Daily review 12/11/2021

33 comments on “Daily review 12/11/2021 ”

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1. Ad 1

   12 November 2021 at 6:19 pm

   Demand for services from the Auckland City Mission are, according to the Commissioner, at the highest they have been in the Mission's history.

   Same for Women's Refuge according to RNZ.

   Salvation Army noting a huge increase in financial hardship.

   Christmas is coming and the stresses are going to jump.

   The gap between the apparent record-low unemployment numbers and the actual needs of people is growing by the day.

   Private charity is necessary from all of us on reasonable incomes, along with spare bedrooms. And we haven't even got to the full hit of the mandates yet.

   This is going to be a brutal next six months for the many of us with little.
   • Gezza 1.1

     12 November 2021 at 7:34 pm

     Damn straight, Ad.

     Sadly.

     I’m getting blown away by the kindness of the mutiple people who are coming into my life to care for me at home. My bet is that many of them are relatively low-paid but they are endless cheerful & cheering.

     I’ve already decided I need & can afford to become a lot more generous with my attitude to donating AND my donations to foodbanks and other charities that are helping out those at the low end of town who are doing it tuff.
2. weka 2

   12 November 2021 at 6:24 pm

   Something cheery,

   https://twitter.com/vickerstafft/status/1458367648442601476?s=21
   • weka 2.1

     12 November 2021 at 6:25 pm

     Different angle

     https://twitter.com/geddolls/status/1458366926938386438?s=21
3. Gezza 3

   12 November 2021 at 6:59 pm

   Hey, on Sunday I got this weird email from “My Health Account” (under an MoH banner) that simply says:

   “My Health Account – Email Address Validation

   To use this email address for your My Health Account, please enter the following code into the text box on the screen within the next 5 minutes:

   ****** [code redacted – Gez]”
   ………………….

   But on both my iPad2 – and on my Win10 laptop (when I double-checked it on that device) – there WAS NO TEXT BOX on screen to enter the code into. A real head-scratcher. 😐

   Anybody else here had the same email with no text box?
   • McFlock 3.1

     12 November 2021 at 7:37 pm

     Back away quickly. It's most likely a scam.

     If you're really curious, check MoH website for an actual contact email/phone number and get them to confirm the email is genuine before opening.

     Either they're looking for legit email addresses to sell, or they're going for your passwords from the "text box" that's broken (or likely automatically suppressed by your email system as a likely scam).
     • Gezza 3.1.1

       12 November 2021 at 7:45 pm

       Good advice, my scam-savvy friend.

       Will do. Thanks.
     • Gezza 3.1.2

       13 November 2021 at 12:29 pm

       Reply from MOH:

       Kia ora [Gezza]

       We thank you for your patience while we have investigated this issue.

       We’re aware that a small number of people have received unsolicited emails that either provides a six digit verification pin required as part of the My Health Account setup process or advises them that they can only have one account associated with an email address.

       These emails indicate that someone has attempted to setup an account using your email address. As you need to verify your email to do so, it is not possible to duplicate your account with your information so please be assured no one will have access to your information. We recommend that you change your password to prevent any unauthorised access to your account.

       Choose a strong password

       We suggest that you use a long password you can remember. Include upper case letters, numbers or symbols to make your password difficult for hackers to guess or hack. Many people find that a short sentence is easier to remember than a short, complex password.

       If you haven’t signed up for an account and either

       (1) received an email confirming the setup of a My Health Account or
       (2) an email stating that your account details have been updated, please:

       Change your email address password
       Go to My Health Account | Ministry of Health ( My Health Account | Ministry of Health )
       Click the Log in button in the top right hand corner
       Select ‘Forgot password?’ on the Log in to your account screen and follow the prompts
       Create a new password
       Remember, you will only receive emails from our official email no-reply@identity.health.nz and we only send text messages from 4204.

       Finally, if you haven’t logged into My Covid Record yet, we invite you to check your records so they are ready to go for vaccine passes coming soon. Please go online to https://mycovidrecord.health.nz/ to sign up.

       Kind regards
       (MOH)
   • roblogic 3.2

     12 November 2021 at 11:12 pm

     Could be legit, have you been trying to sign up for a Covid vaccination record?

     There's a step in the process where they send a confirmation email, and you put that code into the website.

     https://mycovidrecord.health.nz
     • Gezza 3.2.1

       12 November 2021 at 11:43 pm

       No rooblogic, I haven’t tried to sign up for a Covid Vaccination Record – or even read any website about it yet. Can’t think of anything I’ve done online that would generate such an email. It just appeared in me Inbox on 7 Nov.

