Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike…
“..Over the years, there has been an extensive health debate over whether coffee is really good or bad for our bodies – with strong arguments and research coming from both sides of the fence.
Some research suggests that coffee can prevent strokes – delay the onset of diabetes and heart disease.
Other findings indicate it might lead to some forms of cancer – and adversely affect the metabolism.
The most recent study from the Mayo Clinic published on August 15 reveals that drinking more than 28 cups a week can harm your health considerably –
– with those consuming more than four cups a day twice as likely to die than those who are non-drinkers..”
“…with those consuming more than four cups a day twice as likely to die than those who are non-drinkers..”
Dude, with one possible exception everyone who has ever been born has died so I am not sure what this sentence even means.
Since we are all gonna die of something someday, I’ll take my chances with the coffee. Probably better to live a fun life and die at 80 than be petrified of an expresso and live to be 102 when you are blind, deaf and the only thing you have to look forward to in your life is getting your nappies changed.
Hungarian creamer with that latte?
NZ 250M export infant baby formula market in China nearly wiped out; many exporters orders halved, some cancelled. China preferring infant formula sourced from Hungary for now.
-RNZ (interview with an industry Exporter) Checkpoint.
28 a week? Oh am I in trouble. When I was younger back in the BBS days I existed on Coffee and Nicotine (As did Most Sysops Back Then) Now I am older, I have given up the Nicotine. But give up Coffee Now thats a whole nother story.
Apparently coffee protects against liver damage from alcohol – so if you had a glass of wine last night feel comfortable with your cup of coffee this morning 😉
Anyone else feeling slight queasiness with the collective sympathy-fest around the Team NZ homecoming? Isn’t that strange how the government and the middle classes are happy to throw millions at rich yachtsmen but very reluctant to fund food for schoolchildren? And I dont think that the rest of our not-so-well pampered and funded sportspeople are feeling happy right now either.
Someone somewhere needed a feel good parade, and by the looks, Team New Zealand lucked in.
That they lost with what can arguably be called the biggest choke in sporting history appears to be totally beside the point.
A precedent setting paradigm shift in NZ culture in rewarding humiliating failure?
But we funded the winner too, apparently Larry the billionaire ‘owns’ the NZ boatyard in which the ‘American’ boat was built, the tax breaks so far given are said to have Larry wanting to do it all over again…
The opposition should be going hard on solid energy. It sums up the NACT, profit stripping via debt, hobbling its business model, ignoring its board then tossing jobs and ownership away.
“$800,000 salaries for top city staff the market rate, says mayor
Auckland Mayor Len Brown last night defended salaries of nearly $800,000 a year for two senior council executives, telling a public meeting, “You have got to meet the…
The just-published 2013 annual report shows council chief executive Doug McKay’s salary increased by $15,656 to $782,887 and Watercare CEO Mark Ford’s salary rose $70,000 to between $780,000 and $790,000.
In the same year, the number of council staff earning more than $100,000 rose to 1500, and 113 staff earned more than $200,000.”
An interesting blog from Chris Trotter on a matter much discussed within these pages.
My own recent experience of trying to do things differently in a group – to be genuinely democratic, consensual, non-hierarchical…even with lashings of goodwill – makes me feel like running for the hills (once I’ve finished tearing my hair out, that is).
Has Bill English ceded his Job to Governor of the Reserve Bank of Auckland.
The OCR mechanism is a blunt tool unsuited to the extraordinary times we still find ourselves in. I hope David and David are going to follow through with rhetoric on the Reserve Bank and not become captured by orthodox lobby of the self interested
I don’t see why we shouldn’t make the job of governor of the reserve bank an elected one. After all, he has an important role in setting policy for OUR economy.
So more neo-liberal privatisation –your ideological solution to everything?
It’s really worked so far!
Return to Kiwiblog and the Sewerblog, where your pernicious ideas will gain traction, no doubt.
This sadly shows you how a corrupt media with shills like John Roughan and Mike Hosking can influence opinion when they get unopposed airtime on the corporate news wires.
Review of fourth annual RightsWatch Conference of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), presented this year in partnership with Ryerson University.
“Civil Liberties and Democracy in the Digital Age: Privacy, Media and Free Expression” held in Toronto on Friday and Saturday, September 20th and 21st.
After signing New Zealand up. John Key says that he does not expect that the major emitters who are dialogue partners to the Pacific Islands Forum, the US, China, India, (or as it turned out, even full member Australia), to sign up to the Majuro Declaration on climate change.
Maybe the political leaders of these nations feel that if they did sign this international agreement, they might be bound to honour it?
Oh my, just been given a link to a webpage that is more left than here, (didnt think it was possible) The Daily Blog?
Such disgusting items, such as the USA was behind the Kenyan Mall attacks,and it would appear its great that America has shut down, because millions of babies wont be killed world wide?
Does the left in NZ really believe that BS, are you that precious about the USA?
Surly not even Temana or the green party supporters are on this level.
Totally repugnant page.
[lprent: I’m surprised that you’re been able to miss TDB? Have you ever looked at the Feed on the right of this site which amongst everything from No Minister to some really really local left sites (and the odd science site as well because I like them). The Daily Blog makes up a good quarter of the feed on most days. ]
I don’t know about the Kenyan Mall, but the Americans have definitely been providing infantry training and weapons to islamist Al Qaeda fighters in Syria.
I don’t know about the Kenyan Mall, but the Americans have definitely been providing infantry training and weapons to islamist Al Qaeda fighters in Syria.
Time to get over the fact that you have been supporting a foreign invasion of Syria and a Qatari/Saudi regime change programme targetting the Syrian government, Jenny.
and the organised criminal extremes their society (might is right) have bred: Mob, Irish, Hispanics, Russians, Crips, Bloods, Aryans and NLR, Central and South American gangs and so on, and that’s not including their own internal terrorists, the Patriot-aligned and their NGO / Defense Contract private mercenary armies. Gee, that sure worked out well.
I think ‘ANT’ is off in a couple of things in that comment, but you completely misrepresent what is said.
‘Complicit in’ is not the same as ‘was behind’.
I know that you hate people criticising the US, it’s the weird little chip you carry on your own shoulder Brett, but it is simply a fact that they work with all sorts of unsavoury people around the world, and do all sorts of awful things. They really do.
