Watch out for the petition from Su’a William Sio to be presented in Parliament this week, from people anxious about the East-West link. I think this is going to be quite a movement against this massive arterial/motorway, and a key organising issue leading to the election next year for southern Auckland.
+1 don’t need be vegan to be healthy but for some people it’s seems to be the only way they finally get how to do so. A bit like going gluten free did for me even though I don’t weight problem in the sense of being too heavy more not heavy enough. Of course unlike Vegans it’s not a lifestyle choice because a medical condition isn’t really a choice. Even though more crap food is becoming gluten free I built up such a great eating habit I don’t want eat that stuff.
As much as I appreciate some of the appeals of the vegan lifestyle, I personally view it as a diet of affluence even moreso than meat eating because the missing dietary requirements usually have to be met through supplements (it’s the only way I’ve ever managed it) or specific targeting of foods that aren’t easy to locally produce in any single environment.
Meat-eating is still highly intensive but I have personally found that chickens will eat your vegetable scraps and scrounge around grass/garden areas very effectively (not requiring much maintenance), provide eggs and one of the best lean meat protein sources available.
The issues with our food production is *how* we do it, not *what* we eat…
uh – I am not talking about “expense” in dollar terms. I was actually referring to the high-level technological/transport infrastructure that is required just to meet a vegan diet. It is a diet that in use only in affluent nations where the infrastructure exists to provide the necessary nutrition through more advanced means.
Sooooooo… basically you just confirmed my hypothesis. You are getting a necessary vitamin that is readily available through meat consumption from your local supermarket…
It’s what I was trying to point out – those food miles add up and they are a significant contribution to issues in the world. On top of that, these are food products available here and around the Western world in our supermarkets because we *are* affluent societies. We *can* go down to the supermarket and, as long as we have the cash, buy these things.
Others may argue about the health benefits, I could care less. I’m more concerned about the misrepresentation of veganism as a viable alternative in a low energy economy.
You might be better to follow the other part of his advice. “I was so congested from all the drugs and bad cocaine”.
Better you gave up the drugs and see how much better you will be. Why you might even get a job and get off the benefit system.
David Scott won 6 World Ironman championships as a vegan. Peter Brock is a vegan as are Mac Danzig, Ruth Heidrich and Greg Chappell just to name a few of many top vegan athletes.
And on it goes, the wailing of ex-Green Party candidate David Hay at the Party decision not to include Him on it’s 2014 Party Vote list just became farcical as Hay calls for Green Party activists and volunteers to ‘strike’ over what He sees as unwarranted treatment by the Party,
It would seem that Hay is more than happy to use the NZ Herald in what can only be described as a futile attempt to split the Party,(and the Herald will more than happily indulge Hay in His elongated hissy fit),
What the ongoing public display of child-like whining from Hay shows about Hay’s character to me is that it was the ME aspect of Hays character that lead His political ‘thinking’ and as his self advancement has been stymied He has no further use for the Party and is happy to attempt to ferment dissent within it,
My view is that the sooner the Party makes the ex-candidate an ex-member the better for all it will be…
Well said Marama, you have to wonder what irks or eats away at the mind of the David Hay’s of this world, how many candidates have put their names forward to the Green Party,(and any other for that matter),only to be rejected by a selection committee,
Zillions i would say over the decades and do they all run off to the media whining like beaten dogs over having had their ego’s bruised, like hell they do and my opinion is the well disciplined Green Party has escaped a bullet by not selecting a candidate, who by His actions has shown He cares little for the discipline or the unity of the Party,
While the Green Party sticks to both arms of it’s it’s foundation, Enviroment and Social justice and equality for all then the Parliamentary members can expect the full support of the members and quite frankly those who wish to exploit their ego driven agenda at the expense of the Party should be invited to fuck off and join Colon Craig…
The David Hay thing seems all a bit odd to me. Never heard of the guy before – so he can’t have much of a political/activist profile, even though he was on last election’s list.
And there’s been vague accusations about the GP having moved away from its core values, but nothing explicit.
OTOH, Hay has been deemed unsuitable to be on the GP list, with no clear reasons given – though Hay’s own actions in the last week make him look like he’s not GP material – all ME and little about being a team player or anything about the ways he’s working for the good of the community.
Yep a narrative for people to relate to. Different approach to well lit guys in suits saying vote for ME! Many previous candidate ads could be mistaken for network tv or radio ads. Also put spot ads on facebook.
The Green campaign a couple of elections ago using a young girl broke convention a little, ditch ad agency orthodoxy but don’t go too negative on the Key gang, go positive on Labour Green Mana–“you deserve better”.
I was wondering about the legality of signs with just a face that people hold up in the street or at at political meetings or in the background of TV interviews. Do they need an authorisation statement? I hope not, because I want to make some.
e.g. a Muldoon face in the background when Key is being interviewed on TV. I’m not actually going to do that one but you get the idea. http://i40.tinypic.com/2mdl7vr.jpg
I doubt that anything about Muldoon would really work today. I suspect that only people near retirement age actually remember him. It will be, after all, at the time of the next election, 30 years since Muldoon was PM and about 22 since he died.
Try finding someone under the age of 45, excluding the sort of people who remain glued to these blogs, who actually remembers Rob. Even the people of any age who do remember would be hard pressed to tell you anything bad about him. That is except for the ones that believe that Saint Roger Douglas cleaned up the mess Rob caused. Very old people would tell you he gave them super at 80% of the average wage and that you got it at 60, not like the 67 these evil Labour people want to impose.
No it would be a bit like saying what a terible man Forbes was as PM.
I’d say that roughly half of all voters were 45 and over. So a fair proportion of voters will remember Sir Rob. And it’d be a good political economic history lesson for the young ones.
I would say, having read many of the comments in “John Key is Rob Muldoons Doppelganger”, that most people do not remember Rob at all.
To have such a lot of people equate Key’s and Muldoon’s behaviour proves my point that people simply do not remember Rob.
In terms of their actual policy platforms Rob was very close to the currently expressed views of the Labour and Green parties. The worst thing he did for New Zealand was in his attempts to have the state control things like prices and salaries, and his attempts to pick winners in industrial companies. He also wanted the state to own many businesses and to set their policies. He also liked to force companies to do things he wanted, not things that were good for either the companies or New Zealand.
Remember supplementary minimum prices, carless days, state insurance companies, Think Big? Remember him swinging a punch at people who had heckled him (Mallard anyone)?
Sounds awfully like Norman and Cunliffe doesn’t it?
Yes, that would seem to describe them very aptly. I guess that Winston must be the last MP who entered Parliament when Rob was PM. Dunne, Goff, Mallard, McCully were all in 1984 weren’t they. None of the veteran MPs except Winnie would remember Rob in his prime.
and his attempts to pick winners in industrial companies.
Yeah and this government has been picking Warner Bros, SkyCity, Serco and a few others as winners.
Car-less days were a result of the OPEC oil reduction. Pity that they didn’t continue it – we’d have excellent public transport now.
As for state insurance companies, well, insurance is actually a natural monopoly. I know, I know, it doesn’t really seem that way as there’s plenty of companies in the market place but it’s one of those things that is what I term a demand monopoly – everybody needs it and when that happens the obvious economies of scale pertain only to a monopoly. There’s a few other reasons as well.
Think Big would have been great – if Muldoon hadn’t borrowed to build it. Just printed the money and utilised our own resources effectively. It was the borrowing that killed Think Big, not the project itself. Oh, and a fixed NZ$.
Remember him swinging a punch at people who had heckled him (Mallard anyone)?
Nope, that was Bob Jones and we all had a great laugh at it at the time.
Bob Jones certainly belted a TV reporter who chased him along the river when Bob was fishing.
However Rob did take a swing at people who were heckling him after an election meeting in Auckland. He insisted on leaving the hall by the front door and then took some swings at people in the street. He wasn’t the boxer that Bob Jones had been though so I don’t think there was any damage done. In that regard Rob was like Mallard.
Carless days were totally nuts. Muldoon was stupid enough to demand that Government owned vehicles must have their day between Monday and Friday so that it meant that some sacrifice be made. The sacrifice was the taxpayer’s of course because they then bought 25% more cars to cover the needs.
I am sure we (wife and I) were not the only ones who bought a second car when the policy came in.
I suggest that you put on your reading glasses and have another look at what I said Tracey.
I said that “… old people will tell you he GAVE them super at 80% of the average …”
I said GAVE Tracey, not STOLE. They would tell you that it was the Labour Government that stole it when they means tested it.
They are probably too complicated for a billboard. It has to be a message that people can take in within a second or two whilst driving past.
I am not going to get into a debate on them but the National party “Iwi/Kiwi” were absolutely superb in that regard. I don’t mean the content, I mean the speed with which the message could be absorbed.
I think that it would take to long to register the meaning of the billboards you are proposing.
Is the same for me. All indented left and is the same on 4 different browsers, and on 3 different computers, one a brand new win 8 machine I am building. But at least the reply is now working, hopefully.
NZ Herald editorial: anti-government regulation rant focused on core political issues /sarc.
Portable swimming pools, no wine in dairies, “anti-smacking Bill”, lightbulbs, banning cell phones while driving, compulsory immunisation, water flow in showers, – cause they limit people’s “freedom” and can have unintended consequences, especially on the “economy” (does that mean the impact on business profits?).
Still, it’s saying Key’s government is more “nanny state” than Clark’s government was.
Blubber Boy, infamous in His own bathtub,(just ask the rubber ducky about it’s treatment),has made the RadioNZ news with the defamation case,(much higher none of us could expect Him to slither),
Even Bryce Edwards, He of NZ Herald fame supports Blubber in His quest to have ‘wail oil’ taken by the Court as media,(Bryce has a point which after i have finished poking the stick i will get to),
My thoughts this morning is that the Blubber should stand up for journalistic integrity,(stop that laughter),everywhere and refuse point blank any courts order to divulge the contents of and identify His sources which lead to Him claiming that an Auckland businessman was intimately involved with Bevan Chuang,
Such a noble upholding of the journalistic ‘right’ to protect a ‘source’ in the face of the power of the judiciary would probably,(hopefully), result in Blubber Boy getting tossed in a jail cell and we might see a ‘Free the whale’ campaign start someplace,(go on Bryce make our day), while the rest of us sit around and laugh like loons as Blubber Boy eats cold wheat-bix in a jail cell where most of us think He belongs anyway,
Oh and befor i forget, Bryce’s point about Blubber being ‘media’, it appears in this latest of court appearences,(serial offender or what),Blubber is being told by the Court that He aint ‘media’, however, in a previous case the offending offensive one was told after He published the name of someone who the Court had given name suppression that ‘wail oil’ was ‘media’,
Seems at the least to be a little 2 faced by the judiciary, and damn i really want to see Him swing…
[Agreed bad12 and I have just posted about this – MS]
i never read whaleoil..(haven’t for at least a couple of yrs..i think..i stopped over the postings of pics of severed heads of animals he has slaughtered..)
