Race to the bottom

The numbers don’t lie. New Zealand is getting poorer, thanks to overregulation, low productivity, poor investment and a lack of innovation. Yet despite National’s rhetoric, the government continues to squander opportunities for any meaningful change, placing New Zealand firmly on a slippery slope to the bottom of the GDP rankings. But not all hope is lost. As Vincent Heeringa writes, it’s time we turned to the high-tech sector to deliver growth if we want to avoid becoming New Zealistan.  Read the full story and post your comments and feedback on our website.

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All for a good cause

As part of a new recruitment drive, London Sperm Bank has launched a standalone brand to combat a shortage of donors. Along with new building signage and an advertising campaign, LSB has a shiny new website featuring everything you could ever want to know about sperm donation. Slogan? “The real banking crisis.”

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Entrepreneurial spirit

If you haven’t already registered to attend Creative Entrepreneurs—a series of industry events brought to you by Idealog and the Chamber of Commerce—rectify that by emailing events@chamber.co.nz (don’t forget to state ‘Idealog’ when registering if you’re a subscriber) First on the calendar is an evening with Jonathan King on March 31, director of Under the Mountain and Black Sheep. He’ll be speaking about the creative process, working with Weta Workshop and the challenges of funding, plus there’ll be drinks and nibbles to graze on. It’s just $42+GST for Chamber members and Idealog subscribers (or $64+GST for other creatives). See you there.

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Where to from here?

We’ve taken you from incubating a concept through to implementation in our Cash for Ideas guide. Now that your brainchild, relatively intact, has made it this far, it’s time to take a deep breath and a step back. Just what do you do when you’ve established that you’re onto a winner? Well, as Andy Kenworthy writes, the trick is keeping your eye on the big picture without getting bogged down by the daily grind.

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It's all go

Believe it or not, OK Go have actually topped their 2006 ‘treadmill’ video for Here It Goes Again . Watch This Too Shall Pass and marvel at the elaborately constructed Rube Goldberg machine, painstakingly built by the band over several months. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

Meet your saviour

Top angel investor Bill Payne is in town and Idealog, in conjunction with Escalator, is offering you the chance to pick his brain. Come along to Meet an Angel Day on April 17, where both US and NZ-based investors will be available to the public. What does it cost, you ask? Zip, zero, zilch. Register online, by calling 0800 822 748 or emailing karen@escalator.co.nz.

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View from the top

Because plain white (or black, brown or grey) rooftops are just so dull. Artist Molly Dilworth is doing her bit for Google Earth by creating rooftop art that’s visible from outer space. Some are simple colourful mosaics, while others apparently ‘snap into focus’ from a distance, kind of like a stereogram. But it’s not just about aesthetics; next on her to-do list are pieces which incorporate solar panels, no less.

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Gadgety goodness

Gadget freaks rejoice: PopSci, the web arm of Popular Science magazine, has scanned its entire 137-year archive and put it online as part of a deal with Google Books. You can’t click straight into an issue, unfortunately, but you can search the database and browse around. What’s more, each magazine contains a hyperlinked table of contents and the original period advertisements. As if you didn’t already have enough to distract you online.

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Two for the price of one

If you’re heading to the Documentary Film Festival on at the Rialto, you might want to stop off at The Quadrant Hotel’s Quad bar first for a free drink! The Quadrant Hotel—bronze sponsor of the festival—has a special ‘Buy one, get one free’ drink offer for all IdealogWeekly readers until the end of March. Just print out this voucher to enjoy a second beverage on the house. You can redeem one voucher per Idealoger, per visit and if you miss the festival the voucher is valid til March 31.

Beyond the numbers

Thought Excel was only good for spreadsheets and graphs? Think again. Turns out it can double as a drawing program, too—colours, shadows, layers, and lighting effects and all—if you know what you’re doing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YG_WWZYqUs

Quote of the week

“You can just see Borat now, standing in a paddock somewhere near Balclutha. My sheep, they very nice!”

— Vincent Heeringa ponders New Zealand’s descent down the global economy rankings.

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