A local number will ring you
The person on the phone will then introduce themselves and the company they supposedly work for
They then ask: ‘Can you hear me?’
Your answer is recorded, and if you say ‘yes’, your response will be edited and then used to charge you for products or services without your knowledge.
Not quite sure how they charge, unless they have accessed you CC
You know why “fake news” has become such a phenomenon, and we constantly ask ourselves why other people believe utter bullshit just because someone said it on TV?
(Snopes is much more iffy when it comes to political stories, but on basic “is this a scam? Did this person actually give birth to a squid?” nonsense they are a must-read.)
I don’t want to harp on about this, but it is serious. When people start believing absolute rubbish like “if someone records me saying ‘yes’ then they’ll be able to steal money from me” which have no logic and no grounding in reality it means they’re far more likely to believe other “just so” stories. Like “tax cuts for the rich will stimulate the economy, the man on telly said so” or “the government can’t do anything about recessions and job losses, they just happen”.
We have to be able to think critically about our world and how things happen or we’ll believe anything.
The thing that interests me about it is that there are moves to use voice recording in ways that will lessen privacy and civil rights, and that probably will open us up to scams too.
The rumour a few years ago was that the WINZ call centre wanted to record voices to build up a voice recognition database for ID purposes, hence the push to get you to speak your way through the queue rather than push a button.
It’s not a “small thing” at all. It’s panic-mongering which teaches people bad habits – “oh, I heard they ask “can you hear me”, then it’s a scam, but this lovely young man telling me to give him remote access to my computer sounds credible”. And it has taught the media bad habits – don’t bother actually finding someone who has been scammed, don’t actually interview the relevant police agencies, don’t bother reporting on genuine threats posed by technology and fraud, just got to grab the headline about NEW PHONE RECORDING SCAM!!!! to get more clicks than the next guy.
To be specific, organized lying, disinformation and suppression campaigns have long been with us. Centuries ago, agents of the Church pinned dissenters with fatal labels such as “witch” and “heretic”; progressive and tolerant thinkers in eighteenth-century Britain were routinely silenced with the label “Jacobin”; Mao’s apparatchiks used the damning phrase “capitalist running dog”; and Marxist groups everywhere cursed opponents within their ranks by calling them “revisionists”; American progressives have been called “reds” or “communists” since Pullman hired Pinkerton agents to intimidate and beat up unionized workers in the nineteenth century.
Trump, Conway, Spicer, De Vos and co., however, have already taken things to a bizarre new level.
Unfortunately, Andre, the Democratic Party is still riddled with Clintonistas, and so are the media. I’d love to stop talking about Hillary Clinton and her ghastly husband, but somehow I think they and their sad supporters will be clogging up the airwaves for some time yet.
No, dipshit, the fact is that you could have criticised his current position while still showing even a tiny fraction of the respect he’s earned. He’s fucking done a shitload more for good than you and your false equivalences ever will, you puffed-up festering goat colon.
Dude, I have no idea what your “little quip” was, because traffic management.
Actually, it wasn’t so much a quip as it was an attempt to calm you down a bit by acknowledging the creative force behind that little insult. For what it’s worth, it was a picture of Neil Patrick Harris, in evening dress, pressing his fingertips together and smirking: “WELL SAID SIR.”
As for your opinion of NPH, he’s just gone up in my estimation as a result.
That doesn’t surprise me: after all, you and a few other right wingers on this site share his contempt for political dissenters….
People like you wouldn’t have seen any problem with a Soviet actor mouthing support for the state moving against those dastardly “Jewish doctors” in the dying days of Stalin’s reign.
And here’s a little style tip for free: drop the passive-aggressive show of incredulity—it makes you look bewildered at best, and, well, aggressive at worst.
One pun in an awards show is not supporting a Stalinesque pogrom, fuck I thought he must have done a mel gibson-style drunken rant or something, not a fairly routine joke in an awards show. Get a life.
Like it or not Snowden did actually release classified information, so nph wasn’t inventing everything.
Yes, Snowden’s a hero, but what makes someone a hero is personal risk to themselves: his in the form of treason charges.
