Few people would disagree that Julian Assange is a deeply unpleasant human being.

Writer Andrew O’Hagen, employed by Assange to ghost-write his “autobiography”, spent months with him and has nothing nice to say about him, indeed very much to the contrary. So too many prominent folk who aligned themselves with him in his efforts to avoid extradition to America, all of whom came to regret it.

A recent Listener feature article dealt with the attempts to create imitation meat with meaty flavours but composed entirely of vegetables.

Simon Bridges has complained about his new life in Auckland, or specifically an aspect of it. He claims that when he’s sitting in cafes or parks or whatever, he’s frequently targeted by flashers.

In the recent years clamour over the soaring costs of houses when related to incomes, two salient factors are overlooked. The first is that house-building is a highly labour intensive activity.