In Obama’s first address since Superstorm Sandy given before a technology group. And in the candidates first political stoush since the disaster on the East Coast halted the election campaign.
Obama misses his chance to put the election in the bag. By not putting a stake in the ground over Climate Change. In doing so Obama gave Romney an opening to attack his technology strategy by claiming that private industry could do it better.
What if instead of ignoring Climate Change Obama had said that his government would be spearheading the technology necessary to combat Climate Change. How could Romney respond to that?
He would have been gobsmacked.
Obama could have gone even further and delivered his version of a 21st Century Technology Ghettysburg address, a modern inspiring we will fight them on the beaches type speech to tackle the near and present danger posed by Climate Change. He undoubtably has the skills. Why he chooses not to use them I don’t know.
Oh dear. As both candidates in seeming partnership continue to stoically ignore the debate to be had over climate change, even when it is jammed in their pathway, disrupting their planed campaigns. My feeling is, the first candidate who takes a chance after this disaster and has the courage to break the strained silence, over climate change will capture the attention of the nation and the world. Let Romney or Obama make their case. Is Sandy a harbinger of Climate Change or not? Either for or against, let’s hear them.
Instead, why is this election being conducted like a tired uninspired slow motion palindrome, or shadow fight, avoiding all the major issues even when like Sandy it is thrust in their faces?
In seems though the transmission of this farce had been temporarily halted by the intrusion of reality. Transmission as usual has been resumed.
What a joke. My guess, the electorate uninspired by either candidate, turn out will be down. And as a small turn out favours the right wing die hards. Romney will be handed an undeserved win.
I hope I am wrong. And it is not too late and Obama can lift his so far insipid campaign to reach out to the American voters to inspire and challenge them.
Not only did the man keep Guantanamo Bay open, but has greatly extended the reach of warrantless wiretapping and communications intercepts, guaranteed the banks multibillion dollar bail outs while millions of Americans have been thrown out of their homes, and made standard practice the weekly use of unaccountable, non judicial drone assassinations in any foreign country of his chosing.
I guess you could tout for Obama on the basis that, despite the above, “he would be a bit better than Romney” but it really is hard to see how.
Climate change is an ‘inconvenient’ reality and the ‘cult of the individual’ a convenient and powerful myth. Put the two together and you get zero action on climate change because in that prevalent (or at least powerful) world view there cannot be an underlying systemic cause.
ie. Climate change may well be (read: is.) caused by CO2. But it is individuals who choose to live in ways that contribute to CO2 emmissions. And ‘unfortunately’ that frame of reference determines that government, industry or whatever are necessarily and quite correctly invisible and powerless.
Energy use and economic activity are intimately intertwined. Most people in Auckland at work today could not have made it to their work place without the direct use of fossil fuels.
If you want to reduce fossil fuel use you have to reduce economic activity – or at the very least, achieve a ‘steady state’ economy.
NO ONE wants to do this, not even the Prius buying, carbon offsetting, vegetarian eating progressive Hollywood movie star types.
I wouldn’t say that no-one wants to do this (reduce economic activity…or at least, superfluous and/or harmful economic activity).
But my point was that when the dominant world view sees the interaction between people as naturally and principly market based, then there is no room to take any systemic factors into account.
So (for example) there is no compulsion to have a job (it’s a natural choice). And there are no froms of conditioning shaping peoples’ fears/desires. It’s all rational and free choice being exercised on an individual level….the sum totals of which deliver us a natural, market based human environment.
And in such an environment, there is no place for interference from government or whatever, as that would skew the rational and natural freedoms we deliver back to ourselves by living within a market context.
A crock of shit, obviously. But it’s sitting at the center of the mind set of today’s elites and power brokers. And so the market will solve climate change. Meaning, we’re fucked
Many people cycle globally. Many people live close to where they work. Really its only in the past a hundred years that we could commute for an 1hr at 50km/hr. The question for NZ, will NZ wake up to itself and re-plan its cities and towns properly and provide the incentives (money returns) to those that change their behavior. I get no extra financial benefit for using a bicycle, in fact I subsidies car use at the super market as I don’t use their petrol vouchers, I pay rates but rarely use the buses, and would love to travel more but public transport is competitive to car use not to low income accessibility.
Employ teenager’s to run rick shaws so us ageing cripples can still get to the supermarket ….
St John Cardiac revival stands at the side of the road coz those Gnats’ are still in “charge” ….
“Clear M8!” zzzzzzz thud
(horse shit splatter everywhere as you convulse)
“Here u go, on ur bike M8! đ “
$100 Fine in the mail the week after for contributing to “Clydesdale Emission Visibility in the workplace”
Should get me a clydesdale I think as I attach the cardiac sleep reviver ….
zzzzzz thud …. off to work M8! đ
There are just some occasions in the daily scheme of things where you cannot apply the capitalist theory to basic human needs. Catering for contingencies when the money men would say, too expensive or not needed in the now.
What a shame such foresight as that given in the “Wise men of Gotham” is not compulsory reading in schools. Instead, “Financial Literacy” is the new meme.
Instances …
Who were and why were the Tolpuddle martyrs significant?
Why did London build a surge tide barrier?
Refresh memory or learn about the Tolpuddle Martyrs – Wikipedia has a coverage on it that matches with a researched book I have read. These men were so steadfast in their purpose of improving the grinding conditions of their agricultural employment. And the Anglican Church and the landowners, gentry and judiciary were united against them and sent them to Australia to serve their sentences in harsh conditions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolpuddle_Martyrs
The new Mega storage website being built by Kim Dotcom is interesting because it will block everyone, including Kim from the contents in storage. Ironic really because the original storage allowed access to recording studios and movie companies in order to track illegal usage. Now Kim is in effect saying you guys cheated by closing me down and prosecuting me so now my new site will block everyone except the encrypted user. Take that!
David Fisher in the Herald: “As well as distancing itself from the US, the Mega website had also promised to distance its creators from future claims of copyright infringement. It was being built with “on the fly” encryption which would lock users’ files behind an impenetrable code away from those running Mega – and anyone policing the internet.” (Good stuff coming from David Fisher.) http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10844504
I have been following the development of the new site with interest via Dotcom’s Twitter feed despite being a complete ignoramous about these things. Wired did two detailed articles last week, one on the new site at a level I could understand and the other an extended interview covering Dotcom’s account of the raid. These can be viewed via http://www.kim.com/
Links to the Wired articles are also available through the Twitter feed but a long way down now. There are lots of other links on the Twitter feed to other news reports on the new site (eg Washington Post) .
The feed also gives some insight into Dotcom, his personality and sense of humour – eg one of his latest – “All FBI agents pressing reload hahaha….. We see their IP addresses. LOL!!!”
His love for Mona and his children also comes through with some beautiful photos on the feed.
It’s possible for us to produce a defensive system that will hold off all invaders. Lots of R&D needed but the result will actually be fairly cheap. Armed forces really only get expensive when you want to project power.
I used too call it the “Reserve army”, but that got Tama Iti and friends in prison.
I told them to be licensed, bit them on the arse that one…. sorry M8’s.
