It is a very modern predicament. Denialism is a post‑enlightenment phenomenon, a reaction to the “inconvenience” of many of the findings of modern scholarship. The discovery of evolution, for example, is inconvenient to those committed to a literalist biblical account of creation. Denialism is also a reaction to the inconvenience of the moral consensus that emerged in the post-enlightenment world. In the ancient world, you could erect a monument proudly proclaiming the genocide you committed to the world. In the modern world, mass killing, mass starvation, mass environmental catastrophe can no longer be publicly legitimated.
Yet many humans still want to do the same things humans always did. We are still desiring beings. We want to murder, to steal, to destroy and to despoil. We want to preserve our ignorance and unquestioned faith. So when our desires are rendered unspeakable in the modern world, we are forced to pretend that we do not yearn for things we desire.
Or an enlightened entity pretending they don’t long for enlightenment? May they surprise us next week with evidence of evolution, and give us an essay on how to obtain the sufferings of post-denialism.
Denialism is not a barrier to acknowledging a common moral foundation; it is a barrier to acknowledging moral differences. An end to denialism is therefore a disturbing prospect, as it would involve these moral differences revealing themselves directly.
The essay then meanders through Irving-style traditional denialism (lots of research that supports bunk) into post-denialism (“Whereas denialism explains – at great length – post-denialism asserts. Whereas denialism is painstakingly thought-through, post-denialism is instinctive. Whereas denialism is disciplined, post-denialism is anarchic”).
The possibility of an epochal shift away from denialism means that there is now no avoiding a reckoning with some discomfiting issues: how do we respond to people who have radically different desires and morals from our own? How do we respond to people who delight in or are indifferent to genocide, to the suffering of millions, to venality and greed?
Denialism, and the multitude of other ways that modern humans have obfuscated their desires, prevent a true reckoning with the unsettling fact that some of us might desire things that most of us regard as morally reprehensible. I say “might” because while denialism is an attempt to covertly legitimise an unspeakable desire, the nature of the denialist’s understanding of the consequences of enacting that desire is usually unknowable.
It is hard to tell whether global warming denialists are secretly longing for the chaos and pain that global warming will bring, are simply indifferent to it, or would desperately like it not to be the case but are overwhelmed with the desire to keep things as they are. It is hard to tell whether Holocaust deniers are preparing the ground for another genocide, or want to keep a pristine image of the goodness of the Nazis and the evil of the Jews. It is hard to tell whether an Aids denialist who works to prevent Africans from having access to anti-retrovirals is getting a kick out of their power over life and death, or is on a mission to save them from the evils of the west.
If the new realm of unrestrained online discourse, and the example set by Trump, tempts more and more denialists to transition towards post-denialism and beyond, we will finally know where we stand. Instead of chasing shadows, we will be able to contemplate the stark moral choices we humans face.
If it’s better for counter-revolution to incite revolution, then Trump is a really effective Trotskyist.
Once the mid-terms are over I am definitely going to write the Hillary Clinton Presidency counterfactual history, together with all the epistemic reverses.
The National opposition obviously believes in tedious repetition….. woof woof woof….bark bark bark…..”oh look another passing car, quick”…… woof woof woof…..bark bark bark………
Note the fun Winston provides when questioned by the new slim Paula as she labours away at having her tedious questions ridiculed. She thinks that she is going to Wow. Winston thinks that she is just setting herself as a Target. Chuckle. Chuckle.
Its the “gotcha” mentality, Bennett is doomed along with most of the entire Nat front bench. The Nats firmly believe that Jacinda Ardern and the coalition govt can be ousted in 2020 and all they have to do is “get them” as many times as possible. Sadly for the Nats (happily for the rest of us) nine years of neglect in govt means at least nine years of being in opposition.
That was great fun. Paula was obviously not expecting Winnie to be back and in top form. I think she thought she was going to walk all over Kelvin Davis, and she just does not have the flexibility to adjust her questions to changing situations. Interesting that Simon was missing yesterday and no news of him today. Seemed to be struggling with a sore throat on Tuesday, though.
PMs are never at QT Thursdays.
Was the forced debate on Clare Curran after QT Tuesday a chance for Bridges to strut his stuff? Yes and what a shouty shambles that was. 15 minutes of incoherant rubbish from Bridges rambling all over and away from the topic. (Wonder if they were not prepared for their own forced debate because they didn’t expect Trevor to approve it?) https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=202326
As you say, I had not expected to see the PM, but I also not expected to see Peters either, as they both left Nauru together (with officials and press people) on the B757 at about midnight Weds for the 5 -6 hour flight back to NZ. (NZ and Nauru time/dates are the same.) Peters has also been on the move on overseas trips almost continuously since JA returned from maternity leave.
Re the urgent debate, it was Bridges who called for it – but as you say, a shambles. LOL. You’re probably right that they thought Mallard would not allow it.
Re Paula, I am beginning to think that she really thinks she has a chance at replacing Bridges. She did have a reasonable run in QT on Wednesday with Davis, but not all onesided.
Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.
No better example than Penny.
We should all admire, feel shame and hope her spirit will live on.
And if not (like me) we should prepare ourselves to fuck off somewhere where the social always trumps the economic. (I’ve got a nice little nestle in mind – and its equipped with fibre connectivity and an endless supply of veges and the purest of water – (going forward) – kind of like an American Wanker’s bolt hole
Harris: Can you think of any decisions that give the government the power to make a decision about a man's body?Kavanaugh: Uh, (asks for clarification), no I'm not aware of any.— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) September 6, 2018
As the Kavanaugh hearings dragged into the night, Kamala Harris delivered another one of those withering prosecutorial beatdowns just like the one she dropped on Neil Gorsuch that catapulted her into the 2020 frontrunner discussion. But this time she kicked it off with a curious interlude.
