T 1
To the simple minded everybody who looks differently from what observers are used to are freaks who and it is OK to stare at them, point at them, draw other’s attention to them, let their children make loud comments about them etc. So this fits within this reaction from those who have never understood that they fill just one niche in society. It’s just not men looking at women, or vice versa, there are those who scan their surroundings at all times with a judgmental glance looking for anomalies from their approved normality. Disabled people know well about this reaction.
And it could be regarded as a political matter. There was a saying that the personal is political. If the leaders and controllers of a country decide to control some reasonable personal behaviour, it becomes political. Smoking bans are political, and how they wide they are also, criminalising drugs is political, allowing hate speech and extended harrassment is political if it is sanctioned or ignored by authorities, bullying at school is a political matter, and the desire of authorities not to be responsible for upholding standards with reasonable tolerance for all is political.
We forfeit three-fourth of ourselves to be like other people.
-Schopenhauer
(now, regrettably, many of the admirable academy were virulent anti-semitics)
there are two sides to every euro
-Pan (the earlier renaissance man)
The safest general characterisation of the (Great) European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato (an unhelpful universalist as history records)
I was driving north with the SO last Saturday morning listening to Ms Hill talking to Mary Anne Franks about the troubling treatment of women on the WWW. The SO, who’s a particularly busy person with little time to piss around with the WWW, was appalled and doubly so when I cited the numerous instances I’ve seen of women being trolled on-line. Well worth the listen.
Everyone knows that when you have an under performing team the first place you look is to the leader of that team, But not Shearer he will just tinker according to his instructions.
But it’s not. Internal politiking is the determining factor.
So, as reflected in the bias of that stuff piece, promote those who are loyal to the deadwood faction – even though it’s an increasingly decayed irrelevance that has been rotting down since the 80’s. And cast doubts on those who espouse views in tune with core and traditional Social Democratic Labour Party values.
Shearer says, “I’m certainly looking at where we can improve”. Clearly he avoids the mirror! He and Key are alike in that they are Captains who cast blame for shipwrecks on the crew. I never thought I would find myself looking back on “the good old days of Goff”!
Robertson is a forceful speaker, Cunliffe combines skills in oratory with high intelligence. Oh, what does it take?
Just been watching Grant Robertson on TV3, don’t ask me what he was saying , because I was way too busy trying to work out who threw his clothes at him His tie is lined under his right eye. Now me I am a Jeans and Tea Shirt guy But if I have to wear a tie (do I own one Hmmm) at least I would make sure it’s straight, to say nothing about being on National Television. If you have to wear a suit and tie, at least make sure you don’t look like you just threw on the first thing that came to hand.
Labour is just looking more and more used, second hand, out of date.
That’s what you get when the same strategy and team that lead you to defeat in 08 and 11 are still calling the shots…quack quack. No Goff on the election billboards was a stupid move IMO as he rattled Johnny sparkles in the debates yet there was no image association on each labour billboard for some consistency.
Fresh thinking via new blood is required, DS doesn’t have to go but the messaging is woeful and media training is desperately needed to keep our shonky MSM from parroting the CT/NACT spin lines .
GR has his moments but media training teaches you it’s the bad ones that often outweigh all the good ones so you gotta be on your game and nail every chance.
Is anyone else a little uncomfortable that the host of Backbenchers is now seemingly pimping for a corporate’s greenwash TV campaign? I mean, that particular company still use palm oil in everything BUT their ‘most popular’ NZ product, right?
they talked about it on tv3s the nation.im personally appalled, & now hes on radiolive in the mornings…gotta pay them bills. cadburys is what hes advertising.
Cadbury’s switched back after the outcry and have never recovered their market position. It came at the same time as they moved some production to Australia and made block sizes smaller – perfect storm to stick in people’s memories. If they’d done each change 12 months apart it probably would have been fine.
Lanthanide
I read no chocolate company in NZ and was shocked . So I grabbed a wrapper of my recent peanut slab and ..it’s imported by Singapore: Lucas Foods (Asia) Pte Ltd. 160
Paya Lebar Road. Quite an appropriate address. So Le Bar has gone from NZ as all good things seem to do.
I guess the answer is to buy local from the premises where things are made and make sure that some of our money manages to go and stay into the pocket of a resident working here and paying tax here. Please look round for a local you can support. I try and break myself of the supermarket habit and go to the Green Grocer in Tasman Street, Nelson where you can buy biogro products.
We had a Buy New Zealand programme when Labour was in. How successful was that? How easily can it be started and does it need volunteer promoters in each town and suburb saying which products are made locally and selling their good points?
Actually I think you’ll find they only changed ‘Dairy Milk’ and continue to use palm oil in most of their other products.
” There remains some of our chocolate blocks – those containing inclusions, caramels, creams and/or wafers – where we are currently unable to make the product without the inclusion of a small quantity of palm oil. ”
(Source: Cadbury website)
Ok, but was that always the case? They may have been using palm oil in those products all along. I suspect also the direct reference to ‘inclusions’ etc is because the palm oil is in those parts, not the actual chocolate itself.
The outcry was because they replaced cocoa butter – one of the main ingredients in chocolate, with palm oil. The fact that they may still use palm oil in their products is rather immaterial to the point that they went back to using cocoa butter.
Failing the writing standards.
Now to all those worried parents out there who want to know if their children are meeting the writing standard, do you know what the question is?
For your information, there are several different genre.
Your children might be able to write a coherent “persuasive” piece but be crap at a narrative.
Are you expecting the schooling system to make your children best selling authors or be able to write letters to their MP. Truth is you probably don’t really care, as long as they can spell, punctuate, and order their thoughts.
Then the difficulty of choosing quality:
A. The cat sat on the mat. (Simple,clear, error free.)
B. The cat was so anry her tale twiched her eyes glowd like dagers (4 spelling errors, 3 full stops missing.)
C. The big black friendly cat sat on the colourful red fluffy mat. (error free.)
Now which is a pass for a 7 year old child? So many variables.
I met an Australian teacher a few years ago who was tasked with moderating Primary School Writing across Australia. She said that she was exhausted after 6 months because none of the teachers could agree with just what good writing was. Some teachers, she said, were so cross that they said that they would get the children to write in short sentences with no word longer than one syllable and thus could not be found to make any errors.
As opposed to their current efforts to get writers to choose just the right word for the writing depending on the designated audience, the right genre, and constantly stretching out for new challenges.
Stuff that.
BLASPHEMY. And it’s not “dead poets”, Draco, it’s a very specific dead poet, because what good is reading Aristophanes or Chaucer or Pope or Swift (and if you insist on Kiwi examples, Baxter) unless you’ve also been forced at gunpoint to write an essay on Romeo & Juliet?
(My examples are limited to certain periods of literature, I know, but guess what English lit papers I did at uni?)
No Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, all the jobs, all the academy awards, or indeed the whole revived film industry within The Hobbit. Just in case learning Scandinavian, Germanic, and Middle English were no economic use, mid-brow, lowbrow, or high. Buckle in you non-dead-poets-society people.
QoT, I was so forced, willingly. The highlight of my trip to Perth WA was to see Romeo and Juliet performed outdoors after a picnic tea on the grass, especially when Juliet came out onto the balcony and commented on the moon rising over the trees.
And it BLOODY WAS!
The Kookaburras in the first act, however, were a little whatever the geographical/auditory equivalent of anachronistic is.
I’m looking at thought and imagination showing in the sentence and like B. I believe that teachers and education professionals think that the Nat Standards will result in concentrating teaching on A. That would produce neat and tidy and limited thinkers. Just like what we have now (is that good grammar but do you still understand my meaning?) It seems that Nat Standards are actually tests for teachers and schools, not children. It certainly doesn’t support teachers in their difficult job, and doesn’t support children gain the type of education that we need in the fraught 21st century.
The education method then in fashion seemed to lack steps for new readers when my children were young. I was always keen to see them reading well, and I encouraged them to break down new big words into syllables and then tackle the whole thing rather than shrink from coping with large words as a whole in the teachers desire to encourage word recognition. My way helped and they read successfully, and can now read Nietzsche and understand it.
Giving the latest education medicine to all isn’t bound to get good results, first the medicine might be bad or fake, and second because we are dealing with individuals both wonderful and diverse. Only despotic Sauron specifies One Ring (or education method) for all.
Kiwirail has decided to mothball the Gisborne Napier line. The NZ Roading Transport agency is going to upgrade the road between the two cities so that that the bigger voluble of tucks resulting from the rail closure will have better roads to wreck. Sheer lunacy.
The Gisborne area needs to have good roads for access to and from the district, PLUS a railway to take the heavy lifting. They had just gained large containers and I understand were able to be transported over the narrow points on the line.
So Gisborne rail doesn’t pay by $2.4 million annnually. So why should the cost not be carried for a period because of being a remote area, (from the north-south main routes). How can the regions realise their full enterprise potential without guaranteed infrastructure and reliable transport extending into the future. Peak oil has come, fuel will get dearer and scarcer. Apparently these twerps in power can’t think beyond one or two electoral cycles.