I really don’t think they should be in prison for trying to give their kids a bit of “fighting spirit”
Sorry, but you also think it’s possible for NZ to produce our own CPUs instead of just doing what we’re good at and trading for them, so I don’t put a lot of stock in your ideas of what is ‘possible’ or ‘reasonable’ for NZ to produce.
We can, it’s just a factory utilising NZ resources. If you don’t believe that then you’re as delusional as Key and so I really don’t give a fuck what you think.
EDIT: How Silicon Chips Are Made
We have the resources and we could easily find the 20k people needed to competitively research and design the chips.
wotta bout all these personal attacks springing up all over The Standard mmm?
[lprent: The policy is (my italics):-
What weâre not prepared to accept are pointless personal attacks, or tone or language that has the effect of excluding others. We are intolerant of people starting or continuing flamewars where there is little discussion or debate. This includes making assertions that you are unable to substantiate with some proof (and that doesnât mean endless links to unsubstantial authorities) or even argue when requested to do so.
So when moderating the moderators don’t notice personal attacks unless they can’t see a point being made in them, the language gets too much a part of the message or they judge them as initiating or sustaining a flamewar.
The reason for this is because the stated objective of the site is to have robust debate rather than polite debate (try Public Address). It means we don’t try to stop people from being bruised when others get stuck into them and their arguments.
It does tend to lose a few people – but we also gain from people wanting to have some frank disagreements. It also tends to be cyclic and peak up on the odd occassion.
But so far the policy has steadily increased our audience. So we have never had to review it (and are unlikely to do so in this current peak). ]
Nope. I actually said why I didn’t agree with him and as that comes down to actual physical reality then his belief and what he says from that belief really is meaningless.
They’re quite welcome to put up a valid critique but merely saying that we should continue with what we’re good at proclaims that that is a) already known and b) that everybody wants to do whatever it is. In NZ’s case it’s quite often farming.
People making such claims seem to miss the fact that a) Farming doesn’t really employ that many people and b) that not everybody wants to be a farmer anyway. They also seem to miss the fact that when they say that we shouldn’t do something or even try to do something different that the industry already exists and happens to be quite successful in NZ. Electronics is one example, pharmaceuticals is another.
As far as making CPUs goes all we need is the mines to get the raw material, the processing facilities to process that raw material and the factory which produces the chips. Build those and NZ will be able to produce CPUs and many other ICs. We already have the educational facilities to support them. What we don’t have is the political support as that’s been relegated to the free-market capitalists.
We could just have some of our bright sparks design an ARM compatible chip set. You know, start off the way AMD did in making x86 CPUs. They could also design x86 64 CPUs as well. The factory would be able to make all of them after all and I see no reason to go to 90nm when 45nm is getting old.
Licensing works to but we’d really want 32nm for that and then make AMD/Intel CPUs.
We’ll never be granted an x86 licence, and we wouldn’t have to design our own ARM compatible chipset, we just licence one from ARM.
And you never ever ever go with the latest manufacturing node unless you have money to burn in an incinerator and the ability to hire teams of $200K pa production engineers.
Resilient systems mean systems well off the bleeding edge for which the parts and the expertise are ubiquitous. 90nm allows you to produce very advanced low power IC’s and CPUs – everything that you need to run a country on and then some. Further, that manufacturing node is barely 10 years old, but you can pick up equipment and parts for it for next to nothing.
You still appear to be stuck on the idea that we can have the latest and greatest without realising that it is a very very fragile place to be. Just try replacing a battery or a screen on an iPhone 5 to see what I mean.
There were exactly two authors that survived the big book purge two months ago when I shifted to ePub’s and offloaded a large number of large boxes of paperbacks. Terry Pratchett and Ursula Le Guin.
Lyn required them for her “decorative” book collection (I was all for getting rid of the paper entirely). đ
I looked at some of Ursula Le Guins’ work some time ago; interesting serendipities all round considering, engineering analogies and all that. So Cameron Slater is a professed “Christian” aye?
..just when you thought you had seen it all Clare!
IMO: The Dispossessed was the best that she has done to date. But she has seldom written a dud. But it sometimes takes a while to grow into being able to grok some of her books. Like the six Earthsea books which I tended to view as trivial until I’d read some of the crap that was fantasy and realized how fantastic her ones were.
These were Lyn’s choices for books she wanted out of my collection. Joins all of the lit, poetry, and assorted series of books she has. The thought of moving the books again and finding bookcases was just as disconcerting as always, and this time electronic books were a lot more attractive.
Frank Herbert is in a set of ePub’s. I only shifted after I’d managed to get most of the books I was interested in keeping as ePub’s. So I dropped from several thousand paperbacks to a pile of ePubs getting rid of the trash on the way through and adding in a pile of stuff out of the pulps.
But I notice that since we moved, Lyn has only purchased about 5 paper books (for a total of about $5 in a sale), but has been reading a lot of new material in the kindle app. As I said paper books are largely wall decorations these days đ
And that would be why my AMD x86 64 says Made in Taiwan on it.
Oh, wait, no it wouldn’t. Most of the CPUs in existence aren’t made by the actual company that designed them but by other companies contracted to make them.
and we wouldnât have to design our own ARM compatible chipset, we just licence one from ARM.
No, we wouldn’t have to but you don’t learn anything by simply producing what someone else has designed.
And you never ever ever go with the latest manufacturing node unless you have money to burn in an incinerator and the ability to hire teams of $200K pa production engineers.
/facepalm
Money isn’t an issue and high paying jobs is part of the goal.
90nm allows you to produce very advanced low power ICâs and CPUs
And 32nm lets you produce even lower power and more advanced CPUs while using less of the scarce resources used to make them. The technology is essentially the same so it’s really not going to make any difference to the reliability.
You still appear to be stuck on the idea that we can have the latest and greatest without realising that it is a very very fragile place to be. Just try replacing a battery or a screen on an iPhone 5 to see what I mean.
No it’s not as factories don’t get made until most of the bugs are ironed out and if we could produce those here getting hold of them would be a lot easier.
Yeah sorry you’re off your rocker all the way through here Draco.
You are correct in so far as knowing that AMD no longer manufactures their own CPUs. But you misunderstand the nature of contract manufacturing: the foundaries that AMD uses to fabricate it’s CPUs make those chips under instruction and on behalf of AMD.
None of those foundaries hold their own x86 licenses and none of them have x86 design capability. None can independently design, make or market their own x86 CPUs.
Only three firms in the world hold x86 licenses, and none of them are NZ companies.
Bottom line – you’re trying to construct a future world with all the bright shiny technological things that you’ve been promised. Its not going to happen like that. NZ could do very well with say 90nm fab technology for internal use, and then we have to move on to covering off other pressing needs. There’s no time, money or advantage to try and play with more advanced nodes. Why would you. You can easily run all the infrastructure of a major country on Pentium II’s and III’s.
And 32nm lets you produce even lower power and more advanced CPUs while using less of the scarce resources used to make them.
You’ve absolutely lost the plot here.
