Parliament’s 120 youth MPs have joined the call to lower the voting age to 16 years old.
The youth MPs, part of a Youth Parliament programme held every three years, took up their seats in the House on Tuesday to question Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Cabinet ministers.
Alongside a two-day schedule of debates and mock-lawmaking, the young MPs have been advocating for the ‘Make It 16’ campaign, asking lawmakers to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in both local body and general elections.
Rangatahi once again eloquently call for the lowering of the voting age to 16. As I look at state of the world and our place in it, I find it hard to see any negatives to an increase in the political franchise of our youth.
It is the first of 18 (I think that was the number but can't vouch for that) units that have been cleared to go ahead. One other has reached the building stage but the others are still in the planning and designing stage so it could be a year or two (or three) before they are built and operational.
There is a shortage of suitable trained staff in NZ sure, but the govt. plans to acquire the trained personnel from overseas. Presumably they will be acquired as they are needed.
This should be interesting. Greens AGM will vote on a remit to change how long delegates have to read and discuss any post-election coalition agreement on offer. Delegates make the decision to accept or reject agreements.
And then there's the Peoples Inquiry into Student Wellbeing (full report pdf). While being a student is a transitory experience that is not an excuse for it to be such a struggle. Action on many of these would be welcomed by other low income households too I would imagine.
Here are some of the key findings of the report:
On average, our students are spending more than 53% of their income on rent, yet many report poor living conditions. To put that in perspective,53% is massively above the Housing Affordability Index which states that people should spend no more than 30% of their income on housing.
1 in 3 students regularly don’t have enough money to buy food, clothing, pay bills, get healthcare or other basics, despite 71% juggling work on top of study.
One in six students said their shared flat didn't meet their needs but couldn't move because rents were too high.
69% reported poorer mental health throughout the pandemic
And taken together, the cost of living and higher education and students’ living conditions make it difficult for many students to be at their best and reach their learning potential. If students were not doing it so hard, New Zealand may benefit from better tertiary education outcomes.
anyone can currently get a job at min wage of 21.40 (plus 8% holiday pay, plus sick leave, plus 3% min Kiwi safer employers contribution).
any student can go and get a part time job stacking shelfs at a supermarket.
People the world over work whilst studying.
But, just as a disclaimer.
Young people in NZ spend a huge amount of their income on rent. So do all other people be they students or not who rent. Hence why in NZ we have the accommodation supplement as without that many many many tenants would not be able to rent in the first place.
Young people in NZ have not enough money to buy food, clothing, pay bills, get healthcare despite working fulltime or even two or three jobs. Hence why in NZ we have food grants, emergency grants, dental grants and so on and so forth.
Pretty much most low income tenants would say that their flats don't meet their needs but can't move because the cost is too high.
Pretty much most of low income tenants, beneficiaries, or those on a health related benefit will state that their mental health is poor due to stress. Pretty much most of the adults and kids currently will report a drop in mental well being throughout the pandemic
Taken this all together, we can confidently state that students, low income workers, single parents and other care givers, are all having issues paying rent, food, utilities, doctors etc.
Maybe it is time to tell students that life is hard sometimes – no effort no gain, no one owes them an education other then basic min required to reach High school and even then you can drop out.
Maybe its time to tell students that the Universities are paid for by people who are janitors in their universities and the rest of the tax payers.
Maybe it is also time to tell students that you can always get a full time job and become a part time student, or they could go into an apprentice ship.
These same students that have ti tighten their belt during their study years will hopefully get employed by a council, government, big corps who will then have the good income to make up for three years of 'student poverty' and 'student loans'. And if that is not the case maybe they studied something that has no value?
But these students in NZ do not have it any harder then any other worker who finds that their min wage despite all the increases will not hold up to living costs. Ditto for those that have good incomes and want to have a lifestyle still.
Maybe we really just need to define 'student' firstly, and then decide if the change needs to come from that re-definition. No one needs to go to the Toi Ohomoi for 'kitchen skills' these could be learned in a restaurant as an apprentice. Ditto the Hairdresser, mechanic, and so on and so forth.
When the latest batch of students graduate from Waikato University this week, an "undercover bogan" will be among them.
At first glance, PhD graduand Dave Snell might look like all the other graduands this Thursday, but look a little closer and the dedicated bogan buff will have a couple of noticeable differences under his formal regalia.
"Well, I am going to have to wear the goofy hat and long coat, but no doubt I'll have a metal T-shirt underneath."
Mr Snell said he also had a Beavis and Butthead tie that he planned to pull out for the special occasion.
The self-proclaimed bogan made global headlines in 2007 when he was awarded a taxpayer-funded doctoral scholarship worth nearly $100,000 to study the "everyday bogan's identity and community amongst heavy metal fans".
The difficulty with this subject is that people have a collection of different ideas about how inflation works anyway, but here are some typical ones.
Now as noted in 6.1.1.1, one cause of price increases can be a bunch of corporates who decide now is a good time to put prices up because they will result in profits. This doesn't seem to be the first thing people think of when they discuss inflation but it does seem to be a significant thing happening at present.
Now onto why tax cuts would be inflationary to the Green party. This is likely because tax cuts leave more income in the hands of the public. In fact this is true of any policy which increases a govt deficit. This provides more spending ability to the people who are left with that income which could be inflationary, especially in cases where the popularity of some goods increases much faster than supply can increase. There are certainly some goods, such as home office tech, which have suddenly come under huge increases in demand (for obvious reasons) and this may have caused those suppliers to increase their prices in response.
Now when Nationals leader talks about inflation and wants to criticize govt spending he's probably taking this a step further and implying that most people in NZ have too much income at present. Put aside for a minute that Nationals promoted economic policy will be tax cuts (which as I said do increase income left with the public). The implication of this fact, in National party dog whistle, is that workers are costing too much and spending too much and this is the primary reason corporations have increased prices. Never mind the fact that a majority of NZers have gotten real (e.g inflation adjusted) income cuts, and having ignored this then you now have a way to criticize govt policy as being too inflationary. It aligns with enough of the general discussion about savings rates and disposable income that this will make complete sense to some supporters and even many critics won't notice its not true and will merely justify the govt policy in some way.
Now in the most extreme case the inflation is caused by increased 'liquidity'. Liquidity means spending power and the implication of this term is that govt spending increases bank liquidity and banks then multiply up this by some multiple resulting in their maximal lending capacity, so additional govt liquidity implies increased bank lending. Once reaching that conclusion the implication which is supposed to follow is that longer term inflation adjusts to follow the expansions in lending via this process. Expansion of the liquidity is supposed to translate into inflation and supposedly the reverse too.
There are a few reasons for doubt in this however,
1) The way things actually work is govt spending is always borrowed back before being re-spent. The result of this voluntary policy choice regarding govt debt is that no net liquidity is being added by govt spending. What is being added is govt borrowings, rather than something a bank directly spends.
2) Its official reserve bank policy to lend as much liquidity as needed at the OCR so that banks can always make payments. The implication of this is that banks are never liquidity constrained in how much lending they can produce anyway.
3) Banks appear to actually assess their lending based on the borrowers ability to repay the loan, or credit worthy-ness. I've never heard of a bank saying no to a borrower because of the banks ability to pay, but you do hear about when the bank questions the borrowers ability to make the loan repayments.
4) Even if banks did work this way (or some other way which is compatible with this such as a market between savers debtors) what does that have to do with corporate decisions to increase prices or worker decisions to push for wage increases? Most people have next to no idea about what any of the relevant variables are at present including, how much debt the govt has, how much spending the govt is doing, how much money banks owe to depositors, how much lending banks have on issue. If people don't know the value of the relevant variables does it make sense to think they are responding to them?
However as you can understand when these ideas meet typical reporting on finance you get ideas like QE is inflationary popping up. If you want to understand how inflationary QE is just imagine a realistic analogy for it. Imagine banks stop having saving accounts and instead shift every-ones funds into a current account. The only difference is that this is happening in banks bank accounts at the central bank (where they clear payments with each other and the govt). Would that cause massive inflation? Is that clearly the cause of present inflation in NZ? and if so why have multiple countries had QE policies for a decade and only quite recently price increases.
Anyway that's an overview of some of the thoughts floating around here.
BTW, I totally agree with the sentiments of the Green party in that tweet. A National policy of giving out tax cuts in favour of those most easily absorbing the present price increases, over those who are already wearing real income cuts due to those price increases, is certainly unfair as a policy choice. I just don't think talking about inflation is a very coherent way to describe this as unfair.
Liquidity means simply more money in circulation.Globally Central banks objective is to remove inflationary pressures from the economic system,by wealth destruction ( bringing levered positions to historical costs) such as the 100b$ valuation loss to the NZ property market.
It's kinda of a technical point in that you give someone on a low income $100 they spend it all.
Give someone wealthy $100 they might spend $50 and save $50 so overall less inflationary but doesnt fix the structural problem in that inflation hurts those on the lowest incomes hardest.
Yes but the positive effects of an increase in benefits and student allowances would be much more widespread than tax cuts for the top end. Also it is indisputable that those at the bottom end of the income range are those most suffering from the rising costs in living.
Moscow is carrying out an intense Russification effort in occupied regions, one that appears designed to quash Ukrainians’ sense of history, nationhood and even their language. Targeting what children learn is a key strategy. Ukrainian education “must be corrected,” Russian Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov said at a June 28 meeting of President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party.
Yet the Kremlin’s effort extends far beyond the schools. It already has blocked Ukraine’s cellphone network and media in areas it controls, while broadcasting Russian state propaganda about its “denazification” of the country. It has torn down Ukrainian city signs and replaced them with Russian ones. And under a Putin decree, Moscow is trying to get Ukrainians throughout the country to sign up for Russian passports.
My reaction before reading the script was: they took their masks off for 30 secs while the photographer took the photo. Sure enough that is what happened.
Another attempt to discredit Ardern. The death by a thousand cuts syndrome.
