That’s pretty embarrassing for them professionally, Hammer, but no doubt they will have figured that they will always be able to get work as paid shills for the oil industry. Monckton can’t live forever, after all.
Regards, TVoR, Founder and CEO of The Institute for Denial In Our Time (IDIOT) and former micronaut, weather forecaster ( Mmmm, gonna rain today… or … maybe not.) and associate fellow at the University of Burgerology, Shitkicker, Missouri.
Richard Lindzen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lindzen
A real climate scientist Lindzen’s graduate students describe him as “fiercely intelligent, with a deep contrarian streak.”
The rebuttal from the Wall Street Journal that the increasing occurance of extreme weather events witnessed around world is a result of climate change is extremely weak:
…those promoting alarm have shifted their drumbeat from warming to weather extremes, to enable anything unusual that happens in our chaotic climate to be ascribed to CO2.
Compare this insipid bleating to the results in this study published in Reuters and covered by Scientific American.
the idiotes at the wall street journal blew it some years back when they lost focus and started betting on power futures and it ended up falling into the hands of rupert and now its just another rag.
It’s a biased op-ed from a right-wing newspaper. To quote Forbes:
But the most amazing and telling evidence of the bias of the Wall Street Journal in this field is the fact that 255 members of the United States National Academy of Sciences wrote a comparable (but scientifically accurate) essay on the realities of climate change and on the need for improved and serious public debate around the issue, offered it to the Wall Street Journal, and were turned down. The National Academy of Sciences is the nation’s pre-eminent independent scientific organizations. Its members are among the most respected in the world in their fields. Yet the Journal wouldn’t publish this letter, from more than 15 times as many top scientists. Instead they chose to publish an error-filled and misleading piece on climate because some so-called experts aligned with their bias signed it. This may be good politics for them, but it is bad science and it is bad for the nation.
Also
Claude Allegre is the first scientist cited. This is from his Wikipedia entry
Claude Allègre
In 1996, Allègre opposed the removal of carcinogenic asbestos from the Jussieu university campus in Paris, describing it as harmless and dismissing concerns about it as a form of “psychosis created by leftists”.[6] The campus’ asbestos is deemed to have killed 22 people and caused serious health problems in 130 others.[7]
A soldier trying out for the elite SAS is in a coma after suffering extreme heat stroke while taking part in a gruelling selection course.
Lieutenant Alexander Teira Cowan, 25, collapsed while running in the Hunua Ranges near the SAS base in South Auckland.
The incident has sparked an inquiry into selection processes for the New Zealand Special Air Service, which has the motto “Who Dares Wins”.
Medics on the scene could not revive Cowan and called St John Ambulance to take him to Middlemore Hospital on Wednesday, where he remains in a coma with possible brain damage.
Speaking from the family home in Bridge Pa, Cowan’s father Monty said he had doubts his son would survive. “He’s pretty crook. I don’t know if he’s going to pull through.
Watching the Australian version of this on tele recently I was struck at how abusive some of these courses can become. Now I fully accept the need and right for the SAS to select the best candidates… and that will inevitably involve putting them through stress testing to ‘weed out the dreamers’. And while that is necessary to a degree; at some point it seems to be stepping over the line and degenerates into some kind of mad macho battle of wills to ‘break’ them.
As some of you here may have noticed, I’m a keen tramper. In my experience requiring a human being to complete battle efficiency training which involved running 8km in under one hour and 12 minutes carrying 35kg. presumably while wearing full battle fatigues over rough terrain in the Hunuas… in the middle of summer is plain nuts.
As the article pointed out the real challenge is mostly mental. There are plenty of smart ways of achieving that rather than risking their lives by physically breaking them.
That’s does not necessarily have to imply a lowering of standards.
The physical side is as important if not more so then the mental. Its one thing to think or believe you can do something and quite another to know or experience it.
As I stated above… I’ve done plenty of the physical stuff. It means I’ve got some idea of what happens when you drive a human body into thermal overload.
On Boxing Day … just a few weeks ago… I did an 6hr tramp up a local peak. In that period I drank 4litres of water and came home 2kg lighter than when I left. That’s a total loss of 6 litres of sweat. The temperature was at least 26 degC and humid.
The last 2 hrs I was dehydrated, overheated and struggling. Badly. The one person I happened to meet on the way down enquired as to my well-being.
Fortunately I was carrying less than 8kg, stripped down to my shorts and I could rest when I needed to. This was nothing to do with how fit I am. I’ve done the exact same tramp in cooler temps and while it’s still a physical challenge (over 16km of steep bush track/sub-alpine tops, and almost 2000m of total elevation gain).. I wasn’t experiencing physiological stress the way I did this last trip.
So you go hard well whoop-de-do and good for you, were you training for selection? Training because you might have to push yourself in a war zone? Training because it may well mean the difference between life and death?
An incident happens and thats regretable but how many incidents happen in training?
Not many but as I’m sure you’re aware things can and will happen in the outdoors so instead of letting some week-end warriors decide what these guys do in thier training I think its best the people that know what they’re doing figure it out
You want to help then go lobby your MP to sort out the rules regarding outdoor pursuits centers
And given that they’ve put one guy near death in hospital it’s fair enough to ask if they really do know what they are doing.
– So how long has selections been run for and only one report of an incident happening, thats pretty good when you consider how many people get hurt or killed in the outdoors.
“at some point it seems to be stepping over the line and degenerates into some kind of mad macho battle of wills to ‘break’ them.”
– Typical of a leftie, don’t understand something so label it “negative”, maybe you think they could use some sensitivity training as well?
Try reading what I said.. Now I fully accept the need and right for the SAS to select the best candidates… and that will inevitably involve putting them through stress testing to ‘weed out the dreamers’.
Where does that say “sensitivity training”?
If there is one thing I’ve learnt from more than 40 years of banging about our mountains it is that the difference between success and failure is mostly mental. When faced with any challenge the crucial thing is NOT how strong or fit you are.. it is how well you use the resources available to you.
I’ve seen slim women out-perform strong men because they had their head screwed on. Equally I recall being rather shocked at discovering one day that technically I was a far better climber than one of this country’s most well-known mountaineers.. but he’s the most remarkably tough minded person I’ve ever met. And that took him places I only ever dreamed about.
And I’ve seen perfectly fit and well people completely lose it because they’ve panicked. Above a certain fitness threshold it’s almost all mental.
And while some real fitness and strength is unquestionably necessary to serve in the SAS… that is always something that can be developed through simple basic training.
But mental toughness, calmness in the face of stress, focus and the ability to be an effective part of a team is much harder to teach. And that is what they should be really selecting for. Pushing candidates to physiological breaking point is just dumbarse.
Pushing candidates to physiological breaking point is just dumbarse.