They will disappear overnight and some scrap metal agent will melt it down and some hard up husband wilL put food on the table for his family. And Collins will rage about about how she is going to take a tough stance on rail,line thieves by crushing their cars into scrapmetal.
Apparently these twerps in power can’t think beyond one or two electoral cycles.
Actually, they can’t think beyond increasing profits for their backers which, in this case, would be the Roading Transport Lobby (or whatever it’s called).
The way energy driven economic decline is likely to work is not only the cost of petrol continue to edge up over time, but people’s incomes available to buy it will also be declining all the same while. Its a double whammy.
kjt
Don’t worry about that, we have found oil and gas deposits and be able to drill into the sea here and there. No worries mate.
The Rena hasn’t taught us anything about the cost and destruction of habitat, fauna and flora, and how we people would have to bear cost for cleaning up. The Rena is still costing us $20 million as well as the spending by the owners, and have they paid up everyone yet? and is that just what’s been spent already and is there enough for the other needed work??
Also the oil disaster in the Gulf, also the Exxon disaster where there were agreements about ready clean up units, officials meant to be checking, laws and careful politicians to ensure that all was well, all missing by the time it happened. The problem was that it took too long for the oil to spill from the start of piping it off – a generation. It seems that human beings ability to take care, be ready for disasters etc can’t last for say more than a couple of years beyond a decade.
Heartfelt promises today, written into law tomorrow, buried under further laws and matey relationships with baubles involved between supervisory bodies and corporates and what do you get!! Guess. It would happen here just the same, so some oil spills are inevitable. The only thing that might save us would be if the oil ran out quickly before the alert and keen instigators were overtaken by a bunch of hearty red neck contractors looking for the fastest way to do the littlest amount under their set price contracts.
jkey at Post Cabinet Press Conference on comments by Winnie P. regarding trip to lala land.”I am interested in jobs,not people who live in Fantasyland and want to Make Things Up” He should look in the mirror or do they not have them on Planet Key.Ha Ha Bonk.Laughed my head off at the irony!!!
Chester Borrows is against paper based use in the justice system. The changes he is proposing are swingeing. They would result in secret shady transactions that don’t get the publicity that is needed for exposing and proving malfeasance by the wealthy, and for the poor the same disgraceful, shoddy and burdensome approach from government to handle their requirements that we have seen in Housing NZ will further deny them to access to a fair justice system with even less legal aid and services.
Justice should be done, and seen to be done. Being called to account for apparent wrongdoing should be carried out in public with paper records that can’t be transmitted worldwide, or alternatively lost unless properly backed up and stored in a millisecond. There is a place for today’s computer technology but not to replace completely the human society services that we have developed.
The darker imaginings of films and books on possible future scenarios for society are being played out in reality. These shrivelled little personalities that have got into politics, and have got into many of the top bureaucrat jobs, have no thought and care for their fellow humans and what they are creating for them. It’s all just a game of chess to them. If you are clever enough you win, and for the Secretary of Education that apparently amounts to over half a million dollars (ANNUALLY).
That’s while charitable organisations like hospice and parent support have to work continuously
to get money and pay their workers possibly the minimum and the managers get only an extra 30% if they are lucky.
Key should do well in Hollywood, for who can put on better “acts”? Probably he will spend a lot of time at Disneyland with all the kids (sorry, forgot that he does not like kids).
A member of the board wrote a letter to the Minister and the minister’s staff don’t
double check that she will be letting a rapist into the country. Sorry, did I just
wake up in a country not being run by the law and order party???? Banks not
reading what he is signing??? Hide covering for child identity theft???
Key not knowing the richest man in his electorate???? Now a minister
charging a member of some board that they were misrepresenting themselves
as speaking for the whole board.
Sometimes, despite myself, I do things that could be injurous to my health, (increased blood pressure, headaches etc) such as reading, and even participating in the comments section on Stuff.co.nz. I know that some of you also listen to talkback every now and again, also putting yourselves at risk of decreased well being. Both these activities however can illustrate to us the cognitive psychology of posters and talk back callers at work and consequently behind the election of a National Govt, not only once but twice.
If you ever felt sometimes that you are surrounded by idiots and wanted more proof of this then check out the response to the article on Stuff yesterday about Daisy the GE cow (which you also discussed on Open Mike) There are many people who haven’t even bothered to read the article before posting their opinions.
Does Stuff really not allow comments to be read in chronological order???
Anyhoo, I liked this comment –
“Not sure what your point is C.Dub. I am the parent of a young child who is both diabetic and allergic to milk.
Without insulin she would die so I don’t give a damn where the stuff comes from. GE, E Coli. dead animals, fetid dingo kidneys, pffft. You do what you have to to keep your kid alive.
If she wants milk, we give her soy or rice milk. What’s the big deal? I guess there may be a market for GE modified hypoallergenic milk but it sure as hell isn’t in my household.
It reminds me of the story (possibly apocryphal) of the Americans spending millions developing a ballpoint pen that works in space while the Russians used pencils.”
Re Stuff comment section. There is usually a button to click for ‘read first’, ie in chronological order, otherwise the most recent comments appear first. You can’t reply to a reply of an original comment. I’ve had to reply to myself in order to respond to someone regarding the topic of labelling.
I guess what has disturbed me, not only about the ongoing GE ‘allergy free milk”project, which is alarming in itself, is that the majority of comments are pro GE but none of those comments have a sound basis to them. This is the opposite to say, the early to mid 90’s when a good chunk of the population was informed about GE and fervently anti gene technology in food (and I stress food, not medicine) and there was much protest. It was a really urgent and hot issue. It feels like we have now just given in and accepted what many to believe to be inevitable, in the NZ context in regard to production and marketing. Any safe guards we have in place now will will wiped by the TPPA.
So what has changed in the population? Why do we just roll over? Are we so accustomed to spin, (eg crosby textor stylez) both social and political, that we accept what we are told?
From vague memory, almost certainly apocryphal on the pencil story, weka (at least, the “lesson” you’re meant to take from it) – pencils can break, and no one wants pointy bits of graphite floating around in zero-g.
Hi David H. I normally try to avoid getting caught up in their comment section and rarely use the site these days (preferring http://www.scoop.co.nz) but when I do, I always regret it. I have lost faith in the average NZer, to be able to be a fair and resonable person, to think for themselves, to stand up, and to stand by one another in support. (In every aspect of life, not just on stuff comments) Every time I get embroiled in a comment thread I feel a little more of me dies. Its like a cloud of doom descends when I read those retarded comments. Its talkback online really.
What chocolate shop in P’ram by the way? Must have missed that, haven’t been to the hometown for ages.
Every time I get embroiled in a comment thread I feel a little more of me dies. Its like a cloud of doom descends when I read those retarded comments. Its talkback online really.
Hi Rosie, I know exactly what you mean. I like to think that the talkback MSM crowd does not really reflect society, and mostly it doesnt. They make up the “influential” part of it in many ways, and thats what I find hard to deal with at times.
The sad part is that if they could only see or understand that they are on the chopping block too, they would not carry on the way they do. I’ve said it before, the human experiment is destined to fail, because too many have absorbed the lies they have been told, and the life they have been sold.
Don’t let it rob you of energy though (stay away from the MSM), and keep the good stuff flowing through your life.
Heard. Cheers Muzza. You’re right. Hanging back from the msm can prevent downers and help one to stay focused and positive. However, one can’t avoid dealing with FWit ears- of -cloth -environment -destroying property developers, which has been a task attended to today and is ongoing and unresolved – which further blackened the ‘loss of faith in humanity” theme going on.
Might go get a bit zen like now……….Thanks for your wisdom.
The Chocolate Factory on the corner of State Hwy 1 heading north side and Raumati rd. MMmmm they even do tours with choccy thrown in lol.
I read the MSM maybe in hope that the comments section won’t be filled with vitriol against those that are poor and down on their luck or on the DPB. But no, I get disappointed as usual at least 10 times a day. I will link to this article I found this morning as the comments section had been closed and it was just a cess pit of hatred. I just went to get the link and the comments section has been erased all gone except for 4 Typical MSM Or maybe they got complaints. But you may have seen the story. http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/7757971/Hamilton-women-lead-protest
If certain quarters continue to insist the NZ Labour Party model itself on the British Labour Party approach, they should check out reaction to the UKLP’s conference – Ed Miliband’s speech, especially, and note that the Brits have changed tack:
Ed Miliband made it abundantly clear that Labour will get us off the miserable path dug by this government. His speech marks the long-awaited rebirth of a radical social democracy in this country. We can now start hoping once again. In particular, working-class people can feel that the party is back on their side.
He drew a line under most of the blunders and misconceptions of the new Labour years. His “one nation” is not the triangulated, all-things-to-all-people message associated with Tony Blair. Instead he targeted the banks and Murdoch without poking at working people’s unions. The country has been waiting to hear that from a political leader since 2008 at least.
