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Open mike 01/05/2021

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, May 1st, 2021 - 83 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post.

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83 comments on “Open mike 01/05/2021 ”

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    • Sabine 1.1
      1 May 2021 at 8:39 am

      do what they did last year, hunt them, donate to foodbanks etc. I am sure the many many food insecure people in NZ would love to get a nice slab of meet for free.

      • WeTheBleeple 1.1.1
        1 May 2021 at 9:08 am

        Absolutely. Good PR and good will all round.

        • Sabine 1.1.1.1
          1 May 2021 at 9:22 am

          also wild deer is so much better then the poor fenced of things eating nothing but highly fertilized grass.

          • greywarshark 1.1.1.1.1
            1 May 2021 at 3:36 pm

            Sabine – I love to see what slightly off piste response you come out with to others', always with a little wet blanket.

    • Graeme 1.2
      1 May 2021 at 10:50 am

      Unfortunately the wild market has been buggered by covid, Germans aren't going out for dinner and China has prohibited the sale of wild meat. Both factors have also knocked the stuffing out of farmed venison prices as well. Currently the only market for wild game, apart from a few niche suppliers to restaurants, is for pet food and you've got to have everything going your way to make any money out of that.

      Would be good if a protocol was developed to allow sale of game meat through butchers. If it's ok to give it away through food banks it should be able to be sold on the open market.

      • Sacha 1.2.1
        1 May 2021 at 11:28 am

        I doubt any food banks would be taking the risk of distributing perishable meat, let alone wild stuff.

        • Sabine 1.2.1.1
          1 May 2021 at 11:30 am

          https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/121834937/fiordland-venison-redirected-to-foodbank-freezers

          More than 18,000 families throughout New Zealand will be able to enjoy hearty meals thanks to a donation of free-range Fiordland venison.

          The challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic created the perfect opportunity for the foundation to trial an idea they’d been discussing for years, Sloan said.

          The Fiordland Wapiti Foundation was the only recreational hunting group in New Zealand that managed deer on conservation land, he said, and it was important for the ecosystem.

          “We understand that if you shoot a deer in Fiordland, the herd can replace it in four to five years, but if that deer damages the forest, it can take generations to recover,” Sloan said.

          The foundation typically sends its carcasses to Canterbury for processing, before exporting the meat.

          just call it free range. 🙂

          Heck i would have it. Its better then what you can get in any supermarket.

        • veutoviper 1.2.1.2
          1 May 2021 at 11:57 am

          Are you suggesting that Sabine @ 1.1 and others above are "incorrect" when suggesting that the distribution of wild venison to food banks etc last year did not happen?

          Perhaps you should check your facts before hitting your keyboard.

          Here is a generic Google search link to "wild venison food banks nz" providing a whole range of links to media reports on the distribution of 18000 kg of the wild deer meat last year to food banks and other charities here in NZ –

          https://www.google.com/search?q=wild+venison+food+banks+nz&rlz=1C1LDJZ_enNZ499&oq=wild+venison+food+banks+nz&aqs=chrome..69i57.26185j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

      • Sabine 1.2.2
        1 May 2021 at 11:37 am

        There is no market is because NZ never marketed that type of meat to NZ.

        You can't get wild boar, hare, rabbit, fowl, pheasants, deer etc in NZ. And t'is a shame cause that meat is delicious.

        But that grass fed Deer is and taste the same as grass fed beef. No flavor.

        • Matiri 1.2.2.1
          1 May 2021 at 1:26 pm

          We have access to wild deer, boar, hare, duck in our small rural community from locals who hunt. It's the same in most small communities.

          • Sabine 1.2.2.1.1
            1 May 2021 at 1:35 pm

            Yes, i know that full well, but if you don't then you don't have access to any of that.

            And as i said before it is not marketed to NZ'lers as meat that could be delicious.

            If ever you have any spare meat left, tell, me and i get the smoker going and bbq.

            Even just a nice hare…i so love hare.