Now that doesn’t mean that they are behind every bad thing that happens, but it does mean that it isn’t ‘vile’ to talk about things they are doing, and ask questions and what not.
It isn’t ‘out of the question’ that US actions in Africa are inflaming things. It isn’t ‘out of the question’ that the US funds and trains people who go on to do very bad things.
Yeah I can’t see any article suggesting the US were behind the Kenyan Mall attacks, you better link to it Brett. I gave your stupid comment a thumbs down too.
With you using the word repugnant, I think you must be talking about the whale-snot website, silly boy.
“Ant” wrote: “There was a recent story on globalresearch.ca that says western intelligence agencies were complicit in the Kenya mall attacks. According to the story, the attacks may be a part of a geopolitical strategy to counter the rising influence of China in Africa.”
SO, you are a fucking liar Brett.
You should know by now that people here are not as stupid as you would like them to be. Only someone as stupid as you will swallow the garbage you throw around.
Are there any examples of anything ‘vile’ that has been left up?
The commment from ‘Ant’ is abit wrong headed in a few respects from my point of view (it’s a bit simplistic about Saudi Arabia and AQ), but what is vile about it?
the rest of the comments, what’s wrong with them?
If there are ‘vile’ tweets that have been moderated, that kind of suggests that your idea about TDB being a vile cesspit is wrong, doesn’t it?
Or are you saying that if they leave them up, that’s awful, but if they take them down, why, that’s awful too!
Go to the link, its right there, western governments behind kenya mall attacks,
Martyn is celebrating the usa government shutdown because it means no drone
attacks against thousands and thousands and thousands of children.
Because drone attacks have nothing to do with the usa shutting down, and im guessing if there was a tragic event in the states like an earthquake or another massacre, someone would write….
What about iraq?
or
What about drones??
What of course has nothing to do with the actual incident that took place.
So what is wrong with the ceasation of drone attacks on civilian areas? Seems like a good thing to have happen, even if it is simply due to running out of budget.
And you imagine that there would be all sorts of vile things said about things that haven’t happened.
Well I think that in a hypothetical universe where the US launched a nuclear strike in response to a cyber attack on their power grid, (which is something they have not taken off the table), you would criticise anyone who objected to it.
Brett’s point is that it’s morally wrong to discuss violence done by the US in other places while recognising violence in places other than the US, and that it is morally wrong to discuss violence done by the US while recognising violence or unfortunate events that take place in the US.
Which drastically limits the morally acceptable opportunities to discuss violence committed by the US, but I’m sure that such an outcome is completely inadvertent.
Commentator refers to wingnut web site = vile attack on the US must make you the stupidest man on the internets today – congratulations fella.
btw, bomber is correct.
The study by Stanford Law School and New York University’s School of Law calls for a re-evaluation of the practice, saying the number of “high-level” targets killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low — about 2%.
[…]
TBIJ reports that from June 2004 through mid-September 2012, available data indicate that drone strikes killed 2,562 – 3,325 people in Pakistan, of whom 474 – 881 were civilians, including 176 children. TBIJ reports that these strikes also injured an additional 1,228 – 1,362 individuals,” according to the Stanford/NYU study.
FFS, Okay I posted this at my blog and here once I think, this is blogger james robinson response to someone who wrote..
“what about Iraq” In response to James writing about the boston bombing.
It sums up my whole feeling…
JAMES ROBINSON
“The “what-about-Iraq” comments here miss the point.
I stewed on them for a couple of days and what I have to say is this.
If you grieve a friend of yours dying, are you being
disrespectful to everyone else that died that day? No.
I lived in Boston. I live in America. This was big news to me.
I’m well versed in Iraqi policy and America’s failings there.
And don’t just zero in on Iraq because its in the news.
People are dying in huge numbers in places that America
didn’t invade too. There’s a lot of bad stuff out there, always
happening. That doesn’t mean that seeing bombs going off in
my former home isn’t somewhat traumatic. I hope I never have
to sit next to you guys at a dinner party.”
Because whenever there is a major disaster in the usa or a tragic event, people bring up other international issues, that have nothing to so with what has just happened.
The left seems to have a rage in them if people dare give sympathy to the people of the usa.
So why don’t you give actual examples of them doing that, instead of imagining it would happen?
And why do you say it’s ‘the left’ that do it? Does everyone on the left do it? Does no one on the right do it? Or does it only concern you when it is from the left, or about the US.
And does no one on the left give sympathy to the US, ever/ Pretty sure that’s a pile of bullshit. So what the hell are you talking about.
It looks like you just hate to see the US criticised. Why is that?
Martin Heidegger prepared the ground for his major work, Sein und Zeit (1927; tr.Oxford 1962) with a series of lucid and solid, if unremarkable writings which anticipated the themes of his mature work.
In “The Problem of Reality in Modern Philosophy (1912) he argues against various versions of idealism, including Kant’s critical idealism, in favour of critical realism. “New Investigations of Logic (1912) assessed recent works on logic, including those of Russell, Whitehead and Frege through Husserl’s critique of psychologism. In keeping with his doctrine of truth as unconcealment , H. had little truck with ‘logic of assertion’ traditions; Analogous to the later Wittgenstein, H. was more inclined to base arithmetic on everyday activities like counting and measurement.His doctoral dissertation The Doctrine of the Judgement in Psychologism (1914) continued this opposition to the reduction of logic to psychological processes; his habilitation thesis Dun Scotus’s Doctrine of Categories and Meaning demonstrates a respect for metaphysics, history, and subjectivity that flows through his later work.
( His initial support for Naz1sm was due to his abhorence of technological and industrialized mass society, which he associated with the USA and the USSR. Although recently elected Rector of Freiberg in 1933, he resigned in 1934, and in 1945 was forbidden to teach until 1951, due to his associations with Naz1sm ) .
Being and Time crystallized his study of virtually the entire breadth of past and contemporary philosophy at that time, it’s central concern being the ‘question of being’. Since the Greeks, being ( Sein ) had not been well-integrated into Time; it had been insulated from change as presence , excluding past and future. This exclusion embraced not only temporal presence, but also the atemporal, eternal presence of , for example, Plato’s Forms
H. revived investigation of the ‘sense of being’ through engagement in a ‘fundamental ontology’ underpinning the ‘regional’ ontologies dealing with the being of particular realms of entity ; nature and history for example.
