Auckland valuation rise on RNZ before, a couple of questions. Why are rates attached to valuation rather than income and assets? And did anyone else notice that land being developed had the biggest jumps? What’s going to prevent that over the next ten treats with the big push to build more suburbs?
it is an asset which has been paid for usually over many years, you expect home owners to pay twice, is that how you see the world?
You don’t own a house do you MB and you are just a little bit jealous.
And not “a few” own houses in NZ, many do.
they pay off a mortgage, which in general means they pay back twice the amount they borrowed to buy the house in the first place, and then you expect them to pay an asset tax on top of that – to which i say bullshit.
I’m not averse to any of that just curious what is fair. People assume that everyone who owns a house is rich and trying to get richer. Some people have actual homes and are paying higher rates because of other people’s greed. It’s true they will probably benefit financially from that, and I’m in favour of where that is income they pay tax on it, just not quite sure how city and district councils fit into that.
Remember that your rates are not based on just your house’s valuation, but on the percentage of your house’s valuation of the sum of all the houses in your city.
That means that if the valuation of every house in your city doubles your rates don’t change (unless of course you live in Dunedin and the council have increased rates by more than inflation for more than 15 years)
That’s the second time the very new inexperienced Green MP has done a “look at me I’m important”. Sage advice from years back to new MPs was to breathe through their nose until they knew their role. James Shaw needs to tidy things up.
It’s not a leak, apparently the email got sent to the media by mistake.
The Herald cherry picked a bit of the email,
The Green Party’s justice spokeswoman Golriz Ghahraman, in an internal email accidentally sent to Fairfax, floated the idea of trying to garner support for a National Parihaka Day – the subject of a Green private member’s bill.
That’s The Herald’s interpretation.
Here’s the actual words,
“The Government won’t have the numbers to pass the [waka-jumping] legislation without us, and if we decided to oppose it then they would need to consider other options such as approaching the National Party, who opposed the 2005 bill,” the email says.
“Opposing the bill would cause political tensions, given the inclusion of the bill in the Labour-NZ First coalition agreement.
“Our Confidence and Supply Agreement gives us the independence to choose to vote against it. Supporting the bill would be seen as changing and weakening a long-standing and public party position. It would risk criticism from our core supporters.”
To me that looks like the Greens working through a dilemma and in one email one MP has laid out some of the issues.
During the parallel coalition negotiations, Green’s co-leader James Shaw put his faith in Jacinda Ardern to ensure that there was nothing in the Labour-NZF deal that the Greens would object to – though he conceded there might be policies that he might not be comfortable with.
No shit. Part of the value of the set up is that the Greens are free to vote how they want on things not covered in their agreement with Labour. This is how MMP works as designed.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters poured scorn on horse-trading tactics.
“We don’t horse trade.
This is interesting. Because I would have thought that negotiating around support for legislation is exactly what was intended by the deals that allowed Labour to form government.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said doing a deal with the Greens over waka-jumping had not come up “in direct conversation”.
She said she has not given much thought to a National Parihaka Day.
“I certainly am pleased to see greater observance of those days of New Zealand’s history. I think we should encourage that. Whether or not it becomes a day off is an entirely different issue.”
So not a big deal for Labour. Little called it horse-trading but other than that where are the ripples of discontent from Labour?
A spokesperson for the Green Party said the email was an “internal document that was sent in error”.
“It’s not surprising that Labour Party and Green Party MPs are having these kinds of constructive conversations and working together; in fact, that’s what New Zealanders expect of government parties.
“It’s commonplace for ministers and MPs to have these kind of conversations – that will continue,” the spokesperson said.
That’s what I would expect.
I don’t know what happened. But it does look like the Herald is shit stirring (and yes, no name to the article).
Parihaka day versus Guy fucking Fox? A no brainer i’d have thought.
As an aside. I happened to be on a bus on Nov 5th that drove along the kms of harbour wall those prisoners built. (Actually, the original has largely been buried under asphalt now – conservation they said )
Anyway. I happened to notice a small gathering at Rongo Rock. I had no idea why they were there.
What would I rather mark? A significant event in NZ history or some shit about Protestants and Catholics from a land far, far away? Hmm.
I mean, I get that swathes of NZ society just don’t want to know, and would rather hold to some fluffy fairy tale account of colonisation. But then, like all history relating to the oppressed and the fucked over, it has to be claimed and held up, or it’s just quietly brushed over, rubbed out and disappeared.
Shift fireworks day to Matariki or midwinter and replace Guy Fawkes with Parihaka Day. Make it a public holiday and focus on remembrance and peace. Sounds good to me. People that want to can still do Guy Fawkes too.
So, recently sacked Mugabe deputy Mnangagwa and China go way to when he and ZANU recruits trained in the PRC and Egypt.
With him and his mate Constantino Chiwenga, who seems to be another of the PRC’s favourites, both present in China and considering both the extensive Chinese investment in Zimbabwe and Mr Mnangagwa’s financial past, dollars to donuts the PRC have picked their men, and backed the putsch.
