Daily Review 04/11/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, November 4th, 2015 - 30 comments
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30 comments on “Daily Review 04/11/2015 ”

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  1. Peter 1
    4 November 2015 at 7:18 pm

    She hit the nail on the head there.

  2. Molly 2
    4 November 2015 at 7:49 pm

    Got The Intercept on my home pages, and am currently reading “Sudden Justice – America’s Secret Drone Wars” by Chris Woods.

    Got a wry smile from this Youtube video – which became broader when I realised it was advertising The Intercept’s very interesting cache of articles – The Drone Papers. I’m appreciating the work that Glenn Greenwald and the rest do on this site.

    https://youtu.be/3YDmiCnuY5M

  3. ropata 3
    4 November 2015 at 7:56 pm

    went to victoria park at lunchtime today.
    stood around for 1 hour waiting for the all blacks to get on the stage (busy signing things for the lucky few at the front)
    finally the ABs got on the stage
    then some schoolkids did a haka
    and some more kids did another haka
    and then some opera singers sang some crap
    and then len brown attempted to pay tribute but nobody was interested
    and then it was time for me to leave

    apparently richie and shag said something but i missed it
    why the fsck didn’t they just do a parade
    much better than making ten thousand people stand around in vic park for 2 hours listening to obnoxiously loud generic hip hop.
    i wanted a parade and ticker tape and no speeches or “entertainment” whatsoever.
    2011 was way better.

    am i turning into an old grump???

  4. mickysavage 4
    4 November 2015 at 8:00 pm

    Some good speeches in parliament today. Marama Davidson’s maiden speech made me smile …

    • maui 4.1
      4 November 2015 at 9:10 pm

      Is this what an indigenous parliament looks like? Maybe one day.

    • weka 4.2
      4 November 2015 at 9:27 pm

      another neoliberal plant in the GP I see.

      A good explanation of the interconnectedness of injustice, inequality and the environment, which is also a good example of GP kaupapa.

      Much of her speech is about family, and she uses the words aroha/love many times. Making parliament real.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 4.3
      5 November 2015 at 7:18 am

      Fantastic speech.

  5. mickysavage 5
    4 November 2015 at 8:01 pm

    And David Cunliffe gave dirty politics a bit of a burst …

  6. sabine 6
    4 November 2015 at 9:16 pm

    water
    such a preciousssssssssssss little thing

    https://www.revealnews.org/article/what-california-can-learn-from-saudi-arabias-water-mystery/#saudiarabia

    A decade ago, reports began emerging of a strange occurrence in the Saudi Arabian desert. Ancient desert springs were drying up.

    The springs fed the lush oases depicted in the Bible and Quran, and as the water disappeared, these verdant gardens of life were returning to sand.

    “I remember flowing springs when I was a boy in the Eastern Province. Now all of these have dried up,” the head of the country’s Ministry of Water told The New York Times in 2003.

    The springs had bubbled up for thousands of years from a massive aquifer system that lay underneath Saudi Arabia. Hydrologists calculated it was one of the world’s largest underground systems, holding as much groundwater as Lake Erie.

    So farmers were puzzled as their wells dried, forcing them to drill ever deeper. They soon were drilling a mile down to continue tapping the water reserves that had transformed barren desert into rich irrigated fields, making Saudi Arabia the world’s sixth-largest exporter of wheat.

    • Draco T Bastard 6.1
      4 November 2015 at 10:48 pm

      That’s a really good article and spells out the problem of excessive farming simply but forcefully. And it’s exactly what NZ farmers are doing to NZ.

  7. Draco T Bastard 7
    4 November 2015 at 9:49 pm

    Hit or Miss? The Effect of Assassinations on Institutions and War

    Assassinations are a persistent feature of the political landscape. Using a new data set of assassination attempts on all world leaders from 1875 to 2004, we exploit inherent randomness in the success or failure of assassination attempts to identify assassination’s effects. We find that, on average, successful assassinations of autocrats produce sustained moves toward democracy. We also find that assassinations affect the intensity of small-scale conflicts. The results document a contemporary source of institutional change, inform theories of conflict, and show that small sources of randomness can have a pronounced effect on history.

    Time to break out the sniper rifles? 😈

  8. weka 8
    4 November 2015 at 10:02 pm

    Looks like Stuart Nash has figured out the advantages of debating with his head pulled in (or someone’s pointed it out for him).

    • the pigman 8.1
      4 November 2015 at 11:03 pm

      He had another go at the Daily Blog today, conveniently ignoring all the folks calling him out, only engaging with Frank Macskasy who had challenged his polling figures claim. References to “our research shows I would have won anyway” abound: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/10/31/tdb-guest-blog-project-stuart-nash-the-most-pressing-issue-in-nz-right-now/

      The arrogance.

      Now we get this shit in the MSM about how the Labour Conference will be conducted in secret and focused solely on vegetable patches in primary schools rather than anything that would scare voters (can you see this absurd line becoming the MSM’s appraisal of the conference?): http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/73634969/labour-takes-policy-debate-behind-closed-doors-at-annual-conference

      Hopefully something more interesting will happen. Blood on the floor (not literally of course) would probably be positive coverage for Labour at this stage.

      • weka 8.1.1
        4 November 2015 at 11:16 pm

        yeah, I just saw that convo with Frank. I wish someone would explain the boundary change thing in the context of that.

        Is that Stuff link an anonymous editorial, or have they just forgotten to put someone’s name on the opinion?

        I think vege gardens in schools is excellent policy, but then I’m a greenie so I’m curious who’s putting that forward in Labour.

        • the pigman 8.1.1.1
          4 November 2015 at 11:32 pm

          I think it’s excellent policy, too. I just think that the media (once handed their lines by Textor/Farrar) would prefer to run the line that it was the most thing important achieved at conference. They are expert at taking little soundbites of sensible policy, and turning it into something that sounds absurd, so it’ll be the “Veggie Patch Conference” to follow in the steps of the “Man Ban”, and “Michael Cullen’s Block o’ Cheese Tax Cut”.

          Anonymous editorial, afaics. There is a slightly less outraged article also covering the “secret” conference story. Would be helpful in the interests of balance and actually being informative to point out how other parties run their conferences vis-a-vis media exposure/participation in policy workshops.

          Too much to ask from NZ’s media, though.

          • maui 8.1.1.1.1
            4 November 2015 at 11:59 pm

            There’s been a successful school trial running in the shadows of parliament, my guess is that it came from there. http://www.commonunityproject.org.nz

            Feeling sorry for Labour too, why can’t the media just do an impartial story on what might be discussed at the conference. Freakin Fairfax.

    • tc 9.1
      5 November 2015 at 6:20 am

      What were you expecting from the entertainment section ?

      It’s where they get to be overtly vacuous rather than try and mask the lack of objectivity and depth in the so called actual news sections.

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