More than 1200 people filled Palmerston North’s Regent Theatre on the 14th of January this year to hear the Sir Neil Waters Lecture given by Professor Persi Diaconis.

A former professional magician, Professor Diaconis is now a Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University in California. He gave up a career in music and magic to study mathematical statistics at Harvard University, completing his PhD in 1974.

The lecture revealed secrets of popular magic tricks, with the audience participating in a card trick and then hearing how maths was used to pull off the elaborate ruse. Other subjects, such as how spy codes are encrypted, were touched upon.

300 people packed the Sir Neil Waters lecture theatre at Massey’s Albany campus for Professor Diaconis’ first New Zealand lecture on Wednesday night.

The huge demand for seats at the Albany lecture has prompted a review of the event and future possibilities include a move to a larger venue or video streaming to adjacent lecture theatres to accommodate increased numbers.

The Sir Neil Waters Distinguished Lecture Series was inaugurated in 2004 to honour the achievements of Sir Neil Waters, former Professor and Vice- Chancellor of Massey University. It is held annually by the Institute of Fundamental Sciences and brings a leading international scientist in the fields of mathematics, chemistry or physics to give a series of lectures at Massey University.

The Science Fairs run throughout the country between July and October. NZSA, in conjunction with Statistics New Zealand, sponsors prizes for statistical content in the entries. It is an interesting task coordinating the contact with Science Fair organisers throughout the country and also with judges prepared to give up a little time to go and look at the entries.

Some Science Fair organisers are very difficult to contact so if you are aware of a Fair in your area I would really appreciate an email from you with as much information as possible. The name and contact details of an organiser would be ideal. I am in touch with most of them but tracking down the last few is not easy.

I would also like to thank those members who have judged Science Fairs and ask them and any members who have not judged but would like to, to please contact me. The data I have is a bit sketchy and I suspect quite out of date so I would like to improve this and ensure that as many Fairs have suitable judges as possible. The information I have will appear on the NZSA website shortly.

Inland Revenue has launched a new statistics section on its website, giving customers access to a wide range of data about tax revenue and social entitlements.

The information on the website includes 19 sections with data about customers, revenue collection, donation rebates, child support, Working for Families Tax Credits entitlements, and income distribution by income bands. Tax statistics include only data collected by Inland Revenue and do not duplicate statistics separately available from other sources such as Statistics New Zealand, or The Treasury.

The revenue statistics cover the years from July 2001 to June 2008, and customer statistics are available from April 2001 to March 2008. The figures will be updated every year.

Each page on the website contains a link to a downloadable spreadsheet and to a convenient "printer-friendly" window. Links to definitions are also provided, so that each table or graph can be understood and the statistics used effectively. All published statistics are chosen to meet Official Statistics System criteria and to allow robust analysis. In developing the publishing procedure, Inland Revenue collaborated closely with Statistics New Zealand.