John Gibb

Work is nearing completion on a $4.6 million refurbishment of Salmond College, which has boosted room numbers and resulted in a ''complete transformation'' of the complex.

In 1973, a year after publication of Lady Moss Revived - a first book of poems by Dunedin poet Peter Olds - Otago Daily Times reporter John Gibb, then literary editor of the Otago University Students Association newspaper Critic, interviewed him about his writing, for the student newspaper. This year, Cold Hub Press published You Fit the Description, a large selection of Olds' work. And Gibb went back and asked Olds a few more questions, including about the importance of dreaming in his life and work.

Decorated war veteran Jan Adamczyk, who celebrated his 100th birthday yesterday, has packed into one long life enough adversity, adventure and excitement for several lives.

A commerative poppy-knitting project at Dunedin's Toitu Otago Settlers Museum has ''struck a chord'' with visitors, and made a particularly big impression on many cruise ship passengers.

New Zealanders are right to feel ''uneasy'' about where to draw the line over domestic surveillance by the country's intelligence and security agencies, Cambridge University historian Dr David Burke says.

If University of Otago PhD student Ann Cronin has an academic problem, she often takes a hammer to it.

Keen to simulate the tail of a comet, Otago Museum science communicator Amadeo Enriquez-Ballestero climbs a stepladder and pours boiling water into a bucket of liquid nitrogen, the temperature of the latter about minus 200degC.

Dunedin carver Zyron Haenga holds a manaia bone carving, depicting a Maori mythological figure, on the final day of an Artists' Collective pop-up market at the Dunedin Community Gallery yesterday.

Hundreds of Otago pupils have applied for assistance from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, to help pay their NCEA exam fees for the year ahead.

Dunedin heritage campaigner Ann Barsby has gained much more funding support since she ''went out on a limb'' last year, spending $15,000 of her own money to save a rare 19th century worker's cottage.

Who says you can't lick free ice-cream?

The University of Otago's latest annual summer school began yesterday.

Among New Zealand's main centres, Dunedin has the best views of the southern lights and could develop lucrative ‘‘night sky tourism'', Otago Museum director Dr Ian Griffin believes.

A book featuring an artefact from the Otago Museum on its cover has won an international prize for a work involving tribal art.

Two University of Otago medical students, Natalie Irving and Laura Hammersley, are undertaking trainee intern studies abroad, backed by Pat Farry Rural Health Education Trust Travelling Scholarships.

Despite some ''negative'' criticism, people of all ages would benefit from more use of serious computer games for educational purposes, Prof Sara de Freitas says.