Hardware failures at the main server when it got it’s 3 monthly reboot. Problem with a hard disk failure and the RAID not quite working as expected so it didn’t drop the affected disk neatly. And there was a problem anyway with the remote access to the BIOS to change the array. Not to mention that the browsers are getting VERY paranoid about running Java applications.
I’d already managed to destroy (damnit!) the warm backup system (one of my home systems) with an ill-timed screwup a few days ago. Played with QFlash after setting everything up for the new IP address that I got after we moved. It seemed to trash a pile of files on the boot partition. I was actually working on repackaging it…
So I pushed the backups of data, images and code to the cold server, and went to bed at 0300.
I do have to work as well and time is tight. So decided this morning that I would let the hosting techs deal with the hardware in the morning. If everything turned to custard on the drives, I would head home early to kick the cold server into action. It is a pretty small virtual server so capacity wise, I’d have to watch it – something I am loath to do at work.
So I spent this morning and part of the afternoon silently remotely monitoring an increasingly frustrated tech working his way through the process of finding what in the hell was wrong. I could watch him working his way through the bios and booted tools. Nice toolset (I want…)
Pain being out for just over 12 hours. But we’re volunteers and usually short of time and cash. I’d love to have a dedicated warm backup server – but the budget doesn’t stretch that far at present.
Ummm need some more sleep. The coding is a bit sluggish right now.
I will make a donation and I suggest everyone else does the same.
Just think. In the past we paid Wilson and Horton to feed us with tory propaganda. Why not pay the standard to feed us real news and community interaction?
You mean if we donate they will change and start providing us ‘Real news’, where do I sign up? Would be a refreshing change, although I am thouroughly entertained with the current red tinted view of the world.
We don’t provide “news”. Mostly we provide “opinion” with a few facts interspersed and people commenting do the same. Of course the former is pretty much a job description of a journalist. They just have to get used to the blowback (the latter).
Many of them seem to have a problem with that. Personally I think that it will do them quite a lot of good.
But you have yet to tell us what you think – currently you perform the role of useless carping critic with not notable skills. This is merely my opinion, but I suspect it is because you are somewhat too stupid to think.. But is does provide us with a lower benchmark to measure ourselves against. (my nana always told me to look for what people were good at…)
They aren’t a one off cost like buying a machine. It is actually the bandwidth that costs the most over time directly and indirectly.
These days we have a dedicated server running in NZ that costs about ~$333 per month ($290+GST). Traffic is unlimited inside NZ as (a major part) of the server cost, but costs $2/GB for offshore above our limit of 25GB. We typically do somewhere between 180GB and 300GB per month in local traffic (subject to cloudflare)…
We’d typically do between 50 and 150GB in overseas traffic if it is left unconstrained – mostly to spambots, searchbots, and RSS feeds. That is where we get pinged pretty badly. It is all the more annoying because more than 95% of the human clients are inside the NZ net.
So we now have cloudflare ($US 20 per month) which caches the static parts of the site like images and pushes almost all of the traffic local and overseas back on to the Southern Cross cable that the 25GB limit is meant to ration usage of. It also slows the site compared to being on the local net. But it makes our bills a lot more manageable. We effectively feed cloudflare mostly text (because they cache the rest) and they feed that and the cached images to everyone else from multiple servers worldwide.
I also have my home system that these days could handle the traffic load for a few days with cloudflare assisting. Probably more so once the fibre arrives near the door in December. But residential bandwidth is pretty expensive. I usually run that ‘warm’ with a copy running in near real time to the main server with a replicated database and rsynced directory.
And there is a cheap virtual server that sits cold and can be upgraded easily. I mostly use it for out of NZ storage of backups. But has probably been too problematic to run for a number of years as an active server because of CPU usage. The caching from cloudflare may change that and the reason to site in NZ (speed to NZ users) is now moot as we have to run everything from offshore because of the costs of overseas traffic…
We actually make enough from the advertising. However it is somewhat unpredictable when the money arrives. So we concentrate on keeping the costs down.
So a backup server would involve a monthly outlay for bandwidth?
Another $333-odd per month? Ouch!
What happened to the previously user-friendly donate page? I don’t have a smart-phone so can’t use an app.
It’s a wee bit of a disincentive, those without the relevant tech or telebanking having to traipse down to the bank. However will make the effort…
Welcome back The Standard. Thanks for getting her going again Lprent.
The good news is that one Pagani is gone from Labour. It’s far too early to feel anything like optimism about the largest opposition party thus far, but it is good news none the less.
It seems fitting that he’s gone to represent mining interests. Not as fitting as going on a benefit would have been, but of course years of making contacts amongst the rich and powerful go a long way even amongst the ignorant and inept.
ps, my computer kept up a facsimilie of the site from after I turned the computer off last night. Something called cloud fare. Frankly I won’t be surprised if one day the computer starts turning on the kettle of its own accord before I get up in the morning, such are the marvels of technololgy…
Well, 25 odd years ago he was much younger and maybe more radical in his thinking. I did the opposite… started out quite conservative and went further to the Left the older I became.
Aye tis good news. Now hopefully the leader can be given speeches that sound like they were written for the leader of the Labour Party and not for some pale blue tosh.
The above links to a story about The Dowse Gallery being challenged over restrictions to its patrons. I entirely agree with the opinion of the blogger. After watching the 3news video linked to in the piece, I have a question.
On the subject of social privileges, do you think a journalist who watches a restricted artwork and reports its contents to everyone, disrespects the wishes of the artist and participants?
In a world where many fail to recognise the existence of social privileges, I might appear to be looking a little too closely, but it seems that 3News have an opportunity to learn from this too, not just Paul Young and friends. If you are a journalist, you have power to communicate far outside the ability of average people. If someone sees the video and tells their friends what was in it, that is acceptable and the artist would expect it. But if you do it purposely on national TV because you can, for money, for reputation, because it’s the “outrage story” of the moment, then you’ve crossed the line. Especially if one of the defining features of the work has a religious element.
You could say, ah yes but critical reviews are normal, journalists report, what’s the problem?
Normal to who? Are they normal to Muslims? Far as I know, they are not. Isn’t this all about the right way to cross lines? Muslims that challenge Islamic thought must follow strict processes and none of them are anything like the freedoms of journalistic privilege in a western world. If the artist has an agreement with the gallery to uphold certain cultural ideas, then a journalist who wanders in and is allowed to circumvent those agreements hasn’t checked their privilege or extended any courtesies. The gallery could also be at fault here, by simply forgetting about dominant culture, but there is no proof for behind the scenes events.
Yes but artists get criticised, their work is reviewed, it’s normal, how can you say it would be unacceptable, you’re a crazy PC femnobot!
The artist drew explicit lines before the work was offered for viewing. The gallery accepted those terms, potential patrons knew the terms. Anyone who knew the terms and broke them committed a violence. Ill-gotten gains, receiving stolen goods, legal entrapment, blackmail, are all generally viewed as unacceptable in mainstream white culture. In order to maintain the moral high ground, we have to be sure we don’t commit any immoral acts along the way, ourselves.
