This is bullshit. This guy is just spending more time on the beach than others.
This “eviction” is so that the wealthy people can enjoy uninterrupted views as well as reinforcing the capital model of paying exorbitant rental…to the wealthy! We’ve just come full circle.
An eccentric living in a hand-made driftwood and tarpaulin home on the foreshore near Oakura has been given his marching orders.
But Eric Brewer, 62, says he is unfazed at the threat to remove him from his seaside home with the million-dollar views at Tapuae.
“I’m out of here,” the sickness beneficiary told the Taranaki Daily News team whom he warmly welcomed into his beach bach on a perfect late summer’s afternoon yesterday.
Averse to paying rent or a mortgage, he has no idea where he will go. He has lived off-and-on at Tapuae for nearly two decades.
-snip-
Mr Brewer concedes he is living on the Queen’s Chain but says it is confiscated Maori land.
“I swear allegiance to this land, not the Queen of England,” he said.
[lprent: Yes. The result of some irritated and coffee concentrated cursing and other hard work. Turns out the the damn thing was trying to access admin functions without defining it as requiring a https connection. It will require some more work to get to play nicely with the rest of the system. But gives me more time to figure out a more elegant solution. ]
Like the Californian equivalent, Malibu, where the wealthy keep attempting to secure exclusive use of the beach in contrast to Venice Beach where it belongs to everyone.
They’re wealthy enough to buy their own but there’s no ‘look at me and what I’ve got’ ‘value in that and Public land is free, just use the system to keep the riff raff out.
“The New Plymouth District Council confirmed last night it was taking action after receiving complaints from nearby landowners and the public about “Mr Brewer’s unlawful activities on the land”.”
Interesting use of the word “unlawful” there. I wonder what they think it means.
However, from Campbell Live
Solid Energy : “a culture of extravagance at Stockton”, SUVs for Africa, a 6M machine unused,
yet, a cut-back on miners per shift hours
yet more days required of miners to be on site (bussed in)
from RNZ; Telecom- “too many people at the top-end” (lawyers and accountants among those getting the axe.
Back to tele,Fontera have re-bottled the Anchor Milk brand (light-blocking) while the executive oncedes upon questioning; Anchor sales have declined vs supermarket / house brands; that they are exactly the same (price premium justified by “all the R&D Anchor carry out; “milk consumption in NZ is flat and declining)
Obama offered little in speech to Palestinians (little was expected) yet “recovered his voice” when addressing Israeli students.
14:31 He who oppresses the por shows contempt for their maker, yet whoever is kind to the needy honours God.
Balaam’s error; the error of consuming greed.
Smells Like Teen Spirit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui2a2KTx60s
( a mischievious Goodfellow hub indeed; thanks, yet gave the candy away)
If the Minister is going to stand up and tell this House that 5,000 people have come off a sickness benefit, I will point out that during that time 7,000 people went on. Sure, absolutely, if they need to access it, they should. But it is absolutely disingenuous for that Minister to try and bandy around numbers as though her reforms have changed the world when in actual fact, for the people who are experiencing it on the front line, they have done no such thing.
TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West):
The other thing I want to say to Asenati Lole-Taylor is just that I believe that all honest work is inherently valuable, and although some is work that a lot of us would shy away from and that some of us are fortunate enough not to have to do, I have nothing but respect for those who are working on some of those humble and at times very, very unpleasant jobs. I am sure that every member of this House would want to support those people, and not in any way undermine their efforts.
So put your money where your mouth is and pay them a minimum of at least $15ph.
God told me to tell you to do it. :wanker:
Yeah past by 1 vote 61/60 what is best described as the Youth Employment Discrimination Bill should be one of the first of the ugly pieces of National Government legislation that the next Labour lead Government toss in the rubbish bin,
It’s ugly enough to be giving young people the kick through youth rates but applying those same youth rates to those a year or two older for having been on the dole for a while for no specific reason other than they thunk it makes me think that that particular piece of legislation might better have been named the Molestation of Young People in Employment Bill…
Yeah, I am waiting to see Tim MacIndoe clean the toilets at public facilities in Hamiltion then, voluntarily or on the minimum wage. Yeah Right, pull out YET ANOTHER TUI Board!
“He is ARROGANT, he is MOODY, he is CONTROLLING”
Bill Ralston’s wife has a go at him on air
“The Huddle”, NewstalkZB, Thursday 21 March 2013, 5:45 p.m.
Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Pam Corkery, Janet Wilson
Anyone who tuned into the usually dire “Huddle” segment yesterday would have heard something remarkable: Bill Ralston’s ghastly wife Janet Wilson took the opportunity to tell the world just what she thought of her husband Bill. However, she wasn’t so unwise as to do it directly; she chose the time-honored technique, widely used in Soviet Russia and other repressive regimes, of allegory….
LARRY “LACKWIT” WILLIAMS: Okay, ahhhhhhhhhmmm. Julia Gillard. She’s GONE for sure!
PAM CORKERY: Actually, I don’t think so. Kevin Rudd is extremely unpopular. I predict Gillard will win this leadership vote.
JANET WILSON: I agree with Pam. I’ve never understood the fascination of the Australian public with Kevin Rudd. [voice thickening to a croak as she becomes emotional] He is arrogant, he is moody, he is controlling.
[Several uneasy seconds of stunned silence follow…]
LACKWIT WILLIAMS: Okay, ummmm… errrr….
By the end of that little contribution, Janet Wilson was snarling, and I’m sure she was shaking with emotion too.
POINT TO PONDER
When Pam Corkery appears on this show, the quality improves noticeably. That’s because Corkery, one of the few liberal commentators allowed on, will not be bullied and shut out by Lackwit-Williams and whoever happens to be the other Huddle guest. She insists on making her points clearly and will not allow Lackwit-Williams to laugh her into silence. Today, after her coded attack on her husband, Janet Wilson spoke sensibly and thoughtfully, something she is just not usually compelled to do on this normally pisspoor program.
???Hah, you have to have a very ‘free thinking’ imagination to make the leap from the Australian politics being discussed in the part of the transcript that you have put up to entertain the belief that Ralston’s wife is talking about Him and not the Australian politicians being discussed,
Perhaps i am missing something here, are there special code words that indicate we should beleive She is talking of Her husband and not Kevin Rudd…
Yeah well you also have to have a fairly free-thinking imagination to call it a transcript as Morrissey is known to have quite a different definition of the word to everyone else on the planet.
1.) …. border-line slander seems to be that ones writing style…
What, pray tell, was slanderous in suggesting that an angry and emotionally fraught woman was taking the opportunity to publicly excoriate her obnoxious spouse? Of course, she was smart enough to phrase it so that it seemed like a criticism of an obnoxious Australian politician; but smart listeners—and admittedly there are not many of them in that station’s audience—-will have appreciated what she REALLY meant.
1.) >OK when applied to politicians but i don’t know about radio commenters…
Oh yes, we need to remember that the afternoon chatterboxes on NewstalkZB are dignified, professional and rigorously dedicated to telling the truth.
Nah what i do remember is Lange versus What’s His Face where the judge set out the difference between what could be slander against a politician and a ‘normal’ person, the latter having far more protection under the law than the former,
i cannot be bothered to expend the energy necessary to address the other part of your comment, except to say that it is as absurd as the original suggestion that the commenter on the radio station was addressing Her husband and not commenting on Kevin Rudd,and, you must have ‘special powers’ to be able to deduce from the comment made the inference later attributed to what was commented upon as the reason to come to that particular conclusion…
I went to pay my website bill after getting the final notice, only to find my payment was bounced back. When I contacted the sales team, they told me I could now no longer pay by bank transfer, as I agreed when I opened the account, because of the unforeseen death of the director.
So I asked what happens next? Do I just transfer to another place that wants my money? And within a minute I had a transfer key and a goodbye.
Maybe they just don’t want to make money. Maybe they just don’t want my site on their servers.
Site down (not that anyone visits) ’til I sort it.
I was going to post this also but you beat me to it :)..
A perfect example for those who say – if you don’t like the system, don’t participate in it. Go and live in the bush or something. To do this is damn near impossible. The system is so pervasive that even when one chooses to this is what inevitably happens
-In short You cannot be free of the system even if you want to.
Have a mind to drive up there and build another makeshift beach bach 30 meters down the beach after the council have gone and give it to him to live in and then keep doing it each time he is evicted!
Just where do these captains of industry get off?
One day the masses are going to wake up to the fact that these inflated egos are going to have to stop being able to nominate their worth to an organisation and be paid just a reasonable living wage.
Telecom have had a succession of leaders who have been paid multi-million annual salaries, after a few years have moved on with massive golden handshakes and then, suddenly, these organisations announce massive layoffs of the ordinary employees … (saying they have to trim the fat).