Edit: If you look closely you can see those in the front with their masks in their hands. When quoting Professor Baker, I bet the journo didn’t tell him they were wearing masks but took them off briefly for the photo.
It is the image that endures – the photograph is frozen in time and the explanation will be divorced from that. The image is inescapable.
It is ALL about perception …. and the FACT that Arden et al were not wearing their masks at that moment in time and thus seen to be participating in a possible "super spreader" event involving young people ….. with no distancing.
After all captured actions speak louder than words.
My complaint was more to do with the journos story which conveniently ignored one or two relevant facts.
It is easy to say these things with the benefit of hindsight but given the 'gotcha' nature of reporting these days, the dignitaries at least should have anticipated the outcome.
One point in their favour. Journos expect interviewees to take off their masks when they are being interviewed. And that can be up to 30 minutes, yet they kick up a fuss for 30secs. while a photo is being taken. Agreed though it was not a good look.
It was a choice. Those that removed masks made that choice.
After over two years of Covid, you'd think there would be solutions to long interviews where it is apparent separation is achieved, making masks superfluous.
However, in every situation where exposure is present – people make a choice, and deal with the consequences.
I don't consider it 'not a good look' – I consider it bad practice.
He has found a way to fit the mask to reduce the problem, and then takes his glasses off to wipe when needed. He wears the mask all his 9-10 hour day, and is quite active (recording 17-20k steps daily during a work initiated fitness challenge).
I have worked on two sites that required fit-testing of respirators in order to go into certain areas due to dust hazards. Unless the PPE fits correctly it is useless and from experience I can tell you it is quite easy to fail the test. Beards and even quite modest facial hair will also cause a fit test to fail. (I have also done a fair bit of DIY spray painting of two pack epoxies and polyurethanes and own a bunch of 3M respirators for the purpose. )
That fogging up of your glasses is due to the fact that the concave area between the bridge of the nose and the cheeks is the usual weak link. Unless properly trained most people will have a gap there that presents the path of lowest resistance and much of your breath will flow through it instead of the mask filter media.
In ideal circumstances N95 masks may well be useful – but ideal most untrained people are not.
So do you consider mask wearing to be ineffective in terms of reducing the transmission of Covid, thereby rendering any criticism of the photo superfluous?
And the testing sounds interesting. How did it test for the incidence and frequency of sneezing and coughing from respiratory infections?
Did it consider the contamination of surfaces from the same?
(Note: So far avoided Covid, but did catch the one doing the rounds with sudden and violent sneezing. Would've been interesting to know the speed and distance of those droplets)
Extra note: Partner has reduced beard to improve fit, in line with your results.
So do you consider mask wearing to be ineffective in terms of reducing the transmission of Covid…
It's not. Actual science shows that reduction of airborne virus reduces transmission, by reducing exposure. This is why well fitted masks work better than ill fitted ones, but ill fitted ones work better than no mask. This is a pretty easy concept to understand, it's not all or nothing, I don't know why people are arguing against it.
There's a better illustration than this, but this is the one I found easily.
It would be useful to have a source for the graphic….but I'm guessing it might be fairly recent with the rise and rise of folks out there in the wild…infected but with minor or no symptoms because their wonderfully efficient 'vaccine' is (at the moment) 'working'.
…surgical masks were as effective as N95 respirators at preventing the flu, which is to say, not all that effective because, of the 446 nurses who took part in this study, nearly one in four (24%) in the surgical mask group still got the flu as did 23% of those who wore the N95 respirator.
The author, a medical microbiologist (who ought to have a clue or two) points out that …
… given that many people describe the flu as like being hit by a truck, it is unlikely that people will be strolling around town with a mask on when they’re at their most infectious – three to four days after symptoms begin. They’ll be tucked up in bed, sweating and aching.
Perhaps one day we can safely ask the question if it was wise to mass 'vaccinate' with a non-sterilising product that fails to prevent infection but allows the infected to free-range in the community.
Rosemary, you seem to be highlighting that vaccinating people has resulted in many of them getting less ill from covid. Was that intentional?
Anyway how is your dossier on why, when and how the protest group rejected the leadership of the Tamiti aligned FARC group, coming along? Were all looking forward to the insights gleaned herein.
Yes. Do I have to copy and paste the quote from the medical biologist? No ? Good. I guess you haven't quite joined the dots on why a non- sterilising 'vaccine' might not be such a good idea?
Sure, the Pfizer product might prevent some, most perhaps, of the recipients from becoming so symptomatic that they are too ill to function normally. But this does not prevent them from being infectious.
Nature intends that the infectious are usually sick and therefore not out and about spreading the lurgie. I suppose this limits the spread, and in an ideal world allows a measure of herd immunity to build up in the community.
Old school vaccines were usually designed to prevent infection. And transmission. So properly immunised, the recipient was not going to catch the target disease or infect others.
Since the Omicron variants are better at getting around any protection from infection afforded by the Pfizer product it is not untoward to hypothesize that the situation will be at least the same.
In terms of protecting oneself from serious illness, hospitalisation and death then the fully 'vaccinated' and very recently boosted should be ok. I hope.
In terms of' vaccination imitating nature and providing community wide protection against disease transmission' then these mRNA products are a disaster. They are allowing, no, encouraging infected people to go about their busy social lives spreading joy and Te Virus wherever they go. More transmission…more mutations?
And as the author states…masks, even N95s, are not that effective.
And I'm not sure what you are on about re FRAC and his Wholiness. I mentioned a facebook thread that popped up in the early days of the Freedom Village. Like, weeks ago.
The general consensus was…as far as I read…that this was not the personality that was wanted to emerge as a leader/spokesman. For all the reasons that many on TS would suppose. Believe or not…the vast majority of the Freedom Villagers were not aligned closely with FRAC. It might have seemed like that to outsiders because, well, His Wholiness has set a standard of loud and in- your -face proselytising. Association, especially unsought, does not equate to collaboration or affiliation.
The '10 people at a table with one Nazi makes a table of 11 Nazis' does not apply here. Whether you like it or not. And it matters not, now.
Such a pity that no one from this Government was brave enough to go and speak with the largely moderate majority of those assembled. Perhaps with the groups supporting those seriously adversely affected by the Pfizer product?
Link for the above diagram. I put it in the comment as well, but making sure you can see it. It’s from 2020. I’ve seen better ones more recently that give a more detailed explanation. Principle is the same, it’s about reducing the amount of virus people are exposed to, it’s not an on/off switch.
Thanks for the more detailed explanation, though this is already what I thought you were saying. I just didn't think it was interesting to explore that and merely asked to understand that you are saying the vaccine has had observable positive health benefits across the community (e.g as you have observed vaccinated people are getting less sick from Covid). I also agree a sterilizing vaccine would have been much better as would a sterilizing vaccine against all variants, even those unknown or even un-evolved at the time of the vaccine development.
As far as your claims go, if were excluding vaccination from responses and simply going with what happens naturally with the course of an infection, then its absolutely clear the outcomes are going to deteriorate. We know this from the course of the pandemic before vaccination was available when the death toll was much higher, even with less infectious variants (maybe marginally deadlier until Omicron). So you can make the argument that people are going to stay home when showing more symptoms and the pandemic will naturally sort itself out, but that's clearly not how the world actually works (even with lock-downs).
Its also a bit simplistic to either categorize vaccines into sterilizing or not. The actual results are that sterilizing vaccines are (and this depends on the infection and natural immune response as much as the biotech) better at preventing reproduction of an infection. The result is that people show fewer symptoms, become less sick and transmit the infection less frequently with this improved immunity. So the very lowering of symptomatic infection your observing is related to sterilizing immunity. Even though the vaccinations available don't reach a level we would characterize as population sterilizing immunity they are observed to be improvements towards that direction. Its in fact possible if the virus was still at Alpha variant we would call it sterilizing immunity because that disappeared quickly once vaccines had been widely taken up.
Further, just a note on viral load between vaccinated and un-vaccinated, because this is also related to the asymptomatic effects your observing. Showing the viral load is similar for peak infection just shows that the nature of transmission is not different between vaccinated and un-vaccinated. In other words if you have a person with a similar viral load cross your path then the likelihood that they infected you in crossing paths will be similar. This doesn't say anything really about how vaccination effects transmission. But people who are asymptomatic will typically be carrying a lower viral load than a counterfactual version of themselves who are going around hacking and coughing through it. This is one of the ways that the vaccination program has improved outcomes across the community (lowering transmission) and clearly you have observed that is occurring well enough. Yes, the occurrence of asymptomatic transmission (of covid and known before vaccination was ever available) does complicate the case slightly, but asymptomatic people are less infectious than highly symptomatic people.
This topic is expanded here, linking to the study you already linked and incorporating it. (I expect you've probably read this already).
As to the FARC people. Your welcome to call them Nazis if you want. I'm more interested of the people in the protest who wanted FARC out. These are also the people who the media concludes are far right (or Nazis) in saying the protest contained extreme elements. It just seems obvious that (for all his bluster) that FARC group did lead several prior protests which were not even close to setting fire to Trevors favourite slide, so I'm somewhat interested in the decision to go that way, who made it any why they said they made it.
A list of anti-lockdown protests, many involving FARC.
I'm also going to suggest that David Seymour did meet with as many people from the protest as were harmed by the vaccine, out the back of a pub. Unfortunately anybody harmed could clearly only send their nieces nephews sisters aunts cousin along in person so everybody who was turned into a newt by the Pfizer product had some how turned back again by February. Anyway, at least one family appears to have gotten a roast lamb dinner out of Pfizer as a result, so there's always that.
Some people dislike masks because of their inconvenience. One gets that.
But, more peculiarly, for the political right masks have become a culture war rather than a matter of effectiveness. Stephen Reicher, professor of psychology at the University of St Andrews, writing in the Guardian, argues that some who hold a certain world view see masks as “a potent symbol of control: they are muzzles”. What these people reject “is less the mask and more the political and scientific establishment that proposes it”.
maybe. I was thinking more of the argument that it’s all or nothing. So a good fitting mask is useful, but otherwise masks aren’t. Not essentially an anti-mask position, and it simply isn’t true.