..and i may be one of the few who have not read the (so i’m told) gripping/detailed accounts of len browns’ jism/seed/bodily-functions..(and no thank you..i’ll maintain that innocence..if you don’t mind..)
..but i am feeling uncomfortable over a court deciding what is or what isn’t ‘media’..
..and i see that ruling as a total orifice-pluck on the part of that judge..
..however much individuals may criticise slater for his choices of material/uses of that media..
..he..much as ‘truth’ was..is definitely part of the new media landscape..
Agreed. pu. I also don’t read WO and haven’t read all that spurious Len Brown stuff. But am also not comfortable with the court ruling on what is media – especially given the current sad state of a lot of our so-called press and news media.
Nor me (1 ever visit to the wallowing Whale, and another to a site operated by some sort of Penguin – both by links from this site me thinks).
I’m confident – relaxed even, that I’m not missing too much. The right wing view comes from various “horses’ mouths”.
Strangely enough, they all seem very similar, as though they were singing some sort of chorus. Even the new lingo is the same. Where is it they face? – it’s not Mecca …. Helensville perhaps?, or maybe the direction of the nearest talk-back radio transmitter.
The media issue, I assume is important because if he is media he can rely on public interest but does the press have an obligation to research, avoid bias, and report any surrounding circumstances, would it include an obligation to at least put the allegations to them before publishing and print their response?
Does the public interest have to be significant, and is it objective or subjective?
If Whaleoil’s sources are not protected, is anyone writing on The Standard protected?
With a slippery slope argument arriving any minute, let me put the question:
If being a “news distributor” is the principle criteria for protecting source anonymity, could all contributors to The Standard be revealed if required to do so?
Whaleoil’s (uncomfortable) interests are pretty similar to ours.
Try pressing Shift + Refresh (the circled arrow). THis should force your browser(s) to reload the style sheets.
There was a problem retransferring the DNS over the weekend. I was down with a dose of the flu (still am a bit) and didn’t deal with it early enough and then made a screwup on the time to live.
Quick note to McFlock, Karol, Weka, Bill, Rogue, Puddleglum….just reread the whole thread on 29 November Open Mike 18-18.5.1.1.1.2 excellent reading. Really enjoyed the insights and the easy debate. We may differ, disagree etc but hell , that’s one hell of a good read. Thank you all.
Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. (Proverbs 23:29)
Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. (John 19:29)
Although he promptly dropped dead afterwards, so the term “vinegar” might genuinely imply something even less palatable than a Central Otago vanity plonk.
Life in the 21st century western style (USA version). I just heard some consumer related news on Radionz item. Thanksgiving day trading, some stores have opened for the first time. 10 million transactions in one day I think. $54 billion I think taken. Protests by workers wanting more pay outside Walmart.
The old kaleidoscope effect. Every time you shake it and look at it you get a different colour, perspective. Some in my family support NACTs. Looking at the same happenings in NZ we think about them entirely differently.
Concerned about the Auckland ‘daft lunatic Plan’ and ‘democracy for developers’?
Live in the Eden-Albert area?
Seen this?
“You are welcome to attend a Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan Public Meeting.
There will be a Presentation on the Notified Unitary Plan by independent planner David Wren – with particular emphasis on Albert-Eden area and topics which are likely to be of interest to locals.
David Wren will speak for about 40 minutes followed by plenty of time for questions and answers.
Date: Saturday 7 December 2013
Time: 9.30am to 12 Noon (doors open at 9.30am and there is access to displays in the lobby and opportunities to discuss issues prior to the main presentation).
Venue: Mt Eden War Memorial Hall, The Chamber Room, 489 Dominion Road, BALMORAL”
____________________________________________________________________________
and while I’m here,
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of (philosopher? ) kings”- 25:2.
Now, away to a tangi, people die, very moving.
Great listening on RadioLive right now – Cameron Slater and Michelle Boag arguing because he called her a lying poisonous scumbag, which is in itself ironic coming from someone like Slater. Also, Michelle once again stated that Slater is an ACC beneficiary, which is another irony when his favourite sport is beneficiary bashing.
So far the greatest number of ‘likes’ on the NZ Herald for New Zealander of the Year article have gone to Graham McCready for taking a private prosecution against the ‘Not-So-Honorable’ John Banks – ACT Leader and MP for Epsom!
todays’ revelations are about/detail how australian spooks/govt offered unlimited raw data on australian citizens to their five eyes partners..to do with what they wished..
..whoar..!..eh..?..
..i wonder when our revelation will happen..?
..and is helen clark ‘sweating’ at all on these upcoming revelations..over there in noo yawk…?
NR radio again. Imagine again that NR decries the lack of factual correctness on the internet. Yet a smidgen of common sense would stop a guest from spouting nonsense. Its known that the firepower of an army is key to its success, that soldiers are trained in rapid accurate fire, so when a former top shot in the US marines guns down the president, looking down on a log slow moving cavalcade in Texas, is it any wonder Oswald got three shots off. You can imagine the jokes had he missed, former Marine couldn’t shoot diddly. So to my surprise NR guest declares he couldn’t believe that a lone gun man could of gotten three shots off in quick succession. Has the man never seen war movies of lines of muskets, highly trained to do just that, rapid fire. No, imagination mixed with common sense is not a requirement in a guest on Moro.
Cycling past this exit onto a cycle way, and keep meeting these aggressive drivers. Well turns out they were likely exiting a gym, didn’t make the connection until I heard about hormone abuses. I wonder do police stats show more accidents near gyms?
I recently had the pleasure of driving from Wellington to Auckland.
To maintain my sanity and ensure I didn’t do anything stupid like fall asleep at the wheel I divided the trip into 3 sections over 2 days.
As a quick aside, I totally recommend checking out any one of the short walks in Tongariro National Park, it was my best stop of the trip.
The traffic and behaviour of other drivers was pretty good right up until I hit the Bombay Hills. The increase of frequency of aggresive, rude and plain dangerous driving was stark.
I saw one incident of a frustrated driver shortly before I left Wellington compared to almost a dozen between Bombay and Glen Eden.
I ride a pushbike on almost a daily basis in Auckland so I am used to psychotic drivers, but this experience highlighted just how normalised bad driving is in Auckland compared to other cities and towns in New Zealand.
Hehe. Your comment brings to mind this piece that starts off:
“My gym has begun to sound like the set of a porno. So much grunting and heaving and panting. It reverberates around the room in a testosterone-laden symphony of man clownery.
“I’ve had enough. Grunty bloke, it’s time to shut up. I’m fairly certain I work out just as hard, yet you don’t hear me groaning like a constipated caveman on steroids every time I break a sweat.
“Women deliver babies with less fuss than the way you puff and whine through a bicep curl.
“Unless you’re attempting to pass a bowling ball through the tip of your urethra there’s really no reason for all the noise.
“And I’m not buying your ”but grunting makes me stronger” nonsense.”
Coming up on the Panel this afternoon: Neil Miller and Jordan Williams
Another black day for Radio New Zealand National
Monday, 2 December 2013
Miller is a smug and conceited git who is on record touting the racist right wing “humorist” P.J. O’Rourke as his favorite writer. If Miller stuck to beer assessing, then he would be sufferable, if only just sufferable. Unfortunately, he tends to veer into political commentary, but he knows little about anything other than beer.[1] Jordan Williams is a junior colleague of the infamous ex-ACT M.P. and S.S. spokesman Stephen Franks, and is becoming well known to Panel listeners as a pretentious but shallow commentator—very like Franks and Miller, in fact. So far, Williams’ most infamously stupid contribution—and there are many to choose from—remains this classic, uttered on the Panel a couple of months ago: “Capping rents seems like a recipe for disaster”. [2]
So look at what’s happened, whether accidentally or not: two government-friendly right wing commentators appear on the day that another right wing commentator, Cameron Slater, is one of the major topics of discussion. That represents another minor victory for the beleaguered National-led regime, which needs all the help it can get after the disaster (for National) in Christchurch over the weekend. But it represents another body-blow to the credibility of Radio New Zealand National.
Speaking right now is another guest on the programme—-Garth “The Knife” McVicar. By way of some kind of justification for giving this bloodthirsty lout airtime, Mora prefaced his appearance by saying this: “Okay, we’ve had CRIMINOLOGISTS on the programme before….”
So treating violent psychopaths like McVicar respectfully is some kind of balancing manoeuvre.
..was how mora just sat by and let that clown mcvicar deny the provable-facts of the drop in crime here..
..(a drop that is but an echo of the international trend of sharply dropping rates of crime..)..
..mora makes no mention of that international trend echo..(does he not know..?..could someone tell him..?
..if he does know..?..huh..!..)
..why does he/mora just let these outright/easily provable lies go uncalled/unquestioned..?
..he does himself no favours by doing this..
..today i linked to a story on how sweden is closing four of their prisons..
..a combination of those dropping rates..and the swedish focus on rehabilitation..instead of being solely focused on retribution..as is practised here..
..i noted at the foot of that story/link..how at a time when sweden is closing four prisons..
..we are building a new super-prison..
..have handed our prison system over to the american private industry model..(now there’s a success story/role-model..eh..?..that american prison system..)
..and the cherry on top of this cake of fucken wrongheaded-incompetence/ignorance..
..is that the govt has signed contracts with these private prison spivs..
..guaranteeing to supply enough prisoners to fill their prisons..(!)
..now..that just fucken bends my head out of shape..that prisoner-guarantee..
