Daily review 04/07/2023

21 comments on “Daily review 04/07/2023 ”

• Comments are now closed

1. Dennis Frank 1

   4 July 2023 at 5:51 pm

   David Parker kicks for touch – who knows how long it will take for the line-out to form?

   The government's planned congestion charging scheme has stalled, with the National Party opposed to it and the new transport minister non-committal on next steps. Senior minister David Parker – who picked up the transport portfolio late last month when Wood resigned – told RNZ the government had failed to get cross party support for the legislation.

   "Until about a month ago, all political parties seemed to be in favour of congestion charging. We then prepared legislation, wrote to the National Party as to whether they still supported it … they came back and said no, but haven't provided us with any details as to what they would like to see changed," Parker said.

   He's lying about that, if you believe the wee Nat gadfly: "National Party transport spokesperson Simeon Brown told RNZ he had explained his party's opposition in a letter to Wood in May."

   Ah, the penny drops: they sent it to the guy who can't remember where anything is. Someone in Labour will have to be delegated to do a forensic search of his office. Might be easier, though, just to ask the gadfly to resend the damn thing! To Parker, this time.

   "The National Party has always been very clear that congestion charging can't be an additional charge on motorists, it needs to be part of wider transport funding reform. So, while we're fully committed to transport funding, Labour's bill didn't do that," Brown said. "It also didn't repeal the Auckland regional fuel tax legislation, which was the bottom line for the National Party."

   Wood would have read the bottom line, gulped, then freaked out. "I'm Labour. I can't handle bottom lines!" Then asked a junior staffer to take it to the PM. You can imagine what happened next: the staffer, a newbie, got lost in the labyrinth, Wood forgot about the staffer & moved on to the next item on his agenda.

   Wood had previously signalled the government was open to scrapping the regional fuel tax in favour of congestion charging, saying it would be a "significant impost" to have both in place at the same time. Brown said the government's draft legislation would have given Auckland the option: introduce congestion charging or keep the regional fuel tax. "The regional fuel tax legislation needed to be repealed in its entirety, which is not what the bill had within it. "Also … it would mean that other parts of the country, which might include … a congestion charge would be doing that on top of existing charges. So we said we need to have revenue neutral funding reform as part of our future of transport revenue, and that is where congestion charging should sit and this legislation didn't go that far," Brown told RNZ.

   Seems sensible & it looks like they were headed for consensus:

   All political parties in Parliament support congestion charging but some of this support is reliant on the condition Auckland's regional fuel tax is scrapped.

   Simple, eh? So Wood was waiting for the PM to direct him, not realising the PM hadn't got the message. So progress awaited the finesse of semi-rocket-scientist Parker, he of the massive brain.

   When asked if the government was willing to scrap the Auckland regional fuel tax to get National's support, Parker said: "I've given no consideration to that." Parker said he had not decided on next steps yet and would not say if congestion charging would be progressed further before the election.

   We await either a brain explosion or a brain fade – or maybe he really did kick the thing into touch…

   https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/493116/planned-congestion-charging-scheme-still-not-given-green-light-as-election-nears
2. Dennis Frank 2

   4 July 2023 at 6:26 pm

   Zuck moves against Elon:

   Facebook owner Meta is launching its new app to rival Twitter and says it will go live on Thursday. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66094072

   The app, which is called Threads and is available for pre-order on the Apple App Store, will be linked to Instagram. Screengrabs show a dashboard that looks similar to Twitter. Meta describes Threads as a "text based conversation app". The move is the latest in a rivalry between Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter owner Elon Musk.
3. joe90 3

   4 July 2023 at 7:15 pm

   Tl:dr, unless Ukrainians in occupied territories forego their Ukrainian identity and become citizens of Russia, they will be deported and their property will be seized.

   https://kyivindependent.com/ukrainians-under-occupation-face-deportation-loss-of-property-after-putins-new-order/
   • Muttonbird 3.1

     4 July 2023 at 7:26 pm

     As I understand it, Russians were welcomed over the border decades ago to assist Ukraine's agricultural sector.

     Might have been a good idea to treat them reasonably well by not setting the Azov Battalion on them and overthrowing a democratically elected government 10 years ago.

     If a nation is prepared to accept those things then they had better be prepared for losing a bit of territory.
     • joe90 3.1.1

       5 July 2023 at 2:27 pm

       Stalin's dekulakisation, stripping kulaks of their homes and possessions, murdering any who resisted and the deportation of millions to Siberia and the Far North, jiggered Ukrainian agriculture.

       But sure, Ukrainians welcomed the Russification of agriculture.

       //
4. tsmithfield 4

   4 July 2023 at 7:50 pm

   Here is the world's shortest IQ test… 3 questions. Bragging rights to whoever gets all these right first. I got them all right btw.

   1. A bat and ball costs $1.10. How much does the ball cost if the bat costs $1 more than the ball.

   2. If five machines take five minutes to make five widgets, how long does it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?