32nm and smaller nodes require far greater investment in energy, plant, machinery and refinement of materials compared to older nodes. The purity of silicon materials and even clean room facilities required to manufacture at 32nm and 22nm is a quantum leap ahead of that required for say 90nm manufacture.
The embodied energy requirements of advanced fabs is massive and increases almost exponentially with every node (I know that the cost does).
It’s been happening for a long, long time and there’s nothing stopping anyone from designing their own x86 based chips now. It’s how AMD started their x86 line.
Why would you.
For R&D. May be able to run infrastructure on Pentium IIs but R&D and other applications require far more computing power.
32nm and smaller nodes require far greater investment in energy, plant, machinery and refinement of materials compared to older nodes. The purity of silicon materials and even clean room facilities required to manufacture at 32nm and 22nm is a quantum leap ahead of that required for say 90nm manufacture.
Energy for refinement I can understand. All the rest will be comparable. Those Pentium II/IIIs used something like 100w of power, my AMD dual core uses about the same amount but is far more powerful. The latest AMD 8 cores still use ~100w. What this means is that you can do far more with a modern 32nm CPU with the same power usage and it’s the final power usage that’s important not the energy used to make the CPUs which really will be comparable to the 90nm.
Thereâs no time, money or advantage to try and play with more advanced nodes.
Yes there is if we start soon enough.
No, I’m not off my rocker. If I was neither AMD nor Intel nor anyone else would be looking to make 32nm and 22nm fabrication plants. And NZ is a better place to make them because we already have a huge amount of renewable energy and can easily increase that to 100%. Energy to run factories in NZ is not a problem.
To be honest, I don’t everyone having such a 3D printing device would be all that efficient. Having them available to everyone on the other hand is and that’s generally where I’m going when I say that the government should be the one financing and building the factories.
The NZDF could go back to making it’s own weapons and bullets (maybe even sell them to other nations) rather just buying the cheap knock offs. Plus it would be a better idea to invest in the latest gear, better to have a small quality defense force than one where the equipment is dangerous and gets New Zealanders killed i.e. helicopter crashes, vehicle crashes and faulty navy ships.
An unscientific survey of the social networking literature on Sandy reveals an illuminating tweet (you read that correctly) from Jonathan Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. On Oct. 29, Foley thumbed thusly: âWould this kind of storm happen without climate change? Yes. Fueled by many factors. Is storm stronger because of climate change? Yes.â Eric Pooley, senior vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund (and former deputy editor of Bloomberg Businessweek), offers a baseball analogy: âWe canât say that steroids caused any one home run by Barry Bonds, but steroids sure helped him hit more and hit them farther. Now we have weather on steroids.â
The issue is that to reduce emissions would mean putting a limit on dairying and using less fossil fuels while many National MP’s have personal vested interests in promoting farming intensification and further oil and gas exploration. This essentially means that nothing will change while they’re in power because they’re selfishly putting their own investments ahead of the common good.
See Winz now investigating four senior staff members who were fully aware of the computer’s systems security failure, and that they did not tell any senior management.
Why – ????? NIMBY
The goal of staff in a dog-eat-dog organisation is not to run faster than the bear, merely to run faster than their colleagues.Â
Â
FUJIMO: feck you Jack, I’M Ok.Â
Shoving shit isn’t restricted to public institutions. The moral of the story is clear. If you get a report that says you need to do work on security, and you don’t have the ability, the time, then its essential you email the report to your betters. The question for me is did these four staff follow the policy, no surprises. If they did not (and had responsibility for security), then they should be fired. As for managers who hired them, and did not check their ability to manage risk, well they should be fired too, and when the Minister does not resign because she can’t manage the risks of shaking out the back office properly, then her boss the PM should be ousted by the party, because it makes the National party unelectable. Everyone in any middle class position knows how to shovel shit properly to keep their backsides clean, if they don’t then you’d expect there to be little regulation that inhibits people dying down mines, people dying in buildings that should not collapse, investors having their savings stolen by lackluster regulators, billions of taxes to bail out investment firms, huge indebtedness from market bubbles, and shoddy design from brick yard to suburban sprawl.
Oh, wait, that NZ isn’t it. keep churning the same anti-middle class idealists over into different positions in the public and private sector, and reap the exodus of young skilled NZ overseas…
…because change requires the whole establishment ups and sacks itself.
The results of the analysis suggest that changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate
and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth. The reduction in
the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment, and productivity growth. The
top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie
Why “bugger”?
   Â
Following paragraph: However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution. As measured by IRS data, the share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. At the same time, the average tax rate paid by the top 0.1% fell from over 50% in 1945 to about 25% in 2009. Tax policy could have a relation to how the economic pie is slicedâlower top tax rates may be associated with greater income disparities.”
  Â
Â
I.e. you want to do something about poverty? Key needs to pay more tax. There is no economic reason to give tax cuts to the rich, but there is a clear humanitarian reason to tax their leeching arses.Â
Tax corporate profits and assets (including financial wealth and capital); greatly relieve GST and significantly reduce the income tax burden on those earning less than $60K pa.
my two cents worth (i’m not allowed to play on the p.c much anymore)
response to resource utilisation and climate change HAS to be personal / political; if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem.
We have so much lattitude and scope here in Aotearoa New Zealand to discern and prepare for inevitabilities at a personal level.
-land footprint
-carbon footprint
-transportation choice
-nutrition choice
-reductions
-reuses
-recyclings
-organics
-energy choice
-energy dependence
-gathering and gleaning
-water utilisation
I constantly reflect on whether my own downsizing path has been in a helpful direction, or if it is completed; the forces of propaganda are all about us, seeding self-doubt, yet, as the self-doubt sprouts, the self-examination withers.
(call me an earth-sycophant, yet it is the only service of perpetual value to our childrens’ children)
A good stirring defence of the rule of law, which he makes a complete mockery of the comments by citing George W Bush legal advice about the limits of executive power ie, there aren’t any.
This isn’t ‘pre-identity politics leftism’, or ‘old school democratic socialism’. It’s pre liberalism. It’s monarchist. I don’t know actually, what the hell it is. It aint no part of nothin good anyways.
Fuck him, he speaks not for me, and he aint to be trusted people, hasn’t been for quite some time.
Just heard in National Radio that key,showing off in front of little teenage girls said that David Beckham,who he had met was a nice guy and quite good looking but that “he is thick!”!That little man is seriouslystupid!He appears to be very jealous of anybody who has SERIOUS money,so feels obliged to put them down. All in the best possible taste of course.
Also big boar bennett is denying any responsibility for kiosk leaks.She apparently cannot be held resposible for things she knows nothing about,even though she has “very high standards” don’t you know. Time for her to go!!……….The dream is over paula.
âas thick as batshitâ apparently. He quipped (as is his wont) to a group of high school pupils.
Key is all class. What a nice man to have around.
And to top it all, if a teacher was to use such language he/she would be hauled before the board fielding a complaint from some right-wing-fundamentalist parent.
Thousands of children would have loved to have had the opportunity to meet Beckham.
Because of who he is, the PMâs, son gets that privilege. And thatâs the parental gratitude.
