Putin does his annual 3-4hr phone in/studio audience presser
He answers questions on issues ranging from cancelled commuter trains, the sale of milk in towns, expensive mortgages, providing S300 missiles to Iran, and the economic situation under sanctions. Also on whether or not a retired Russian Colonel should buy a dog his wife wants for her 40th birthday present.
Putin is a sharp operator. But he runs a country riven with corruption and oligarchic power. He doesn’t have clean hands and he’s not an angel. But he’s done very well to steer his nation out of virtual collapse (2 extreme economic collapses in the 1990s) and to bring back a major increase in Russian life expectancy.
And to my mind he is a very capable statesman who thinks with the long term in mind – obviously more so than the likes of Obama, Cameron, Abbott and Harper.
John Key could never ever match up to Putin. Same with the Aussie wanker Abbot who treated Putin rudely at the G20 summit. Putin showed the grace of an old and civilised people. Abbot showed the sledging and crude ways of the Australian neanderthal. Key same.
Don’t know if they had insurance. Doesn’t look like it and it wouldn’t cover everything they have lost anyway. They also need to get a better security system.
I thought he was looking exhausted tonight. Not surprising given what he has had to endure. The MediaWorks bosses (and by that I refer to Mark Weldon and Julia Christie) have gone quiet. Don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.
I remember seeing Christie ridding around in a boat bullying and threatening locals back when she was making those stupid reality shows based in the islands .She was a horrible little thing back then I’m sure she hasn’t changed.
Re Mike Sabin’s new job announced a day or so; well this is interesting.
TVNZ (Helen Castles) broke the news about Mike Sabin becoming CEO/ general managerof Northland’s Peppers Carrington Estate on April 14 – three days ago.
Earlier today on Open Mike, I replied to a comment about the Sabin situation with a link to a NBR article dated 16 Oct stating that the resort were basically refusing to comment on the situation. ( I so wish I knew how to take screen shots – any education on this gratefully accepted).
I rechecked this link a few minutes ago – and it has changed …..
The link now says that Sabin has not been appointed CEO of the Peppers Carrington Estate – but that he has been appointed as:
“.. . chief executive officer of Magnificent Jade, which oversees the New Zealand-based assets of Chinese real estate developer Shanghai CRED.
In 2013, Shanghai CRED bought Northland’s luxurious Peppers Carrington Resort for a sum understood to be almost $29 million. It was reported on NBR ONLINE and other media earlier this week that Mr Sabin had been appointed chief executive officer of the resort.
However, the Mantra Group, which operates the resort under the Peppers luxury resort brand, has since confirmed that Mr Sabin has not or is not an employee of Peppers, and that Peppers was not consulted on the appointment.
The former Northland MP is understood to have been under investigation by Waitemata police since late last year. He resigned from parliament on January 30 in mysterious circumstances that the National party described as “personal issues that were best dealt with outside Parliament.”
The Northland MP, 46, had been in Parliament since 2011 and served as a police officer in Northland before 2006. His resignation triggered a by-election that was won last month by NZ First leader Winston Peters.
According to its website, Peppers Carrington Resort is a “luxury 3000-acre estate on the Karikari Peninsula […] located on four breathtaking kilometres of secluded white sand coastline, with an oceanside 18-hole championship golf course and 900 acres of restored wetlands.”
In 2012, Peppers added the then Carrington Resort to its network.
According to a Shanghai CRED media release in 2013, its company was formed in 1999 and is one of the largest real estate developers in Shanghai. It intends to promote Peppers Carrington resort to high-income Chinese tourists, as well as other international tourists and New Zealanders.
It is understood that Shanghai CRED is planning to upscale Peppers Carrington Resort into the largest five star resort in New Zealand and Mr Sabin’s appointment as chief executive of Magnificent Jade is central to this development.
(note: this article has been updated to reflect that Mr Sabin is CEO of Magnificent Jade, and not Peppers Carrington Resort).”
Somewhat different to the original NBR article!
The resort website and other reports about it show that Simon Jones has been the CEO of the resort itself and has been involved with the resort and related wine estate for some years. His partner, Lian Jones has also been associated for a similar time period.
My digital security is good; unique strong passwords, held in a secure password store behind another strong password. It would be hard to compromise. However, this attacker had only a bunch of data that you could hoover up from any online store order. Nothing specifically about me – he didn’t know who I was, where I went to school, my mothers’ maiden name, nothing. But it was enough to convince the bank that he was me. Social engineering is, as always, the best way to break security.