   3. A lilly pad on a lake doubles in size once a day. After 48 days it covers the whole lake. How long does it take to cover half the lake?
   • SPC 4.1

     4 July 2023 at 7:59 pm

     $1.05 (bat) and 5 cents (ball)

     5 minutes – each machine one every 5 minutes

     47 days – doubles to full on the 48th day
     • tsmithfield 4.1.1

       4 July 2023 at 8:02 pm

       Correct. You win the virtual chocolate fish.

       Apparently 1/3rd of the population get them all right. 1/3rd get none right, and the rest get one or two right.

       It is called the Cognitive Reflection Test.
       • SPC 4.1.1.1

         4 July 2023 at 8:11 pm

         The first part is comprehension, the second is calculation. It reminds one of primary school – such tests were done to measure reading level and cognition – in the sense of challenging people to develop their concentration (edited to better express the original intent).
       • bwaghorn 4.1.1.2

         4 July 2023 at 8:32 pm

         Got second 2, might have got first but looked down to soon and spied answer.

         2 outta 3 ain't bad, so a wise man once said
       • Shanreagh 4.1.1.3

         4 July 2023 at 9:56 pm

         This is numerically based and is always going to favour those who brains are wired that way or who have been taught well.

         I would never give a prospective employee or an existing employee any test like this. It is for party tricks only. Like how do you spell 'hungry horse' in four letter?

         MTGG

         Same as I would not slavishly model my workplace on the results of tests like Myers Briggs etc. Fine if we were looking at how employees tick and the kinds of places/situations they work best in, and the employees were OK with them. These were only ever given in house on a collegial basis and when we were looking at the make-up of teams.

         If you cannot work out if a person is going to be a good fit in your workplace by interviewing with a set of questions based off the postion description, proper reference checking and possibly an actual on the job task then you possibly shouldn't be given the job of interviewing.

         So many times interview panels don't work to a structure, work out how they are going to test for various elements of the job ie CV, reference checking or interview questions before a prospective employee walks through the door.
       • Peter 4.1.1.4

         5 July 2023 at 12:36 pm

         Eat your heart out, I got person, woman, man camera tv so I get to be President!
     • Belladonna 4.1.2

       4 July 2023 at 8:07 pm

       I know no 1 is right – but it always looks wrong to me. The instinctive answer is 10 cents….. [Yes, I know how to work it out – but I always have to double check….]
   • Muttonbird 4.2

     4 July 2023 at 8:11 pm

     Heather Stupidity-Allan asked the second question on her 1NaziB show this afternoon and neither of her RW guests on The Huddle could answer it.
     • Nic the NZer 4.2.1

       4 July 2023 at 8:26 pm

       You've been hanging out for the answer all afternoon then?
     • tsmithfield 4.2.2

       4 July 2023 at 8:31 pm

       It is the type of question where you know the obvious answer must be wrong, so think a minute or two longer.

       Could be handy at work for employment situations. We run an online test which includes a mental ability component. But, it is possible to cheat if someone tries hard enough. So, giving this little test just prior to giving them the contract would confirm they can think abstractly.
       • Muttonbird 4.2.2.1

         4 July 2023 at 9:04 pm

         The excuse given by Trish Sherson and Nick Leggat was they are not very good with numbers and were afraid of being put on the spot in the studio. Apparently their brains did not work under pressure.

         What do you think putting nervous prospective employees through that will result in?
         • tsmithfield 4.2.2.1.1

           4 July 2023 at 9:56 pm

           Probably fair if it simulates the sort of conditions they will be working under.

           For us, our service techs need to be able to analyse lots of novel situations they have never encountered before. So, they need to be able to think through situations on the spot.
5. Muttonbird 5

   4 July 2023 at 8:54 pm

   This is so American. Have a rally and no person shall be able to counter rally. Result is multiple deaths by gunshot every day of every month, every year.

   If there's no trouble happening, count on American cops to escalate until there is. The fuck do they plan on charging this person with? Dancing?

   – Russell Brown

   Philadelphia police brutally body slam a protester onto the concrete for dancing with a trans flag outside of the Moms for Liberty conference. This is why cops should never be allowed at pride.

   – Alejandra Caraballo

   https://twitter.com/publicaddress/status/1676113337980182528
   • Muttonbird 5.1

     4 July 2023 at 9:09 pm

     Moms for Liberty is an American political organisation that advocates against school curriculums that mention LGBT rights, race and ethnicity, critical race theory, and discrimination, while multiple chapters have also campaigned to ban books that address gender and sexuality from school libraries. The group has also campaigned for LGBT students to be kept separated from straight and cisgender students. The group began by campaigning against COVID-19 protections in schools, including mask and vaccine mandates.

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moms_for_Liberty
6. tWiggle 6

   4 July 2023 at 9:08 pm

   twitter platform changes – do they affect NZ emergency services?

   RNZ interviews emergency services and media spokespeople about role of restricted twitter (3 min from checkpoint).

• Comments are now closed

• Log in
• Donate
• Contribute post

• Articles RSS