In this case, did the journalist misuse the privilege of being allowed to see the video by then clambering over the artist’s work with their own culture (the self importance of “being the first to view”) and privilege (the ability to address thousands or millions with a review), setting up a situation where the description wrongly tore away some of the privacy necessary for the installation to retain its natural integrity?
Has the work now been compromised by that rough description, not because of the description per see, but the way the review was undertaken?
For example, the journalist could have chosen to re-iterate the description given by the artist or gallery, or simply smiled and said, “Well I guess you blokes will never know. But it’s good.” instead of a pop culture analogy. Is there now the suggestion that the work has been judged by mainstream popular white culture as “nothing to get worked up about”? Cheapened by comparing religion, art and Islamic culture to an afternoon with the Kardashians? To be able to make such an analogy could suggest that any subtle messages in the artwork went totally over the viewer’s head, but that doesn’t mean the work hasn’t been labelled to invite prejudice.
And if the artwork is “nothing to get worked up about”, does that help to muddle and sideline the central issue of privilege, allowing uninformed people to think this is just a case of PC Gone Mad? Does it make the job of attacking the artwork, artist, Muslims, women, minorities, human rights and the gallery, easier? Did the journalist commit a form of cultural violence/undermining brought about by unexamined privilege?
NB: The journalist was a woman, naturally, otherwise she couldn’t have seen the video. I do not in any way suggest that because a journalist, who is a woman, may have done something wrong, that now every man and his dog is justified in doing as they please and that all issues of privilege are now void. These questions are to examine journalistic ethics (that will no doubt make some people laugh), identifying privilege and using privilege constructively.
been there while TS down, may not be my cup of tea
whole lotta questions to be subsumed above
hope you got the Very Excellent for *natural history* item
Early Mousterian man-50,000-100,000 ya
currently we share probably 96% material with our hirsute companions
yet
35M single-nucleotide changes represent about 1% of genome
yet
the proteins directly coded by genes are highly conserved (29% identical, rest differ maybe two aminos on average)
Then, there is those pesky ancient repetitive elements (Are’s)
check out mice
i am not paying to read the herald online, passed over enough money to feel unwell
On the subject of social privileges, do you think a journalist who watches a restricted artwork and reports its contents to everyone, disrespects the wishes of the artist and participants?
I was a little uncomfortable with this, but I don’t think it really breached the spirit of the request that only women view the exhibit. Plenty of articles had already said “they’re getting ready for a wedding, putting on makeup, etc” – the fact is that only the journalist saw the women unveiled, she didn’t name them or publish images of them.
Someone with more knowledge of the culture would be able to say if they think it’s disrespectful or breaching the spirit of the women’s privacy.
Yeah, I/S has a good write-up about that over on No Right Turn. Can’t say that I’m surprised – it’s what you get from a bunch of dictators upset that democracy is taking their wealth streams from them.
Same old Democrat centre right economic policy, leavened with delicious cluebatting of the Tea Bag Party’s abysmal failures to understand economics101 and why co-operation has empirically better outcome than teh GOP’s current “everyone for themselves!” meme. Plus the usual highlighting of why civil rights matter in terms of preventing people being part of society and how various aspects of poverty have very negative outcomes for the USA. With a big freaking dose of “I do give a fuck about these issues” and humour.
And amusingly the GOP response has been mostly silence with the Tea Baggers going all a twit’ with ZOMG: “DEMOCRATS BOOED GOD!”.
Has Obama fucked up? Yeap, a lot of the Republican’s are lost cases and should have never had any positions of responsibility in the Obama Administration concerning anything to do with science. Then there’s the continued use of Bush era laws to hide government actions and allow violations of civil rights both in and outside of the USA, slow movement at the federal level on LGBT rights plus the bailout. On the other hand though, the GOP has lost it’s brains completely and utterly, so a Mitt Romney presidency + Paul the Granny Starver Ryan etc is pure doom…
Not too sure why everyone thinks the sun shines out of WJC’s ass.
The economic boom during his presidency was more apparent than real, largely created by housing booms and the the expansion of credit, with a hell of a lot of people being left behind. His welfare reforms hit the poor extremely hard leading to hardship, creating a new underclass and the jobs kept streaming offshore.
I dont rate him at all really. He is no Roosevelt (the all time best), Kennedy or even a Johnson.
Wow! wotta day. be wary that habits do not form u. (no standard to continue on reading)
ya know, it is just one freakin thing after another with NZ
most here are literary, have a gander at the first paragraph of Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….Light…..Darkness…..we had everything before us, we had nothing before us..”
i regularly meet and encounter many middle-aged adult New Zealanders who do not have literacy above early intermediate level, of all ethnicities
I love watching Rachel Smalley on channel 3; i suspect she has a compassionate heart and leanings in our direction, but that is only speculation, and we all know what that’s about, know do we not?
Putin was wonderful to watch on RT today, particularly when compared and contrasted with print articles regarding his veiws today also
i check out NEWS NOW online occasionally, that covers the zeitgeist; today highlighted the U.S-Israel “spat” (clever journalism) over Iran, ya get corroborating perspectives, ya get the drift,
anyway, Putin highlighted the present Russia-China relationship, characterised by him as “at an unprecedented high….of mutual trust…developed over 1000’s of years
meanwhile the signal being sent by Singapore at the Communist Party School lectures is that there be equivalent relationships with u.s and China (they continue to benefit)
likely successor to the Party is at school there i believe. Yup
Putin-“drugs from Afganistan increase 60% in the last year, wtf? are there not a lot of international military types there? and it is continuing to flood Europe.wow! revenge is a dish best served up Cold
these freakin fasci…was one myself once…that is wot ‘appens when you wanna be your own god,
oi oi oi
well, bound because individually they are weak and fragile, been there had the patches, weirdos
Act 1: 18, (With that reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out…)
yes it is the NIV, so every one who is able and chooses to can read the freakin thing, priest…
28, You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.
I met some Beautiful maori people at a small fellowship last night
formerly they were down, and out
Now, Beautiful People, as they were to be
Maori People are Beautiful People with challenging Big Hearts
ol Martin Luther aye? some Dread
Day-Hebrew-‘Yom’ is used in different senses in the Genesis story
ex-nihilo-from nothing-go there
remember proximate cause and Ultimate cause (Aristotle)
‘pretty’ Lamarckian
then there is Ichneumonidae-Darwin could not really understand those but we can, can we not
do you know, some dinosaurs had rheumatic joints (in the fossil record)
There is at least 12 to follow around these here parts (purty Lamarckian)
joe, CV, D, Board, Dr, Murray, Olwyn, Carol, Rosie, Iprent, QoT(if your cup of tea, important work) and U-Turn, so follow McFlock to Sanctuary
Pr 1:17- How useless to spread a net in full view of the birds! These men (gender neutral nowadays)
lie in wait for their own blood;
I was at the airport the other day, and happened to see Jerry waddling towards me, I said “Jerry Brownlee”, he looked at me, and as I had his attention I said “You fat fuck” … he said “Thank you” about 10 – 20 people were in hearing distance, I wish every politician would was shown that much respect each time they went out in public, then maybe their egos wouldn’t be so big.?
