BEN STRANG puts his case for a smoking ban on Wellington’s streets and in public places like toilets.

The Government is taking a new broom to health – and a multiplicity of small, local providers appears to conflict with its solutions. NewsWire explores smaller community services with an uncertain future.

Jackson’s latest is skilful blend of tearful and LOL moments.

Our REVIEWS of the biggest rock act of the year.

A YOUNG man goes in search of something other than testosterone.

‘We told you so!’ BONNIE TAI explains why it’s your bad to put off that trip to the dentist.

Forbidden love, fangs and frantic fans – the Twilight saga has it all. NewsWire’s BONNIE TAI offers her opinion on the growing trend.

Being bullied is not a life sentence, says TORY REGAN. Children need to know bullying will end, and be proud that they are different.

Drop the so-called “smacking” law, say most in street poll.

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Jim MacMillan worries about how social media affect journalists’ approaches to reporting, he tells REUBEN McDOUGALL.

A NewsWire street poll indicates an even split among voters.

After spending the last eight months in New Zealand, German journalism student Sabrina Dankel explains how she experienced Kiwi charm.

YOU are destroying the environment, you boorish fiend. You’re probably reading this on your hand-held, sitting in your idling Hummer, sipping your baby smoothie while reclining into your endangered Sumatran tiger seat covers. I bet you hate dolphins, too.
If for some reason you’re still reading, you might be feeling a little guilty right now, or [...]

I have almost always considered myself an atheist. I have never considered myself religious.

But, due to a story I’m writing, I spent the majority of this last glorious Sunday at a Mormon church.

Now I’m listening to Make Yourself (Incubus album about how you should think for yourself), trying to regain my scepticism. And my good sense.

HAS anyone else noticed the offensive number of infomercials increasingly creeping in to free-to-air TV?

Each time I see a pro-active ad featuring previous pizza-face-come-infomercial-sell-out Jessica Simpson with gal pals Jennifer Love Hewitt and Alyssa Milano, I want to stab myself in the eyes with a pen.

The year of the Ox. I am a Rat. It is definitely not the year of the rat, being the first year I have lived without one.

Ratman was my first love.

It was love at first sight, and I drove home from Palmerston North with him perched on my shoulder. I didn’t mind when he peed a little and it dribbled down my shoulder.

IT’S hard to make a really good friend.

I don’t mean just a really good friend, I’m talking about a really good friend, a soul mate, someone you just click with from day one, someone who you love and adore (on a platonic level).

I have spent, over the period of the last five years, an estimated $1500 on magazines.

I’d like to say I collect the Intellectual (Time or National Geographic); Glamorous (UK and French Vogue, Elle) or the Trendy (Oyster, Nylon) magazines…

It is safe to say the main culprits of my non-carbon-friendly trail are NW, OK! and Who.

I buy one every week, without fail.

ONCE upon a time I lived in Napier. I spent all of my most formative and important years there, basking in the mostly good weather and enjoying the ease at which the city could be traversed.

When I moved to Wellington early this year, I was unconvinced. It was cold, the supermarkets were all too far apart and I couldn’t find a copy of Running With Scissors.

Turns out I wasn’t looking properly (I found the book and decided not to buy it).

As my three-week break comes to an end, I am excitedly sorry (?) about returning to the city.

Rather than the usual dread which one affiliates with the end of a holiday, I am admittedly missing the city, but will remain nostalgic and loyal to my roots. Depending on who I’m talking to, I am both based in the city, and born in Raetihi.

Home: Ohakune, Central North Island. Home to the Giant Carrot, My beloved Mt Ruapehu, Swimming in Rivers, Family Hospitality.

HOW many days is a sane amount of time to have a song stuck in your head?

I don’t like the song, Womanizer. Heck, I don’t even like Britney Spears. But I do like Lily Allen, and whilst perusing her blog I found that she had done a cover of mentioned latest single.

I listened of course, all the more intrigued by the fact that Lily got in trouble with her record company for doing the cover and that the first link to youtube was blocked due to copyright issues.

HOLIDAY POST 1: By writing student Michelle Guest.

A story about wasted opportunities, bitter disappointment and one foolish journalism student. MIYUKI McGUFFIE’s encounter with a media celeb she wanted to impress.

ALEXANDRA JOHNSON writes about why she hates Christmas – and what might make it worthwhile for her and her children.

Some Kiwis may be disillusioned about MMP (according to National), but Germany is still happy with it, writes visiting German journalism student SABRINA DANKEL.

OPINION: Greens made little noise about climate change during the election campaign. Will they speak up when new coalition government tries to weaken emissions trading scheme, asks ANNE CORNISH.

We look behind the policy hype to find the real people.

Two viewpoints for those wondering whether voting is worthwhile.

Peta Mathia’s musings on Italian photographer Bonavia’s extraordinary illustrations of food as fashion, accessories good enough to eat.

I’M A FAN of listening to politicians talk about projects that are dear to their hearts, when they are not politicking, just addressing issues in a thoughtful and considered way.
Listening to Jim Anderton addressing a seminar on The Role of Media in Suicide Prevention, I thought – if only we could have more of this from our [...]

Constantly constructing new Olympics venues around the world is environmental madness, writes ANNE CORNISH.

Anne Cornish argues that due to ideology our infrastructure is suffering from a lack of planning.

As with a computer that needs defragging, it’s not the central processor that is slowing, it’s the access to it that’s sluggish, writes ANNE CORNISH of the reasons her brain refuses to learn shorthand.

FILM REVIEW: Mamma Mia
ONE of my young class mates said: “I couldn’t think of anything worse than watching Meryl Streep sing and dance to ABBA.”
I loved it. Enough to see it twice.
Watching a bunch of old ladies having fun, singing and dancing to some of my favourite music was nearly as good as doing it [...]

Poll voters disagree with Miyuki about piercing – and she’s not happy.

MIYUKI McGUFFIE explains her stance on piercings in the workplace and what they might mean for her future. The koala is unrelated.

A one woman show by Helen Moulder, reviewed by Anne Cornish.

NewsWire reporter SANDRA DICKSON offers her opinion on the news media’s coverage of the Veitch case.

Having recently moved from Nelson to Wellington, I’m overwhelmed by the crowds in their corporate black garb.

Why don’t economists get it? Why do we unquestioningly swallow their “expert” pontifications?

It’s time to swap our footwear fetish for comfort, writes Anne Cornish