            • Matiri 1.2.2.1.1.1
              1 May 2021 at 3:33 pm

              Premium Game in Blenheim have a great range and sell online – venison tahr hare goat, even wallaby and ostrich. They even do bacon, salami, sausages.

              Stocked in supermarkets too.

              • Sabine …
                1 May 2021 at 4:25 pm

                thank you, i will check these guys out. Don't care about the wallaby and ostrich to much, but hare and goat. OH yeas! please! So thanks for that tip!

              • Treetop …
                1 May 2021 at 5:31 pm

                What does wallaby taste like?

      • WeTheBleeple 1.2.3
        1 May 2021 at 11:51 am

        Pet food supply was in media recently, supply chain issues apparently. Turning pests into petfood is good ecological sense even if it doesn't get a gold standard for economics. It can't be that hard to at least supplement the money spent on conservation with income streams such as this.

        https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124949577/global-supply-issues-and-shipping-delays-hit-the-family-cats-dinner-plate

        • bwaghorn 1.2.3.1
          1 May 2021 at 2:48 pm

          I guarantee you that instead of government both local and national turning the exploding population of deer in this country into a job ,money,and environmental win they will just turn it into a tax burden that wastes a quality resource. By poisoning them and culling with out extraction.

          • Sabine 1.2.3.1.1
            1 May 2021 at 3:14 pm

            That would be extremely sad, and in a country with lots of hungry people or people so poor tha they could not even afford a crap cut of meat it would be pure wastage. I hope they will do what they did last year, organise one big hunt, and donate the processed goods to marae and foodbanks. heck, train youngsters who to butcher some game. Skills for life. .

          • greywarshark 1.2.3.1.2
            1 May 2021 at 3:40 pm

            bwaghorn Very likely – the Semmelweis outcome. (He was a man with a good idea, which was tested as a success and saved lives, but the PTB were disturbed that he was changing the status quo without a complete dossier on why and how and ordered him not to proceed further.)

            • bwaghorn 1.2.3.1.2.1
              1 May 2021 at 4:58 pm

              Up until about 10 years ago I or any other good old boy or girl could pot a deer and as long as the liver heart and head where attached trundle down to the local chiller and top their income up , jobs in out of the way places,pest control,and cash in the community, 1080 got picked up due in a carcase to a dick head jumping the wrong boundary,so instead of putting in place a way to stop that they just killed the trade dead.

              • greywarshark …
                1 May 2021 at 5:06 pm

                It is interesting that a government that can live with the fouling of our drinking water from various gunk, is so concerned at one example of something going wrong and someone getting sick. With that sort of safety concern we shouldn't let men go out with rifles at all.

                We shouldn't let people go tramping and have them call up our expensive helicopter service when they twist their ankle or get lost. The way that health and safety contracts are drawn up seems to indicate that prevention of any injury is a must for the employee/manager involved. I presume that is why the feral deer market was closed – safety?

                • Sabine …
                  1 May 2021 at 5:41 pm

                  stop calling it 'feral' its free range. 🙂

                  In Germany you have a system where meat that was not meant to be butchered aka road kill etc, can be sold publicly at the Freibank. My family used to get their meat there, and was very unhappy when the last one in our town closed. Essentially it was mainly roadkill, animals that were not meant to be butchered but had to be killed, all sorts of meat horse, dear, boar, etc.

                  An interesting article here from 1911 outlines the rules.

                  https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1911/1/1/cheap-meat-the-german-freibank

                  For those interested in a bit of culinary history the above link is awesome to read. Who knew we ate dog in Germany in 1911. I did not.

                  But this system of a cheap meat butchery of meat that otherwise would not be used, and it could be pests, game etc, to be used solely by people of no means would not go amiss in certain towns where food insecurity and hunger is an issue.
                  As far as i know all Freibanks in Germany are closed as meat got plentyful and cheap.

                • bwaghorn …
                  2 May 2021 at 8:09 am

                  I believe and this is anicdata that the traces of 1080 were picked up in wild venison after arriving in Germany, bit of a fuck up but surely an avoidable problem .

