Trans Life

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014

Gender identity is so ingrained in our culture that we often don’t think about it until we meet somebody who doesn’t conform to traditional ideas of a “masculine man” or a “feminine woman.” Even with advances, such as the legalisation of same-sex marriage last year, being trans* presents legal and Read more...

A case for animal rights

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014

It is easy to assume that “clean, green New Zealand” is a better place to be a farmed animal than in other countries. But the hidden camera footage recently released by Farmwatch from three New Zealand pig farms is as bad as a nightmare or a horror movie. In one farm, a sow lies on her side, alive Read more...

Three Institutions

Posted 5:12pm Sunday 20th July 2014

As citizens of New Zealand, most of us take our personal freedom for granted. Within the boundaries of the law we are largely free to go where we like, eat what we like, talk to whom we like, and do what we like. Even at work or school we have, at least in theory, the freedom to get up and walk out. Read more...

Kant, lies and polygraphs

Posted 1:08pm Sunday 6th July 2014

In the summer of 1999 four teenage boys were camping in the backyard of one of their family homes, and two of them were so scared they were crying. They had only agreed to go camping again because they didn’t want to look like sissies who were scared of a ghost. The ghost had made its presence known Read more...

Irrational riches

Posted 4:32pm Sunday 18th May 2014

The perceived distance between money and reality is such that it can result in anything from fraud to online shopping binges and irrational approaches to TradeMe auctions. Lucy Hunter investigates why we struggle so much with what seems like a basic concept. Chances are you are terrible with Read more...

The reality of conspiracies

Posted 4:20pm Sunday 4th May 2014

The problem with laughing at conspiracy theories is that they actually happen. Governments, corporations, and regular people sometimes do horrible things to each other for personal gain. They sometimes even manage to keep it secret. By definition, a conspiracy is a secret plan by two or more people Read more...

The immorality of magical thinking

Posted 4:31pm Sunday 13th April 2014

Frustrated by how frequently those suffering will be told to "think positive" and pray, or be blamed for having bad karma, Lucy Hunter delves into the struggles of Zoe, a young woman living with a chronic auto-immune disease. Zoe was 15 when she was diagnosed with Granulomatosis Poliangiitus Read more...

Journey Into "The Uncanny Valley"

Posted 7:01pm Sunday 30th March 2014

No person can claim they weren’t slightly disturbed by the near-human animation of the children’s film The Polar Express. Lucy hunter explores the mystery of something being both strange and familiar or, simply put, what it means to get "the creeps". Imagine coming home and putting your key Read more...

Five surprising things I learned about psychopaths

Posted 2:59pm Sunday 16th March 2014

From James Bond to Hannibal Lector, individuals with psychopathic tendencies continue to captivate people around the world. Lucy Hunter explores the defining aspects of psychopathy and ponders whether she risks adopting the dark and charismatic traits she obsesses over. I wish I were a little Read more...

Why I Hate Psychics

Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014

I used to believe this psychic shit. When I was 17 I worked as an usher at the St James Theatre in Wellington. I ushered for a show by psychic medium Tony Stockwell. There were about six hundred people in the crowd. Predictably, I was convinced that the spirit of my beloved aunt had come through. Read more...