Conversation overheard in a BMW this evening …
“Can’t recall saying that.”
“Mmmm, no acshully, I may well have said it. I’m noted for my quips. I will check to see if there were any cameras there before I completely deny it… get the names of anyone there that might have had an iPhone.
I doubt it…Sell the city’s assets and build a convention centre? That’s not a plan…and the whole East side of Christchurch is quickly turning into a ghetto. Even the cop shop around the corner from me is covered in graffiti.
They say they plan gives us green spaces, but its only designed to increase property values in the CBD, benefit the rich, and excludes almost all people from living in there.
They have taken our democratic voice and are creating a corporate Christchurch.
What is there to be happy about?…anything?
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Governmentâs focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes –Â Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu â often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the governmentâs readiness to make urgent changes to âthe resource management systemâ through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes donât go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a âmedia summitâ to discuss âthe state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalismâ. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes –Â This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
 Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for âfast trackâ consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill â currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes-Â The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you arenât wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said âSince we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that âNew Zealandâs economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerfulâ. They also believe that âNew Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerfulâ. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
âYou talking about me?âThe neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hallâs âGlide Timeâ caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Tree sap can be a sticky, unsightly mess on your car’s exterior. It can be difficult to remove, but with the right techniques and products, you can restore your car to its former glory. Understanding Tree Sap Tree sap is a thick, viscous liquid produced by trees to seal wounds ...
The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund â When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayersâ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund â and ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last yearâs severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labourâs environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our countryâs most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Governmentâs Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a âget out of jail freeâ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealandâs good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National governmentâs lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for TÄmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Governmentâs democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Governmentâs proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change thatâs great for the planet and great for consumers after her memberâs bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the countryâs books after Teanau Tuionoâs membersâ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his memberâs bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Todayâs advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Governmentâs newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealandâs urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. âOur Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealandâs hydrogen future, with the opening of the countryâs first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. âI want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealandâs own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealandâs energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. âThe report shows that New Zealandâs emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,â Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where heâll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Governmentâs work to restore law and order. âAttending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealandâs human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the worldâs largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. âThe reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealandâs wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin  NgÄ mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho  Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today.  I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. âOur Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealandâs overseas missions.  âOur diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealandâs interests around the world,â Mr Peters says.  âI am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. Â âOver 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. âIt is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. âOur coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
âChina remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,â Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says.  Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. âRecently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachersâ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul.  âThe Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. âScience, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During todayâs meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. âThe Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in TaupĆ as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the TaupĆ International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. âAnticipation for the ITM TaupĆ Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. âThe coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. âThis project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sectorâs productivity,â Mr Jones says. âThe project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Governmentâs plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. âBenefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Governmentâs commitment to doubling New Zealandâs renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealandâs latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. âOur Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. âNew Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Governmentâs intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. âThe introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Todayâs announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Governmentâs plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. âInflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sectorâs role in the export-led recovery of the economy. âI am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Governmentâs support for the revitalisation the sector.  "New Zealandâs wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. âThe inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. âMy meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
The Taxpayersâ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of âsix decades of treacheryâ over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazineâs 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish Iâd writtenIf I wish Iâd written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
âThree Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.â ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunalâs report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallaceâs debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that heâs always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe itâs something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. Sheâs ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whÄnau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says âoutlook not greatâ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoffâs morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, itâs not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The âfinancial sustainability targetâ, which was âallocatedâ to Waitaha, is consistent with whatâs happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous governmentâs affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: Whatâs KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertsonâs valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
Taiwanâs semiconductor industry is seen some as its ‘silicon shield’ against invasion – but how will overseas expansion affect that protection? The post The state of Taiwan’s silicon shield appeared first on Newsroom. ...
There’s relief for building owners bending under the weight of earthquake strengthening rules â and costs â that came into force seven years ago. Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced a scheduled 2027 review of the earthquake-prone building regulations will now start this year. Owners will also get ...
Opinion: It has been announced that nine percent of roles at Oranga Tamariki will be disestablished, presumably to help fund the tax cuts promised by the coalition Government. I am reminded of the graphics used to illustrate pandemic events, where five thousand people are standing in a field and then ...
After more than two sleepless days, running through savage terrain, Greig Hamilton didnât know if he was going to finish one of the most gruelling psychological assaults in sport. He was metres away from the finish line, a yellow gate made famous in a Netflix documentary; a race heâd dreamed ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 24 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The following interview with former Green Party MP Sue Kedgley came about because she features in the new memoir Hine Toa by activist NgÄhuia te AwekĆtuku; the two knew each other at the University of Auckland in the early 70s, when they were both took on leadership roles in the ...
COMMENTARY:By Murray Horton New Zealand needs to get tough with Israel. Itâs not as if we havenât done so before. When NZ authorities busted a Mossad operation in Auckland 20 years ago, the government didnât say: âOh well, Israel has the right to defend itself.â No, it arrested, prosecuted, ...
NEWSMAKERS:By Vijay Narayan, news director of FijiVillage Blessed to be part of the University of Fiji (UniFiji) faculty to continue to teach and mentor those who want to join our noble profession, and to stand for truth and justice for the people of the country. I was privileged to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Lowry, Ice Sheet & Climate Modeller, GNS Science Hugh Chittock/Antarctica New Zealand, CC BY-SA As the climate warms and Antarcticaâs glaciers and ice sheets melt, the resulting rise in sea level has the potential to displace hundreds of millions of ...
The government's plan to reintroduce a three strikes regime is being strongly opposed by lawyers, who argue there is no evidence it reduces crime or helps people rehabilitate. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Professor specialising in Internet law, Bond University Do Australian courts have the right to decide what foreign citizens, located overseas, view online on a foreign-owned platform? Anyone inclined to answer âyesâ to this question should perhaps also ask ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giovanni E Ferreira, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, Institute of Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney Last week in a post on X, owner of the platform Elon Musk recommended people look into disc replacement if theyâre experiencing severe neck or back pain. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University anek.soowannaphoom/Shutterstock NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey caught the headlines yesterday, courtesy of a blistering speech condemning the latest GST carve-up. New South Wales, he claimed, would be A$11.9 billion worse off over the ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived at Kokoda Station, Northern province, at the start of his state visit to Papua New Guinea. Both Albanese and Prime Minister James Marape will meet with the locals and the Northern Provincial government before they begin their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wallace, Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra Shutterstock An important principle was invoked by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week in defence of the governmentâs Future Made in Australia industry ...
A poll last August found that just 16% of New Zealanders oppose bringing back the âThree Strikesâ law. The nationwide poll of 1,000 New Zealanders was commissioned by Family First NZ and carried out by Curia Market Research. ...
The solo show from Ana Scotney is both sprawling and intimate, and a must-see, writes Mad Chapman. In the opening moments of Scattergun: After the Death of RĆ«aumoko, writer and performer Ana Scotney lays out the groundwork, literally. Silently moving around the square stage, Scotney is not so much dancing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Burridge, Professor of Linguistics, Monash University Who makes the words? Why are trees called trees and why are shoes called shoes and who makes the names? – Elliot, age 5, Eltham, Victoria Good question Elliot! Letâs start with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne at amRawpixel.com/Shutterstock Roles of health professionals are still unfortunately often stuck in the past. That is, before the ...