Right off the bat, Harris dropped an entirely general inquiry: had Kavanaugh ever discussed the Mueller investigation with anyone. Obviously, he had generally discussed it… he lives in the real world, not a bubble as he’d quipped earlier in the day. Was this another line of questions, like those Senator Blumenthal asked earlier, trying to pin Kavanaugh into recusing himself from a future Mueller-related case?
Then… this all happened:
Harris didn’t confront him with a document, so whatever this is, her sources for this conversation are outside of the paltry email dump the committee got. She continues to press him on whether or not he’s spoken with anyone at Kasowitz about the Mueller investigation and he keeps asking her to identify who she’s thinking of. She delivers a remarkably cold: “I think you’re thinking of someone and you don’t want to tell us.”
What in the hell was all that?!? Was Kavanaugh covertly counseling Kasowitz on Trump’s defense? It would seem as though she could have dropped the hammer and gotten more specific. Not for nothing, but my immediate reaction was this may have had nothing to do with Mueller at all. Harris seemed less interested in building a case for recusal than making sure Kavanaugh knew that she knew that he knew someone at Kasowitz and that she could introduce that fact into the record at any given moment between now and the final vote on the floor.
Yep – She really has some excellent probing questions:
CSPAN has posted the entire nearly 8-minute exchange between Kamala Harris and Kavanaugh on the Mueller probe. It is worth your time.
CSPAN has posted the entire nearly 8-minute exchange between Kamala Harris and Kavanaugh on the Mueller probe. It is worth your time. pic.twitter.com/ezJVEuDeUK
No Ad that is where you are wrong. Harris may have something on Kavanaugh whereby he either has to withdraw, or at least recuse himself from from any case involving Mueller.
You might like to watch the video of the hearings and questions I linked to above. Kavanaugh is caught like a deer in headlights – he’s sweating on this one. Of course the repugnants will vote him in if he does not withdraw his nomination – but the Harris has something on him, and if he is caught in a lie here – it wont go well for him past the mid terms.
Spox for Kasowitz law firm Mike Geller on Kamala Harris questions:"There have been no discussions regarding Robert Mueller’s investigation between Judge Kavanaugh and anyone at our firm.”(per the great @CarolLeonnig)— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) September 6, 2018
Still waiting on Kasowitz firm to answer this question:How do they know — in less than 24 hours — that none of their staff in 9 offices across the country spoke to Brett Kavanaugh? https://t.co/DziodeiMKt— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) September 6, 2018
Update: – Kavanaugh acknowledges close friendship with Kasowitz atty Ed McNally- White House and Kasowitz firm say McNally neither helped prep Kavaugh nor discussed Mueller probe with him. https://t.co/o41jnTDhoQ— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) September 6, 2018
I was going to post this question tomorrow along with an Antarctic Treaty one while this mornings Oz paper, I’ll leave the Antarctic one for tomorrow.
I just received my birthday present a book called “Mad on Radium, New Zealand in the Atom Age”.
Page 95, mentions the USA 9 Jul 1962 conducted a bomb test at Johnston Atoll, where the US lanuch a rocket fitted with 1.2 Mt H Bomb which the USA exploded above Johnston Atoll at a height of 320km, which was designed to test the effects of a nuclear explosion on radio- and radar- communication, it also disrupted NZ’s telecommunications systems and created an artificial aurora across the northern hemisphere.
Did anyone here witness the aurora or experience issues with their radios etc and would to share their experience, thoughts or feelings on what they saw that night.
“One-planet living means not only seeking to reduce our own consumption, but also mobilising against the system that promotes the great tide of junk. This means fighting corporate power, changing political outcomes and challenging the growth-based, world-consuming system we call capitalism.
As last month’s Hothouse Earth paper, which warned of the danger of flipping the planet into a new, irreversible climatic state, concluded: “Incremental linear changes … are not enough to stabilise the Earth system. Widespread, rapid and fundamental transformations will likely be required to reduce the risk of crossing the threshold.”
Disposable coffee cups made from new materials are not just a non-solution: they are a perpetuation of the problem. Defending the planet means changing the world.”
“However all the tree cover data comes with an important caveat: tree cover is not necessarily forest cover. Industrial timber plantations, mature oil palm estates, and other non-natural “planted forests” quality as tree cover. For example, cutting down a 100-hectare tract of primary forest and replacing it with a 100-hectare palm plantation will show up in the data as no net change in forest cover: the 100-hectare loss is perfectly offset by the 100-hectare gain in tree cover. Yet, that activity would be counted as “deforestation” by FAO. Therefore tree cover loss does not directly translate to “deforestation” in all cases.”
“This is currently the splash on a major New Zealand website. It is dangerous and utterly dishonest.
This guy is one of the most gullible, uncurious people I’ve ever encountered. He’s going but the damage has been done.”
The frantic hunt for any clue, however weak, that might exonerate the Russian government continues … https://t.co/5Klhph0y7g— GeorgeMonbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) September 5, 2018
One of the great mysteries of life is why people who claim to be on the left go to such lengths to defend Vladimir Putin's hard-right, authoritarian, corrupt, homophobic, misogynistic, fascist-supporting government.— GeorgeMonbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) September 5, 2018
There’s the joke that the difference between the Victorians and our current era is that the Victorians were obsessed with Death and acted as though Sex didn’t exist, whereas current modernity is the other way around. It’s not actually true, of course, but it’s still amusing. Today, I’m going ...