-and theres your ignorance coming out, these guys need to be pushed to breaking point and beyond because in the course of their duties thats exactly what will happen to them so you find out if they can take it in the selection process rather then out in the field
Its not just running around hills. mountains etc etc its about seeing how they cope, the decisions they make because if they go into live operations then they’ll have to cope with more then terrain and weather
You have experience in the outdoors then put it to good use and lobby your local MP for rules. codes etc for outdoor pursuits centers because they kill and injure more then selection does
There is absolutely nothing intelligent about breaking people physiologically. It’s easy, you just make them cold, or hot, or withdraw water and or food. Or any combination thereof. Any fool can do it.
All you are doing is just doing a simple experiment that has been done before and adds no useful information that we don’t already know. Make a person cold enough and they get hypothermia. A simple predictable set of consequences result.
And if you are operationally relying on men who are physiologically broken .. you have failed already. They simply will not and cannot function effectively.
Its not just running around hills. mountains etc etc its about seeing how they cope, the decisions they make because if they go into live operations then they’ll have to cope with more then terrain and weather
Like the risk of getting killed? You can sneer all you like at ‘runing around the hills’ Mr Medals… but in 15 yrs of serious alpine climbing I almost certainly came closer to dying far more often than any serving soldier ever does in their entire career. Your macho oneupmanship is completely lost on me.
And at the same time I fully respect anyone serving in harms way in our armed services. And I fully understand exactly the level of skill and capability our best SAS soldiers have. But they are human beings, not supermen… and they obey exactly the same physiological limits as any other human being.
And that is what baffles me about these SAS selection courses; I’ve had considerable experience in pushing myself to limits I doubt you have ever thought about…. and I know that everytime you break the body’s limits you fail . In my world there’s nothing clever about that; it’s dumbarse.
And why are you so defensive about this? Are military matters all so very special that us ordinary civilians aren’t allowed to ask questions?
With reference to afewknowthetruth and R. Atack here is another musing about the end days of our oil driven hence Industrial Age. Goodchild reminds us that World production in 2030, only 18 years away will be half what it was in 2005. This fact along with Climate Change are the macro defining realities of this time.
“Most estimates indicate that by 2030, more or less, annual global oil production will be about half of the peak rate. “Half” the oil with occur at the same time as “half” of everything else (water, metals, electricity, etc.) and the general collapse of both a functional economy (with debts already beyond comprehension) and honest government (if we consider, for example, how casually the US dumped its Constitution and replaced it with the Patriot Act). All of these events will be occurring as a synergistic tangle — or, rather, an “anti-synergistic” tangle, centrifugal rather than centripetal. A little pocket calculator will tell you that, for most practical purposes, industrial civilization will be over by that same date of 2030.”
Of course “The Normalcy Bias” which I have too finds this assertion ridiculous though logic tells us otherwise. How can the World we grew up in change like this? Well short answer: It can’t ! the above must be just another doomer hypothesis surely!?
The world didn’t change. The limits were always there but we’ve either never looked for them (Farming in NZ and the resultant polluted rivers and lakes is a good example of this) or ignored them (Peak Oil, Climate Change) when told about them exclaiming that science and “progress” will get us past those limits.
mayor bob parker says the christchurch city council is dysfunctional.
rod oram in the sst says the chch city council is dysfunctional.
so what is the dysfunction?
why are they keeping it to themselves?
is it too esoteric for mere mortals to understand?
I just found this interview from William Rodrigues and Rosie O’Donnell from November 2009 back.
Who is William Rodrigues?
William Rodrigues is a hero. He saved hundreds of people on 911 with his master key and was celebrated as a hero and even invited to the White House. He “became known as “the last man out” as he really was the last man out of the North tower and could only safe his life by diving under a fire engine as the building collapsed in free fall speed.
All that changed when it became evident that what he had to say did not support the official CT. Here is his story
I listened to the interview Trav and tried hard to keep an open mind. William certainly sounded credible and his story has been authenticated by many. The essential truth about the preliminary explosions is the central issue. Prove or disprove and the case becomes credible or not credible. If there were darker forces at work the question about “Why” would need to be answered too. Definitely uneasy about official version versus other stories.
Thanks for making the effort. Here is a link to a study published only this month. Seismic measuring equipment used to study earthquakes measured the seismic activity in New York on 911. It turns out that the seismographs recorded seismic activity not related to the impact of the planes. In fact it turns out the planes had very little seismic impact at all. So where came that energy from?
This is the conclusion the author draws: CONCLUSION
At the times of the planes’ impacts into the Twin Towers and during their collapses, as well as during the collapse of WTC7, seismic waves were generated. To the degree that (1) seismic waves are only created by brief impulses and (2) that low frequencies are associated with an energy (magnitude) that is comparable to a seismic event, the waves recorded at Palisades and analyzed by LDEO undeniably have an explosive origin. Even if the planes’ impacts and the fall of the debris from the Towers onto the ground could have generated seismic waves, their magnitude would have been insufficient to be recorded 34 km away and should have been very similar to one another. As we have shown, they were not.
The types and magnitudes of the seismic signals show significant differences. The greatest differences occur in their propagation speeds, even though their paths were essentially identical under identical conditions. This difference is physically unexplained in the interpretation of the events offered by the LDEO researchers, the 9/11 Commission and NIST. Therefore, we must question their calculations of wave propagation speeds based on their assumption that the wave origins are shown on the video images of impacts and collapses. We can only conclude that the wave sources were independently detonated explosives at other times, thus accounting for the variable discrepancies for each wave origin in relation to the videos.
The composition of the waves is revealing both in terms of the location of the source and the magnitude of the energy transmitted to the ground. The subterranean origin of the waves emitted when WTC1 collapsed is attested by the presence of the P and S body waves along with the Rayleigh surface waves, which are present in all five explosions. The placement of the source locations of the four other explosions is subaerial, attested by the unique presence of Rayleigh waves. The aerial explosions visible on the videos of the upper floors of the Twin Towers do not produce seismic waves 34 km from the source.
There is a factor of ten between the power of the explosions at the time of the plane impacts on the Twin Towers (as well as at the time of the collapse of WTC7) and the strength of those more powerful explosions at the times of their collapses, the subterranean explosion under WTC1 being the one that transmitted the most energy to the ground.
Note as well the degree to which the surface waves are dispersive (i.e., their speed depends upon their frequency). The duration of the recorded signal is not representative of the duration of the signal at the source.
Finally, controlled demolition of the three towers, suggested by the visual and audio witness testimony as well as by observations of video recordings of their collapses, is thus confirmed and demonstrated by analysis of the seismic waves emitted at the moments of the plane impacts and at the moments of the collapses.
Yes. I recall looking at that seismic evidence very early on within the first few days after the event. Intriguing.
I’ve always said that the 9/11 “Truth” movement has struggled because often as not it got side-tracked (deliberately or naively) into chasing lines of enquiry that while superficially appealing, were ultimately less telling than the many more rather prosaic facts around the whole affair.