  2. Sabine 2
    1 May 2021 at 8:40 am

    well that escalated quickly. Luckily for them, our MIQ is half empty so maybe we can house all those travelers there for their isolation period?

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-immediate-isolation-warning-for-brisbane-to-nz-travellers-caught-in-airport-bubble-breach/FXOK2T6DYIQXR4Q7MK6SNWWGDM/

    ome passengers on board three flights to New Zealand caught up in the Brisbane International Airport Covid-19 green zone breach have been told to immediately isolate.

    The Ministry of Health was last night advised by the Queensland health authorities of an upgraded risk for some passengers on board three flights that left Brisbane airport on Thursday afternoon.

    Brisbane International Airport was announced a "venue of concern" today after a passenger, who had travelled from Papua New Guinea and mingled with passengers bound for New Zealand, tested positive to Covid-19.

    Almost 400 passengers who flew to New Zealand from Brisbane have potentially been exposed to the virus.

  3. Sabine 3
    1 May 2021 at 8:47 am

    Surely there is a really innocent explanation, like Covid, emergency, blablablablah ……………..

    The new features wanted by the ministry included a national booking system, with a website where people could "see their vaccination status, receive invitations and reminders to get immunised and have the ability to record adverse reactions".

    Each vaccination would need to be easily recorded to assist with tracking and tracing of previous Pfizer doses.

    In late October last year, the Ministry of Health awarded a $38m contract to Deloitte and Salesforce to deliver the new NIS, with an additional $5.4m per year over the system's first four years of operation. Deloitte and Salesforce are supported by Amazon-owned Amazon Web Services and Salesforce-owned Mulesoft……………………..

    Did Orion pitch for the work? McCrae said neither his company nor any other local or international contender could have put in a bid because "there was no tender"…………………….

    The situation seemed some distances from “key service requirements” outlined in the business case document, including a simple web interface that could be used by members of the public to access their immunisation data, a secure system that binds multiple agencies, including those outside the public health system, and that serves as a “single source of truth for all immunisations”.

    A Ministry of Health spokesperson said the DHB’s were using a mix of systems because while a basic version of the new Salesforce-based systems was ready, it did yet include booking functionality.”

    It had always been part of the plan to add new functionality over the course of 2021.

    “The national online booking system is being built on the same Salesforce platform as the CIR uses but with an additional plug-in called Skedulo [made by an Australian company of the same name],” the MoH spokeswoman said.

    “This platform has been successfully used internationally for similar booking systems. The system will be rolled out nationally in late May to support the ramping up of Covid-19 vaccinations, particularly as we move towards the middle of the year when the general population are able to access their vaccinations.

    “The national online booking system will support and, in some instances, replace individual DHB booking systems.”

    In McCrae’s view, the whole process is too slow, too complicated and too expensive.

    “There’s a fair number at Orion who have been working on immunisations for a long time, and they’re just simply outraged how much money is being spent.”

    Salesforce and Deloitte both declined to comment.

    oh well just another day in Paradise.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/orion-healths-ian-mccrae-sees-tens-of-millions-in-overspend-on-vaccine-register-flawed-procurement/H6N3AH5GU43Q2NCSMK3JQWYEKQ/

    • Foreign waka 3.1
      1 May 2021 at 1:51 pm

      If they use Salesforce, I wish the DHB or whatever replaces them good luck.

      • Sabine 3.1.1
        1 May 2021 at 3:12 pm

        They have, hence why little has happened and every one seems to not like to talk about it at all.

        Saleforce and Amazon. Why not.

        • Foreign waka 3.1.1.1
          1 May 2021 at 5:41 pm

          Because its is useless, whether for scheduling or bookings etc. Have you ever worked with it?

          • Sacha 3.1.1.1.1
            1 May 2021 at 6:46 pm

            Any idea how Deloitte ended up working with it? Any history elsewhere?

    • Louis 3.2
      1 May 2021 at 3:14 pm

      Looks like McCrae's got his nose out of joint because he couldn't get a govt contract.