I guess that the banks and mobile companies have to deal with a lot of people who forget their security details all the time, so they have to subvert their own security in this way. That’s… terrifying.
People, especially people in helping roles, like to be helpful…
Well, it’s the classic security compromise – it needs to be safe, but it needs to be accessible in a timely manner.
I used to work in a role where I could remotely grant access, or deploy someone to saunter over there at their convenience, verify ID and enable access. It was a constant juggling of timely access vs the threat levels against what is being protected.
If nobody was available for the next half hour or hour, a choice had to be made.
When consensus cannot be reached the majority view prevails.
We must never allow a small minority to be the dominant voice.
We have the technology to individualise & share any message.
The establishment continue to control the narrative with neither authority or ownership.
We focus on what we are able to control.
People don’t want to follow, they want to be lead.
further to the security thing, this just turned up on my FB.
An electronic voting system in Virginia is being ditched (after a dozen years in operation) because of a variety of blatant security holes (no shit: password hardcoded to “admin”, wifi key hardcoded to “abcde”) and zero logging ability to detect whether those holes had been exploited.
If a job can be done by computers, someone somewhere will do it so abysmally that abuse on a massive scale would be possible. One reason I’m not a fan of e-voting.
An electronic voting system in Virginia is being ditched (after a dozen years in operation) because of a variety of blatant security holes (no shit: password hardcoded to “admin”, wifi key hardcoded to “abcde”) and zero logging ability to detect whether those holes had been exploited.
Such would come about because of a) incorrect testing regime and b) the drive to maximise profit resulting in cut corners.
If a job can be done by computers, someone somewhere will do it so abysmally that abuse on a massive scale would be possible.
Then we make sure that we don’t hire them to do the job.
These are good examples of why I don’t support voting machines or having private enterprise developing the software. You have it so that it’s online voting via any device and that the software is developed by the government.
One reason I’m not a fan of e-voting.
Whereas I think that having a more democratic society that online voting can bring about is worth the added risk.
Oh, that’s probably the worst system out there, yes.
But the thing about adopting a new system is that it can be exploited in new ways, which aren’t always conceivable in the design and implementation phase.
And when that system is computerised, the damage can be massive. For what – a marginal increase in the convenience of voting over current systems?
If enough people watch Campbell live and keep on watching and also buy the advertisers products then the ratings will go up and advertisers will be happy and the show goes on.
If there were more viewers watching Campbell there would be more advertising and they would charge higher fees for it. It’s all about money, if half the population was watching the show and the advertising dollar rolled in at 3 times the going rate then the management wouldn’t dream of cutting the show, they want the money. Advertising revenue = money.
This might be the longest delay between reading (or in this case re-reading) a work, and actually writing a review of it I have ever managed. Indeed, when I last read these books in December 2022, I was not planning on writing anything about them… but as A Phuulish Fellow ...
Kia Ora,I try to keep most my posts without a paywall for public interest journalism purposes. However, if you can afford to, please consider supporting me as a paid subscriber and/or supporting over at Ko-Fi. That will help me to continue, and to keep spending time on the work. Embarrassingly, ...
There was a time when Google was the best thing in my world. I was an early adopter of their AdWords program and boy did I like what it did for my business. It put rocket fuel in it, is what it did. For every dollar I spent, those ads ...
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Hi,If you’ve been reading Webworm for a while, you’ll be familiar with Anna Wilding. Between 2020 and 2021 I looked at how the New Zealander had managed to weasel her way into countless news stories over the years, often with very little proof any of it had actually happened. When ...
It's a long white cloud for you, baby; staying together alwaysSummertime in AotearoaWhere the sunshine kisses the water, we will find it alwaysSummertime in AotearoaYeah, it′s SummertimeIt's SummertimeWriters: Codi Wehi Ngatai, Moresby Kainuku, Pipiwharauroa Campbell, Taulutoa Michael Schuster, Rebekah Jane Brady, Te Naawe Jordan Muturangi Tupe, Thomas Edward Scrase.Many of ...
Last year, 292 people died unnecessarily on our roads. That is the lowest result in over a decade and only the fourth time in the last 70 years we’ve seen fewer than 300 deaths in a calendar year. Yet, while it is 292 people too many, with each death being ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters and Bob HensonFlames from the Palisades Fire burn a building at Sunset Boulevard amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The fast-moving wildfire had destroyed thousands of structures and ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The Regulatory Standards Bill, as I understand it, seeks to bind parliament to a specific range of law-making.For example, it seems to ensure primacy of individual rights over that of community, environment, te Tiriti ...