If your glasses fog, then your mask is not working. Most of your respiration is passing through that gap which is the path of least resistance.
I really don't know what else to say. When I am spray paint I can tell instantly if I have dislodged the respirator because I can smell the solvent. But the virus gives no such warning.
Recent research, peer reviewed and published, indicates that mask mandates might actually increase the CFR…due to what the humble researcher calls the Foegen Effect.
Essentially, one can rebreathe the virus particles nature intends are breathed away…like any other effluent. This can make certain folks sicker.
None of this really adds to anyone's sense of security, I get that, but mandated mass mask wearing will most likely do more harm than good.
If one is sick…coughing, snotting, sneezing and one cannot stay home until it passes then yes…wear a mask for the very short time one needs to be out. And as RL says…it should be a good fitting mask. This should be best practice.
And because not everyone will do this…if a person feels they are at risk from serious illness from an infection then they should wear an appropriately fitting mask when they have to go out in to crowded places.
We need to let the young and healthy get on with their lives and build some proper immunity against this thing or there's likely real trouble up ahead.
My partners employer provides enough masks for employees to have frequent changes.
Transmission of Covid between team members has not occurred, although a few have had multiple infections from other sources. They run quite lean on staffing, and multiple absences on the same team are hard to cover.
Whether it's the nature of the working environment or the preventative measures they've employed is impossible to determine.
I do think there's a benefit from continuing at the moment, it's become habitual and doesn't impede delay work practices because of that.
The most comprehensive between-country study of masks for COVID-19 infection is a comparison of policy changes, such as social distancing, travel restrictions, and mask wearing, across 41 countries. It found introducing a mask-wearing policy had little impact, but mask policies were mostly introduced after social distancing and other measures were already in place.
Until we have the needed research, we should be wary about relying on masks as the mainstay for preventing community transmission. And if we want people to wear masks regularly, we might do better to target higher-risk circumstances for shorter periods. These are generally places described by “the three Cs”: crowded places, close-contact settings, and confined and enclosed spaces. These would include some workplaces and on public transport.
We are likely to be better off if we get high usage of fresh masks in the most risky settings, rather than moderate usage everywhere.
As with the near total reliance on the Pfizer product to save us all, (and that's not working out too well) my thinking is that we should see mask wearing as just one of many tools in the toolbox. All the other methods to mitigate transmission and serious illness should be universally deployed…such as avoiding crowded, shouty places, eating well, exercise in the open air (maskless) and taking the good old fashioned tried and true vitamins for immune support.
However, National's deputy leader leapt to the prime minister's defence on Breakfast on Wednesday.
"No, look, she just took off the mask for the photo and can we give her a break for that?" Willis asked.
"Who among us hasn't taken their mask off for a photo? I'm sure that just like me and all the others in the photo she put the mask on to walk around Parliament.
"I think we all need to be a bit more relaxed about that."
A spokesperson for the prime minister told Newshub Ardern had been wearing a mask for the rest of the day, but took it off briefly for the group photo at the photographer's request.
In March, National Party leader Christopher Luxon admitted he shouldn't have been hugging and shaking hands with people at his State of the National speech."
When a leader tells the public to wear a mask, it is always going to be a story when they do not – much like David Clark going for a bike ride during lockdown.
An ex-leader like Helen Clark calling her out for it is also a low-hanging story.
Helen Clark was dismissive of the lack of masks in the photo generally. I don't think she singled out the PM. It appears many of the youth have been moving around the precinct mask-less.
Don’t forget RNZ too!
And followed up today with the honourable and relevant King Dickhead Prebble calling 3 Waters a coup.
Masks off for a second is risky, but it’s all about grades of risk. Is it outside? Or in a well ventilated space? Is it for more than 15 minutes?
It slightly increases the risk.
I guess it shows that the right aren’t quite as confident in their leader so they need to run dirty politics too?
God what a load of hooey there is in this issue’s thread.
No – the difference being that the authors actually know what they're talking about – it's fact based, rather than based on the political convenience of, say, a genocidal kleptocrat.
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It could be easy to shrug away Education Minister Jan Tinetti’s referral to the Privileges Committee as just another example of a Minister not following the rules of Parliament. But its significance should be recognised in the fact it is only the second time since 2008 that a Member of ...
Seeing is no longer believing. Surprisingly realistic – yet fake – images created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) are here. To date, most have seemed more like curiosities than genuine deception attempts. Last month, it was revealed that New Zealand’s National Party had used the AI image generation app Midjourney to ...
Young climate activists watch a livestream of Jacinda Ardern declaring a climate emergency in December 2020. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: There’s another call this morning to lower the voting age and to lower the threshold for parties to get into Parliament under MMP.Elsewhere, there’s news:most social homes ...
Interesting speech by Rowan Atkinson where he defends free speech. Timely too, as several countries are now facing the introduction of legislation which will be used to attack freedom of speech. New Zealand/Aotearoa is no exception. And this comes on top of actions of censorship, de-platforming and social pressure ...
The left has really been silent and allowed the traditional leftist commitment to free speech to erode and even fall out of favor. This has had an effect on a whole range of leftist issues, from journalism to environmental activism, worker’s rights, animal rights, etc. From June 17 to June ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – dominated today by announcements of who has been awarded King’s Birthday gongs – also carries news of a development in New Zealand’s relationship with Japan. This sits alongside the speech which Defence Minister Andrew Little delivered to the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue ...
The world is full of climate dashboards (and dashboards of dashboards), and so you might imagine that all datasets and comparisons are instantly available in whatever graphical form you like. Unfortunately, we often want graphics to emphasize a particular point or comparison, and generic graphs from the producers of ...
Not Even Close, Comrades! Occupy made it all the way to New Zealand, but its fate here did not differ substantially from its fate everywhere else around the world. The political praxis of identity politics, its extraordinary disintegrative power, made the organisation of any kind of credible threat to the ...
Take Me Home: Bowalley Road, North Otago. The long gravel road after which Chris Trotter’s blog is named. Near the road’s end is the farm where he spent the first nine years of his life.ONE OF THE JOYS of blogging is the instant feedback you get. Certainly, there are the trolls who ...
Steven Levitt, famous for his Freakanomics, shows that being an economist is not just mouthing supply and demand.Brian Easton writes – Anyone can call themselves an ‘economist’. Many do, despite having no qualifications in economics and hardly any formal training; they often make elementary errors. That is the ...
Today is New Zealand’s first King’s Birthday since 1951. It’s not Charlie’s actual birthday, any more than Queen’s Birthday was Liz’s, but it’s a public holiday nonetheless. Until the creation of Matariki, the monarch’s observed birthday marked the start of a black hole in New Zealand’s holiday calendar, stretching ...
All things change. Nations, sporting teams, individuals. All have a time of ascent, and, in time, of decline. Their time on the stage, in the spotlight - however brightly they shone, gone. A new generation in their place.We see it on this day, in what still sounds strange, King’s Birthday. ...
Hi,A few days ago I screwed up my back. Rather, I inflamed an old injury — agitating a naughty protruding disc on my spine so it pinched a nerve, turning my lower back into a swarm of confused electrical signals. As a bonus feature, my entire right leg felt like ...
Seymour smirked at his reflection.Hi he said.Hi Hi Hi Hi the different reflections from the mirrored surfaces around the bathroom responded. Those days are over he thought, no more having to knock on every bloody door in Epsom - everybody knows my name now.The theme tune to Cheers ran through ...
Last Sunday, we looked out across the seas to, of all places, the USA for inspiration and hope. We're going back again today to visit Joe Biden.But first, an octopus. Arguably this creature with more neurons in its arms than head qualifies as this planet’s first intelligent being.Arguably it also qualifies ...
When I left academia in 2011 I was forced to stop two book projects that were in the works. Without institutional support and resourcing it is impossible to conduct in-depth academic research that requires field research in foreign countries and … Continue reading → ...
Buzz from the Beehive Defence Minister Andrew Little, addressing big-wigs from around the world in Singapore, was oh-so-diplomatically disinclined to identify some countries as goodies or baddies in his government’s defence thinking. In his Speech To The IISS Shangri-La Dialogue 2023, he did say New Zealand’s most recent defence assessment ...
This week’s hoon included Wellington City Councillor Tamatha Paulon the politics ofLets Get Wellington Movingand the great battle for the Thorndon Quay cycle way. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: The week’s news in Aotearoa’s political economy I covered via The Kākā for subscribers included:The Labour Government’s ...
Morning all,I’ve been taking a look at some of the new features Substack have released and I’m keen to find out how you access newsletters. Some of the features are only available on certain platforms.Whether you use a mobile device like a phone or tablet, or a PC or laptop. ...
Hello! This is the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the week.Here’s what you may have missed.Last Sunday’s column had a genuinely inspiring story about political leaders getting huge things done in the face of culture wars and conservative resistance. Readers told me this should ...
Steven Levitt, famous for his Freakanomics, shows that being an economist is not just mouthing supply and demand.Anyone can call themselves an ‘economist’. Many do, despite having no qualifications in economics and hardly any formal training; they often make elementary errors. That is the result of a conscious decision of ...
Over the years, we've published several calls for help with translations but most of them were rather generalized in nature like last year's blog post published in February 2022. This time around, we are asking for help with a quite specific task, namely to update existing translations for the rebuttals included ...
1. By what name is this work of art known?a. The Drowning Dog, Francisco Goyab.The Temptation of St Anthony, Hieronymus Boschc.Saturn Devouring His Son Peter, Paul Rubensd.Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown Waves To A Stuff Journalist Through A Window, Stuff Photographer Ricky Wilson2. Who was in the news ...
An effective campaign against the RMA reforms will be a nightmare for Hipkins.Graham Adams writes – After a Budget that failed to excite voters and a lacklustre party conference where his senior colleagues faintly praised him for his proletarian taste in food, the very last thing Chris Hipkins ...