  4. mpledger 4
    1 May 2021 at 9:04 am

    This is trivial but I get really annoyed and have to vent when people re-write history… the review on stuff about The Handmaid's Tale said this…

    Have June’s adventures in Gilead become the televisual equivalent of Groundhog Day? … the continuing perils of Offred/Ofjoseph/June (Elisabeth Moss) risk turning into Prison Break, The Fugitive or The Walking Dead, simply introducing new characters each season for her to butt up against, rather than progressing towards an ultimate tragedy or triumph.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/stuff-to-watch/300289269/the-handmaids-tale-as-season-4-comes-to-neon-has-gilead-hit-groundhog-day

    The thing about The Fugitive is that it did have a definite end – It was a two part episode at the end of season 4. At the time it was the first series to have a definite end as the main actor signaled early that he wanted/needed to leave. Also, the final episode was the most watched episode of any tv series in the USA until the final episode of MASH sixteen years later – it had a similar social frisson as "who shot JR" on Dallas.

    • mpledger 4.1
      1 May 2021 at 10:11 am

      As an observer of The Fugitive from current times there are really four things that are interesting…

      1) The show operates mostly amongst the working class as TF takes on whatever jobs are available. It shows the trials and tribulations of those at the bottom – govt contracts, unions, having to weather terrible bosses. At that time and following it was more typical to show the lives of the middle class and higher. This is probably the more interesting thing for this readership – 1960's working America looked recognisable whereas working life in the USA nowadays looks totally alien.

      2) The story about a child of illegal immigrants born in the USA acquiring citizenship by birth, I suspect, had a major impact on illegal immigration to the USA.

      3) The fear of teenagers (who were baby boomers at that time) – children are treated kindly but teenagers are treated as dangerous and troublesome. It was similar on Star Trek.

      4) Black people were portrayed in very high social status jobs (doctor, diplomat).

      (The acting was very patchy in a very 1960s way but David Janssen carried the cast along.)

  5. gsays 5
    1 May 2021 at 9:07 am

    Next installment in an occasional series of how neo-liberalism is failing us.

    There is hope the new Health NZ will reverse the sub contracting of services and bring them back in-house.

    Witness the gardens and grounds of yr local hospital. Here in the Manawatu, they are overgrown, unkempt and clearly a low priority.

    • greywarshark 5.1
      1 May 2021 at 3:47 pm

      One of my ideas is that among the retired etc there is a group in each town called the Friends of .. wherever, and they will take pride in their town and back up the authorities in different ways as volunteers which all unemployed people should do, for at least an hour a week – not taking support from government and putting little back – that's childlike.

      The group would step in and weed, the hospital would shout them afternoon tea once a week, and it would be a good social and community thing. Some of the group would probably pick up somebody else to provide transport on their morning or afternoon on the job.

      • Sabine 5.1.1
        1 May 2021 at 4:30 pm

        hey if the towns would hire all the unemployed people to fix the gardens, sweep the streets etc, that would be awesome. Suddenly all the people would have jobs, pay taxes and not try to survive on a beggars benefit, and then on the weekends they could volunteer for any charity they like to.

        Or else what you are advocating is working for the a paid for benefit ‘aka the unemployment benefit’, which frankly should not be as you only get unemployment benefits when you can prove that you just lost a job, b. did nothing to deserve to have lost that job and c. have paid taxes for x amount of time.
        One could say that unemployment benefits are actually an earned benefit courtesy of contributing at the very least 17.4 % and then up to 33 – 39% of ones wages to the upkeep of government and services.

        So yeah, towns should hire people to keep their common grounds clean, and thus keep unemployment numbers low.

        • Stuart Munro 5.1.1.1
          2 May 2021 at 9:07 am

          Both Korea & Japan have city beautification programs specifically to provide jobs to those without them. They do a pretty good job too.

  6. Muttonbird 6
    1 May 2021 at 10:06 am

    I don't really care about the part where Rimmer lied about not being able to buy properties (even though that is an insult to those who genuinely can't afford to buy a home and who help pay his wages) but the fact that he failed, apparently repeatedly, to declare these as pecuniary interests is cause for great concern.