We interviewed Sophia, the artificially intelligent robot which previously said it wanted to 'destroy humans.' pic.twitter.com/KCrDaAYuit— Business Insider UK (@BIUK) November 14, 2017
The look on her face when asked “Do you like human beings”.
I’d like to know who is doing the design and project manage on that. It really shouldn’t be left to the geeks in corporate geek culture (sorry geeks, this is way too important).
The speech and facial recognition is about the most interesting thing in it, from my perspective. Conversationally it’s a Turing fail, and seems to have an arbitrary lookup of conversation pieces mixed in with current events whenever the conversation gets too difficult to process – what looks to us like an evasive non-sequiter is possibly a runtime exception that flips through to the random stock phrase generator.
Oh, and a recent theory is that the uncanny valley the bot is deeply within is because we evolved to identify dead bodies as shit we don’t want to be around. We looks at something that looks very but not quite human, and our lizard brain thinks we’re looking at a talking corpse.
“The speech and facial recognition is about the most interesting thing in it, from my perspective”
Yes. There were a couple of women geeks being interviewed in RNZ the other day, didn’t listen hugely closely but they were talking about design and how facial expressions were being taken into account. Please just tell me that the people doing the design aren’t from the same culture as FB.
Seems Sophia’s a fund raiser who isn’t actually intelligent, making out as a work of art.
He admits that Sophia’s presentation annoys experts, but defends the bot by saying it conveys something unique to audiences. “If I tell people I’m using probabilistic logic to do reasoning on how best to prune the backward chaining inference trees that arise in our logic engine, they have no idea what I’m talking about. But if I show them a beautiful smiling robot face, then they get the feeling that AGI may indeed be nearby and viable.” He says there’s a more obvious benefit too: in a world where AI talent and interest is sucked towards big tech companies in Silicon Valley, Sophia can operate as a counter-weight; something that grabs attention, and with that, funding. “What does a startup get out of having massive international publicity?” he says. “This is obvious.
That hasn’t been solved in the history of all philosophy.
If self-awareness/consciousness is a unique state bestowed upon some organisms by a higher power or whatever, the term “artificial intelligence” can only ever be a crude automatic mimicry of humanity.
If, on the other hand, my consciousness is simply the result of the complexity of billions of synapses forming a biochemical network, discharging and reinforcing connections based on simple and predictable rules, then any large enough system of chaotically-interacting elements can achieve real self-awareness.
I sometimes wonder whether than means that humanity is an alzheimers-like disease dissolving the brain of a sentient earth. But then I figure that after several billion years alone in space, it’s probably gone insane, anyway…
It’s an implementation of current tech that creates nothing, comprehends nothing, and pretty much does nothing. It’s “learning” consists of statistical comparisons to create behaviour rules.
Watson is far more important. Without going into the healthcare work, I’d expect that the trials and implementation underwent some ethics approval, but the insurance claims analyses might have had only business case assessment. That’s capitalism for ya, I guess.
No, I’m saying that whatever algorithms are used for sophie, they have limited applications beyond a user interface. They might, in the future, be part of a component list for something that does actually have a huge impact on everything, but they’ll be about as essential to that device as the colour of the plastic case all the hardware sits in (ok, ok, we all know its primary use will be more Cherry 2000 than Terminator).
Watson, on the other hand, has already contributed to the medical treatment of people, and put 34 claims assessors out of a job. It did both.
After public encouragement from Donald Trump, the Department of Justice is reportedly deciding whether or not to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton. Trump and his supporters are so very passionate about Hillary Clinton, it seems like maybe they forgot she lost. She is not the President.
Stan van Gundy the white coach of the Detroit pistons has written a great piece in support of any athletes who kneel for the national anthem. He notes the inherent racism in a war on drugs where black Is only 40% of the population but 67% of the prison population and
In Chicago, black and Hispanic drivers who were pulled over were four times more likely to be searched as whites, even though city police department data shows that contraband is found on whites twice as often.”
Similarly shameful statistics are found in nz where our drug laws are used to incarcerate far too many young Maori men. Anyone looking into these problems soon encounters choices made by law enforcement that treat brown and black skinned people far more harshly than pakeha. This is a definition of institutional racism.
Too right. The past Government turned a blind eye on the dreadful trend. Can we change direction? A terrible prospect if we don’t. (Thanks Ed. Nightmares for me tonight!)
Adoption is a thorny issue, particularly in NZ. But it’s good to see we have some human beings in this government. Also thought Willie Jackson acquitted himself well here (especially compared to the other Labour MPs on camera…).
Failed attempt to embed there (props if anyone can let me know what I did wrong!)
This is the signal I have been awaiting. Carmel Sepuloni intends to “increase disability benefits” further she wants to make sure individual budgets can provide for needs.
This was in a discussion letter from IHC, (Scoop Political) but the response was all disabilities. So far so good.