Some 76 officers, six times as many as took out Osama bin Laden, swooped – a lot more than are deployed against allegedly desperate homegrown criminals, except perhaps for terrorists in Te Urewera.
In an editorial on the Kim Dotcom arrest, the Herald dispenses with the niceties. Referring to Tuhoe awaiting trial over the Urewera raids, as “terrorists in Te Urewera”.
I notice the Herald are not as convinced of the guilt of those charged with white collar crime referring to “alleged internet pirate Kim Dotcom.”
The same for those at South Canterbury charged with “allegedly” defrauding the taxpayer to the tune of $1.7 billion.
Inferring guilt by association, the Herald include “terrorists in Te Urewera”, “desperate home grown criminals”, “Osama bin Laden”, all in the same breathless sentence.
“Some 76 officers, six times as many as took out Osama bin Laden, swooped”
Which is a completely irrelevant comparison to make, because those that took our Osama bin Laden weren’t just your ‘average’ police or even army folk, but the US’ navy seals squad (the best of the best of the best).
Also they had to fly in using stealth helicopters into a foreign country that had no idea they were coming, so they couldn’t exactly bring as many people as they wanted.
Making such ridiculously out of place comparisons really overshadows any message you were trying to convey (as in my case, because I literally haven’t read any more of your post than this).
Ha! I bet that’s the first time a Herald editorial was ever mistaken for the ramblings of a left wing rabble rouser, Lanth. Believe it or not, the ’76 officers’ line is actually from the editorial. Amazing, huh?
Jenny is absolutely tight to highlight this thoroughly racist, ignorant and confused editorial.
because those that took our Osama bin Laden weren’t just your ‘average’ police or even army folk, but the US’ navy seals squad (the best of the best of the best).
All in order to commit a murder! And turn on the patriotic bullsh*t as much as you like, that’s what it comes down to.
There is absolutely nothing intelligent about breaking people physiologically. It’s easy, you just make them cold, or hot, or withdraw water and or food. Or any combination thereof. Any fool can do it.
– No one said it was clever
All you are doing is just doing a simple experiment that has been done before and adds no useful information that we don’t already know. Make a person cold enough and they get hypothermia. A simple predictable set of consequences result.
-Its not an experiment to find out what happens
And if you are operationally relying on men who are physiologically broken .. you have failed already. They simply will not and cannot function effectively.
-The idea is to see how they cope when placed in those situations and how to deal with them so can make decisions without panicking, like the pararescue guys who practice drowning training
I’m not saying it always works of course but it works more then if they didn’t do what they do
Its not just running around hills. mountains etc etc its about seeing how they cope, the decisions they make because if they go into live operations then they’ll have to cope with more then terrain and weather
Like the risk of getting killed? You can sneer all you like at ‘runing around the hills’ Mr Medals… but in 15 yrs of serious alpine climbing I almost certainly came closer to dying far more often than any serving soldier ever does in their entire career. Your macho oneupmanship is completely lost on me.
-What I meant was sunshine I’m guessing you didn’t also have to deal with people trying to shoot you or having to complete a mission,k set up; an observation post, radio in info etc etc
And at the same time I fully respect anyone serving in harms way in our armed services. And I fully understand exactly the level of skill and capability our best SAS soldiers have. But they are human beings, not supermen… and they obey exactly the same physiological limits as any other human being.
-This is true however they can and do get trained to withstand what others can’t
And that is what baffles me about these SAS selection courses; I’ve had considerable experience in pushing myself to limits I doubt you have ever thought about…. and I know that everytime you break the body’s limits you fail . In my world there’s nothing clever about that; it’s dumbarse.
-You spend time in the outdoors for fun, recreation whatever, for these guys its their job, their career, what they’re trained to do but you seem to think that what you do is similar to what the SAS do, it isn’t, what you do is a small part of what they do
And why are you so defensive about this? Are military matters all so very special that us ordinary civilians aren’t allowed to ask questions?
– The problem is with people assuming (like you) they know whats going on and (in a worst case situation) if they ever got into a postion to influence ideas then it could be very bad
The problem is that you go tramping and do various outdoor stuff (and thats all good) but then you read of what they do and think that because it sounds similar to what you do you can then pass judgement
But the reality is that what you do and what you do is very, very different but thats ok I hope I’ve explained why you’re wrong and why you should stick to politics
You haven’t explained why you think SAS soldiers are immune to hyper/hypothermia. Or how their livers have an extra store of glycogen ordinary human beings don’t have so that their brains function when the rest of us have shut down.
Or why you think they can stand naked in a blizzard for hours on end while still happily solving Rubik cubes in 30 sec flat. Or run for an hour in full uniform, over tough ground without generating the excess heat that kills us ordinary ‘weekend warriors’.
Of course not. Soldiers are human beings. And what they do physically in the field is very similar to the demands of an extended alpine journey. Now I do understand that there are a whole bunch of specific skills and tasks that mean from a mental perspective there are many other things going on in an live military operation that are quite different to what I am accustomed to. I get that.
But that is my point; the real requirements of an effective soldier is to be able to perform these many specialised mental tasks.. while under some degree of stress. And stress can be any combination of physical and mental challenges.. I get that too.
But just physically pushing someone until their body breaks tells you nothing and is operational failure. Why go there?
All you have done is hand wave and tell me as an ignorant civilian I cannot possibly understand…
As the article states there were other candidates that didn’t collapse so, hopefully, the inquiry will tell us what happened.
What were the factors that determined why this guy collapsed and the others didn’t.
Was he tired from the night before? (quite possibly)
Was he on (legal) stimulents that could contribute to his collapse? (creatine, caffiene etc etc)
Was he simply not fit enough for the selection process? (unlikely)
Did he have an undiagnosed pre-existing condidtion?
Did he suffer an injury and not tell anyone about it?
What they don’t need is knee-jerk reactions based on opinion.
But frankly it’s my considered, and not uninformed opinion, that someone has misjudged the conditions and pushed too hard.
And I’d strongly suggest unnecessarily so. I still maintain from observation that there has developed in the last few decades or so this very strong hard-man macho mystique around the SAS. A lot of it is rooted in the totally false idea that these guys are some kind of physical supermen. Now while I accept the need for them to be very fit, strong and tough guys, the emphasis on that pure physicality seems to me to have tipped too far.
Take for instance the relatively new sport of chessboxing. Consists of a round of boxing, followed immediately by a set number of chess moves against the same opponent. From what I’ve read it’s an incredibly tough mental challenge. Lots of guys can box, lots do well at chess.. but combining both in quick succession is exceedingly challenging. That’s just an example of the kind of thing I’m thinking of… although I’m certain it’s nothing like a whole answer either.
My final point is this. As we saw with Pike River management; before the explosion they would have told anyone who questioned what was going on, that they were ignorant outsiders who couldn’t possibly comprehend what clever things they were doing and to… butt out.