And the day I need a style tip from a puffed-up, self-appointed moral critic of the rest of humanity who obviously thinks his farts smell like rosewater, that will be an unlikely day indeed.
Russia is the fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. Yet the plan it submitted under the Paris agreement to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 is one of the weakest of any government and actually permits Russia to increase carbon pollution over time. The Paris agreement went into effect last November, but Russia is the only major emitter that has not ratified it. Instead, it has laid out a timetable that would delay ratification for almost three years.
…and Pete will be there, every step of the way, to try and make it as dull and bland and meaningless as he is.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[blatant flaming, take the day off. You know how this works OAB, how many times do you have to be told? – weka]
[because you’ve been told enough times, but do seem to have made an effort in recent times to post on topic and to include some kind of point in your comments, I’m putting you in premod for a week from tomorrow. It’s easier than having to moderate – weka]
Wow! After a close call in the Mt Albert by-election, (congratulations Jacinda and Labour team 🙂 I can now continue to focus on the fight against, in my view, endemic and entrenched NZ corruption.
(My following comment was recently published on the NBR – ‘subscriber only’ section.)
In my considered opinion, bribery and corruption at Auckland Transport (AT)
grew and became entrenched through the ‘collaboration’ model for contracting.
Who initiated this ‘collaboration’ model for contracting?
None other than corrupt senior Auckland Transport Manager – Murray
Noone.
Who supported and endorsed Murray Noone’s ‘collaboration’ model?
Former Auckland Transport Chief Operating Officer Fergus Gammie.
Who took corrupt Murray Noone’s ‘collaboration’ model for contracting to the Auckland Transport Board for their approval?
Auckland Transport Chief Executive David Warburton.
When did the BOARD of Auckland Transport approve corrupt Murray Noone’s ‘collaboration’ model for contracting?
18 May 2011.
(Check paragraph [301] of the ‘Reasons for the Verdict of Fitzgerald J’ and read this for yourself.
In my considered opinion, former and current Auckland Transport Executive staff at the highest levels, and the Board of Auckland Transport have helped to develop and entrench corruption, by their support for this ‘collaboration’ model for contracting
What’s being done about this ‘collaboration’ model’?
How is it lawful or proper for ANY ‘public official’ to simultaneously be a private consultant?
How widespread is THIS practice?
Anybody else asking these HARD questions?
By trying to pass off bribery and corruption within Auckland Transport as the work of a couple of aberrant employees, in my view, is just lying to the public.
Because the Board of Auckland Transport have declined to instruct forthwith, their CEO to ensure that Auckland Transport make details of all contracts worth less than $50,000, and ALL sub-contracted contracts equally available for public scrutiny on their website, I have made a formal complaint to the SFO against the Board of Auckland Transport for alleged criminal negligence.
Well I guess you would change your name if it was Drumpf…
But after his mother was able to show a photo of her and Muhammad – and in doing so being allowed to go through – you might have thought that Border Control would have had enough sense to realize who he was.
But this is not the first time that this has happened, (I’ve linked before to a NASA scientist who was held up on return, and had to give his cell phone and tablet log ins before they would let him through!) and I’m sure it will not be the last.
Yet they are about to lower their hiring standards further so they can bring on thousands more border agents to handle the increased workload. What could possibly go wrong?
Foster-Smell gone. Told to quit by Bill English in reality, despite Farrar and co bleating that candidate selection is not interfered with by the higher-ups.
Fuck the supposed fake news/MSM bias, this is what the real free press is about.
Kurdish journalist Shifa Gardi of #Rudaw TV, killed with a roadside bomb left by ISIS near Mosul while covering ongoing operation RIP! pic.twitter.com/veOkrcdKZB— Mutlu Civiroglu (@mutludc) February 25, 2017
Bennett spent 7.7million dollars on motels in the three months to December 2016 at a rate 15 times their expectations.
In Bennett’s own words…
To be honest, we just had no idea, and that’s part of it. I mean, they’re often hidden from us.
…and Amy Adams tells us…
The $2 million was what officials predicted might be needed – remembering that this was the first time we’d established the grant, so it was always going to be a forecast,”
Amy’s forecast was out by a factor of 15, and counting.