Miliband’s promise is to restore our country to its people. Decent homes and services; fairness before favours for the rich and powerful; our NHS back where it belongs, in public hands – these will make us thrive again.
Labour must speak for the public against the rampage of private interests. Speak for the people whose talents are wasted and aspirations destroyed. Shake up our banks and take back our NHS. And yes, put the burden on those with the broadest shoulders. That is the agenda set out today.
A faint heart never won a fair election. Miiband has shown he’s more than ready to do battle in 2015. This is a shot in the arm for the labour movement.
Removal of universal care is an absolutely accurate descripton of what Labour are advocating. Which can only be replaced with user pays for some segments of the population. Something I’m very surprised to learn you’re favour of TRP.
She (Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont) notes that £57m goes on free prescriptions but ignores the costs of about £30m which would be spent administering a system to charge about 20% of people for their prescriptions.
She is wrong to say that this is about rich people getting free medicine. Depending on a person’s condition even a wealthy banker would still get free prescriptions as the old system was both means-tested and clinically-driven.
Bill, if you make disingenious attacks, expect to get called on it. I’m going to take the side of the poor and the working class in Scotland, you’re free to go with Salmond’s tartan tories and his BFF Rupert Murdoch if you want.
So if you think my comment is disingenioous, call me on it! Or is the throwing around of way off the mark labels as good as it’s going to get? Those ‘tartan tories’ as you call them are far to the left of Labour and are the one’s (to offer just one example) who have made sure tertiary education has remained free. Which is a kind of good thing for poor and working class people, no?
The BBC piece titled “Scottish Labour’s Johann Lamont attacks SNP benefits policy”?
Yup. Read it. And where did it say that Labour wasn’t attacking the idea of universal benefits? I mean, did the last para or two completely sail right on over your head? She wants to scrap free presciptions and…
The Scottish MSP’s appearance at the Labour conference comes the day after a speech by the Labour First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones.
He said free prescriptions would remain a commitment for Labour at the next Welsh assembly election.
Mr Jones pledged the NHS would continue to be safe under his stewardship, “holding true to Nye Bevan’s vision after six decades”.
Clearly you don’t get it. You have chosen the side Rupert Murdoch prefers. That’s surprising coming from you, but you may completely and totally ignorant about Scottish politics. It certainly appeears so.
Scotland has been forced to swallow an economic dead rat. The SNP have decided that’s appropriate tucker for the poor, the Scottish Labour party want the rich to make the sacrifice. You have chosen to back the rich in order to make a sectarian attack on Labour. More fool you.
No TRP. I know a fair bit about what underpins Scottish politics. And just as I have opinions on the SD politics of NZ although I don’t subscribe to SD as a system of governance, so it is with Scottish politics. And facts are facts. The SNP has been consistently to the left of Labour on social policy. Scottish Labour is now contradicting Welsh and English (British) Labour on benefits.
But this ‘dead rat’ you speak of…what’s that? Universal benefits? If that’s what you’re referring to, I recommend you read Oxfam’s(?) recent report on the English care system (not free) that tallies up the cost to the economy (some billions) because people have to give up work to look after sick people and claim benefits in place of a wage.
Bill, Britain is broke, and Scotland as usual is getting the rough end of the pineapple. The SNP have moved to the right, Salmond in porticular is extremely pro-business, hence his backing from the Murdoch press. Salmond is prepared to deal to working Scots and the Scottish poor as long as he gets a referendum. Which he will lose, as the majority are convinced that remaining in the UK is the way forward (Andy Murray finally winning something at the Olympics probably helps). The SNP’s popular support has plummetted, because, in Government, they have not delivered for their voters.
That doesn’t mean Labour have the all the answers, but if the question is ‘who should pay for the economic crisis?’ the SNP haven’t got a clue.
And meanwhile you link to ‘The Telegraph’ for some very objective coverage of Scottish politics??? ffs TRP!
Go look at the SNP’s budget. It includes the basic policies people on ts want to see being adopted here by Labour or whoever. And that’s from a government that doesn’t control it’s own public purse.
£40 million through investment in affordable housing.
…increase the number of schools being built from 55 to 67 bringing forward £80 million investment
…£30m over the next three years will help home owners improve energy efficiency, cutting bills and tackling fuel poverty whilst along with investment in low carbon transport supporting our growth industries and helping to meet our climate change targets.
…a national employer recruitment initiative that will create up to 10,000 opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises to recruit young people
…”We are also reaping the benefits of the public ownership of Scottish Water
Righto, I think we’re talking at cross purposes here. My beef with your original comment was that it was a cheap shot at Labour, and free of context. The Telegraph report is factual, no matter the source. It was just the first one up when I googled it, though I originally read the story in the Guardian or on the Beeb. I was trying to show you where Salmond thinks Scotland’s future lies; with bankers.
I’ve gotta dash, but I’ll be back later if you want to pick up. It’s been interesting. A feature of the next UK Government, which looks certain to be Labour led, is going to be how far it moves to genuine devolution, so relationships between the LP and the SNP are going to be crucial. On current UK polling, the SNP might hold the balance in the next Parliament. That’d give’em some serious bargaining power, aye?
Sorry Jokerman, this ones kinda big, but my thoughts ….
Kim Jong Un, a civilised man trying to bring peace too his region and is trying too address the loss.
Ahmadinejad, Likes the idea of addressing the loss in Tehrans’ region (No Offense, it’s what I read).
Europe, Like I keep telling John Key, we gotta regulate, and stop the embargo on Iran.
Warmongers in America….
They’ve been trying to do it fiscally, you gotta remember they’re everywhere.
The good civilised people that stand next too them are fighting tooth and nail too stop them.
Those good civilised people are doing it with open communication and due diligence.
They know more about NZ’s economy than John Key did …. a lot more.
They are also trying hard for us too get some more cashflow in the local economy.
Bloody good civilised people in my opinion, helping us save our country despite the incompetence of it’s elected leader, you have too love them for that.
Irans’ had the possibility of nuclear arms for 20+ years, those warmongers are moronic in their words and actions, It’s amazing too me that any civilised person on earth could take them seriously.
I’m sure those good civilised Americans I was describing above, our allies, view them in a similar light, with an appropriate amount of fear, they are crazy morons after all.
Education is the answer too right wing bigotry and violence in our communities, how do they/we educate those Warmongers about the dangers of their stupidity?
The embargoes on the Super Power Iran simply impoverish the starving poor of the world …. there will never be any other result, our friends and neighbours are out of work, because of oil inflation, engineered by those same warmongers, who hold a chart much like the armies did in the second world war, outlining the oil resources of the world.
Every country on the planet that has signed one of those documents in error, should rip them up and re-negotiate, make sure you tell America / China / Any other money lender before you do. But none of them want people too starve, that’s an obvious thing too me.
It’s our civilised duty too Govern the economies of our countries so no one will starve, that’s the goal.
Don’t let incompetent people destroy your economy again, make sure they are qualified.
Give them a Job Description, and make sure they stick too it.
What a sad and sorry business this Zion Wildlife Park has led to. The poor cat handler Dalu Mncube mauled to death by the tiger he was caring for, who Craig Busch knew had a false passport, had that held over him whenever he wanted some better standards of safety. He could have been saved from such a horrific end.
Apparently Mr Busch did not want him to sign a contract and said he would have him deported if he did, and Mrs Busch, Craig’s mother had said she would not carry on employing him if he didn’t sign. The two were fighting for control of the Park and Mr Busch made allegations of unsafe practices just before the death. But she said that Mr Busch had shifted the cats to a different enclosure which didn’t have safe measures for entry and disrupted the environment for the tiger that killed Mr Mncube. A month before the killing there had been an incident when a tiger bit another man on the leg. It has been alleged that Mrs Busch was delaying buying a tazer to have for emergencies, and the Buschs wouldn’t provide a reliable and trained backup person.
It sounds as if Mr Busch has a narcissistic personality disorder which I have been reading about in the Listener. http://www.listener.co.nz/current-affairs/its-all-about-me-the-rise-of-narcissism/
” Further, narcissists seem unable to be empathetic. They cannot see a situation from someone else’s perspective, but nor do they really try, since they mostly think only about themselves and how others see them.”
How do such people get the right to keep such dangerous animals and when granted the right not have constant serious overview? There had been a number of incidents that had not been reported by the Park to MAF.. These included a boy being bitten by a lion cub and requiring hospital care, a cheetah escaping in 2011, and a fence being blown down which led to a lion escaping.
The park was being operated by Craig Busch and then later his mother Patricia, when these incidents happened. zion lack of reports
Now the Park has been bought and being run since about Easter 2012 by new people who were employing Mr Busch. This doesn’t seem right when he could be said to have caused the death of one of his employees. Mr MnCube might have said that he would clean out the cat’s enclosure, but his preferred safety measures had been shifted by Mr Busch. So it seems he had a big responsibility that doesn’t seem to have been sheeted home. He has had his own television show and feels quite the star and now he’s poncing around playing the big man for tourists.