Listening to yet more reports on the US Democrat convention, I was thinking about how so much of our news comes from the US (as well as the UK). But even strong lefties spend a lot of time discussing US political issues. Undoubtedly, its imperialistic power mean that it has a big influence on our lives. But, I decided I’d like to hear more from other countries we might learn from, such as Scandinavian and South American countries.
First I did a search on news from Finland. I did notice that it’s economy is experiencing some contraction right now. However, I also found this interesting op ed on Finland’s education system (albeit in a US newspaper), and why it is so successful.
The author, Pasi Sahlberg, is director general of Finland’s Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation. He has served the Finnish government in various positions, worked for the World Bank in Washington D.C. and for the European Training Foundation in Italy as senior education specialist.
Sahlberg describes Finland as a very competitive ‘market economy’ (a negative I’d have thought), but also says that,
Finland has come to be known as a nation where educational quality, equity, and productivity exist simultaneously.
He identifies 3 main provisions that ensure all Finnish children get a good education. But he also identifies an underlying reason why those provisions have been made: the relative gender equality, with significant numbers of women in top positions in central government, public life and commerce. He quotes Education historian Diane Ravitch, who criticises the corporatisation of US schools, reforming the schools along the lines of business practices, as being carried out by the “Billionaire Boys’ Club.”
The 3 fundamental provisions he identifies are:
1)
the support parents receive from the health care system prior to and right after the birth of the child. Welfare policies in Finland guarantee free health care for the mother and her infant. Parents are also issued a fully paid 12-month parental leave that parents must share between one another
2)
the country’s early childhood development and care system that is accessible to all families.
3)
a strong, systematic focus on child well being once formal schooling begins. For example, every school must have a Pupil Welfare Team that deals with all possible issues related to children’s learning, development, behavior or health in school and at home.
… Moreover, a free hot and healthful school lunch for all children has been a norm in all Finnish schools for 70 years.
Sahlberg says that,
What distinguishes Finland from the United States and many other nations in child well-being policies is accessibility and affordability. In Finland, all children and families have the same right to childcare, health and educational services regardless of socioeconomic status. Another difference is that the primary purpose of early childhood education in Finland is not to enhance children’s readiness for school. It is to support families in raising healthy and happy children.
I am having trouble putting in a proposal to the MMP Review on their web site on this the last day. The 7th September is stated but not a finishing time that I could see and there does not seems to be any box to enter a proposal on line – as if that has been withdrawn although it is before 5.30 pm and I think it should be open to midnight.
Also it is strange that a late proposal is dated 5.59 pm when the time is still about 5.30 pm.
The one before is 5.58pm. It’s almost as if times are being allocated rather than recorded.
SEPTEMBER 06, 2012 Why Desmond Tutu is Right About Bush & Blair Inside the CIA Dossier on Iraq
by VIJAY PRASHAD
Last week, Bishop Desmond Tutu was to sit beside former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair at the cringingly named Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. Tutu, one of the main moral voices in the anti-Apartheid struggle, decided to withdraw. He could not stand to sit next to Blair, or to Tony’s mate, George W. Bush because they had “fabricated the grounds [for war on Iraq] to behave like playground bullies.” Stingingly, in The Observer (September 1), Tutu recounted how he had called the White House a few days before the 2003 invasion, spoke to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and asked her to give the UN weapons inspectors more time to do their work. But “Ms. Rice demurred, saying there was too much risk and the president would not postpone any longer.” The US and UK went to war, and according to Tutu, “More than 110,000 Iraqis have died in the conflict since 2003 and millions have been displaced. By the end of last year, nearly 4,500 American soldiers had been killed and more than 32,000 wounded.”
Amnesia over Iraq has already set in. President Obama refused to countenance any prosecution for Bush era officials (and Bush himself) for the fabrications that Tutu alleges. In the UK, the Chilcot Inquiry on the Iraq War has finished its deliberations, but Sir John Chilcot has delayed the release of the final report for a full year because of wrangling to prevent Blair’s private letters to Bush from being revealed (he perhaps does not want to allow validation that in a July 2002 note he wrote, “You know, George, whatever you decide to do, I’m with you). At his appearances at the Inquiry, Blair admitted that the Iraqis were continuing to allow weapons inspectors, and that, as Sir Lawrence Freedman suggested, they had “started to reap dividends.” However, Blair worried that Saddam was “back to his old games” and was not capable of a “change of heart.” In his paper-thin memoirs, A Journey, Blair notes the question of regret for the war should not be a public question, but it can only be asked and answered “in the quiet reflection of the soul.”
If this were a universal standard, then Syria’s Bashar Assad can relax, and so should all those who are threatened with arrest and trial at the International Criminal Court. They too should be allowed to claim that retrospective analysis of war crimes is a matter of the “quiet reflection of the soul,” not public, legal accountability. …..
Amnesia over Iraq has already set in. President Obama refused to countenance any prosecution for Bush era officials (and Bush himself) for the fabrications that Tutu alleges.
Prosecuting a former President (or his staff )would set a dangerous precedent for Obama when he himself left office, would it not?
Looking around for something of interest on Argentina, this morning, I came across this review of a book that documents the history of the anarchist movement of the turn from the 19th to 20th century, one that involved a widespread development of grass roots, direct democracy. The book is by Juan Suriano, Paradoxes of Utopia
When the Argentine economy collapsed in 2001, many were surprised by the factory takeovers and neighbourhood assemblies that resulted. But workers’ control and direct democracy have long histories in Argentina, where from the late nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, anarchism was the main revolutionary ideology of the labour movement and other social struggles.
…
For Juan Suriano, that’s just one part of the story. Paradoxes of Utopia gives us an engaging look at fin de siècle Buenos Aires that brings to life the vibrant culture behind one of the world’s largest anarchist movements challenging the myth that anarchist was merely a euro-centric movement: the radical schools, newspapers, theatres, and social clubs that made revolution a way of life. Cultural history in the best sense, Paradoxes of Utopia explores how a revolutionary ideology was woven into the ordinary lives of tens of thousands of people, creating a complex tapestry of symbols, rituals, and daily practices that supported-and indeed created the possibility of-the Argentine labour movement.
Suriano attributes the decline of the anarchism movement to a mixture of state repression and the rise of the welfare state, electoral democracy, and, what sounds like the acceptance of unions for negotiating for workers in the workplace:
However, by 1910 the Argentine anarchist movement in terms of numbers and influence was in steady decline mainly due to brutal state repression, but the growth of social welfare in housing, education and work, voting rights and institutionalisation of labour disputes all contributing with the author pointing out that ‘there is no doubt that the tendency toward self-marginalisation, combined with their reluctance to analyse or even note domestic particularities, dramatically facilitated their separation from the workers’.
There are lessons here, with Suiano concluding that there’s no easy route to building direct participant democracy, it’s a long hard process. I don’t know how such a movement can ensure they eventually don’t become victims of “brutal state repression”.
By ensuring that a workers movement has representation in every political party, as well as its own, and all parts of the social fabric of society.
Well that’s kind of what the “neoliberals” did for themselves over the last few decades. So it’s a big task to flush them out, and bring some sense and grass roots democracy back into every section of society.