These same captains of industry of course join such organisations as the EMA, Round Table etc and dictate to the government what they think nurses, teachers, firemen etc are worth.
Testing (no HTML) Testing (Italics using the editor button)
<i>Testing</i> (Italics using HTML) This is a link (Link inserted using the editor function)
And, no, I don’t have the WYSIWYG turned on. At least it has an escapse to HTML.
So Bill from Dipton, the Minister of Finance is ‘surprised’ by having nearly 10% of Kiwi’s sign up for the preregistration of the legislated theft of Mighty River Power from the other 90% of Kiwi’s,
This 10% only too happy to be availed the chance to steal off of the other 90% of us are to be given what, 10% of the shares, 20% of the shares???,
The other 80-90% of the shares will go where, from what Bill says they will be ‘retailed’ on the open market so presumably the ‘mums and dads’ who are the likes of the Goldman Saches US Banking Cartel will swallow the majority of the shares in Mighty River Power,
Bill’s surprise, sounds like He has promised the ‘banking cartels’ that less than 10% of Kiwis will have the coin to buy into Mighty River so there would be no problem for them through their various Nominee Companies to gain the lions share of the float…
Yep, call it what it is. Theft. All those ‘law abiding’ citizens are stealing our property. Time for Labour to tell them they’ll renationalise any assets sold…come on DS…want to be a leader then fucking lead.
Yes as a starting point of ‘ownership’ Labour should look at the Cullen Super Fund becoming the ‘owner’ of all the shares of the assets that National plan on putting into the hands of the International Banking Cartels,
We could in the future then have a rational discussion, after the Baby Boomer Retirement Bump has passed about changing the focus of that Cullen Fund being used to pre-fund part or all future retirement from dividends of the assets held by it…
I have put the point that the wealthy have the option of shunting their children and the guidance of their young ones, to boarding schools. Gina Campbell, daughter of speed record winner Donald Campbell was sent to one at age two when her parents’ marriage broke up. Her father had three marriages, and her mother I think the same. She has written a book Daughter of Bluebird.
Later she had the experience of her mother needling her ex-husband with great promises to Gina about how she would look after her horse with top class treatment, which caused unrest as Gina thought she was in earnest. When the offer was accepted, the mother withdrew it with numerous excuses.
Poorer people’s abandonment of a child’s care tend to be obvious, the wealthy can slither out
from withholding emotional support and guidance to their child untouched by approbrium. ‘Look what I did for you’ is often the comment from parents who have given little personal love and care, but money spent on the child’s living and schooling piles up and is seen as a debt to the parents. The child becomes an object of charity to them with periods of erratic expressions of love and interest from them.
Further to my thoughts on parenting, I consider that this is relevant to the behaviour that we are receiving from politicians. Politicians are very resilient as you must be when as a child you have to be self-sufficient, have a drive for self-advancement, are self-centred, competitive and lack empathy, because that usually has to be learned from older, kind, wiser people. This lack would apply to Paula Bennett, John Key…
If we think of Lord of the Flies, this is the background that would set the direction of much political behaviour that we observe.
Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes,
In ‘primitive’ New Zealand it’s probably a forlorn hope that all the CO2 being given off as exhaust from ‘wasting’ all that gas will be captured at it’s source,
Of interest when i was looking for information on this project was the fact that the construction also included a gas storage facility, (an existing played out gas well that surplus gas is being pumped into),
i have to wonder if the ‘players’ in this gas to electricity game of waste realize that they are building the infrastructure that allows CO2 to be harvested from the atmosphere using the air’s own movement to bring the CO2 to the point of harvest and be turned into the very gas that they are at present taking from the ground and turning into CO2 by burning it,
Capturing that CO2 and turning it into Methane Gas, (even petrol), is a technology in it’s infancy but at least one country, Iceland, is capturing CO2 from it’s geothermal electricity generation,(yes apparently ‘some’ geothermal electricity generation does produce CO2), and doing just that with it,
Yes, we can all see the problem with turning CO2 into a fuel and then burning it as a fuel is still releasing CO2 to the atmosphere, BUT, harvesting CO2 from the atmosphere and refining that into fuel to produce electricity may be the way of the future IF the CO2 expelled in the production of electricity is captured at it’s source and refined back into the same fuel burned to create it in the first place…
So, after searching the web I’m figuring that that is 100MW generator. For just a little bit extra we could have had wind turbines with nowhere near as much pollution or need for ongoing importation (we’re almost out of natural gas in NZ) for gas.
The best thing that can be said about a gas generator is that it’s most likely to be shut down in a few years due of lack of fuel.
As far as running out of gas with which to cause even more CO2 to be pumped into the atmosphere, these people seem to think it’s going to be around for a while,
But, thats not really the point i am making, whats of interest is that it appears much of the present infrastructure of turning CO2 into methane gas, including it’s storage, is already present in Taranaki,
Here’s the fledgling CO2 to Methane industry in Iceland, the obvious BAD bit of that is to then allow the CO2 back into the atmosphere via burning the methane in vehicle engines,
What that Icelandic power plant should be doing is simply burning the product made from CO2 in it’s electricity generator, capturing the CO2 produced by having done so and sent that CO2 back through the process of turning it into Methane so as to enable it’s re-burning,
Also of interest on that page is the story of the ‘break-through’ science involved in using biological catalysts which enable CO2 to be turned into Methane using Sun-light without the expensive metals like gold previously thought to be the only catalyst able to perform such a function,
The next part of the jigsaw is of course the separation of the CO2 from the air, again such a ‘science’ is in it’s infancy but a theoretical study i have read, (will try and link to it later), ‘sees’ this to be not necessary as a removal of CO2 from the air at the source of the CO2 emissions but more a case of having the air movement in a place akin to todays wind farms bringing the CO2 to the means of it’s extraction from that air,
My particular interest in Taranaki at the moment is because the infrastructure present as part of the oil/gas system would also be the infrastructure necessary for a CO2 to fuel industry…
Grrr, bugger, did you get error 404???, the pages are not expired tho, if you Google the heading above the dud links it should, (hopefully), take you to the page,
1 out of 4, i spose i should look on the bright side of that, Grrr, that CO2 to Methanol site contains most of the info i am attempting to impart here and the third story on the page is also of interest as little old NZ gets a mention for the technology that is already in place in Taranaki,
Googling, Converting CO2 to Methanol also provides a zillion pages of useful info on the subject,
Of course Methanol has a lot more uses than just fuel, most of the plastics made in the world today contain the stuff, and IF we had the cost effective tech that took CO2 from the atmosphere and eventually made plastics with it then we have ‘fixed’ that CO2 for the lifetime of those plastics most of which i would dare suggest will end their existence buried in a landfill…
No not necessarily from what i have read, given that with bio-catalysts and sunlight quite a stream of methane can be obtained from CO2 with little ongoing energy cost the efficacy of doing so will come down to the cost of extracting such CO2 from suitably robust air-flows,
The rest is simply the cost of the rest of the process that the 2 methanol plants in Taranaki have been carrying out from time to time since they were built by Muldoons ‘think big’,
If a tonne of carbon had a price in NZ as a straight tax, such a tax could then be applied to the extraction of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere thus lowering the cost of fuels extracted from that carbon,
My next dig through the internet mountain of info i think will have to concentrate on both those questions, what price we as a society are willing to pay as tax for a tonne of carbon and what it might cost per tonne to extract such carbon from the atmosphere from suitable sites of high airflow,
Obviously the closer all these different ‘processes’ occur to the plants which manufacture methanol the more cost effective and commercially viable they become…
You have an interesting view on what is “just a little bit extra”.
Your link give a cost of about $1.75m for a megawatt of nameplate capacity. That’s the average of the range of $1.3m – $2.2m given in your link. However that is the maximum possible generating capacity of the turbine. The actual efficiency of them varies between about 25% and 40% so you would expect to need about 3 times the installed capacity as the power you generate.
The cost of producing 100MW would then be about 100 * 1.75 * 3 million dollars.
This works out at about $525m as opposed to the quoted figure of $100m. To Bill Gates, (or perhaps David Shearer), that might be “just a little bit extra” but it doesn’t seem so to me.
There is also no reason at all to believe that we are just about of natural gas. That canard has been used for years worldwide and we seem to always find more. If the Greens get to ban any exploration or production it might come true but we live in hope that they won’t get the chance to do so.
And if the worst case scenario expounded by the climate scientists were to be correct??? what price would you put on your current lifestyles continuance, the very continuance of the life of your grandchildren???,
Capitalist bean-counters should in my opinion when it comes to the equation vis a vis money over climate simply be abused as the whole money system is a foolish joke clung to by the wing-nuts as an ancient African witch-doctor clung to his baubles of divination…
Yeah, Ok, I was out on the price. Still say that wind, being renewable and sustainable, would be better option. Price isn’t the best way to choose.