COMMENTARY:By Malcolm Evans Last weekâs leaked New York Times staff directive, as to what words can and cannot be used to describe the carnage Israel is raining on Palestinians, is proof positive, since those reports are published verbatim here in New Zealand, that our understanding of the conflict is ...
In the case of New Zealand, the results confirm that there is no popular support for the vicious austerity program being imposed by the National Party-led government, which is backed in all fundamental respects by the opposition Labour Party. ...
The âVampireâ singer has never visited our part of the world, but that might all be about to change. We assess the evidence.Olivia Rodrigoâs Guts World Tour is pulling in massive crowds as it whips around the US and Europe, even helping to catapult regular supporting act Chappell Roan ...
Testing of drinking water in rural Canterbury over the weekend by Greenpeace revealed that several public town supplies were reaching levels of nitrate above 5 mg/L - the threshold which a growing body of scientific evidence has linked to increased ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rohan Fisher, Information Technology for Development Researcher, Charles Darwin University It may come as a surprise to hear 2023 was Australiaâs biggest bushfire season in more than a decade. Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019â20 Black ...
Responding to the Governmentâs announcement of changes to resource management laws, Taxpayersâ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said: âThese changes are a step in the right direction in terms of removing ideological and unworkable ...
More than two years after the Human Rights Council called for the establishment of a national human rights commission, such a body has yet to be formed. ...
Comment:An emergency management system with wide variations in performance, significant capability gaps, funding shortfalls and above all a setup that is not meeting the needs of New Zealanders at times of crisis. The Governmentâs inquiry into the response to Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events in the North ...
Welcome to the whirring wonders of one brain trying to align its actions with its beliefs within a system it thinks is evil. My brain has been spiralling in a woke conundrum ever since I found out a bookshop Iâve never been to was shutting down. Good Books, a bookshop ...
We repeat our call for criminal justice policy to be based on evidence, something the three strikes regime neglects to recognise â with no evidence that it either reduces crime or assists with rehabilitation. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara With only four more seats in the 50-member Parliament yet to be officially declared, there is no outright winner in the Solomon Islands elections. As of Monday, the two largest blocs in the winnerâs circle, independents and the incumbent Prime Minister Manasseh ...
Two/fiftyseven is a multi-purpose space hidden in the heart of Wellington that is paving a way for sustainable building and responsible landlording in Aotearoa and beyond.By 2060 the world is predicted to double its entire building stock, which equates to building an entire New York City every 34 days, ...
Popstars wasnât just a reality television revolution, it was also a huge moment for Y2K fashion.Itâs 25 years since girl group TrueBliss was formed on New Zealand national television, breaking new ground for both the reality television industry and the shiny clothing industry. With the first episode on NZ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Pepping, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology, Griffith University Marvin / Shutterstock Are all single people insecure? When we think about people who have been single for a long time, we may assume itâs because single people have insecurities that make ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Geary, Lecturer in Quantitative Ecology & Biodiversity Conservation, The University of Melbourne Trismegist san, Shutterstock Landscapes that have escaped fire for decades or centuries tend to harbour vital structures for wildlife, such as tree hollows and large logs. But these ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Gladstone-Gallagher, Lecturer in Marine Science, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Shutterstock/S Curtis Why are we crossing ecological boundaries that affect Earthâs fundamental life-supporting capacity? Is it because we donât have enough information about how ecosystems respond to change? Or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Crocker, PhD Student in Economics, Deakin University Hereâs something for the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia to ponder as it meets next month to set interest rates. It has pushed up rates on 13 occasions since it began its ...
In Obama’s first address since Superstorm Sandy given before a technology group. And in the candidates first political stoush since the disaster on the East Coast halted the election campaign.
Obama misses his chance to put the election in the bag. By not putting a stake in the ground over Climate Change. In doing so Obama gave Romney an opening to attack his technology strategy by claiming that private industry could do it better.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/7894223/Obama-and-Romney-outline-technology-policies
What if instead of ignoring Climate Change Obama had said that his government would be spearheading the technology necessary to combat Climate Change. How could Romney respond to that?
He would have been gobsmacked.
Obama could have gone even further and delivered his version of a 21st Century Technology Ghettysburg address, a modern inspiring we will fight them on the beaches type speech to tackle the near and present danger posed by Climate Change. He undoubtably has the skills. Why he chooses not to use them I don’t know.
Oh dear. As both candidates in seeming partnership continue to stoically ignore the debate to be had over climate change, even when it is jammed in their pathway, disrupting their planed campaigns. My feeling is, the first candidate who takes a chance after this disaster and has the courage to break the strained silence, over climate change will capture the attention of the nation and the world. Let Romney or Obama make their case. Is Sandy a harbinger of Climate Change or not? Either for or against, let’s hear them.
Instead, why is this election being conducted like a tired uninspired slow motion palindrome, or shadow fight, avoiding all the major issues even when like Sandy it is thrust in their faces?
In seems though the transmission of this farce had been temporarily halted by the intrusion of reality. Transmission as usual has been resumed.
What a joke. My guess, the electorate uninspired by either candidate, turn out will be down. And as a small turn out favours the right wing die hards. Romney will be handed an undeserved win.
I hope I am wrong. And it is not too late and Obama can lift his so far insipid campaign to reach out to the American voters to inspire and challenge them.
Touting for Obama this is funny.
Not only did the man keep Guantanamo Bay open, but has greatly extended the reach of warrantless wiretapping and communications intercepts, guaranteed the banks multibillion dollar bail outs while millions of Americans have been thrown out of their homes, and made standard practice the weekly use of unaccountable, non judicial drone assassinations in any foreign country of his chosing.
I guess you could tout for Obama on the basis that, despite the above, “he would be a bit better than Romney” but it really is hard to see how.
Daniel Ellsberg: http://t.co/va9NacYh
Noam Chompsky: http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/noam-chomsky-how-progressives-should-approach-election-2012
Climate change is an ‘inconvenient’ reality and the ‘cult of the individual’ a convenient and powerful myth. Put the two together and you get zero action on climate change because in that prevalent (or at least powerful) world view there cannot be an underlying systemic cause.
ie. Climate change may well be (read: is.) caused by CO2. But it is individuals who choose to live in ways that contribute to CO2 emmissions. And ‘unfortunately’ that frame of reference determines that government, industry or whatever are necessarily and quite correctly invisible and powerless.
Energy use and economic activity are intimately intertwined. Most people in Auckland at work today could not have made it to their work place without the direct use of fossil fuels.
If you want to reduce fossil fuel use you have to reduce economic activity – or at the very least, achieve a ‘steady state’ economy.
NO ONE wants to do this, not even the Prius buying, carbon offsetting, vegetarian eating progressive Hollywood movie star types.
I wouldn’t say that no-one wants to do this (reduce economic activity…or at least, superfluous and/or harmful economic activity).