This examination requires consideration of the entity , Dasein (literally, ‘to be there’ ). H. uses this term for several reasons: it does not require commitment to a view of humans as biological entities, as consciousness, or as essentially rational; Dasein has no determinate essence, hmmm, ; it’s being consists in it’s possibilities, “To be or not to be, that is the question”. It is there in the world, yet not confined to a particular place (or time). It is the entity that asks “What is being?” and whose understanding of being is itself, an essential feature of it’s being.
Although Dasein is essentially ontological, the philosopher cannot simply adopt Dasein’s own understanding of itself and other entities. For Dasein tends to systematically misinterpret itself and it’s world, for example, regarding itself as a thing equivalent to other things leading to much of the vocabulary of traditional philosophy- ‘consciousness’, ‘subject-object’ to be infected with such misunderstandings. Thus H. , like analytical philosophers such as Wittgenstein, J.L. Austin and Ryle avoids such terminology, preferring more grounded terms such as ‘care’ ( Sorge ) which carry no burden of philosophical assumptions. (Bear in mind that H. holds that silence is an ‘essential possibility of discourse’). Like Husserl, he attempts to describe ‘the things themselves’ without the help of theories and preconceptions, yet unlike Husserl, he holds that this requires a determined rethinking of philosophical language.
You’re letting Head-Gear off far too lightly in 1933. He never gave up his membership, and never repudiated them despite the length entreaties of many especially Marcuse.
Should Penny Webster be disqualified under the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968, because she and her husband have entered into transactions with the Auckland Council Group, totalling $32,189 during 2012, for services provided by their jointly-owned private company, All Rural Fencing Limited ?
Disqualifying contracts between local authorities and their members
(1) Except as provided in subsection (3), no person shall be capable of being elected as or appointed to be or of being a member of a local authority or of any committee of a local authority, if the total of all payments made or to be made by or on behalf of the local authority in respect of all contracts made by it in which that person is concerned or interested exceeds $25,000 in any financial year.
SHOULD PENNY WEBSTER BE ELIGIBLE TO STAND AS AN AUCKLAND COUNCIL CANDIDATE?
I have just rung the OAG (PA to Lynn Provost ) and asked if Penny Webster had applied for and received any dispensation, given that in 2012 All Rural Fencing Ltd had ‘entered into transactions with the Auckland Council Group totaling $32,189 for services provided by their jointly-owned private company, All Rural Fencing Limited .
32 RELATED PARTIES
Related parties
Related parties are defined in the group’s accounting policies.
The group enters into numerous transactions such as rates, water charges and the sale of goods or services with related parties in the ordinary course of business and on an arm’s length basis.
No disclosure has been made for these transactions.
Certain related parties have directorships and trustee positions in a number of entities to which the group transacts in the normal course of business, on standard terms. No disclosure is made for these relationships as the related parties do not have a controlling interest in the council or the entity that they are a director or trustee. The group transacts with entities that are related by virtue of related parties having a controlling interest in the related entity as detailed below:
The group entered into transactions totalling $32,189 with All Rural Fencing Limited during the year
(2012: $920). An amount of $4,313 was payable at balance date (2012: $nil).
The council entered into transactions totalling $4,313 with All Rural Fencing Limited during the year
(2012: $920). An amount of $4,313 was payable at balance date (2012: $nil)
______________________________________________________________________________
“Rodney councillor Penny Webster says that at a time when household budgets are tight, the council cannot afford the $12 million to $15 million cost of mowing berms for the whole region. ..”
The blinding hypocrisy of Auckland Councillor Penny Webster sickens me. Councillor Penny Webster, (Chair of the Auckland Council Strategy and Finance Committee), wants citizens and ratepayers to provide their lawn-mowing services free of charge, although there is no legal requirement to so do, while she and her husband have their snouts in the public through transactions with the Auckland Council Group, totalling $32,189 during 2012, for services provided by their jointly-owned private company, All Rural Fencing Limited.
In my considered opinion, this is a clear ‘conflict of interest’.
As an anti-corruption /anti-privatisation ‘Public Watchdog’, I am totally opposed to any elected representatives personally profiting from contracts with Council or Council-Controlled-Organisations (CCOs) .
I believe in the ‘public service model’, where people seek public office to look after the public and the public interest, not to ‘feather their own nests’, and enrich themselves from the public purse.
I also asked why the statutory requirements of the Public Records Act 2005, (s.17) had not been met in the Auckland Council 2012 -2013 Annual Report, because there are no ‘devilish details’ provided regarding contracts with the private sector.
Recordkeeping requirements
Subpart 1—Key duties
17 Requirement to create and maintain records
(1)Every public office and local authority must create and maintain full and accurate records of its affairs, in accordance with normal, prudent business practice, including the records of any matter that is contracted out to an independent contractor.
______________________________________________________________________________
Here’s the 2012 – 2013 Auckland Council Annual Report:
See if you can find the NAMES of the consultants/contractors ; SCOPE / TERM VALUE of contracts between Auckland Council / Auckland Council CCOs / Auckland Council Local Boards?
I couldn’t.
In my considered opinion, the problem with Auckland Council, as proven by this 2012- 2013 Annual Report – is that ‘the books’ are NOT open – and we are NOT given the ‘devilish detail’ which explains exactly where our public monies are being spent, invested or borrowed.
This is why, if and when I am elected Mayor pf Auckland Council, I will establish an Auckland Mayoral ‘Commission Against Corruption’, and will ‘open the books’, in order to find out where every dollar of citizen and ratepayer’s monies are being spent, invested and borrowed.
This Auckland Mayoral ‘Commission Against Corruption’ will be staffed by a small team of forensic investigators, (whom I shall appoint, and who will report directly to me), funded directly from the Mayoral Office, using the budget which is set aside in order to help achieve the Auckland ‘Mayoral Vision.’
My Auckland Mayoral Vision is – to stop the corrupt corporate control of the Auckland region.
