Author Archive

The Superest

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, October 26th, 2007 - Comments Off on The Superest

You’ve probably heard of the battle raging accross the ditch. You’ve probably even heard of the one in the Parliamentary lobby. In California they’re still fighting fire. Here’s a challenge that might be new to you. It’s a an attempt to draw the world’s superest super hero: The rules are simple: Player 1 draws a […]

Economic ‘Billiteracy’ infects National Party

Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, October 25th, 2007 - 12 comments

The Dom yesterday ran a front page story by Tracy Watkins which used National Party figures aimed at showing that “Joanna Average” isn’t much better off than seven years ago despite significant wage rises. Turns out that neither Bill English nor John Key got the maths right. From Cullen’s press release: On Tuesday, Bill English […]

Katine

Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, October 25th, 2007 - Comments Off on Katine

The Guardian has launched a three year aid project with the objective of ‘together, lifting one village out of the middle ages’. The village is Katine, located in northern Uganda. The challenge is to see whether a newspaper, its readership, a bank and an NGO can make a significant and lasting difference to the lives […]

What have the unions ever done for us?

Written By: - Date published: 2:49 pm, October 25th, 2007 - 6 comments

(Hat tip: Robert Owen – via comments)

Debate allegedly turns physical

Written By: - Date published: 11:35 am, October 25th, 2007 - 31 comments

The Press reports that Trevor Mallard allegedly slapped or hit Tau Henare after the National MP made references to Mallard’s personal life in the Debating Chamber. Henare yesterday wouldn’t say whether he had been struck or not. The PM was reportedly unimpressed and commented “both men should look in the mirror”. Apparently an apology was […]

Elephants ‘do a Blumsky’

Written By: - Date published: 7:23 pm, October 24th, 2007 - 3 comments

The Guardian reports that “Six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted as they went berserk after drinking rice beer in India’s remote north-east”. No word as yet on whether or not the surviving elephants have laid charges against ‘pot smoking youths’ known to frequent the area. More news as it comes to hand.

Outage

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 pm, October 24th, 2007 - Comments Off on Outage

Some server issues outside our control caused a bit of an outage this afternoon. We’re up and running again now though, as you can see. Thanks to all those who wrote in to make sure we were ok, and our apologies for any inconvenience.

Lights out San Francisco

Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, October 24th, 2007 - 4 comments

Lights Out San Francisco is a citywide energy conservation event next scheduled for March 29, 2008. On this night, they invite the entire city of San Francisco to install one compact fluorescent light bulb and turn off all non-essential lighting for one hour. Below are a couple of shots from the event run four days […]

NZ Institute turns up the heat

Written By: - Date published: 1:53 pm, October 24th, 2007 - 3 comments

The New Zealand Institute has come out imploring us to be a “fast follower” rather than a leader in the race to reduce greenhouse gases. John Key was predictably on the spot to take the credit, claiming that the Institute was essentially “making the same point I’ve been making around climate change”. Wasn’t the point […]

Mashup

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, October 24th, 2007 - 19 comments

We love remixes (well all except those German house ones of classic 80’s pop). Imagine our delight when we found this in out inbox this morning – tempered only, of course, by the fact the Iraq war is still on. (Hat tip: youknowwhoyouare)

YouTube campaigning

Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, October 23rd, 2007 - 6 comments

Mark Torley filed this piece on “YouTube campaigning” for One News last night.

FreeRice

Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, October 23rd, 2007 - 5 comments

FreeRice is a vocabulary game. For each word you correctly identify, they’ll donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger. We are not sitting on a pile of riceâ€â€¢you are earning it 10 grains at a time. Here is how it works. When you play the game, advertisements appear […]

New hybrid Crown limos announced

Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, October 23rd, 2007 - 25 comments

In an effort to play an even larger part in the fight against global warming the New Zealand government today announced the purchase of 20 specially produced Toyota Prius Hybrid limousines. These fuel efficient, environmentally friendlier vehicles will gradually replace the current crop of Ministerial vehicles. The car will seat up to ten people and […]

Blind ideology

Written By: - Date published: 3:03 pm, October 20th, 2007 - 37 comments

Tempting to leave this one to Kiwiblogblog but perhaps they need a break… DPF writes this morning: As I have said many times, most left wing parties do not share NZ Labour’s ideological hatred of reducing tax. Kiwiblog is starting to read like a National Party line-book. National desperately wants to position Labour as “ideologically […]

Political pants

Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, October 20th, 2007 - 8 comments

The website Twisted Twee is selling these babies nappies. The site warns “price fluctuates weekly depending on my swinging political opinion. This week Cameron pants are up.”

Social report

Written By: - Date published: 5:18 pm, October 19th, 2007 - 3 comments

The Ministry of Social Development’s Annual Social Report is worth a read. It shows good progress across a range of social indicators, but also that there’s still more to do. If memory serves me correctly, the importance of an Annual Social Report was a cause championed by Steve Maharey back in 2001 – it’s now […]

Protests

Written By: - Date published: 4:27 pm, October 19th, 2007 - 10 comments

The Herald reports that “As many as a thousand people joined a march in Whakatane to complain about children being caught up in the police operation.” The protest is one of many across the country. These protests make an interesting contrast with Trotter’s piece in the Dom today in which he writes: “It wasn’t the […]

Creative Commons: Wanna work together?