No chance the SAS have developed a tiny bit of this syndrome too?
Crikey Red. I’m in awe of your outdoor pursuits – no wonder you enjoy the natural world: the tory quicksand and whack-a-mole shifting rubble that you relentlessly boot to touch here must make a 2000m climb seem a doddle….. keep it up but, delilcious and appreciated entertainment – like an informed and knowledgeable lion-tamer herding starving cats. RL for PM!
Feck I’m embarrased.. really. Last weekend I helped a bunch from the local tramping club replace all the windows in one of our older heritage huts. (DOC handed many of these older huts over to various clubs to maintain some years ago.)
Blue Range hut was actually built the year I was born, 1955. It’s good 2 hr grind up about 700m climb of bush track… most people find it’s about right for a full day walk in and out.
Here’s the rub… one of the guys with us helped build the original hut. Yes he’s in his mid-70’s…and he wasn’t any slower than the rest of us. If I can manage as well as him I’ll be delighted. (And he’s still full of stories…even if only half of them are true..)
But you have touched on something important to me ak. My deep love for this country was shaped in those experiences. Not just the fabulous places, but more importantly the extraordinary people. And those people shared a special ethos; if I can put it in a nutshell… we took pride in taking responsibility for ourselves and pushing our limits, but equally we were ALWAYS there for the other person…regardless.
The greatest bushmen this country ever saw were the hunters and Forest Service workers in the post-War era. They created the network of huts and tracks we treasure today. They taught us to replace the firewood you used, to keep the hut spotless and leave it better for the next party than when you found it. They taught us that the party is only as strong as it’s weakest member, that you stuck together regardless of what happened and looked after each other.
Looking back I guess I was hugely privileged to share in that legacy; it saddens me to see how it was stolen from our younger generations. All I can do know is not give up trying to show them what it meant.
Thank you RedLogix, what a wonderful thing you and ‘the tramping club bunch’ are doing. Thank God for people who still have consideration for others- especially our future generations-and the perspicacity (and energy) to put their visions and well thought out actions into practice.
PS I too thought a rethink about “tough” exercises was needed when I read about the unfortunate young man in a coma. I also marvelled at your patient explanations to Chri73 who seemed particularly obtuse and lacking in perspicacity today. However he obviously needed to get some deep seated hang up off his chest and I really think you may have helped. Thus, another thank you for caring for others.
A lovely story that, but yeah, those values might be diminished, but they aren’t dead. I’m relatively young, and my younger friends all practice those values in the hills, so somehow, these are being transferred and taught still. Organisations like the Federated Mountain Clubs and the New Zealand Deerstalkers are pretty consistent as well, which helps.
With DOC cutbacks for backcountry huts looming (something which needs to be challenged) in favour of frontcountry tourism facilities, it will be largely up to the community to maintain older facilities. If we lose them, we lose a massive amount of our heritage.
My biggest is worry is that, on the whole, people in conservation and recreation are white and aging. How we get younger, urban, and other cultures into the outdoors is probably the biggest challenge out there.
The thing about special forces is that they are triathletes as well as soldiers. This incident seems to be an extreme sports training accident, rather than an “experiment” or an attempt to “break” those who can’t perform. It’s exactly like a marathon runner overextending themselves – and they’ve acknowledged the problem, and are investigating what went wrong and how they can prevent it happening again, which is all you can really ask.
and they’ve acknowledged the problem, and are investigating what went wrong and how they can prevent it happening again, which is all you can really ask.
– To be fair thats probably what I should have said
And I’d agree. If it was just bad luck or something specific with that individual then that’s acceptable. Accidents do happen and can be learnt from.
But I would also hope that any internal enquiry had the balls to call it if they found evidence of a systemic screwup as well. Because on the face of it what they were asking these guys to do was in the conditions more than a little risky.
Bernard Hickey isn’t impressed with Jonkey’s ability with numbers and in predicting NZ’s economic and financial future. He isn’t impressed by Key’s attempt to reassure us that selling farmland to foreigners is not a problem in the current global financial context.:
Don’t worry so much, said Key this week, as he justified the sale of our largest privately owned group of dairy farms and foreshadowed heavier foreign borrowing over the next couple of years.
Relax. We can always borrow more and sell some assets. After all, we’ve only sold 1 per cent of our land so far.
Chill. Our foreign creditors will keep lending to us because we are the friendly, smiling borrowers who have everything under control, he crooned.
Hickey puts some of the blame onto the last Labour government, saying foreign debt, selling assets, falling productivity, and limited benefits from exports have all made things worth, but that Key is not the PM to provide the necessary intervention. I tend to agree with Hickey here, though I don’t always agree with all he says. He concludes:
He has presided over a Government that has financed a blowout in its deficits funded by foreign creditors, including the Chinese Sovereign Wealth Fund that has bought our bonds, along with Kim Dotcom.
Key campaigned to extend a programme of state asset sales that would lead to significant portions ending up in foreign hands.
The only way to end our addiction to overspending is to throw out the enablers of foreign borrowing and selling assets to foreign interests.
The proportion of our national income that has to be siphoned off to foreign creditors and asset-owners has risen from 2 per cent of GDP in the early 1970s to about 8 per cent now.
Eventually we will not be allowed to borrow more and will not have anything left to sell. Who will reassure us and enable us then?
I’m not sure why Kimdortom gets a mention here though?
Thanks ropata. You are so right, this link about a culture of impunity in NZ is an absolute Must Read. Have been trying to express much of what Pablo says for a long time.
“The Best Oylmpic cheat of them all was Marion Jones. She had it all: five medals from Sydney, the believability of an actress, the confidence to stare out her doubters, and this extraordinary helpful facility at the right moment to generate tears.”
Hmmmm
How about a joker who won 6 gold medals across glamour track and field events, who was an American icon, who cashed in with widespread endorsements through his achievements, who carefully groomed a ‘mom and apple pie’ image, who condemned a rival runner when that person was found to have used banned steriods in 1988, but who himself 3 times (apparently) tested positive for banned stimulants but was never banned from competition.
I’ve put together a feed site for some leftwing blogs… probably not recommended for dialup. Let me know if there’s any other websites that should be added.
The EU bans Iranian oil imports, to take effect from July 1 giving member states time to sort out alternative oil sources in an orderly fashion.
Pretty obvious what Iran is going to do in response, right? Yep, move to end oil exports to the EU right now. In a move which places even more economic pressure on the likes of Greece, Italy and Spain.
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Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
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. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
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. ...
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 ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
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 ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
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 ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
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A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
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The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
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The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
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Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
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The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, 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 ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Good morning:
The “Anthropogenic Global Warming” story takes a hit – this time from the Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171531838421366.html
Good to see Dr Chris de Freitas get an honourable mention too.