Muttonbird, its easy to spend money which you haven’t had to work your ass off for. No wonder people rort and try to avoid tax, giving it to these useless idiots is enough to give anybody a bloody pain in the proverbial. Whoever is doing the book keeping and not making sure that money is spent sensibly being heedful that its hard earned income needs the sack immediately for their obvious incompetence – the Minister for a start. Any NZ business running itself like the Government is would be declared bankrupt. Seven million is a bloody disgrace. “To be honest we just had no idea …” explains it completely.
Eve Ensler writes in a series looking at women’s rage around the globe.
.
Around the world, women have been suffering political oppression and worse for years, but we do not expect them to be violent. We tell ourselves that women who take up guns are aberrations. We are terrified of women’s rage, their fierceness, and their righteousness, so we create narratives and projections that deny their power of agency and authority. We tell ourselves that they kill for their husbands, that they are merely pawns, used and misused in a men’s game. They don’t have their own politics. Not “real” politics. They get drawn into “bad” situations against their will. They don’t know what they’re doing. We frame these stories any number of ways, but make sure that militant women are never the central characters, never voicing and determining their own story. This is far easier than confronting the depth of female commitment, radicalism, and vision. How does a mother watch her baby starve or her daughter be raped by soldiers of mining companies occupying her land without retaliating? How does a women continue on when she herself has been raped and re-raped by soldiers in a war fought over her country’s resources? How do women not go insane when they witness the daily assault of corporations and their proxy militias on their land, their water, their children, their husbands, their sons?
22/02/1943 Sophie Scholl was decapitated. As the Volksgericht in Germany at the time thought a good fitting punishment for dropping leaflets with ‘counter propaganda’ or ‘fake news’ if you want.
“The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive.’ The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you. But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.”
so i guess the question is, is one a little candle or a flaming torch? And how would we choose to burn?
Thank you to you both for those links and quotes – I’ve been reading about Hans and Sophie Scholl and the White Rose. The link below is to their leaflets – I’m slowly getting through them – important and relevant to today in many ways.
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Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
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Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
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Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
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Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
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Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
A heads up
Can you hear me scam
http://metro.co.uk/2017/02/25/can-you-hear-me-scam-could-be-stealing-your-details-police-warn-6471711/
Reported in the US
You know why “fake news” has become such a phenomenon, and we constantly ask ourselves why other people believe utter bullshit just because someone said it on TV?
Because it’s 2017 and people still spread crap like this without at least checking Snopes first.
http://www.snopes.com/can-you-hear-me-scam/
(Snopes is much more iffy when it comes to political stories, but on basic “is this a scam? Did this person actually give birth to a squid?” nonsense they are a must-read.)
I don’t want to harp on about this, but it is serious. When people start believing absolute rubbish like “if someone records me saying ‘yes’ then they’ll be able to steal money from me” which have no logic and no grounding in reality it means they’re far more likely to believe other “just so” stories. Like “tax cuts for the rich will stimulate the economy, the man on telly said so” or “the government can’t do anything about recessions and job losses, they just happen”.
We have to be able to think critically about our world and how things happen or we’ll believe anything.
Yes, probably right Stephnie.
Small thing to be prepared re possible scam.
The thing that interests me about it is that there are moves to use voice recording in ways that will lessen privacy and civil rights, and that probably will open us up to scams too.
The rumour a few years ago was that the WINZ call centre wanted to record voices to build up a voice recognition database for ID purposes, hence the push to get you to speak your way through the queue rather than push a button.
It’s not a “small thing” at all. It’s panic-mongering which teaches people bad habits – “oh, I heard they ask “can you hear me”, then it’s a scam, but this lovely young man telling me to give him remote access to my computer sounds credible”. And it has taught the media bad habits – don’t bother actually finding someone who has been scammed, don’t actually interview the relevant police agencies, don’t bother reporting on genuine threats posed by technology and fraud, just got to grab the headline about NEW PHONE RECORDING SCAM!!!! to get more clicks than the next guy.
Fake news didn’t start with the Trump gang….