Happy New Year!I had a lovely break, thanks very much for asking: friends, family, sunshine, books, podcasts, refreshing swims, barbecues, bike rides. So good to step away from the firehose for a while, to have less Trump and Seymour in your day. Who needs the Luxons in their risible PJs ...
Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the Auckland City Centre Advisory Panel and a director of Greater Auckland In 2003, after much argument, including the election of a Mayor in 2001 who ran on stopping it, Britomart train station in downtown Auckland opened. A mere 1km twin track terminating branch ...
For the first time in a decade, a New Zealand Prime Minister is heading to the Middle East. The trip is more than just a courtesy call. New Zealand PMs frequently change planes in Dubai en route to destinations elsewhere. But Christopher Luxon’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 5, 2025 thru Sat, January 11, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The decade between 1952 and the early 1960s was the peak period for the style of music we now call doo wop, after which it got dissolved into soul music, girl groups, and within pop music in general. Basically, doo wop was a form of small group harmonising with a ...
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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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, ...
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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 ...
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.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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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In our latest in-depth podcast investigation, Fractured, Melanie Reid and her team delve deep into a complex case involving a controversial medical diagnosis and its fallout on a young family. While Fractured is a forensic examination of this case here in New Zealand, the diagnosis that started it all is ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Motortion Films/Shutterstock You may have seen stories the Australian dollar has “plummeted”. Sounds bad. But what does it mean and should you be worried? The most-commonly quoted ...
Summer reissue: Lange and Muldoon clash, two days after the election. Our live updates editor is on the case. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gina Perry, Science historian with a specific interest in the history of social psychology., The University of Melbourne ‘Guards’ with a blindfolded ‘prisoner’.PrisonExp.org A new translation of a 2018 book by French science historian Thibault Le Texier challenges the claims of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Jordan, Professor of Epidemiology, The University of Queensland Peakstock/Shutterstock Many women worry hormonal contraceptives have dangerous side-effects including increased cancer risk. But this perception is often out of proportion with the actual risks. So, what does the research actually say ...
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South Islanders Alex Casey and Tara Ward reflect on their so-called summer break. Alex Casey: Welcome back to work Tara, how was your summer? Tara Ward: I’m thrilled to be here and equally as happy to have experienced my first New Zealand winter Christmas, just as Santa always intended. Over ...
Summer reissue: Five years ago, we voted against legalising cannabis. But what if the referendum had gone the other way? The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a software developer shares his approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Male. Age: 34. Ethnicity: NZ European. Role: Software developer. Salary/income/assets: Salary ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan Cassidy-Welch, Professor of History and Dean of Research Strategy, University of Divinity Lieven van Lathem (Flemish, about 1430–93) and David Aubert (Flemish, active 1453–79), Gracienne Taking Leave of Her Father the Sultan, 1464 The J. Paul Getty Museum Travellers have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian A. Wright, Associate Professor in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University Goami/Shutterstock On hot summer days, hitting the beach is a great way to have fun and cool off. But if you’re not near the salty ocean, you might opt for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Loc Do, Professor of Dental Public Health, The University of Queensland TinnaPong/Shutterstock Fluoride is a common natural element found in water, soil, rocks and food. For the past several decades, fluoride has also been a cornerstone of dentistry and public health, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ladan Hashemi, Senior Research Fellow in Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau PickPik, CC BY-SA Children with traumatic experiences in their early lives have a higher risk of obesity. But as our new research shows, this risk can be ...
Further interest rate cuts are coming, but why does everything still feel so bleak? Stewart Sowman-Lund explains for The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The year ahead: On a small boat in an oyster farm devastated by storms, ANZ’s boss learns about the importance of adapting to change The post Making the world your oyster appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Two key events in February will set the direction of New Zealand’s clean, green reputation for the rest of the year – and perhaps even many years to come.First, the Government must announce its next emissions reduction target under the Paris Agreement by February 10. Then, later in the month, ...
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Putin does his annual 3-4hr phone in/studio audience presser
He answers questions on issues ranging from cancelled commuter trains, the sale of milk in towns, expensive mortgages, providing S300 missiles to Iran, and the economic situation under sanctions. Also on whether or not a retired Russian Colonel should buy a dog his wife wants for her 40th birthday present.