    Rimmer is a rules nerd so for him to claim ignorance does not wash.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/05/act-leader-david-seymour-admits-he-s-a-beneficiary-of-property-holding-trusts-after-years-of-saying-he-couldn-t-afford-to-buy.html

    • joe90 6.1
      1 May 2021 at 10:45 am

      The oink tries to excuse himself.

      The key facts you may like to know are

      • Parliament has a register called the Register of Pecuniary and Other Specified Interests, in which MPs have to declare their interests
      • In February I voluntarily corrected my earlier returns, to declare interests in some properties and a Kiwisaver account. I had not declared these before, as an honest mistake
      • In reality I have no legally enforceable rights in any of the properties, being a discretionary beneficiary in other people’s trusts that own them, but Parliament’s rules ask that such interests be declared
      • I lived overseas when Kiwisaver was established, but was opted in as part of a second job upon return (having opted out on my main job). When I discovered this, I had to call AMP to get access to the account (my superannuation is through a separate scheme, which I declare)
      • I have not benefited from these ommisions, and nobody forced me to correct the record. Nobody had detected these omissions in the nearly seven years I’ve been a Member of Parliament, if I’d stayed silent it’s likely nobody ever would have. Correcting the record was an entirely voluntary choice

      Everyone makes mistakes, the question is how you deal with them. I believe I’ve made the right choices, that ACT’s supporters would expect here.

      google cache

      • Muttonbird 6.1.1
        1 May 2021 at 10:47 am

        Rimmer is a stickler for the rules, often using others’ indiscretions for political gain.

        Now he wants us to laugh all this off?

        • Herodotus 6.1.1.1
          1 May 2021 at 7:53 pm

          Perhap we should be kinder to MPs for some minor errors and in less haste to make political attacks on the other side ??
          i am Taken back by some comments that have been made including the post on this site on this topic when our PM has done something similar.
          It’s been revealed the ANZ KiwiSaver scheme, in which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has money saved, has investments in companies which have supplied weapons to Saudi Arabia
          https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/300224963/air-nz-apologises-after-revelations-it-helped-saudi-arabian-military?rm=a

          • Muttonbird 6.1.1.1.1
            1 May 2021 at 8:01 pm

            That's not similar. The case at hand is an MP failing to declare pecuniary interests as required by New Zealand law.

            It would be great if you didn't try minimise Seymour's dishonesty here, and even better if you didn't try to drag Ardern down to his level.

            Thanks in advance 🙂

            • Herodotus 6.1.1.1.1.1
              1 May 2021 at 9:03 pm

              Our PM making commentary regarding Air NZ involvement with the saudis military and our PM having profited from the Saudi military doesn’t need me to drag her down her own actions have done that 🤭 but keep on being adjective and able to see all sides.
              Always appreciate being channaged and reading balanced opinions.

  7. joe90 7
    1 May 2021 at 10:36 am

    On the sociopathic oink and his oozing, Bullington club entitlement and privilege.

    A chronicler of the first Gilded Age, Fitzgerald would have seen Johnson for what he is. His novels are studded with just his type: men and women so thickly swaddled in money and privilege they can’t see the wreckage strewn behind them. Consult your copy of The Great Gatsby and near the end of that 1925 novel you will find a one-sentence portrait of our 2021 prime minister and his set. “They were careless people … they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

    […]

    People like Johnson have always been around, as Fitzgerald reminds us. The most troubling question is how he came to be prime minister.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/29/sleaze-boris-johnson-careless-privilege.

    • AB 7.1
      1 May 2021 at 11:37 am

      Agree with the characterisation of Johnson – it matters little whether he did or didn't say "let the bodies pile up", because they unquestionably and unnecessarily did. Yet somehow the story becomes whether he said it or not.

