OBSERVATION and knowledge of reality are topics that raise all sorts of prickly philosophical questions, chief among them the one

Time is always my enemy ... I have so much to do and such little time to do it in. Right now I am around about half way through

"School Bans Clapping." Had I read that headline a year ago my blood would have boiled. PC or not, today I just laugh at such stories

MONDAY Donald Trump: Hello, Cleveland! Thank you all for coming here today for the most ably organised Republican convention in

I once read the editor of a gossip magazine brightly assert that knowing what celebrities are up to creates a relationship with them

Two bigots walk into a bar. They front up at the counter and order drinks. They had never met before but after an exchange about the

Venerable Whanganui councillor Sue Westwood is likely to step down at the October local body elections after many years sterling service. In

By John Maslin UNITED States presidential wannabe Donald Trump's wife may have taken things too far with a speech at this week's

By Mark Dawson WHILE a number of families have -- much to our collective shame -- struggled to put a roof over their heads, there

By Jay Kuten THE funerals for the five slain Dallas police officers were barely over when we learned of the shooting deaths of another

By David Aislabie THE post-war New Zealand I grew up in was the envy of the world -- an egalitarian paradise and a great place to

The Happiness Journey - by Scott Lee DID YOU know that the number one reason for married couples getting divorced in the United States

By Mark Dawson, Editor NOMINATIONS opened on Friday for the 2016 local body elections which will be held in October, and the runners

MY NAME is Gypsy Wright, a life time member of the Mongrel Mob. When passing through Marton 40 years ago I liked the people so I

IT'S hard in today's connected, catalogued world to go off grid and be intrepid. Unless you're prepared to go to some fairly extreme

What do New Zealand's dominant agricultural model and my Dad's driving have in common? Fonterra was recently given the go-ahead to

I WAS in to get a new pair of spectacles the other day. They were for long vision so I did ask whether it would enable me to see

LET'S get straight on to business: Saving the world. Many of us realise the world is going to hell in a handcart. Climate-changing

AS A single man I didn't seem to feel the cold. I had a little heater that I would plug in for an hour or two on the coldest nights

PROSTATE cancer is definitely not a laughing matter. In fact, it can be deadly serious. So how is it that whenever I think of my

WHANGANUI has been given an opportunity to grasp a much needed economic windfall and the Government has offered it to us free, yes

IT'S LONG been said that it takes a village to raise a child, but if you read the updated 21st-century manual it seems that all it

Question: Who is likely to be more effective in setting inmates at Kaitoke prison on the right path? (1) Someone who perhaps shares

RAWDON CHRISTIE I'd just like to say there is no truth in the rumour that TVNZ are thinking of replacing me as the host of current

Our Prime Minister John Key keeps saying: "Housing is not in crisis" despite the rapidly escalating level of social and economic fallout

Sitting down in front of my laptop to write my last column for a while ... and, instead, the temptation to procrastinate on Facebook

With any issue political issue the tide of public opinion washes in and out. We occasionally hear of an idea "whose time has come"

When you want to make a good argument it helps to have a bunch of statistics on your side. But what happens when the statistics

Whanganui Science Forum's June event saw Dr Richard Winkworth talking about genetic engineering. Dr Winkworth, who completed his PhD

THERE is hardly a week goes by that we do not hear a complaint to this newspaper about rates and council spending. Every election