       I’ve sent a cropped screenshot of the email with its MOH banner to Health Dept asking them to confirm whether it’s genuine.
4. Blazer 4

   12 November 2021 at 7:58 pm

   rockin all over the…world

   https://youtu.be/SshwJdVy5-g
5. Robert Guyton 5

   12 November 2021 at 8:40 pm

   Nicky Hagar makes himself clear:

   Nicky Hager: My message to friends who joined this week’s protest

   Nicky Hager | Guest writer
   Opinion

   Are these really the people you want to align yourself with?

   Dear vaccine hesitant friends,

   [deleted text quoted without link]
   • joe90 5.1

     12 November 2021 at 8:51 pm

     ..but he's in on it..

     https://twitter.com/jasepalm/status/1458886700822773760
   • In Vino 5.2

     12 November 2021 at 8:57 pm

     Thanks Robert

     I hope the right people get to read this. I am going to pass it on to a Rightie or 2 I know who annoy me when they describe Nicky in John Key's terms, but with expletives.

     It is a strange emotion that drives people in politics.
     • Blazer 5.2.1

       12 November 2021 at 9:36 pm

       Key was always a manifestly weak ..koont…'lefty conspiracy theory'…'the Greens want to print money'….'get some guts'!

       Thank God Nicky is in NZ !
     • Anne 5.2.2

       12 November 2021 at 10:17 pm

       Thanks to Robert from me too. As usual Hager is right on the money:

       I strongly suspect the Covid resistance is being actively used by some on the right of New Zealand politics to try to destabilise Jacinda Ardern and the Labour Government. Already it has familiar fingerprints all over it. Notice how the recent farmer protests (on entirely different issues of environment policy) use the same extreme anti-Jacinda and anti-Labour script about communism and lies.

       Its patently obvious this is what is going on.
   • Barfly 5.3

     12 November 2021 at 9:00 pm

     Jeez I've gotten old – I misread that as Sammy Hagar …and then got very confused

     
   • Sacha 5.4

     12 November 2021 at 10:05 pm

     The missing link – beautifully clear from Hager: ‘My message to friends who joined this week’s protest’ https://thespinoff.co.nz/?p=342758
     • weka 5.4.1

       12 November 2021 at 10:19 pm

       that's really good. Particularly potent coming from Hager.
     • UncookedSelachimorpha 5.4.2

       12 November 2021 at 10:20 pm

       Nicky has written a great piece there I think
6. RedLogix 6

   12 November 2021 at 10:04 pm

   The story that we've been told that RCT's are the universal 'gold standard' for proof of a drug's usefulness turns out to be a fairly serious misdirection. Here is a text book introduction to 'Study Design':

   The study designs can be thought of as a pyramid. Case control studies are the first articles published on new topics so they make up the base of the pyramid. As we progress up the pyramid, the studies become more evidence-based and less numerous. Meta-Analyses are at the top of the pyramid because they can only be written after much other research has been done on a topic. There are many fewer of them but they offer very strong evidence.

   Note carefully that RCT's have their place but are not as definitive in principle as a metastudy.

   Of course any study regardless of type can be poorly done – but the idea that RCT's are the prime type that always provide the ultimate answer – was never the case at all.
   • Blazer 6.1

     12 November 2021 at 10:09 pm

     Hey Red as an aside…your suggestion for 'what are you listening to now' is a good one.

     Music is so connective and often enlightening..great idea.
     • RedLogix 6.1.1

       12 November 2021 at 10:17 pm

       My hesitation is that unless carefully framed and monitored it might degenerate into a kind of purity point pissing contest. I've seen something like this happen some years back.

       Still I'll think about it.
       • Blazer 6.1.1.1

         12 November 2021 at 10:30 pm

         Good .

         My experience with this format has been overwhelmingly positive…a revelation in fact.

         How it could turn into a 'pissing contest' is hard to comprehend.
         • Gezza 6.1.1.1.1

           13 November 2021 at 8:03 am

           Think I know what Red means.

           Some people are music snobs. Rather than just share a YouTube of a musical piece they like, they HAVE to criticise or put down something posted by someone else.

           Music’s a very individual matter when it comes to taste. For example some folk really like Jazz – an extensive genre that encompasses some styles I’d click off straight away.

           A lot of hard out heavy metal bands I hate.

           And I really like The Blues, the Beatles & the Beach Boys – last two being bands some folk can’t stand.

           If we have a music section or music night folk need to remember to just enjoy others’ contributions that they like & refrain from making it some sort of snobby point-scoring (in their minds) exercise.
           • Gezza 6.1.1.1.1.1

             13 November 2021 at 8:26 am

             And the other thing that can get out of hand is this sort of thing:

             Bob: Clapton really is God! Best guitarist in the electric guitar’s history.

