Comment on news and other items of the day welcomed.

1. Critics of the new University of Canterbury national music school are speaking out at a resource consent hearing going on in Christchurch this week – see here and here (you could probably find 20 stories on The Press’ website). The proposed school will be based in the historic Arts Centre, the University of Canterbury’s old base, but critics say that since the school will be 1/4 of the size of Massey and Victoria University’s music school, it shouldn’t even have the “national” moniker. Ouch.
2. An IBM and University of Auckland study on innovation in NZ has been released. I might come back to that research as it looks quite interesting.
3. Science. Soil scientists have job satisfaction concerns while a Massey PHD student has been working on placing a financial and environmental value on the soil and services it provides to any given piece of land. Incidentally, Massey’s agriculture student numbers have doubled in the last few years. Finally, University of Otago researchers participated in a just completed study of the pea aphid genome, work which should help with control of that and other aphids.
4. WelTec held a graduation on the Cook Islands.
5. Orientation: UCOL, Massey University (pie-eating), University of Otago (video of marae welcome).
6. The Standard has criticised my Monday post and other related ones on ACE issues. The petitions on ACE cuts that were presented to Parliament last year will be discussed by the Education and Science Committee today and I might pop along.