Had to laugh at the “highbrow???” of Mensa Mora’s Mucky Show 4-5 pm today. The Mad Machiavellian Miller crapping on about whom, according to his girlfriend and others, he resembles.
James McOnie and someone else and someone else apparently. One only has to Google a pic of said Mad Miller to know that the most striking likeness is to – wait for it – SlaterPorn. There must be whakapapa !
Thought about you with anticipation Morrissey as in the course of a three hour plus drive home to the North I listened to the fascinatingly gross right wing fucks Jordan Williams, Mad Miller, and Garth McVictim. Gushingly hosted by The Nicest Man On Earth. Truly incredible !
A passing comment by Mad Miller suggests he might’ve been a late call to today’s Mucky Show – you may well be correct in your suspicion that a troika of outlandish right wingers was rapidly assembled to provide “balance” in the wake of the Christchurch result.
A passing comment by Mad Miller suggests he might’ve been a late call to today’s Mucky Show
Miller replaced Mai Chen at the last moment. It’s a pity, because she has shown a willingness to contest lazy ideologists in the past. Her absence ensured that Jordan Williams got (yet another) free ride.
– you may well be correct in your suspicion that a troika of outlandish right wingers was rapidly assembled to provide “balance” in the wake of the Christchurch result.
As bad as Neil Miller and Jordan Williams are, what I found utterly insulting was bringing on that S.S. obergruppenführer to “discuss” law and order. Surely, if McVicar is acceptable to the producers of this programme, then Kyle Chapman has to be consulted next time the Panel has a discussion about arson.
Probably already covered somewhere above but don’t have time to check – who would have thought it – forgive me the following words we’re not allowed to use – “G….y” Herald caning “N…y” National ???
The award for MSM capabilities in photojournalism goes to ……
c a m e r o n b u r r r N E L L ! ! ! for
“Turning the Sod”
(unassisted – the guy rolls over all on his own)
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It’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kaka. Jump on this link for our chat about the week’s news with special guests Auckland Central MP Chloe Swarbrick and Auckland City Councillor Julie Fairey, including:Auckland’s catastrophic floods, which ...
In March last year, in a panic over rising petrol prices caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the government made a poor decision, "temporarily" cutting fuel excise tax by 25 cents a litre. Of course, it turned out not to be temporary at all, having been extended in May, July, ...
This month’s open thread for climate related topics. Please be constructive, polite, and succinct. The post Unforced variations: Feb 2023 first appeared on RealClimate. ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two fresh press releases had been posted when we checked the Beehive website at noon, both of them posted yesterday. In one statement, in the runup to Waitangi Day, Maori Crown Relations Minister Kelvin Davis drew attention to happenings on a Northland battle site in 1845. ...
It’s that time of the week again when I’m on the site for an hour for a chat in an Ask Me Anything with paying subscribers to The Kaka. Jump in for a chat on anything, including:Auckland’s catastrophic floods, which are set to cost insurers and the Government well over ...
Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers (left) has published a 6,000 word manifesto called ‘Capitalism after the Crises’ arguing for ‘values-based capitalism’. Yet here in NZ we hear the same stale old rhetoric unchanged from the 1990s and early 2000s. Photo: Getty ImagesTLDR: The rest of the world is talking about inflation ...
A couple of weeks ago, after NCEA results came out, my son’s enrolment at Auckland Uni for this year was confirmed - he is doing a BSc majoring in Statistics. Well that is the plan now, who knows what will take his interest once he starts.I spent a bit of ...
Kia ora. What a week! We hope you’ve all come through last weekend’s extreme weather event relatively dry and safe. Header image: stormwater ponds at Hobsonville Point. Image via Twitter. The week in Greater Auckland There’s been a storm of information and debate since the worst of the flooding ...
Hi,At 4.43pm yesterday it arrived — a cease and desist letter from the guy I mentioned in my last newsletter. I’d written an article about “WEWE”, a global multi-level marketing scam making in-roads into New Zealand. MLMs are terrible for many of the same reasons megachurches are terrible, and I ...
Time To Call A Halt: Chris Hipkins knows that iwi leaders possess the means to make life very difficult for his government. Notwithstanding their objections, however, the Prime Minister’s direction of travel – already clearly signalled by his very public demotion of Nanaia Mahuta – must be confirmed by an emphatic ...
Open access notables Via PNAS, Ceylan, Anderson & Wood present a paper squarely in the center of the Skeptical Science wheelhouse: Sharing of misinformation is habitual, not just lazy or biased. The signficance statement is obvious catnip: Misinformation is a worldwide concern carrying socioeconomic and political consequences. What drives ...
Mark White from the Left free speech organisation Plebity looks at the disturbing trend of ‘book burning’ on US campuses In the abstract, people mostly agree that book banning is a bad thing. The Nazis did us the favor of being very clear about it and literally burning books, but ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has undergone a stern baptisim of fire in his first week in his new job, but it doesn’t get any easier. Next week, he has a vital meeting in Canberra with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese, where he has to establish ...
As PM Chris Hipkins says, it’s a “no brainer” to extend the fuel tax cut, half price public subsidy and the cut to the road user levy until mid-year. A no braoner if the prime purpose is to ease the burden on people struggling to cope with the cost of ...
Buzz from the Beehive Cost-of-living pressures loomed large in Beehive announcements over the past 24 hours. The PM was obviously keen to announce further measures to keep those costs in check and demonstrate he means business when he talks of focusing his government on bread-and-butter issues. His statement was headed ...
Poor Mike Hosking. He has revealed himself in his most recent diatribe to be one of those public figures who is defined, not by who he is, but by who he isn’t, or at least not by what he is for, but by what he is against. Jacinda’s departure has ...
New Zealand is the second least corrupt country on earth according to the latest Corruption Perception Index published yesterday by Transparency International. But how much does this reflect reality? The problem with being continually feted for world-leading political integrity – which the Beehive and government departments love to boast about ...
TLDR: Including my pick of the news and other links in my checks around the news sites since 4am. Paying subscribers can see them all below the fold.In Aotearoa’s political economyBrown vs Fish Read more ...
TLDR: Including my pick of the news and other links in my checks around the news sites since 4am. Paying subscribers can see them all below the fold.In Aotearoa’s political economyBrown vs Fish Read more ...
In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
Transport Minister and now also Minister for Auckland, Michael Wood has confirmed that the light rail project is part of the government’s policy refocus. Wood said the light rail project was under review as part of a ministerial refocus on key Government projects. “We are undertaking a stocktake about how ...
Sometime before the new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced that this year would be about “bread and butter issues”, National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis decided to move from Wellington Central and stand for Ohariu, which spreads across north Wellington from the central city to Johnsonville and Tawa. It’s an ...
They say a week is a long time in politics. For Mayor Wayne Brown, turns out 24 hours was long enough for many of us to see, quite obviously, “something isn’t right here…”. That in fact, a lot was going wrong. Very wrong indeed.Mainly because it turns ...
One of the most effective, and successful, graphics developed by Skeptical Science is the escalator. The escalator shows how global surface temperature anomalies vary with time, and illustrates how "contrarians" tend to cherry-pick short time intervals so as to argue that there has been no recent warming, while "realists" recognise ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Tomorrow we have a funeral, and thank you all of you for your very kind words and thoughts — flowers, even.Our friend Michèle messaged: we never get to feel one thing at a time, us grownups, and oh boy is that ever the truth. Tomorrow we have the funeral, and ...
Lynn and I have just returned from a news conference where Hipkins, fresh from visiting a relief centre in Mangere, was repeatedly challenged to justify the extension of subsidies to create more climate emissions when the effects of climate change had just proved so disastrous. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The ...
Lynn and I have just returned from a news conference where Hipkins, fresh from visiting a relief centre in Mangere, was repeatedly challenged to justify the extension of subsidies to create more climate emissions when the effects of climate change had just proved so disastrous. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The ...
A new Prime Minister, a revitalised Cabinet, and possibly revised priorities – but is the political and, importantly, economic landscape much different? Certainly some within the news media were excited by the changes which Chris Hipkins announced yesterday or – before the announcement – by the prospect of changes in ...
Currently the government's strategy for reducing transport emissions hinges on boosting vehicle fuel-efficiency, via the clean car standard and clean car discount, and some improvements to public transport. The former has been hugely successful, and has clearly set us on the right path, but its also not enough, and will ...
Buzz from the Beehive Before he announced his Cabinet yesterday, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced he would be flying to Australia next week to meet that country’s Prime Minister. And before Kieran McAnulty had time to say “Three Waters” after his promotion to the Local Government portfolio, he was dishing ...
The quarterly labour market statistics were released this morning, showing that unemployment has risen slightly to 3.4%. There are now 99,000 people unemployed - 24,000 fewer than when Labour took office. So, I guess the Reserve Bank's plan to throw people out of work to stop wage rises "inflation", and ...
Another night of heavy rain, flooding, damage to homes, and people worried about where the hell all this water is going to go as we enter day twenty two of rain this year.Honestly if the government can’t sell Three Waters on the back of what has happened with storm water ...
* Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular reforms in water and DHB centralisation ...
Hi,It’s weird to me that in 2023 we still have people falling for multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs for short). There are Netflix documentaries about them, countless articles, and last year we did an Armchaired and Dangerous episode on them.Then you check a ticketing website like EventBrite and see this shit ...
Nanaia Mahuta fell the furthest in the Cabinet reshuffle. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: PM Chris Hipkins unveiled a Cabinet this afternoon he hopes will show wavering voters that a refreshed Labour Government is focused on ‘bread and butter cost of living’ issues, rather than the unpopular, unwieldy and massively centralising ...
Nanaia Mahuta fell the furthest in the Cabinet reshuffle. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: PM Chris Hipkins unveiled a Cabinet this afternoon he hopes will show wavering voters that a refreshed Labour Government is focused on ‘bread and butter cost of living’ issues, rather than the unpopular, unwieldy and massively centralising ...
Shortly, the absolute state of Wayne Brown. But before that, something I wrote four years ago for the council’s own media machine. It was a day-in-the-life profile of their many and varied and quite possibly unnoticed vital services. We went all over Auckland in 48 hours for the story, the ...