Here is my ‘Action Plan’ to stop ‘white collar’ crime, corruption and ‘corporate welfare’:
For those who really want to know who is running the Auckland region, ‘like a business, by business, for business’ – check for yourselves http://www.committeeforauckland.co.nz (membership).
It is essential to his procedure that H. in providing a correct or authentic term for, or account of, a phenomena (such as man, time or truth) he does not simply counterpose it to the degenerate term or account current, but attempts to explain why the degeneration occurred, for example, in demonstrating that Descartes was mistaken to regard man as res cogitans one must show, n the correct account of man, how the mistake arose.For misinterpretation is not sheer, unaccountable error, but a ‘possibility’ to which Dasein is essentially prone.
For Heidegger, unlike Descartes, Dasein is essentially in the world and is inseparable from it: In understanding the world, Being-in is always understood along with it, while understanding of existence ( Existenz like the movie ) as such is always an understanding of the world. The world is not primarily the world of the sciences, but the everyday lifeworld (Husserl).It is disclosed to us not by scientific knowledge per se, but by pre-scientific experiences, by care and by emotions. Entities in the world are not primarily objects of theoretical cognition, but tools that are ‘ready to hand’ ( zuhanden ) such as a hammer ,to be used rather than studied and observed. Theoretical cognition, like when observing a hammer disinterestedly (or a RWNJ) is a secondary phenomenon, which occurs more readily when a tool fails to give satisfaction. Tools are not independent of each other but belong to ‘context of significance’ in which items such as hammers, nails and IT ‘refer’ to each other and ultimately to Dasein and it’s purposes.
Just as Dasein is in the world, so it essentially ‘with’ others of the same type as itself. It does not first exist as an isolated subject and then subsequently acquire knowledge of and relations to others; it is with others from the start. However, it’s integrity is threatened by others, as being together with others Dasein is ‘captured’ by others. Itself, it is not; others usurp it’s being. The self of everyday Dasein is the ‘they-self’, as distinct from the authentic self, the self that possesses itself. ‘They’ is the German man (one, you: we ) :the they-self does and believes what one does and believes rather than what it has independently and authentically decided upon.(This theory of the ‘they’ or ‘one’ is influenced by Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Illyich : Ivan’s carefully redecorated house seems quite exceptional to him, yet it contains “all the things people of a certain class have in order to resemble other people of that class’ ). To summarize, thus far, the account of everyday life that H. first presented as a neutral account of the bedrock condition of man, becomes an account of man’s fallenness’ and inauthenticity.
The primary form of discourse, for H. is not explicit assertion, for example, “This hammer is heavy” but such utterances as “Too Heavy! Give me a lighter one” made in a work situation. Truth too, is not a primarily the correspondence between an assertion or proposition and a state of the world but the disclosure of the world to and by Dasein , unmediated by concepts, propositions or inner mental sates; ultimately, truth is ‘ Dasein’s disclosedness (supported by an appeal to the Greek word for truth aletheia which he claimed means ‘unconcealment’.) Meaning, like truth, is extruded from the mind- “Mill’s verbal propositions cannot be completely severed from the beings they intend.Names, words in their broadest sense , have no a priori fixed measure in their significative content. Names, or again, their meanings, change with transformations in our knowledge of things, and the meanings of names and words always change according to the predominance of a specific line of vision toward the the thing somehow named by the name. All significations, including those that appear mere verbal meanings, arise from reference to things”. ( The basic Problems of Phenomenology : 1927; tr, Bloomington, 1982).
I like the way you put that, “worlding”.
Will just finish with some reference, death, the wonderful Time , decline , Holderlin and some thought (not on Friday afternoon though, took most of the morning as I had not been back to the highlighting for about two weeks 😉 ) Highlighting is then blended with the overlooked carefully.
Man, it’s 20C today, the same predicted for the next week, although with some rain. The forecast for temperature is generally consistent, however the rainfall can vary widely from that predicted. Some of us are anticipating another warmer summer.
Anyway, Ad, many of these “obscurantist” suggestions may well capture the lived experience of pre-technological peoples arisng at present. Many are essentially narratives of the decline or return of Western civilization.
grounded narratives : Gotta love them., very helpful. 😀
furthermore, building upon McFlock’s suggestion and evidence of the roles of traders, pirates and brigands (my terms) in the expansion and establishment of nation-states, there may be an analogy at present , in a period of continued globalization, mercantile expansion , particularly by China , information-connectivity and flows under threat from piracy (and the authoritarian State ) the world-wide web of organised crime and the amorality of many of the wealthy… through to corporate rapacity ,establishing pan-continental entities.
If we reduce the possible Harrison/Gibson mega-corp into its component parts (capitalist shareholders), and those parts become beholden to patronage and nepotism, it might be regarded as a social devolution back to hereditary monarchies. After all, it was loyalty to one’s lord and liege that preceded cohesive “national” identity, by and large. Different brand on the armour, but the game stays the same (preservation of personal and hereditary power).
Personally, I reckon that the main way to avert that dystopia is to strengthen international structures that have a democratic foundation – e.g. give the UN more power and self-determination, remove the veto, and then start looking at ways to have as few representative tiers between an individual and the top of the UN as possible.
More Corporate Welfare from this corrupt Government.
Joyce has just promised to borrow more money today to bankroll a team of 3-peat losers in the next instalment of the Billionaires Piss-up on San Francisco Bay.
Can someone please bring some reality to this outrageous waste of our money.
The America’s Cup does absolutley nothing for the hungry kids in this country.
Can someone in Wellington please stand up and scream NO MORE CORPORATE WELFARE.
Fuck off Team New Zealand. Stop crying and go fund your own rich boys wank-fest.
That’s cool, I will do that. You and your ilk just make sure as parents you feed your fucking kids. Don’t send them to school hoping I will pay to feed them.
Yes. There is meant to be a thumbnail image in there that has the required sizing. Unfortunately the generation of the thumbnail has a bug in it that makes the CPU usage at the server go up dramatically when the site is under load. So it is currently turned off and waiting for either the plugin author to fix, or me to find some unencumbered time to debug and recode.
I suppose I could patch the CSS with a min-height. But at present it is a nice reminder for me to fix it.
couple a points:
-7.9B exports, year to August, dominated by commodities not ‘value-added’.