But my point was that when the dominant world view sees the interaction between people as naturally and principly market based, then there is no room to take any systemic factors into account.
So (for example) there is no compulsion to have a job (it’s a natural choice). And there are no froms of conditioning shaping peoples’ fears/desires. It’s all rational and free choice being exercised on an individual level….the sum totals of which deliver us a natural, market based human environment.
And in such an environment, there is no place for interference from government or whatever, as that would skew the rational and natural freedoms we deliver back to ourselves by living within a market context.
A crock of shit, obviously. But it’s sitting at the center of the mind set of today’s elites and power brokers. And so the market will solve climate change. Meaning, we’re fucked
Unless…
True M8, twist and confuse language until it’s meaningless, then keep on with their self centred evil agendas.
Many people cycle globally. Many people live close to where they work. Really its only in the past a hundred years that we could commute for an 1hr at 50km/hr. The question for NZ, will NZ wake up to itself and re-plan its cities and towns properly and provide the incentives (money returns) to those that change their behavior. I get no extra financial benefit for using a bicycle, in fact I subsidies car use at the super market as I don’t use their petrol vouchers, I pay rates but rarely use the buses, and would love to travel more but public transport is competitive to car use not to low income accessibility.
Employ teenager’s to run rick shaws so us ageing cripples can still get to the supermarket ….
St John Cardiac revival stands at the side of the road coz those Gnats’ are still in “charge” ….
“Clear M8!” zzzzzzz thud
(horse shit splatter everywhere as you convulse)
“Here u go, on ur bike M8! đ “
$100 Fine in the mail the week after for contributing to “Clydesdale Emission Visibility in the workplace”
Should get me a clydesdale I think as I attach the cardiac sleep reviver ….
zzzzzz thud …. off to work M8! đ
Interesting…..
http://www.ukprogressive.co.uk/breaking-retired-nsa-analyst-proves-gop-is-stealing-elections/article20598.html
Unbelievable , can’t even design a self checking system …. morons.
If you’re out to steal an election would you design a system that can be checked?
That’s the situation that prevails in the US – the people who make the voting machines are out to steal the election.
Exactly, this isn’t accidental or incompetence. This is a high level of deliberate competence.
If you sell voting machines, would you cut out checking ability to make a buck?
The US people don’t want fair elections, they would not have voting machines if they did.
They’re at it already.
http://americablog.com/2012/11/computer-glitch-votes-black-florida-county-election-fraud.html
Those voting kiosks need to be looked at more closely methinks.
Worm drive memory, for the actual data entry.
This too.
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2012/4766
Unbelievable Again , all “code” should be encrypted, identical and recorded as such by being stamped into the worm data.
256+bit keys registered @ “collation headquarters” 3 months in advance.
There are just some occasions in the daily scheme of things where you cannot apply the capitalist theory to basic human needs. Catering for contingencies when the money men would say, too expensive or not needed in the now.
What a shame such foresight as that given in the “Wise men of Gotham” is not compulsory reading in schools. Instead, “Financial Literacy” is the new meme.
Instances …
Who were and why were the Tolpuddle martyrs significant?
Why did London build a surge tide barrier?
Refresh memory or learn about the Tolpuddle Martyrs – Wikipedia has a coverage on it that matches with a researched book I have read. These men were so steadfast in their purpose of improving the grinding conditions of their agricultural employment. And the Anglican Church and the landowners, gentry and judiciary were united against them and sent them to Australia to serve their sentences in harsh conditions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolpuddle_Martyrs
The new Mega storage website being built by Kim Dotcom is interesting because it will block everyone, including Kim from the contents in storage. Ironic really because the original storage allowed access to recording studios and movie companies in order to track illegal usage. Now Kim is in effect saying you guys cheated by closing me down and prosecuting me so now my new site will block everyone except the encrypted user. Take that!
David Fisher in the Herald: “As well as distancing itself from the US, the Mega website had also promised to distance its creators from future claims of copyright infringement. It was being built with “on the fly” encryption which would lock users’ files behind an impenetrable code away from those running Mega – and anyone policing the internet.” (Good stuff coming from David Fisher.)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10844504
I have been following the development of the new site with interest via Dotcom’s Twitter feed despite being a complete ignoramous about these things. Wired did two detailed articles last week, one on the new site at a level I could understand and the other an extended interview covering Dotcom’s account of the raid. These can be viewed via http://www.kim.com/
Links to the Wired articles are also available through the Twitter feed but a long way down now. There are lots of other links on the Twitter feed to other news reports on the new site (eg Washington Post) .
http://twitter.com/KimDotcom
The feed also gives some insight into Dotcom, his personality and sense of humour – eg one of his latest – “All FBI agents pressing reload hahaha….. We see their IP addresses. LOL!!!”
His love for Mona and his children also comes through with some beautiful photos on the feed.
Kit Dotcom is interesting in that he has been very blatant about coming to live in NZ because he thinks it will be a life-raft in the coming years.
We’re going to have to upgrade the NZDF significantly.
Probably the best outcome is for Aus to annex us. Whether or not the Aus military can stand up to the foreign powers is another thing, I guess.
It’s possible for us to produce a defensive system that will hold off all invaders. Lots of R&D needed but the result will actually be fairly cheap. Armed forces really only get expensive when you want to project power.
Fortress New Zealand đ
I used too call it the “Reserve army”, but that got Tama Iti and friends in prison.
I told them to be licensed, bit them on the arse that one…. sorry M8’s.
I really don’t think they should be in prison for trying to give their kids a bit of “fighting spirit”
We need a few more NZ kids to have that Kiwi fighting spirit. Not the bow down and be sheeple spirit.
Sorry, but you also think it’s possible for NZ to produce our own CPUs instead of just doing what we’re good at and trading for them, so I don’t put a lot of stock in your ideas of what is ‘possible’ or ‘reasonable’ for NZ to produce.
We can, it’s just a factory utilising NZ resources. If you don’t believe that then you’re as delusional as Key and so I really don’t give a fuck what you think.
EDIT:
How Silicon Chips Are Made
We have the resources and we could easily find the 20k people needed to competitively research and design the chips.
“If you donât believe that then youâre as delusional as Key and so I really donât give a fuck what you think.”
Basically: If you don’t agree with me then fuck you.
There’s that winning attitude.
wotta bout all these personal attacks springing up all over The Standard mmm?
[lprent: The policy is (my italics):-
So when moderating the moderators don’t notice personal attacks unless they can’t see a point being made in them, the language gets too much a part of the message or they judge them as initiating or sustaining a flamewar.
The reason for this is because the stated objective of the site is to have robust debate rather than polite debate (try Public Address). It means we don’t try to stop people from being bruised when others get stuck into them and their arguments.
It does tend to lose a few people – but we also gain from people wanting to have some frank disagreements. It also tends to be cyclic and peak up on the odd occassion.
But so far the policy has steadily increased our audience. So we have never had to review it (and are unlikely to do so in this current peak). ]
Welcome to The Standard
Nope. I actually said why I didn’t agree with him and as that comes down to actual physical reality then his belief and what he says from that belief really is meaningless.
