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By the numbers

Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas.

By the numbers

Just in time for the long weekend, Idealog subscribers can look forward to finding issue #24 in their mailboxes today (or tomorrow, if you’re fortunate enough to live a sensible distance from the Sky Tower and the Beehive). It's a goodie, too, with the trademark Idealog range of topics: from 19th-century Maori master carver Tene Waitere to the wild bunch running Dunedin’s Natural History NZ to the clued-up Kiwis who are using public data to create cool new services and insights into government. We also have the New Zealand answer to the Segway (which weighs just ten kilograms and goes ten kilometres on a single charge), an interview with adman-turned-artist-turned-award-winning-winemaker Dick Frizzell and lots, lots more.

And just in time for the launch tonight of the second season of The Jaquie Brown Diaries, we have a profile of Gerard Johnstone, the show's writer, editor and director. We met him just as post-production was at its most chaotic and stressful. Brown thought he was coping amazingly well: "He keeps it all inside. Sure, he'll probably get some sort of stomach disease later in life for keeping his stress and frustration inside, but for now I appreciate that, because I'm sensitive to noises."

You have 140 characters. What do you want to say?

What's the first tweet a twitterer types each day? 'Good morning', of course. And so does the next twitterer, and the next, and before you know it a wave of banal greetings makes its noisy way around the world.

What would that look like? Canadian Jer Thorp wondered just that, and put together a cool visualisation of good morning tweets mapped on a globe. We have a feature request though: how about an animation of twitterers promptly unfollowing the senders of such dull tweets?

(Via Flowing Data)

Paeroa haz pizzazz

Weird that L&P is never sold on the basis of its lemon, or L, content. Still, Paeroa does have a lot going for it as a brand, and not surprisingly the Paeroa Department of Tourism is taking full advantage. The behind-the-scenes view of their national roadshow is now up to its third instalment; here’s episode one. You can see two and three on the department website and on YouTube.

Magical Jemainanous

In what's shaping up as a bumper film season, the latest wee treat to come to our attention is Gentlemen Broncos, a new film by Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess, starring Jemaine Clement as a plagiaristanous. Magical.

The lamppost that keeps on giving

We love this hi-tech lamppost concept posted on Philips' website. It collects solar energy during the day and acts as a windmill when there's a breeze, it conserves its energy at night till someone approaches when it automatically lights up, and it even lets people around it know how much power it's storing or using through a user-friendly display on its trunk. Philips reckons it can even feed energy back to the grid. Oh, and it looks fantastic. No word on what such a bright light would cost to build but, hey, what council could resist?

Last chance to express yourself

Idealog is now four years old. Like all four-year-olds, we could do with a little guidance. So help us out: we've put together an easy five-minute survey to let us know what you think of Idealog: the things you love, and the things only a mother could love. We know your time is precious so we'll make it worth your while: every completed response we receive will be entered into a prize draw with the opportunity to win a THERMAGENIUS heat pump water-heating system worth $4,500, plus $500 towards installation from Leap. So tell us what you think, and don't hold back!

You can complete the survey online in just a few minutes.

Survival instincts

On November 9, The Big Idea and the Arts Regional Trust are presenting Survive & Thrive, a public forum aimed at people working in the creative industries. Questions to be covered include doozies like 'How can you help your creative business thrive in these tough times?' 'What opportunities are coming up that you could take advantage of?' and 'Are you ready for them?' If you know the answers to these—or would like to know—then this is the evennt for you. It will be hosted at Telstra Pacific Events Centre in Manukau City; it's free, but numbers are limited and registration is required. More info at The Big Idea.

Onyabike

Here’s a question for those of you who work in a web-related job: have you done anything worthwhile recently? Great—then you'll want to get your entry in for the inaugural Onya Awards. Entries close in just over two weeks, so get onyabike and get entered. The awards evening promises to be bonza—it's held on the final evening of Webstock 2010.

Fine effects

AnimfxNZ 2009, the conference for the movie and gaming FX industries, kicks off in November at Te Papa and the Museum Hotel. It’s a key event for everyone involved or interested in FX and animation and features a typically top-notch list of workshops and speakers (you can expect many of the event attendees to be just as clever and well-connected too). Registrations are now open.

Quote of the week

“Predators with big gnashy teeth that commit large-scale violence on other animals really pull the ratings.

–NHNZ’s Craig Meade on the prime-time formula, in Idealog #24

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2007-12-13 14:52:13: Nothing in common? Perfect

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2007-11-23 13:28:24: Don't speak

2007-11-16 17:01:13: Worthy work (and free beer)

2007-11-02 20:07:12: East meets best

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2006-10-19 16:11:46: October 19, 2006

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2006-09-28 16:19:29: September 28, 2006

2006-09-21 15:42:31: September 21, 2006

2006-09-14 13:56:38: September 14, 2006

2006-09-07 00:00:00: September 7, 2006

2006-08-31 00:00:00: August 31, 2006

2006-08-24 00:00:00: August 24, 2006

2006-08-17 00:00:00: August 17, 2006

2006-08-11 00:00:00: August 11, 2006

2006-08-03 00:00:00: August 3, 2006

2006-07-27 00:00:00: July 27, 2006

2006-07-21 00:00:00: July 21, 2006

2006-07-13 00:00:00: July 13, 2006

2006-07-06 00:00:00: July 6, 2006

2006-06-29 00:00:00: June 29, 2006

2006-06-22 00:00:00: June 22, 2006

2006-06-15 00:00:00: June 15, 2006

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