My heart lifted for Kay and other sufferers. A more humane approach is here.
The future teaches you to be aloneThe present to be afraid and coldSo if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists…And if you tolerate thisThen your children will be nextSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Do you remember at school, studying the rise ...
When National won the New Zealand election in 2023, one of the first to congratulate Luxon was tech-billionaire and entrepreneur extraordinaire Elon Musk.And last year, after Luxon posted a video about a trip to Malaysia, Musk came forward again to heap praise on Christopher:So it was perhaps par for the ...
Hi,Today’s Webworm features a new short film from documentary maker Giorgio Angelini. It’s about Luigi Mangione — but it’s also, really, about everything in America right now.Bear with me.Shortly after I sent out my last missive from the fires on Wednesday, one broke out a little too close to home ...
So soon just after you've goneMy senses sharpenBut it always takes so damn longBefore I feel how much my eyes have darkenedFear hangs in a plane of gun smokeDrifting in our roomSo easy to disturb, with a thought, with a whisperWith a careless memorySongwriters: Andy Taylor / John Taylor / ...
Can we trust the Trump cabinet to act in the public interest?Nine of Trump’s closest advisers are billionaires. Their total net worth is in excess of $US375b (providing there is not a share-market crash). In contrast, the total net worth of Trump’s first Cabinet was about $6b. (Joe Biden’s Cabinet ...
Welcome back to our weekly roundup. We hope you had a good break (if you had one). Here’s a few of the stories that caught our attention over the last few weeks. This holiday period on Greater Auckland Since our last roundup we’ve: Taken a look back at ...
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partnerSometimes I feel like my only friendIs the city I live in, The City of AngelsLonely as I am together we crySong: Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith, Flea, John Frusciante.A home is engulfed in flames during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area. ...
Open access notablesLarge emissions of CO2 and CH4 due to active-layer warming in Arctic tundra, Torn et al., Nature Communications:Climate warming may accelerate decomposition of Arctic soil carbon, but few controlled experiments have manipulated the entire active layer. To determine surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide and ...
It's election year for Wellington City Council and for the Regional Council. What have the progressive councillors achieved over the last couple of years. What were the blocks and failures? What's with the targeting of the mayor and city council by the Post and by central government? Why does the ...
Over the holidays, there was a rising tide of calls for people to submit on National's repulsive, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, along with a wave of advice and examples of what to say. And it looks like people rose to the occasion, with over 300,000 ...
The lie is my expenseThe scope of my desireThe Party blessed me with its futureAnd I protect it with fireI am the Nina The Pinta The Santa MariaThe noose and the rapistAnd the fields overseerThe agents of orangeThe priests of HiroshimaThe cost of my desire…Sleep now in the fireSongwriters: Brad ...
This is a re-post from the Climate BrinkGlobal surface temperatures have risen around 1.3C since the preindustrial (1850-1900) period as a result of human activity.1 However, this aggregate number masks a lot of underlying factors that contribute to global surface temperature changes over time.These include CO2, which is the primary ...
There are times when movement around us seems to slow down. And the faster things get, the slower it all appears.And so it is with the whirlwind of early year political activity.They are harbingers for what is to come:Video: Wayne Wright Jnr, funder of Sean Plunket, talk growing power and ...
Hi,Right now the power is out, so I’m just relying on the laptop battery and tethering to my phone’s 5G which is dropping in and out. We’ll see how we go.First up — I’m fine. I can’t see any flames out the window. I live in the greater Hollywood area ...
2024 was a tough year for working Kiwis. But together we’ve been able to fight back for a just and fair New Zealand and in 2025 we need to keep standing up for what’s right and having our voices heard. That starts with our Mood of the Workforce Survey. It’s your ...
Time is never time at allYou can never ever leaveWithout leaving a piece of youthAnd our lives are forever changedWe will never be the sameThe more you change, the less you feelSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan.Babinden - Baba’s DayToday, January 8th, 2025, is Babinden, “The Day of the baba” or “The ...
..I/We wish to make the following comments:I oppose the Treaty Principles Bill."5. Act binds the CrownThis Act binds the Crown."How does this Act "bind the Crown" when Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which the Act refers to, has been violated by the Crown on numerous occassions, resulting in massive loss of ...
Everything is good and brownI'm here againWith a sunshine smile upon my faceMy friends are close at handAnd all my inhibitions have disappeared without a traceI'm glad, oh, that I found oohSomebody who I can rely onSongwriter: Jay KayGood morning, all you lovely people. Today, I’ve got nothing except a ...
Welcome to 2025. After wrapping up 2024, here’s a look at some of the things we can expect to see this year along with a few predictions. Council and Elections Elections One of the biggest things this year will be local body elections in October. Will Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Canadians can take a while to get angry – but when they finally do, watch out. Canada has been falling out of love with Justin Trudeau for years, and his exit has to be the least surprising news event of the New Year. On recent polling, Trudeau’s Liberal party has ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Much like 2023, many climate and energy records were broken in 2024. It was Earth’s hottest year on record by a wide margin, breaking the previous record that was set just last year by an even larger margin. Human-caused climate-warming pollution and ...