In the judgement Justice Venning said he thought the court should be cautious about making judgements based on decisions made and conclusions drawn by a specialist body such as NIWA.
He said NIWA acted “within its own sphere of expertise”.
Justice Venning said unless the trust could point to some defect in NIWA’s decision-making process or show that the decision was clearly wrong in principle or in law the court could not intervene.
“This Court should not seek to determine or resolve scientific questions demanding the evaluation of contentious expert opinion.”
This release was jointly prepared by, and is endorsed by:
Associate Professor James Renwick, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington
Professor Jim Salinger, currently visiting Stanford University
Professor Martin Manning, Climate Change Research Institute, Victoria University of Wellington
Professor Peter Barrett, Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington
Professor (Emeritus) Blair Fitzharris, University of Otago
Professor Keith Hunter, Pro-Vice Chancellor Science, University of Otago
Spokesperson for the group, Associate Professor James Renwick of Victoria University said he was pleased that the court had respected and reaffirmed the credibility of the scientific process. It was a strong message to those wanting to challenge widely-agreed scientific findings to do so honestly and openly in scientific forums.
Barry Brill and, I suspect, the ACT party were behind this nonsense, Brill set up the trust fronting the action. I hope they get screwed with substantial costs.
Judgment said NIWA are entitled to costs, not only the court.
“The plaintiff does not succeed on any of its challenges to the three decisions of NIWA in issue. The application for judicial review is dismissed and judgment entered for the defendant. [and] The defendant is entitled to costs.”
They most assuredly were… lead by that obsessional nincompoop, John Boscawen. It was nothing but an ideologically motivated political ploy to try and embarrass the climate scientists and thus infer global warming to be a fake. They never had a show in hell of succeeding, but their own tunnel-visioned arrogance and self-deceit gave them the lie they would win.
I contributed to a small portion of the data involved, and the checks and balances in place were in strict accordance with WMO (World Meteorological Organisation) guidelines.
They were hoisted by their own ignorance. Ha ha ha ha!
In defending the claim, NIWA has spent a huge amount (estimated at well over $100,000) and has diverted a number of its scientists away from their research. The country can ill afford to waste such an amount. “This misguided action of a small group adds confusion to a simple issue – the world is warming and future generations of New Zealanders will have to deal with the consequences” Dr Renwick said.
I hope this story gets a bit of international exposure. It will help discredit these foolish but dangerous global warming deniers.
It doesn’t discourage them though , here are some of the culprits and their cheerleaders, busy spinning defeat into victory.
Warning: You will be entering an alternative reality
didja see mccully weaseling out of the marine reserve in the Ross Sea.
these guys will bend over backward for buck.
ooops…better be careful about what I say.
By the Elder Gods, wtf Australia? You couldn’t even get away with that level of outright, naked misogyny in the US Senate without committing political suicide. Oh and Larry Pickering is one colossal creep /shudder
btw, please put “trigger warning” on stuff like that, some out there haven’t had it easy on this sort of shit 🙁
Where you bin Nick. Good ole godzone led the way on this with the deliberate and well-funded Helenhate campaign of 05-08.
Among other write- and talk-back efforts of note, that nice Cam Slater (son of a National Party president and pushbike partner of the mallard) published pornographic material with Helen’s head attached and along with that nice David Farrar currently appearing on nice Jim Mora’s panel published every possible mysogenistic hatred-inciting comment imagineable including exhortations for her assassination.
Worked a treat. A true kiwi initiative. Our local mysogenistic hatemongering had comparatively limited effect, but: “bitch” never quite segued to the current aussie “witch”, perhaps because Helen had neither red hair, sharp nose, nor intelligence below that of 99% of the population.
Poor old Julia’s doomed. Latest victim of the massive 1950 – 70s US-funded Catholic anti-socialist propaganda efforts now brought to fruition and propogated by the Joyces, Englishes and anti-gay-voting Findlaysons of our day.
And black days too for poor old Jesus. Just as the last corrupt manipulators of His legacy enter their well-deserved hell, their hapless and brain-washed immigrant protegees rally to the hands that feed bread alone and keep the money-changers in the temple. To their own, ultimate, but fantasy-leavened detriment.
But He works in mysterious ways. If we had to give the world Helenhate as a prelude to UN Helen, Labourlite, the Mana Maori Party and GreenLab, perhaps that’s a small price.
Ah, too sleep deprived and not active on the NZ political blog scene until post-Labour 😛
My flatmate Tui actually sort of introduced me to this place I think, or at least the road that lead to it.
I remember some of that too, but it never really made into the mainstream media enough for me to notice it, where as the one is AUS has hit the mainstream at a rather horrifyingly broad level.
And was that a Farrar of Kiwiblog aka the sewer or the one on TV3 who has a massive bias against Labour and who “helped” Chris Carter end his political career?
And Julia’s initial problem was fucking Kevin Rudd’s inability to accept his well deserved fate. He stuffed up and the party made it clear it no longer had confidence in him as the leader. This opened up a hole for the media to exploit and created a fair few issues vis party in-fighting. Which, if it were less of an issue, might have given Gillard more support and allowed the party to fight back against the outright misogynistic bullshit the right has been throwing at her.
Oh, and some of us are atheists 😛
Also on ” intelligence below 99%…” Explain it please, because Gillard very much has a working brain and more apparent intelligence than Ruddkips.
So THIS is going on in this country, and apparently the majority of the population go along with this, thinking the persons affected are largely maligners and “bludgers”.
What a bloody disgrace this country has become, I’d say! Also there is NO solution for the capable to stay here and partake in a growing, successful economy.
As a migrant from a developed country, I ask why I ever bothered coming back to such a mean spirited, unfair, unsympathetic and bullshit country, selling itself as “clean green”, “humane”, “fair” and whatever, while in reality most are at each other’s throats.
The truth is, that is what happens in a depressed, impoverished, divided and manipulated society. That is what NZ has become. I hate it. Better bloody make sure it changes, or you will lose many more fair minded, educated, reasonable, well qualified and capable people, as you are doing every bloody week.
Key must be put out of office tomorrow, not in two years, MR USELESS SHEARER!
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
RNZ News As Israel presses ahead with strikes in Rafah and seizing the Rafah crossing from Egypt, aid agencies are sounding the alarm of a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”. Rafah was “significant” because it was the only part in Gaza that had not been terribly damaged by the conflict, United Nations ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 8 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Well that was a pain.
Hardware failures at the main server when it got it’s 3 monthly reboot. Problem with a hard disk failure and the RAID not quite working as expected so it didn’t drop the affected disk neatly. And there was a problem anyway with the remote access to the BIOS to change the array. Not to mention that the browsers are getting VERY paranoid about running Java applications.
I’d already managed to destroy (damnit!) the warm backup system (one of my home systems) with an ill-timed screwup a few days ago. Played with QFlash after setting everything up for the new IP address that I got after we moved. It seemed to trash a pile of files on the boot partition. I was actually working on repackaging it…
So I pushed the backups of data, images and code to the cold server, and went to bed at 0300.