– China Exports to NZ have grown to 8.2B
-“worry SMEs may have all their eggs in one basket”- Finny
whereas, as any critic of corporate globalization might argue, The TPPA is Corporate Protectionism before Sovereignty Protectionism
Thanks for the link cv. Brett far from having a chip I was looking for facts about who holds the us debts. You have spent half a thread complaining about what a poster on a blog said. On the evidence of this thread it is you who needs to get some perspective.
Turoa ski field today confirmed 15,000 litres was spilled after a pipe disconnected from a diesel storage tank.
A spokesperson said the company was first aware there had been a spill on Monday, but due to heavy rain did not realise the extent of the spill right away.
Although the company says it complied with its safety and resource consent requirements, it will be doing an independent audit to make sure such an accident does not happen again.
Yes, but are they going to be charged the millions of dollars to clean it up or is it going to be another example of socialised loss and privatised profits?
Lynn, my name and email keeps dropping out of the Name/Mail boxes when I go to make a post. Intermittently (sometimes it seems to retain them). You are probably aware of this, but thought it worth mentioning again just in case.
I have a similar problem, using Chrome – but once I enter name/email details they remain – even if I close the browser or logout of windows and come back. But if I power off the computer the name/email details have disappeared next time I come back.
Browser is Chrome…
Yeah, I thought it might be a setting too, which is why I’ve not bothered about it until others have been saying about disappearing formfill, but I can’t figure out which setting it might be…
I was not sure if I should post this comment here, but since this “protest” by an apparently desperate, aggrieved complainant in the foyer of the HDC Office in Wellington is freely available via You Tube, it should be OK to do so.
There seem to be a fair number of complaints the office is not addressing to the satisfaction of the affected.
Not long ago there was also a brief news article on the 1ZB website on 24 July, stating that HDC face funding issues, are having too high a workload, and would face deficits for years to come.
Annette King then appealed to Minister of Health Tony Ryall to listen to the HDC Office and provide the funding they need.
I have heard nothing more on that.
So we seem to be having a shocking state of affairs, getting worse by the day under this horrible government, leaving sick and disabled with incapacity not only exposed to biased WINZ doctors, who assist in throwing them off benefits and forcing them into insecure, often unsuitable jobs, we also have mentally ill not getting treatment they need, and getting bumped off by HDC.
Mr Ryall, you are facing a “state of emergency” soon!
Welcome to supposedly “transparent”, “just” and “uncorrupted” New Zealand, where your rights are claimed to be “respected”, and where your concerns are meant to be “listened” to by such offices!?
To ALL sick, disabled and with incapacity for work – on WINZ benefits: Download and read the PDF submission to be found via this link, and READ IT, please!
MSD’s Principal Health Advisor Dr Bratt and his team seem to be preparing new ways of outsourcing Work Capability Assessments, to be done by selected professionals!
This smells too much like the “stench” that has been attached to the involvement of Atos Healthcare as the private assessor for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in the UK.
I have not heard or read anything about MSD’s plans in this direction yet, but it sounds extremely worrying, hence the serious concerns also, the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) expresses.
Something is being prepared to involve people to make assessments for WINZ, who are not even proper medical experts.
I will try to keep you posted, but this is a must read, and must be taken very seriously!
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, 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 ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
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Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
coffee heads-up for ya..
http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/are-you-drinking-one-cup-coffee-too-many-study-says-overconsumption-could-send-you
“..Over the years, there has been an extensive health debate over whether coffee is really good or bad for our bodies – with strong arguments and research coming from both sides of the fence.
Some research suggests that coffee can prevent strokes – delay the onset of diabetes and heart disease.
Other findings indicate it might lead to some forms of cancer – and adversely affect the metabolism.
The most recent study from the Mayo Clinic published on August 15 reveals that drinking more than 28 cups a week can harm your health considerably –
– with those consuming more than four cups a day twice as likely to die than those who are non-drinkers..”
whoar..!
..eh..?
phillip ure..
“…with those consuming more than four cups a day twice as likely to die than those who are non-drinkers..”
Dude, with one possible exception everyone who has ever been born has died so I am not sure what this sentence even means.
Since we are all gonna die of something someday, I’ll take my chances with the coffee. Probably better to live a fun life and die at 80 than be petrified of an expresso and live to be 102 when you are blind, deaf and the only thing you have to look forward to in your life is getting your nappies changed.
Its the probability of dying within the set period of time studied, not a timeline which stretches forward to infinity.
Hungarian creamer with that latte?
NZ 250M export infant baby formula market in China nearly wiped out; many exporters orders halved, some cancelled. China preferring infant formula sourced from Hungary for now.
-RNZ (interview with an industry Exporter) Checkpoint.
28 a week? Oh am I in trouble. When I was younger back in the BBS days I existed on Coffee and Nicotine (As did Most Sysops Back Then) Now I am older, I have given up the Nicotine. But give up Coffee Now thats a whole nother story.
Breakfast of champions!
Ahh, the memories.
Although I have also given up tobacco, caffeine is still my very good friend and companion.
Drinkers <55 years mortality from any cause of death over a 17 year period.
Seems to me that would include a lot of folks who use it as a sleep substitute in stressful or extended-duration workplaces.
Damn had just settled down with my first cup of coffee for the day, and about to take a sip….
Apparently coffee protects against liver damage from alcohol – so if you had a glass of wine last night feel comfortable with your cup of coffee this morning 😉
heh..!
phillip ure..
Another National Party political broadcast courtesy of an anonymous author at the NZ Herald: “Solid energy shows pitfalls of public ownership”.
A real stretch that one!
The finance industry continue to send articles to the Herald.
Which they just repeat….without any critical analysis…
Must pay good advertising…
“Investors warm to Meridian share offer”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11134387
What a dreadful disgrace for the 4th estate.
Don’t you just hate it when they report facts that don’t fit in with your ideology.
Thank God for the delusional sanctuary of the blogs.
Like Kiwiblog you mean?
Yes, only Kiwiblog.
pump ‘n dump
Anyone else feeling slight queasiness with the collective sympathy-fest around the Team NZ homecoming? Isn’t that strange how the government and the middle classes are happy to throw millions at rich yachtsmen but very reluctant to fund food for schoolchildren? And I dont think that the rest of our not-so-well pampered and funded sportspeople are feeling happy right now either.