Completed reads for January Lilith, by George MacDonald The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (poem), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel (poem), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok, by Anonymous The Lay of Kraka (poem), by Anonymous 1066 and All That, by W.C. Sellar and R.J. ...
Pity the poor Brits. They just can’t catch a break. After years of reporting of lying Boris Johnson, a change to a less colourful PM in Rishi Sunak has resulted in a smooth media pivot to an end-of-empire narrative. The New York Times, no less, amplifies suggestions that Blighty ...
On that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth.Genesis 6:11-12THE TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS that dumped a record-breaking amount of rain on Auckland this anniversary weekend will reoccur with ever-increasing frequency. The planet’s atmosphere is ...
Buzz from the Beehive There has been plenty to keep the relevant Ministers busy in flood-stricken Auckland over the past day or two. But New Zealand, last time we looked, extends north of Auckland into Northland and south of the Bombay Hills all the way to the bottom of the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters When early settlers came to the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers before the California Gold Rush, Indigenous people warned them that the Sacramento Valley could become an inland sea when great winter rains came. The storytellers described water filling the ...
Wayne Brown managed a smile when meeting with Remuera residents, but he was grumpy about having to deal with “media drongos”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: In my pick of the news links found in my rounds since 4am for paying subscribers below the paywall:Wayne Brown moans about the media and ...
Wayne Brown managed a smile when meeting with Remuera residents, but he was grumpy about having to deal with “media drongos”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: In my pick of the news links found in my rounds since 4am for paying subscribers below the paywall:Wayne Brown moans about the media and ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Last night’s opinion polls answered the big question of whether a switch of prime minister would really be a gamechanger for election year. The 1News and Newshub polls released at 6pm gave the same response: the shift from Jacinda Ardern to Chris Hipkins ...
Kia ora e te whānau. Today, we mark the anniversary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi - and our commitment to working in partnership with Māori to deliver better outcomes and tackle the big issues, together. ...
We’ve just announced a massive infrastructure investment to kick-start new housing developments across New Zealand. Through our Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, we’re making sure that critical infrastructure - like pipes, roads and wastewater connections - is in place, so thousands more homes can be built. ...
The Green Party is joining more than 20 community organisations to call for an immediate rent freeze in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, after reports of landlords intending to hike rents after flooding. ...
When Chris Hipkins took on the job of Prime Minister, he said bread and butter issues like the cost of living would be the Government’s top priority – and this week, we’ve set out extra support for families and businesses. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to provide direct support to low-income households and to stop subsidising fossil fuels during a climate crisis. ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
An historic Northland pā site with links to Ngāpuhi chief Hongi Hika is to be handed back to iwi, after collaboration by government, private landowners and local hapū. “It is fitting that the ceremony for the return of the Pākinga Pā site is during Waitangi weekend,” said Regional Development Minister ...
The Government is investing in a suite of initiatives to unlock Māori and Pacific resources, talent and knowledge across the science and research sector, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Two new funds – He tipu ka hua and He aka ka toro – set to ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for India tomorrow as she continues to reconnect Aotearoa New Zealand to the world. The visit will begin in New Delhi where the Foreign Minister will meet with the Vice President Hon Jagdeep Dhankar and her Indian Government counterparts, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and ...
Over $10 million infrastructure funding to unlock housing in Whangārei The purchase of a 3.279 hectare site in Kerikeri to enable 56 new homes Northland becomes eligible for $100 million scheme for affordable rentals Multiple Northland communities will benefit from multiple Government housing investments, delivering thousands of new homes for ...
The Government is supporting one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most significant historic sites, the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, as it continues to recover from the impacts of COVID-19. “The Waitangi Treaty Grounds are a taonga that we should protect and look after. This additional support will mean people can continue to ...
A memorial event at a key battle site in the New Zealand land wars is an important event to mark the progress in relations between Māori and the Crown as we head towards Waitangi Day, Minister for Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis said. The Battle of Ohaeawai in June 1845 saw ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 54 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. The graduation ceremony for Recruit Wing 362 at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua was the first official event for Stuart Nash since his reappointment as Police ...
The Government is unlocking an additional $700,000 in support for regions that have been badly hit by the recent flooding and storm damage in the upper North Island. “We’re supporting the response and recovery of Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland, and Bay of Plenty regions, through activating Enhanced Taskforce Green to ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has welcomed the announcement that Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand this month. “Princess Anne is travelling to Aotearoa at the request of the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief, to ...
A new Government and industry strategy launched today has its sights on growing the value of New Zealand’s horticultural production to $12 billion by 2035, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said. “Our food and fibre exports are vital to New Zealand’s economic security. We’re focussed on long-term strategies that build on ...
25 cents per litre petrol excise duty cut extended to 30 June 2023 – reducing an average 60 litre tank of petrol by $17.25 Road User Charge discount will be re-introduced and continue through until 30 June Half price public transport fares extended to the end of June 2023 saving ...
The strong economy has attracted more people into the workforce, with a record number of New Zealanders in paid work and wages rising to help with cost of living pressures. “The Government’s economic plan is delivering on more better-paid jobs, growing wages and creating more opportunities for more New Zealanders,” ...
The Government is providing a further $1 million to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. “Cabinet today agreed that, given the severity of the event, a further $1 million contribution be made. Cabinet wishes to be proactive ...
The new Cabinet will be focused on core bread and butter issues like the cost of living, education, health, housing and keeping communities and businesses safe, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “We need a greater focus on what’s in front of New Zealanders right now. The new Cabinet line ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will travel to Canberra next week for an in person meeting with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. “The trans-Tasman relationship is New Zealand’s closest and most important, and it was crucial to me that my first overseas trip as Prime Minister was to Australia,” Chris Hipkins ...
The Government is providing establishment funding of $100,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “We moved quickly to make available this funding to support Aucklanders while the full extent of the damage is being assessed,” Kieran McAnulty ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
I was told to avoid gluten. I was told it was all in my head. When 10% of women experience endometriosis, why does it take so long for its classic symptoms to be recognised? It was 2011 when I had my first period. It felt like a very exciting moment ...
In Canberra Chris Hipkins has touched down in Australia’s capital – his first overseas visit since becoming prime minister just three weeks ago. After disembarking from the Airforce Boeing, Hipkins was greeted by his former caucus colleague and current high commissioner to Australia, Dame Annette King. The pair hugged on ...
The rise of TikTok-inspired ‘algospeak’ is making online communication even more of a nightmare, writes SYSCA‘s Lucy Blakiston.This is an excerpt from the Shit You Should Care About daily newsletter – sign up here.Content warning: sexual assault The other day I was chatting with a friend about algospeak – ...
School, finally, is back this week in the nation’s largest city to howls of relief from many parents and (one hopes) some students also. Yet the resumption of normal service shouldn’t obscure a curious inconsistency. The past few weeks have shown ...
MediaRoom column: On the eve of a Cabinet decision on the fate of the proposed public broadcasting merger, questions emerge over the engagement by the TVNZ chief executive of two former National government aides to change the narrative and push TVNZ's view on the Government's plan Within weeks of taking over ...
Olivia Sisson performs a good old-fashioned cost comparison – and it might change the way you buy your veges.The price of food in New Zealand is shocking. So, how to cope? The recommendations are starting to feel like the avo-toast-flat-white trope. Cut those items out and there it is, ...
An early morning fire at an egg-laying farm in Orini, Waikato yesterday has claimed the lives of at least 50,000 hens. The farm is operated by New Zealand’s largest egg producer Zeagold, the country’s biggest egg producer, whose eggs are sold under ...
The Natural and Built Environment Bill and Spatial Planning Bill will make resource management issues worse and should be withdrawn, Federated Farmers has told the Environment Select Committee. "Farmers agree the costly, slow and unpredictable processes ...
New police minister Stuart Nash has met with new health minister Ayesha Verrall to talk about the issue with the aim of preventing ram raids. Nash wants to speed up the scheduled reduction of dairies that can sell cigarettes. Nash made the comments at a police graduation ceremony in Porirua last ...
It’s Tuesday, February 7 and welcome to a special edition of The Spinoff’s live updates. Stewart Sowman-Lund will be on the ground in Canberra today as PM Chris Hipkins meets with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese. What you need to know Chris Hipkins will meet Australian PM ...
Politicking by politicians was less overt but whether there was less politics probably depends on your definition of the word and what lay beneath the optics, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Why is it becoming harder to achieve debt-free status? Money Sweetspot is a new company that uses compassion and incentives to help people pay off their debts. Co-founder Sasha Lockley talks to Simon about using gamification to increase financial literacy, breaking the cycle of poverty, and how she intends to ...
Prime minister Chris Hipkins is heading to Australia today for his first face-to-face meeting with an international leader. He’ll be meeting with Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese during his single-day visit to Canberra. The Spinoff live updates will be on the ground in Australia as the meeting takes place and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By C Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney Pexels/Uriel Mont The question of whether and to what extent face masks work to prevent respiratory infections such as COVID and influenza ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Mackinnon, Professor and Director, Centre for Clean Energy Technologies and Practices, Queensland University of Technology Superconducting cables transmit electicity without lossesShutterstock For most of us, transmitting power is an invisible part of modern life. You flick the switch and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Munro, Professor, Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University Shutterstock Many students are returning to school this year face a renewed focus on grammar. Just before Christmas, the NSW curriculum was overhauled to include the “explicit teaching of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debra Dudek, Associate professor, School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University Universal Life is full of surprises – some pleasant and some painful – but there can be no surprises without expectations. We expect the sun to come up ...
News stories have honed in on the fact Wayne Brown and his staff were left off a ‘vital’ email distribution list on the night of the Auckland floods. But internal emails from the mayor’s chief of staff show he was getting regular briefings from officials.Internal council emails obtained by ...
In a reality shaped by climate crisis, how do you think and feel about the changed present – and the changing future – without spiralling into despair?In the midst of a flood there’s not much time to think about the future. But when the water recedes, the reality of ...
06 Feb The news today of the death of 75,000 chickens at an egg farm in Waikato is yet another outrageous and avoidable tragedy. “The fact that so many hens died in this fire in the Waikato is a testament to the systemic neglect and disregard ...