Hey LPRent, why the internal 500 error? a while back.
Do you encrypt your aliases?
Not that I care personally, but I reckon you should watch out for newbies.
Which brings up another point, which is …
Isn’t it terrorism when the GCSB spy on someone, what are they gonna do with the info?
And why the hell would they hack The Standard?
I doubt their machine will be running yet.
The site has a few too many posts. The Rss and SEO updates when a post is edited are cuing CPU outages. On my fix list… Now all I have to do is find time…
Do you know what a stack smash is LP?
Or did you crash the service ?
See below, they modify the tcpip packet to incorrectly report the size of the packet, allowing them to run past the boundry of the executable, they are looking for a running sh they can play in.
an error 500 is the only indicator cos it’s at the routing kernel level., and any port can be used it
I only know one man that can pull it off, and he’s done his homework.
He’s probably had access for a while, he can attack any port, and spam filters mean nothing.
He did this on purpose, coz he knows I know …. something to think about.
Give him a day and he’ll be back.
There is only one fix for this problem, talk to the OS people,
Get a triple checked IP routing kernel, it should be able to report a smash attempt in the logs.
It’s worth it, this attack is undefeatable without it.
CPU outages are another indcator by the way.
Chances are they’ve got your router as well.
I got one of those yesterday. Internal 500 error, was going to mention it, but have been battling this rotten flu and I forgot, also as it automatically reloaded the page from your end I really gave it no never mind and it’s not the first time I have seen it. I have also noticed that page refreshes are pretty slow too, and lately they have been getting pretty slow
Ah no, figure it through and think server operations. Whenever a edit is done on a post…
0. The post gets added/updated which effectively causes a wait for virtually all current read operations at the database as it is running on a non-transactional DB and there are several tables that store the posts data. They are part of most queries in a WordPress system. Most cached queries are invalidated and require regeneration when they are next asked.
1. frontpage gets changed – which requires that the cloudflare cache will have to fetch a new cache for the 30-90 people online on their next refresh (some will overlap on browsers). Typically this starts happening immediately.
2. A new robots.txt is generated for the whole site – takes 4.5 seconds and usually sucks up the whole of two cores
3. The search engine gets notified and typically picks up and indexes both the post and any new comments on other pages. This usually sucks up a core for a second.
4. Google, bing, baidu, yahoo, etc are notified and we immediately get a least 20 search engine systems (many of them pick up from multiple locations) in picking up the robots.txt, the edited post, and any posts that hav had recently added comments.
5. The hundreds of RSS feeds pop in, see a new post and suck it up over the next few minutes.
6. Probably a few more that I can’t remember right now…
But the nett effect is that apache and the database jam up with stacked waiting queries as the CPUs run at 90%. This typically takes about 5-10 seconds in the middle of the night. Then it drops back to the usual 10%. But during the day we have a lot more going on under normal loads. It will usually clear in 20-30 secs but it can take a few minutes if everything piles in at the same time. That will cause apache timeouts. The frequency of the latter is increasing…
The trick is to push some of these tasks (2-5) on to deferred cron to spread the load. Which requires customizing plugins very carefully because almost all of the existing ones operate on direct hooks. I haven’t had time to do it since the load started boosting towards the end of last year.
I used to work on 486s back in the 80s and early 90s. And I mostly work on single core ARM 9s running linux in my paid work at present (I seem to oscillate from server systems to embedded these days). They are like pretty fast 486’s. But they have problems stretching to the minimal amounts of data we are feeding in and out via serial and TCP whilst processing in maximum load tests for certification. That is with customized data structure optimized for the task and before we add my GUI on top and with only a couple of connections.
I rather think you are overrating the capacities of 486s with processing while doing comms. Single core systems just aren’t that good at doing multiple things at once.
Bud I used too write assembler comms switches on z80 processors running 1200 baud airline reservation systems. one page of solid text = 2048 bytes of data.
A time out is a 503 error not a 500.
And bud, Linux / Apache are the most stack smashable solutions on the market.
They have source code available to the world.
Your users have been compromised, not that they actually care, they’re not terrorists afterall.
hey bo.
they cant help themselves.
in their horrible little minds if they aren’t spying on you then you are spying on them!
and besides their is an unnamed battle group approaching our shores and eternal vigilance is the price of freedom and blah blah flipping blah.
and there is a drone watching YOU right now!
snd just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean that they are not out to get you!
howzatt?
Do you know what an internal server 500 means moron?
They just stack smashed The Standard
The fact they have recompiled the service probably saved them a breakin, it indicates a GP fault in the service.
(i.e didn’t find the sh)
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
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 A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
As a young gymnast, Aimee Didierjean was always conscious of making sure her underwear wasn’t showing on the competition floor. A peek of a bra strap, or briefs if a leotard rode up, would cost a gymnast points in her routines. “When I was growing and going through puberty, it ...
Jubi/West Papua Daily Repeated cases of Indonesian military (TNI) soldiers torturing civilians in Papua have been evident, as seen in the viral video depicting the torture of civilians in the Puncak Regency allegedly done by soldiers of Raider 300/Brajawijaya Infantry Battalion. There is a pressing need for stringent law enforcement ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In 2023, Anthony Albanese was shooting for the moon, his eyes on the Voice referendum. On one view, he looked like the idealist reflecting his left-wing roots. In 2024, we’re seeing a pragmatic, determined, ...
The House - The principle that all MPs are honourable and that they should be taken at their word has been tested multiple times this week in Parliament. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Dickinson, Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW Sydney Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock Since the review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) released its recommendations in December, there has been a series of Town Hall events to discuss them around the country ...
This isn’t political (society, internet culture and feminism might be relevant tags), but I thought it was interesting.. http://jezebel.com/5946643/reddit-users-attempt-to-shame-sikh-woman-get-righteously-schooled
T 1
To the simple minded everybody who looks differently from what observers are used to are freaks who and it is OK to stare at them, point at them, draw other’s attention to them, let their children make loud comments about them etc. So this fits within this reaction from those who have never understood that they fill just one niche in society. It’s just not men looking at women, or vice versa, there are those who scan their surroundings at all times with a judgmental glance looking for anomalies from their approved normality. Disabled people know well about this reaction.
And it could be regarded as a political matter. There was a saying that the personal is political. If the leaders and controllers of a country decide to control some reasonable personal behaviour, it becomes political. Smoking bans are political, and how they wide they are also, criminalising drugs is political, allowing hate speech and extended harrassment is political if it is sanctioned or ignored by authorities, bullying at school is a political matter, and the desire of authorities not to be responsible for upholding standards with reasonable tolerance for all is political.
Definitely political. The politics of:
what happens when women don’t conform to conventional notions of beauty
body autonomy
gender, body and confusion in parts of the general population
online social intercourse and “the seeping necrotic abscess that is Reddit”
modern media and the loss of personal privacy
ignorance of religion
We forfeit three-fourth of ourselves to be like other people.
-Schopenhauer
(now, regrettably, many of the admirable academy were virulent anti-semitics)
there are two sides to every euro
-Pan (the earlier renaissance man)
The safest general characterisation of the (Great) European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato (an unhelpful universalist as history records)
-Whitehead. paraphr.
Night
“…i read the news today..,Oh boy…”
I was driving north with the SO last Saturday morning listening to Ms Hill talking to Mary Anne Franks about the troubling treatment of women on the WWW. The SO, who’s a particularly busy person with little time to piss around with the WWW, was appalled and doubly so when I cited the numerous instances I’ve seen of women being trolled on-line. Well worth the listen.
Reddit? RIP IT UP
Everyone knows that when you have an under performing team the first place you look is to the leader of that team, But not Shearer he will just tinker according to his instructions.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7749689/Shearer-hints-at-reshuffle-as-few-shine-in-front-row
Should read: Shearer hints at reshuffle as only one shines in front row.
And the performing one is not Shearer.
If performance is the prerequisite, then we can look forward to Cunliffe back in the Finance role.
As leader, don’t you mean!
But it’s not. Internal politiking is the determining factor.
So, as reflected in the bias of that stuff piece, promote those who are loyal to the deadwood faction – even though it’s an increasingly decayed irrelevance that has been rotting down since the 80’s. And cast doubts on those who espouse views in tune with core and traditional Social Democratic Labour Party values.
Shearer says, “I’m certainly looking at where we can improve”. Clearly he avoids the mirror! He and Key are alike in that they are Captains who cast blame for shipwrecks on the crew. I never thought I would find myself looking back on “the good old days of Goff”!
Robertson is a forceful speaker, Cunliffe combines skills in oratory with high intelligence. Oh, what does it take?
Just been watching Grant Robertson on TV3, don’t ask me what he was saying , because I was way too busy trying to work out who threw his clothes at him His tie is lined under his right eye. Now me I am a Jeans and Tea Shirt guy But if I have to wear a tie (do I own one Hmmm) at least I would make sure it’s straight, to say nothing about being on National Television. If you have to wear a suit and tie, at least make sure you don’t look like you just threw on the first thing that came to hand.