The next recession is shaping up as the most predicted event since the Second Coming. While we have to take it on faith that it will arrive someday, it is hard to say when it will happen, or how great/how bad it will be if and when it ever does. ...
I was going to write about something else to start off the KP year but current events have intruded in the form of the craziness surrounding the selection of US House Speaker and the storming of the Brazilian seats of power (Congress, the Supreme Court and Presidential Palace) by (so-called ...
Stuff reports that Tasman Steel - the latest name for what used to be NZ Steel - made a $340 million profit last year. The kicker? $117 million of that was from government pollution subsidies: New Zealand Steel’s holding company Tasman Steel increased its profit by 153% to a ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson and Jeff Masters A series of Pacific storms that’s taken aim on California since late December is on track to continue into mid-January. Ferocious winds will slam much of the state on Wednesday and Thursday, accompanied by heavy rain likely ...
In this article from the website Radicalism of Fools Daniel Ben-Ami looks at some of the limitations of the new anti-racism movement One of the key tasks I have set myself this year is to examine the arguments around anti-Semitism in more depth. That is both those used by anti-Semites ...
For wealthier New Zealanders and Australians, Fiji is just one option among many for their tourism resort experiences, poolside. Obviously, the country amounts to a lot more to the people who actually live there. It also happens to be the Pacific’s key diplomatic listening post, the home of the Pacific ...
What is it with Prince Harry?. Most of us would probably acknowledge that he has a legitimate cause for complaint at the way he and his wife have been treated by the British media. But there is more to it than that. Harry seems to harbour resentment against the media ...
One of the most popular moves Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ever made was the pay freeze her government imposed on politicians back in 2018. The freeze may have only been grudgingly agreed to by other MPs and parties, but it had universal public support. The pay freeze is due to ...
Two years ago, supporters of failed presidential candidate Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overthrow America's democracy and overturn the results of an election they had lost. And today, just a few days after the anniversary of that event, supporters of Trump's ally Jair Bolsonaro did ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 1, 2023 thru Sat, Jan 7, 2023. Story of the Week Scientists Report a Dramatic Drop in the Extent of Antarctic Sea Ice Links between global warming and the decline of sea ...
About half an hour ago, I became a very happy writer. My long-running effort at writing a sequel to Wise Phuul has finally borne fruit. Specifically, the draft manuscript for Old Phuul – starring Teltö’s elder sister, Rhea Phuul – is now complete at 102,172 words. This ...
The Green Party has a habit of sabotaging their election-year campaigns, risking electoral oblivion. Could the same thing happen in 2023? The last two election campaigns were particularly painful for the party. In 2017 then co-leader Metiria Turei had her story about her past as a welfare beneficiary unravel during ...
Open access notables In Conservation Biology, snapshots of two books that will probably launch a lot of objections, one by Vaclav Smil and the other yet more Bill Gates. Two doses of carbon budget realism review author Vojtech Novotny sums them up: "Sober assessments of our options for reducing carbon emissions in ...
Pundits have been making their political forecasts for the year ahead. Here are some of their predictions about what we can expect in 2023. The Big issues of 2023: Economy and ethnicity There’s a consensus that the political year, and especially the election campaign, will centre around the economy, with ...
I watched this movie three times in two days so you wouldn’t have to (but should anyway, it’s exquisite). You should definitely watch it at least once before reading this even if you don’t care about spoilers because most of this doesn’t give much context. Note “Children ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States, and passenger vehicles — the cars most Americans rely on to meet their daily needs — account for more than half of transportation emissions. Conversations about reducing these ...
Completed reads for 2022: On Providence, by Seneca the Younger On the Firmness of the Wise Man, by Seneca the Younger Kubla Khan, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Passions of Saint Perpetua and Felicity Murder is Easy, by Agatha Christie The Secret Adversary, by Agatha Christie The Bacchanals, ...
by Don Franks Stuff reports today: “Nationwide bookstore Whitcoulls is selling a magazine peddling a number of anti-vax conspiracies and insinuating the Christchurch mosque terror attack was a “false flag” operation. The Lambton Quay store in Wellington had copies of two issues of New Dawn magazine for sale this week. It was also spotted ...
Redline interviews James Robb from Workers Now, a group standing candidates in the coming general election Redline: What prompted the Workers Now initiative? In the immediate sense, this was prompted by the comments by Adrian Orr, the governor of the Reserve Bank, in November, in which he frankly admitted that ...
Activists of various nationalist parties carry torches during a rally in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022. The rally was organized to mark the birth anniversary of Stepan Bandera, founder of a rebel army that collaborated with Nazi Germany and murdered thousands of Jews, Poles, Russians and Ukrainians (AP Photo/Efrem ...
Those of a more conservative bent seem even more hardened than ever against the shifts we are seeing taking place, because that’s the side whose pushing back against all this that has been most vocal, and the most outraged. Don’t pretend you can’t hear it every day on the ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Dec 25, 2022 thru Sat, Dec 31, 2022. Story of the Week Overshooting climate targets could significantly increase risk for tipping cascades 12/22/2022 - Temporarily overshooting the climate targets of 1.5-2 degrees Celsius ...