Lawmakers are being urged to bridge the legal and scientific divide over braided rivers. David Williams reports What is a river? More particularly, what is a braided river? An expert group known as The Land The Law Forgot is urging politicians considering the Natural and Built Environment Bill – one ...
Confidence from US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell kept markets buoyant. But mortgage payments and job losses could dampen consumer spending in NZ ...
Someone left the Swift out in the rain - insurance agents are overloaded with calls about flood-damaged vehicles It’s been a big week for testing the submarining abilities of the family station wagon. Thousands of cars around the upper North Island have been written off following the devastating floods of ...
The first of the air force's new Poseidon aircraft has landed in New Zealand. But is this the sort of workhorse the military needs? Our old heroes of the Air Force, the P-3 Orions, have retired after 56 years of service - and the first of the flash new Poseidon ...
Chris Hipkins’ first overseas trip as Prime Minister comes on relatively friendly territory. But while there have been marked improvements in the trans-Tasman relationship since a change in Canberra, there is still plenty to discuss, as Sam Sachdeva writes In many ways, it is fitting Chris Hipkins should make Australia the ...
Fiordland National Park is the crowning jewel of our national parks and arguably our greatest tourist magnet. But conservationists warn that marine life has been put at risk because the park’s waters are unprotected. Heidi Bendikson’s investigation shows they are right. Tourists on the 'M.V Sinbad' clamber to the bow to ...
As Auckland copes with unprecedented flooding, Mairi Jay points to lessons from extreme weather events in British Columbia that could be vitally important for policy-makers and administrators here “Expect extreme weather events” the climate scientists tell us. But sometimes the extreme is beyond our imagining. On Thursday January 26, New Zealand’s Met Service predicted ...
UK and US deals for NZ novels Three of the best New Zealand novels of recent years are about to be published in the UK and the US. All three books – She's a Killer by Kirsten McDougall, Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly, and The New Animals ...
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RNZ News New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has described today’s Waitangi Day dawn service as moving and says he welcomes the shift away from a focus on politics. Hundreds of people gathered before dawn to commemorate 183 years since Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed. Hipkins said the national ...
By Hilaire Bule, RNZ Pacific Vanuatu correspondent in Port Vila Vanuatu’s prime minister has stressed any future employment within the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Secretariat must be from MSG member countries. Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau, who is also chair of the MSG Secretariat, made the statement following the recruitment of ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Yamin Kogoya On Friday 10 February 2023, it will be one month since the Papua Governor Lukas Enembe was “kidnapped” at a local restaurant during his lunch hour by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and security forces. The crisis began in September 2022, when Governor Enembe was ...
By Kālino Lātū, editor of Kaniva News Dr Sitiveni Halapua, former deputy leader of Tonga’s Democratic Movement, has died aged 74. Born on February 13, 1949, he was a respected academic, a pioneer of Tonga’s democratic reforms and pioneer of a conflict resolution system based on traditional practices. Halapua earned ...
COMMENTARY:By Richard Naidu in Suva Five weeks on from Christmas Eve, I think most of us are still a bit stunned at what has happened in Fiji. A new government came to power in dramatic circumstances. It took not one but two Sodelpa management board meetings to change it, ...
By Red Tsounga Another house done, and onto the next . . . Volunteers working in Mount Roskill community over the past few days helping those suffering from Auckland’s flash flood devastation have done us proud. Tremendous work by everybody. Here are some random photos of our volunteer teams on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Mick Tsikas/AAP Senator Lidia Thorpe announced on Monday that she would be leaving the Greens. Thorpe had split with the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis B. Desmond, Lecturer, Cyberintelligence and Cybercrime Investigations, University of the Sunshine Coast The news of a so-called “Chinese spy balloon” being shot down over the US has reignited interest in how nation-states spy on one another. It’s not confirmed that the ...
Today, at a Waitangi ki Waititi concert hosted by Te Whānau o Waipareira at Hoani Waititi Marae, West Auckland; Takutai Moana Natasha Kemp was officially announced as Te Pāti Māori Candidate for Tāmaki Makaurau for the 2023 Election. Hailing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Daniel Pockett/AAP Victorian Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe has defected from the Greens to sit on the crossbench, declaring she wants to fully represent the “Blak Sovereign Movement” in parliament. The announcement by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Daniel Pockett/AAP Victorian Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe has defected from the Greens to sit on the crossbench, declaring she wants to fully represent the “Blak Sovereign Movement” in parliament. The announcement by ...
Sure, Scotty Morrison’s Māori At Work is a wonderful resource for Aotearoa’s collective te reo Māori journey. But is it judgemental enough for the modern office environment?First published September 12 2019 The growing strength of te reo is palpable across Aotearoa, with record numbers of people participating in Mahuru ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Mills, Professor and Dean La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University Shutterstock It can be tough to access front-line health care outside the cities and suburbs. For the seven million Australians living in rural communities there are significant ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Donald Rothwell, Professor of International Law, Australian National University Chad Fish/AP Was the balloon that suddenly appeared over the US last week undertaking surveillance? Or was it engaging in research, as China has claimed? While the answers to these ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Walker-Munro, Senior Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The generative AI industry will be worth about A$22 trillion by 2030, according to the CSIRO. These systems – of which ChatGPT is currently the best known – can write ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Doug Drury, Professor/Head of Aviation, CQUniversity Australia Shutterstock When booking a flight, do you ever think about which seat will protect you the most in an emergency? Probably not. Most people book seats for comfort, such as leg room, ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has described this morning's Waitangi dawn service as moving and says he welcomes the shift away from a focus on politics. ...
Screenwriter Dana Leaming’s debut comedy series Not Even is out now on Prime and Neon. This is the out the gate story of how it got there.Kia ora, Hi, What up? Up to? U up? …I’m Dana. I wrote and co-directed (with Ainsley Gardiner) the TV show Not Even ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Mick Tsikas/AAP A federal Newspoll, conducted February 1-4 from a sample of 1,512, gave Labor a 55-45 lead, unchanged on ...
The Human Rights Commission, Te Kāhui Tika Tangata, last week released two reports on racism and the impact of colonialism in Aotearoa. Among their many insights was the necessity of a wider understanding of how racism manifests itself. I was honoured to accept an invitation by Te Kāhui Tika Tangata ...
Vincent O’Malley reviews a history of the battle of Gate Pā.First published February 5, 2019 Head up Cameron Road, one of Tauranga’s main arterial routes, a few kilometres out of the city centre and you drive over one of New Zealand’s most important historical sites. The road, named after ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Murray Goot, Emeritus Professor of Politics and International Relations, Macquarie University Support for embedding an Indigenous Voice to parliament in the Constitution has fallen. The polls provide good evidence once you work out how to find it. However, the voters who have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Doug Drury, Professor/Head of Aviation, CQUniversity Australia Shutterstock When booking a flight, do you ever think about which seat will protect you the most in an emergency? Probably not. Most people book seats for comfort, such as leg room, or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Libby Rumpff, Senior Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne David Crosling/AAP The Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20 were cataclysmic: a landmark in Australia’s environmental history. They burnt more than 10 million hectares, mostly forests in southeast Australia. Many of our most ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Grové, Fulbright Scholar and Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Monash University Anete Lusina/Pexels School attendance levels in Australia are a massive issue according to Education Minister Jason Clare. As he told reporters last week, he hopes to talk to state colleagues ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marion Terrill, Transport and Cities Program Director, Grattan Institute Revising the generous fuel tax credits given to businesses should be a priority for the Albanese government, because keeping them would conflict with two other pressing priorities: reducing carbon emissions and repairing the ...
For nine years he steered the ship he built, but last week Duncan Greive announced his surprise resignation as CEO of The Spinoff. He joins guest host, Jane Yee, to discuss how doing things differently took The Spinoff from an irreverent TV blog to a respected online magazine, and why ...
Three decades ago one of the giants of New Zealand thinking and writing, Ranginui Walker, published Ka Whawhai Tonu Mātou, Struggle Without End. The book, originally released in 1990 and revised in 2004, is a history of Aotearoa from a Māori perspective. It had a profound influence and today remains ...
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Unfortunately the great flood of January 27 was not a one-off but a precursor to more emergencies likely to strike the city because of environmental effects of climate change. While the Auckland floods are proving devastating, costly and far-reaching, they have also had the strange effect of revealing Tamaki Makaurau's original landscape. ...
Health inequities between Pākehā and Māori are often framed as complex and difficult to change. But making access to GPs and dentists free will not only save money for whānau using these services, it will also save money for the health system and ensure Māori rights to good governance and equity ...
One of New Zealand's most promising fast bowlers, Molly Penfold, was surprised to get the call-up for the T20 World Cup, but she has a great support team around her, Merryn Anderson reports. She's only played one T20 for the White Ferns, and she's yet to take a wicket, but Molly ...
Labour and National’s leaders came to Waitangi agreed on which areas need more investment in election year. But as political editor Jo Moir writes, the country is going to see a big debate on how Māori should benefit from it Prime Minister Chris Hipkins used his speech at Sunday’s pōwhiri ...
Securing the right to housing will require us to challenge the very systems and ideologies that are doing such harm to our planet.Opinion: The images of rivers running down our streets, cars floating down the motorway, houses flooded and half-submerged buses ferrying people across the causeway, will stick with ...
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It is hard to separate the politics from Waitangi, but the day party leaders were welcomed on to Te Whare Rūnanga was largely free of inflammatory rhetoric and political point scoring. ...
Watch out for the petition from Su’a William Sio to be presented in Parliament this week, from people anxious about the East-West link. I think this is going to be quite a movement against this massive arterial/motorway, and a key organising issue leading to the election next year for southern Auckland.
isnt it like asset sales and too late?
nope fully in play
“..16 Celebrities You Never Knew Were Vegan
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/01/vegan-celebrities_n_4351908.html
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson turned vegan in 2010 –
– and has since loss 100 pounds.
“Becoming a vegan gave me another opportunity to live a healthy life.
I was so congested from all the drugs and bad cocaine – I could hardly breathe –
– [I had] high blood pressure, -[was] almost dying – [and had] arthritis.
And once I became a vegan – all that stuff diminished” – said Tyson..”
phillip ure..