Labour is just looking more and more used, second hand, out of date.
That’s what you get when the same strategy and team that lead you to defeat in 08 and 11 are still calling the shots…quack quack. No Goff on the election billboards was a stupid move IMO as he rattled Johnny sparkles in the debates yet there was no image association on each labour billboard for some consistency.
Fresh thinking via new blood is required, DS doesn’t have to go but the messaging is woeful and media training is desperately needed to keep our shonky MSM from parroting the CT/NACT spin lines .
GR has his moments but media training teaches you it’s the bad ones that often outweigh all the good ones so you gotta be on your game and nail every chance.
Is anyone else a little uncomfortable that the host of Backbenchers is now seemingly pimping for a corporate’s greenwash TV campaign? I mean, that particular company still use palm oil in everything BUT their ‘most popular’ NZ product, right?
Evidently he doesn’t mind tarnishing his own brand.
Haven’t heard about this. What company uses palm oil extensively?
they talked about it on tv3s the nation.im personally appalled, & now hes on radiolive in the mornings…gotta pay them bills. cadburys is what hes advertising.
Had some cadbury last week after being on whittakers for years….what absolute shite it was, threw over half away.
Buy local people especially in this case as it’s a far superior product.
tc
Yeh Whitakers – peanut slab (with toasted peanuts) yumm.
Whitakers’ Peanut Butter is like my own personal brand of heroin.
Feminist thread: some jewels and nuggets in them thar hills ma’
No (chocolate) company in NZ.
Cadbury’s switched back after the outcry and have never recovered their market position. It came at the same time as they moved some production to Australia and made block sizes smaller – perfect storm to stick in people’s memories. If they’d done each change 12 months apart it probably would have been fine.
Lanthanide
I read no chocolate company in NZ and was shocked . So I grabbed a wrapper of my recent peanut slab and ..it’s imported by Singapore: Lucas Foods (Asia) Pte Ltd. 160
Paya Lebar Road. Quite an appropriate address. So Le Bar has gone from NZ as all good things seem to do.
I guess the answer is to buy local from the premises where things are made and make sure that some of our money manages to go and stay into the pocket of a resident working here and paying tax here. Please look round for a local you can support. I try and break myself of the supermarket habit and go to the Green Grocer in Tasman Street, Nelson where you can buy biogro products.
We had a Buy New Zealand programme when Labour was in. How successful was that? How easily can it be started and does it need volunteer promoters in each town and suburb saying which products are made locally and selling their good points?
The Chocolate Factory in Pram is good..
Obviously not a Whittaker’s peanut slab:
Actually I think you’ll find they only changed ‘Dairy Milk’ and continue to use palm oil in most of their other products.
” There remains some of our chocolate blocks – those containing inclusions, caramels, creams and/or wafers – where we are currently unable to make the product without the inclusion of a small quantity of palm oil. ”
(Source: Cadbury website)
Ok, but was that always the case? They may have been using palm oil in those products all along. I suspect also the direct reference to ‘inclusions’ etc is because the palm oil is in those parts, not the actual chocolate itself.
The outcry was because they replaced cocoa butter – one of the main ingredients in chocolate, with palm oil. The fact that they may still use palm oil in their products is rather immaterial to the point that they went back to using cocoa butter.
Failing the writing standards.
Now to all those worried parents out there who want to know if their children are meeting the writing standard, do you know what the question is?
For your information, there are several different genre.
Your children might be able to write a coherent “persuasive” piece but be crap at a narrative.
Are you expecting the schooling system to make your children best selling authors or be able to write letters to their MP. Truth is you probably don’t really care, as long as they can spell, punctuate, and order their thoughts.
Then the difficulty of choosing quality:
A. The cat sat on the mat. (Simple,clear, error free.)
B. The cat was so anry her tale twiched her eyes glowd like dagers (4 spelling errors, 3 full stops missing.)
C. The big black friendly cat sat on the colourful red fluffy mat. (error free.)
Now which is a pass for a 7 year old child? So many variables.
Exactly ianmac. Hence-
High error rate in National Standards marking | Stuff.co.nz
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/7761584/High-error-rate-in-National-Standards-marking
Surprise, Surprise!
>High error rate in National Standards marking
BUT by what judgement.
OK there was a lot of variation.
What was expected?
I recall Mallard trying to get Tolley to explain what some standards meant in parliament. She couldn’t.
Moderation!!!!
OH and how accurate were the ministry on roll numbers and number of building in ChCh schools.
I met an Australian teacher a few years ago who was tasked with moderating Primary School Writing across Australia. She said that she was exhausted after 6 months because none of the teachers could agree with just what good writing was. Some teachers, she said, were so cross that they said that they would get the children to write in short sentences with no word longer than one syllable and thus could not be found to make any errors.
As opposed to their current efforts to get writers to choose just the right word for the writing depending on the designated audience, the right genre, and constantly stretching out for new challenges.
Stuff that.
Notice how that article was all about the teachers being wrong.
I don’t believe this is a national standards issue. This is inherent in the NCEA or unit standards approach of modern education.
Apparantly you can pass English all the way through secondary school and never have to study Shakespeare, let alone pass a unit on it.
There’s more to English than dead poets.
[lprent: ummm I feel the same. However I KNOW that Lyn regards that statement as a flamewar starter for 10 points… Just saying.. ]
BLASPHEMY. And it’s not “dead poets”, Draco, it’s a very specific dead poet, because what good is reading Aristophanes or Chaucer or Pope or Swift (and if you insist on Kiwi examples, Baxter) unless you’ve also been forced at gunpoint to write an essay on Romeo & Juliet?
(My examples are limited to certain periods of literature, I know, but guess what English lit papers I did at uni?)
Shakespeare? Shakes-meh more like.
Absolutely QoT.
All these people who waffle about quoting dead theorists, deploying arcane glossaries in their posts, but turn their noses up at poetic thought.
Whereas you do both, and it’s a far more flexible manner of thinking.
Keep raising the standard QoT – these old plonkers need it.
Thanks Ad, though I’ll note that at varsity they always sucker you into Chaucer with The Miller’s Tale so it ain’t all high-minded stuff!
No Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, all the jobs, all the academy awards, or indeed the whole revived film industry within The Hobbit. Just in case learning Scandinavian, Germanic, and Middle English were no economic use, mid-brow, lowbrow, or high. Buckle in you non-dead-poets-society people.
QoT, I was so forced, willingly. The highlight of my trip to Perth WA was to see Romeo and Juliet performed outdoors after a picnic tea on the grass, especially when Juliet came out onto the balcony and commented on the moon rising over the trees.
And it BLOODY WAS!
The Kookaburras in the first act, however, were a little whatever the geographical/auditory equivalent of anachronistic is.
well tie me kangaroo down
A little less literary than your normal commentary, Jokerman!
Cant be bothered with all that thou thee doth crapeth.
Romeo and Juliet, Merchant of Venice and Othello were the ones inflicted on me…
Well what do you want it to be ?? ” Yo bro, Saw yo shit tover dy
Not really keen on that either…
I’m looking at thought and imagination showing in the sentence and like B. I believe that teachers and education professionals think that the Nat Standards will result in concentrating teaching on A. That would produce neat and tidy and limited thinkers. Just like what we have now (is that good grammar but do you still understand my meaning?) It seems that Nat Standards are actually tests for teachers and schools, not children. It certainly doesn’t support teachers in their difficult job, and doesn’t support children gain the type of education that we need in the fraught 21st century.
The education method then in fashion seemed to lack steps for new readers when my children were young. I was always keen to see them reading well, and I encouraged them to break down new big words into syllables and then tackle the whole thing rather than shrink from coping with large words as a whole in the teachers desire to encourage word recognition. My way helped and they read successfully, and can now read Nietzsche and understand it.
Giving the latest education medicine to all isn’t bound to get good results, first the medicine might be bad or fake, and second because we are dealing with individuals both wonderful and diverse. Only despotic Sauron specifies One Ring (or education method) for all.
Kiwirail has decided to mothball the Gisborne Napier line. The NZ Roading Transport agency is going to upgrade the road between the two cities so that that the bigger voluble of tucks resulting from the rail closure will have better roads to wreck. Sheer lunacy.
The Gisborne area needs to have good roads for access to and from the district, PLUS a railway to take the heavy lifting. They had just gained large containers and I understand were able to be transported over the narrow points on the line.
So Gisborne rail doesn’t pay by $2.4 million annnually. So why should the cost not be carried for a period because of being a remote area, (from the north-south main routes). How can the regions realise their full enterprise potential without guaranteed infrastructure and reliable transport extending into the future. Peak oil has come, fuel will get dearer and scarcer. Apparently these twerps in power can’t think beyond one or two electoral cycles.
What is likely to happen to the railway lines themselves? Will they be left in place?