Submissions on National's racist, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill are due tomorrow! So today, after a good long holiday from all that bullshit, I finally got my shit together to submit on it. As I noted here, people should write their own submissions in their own ...
Ooh, baby (ooh, baby)It's making me crazy (it's making me crazy)Every time I look around (look around)Every time I look around (every time I look around)Every time I look aroundIt's in my faceSongwriters: Alan Leo Jansson / Paul Lawrence L. Fuemana.Today, I’ll be talking about rich, middle-aged men who’ve made ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 29, 2024 thru Sat, January 4, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Hi,The thing that stood out at me while shopping for Christmas presents in New Zealand was how hard it was to avoid Zuru products. Toy manufacturer Zuru is a bit like Netflix, in that it has so much data on what people want they can flood the market with so ...
And when a child is born into this worldIt has no conceptOf the tone of skin it's living inAnd there's a million voicesAnd there's a million voicesTo tell you what you should be thinkingSong by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour.The moment you see that face, you can hear her voice; ...
While we may not always have quality political leadership, a couple of recently published autobiographies indicate sometimes we strike it lucky. When ranking our prime ministers, retired professor of history Erik Olssen commented that ‘neither Holland nor Nash was especially effective as prime minister – even his private secretary thought ...
Baby, be the class clownI'll be the beauty queen in tearsIt's a new art form, showin' people how little we care (yeah)We're so happy, even when we're smilin' out of fearLet's go down to the tennis court and talk it up like, yeah (yeah)Songwriters: Joel Little / Ella Yelich O ...
Open access notables Why Misinformation Must Not Be Ignored, Ecker et al., American Psychologist:Recent academic debate has seen the emergence of the claim that misinformation is not a significant societal problem. We argue that the arguments used to support this minimizing position are flawed, particularly if interpreted (e.g., by policymakers or the public) as suggesting ...
What I’ve Been Doing: I buried a close family member.What I’ve Been Watching: Andor, Jack Reacher, Xmas movies.What I’ve Been Reflecting On: The Usefulness of Writing and the Worthiness of Doing So — especially as things become more transparent on their own.I also hate competing on any day, and if ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by John Wihbey. A version of this article first appeared on Yale Climate Connections on Nov. 11, 2008. (Image credits: The White House, Jonathan Cutrer / CC BY 2.0; President Jimmy Carter, Trikosko/Library of Congress; Solar dedication, Bill Fitz-Patrick / Jimmy Carter Library; Solar ...
Morena folks,We’re having a good break, recharging the batteries. Hope you’re enjoying the holiday period. I’m not feeling terribly inspired by much at the moment, I’m afraid—not from a writing point of view, anyway.So, today, we’re travelling back in time. You’ll have to imagine the wavy lines and sci-fi sound ...
Completed reads for 2024: Oration on the Dignity of Man, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola A Platonic Discourse Upon Love, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Of Being and Unity, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola The Life of Pico della Mirandola, by Giovanni Francesco Pico Three Letters Written by Pico ...
Welcome to 2025, Aotearoa. Well… what can one really say? 2024 was a story of a bad beginning, an infernal middle and an indescribably farcical end. But to chart a course for a real future, it does pay to know where we’ve been… so we know where we need ...
Welcome to the official half-way point of the 2020s. Anyway, as per my New Years tradition, here’s where A Phuulish Fellow’s blog traffic came from in 2024: United States United Kingdom New Zealand Canada Sweden Australia Germany Spain Brazil Finland The top four are the same as 2023, ...
Completed reads for December: Be A Wolf!, by Brian Strickland The Magic Flute [libretto], by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder The Invisible Eye, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Owl’s Ear, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Waters of Death, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Spider, by Hanns Heinz Ewers Who Knows?, by Guy de Maupassant ...
Well, it’s the last day of the year, so it’s time for a quick wrap-up of the most important things that happened in 2024 for urbanism and transport in our city. A huge thank you to everyone who has visited the blog and supported us in our mission to make ...
Leave your office, run past your funeralLeave your home, car, leave your pulpitJoin us in the streets where weJoin us in the streets where weDon't belong, don't belongHere under the starsThrowing light…Song: Jeffery BuckleyToday, I’ll discuss the standout politicians of the last 12 months. Each party will receive three awards, ...
Hi,A lot’s happened this year in the world of Webworm, and as 2024 comes to an end I thought I’d look back at a few of the things that popped. Maybe you missed them, or you might want to revisit some of these essay and podcast episodes over your break ...
Hi,I wanted to share this piece by film editor Dan Kircher about what cinema has been up to in 2024.Dan edited my documentary Mister Organ, as well as this year’s excellent crowd-pleasing Bookworm.Dan adores movies. He gets the language of cinema, he knows what he loves, and writes accordingly. And ...