Buzz from the BeehiveEducation Minister Jan Tinetti brings news of a book of rules for school board members at the same time as her own grasp of Parliament’s rule book has been brought into question. Tinetti has announced a compulsory code of conduct to “ensure school board members are ...
Photo by Branden Tate on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for an hour from midday (my apologies for the late start today), including:the Government’s vague promise of sharing the costs of cyclone rebuilding and buy-backs ...
Last night was a big night for our most celebrated radio presenter.Mike Hosking was named the Sir Paul Holmes Broadcaster of the Year - for the third straight year - as well as Best Talk Presenter (breakfast/drive) at the New Zealand Radio awards. Do you feel proud Aotearoa?In the presenter category ...
Speak of the devil. The Australian website Crikey has just launched an investigative series about the notorious lobbying firm Crosby Textor, or C/T as it now prefers to be called. It transpires that two clients of C/T’s American subsidiary will benefit greatly from the AUKUS defence pact between the US, ...
Aotearoa’s failure to deal with the escalating pace of human-induced climate change was starkly on display yesterday. Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: Our planet is now warming and generating extreme climate events faster than our politicians, voters and institutions can agree to reduce the costs and share the burden of those events ...
It’s Friday and we’ve got a long weekend ahead of us. Here’s our latest roundup of stories that caught our eye this week. The Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt reviewed National’s new housing policy. On Tuesday Matt looked at some of the highlights from Auckland Transport’s ...
The facts are bald and simple; India is now the most populous country in the world and the fifth largest economy and is on track to becoming the fourth. Despite that, New Zealand’s relationship with India could best be described as in its infancy, even though New Zealand has ...
Open access notables Multiple studies indicate changes in the properties of Antarctic bottom water (AABW) over the past half century. These changes involve density and hence will affect both local and distant circulation of the oceans, not least overturning effects that are vital for marine biology but also climate and ...
Completed reads for May: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne Round the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne The Secret of the Island, by Jules Verne From the Earth ...
Ben Roberts-Smith is apparently "Australia’s most decorated living soldier", having won a Victoria Cross for killing people in Afghanistan. But today, after a stupendous self-own defamation case, he's also been proven to be a war criminal who committed multiple murders: Ben Roberts-Smith VC, Australia’s most decorated living soldier, has ...
Hey Uncle Dave, My house got wrecked in the summer floods. Do you know if the government’s got any plans to help me, or are they too busy making bilingual road signs?Noah InsuranceYou picked a good day to ask, Noah, the Govt has just announced there’ll be an offer of ...
The government has looked at imposing a tax on nitrogen fertiliser, used heavily in NZ agriculture, but yesterday Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor conceded he had not convinced farming leaders to go ahead with it. ACT”s Mark Cameron claimed credit in Parliament for “killing” the plan. Both Federated ...
Are women the new Māori?Since Christopher Luxon has been leader National have shown they’re prepared to throw Māori under a bus. Be it not wanting them to have a seat at the table on water management, referring to the Treaty as a “little experiment”, or the monocultural candidate selection polices ...
Are women the new Māori?Since Christopher Luxon has been leader National have shown they’re prepared to throw Māori under a bus. Be it not wanting them to have a seat at the table on water management, referring to the Treaty as a “little experiment”, or the monocultural candidate selection polices ...
Buzz from the Beehive An email from Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta had yet to be posted on the government’s official website, when Point of Order made its morning check on our ministers and what they are (officially) up to. She was providing us with an account – a ...
Multiple reviews are examining options to address a $25M to $40M funding hole in its operating budget and a reported $300M, 70,000 hour maintenance backlog for huts, tracks and visitor assets.Thomas Cranmer writes – Following Friday’s revelation that Budget 2023has left the Department of Conservation ...
Property values fell a further 0.7% in May from April across Aotearoa, but Core Logic sees evidence in the data “the current downturn is winding up.” Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: There are fresh signs this morning the housing market-with-bits-tacked-on economy is brightening up going into winter, and just ...
This is a cross post by Malcom McCracken at Better things are possible. It was from between when National signalled their change in housing policy but before they announced it but highlights why the Medium Density Residential Standards are important. Yesterday, the leader of the National Party, Christopher Luxon, ...
Do the global climate models (GCMs) we use for describing future climate change really capture the change and variations in the region that we want to study? There are widely used tools for evaluating global climate models, such as the ESMValTool, but they don’t provide the answers that I ...
This video includes 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). The world is getting hotter and the headlines are scary. So does climate change mean the world is about to pass ...
Politik (paywalled) reports that He waka eke noa, the farmers' scam to have the rest of us subsidise their emissions forever, so they can keep on destroying the planet, is dead: Reality appears to be about to shatter Jacinda Ardern's dream that New Zealand could lead the world in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two ministerial press statements today draw attention to the Government’s incorporation of mātauranga Māori in its science policies and programmes. One of these announced the launch of the national space policy, which will oblige our space boffins to bring indigenous knowledge into their considerations. The ...
The Stations of the Cross, as all of us know from our devout and Godly ways, is a series of fourteen stations that depict the final hours in the story of Christ our Lord - appearing before Pilate, shouldering the wooden cross, whistling the Monty Python tune, so on and ...
The Green Party are today launching a campaign asking for people to submit their stories of subpar, substandard and downright awful experiences of renting in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the draft report of the Independent Electoral Review and challenging all political parties to commit to implementing its final recommendations after the 2023 general election. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori announce Takuta Ferris will contest the Te Tai Tonga seat at this year’s General Election. “Takura ran for the Te Tai Tonga seat for Te Pāti Māori in 2020. It takes tremendous courage and commitment to put your hand up for another round in the ring ...
Focussed immigration has always been essential to our future, but New Zealanders need to be aware of the immediate dire situation our government is putting us in with a predicted record of one hundred thousand new immigrants moving to New Zealand in this year alone. That means we will have ...
Today, President of Te Pāti Māori, John Tamihere has confirmed that Heather Te-Au Skipworth will stand for Te Pāti Māori in the Tukituki electorate this election. ...
During New Zealand First coalition negotiations our policy was to train and resource 1800 new frontline police. We secured this coalition policy win to ensure our streets had a police force that could tackle crime - after years of neglect. Remember those previous nine years of neglect saw a ‘tag ...
Katie Kenny from Stuff published an article today with a lazy attempt at so-called ‘fact checking’ my recent comments on the World Health Organisation’s concerning new regulations being developed. What is most surprising is that throughout this entire ‘fact checking’ process, Kenny never once rang me asking for my side ...
The National Party has released another confused and rushed policy that will only further worsen the inequality that is driven by unaffordable housing. ...
Welcome to sunny and calm Wellington, which I know those of you who are visiting would of course expect to be the case. It’s been a busy week since we put forward the 2023 Budget. Labour MPs have been out across the motu giving the good oil on the Budget. ...
Kia orana, Talofa lava, Mālo e lelei, Taloha ni, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Noa’ia e mauri, Ni sa bula vinaka, Kia ora, Tena Koutou Katoa. Labour Party President Jill Day, Prime Minister Hipkins, Party faithful, delegates and comrades, whānau and friends, it’s a privilege to be here today. I begin my ...
One of my kaumātua up North stood before the Waitangi Tribunal and said: ‘He aha kē ahau, te tangata kore hara i mua i te Atua, e tu nei kia whakawaatia e koe, te tangata tāhae, te tangata hara, te tangata kore tikanga?Ko koe kē te tika, kia tū ...
New Zealanders will be highly concerned that the World Health Organisation proposes to effectively take control of independent decision making away from sovereign countries and place control with the Director General. W.H.O International Health Regulations on future outbreaks of disease aim to give the Director General extraordinary and wide-sweeping powers. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take responsibility for reducing inflation by taxing wealth instead of leaving RBNZ to continue hiking the Official Cash Rate. ...
The Green Party has released its list of candidates for the 2023 election. With a mix of familiar faces, fresh new talent, and strong tangata whenua voices, this exceptional group of candidates are ready to set the direction of the next Government. ...
Thank you for your invitation to be here, after yesterday's budget, and for the opportunity to talk with you. In the economic and social turmoil following the arrival of COVID 19 in New Zealand many concerns emerged. How would we keep our economy going and maintain our exports which are ...
The Māori Budget this year continues our proud track record of investing in whānau wellbeing, access to whare, and whakapapa, all of which support our Government’s plan to address the cost of living. ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson and Disability Issues Minister Priyanca Radhakrishnan have wished the 39-strong New Zealand Special Olympics squad heading to Berlin the best of luck. The New Zealand athletes departed for Germany today and will begin competing from next week. “The athletes heading to the Special Olympics ...
A proposed temporary law change would enable rural Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti landowners dealing with masses of cyclone and flood debris to burn mixed waste so they can replant and return their land to productivity, Environment Minister David Parker said today. The proposed short-term law change would ensure that any ...
Legislation introduced in Parliament today will ensure New Zealand’s emergency management system learns the lessons of recent and previous responses to natural disasters, including severe weather events and other emergencies. The Emergency Management Bill replaces the two decades old Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002. “The strength of our emergency ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka met in Wellington this morning, reaffirming the strength and spirit of New Zealand and Fiji’s relationship, as outlined in the Duavata Relationship Statement of Partnership. “New Zealand and Fiji are connected by a kinship forged in Pacific culture, identity and interests, ...
Primary teachers have agreed to the Government’s pay offer which will see the top base salary step rise to $100,000 by December next year. The settlement will also see a number of improvements to primary teachers’ conditions, including more than double the classroom release time they currently have to ...
Associate Transport Minister Kiri Allan has announced the construction plan for the bridge on State Highway 25A that will reconnect the Coromandel peninsula, bringing more certainty to the region’s recovery efforts. “The Government is committed to reconnecting Coromandel communities quickly, and this plan to repair the damage along the highway ...