As per my blog tradition, here is where my blog viewers came from in 2022: United States United Kingdom Canada New Zealand Australia The Philippines Germany France Brazil Spain The top five remain as in 2021. The Philippines rose from #15 to #6, France from #12 to ...
Completed reads for December: Vulthoom, by Clark Ashton Smith The Haunted Chamber, by Clark Ashton Smith The Haunted Gong, by Clark Ashton Smith The Mahout, by Clark Ashton Smith The Malay Krise (2 versions), by Clark Ashton Smith The Mad God’s Amulet, by Michael Moorcock The Sword of ...
I have been pretty dormant as of late because the lead up to the end of 2022 involved household Covid, some work demands on me and stresses on my wife (she was caught up in that cluster-F of academic “reorganisation” at a certain NZ university) and the usual holiday preparations. ...
Political commentators and journalists have nominated their politicians of the year, and it’s telling that the three main nominees are all from the political right: Christopher Luxon, Nicola Willis, and David Seymour. The brickbats, in contrast, are almost universally for Labour Government Ministers – especially Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, deputy ...
Trauma: The catastrophic conclusion to the anti-vaccination mandate protest in Parliament Grounds on 2 March 2022 is seared in the minds of New Zealanders. Those dramatic scenes were, however, easily eclipsed by the planetary violence of Climate Change, the biological violence of Covid-19, the political violence of Three Waters, and ...
Open access notables Author Guy Dagan appropriately doesn't make the connection but armchair enthusiasts can: if the climate becomes more twitchy when the atmosphere is loaded with aerosols, what happens if we try solar geoengineering via aerosols at scale? Maybe we should make sure we've modeled that thoroughly before ...
Victor Venema PhD was born in Groningen in the Netherlands. He attended Groningen University, where he was awarded his PhD in Physics for research on the measurement of cloud structure. Since joining the Meteorological Institute, University of Bonn, his main scientific interest was variability of data in complex systems. His ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington Winter’s snow and cold temperatures often arrive alongside skyrocketing energy bills. Whether you rent or own your home, there are many ways to save money this winter — from increasing energy efficiency to applying for financial assistance. In addition, clean ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Erika Street Hopman It’s that time again. An influx of Arctic air is blasting across the U.S., sending temperatures plunging, dropping snow, disrupting Christmas travel plans, and setting social media atwitter about the polar vortex. But what exactly is the polar vortex? ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Dec 18, 2022 thru Sat, Dec 24, 2022. Story of the Week Scientists say Arctic warming could be to blame for blasts of extreme coldResearch suggests that climate change is altering the ...
The clock has ticked over midnight here, so it is once again Christmas. Best wishes to all, wherever you might be. This year, I thought I would share another distinctly New Zealand carol, one I daresay is imbued with a degree of nostalgia for me. This was one of ...
The Herald’s deliberate, sustained and orchestrated campaign to slant the news has gone beyond a joke – not that it was ever a joke. In virtually every issue of the Herald, the news selection, headlining, and commentary are specifically designed to show the government in a bad light or opposition ...
Members of Parliament for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand have today written to Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Khamenei to condemn the ongoing violence and killing of women’s rights and democracy protesters, and to call on him to intervene immediately. ...
Every New Zealander deserves access to world-class healthcare, no matter where they live. We have a comprehensive plan to make sure this is a reality – and we’re making good progress. ...
Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor has classified this week’s Cyclone Hale that caused significant flood damage across the Tairāwhiti/Gisborne District as a medium-scale adverse event, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers. “We’re making up to $100,000 available to help coordinate efforts as farmers and growers recover from the heavy ...
A vaccine for people at risk of mpox (Monkeypox) will be available if prescribed by a medical practitioner to people who meet eligibility criteria from Monday 16 January, says Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall. 5,000 vials of the vaccine have been obtained, enough for up to 20,000 ...
The Government is seeking feedback on measures to help reduce the number of young people vaping. “Youth vaping is becoming increasingly popular, with many choosing to vape despite never having smoked,” Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said. “Alongside our efforts to reduce tobacco smoking, we want to ensure vaping ...
The Government is reiterating its advice to all international travellers to do a Covid test if they become symptomatic after arrival, while also stepping up awareness of free RATs available at airports, Covid-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall says. “This follows growing global concerns, including from the World Health Organisation ...
The government has confirmed the groups of frontline workers to receive a COVID-19 Response Recognition Award, a specific acknowledgement of the service given by so many to New Zealand during the pandemic, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “All New Zealanders, at home and abroad, played a part in our ...
A former Premier of Niue and a leading Pacific doctor in the fight against COVID-19 have been celebrated in this year’s New Year honours said Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio. Young Vivian who was the leader of Niue in the 1990’s and 2000’s led the response to Cyclone ...
The New Year Honours List includes an array of sporting stars and grassroots administrators who reflect the best of Aotearoa’s sporting and recreation community. The appointment of Farah Palmer as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit acknowledges her enormous contribution to sport and rugby in particular. ...
The New Year Honours List includes an array of sporting stars and grassroots administrators who reflect the best of Aotearoa’s sporting and recreation community. The appointment of Farah Palmer as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit acknowledges her enormous contribution to sport and rugby in particular. ...
The 183 recipients of New Year honours represent the best of New Zealand and what makes us unique in the world, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “The 2023 New Year honours list is full of leaders and pioneers whose contribution has enriched us a country and helped make us unique ...