So maybe he should have stopped taking drugs instead? Being vegan doesn’t make you lose weight. Not eating sugary bullshit and exercise does.
+1 don’t need be vegan to be healthy but for some people it’s seems to be the only way they finally get how to do so. A bit like going gluten free did for me even though I don’t weight problem in the sense of being too heavy more not heavy enough. Of course unlike Vegans it’s not a lifestyle choice because a medical condition isn’t really a choice. Even though more crap food is becoming gluten free I built up such a great eating habit I don’t want eat that stuff.
16 celebrities whose vegan-status means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things.
@ lanth..
..given the environmental giant-boot-print from eating flesh and the multi-varied bye-products..
..’vegan status’ does actually mean quite a bit..
..and given the influence of celebrities on the opinions of others/popular culture..
..’in the grand scheme of things’..
..how can it not mean ‘something’….?
..phillip ure..
As much as I appreciate some of the appeals of the vegan lifestyle, I personally view it as a diet of affluence even moreso than meat eating because the missing dietary requirements usually have to be met through supplements (it’s the only way I’ve ever managed it) or specific targeting of foods that aren’t easy to locally produce in any single environment.
Meat-eating is still highly intensive but I have personally found that chickens will eat your vegetable scraps and scrounge around grass/garden areas very effectively (not requiring much maintenance), provide eggs and one of the best lean meat protein sources available.
The issues with our food production is *how* we do it, not *what* we eat…
@ zorr..
..not having bought meat for decades..i occaisonally take note of current prices..
..and..whoar..!..eh..?
..nah..!..you are wrong..being vegan is not more expensive that being a carnivore..
..it is much cheaper..
..and you r eating chook arguments stand if only viewed thru a single lens..
..myself..and many others..are vegan for animal welfare/environmental reasons – as much as for personal health reasons..
..it’s a three-fer..eh..?
..personal health/wellbeing..not hurting any animals..and helping the planet..
..are the three legs of the vegan-stool…
..phillip ure..
uh – I am not talking about “expense” in dollar terms. I was actually referring to the high-level technological/transport infrastructure that is required just to meet a vegan diet. It is a diet that in use only in affluent nations where the infrastructure exists to provide the necessary nutrition through more advanced means.
@zorr..”.. I was actually referring to the high-level technological/transport infrastructure that is required just to meet a vegan diet…”
cd u expand on that plse..i don’t understand what you are referring to..
“..It is a diet that in use only in affluent nations..”..well..not really..if you take rice/vegetables as the basic third world diet..
..it is the first world diet rich in animal/bye-product fats that is causing the ‘first world diseases’..(as they are known as..and for good reason..)
“..where the infrastructure exists to provide the necessary nutrition through more advanced means..”
..again i am usure as to what you are referring to..
..is it supplements..?
..factcheck:..i have been vegan for 15 yrs..i take no supplements..
(..a vegan diet doesn’t mean having to neck handfuls of supplements..)
..i am on no meds of any kind..
..i had a recent health-check..(blood-pressure of a young man’ etc etc..)
..and i know people who have been vegan for twice as long as i have..
..who are in similar general good health..
..that is the evidence i lean to ..zorr..
..phillip ure..
If I may ask then, where do you get your B12 from?
@ b12..soy milk..marmite..etc..etc..
..phillip ure..
Sooooooo… basically you just confirmed my hypothesis. You are getting a necessary vitamin that is readily available through meat consumption from your local supermarket…
It’s what I was trying to point out – those food miles add up and they are a significant contribution to issues in the world. On top of that, these are food products available here and around the Western world in our supermarkets because we *are* affluent societies. We *can* go down to the supermarket and, as long as we have the cash, buy these things.
Others may argue about the health benefits, I could care less. I’m more concerned about the misrepresentation of veganism as a viable alternative in a low energy economy.
You might be better to follow the other part of his advice. “I was so congested from all the drugs and bad cocaine”.
Better you gave up the drugs and see how much better you will be. Why you might even get a job and get off the benefit system.
‘drugs’..alwyn..?
..these days i use pot…that’s it..
..no booze..
..how about yrslf..?..there alwyn..?
…(hic..!..)..what’s yr poison..?..(aside from ‘unjustified feelings of superiority’..eh..?..)
..looking forward to getting really pissed @ the xmas parties..?
..there..alwyn..?
phillip ure..
Anyone actually win the heavyweight boxing championship while vegan?
David Scott won 6 World Ironman championships as a vegan. Peter Brock is a vegan as are Mac Danzig, Ruth Heidrich and Greg Chappell just to name a few of many top vegan athletes.
Yeah, not the question I asked, is it?
The point is that saying “LOOK MIKE TYSON’S A VEGAN” is pointless. He became a vegan after the sporting achievements he’s famous for.
Not to mention the fact that Bill Clinton’s “vegan diet” isn’t:
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2013/08/13/bill-clintons-vegan-diet/
Or this vegan poster boy who isn’t:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB120122116182915297
(“Small servings” of chicken and fish, huh?)
… and when you add that all up the result is my severe side-eye for vegans trying to convert me to their way of eating.
Oh that’s mean
And on it goes, the wailing of ex-Green Party candidate David Hay at the Party decision not to include Him on it’s 2014 Party Vote list just became farcical as Hay calls for Green Party activists and volunteers to ‘strike’ over what He sees as unwarranted treatment by the Party,
It would seem that Hay is more than happy to use the NZ Herald in what can only be described as a futile attempt to split the Party,(and the Herald will more than happily indulge Hay in His elongated hissy fit),
What the ongoing public display of child-like whining from Hay shows about Hay’s character to me is that it was the ME aspect of Hays character that lead His political ‘thinking’ and as his self advancement has been stymied He has no further use for the Party and is happy to attempt to ferment dissent within it,
My view is that the sooner the Party makes the ex-candidate an ex-member the better for all it will be…
Excellent comment about this from Marama Davidson here:
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/12/01/fair-democracy-let-david-hay-speak-and-put-his-hand-up-fair-democracy-common-sense-and-strong-leadership-spoke-back/
Well said Marama, you have to wonder what irks or eats away at the mind of the David Hay’s of this world, how many candidates have put their names forward to the Green Party,(and any other for that matter),only to be rejected by a selection committee,
Zillions i would say over the decades and do they all run off to the media whining like beaten dogs over having had their ego’s bruised, like hell they do and my opinion is the well disciplined Green Party has escaped a bullet by not selecting a candidate, who by His actions has shown He cares little for the discipline or the unity of the Party,
While the Green Party sticks to both arms of it’s it’s foundation, Enviroment and Social justice and equality for all then the Parliamentary members can expect the full support of the members and quite frankly those who wish to exploit their ego driven agenda at the expense of the Party should be invited to fuck off and join Colon Craig…
The David Hay thing seems all a bit odd to me. Never heard of the guy before – so he can’t have much of a political/activist profile, even though he was on last election’s list.
He’s been making vague accusations about the GP leaders, but nothing concrete: the GP has upped it’s (previously pretty non-existant) MPs living in the Auckland area in the last few years: Julie Ann Genter has been high profile about Auckland’s transport system. Denis Roche & Kennedy Graham are pretty active Auckland-based MPs. On top of that I’ve often seen other Green MPs at Auckland actions, notably Gareth Hughes and Jan Logie.
And there’s been vague accusations about the GP having moved away from its core values, but nothing explicit.
OTOH, Hay has been deemed unsuitable to be on the GP list, with no clear reasons given – though Hay’s own actions in the last week make him look like he’s not GP material – all ME and little about being a team player or anything about the ways he’s working for the good of the community.
Hay seems a bit too, managerialist for my liking, even though he says a lot of good things about green issues. He’s been part of the Auckland Council team – but that could mean anything.
Hay stood against Banks and Goldsmith in Epsom, and apparently was way more popular with men than women.
my five cents worth on david hay..
http://whoar.co.nz/2013/comment-whoar-i-am-puzzled-by-the-leveldegree-of-attention-paid-to-the-green-challenger-david-hay-but-he-hay-does-have-a-valid-point-about-the-green-partyies-long-neglect-of-inattention/
(excerpt:..)
“..ed:..the link will take you to (yet another) media piece on the quixotic tilt at russel norman..by one david hay..
..and just why the media have seized upon this exercise in clowning..by this (obvious) outlier is beyond me..”
(cont..)
phillip ure..
Suggestion for labour or greens at nextyear campaign.
Cartoon style billboards
Two panels
First panel
Paula Bennet climbing a ladder labelled support for single mothers, retraining for single mothers, etc
Second Panel
Paula Bennet at top of ladder pushing away while others still on it
Then another of Key climbing the career success ladder with State housing support, widow pension, free university education
second panel
at top pushing it away
and so on…
Simple to the point, highly visual.
Yep a narrative for people to relate to. Different approach to well lit guys in suits saying vote for ME! Many previous candidate ads could be mistaken for network tv or radio ads. Also put spot ads on facebook.
The Green campaign a couple of elections ago using a young girl broke convention a little, ditch ad agency orthodoxy but don’t go too negative on the Key gang, go positive on Labour Green Mana–“you deserve better”.
I was wondering about the legality of signs with just a face that people hold up in the street or at at political meetings or in the background of TV interviews. Do they need an authorisation statement? I hope not, because I want to make some.
e.g. a Muldoon face in the background when Key is being interviewed on TV. I’m not actually going to do that one but you get the idea.
http://i40.tinypic.com/2mdl7vr.jpg
I doubt that anything about Muldoon would really work today. I suspect that only people near retirement age actually remember him. It will be, after all, at the time of the next election, 30 years since Muldoon was PM and about 22 since he died.
Try finding someone under the age of 45, excluding the sort of people who remain glued to these blogs, who actually remembers Rob. Even the people of any age who do remember would be hard pressed to tell you anything bad about him. That is except for the ones that believe that Saint Roger Douglas cleaned up the mess Rob caused. Very old people would tell you he gave them super at 80% of the average wage and that you got it at 60, not like the 67 these evil Labour people want to impose.
No it would be a bit like saying what a terible man Forbes was as PM.
I’d say that roughly half of all voters were 45 and over. So a fair proportion of voters will remember Sir Rob. And it’d be a good political economic history lesson for the young ones.
