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• Vision of the future Christchurch
  TVNZ Close Up video, 12 May
  Meet the Kiwi team creating 3D landscapes of Christchurch - past, present and future.
  Discussion starters:
  • Digital Technologies - 3D modelling technology
  • Technological modelling - mitigation of risk in urban planning
• Riding into big sales with a light bike
  NZ Herald online, 14 May
  A Christchurch based company, established in 2002, has designed and developed a 57kg dirt bike - which it claims is the world's lightest. It can easily be picked up and put in the back of an SUV, or lifted over a farm fence. The company plans to begin commercial production this year and by 2016 expects to be selling 25,000 bikes a year, which will pull in revenues of around US$80 million.
  Discussion starter:
  • Manufacturing technology: infrastructural considerations
• Stricter building rules could add to costs
  Stuff.co.nz, 14 May
  Builders are worried that extra costs associated with tougher new earthquake standards will make new Christchurch homes unaffordable for some.
  Discussion starter:
  • Construction Technology: socio-cultural influences on practice; setting new building standards
• Yike Bike pedalling new product
  Stuff.co.nz article, 14 May
  The Christchurch company that developed the electric folding YikeBike has just launched a new Fusion model - a slightly heavier version of the original carbon fibre bike but a bit lighter on the pocket.
  Discussion starters:
  • Nature of Technology: moving from 'early adoption' to 'mainstream' marketing
  • Technological Products: relating material properties to product attributes
• Walking with Dinosaurs
  TV3 Campbell Live video, 16 May
  Dinosaurs last roamed the earth 65 million years ago. Since then there have been movies and TV shows, but nothing quite like this. Walking With Dinosaurs is the stadium version of the BBC television series - not 'stage', but 'stadium'version. It's big, it's boisterous, it's noisy - and it looks very real.
  Discussion starters:
  • Entertainment technology: recreating history; electromechanical srobotics; material useage
  • Intellectual property issues: confidentiality agreements
• Export Company to remove Maori Branding
  TVNZ One News video, 31 May
  An Auckland based company has apologised for the uproar caused after using Maori icons to brand its infant formula bound for China.
  Discussion starter:
  • Intellectual property: Indigenous rights
• Car batteries that can multi-task
  New York Times online, 3 June
  To help cut weight and increase driving distances, engineers are developing car frames and bodies made of carbon fibre-reinforced composites, plastic materials that can be 50 percent lighter than steel but provide superior strength and rigidity. Although used in a handful of exotic sports cars, carbon composites remain too costly for mass-market cars.
  One potential solution is to build autos with carbon composites that can also serve as batteries. The dual-function materials could make E.V.'s and hybrid vehicles lighter as they simultaneously provide extra electricity.
  Discussion starters:
  • Transport technology: structural power technology
  • Technological products: new material formulation
• GPS Both Ways
  blog.delorme.com, 3 June
  The DeLorme inReach is a two-way satellite GPS communicator to be available later this year. It sends and receives text messages or emails, if paired with an Android phone. As a standalone device it can communicate with emergency services through set signals, or send status updates at regular intervals. Don't get lost without it.
  Discussion starter:
  • Advances in Technology: Safety
• IPv6: What do you need to know?
  TV3 News video, 10 June
  An IP address is like a phone number for an internet connection. The current system of designating addresses is Internet Protocol version IPv4 - and its 4.2 billion addresses have run out. This month Google, Facebook and a bunch of big websites all around the world tested IPv6.
  Discussion starter:
  • Digital infrastructure: Internet protocol implications
• Specs for all and cleaner energy
  nzherald.co.nz, 11 June
  An engineer named Jerry Woodall at Purdue University has developed an alloy using aluminium that could simultaneously generate heat and purify water. He hopes that it could eventually replace coal and oil, and believes it will greatly benefit poverty stricken areas for water sterilisation.
  Discussion starter:
  • Technological products: new material formulation
• Apple bans breath test apps
  stuff.co.nz, 13 June
  Apple has put a ban on selling applications that could encourage motorists to drink and drive via its online App Store.
  The US technology giant introduced new guidelines this week that prohibit any apps that could warn drivers of the locations of police that are targeting drunk drivers.
  Discussion starter:
  • Ethics in Technology
• 'Hypersonic' jet: London to Toyko in under 3 hours
  nzherald.co.nz, 20 June
  Here is a glimpse of the future. By 2050, seaweed-powered space-liners will fly from London to Tokyo in two-and-a-half hours, at a cruising altitude of 20 miles and generating no significant pollution.
  This is the confident prediction of the Airbus parent company, EADS, which will unveil its plans for a hypersonic, stratospheric airliner, the Zehst, at the Le Bourget airshow near Paris today.
  Discussion starters:
  • Characteristics of technology: Social and cultural influences and impacts
  • Energy technology: Convergence of technologies
• New way found to add smell to TV
  PC Magazine article, 20 June
  What if when watching Pirates of the Caribbean, you could actually smell the ocean as Captain Jack Sparrow's ship sped through it? Or if you could catch a whiff of the fantastic desserts contestants were preparing on Top Chef? Adding scent to the entertainment experience is the promise of a new technological development.
  Discussion starter:
  • Characteristics of technology: proof of concept
• Warning of cocoa shortage by 2020 unless industry acts now
  Food Navigator.com, 23 June
  Confectionery giant Mars predicts a major cocoa shortage by 2020 and the chocolate company warns that "unless more is done to promote sustainability", the industry as a whole can expect a shortfall of more than one million tonnes of cocoa in just nine years.
  Discussion starter:
  • Technological products: promoting material sustainability
• Probiotic ice cream licks sore throats
  NZHerald online, 24 June
  Two Dunedin companies have joined forces to come up with an ice cream to lick bad breath and sore throats.
  At this stage, the only flavour is vanilla. But when it goes on sale in supermarkets later this year, there may be other flavours.
  Discussion starters:
  • Characteristics of Technology of Technology: interdisciplinary collaboration
  • Food and Bio- related technology: functional foods