Live on air. No teleprompter.
What’s your take on Putin? Is he good or bad? He seems to be demonised by the western media, but I don’t know how much of that is propaganda.
Putin is a sharp operator. But he runs a country riven with corruption and oligarchic power. He doesn’t have clean hands and he’s not an angel. But he’s done very well to steer his nation out of virtual collapse (2 extreme economic collapses in the 1990s) and to bring back a major increase in Russian life expectancy.
And to my mind he is a very capable statesman who thinks with the long term in mind – obviously more so than the likes of Obama, Cameron, Abbott and Harper.
Yep.
John Key could never ever match up to Putin. Same with the Aussie wanker Abbot who treated Putin rudely at the G20 summit. Putin showed the grace of an old and civilised people. Abbot showed the sledging and crude ways of the Australian neanderthal. Key same.
Putin is a man
Key and Abbot are just wankers.
I seem to remember Putin parking a dirty big war ship on Abbot’s back door. I laughed for a day over it.
Yep me too. Not just a warship though – it was a full blown nuclear attack fleet.
The look on abbots face “priceless”
You dont see Obama, Harper, Cameron, Abbott, Merkel, Hollande or Key doing that…
Unite needs help. If you can afford it, make a donation to help them recover some of what they have lost.
http://www.unite.org.nz/donate
I guess they weren’t insured then?
Don’t know if they had insurance. Doesn’t look like it and it wouldn’t cover everything they have lost anyway. They also need to get a better security system.
Chaos and Mayhem strike again(?).
On that UK Election debate last night on the BBC.
A survation poll came out saying that Miliband had won the debate – 35% and that Sturgeon had 31% and Farage 27%.
When the question was ‘who performed best’, Sturgeon was on 35% and Miliband on 29%.
Importantly, that’s asking people, the majority of whom can’t even vote for the SNP in the upcoming election.
But survation also did a poll of Scottish viewers.
Sturgeon – 67%. Miliband – 17%.
Labour in Scotland. History?
Labour in Scotland should consider it a “win” if they end up with more than 3 seats there. That’s how screwed they are.
John Campbell finished his programme tonight with “we hope you were entertained” – nice touch in response to the PM’s snide comment the other day.
I thought he was looking exhausted tonight. Not surprising given what he has had to endure. The MediaWorks bosses (and by that I refer to Mark Weldon and Julia Christie) have gone quiet. Don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.
I remember seeing Christie ridding around in a boat bullying and threatening locals back when she was making those stupid reality shows based in the islands .She was a horrible little thing back then I’m sure she hasn’t changed.
Re Mike Sabin’s new job announced a day or so; well this is interesting.
TVNZ (Helen Castles) broke the news about Mike Sabin becoming CEO/ general managerof Northland’s Peppers Carrington Estate on April 14 – three days ago.
https://twitter.com/helencastles/status/588182200459206656
Here is TVNZ’s report that night. http://t.co/SskAEe0mQn
Earlier today on Open Mike, I replied to a comment about the Sabin situation with a link to a NBR article dated 16 Oct stating that the resort were basically refusing to comment on the situation. ( I so wish I knew how to take screen shots – any education on this gratefully accepted).
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/sabin-linked-luxury-resort-goes-ground-over-new-ceo-jb-171490
I rechecked this link a few minutes ago – and it has changed …..
The link now says that Sabin has not been appointed CEO of the Peppers Carrington Estate – but that he has been appointed as:
“.. . chief executive officer of Magnificent Jade, which oversees the New Zealand-based assets of Chinese real estate developer Shanghai CRED.
In 2013, Shanghai CRED bought Northland’s luxurious Peppers Carrington Resort for a sum understood to be almost $29 million. It was reported on NBR ONLINE and other media earlier this week that Mr Sabin had been appointed chief executive officer of the resort.
However, the Mantra Group, which operates the resort under the Peppers luxury resort brand, has since confirmed that Mr Sabin has not or is not an employee of Peppers, and that Peppers was not consulted on the appointment.
The former Northland MP is understood to have been under investigation by Waitemata police since late last year. He resigned from parliament on January 30 in mysterious circumstances that the National party described as “personal issues that were best dealt with outside Parliament.”
The Northland MP, 46, had been in Parliament since 2011 and served as a police officer in Northland before 2006. His resignation triggered a by-election that was won last month by NZ First leader Winston Peters.