The Government’s critical support for the water safety sector through the pandemic means lifeguards are better equipped on our beaches and Coastguard is sailing new boats to the rescue. “Our $63 million package for water safety initiatives in Budget 2020 has been a game changer for our water safety sector, ...
The Government has made drug checking services more accessible to keep young people safe this summer, Health Minister Andrew Little says. Aotearoa now has four licenced organisations to perform drug checking services - KnowYourStuffNZ, New Zealand Drug Foundation, Needle Exchange Services Trust, and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research. ...
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Te Rūnanga-Ā-Iwi-Ō-Ngāpuhi chairperson, Wane Wharerau, says the historic Waitangi Tribunal Report, dealing with the second stage of the tribunal's Te Paparahi o Te Raki (Northland) inquiry proves a deliberate and systematic collusion between settlers ...
The deaths of three animals in rodeo events, mere weeks into the current season, has prompted renewed demands from SAFE for the Government to urgently ban rodeo. Information recently obtained by animal rights organisation SAFE reveals two bulls ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wesley Morgan, Research Fellow, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University shutterstock Many people think of the annual UN climate talks as talkfests which achieve only incremental change, at best. Activist Greta Thunberg has described them as “blah blah blah” moments – grossly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joey Moloney, Senior Associate, Grattan Institute Shutterstock Nearly all economists and most politicians seem to agree stamp duty is a bad tax. But nearly all state and territory governments rely on it to keep the lights on. It’s a bad tax ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi McAlister, Senior Lecturer in Writing, Literature and Culture, Deakin University 10 Play This week marks the beginning of the tenth season of The Bachelor Australia, Australia’s longest running reality romance franchise. Often, anniversaries like this provoke nostalgia, a desire ...
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ANALYSIS:By Yamin Kogoya Following months of legal limbo and a health crisis, Papua Governor Lukas Enembe was arrested this week by the country’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in a dramatic move condemned by critics as a “kidnapping”. At noon on Tuesday, January 10, Governor Enembe was dining in a ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zoe Doubleday, Marine Ecologist and ARC Future Fellow, University of South Australia Kris Mikael Krister/Unsplash, CC BY As an octopus biologist, I get a call from the media every summer because someone has had an encounter with a blue-ringed octopus. ...
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The statements by NZ Catholic Church leaders on “looking forward from the work of the Royal Commission on Abuse in Care,” and their proposed commitments to handle clergy and religious sexual abuse complaints differently, and support mandatory reporting, ...
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A young woman charged with the murder of an infant boy yesterday has prompted national child abuse advocacy group, Child Matters, to ask how many children must die before New Zealand’s politicians act. On average, one child died every five weeks in New ...
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The Environmental Defence Society says that the latest disaster on the East Coast needs a formal Commission of Inquiry into forestry practices. “We have seen yet again the consequences of inadequate controls over exotic plantation forestry operations, ...
Join us for live comedy, live podcasts, live drawing and live human conversation on February 5. The glorious central Auckland suburb of Morningside plays host next month to a suburban street takeover bursting at the seams with live music, local food and drink and a cornucopia of entertainment. The Spinoff ...
‘Orgasmic meditation’ was sold as female empowerment; meanwhile the business behind it was being investigated by the FBI. Cult Trip author Anke Richter recounts her own visit to OneTaste, the bizarre company at the centre of a new Netflix documentary.First published November 12, 2022My friend Lena*’s sex life ...
A new exhibition at Auckland Museum takes a deep look at one of the planet’s most mysterious human-made sites. James Borrowdale met the man responsible for sharing Stonehenge’s secrets with Tāmaki Makaurau.We were standing inside Auckland Museum, which Professor Mike Parker Pearson noted held many similarities to Stonehenge – ...
Buzz from the Beehive Sorry, folks (although – on second thoughts – you might regard this as good news). There has been no buzz from the Beehive since January 9, when Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall announced that a vaccine for people at risk of mpox (or monkeypox) will be ...
An Independent Inquiry into organisational culture commissioned by Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind (RNZFB) Board, found that a longstanding poor workplace culture was made worse by significant transformation work initiated in 2019 but is improving ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Libby (Elizabeth) Sander, MBA Director & Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Bond Business School, Bond University Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich/Pexels, CC BY If you’ve found yourself feeling a bit flat after returning to work (or outright hating your job) this ...
In hospitals and labour wards and care homes across the country, Milo is the drink that helps people hold onto hope.This story was first published on the author’s newsletter, Emily Writes Weekly.Content warning: This post includes details of my son’s hospital admissions and health journey, it might be ...
RNZ Pacific The autonomous government in the Papua New Guinea region of Bougainville is finally organising byelections next month in two seats that have been without representation for many months. The elections, in Nissan and Haku constituencies, will be held on February 22, with nominations set to close tomorrow. The ...
Pacific Media Watch President Édouard Fritch of French Polynesia says he wants to boost funds to study journalism in French Polynesia in a bid to help strengthen the media industry quality, reports RNZ Pacific. According to the local Ministry of Education, the amount given for study grants will vary from ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is heading into the 2023 election campaign stating: “Our record is growing Māori housing. Our record is growing Māori employment opportunities. Now our record is growing the Māori economy. I will happily campaign on our record.” I really don’t have a lot ...
Greenpeace Aotearoa is calling leaked undercover footage of wastewater pouring into the Pacific ocean during deep sea mining tests "damning", saying it exposes the industry greenwash and just how damaging deep sea mining could be to ocean health. ...