      However I still don't like seeing the failures of the UK Covid response attributed to the personality of Johnson – rather than to the far-right, genocidal lunacy of Tory ideology that put an abstraction called "the economy" ahead of public health. "The economy" being nothing more than a sly, coded phrase for the financial interests of their own social class.

      • greywarshark 7.1.1
        1 May 2021 at 3:52 pm

        As far as Johnson is concerned if one reads the Posh Boys book about the effect of private school boys/men on English politics, it's illuminating. About a quarter of Brit PMs have come from Eton alone e&oe.

        • Anne 7.1.1.1
          1 May 2021 at 6:58 pm

          It's always been that way in Britain. Its not what you know but who you know that counts. Some of the brightest and most talented youngsters in the land never make it to the first step of the ladder because they come from the 'wrong' families.

          To a lesser extent it is true of NZ as well.

          • Sacha 7.1.1.1.1
            1 May 2021 at 7:04 pm

            Yep, so much waste because the wealthy work the system to protect their own mediocre offspring.

  8. Muttonbird 8
    1 May 2021 at 10:43 am

    Amateur landlord, Cassandra Gore, is a stain of a human being. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem but our residential tenancy model allows dangerous people to be in positions of power and soft authority.

    If New Zealand's amateur landlords want to be considered a benefit to society, perhaps it's time for licensing and regulation. This I'm sure they would welcome as proof of their responsibility.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/renting/124788759/nightmare-landlord-drives-tenants-out-but-court-action-has-left-them-unable-to-rent-again

    • Sabine 8.1
      1 May 2021 at 11:35 am

      Lisencing would be a good start. And it would be nice to have a register of Landlords that have been taken to the court.

    • Jester 8.2
      1 May 2021 at 2:52 pm

      Some people should not be landlords

      • Treetop 8.2.1
        1 May 2021 at 5:35 pm

        I find the most annoying landlords are those who procrastinate and nothing gets done. So draining as well.

        • Muttonbird 8.2.1.1
          1 May 2021 at 5:52 pm

          I've read a few articles on the property sections of the major news outlets, Homed, One Roof, etc, about 'how to do up the neglected rental you just bought'.

          The articles are about what to do with the piece of crap you just bought to bring it up to a liveable standard for a decent, home-owning citizen. See what’s happening here?

          The clear and irrefutable inference is that New Zealand landlords do 5/5ths of fudge-all to maintain their investment. They do nothing because they think their tenants aren't worth it and that the house and land lift the value far more than any consistent maintenance does. And they'd be right.

          It's proof again that New Zealand landlords are not in it for the social service as they oft like to claim. They are in it for cash and the maximum possible cash at that.

          As bwag says above, perhaps a microchip or ankle bracelet might buck their ideas up.

          • Treetop 8.2.1.1.1
            1 May 2021 at 7:18 pm

            Landlords who do not know how to renovate also irk me. A vanity got installed, it could have been moved 40 cm if 40 cm got taken off a jutting out piece of wall. I cannot clean behind my washing machine as it needs to be lifted in and out. Great when washing machine flooded. As well I cannot have a front loader because the door could not open to load. I live in a really weird flat which could be great if stuff got fixed up properly in the first place when good money was spent. The real estate agent thought the flat was uninhabited as derelict inside until it got improved. I had to take the place to avoid being homeless as my previous landlord sold.

            • Muttonbird 8.2.1.1.1.1
              1 May 2021 at 7:49 pm

              I hear you. The idea they do good is a complete fallacy. They do the bare minimum, and sometimes not even that.

              Wonder why NZ’s housing stock is in such poor condition? Amateur landlordism.

              Time to professionalise the industry in NZ and have proper, regulated adults in place.

              Rich pricks can still invest in housing, just through regulated companies, instead of getting their filthy hands directly all over vulnerable tenants.

              • Treetop …
                1 May 2021 at 8:51 pm

                May be landlords could do a test run to see what living in their rental is like, for 14 days before leasing the property.