Without delving into personal details but in order to give readers a sense of the year that was, I thought I would offer the study in contrasts that are Xmas 2023 and Xmas 2024: Xmas 2023 in Starship Children’s Hospital (after third of four surgeries). Even opening presents was an ...
Heavy disclaimer: Alpha/beta/omega dynamics is a popular trope that’s used in a wide range of stories and my thoughts on it do not apply to all cases. I’m most familiar with it through the lens of male-focused fanfic, typically m/m but sometimes also featuring m/f and that’s the situation I’m ...
Hi,Webworm has been pretty heavy this year — mainly because the world is pretty heavy. But as we sprint (or limp, you choose) through the final days of 2024, I wanted to keep Webworm a little lighter.So today I wanted to look at one of the biggest and weirdest elements ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 22, 2024 thru Sat, December 28, 2024. This week's roundup is the second one published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, ...
We’ll have a climate change ChristmasFrom now until foreverWarming our hearts and mindsAnd planet all togetherSpirits high and oceans higherChestnuts roast on wildfiresIf coal is on your wishlistMerry Climate Change ChristmasSong by Ian McConnellReindeer emissions are not something I’d thought about in terms of climate change. I guess some significant ...
KP continues to putt-putt along as a tiny niche blog that offers a NZ perspective on international affairs with a few observations about NZ domestic politics thrown in. In 2024 there was also some personal posts given that my son was in the last four months of a nine month ...
I can see very wellThere's a boat on the reef with a broken backAnd I can see it very wellThere's a joke and I know it very wellIt's one of those that I told you long agoTake my word I'm a madman, don't you knowSongwriters: Bernie Taupin / Elton JohnIt ...
.Acknowledgement: Tim PrebbleThanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work..With each passing day of bad headlines, squandering tax revenue to enrich the rich, deep cuts to our social services and a government struggling to keep the lipstick on its neo-liberal pig ...
This is from the 36th Parallel social media account (as brief food for thought). We know that Trump is ahistorical at best but he seems to think that he is Teddy Roosevelt and can use the threat of invoking the Monroe Doctrine and “Big Stick” gunboat diplomacy against Panama and ...
Don't you cry tonightI still love you, babyAnd don't you cry tonightDon't you cry tonightThere's a heaven above you, babyAnd don't you cry tonightSong: Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so”, said possibly the greatest philosopher ever to walk this earth, Douglas Adams.We have entered the ...
Because you're magicYou're magic people to meSong: Dave Para/Molly Para.Morena all, I hope you had a good day yesterday, however you spent it. Today, a few words about our celebration and a look at the various messages from our politicians.A Rockel XmasChristmas morning was spent with the five of us ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). 2024 has been a series of bad news for climate change. From scorching global temperatures leading to devastating ...
Ríu Ríu ChíuRíu Ríu Chíu is a Spanish Christmas song from the 16th Century. The traditional carol would likely have passed unnoticed by the English-speaking world had the made-for-television American band The Monkees not performed the song as part of their special Christmas show back in 1967. The show's ...
Dunedin’s summer thus far has been warm and humid… and it looks like we’re in for a grey Christmas. But it is now officially Christmas Day in this time zone, so never mind. This year, I’ve stumbled across an Old English version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen: It has a population of just under 3.5 million inhabitants, produces nearly 550,000 tons of beef per year, and boasts a glorious soccer reputation with two World ...
Morena all,In my paywalled newsletter yesterday, I signed off for Christmas and wished readers well, but I thought I’d send everyone a quick note this morning.This hasn’t been a good year for our small country. The divisions caused by the Treaty Principles Bill, the cuts to our public sector, increased ...
This morning’s six standouts for me at 6.30 am include:Kāinga Ora is quietly planning to sell over $1 billion worth of state-owned land under 300 state homes in Auckland’s wealthiest suburbs, including around Bastion Point, to give the Government more fiscal room to pay for tax cuts and reduce borrowing.A ...
Hi,It’s my birthday on Christmas Day, and I have a favour to ask.A birthday wish.I would love you to share one Webworm story you’ve liked this year.The simple fact is: apart from paying for a Webworm membership (thank you!), sharing and telling others about this place is the most important ...
The Green Party welcomes the extension of the deadline for Treaty Principles Bill submissions but continues to call on the Government to abandon the Bill. ...
Complaints about disruptive behaviour now handled in around 13 days (down from around 60 days a year ago) 553 Section 55A notices issued by Kāinga Ora since July 2024, up from 41 issued during the same period in the previous year. Of that 553, first notices made up around 83 ...
The time it takes to process building determinations has improved significantly over the last year which means fewer delays in homes being built, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “New Zealand has a persistent shortage of houses. Making it easier and quicker for new homes to be built will ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is pleased to announce the annual list of New Zealand’s most popular baby names for 2024. “For the second consecutive year, Noah has claimed the top spot for boys with 250 babies sharing the name, while Isla has returned to the most popular ...