They will disappear overnight and some scrap metal agent will melt it down and some hard up husband wilL put food on the table for his family. And Collins will rage about about how she is going to take a tough stance on rail,line thieves by crushing their cars into scrapmetal.
Actually, they can’t think beyond increasing profits for their backers which, in this case, would be the Roading Transport Lobby (or whatever it’s called).
And it’s probably going to cost more to upgrade the road than it would to fix the rail line.
Please shield the eyes of any children reading this:
Fuck Kiwirail, fuck Jim Quinn, fuck National, fuck Jerry Brownlee, fuck the government, and fuck those who voted National.
You may unshield their eyes now.
The decision to close the line was made by an anti rail National government, who believe that rail is obsolete and trucks are the future.
You may unshield their eyes now
Hmmmm. Just as well I didn’t then.
But I agree with the sentiment, especially the last sentence.
More lunacy which will bite us in the backside when imported oil is $10 a litre. If we can get any at all.
The way energy driven economic decline is likely to work is not only the cost of petrol continue to edge up over time, but people’s incomes available to buy it will also be declining all the same while. Its a double whammy.
kjt
Don’t worry about that, we have found oil and gas deposits and be able to drill into the sea here and there. No worries mate.
The Rena hasn’t taught us anything about the cost and destruction of habitat, fauna and flora, and how we people would have to bear cost for cleaning up. The Rena is still costing us $20 million as well as the spending by the owners, and have they paid up everyone yet? and is that just what’s been spent already and is there enough for the other needed work??
Also the oil disaster in the Gulf, also the Exxon disaster where there were agreements about ready clean up units, officials meant to be checking, laws and careful politicians to ensure that all was well, all missing by the time it happened. The problem was that it took too long for the oil to spill from the start of piping it off – a generation. It seems that human beings ability to take care, be ready for disasters etc can’t last for say more than a couple of years beyond a decade.
Heartfelt promises today, written into law tomorrow, buried under further laws and matey relationships with baubles involved between supervisory bodies and corporates and what do you get!! Guess. It would happen here just the same, so some oil spills are inevitable. The only thing that might save us would be if the oil ran out quickly before the alert and keen instigators were overtaken by a bunch of hearty red neck contractors looking for the fastest way to do the littlest amount under their set price contracts.
jkey at Post Cabinet Press Conference on comments by Winnie P. regarding trip to lala land.”I am interested in jobs,not people who live in Fantasyland and want to Make Things Up” He should look in the mirror or do they not have them on Planet Key.Ha Ha Bonk.Laughed my head off at the irony!!!
Chester Borrows is against paper based use in the justice system. The changes he is proposing are swingeing. They would result in secret shady transactions that don’t get the publicity that is needed for exposing and proving malfeasance by the wealthy, and for the poor the same disgraceful, shoddy and burdensome approach from government to handle their requirements that we have seen in Housing NZ will further deny them to access to a fair justice system with even less legal aid and services.
Justice should be done, and seen to be done. Being called to account for apparent wrongdoing should be carried out in public with paper records that can’t be transmitted worldwide, or alternatively lost unless properly backed up and stored in a millisecond. There is a place for today’s computer technology but not to replace completely the human society services that we have developed.
The darker imaginings of films and books on possible future scenarios for society are being played out in reality. These shrivelled little personalities that have got into politics, and have got into many of the top bureaucrat jobs, have no thought and care for their fellow humans and what they are creating for them. It’s all just a game of chess to them. If you are clever enough you win, and for the Secretary of Education that apparently amounts to over half a million dollars (ANNUALLY).
That’s while charitable organisations like hospice and parent support have to work continuously
to get money and pay their workers possibly the minimum and the managers get only an extra 30% if they are lucky.
Key should do well in Hollywood, for who can put on better “acts”? Probably he will spend a lot of time at Disneyland with all the kids (sorry, forgot that he does not like kids).
Maybe he should stay home and get Hekia to teach him to read.
Minister issues visa, minister revokes visa.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/mike-tyson-s-visa-revoked-minister-5113005/video?vid=5112237
‘Potential role model’ one day, barred the next. This story has everything! Love those boxing clips.
Ministerial footwork worth of a champ, though Wilkinson looks more like a flyweight.
Calamity Kate, the Iron Mike Lady.
A member of the board wrote a letter to the Minister and the minister’s staff don’t
double check that she will be letting a rapist into the country. Sorry, did I just
wake up in a country not being run by the law and order party???? Banks not
reading what he is signing??? Hide covering for child identity theft???
Key not knowing the richest man in his electorate???? Now a minister
charging a member of some board that they were misrepresenting themselves
as speaking for the whole board.
National imploding.
Revealed – Key WAS briefed about Dotcom – previously denied. He’s in deep.
(see Key thread)
Sometimes, despite myself, I do things that could be injurous to my health, (increased blood pressure, headaches etc) such as reading, and even participating in the comments section on Stuff.co.nz. I know that some of you also listen to talkback every now and again, also putting yourselves at risk of decreased well being. Both these activities however can illustrate to us the cognitive psychology of posters and talk back callers at work and consequently behind the election of a National Govt, not only once but twice.
If you ever felt sometimes that you are surrounded by idiots and wanted more proof of this then check out the response to the article on Stuff yesterday about Daisy the GE cow (which you also discussed on Open Mike) There are many people who haven’t even bothered to read the article before posting their opinions.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/7757038/Strong-opposition-to-GE-milk
Does Stuff really not allow comments to be read in chronological order???
Anyhoo, I liked this comment –
“Not sure what your point is C.Dub. I am the parent of a young child who is both diabetic and allergic to milk.
Without insulin she would die so I don’t give a damn where the stuff comes from. GE, E Coli. dead animals, fetid dingo kidneys, pffft. You do what you have to to keep your kid alive.
If she wants milk, we give her soy or rice milk. What’s the big deal? I guess there may be a market for GE modified hypoallergenic milk but it sure as hell isn’t in my household.
It reminds me of the story (possibly apocryphal) of the Americans spending millions developing a ballpoint pen that works in space while the Russians used pencils.”
Hi Weka.Yes, I liked that comment too.
Re Stuff comment section. There is usually a button to click for ‘read first’, ie in chronological order, otherwise the most recent comments appear first. You can’t reply to a reply of an original comment. I’ve had to reply to myself in order to respond to someone regarding the topic of labelling.
I guess what has disturbed me, not only about the ongoing GE ‘allergy free milk”project, which is alarming in itself, is that the majority of comments are pro GE but none of those comments have a sound basis to them. This is the opposite to say, the early to mid 90’s when a good chunk of the population was informed about GE and fervently anti gene technology in food (and I stress food, not medicine) and there was much protest. It was a really urgent and hot issue. It feels like we have now just given in and accepted what many to believe to be inevitable, in the NZ context in regard to production and marketing. Any safe guards we have in place now will will wiped by the TPPA.
So what has changed in the population? Why do we just roll over? Are we so accustomed to spin, (eg crosby textor stylez) both social and political, that we accept what we are told?
Could also be astroturfing.
I don’t comment on news sites because the login is too laborious. I’d like to know how much that changes who posts in comments.
And so many people just don’t bother with the MSM now.
I think we’d have to look at some good research on public opinion in GE to now how people feel now.
From vague memory, almost certainly apocryphal on the pencil story, weka (at least, the “lesson” you’re meant to take from it) – pencils can break, and no one wants pointy bits of graphite floating around in zero-g.
It’s a wonder the Knee jerk didn’t break their own stupid necks.
This is one of the reasons I gave Stuff up, that and their silly redesign. And it’s a pity as it was a good site before the ‘downgrade’
Hi David H. I normally try to avoid getting caught up in their comment section and rarely use the site these days (preferring http://www.scoop.co.nz) but when I do, I always regret it. I have lost faith in the average NZer, to be able to be a fair and resonable person, to think for themselves, to stand up, and to stand by one another in support. (In every aspect of life, not just on stuff comments) Every time I get embroiled in a comment thread I feel a little more of me dies. Its like a cloud of doom descends when I read those retarded comments. Its talkback online really.
What chocolate shop in P’ram by the way? Must have missed that, haven’t been to the hometown for ages.
Hi Rosie, I know exactly what you mean. I like to think that the talkback MSM crowd does not really reflect society, and mostly it doesnt. They make up the “influential” part of it in many ways, and thats what I find hard to deal with at times.
The sad part is that if they could only see or understand that they are on the chopping block too, they would not carry on the way they do. I’ve said it before, the human experiment is destined to fail, because too many have absorbed the lies they have been told, and the life they have been sold.
Don’t let it rob you of energy though (stay away from the MSM), and keep the good stuff flowing through your life.
Heard. Cheers Muzza. You’re right. Hanging back from the msm can prevent downers and help one to stay focused and positive. However, one can’t avoid dealing with FWit ears- of -cloth -environment -destroying property developers, which has been a task attended to today and is ongoing and unresolved – which further blackened the ‘loss of faith in humanity” theme going on.