I do have to work as well and time is tight. So decided this morning that I would let the hosting techs deal with the hardware in the morning. If everything turned to custard on the drives, I would head home early to kick the cold server into action. It is a pretty small virtual server so capacity wise, I’d have to watch it – something I am loath to do at work.
So I spent this morning and part of the afternoon silently remotely monitoring an increasingly frustrated tech working his way through the process of finding what in the hell was wrong. I could watch him working his way through the bios and booted tools. Nice toolset (I want…)
Pain being out for just over 12 hours. But we’re volunteers and usually short of time and cash. I’d love to have a dedicated warm backup server – but the budget doesn’t stretch that far at present.
Ummm need some more sleep. The coding is a bit sluggish right now.
Thanks lprent.
pain is generally a positive protective mechanism warning of hazards
Thanks and where can we make contributions ?
Always willing to take people’s money… Donate here, these days the direct to the bank account is the best…
Good idea TC.
I will make a donation and I suggest everyone else does the same.
Just think. In the past we paid Wilson and Horton to feed us with tory propaganda. Why not pay the standard to feed us real news and community interaction?
You mean if we donate they will change and start providing us ‘Real news’, where do I sign up? Would be a refreshing change, although I am thouroughly entertained with the current red tinted view of the world.
Oh Bob, so sure of your world view, so unwilling to actually say what it is.
We don’t provide “news”. Mostly we provide “opinion” with a few facts interspersed and people commenting do the same. Of course the former is pretty much a job description of a journalist. They just have to get used to the blowback (the latter).
Many of them seem to have a problem with that. Personally I think that it will do them quite a lot of good.
But you have yet to tell us what you think – currently you perform the role of useless carping critic with not notable skills. This is merely my opinion, but I suspect it is because you are somewhat too stupid to think.. But is does provide us with a lower benchmark to measure ourselves against. (my nana always told me to look for what people were good at…)
…backup server – but the budget doesn’t stretch that far at present…
How much? Maybe we could have a whip round.
They aren’t a one off cost like buying a machine. It is actually the bandwidth that costs the most over time directly and indirectly.
These days we have a dedicated server running in NZ that costs about ~$333 per month ($290+GST). Traffic is unlimited inside NZ as (a major part) of the server cost, but costs $2/GB for offshore above our limit of 25GB. We typically do somewhere between 180GB and 300GB per month in local traffic (subject to cloudflare)…
We’d typically do between 50 and 150GB in overseas traffic if it is left unconstrained – mostly to spambots, searchbots, and RSS feeds. That is where we get pinged pretty badly. It is all the more annoying because more than 95% of the human clients are inside the NZ net.
So we now have cloudflare ($US 20 per month) which caches the static parts of the site like images and pushes almost all of the traffic local and overseas back on to the Southern Cross cable that the 25GB limit is meant to ration usage of. It also slows the site compared to being on the local net. But it makes our bills a lot more manageable. We effectively feed cloudflare mostly text (because they cache the rest) and they feed that and the cached images to everyone else from multiple servers worldwide.
I also have my home system that these days could handle the traffic load for a few days with cloudflare assisting. Probably more so once the fibre arrives near the door in December. But residential bandwidth is pretty expensive. I usually run that ‘warm’ with a copy running in near real time to the main server with a replicated database and rsynced directory.
And there is a cheap virtual server that sits cold and can be upgraded easily. I mostly use it for out of NZ storage of backups. But has probably been too problematic to run for a number of years as an active server because of CPU usage. The caching from cloudflare may change that and the reason to site in NZ (speed to NZ users) is now moot as we have to run everything from offshore because of the costs of overseas traffic…
We actually make enough from the advertising. However it is somewhat unpredictable when the money arrives. So we concentrate on keeping the costs down.
So a backup server would involve a monthly outlay for bandwidth?
Another $333-odd per month? Ouch!
What happened to the previously user-friendly donate page? I don’t have a smart-phone so can’t use an app.
It’s a wee bit of a disincentive, those without the relevant tech or telebanking having to traipse down to the bank. However will make the effort…
I haven’t looked at paypal for years. I see what you mean. I think I might remove it from the donations page.
But I usually pay things using internet banking these days. That is pretty easy. One call to the bank should be able to set it up.
Thanks for getting it going again, Lynn.
I amused myself writing up a couple of posts offline this morning before I went out. Will post one below.
Welcome back The Standard. Thanks for getting her going again Lprent.
The good news is that one Pagani is gone from Labour. It’s far too early to feel anything like optimism about the largest opposition party thus far, but it is good news none the less.
It seems fitting that he’s gone to represent mining interests. Not as fitting as going on a benefit would have been, but of course years of making contacts amongst the rich and powerful go a long way even amongst the ignorant and inept.
ps, my computer kept up a facsimilie of the site from after I turned the computer off last night. Something called cloud fare. Frankly I won’t be surprised if one day the computer starts turning on the kettle of its own accord before I get up in the morning, such are the marvels of technololgy…
Labour insider moves to NZOG
Surprised the he was once part of New Labour though.
[lprent: fixed the link. ]
Oil & Gas
How appropriate.
Like you huh, full of piss and wind and vinegar but not much else.
Well, 25 odd years ago he was much younger and maybe more radical in his thinking. I did the opposite… started out quite conservative and went further to the Left the older I became.
Ditto…
Well, I meant that he’s unctuous and flatulent.
Same here. Impending environmental doom really focusses the mind.
One down……….
@ David H
lol
Aye tis good news. Now hopefully the leader can be given speeches that sound like they were written for the leader of the Labour Party and not for some pale blue tosh.
The Labour Leader as a speech reader. Reads whatever is put in front of him. So inspiring.
SP thats how you get a golden parachute
He’s FUCKING GONE! 😀
This plus Bill Clinton’s DNC speech has made my day after some bloody horrible stuff (trigger warning, sexual harassment, 1, 2 )
This is about journalism. One of the blogs I read is this one:
http://ideologicallyimpure.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/the-thin-end-of-the-wedge-art-edition/#comments
The above links to a story about The Dowse Gallery being challenged over restrictions to its patrons. I entirely agree with the opinion of the blogger. After watching the 3news video linked to in the piece, I have a question.
On the subject of social privileges, do you think a journalist who watches a restricted artwork and reports its contents to everyone, disrespects the wishes of the artist and participants?
In a world where many fail to recognise the existence of social privileges, I might appear to be looking a little too closely, but it seems that 3News have an opportunity to learn from this too, not just Paul Young and friends. If you are a journalist, you have power to communicate far outside the ability of average people. If someone sees the video and tells their friends what was in it, that is acceptable and the artist would expect it. But if you do it purposely on national TV because you can, for money, for reputation, because it’s the “outrage story” of the moment, then you’ve crossed the line. Especially if one of the defining features of the work has a religious element.
You could say, ah yes but critical reviews are normal, journalists report, what’s the problem?
Normal to who? Are they normal to Muslims? Far as I know, they are not. Isn’t this all about the right way to cross lines? Muslims that challenge Islamic thought must follow strict processes and none of them are anything like the freedoms of journalistic privilege in a western world. If the artist has an agreement with the gallery to uphold certain cultural ideas, then a journalist who wanders in and is allowed to circumvent those agreements hasn’t checked their privilege or extended any courtesies. The gallery could also be at fault here, by simply forgetting about dominant culture, but there is no proof for behind the scenes events.