             Todd: You’re bloody joking, aren’t you mate? Clapton is rubbish! Everything’s mostly improv. You can even hear the cocked up riffs & mistakes he makes & tries to cover up with rescue flurries, if you know what to listen for. Satriani’s the best guitar player in electric guitar history. No question!
             • Blazer …

               14 November 2021 at 2:48 pm

               You're right Gezza.

               Personally I have come across some wonderful music from…the format though.
               • Gezza …

                 14 November 2021 at 3:21 pm

                 Yeah, me too, B. Different folks in the past on YNZ posted some amazing YouTube music & artists (contemporary & classic) that I’d never listened to & really liked.

                 I’m personally in favour of giving it a shot.

                 Friday nights were a popular time for it as I recall.
   • Anker 6.2

     12 November 2021 at 10:17 pm

     • Meta analysis is not research as such, but an analysis of our the various studies done on a treatment, weeding out the week studies, looking at the gold standard which is RCT with sufficient numbers.
     • RedLogix 6.2.1

       12 November 2021 at 10:24 pm

       looking at the gold standard which is RCT with sufficient numbers.

       Until I dug into this I would have said the same as you – but it's not as clear cut as I thought.

       The source linked to is authoritative and interesting.
7. Ad 7

   13 November 2021 at 12:03 am

   Things to avoid: simply putting a whole-nation mandate requiring all unvaccinated to stay inside at home. Like a permanent bracelet-wearing MIQ for a million or so people.

   Austria on verge of Covid lockdown for millions of unvaccinated people – CNN
8. Dennis Frank 8

   13 November 2021 at 1:26 am

   Democracy in Cuba? Get real. No way, José.

   Cuban playwright Yunior García has shot to fame over the past year, but not because of his art. The 39-year old has become the face of Archipelago, a largely online opposition group which is planning a string of pro-democracy marches across the island on Monday.

   The Communist party has banned the protests – which coincide with the reopening of the country after 20 months of coronavirus lockdowns – arguing that they are a US-backed attempt to overthrow the government.

   In his interview, García, 39, said he was well aware of the risks he was facing. “History is full of people who have gone to prison for struggling for their rights,” García said, offering José Martí, the 19th century Cuban intellectual and independence fighter, as an example.

   A gamut of strategies have been employed to prevent Archipelago activists from organising: García’s mobile phone line has been cut, two coordinators have been fired from their state jobs, and activists’ families have been interrogated by state security.

   That the protests are scheduled for the very day that Cuba is supposed to go back to normal after a long lockdown, with tourists returning and schools opening, has only heightened the stakes.

   “As San Ignacio de Loyola, echoing the same conclusion as Machiavelli in such circumstances, said: ‘In a besieged city, all dissent is treason.’”

   Such realism is little solace for young activists yearning for the democracy. Daniela Rojo, a single mother with two young children , said she was raised to “speak softly and avoid problems”. But after being jailed for 27 days following the July’s protest, she said she was determined to march on Monday for her children’s sake. “I want them to grow up in a country where they can express themselves freely,” she said.

   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/12/yunior-garcia-playwright-protest-cuba-government

   So, as ever, it's the state versus the people.

   Super-charged US sanctions, the coronavirus pandemic, a surge in social media use and a younger generation hungry for change have left the Communist party reeling.The Biden administration has continued with Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy, which since 2017 has hammered the island with more than 200 sanctions aimed at choking hard currency inflows. The result has been an economic crisis that rivals the so-called Special Period, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

   “The Special Period was a piece of cake compared to this,” said Umberto Molina, 71, waiting in line outside a pharmacy. “There was medicine and you didn’t have these never-ending queues.” In July, mounting frustrations exploded onto the streets in an unprecedented rash of protests – and a hardening of positions. Cuban Special Forces beat demonstrators and hundreds were imprisoned.

   This week, foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez vowed that the protests would not go ahead. “We will not allow it,” he said. “We will use our laws, our constitution and the strictest adherence to the principles of our socialist state of law and social justice.”

   No point using socialist principles and law to oppress the people. Only someone seriously delusional would believe that to be a good idea. Dunno why the communist regime failed to learn from Russia's escape into freedom 30+ years ago – or maybe they learnt the wrong lesson. The irony is that Fidel, when he won the revolution, didn't want communism – the yanks forced him into it.
   • Ad 8.1

     13 November 2021 at 7:13 am

     Cuba.

     A wretched, lost little autarky where people have been seeking to flee for decades and continuing to rapidly depopulate. Because they hate it.

     Cuba's Precarious Population Pyramid (focusongeography.org)

     O but free healthcare.

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