Tena koutou katoa and welcome to Parliament. It is a great pleasure for me to host you here today, for the second New Zealand Seafood Sustainability Awards. The awards started in 2020 and officially, are to be held every two years. But as with so many things, COVID got in the ...
Representation for women on public sector boards and committees is the highest it’s ever been with wāhine now making up 53.1 percent of public board and committee members,” Minister for Women Jan Tinetti said. Manatū Wāhine Ministry for Women’s 2022 stocktake of public sector boards and committees shows for the ...
A new law enabling sole parents on a benefit to receive child support payments for their tamariki was passed in Parliament today. “This change is estimated to lift as many as 14,000 children out of poverty and give families a median of $20 extra a week,” said Social Development and ...
Crack down on disposable vapes No new vape shops near schools or marae Restricted descriptions for product flavours The Government is taking action to reduce the number of young people taking up vaping, Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall has announced. “Too many young people are vaping, which is why we’re ...
Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka will visit New Zealand this week, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. “Prime Minister Rabuka officially visited New Zealand in 1998, over 25 years ago, and we look forward to welcoming him here once again,” Chris Hipkins said. “New Zealand and Fiji have a long ...
The King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours List 2023 includes sporting stars and administrators who reflect the best of New Zealand’s sporting community. Sir Wayne Smith has been knighted for services to rugby. Sir Wayne was Assistant Coach of the All Blacks at the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cups and ...
Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa taki tini ‘My success is not mine alone, but that of the people” The King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours list 2023 celebrates Māori from all walks of life, reflecting the achievements of those who have made a significant contribution to ...
The strength and diversity of service in New Zealand is a standout feature of today’s King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours list, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said. “Each of today’s 182 recipients has contributed individually to our country. Viewed collectively, their efforts reflect an overwhelming commitment to service.” Chris Hipkins said. ...
The Defence Ministers of New Zealand and Japan have signed a statement of intent for closer defence cooperation between the two Pacific regional partners. Andrew Little and H. E. Yasukazu Hamada met to sign the ‘Statement of Intent on Defence Cooperation in Maritime Security, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief and ...
New Zealand’s most recent defence assessment identified climate change and geostrategic competition as the two greatest security challenges to our place in the South Pacific. To the first issue, partners engaging and re-engaging with Pacific Island Countries are finding that climate change is a security and existential threat in our ...
The government is continuing to support rangatahi in providing more funding into Maori Trades training and new He Poutama Rangatahi programmes across Aotearoa. “We’re backing 30 new by Māori for Māori Kaupapa employment and training programmes, which will help iwi into sustainable employment or progress within their chosen careers” says ...
Murihiku Marae was officially reopened today, setting a gold standard in sustainable building practices as well as social outcomes for the people of Waihōpai Invercargill, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan says. “The marae has been a central hub for this community since the 1980’s. With the support of $9.65 million ...
The first major public housing development in Whangārei for decades has reached completion, with 37 new homes opened in the suburb of Maunu today. The project on Tapatahi Crescent and Puriri Park Road, consists of 15 one-bedroom, 4 two-bedroom, 7 three-bedroom, 8 four-bedroom and 3 five-bedroom homes, as well as ...
Trade and Export Growth Minister Damen O’Connor will depart tomorrow for London to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Trade Ministers’ Meeting and then to Paris to vice-chair the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting. “My travel to the United Kingdom is well-timed, with the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (UK FTA) ...
The Fuel Industry (Improving Fuel Resilience) Amendment Bill would: boost New Zealand’s fuel supply resilience and economic security enable the minimum stockholding obligation regulations to be adapted as the energy and transport environment evolves. “Last November, I announced a six-point plan to improve the resiliency of our fuel supply from ...
The Government is making sure those on low incomes will no longer have to wait five weeks to get the minimum weekly rate of ACC, and improving the data collected to make the system fairer, Minister for ACC Peeni Henare said today. The Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) ...
A compulsory code of conduct will ensure school board members are crystal clear on their responsibilities and expected standard of behaviour, Minister of Education Jan Tinetti said. It’s the first time a compulsory code of conduct has been published for state and state-integrated school boards and comes into effect on ...
Tena koutou katoa and thank you, Mayor Nadine Taylor, for your welcome to Marlborough. Thanks also Doug Saunders-Loder and all of you for inviting me to your annual conference. As you might know, I’m quite new to this job – and I’m particularly pleased that the first organisation I’m giving a ...
The Government will enter into a funding arrangement with councils in cyclone and flood affected regions to support them to offer a voluntary buyout for owners of Category 3 designated residential properties. It will also co-fund work needed to protect Category 2 designated properties. “From the beginning of this process ...
The Government has announced changes to strengthen requirements in venues with pokie (gambling) machines will come into effect from 15 June. “Pokies are one of the most harmful forms of gambling. They can have a detrimental impact on individuals, their friends, whānau and communities,” Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds said. ...
The total Police workforce is now the largest it has ever been. Police constabulary stands at 10,700 officers – an increase of 21% since 2017 Māori officers have increased 40%, Pasifika 83%, Asian 157%, Women 61% Every district has got more Police under this Government The Government has delivered on ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Nanaia Mahuta met with Korea President Yoon, as well as Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna, during her recent visit to Korea. “It was an honour to represent Aotearoa New Zealand at the first Korea – Pacific Leaders’ Summit. We discussed Pacific ambitions under the ...
The Government’s Research and Development Tax Incentive has supported more than $2 billion of New Zealand business innovation – an increase of around $1 billion in less than nine months. "Research and innovation are essential in helping us meet the biggest challenges and seize opportunities facing New Zealand. It’s fantastic ...
The next ‘giant leap’ in New Zealand’s space journey has been taken today with the launch of the National Space Policy, Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds announced. “Our space sector is growing rapidly. Each year New Zealand is becoming a more and more attractive place for launches, manufacturing space-related technology ...
A new Year 7-13 designated character wharekura will be built in Pāpāmoa, Associate Minister of Education Kelvin Davis has announced. The wharekura will focus on science, mathematics and creative technologies while connecting ākonga to the whakapapa of the area. The decision follows an application by the Ngā Pōtiki ā Tamapahore ...
Protecting the environment by establishing a stronger, more consistent system for freedom camping Supporting councils to better manage freedom camping in their region and reduce the financial and social impacts on communities Ensuring that self-contained vehicle owners have time to prepare for the new system The Self-Contained Motor Vehicle ...
A new law passed last night could see up to 25 percent of Family Court judges’ workload freed up in order to reduce delays, Minister of Justice Kiri Allan said. The Family Court (Family Court Associates) Legislation Bill will establish a new role known as the Family Court Associate. The ...
New Zealand businesses will begin reaping the rewards of our gold-standard free trade agreement with the United Kingdom (UK FTA) from today. “The New Zealand UK FTA enters into force from today, and is one of the seven new or upgraded Free Trade Agreements negotiated by Labour to date,” Prime ...
The Government will reform outdated surrogacy laws to improve the experiences of children, surrogates, and the growing number of families formed through surrogacy, by adopting Labour MP Tāmati Coffey’s Member’s Bill as a Government Bill, Minister Kiri Allan has announced. “Surrogacy has become an established method of forming a family ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little departs for Singapore tomorrow to attend the 20th annual Shangri-La Dialogue for Defence Ministers from the Indo-Pacific region. “Shangri-La brings together many countries to speak frankly and express views about defence issues that could affect us all,” Andrew Little said. “New Zealand is a long-standing participant ...
Research, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall and the Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang met in Wellington today and affirmed the two countries’ long-standing science relationship. Minister Wang was in New Zealand for the 6th New Zealand-China Joint Commission Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation. Following ...
5 percent uplift clearer and simpler to navigate Domestic productions can access more funding sources 20 percent rebate confirmed for post-production, digital and visual effects Qualifying expenditure for post-production, digital and visual effects rebate dropped to $250,000 to encourage more smaller productions The Government is making it easier for the ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs (Pacific Region) Carmel Sepuloni will represent New Zealand at Samoa’s 61st Anniversary of Independence commemorations in Apia. “Aotearoa New Zealand is pleased to share in this significant occasion, alongside other invited Pacific leaders, and congratulates Samoa on the milestone of 61 ...
The Government is continuing to support retailers with additional funding for the highly popular Fog Cannon Subsidy Scheme, Police and Small Business Minister Ginny Andersen announced today. “The Government is committed to improving retailers’ safety,” Ginny Andersen said. “I’ve seen first-hand the difference fog cannons are making. Not only do ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Bean, Research Fellow, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland Hans de Bull, Alchemical Hand Bell of Rudolf II, ca. 1600Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, CC BY-NC-SA Scholars are baffled by a mysterious object from Emperor Rudolf II’s ...
The capital is bursting with life, art and the best vibes in the country right now. The reason? Kia Mau Festival. Sam Brooks interviews the founders and some of the participants about what makes the festival so special.For the bulk of June, Pōneke will feel a little different. The ...
The former transport minister was asked 12 times to sell his Auckland Airport shares and didn’t do it. Emily Writes, a parent, knows exactly what that’s like.It was revealed at question time today that now-former transport minister Michael Wood was asked 12 times by the cabinet office to sell ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott F. Heron, Associate Professor in Physics, James Cook University The Bureau of Meteorology this week declared a 70% chance of an El Niño developing this year. This raises concern for the health of the Great Barrier Reef, which is under continuing ...
Closing its early childhood services may end up costing the council, while also taking away a vital community resource.On the Facebook page for Kauri Kids, the network of council-funded community early childhood education centres across Auckland, things seem rosy. Children experience sustainability by playing with shredded paper; they make ...
Calls for Michael Wood to be sacked from Cabinet are growing after more details emerged about decisions he made as Transport Minister while a shareholder in Auckland Airport. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard McGee, Senior lecturer in Paediatrics, University of Newcastle Shutterstock If you have been stung by a jellyfish at the beach, you’ll know how painful and unpleasant it can be. But how best to treat jellyfish stings has been debated ...