When will oil, natural gas, and coal peak?
Globally, gas peaks in the 2020s and we’re a small nation at the bottom of the world with very little reason for people to gas sell to us. We may have a small amount left but I heard a few years ago that the Maui Field was out.
That canard has been used for years worldwide and we seem to always find more.
Wrong concept. Natural gas economics is crashing mate. The fossil fuel industry will grind to a commercial halt while there are gigatonnes of the stuff left under the ground.
Jokeyhen’s attitude to NZ is that it is a great scenic background in front of which he can perform various celebrity gestures and give out uplifting and soothing speeches about the great conditions we have here. We’re like a unique handbag accessory for this most prominent NZer. The rest of us just have to use plastic ones with folksy pictures or a koru on them.
“Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes”
Slippery failed to do an essential thing: To light a cigarette with an open flame lighter, which could have saved the country from a damned lot of harm. But I suppose, he does not smoke, regrettably.
If it costs $1,500 per house to build a power station then wtf are we doing not doing so cooperatively? That is shit all coin. Far less than installing a solar number or something similar, by a large multiple.
And surely the ongoing cost of running the power station and supplying the fuel is relatively minor compared to the capital cost of construction.
If so, why on earth would the average hosuehold be paying around $2,500 per annum for electricity?
Does this not highlight something very very fishy around power companies …………..
If we paid for the power-stations through taxes and considered them a social good then we don’t need a return (profit) on the capital. At that point all we’d need to cover is the running and maintenance and that spread across all households would be SFA and that cost goes down if we use renewables as there’s no longer any drag from the costs of supplying fuel.
Conclusion: A state monopoly in power supply and reticulation is the most efficient and cost effective way of supplying power especially if using renewables.
No, I don’t think he’s that ignorant. He’ll know how to get rich which is to get a lot of people to give you a little bit of money (A little bit here, a little bit there and pretty soon you’re talking serious money). As such he’ll know that to keep costs per person down would be to spread them out across as many people as possible.
Selwyn Manning at his best, red rattler! Yes, it stinks so much, it is so bloody obvious, but the NZ media and public still have “blind” faith in a PM, like too many Germans once had in Hitler. When will they ever wake up?
A candle in a long street
A candle in the sleep of houses
A candle for frightened shops
A candle for bakeries
A candle for a journalist trembling in an empty office
A candle for a fighter
A candle for a woman doctor watching over patients
A candle for the wounded
A candle for plain talk
A candle for the stairs
A candle for a hotel packed with refugees
A candle for a singer
A candle for broadcasters in their hideouts
A candle for a bottle of water
A candle for the air
A candle for two lovers in a naked flat
A candle for the falling sky
A candle for the beginning
A candle for the ending
A candle for the last communique
A candle for conscience
A candle in your hands.
“We keep our hands in our pockets, and, unable to say “yes” to ourselves, we lack a “no” that is sure enough to stand between our best and our worst interests. We are left to make do with plans and policies that have little bearing on the main plot. It is a different play that is being staged, and we are actors and audience both, but unable to change the script.”
“The willingness to be less than what we could be is endemic. The lack of care and complicity of silence finds us all wanting. We cannot dissociate ourselves from the hypocricies of our governments or the immoralities of our corporations. Nor can we hide behind the screen of busyness, even if we do call it “work and family commitments”. This is classic middle-class camouflage : one of the more altruistic personae of self-interest.”
-Kerry Flattley
-Chris Wallace Crabbe.
Before you go, I need to tell you
why here tongues turn dry as piki bread.
No one knows why this story is true.
but I know there was a woman who
buried both her hands in blue dough. She said,
Before you go, I need to tell you
why Hopi corn grows short, in a few
spindly clumps, not deep wide and red.
No one knows why this story is true,
but I know it is not a lie. New
seed lay still; the sheep we gave for dead.
Before you go I need to tell you
the crater’s spirit gave us breath. Blu
winds swept ash from the mesa, it bled-
no one knows why this story is true-
earth’s sky blood washed ragged furrows. Blue
corn cracked tucked sharp in this lava bed.
Before you go, I need to tell you:
no one knows why this story is true.
-Peggy Shumaker
(Hopi corn is a biological riddle. It germinates only in thin volcanic soil and thrives in the sever, unforgiving climate of the high desert.)
A NZ living in Victoria has taken a case against the government there of discrimenation because he has been denied a student concession. The case is due to go before the Tribunal some months hence and if it succeeds it could unroll that denial and pay the student some compensation. The final comment was that the Oz government has been concerned about discrimination against NZ in the social welfare sector. Concerned enough to reverse this discrimination? Did Jokeyhen mention it to Gillard? I wonder.
The point, I imagine, is
not to learn to expect
betrayal, self-deceit, lies
however thick they collect
in the cul-de-sac of one’s days,
half-noticed, half-numbered, half-checked:
but rather to learn to praise
fidelity, trust and love
which in their modest ways continue to be and move
(however mocked, however derided,
however difficult, indeed, to prove),
utterly undivided-
if inarticulate or mute,
still mortally decided.
Neither fashionable nor astute
this point to take to heart:
merely final and absolute:
1. Semi-auto rifles account for less than 2% of fatalities (Might actually be less than 1%) in the USA
2. The gun murder rate has been dropping since the last ban (in the late 80s) was lifted
3. Making law-abiding citizens criminals won’t help
4. Prohibition doesn’t work
5. The “evil” weapons in the USA are available in NZ
6. There are over 20000 gun laws in the USA, enforce those first before implementing new ones
I think something along the lines of what Portugal is doing is what we should be doing. I would decriminalize all drugs and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.
I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.
Mind you I’d up the sentence term for pushers, dealers and suppliers
Oh yeah forgot to add that in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans
You must be one of those ‘blue greenies’ some bod was telling us about the other day.
“and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”
How would you have government pay for that?
“I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.”
Agreed, though not all drug users are addicts.
“in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”
Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation, or those that could have, but now can’t, are thug criminals? Good job they don’t have access to legal fire arms.
I don’t know about being blue-green just that prohibition and “the war on drugs” doesn’t/isn’t working and Portugal seems to be going well so why not try it
“and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”
How would government pay for that?
Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)
“in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”
Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation are now thug criminals? Good job they don’t have legal access to fire arms
No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased whereas the USA ended its ban on semi-auto rifle sales in the late 80s and violent crime and gun deaths have steadily decreased.
Are there problems, yes. Is a knee-jerk feel-good ban on semi-auto rifles going to work, no. Are their better ways to deal with the problems, yes.
Just to note the weapons used at Columbine were a 12-gauge Savage-Springfield 67H pump-action shotgun and a Hi-Point 995 Carbine 9 mm carbine with thirteen 10-round magazines.
The carbine was developed in response to the ban on semi-auto rifles and capacity of magazine size.
Also a 9 mm Intratec TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun with one 52-, one 32-, and one 28-round magazine and a 12-gauge Stevens 311D double-barreled sawed-off shotgun.
It is illegal to cut a barrel down beyond a certain length but it didn’t stop him from doing it.
No, I think it was someone with an agenda, making a point, but very badly.
Oxymoron if ever I read one.
“Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)”
It’s an ambitious project and I’m sure quite costly to set up, certainly more than the prison spend. The left are advocates of spend now, reduce long term costs later. It’s all over education, health, welfare, but the right scream about the money and where it’s coming from and keep the status quo.
Good luck convincing your tory mp to support Labour and Green policy.
“No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased”
As those chavs and idiots on the street would ever legally own a weapon before or after legislation, I don’t think there’s a case for linking the statistics.
There isn’t really a need for anyone to own guns, especially military grade killing tools. Sport and recreation are not good enough reasons to justify burying school children. Take up golf.
“military grade killing tools”
1. Theres no real difference between an AR-15 (the semi-auto civilian version of the american assault rifle) and a semi-auto rifle, in fact in some cases the semi-auto rifle is a better option
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing.
3. I wonder if proudly proclaiming you’re a “gun-free” zone is the smartest thing they could do:
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing
Think about it.
Firstly, think about the US Air Force. Then think about the Marine corp, the US Army, and the highly militarized police forces the US federal and state governments have.
Now ask yourself what sort of weaponry you would need to fight the US government, and look around to check the availability of such weaponry.
What does such thinking tell you about the theory that US citizens are given the right to collect weapons sufficient to beat off their government.
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing
Nah that’s bullshit.
The original Second Amendment talked about the right to bear arms within the context of a “well regulated militia” i.e. a trained, disciplined and organised state militia for the defence of the state and of the union.
Various judicial interpretations in recent decades has turned that into a right to bear arms individually for essentially any individual purpose, and with no connection or participation to any “well regulated militia”.
The US gun lobby have made their bed, they will sleep in it.