Yes but artists get criticised, their work is reviewed, it’s normal, how can you say it would be unacceptable, you’re a crazy PC femnobot!
The artist drew explicit lines before the work was offered for viewing. The gallery accepted those terms, potential patrons knew the terms. Anyone who knew the terms and broke them committed a violence. Ill-gotten gains, receiving stolen goods, legal entrapment, blackmail, are all generally viewed as unacceptable in mainstream white culture. In order to maintain the moral high ground, we have to be sure we don’t commit any immoral acts along the way, ourselves.
In this case, did the journalist misuse the privilege of being allowed to see the video by then clambering over the artist’s work with their own culture (the self importance of “being the first to view”) and privilege (the ability to address thousands or millions with a review), setting up a situation where the description wrongly tore away some of the privacy necessary for the installation to retain its natural integrity?
Has the work now been compromised by that rough description, not because of the description per see, but the way the review was undertaken?
For example, the journalist could have chosen to re-iterate the description given by the artist or gallery, or simply smiled and said, “Well I guess you blokes will never know. But it’s good.” instead of a pop culture analogy. Is there now the suggestion that the work has been judged by mainstream popular white culture as “nothing to get worked up about”? Cheapened by comparing religion, art and Islamic culture to an afternoon with the Kardashians? To be able to make such an analogy could suggest that any subtle messages in the artwork went totally over the viewer’s head, but that doesn’t mean the work hasn’t been labelled to invite prejudice.
And if the artwork is “nothing to get worked up about”, does that help to muddle and sideline the central issue of privilege, allowing uninformed people to think this is just a case of PC Gone Mad? Does it make the job of attacking the artwork, artist, Muslims, women, minorities, human rights and the gallery, easier? Did the journalist commit a form of cultural violence/undermining brought about by unexamined privilege?
NB: The journalist was a woman, naturally, otherwise she couldn’t have seen the video. I do not in any way suggest that because a journalist, who is a woman, may have done something wrong, that now every man and his dog is justified in doing as they please and that all issues of privilege are now void. These questions are to examine journalistic ethics (that will no doubt make some people laugh), identifying privilege and using privilege constructively.
been there while TS down, may not be my cup of tea
whole lotta questions to be subsumed above
hope you got the Very Excellent for *natural history* item
Early Mousterian man-50,000-100,000 ya
currently we share probably 96% material with our hirsute companions
yet
35M single-nucleotide changes represent about 1% of genome
yet
the proteins directly coded by genes are highly conserved (29% identical, rest differ maybe two aminos on average)
Then, there is those pesky ancient repetitive elements (Are’s)
check out mice
i am not paying to read the herald online, passed over enough money to feel unwell
On the subject of social privileges, do you think a journalist who watches a restricted artwork and reports its contents to everyone, disrespects the wishes of the artist and participants?
I was a little uncomfortable with this, but I don’t think it really breached the spirit of the request that only women view the exhibit. Plenty of articles had already said “they’re getting ready for a wedding, putting on makeup, etc” – the fact is that only the journalist saw the women unveiled, she didn’t name them or publish images of them.
Someone with more knowledge of the culture would be able to say if they think it’s disrespectful or breaching the spirit of the women’s privacy.
Authoritarian arses.
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/environment-canterbury-commissioners-stay
http://www.dia.govt.nz/Resource-material-Our-Policy-Advice-Areas-Environment-Canterbury
Yeah, I/S has a good write-up about that over on No Right Turn. Can’t say that I’m surprised – it’s what you get from a bunch of dictators upset that democracy is taking their wealth streams from them.
Grrrrrrrr.
And of course the rural National supporters wont give a toss, despite the irony over their ETS whinging etc.
science IS Wonderful imo Joe.:)
more soon
Farmers, big business and big iwi want all the water to themselves and as far as they are concerned, domestic and recerational users can get stuffed.
And here’s Bill Clinton’s DNC speech:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/40869_Video-_President_Bill_Clintons_Remarks_at_the_2012_Democratic_National_Convention
Same old Democrat centre right economic policy, leavened with delicious cluebatting of the Tea Bag Party’s abysmal failures to understand economics101 and why co-operation has empirically better outcome than teh GOP’s current “everyone for themselves!” meme. Plus the usual highlighting of why civil rights matter in terms of preventing people being part of society and how various aspects of poverty have very negative outcomes for the USA. With a big freaking dose of “I do give a fuck about these issues” and humour.
And amusingly the GOP response has been mostly silence with the Tea Baggers going all a twit’ with ZOMG: “DEMOCRATS BOOED GOD!”.
Has Obama fucked up? Yeap, a lot of the Republican’s are lost cases and should have never had any positions of responsibility in the Obama Administration concerning anything to do with science. Then there’s the continued use of Bush era laws to hide government actions and allow violations of civil rights both in and outside of the USA, slow movement at the federal level on LGBT rights plus the bailout. On the other hand though, the GOP has lost it’s brains completely and utterly, so a Mitt Romney presidency + Paul the Granny Starver Ryan etc is pure doom…
Not too sure why everyone thinks the sun shines out of WJC’s ass.
The economic boom during his presidency was more apparent than real, largely created by housing booms and the the expansion of credit, with a hell of a lot of people being left behind. His welfare reforms hit the poor extremely hard leading to hardship, creating a new underclass and the jobs kept streaming offshore.
I dont rate him at all really. He is no Roosevelt (the all time best), Kennedy or even a Johnson.
Just a thought, pagani may cause an explosion when he tries to turn oil and gas into water 🙂
Wow! wotta day. be wary that habits do not form u. (no standard to continue on reading)
ya know, it is just one freakin thing after another with NZ
most here are literary, have a gander at the first paragraph of Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….Light…..Darkness…..we had everything before us, we had nothing before us..”
i regularly meet and encounter many middle-aged adult New Zealanders who do not have literacy above early intermediate level, of all ethnicities
I love watching Rachel Smalley on channel 3; i suspect she has a compassionate heart and leanings in our direction, but that is only speculation, and we all know what that’s about, know do we not?
Putin was wonderful to watch on RT today, particularly when compared and contrasted with print articles regarding his veiws today also
i check out NEWS NOW online occasionally, that covers the zeitgeist; today highlighted the U.S-Israel “spat” (clever journalism) over Iran, ya get corroborating perspectives, ya get the drift,
anyway, Putin highlighted the present Russia-China relationship, characterised by him as “at an unprecedented high….of mutual trust…developed over 1000’s of years
meanwhile the signal being sent by Singapore at the Communist Party School lectures is that there be equivalent relationships with u.s and China (they continue to benefit)
likely successor to the Party is at school there i believe. Yup
Putin-“drugs from Afganistan increase 60% in the last year, wtf? are there not a lot of international military types there? and it is continuing to flood Europe.wow! revenge is a dish best served up Cold
these freakin fasci…was one myself once…that is wot ‘appens when you wanna be your own god,
oi oi oi
well, bound because individually they are weak and fragile, been there had the patches, weirdos
Act 1: 18, (With that reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out…)
yes it is the NIV, so every one who is able and chooses to can read the freakin thing, priest…
28, You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.