Animal rights organisation SAFE is ringing in the new year with an urgent call for the Government to ban greyhound racing, after yet another dog suffered injuries severe enough to result in her death. The greyhound, Megan’s Munch, sustained four broken ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Young, Kernot Professor of Engineering, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock Across much of the world’s oceans, waves are getting bigger. In the Southern Ocean, where storm-driven swell can propagate halfway across the world to California, the average wave has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Barros Leal Farias, Senior lecturer, UNSW Sydney On Sunday January 8, radical supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro invaded and vandalised buildings that house Brazil’s congress, supreme court and presidential palace. Since then, over 1,500 people have been detained. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Beckett, Senior Lecturer (Food Science and Human Nutrition), School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle Pexels, CC BY New year, new you, new diet. It’s a familiar refrain. One popular dieting technique is to create a food ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Anjum Naveed/AP In 2022, a third La Niña year brought much rain to Australia and Southeast Asia and dry conditions to the other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Shutterstock The housing wealth gap between younger and older Australians is undeniably growing. Our newly published study attempts to find out how much it has grown by estimating ...
Summer read: Once something you’d find at the back of your grandparents’ cupboard, the ubiquitous New Zealand homeware brand is now a valuable commodity. And as collectors tell Stewart Sowman-Lund, prices probably haven’t peaked yet.First published July 23, 2022It’s been out of production for 30 years, but Crown ...
An investigation into the all-important ‘swing voter’ and what they actually believe – with a lot of charts.This article was first published in Henry Cooke’s politics newsletter, Museum Street. Since its triumphant win in 2020, Labour has lost a lot of supporters. The exact proportion depends on which poll ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Papua New Guinea began New Year 2023 with sizzling fireworks that lit up the skies. But our hopes of shrugging off the “power blackout” tag ended just as the year was a few hours old. An hour into New Year celebrations in the capital ...
RNZ Pacific Indonesian anti-curruption authorities have arrested Papua Governor Lukas Enembe on allegations of bribery. The Jakarta Globe called the arrest by the Corruption Eradication Commission in a restaurant in the provincial capital Jayapura yesterday as “dramatic” saying it came four months after he had been named a suspect. The ...
New Zealand Politics Daily is a collation of the most prominent issues being discussed in New Zealand. It is edited by Dr Bryce Edwards of The Democracy Project. Items of interest and importance todayPARLIAMENT Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Te Pāti Māori plans for a big 2023, but happy to stay cross bench ...
Summer read: Alex Casey goes behind the scenes of a dating show with a difference. First published May 8, 2022 Nicola is peering through the foggy glass of the penguin enclosure at Kelly Tarlton’s. Inside, her son Josh is on his latest romantic adventure for TVNZ’s new dating show Down ...
Adele? Foos? Queen Bey and Tay-Tay? We gaze into our crystal balls to work out which major acts may tour Aotearoa this year.Across the next few months, some of pop’s biggest names are visiting our shores. Ed Sheeran, Backstreet Boys, Florence + the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lorde ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Miles Pattenden, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University Former senior Vatican figure George Pell has died in Rome from complications following hip surgery. He was 81. Pell, often described as a conservative Catholic, was jailed for ...
The Porirua City Council – it seems – has no idea of how much mauri can be found in its harbour and waterways and how much more is needed before it can announce the mauri has been restored. But it is using Western science to measure things that might contribute ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Sparrow, Professor, Department of Philosophy; Adjunct Professor, Centre for Human Bioethics, Monash University Shutterstock Last Saturday night, a young woman out on the town in Brisbane saw a dog-shaped robot trotting towards her and did what many of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Lee, Professor at the National Drug Research Institute (Melbourne), Curtin University Tbel Abuseridze Around 1% of Australian adults have tried heroin in their lifetime and 2.7% have used pharmaceutical opioids for non-medical purposes in the past 12 months. These ...
As a mother of sons, Venetia Sherson isn’t shocked that the world’s most famous princes competed fiercely and even fought. But spilling family secrets to the world as Harry has done in that book released today? That’s a different story. At my younger son’s wedding, his brother – the best ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jaelen Nicole Myers, PhD Candidate, James Cook University Shutterstock To beat the summer heat, many of us in the Southern Hemisphere are hitting the beach – and this raises our chances of encountering potentially dangerous marine life beneath the waves. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Heinemann, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of Canterbury Getty Images Late last year, the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) initiated a process to eliminate 170 academic jobs to cut costs. The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found AUT’s ...
This article – posted today on Homepaddock – draws attention to contentious data-collecting issues raised by the way StatisticsNZ counts people for gender-defining and ethnicity purposes. The distorted results are influential in determining who gets how much funding and the number of Maori seats in Parliament… Suzanne Levy has spotted ...
Dwelling and household estimates are used for many purposes including planning, policy formation, business decisions, and as 'bottom lines' in the calculation of market coverage rates. At 31 December 2022: private dwellings estimate – 2,029,400 ...
Employment indicators provide an early indication of changes in the labour market. Key facts Changes in the seasonally adjusted filled jobs for the November 2022 month (compared with the October 2022 month) were: all industries – up 0.2 percent (5,224 ...
The household labour force survey estimated working-age population table shows the population benchmarks used to produce household labour force survey estimates for the upcoming labour market statistics release. Visit our website to read this information ...
