Michael Dobie

2 months ago | newsday.com | Michael Dobie

I can’t remember the last time I used a penny. My best guess is that it was one of those rare occasions when I was using cash at a store and I (or my wife) rummaged through my pockets (or her bag) for one or two pennies to avoid getting back even more pennies as change from a $20 (or whatever) bill. The penny, in other words, has become a device best employed to ward off other pennies. So I was quite pleased the other day when President Donald Trump said he wanted to get rid of the penny.

2 months ago | newsday.com | Michael Dobie

So now Earth has a chance to be hit by an asteroid in 2032. Great. That's just what we need. It's called 2024 YR4 and scientists spotted it as it was hurtling away from Earth. The rock is somewhere between 130 feet and 330 feet long, not huge, but big enough to wipe out an entire city and its surroundings with a direct hit. But relax, the experts say. Asteroid 2024 YR4 has only a 1.3% chance of actually hitting Earth on Dec.

Nov 20, 2024 | theinformer.co.nz | Michael Dobie

PROVIDED BY MICHAEL DOBIE On 5 November The Informer published a Flemming H Rasmussen article “Unsustainable rate rises imposed to fund ever–increasing council headcount”. The article contains nine errors or misleading information about Thames-Coromandel District Council’s 2023/2024 Annual Report. It also infers criticism of the Council, which was not approached for a response. Had the Council been approached, these errors and misleading information could have been prevented.

Nov 17, 2024 | newsday.com | Michael Dobie

In this past week of political hubbub and hullabaloo, I found myself thinking about Uranus and Pompeii. No, I’m not crazy. Though this doesn’t prove that either way. But bear with me. Uranus, of course, is the seventh planet from the sun, 1.6 billion miles from Earth at their closest orbits. It was in the news because scientists are beginning to think they’ve been getting the planet wrong all these years.

Nov 10, 2024 | newsday.com | Michael Dobie

I went to a concert last Sunday night. It was almost election eve, the peak of the great roil that consumes our country every four years — a roiling that only marginally subsides in between, if at all, if we’re being honest. Nerves were taut and tensions high. It seemed as if our nation was united on that night in only one respect — its conviction that half its people would be ecstatic and relieved and the other half angry and depressed when all the counting was over.