Someone somewhere needed a feel good parade, and by the looks, Team New Zealand lucked in.
That they lost with what can arguably be called the biggest choke in sporting history appears to be totally beside the point.
A precedent setting paradigm shift in NZ culture in rewarding humiliating failure?
Its local body election time. Nuff said.
@ andy..plus national is dropping in the polls..
..and one of the most disturbing outcomes for me from nationals’ drop..
..is that joyce has gone from five years of being an arrogant/crowing/get-fucked! kinda person..
..to a form of cloying ‘niceness’..
..it is downright spooky to behold…
..and it is so obviously fake..
..it just brings into focus how hideous he is..
..phillip ure..
will there be a choke-medallion struck for them..?
..maybe showing the nz boat trailing far behind..?
..and wasn’t it such a ‘choke’ in slow-motion..?
..philllip ure..
Don’t know old boy….certain je ne sais about any chap that can be on top eight times and still not come first…..
I agree, theres better things to spend money on
But we funded the winner too, apparently Larry the billionaire ‘owns’ the NZ boatyard in which the ‘American’ boat was built, the tax breaks so far given are said to have Larry wanting to do it all over again…
The opposition should be going hard on solid energy. It sums up the NACT, profit stripping via debt, hobbling its business model, ignoring its board then tossing jobs and ownership away.
And going hard on overpaid executives…..
“$800,000 salaries for top city staff the market rate, says mayor
Auckland Mayor Len Brown last night defended salaries of nearly $800,000 a year for two senior council executives, telling a public meeting, “You have got to meet the…
The just-published 2013 annual report shows council chief executive Doug McKay’s salary increased by $15,656 to $782,887 and Watercare CEO Mark Ford’s salary rose $70,000 to between $780,000 and $790,000.
In the same year, the number of council staff earning more than $100,000 rose to 1500, and 113 staff earned more than $200,000.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11134465
And the threats to ACC…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/personal-finance/news/article.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=11133670
This Horizon exit Poll has Mr Palino only 4% behind Mr Brown. North Shore and Franklin strongest support for Palino. However the numbers counted seem pretty low.
http://www.horizonpoll.co.nz/page/332/auckland-mayoralty-race-close-in-mid-voting-exit-poll?gtid=6829475094243EYF
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/10/04/the-goal-and-the-movement-the-debate-between-john-moore-and-chris-trotter-continues/
An interesting blog from Chris Trotter on a matter much discussed within these pages.
My own recent experience of trying to do things differently in a group – to be genuinely democratic, consensual, non-hierarchical…even with lashings of goodwill – makes me feel like running for the hills (once I’ve finished tearing my hair out, that is).
@ just saying..did you join the green party..?
phillip ure..
lol
No.
How bad is it that I have no idea who John Moore is?
Me neither. Seems like a little in-group discussing BIG THINGS amongst themselves.
Re Domost print edition
Headline
The Maid, the Kiwi and the stolen sperm
A salacious little story – NOT front page new.
BUT what I found absolutely disgraceful was the publication of the a large photo of the 3 year old child with the by line of Unwanted child
Has Bill English ceded his Job to Governor of the Reserve Bank of Auckland.
The OCR mechanism is a blunt tool unsuited to the extraordinary times we still find ourselves in. I hope David and David are going to follow through with rhetoric on the Reserve Bank and not become captured by orthodox lobby of the self interested
http://blog.labour.org.nz/2012/10/18/ostrich-economics/
http://blog.labour.org.nz/2012/09/19/today-theyre-terrified/
http://blog.labour.org.nz/2012/09/12/meeting-with-joseph-stiglitz/
http://blog.labour.org.nz/2012/09/10/olivier-blanchard-putting-a-twist-in-monetary-policy/
Hope we hear more from David and David on their alternative vision for our monetary and fiscal future, because the system we have is broken.
I don’t see why we shouldn’t make the job of governor of the reserve bank an elected one. After all, he has an important role in setting policy for OUR economy.
I disagree, far to open to abuse (by both sides)
Hell No! We could end up with something like the Parliament’s Question Time, with that Impartial *cough* Speaker.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11133827
“Nearly 45 per cent of respondents supported charter schools because they felt they would provide a different approach to education.”
– Thats surprising given the amount of lies the PPTA have spread, I’d have thought the support would have been much lower
– Choice: PPTA don’t like it
Lies? That’s a big call, given your own fundamental untruthiness. Care to list the untrue claims the teachers have made?
So more neo-liberal privatisation –your ideological solution to everything?
It’s really worked so far!
Return to Kiwiblog and the Sewerblog, where your pernicious ideas will gain traction, no doubt.
@ charter schools..
i found this one this this morn..
..totally relevant..eh..?
http://www.alternet.org/education/diane-ravitch-charter-schools-are-colossal-mistake-heres-why
“..The campaign to “reform” schools by giving public money to private corporations –
– is a distraction from our system’s real problems: –
– poverty and racial segregation..”
phillip ure..
snapper
That would indicate that 45% of respondents haven’t been keeping up with the research that shows charter schools are a waste of time and money.
This sadly shows you how a corrupt media with shills like John Roughan and Mike Hosking can influence opinion when they get unopposed airtime on the corporate news wires.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11127224
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/shows/breakfast/highlights/mhb-mikes-editorial-19sep2013
Just another reason for a media independent of corporations.
Review of fourth annual RightsWatch Conference of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), presented this year in partnership with Ryerson University.
“Civil Liberties and Democracy in the Digital Age: Privacy, Media and Free Expression” held in Toronto on Friday and Saturday, September 20th and 21st.
http://truthandshadows.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/months-remain-to-stop-global-surveillance-machine/#more-1615
After signing New Zealand up. John Key says that he does not expect that the major emitters who are dialogue partners to the Pacific Islands Forum, the US, China, India, (or as it turned out, even full member Australia), to sign up to the Majuro Declaration on climate change.
Maybe the political leaders of these nations feel that if they did sign this international agreement, they might be bound to honour it?
John Key has no such qualms.
Honour the Majuro Declaration
Cancel the Bail Out
Shut Down Solid Energy
Restart Rauauru Ma Raki
Good to see an update of the NZ on Screen playlist in the sidebar. There are some interesting looking titles there that I haven’t yet seen.