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Minister for Children and for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour is encouraging people to use the resources available to them to get help, and to report instances of family and sexual violence amongst their friends, families, and loved ones who are in need. “The death of a ...
Uia te pō, rangahaua te pō, whakamāramatia mai he aha tō tango, he aha tō kāwhaki? Whitirere ki te ao, tirotiro kau au, kei hea taku rātā whakamarumaru i te au o te pakanga mo te mana motuhake? Au te pō, ngū te pō, ue hā! E te kahurangi māreikura, ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says people with diabetes and other painful conditions will benefit from a significant new qualification to boost training in foot care. “It sounds simple, but quality and regular foot and nail care is vital in preventing potentially serious complications from diabetes, like blisters or sores, which can take a long time to heal ...
Associate Health Minister with responsibility for Pharmac David Seymour is pleased to see Pharmac continue to increase availability of medicines for Kiwis with the government’s largest ever investment in Pharmac. “Pharmac operates independently, but it must work within the budget constraints set by the government,” says Mr Seymour. “When this government assumed ...
Mā mua ka kite a muri, mā muri ka ora e mua - Those who lead give sight to those who follow, those who follow give life to those who lead. Māori recipients in the New Year 2025 Honours list show comprehensive dedication to improving communities across the motu that ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is wishing all New Zealanders a great holiday season as Kiwis prepare for gatherings with friends and families to see in the New Year. It is a great time of year to remind everyone to stay fire safe over the summer. “I know ...
From 1 January 2025, first-time tertiary learners will have access to a new Fees Free entitlement of up to $12,000 for their final year of provider-based study or final two years of work-based learning, Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Targeting funding to the final year of study ...
“As we head into one of the busiest times of the year for Police, and family violence and sexual violence response services, it’s a good time to remind everyone what to do if they experience violence or are worried about others,” Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence ...
Paula Southgate says she is not standing for re-election as she wants to make way for emerging leaders and spend more time with her friends and family. ...
The bipartisan support in parliament for the Foreign Interference Bill is a warning that there is no constituency in the New Zealand ruling class for the maintenance of basic democratic rights. There has been no critical reporting on the bill in the ...
Democracy Now!AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! As we continue our discussion of President Jimmy Carter’s legacy, we look at his policies in the Middle East and North Africa, in particular, Israel and Palestine.On Thursday during the state funeral in Washington, President Carter’s former adviser Stuart Eizenstat praised ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk France’s naval flagship, the 261m aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, is to be deployed to the Pacific later this year, as part of an exercise codenamed “Clémenceau 25”. French Naval Command Etat-Major’s Commodore Jacques Mallard told a French media briefing that ...
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Auckland valuation rise on RNZ before, a couple of questions. Why are rates attached to valuation rather than income and assets? And did anyone else notice that land being developed had the biggest jumps? What’s going to prevent that over the next ten treats with the big push to build more suburbs?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/343970/auckland-s-fringe-suburbs-face-higher-rates-rises
A house is an asset. And it’s an asset which has generated and lot of tax free income for the few at the expense of the many.
so your argument is that councils should tax assets to pay for communal services?
it is an asset which has been paid for usually over many years, you expect home owners to pay twice, is that how you see the world?
You don’t own a house do you MB and you are just a little bit jealous.
And not “a few” own houses in NZ, many do.
What do you mean homeowners ‘pay twice’?
they pay off a mortgage, which in general means they pay back twice the amount they borrowed to buy the house in the first place, and then you expect them to pay an asset tax on top of that – to which i say bullshit.
No, the principal of the mortgage is the cost of the house. The interest is the cost of borrowing money.
I’m not averse to any of that just curious what is fair. People assume that everyone who owns a house is rich and trying to get richer. Some people have actual homes and are paying higher rates because of other people’s greed. It’s true they will probably benefit financially from that, and I’m in favour of where that is income they pay tax on it, just not quite sure how city and district councils fit into that.
Remember that your rates are not based on just your house’s valuation, but on the percentage of your house’s valuation of the sum of all the houses in your city.
That means that if the valuation of every house in your city doubles your rates don’t change (unless of course you live in Dunedin and the council have increased rates by more than inflation for more than 15 years)
Another leak from the Greens. It’d be great if they could tighten up on that.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11944783
Also worth noting the Herald writers are now too gutless to put their name on their work.
That’s the second time the very new inexperienced Green MP has done a “look at me I’m important”. Sage advice from years back to new MPs was to breathe through their nose until they knew their role. James Shaw needs to tidy things up.
Hmm, let’s tease this out a bit.
It’s not a leak, apparently the email got sent to the media by mistake.
The Herald cherry picked a bit of the email,
The Green Party’s justice spokeswoman Golriz Ghahraman, in an internal email accidentally sent to Fairfax, floated the idea of trying to garner support for a National Parihaka Day – the subject of a Green private member’s bill.
That’s The Herald’s interpretation.
Here’s the actual words,
“The Government won’t have the numbers to pass the [waka-jumping] legislation without us, and if we decided to oppose it then they would need to consider other options such as approaching the National Party, who opposed the 2005 bill,” the email says.
