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notices and features - Date published:
5:30 pm, May 6th, 2022 - 16 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Get up early and watch this sunrise.
Sub-ed having a good laugh this evening:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-democracy-reporting/300582278/christopher-luxton-sidesteps-te-reo-questions-to-focus-on-big-issues
And Chris wants to take the use of Te Reo to referendum!
Ashburton, eh? More Christchurch than Christchurch.
Oh dear, was there a “t” in Luxton in that URL? It has been corrected but heads should toll for this
Close to 30% of 'Muricans reckon they would vote for an unprincipled person who, given his self-interest, should not be in the position of public service. Frightening.
One such idea emerged from Mr. Trump, who was unhappy about the constant flow of drugs across the southern border, during the summer of 2020. Mr. Trump asked Mr. Esper at least twice if the military could “shoot missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs.”
“They don’t have control of their own country,” Mr. Esper recounts Mr. Trump saying.
When Mr. Esper raised various objections, Mr. Trump said that “we could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly,” adding that “no one would know it was us.” Mr. Trump said he would just say that the United States had not conducted the strike, Mr. Esper recounts, writing that he would have thought it was a joke had he not been staring Mr. Trump in the face.
https://archive.ph/YLLf7 (nyt)
But hardly surprising when regressive pricks like Alito call the shots.
https://twitter.com/Literature_Lady/status/1522202362366078979
How many people want to kill Jacinda Ardern?
More and more are coming out of
their mother's bedroomsthe woodwork. A big thanks to NZ security services, police, and courts keeping the PM safe from right wing nutters.This is the tip of the iceberg though. The real danger is those right wing nutters careful enough to keep a lower profile.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/taranaki-man-charged-with-threatening-to-kill-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern/5AA3H2AOBGUC7RFKB4YKXXVGOI/
I thought this was a really interesting take on differential rating in the Wairoa district (an area I know a bit about, though don't live there). Substantially increasing the rates that forestry companies pay in comparison to other commercial and residential users. Which was challenged by the forestry companies – who lost the court case.
Specifically commenting that 1/4 of the total Council budget is spent on roads (and that forestry trucks are both frequent and destructive users of those roads); and that forestry conversion reduces the number of residential families (used to be 2-3 families per farm, now zero). And, while there may be increased job opportunities – they are very largely outside the Wairoa District.
The Government incentives and carbon credits are more than sufficient to make forestry more profitable than farming.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/foresters-take-over-farms-but-fail-to-stop-wairoa-council-hitting-back-with-rates-rises/4MJKBIF6MM2HPUKTDYHQK2YNOE/?c_id=1&objectid=12522365&ref=rss
Each time I join the queue for the Ellerslie-Panmure on ramp in the morning there are several concrete trucks from the nearby Stevensons plant also queueing. Anyone know if they pay more for damage to the roads?
As for the societal makeup of rural communities, surely it is up to dairy farmers to make their case by not polluting water courses they way they have over the last 2 decades.
Why would you be concerned about concrete trucks specifically?….they operate well below maximum axle loads compared to other forms of trucking
That's what I see on my drive, of course.
"Anyone know if they pay more for damage to the roads?"
No idea.
I guess it would depend on how the Auckland Council apportions rates, and whether the damage your concrete trucks do to the roading network is disproportionate to their use of it.
Not a heck of a lot of dairy farming in Wairoa – too hilly.
But, this isn't (or wasn't intended to be) a comment on 'dirty dairying' but on the tools that rural areas have to support the needed infrastructure – and whether these are 'fair' or not…
Because, when it comes to infrastructure (roads, water, sewerage, democracy, libraries, Santa parades – or other community events of your choice) someone has to pay the bills, or everyone suffers.
anyone? I'm not that great on statistics and probability and don't really understand what .8 x less likely to get covid if you’ve bolstered means. It's a quote from this website.
https://twitter.com/wekatweets/status/1522437007930142721
I think (and entirely open to being corrected if I'm wrong – by those with greater statistical understanding).
.8x less likely to get Covid if boosted (compared to an unvaccinated person).
So 20% less likely to catch Covid, than an unvaccinated person. For every 100 unvaccinated people who catch Covid, only 80 boosted ones will.
By comparison, a rating of 1x – would mean that a vaccinated and unvaccinated person were equally likely to catch Covid.
It's not a great statistic. And shows that even being boosted isn't a great protection against *catching* Covid.
But the one below is more promising. Boosted people are 4.3x less likely to be hospitalized with Covid – which is definitely worth it.
For every 100 boosted people hospitalized, there will be 430 unvaccinated ones hospitalized.
It means 20% more likely to catch covid after having a booster (than the other groups). As Belladonna indicates 1x is equally likely and 4.3x is hospitalization at almost 20% of the rate. But numbers below 1 do indicate worse performance.
However there could be several reasons for this including,
1) That statistic may be miss-leading and different from the same statistic broken down by age group. This is somewhat likely as older people are more likely to take up boosters than younger. Its entirely possible that every age category suggests an above 1x multiple favoring boosters, while the over all ratio is less than one due to the size of each age group. Unfortunately the MoH seems not to produce the age categorized statistics, or like Scotland normalize the statistic for a standard population.
2) Its possible people take more risks with a booster shot.
3) There is some t-cell immunity after having caught it recently, its possible that this form of immunity is protecting different numbers of those groups, especially when updating those figures using a month of values.
Also as suggested its much more relevant that people are kept out of Hospital than if they catch it (or not).
Former Conservative MP and minister and one-time chief of staff for a former mayor of London, Boring Johnston.
https://twitter.com/NickBoles/status/1522130462239563776