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notices and features - Date published:
5:30 pm, March 22nd, 2022 - 40 comments
Categories: Daily review -
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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It concerns me for purely selfish reasons, that political pressure will ease the mandate criteria.
In May this year my mum will be 101, she lives in a marvelous rest home in Katikati.
Her marbles are fully aligned to the degree that she does the herald crossword as fast as she can write, unfortunately her body is not so great.
Therefore I don't want anybody who can't prove that they are vaxxed up to the eyeballs ANYWHERE NEAR MY MUM. is that shouty enough to get the picture
I know that feeling.
I've got an 86 year old mother in law in care, and have the same reaction.
Plus every one of my Dad's side uncles and aunties are 80-92.
Question…what does your mother think about contact with the unvaccinated?
I don't understand the logic sorry. You're concerned about unvaccinated people that make up a small number of New Zealanders and proportion of infections, spreading a disease into a secure residence that they have limited or no access to?
Currently have limited or no access to.
The concern was "that political pressure will ease the mandate criteria". Literally the first sentence of Johnr's comment.
Does understanding begin to dawn for you?
Sobering reading:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300546148/omichronicles-march-22-im-31-healthy-and-boosted-omicron-put-me-in-hospital
PS. And appropriate to Johnr’s comment.
Thanks Anne for that link to an informative personal account of a COVID close encounter – and so my hunkering/bunkering down continues.
A destabilised Ukraine awash with arms could lead to knock on instability in Europe
https://eurasiantimes.com/road-to-hell-as-ukraine-receives-huge-consignments-of-foreign-arms/
The US and its NATO allies supported Terrorists in Syria, support apartheid in Israel, genocide in Yemen, bombing of African countries, starvation of citizens around the world and Nazis in Ukraine.
I totally trust them to bring Freedom and Democracy
The USA and NATO also liberated Syrian and Iraqi from Islamic State, and without taking a direct role in the Syrian civil war. And ensured the self-determination of Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-H, Montenegro and Kosovo. The liberation of Kuwait from Iraq.
Currently the only nation bombing in Iraq (a democracy) is Iran – of Kurds, because of their talks with Sadr over forming a government without any pro Iranian groups in it.
They are also currently confronting the latest act of Nazi war of conquest aggression by Russia in Ukraine.
The number of global daily COVID-19 deaths (4834; 7-day moving average) is the lowest since the first wave of the pandemic, i.e. the lowest in nearly 2 years.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Not saying it's over, but the current trend (against a slight rise in active case numbers) is encouraging – hang in there everyone (plus get boosted, wear masks, wash hands, keep distancing, self-isolate if need be, and be kind, etc. etc.)
Which leaves our daily rate (10, 300 per month) higher than the average.
Once we get the Merck anti-virals in April – we have to PCR test (detect infection sooner) the vulnerable and get them onto this treatment. That might halve our death rate.
Agree re need for new anti-virals – presumably there will be a bit of a global scramble on, similar to the COVID vaccines before them.
If NZ is currently averaging 10 deaths per day (and rising), i.e. 2 deaths per million per day, that's less than most other countries at their Omicron peak. Don't know what the (7-day) average daily deaths due to Omicron infections will peak at in NZ – in Australia they peaked at 88 deaths per day = 3.4 deaths per day per million.
A selection of peak Omicron death rates:
Hong Kong (37.5 Covid deaths per day per million) !!?
USA, Denmark (~8 Covid deaths per day per million)
Spain, Peru, Fiji (6.5)
Italy, South Korea (6) [South Korea may not have peaked]
Argentina (5.7)
France, Belgium, Sweden (~5)
Canada (4.4)
UK, Brazil, Norway (~4)
Austria (3.7)
Australia (3.4)
Germany (2.6)
Japan, Singapore (~2)
Apologies for errors.
Fingers crossed that we peak at <3 deaths per day per million, which will be both tragic on a personal level and a good result for NZ as a whole, plus a tribute to healthcare professionals, our high vaccination rates, and other prudent public health measures.
If we peak at >4, then this will be a test of Kiwi resilience and cohesion, given that (unlike so many other countries) we've had a relatively low incidence of COVID deaths so far.
Don't know what's going on in the Netherlands, where they appear to have had no peak in deaths despite a decent wave of Omicron. Ditto French Polynesia, although the number of cases is small. Significant prior exposure, and/or high vaccination rates?
It's the Pfizer anti-viral – 60,000 doses in April (it's seen as better than the Merck one).
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/127990434/covid19-antiviral-gets-provisional-approval–but-delivery-unlikely-before-april
Thanks – better late than never, and presumably it will be effective at inhibiting any new COVID variants.