In an unexpected plot twist, it’s now been revealed embattled minister Michael Wood was actually asked to get rid of his shares in Auckland Airport 12 times. Yesterday, prime minister Chris Hipkins said he believed Wood was asked to divest his shares on about half a dozen occasions – though ...
In an unexpected plot twist, it’s now been revealed embattled minister Michael Wood was actually asked to get rid of his shares in Auckland Airport 12 times. Yesterday, prime minister Chris Hipkins said he believed Wood was asked to divest his shares on about half a dozen occasions – though ...
EU members at Massey University are bitterly disappointed that the Vice-Chancellor has continued to push ahead with disruptive and unnecessary plans to disestablish 178 administration and finance jobs only to establish 141 new roles. A preliminary ...
Watch out, Silicon Valley is trying to make wearable face tech cool again. Its creators say it’s “revolutionary”. Apple reckons its new spatial face computer will blend digital content with the physical world in a way Pokémon Go could only dream of. It will provide an “infinite canvas” for apps, ...
It might not be sinister, but the latest stuff-up by a government minister layers on the pain for Chris Hipkins. A clutch of Auckland airport shares purchased by a teenage Michael Wood, and his failure to get rid of them as a minister, have created a fresh headache for Labour ...
A group of concerned communities and businesses are today appealing to the Government to make a change that will stop the sudden and significant postal price increase that threatens to cut them off. From July 1, New Zealand Post is hiking its postage ...
The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation is disappointed by the new vaping regulations announced by the Government yesterday, saying they are inadequate to address the scale and seriousness of youth vaping in Aotearoa. "While we are pleased that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gavin Prideaux, Professor, Flinders University Dendrolagus ursinus, or Goodfellow’s tree-kangaroo.Shutterstock Kangaroos are an enduring symbol of Australia’s uniqueness. To move, they do what no other large mammals do: they hop along on oversized hind legs. So you may be surprised to ...
This week, two deserving women won Whānau Ora awards. Today, one of them wins the Best Fit award.Tasteful, sophisticated and straight up slay. These are all light words to describe the indescribable outfit that Kim Wi wore to receive her well-deserved Whānau Ora award, alongside her colleague Ngaire Harris. ...
Xiaole Zhan’s vivid, award-winning essay about how music can shape the perception of one’s own body was originally published in Landfall 245. I am seventeen with naked knees hacking into the trachea of a dead sheep. The smell will stain me, like bloodshot snow, or the taste of cigarettes and ...
Chris Hipkins has met with his Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka in Wellington, offering financial support to the Pacific nation as it addresses the impacts of climate change. In a statement, Hipkins said he had an “inspired discussion” with Rabuka on how our two countries can further cooperate to combat climate ...
The Chairperson of the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee is calling for public submissions on the Fuel Industry (Improving Fuel Resilience) Amendment Bill. The bill aims to ensure that New Zealand has adequate fuel stocks to mitigate ...
This week on our pop culture podcast we talk Tina from Turners, Pete Evans’ new ‘do and the secrets of the Love Island villa from Iain Stirling himself. Eat, sleep, crack on, repeat – It’s Love Island week and we could not be more excited to return to ...
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https://twitter.com/makeit16nz/status/1549270667845156865?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/129315422/youth-mps-call-on-parliament-to-lower-the-voting-age?cid=app-iPhone
Rangatahi once again eloquently call for the lowering of the voting age to 16. As I look at state of the world and our place in it, I find it hard to see any negatives to an increase in the political franchise of our youth.
If you agree add your name to this petition:
https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/make-the-voting-age-16
Just watching the tele (one news) so can't provide a link.
A 6 bed unit in Porirua for the most psychiatric needy. Sadly they don't have enough staff to allow capacity
It is the first of 18 (I think that was the number but can't vouch for that) units that have been cleared to go ahead. One other has reached the building stage but the others are still in the planning and designing stage so it could be a year or two (or three) before they are built and operational.
There is a shortage of suitable trained staff in NZ sure, but the govt. plans to acquire the trained personnel from overseas. Presumably they will be acquired as they are needed.
That's what I took from the TV item.
Meet Vank Walen.
https://www.facebook.com/MXDMAGTX/videos/405538291618884/
This should be interesting. Greens AGM will vote on a remit to change how long delegates have to read and discuss any post-election coalition agreement on offer. Delegates make the decision to accept or reject agreements.
https://twitter.com/gelukinmusic/status/1549256027245527040
And then there's the Peoples Inquiry into Student Wellbeing (full report pdf). While being a student is a transitory experience that is not an excuse for it to be such a struggle. Action on many of these would be welcomed by other low income households too I would imagine.
This is an utterly criminal state of affairs for a country that used to have a proud record in the area of Education.
When did this go wrong?
To my mind, Rogernomics and all the semi-literate fools who supported it.
Tomorrow's Schools = Educational Decline.
Student debt = Penalty on Education
anyone can currently get a job at min wage of 21.40 (plus 8% holiday pay, plus sick leave, plus 3% min Kiwi safer employers contribution).
any student can go and get a part time job stacking shelfs at a supermarket.
People the world over work whilst studying.
But, just as a disclaimer.
Young people in NZ spend a huge amount of their income on rent. So do all other people be they students or not who rent. Hence why in NZ we have the accommodation supplement as without that many many many tenants would not be able to rent in the first place.
Young people in NZ have not enough money to buy food, clothing, pay bills, get healthcare despite working fulltime or even two or three jobs. Hence why in NZ we have food grants, emergency grants, dental grants and so on and so forth.
Pretty much most low income tenants would say that their flats don't meet their needs but can't move because the cost is too high.
Pretty much most of low income tenants, beneficiaries, or those on a health related benefit will state that their mental health is poor due to stress. Pretty much most of the adults and kids currently will report a drop in mental well being throughout the pandemic
Taken this all together, we can confidently state that students, low income workers, single parents and other care givers, are all having issues paying rent, food, utilities, doctors etc.
Maybe it is time to tell students that life is hard sometimes – no effort no gain, no one owes them an education other then basic min required to reach High school and even then you can drop out.
Maybe its time to tell students that the Universities are paid for by people who are janitors in their universities and the rest of the tax payers.
Maybe it is also time to tell students that you can always get a full time job and become a part time student, or they could go into an apprentice ship.
These same students that have ti tighten their belt during their study years will hopefully get employed by a council, government, big corps who will then have the good income to make up for three years of 'student poverty' and 'student loans'. And if that is not the case maybe they studied something that has no value?
But these students in NZ do not have it any harder then any other worker who finds that their min wage despite all the increases will not hold up to living costs. Ditto for those that have good incomes and want to have a lifestyle still.
Maybe we really just need to define 'student' firstly, and then decide if the change needs to come from that re-definition. No one needs to go to the Toi Ohomoi for 'kitchen skills' these could be learned in a restaurant as an apprentice. Ditto the Hairdresser, mechanic, and so on and so forth.
edit
do we think that this dude here is still paying of his studentloan? and should that student loan be wiped?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/6839032/Bogan-researcher-to-graduate-with-PhD
Can someone please explain the rationale here?
https://twitter.com/nzgreens/status/1549283705969319936
Your first mistake is assuming that Nationals economic policy needs to make some kind of sense.
lol, no, never. I was hoping someone would explain how tax cuts harm attempts to address inflation.
and this,
https://twitter.com/jacobjakemo/status/1548931927196835841
The difficulty with this subject is that people have a collection of different ideas about how inflation works anyway, but here are some typical ones.
Now as noted in 6.1.1.1, one cause of price increases can be a bunch of corporates who decide now is a good time to put prices up because they will result in profits. This doesn't seem to be the first thing people think of when they discuss inflation but it does seem to be a significant thing happening at present.
Now onto why tax cuts would be inflationary to the Green party. This is likely because tax cuts leave more income in the hands of the public. In fact this is true of any policy which increases a govt deficit. This provides more spending ability to the people who are left with that income which could be inflationary, especially in cases where the popularity of some goods increases much faster than supply can increase. There are certainly some goods, such as home office tech, which have suddenly come under huge increases in demand (for obvious reasons) and this may have caused those suppliers to increase their prices in response.
Now when Nationals leader talks about inflation and wants to criticize govt spending he's probably taking this a step further and implying that most people in NZ have too much income at present. Put aside for a minute that Nationals promoted economic policy will be tax cuts (which as I said do increase income left with the public). The implication of this fact, in National party dog whistle, is that workers are costing too much and spending too much and this is the primary reason corporations have increased prices. Never mind the fact that a majority of NZers have gotten real (e.g inflation adjusted) income cuts, and having ignored this then you now have a way to criticize govt policy as being too inflationary. It aligns with enough of the general discussion about savings rates and disposable income that this will make complete sense to some supporters and even many critics won't notice its not true and will merely justify the govt policy in some way.
Now in the most extreme case the inflation is caused by increased 'liquidity'. Liquidity means spending power and the implication of this term is that govt spending increases bank liquidity and banks then multiply up this by some multiple resulting in their maximal lending capacity, so additional govt liquidity implies increased bank lending. Once reaching that conclusion the implication which is supposed to follow is that longer term inflation adjusts to follow the expansions in lending via this process. Expansion of the liquidity is supposed to translate into inflation and supposedly the reverse too.
There are a few reasons for doubt in this however,
1) The way things actually work is govt spending is always borrowed back before being re-spent. The result of this voluntary policy choice regarding govt debt is that no net liquidity is being added by govt spending. What is being added is govt borrowings, rather than something a bank directly spends.
2) Its official reserve bank policy to lend as much liquidity as needed at the OCR so that banks can always make payments. The implication of this is that banks are never liquidity constrained in how much lending they can produce anyway.
3) Banks appear to actually assess their lending based on the borrowers ability to repay the loan, or credit worthy-ness. I've never heard of a bank saying no to a borrower because of the banks ability to pay, but you do hear about when the bank questions the borrowers ability to make the loan repayments.