“Opposing the bill would cause political tensions, given the inclusion of the bill in the Labour-NZ First coalition agreement.
“Our Confidence and Supply Agreement gives us the independence to choose to vote against it. Supporting the bill would be seen as changing and weakening a long-standing and public party position. It would risk criticism from our core supporters.”
To me that looks like the Greens working through a dilemma and in one email one MP has laid out some of the issues.
During the parallel coalition negotiations, Green’s co-leader James Shaw put his faith in Jacinda Ardern to ensure that there was nothing in the Labour-NZF deal that the Greens would object to – though he conceded there might be policies that he might not be comfortable with.
No shit. Part of the value of the set up is that the Greens are free to vote how they want on things not covered in their agreement with Labour. This is how MMP works as designed.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters poured scorn on horse-trading tactics.
“We don’t horse trade.
This is interesting. Because I would have thought that negotiating around support for legislation is exactly what was intended by the deals that allowed Labour to form government.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said doing a deal with the Greens over waka-jumping had not come up “in direct conversation”.
She said she has not given much thought to a National Parihaka Day.
“I certainly am pleased to see greater observance of those days of New Zealand’s history. I think we should encourage that. Whether or not it becomes a day off is an entirely different issue.”
So not a big deal for Labour. Little called it horse-trading but other than that where are the ripples of discontent from Labour?
A spokesperson for the Green Party said the email was an “internal document that was sent in error”.
“It’s not surprising that Labour Party and Green Party MPs are having these kinds of constructive conversations and working together; in fact, that’s what New Zealanders expect of government parties.
“It’s commonplace for ministers and MPs to have these kind of conversations – that will continue,” the spokesperson said.
That’s what I would expect.
I don’t know what happened. But it does look like the Herald is shit stirring (and yes, no name to the article).
Parihaka day versus Guy fucking Fox? A no brainer i’d have thought.
As an aside. I happened to be on a bus on Nov 5th that drove along the kms of harbour wall those prisoners built. (Actually, the original has largely been buried under asphalt now – conservation they said )
Anyway. I happened to notice a small gathering at Rongo Rock. I had no idea why they were there.
What would I rather mark? A significant event in NZ history or some shit about Protestants and Catholics from a land far, far away? Hmm.
I mean, I get that swathes of NZ society just don’t want to know, and would rather hold to some fluffy fairy tale account of colonisation. But then, like all history relating to the oppressed and the fucked over, it has to be claimed and held up, or it’s just quietly brushed over, rubbed out and disappeared.
Where’s Rongo Rock?
Shift fireworks day to Matariki or midwinter and replace Guy Fawkes with Parihaka Day. Make it a public holiday and focus on remembrance and peace. Sounds good to me. People that want to can still do Guy Fawkes too.
heh – yeah, Fawkes.
Anyway, Rongo Rock’s at the foot of Otago Peninsula near the caves – at the turnoff from Portsmouth Dr.
http://www.ost-sculpture.org.nz/press/285/
So, recently sacked Mugabe deputy Mnangagwa and China go way to when he and ZANU recruits trained in the PRC and Egypt.
With him and his mate Constantino Chiwenga, who seems to be another of the PRC’s favourites, both present in China and considering both the extensive Chinese investment in Zimbabwe and Mr Mnangagwa’s financial past, dollars to donuts the PRC have picked their men, and backed the putsch.
And so it begins……..
https://twitter.com/BIUK/status/930389873055248384
Grosslolz, that is so creepy.
The look on her face when asked “Do you like human beings”.
I’d like to know who is doing the design and project manage on that. It really shouldn’t be left to the geeks in corporate geek culture (sorry geeks, this is way too important).
It’s a chatbot.
The speech and facial recognition is about the most interesting thing in it, from my perspective. Conversationally it’s a Turing fail, and seems to have an arbitrary lookup of conversation pieces mixed in with current events whenever the conversation gets too difficult to process – what looks to us like an evasive non-sequiter is possibly a runtime exception that flips through to the random stock phrase generator.
Oh, and a recent theory is that the uncanny valley the bot is deeply within is because we evolved to identify dead bodies as shit we don’t want to be around. We looks at something that looks very but not quite human, and our lizard brain thinks we’re looking at a talking corpse.
We’re nowhere near true AI currently, the path everyone’s being on has reached a dead end.
New discoveries are required.
“The speech and facial recognition is about the most interesting thing in it, from my perspective”
Yes. There were a couple of women geeks being interviewed in RNZ the other day, didn’t listen hugely closely but they were talking about design and how facial expressions were being taken into account. Please just tell me that the people doing the design aren’t from the same culture as FB.
Seems Sophia’s a fund raiser who isn’t actually intelligent, making out as a work of art.