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/sun1-thumb.jpg
Wait, what? People told lies before DT? Holy fuck.
i’m shocked… 😆
To be specific, organized lying, disinformation and suppression campaigns have long been with us. Centuries ago, agents of the Church pinned dissenters with fatal labels such as “witch” and “heretic”; progressive and tolerant thinkers in eighteenth-century Britain were routinely silenced with the label “Jacobin”; Mao’s apparatchiks used the damning phrase “capitalist running dog”; and Marxist groups everywhere cursed opponents within their ranks by calling them “revisionists”; American progressives have been called “reds” or “communists” since Pullman hired Pinkerton agents to intimidate and beat up unionized workers in the nineteenth century.
Trump, Conway, Spicer, De Vos and co., however, have already taken things to a bizarre new level.
Didn’t even mention Trump. Stop projecting your current fixations on everyone else.
Surely the propagation of false news by Trump and his gang is not solely my “current fixation.”
I thought everyone in the world who was even moderately compos mentis would automatically associate the name “Trump” with the phrase “false news.”
Apparently I’ve been living in a fool’s paradise.
Shame on Rep. John Lewis
We first encountered this sad ex-civil rights fighter-cum-Clinton supporter a month and a half ago, foolishly recycling ludicrous DNC lies about Russian puppet-masters….
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17012017/#comment-1288079
This wasn’t the first time the former civil rights fighter had told lies for Clinton….
Clinton’s now history. Time to go see your proctologist and get that big wriggly Clinton bug up your ass excised.
Unfortunately, Andre, the Democratic Party is still riddled with Clintonistas, and so are the media. I’d love to stop talking about Hillary Clinton and her ghastly husband, but somehow I think they and their sad supporters will be clogging up the airwaves for some time yet.
I guess you didn’t hear – Sanders lost, Clinton got the nomination.
Thanks for the update, Milt.
I guess you didn’t hear – h.r.c lost, the red hair Muppet won the president.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/90XRTHPfGVY/maxresdefault.jpg
https://rpseawright.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/say-what.jpg
http://m.memegen.com/s4gyvt.jpg
Where was Bernie?.
https://storify.com/docrocktex26/the-civil-rights-hero-no-one-ever-saw
I’m sure Bernie is full of BS as much as most politicians. But, that being said, we certainly know where Hillary was…..
https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*xD4qp7ZMw9k0ndIGaQvr_w.jpeg
http://i.imgur.com/QHrZeB0.jpg?fb
[from the trump-whitehouse-bans-critical-media-from-briefing thread]
No, dipshit, the fact is that you could have criticised his current position while still showing even a tiny fraction of the respect he’s earned. He’s fucking done a shitload more for good than you and your false equivalences ever will, you puffed-up festering goat colon.
http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/81/8122cd2ae24bd137fea90255b9a56fbc7c2ccb035dec34b16acd3859a41ea3ad.jpg
Heh. Went straight to work’s internet traffic management warning. Should probably apply to all your comments: “unsafe and possibly malicious content”.
Sorry, my friend, I see that the picture accompanying my little quip was of one Neil Patrick Harris, who is definitely a malicious and stupid person.
Loved your evocative little tirade, by the way: “puffed-up festering goat colon” is one of the better ones that’s been hurled my way recently.
Dude, I have no idea what your “little quip” was, because traffic management.
As for your opinion of NPH, he’s just gone up in my estimation as a result.
Dude, I have no idea what your “little quip” was, because traffic management.
Actually, it wasn’t so much a quip as it was an attempt to calm you down a bit by acknowledging the creative force behind that little insult. For what it’s worth, it was a picture of Neil Patrick Harris, in evening dress, pressing his fingertips together and smirking: “WELL SAID SIR.”
As for your opinion of NPH, he’s just gone up in my estimation as a result.
That doesn’t surprise me: after all, you and a few other right wingers on this site share his contempt for political dissenters….
http://www.vox.com/2015/2/23/8092543/edward-snowden-neil-patrick-harris
Seriously? That’s what got your bee in a bonnet about nph?
Just how much of reality actually meets your approval after you’ve passed it through your “100% politically pure” perception filter?
Do you look at a photo of puppies and go “fucking lackies of the state, they’d be police dogs just for the food and sense of belonging”?
People like you wouldn’t have seen any problem with a Soviet actor mouthing support for the state moving against those dastardly “Jewish doctors” in the dying days of Stalin’s reign.