And people forget that there are up to 1M firearms here in NZ. And fuck all people get shot…on purpose.
Actually I think that if you look at what the makers of the constitution said at the time, the intent was to prevent governments from disarming the local militias. Disciplined formations of men are somewhat different to individual idiots with weapons.
From what was recorded, I’d think that they’d have been aghast at the idea of giving the right to bear “semi-auto” weapons (convertable to automatic with a freely available cheap kit) to random nutters who want them.
Looks at Madison and the arguments he was having in Virginia at the time of ratification. The timeline and evolution of the language of the amendment which he submitted seem to suggest it was mostly about leaving the States with the authority to call out their own militia to put down slave revolts without having to get Congressional say so.
Excellent. I hadn’t run across that before. But it fits.
In any case, it is clear that the intent of the framers of the constitution was for a disciplined and well regulated state run militia. The current position that people outside the national guard, state troopers, and other such well regulated bodies should bear arms is a travesty of the wording of the US constitution and the intent of the framers.
In which case I’d suggest that tightning up and enforcing rules against the mentally ill would have a greater effect on ending mass killings then enacting another law that’d most likely be ignored
Also this guy didn’t use guns to kill more then anybody else:
Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time
They didn’t know how big the government would become but they did know that the government should fear the people not the other way around, they knew there had to be checks and balances to stop the government of the day (whenever that day is) from becoming tyrannical and guaranteeing the rights of its citizens to bear is the simplest way to ensure that
Think about it
Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.
Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain
Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time
You have to go back and read some of the (many many) things written at the time to work out what they were up to. There were long arguments about most stuff, and the right to bear arms was no different. The arguments weren’t focused on fighting the US government. A major aspect was the right of the States to have military patrols. Some thought that the States should not have this right, that it was similar to the standing army thing that was part of what the revolution was against. However, others felt the need to have regular armed patrols of the country side. Guess why (clue: these were the slave states).
On the technology of the time, irrelevant. Unless you are suggesting that the constitution only allows muskets? Or that citizens should indeed be able to buy and maintain private air forces and set up SAM sites?
Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.
Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain
Dude please. This is bloody “Wolverines!” nonsense. You cannot compare Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else to a supposed attempted overthrow of the US Federal Govt.
-You’ll note that not one of those wars were an existential war for the US. They were wars they could afford to lose.
-You’ll note that the opposing forces in those wars had better knowledge of the people and terrain, not something the US lacks in the US.
-You’re still left with the problem that rifles are not what you need. If the US gun nuts were serious about defending themselves from the government, they’d be buying different things.
If they were serious they would revolted years ago, like maybe when Bush declared that a President could just call a citizen an enemy combatant, and they’d lose all their legal rights. Or when Obama said he could put them on kill lists. Neither of which are subjected to any checks or balances. Just a President’s say so. How does that compare to King George/ what are they waiting for?
They are basically role playing at being rebels. It’s a hobby. They are not a threat to their government
Here’s a good read on what they should be buying if they’re serious;
GIs who’d seen what an RPG hit could do to an M113 got in the habit of saying, “I’ll walk, thanks.” The RPG warhead does something called “spalling,” which means the warhead turns the aluminum side armor of an APC into molten shrapnel which goes zipping through the guts of everybody inside like a Benihana chef’s knife, only it’s a knife as hot as the surface of the sun.
Thanks for the link…hey M113’s isnt’ that what the NZ Army used to drive around in?
Did the post Peters referred to really say that NZanders spend 27 days per year on overseas hols?
Btw, LPrent – when I leave the page (to follow a link for example) I am no longer able to return to the same place in the page I left. I’m returned to the top. It’s happened a quite a few times now.
Another disgusting OIA fob-off, and I have had them also. Now surely, there is no great difficulty in “collating” that information, as the PM himself could easily offer it, and if need be, airline tickets must exist and can be presented. The whole OIA process these days is ridiculous, it is not worth pursuing anymore. The DICTATORSHIP in AOTEAROA NZ is WORKING!
Is Cyprus about to implode across our screens? It is surely way too late now to take that money off depositors – you would think that sort of thing must be done overnight, not a week later. Otherwise the time gets people to thinking about reaction………
Indeed. And the theft of bank deposits will be quickly back on the table if the international capital strike now being organised against Cypress is effective.
Many Russians not happy. (Just like many Brits weren’t happy at Iceland…)
Oh look. It’s only been a couple of days and new proposals on the table suggest taking 25% of large bank accounts. Many accounts affected will belong to Russians.
Didn’t take long for banker pressure (threats) on the Cyprus parliament to do its job, did it.
(The geopolitical angle is the massive EU vs Russia stoush this is shaping into)
Activists, take note: People support reform if they believe the changes will enhance the future character of society, according to a study published online this month in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Namely, people support a future society that fosters the development of warm and moral individuals.
So one wonders how National and their ever present outright nastiness ever manages to get voted in to power.
Ouch, rumor via TV1 news is that Telecom will likely be cutting up to 2500 jobs in May, the flow on effects of that are a horror story,
Bill from Dipton was saying on the last Q+A that the welfare budget would probably have to have more money this year, wonder if the Finance Minister had prior knowledge…
That is why I gave up cycling around Auckland many years ago. It is too damned dangerous. In many European countries cycleways are clearly separated from the main road, and well marked and mostly well maintained, so no such close encounters with cars or trucks would usually happen.
But the cycleways in NZ, I am talking about Auckland by the way, are not quite as bad as they used to be, but still leave cyclists exposed to immense risks and danger.
NO, I won’t cycle in Auckland again, unless the whole infrastructure gets improved and car drivers are held more accountable for their negligence and dangerous driving.
My previous enthusiasm and sympathy for Brazil has been more than moderated over recent days. While I love the culture and spirit of people there, the newest top 50 of their “hits’ shows how corrupt and Americanised that society is. Even their own performers are rather up themselves and believing they are better than others. In some cases they may be, but not in all. I am disappointed, and the commercial world is taking its toll all over the place. It is rot, rot and more rot, not quality aand skill.
The top 50 hits will be those that get promoted on tv, especially by Rede Globo (think Murdoch in Portuguese). Brazil is a large and complex country, with the cultural differences from north to south being something like Invercargill to PNG. East to west isn’t much different. There are things about Brazil I absolutely love, and things I hate, but none of those things have much to do with the top 50.
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
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Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
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Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
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Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
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Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
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Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
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Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, he stressed the rising danger posed by espionage and foreign interference. “In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed ...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8458171/Evicted-beachcomber-says-he-ll-go-quietly
This is bullshit. This guy is just spending more time on the beach than others.
This “eviction” is so that the wealthy people can enjoy uninterrupted views as well as reinforcing the capital model of paying exorbitant rental…to the wealthy! We’ve just come full circle.
An eccentric living in a hand-made driftwood and tarpaulin home on the foreshore near Oakura has been given his marching orders.
But Eric Brewer, 62, says he is unfazed at the threat to remove him from his seaside home with the million-dollar views at Tapuae.
“I’m out of here,” the sickness beneficiary told the Taranaki Daily News team whom he warmly welcomed into his beach bach on a perfect late summer’s afternoon yesterday.
Averse to paying rent or a mortgage, he has no idea where he will go. He has lived off-and-on at Tapuae for nearly two decades.
-snip-
Mr Brewer concedes he is living on the Queen’s Chain but says it is confiscated Maori land.
“I swear allegiance to this land, not the Queen of England,” he said.
We need more like him.
OMG edit function is back!!
[lprent: Yes. The result of some irritated and coffee concentrated cursing and other hard work. Turns out the the damn thing was trying to access admin functions without defining it as requiring a https connection. It will require some more work to get to play nicely with the rest of the system. But gives me more time to figure out a more elegant solution. ]
Like the Californian equivalent, Malibu, where the wealthy keep attempting to secure exclusive use of the beach in contrast to Venice Beach where it belongs to everyone.
They’re wealthy enough to buy their own but there’s no ‘look at me and what I’ve got’ ‘value in that and Public land is free, just use the system to keep the riff raff out.
“The New Plymouth District Council confirmed last night it was taking action after receiving complaints from nearby landowners and the public about “Mr Brewer’s unlawful activities on the land”.”
Interesting use of the word “unlawful” there. I wonder what they think it means.
In this case it appears to mean irritating rich people by being poor and on the beach.
However, from Campbell Live
Solid Energy : “a culture of extravagance at Stockton”, SUVs for Africa, a 6M machine unused,
yet, a cut-back on miners per shift hours
yet more days required of miners to be on site (bussed in)
from RNZ; Telecom- “too many people at the top-end” (lawyers and accountants among those getting the axe.