[Pull another ‘dump and run’ like this and you will be put into moderation…RL]
That’s pretty embarrassing for them professionally, Hammer, but no doubt they will have figured that they will always be able to get work as paid shills for the oil industry. Monckton can’t live forever, after all.
Regards, TVoR, Founder and CEO of The Institute for Denial In Our Time (IDIOT) and former micronaut, weather forecaster ( Mmmm, gonna rain today… or … maybe not.) and associate fellow at the University of Burgerology, Shitkicker, Missouri.
16 concerned scientists debunk global warming. These scientists include:
http://floppingaces.net/most_wanted/16-concerned-scientists-no-need-to-panic-about-global-warming/#comment-357641
How well did the Wall Street Journal do at predicting the GFC, and that is in the area of their expertise.
(From the link supplied by Hammer above)
The rebuttal from the Wall Street Journal that the increasing occurance of extreme weather events witnessed around world is a result of climate change is extremely weak:
Compare this insipid bleating to the results in this study published in Reuters and covered by Scientific American.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=refile-flooding-is-biggest-climate
Click to EditDelete
the idiotes at the wall street journal blew it some years back when they lost focus and started betting on power futures and it ended up falling into the hands of rupert and now its just another rag.
Slashdot geeks take apart the WSJ quite effectively …
Also
Herald
Watching the Australian version of this on tele recently I was struck at how abusive some of these courses can become. Now I fully accept the need and right for the SAS to select the best candidates… and that will inevitably involve putting them through stress testing to ‘weed out the dreamers’. And while that is necessary to a degree; at some point it seems to be stepping over the line and degenerates into some kind of mad macho battle of wills to ‘break’ them.
As some of you here may have noticed, I’m a keen tramper. In my experience requiring a human being to complete battle efficiency training which involved running 8km in under one hour and 12 minutes carrying 35kg. presumably while wearing full battle fatigues over rough terrain in the Hunuas… in the middle of summer is plain nuts.
Who the hell approved this nonsense?
Its only nonsense to you, to me its selecting the best the NZ armed forces has to offer and training them to be even better.
You lower the standard (insert whatever pun you feel appropriate here) and testing then you lower the caliber of the soldier.
Once thats lowered then you put those soldiers at greater risk when they’re called on to do the hard tasks they’re expected to carry out.
As the article pointed out the real challenge is mostly mental. There are plenty of smart ways of achieving that rather than risking their lives by physically breaking them.
That’s does not necessarily have to imply a lowering of standards.
Crap
The physical side is as important if not more so then the mental. Its one thing to think or believe you can do something and quite another to know or experience it.
Stick to politics.
As I stated above… I’ve done plenty of the physical stuff. It means I’ve got some idea of what happens when you drive a human body into thermal overload.
On Boxing Day … just a few weeks ago… I did an 6hr tramp up a local peak. In that period I drank 4litres of water and came home 2kg lighter than when I left. That’s a total loss of 6 litres of sweat. The temperature was at least 26 degC and humid.
The last 2 hrs I was dehydrated, overheated and struggling. Badly. The one person I happened to meet on the way down enquired as to my well-being.
Fortunately I was carrying less than 8kg, stripped down to my shorts and I could rest when I needed to. This was nothing to do with how fit I am. I’ve done the exact same tramp in cooler temps and while it’s still a physical challenge (over 16km of steep bush track/sub-alpine tops, and almost 2000m of total elevation gain).. I wasn’t experiencing physiological stress the way I did this last trip.
When did you last push yourself that hard chris?
Do you want a medal? I have three.
So you go hard well whoop-de-do and good for you, were you training for selection? Training because you might have to push yourself in a war zone? Training because it may well mean the difference between life and death?
An incident happens and thats regretable but how many incidents happen in training?
Not many but as I’m sure you’re aware things can and will happen in the outdoors so instead of letting some week-end warriors decide what these guys do in thier training I think its best the people that know what they’re doing figure it out
You want to help then go lobby your MP to sort out the rules regarding outdoor pursuits centers
I think its best the people that know what they’re doing figure it out
And given that they’ve got one guy near death in hospital it’s fair enough to ask if they really do know what they are doing.
As for your sarcasm… you asked if I knew what hyperthermia was and if I had experienced it. I gave you a factual response.
I really do believe you have three medals….Arsehatery and Double Bar I dare say.
And given that they’ve put one guy near death in hospital it’s fair enough to ask if they really do know what they are doing.
– So how long has selections been run for and only one report of an incident happening, thats pretty good when you consider how many people get hurt or killed in the outdoors.
“at some point it seems to be stepping over the line and degenerates into some kind of mad macho battle of wills to ‘break’ them.”
– Typical of a leftie, don’t understand something so label it “negative”, maybe you think they could use some sensitivity training as well?
Try reading what I said.. Now I fully accept the need and right for the SAS to select the best candidates… and that will inevitably involve putting them through stress testing to ‘weed out the dreamers’.
Where does that say “sensitivity training”?
If there is one thing I’ve learnt from more than 40 years of banging about our mountains it is that the difference between success and failure is mostly mental. When faced with any challenge the crucial thing is NOT how strong or fit you are.. it is how well you use the resources available to you.
I’ve seen slim women out-perform strong men because they had their head screwed on. Equally I recall being rather shocked at discovering one day that technically I was a far better climber than one of this country’s most well-known mountaineers.. but he’s the most remarkably tough minded person I’ve ever met. And that took him places I only ever dreamed about.
And I’ve seen perfectly fit and well people completely lose it because they’ve panicked. Above a certain fitness threshold it’s almost all mental.
And while some real fitness and strength is unquestionably necessary to serve in the SAS… that is always something that can be developed through simple basic training.
But mental toughness, calmness in the face of stress, focus and the ability to be an effective part of a team is much harder to teach. And that is what they should be really selecting for. Pushing candidates to physiological breaking point is just dumbarse.
Pushing candidates to physiological breaking point is just dumbarse.
-and theres your ignorance coming out, these guys need to be pushed to breaking point and beyond because in the course of their duties thats exactly what will happen to them so you find out if they can take it in the selection process rather then out in the field
Its not just running around hills. mountains etc etc its about seeing how they cope, the decisions they make because if they go into live operations then they’ll have to cope with more then terrain and weather
You have experience in the outdoors then put it to good use and lobby your local MP for rules. codes etc for outdoor pursuits centers because they kill and injure more then selection does
There is absolutely nothing intelligent about breaking people physiologically. It’s easy, you just make them cold, or hot, or withdraw water and or food. Or any combination thereof. Any fool can do it.
All you are doing is just doing a simple experiment that has been done before and adds no useful information that we don’t already know. Make a person cold enough and they get hypothermia. A simple predictable set of consequences result.
And if you are operationally relying on men who are physiologically broken .. you have failed already. They simply will not and cannot function effectively.