                • bwaghorn …
                  2 May 2021 at 8:14 am

                  Farm owners could do with abit of that treatment, I went to an interview in a cold part of nz once ,the owners house had double glazing two big fires plus other heating very nice, the house I was offered had a semi outside concrete floored bathroom stained carpets leaky windows and a rusty old fire he got offended when I turned the job down an told him it was because of the house.

  9. greywarshark 9
    1 May 2021 at 4:00 pm

    For those into trying to understand the dark web etc and also interested in Russia doing things to Ukraine, and Israel and the USA doing things to Iran, and Iran doing things to… and North Korea doing things and on and on. There was a very interesting and foreboding interview on Radionz this morning on Kim Hill. Thanks Kim for some hard-to-listen-to important info about on-line goings-on to keep to hand.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018793738/nicole-perlroth-the-cyberweapons-arms-race

    In her new book, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends, Nicole Perlroth, the cybersecurity and digital espionage reporter for the New York Times exposes threats posed by an international market in cyberweapons.

    For decades the US government has been collecting "zero days", a software bug that allows a hacker to break into and silently spy on a computer or device, paying hackers for their code…

    [mentioned are] hundreds of Chinese cyberattacks, including a months-long hack of the Times.

    Perlroth is a guest lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a graduate of Princeton University and Stanford University.

    • Nic the NZer 9.1
      1 May 2021 at 5:15 pm

      Some of us believe if the US govt agencies had reported and had these zero day exploits fixed (rather than just recording them and occasionally trying to introduce them), then the Chinese would have had a much harder time breaking in themselves.

  10. Sabine 10
    1 May 2021 at 4:33 pm

    And hey, this may be a far left blessing but here it goes,

    A very happy May Day, Workers Day, Labour Day to all workers.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Day

  11. Peter 11
    1 May 2021 at 4:44 pm

    Judith Collins asks:

    “The debate today has moved to: what is the role of the treaty in our democracy going forward? Did the treaty bring us together as one people, or split us apart as two?

    Didn't see her answer. No doubt it would be to the affect that if it hasn't split us apart as two she'll do her best to achieve that.

  12. joe90 12
    1 May 2021 at 5:51 pm

    Some of the vile shit directed at women who dare speak up.

    Introduction

    There is nothing virtual about online violence. It has become the new frontline in journalism safety – and women journalists sit at the epicentre of risk. Networked misogyny and gaslighting intersect with racism, religious bigotry, homophobia and other forms of discrimination to threaten women journalists – severely and disproportionately. Threats of sexual violence and murder are frequent and sometimes extended to their families. This phenomenon is also bound up with the rise of viral disinformation, digital conspiracy networks and political polarisation. The psychological, physical, professional, and digital safety and security impacts associated with this escalating freedom of expression and gender equality crisis are overlapping, converging and frequently inseparable. They are also increasingly spilling offline, sometimes with devastating consequences.

    Here, we present an edited extract from a major interdisciplinary study produced by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) under commission from UNESCO. The book-length study will be published by UNESCO in mid-2021.

    https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/the-chilling.pdf

    • WeTheBleeple 12.1
      1 May 2021 at 7:37 pm

      I have a UK friend who is famous and she has to deal with hate every single day. Some of it concerted and organised. Whole threads about her on other pages. Fake pages pretending to be her. Men contacting her management, husband, friends, anyone… to tell them she's blocked them unfairly and they have the right to call her (insert insult here).

      That she should die, that she must die… 'just jokes aye'. 'Bit of banter' it's 'fun and games' for the good old football lads of the UK.

      Never see women need to go online and tell male comics they're not funny, and some of them… you'd hope they would.

      • Gabby 12.1.1
        1 May 2021 at 9:32 pm

        Well they can expect a visit from the popo if she complains, which hopefully she does.

    • mauī 12.2
      2 May 2021 at 8:45 am

      According to the linked Unesco report 55% of the abuse towards Cadwalladr was "highly gendered".

      Yet looking at your word cloud picture of most frequent abuse terms, you could hardly call it gendered abuse..