I would say, having read many of the comments in “John Key is Rob Muldoons Doppelganger”, that most people do not remember Rob at all.
To have such a lot of people equate Key’s and Muldoon’s behaviour proves my point that people simply do not remember Rob.
In terms of their actual policy platforms Rob was very close to the currently expressed views of the Labour and Green parties. The worst thing he did for New Zealand was in his attempts to have the state control things like prices and salaries, and his attempts to pick winners in industrial companies. He also wanted the state to own many businesses and to set their policies. He also liked to force companies to do things he wanted, not things that were good for either the companies or New Zealand.
Remember supplementary minimum prices, carless days, state insurance companies, Think Big? Remember him swinging a punch at people who had heckled him (Mallard anyone)?
Sounds awfully like Norman and Cunliffe doesn’t it?
NZ First would seem to me to be the zombie of Muldoon’s National Party: grey, rotting, bits dropping off, but still lurching on.
Yes, that would seem to describe them very aptly. I guess that Winston must be the last MP who entered Parliament when Rob was PM. Dunne, Goff, Mallard, McCully were all in 1984 weren’t they. None of the veteran MPs except Winnie would remember Rob in his prime.
Yeah and this government has been picking Warner Bros, SkyCity, Serco and a few others as winners.
Car-less days were a result of the OPEC oil reduction. Pity that they didn’t continue it – we’d have excellent public transport now.
As for state insurance companies, well, insurance is actually a natural monopoly. I know, I know, it doesn’t really seem that way as there’s plenty of companies in the market place but it’s one of those things that is what I term a demand monopoly – everybody needs it and when that happens the obvious economies of scale pertain only to a monopoly. There’s a few other reasons as well.
Think Big would have been great – if Muldoon hadn’t borrowed to build it. Just printed the money and utilised our own resources effectively. It was the borrowing that killed Think Big, not the project itself. Oh, and a fixed NZ$.
Nope, that was Bob Jones and we all had a great laugh at it at the time.
Bob Jones certainly belted a TV reporter who chased him along the river when Bob was fishing.
However Rob did take a swing at people who were heckling him after an election meeting in Auckland. He insisted on leaving the hall by the front door and then took some swings at people in the street. He wasn’t the boxer that Bob Jones had been though so I don’t think there was any damage done. In that regard Rob was like Mallard.
Carless days were totally nuts. Muldoon was stupid enough to demand that Government owned vehicles must have their day between Monday and Friday so that it meant that some sacrifice be made. The sacrifice was the taxpayer’s of course because they then bought 25% more cars to cover the needs.
I am sure we (wife and I) were not the only ones who bought a second car when the policy came in.
Something had to be done about the extremely high oil prices at the time, which were crippling our balance of payments.
what? Very old people remember he stole their pension. I guess you missed the baby boomer phenomenon.
I suggest that you put on your reading glasses and have another look at what I said Tracey.
I said that “… old people will tell you he GAVE them super at 80% of the average …”
I said GAVE Tracey, not STOLE. They would tell you that it was the Labour Government that stole it when they means tested it.
It was 1984 Labour, sorry ACT, that stole our future.
Douglas’ better future, remember, bit like Key’s really.
They are probably too complicated for a billboard. It has to be a message that people can take in within a second or two whilst driving past.
I am not going to get into a debate on them but the National party “Iwi/Kiwi” were absolutely superb in that regard. I don’t mean the content, I mean the speed with which the message could be absorbed.
I think that it would take to long to register the meaning of the billboards you are proposing.
What is wrong with The Standard? I thought I’d fixed it by deleting cache and cookies etc, but now it’s back to looking like shit again.
Is the same for me. All indented left and is the same on 4 different browsers, and on 3 different computers, one a brand new win 8 machine I am building. But at least the reply is now working, hopefully.
The TS is back to normal for me since last night. Before that it looked like a mid-to-late 1990s message board – low graphics, naff layout.
It’s looking fine for me now on Chrome.
Today it is Kiwiblog up the creek with just a single word below each contribution from Jadis and one cannot log-in.
Oh well, whatever is going on… it isn’t partisan. 🙂
Mine is the same as David H.
All back to normal again.
So have the Conservatives got any policies yet which are actually conservative?
Or are they still all extreme? Like guns for all.
Conservatives, my arse….
NZ Herald editorial: anti-government regulation rant focused on core political issues /sarc.
Portable swimming pools, no wine in dairies, “anti-smacking Bill”, lightbulbs, banning cell phones while driving, compulsory immunisation, water flow in showers, – cause they limit people’s “freedom” and can have unintended consequences, especially on the “economy” (does that mean the impact on business profits?).
Still, it’s saying Key’s government is more “nanny state” than Clark’s government was.
Where are the blazing DEMOCRACY UNDER ATTACK banners then?
The Herald’s anonymous editor should have to repeat these words about too many rules to the families of. Pike River..
Ah, a jonolist learned a new word: eczematous
and then used it incorrectly.
Blubber Boy, infamous in His own bathtub,(just ask the rubber ducky about it’s treatment),has made the RadioNZ news with the defamation case,(much higher none of us could expect Him to slither),
Even Bryce Edwards, He of NZ Herald fame supports Blubber in His quest to have ‘wail oil’ taken by the Court as media,(Bryce has a point which after i have finished poking the stick i will get to),
My thoughts this morning is that the Blubber should stand up for journalistic integrity,(stop that laughter),everywhere and refuse point blank any courts order to divulge the contents of and identify His sources which lead to Him claiming that an Auckland businessman was intimately involved with Bevan Chuang,
Such a noble upholding of the journalistic ‘right’ to protect a ‘source’ in the face of the power of the judiciary would probably,(hopefully), result in Blubber Boy getting tossed in a jail cell and we might see a ‘Free the whale’ campaign start someplace,(go on Bryce make our day), while the rest of us sit around and laugh like loons as Blubber Boy eats cold wheat-bix in a jail cell where most of us think He belongs anyway,
Oh and befor i forget, Bryce’s point about Blubber being ‘media’, it appears in this latest of court appearences,(serial offender or what),Blubber is being told by the Court that He aint ‘media’, however, in a previous case the offending offensive one was told after He published the name of someone who the Court had given name suppression that ‘wail oil’ was ‘media’,
Seems at the least to be a little 2 faced by the judiciary, and damn i really want to see Him swing…
[Agreed bad12 and I have just posted about this – MS]
i never read whaleoil..(haven’t for at least a couple of yrs..i think..i stopped over the postings of pics of severed heads of animals he has slaughtered..)
..and i may be one of the few who have not read the (so i’m told) gripping/detailed accounts of len browns’ jism/seed/bodily-functions..(and no thank you..i’ll maintain that innocence..if you don’t mind..)
..but i am feeling uncomfortable over a court deciding what is or what isn’t ‘media’..
..and i see that ruling as a total orifice-pluck on the part of that judge..
..however much individuals may criticise slater for his choices of material/uses of that media..
..he..much as ‘truth’ was..is definitely part of the new media landscape..
..and to claim otherwise is a nonsense..
..phillip ure..
Agreed. pu. I also don’t read WO and haven’t read all that spurious Len Brown stuff. But am also not comfortable with the court ruling on what is media – especially given the current sad state of a lot of our so-called press and news media.
karol +1
Nor me (1 ever visit to the wallowing Whale, and another to a site operated by some sort of Penguin – both by links from this site me thinks).
I’m confident – relaxed even, that I’m not missing too much. The right wing view comes from various “horses’ mouths”.
Strangely enough, they all seem very similar, as though they were singing some sort of chorus. Even the new lingo is the same. Where is it they face? – it’s not Mecca …. Helensville perhaps?, or maybe the direction of the nearest talk-back radio transmitter.
Agree, the judiciary can’t have to both ways.
The media issue, I assume is important because if he is media he can rely on public interest but does the press have an obligation to research, avoid bias, and report any surrounding circumstances, would it include an obligation to at least put the allegations to them before publishing and print their response?
Does the public interest have to be significant, and is it objective or subjective?
If Whaleoil’s sources are not protected, is anyone writing on The Standard protected?
With a slippery slope argument arriving any minute, let me put the question:
If being a “news distributor” is the principle criteria for protecting source anonymity, could all contributors to The Standard be revealed if required to do so?
Whaleoil’s (uncomfortable) interests are pretty similar to ours.
**Hmm will shift this over to relevant debate**
Cannot reply. Same on Firefox and Safari. Text for comments are OK but layout very basic. All other sites are as normal.
Try pressing Shift + Refresh (the circled arrow). THis should force your browser(s) to reload the style sheets.
There was a problem retransferring the DNS over the weekend. I was down with a dose of the flu (still am a bit) and didn’t deal with it early enough and then made a screwup on the time to live.
I’ve purged all of the caches at the server end in case that is the problem.
That seemed to work for me on IE as it suddenly righted itself without me doing anything.
Thanks, lprent – and take care of that flu. We need you …..
Sorry to be a nuisance 1prent. I have no “circled arrow” or any key resembling word “refresh” on it. Can you hazard a guess which key it should be?
Oh… its suddenly come right. Life’s normal again. If you did something 1prent… thank-you. 🙂
Shift + F5 on windows keyboards
The refresh button on the button bar usually looks like a green circle cut at either one or two points with arrow(s) on them.
It has righted and back to usual bright and breezy format. Thanks Iprent.
lprent
+1
Quick note to McFlock, Karol, Weka, Bill, Rogue, Puddleglum….just reread the whole thread on 29 November Open Mike 18-18.5.1.1.1.2 excellent reading. Really enjoyed the insights and the easy debate. We may differ, disagree etc but hell , that’s one hell of a good read. Thank you all.
cheers – yes, it definitely gave me a fair bit to mull over, too – thanks 🙂
Mulled wine at Christmas – is that your bag?
If I were to be completely honest, my bag is probably anything with more ethanol than methanol in it.