He admits that Sophia’s presentation annoys experts, but defends the bot by saying it conveys something unique to audiences. “If I tell people I’m using probabilistic logic to do reasoning on how best to prune the backward chaining inference trees that arise in our logic engine, they have no idea what I’m talking about. But if I show them a beautiful smiling robot face, then they get the feeling that AGI may indeed be nearby and viable.” He says there’s a more obvious benefit too: in a world where AI talent and interest is sucked towards big tech companies in Silicon Valley, Sophia can operate as a counter-weight; something that grabs attention, and with that, funding. “What does a startup get out of having massive international publicity?” he says. “This is obvious.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/10/16617092/sophia-the-robot-citizen-ai-hanson-robotics-ben-goertzel
Is it being allowed via an ethics committee?
why would it need ethics approval?
Because it’s developing tech that has the potential to have huge impact on everything.
There will never be AI.
how come?
Well. So what would “artificial life” be? Because that’s the only possible basis for “artificial intelligence”.
That hasn’t been solved in the history of all philosophy.
If self-awareness/consciousness is a unique state bestowed upon some organisms by a higher power or whatever, the term “artificial intelligence” can only ever be a crude automatic mimicry of humanity.
If, on the other hand, my consciousness is simply the result of the complexity of billions of synapses forming a biochemical network, discharging and reinforcing connections based on simple and predictable rules, then any large enough system of chaotically-interacting elements can achieve real self-awareness.
I sometimes wonder whether than means that humanity is an alzheimers-like disease dissolving the brain of a sentient earth. But then I figure that after several billion years alone in space, it’s probably gone insane, anyway…
That hasn’t been solved in the history of all philosophy.
Of course not, Scissors can’t cut themselves
Lol.
Nope.
It’s an implementation of current tech that creates nothing, comprehends nothing, and pretty much does nothing. It’s “learning” consists of statistical comparisons to create behaviour rules.
Watson is far more important. Without going into the healthcare work, I’d expect that the trials and implementation underwent some ethics approval, but the insurance claims analyses might have had only business case assessment. That’s capitalism for ya, I guess.
are you saying that if it was AI I’d have a valid concern but because it’s not I don’t?
No, I’m saying that whatever algorithms are used for sophie, they have limited applications beyond a user interface. They might, in the future, be part of a component list for something that does actually have a huge impact on everything, but they’ll be about as essential to that device as the colour of the plastic case all the hardware sits in (ok, ok, we all know its primary use will be more Cherry 2000 than Terminator).
Watson, on the other hand, has already contributed to the medical treatment of people, and put 34 claims assessors out of a job. It did both.
Duh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMupq6zB1Tc
After public encouragement from Donald Trump, the Department of Justice is reportedly deciding whether or not to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton. Trump and his supporters are so very passionate about Hillary Clinton, it seems like maybe they forgot she lost. She is not the President.
So the tRump shoats can show off their dead elephants.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/360614-trump-to-allow-imports-of-african-elephant-trophies
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DOu_9NwV4AEGXYm.jpg
Stan van Gundy the white coach of the Detroit pistons has written a great piece in support of any athletes who kneel for the national anthem. He notes the inherent racism in a war on drugs where black Is only 40% of the population but 67% of the prison population and
In Chicago, black and Hispanic drivers who were pulled over were four times more likely to be searched as whites, even though city police department data shows that contraband is found on whites twice as often.”
Similarly shameful statistics are found in nz where our drug laws are used to incarcerate far too many young Maori men. Anyone looking into these problems soon encounters choices made by law enforcement that treat brown and black skinned people far more harshly than pakeha. This is a definition of institutional racism.
http://time.com/5016104/stan-van-gundy-nfl-protests/
For more on the American system read Michelle Alexander “The New Jim Crow. Mass incarceration in the age of Colorblindness.
This video’s message applies to English’s treasonous crew.
Too right. The past Government turned a blind eye on the dreadful trend. Can we change direction? A terrible prospect if we don’t. (Thanks Ed. Nightmares for me tonight!)
Monbiot again.
Oh hell Ed. So true. So sad. So Angrifying!
Not sure if this was posted here yesterday, but I thought Paul Eagle’s maiden speech
to Parliament was moving:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA5N1MOrSZ4&w=560&h=315%5D
Adoption is a thorny issue, particularly in NZ. But it’s good to see we have some human beings in this government. Also thought Willie Jackson acquitted himself well here (especially compared to the other Labour MPs on camera…).
Failed attempt to embed there (props if anyone can let me know what I did wrong!)
Yep sure. His mother adopted him out so as to provide a better future …
Applause for that! Seriously! But aren’t we so fortunate!
Or … Just Lost touch with the real world! …
https://longreads.com/2016/03/08/your-phone-was-made-by-slaves-a-primer-on-the-secret-economy/
This is the signal I have been awaiting. Carmel Sepuloni intends to “increase disability benefits” further she wants to make sure individual budgets can provide for needs.
This was in a discussion letter from IHC, (Scoop Political) but the response was all disabilities. So far so good.
My heart lifted for Kay and other sufferers. A more humane approach is here.