According to its website, Peppers Carrington Resort is a “luxury 3000-acre estate on the Karikari Peninsula […] located on four breathtaking kilometres of secluded white sand coastline, with an oceanside 18-hole championship golf course and 900 acres of restored wetlands.”
In 2012, Peppers added the then Carrington Resort to its network.
According to a Shanghai CRED media release in 2013, its company was formed in 1999 and is one of the largest real estate developers in Shanghai. It intends to promote Peppers Carrington resort to high-income Chinese tourists, as well as other international tourists and New Zealanders.
It is understood that Shanghai CRED is planning to upscale Peppers Carrington Resort into the largest five star resort in New Zealand and Mr Sabin’s appointment as chief executive of Magnificent Jade is central to this development.
(note: this article has been updated to reflect that Mr Sabin is CEO of Magnificent Jade, and not Peppers Carrington Resort).”
Somewhat different to the original NBR article!
The resort website and other reports about it show that Simon Jones has been the CEO of the resort itself and has been involved with the resort and related wine estate for some years. His partner, Lian Jones has also been associated for a similar time period.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/…/northland/…/Chinese-company-buys-top-Northland-r..
media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/document/pdf/201345/Carrington.pdf
So, an interesting – and fluid – situation.
thx for post and update vv … bet it doesn’t last very long with Magnificent Jade. Loss of face is everything for Chinese, and happy they will not be.
Anatomy of a Hijack
People, especially people in helping roles, like to be helpful…
Well, it’s the classic security compromise – it needs to be safe, but it needs to be accessible in a timely manner.
I used to work in a role where I could remotely grant access, or deploy someone to saunter over there at their convenience, verify ID and enable access. It was a constant juggling of timely access vs the threat levels against what is being protected.
If nobody was available for the next half hour or hour, a choice had to be made.
The English Greens just made my day.
Not sure if people have put it up before now.
Simply very good.
And I don’t vote Green – so lets be clear on that.
http://metro.co.uk/2015/04/08/the-green-party-might-have-just-made-the-funniest-campaign-video-ever-5140734/
That is brilliant. So professional too. My word, if I was living in England the Greens would have my vote.
Who would have thought – Metro…
http://www.metromag.co.nz/editors-blog/where-do-nice-guys-finish/?utm_source=exacttarget&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=13772&utm_content=82462&user_id=0c91ae9221fdf3c5a87250c1f19988673cd40098
John Campbell piece – worth a look. Don’t agree – but worth a look
When consensus cannot be reached the majority view prevails.
We must never allow a small minority to be the dominant voice.
We have the technology to individualise & share any message.
The establishment continue to control the narrative with neither authority or ownership.
We focus on what we are able to control.
People don’t want to follow, they want to be lead.
further to the security thing, this just turned up on my FB.
An electronic voting system in Virginia is being ditched (after a dozen years in operation) because of a variety of blatant security holes (no shit: password hardcoded to “admin”, wifi key hardcoded to “abcde”) and zero logging ability to detect whether those holes had been exploited.
If a job can be done by computers, someone somewhere will do it so abysmally that abuse on a massive scale would be possible. One reason I’m not a fan of e-voting.
Such would come about because of a) incorrect testing regime and b) the drive to maximise profit resulting in cut corners.
Then we make sure that we don’t hire them to do the job.
These are good examples of why I don’t support voting machines or having private enterprise developing the software. You have it so that it’s online voting via any device and that the software is developed by the government.
Whereas I think that having a more democratic society that online voting can bring about is worth the added risk.
Oh, that’s probably the worst system out there, yes.
But the thing about adopting a new system is that it can be exploited in new ways, which aren’t always conceivable in the design and implementation phase.
And when that system is computerised, the damage can be massive. For what – a marginal increase in the convenience of voting over current systems?
If enough people watch Campbell live and keep on watching and also buy the advertisers products then the ratings will go up and advertisers will be happy and the show goes on.
How does that deal with the problem of a senior management team at Media Works intent on destroying good investigative journalism?
Oh yeah, it doesn’t, in fact it ignores it.
If there were more viewers watching Campbell there would be more advertising and they would charge higher fees for it. It’s all about money, if half the population was watching the show and the advertising dollar rolled in at 3 times the going rate then the management wouldn’t dream of cutting the show, they want the money. Advertising revenue = money.