I met some Beautiful maori people at a small fellowship last night
formerly they were down, and out
Now, Beautiful People, as they were to be
Maori People are Beautiful People with challenging Big Hearts
ol Martin Luther aye? some Dread
Day-Hebrew-‘Yom’ is used in different senses in the Genesis story
ex-nihilo-from nothing-go there
remember proximate cause and Ultimate cause (Aristotle)
‘pretty’ Lamarckian
then there is Ichneumonidae-Darwin could not really understand those but we can, can we not
do you know, some dinosaurs had rheumatic joints (in the fossil record)
There is at least 12 to follow around these here parts (purty Lamarckian)
joe, CV, D, Board, Dr, Murray, Olwyn, Carol, Rosie, Iprent, QoT(if your cup of tea, important work) and U-Turn, so follow McFlock to Sanctuary
Pr 1:17- How useless to spread a net in full view of the birds! These men (gender neutral nowadays)
lie in wait for their own blood;
OR,
Acts 2: 44-
I was at the airport the other day, and happened to see Jerry waddling towards me, I said “Jerry Brownlee”, he looked at me, and as I had his attention I said “You fat fuck” … he said “Thank you” about 10 – 20 people were in hearing distance, I wish every politician would was shown that much respect each time they went out in public, then maybe their egos wouldn’t be so big.?
Listening to yet more reports on the US Democrat convention, I was thinking about how so much of our news comes from the US (as well as the UK). But even strong lefties spend a lot of time discussing US political issues. Undoubtedly, its imperialistic power mean that it has a big influence on our lives. But, I decided I’d like to hear more from other countries we might learn from, such as Scandinavian and South American countries.
First I did a search on news from Finland. I did notice that it’s economy is experiencing some contraction right now. However, I also found this interesting op ed on Finland’s education system (albeit in a US newspaper), and why it is so successful.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/a-new-finnish-lesson-why-gender-equality-matters-in-school-reform/2012/09/05/3703ad4c-f778-11e1-8253-3f495ae70650_blog.html
The author, Pasi Sahlberg, is director general of Finland’s Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation. He has served the Finnish government in various positions, worked for the World Bank in Washington D.C. and for the European Training Foundation in Italy as senior education specialist.
Sahlberg describes Finland as a very competitive ‘market economy’ (a negative I’d have thought), but also says that,
He identifies 3 main provisions that ensure all Finnish children get a good education. But he also identifies an underlying reason why those provisions have been made: the relative gender equality, with significant numbers of women in top positions in central government, public life and commerce. He quotes Education historian Diane Ravitch, who criticises the corporatisation of US schools, reforming the schools along the lines of business practices, as being carried out by the “Billionaire Boys’ Club.”
The 3 fundamental provisions he identifies are:
1)
2)
3)
Sahlberg says that,
I am having trouble putting in a proposal to the MMP Review on their web site on this the last day. The 7th September is stated but not a finishing time that I could see and there does not seems to be any box to enter a proposal on line – as if that has been withdrawn although it is before 5.30 pm and I think it should be open to midnight.
Also it is strange that a late proposal is dated 5.59 pm when the time is still about 5.30 pm.
The one before is 5.58pm. It’s almost as if times are being allocated rather than recorded.
SEPTEMBER 06, 2012
Why Desmond Tutu is Right About Bush & Blair
Inside the CIA Dossier on Iraq
by VIJAY PRASHAD
Last week, Bishop Desmond Tutu was to sit beside former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair at the cringingly named Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. Tutu, one of the main moral voices in the anti-Apartheid struggle, decided to withdraw. He could not stand to sit next to Blair, or to Tony’s mate, George W. Bush because they had “fabricated the grounds [for war on Iraq] to behave like playground bullies.” Stingingly, in The Observer (September 1), Tutu recounted how he had called the White House a few days before the 2003 invasion, spoke to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and asked her to give the UN weapons inspectors more time to do their work. But “Ms. Rice demurred, saying there was too much risk and the president would not postpone any longer.” The US and UK went to war, and according to Tutu, “More than 110,000 Iraqis have died in the conflict since 2003 and millions have been displaced. By the end of last year, nearly 4,500 American soldiers had been killed and more than 32,000 wounded.”
Amnesia over Iraq has already set in. President Obama refused to countenance any prosecution for Bush era officials (and Bush himself) for the fabrications that Tutu alleges. In the UK, the Chilcot Inquiry on the Iraq War has finished its deliberations, but Sir John Chilcot has delayed the release of the final report for a full year because of wrangling to prevent Blair’s private letters to Bush from being revealed (he perhaps does not want to allow validation that in a July 2002 note he wrote, “You know, George, whatever you decide to do, I’m with you). At his appearances at the Inquiry, Blair admitted that the Iraqis were continuing to allow weapons inspectors, and that, as Sir Lawrence Freedman suggested, they had “started to reap dividends.” However, Blair worried that Saddam was “back to his old games” and was not capable of a “change of heart.” In his paper-thin memoirs, A Journey, Blair notes the question of regret for the war should not be a public question, but it can only be asked and answered “in the quiet reflection of the soul.”
If this were a universal standard, then Syria’s Bashar Assad can relax, and so should all those who are threatened with arrest and trial at the International Criminal Court. They too should be allowed to claim that retrospective analysis of war crimes is a matter of the “quiet reflection of the soul,” not public, legal accountability. …..
Read more…..
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/09/06/inside-the-cia-dossier-on-iraq/
Prosecuting a former President (or his staff )would set a dangerous precedent for Obama when he himself left office, would it not?
Excellent! Thanks, Morrissey…
Looking around for something of interest on Argentina, this morning, I came across this review of a book that documents the history of the anarchist movement of the turn from the 19th to 20th century, one that involved a widespread development of grass roots, direct democracy. The book is by Juan Suriano, Paradoxes of Utopia
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/23799
Suriano attributes the decline of the anarchism movement to a mixture of state repression and the rise of the welfare state, electoral democracy, and, what sounds like the acceptance of unions for negotiating for workers in the workplace:
There are lessons here, with Suiano concluding that there’s no easy route to building direct participant democracy, it’s a long hard process. I don’t know how such a movement can ensure they eventually don’t become victims of “brutal state repression”.
By ensuring that a workers movement has representation in every political party, as well as its own, and all parts of the social fabric of society.
By ensuring that a workers movement has representation in every political party, as well as its own, and all parts of the social fabric of society.
Well that’s kind of what the “neoliberals” did for themselves over the last few decades. So it’s a big task to flush them out, and bring some sense and grass roots democracy back into every section of society.