According to an oenophile friend, the problem really is what I’m drinking 🙂
Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. (Proverbs 23:29)
Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. (John 19:29)
Although he promptly dropped dead afterwards, so the term “vinegar” might genuinely imply something even less palatable than a Central Otago vanity plonk.
he he (and that’s all folks, at this time of the mornin’ to ya’) ffs 😀
“A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver”- 25:12
Yaaaaaay, TS back to ‘normal’ (using that word plurally) 🙂
Life in the 21st century western style (USA version). I just heard some consumer related news on Radionz item. Thanksgiving day trading, some stores have opened for the first time. 10 million transactions in one day I think. $54 billion I think taken. Protests by workers wanting more pay outside Walmart.
The old kaleidoscope effect. Every time you shake it and look at it you get a different colour, perspective. Some in my family support NACTs. Looking at the same happenings in NZ we think about them entirely differently.
Hi folks!
Concerned about the Auckland ‘daft lunatic Plan’ and ‘democracy for developers’?
Live in the Eden-Albert area?
Seen this?
“You are welcome to attend a Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan Public Meeting.
There will be a Presentation on the Notified Unitary Plan by independent planner David Wren – with particular emphasis on Albert-Eden area and topics which are likely to be of interest to locals.
David Wren will speak for about 40 minutes followed by plenty of time for questions and answers.
Date: Saturday 7 December 2013
Time: 9.30am to 12 Noon (doors open at 9.30am and there is access to displays in the lobby and opportunities to discuss issues prior to the main presentation).
Venue: Mt Eden War Memorial Hall, The Chamber Room, 489 Dominion Road, BALMORAL”
____________________________________________________________________________
Kind regards,
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz/democracy-for-developers/
A look into the lives of the people who make the electronics we use.
http://www.jsonline.com/business/migrant-workers-pay-to-get-jobs-making-electronics-b99151857z1-234004661.html
and while I’m here,
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of (philosopher? ) kings”- 25:2.
Now, away to a tangi, people die, very moving.
You’re back, format and all. Great, no more of John Key’s dirty deeds. Funny how the site crashed on the day of the by-election.
wtf!
Great listening on RadioLive right now – Cameron Slater and Michelle Boag arguing because he called her a lying poisonous scumbag, which is in itself ironic coming from someone like Slater. Also, Michelle once again stated that Slater is an ACC beneficiary, which is another irony when his favourite sport is beneficiary bashing.
Seen this folks?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/your-views/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501154&objectid=11149526
So far the greatest number of ‘likes’ on the NZ Herald for New Zealander of the Year article have gone to Graham McCready for taking a private prosecution against the ‘Not-So-Honorable’ John Banks – ACT Leader and MP for Epsom!
YAY!
dodgy john is going…. going…. 🙂
Penny Bright
http://www.dodgyjohnhas gone.com
todays’ revelations are about/detail how australian spooks/govt offered unlimited raw data on australian citizens to their five eyes partners..to do with what they wished..
..whoar..!..eh..?..
..i wonder when our revelation will happen..?
..and is helen clark ‘sweating’ at all on these upcoming revelations..over there in noo yawk…?
..d’yareckon..?
..phillip ure..
NR radio again. Imagine again that NR decries the lack of factual correctness on the internet. Yet a smidgen of common sense would stop a guest from spouting nonsense. Its known that the firepower of an army is key to its success, that soldiers are trained in rapid accurate fire, so when a former top shot in the US marines guns down the president, looking down on a log slow moving cavalcade in Texas, is it any wonder Oswald got three shots off. You can imagine the jokes had he missed, former Marine couldn’t shoot diddly. So to my surprise NR guest declares he couldn’t believe that a lone gun man could of gotten three shots off in quick succession. Has the man never seen war movies of lines of muskets, highly trained to do just that, rapid fire. No, imagination mixed with common sense is not a requirement in a guest on Moro.
Cycling past this exit onto a cycle way, and keep meeting these aggressive drivers. Well turns out they were likely exiting a gym, didn’t make the connection until I heard about hormone abuses. I wonder do police stats show more accidents near gyms?
Are you in Auckland?
I recently had the pleasure of driving from Wellington to Auckland.
To maintain my sanity and ensure I didn’t do anything stupid like fall asleep at the wheel I divided the trip into 3 sections over 2 days.
As a quick aside, I totally recommend checking out any one of the short walks in Tongariro National Park, it was my best stop of the trip.
The traffic and behaviour of other drivers was pretty good right up until I hit the Bombay Hills. The increase of frequency of aggresive, rude and plain dangerous driving was stark.
I saw one incident of a frustrated driver shortly before I left Wellington compared to almost a dozen between Bombay and Glen Eden.
I ride a pushbike on almost a daily basis in Auckland so I am used to psychotic drivers, but this experience highlighted just how normalised bad driving is in Auckland compared to other cities and towns in New Zealand.
Hehe. Your comment brings to mind this piece that starts off:
“My gym has begun to sound like the set of a porno. So much grunting and heaving and panting. It reverberates around the room in a testosterone-laden symphony of man clownery.
“I’ve had enough. Grunty bloke, it’s time to shut up. I’m fairly certain I work out just as hard, yet you don’t hear me groaning like a constipated caveman on steroids every time I break a sweat.
“Women deliver babies with less fuss than the way you puff and whine through a bicep curl.
“Unless you’re attempting to pass a bowling ball through the tip of your urethra there’s really no reason for all the noise.
“And I’m not buying your ”but grunting makes me stronger” nonsense.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/wellbeing/9399413/Grunty-gym-bloke-please-pipe-down
Coming up on the Panel this afternoon: Neil Miller and Jordan Williams
Another black day for Radio New Zealand National
Monday, 2 December 2013
Miller is a smug and conceited git who is on record touting the racist right wing “humorist” P.J. O’Rourke as his favorite writer. If Miller stuck to beer assessing, then he would be sufferable, if only just sufferable. Unfortunately, he tends to veer into political commentary, but he knows little about anything other than beer.[1] Jordan Williams is a junior colleague of the infamous ex-ACT M.P. and S.S. spokesman Stephen Franks, and is becoming well known to Panel listeners as a pretentious but shallow commentator—very like Franks and Miller, in fact. So far, Williams’ most infamously stupid contribution—and there are many to choose from—remains this classic, uttered on the Panel a couple of months ago: “Capping rents seems like a recipe for disaster”. [2]
So look at what’s happened, whether accidentally or not: two government-friendly right wing commentators appear on the day that another right wing commentator, Cameron Slater, is one of the major topics of discussion. That represents another minor victory for the beleaguered National-led regime, which needs all the help it can get after the disaster (for National) in Christchurch over the weekend. But it represents another body-blow to the credibility of Radio New Zealand National.
[1] http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-2092013/#comment-690249
[2] http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-12092013/#comment-695426
UPDATE!!!
Speaking right now is another guest on the programme—-Garth “The Knife” McVicar. By way of some kind of justification for giving this bloodthirsty lout airtime, Mora prefaced his appearance by saying this: “Okay, we’ve had CRIMINOLOGISTS on the programme before….”
So treating violent psychopaths like McVicar respectfully is some kind of balancing manoeuvre.
This programme is now beyond satire.
what really pissed me off about today..
..was how mora just sat by and let that clown mcvicar deny the provable-facts of the drop in crime here..
..(a drop that is but an echo of the international trend of sharply dropping rates of crime..)..
..mora makes no mention of that international trend echo..(does he not know..?..could someone tell him..?
..if he does know..?..huh..!..)
..why does he/mora just let these outright/easily provable lies go uncalled/unquestioned..?
..he does himself no favours by doing this..
..today i linked to a story on how sweden is closing four of their prisons..
..a combination of those dropping rates..and the swedish focus on rehabilitation..instead of being solely focused on retribution..as is practised here..
..i noted at the foot of that story/link..how at a time when sweden is closing four prisons..
..we are building a new super-prison..
..have handed our prison system over to the american private industry model..(now there’s a success story/role-model..eh..?..that american prison system..)
..and the cherry on top of this cake of fucken wrongheaded-incompetence/ignorance..
..is that the govt has signed contracts with these private prison spivs..
..guaranteeing to supply enough prisoners to fill their prisons..(!)
..now..that just fucken bends my head out of shape..that prisoner-guarantee..
..we are ruled by ignorant fools..
..phillip ure..
ACT – less than 1% of the voters
25% of panel invitees.
Had to laugh at the “highbrow???” of Mensa Mora’s Mucky Show 4-5 pm today. The Mad Machiavellian Miller crapping on about whom, according to his girlfriend and others, he resembles.
James McOnie and someone else and someone else apparently. One only has to Google a pic of said Mad Miller to know that the most striking likeness is to – wait for it – SlaterPorn. There must be whakapapa !
Thought about you with anticipation Morrissey as in the course of a three hour plus drive home to the North I listened to the fascinatingly gross right wing fucks Jordan Williams, Mad Miller, and Garth McVictim. Gushingly hosted by The Nicest Man On Earth. Truly incredible !
A passing comment by Mad Miller suggests he might’ve been a late call to today’s Mucky Show – you may well be correct in your suspicion that a troika of outlandish right wingers was rapidly assembled to provide “balance” in the wake of the Christchurch result.
A passing comment by Mad Miller suggests he might’ve been a late call to today’s Mucky Show
Miller replaced Mai Chen at the last moment. It’s a pity, because she has shown a willingness to contest lazy ideologists in the past. Her absence ensured that Jordan Williams got (yet another) free ride.
– you may well be correct in your suspicion that a troika of outlandish right wingers was rapidly assembled to provide “balance” in the wake of the Christchurch result.
As bad as Neil Miller and Jordan Williams are, what I found utterly insulting was bringing on that S.S. obergruppenführer to “discuss” law and order. Surely, if McVicar is acceptable to the producers of this programme, then Kyle Chapman has to be consulted next time the Panel has a discussion about arson.
Probably already covered somewhere above but don’t have time to check – who would have thought it – forgive me the following words we’re not allowed to use – “G….y” Herald caning “N…y” National ???
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9466873/Work-starts-on-MacKays-to-Peka-Peka-expressway
The award for MSM capabilities in photojournalism goes to ……
c a m e r o n b u r r r N E L L ! ! ! for
“Turning the Sod”
(unassisted – the guy rolls over all on his own)
The Guardian is picking up on the Government’s attempt to soften us all up for a fall in NZ’s Education Sector ranking in the OECD Pisa Report.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/01/michael-gove-labour-international-league-table