I call that the ghost of Lyn. That is why they’re all docos or near docos. I’ll extend the list and put in a weekly randomiser.
Oh my, just been given a link to a webpage that is more left than here, (didnt think it was possible) The Daily Blog?
Such disgusting items, such as the USA was behind the Kenyan Mall attacks,and it would appear its great that America has shut down, because millions of babies wont be killed world wide?
Does the left in NZ really believe that BS, are you that precious about the USA?
Surly not even Temana or the green party supporters are on this level.
Totally repugnant page.
[lprent: I’m surprised that you’re been able to miss TDB? Have you ever looked at the Feed on the right of this site which amongst everything from No Minister to some really really local left sites (and the odd science site as well because I like them). The Daily Blog makes up a good quarter of the feed on most days. ]
“the USA was behind the Kenyan Mall attacks”
link?
go to comments
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/10/03/a-brief-word-on-america-shutting-down/
Vile repugnant disgusting stuff.
I don’t know about the Kenyan Mall, but the Americans have definitely been providing infantry training and weapons to islamist Al Qaeda fighters in Syria.
Citation, video, evidence, testimony?
Time to get over the fact that you have been supporting a foreign invasion of Syria and a Qatari/Saudi regime change programme targetting the Syrian government, Jenny.
I have trouble getting over the fact that you have publicly advocated the use of sarin against the rebels on this site and haven’t been banned.
You should read the policy. You clearly still have no idea what are ban-able offences.
You advocated the use of sarin against the rebels on this site? Which ones?
oh gawd who knows what Jenny is referring to. (edit lolz weka very funny… :D)
Yes, what you said there is vile and disgusting.
Draco:
No what the writers and the people in the comment section is vile and disgusting.
You’re really funny. Get used to it mate, the US Gov cannot govern itself let alone the homeland.
and the organised criminal extremes their society (might is right) have bred: Mob, Irish, Hispanics, Russians, Crips, Bloods, Aryans and NLR, Central and South American gangs and so on, and that’s not including their own internal terrorists, the Patriot-aligned and their NGO / Defense Contract private mercenary armies. Gee, that sure worked out well.
I think ‘ANT’ is off in a couple of things in that comment, but you completely misrepresent what is said.
‘Complicit in’ is not the same as ‘was behind’.
I know that you hate people criticising the US, it’s the weird little chip you carry on your own shoulder Brett, but it is simply a fact that they work with all sorts of unsavoury people around the world, and do all sorts of awful things. They really do.
Now that doesn’t mean that they are behind every bad thing that happens, but it does mean that it isn’t ‘vile’ to talk about things they are doing, and ask questions and what not.
It isn’t ‘out of the question’ that US actions in Africa are inflaming things. It isn’t ‘out of the question’ that the US funds and trains people who go on to do very bad things.
hmm, don’t know why this turned up here, will move it down thread.
It’s a reply to Brett at 14.1.1
Yeah, but I thought I was posting at the bottom of the thread. Something funny about when the name/mail fields drop out…
I was originally going to post in this conversation with Brett, and then I thought better of it 😉
Wise move.
Oh my, just been given a link to a webpage that is more left than here
….SNIP…
You are out of your depth. You know nothing. Why are you here?
Sounds like bollocks to me. Never seen those articles on tdb and I have a look most days.
So that leaves 2 options: either you’re making shit up or blindly repeating shit that other people have made up.
richard
Go to comments section. (before they’re deleted)
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/10/03/a-brief-word-on-america-shutting-down/
Yeah I can’t see any article suggesting the US were behind the Kenyan Mall attacks, you better link to it Brett. I gave your stupid comment a thumbs down too.
With you using the word repugnant, I think you must be talking about the whale-snot website, silly boy.
Again go to comments section.
geeze louise.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/10/03/a-brief-word-on-america-shutting-down/
If it is a comment by a reader it doesn’t mean it was written by the blog, you egg head.
“Ant” wrote: “There was a recent story on globalresearch.ca that says western intelligence agencies were complicit in the Kenya mall attacks. According to the story, the attacks may be a part of a geopolitical strategy to counter the rising influence of China in Africa.”
SO, you are a fucking liar Brett.
You should know by now that people here are not as stupid as you would like them to be. Only someone as stupid as you will swallow the garbage you throw around.
Fender:
Scroll down and read the other comments.
Again the site moderates the comments, so be quick, but normally
is something vile is written about the usa, they stay up.
But you said: “Oh my, just been given a link to a webpage that is more left than here……”
So that means: “…. but normally is something vile is written about the usa, they stay up.” is yet another lie.
Better watch it, you may get nicknamed Hooton#2.
This site is moderated too.
Yet the lies you regurgitate here are not removed.
Whats your point?
Are there any examples of anything ‘vile’ that has been left up?
The commment from ‘Ant’ is abit wrong headed in a few respects from my point of view (it’s a bit simplistic about Saudi Arabia and AQ), but what is vile about it?
the rest of the comments, what’s wrong with them?
If there are ‘vile’ tweets that have been moderated, that kind of suggests that your idea about TDB being a vile cesspit is wrong, doesn’t it?
Or are you saying that if they leave them up, that’s awful, but if they take them down, why, that’s awful too!
Yep, Brett’s face is runny with rotten egg on this one.
Go to the link, its right there, western governments behind kenya mall attacks,
Martyn is celebrating the usa government shutdown because it means no drone
attacks against thousands and thousands and thousands of children.
How is that not completely vile.
What’s wrong with a ceasation of drone attacks in civilian areas? Seems ok to me.
Because drone attacks have nothing to do with the usa shutting down, and im guessing if there was a tragic event in the states like an earthquake or another massacre, someone would write….
What about iraq?
or
What about drones??
What of course has nothing to do with the actual incident that took place.
So what is wrong with the ceasation of drone attacks on civilian areas? Seems like a good thing to have happen, even if it is simply due to running out of budget.
Oh look, bomber is correct – again.
http://killerapps.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/10/02/exclusive_air_force_grounds_fighter_jets_as_shutdown_takes_hold
Ok.
So it’s ‘vile’ to oppose drone strikes.
And you imagine that there would be all sorts of vile things said about things that haven’t happened.