And here’s a little style tip for free: drop the passive-aggressive show of incredulity—it makes you look bewildered at best, and, well, aggressive at worst.
You are bewildering.
One pun in an awards show is not supporting a Stalinesque pogrom, fuck I thought he must have done a mel gibson-style drunken rant or something, not a fairly routine joke in an awards show. Get a life.
Like it or not Snowden did actually release classified information, so nph wasn’t inventing everything.
Yes, Snowden’s a hero, but what makes someone a hero is personal risk to themselves: his in the form of treason charges.
And the day I need a style tip from a puffed-up, self-appointed moral critic of the rest of humanity who obviously thinks his farts smell like rosewater, that will be an unlikely day indeed.
Well said sir!
I take it I’m allowed to use your words for a modest little playlet I’m working on?
Modest? From you?
As Donald Trump pushes the United States toward inaction on climate change, he is likely to find an ally in Russia.
🙄
…and Pete will be there, every step of the way, to try and make it as dull and bland and meaningless as he is.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[blatant flaming, take the day off. You know how this works OAB, how many times do you have to be told? – weka]
[because you’ve been told enough times, but do seem to have made an effort in recent times to post on topic and to include some kind of point in your comments, I’m putting you in premod for a week from tomorrow. It’s easier than having to moderate – weka]
Perhaps, but attempts at flamewars obviously persist. Self inflicted wounds.
[that’s getting pretty close to shit stirring Pete, is that really where you want to go? – weka]
I see that money and donations and a slur won the day for Perez over Ellison for Democratic Party President.
http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/americas/1.756889
Wow! After a close call in the Mt Albert by-election, (congratulations Jacinda and Labour team 🙂 I can now continue to focus on the fight against, in my view, endemic and entrenched NZ corruption.
(My following comment was recently published on the NBR – ‘subscriber only’ section.)
In my considered opinion, bribery and corruption at Auckland Transport (AT)
grew and became entrenched through the ‘collaboration’ model for contracting.
Who initiated this ‘collaboration’ model for contracting?
None other than corrupt senior Auckland Transport Manager – Murray
Noone.
Who supported and endorsed Murray Noone’s ‘collaboration’ model?
Former Auckland Transport Chief Operating Officer Fergus Gammie.
Who took corrupt Murray Noone’s ‘collaboration’ model for contracting to the Auckland Transport Board for their approval?
Auckland Transport Chief Executive David Warburton.
When did the BOARD of Auckland Transport approve corrupt Murray Noone’s ‘collaboration’ model for contracting?
18 May 2011.
(Check paragraph [301] of the ‘Reasons for the Verdict of Fitzgerald J’ and read this for yourself.
In my considered opinion, former and current Auckland Transport Executive staff at the highest levels, and the Board of Auckland Transport have helped to develop and entrench corruption, by their support for this ‘collaboration’ model for contracting
What’s being done about this ‘collaboration’ model’?
How is it lawful or proper for ANY ‘public official’ to simultaneously be a private consultant?
How widespread is THIS practice?
Anybody else asking these HARD questions?
By trying to pass off bribery and corruption within Auckland Transport as the work of a couple of aberrant employees, in my view, is just lying to the public.
Because the Board of Auckland Transport have declined to instruct forthwith, their CEO to ensure that Auckland Transport make details of all contracts worth less than $50,000, and ALL sub-contracted contracts equally available for public scrutiny on their website, I have made a formal complaint to the SFO against the Board of Auckland Transport for alleged criminal negligence.
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner’.
how did you go in Mt Albert penny ?
Last I heard – 6th with 131 votes.
Close – but no cigar.
(Just as well I don’t smoke 😉
Her Warship
Not content with insulting and mistreating innocent international travelers to their country the US Border Officials are now turning on their own citizens.
FFS Muhammad Ali’s son held and questioned for 2 hours by Border Control after returning to Florida from Jamaica with his mother.
How can you be an American if you have an Un-American name? /sarc
I guess assuming or inheriting a name is now an Un-American activity.
Well I guess you would change your name if it was Drumpf…
But after his mother was able to show a photo of her and Muhammad – and in doing so being allowed to go through – you might have thought that Border Control would have had enough sense to realize who he was.