Back to tele,Fontera have re-bottled the Anchor Milk brand (light-blocking) while the executive oncedes upon questioning; Anchor sales have declined vs supermarket / house brands; that they are exactly the same (price premium justified by “all the R&D Anchor carry out; “milk consumption in NZ is flat and declining)
Obama offered little in speech to Palestinians (little was expected) yet “recovered his voice” when addressing Israeli students.
14:31 He who oppresses the por shows contempt for their maker, yet whoever is kind to the needy honours God.
Balaam’s error; the error of consuming greed.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui2a2KTx60s
( a mischievious Goodfellow hub indeed; thanks, yet gave the candy away)
I fail to see how any of that is in anyway related to this thread.
It’s unlawful to have a view that you haven’t paid a developer for. Same principle holds in GI with the evictions.
If the Minister is going to stand up and tell this House that 5,000 people have come off a sickness benefit, I will point out that during that time 7,000 people went on. Sure, absolutely, if they need to access it, they should. But it is absolutely disingenuous for that Minister to try and bandy around numbers as though her reforms have changed the world when in actual fact, for the people who are experiencing it on the front line, they have done no such thing.
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Debates/Debates/a/e/d/50HansD_20130320_00000012-Social-Security-Benefit-Categories-and-Work.htm
TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West) :
The other thing I want to say to Asenati Lole-Taylor is just that I believe that all honest work is inherently valuable, and although some is work that a lot of us would shy away from and that some of us are fortunate enough not to have to do, I have nothing but respect for those who are working on some of those humble and at times very, very unpleasant jobs. I am sure that every member of this House would want to support those people, and not in any way undermine their efforts.
So put your money where your mouth is and pay them a minimum of at least $15ph.
God told me to tell you to do it. :wanker:
Yeah past by 1 vote 61/60 what is best described as the Youth Employment Discrimination Bill should be one of the first of the ugly pieces of National Government legislation that the next Labour lead Government toss in the rubbish bin,
It’s ugly enough to be giving young people the kick through youth rates but applying those same youth rates to those a year or two older for having been on the dole for a while for no specific reason other than they thunk it makes me think that that particular piece of legislation might better have been named the Molestation of Young People in Employment Bill…
Yeah, I am waiting to see Tim MacIndoe clean the toilets at public facilities in Hamiltion then, voluntarily or on the minimum wage. Yeah Right, pull out YET ANOTHER TUI Board!
“He is ARROGANT, he is MOODY, he is CONTROLLING”
Bill Ralston’s wife has a go at him on air
“The Huddle”, NewstalkZB, Thursday 21 March 2013, 5:45 p.m.
Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Pam Corkery, Janet Wilson
Anyone who tuned into the usually dire “Huddle” segment yesterday would have heard something remarkable: Bill Ralston’s ghastly wife Janet Wilson took the opportunity to tell the world just what she thought of her husband Bill. However, she wasn’t so unwise as to do it directly; she chose the time-honored technique, widely used in Soviet Russia and other repressive regimes, of allegory….
LARRY “LACKWIT” WILLIAMS: Okay, ahhhhhhhhhmmm. Julia Gillard. She’s GONE for sure!
PAM CORKERY: Actually, I don’t think so. Kevin Rudd is extremely unpopular. I predict Gillard will win this leadership vote.
JANET WILSON: I agree with Pam. I’ve never understood the fascination of the Australian public with Kevin Rudd. [voice thickening to a croak as she becomes emotional] He is arrogant, he is moody, he is controlling.
[Several uneasy seconds of stunned silence follow…]
LACKWIT WILLIAMS: Okay, ummmm… errrr….
By the end of that little contribution, Janet Wilson was snarling, and I’m sure she was shaking with emotion too.
POINT TO PONDER
When Pam Corkery appears on this show, the quality improves noticeably. That’s because Corkery, one of the few liberal commentators allowed on, will not be bullied and shut out by Lackwit-Williams and whoever happens to be the other Huddle guest. She insists on making her points clearly and will not allow Lackwit-Williams to laugh her into silence. Today, after her coded attack on her husband, Janet Wilson spoke sensibly and thoughtfully, something she is just not usually compelled to do on this normally pisspoor program.
???Hah, you have to have a very ‘free thinking’ imagination to make the leap from the Australian politics being discussed in the part of the transcript that you have put up to entertain the belief that Ralston’s wife is talking about Him and not the Australian politicians being discussed,
Perhaps i am missing something here, are there special code words that indicate we should beleive She is talking of Her husband and not Kevin Rudd…
Yeah well you also have to have a fairly free-thinking imagination to call it a transcript as Morrissey is known to have quite a different definition of the word to everyone else on the planet.
Lolz, my bad, it’s my new image, i should have said WTF is that s**t, but, i am trying to do nice lolz,
Yeah border-line slander seems to be that ones writing style, OK when applied to politicians but i don’t know about radio commenters…
1.) …. border-line slander seems to be that ones writing style…
What, pray tell, was slanderous in suggesting that an angry and emotionally fraught woman was taking the opportunity to publicly excoriate her obnoxious spouse? Of course, she was smart enough to phrase it so that it seemed like a criticism of an obnoxious Australian politician; but smart listeners—and admittedly there are not many of them in that station’s audience—-will have appreciated what she REALLY meant.
1.) >OK when applied to politicians but i don’t know about radio commenters…
Oh yes, we need to remember that the afternoon chatterboxes on NewstalkZB are dignified, professional and rigorously dedicated to telling the truth.
Nah what i do remember is Lange versus What’s His Face where the judge set out the difference between what could be slander against a politician and a ‘normal’ person, the latter having far more protection under the law than the former,
i cannot be bothered to expend the energy necessary to address the other part of your comment, except to say that it is as absurd as the original suggestion that the commenter on the radio station was addressing Her husband and not commenting on Kevin Rudd,and, you must have ‘special powers’ to be able to deduce from the comment made the inference later attributed to what was commented upon as the reason to come to that particular conclusion…
Talking of conspiracy theories…
I went to pay my website bill after getting the final notice, only to find my payment was bounced back. When I contacted the sales team, they told me I could now no longer pay by bank transfer, as I agreed when I opened the account, because of the unforeseen death of the director.
So I asked what happens next? Do I just transfer to another place that wants my money? And within a minute I had a transfer key and a goodbye.
Maybe they just don’t want to make money. Maybe they just don’t want my site on their servers.
Site down (not that anyone visits) ’til I sort it.
I was going to post this also but you beat me to it :)..
A perfect example for those who say – if you don’t like the system, don’t participate in it. Go and live in the bush or something. To do this is damn near impossible. The system is so pervasive that even when one chooses to this is what inevitably happens
-In short You cannot be free of the system even if you want to.
Have a mind to drive up there and build another makeshift beach bach 30 meters down the beach after the council have gone and give it to him to live in and then keep doing it each time he is evicted!
Just where do these captains of industry get off?
One day the masses are going to wake up to the fact that these inflated egos are going to have to stop being able to nominate their worth to an organisation and be paid just a reasonable living wage.
Telecom have had a succession of leaders who have been paid multi-million annual salaries, after a few years have moved on with massive golden handshakes and then, suddenly, these organisations announce massive layoffs of the ordinary employees … (saying they have to trim the fat).
These same captains of industry of course join such organisations as the EMA, Round Table etc and dictate to the government what they think nurses, teachers, firemen etc are worth.
Yay, the edit function is back and working, thank you very much i can now return to bad spelling and mangled English with the ability to amend such…
Testing (no HTML)
Testing (Italics using the editor button)
<i>Testing</i> (Italics using HTML)
This is a link (Link inserted using the editor function)
And, no, I don’t have the WYSIWYG turned on. At least it has an escapse to HTML.
Yeah – just turned it off. There are issues with it leaving replies at the end of the comments as well.
So Bill from Dipton, the Minister of Finance is ‘surprised’ by having nearly 10% of Kiwi’s sign up for the preregistration of the legislated theft of Mighty River Power from the other 90% of Kiwi’s,
This 10% only too happy to be availed the chance to steal off of the other 90% of us are to be given what, 10% of the shares, 20% of the shares???,
The other 80-90% of the shares will go where, from what Bill says they will be ‘retailed’ on the open market so presumably the ‘mums and dads’ who are the likes of the Goldman Saches US Banking Cartel will swallow the majority of the shares in Mighty River Power,
Bill’s surprise, sounds like He has promised the ‘banking cartels’ that less than 10% of Kiwis will have the coin to buy into Mighty River so there would be no problem for them through their various Nominee Companies to gain the lions share of the float…
Yep, call it what it is. Theft. All those ‘law abiding’ citizens are stealing our property. Time for Labour to tell them they’ll renationalise any assets sold…come on DS…want to be a leader then fucking lead.