      • joe90 12.2.1
        2 May 2021 at 1:59 pm

        Minimise threats of sexual violence and gendered abuse directed at woman who speak up about the assorted fascists, autocratic despots, war criminals and genocidal thugs you adore. Way to go, sport.

        /

        • mauī 12.2.1.1
          2 May 2021 at 3:59 pm

          So you don't want to debate or try and understand your own report Joe… you would rather flame. I'm sure magneto will be along shortly to tidy up your commentary…

          • joe90 12.2.1.1.1
            2 May 2021 at 4:06 pm

            WTF would anyone bother indulging a fucking tankie.

            /

            Types of abuse levelled against Cadwalladr:

            55%of obvious abuse detected targeted Cadwalladr occurs

            at the personal level. It was highly gendered and designed

            to hold her up to ridicule, humiliate, belittle and discredit.

            40%of the abuse was categorised as harassment designed

            to undermine Cadwalladr’s professional credibility and trust

            in her journalism.

            21% of all obvious abuse levelled at her was sexist,

            misogynistic or sexually explicit.

            5% of the abuse was politically-based.

            Characteristics of abuse against Cadwalladr:

            . The online violence Carole Cadwalladr experiences is

            a feature of the enabling environment for her offline legal

            harassment.

            .The abuse was constant and sustained, with several peaks

            per month delivering intense abuse.

            . The cumulative impacts of the sustained online abuse,

            harassment and attacks over a four year period have

            created a gaslighting effect, chilling Cadwalladr’s

            investigations and delivering deep personal impacts

  13. KSaysHi 13
    1 May 2021 at 6:02 pm

    What is needed is an IRD decision, or a law change around the definition of Church. I'm sorry, but you can't be good for the community and simultaneously bad for it as well. And the Scientologists and any other "church" who uses similar techniques of pressure and intimidation can go the same way as far as I'm concerned. NZ could then use that money for welfare, housing, and health.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/441479/ex-exclusive-brethren-accuse-church-of-tearing-families-apart-there-are-some-pretty-nasty-stories

  14. Muttonbird 14
    1 May 2021 at 6:11 pm

    Solid activism here:

    Road safety campaigner Geoff Upson has been spray-painting around potholes since 2018, spending about $400 on spray paint each year

    The Kaukapakapa resident regularly spray-paints circles around potholes out of “sheer frustration” over seeing motorists navigating around them.

    Driving over road imperfections slowly damages your car and tyres by misaligning wheels and constantly stressing shocks and mounts. Avoiding road hazards is dangerous and distracting.

    While Councils and NZTA think about pulling their socks up on potholes and other road veneer failures, they can have a look at utility covers as well.

    If you are going to re-lay a road 50mm higher than before, you must lift the utility covers also.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300290088/auckland-transport-to-report-pothole-penis-painter-to-police

  15. WeTheBleeple 15
    1 May 2021 at 8:19 pm

    Great story here. Local, innovative, forward thinking and award winning. Make smoothies without a blender, including native foods like kawakawa and puha – love it.

    Be sweet to get some hot tips on cultivating puha, sounds like they've got the expertise there too.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/300285142/south-taranaki-iwis-smoothie-business-about-to-sweep-nz

  16. Muttonbird 16
    1 May 2021 at 10:09 pm

    Is David Seymour gay? If he ain't shagging his deputy and ideological duplicate, Brooke van Velden, then my gaydar is twitching.

    • Incognito 16.1
      1 May 2021 at 10:23 pm

      AFAIK, he’s not gay and has had female partners in the past; I don’t know if he’s single at the moment. I couldn’t care less about his sexuality. What those two adults do or not do in their personal lives is none of our business. Let’s not turn TS into a gutter blog, thanks.

    • Jester 16.2
      2 May 2021 at 3:55 pm

      I'm not sure. Does it matter anyway? Are you homophobic?

      • Muttonbird 16.2.1
        2 May 2021 at 5:46 pm

        It doesn't matter of course. But I do worry about people in the public eye who may decide to remain in the closet, or keep a relationship secret for some reason.

        I'll take the advice from Incognito on the subject from here on in.

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