Summer read: The EV revolution does precisely nothing to combat the motorways strangling our cities and encouraging urban sprawl, argues Hayden Donnell.First published September 23, 2022At the end of this year’s Burning Man, nearly 80,000 people staggered out of a carefully constructed utopia into the harsh reality of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Morris, Professor, Institute for Public Policy and Governance, University of Technology Sydney Shutterstock Australia is welcoming back international students in much greater numbers this year. Some predict new enrolments in 2023 could even be higher than the pre-COVID record ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Bradbury, Associate Professor, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock For many Australians, the rent crisis is just starting. Advertised rents have been soaring, but mainly for new rentals – so called “asking rents”. The broadest measure of rents ...
Summer read: Maddy Phillipps’s son is one and no amount of sage advice could have prepared her for the past year. Here she shares five major lessons from 12 life-changing months. First published October 24, 2022 Recently my son turned one. I am not big on birthdays, preferring to celebrate ...
Any day now, Jacinda Ardern will announce when this year’s election is to be held. What are the options, and which dates are the favourites? Toby Manhire squints awkwardly into the crystal ball. In the early part of the election year 2011, John Key unsheathed his Sharpie and drew a ...
RNZ Pacific An Australian-based French law professor says it is up to the French people as a whole, and not the voters in New Caledonia, to decide the territory’s future statute. Professor Eric Descheemaeker of the University of Melbourne’s Law School said New Caledonia’s three votes against full sovereignty mean ...
RNZ News Television New Zealand has filed an opposition claim against Vodafone’s attempt to trademark the name “One NZ”. In September last year, the telecommunications company revealed it wanted to change its name to One New Zealand to better reflect its legacy in Aotearoa, having separated from the global Vodafone ...
By Arieta Vakasukawaqa in Suva Fiji’s much-anticipated Media Industry Development Authority (MIDA) Act review is now being drafted and expected to be tabled at the next cabinet meeting on January 17. Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka confirmed this to journalists during an interview in Suva last Friday when he was questioned ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Pearse, Lecturer, Australian National University The federal government today proposed new rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from Australia’s polluting industrial sector. The rule changes apply to a measure known as the “safeguard mechanism”, and are supposed to stop Australia’s top ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Van Kranendonk, Professor and Director of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, UNSW Sydney Google Maps We live on an active planet, one whose surface is constantly in motion, although imperceptibly to us most of the time. Until an earthquake ...
Summer read: After encountering a flasher at her local mall, Alex Casey investigates Aotearoa’s growing rates of indecent exposure in public and how the crime can escalate.First published September 12, 2022I would say about the very last thing on my list of things to do at the mall ...
Series are ending, showrunners are pissed and fans are signing petitions. What’s going on?So Netflix has kicked off 2023 by cancelling 1899. That show was on my must-see list – wasn’t it supposed to be really good? It was! The supernatural cruise ship period drama had great reviews, solid ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just three press statements have been issued from the Beehive this year, each in the name of Ayesha Verrall as Associate Minister of Health. The latest, headed Monkeypox vaccination available to eligible people from next week, tells us a vaccine for people at risk of mpox ...
An interesting essay on the nature of denialism:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/03/denialism-what-drives-people-to-reject-the-truth
The Guardian is in denial of its sell out to neoliberalism.
Or an enlightened entity pretending they don’t long for enlightenment? May they surprise us next week with evidence of evolution, and give us an essay on how to obtain the sufferings of post-denialism.
Oh no it’s not! (couldn’t resist 😛 )
I liked this bit:
The essay then meanders through Irving-style traditional denialism (lots of research that supports bunk) into post-denialism (“Whereas denialism explains – at great length – post-denialism asserts. Whereas denialism is painstakingly thought-through, post-denialism is instinctive. Whereas denialism is disciplined, post-denialism is anarchic”).
Something to mull over.
If it’s better for counter-revolution to incite revolution, then Trump is a really effective Trotskyist.
Once the mid-terms are over I am definitely going to write the Hillary Clinton Presidency counterfactual history, together with all the epistemic reverses.
The National opposition obviously believes in tedious repetition….. woof woof woof….bark bark bark…..”oh look another passing car, quick”…… woof woof woof…..bark bark bark………
Claire might object to being called a passing car, she is very important you know
Clare
Opleasegod give us a reshuffle by Christmas.
Note the fun Winston provides when questioned by the new slim Paula as she labours away at having her tedious questions ridiculed. She thinks that she is going to Wow. Winston thinks that she is just setting herself as a Target. Chuckle. Chuckle.
Question Time can be entertaining. Q1
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=202377
Sorry. Wrong track. Winston V Paula:
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=202454
Its the “gotcha” mentality, Bennett is doomed along with most of the entire Nat front bench. The Nats firmly believe that Jacinda Ardern and the coalition govt can be ousted in 2020 and all they have to do is “get them” as many times as possible. Sadly for the Nats (happily for the rest of us) nine years of neglect in govt means at least nine years of being in opposition.
Sadly for you not all the “rest of us” Actually agree with you.
That’s why national poll so high.
Fuck off James, it’s tribal and you know it. It’s like Trump’s core support, unthinking, tub thumping, slogan waving and unwavering allegiance.
Winston really enjoyed that. Not sure who could coach Paula, but Wayne could tell her, and someone needs to.
That was great fun. Paula was obviously not expecting Winnie to be back and in top form. I think she thought she was going to walk all over Kelvin Davis, and she just does not have the flexibility to adjust her questions to changing situations. Interesting that Simon was missing yesterday and no news of him today. Seemed to be struggling with a sore throat on Tuesday, though.
PMs are never at QT Thursdays.
