KEY POINTS:
A recource booklet for the NCEA Level 2 te reo exam on Tuesday asked students to write a story based on a series of illustrations.
Whoever designed the exam - well in advance, according to the NZQA - was a rugby fan and an optimist. In one illustration, the setting for the creative writing exercise is the Rugby World Cup (Te Kapu Whutupaoro o te Ao Katoa), and the final one in the series (right) makes quite clear the expected outcome.
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A reader watching Fox News noticed how New Zealand made worldwide headlines with its new BMI weight index immigration policy; specifically not allowing an Englishman's wife to come here without losing weight.
Our reader says: "Fox News, asked a) Is New Zealand's health system that poor? b) For a country known for the outdoors, how can 50 per cent of the population be obese? And in classic Fox style c) Is New Zealand a democracy?"
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Publishers are censoring children's books because of fears over health and safety, according to leading children's author Lindsey Gardiner from Dundee.
Her latest book, Who Wants A Dragon? originally featured a dragon toasting marshmallows on flames from his nostrils as he sat around a campfire. She said her publishers insisted that she change the scene because "it looks dangerous and goes against health and safety".
Another of her novels, When Poppy and Max Grow Up, initially included a scene where a little boy climbed a ladder, but that too was challenged. Gardiner changed it and had him standing on a pile of three paint cans, which the publishers didn't mind.
"There is also a cooker in the story and I had one of the elements glowing red, because the cooker was switched on. But they didn't allow that either, and I had to change it to green," she says. (Source: Telegraph.co.uk)
Today's Webpick: Environmental tips from the Green Team, with Will Ferrell (NSFW language). Click here.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