Might go get a bit zen like now……….Thanks for your wisdom.
The Chocolate Factory on the corner of State Hwy 1 heading north side and Raumati rd. MMmmm they even do tours with choccy thrown in lol.
I read the MSM maybe in hope that the comments section won’t be filled with vitriol against those that are poor and down on their luck or on the DPB. But no, I get disappointed as usual at least 10 times a day. I will link to this article I found this morning as the comments section had been closed and it was just a cess pit of hatred. I just went to get the link and the comments section has been erased all gone except for 4 Typical MSM Or maybe they got complaints. But you may have seen the story.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/7757971/Hamilton-women-lead-protest
What would genetic pollution look like? A cow
incapable of producing a necessary part of calf
milk in order to supply a human anti-allergy milk?
So has POAL been sold to the management yet?
.
Eight grand? Really – eight thousand dollars for an office partition? Because the office layout “just really didn’t work”? Oh, FFS!!!eleventyone!!!
Ever heard of false walls??? you wheel em in, and when you finished you wheel em out again cost ?? coupla hundy.
“Trade Minister Tim Groser has spent $8000 rebuilding an office wall that Social Development Minister Paula Bennett had taken down.”
Lol. Really, that is pretty funny, in a very dark sort of way. Then, more soberly, it says alot about NACT.
What is this about – and has it got anything to do with the whole Sky City thing earlier this year?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/7762416/National-Party-president-among-restaurateurs-victims
Uh oh Back Bencher on fire again…can lightning strike twice in the same place?
Obviously god is pissed that our parliamentarians couldn’t take the hint the first time.
It’ll be Parliament Buildings next.
Remember remember,…
careful, you’ll have the GCSB on your case 🙂
If certain quarters continue to insist the NZ Labour Party model itself on the British Labour Party approach, they should check out reaction to the UKLP’s conference – Ed Miliband’s speech, especially, and note that the Brits have changed tack:
Ed Miliband made it abundantly clear that Labour will get us off the miserable path dug by this government. His speech marks the long-awaited rebirth of a radical social democracy in this country. We can now start hoping once again. In particular, working-class people can feel that the party is back on their side.
He drew a line under most of the blunders and misconceptions of the new Labour years. His “one nation” is not the triangulated, all-things-to-all-people message associated with Tony Blair. Instead he targeted the banks and Murdoch without poking at working people’s unions. The country has been waiting to hear that from a political leader since 2008 at least.
Miliband’s promise is to restore our country to its people. Decent homes and services; fairness before favours for the rich and powerful; our NHS back where it belongs, in public hands – these will make us thrive again.
Labour must speak for the public against the rampage of private interests. Speak for the people whose talents are wasted and aspirations destroyed. Shake up our banks and take back our NHS. And yes, put the burden on those with the broadest shoulders. That is the agenda set out today.
A faint heart never won a fair election. Miiband has shown he’s more than ready to do battle in 2015. This is a shot in the arm for the labour movement.
Thing is, north of the border Labour are seeking to scrap free universal care for old people, eye prescriptions and so on. But hey…
Bullshit, Bill. A more accurate description would be that Labour want to end the subsidies to the rich, something I’m surprised you do not favour.
Removal of universal care is an absolutely accurate descripton of what Labour are advocating. Which can only be replaced with user pays for some segments of the population. Something I’m very surprised to learn you’re favour of TRP.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/letters/cost-of-universal-benefits-pales-into-insignificance-beside-trident.19037504
Bill, if you make disingenious attacks, expect to get called on it. I’m going to take the side of the poor and the working class in Scotland, you’re free to go with Salmond’s tartan tories and his BFF Rupert Murdoch if you want.
So if you think my comment is disingenioous, call me on it! Or is the throwing around of way off the mark labels as good as it’s going to get? Those ‘tartan tories’ as you call them are far to the left of Labour and are the one’s (to offer just one example) who have made sure tertiary education has remained free. Which is a kind of good thing for poor and working class people, no?
I did call you on it, Bill. And check the link above, it’ll tell you all you obviously don’t know.
The BBC piece titled “Scottish Labour’s Johann Lamont attacks SNP benefits policy”?
Yup. Read it. And where did it say that Labour wasn’t attacking the idea of universal benefits? I mean, did the last para or two completely sail right on over your head? She wants to scrap free presciptions and…
Clearly you don’t get it. You have chosen the side Rupert Murdoch prefers. That’s surprising coming from you, but you may completely and totally ignorant about Scottish politics. It certainly appeears so.
Scotland has been forced to swallow an economic dead rat. The SNP have decided that’s appropriate tucker for the poor, the Scottish Labour party want the rich to make the sacrifice. You have chosen to back the rich in order to make a sectarian attack on Labour. More fool you.
No TRP. I know a fair bit about what underpins Scottish politics. And just as I have opinions on the SD politics of NZ although I don’t subscribe to SD as a system of governance, so it is with Scottish politics. And facts are facts. The SNP has been consistently to the left of Labour on social policy. Scottish Labour is now contradicting Welsh and English (British) Labour on benefits.
But this ‘dead rat’ you speak of…what’s that? Universal benefits? If that’s what you’re referring to, I recommend you read Oxfam’s(?) recent report on the English care system (not free) that tallies up the cost to the economy (some billions) because people have to give up work to look after sick people and claim benefits in place of a wage.
Bill, Britain is broke, and Scotland as usual is getting the rough end of the pineapple. The SNP have moved to the right, Salmond in porticular is extremely pro-business, hence his backing from the Murdoch press. Salmond is prepared to deal to working Scots and the Scottish poor as long as he gets a referendum. Which he will lose, as the majority are convinced that remaining in the UK is the way forward (Andy Murray finally winning something at the Olympics probably helps). The SNP’s popular support has plummetted, because, in Government, they have not delivered for their voters.
That doesn’t mean Labour have the all the answers, but if the question is ‘who should pay for the economic crisis?’ the SNP haven’t got a clue.
Oops. Not Oxfam. Here are the links, including the source material
http://www.carersuk.org/newsroom/item/2617-care-in-crisis-more-than-53-billion-wiped-from-the-economy
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/healthandsocialcare/2012/04/25/dr-linda-pickard-public-expenditure-costs-of-carers-leaving-employment/
http://www.independent.co.uk/hei-fi/news/5bn-lost-a-year-by-carers-forced-to-give-up-work-8179691.html?origin=internalSearch
And meanwhile you link to ‘The Telegraph’ for some very objective coverage of Scottish politics??? ffs TRP!
Go look at the SNP’s budget. It includes the basic policies people on ts want to see being adopted here by Labour or whoever. And that’s from a government that doesn’t control it’s own public purse.
£40 million through investment in affordable housing.
…increase the number of schools being built from 55 to 67 bringing forward £80 million investment
…£30m over the next three years will help home owners improve energy efficiency, cutting bills and tackling fuel poverty whilst along with investment in low carbon transport supporting our growth industries and helping to meet our climate change targets.
…a national employer recruitment initiative that will create up to 10,000 opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises to recruit young people
…”We are also reaping the benefits of the public ownership of Scottish Water
Righto, I think we’re talking at cross purposes here. My beef with your original comment was that it was a cheap shot at Labour, and free of context. The Telegraph report is factual, no matter the source. It was just the first one up when I googled it, though I originally read the story in the Guardian or on the Beeb. I was trying to show you where Salmond thinks Scotland’s future lies; with bankers.
I’ve gotta dash, but I’ll be back later if you want to pick up. It’s been interesting. A feature of the next UK Government, which looks certain to be Labour led, is going to be how far it moves to genuine devolution, so relationships between the LP and the SNP are going to be crucial. On current UK polling, the SNP might hold the balance in the next Parliament. That’d give’em some serious bargaining power, aye?
Hey good discussion. Thanks for carrying it on Bill and TRP.
North Korea
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/asia_pacific/view/20121001north_korea_spark_could_set_off_nuclear_war/?
Iran
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/02/iran-nukes-deterrence?
Ahmadinejad on Syria
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/irans-ahmadinejad-says-syria-crisis-may-engulf-region?
Sorry Jokerman, this ones kinda big, but my thoughts ….
Kim Jong Un, a civilised man trying to bring peace too his region and is trying too address the loss.
Ahmadinejad, Likes the idea of addressing the loss in Tehrans’ region (No Offense, it’s what I read).
Europe, Like I keep telling John Key, we gotta regulate, and stop the embargo on Iran.
Warmongers in America….
They’ve been trying to do it fiscally, you gotta remember they’re everywhere.
The good civilised people that stand next too them are fighting tooth and nail too stop them.
Those good civilised people are doing it with open communication and due diligence.
They know more about NZ’s economy than John Key did …. a lot more.
They are also trying hard for us too get some more cashflow in the local economy.
Bloody good civilised people in my opinion, helping us save our country despite the incompetence of it’s elected leader, you have too love them for that.
