Steve’s list of successfully stupid Super Bowl ads

This evening’s $12 million Lotto Powerball jackpot was not won, rolling over to $15 million for Saturday. A MyLotto player from Napier won $1 million in the First Division draw, while a player from Christchurch celebrated a $200,000 win with Strike Four. The winning numbers were 35, 11, 9, 14, 10, and 6, with a bonus ball of 30 and the Powerball being 10. Full Article

Wellington tech contractor Drew Broadley unexpectedly incurred a bill of $15,760 in May while using Google BigQuery, a data management and analysis tool within the Google Cloud Platform. He expressed concern about managing his family's bills due to this financial surprise, despite believing his query—meant to retrieve timestamps for a client's Google Analytics activity—was carefully constrained. This incident highlights the potential risks and costs associated with cloud-based data services. Full Article

A Kiwi mother is alerting parents to be cautious while flying after her 18-month-old son suffered a severe finger injury during a Singapore Airlines flight from Auckland to Singapore. Two hours into the 10-hour flight, the child screamed in pain as his index finger was accidentally caught in the pop-up tray table mechanism by his 5-year-old brother while seated in a bassinet row. The mother, who chose to remain anonymous, expressed shock at the incident...

A coroner’s inquest into a terror attack at a New Lynn supermarket in September 2021 began today. Six people were injured in the knife attack by Islamic State supporter Ahamad Samsudeen, who was fatally shot by undercover police. Survivors expressed ongoing trauma, struggling with everyday triggers like “the smell of milk,” and criticized government agencies' responses to the attack. The 10-day hearing will examine the attack's circumstances, including Samsudeen's movements and police actions prior to...

High-profile scientist Siouxsie Wiles incurred over $350,000 in legal bills due to an employment dispute with the University of Auckland, which has been ordered by the Employment Court to pay $205,000 of that amount. The court ruled that while the university did not breach Wiles' academic freedom, it did violate her employment agreement concerning the threats and harassment she faced during the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, Wiles sought a contribution of $175,000 from the university for...

Firefighters are battling a significant blaze on the historic ship, The Tui, located by the Waitangi Bridge in Paihia, which ignited around 4am. Four fire crews initially responded, with two additional crews dispatched later as the timber ship is reported to be fully ablaze and severely damaged. Fortunately, there were no individuals on board at the time of the fire, and the cause remains under investigation by Fire and Emergency NZ. Full Article