Climate clowns lose action against NIWA
http://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/cases/nz-climate-science-education-trust-v-niwa-ltd/at_download/fileDecision
And the sceptics were so sure of winning 🙄
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7634556/Climate-sceptics-fail-in-Niwa-case
Leading Climate Scientists Welcome Judge’s Decision
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC1209/S00009/leading-climate-scientists-welcome-judges-decision.htm
This release was jointly prepared by, and is endorsed by:
Associate Professor James Renwick, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington
Professor Jim Salinger, currently visiting Stanford University
Professor Martin Manning, Climate Change Research Institute, Victoria University of Wellington
Professor Peter Barrett, Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington
Professor (Emeritus) Blair Fitzharris, University of Otago
Professor Keith Hunter, Pro-Vice Chancellor Science, University of Otago
Ouch!
Looks as if costs are almost certainly going to be granted against the plaintiff.
Hehehehehe…
They’ll still try and spin this though in their favour 🙁
But stupid does as stupid is…
Barry Brill and, I suspect, the ACT party were behind this nonsense, Brill set up the trust fronting the action. I hope they get screwed with substantial costs.
They’ll just get a donation from Heartland and fellow weasels to cover it probably…
And because this is NZ, the court costs wont be hideous, so it wont be that much sadly :/
Judgment said NIWA are entitled to costs, not only the court.
“The plaintiff does not succeed on any of its challenges to the three decisions of NIWA in issue. The application for judicial review is dismissed and judgment entered for the defendant. [and] The defendant is entitled to costs.”
the ACT party were behind this nonsense
They most assuredly were… lead by that obsessional nincompoop, John Boscawen. It was nothing but an ideologically motivated political ploy to try and embarrass the climate scientists and thus infer global warming to be a fake. They never had a show in hell of succeeding, but their own tunnel-visioned arrogance and self-deceit gave them the lie they would win.
I contributed to a small portion of the data involved, and the checks and balances in place were in strict accordance with WMO (World Meteorological Organisation) guidelines.
They were hoisted by their own ignorance. Ha ha ha ha!
They’ve already tried that and had their arses handed to them. This was the Deniers last chance to stop the truth from winning out.
I hope this story gets a bit of international exposure. It will help discredit these foolish but dangerous global warming deniers.
It doesn’t discourage them though , here are some of the culprits and their cheerleaders, busy spinning defeat into victory.
Warning: You will be entering an alternative reality
http://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz/2012/09/judge-declines-to-intervene/
Their intentions are to stop the science saying what they don’t want it to say. Them saying that their intentions are anything else is BS.
And NZ$100000? Pocket money for the people bank-rolling the deniers. They’ve got plenty of trust-funds and stupid idiots to milk for donations.
Ha ha, good job. That’s god punishing you for being a twat Lyn.
Having you around is the real punishment
didja see mccully weaseling out of the marine reserve in the Ross Sea.
these guys will bend over backward for buck.
ooops…better be careful about what I say.
The Standard is back online, Bill Clinton made an awesome speech, and John Pagani is goneburger 😀
A very happy Friday it is 😀
Clinton set the example for Obama, promise to the left, but deliver to the right.
At least Obama didnt totally cave in to the right over health care like Clinton did.
http://annesummers.com.au/speeches/her-rights-at-work-r-rated/
🙁
By the Elder Gods, wtf Australia? You couldn’t even get away with that level of outright, naked misogyny in the US Senate without committing political suicide. Oh and Larry Pickering is one colossal creep /shudder
btw, please put “trigger warning” on stuff like that, some out there haven’t had it easy on this sort of shit 🙁
Where you bin Nick. Good ole godzone led the way on this with the deliberate and well-funded Helenhate campaign of 05-08.
Among other write- and talk-back efforts of note, that nice Cam Slater (son of a National Party president and pushbike partner of the mallard) published pornographic material with Helen’s head attached and along with that nice David Farrar currently appearing on nice Jim Mora’s panel published every possible mysogenistic hatred-inciting comment imagineable including exhortations for her assassination.
Worked a treat. A true kiwi initiative. Our local mysogenistic hatemongering had comparatively limited effect, but: “bitch” never quite segued to the current aussie “witch”, perhaps because Helen had neither red hair, sharp nose, nor intelligence below that of 99% of the population.
Poor old Julia’s doomed. Latest victim of the massive 1950 – 70s US-funded Catholic anti-socialist propaganda efforts now brought to fruition and propogated by the Joyces, Englishes and anti-gay-voting Findlaysons of our day.
And black days too for poor old Jesus. Just as the last corrupt manipulators of His legacy enter their well-deserved hell, their hapless and brain-washed immigrant protegees rally to the hands that feed bread alone and keep the money-changers in the temple. To their own, ultimate, but fantasy-leavened detriment.
But He works in mysterious ways. If we had to give the world Helenhate as a prelude to UN Helen, Labourlite, the Mana Maori Party and GreenLab, perhaps that’s a small price.
Ah, too sleep deprived and not active on the NZ political blog scene until post-Labour 😛
My flatmate Tui actually sort of introduced me to this place I think, or at least the road that lead to it.
I remember some of that too, but it never really made into the mainstream media enough for me to notice it, where as the one is AUS has hit the mainstream at a rather horrifyingly broad level.
And was that a Farrar of Kiwiblog aka the sewer or the one on TV3 who has a massive bias against Labour and who “helped” Chris Carter end his political career?
And Julia’s initial problem was fucking Kevin Rudd’s inability to accept his well deserved fate. He stuffed up and the party made it clear it no longer had confidence in him as the leader. This opened up a hole for the media to exploit and created a fair few issues vis party in-fighting. Which, if it were less of an issue, might have given Gillard more support and allowed the party to fight back against the outright misogynistic bullshit the right has been throwing at her.
Oh, and some of us are atheists 😛
Also on ” intelligence below 99%…” Explain it please, because Gillard very much has a working brain and more apparent intelligence than Ruddkips.
Excellent imo.(big price regretably)
Yeah, sorry about that, will do so in the future.
Reminder call:
ACC legal and moral breaches:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCecwuwCHb4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QknNdOhOkr8
WINZ legal and moral breaches:
http://www.gpcme.co.nz/pdf/2012/Fri_DaVinci_1400_Bratt_Medical Certificates are Clinical Instruments too – June 2012.pdf
http://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=Dr+David+Bratt+ppt&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CE0QFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rgpn.org.nz%2FNetwork%2Fmedia%2Fdocuments%2FConference2011%2FD-Bratt.ppt&ei=pOMqUNyqF–QiQee4oGgBQ&usg=AFQjCNFEdYN_dDW9BAZvZo_cQpC2rFyelg&cad=rja
So THIS is going on in this country, and apparently the majority of the population go along with this, thinking the persons affected are largely maligners and “bludgers”.
What a bloody disgrace this country has become, I’d say! Also there is NO solution for the capable to stay here and partake in a growing, successful economy.
As a migrant from a developed country, I ask why I ever bothered coming back to such a mean spirited, unfair, unsympathetic and bullshit country, selling itself as “clean green”, “humane”, “fair” and whatever, while in reality most are at each other’s throats.
The truth is, that is what happens in a depressed, impoverished, divided and manipulated society. That is what NZ has become. I hate it. Better bloody make sure it changes, or you will lose many more fair minded, educated, reasonable, well qualified and capable people, as you are doing every bloody week.
Key must be put out of office tomorrow, not in two years, MR USELESS SHEARER!
Thank you for that. true