Its not just running around hills. mountains etc etc its about seeing how they cope, the decisions they make because if they go into live operations then they’ll have to cope with more then terrain and weather
Like the risk of getting killed? You can sneer all you like at ‘runing around the hills’ Mr Medals… but in 15 yrs of serious alpine climbing I almost certainly came closer to dying far more often than any serving soldier ever does in their entire career. Your macho oneupmanship is completely lost on me.
And at the same time I fully respect anyone serving in harms way in our armed services. And I fully understand exactly the level of skill and capability our best SAS soldiers have. But they are human beings, not supermen… and they obey exactly the same physiological limits as any other human being.
And that is what baffles me about these SAS selection courses; I’ve had considerable experience in pushing myself to limits I doubt you have ever thought about…. and I know that everytime you break the body’s limits you fail . In my world there’s nothing clever about that; it’s dumbarse.
And why are you so defensive about this? Are military matters all so very special that us ordinary civilians aren’t allowed to ask questions?
Purple hearts, Chris? Given the discussion it would be ironic if they were for shedding blood.
Um no I never served in the US armed forces.
My mistake. Your spelling (center, caliber) made me think you were a seppo.
Fair call, spelling is not my strong point
Terrible old jokes revisited:
When I quit my job as a human cannonball, they said I’d be hard to replace … because you don’t often meet men of my calibre.
Is it going to be another…round of bad jokes
Some jokes are explosive.
And some I just can’t get fired up about.
With reference to afewknowthetruth and R. Atack here is another musing about the end days of our oil driven hence Industrial Age. Goodchild reminds us that World production in 2030, only 18 years away will be half what it was in 2005. This fact along with Climate Change are the macro defining realities of this time.
“Waking In The Half World”
refer link: http://www.countercurrents.org/goodchild280112.htm
“Most estimates indicate that by 2030, more or less, annual global oil production will be about half of the peak rate. “Half” the oil with occur at the same time as “half” of everything else (water, metals, electricity, etc.) and the general collapse of both a functional economy (with debts already beyond comprehension) and honest government (if we consider, for example, how casually the US dumped its Constitution and replaced it with the Patriot Act). All of these events will be occurring as a synergistic tangle — or, rather, an “anti-synergistic” tangle, centrifugal rather than centripetal. A little pocket calculator will tell you that, for most practical purposes, industrial civilization will be over by that same date of 2030.”
Of course “The Normalcy Bias” which I have too finds this assertion ridiculous though logic tells us otherwise. How can the World we grew up in change like this? Well short answer: It can’t ! the above must be just another doomer hypothesis surely!?
The world didn’t change. The limits were always there but we’ve either never looked for them (Farming in NZ and the resultant polluted rivers and lakes is a good example of this) or ignored them (Peak Oil, Climate Change) when told about them exclaiming that science and “progress” will get us past those limits.
mayor bob parker says the christchurch city council is dysfunctional.
rod oram in the sst says the chch city council is dysfunctional.
so what is the dysfunction?
why are they keeping it to themselves?
is it too esoteric for mere mortals to understand?
I just found this interview from William Rodrigues and Rosie O’Donnell from November 2009 back.
Who is William Rodrigues?
William Rodrigues is a hero. He saved hundreds of people on 911 with his master key and was celebrated as a hero and even invited to the White House. He “became known as “the last man out” as he really was the last man out of the North tower and could only safe his life by diving under a fire engine as the building collapsed in free fall speed.
All that changed when it became evident that what he had to say did not support the official CT. Here is his story
I just don’t know. I went in to work that morning and when asked about the events my first response was, “who burnt the Reichstag?”
Yep!
I listened to the interview Trav and tried hard to keep an open mind. William certainly sounded credible and his story has been authenticated by many. The essential truth about the preliminary explosions is the central issue. Prove or disprove and the case becomes credible or not credible. If there were darker forces at work the question about “Why” would need to be answered too. Definitely uneasy about official version versus other stories.
Hi Ianmac,
Thanks for making the effort. Here is a link to a study published only this month. Seismic measuring equipment used to study earthquakes measured the seismic activity in New York on 911. It turns out that the seismographs recorded seismic activity not related to the impact of the planes. In fact it turns out the planes had very little seismic impact at all. So where came that energy from?
This is the conclusion the author draws:
CONCLUSION
At the times of the planes’ impacts into the Twin Towers and during their collapses, as well as during the collapse of WTC7, seismic waves were generated. To the degree that (1) seismic waves are only created by brief impulses and (2) that low frequencies are associated with an energy (magnitude) that is comparable to a seismic event, the waves recorded at Palisades and analyzed by LDEO undeniably have an explosive origin. Even if the planes’ impacts and the fall of the debris from the Towers onto the ground could have generated seismic waves, their magnitude would have been insufficient to be recorded 34 km away and should have been very similar to one another. As we have shown, they were not.
The types and magnitudes of the seismic signals show significant differences. The greatest differences occur in their propagation speeds, even though their paths were essentially identical under identical conditions. This difference is physically unexplained in the interpretation of the events offered by the LDEO researchers, the 9/11 Commission and NIST. Therefore, we must question their calculations of wave propagation speeds based on their assumption that the wave origins are shown on the video images of impacts and collapses. We can only conclude that the wave sources were independently detonated explosives at other times, thus accounting for the variable discrepancies for each wave origin in relation to the videos.
The composition of the waves is revealing both in terms of the location of the source and the magnitude of the energy transmitted to the ground. The subterranean origin of the waves emitted when WTC1 collapsed is attested by the presence of the P and S body waves along with the Rayleigh surface waves, which are present in all five explosions. The placement of the source locations of the four other explosions is subaerial, attested by the unique presence of Rayleigh waves. The aerial explosions visible on the videos of the upper floors of the Twin Towers do not produce seismic waves 34 km from the source.
There is a factor of ten between the power of the explosions at the time of the plane impacts on the Twin Towers (as well as at the time of the collapse of WTC7) and the strength of those more powerful explosions at the times of their collapses, the subterranean explosion under WTC1 being the one that transmitted the most energy to the ground.
Note as well the degree to which the surface waves are dispersive (i.e., their speed depends upon their frequency). The duration of the recorded signal is not representative of the duration of the signal at the source.
Finally, controlled demolition of the three towers, suggested by the visual and audio witness testimony as well as by observations of video recordings of their collapses, is thus confirmed and demonstrated by analysis of the seismic waves emitted at the moments of the plane impacts and at the moments of the collapses.
Yes. I recall looking at that seismic evidence very early on within the first few days after the event. Intriguing.
I’ve always said that the 9/11 “Truth” movement has struggled because often as not it got side-tracked (deliberately or naively) into chasing lines of enquiry that while superficially appealing, were ultimately less telling than the many more rather prosaic facts around the whole affair.
Like they finally got Al Capone on tax evasion …
Innocent until proven Maori.