Written By: - Date published: 3:57 pm, October 18th, 2007 - 1 comment

Hager’s response to Key

Written By: - Date published: 3:05 pm, October 18th, 2007 - 29 comments

I’ve just listened to the audio and it doesn’t sound like Nicky Hager’s too happy with Key’s claims made on RDU last week. At one point in that interview Key claims that Hager admits that the Brethren email may have been sent to the wrong address. Hager calls this a “complete invention” given his crystal […]

Unions to encourage election participation

Written By: - Date published: 2:53 pm, October 18th, 2007 - 1 comment

The Herald reports that new CTU president Helen Kelly envisages a more centralised union election campaign, “getting members to talk about politics and then convince others to get involved as well”. She goes on to say of the organisation: “Our message provides a vision of a fair society where amongst other things work pays, social […]

Defining political conservatism

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, October 18th, 2007 - 20 comments

A month or so ago we posted on a study that appeared to show that the brains of conservative and liberals differed. A related study has been conducted recently by UC Berkeley. It was looking for consistent underlying motivations to politically conservative agendas. Four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about the […]

Key’s flip-flops for sale on TradeMe

Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, October 18th, 2007 - Comments Off on Key’s flip-flops for sale on TradeMe

The entry reads: These won’t be comfortable to wear or even be long-lasting but they do come with an interesting provenance. They are size 8. It has been claimed they were recovered from a rubbish bag collected from Parliament Buildings. Inquiries indicated that a practical jokester on National’s front bench carefully constructed them as a […]

Trotter in the Independent

Written By: - Date published: 2:48 pm, October 17th, 2007 - Comments Off on Trotter in the Independent

Apologies to The Independent Financial Review and to Chris Trotter for this rather large cut and paste from the second half of his article but it’s good stuff. If you enjoy it perhaps you’ll consider either buying or subscribing to the The Independent. The Press political editor Colin Espiner, in his “On the House” blog, […]

Can you save the rabbit?

Written By: - Date published: 2:23 pm, October 17th, 2007 - Comments Off on Can you save the rabbit?

http://www.10mg.nl

Anne Enright wins Booker Prize

Written By: - Date published: 12:49 pm, October 17th, 2007 - 1 comment

Well I must admit to having been excited about the prospect of congratulating Lloyd Jones on winning the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Unfortunately it hasn’t turned out that way, the prize instead going to Anne Enright – congratulations to her instead! The Gathering by the 45-year-old Dublin writer was somewhat of a surpise winner, […]

Aussie workers worse off under Howard

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, October 17th, 2007 - 47 comments

A new report (PDF) by the University of Sydney shows Aussie workers are doing markedly worse under a Howard government. His desperate bid to buy them back this week with the offer of tax cuts doesn’t address the deep unfairness they’re being subjected to by his doublespeak-ish “Work Choices” legislation. The Australia@Work study, published this […]

Nat censorship

Written By: - Date published: 1:56 pm, October 16th, 2007 - 40 comments

In light of National’s recent censorship demands regarding the photo of John Key on our petition (see below), an inquisitive reader has asked whether the Nats got authorisation for the use of Helen Clark’s photo on their 2005 billboards. Does anyone out there know? Mr Ansell? Perhaps one of our readers at National HQ?

Go the reds!

Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, October 16th, 2007 - 3 comments

Stuff reported yesterday that the New Zealand Kiwi Foundation is warning that “New Zealand’s national icon, the kiwi, could face extinction within the next 20 to 30 years, unless more is done to protect the fragile, flightless bird”. They’ve launched the ‘Fragile Kiwi’ campaign to help reverse a downward trend in kiwi population numbers caused […]

Arrests

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, October 16th, 2007 - 18 comments

Indymedia reports that “In a wave of massive state repression, 300+ Police, in many cases armed, raided houses around the country today making 17 arrests.” They also claim the raids were “targetted at people involved in the Tino Rangatiratanga, Peace and Environmental movements.” From Stuff, Police claim to have found Napalm bombs, Molotov cocktails and […]

Blog action day: environment

Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, October 16th, 2007 - 5 comments

It’s environmental blog action day. Bloggers worldwide are being encouraged to post on an environmental issue of importance to them. One issue. One day. Thousands of voices. DPF got in first this morning but I’ve got to admit to being a little disappointed with the content. His post on environment is essentially ‘Colin Espiner says […]

More on free speech in National

Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, October 15th, 2007 - 52 comments

Someone just sent me this. It’s an editorial from the Ashburton Guardian on Brian Connell’s firing resignation. Particularly over matters of Electoral Finance the Nats have sought to position themselves as “defenders of free speech”. Perhaps more accurately: “free speech as long as it’s Brethren speech”. This editorial suggests that the protections the Nats would […]

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