Yes as a starting point of ‘ownership’ Labour should look at the Cullen Super Fund becoming the ‘owner’ of all the shares of the assets that National plan on putting into the hands of the International Banking Cartels,
We could in the future then have a rational discussion, after the Baby Boomer Retirement Bump has passed about changing the focus of that Cullen Fund being used to pre-fund part or all future retirement from dividends of the assets held by it…
And have Shonkey ask him if he’s going to pay for them out of secret bank accounts in the USA. A great leader he isn’t.
bad12
+1
I have put the point that the wealthy have the option of shunting their children and the guidance of their young ones, to boarding schools. Gina Campbell, daughter of speed record winner Donald Campbell was sent to one at age two when her parents’ marriage broke up. Her father had three marriages, and her mother I think the same. She has written a book Daughter of Bluebird.
Later she had the experience of her mother needling her ex-husband with great promises to Gina about how she would look after her horse with top class treatment, which caused unrest as Gina thought she was in earnest. When the offer was accepted, the mother withdrew it with numerous excuses.
Poorer people’s abandonment of a child’s care tend to be obvious, the wealthy can slither out
from withholding emotional support and guidance to their child untouched by approbrium. ‘Look what I did for you’ is often the comment from parents who have given little personal love and care, but money spent on the child’s living and schooling piles up and is seen as a debt to the parents. The child becomes an object of charity to them with periods of erratic expressions of love and interest from them.
Further to my thoughts on parenting, I consider that this is relevant to the behaviour that we are receiving from politicians. Politicians are very resilient as you must be when as a child you have to be self-sufficient, have a drive for self-advancement, are self-centred, competitive and lack empathy, because that usually has to be learned from older, kind, wiser people. This lack would apply to Paula Bennett, John Key…
If we think of Lord of the Flies, this is the background that would set the direction of much political behaviour that we observe.
on the subject of children
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10872838
Oh, great, more attacks on necessary government services.
Charter Schools Damage Students and Teachers
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/8458649/Charter-schools-damage-students-and-teachers
“no excuses” now.
Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes,
In ‘primitive’ New Zealand it’s probably a forlorn hope that all the CO2 being given off as exhaust from ‘wasting’ all that gas will be captured at it’s source,
Of interest when i was looking for information on this project was the fact that the construction also included a gas storage facility, (an existing played out gas well that surplus gas is being pumped into),
i have to wonder if the ‘players’ in this gas to electricity game of waste realize that they are building the infrastructure that allows CO2 to be harvested from the atmosphere using the air’s own movement to bring the CO2 to the point of harvest and be turned into the very gas that they are at present taking from the ground and turning into CO2 by burning it,
Capturing that CO2 and turning it into Methane Gas, (even petrol), is a technology in it’s infancy but at least one country, Iceland, is capturing CO2 from it’s geothermal electricity generation,(yes apparently ‘some’ geothermal electricity generation does produce CO2), and doing just that with it,
Yes, we can all see the problem with turning CO2 into a fuel and then burning it as a fuel is still releasing CO2 to the atmosphere, BUT, harvesting CO2 from the atmosphere and refining that into fuel to produce electricity may be the way of the future IF the CO2 expelled in the production of electricity is captured at it’s source and refined back into the same fuel burned to create it in the first place…
So, after searching the web I’m figuring that that is 100MW generator. For just a little bit extra we could have had wind turbines with nowhere near as much pollution or need for ongoing importation (we’re almost out of natural gas in NZ) for gas.
The best thing that can be said about a gas generator is that it’s most likely to be shut down in a few years due of lack of fuel.
Yes wind generation also seems to be on the cards for Taranaki,
Coastal site eyed for large wind farm,
http://www.wanganuichronicle.co.nz/news/coastal…wind-farm/1600159
As far as running out of gas with which to cause even more CO2 to be pumped into the atmosphere, these people seem to think it’s going to be around for a while,
Tag oil upbeat on well strike/stuff.co.nz,
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/…/tag-oil-upbeat-on-well-strike...
2012-O&G industry kicks off to great start/ energy stream,
http://www.energystream.co.nz>newscenter
But, thats not really the point i am making, whats of interest is that it appears much of the present infrastructure of turning CO2 into methane gas, including it’s storage, is already present in Taranaki,
Here’s the fledgling CO2 to Methane industry in Iceland, the obvious BAD bit of that is to then allow the CO2 back into the atmosphere via burning the methane in vehicle engines,
What that Icelandic power plant should be doing is simply burning the product made from CO2 in it’s electricity generator, capturing the CO2 produced by having done so and sent that CO2 back through the process of turning it into Methane so as to enable it’s re-burning,
CO2 to Methanol.com, Iceland converts CO2 into Methanol,
http://www.co2tomethanol.com/
Also of interest on that page is the story of the ‘break-through’ science involved in using biological catalysts which enable CO2 to be turned into Methane using Sun-light without the expensive metals like gold previously thought to be the only catalyst able to perform such a function,
The next part of the jigsaw is of course the separation of the CO2 from the air, again such a ‘science’ is in it’s infancy but a theoretical study i have read, (will try and link to it later), ‘sees’ this to be not necessary as a removal of CO2 from the air at the source of the CO2 emissions but more a case of having the air movement in a place akin to todays wind farms bringing the CO2 to the means of it’s extraction from that air,
My particular interest in Taranaki at the moment is because the infrastructure present as part of the oil/gas system would also be the infrastructure necessary for a CO2 to fuel industry…
got the links sussed then
Lolz, have i ???, i just ‘hopeded’, haven’t tried them myself as yet…
1 in 4; others appear “expired” this end anyway
Grrr, bugger, did you get error 404???, the pages are not expired tho, if you Google the heading above the dud links it should, (hopefully), take you to the page,
1 out of 4, i spose i should look on the bright side of that, Grrr, that CO2 to Methanol site contains most of the info i am attempting to impart here and the third story on the page is also of interest as little old NZ gets a mention for the technology that is already in place in Taranaki,
Googling, Converting CO2 to Methanol also provides a zillion pages of useful info on the subject,
Of course Methanol has a lot more uses than just fuel, most of the plastics made in the world today contain the stuff, and IF we had the cost effective tech that took CO2 from the atmosphere and eventually made plastics with it then we have ‘fixed’ that CO2 for the lifetime of those plastics most of which i would dare suggest will end their existence buried in a landfill…
Energy. It can be done but the energy required and the cost of that energy is going to be massively prohibitive.
No not necessarily from what i have read, given that with bio-catalysts and sunlight quite a stream of methane can be obtained from CO2 with little ongoing energy cost the efficacy of doing so will come down to the cost of extracting such CO2 from suitably robust air-flows,
The rest is simply the cost of the rest of the process that the 2 methanol plants in Taranaki have been carrying out from time to time since they were built by Muldoons ‘think big’,
If a tonne of carbon had a price in NZ as a straight tax, such a tax could then be applied to the extraction of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere thus lowering the cost of fuels extracted from that carbon,
My next dig through the internet mountain of info i think will have to concentrate on both those questions, what price we as a society are willing to pay as tax for a tonne of carbon and what it might cost per tonne to extract such carbon from the atmosphere from suitable sites of high airflow,
Obviously the closer all these different ‘processes’ occur to the plants which manufacture methanol the more cost effective and commercially viable they become…
You have an interesting view on what is “just a little bit extra”.
Your link give a cost of about $1.75m for a megawatt of nameplate capacity. That’s the average of the range of $1.3m – $2.2m given in your link. However that is the maximum possible generating capacity of the turbine. The actual efficiency of them varies between about 25% and 40% so you would expect to need about 3 times the installed capacity as the power you generate.
The cost of producing 100MW would then be about 100 * 1.75 * 3 million dollars.
This works out at about $525m as opposed to the quoted figure of $100m. To Bill Gates, (or perhaps David Shearer), that might be “just a little bit extra” but it doesn’t seem so to me.
There is also no reason at all to believe that we are just about of natural gas. That canard has been used for years worldwide and we seem to always find more. If the Greens get to ban any exploration or production it might come true but we live in hope that they won’t get the chance to do so.
And if the worst case scenario expounded by the climate scientists were to be correct??? what price would you put on your current lifestyles continuance, the very continuance of the life of your grandchildren???,
Capitalist bean-counters should in my opinion when it comes to the equation vis a vis money over climate simply be abused as the whole money system is a foolish joke clung to by the wing-nuts as an ancient African witch-doctor clung to his baubles of divination…
Yeah, Ok, I was out on the price. Still say that wind, being renewable and sustainable, would be better option. Price isn’t the best way to choose.
When will oil, natural gas, and coal peak?
Globally, gas peaks in the 2020s and we’re a small nation at the bottom of the world with very little reason for people to gas sell to us. We may have a small amount left but I heard a few years ago that the Maui Field was out.
Wrong concept. Natural gas economics is crashing mate. The fossil fuel industry will grind to a commercial halt while there are gigatonnes of the stuff left under the ground.
