Editor's desk: Week of August 28, 2006

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Friday September 1


The stats are in, and here are the most-read stories on nzherald this week:

1. Police name dead Whangarei girl
2. School principal with porn on PC keeps job
3. 'Give yourself up' call to man wanted over girl's death
4. Van murder accused 'seemed proud'
5. Man killed in bull attack
- - - posted 12.45pm by Neil Sanderson


Thursday August 31


The New York Times has taken the highly unusual step of preventing UK-based readers from accessing a story on its website. The story reveals information related to the alleged plot to blow up aircraft flying between the UK and USA - information which the Times apparently felt could land it in trouble with British courts for being prejucidial to a fair trial.

This raises the thorny question of which laws online publishers should be bound by: those in their "home" or those in any of the hundreds of jurisdictions from which a website may be viewed.

There are a couple of other factors which compound the dilemma for the Times: blocking access from a geographical area based on IP addresses is not, I'm told, 100% reliable. Moreover, at least some information from the NY Times story has been quoted by two British newspapers without legal repercussions - so far.
- - - posted 1.20pm by Neil Sanderson


Thanks for the stunning photos you've been sending in as part of our Auckland Architecture Week competition. We've had so many great entries that we're about to start our 4th gallery to show them off. Here's how to view them.

You could win a $999 Panasonic digital camera if your photo is judged the best. The competition closes a week from today, with full details here.
- - - posted 12.00 by Neil Sanderson


Graham Henry's All Blacks side to face South Africa at the weekend has 10 changes from last week's team, continuing his controversial rotation policy. Is Henry's policy right? Is he on track to lead the All Blacks to their first win at the World Cup for the first time since 1987? Tell us what you think in today's Readers' Views.
- - - posted 9.20am by Neil Sanderson

Wednesday August 30

This year's Online Journalism Awards finalists

have been announced, chosen from 694 entries in 18 categories. For hours of great reading (and viewing and listening) just follow the links from the awards section of the

Online Journalism Review

site. Winners will be announced October 7.

- - - posted 6.46pm by Neil Sanderson

A reader takes us to task

over the story

Astrologers take Pluto's demotion in their stride

, writing:

"Please don't put astrology stories in the science and technology section. It's offensive to those of us who actually work in the, like you know, real sciency-type world. I would suggest the entertainment section where it can be safely ignored along with Britney's latest diet and Madonna's new shoes."

I disagree. The story is about how people (in this case astrologers and people who may have an interest in the subject) are reacting to a decision taken by scientists to no longer call Pluto a planet. Surely scientists (the good ones at least) would like to know how their work affects other members of society. And this story shows that interest in the cosmos is not restricted to professional scientists.

- - - posted 8.06am by Neil Sanderson

Monday August 28

Parliament has a new website

today, and it's a big improvement on the very-dated-looking old site. The new design has much less wasted space, and uses a horizontal format that shouldn't require scrolling on most monitors. And, at long last, there's a Search function.

The new site is at

www.parliament.nz

.

One quibble: while the site's address has been simplified by omitting the "govt" second-level domain, you still must include www when typing the address into your web browser. This seems odd when, for many years now, other sites [such as nzherald] have enabled users to leave off the www if they wish.

You can

compare Parliament's old and new sites here.

- - - posted 8.45am by Neil Sanderson