4) Even if banks did work this way (or some other way which is compatible with this such as a market between savers debtors) what does that have to do with corporate decisions to increase prices or worker decisions to push for wage increases? Most people have next to no idea about what any of the relevant variables are at present including, how much debt the govt has, how much spending the govt is doing, how much money banks owe to depositors, how much lending banks have on issue. If people don't know the value of the relevant variables does it make sense to think they are responding to them?
However as you can understand when these ideas meet typical reporting on finance you get ideas like QE is inflationary popping up. If you want to understand how inflationary QE is just imagine a realistic analogy for it. Imagine banks stop having saving accounts and instead shift every-ones funds into a current account. The only difference is that this is happening in banks bank accounts at the central bank (where they clear payments with each other and the govt). Would that cause massive inflation? Is that clearly the cause of present inflation in NZ? and if so why have multiple countries had QE policies for a decade and only quite recently price increases.
Anyway that's an overview of some of the thoughts floating around here.
BTW, I totally agree with the sentiments of the Green party in that tweet. A National policy of giving out tax cuts in favour of those most easily absorbing the present price increases, over those who are already wearing real income cuts due to those price increases, is certainly unfair as a policy choice. I just don't think talking about inflation is a very coherent way to describe this as unfair.
Tax cuts are inflationary,as they add to liquidity.As would an increase in benefits or student allowances (mp's councillors etc)
liquidity meaning rich people would have more money to spend?
Liquidity means simply more money in circulation.Globally Central banks objective is to remove inflationary pressures from the economic system,by wealth destruction ( bringing levered positions to historical costs) such as the 100b$ valuation loss to the NZ property market.
It's kinda of a technical point in that you give someone on a low income $100 they spend it all.
Give someone wealthy $100 they might spend $50 and save $50 so overall less inflationary but doesnt fix the structural problem in that inflation hurts those on the lowest incomes hardest.
Yes but the positive effects of an increase in benefits and student allowances would be much more widespread than tax cuts for the top end. Also it is indisputable that those at the bottom end of the income range are those most suffering from the rising costs in living.
After a thirty year hiatus the Russification of Ukraine resumes.
https://twitter.com/iLepikVonWiren/status/1549133629049212932
Moscow is carrying out an intense Russification effort in occupied regions, one that appears designed to quash Ukrainians’ sense of history, nationhood and even their language. Targeting what children learn is a key strategy. Ukrainian education “must be corrected,” Russian Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov said at a June 28 meeting of President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party.
Yet the Kremlin’s effort extends far beyond the schools. It already has blocked Ukraine’s cellphone network and media in areas it controls, while broadcasting Russian state propaganda about its “denazification” of the country. It has torn down Ukrainian city signs and replaced them with Russian ones. And under a Putin decree, Moscow is trying to get Ukrainians throughout the country to sign up for Russian passports.
https://archive.ph/lp2wp (wapo)
Yet another shit story by some 'johnny come lately' Herald journo:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/pm-jacinda-ardern-photographed-maskless-with-100-plus-crowd/V4UEQFRUB5TFVF7ER4Z2IHOHQQ/
My reaction before reading the script was: they took their masks off for 30 secs while the photographer took the photo. Sure enough that is what happened.
Another attempt to discredit Ardern. The death by a thousand cuts syndrome.
Edit: If you look closely you can see those in the front with their masks in their hands. When quoting Professor Baker, I bet the journo didn’t tell him they were wearing masks but took them off briefly for the photo.
It is the image that endures – the photograph is frozen in time and the explanation will be divorced from that. The image is inescapable.
It is ALL about perception …. and the FACT that Arden et al were not wearing their masks at that moment in time and thus seen to be participating in a possible "super spreader" event involving young people ….. with no distancing.
After all captured actions speak louder than words.
Anne, like everyone in a similar situation they have a choice:
1, Take a group photo with everyone masked, and have obscured faces (but good PR for mask compliance);
2. Take group photo with masks off ( for facial exposure, so smiles can be seen, because effective mask wearing is an on/off construct, – who knows?).
They chose 2. (apart from 1 lone mask-wearer) and this is a forseeable consequence.
My complaint was more to do with the journos story which conveniently ignored one or two relevant facts.
It is easy to say these things with the benefit of hindsight but given the 'gotcha' nature of reporting these days, the dignitaries at least should have anticipated the outcome.
One point in their favour. Journos expect interviewees to take off their masks when they are being interviewed. And that can be up to 30 minutes, yet they kick up a fuss for 30secs. while a photo is being taken. Agreed though it was not a good look.
It was a choice. Those that removed masks made that choice.
After over two years of Covid, you'd think there would be solutions to long interviews where it is apparent separation is achieved, making masks superfluous.
However, in every situation where exposure is present – people make a choice, and deal with the consequences.
I don't consider it 'not a good look' – I consider it bad practice.
Do you wear glasses? If so have you ever had them fog up when you put your mask on?
My partner does, I no longer do.
He has found a way to fit the mask to reduce the problem, and then takes his glasses off to wipe when needed. He wears the mask all his 9-10 hour day, and is quite active (recording 17-20k steps daily during a work initiated fitness challenge).
How is this relevant to a photo op?
I have worked on two sites that required fit-testing of respirators in order to go into certain areas due to dust hazards. Unless the PPE fits correctly it is useless and from experience I can tell you it is quite easy to fail the test. Beards and even quite modest facial hair will also cause a fit test to fail. (I have also done a fair bit of DIY spray painting of two pack epoxies and polyurethanes and own a bunch of 3M respirators for the purpose. )
That fogging up of your glasses is due to the fact that the concave area between the bridge of the nose and the cheeks is the usual weak link. Unless properly trained most people will have a gap there that presents the path of lowest resistance and much of your breath will flow through it instead of the mask filter media.
In ideal circumstances N95 masks may well be useful – but ideal most untrained people are not.
OK.
So do you consider mask wearing to be ineffective in terms of reducing the transmission of Covid, thereby rendering any criticism of the photo superfluous?
And the testing sounds interesting. How did it test for the incidence and frequency of sneezing and coughing from respiratory infections?
Did it consider the contamination of surfaces from the same?
(Note: So far avoided Covid, but did catch the one doing the rounds with sudden and violent sneezing. Would've been interesting to know the speed and distance of those droplets)
Extra note: Partner has reduced beard to improve fit, in line with your results.
It's not. Actual science shows that reduction of airborne virus reduces transmission, by reducing exposure. This is why well fitted masks work better than ill fitted ones, but ill fitted ones work better than no mask. This is a pretty easy concept to understand, it's not all or nothing, I don't know why people are arguing against it.
There's a better illustration than this, but this is the one I found easily.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abc6197
edit, source link added
It would be useful to have a source for the graphic….but I'm guessing it might be fairly recent with the rise and rise of folks out there in the wild…infected but with minor or no symptoms because their wonderfully efficient 'vaccine' is (at the moment) 'working'.
In the olden times, and again from The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/can-surgical-masks-protect-you-from-getting-the-flu-125023) the author determined that there was dubious benefit from surgical masks. And in a study comparing surgical masks and the 'superior' N95 found that…
…surgical masks were as effective as N95 respirators at preventing the flu, which is to say, not all that effective because, of the 446 nurses who took part in this study, nearly one in four (24%) in the surgical mask group still got the flu as did 23% of those who wore the N95 respirator.
The author, a medical microbiologist (who ought to have a clue or two) points out that …
… given that many people describe the flu as like being hit by a truck, it is unlikely that people will be strolling around town with a mask on when they’re at their most infectious – three to four days after symptoms begin. They’ll be tucked up in bed, sweating and aching.
Perhaps one day we can safely ask the question if it was wise to mass 'vaccinate' with a non-sterilising product that fails to prevent infection but allows the infected to free-range in the community.
Rosemary, you seem to be highlighting that vaccinating people has resulted in many of them getting less ill from covid. Was that intentional?
Anyway how is your dossier on why, when and how the protest group rejected the leadership of the Tamiti aligned FARC group, coming along? Were all looking forward to the insights gleaned herein.
@ Nic the etc etc…
Yes. Do I have to copy and paste the quote from the medical biologist? No ? Good. I guess you haven't quite joined the dots on why a non- sterilising 'vaccine' might not be such a good idea?
Sure, the Pfizer product might prevent some, most perhaps, of the recipients from becoming so symptomatic that they are too ill to function normally. But this does not prevent them from being infectious.
Nature intends that the infectious are usually sick and therefore not out and about spreading the lurgie. I suppose this limits the spread, and in an ideal world allows a measure of herd immunity to build up in the community.
Old school vaccines were usually designed to prevent infection. And transmission. So properly immunised, the recipient was not going to catch the target disease or infect others.
The Pfizer product clearly does not prevent infection or transmission, and for Delta at least, the positive testing fully 'vaccinated' had a similar viral load as the positive testing unvaccinated. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7031e2.htm?s_cid=mm7031e2_w
Since the Omicron variants are better at getting around any protection from infection afforded by the Pfizer product it is not untoward to hypothesize that the situation will be at least the same.
In terms of protecting oneself from serious illness, hospitalisation and death then the fully 'vaccinated' and very recently boosted should be ok. I hope.
In terms of' vaccination imitating nature and providing community wide protection against disease transmission' then these mRNA products are a disaster. They are allowing, no, encouraging infected people to go about their busy social lives spreading joy and Te Virus wherever they go. More transmission…more mutations?
And as the author states…masks, even N95s, are not that effective.
And I'm not sure what you are on about re FRAC and his Wholiness. I mentioned a facebook thread that popped up in the early days of the Freedom Village. Like, weeks ago.
The general consensus was…as far as I read…that this was not the personality that was wanted to emerge as a leader/spokesman. For all the reasons that many on TS would suppose. Believe or not…the vast majority of the Freedom Villagers were not aligned closely with FRAC. It might have seemed like that to outsiders because, well, His Wholiness has set a standard of loud and in- your -face proselytising. Association, especially unsought, does not equate to collaboration or affiliation.