In an editorial on the Kim Dotcom arrest, the Herald dispenses with the niceties. Referring to Tuhoe awaiting trial over the Urewera raids, as “terrorists in Te Urewera”.
I notice the Herald are not as convinced of the guilt of those charged with white collar crime referring to “alleged internet pirate Kim Dotcom.”
The same for those at South Canterbury charged with “allegedly” defrauding the taxpayer to the tune of $1.7 billion.
Inferring guilt by association, the Herald include “terrorists in Te Urewera”, “desperate home grown criminals”, “Osama bin Laden”, all in the same breathless sentence.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10781891
“Some 76 officers, six times as many as took out Osama bin Laden, swooped”
Which is a completely irrelevant comparison to make, because those that took our Osama bin Laden weren’t just your ‘average’ police or even army folk, but the US’ navy seals squad (the best of the best of the best).
Also they had to fly in using stealth helicopters into a foreign country that had no idea they were coming, so they couldn’t exactly bring as many people as they wanted.
Making such ridiculously out of place comparisons really overshadows any message you were trying to convey (as in my case, because I literally haven’t read any more of your post than this).
Ha! I bet that’s the first time a Herald editorial was ever mistaken for the ramblings of a left wing rabble rouser, Lanth. Believe it or not, the ’76 officers’ line is actually from the editorial. Amazing, huh?
Jenny is absolutely tight to highlight this thoroughly racist, ignorant and confused editorial.
All in order to commit a murder! And turn on the patriotic bullsh*t as much as you like, that’s what it comes down to.
There is absolutely nothing intelligent about breaking people physiologically. It’s easy, you just make them cold, or hot, or withdraw water and or food. Or any combination thereof. Any fool can do it.
– No one said it was clever
All you are doing is just doing a simple experiment that has been done before and adds no useful information that we don’t already know. Make a person cold enough and they get hypothermia. A simple predictable set of consequences result.
-Its not an experiment to find out what happens
And if you are operationally relying on men who are physiologically broken .. you have failed already. They simply will not and cannot function effectively.
-The idea is to see how they cope when placed in those situations and how to deal with them so can make decisions without panicking, like the pararescue guys who practice drowning training
I’m not saying it always works of course but it works more then if they didn’t do what they do
Its not just running around hills. mountains etc etc its about seeing how they cope, the decisions they make because if they go into live operations then they’ll have to cope with more then terrain and weather
Like the risk of getting killed? You can sneer all you like at ‘runing around the hills’ Mr Medals… but in 15 yrs of serious alpine climbing I almost certainly came closer to dying far more often than any serving soldier ever does in their entire career. Your macho oneupmanship is completely lost on me.
-What I meant was sunshine I’m guessing you didn’t also have to deal with people trying to shoot you or having to complete a mission,k set up; an observation post, radio in info etc etc
And at the same time I fully respect anyone serving in harms way in our armed services. And I fully understand exactly the level of skill and capability our best SAS soldiers have. But they are human beings, not supermen… and they obey exactly the same physiological limits as any other human being.
-This is true however they can and do get trained to withstand what others can’t
And that is what baffles me about these SAS selection courses; I’ve had considerable experience in pushing myself to limits I doubt you have ever thought about…. and I know that everytime you break the body’s limits you fail . In my world there’s nothing clever about that; it’s dumbarse.
-You spend time in the outdoors for fun, recreation whatever, for these guys its their job, their career, what they’re trained to do but you seem to think that what you do is similar to what the SAS do, it isn’t, what you do is a small part of what they do
And why are you so defensive about this? Are military matters all so very special that us ordinary civilians aren’t allowed to ask questions?
– The problem is with people assuming (like you) they know whats going on and (in a worst case situation) if they ever got into a postion to influence ideas then it could be very bad
The problem is that you go tramping and do various outdoor stuff (and thats all good) but then you read of what they do and think that because it sounds similar to what you do you can then pass judgement
But the reality is that what you do and what you do is very, very different but thats ok I hope I’ve explained why you’re wrong and why you should stick to politics
I apoligise for the errors in my typing, the edit function doesn’t seem to be working (but it might just be at my end)
It didn’t work for me either.
You haven’t explained why you think SAS soldiers are immune to hyper/hypothermia. Or how their livers have an extra store of glycogen ordinary human beings don’t have so that their brains function when the rest of us have shut down.
Or why you think they can stand naked in a blizzard for hours on end while still happily solving Rubik cubes in 30 sec flat. Or run for an hour in full uniform, over tough ground without generating the excess heat that kills us ordinary ‘weekend warriors’.
Of course not. Soldiers are human beings. And what they do physically in the field is very similar to the demands of an extended alpine journey. Now I do understand that there are a whole bunch of specific skills and tasks that mean from a mental perspective there are many other things going on in an live military operation that are quite different to what I am accustomed to. I get that.
But that is my point; the real requirements of an effective soldier is to be able to perform these many specialised mental tasks.. while under some degree of stress. And stress can be any combination of physical and mental challenges.. I get that too.
But just physically pushing someone until their body breaks tells you nothing and is operational failure. Why go there?
All you have done is hand wave and tell me as an ignorant civilian I cannot possibly understand…
As the article states there were other candidates that didn’t collapse so, hopefully, the inquiry will tell us what happened.
What were the factors that determined why this guy collapsed and the others didn’t.
Was he tired from the night before? (quite possibly)
Was he on (legal) stimulents that could contribute to his collapse? (creatine, caffiene etc etc)
Was he simply not fit enough for the selection process? (unlikely)
Did he have an undiagnosed pre-existing condidtion?
Did he suffer an injury and not tell anyone about it?
What they don’t need is knee-jerk reactions based on opinion.
Fair enough. Those would be my thoughts too.
But frankly it’s my considered, and not uninformed opinion, that someone has misjudged the conditions and pushed too hard.
And I’d strongly suggest unnecessarily so. I still maintain from observation that there has developed in the last few decades or so this very strong hard-man macho mystique around the SAS. A lot of it is rooted in the totally false idea that these guys are some kind of physical supermen. Now while I accept the need for them to be very fit, strong and tough guys, the emphasis on that pure physicality seems to me to have tipped too far.
Take for instance the relatively new sport of chessboxing. Consists of a round of boxing, followed immediately by a set number of chess moves against the same opponent. From what I’ve read it’s an incredibly tough mental challenge. Lots of guys can box, lots do well at chess.. but combining both in quick succession is exceedingly challenging. That’s just an example of the kind of thing I’m thinking of… although I’m certain it’s nothing like a whole answer either.
My final point is this. As we saw with Pike River management; before the explosion they would have told anyone who questioned what was going on, that they were ignorant outsiders who couldn’t possibly comprehend what clever things they were doing and to… butt out.
No chance the SAS have developed a tiny bit of this syndrome too?
