The latest TIN100 report marks a decade of research reports that benchmark the progress of New Zealand's top 100 hi-tech companies and smaller companies (the 100+ group). 

Over that decade, annual revenue from the tech sector overall has increased by 62% to $8.3 billion. In the last year, revenue from our top 100 tech companies was up four per cent, while export revenue rose six per cent.
 

The results show the strong and growing contribution science and technology based companies make to New Zealand's economy, said Greg Shanahan, the TIN100's founder.

 "New Zealand technology companies are pursuing global domination in a way we would never have imagined or talked about when we produced the first TIN100 Report in 2005. Companies such Orion Health (health software), Xero (online accounting software), F&P Healthcare (medical devices), Weta Digital (digital effects), and Vista Entertainment Solutions (cinema & film industry software), are all good examples of this."

The research reveals that the top 100 tech companies now employ 31,300 people and show the strongest growing subsections of tech include software development, healthcare and manufacturing.

Source: New Zealand Herald

I recently had the pleasure of judging the broadcast category of the New Zealand Guild of Agricultural Journalists & Communicators' media awards, which were announced in Wellington last Friday.

 

Benedict Collins

Radio New Zealand rural reporter Benedict Collins not only won the broadcast category but was the supreme winner on the night taking out the Ospri New Zealand Rongo Award.

Benedict has done some great work over the last couple of years at Radio New Zealand so it is excellent to see him recognised in this way. Prior to joining Radio New Zealand, Benedict was a reporter for Country 99 TV, where he memorably confronted noted climate sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton on his claims about climate change, causing Monckton to storm out of the interview.

Benedict's winning broadcast entry was an in-depth, carefully constructed Insight documentary about the impact of climate change on crops. It saw him travel to parts of Asia and interview numerous experts and farmers to ascertain the extent to which climate change is already affecting crop yields and the projections for the future as the climate changes further.

Benedict's piece can be played back here.

Runner-up for the broadcast journalism award was Country TV reporter John Watson who undertook an investigation into a legal fight between farmers who lost their potato crops in flooding of their land, and Horizons Regional Council. John's piece can be viewed here.

Congratulations to Benedict and John and the other winners in the print categories. The quality of the entries suggests agricultural journalism is thriving in New Zealand and that there is an appetite for long-form journalism in the broadcast space.

Moa likely became extinct sometime between 1440-1445 AD, according to a new study from University of Auckland and Landcare Research scientists. The narrow five-year window is the result of combined archaeological and radiocarbon dating data and sophisticated statistical models to estimate the time line of the species' extinction.

Despite large variations in size between moa species, the authors of the study estimate that all species likely became extinct around the same time, with the exact date differing only by a few years. They also found that populations up and down the country were hunted to extinction at about the same time.

"This is the first time we have been able to show that extinction was both rapid and synchronous across New Zealand," said Associate Professor George Perry of the University of Auckland's School of Environment and School of Biological Sciences in a media release.

"Moa were hunted to the point of being critically endangered within 150 years of settlement, after which only a few small populations clung on in remote mountain regions, but only for another 50 years before they vanished forever."

The findings appear to be the final nail in the coffin for the theory that moa species survived centuries longer, based on unconfirmed sightings. As the authors note, the results of the study "are inconsistent with prolonged survival of moa into the post-European era."

The research also sheds light on the extinction of other large, island-bound species that were decimated by the arrival of humans.

"Sadly this rapid loss of megafauna from over-hunting is not unique," said co-author Dr Jane Wimshurst from Landcare Research. 

"Large animals that had evolved for millions of years in the absence of humans were ill-adapted for the sudden arrival of people and the associated impacts of hunting, landscape modification, and introduced predators."

The research was published earlier this week in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews. 

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