Was the forced debate on Clare Curran after QT Tuesday a chance for Bridges to strut his stuff? Yes and what a shouty shambles that was. 15 minutes of incoherant rubbish from Bridges rambling all over and away from the topic. (Wonder if they were not prepared for their own forced debate because they didn’t expect Trevor to approve it?)
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=202326
As you say, I had not expected to see the PM, but I also not expected to see Peters either, as they both left Nauru together (with officials and press people) on the B757 at about midnight Weds for the 5 -6 hour flight back to NZ. (NZ and Nauru time/dates are the same.) Peters has also been on the move on overseas trips almost continuously since JA returned from maternity leave.
Re the urgent debate, it was Bridges who called for it – but as you say, a shambles. LOL. You’re probably right that they thought Mallard would not allow it.
Re Paula, I am beginning to think that she really thinks she has a chance at replacing Bridges. She did have a reasonable run in QT on Wednesday with Davis, but not all onesided.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=202377
She was also in full flight in opening the General Debate on Weds.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=202388
This is what passes for thinking in the National Party; repetitive and narrow.
Thanks Hale and Pace for the example.
Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.
No better example than Penny.
We should all admire, feel shame and hope her spirit will live on.
And if not (like me) we should prepare ourselves to fuck off somewhere where the social always trumps the economic. (I’ve got a nice little nestle in mind – and its equipped with fibre connectivity and an endless supply of veges and the purest of water – (going forward) – kind of like an American Wanker’s bolt hole
“-kind of like an American Wanker’s bolt hole”
Gulp! What an image that conjures.
Got to go and scrub my brain…
Boom.
and!
https://abovethelaw.com/2018/09/and-now-marc-kasowitz-shows-up-in-these-hearings-on-to-day-3/
Harris replaced Barbara Boxer. Perhaps Feinstein should take the hint.
Yep – She really has some excellent probing questions:
CSPAN has posted the entire nearly 8-minute exchange between Kamala Harris and Kavanaugh on the Mueller probe. It is worth your time.
He has all the needed votes locked.
This is just sad theatre.
No Ad that is where you are wrong. Harris may have something on Kavanaugh whereby he either has to withdraw, or at least recuse himself from from any case involving Mueller.
… he’ll be in without so much as a hair out of place.
Trump may well get three, or even four slots within the one term.
You might like to watch the video of the hearings and questions I linked to above. Kavanaugh is caught like a deer in headlights – he’s sweating on this one. Of course the repugnants will vote him in if he does not withdraw his nomination – but the Harris has something on him, and if he is caught in a lie here – it wont go well for him past the mid terms.
Oh.
I was going to post this question tomorrow along with an Antarctic Treaty one while this mornings Oz paper, I’ll leave the Antarctic one for tomorrow.
I just received my birthday present a book called “Mad on Radium, New Zealand in the Atom Age”.
Page 95, mentions the USA 9 Jul 1962 conducted a bomb test at Johnston Atoll, where the US lanuch a rocket fitted with 1.2 Mt H Bomb which the USA exploded above Johnston Atoll at a height of 320km, which was designed to test the effects of a nuclear explosion on radio- and radar- communication, it also disrupted NZ’s telecommunications systems and created an artificial aurora across the northern hemisphere.
Did anyone here witness the aurora or experience issues with their radios etc and would to share their experience, thoughts or feelings on what they saw that night.
“One-planet living means not only seeking to reduce our own consumption, but also mobilising against the system that promotes the great tide of junk. This means fighting corporate power, changing political outcomes and challenging the growth-based, world-consuming system we call capitalism.
As last month’s Hothouse Earth paper, which warned of the danger of flipping the planet into a new, irreversible climatic state, concluded: “Incremental linear changes … are not enough to stabilise the Earth system. Widespread, rapid and fundamental transformations will likely be required to reduce the risk of crossing the threshold.”
Disposable coffee cups made from new materials are not just a non-solution: they are a perpetuation of the problem. Defending the planet means changing the world.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/06/save-earth-disposable-coffee-cup-green
Could this be the answer? 35years of satellite images show climate change is causing net global reforestation, driven by regrowth in the extratropics.
More trees is a surprise to me. Also surprised to learn there is a region called the extratropics.
Published in that Nature rag though, probably just more dodgy science.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0411-9
More trees, sort that global financial debt shit and go organic. No worries mate.
“However all the tree cover data comes with an important caveat: tree cover is not necessarily forest cover. Industrial timber plantations, mature oil palm estates, and other non-natural “planted forests” quality as tree cover. For example, cutting down a 100-hectare tract of primary forest and replacing it with a 100-hectare palm plantation will show up in the data as no net change in forest cover: the 100-hectare loss is perfectly offset by the 100-hectare gain in tree cover. Yet, that activity would be counted as “deforestation” by FAO. Therefore tree cover loss does not directly translate to “deforestation” in all cases.”
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/08/earth-has-more-trees-now-than-35-years-ago/
Charlie Mitchell on Twitter.
Tweets by comingupcharlie
“This is currently the splash on a major New Zealand website. It is dangerous and utterly dishonest.
This guy is one of the most gullible, uncurious people I’ve ever encountered. He’s going but the damage has been done.”
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/leighton-smith-show/opinion/leighton-smith-we-need-to-push-back-on-climate-change-hoax/
Monbiot, huh.
/
Monbiot keeping on track for a Knighthood. He’ll be able to do dinner with the likes of John Key, Mick Jagger and all those other British patriots.
Yeah, give us a sign, please?
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js