Crikey Red. I’m in awe of your outdoor pursuits – no wonder you enjoy the natural world: the tory quicksand and whack-a-mole shifting rubble that you relentlessly boot to touch here must make a 2000m climb seem a doddle….. keep it up but, delilcious and appreciated entertainment – like an informed and knowledgeable lion-tamer herding starving cats. RL for PM!
Feck I’m embarrased.. really. Last weekend I helped a bunch from the local tramping club replace all the windows in one of our older heritage huts. (DOC handed many of these older huts over to various clubs to maintain some years ago.)
Blue Range hut was actually built the year I was born, 1955. It’s good 2 hr grind up about 700m climb of bush track… most people find it’s about right for a full day walk in and out.
Here’s the rub… one of the guys with us helped build the original hut. Yes he’s in his mid-70’s…and he wasn’t any slower than the rest of us. If I can manage as well as him I’ll be delighted. (And he’s still full of stories…even if only half of them are true..)
But you have touched on something important to me ak. My deep love for this country was shaped in those experiences. Not just the fabulous places, but more importantly the extraordinary people. And those people shared a special ethos; if I can put it in a nutshell… we took pride in taking responsibility for ourselves and pushing our limits, but equally we were ALWAYS there for the other person…regardless.
The greatest bushmen this country ever saw were the hunters and Forest Service workers in the post-War era. They created the network of huts and tracks we treasure today. They taught us to replace the firewood you used, to keep the hut spotless and leave it better for the next party than when you found it. They taught us that the party is only as strong as it’s weakest member, that you stuck together regardless of what happened and looked after each other.
Looking back I guess I was hugely privileged to share in that legacy; it saddens me to see how it was stolen from our younger generations. All I can do know is not give up trying to show them what it meant.
Thank you RedLogix, what a wonderful thing you and ‘the tramping club bunch’ are doing. Thank God for people who still have consideration for others- especially our future generations-and the perspicacity (and energy) to put their visions and well thought out actions into practice.
PS I too thought a rethink about “tough” exercises was needed when I read about the unfortunate young man in a coma. I also marvelled at your patient explanations to Chri73 who seemed particularly obtuse and lacking in perspicacity today. However he obviously needed to get some deep seated hang up off his chest and I really think you may have helped. Thus, another thank you for caring for others.
A lovely story that, but yeah, those values might be diminished, but they aren’t dead. I’m relatively young, and my younger friends all practice those values in the hills, so somehow, these are being transferred and taught still. Organisations like the Federated Mountain Clubs and the New Zealand Deerstalkers are pretty consistent as well, which helps.
With DOC cutbacks for backcountry huts looming (something which needs to be challenged) in favour of frontcountry tourism facilities, it will be largely up to the community to maintain older facilities. If we lose them, we lose a massive amount of our heritage.
My biggest is worry is that, on the whole, people in conservation and recreation are white and aging. How we get younger, urban, and other cultures into the outdoors is probably the biggest challenge out there.
That made my day Peter. It might even do for a couple of weeks….
The thing about special forces is that they are triathletes as well as soldiers. This incident seems to be an extreme sports training accident, rather than an “experiment” or an attempt to “break” those who can’t perform. It’s exactly like a marathon runner overextending themselves – and they’ve acknowledged the problem, and are investigating what went wrong and how they can prevent it happening again, which is all you can really ask.
and they’ve acknowledged the problem, and are investigating what went wrong and how they can prevent it happening again, which is all you can really ask.
– To be fair thats probably what I should have said
And I’d agree. If it was just bad luck or something specific with that individual then that’s acceptable. Accidents do happen and can be learnt from.
But I would also hope that any internal enquiry had the balls to call it if they found evidence of a systemic screwup as well. Because on the face of it what they were asking these guys to do was in the conditions more than a little risky.
Well no I disagree (surprise) because for the amount of guys that go through selection there doesn’t seem to be many incidents
However if something is found that makes selection safer without compromising their standards then I’m all for it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surviving_the_Cut
(not that I’m suggesting anyone look this up and then download the programs if interested because that would be bad)
Well said Chris 73 🙂
Perhaps NZ should disband the SAS. We are too small a country to need a band of unaccountable assassins roaming the hills on secret missions.
… that civilians couldn’t “possbily” comprehend.
NB: Edit problems here too (FF9,W7)
We definitely need the SAS. And a beefed up defensively oriented military force.
Bernard Hickey isn’t impressed with Jonkey’s ability with numbers and in predicting NZ’s economic and financial future. He isn’t impressed by Key’s attempt to reassure us that selling farmland to foreigners is not a problem in the current global financial context.:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10781864
Hickey puts some of the blame onto the last Labour government, saying foreign debt, selling assets, falling productivity, and limited benefits from exports have all made things worth, but that Key is not the PM to provide the necessary intervention. I tend to agree with Hickey here, though I don’t always agree with all he says. He concludes:
I’m not sure why Kimdortom gets a mention here though?
Dotcom got preferential treatment from Immigration because he bought $10 mill of govt bonds.
Uh, so he got preferential treatment and we got to pay him interest on the loan he gave NZ? Why does that not sound right.
Kiwipolitico (Pablo) exposes the levels of corruption and cronyism in the elite of NZ society.. MUST READ
http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2012/01/a-culture-of-impunity/
Thanks ropata. You are so right, this link about a culture of impunity in NZ is an absolute Must Read. Have been trying to express much of what Pablo says for a long time.
dont forget stephen joyce who said before the lection that broadband internet would allow for faster (nudge nudge wink wink ) downloads.
Great to hear John Key announce on TV1 News just now that we have a ‘”trans-Tasman employment market”.
Finally we get the Australian wages….no?
Piece in the SST today, B11, states:
“The Best Oylmpic cheat of them all was Marion Jones. She had it all: five medals from Sydney, the believability of an actress, the confidence to stare out her doubters, and this extraordinary helpful facility at the right moment to generate tears.”
Hmmmm
How about a joker who won 6 gold medals across glamour track and field events, who was an American icon, who cashed in with widespread endorsements through his achievements, who carefully groomed a ‘mom and apple pie’ image, who condemned a rival runner when that person was found to have used banned steriods in 1988, but who himself 3 times (apparently) tested positive for banned stimulants but was never banned from competition.
Someone to rival Marion Jones?
Leftwing blog
I’ve put together a feed site for some leftwing blogs… probably not recommended for dialup. Let me know if there’s any other websites that should be added.
Thanks Jackal. Oxygen for real human beings and social justice.
The EU bans Iranian oil imports, to take effect from July 1 giving member states time to sort out alternative oil sources in an orderly fashion.
Pretty obvious what Iran is going to do in response, right? Yep, move to end oil exports to the EU right now. In a move which places even more economic pressure on the likes of Greece, Italy and Spain.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/27/us-iran-sanctions-oil-idUSTRE80Q0GW20120127