Irans’ had the possibility of nuclear arms for 20+ years, those warmongers are moronic in their words and actions, It’s amazing too me that any civilised person on earth could take them seriously.
I’m sure those good civilised Americans I was describing above, our allies, view them in a similar light, with an appropriate amount of fear, they are crazy morons after all.
Education is the answer too right wing bigotry and violence in our communities, how do they/we educate those Warmongers about the dangers of their stupidity?
The embargoes on the Super Power Iran simply impoverish the starving poor of the world …. there will never be any other result, our friends and neighbours are out of work, because of oil inflation, engineered by those same warmongers, who hold a chart much like the armies did in the second world war, outlining the oil resources of the world.
Every country on the planet that has signed one of those documents in error, should rip them up and re-negotiate, make sure you tell America / China / Any other money lender before you do. But none of them want people too starve, that’s an obvious thing too me.
It’s our civilised duty too Govern the economies of our countries so no one will starve, that’s the goal.
Don’t let incompetent people destroy your economy again, make sure they are qualified.
Give them a Job Description, and make sure they stick too it.
Europe
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/margareta-pagano/margareta-pagano-candid-truths-on-the-euro-crisis-from-a-man-who-knows-his-facts-8194691.html
What a sad and sorry business this Zion Wildlife Park has led to. The poor cat handler Dalu Mncube mauled to death by the tiger he was caring for, who Craig Busch knew had a false passport, had that held over him whenever he wanted some better standards of safety. He could have been saved from such a horrific end.
Apparently Mr Busch did not want him to sign a contract and said he would have him deported if he did, and Mrs Busch, Craig’s mother had said she would not carry on employing him if he didn’t sign. The two were fighting for control of the Park and Mr Busch made allegations of unsafe practices just before the death. But she said that Mr Busch had shifted the cats to a different enclosure which didn’t have safe measures for entry and disrupted the environment for the tiger that killed Mr Mncube. A month before the killing there had been an incident when a tiger bit another man on the leg. It has been alleged that Mrs Busch was delaying buying a tazer to have for emergencies, and the Buschs wouldn’t provide a reliable and trained backup person.
It sounds as if Mr Busch has a narcissistic personality disorder which I have been reading about in the Listener. http://www.listener.co.nz/current-affairs/its-all-about-me-the-rise-of-narcissism/
” Further, narcissists seem unable to be empathetic. They cannot see a situation from someone else’s perspective, but nor do they really try, since they mostly think only about themselves and how others see them.”
How do such people get the right to keep such dangerous animals and when granted the right not have constant serious overview? There had been a number of incidents that had not been reported by the Park to MAF..
These included a boy being bitten by a lion cub and requiring hospital care, a cheetah escaping in 2011, and a fence being blown down which led to a lion escaping.
The park was being operated by Craig Busch and then later his mother Patricia, when these incidents happened.
zion lack of reports
Now the Park has been bought and being run since about Easter 2012 by new people who were employing Mr Busch. This doesn’t seem right when he could be said to have caused the death of one of his employees. Mr MnCube might have said that he would clean out the cat’s enclosure, but his preferred safety measures had been shifted by Mr Busch. So it seems he had a big responsibility that doesn’t seem to have been sheeted home. He has had his own television show and feels quite the star and now he’s poncing around playing the big man for tourists.
Hey LPRent, why the internal 500 error? a while back.
Do you encrypt your aliases?
Not that I care personally, but I reckon you should watch out for newbies.
Which brings up another point, which is …
Isn’t it terrorism when the GCSB spy on someone, what are they gonna do with the info?
And why the hell would they hack The Standard?
I doubt their machine will be running yet.
The site has a few too many posts. The Rss and SEO updates when a post is edited are cuing CPU outages. On my fix list… Now all I have to do is find time…
And I have very good spam filters
Do you know what a stack smash is LP?
Or did you crash the service ?
See below, they modify the tcpip packet to incorrectly report the size of the packet, allowing them to run past the boundry of the executable, they are looking for a running sh they can play in.
an error 500 is the only indicator cos it’s at the routing kernel level., and any port can be used it
I only know one man that can pull it off, and he’s done his homework.
Been thinkin…
He’s probably had access for a while, he can attack any port, and spam filters mean nothing.
He did this on purpose, coz he knows I know …. something to think about.
Give him a day and he’ll be back.
There is only one fix for this problem, talk to the OS people,
Get a triple checked IP routing kernel, it should be able to report a smash attempt in the logs.
It’s worth it, this attack is undefeatable without it.
CPU outages are another indcator by the way.
Chances are they’ve got your router as well.
Bad gateway error 500? Been getting the odd one just very occasionally last month or two.
Someone saying howdy, they’d have to find your process or kill the whole server, first one I’ve seen.
ie …. …. . . … …… .. … …..d
I got one of those yesterday. Internal 500 error, was going to mention it, but have been battling this rotten flu and I forgot, also as it automatically reloaded the page from your end I really gave it no never mind and it’s not the first time I have seen it. I have also noticed that page refreshes are pretty slow too, and lately they have been getting pretty slow
There aint no way it’s the number of posts, a freakin 486 could handle that amount.
The response times for me are well within boundaries usually.
Ah no, figure it through and think server operations. Whenever a edit is done on a post…
0. The post gets added/updated which effectively causes a wait for virtually all current read operations at the database as it is running on a non-transactional DB and there are several tables that store the posts data. They are part of most queries in a WordPress system. Most cached queries are invalidated and require regeneration when they are next asked.
1. frontpage gets changed – which requires that the cloudflare cache will have to fetch a new cache for the 30-90 people online on their next refresh (some will overlap on browsers). Typically this starts happening immediately.
2. A new robots.txt is generated for the whole site – takes 4.5 seconds and usually sucks up the whole of two cores
3. The search engine gets notified and typically picks up and indexes both the post and any new comments on other pages. This usually sucks up a core for a second.
4. Google, bing, baidu, yahoo, etc are notified and we immediately get a least 20 search engine systems (many of them pick up from multiple locations) in picking up the robots.txt, the edited post, and any posts that hav had recently added comments.
5. The hundreds of RSS feeds pop in, see a new post and suck it up over the next few minutes.
6. Probably a few more that I can’t remember right now…
But the nett effect is that apache and the database jam up with stacked waiting queries as the CPUs run at 90%. This typically takes about 5-10 seconds in the middle of the night. Then it drops back to the usual 10%. But during the day we have a lot more going on under normal loads. It will usually clear in 20-30 secs but it can take a few minutes if everything piles in at the same time. That will cause apache timeouts. The frequency of the latter is increasing…
The trick is to push some of these tasks (2-5) on to deferred cron to spread the load. Which requires customizing plugins very carefully because almost all of the existing ones operate on direct hooks. I haven’t had time to do it since the load started boosting towards the end of last year.
I used to work on 486s back in the 80s and early 90s. And I mostly work on single core ARM 9s running linux in my paid work at present (I seem to oscillate from server systems to embedded these days). They are like pretty fast 486’s. But they have problems stretching to the minimal amounts of data we are feeding in and out via serial and TCP whilst processing in maximum load tests for certification. That is with customized data structure optimized for the task and before we add my GUI on top and with only a couple of connections.
I rather think you are overrating the capacities of 486s with processing while doing comms. Single core systems just aren’t that good at doing multiple things at once.
Fair enough LP just giving ya a heads up, but ignore it if ya want bud 🙂
How many zombie threads do you see on the server?
Do you even check?, they’ve probably got a permanent connection , check the age of the zombies, one of them will be days old.
Bud I used too write assembler comms switches on z80 processors running 1200 baud airline reservation systems. one page of solid text = 2048 bytes of data.
A time out is a 503 error not a 500.
And bud, Linux / Apache are the most stack smashable solutions on the market.
They have source code available to the world.
Your users have been compromised, not that they actually care, they’re not terrorists afterall.
And it’s not paranoia bud.
Yeah I’ve had a few over the last couple of days.
First one I’ve seen
It’s a rare error, and they have obviously been on the board for a while.
It means they know who u are, if u’ve been getting this error, someone wants you too know.
LP is too scared too admit it, and doesn’t have a clue about stack smashing.
You both should power cycle your routers by the way.
You’ll probably find the power button doesn’t work anymore, so unplug/replugin the power adapter.
hey bo.
they cant help themselves.
in their horrible little minds if they aren’t spying on you then you are spying on them!
and besides their is an unnamed battle group approaching our shores and eternal vigilance is the price of freedom and blah blah flipping blah.
and there is a drone watching YOU right now!
snd just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean that they are not out to get you!
howzatt?
Do you know what an internal server 500 means moron?
They just stack smashed The Standard
The fact they have recompiled the service probably saved them a breakin, it indicates a GP fault in the service.
(i.e didn’t find the sh)
Bloody Orphan
Why do you throw the word ‘moron’ round? It’s quite a strong word and should be saved for special and rare case.
sorry, I apologise, but they’ve been smashed
I wouldn’t say something like that without reason