But this is not the first time that this has happened, (I’ve linked before to a NASA scientist who was held up on return, and had to give his cell phone and tablet log ins before they would let him through!) and I’m sure it will not be the last.
Yet they are about to lower their hiring standards further so they can bring on thousands more border agents to handle the increased workload. What could possibly go wrong?
Foster-Smell gone. Told to quit by Bill English in reality, despite Farrar and co bleating that candidate selection is not interfered with by the higher-ups.
Tui ad right there.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11807937
Word is he’s a bit of a bully to his staff.
Wow, that’s 11 nat MP’s not seeking re-election.
He was a bit of a big spender, loved to travel at the expense of the tax payer, and yes he is a bully. 12 staff left him over three years
Why are so many of them leaving the outgoing government?
Tories claim it’s rejuvenation, yeah right, if that were so Smith, Brownlee, English, Joyce etc would be leaving too.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out Foster Bell.
Fuck the supposed fake news/MSM bias, this is what the real free press is about.
http://heavy.com/news/2017/02/shifa-gardi-dead-death-photos-kurd-iraq-mosul-isis-news-journalist-killed-died-cause-of/
they are on the case in europe.
https://twitter.com/Gjoene/status/834094781655576576
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-intelligence-spied-on-foreign-journalists-for-years-a-1136188.html
Bennett spent 7.7million dollars on motels in the three months to December 2016 at a rate 15 times their expectations.
In Bennett’s own words…
…and Amy Adams tells us…
Amy’s forecast was out by a factor of 15, and counting.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/02/government-blows-the-budget-on-emergency-housing.html
Bit of a lazybones, ole Puller.
Muttonbird, its easy to spend money which you haven’t had to work your ass off for. No wonder people rort and try to avoid tax, giving it to these useless idiots is enough to give anybody a bloody pain in the proverbial. Whoever is doing the book keeping and not making sure that money is spent sensibly being heedful that its hard earned income needs the sack immediately for their obvious incompetence – the Minister for a start. Any NZ business running itself like the Government is would be declared bankrupt. Seven million is a bloody disgrace. “To be honest we just had no idea …” explains it completely.
Eve Ensler writes in a series looking at women’s rage around the globe.
.
Around the world, women have been suffering political oppression and worse for years, but we do not expect them to be violent. We tell ourselves that women who take up guns are aberrations. We are terrified of women’s rage, their fierceness, and their righteousness, so we create narratives and projections that deny their power of agency and authority. We tell ourselves that they kill for their husbands, that they are merely pawns, used and misused in a men’s game. They don’t have their own politics. Not “real” politics. They get drawn into “bad” situations against their will. They don’t know what they’re doing. We frame these stories any number of ways, but make sure that militant women are never the central characters, never voicing and determining their own story. This is far easier than confronting the depth of female commitment, radicalism, and vision. How does a mother watch her baby starve or her daughter be raped by soldiers of mining companies occupying her land without retaliating? How does a women continue on when she herself has been raped and re-raped by soldiers in a war fought over her country’s resources? How do women not go insane when they witness the daily assault of corporations and their proxy militias on their land, their water, their children, their husbands, their sons?
https://www.guernicamag.com/female-fighters-series-re-examines-womens-rage-around-the-world/
https://www.guernicamag.com/special/female-fighters/
that was a good read.
and just because
22/02/1943 Sophie Scholl was decapitated. As the Volksgericht in Germany at the time thought a good fitting punishment for dropping leaflets with ‘counter propaganda’ or ‘fake news’ if you want.
she is supposed to have said this:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/217576-the-real-damage-is-done-by-those-millions-who-want
“The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive.’ The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you. But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.”
so i guess the question is, is one a little candle or a flaming torch? And how would we choose to burn?
Thank you to you both for those links and quotes – I’ve been reading about Hans and Sophie Scholl and the White Rose. The link below is to their leaflets – I’m slowly getting through them – important and relevant to today in many ways.
https://libcom.org/library/white-rose-documents
Eve’s really gone off on one. Does she have a solution? Hopefully something less abstract than ‘reframing’ the ‘narrative’.