Jokeyhen’s attitude to NZ is that it is a great scenic background in front of which he can perform various celebrity gestures and give out uplifting and soothing speeches about the great conditions we have here. We’re like a unique handbag accessory for this most prominent NZer. The rest of us just have to use plastic ones with folksy pictures or a koru on them.
“Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes”
Slippery failed to do an essential thing: To light a cigarette with an open flame lighter, which could have saved the country from a damned lot of harm. But I suppose, he does not smoke, regrettably.
If it costs $1,500 per house to build a power station then wtf are we doing not doing so cooperatively? That is shit all coin. Far less than installing a solar number or something similar, by a large multiple.
And surely the ongoing cost of running the power station and supplying the fuel is relatively minor compared to the capital cost of construction.
If so, why on earth would the average hosuehold be paying around $2,500 per annum for electricity?
Does this not highlight something very very fishy around power companies …………..
If we paid for the power-stations through taxes and considered them a social good then we don’t need a return (profit) on the capital. At that point all we’d need to cover is the running and maintenance and that spread across all households would be SFA and that cost goes down if we use renewables as there’s no longer any drag from the costs of supplying fuel.
Conclusion: A state monopoly in power supply and reticulation is the most efficient and cost effective way of supplying power especially if using renewables.
Well yes John Key’s visit today would seem to underscore that reality.
Why do you think John Key would not recognise it? Blinkers? Paymasters? Dogmatism? Sheer ignorance?
All of the above?
No, I don’t think he’s that ignorant. He’ll know how to get rich which is to get a lot of people to give you a little bit of money (A little bit here, a little bit there and pretty soon you’re talking serious money). As such he’ll know that to keep costs per person down would be to spread them out across as many people as possible.
Key US imperialism spy sock puppet
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/03/22/special-feature-rudderless-within-the-great-game/
Selwyn Manning at his best, red rattler! Yes, it stinks so much, it is so bloody obvious, but the NZ media and public still have “blind” faith in a PM, like too many Germans once had in Hitler. When will they ever wake up?
When the Jackboots march over their doorstep?
The Denial of Racism in Godzone
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/maori/news/article.cfm?c_id=252&objectid=10872055
a “hidden evil”
the failing pursuit of growth
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/education/news/article.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10872671
Hamra Night -Sa’di Yusef (Lebanon)
A candle in a long street
A candle in the sleep of houses
A candle for frightened shops
A candle for bakeries
A candle for a journalist trembling in an empty office
A candle for a fighter
A candle for a woman doctor watching over patients
A candle for the wounded
A candle for plain talk
A candle for the stairs
A candle for a hotel packed with refugees
A candle for a singer
A candle for broadcasters in their hideouts
A candle for a bottle of water
A candle for the air
A candle for two lovers in a naked flat
A candle for the falling sky
A candle for the beginning
A candle for the ending
A candle for the last communique
A candle for conscience
A candle in your hands.
“We keep our hands in our pockets, and, unable to say “yes” to ourselves, we lack a “no” that is sure enough to stand between our best and our worst interests. We are left to make do with plans and policies that have little bearing on the main plot. It is a different play that is being staged, and we are actors and audience both, but unable to change the script.”
“The willingness to be less than what we could be is endemic. The lack of care and complicity of silence finds us all wanting. We cannot dissociate ourselves from the hypocricies of our governments or the immoralities of our corporations. Nor can we hide behind the screen of busyness, even if we do call it “work and family commitments”. This is classic middle-class camouflage : one of the more altruistic personae of self-interest.”
-Kerry Flattley
-Chris Wallace Crabbe.
Before you go, I need to tell you
why here tongues turn dry as piki bread.
No one knows why this story is true.
but I know there was a woman who
buried both her hands in blue dough. She said,
Before you go, I need to tell you
why Hopi corn grows short, in a few
spindly clumps, not deep wide and red.
No one knows why this story is true,
but I know it is not a lie. New
seed lay still; the sheep we gave for dead.
Before you go I need to tell you
the crater’s spirit gave us breath. Blu
winds swept ash from the mesa, it bled-
no one knows why this story is true-
earth’s sky blood washed ragged furrows. Blue
corn cracked tucked sharp in this lava bed.
Before you go, I need to tell you:
no one knows why this story is true.
-Peggy Shumaker
(Hopi corn is a biological riddle. It germinates only in thin volcanic soil and thrives in the sever, unforgiving climate of the high desert.)
A NZ living in Victoria has taken a case against the government there of discrimenation because he has been denied a student concession. The case is due to go before the Tribunal some months hence and if it succeeds it could unroll that denial and pay the student some compensation. The final comment was that the Oz government has been concerned about discrimination against NZ in the social welfare sector. Concerned enough to reverse this discrimination? Did Jokeyhen mention it to Gillard? I wonder.
The Point (?)
The point, I imagine, is
not to learn to expect
betrayal, self-deceit, lies
however thick they collect
in the cul-de-sac of one’s days,
half-noticed, half-numbered, half-checked:
but rather to learn to praise
fidelity, trust and love
which in their modest ways continue to be and move
(however mocked, however derided,
however difficult, indeed, to prove),
utterly undivided-
if inarticulate or mute,
still mortally decided.
Neither fashionable nor astute
this point to take to heart:
merely final and absolute:
without it no people, no life, no art.
-Evan Jones.
now, back to mischief. 🙂
ghost +1
Awww nu!!!…Paula Bennett de-friended me on facebook 🙂
Lolz, really, i feel your pain…
I’m not even going to ask why. After seeing several years of the steadily improving ‘quality’ of your comments, I think I can guess. 😈
Like a fine red wine 😀
Yep. Practise and gray hairs leveraging….
You deserve a medal for that!!!
And fortunately the American Congress gets something right but for the wrong reasons
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/8459865/Congress-too-scared-to-ban-assault-rifles
Yes, allowing more mass murderers easy access to weapons is obviously the right thing to do.
/sarc
1. Semi-auto rifles account for less than 2% of fatalities (Might actually be less than 1%) in the USA
2. The gun murder rate has been dropping since the last ban (in the late 80s) was lifted
3. Making law-abiding citizens criminals won’t help
4. Prohibition doesn’t work
5. The “evil” weapons in the USA are available in NZ
6. There are over 20000 gun laws in the USA, enforce those first before implementing new ones
“1. Semi-auto rifles account for less than 2% of fatalities”
But 100% responsible for each of those deaths.
“3. Making law-abiding citizens criminals won’t help
4. Prohibition doesn’t work”
Is this also your view in the drugs debate?
Yes
I think something along the lines of what Portugal is doing is what we should be doing. I would decriminalize all drugs and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.
I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.
Mind you I’d up the sentence term for pushers, dealers and suppliers
Oh yeah forgot to add that in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans
“Yes”
You must be one of those ‘blue greenies’ some bod was telling us about the other day.
“and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”
How would you have government pay for that?
“I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.”
Agreed, though not all drug users are addicts.
“in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”
Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation, or those that could have, but now can’t, are thug criminals? Good job they don’t have access to legal fire arms.
I don’t know about being blue-green just that prohibition and “the war on drugs” doesn’t/isn’t working and Portugal seems to be going well so why not try it
“and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”
How would government pay for that?
Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)
“in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”
Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation are now thug criminals? Good job they don’t have legal access to fire arms
No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased whereas the USA ended its ban on semi-auto rifle sales in the late 80s and violent crime and gun deaths have steadily decreased.
Are there problems, yes. Is a knee-jerk feel-good ban on semi-auto rifles going to work, no. Are their better ways to deal with the problems, yes.
Just to note the weapons used at Columbine were a 12-gauge Savage-Springfield 67H pump-action shotgun and a Hi-Point 995 Carbine 9 mm carbine with thirteen 10-round magazines.
The carbine was developed in response to the ban on semi-auto rifles and capacity of magazine size.
Also a 9 mm Intratec TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun with one 52-, one 32-, and one 28-round magazine and a 12-gauge Stevens 311D double-barreled sawed-off shotgun.
It is illegal to cut a barrel down beyond a certain length but it didn’t stop him from doing it.
“I don’t know about being blue-green”
No, I think it was someone with an agenda, making a point, but very badly.
Oxymoron if ever I read one.
“Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)”
It’s an ambitious project and I’m sure quite costly to set up, certainly more than the prison spend. The left are advocates of spend now, reduce long term costs later. It’s all over education, health, welfare, but the right scream about the money and where it’s coming from and keep the status quo.
Good luck convincing your tory mp to support Labour and Green policy.
“No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased”
As those chavs and idiots on the street would ever legally own a weapon before or after legislation, I don’t think there’s a case for linking the statistics.
There isn’t really a need for anyone to own guns, especially military grade killing tools. Sport and recreation are not good enough reasons to justify burying school children. Take up golf.