Some of your beliefs seem bizarre and delusional to others.
They’re quite welcome to put up a valid critique but merely saying that we should continue with what we’re good at proclaims that that is a) already known and b) that everybody wants to do whatever it is. In NZ’s case it’s quite often farming.
People making such claims seem to miss the fact that a) Farming doesn’t really employ that many people and b) that not everybody wants to be a farmer anyway. They also seem to miss the fact that when they say that we shouldn’t do something or even try to do something different that the industry already exists and happens to be quite successful in NZ. Electronics is one example, pharmaceuticals is another.
As far as making CPUs goes all we need is the mines to get the raw material, the processing facilities to process that raw material and the factory which produces the chips. Build those and NZ will be able to produce CPUs and many other ICs. We already have the educational facilities to support them. What we don’t have is the political support as that’s been relegated to the free-market capitalists.
Get an ARM licence and some cheap old 90nm chip making equipment and you’re all set.
Not quite Core i7 competitive, but it’ll still beat a 80286.
We could just have some of our bright sparks design an ARM compatible chip set. You know, start off the way AMD did in making x86 CPUs. They could also design x86 64 CPUs as well. The factory would be able to make all of them after all and I see no reason to go to 90nm when 45nm is getting old.
Licensing works to but we’d really want 32nm for that and then make AMD/Intel CPUs.
Nah mate you’re getting in over your head here.
We’ll never be granted an x86 licence, and we wouldn’t have to design our own ARM compatible chipset, we just licence one from ARM.
And you never ever ever go with the latest manufacturing node unless you have money to burn in an incinerator and the ability to hire teams of $200K pa production engineers.
Resilient systems mean systems well off the bleeding edge for which the parts and the expertise are ubiquitous. 90nm allows you to produce very advanced low power IC’s and CPUs – everything that you need to run a country on and then some. Further, that manufacturing node is barely 10 years old, but you can pick up equipment and parts for it for next to nothing.
You still appear to be stuck on the idea that we can have the latest and greatest without realising that it is a very very fragile place to be. Just try replacing a battery or a screen on an iPhone 5 to see what I mean.
ya know? we have heaps and heaps of Terry Pratchitt books laying around here
đ
There were exactly two authors that survived the big book purge two months ago when I shifted to ePub’s and offloaded a large number of large boxes of paperbacks. Terry Pratchett and Ursula Le Guin.
Lyn required them for her “decorative” book collection (I was all for getting rid of the paper entirely). đ
I looked at some of Ursula Le Guins’ work some time ago; interesting serendipities all round considering, engineering analogies and all that. So Cameron Slater is a professed “Christian” aye?
..just when you thought you had seen it all Clare!
IMO: The Dispossessed was the best that she has done to date. But she has seldom written a dud. But it sometimes takes a while to grow into being able to grok some of her books. Like the six Earthsea books which I tended to view as trivial until I’d read some of the crap that was fantasy and realized how fantastic her ones were.
Ursula Le Guin. Nice. Frank Herbert didn’t make the cut?
These were Lyn’s choices for books she wanted out of my collection. Joins all of the lit, poetry, and assorted series of books she has. The thought of moving the books again and finding bookcases was just as disconcerting as always, and this time electronic books were a lot more attractive.
Frank Herbert is in a set of ePub’s. I only shifted after I’d managed to get most of the books I was interested in keeping as ePub’s. So I dropped from several thousand paperbacks to a pile of ePubs getting rid of the trash on the way through and adding in a pile of stuff out of the pulps.
But I notice that since we moved, Lyn has only purchased about 5 paper books (for a total of about $5 in a sale), but has been reading a lot of new material in the kindle app. As I said paper books are largely wall decorations these days đ
You been reading all the links of interest too Viper?
Some mate, some đ
And that would be why my AMD x86 64 says Made in Taiwan on it.
Oh, wait, no it wouldn’t. Most of the CPUs in existence aren’t made by the actual company that designed them but by other companies contracted to make them.
No, we wouldn’t have to but you don’t learn anything by simply producing what someone else has designed.
/facepalm
Money isn’t an issue and high paying jobs is part of the goal.
And 32nm lets you produce even lower power and more advanced CPUs while using less of the scarce resources used to make them. The technology is essentially the same so it’s really not going to make any difference to the reliability.
No it’s not as factories don’t get made until most of the bugs are ironed out and if we could produce those here getting hold of them would be a lot easier.
Yeah sorry you’re off your rocker all the way through here Draco.
You are correct in so far as knowing that AMD no longer manufactures their own CPUs. But you misunderstand the nature of contract manufacturing: the foundaries that AMD uses to fabricate it’s CPUs make those chips under instruction and on behalf of AMD.
None of those foundaries hold their own x86 licenses and none of them have x86 design capability. None can independently design, make or market their own x86 CPUs.
Only three firms in the world hold x86 licenses, and none of them are NZ companies.
Bottom line – you’re trying to construct a future world with all the bright shiny technological things that you’ve been promised. Its not going to happen like that. NZ could do very well with say 90nm fab technology for internal use, and then we have to move on to covering off other pressing needs. There’s no time, money or advantage to try and play with more advanced nodes. Why would you. You can easily run all the infrastructure of a major country on Pentium II’s and III’s.
You’ve absolutely lost the plot here.
32nm and smaller nodes require far greater investment in energy, plant, machinery and refinement of materials compared to older nodes. The purity of silicon materials and even clean room facilities required to manufacture at 32nm and 22nm is a quantum leap ahead of that required for say 90nm manufacture.
The embodied energy requirements of advanced fabs is massive and increases almost exponentially with every node (I know that the cost does).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_x86_manufacturers
It’s been happening for a long, long time and there’s nothing stopping anyone from designing their own x86 based chips now. It’s how AMD started their x86 line.
For R&D. May be able to run infrastructure on Pentium IIs but R&D and other applications require far more computing power.
Energy for refinement I can understand. All the rest will be comparable. Those Pentium II/IIIs used something like 100w of power, my AMD dual core uses about the same amount but is far more powerful. The latest AMD 8 cores still use ~100w. What this means is that you can do far more with a modern 32nm CPU with the same power usage and it’s the final power usage that’s important not the energy used to make the CPUs which really will be comparable to the 90nm.
Yes there is if we start soon enough.
No, I’m not off my rocker. If I was neither AMD nor Intel nor anyone else would be looking to make 32nm and 22nm fabrication plants. And NZ is a better place to make them because we already have a huge amount of renewable energy and can easily increase that to 100%. Energy to run factories in NZ is not a problem.
With the advance of 3d printing tech, you could print a chip out @ home.
All you’d need is a “Vacuum” print head/enclosure, and some silicon ink.
Who owns that patent again ?
To be honest, I don’t everyone having such a 3D printing device would be all that efficient. Having them available to everyone on the other hand is and that’s generally where I’m going when I say that the government should be the one financing and building the factories.
The NZDF could go back to making it’s own weapons and bullets (maybe even sell them to other nations) rather just buying the cheap knock offs. Plus it would be a better idea to invest in the latest gear, better to have a small quality defense force than one where the equipment is dangerous and gets New Zealanders killed i.e. helicopter crashes, vehicle crashes and faulty navy ships.