Depends on the mechanism by which the pill inhibits the virus. I can't think of one that's fool-proof vs evolution, but there's some very clever folks working on it, and I guess there's always hope?
Omicron arrived with a raft of mutations at once, many around the spike protein, which one would assume is inviolate due to it being the infective agent for the virus. Change that too much a virus would wipe itself out type scenario…
Anything goes, anything could happen. Fingers crossed and thoughts and prayers if one must.
If you're old enough..
yeah, we are old enough Joe90
Love it Joe 90 and ditto Patricia. Even with the pencil the tape often got tangled and would not run back up smoothly, sometimes there seemed to be gaps. Oh, the sound of the tape doing this though.
Tokyo will see rolling blackouts tonight,due to colder then normal conditions,and power station disruption following last weeks 7.3 earthquake.A number of large manufacturing plants will idle overnight.
https://twitter.com/shoko_oda/status/1506161312619188224?cxt=HHwWgMDS0fvu-uYpAAAA
Energy.
Yep.
Here we need to move to a conservation campaign now for both liquid and electricity ie get in front of the curve via conservation,prior to the colder weather, which at the very least it will help our balance of payments.
More…a sinking lid.
Maybe,there are significant gains to be made in conservation though.
Back to Japan
EQ damage was a problem.Weather is an issue with solar down due to clouds (like chchc today) and its different electricity frequency's a relic from the post war reconstruction ie UK/US zones.and conservation is hard in cold weather.
https://twitter.com/LandersWSJ/status/1506086982451347456?cxt=HHwWgIDS3bCI2eYpAAAA
https://www.kepco.co.jp/english/home/denki/01.html
Today I found out about Japan's dual frequencies. Wild.
Here is one about NZ ,the internal thread in the plumbing fixtures (brass behind wall) is used in only 2 countries NZ and Ireland.
In the post war period 1947 when our fixtures all came from the UK ,they loaded the boat with the Irish plumbing fittings that was coming to NZ for new house construction.Rather then send it back they used the thread,
When manufacturer of Brass couplings started in NZ,they had to use the Irish standard a good example of QWERTY.
I vaguely recall a trade school lecture about the intricacies of BSW and BSF across-flat bolt head sizes and how they were standardised during WW2 to cut the number of tools in maintenance kits. But I vividly recall Mr Neil, the tutor.
Mr "Black Bob" Neil was a florid, 4×4, ridgy didge scouser straight from the Clyde yards and we were all absolutely terrified of him.
Mad! I had no idea.
Nothing against conservation except it dosnt demand systemic change, though it can encourage it…a sinking lid does the same on steroids.
And solar is not a panacea , but (especially) in NZ in combination with pumped hydro could be a game changer.
Remember that NZ has a population of 5 million as opposed to Japans 125 million with the consequent energy demand.
Pumped hydro is likely back in the filing cabinet,due to the bans on exports of Alumina to Russia.
The export prices to high end users in korea and Japan,will start to show up in the export receipts soon (already around 42% by value) Tiwai will be close to a 3B$ export centre.
I think solar in areas with high cost transmission such as nelson,and Northland with peaker battery storage maybe a way forward.
If NZAS continue at Tiwai past 2024 then the case for pumped hydro is enhanced not diminished.
Maybe,I like more distributed generation that can be used more locally without high capex transmission costs,less transmission waste and more resilience in a country with EQ ,volcano's and wind.
With say a small medium eruption,we would lose most of the Generation from tongariro and on the Waikato river due to ash abrasion .
Pumped hydro is well suited to (dispersed) regional supply….Onslow is not the only game in town , though from what Ive read it appears a good option.
Transmission. In 1995 I spent several months dealing with consequences of wet, conductive ash. And despite all the flash-harry solutions, it came down to men clambering around with hoses, rags and buckets of water.
https://www.gns.cri.nz/Home/Learning/Science-Topics/Volcanoes/Eruption-What-to-do/Ash-Impact-Posters/Advice-for-power-transmission-and-distribution-system-operators
Was it that eruption that destroyed the turbine blades at Tokaanu?
Yup. Cavitation gone big.
https://blog.gridpro.com/cavitation-in-turbines/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/128130101/russians-publish-footage-of-an-alleged-arson-attempt-at-its-wellington-embassy
Stupid, stupid, stupid. It achieves nothing.
With the amount of violent Russophobia running around the internet, I'm not surprise. Sad, but not surprised.
Idiocy of the highest order.
Accepting that, I've put the images alongside some from Ukraine. The people inside the embassy may be shocked and appalled and hope we're shocked and appalled.
But, no big holes in the side of buildings, no building flattened, no stunned people on foot heading for the border with their worldly possessions in a bag, no comrades and family left behind dead.
An individual idiot, not a state and those in power going crazy.