“military grade killing tools”
1. Theres no real difference between an AR-15 (the semi-auto civilian version of the american assault rifle) and a semi-auto rifle, in fact in some cases the semi-auto rifle is a better option
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing.
3. I wonder if proudly proclaiming you’re a “gun-free” zone is the smartest thing they could do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt1Zy_ASNyA
(takes ten minutes but its worth it)
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing
Think about it.
Firstly, think about the US Air Force. Then think about the Marine corp, the US Army, and the highly militarized police forces the US federal and state governments have.
Now ask yourself what sort of weaponry you would need to fight the US government, and look around to check the availability of such weaponry.
What does such thinking tell you about the theory that US citizens are given the right to collect weapons sufficient to beat off their government.
Nah that’s bullshit.
The original Second Amendment talked about the right to bear arms within the context of a “well regulated militia” i.e. a trained, disciplined and organised state militia for the defence of the state and of the union.
Various judicial interpretations in recent decades has turned that into a right to bear arms individually for essentially any individual purpose, and with no connection or participation to any “well regulated militia”.
The US gun lobby have made their bed, they will sleep in it.
And people forget that there are up to 1M firearms here in NZ. And fuck all people get shot…on purpose.
Actually I think that if you look at what the makers of the constitution said at the time, the intent was to prevent governments from disarming the local militias. Disciplined formations of men are somewhat different to individual idiots with weapons.
From what was recorded, I’d think that they’d have been aghast at the idea of giving the right to bear “semi-auto” weapons (convertable to automatic with a freely available cheap kit) to random nutters who want them.
lprent
fascinating paper here:
http://www.saf.org/lawreviews/bogus2.htm
shorter write up:
http://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2013/01/was-second-amendment-adopted-slaveholders
Looks at Madison and the arguments he was having in Virginia at the time of ratification. The timeline and evolution of the language of the amendment which he submitted seem to suggest it was mostly about leaving the States with the authority to call out their own militia to put down slave revolts without having to get Congressional say so.
Excellent. I hadn’t run across that before. But it fits.
In any case, it is clear that the intent of the framers of the constitution was for a disciplined and well regulated state run militia. The current position that people outside the national guard, state troopers, and other such well regulated bodies should bear arms is a travesty of the wording of the US constitution and the intent of the framers.
Gun manufacturer lobby likes it.
[citation needed]
Gun crime statistics by US state: latest data (Unfortunately, that blog isn’t actually dated)
I’d say it’s probably an overall societal effect (i.e, People are just less violent) rather than a change in laws that’s brought about the decline.
In which case I’d suggest that tightning up and enforcing rules against the mentally ill would have a greater effect on ending mass killings then enacting another law that’d most likely be ignored
Also this guy didn’t use guns to kill more then anybody else:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Kehoe
And this is interesting reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby%27s_massacre
To pascals bookie
Think about it
Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time
They didn’t know how big the government would become but they did know that the government should fear the people not the other way around, they knew there had to be checks and balances to stop the government of the day (whenever that day is) from becoming tyrannical and guaranteeing the rights of its citizens to bear is the simplest way to ensure that
Think about it
Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.
Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain
FFS yeah time to target the “mentally ill” again, that’s a good old canard to trot out, guns don’t kill people, mentally ill people do etc.
Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time
You have to go back and read some of the (many many) things written at the time to work out what they were up to. There were long arguments about most stuff, and the right to bear arms was no different. The arguments weren’t focused on fighting the US government. A major aspect was the right of the States to have military patrols. Some thought that the States should not have this right, that it was similar to the standing army thing that was part of what the revolution was against. However, others felt the need to have regular armed patrols of the country side. Guess why (clue: these were the slave states).
On the technology of the time, irrelevant. Unless you are suggesting that the constitution only allows muskets? Or that citizens should indeed be able to buy and maintain private air forces and set up SAM sites?
Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.
Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain
Dude please. This is bloody “Wolverines!” nonsense. You cannot compare Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else to a supposed attempted overthrow of the US Federal Govt.
-You’ll note that not one of those wars were an existential war for the US. They were wars they could afford to lose.
-You’ll note that the opposing forces in those wars had better knowledge of the people and terrain, not something the US lacks in the US.
-You’re still left with the problem that rifles are not what you need. If the US gun nuts were serious about defending themselves from the government, they’d be buying different things.
If they were serious they would revolted years ago, like maybe when Bush declared that a President could just call a citizen an enemy combatant, and they’d lose all their legal rights. Or when Obama said he could put them on kill lists. Neither of which are subjected to any checks or balances. Just a President’s say so. How does that compare to King George/ what are they waiting for?
They are basically role playing at being rebels. It’s a hobby. They are not a threat to their government
Here’s a good read on what they should be buying if they’re serious;
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=7322
Thanks for the link…hey M113’s isnt’ that what the NZ Army used to drive around in?
Winston Peters picks up on a Standard post:
http://www.3news.co.nz/Default.aspx?TabId=1607&articleID=291370&ce17407
Amusing.
Did the post Peters referred to really say that NZanders spend 27 days per year on overseas hols?
Btw, LPrent – when I leave the page (to follow a link for example) I am no longer able to return to the same place in the page I left. I’m returned to the top. It’s happened a quite a few times now.
Another disgusting OIA fob-off, and I have had them also. Now surely, there is no great difficulty in “collating” that information, as the PM himself could easily offer it, and if need be, airline tickets must exist and can be presented. The whole OIA process these days is ridiculous, it is not worth pursuing anymore. The DICTATORSHIP in AOTEAROA NZ is WORKING!
Is Cyprus about to implode across our screens? It is surely way too late now to take that money off depositors – you would think that sort of thing must be done overnight, not a week later. Otherwise the time gets people to thinking about reaction………
As I understand it, from Al Jazeera News Hour this morning, the theft of bank deposits is off the table. Other alternatives are being looked at.
methinks the damage is done.
Indeed. And the theft of bank deposits will be quickly back on the table if the international capital strike now being organised against Cypress is effective.
Many Russians not happy. (Just like many Brits weren’t happy at Iceland…)
Very significant consequences. I will watch your capital strike theory wth interest CV – you’ve mentioned it a few times lately.
Oh look. It’s only been a couple of days and new proposals on the table suggest taking 25% of large bank accounts. Many accounts affected will belong to Russians.
Didn’t take long for banker pressure (threats) on the Cyprus parliament to do its job, did it.
(The geopolitical angle is the massive EU vs Russia stoush this is shaping into)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/23/cyprus-savings-levy-minister-european
Cyprus
http://www.cityam.com/article/four-days-save-cyprus
and the Eurozone
http://www.scmp.com/business/money/markets-investing/article/1197042/asian-markets-mixed-eyes-trained-cyprus
Three Shades of War
http://www.euronews.com/2013/03/21/iran-fires-warning-to-israel/
http://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2299725&Language=en
(North Korea)
Rely on the B-52
http://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2299725&Language=en
Scientists find visions of a benevolent future society motivate reform
So one wonders how National and their ever present outright nastiness ever manages to get voted in to power.
A brighter future, don’t you know.
Ouch, rumor via TV1 news is that Telecom will likely be cutting up to 2500 jobs in May, the flow on effects of that are a horror story,
Bill from Dipton was saying on the last Q+A that the welfare budget would probably have to have more money this year, wonder if the Finance Minister had prior knowledge…
Campbell Live – cyclist funeral. Heartbreaking. She was well loved.
Was this RL’s relative 🙁
I think so. Big funeral.
Yes it was. Saw notice in the Herald this week.
That is why I gave up cycling around Auckland many years ago. It is too damned dangerous. In many European countries cycleways are clearly separated from the main road, and well marked and mostly well maintained, so no such close encounters with cars or trucks would usually happen.
But the cycleways in NZ, I am talking about Auckland by the way, are not quite as bad as they used to be, but still leave cyclists exposed to immense risks and danger.
NO, I won’t cycle in Auckland again, unless the whole infrastructure gets improved and car drivers are held more accountable for their negligence and dangerous driving.
My previous enthusiasm and sympathy for Brazil has been more than moderated over recent days. While I love the culture and spirit of people there, the newest top 50 of their “hits’ shows how corrupt and Americanised that society is. Even their own performers are rather up themselves and believing they are better than others. In some cases they may be, but not in all. I am disappointed, and the commercial world is taking its toll all over the place. It is rot, rot and more rot, not quality aand skill.
Don’t be too harsh mate that’s like judging NZers via the GC
The top 50 hits will be those that get promoted on tv, especially by Rede Globo (think Murdoch in Portuguese). Brazil is a large and complex country, with the cultural differences from north to south being something like Invercargill to PNG. East to west isn’t much different. There are things about Brazil I absolutely love, and things I hate, but none of those things have much to do with the top 50.