The '10 people at a table with one Nazi makes a table of 11 Nazis' does not apply here. Whether you like it or not. And it matters not, now.
Such a pity that no one from this Government was brave enough to go and speak with the largely moderate majority of those assembled. Perhaps with the groups supporting those seriously adversely affected by the Pfizer product?
Link for the above diagram. I put it in the comment as well, but making sure you can see it. It’s from 2020. I’ve seen better ones more recently that give a more detailed explanation. Principle is the same, it’s about reducing the amount of virus people are exposed to, it’s not an on/off switch.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abc6197
Thanks for the more detailed explanation, though this is already what I thought you were saying. I just didn't think it was interesting to explore that and merely asked to understand that you are saying the vaccine has had observable positive health benefits across the community (e.g as you have observed vaccinated people are getting less sick from Covid). I also agree a sterilizing vaccine would have been much better as would a sterilizing vaccine against all variants, even those unknown or even un-evolved at the time of the vaccine development.
As far as your claims go, if were excluding vaccination from responses and simply going with what happens naturally with the course of an infection, then its absolutely clear the outcomes are going to deteriorate. We know this from the course of the pandemic before vaccination was available when the death toll was much higher, even with less infectious variants (maybe marginally deadlier until Omicron). So you can make the argument that people are going to stay home when showing more symptoms and the pandemic will naturally sort itself out, but that's clearly not how the world actually works (even with lock-downs).
Its also a bit simplistic to either categorize vaccines into sterilizing or not. The actual results are that sterilizing vaccines are (and this depends on the infection and natural immune response as much as the biotech) better at preventing reproduction of an infection. The result is that people show fewer symptoms, become less sick and transmit the infection less frequently with this improved immunity. So the very lowering of symptomatic infection your observing is related to sterilizing immunity. Even though the vaccinations available don't reach a level we would characterize as population sterilizing immunity they are observed to be improvements towards that direction. Its in fact possible if the virus was still at Alpha variant we would call it sterilizing immunity because that disappeared quickly once vaccines had been widely taken up.
Further, just a note on viral load between vaccinated and un-vaccinated, because this is also related to the asymptomatic effects your observing. Showing the viral load is similar for peak infection just shows that the nature of transmission is not different between vaccinated and un-vaccinated. In other words if you have a person with a similar viral load cross your path then the likelihood that they infected you in crossing paths will be similar. This doesn't say anything really about how vaccination effects transmission. But people who are asymptomatic will typically be carrying a lower viral load than a counterfactual version of themselves who are going around hacking and coughing through it. This is one of the ways that the vaccination program has improved outcomes across the community (lowering transmission) and clearly you have observed that is occurring well enough. Yes, the occurrence of asymptomatic transmission (of covid and known before vaccination was ever available) does complicate the case slightly, but asymptomatic people are less infectious than highly symptomatic people.
This topic is expanded here, linking to the study you already linked and incorporating it. (I expect you've probably read this already).
https://theconversation.com/no-vaccinated-people-are-not-just-as-infectious-as-unvaccinated-people-if-they-get-covid-171302
As to the FARC people. Your welcome to call them Nazis if you want. I'm more interested of the people in the protest who wanted FARC out. These are also the people who the media concludes are far right (or Nazis) in saying the protest contained extreme elements. It just seems obvious that (for all his bluster) that FARC group did lead several prior protests which were not even close to setting fire to Trevors favourite slide, so I'm somewhat interested in the decision to go that way, who made it any why they said they made it.
A list of anti-lockdown protests, many involving FARC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_anti-lockdown_protests_in_New_Zealand
I'm also going to suggest that David Seymour did meet with as many people from the protest as were harmed by the vaccine, out the back of a pub. Unfortunately anybody harmed could clearly only send their nieces nephews sisters aunts cousin along in person so everybody who was turned into a newt by the Pfizer product had some how turned back again by February. Anyway, at least one family appears to have gotten a roast lamb dinner out of Pfizer as a result, so there's always that.
Great diagram weka – clear and simple.
As to "why people are arguing against" the utility of masks, for many 'mask-hesitant' that's simple too (imho) – no-one tells me what to do!
maybe. I was thinking more of the argument that it’s all or nothing. So a good fitting mask is useful, but otherwise masks aren’t. Not essentially an anti-mask position, and it simply isn’t true.
If your glasses fog, then your mask is not working. Most of your respiration is passing through that gap which is the path of least resistance.
I really don't know what else to say. When I am spray paint I can tell instantly if I have dislodged the respirator because I can smell the solvent. But the virus gives no such warning.
When your mask is dislodged, is the smell as bad as having no mask at all?
A spray painting respirator has a flexible seal that fits much, much better than any paper mask I have worn.
To be fair I have never taken the mask right off and gotten a lungfull so I cannot compare. But even the smallest leak is instantly obvious.
Hiya Molly. Way back when it was clear that it was possible to be infected with Te Virus via the eyes.
2019-nCoV transmission through the ocular surface must not be ignored
Published:February 06, 2020
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30313-5/fulltext
Recent research, peer reviewed and published, indicates that mask mandates might actually increase the CFR…due to what the humble researcher calls the Foegen Effect.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35363218/
Essentially, one can rebreathe the virus particles nature intends are breathed away…like any other effluent. This can make certain folks sicker.
None of this really adds to anyone's sense of security, I get that, but mandated mass mask wearing will most likely do more harm than good.
If one is sick…coughing, snotting, sneezing and one cannot stay home until it passes then yes…wear a mask for the very short time one needs to be out. And as RL says…it should be a good fitting mask. This should be best practice.
And because not everyone will do this…if a person feels they are at risk from serious illness from an infection then they should wear an appropriately fitting mask when they have to go out in to crowded places.
We need to let the young and healthy get on with their lives and build some proper immunity against this thing or there's likely real trouble up ahead.
As always, I think there's a balancing act.
My partners employer provides enough masks for employees to have frequent changes.
Transmission of Covid between team members has not occurred, although a few have had multiple infections from other sources. They run quite lean on staffing, and multiple absences on the same team are hard to cover.
Whether it's the nature of the working environment or the preventative measures they've employed is impossible to determine.
I do think there's a benefit from continuing at the moment, it's become habitual and doesn't impede delay work practices because of that.
Whether it's the nature of the working environment or the preventative measures they've employed is impossible to determine.
They've looked into just that… https://theconversation.com/face-masks-cut-disease-spread-in-the-lab-but-have-less-impact-in-the-community-we-need-to-know-why-147912
The most comprehensive between-country study of masks for COVID-19 infection is a comparison of policy changes, such as social distancing, travel restrictions, and mask wearing, across 41 countries. It found introducing a mask-wearing policy had little impact, but mask policies were mostly introduced after social distancing and other measures were already in place.
Until we have the needed research, we should be wary about relying on masks as the mainstay for preventing community transmission. And if we want people to wear masks regularly, we might do better to target higher-risk circumstances for shorter periods. These are generally places described by “the three Cs”: crowded places, close-contact settings, and confined and enclosed spaces. These would include some workplaces and on public transport.
We are likely to be better off if we get high usage of fresh masks in the most risky settings, rather than moderate usage everywhere.
As with the near total reliance on the Pfizer product to save us all, (and that's not working out too well) my thinking is that we should see mask wearing as just one of many tools in the toolbox. All the other methods to mitigate transmission and serious illness should be universally deployed…such as avoiding crowded, shouty places, eating well, exercise in the open air (maskless) and taking the good old fashioned tried and true vitamins for immune support.
"
However, National's deputy leader leapt to the prime minister's defence on Breakfast on Wednesday.
"No, look, she just took off the mask for the photo and can we give her a break for that?" Willis asked.
"Who among us hasn't taken their mask off for a photo? I'm sure that just like me and all the others in the photo she put the mask on to walk around Parliament.
"I think we all need to be a bit more relaxed about that."
A spokesperson for the prime minister told Newshub Ardern had been wearing a mask for the rest of the day, but took it off briefly for the group photo at the photographer's request.
In March, National Party leader Christopher Luxon admitted he shouldn't have been hugging and shaking hands with people at his State of the National speech."
I guess that's because it was such a crap speech.
When a leader tells the public to wear a mask, it is always going to be a story when they do not – much like David Clark going for a bike ride during lockdown.
An ex-leader like Helen Clark calling her out for it is also a low-hanging story.
It will pass.
Though an easy one for an opposition Deputy to stand out on: https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/07/20/give-her-a-break-willis-defends-pms-maskless-group-photo/
Helen Clark was dismissive of the lack of masks in the photo generally. I don't think she singled out the PM. It appears many of the youth have been moving around the precinct mask-less.
Yes I noticed that hard right winger Helen Clark wasn't too impressed.
"Former Prime Minister Helen Clark said it was shocking to see all the unmasked people.
"Indeed shocking to see the unmasked youth parliament. What on Earth are they thinking. NZ is in the middle of a pandemic surge," she tweeted."
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/07/covid-19-david-seymour-other-politicians-chastise-jacinda-ardern-after-she-s-pictured-maskless-among-large-crowd.html
Personally I don't think its that big a deal as when Jacinda was overseas no one seemed to be wearing masks.
Don’t forget RNZ too!
And followed up today with the honourable and relevant King Dickhead Prebble calling 3 Waters a coup.
Masks off for a second is risky, but it’s all about grades of risk. Is it outside? Or in a well ventilated space? Is it for more than 15 minutes?
It slightly increases the risk.
I guess it shows that the right aren’t quite as confident in their leader so they need to run dirty politics too?
God what a load of hooey there is in this issue’s thread.
The New Zealand Russian community are publishing an online paper now, and this issue includes their responses to the war in Ukraine.
inhabitedisland1.pdf (russianforkids.co.nz)
Well, not much one-sided propaganda in there, is there?
No – the difference being that the authors actually know what they're talking about – it's fact based, rather than based on the political convenience of, say, a genocidal kleptocrat.
That newsletter was a good find Stuart.