Yep, we could do with our own small arms, munitions and explosives industry.
Well, at least one magazine seems to have got it more or less right. This is the cover and this is the article.
Draco, I think that is the first analogy regarding climate change someone has posted on this site that I have completely agreed with.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7898326/Report-damns-ministry-over-security-breaches
“”I can assure people that the employment investigations will be thorough and people will be held to account for their conduct,” Boyle said.”
Except, of course, him and his mates and assorted hangers on and sychophants.
Senior official executed with mortar round
I guess that’s one way to send a message. Make your political opponent stand on a spot zeroed in by a mortar team.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9630509/North-Korean-army-minister-executed-with-mortar-round.html
The cost of climate change
The issue is that to reduce emissions would mean putting a limit on dairying and using less fossil fuels while many National MP’s have personal vested interests in promoting farming intensification and further oil and gas exploration. This essentially means that nothing will change while they’re in power because they’re selfishly putting their own investments ahead of the common good.
See Winz now investigating four senior staff members who were fully aware of the computer’s systems security failure, and that they did not tell any senior management.
Why – ????? NIMBY
The goal of staff in a dog-eat-dog organisation is not to run faster than the bear, merely to run faster than their colleagues.Â
Â
FUJIMO: feck you Jack, I’M Ok.Â
Shoving shit isn’t restricted to public institutions. The moral of the story is clear. If you get a report that says you need to do work on security, and you don’t have the ability, the time, then its essential you email the report to your betters. The question for me is did these four staff follow the policy, no surprises. If they did not (and had responsibility for security), then they should be fired. As for managers who hired them, and did not check their ability to manage risk, well they should be fired too, and when the Minister does not resign because she can’t manage the risks of shaking out the back office properly, then her boss the PM should be ousted by the party, because it makes the National party unelectable. Everyone in any middle class position knows how to shovel shit properly to keep their backsides clean, if they don’t then you’d expect there to be little regulation that inhibits people dying down mines, people dying in buildings that should not collapse, investors having their savings stolen by lackluster regulators, billions of taxes to bail out investment firms, huge indebtedness from market bubbles, and shoddy design from brick yard to suburban sprawl.
Oh, wait, that NZ isn’t it. keep churning the same anti-middle class idealists over into different positions in the public and private sector, and reap the exodus of young skilled NZ overseas…
…because change requires the whole establishment ups and sacks itself.
Bugger.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/news/business/0915taxesandeconomy.pdf
The results of the analysis suggest that changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate
and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth. The reduction in
the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment, and productivity growth. The
top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie
Why “bugger”?
   Â
Following paragraph: However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution. As measured by IRS data, the share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. At the same time, the average tax rate paid by the top 0.1% fell from over 50% in 1945 to about 25% in 2009. Tax policy could have a relation to how the economic pie is slicedâlower top tax rates may be associated with greater income disparities.”
  Â
Â
I.e. you want to do something about poverty? Key needs to pay more tax. There is no economic reason to give tax cuts to the rich, but there is a clear humanitarian reason to tax their leeching arses.Â
Tax corporate profits and assets (including financial wealth and capital); greatly relieve GST and significantly reduce the income tax burden on those earning less than $60K pa.
No sarcasm font.
Anyhoo, conclusion isn’t the right one so the report has been withdrawn.
lol
Â
and double lol đ
Occupy the mind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX5ykkS85fg&feature=plcp
Inspirational.
serendipity, or not?
my two cents worth (i’m not allowed to play on the p.c much anymore)
response to resource utilisation and climate change HAS to be personal / political; if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem.
We have so much lattitude and scope here in Aotearoa New Zealand to discern and prepare for inevitabilities at a personal level.
-land footprint
-carbon footprint
-transportation choice
-nutrition choice
-reductions
-reuses
-recyclings
-organics
-energy choice
-energy dependence
-gathering and gleaning
-water utilisation
I constantly reflect on whether my own downsizing path has been in a helpful direction, or if it is completed; the forces of propaganda are all about us, seeding self-doubt, yet, as the self-doubt sprouts, the self-examination withers.
(call me an earth-sycophant, yet it is the only service of perpetual value to our childrens’ children)
I know there are still (!) a few Trotter fans about the place. But seriously.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/because-they-can.html
A good stirring defence of the rule of law, which he makes a complete mockery of the comments by citing George W Bush legal advice about the limits of executive power ie, there aren’t any.
This isn’t ‘pre-identity politics leftism’, or ‘old school democratic socialism’. It’s pre liberalism. It’s monarchist. I don’t know actually, what the hell it is. It aint no part of nothin good anyways.
Fuck him, he speaks not for me, and he aint to be trusted people, hasn’t been for quite some time.
He’s a doublethinking duckspeaking time waster.
a politician denied
insightful
This is, IMO, a good follow up to that article.
Here is some good news.
Wanganui College is to be integrated.
That is a good use of 3 million
No wonder they had to close the special schools.
Wanganui Collegiate?
Yes, oops sorry!!
Just heard in National Radio that key,showing off in front of little teenage girls said that David Beckham,who he had met was a nice guy and quite good looking but that “he is thick!”!That little man is seriouslystupid!He appears to be very jealous of anybody who has SERIOUS money,so feels obliged to put them down. All in the best possible taste of course.
Also big boar bennett is denying any responsibility for kiosk leaks.She apparently cannot be held resposible for things she knows nothing about,even though she has “very high standards” don’t you know. Time for her to go!!……….The dream is over paula.
Its not the money, Key wishes that he was married to Victoria!
âas thick as batshitâ apparently. He quipped (as is his wont) to a group of high school pupils.
Key is all class. What a nice man to have around.
And to top it all, if a teacher was to use such language he/she would be hauled before the board fielding a complaint from some right-wing-fundamentalist parent.
Thousands of children would have loved to have had the opportunity to meet Beckham.
Because of who he is, the PMâs, son gets that privilege. And thatâs the parental gratitude.
Conversation overheard in a BMW this evening …
“Can’t recall saying that.”
“Mmmm, no acshully, I may well have said it. I’m noted for my quips. I will check to see if there were any cameras there before I completely deny it… get the names of anyone there that might have had an iPhone.
Beckham’s PR people will already be aware of our PM’s comments. Key makes NZ look like the arse end of the world.
Needs to have tourism minister taken off him for starters.
Key is the batshit one and can’t help but display it all too often,
Cheer up. Your government cares. the progress in Christchurch has been phenomenol.
http://www.national.org.nz/canterbury.aspx
Well, lots of people have left so new housing starts required are down.
I doubt it…Sell the city’s assets and build a convention centre? That’s not a plan…and the whole East side of Christchurch is quickly turning into a ghetto. Even the cop shop around the corner from me is covered in graffiti.
They say they plan gives us green spaces, but its only designed to increase property values in the CBD, benefit the rich, and excludes almost all people from living in there.
They have taken our democratic voice and are creating a corporate Christchurch.
What is there to be happy about?…anything?