Well I think that in a hypothetical universe where the US launched a nuclear strike in response to a cyber attack on their power grid, (which is something they have not taken off the table), you would criticise anyone who objected to it.
What a vile disgusting monster you are Brett.
Pascal:
Again your ideology is not letting you see my point, go back to my post where I mention James Robinson post on stuff, he totally sums it up perfectly.
Perhaps you could explain your point then Brett. I’ve read the thing from stuff a few times now. Perhaps you could explain it’s relevance?
What is so vile about saying that a side benefit of the shutdown might be that a few bombs don’t get dropped.
That may or may not be true, but what is ‘vile’ about saying it?
Brett’s point is that it’s morally wrong to discuss violence done by the US in other places while recognising violence in places other than the US, and that it is morally wrong to discuss violence done by the US while recognising violence or unfortunate events that take place in the US.
Which drastically limits the morally acceptable opportunities to discuss violence committed by the US, but I’m sure that such an outcome is completely inadvertent.
lol
Commentator refers to wingnut web site = vile attack on the US must make you the stupidest man on the internets today – congratulations fella.
btw, bomber is correct.
The study by Stanford Law School and New York University’s School of Law calls for a re-evaluation of the practice, saying the number of “high-level” targets killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low — about 2%.
[…]
TBIJ reports that from June 2004 through mid-September 2012, available data indicate that drone strikes killed 2,562 – 3,325 people in Pakistan, of whom 474 – 881 were civilians, including 176 children. TBIJ reports that these strikes also injured an additional 1,228 – 1,362 individuals,” according to the Stanford/NYU study.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/25/world/asia/pakistan-us-drone-strikes/index.html
edit: Stanford/NYU study.
http://www.livingunderdrones.org/report/
So Pratt Dale, you support the use of ‘drone attack’ against children then…
FFS, Okay I posted this at my blog and here once I think, this is blogger james robinson response to someone who wrote..
“what about Iraq” In response to James writing about the boston bombing.
It sums up my whole feeling…
JAMES ROBINSON
“The “what-about-Iraq” comments here miss the point.
I stewed on them for a couple of days and what I have to say is this.
If you grieve a friend of yours dying, are you being
disrespectful to everyone else that died that day? No.
I lived in Boston. I live in America. This was big news to me.
I’m well versed in Iraqi policy and America’s failings there.
And don’t just zero in on Iraq because its in the news.
People are dying in huge numbers in places that America
didn’t invade too. There’s a lot of bad stuff out there, always
happening. That doesn’t mean that seeing bombs going off in
my former home isn’t somewhat traumatic. I hope I never have
to sit next to you guys at a dinner party.”
So it’s just your personal feelings then? And you’re not saying anything about anybody else’s feelings and attitudes, just your own?
Well in that case, that’s fine.
For a second there I thought you were being a busybody about what other people thought of the issues.
That makes no sense at all Brett.
That guy is justified to be upset, but what does it have to with the drone strike strategy, or anything else?
Pascal
Because whenever there is a major disaster in the usa or a tragic event, people bring up other international issues, that have nothing to so with what has just happened.
The left seems to have a rage in them if people dare give sympathy to the people of the usa.
So why don’t you give actual examples of them doing that, instead of imagining it would happen?
And why do you say it’s ‘the left’ that do it? Does everyone on the left do it? Does no one on the right do it? Or does it only concern you when it is from the left, or about the US.
And does no one on the left give sympathy to the US, ever/ Pretty sure that’s a pile of bullshit. So what the hell are you talking about.
It looks like you just hate to see the US criticised. Why is that?
Brett Dale,
2,500 people die a month in the US from guns. Each month, every month.
The person being selective is you.
Iprent:
I dont look at feeds or ads on webpages, i find them annoying, so TDB is not new then?
The daily Blog has been around since the beginning of March this year. Try to keep up.
PS. You could learn a lot from those feeds Brett Dale……..
Martin Heidegger prepared the ground for his major work, Sein und Zeit (1927; tr.Oxford 1962) with a series of lucid and solid, if unremarkable writings which anticipated the themes of his mature work.
In “The Problem of Reality in Modern Philosophy (1912) he argues against various versions of idealism, including Kant’s critical idealism, in favour of critical realism. “New Investigations of Logic (1912) assessed recent works on logic, including those of Russell, Whitehead and Frege through Husserl’s critique of psychologism. In keeping with his doctrine of truth as unconcealment , H. had little truck with ‘logic of assertion’ traditions; Analogous to the later Wittgenstein, H. was more inclined to base arithmetic on everyday activities like counting and measurement.His doctoral dissertation The Doctrine of the Judgement in Psychologism (1914) continued this opposition to the reduction of logic to psychological processes; his habilitation thesis Dun Scotus’s Doctrine of Categories and Meaning demonstrates a respect for metaphysics, history, and subjectivity that flows through his later work.
( His initial support for Naz1sm was due to his abhorence of technological and industrialized mass society, which he associated with the USA and the USSR. Although recently elected Rector of Freiberg in 1933, he resigned in 1934, and in 1945 was forbidden to teach until 1951, due to his associations with Naz1sm ) .
Being and Time crystallized his study of virtually the entire breadth of past and contemporary philosophy at that time, it’s central concern being the ‘question of being’. Since the Greeks, being ( Sein ) had not been well-integrated into Time; it had been insulated from change as presence , excluding past and future. This exclusion embraced not only temporal presence, but also the atemporal, eternal presence of , for example, Plato’s Forms
H. revived investigation of the ‘sense of being’ through engagement in a ‘fundamental ontology’ underpinning the ‘regional’ ontologies dealing with the being of particular realms of entity ; nature and history for example.
This examination requires consideration of the entity , Dasein (literally, ‘to be there’ ). H. uses this term for several reasons: it does not require commitment to a view of humans as biological entities, as consciousness, or as essentially rational; Dasein has no determinate essence, hmmm, ; it’s being consists in it’s possibilities, “To be or not to be, that is the question”. It is there in the world, yet not confined to a particular place (or time). It is the entity that asks “What is being?” and whose understanding of being is itself, an essential feature of it’s being.
Although Dasein is essentially ontological, the philosopher cannot simply adopt Dasein’s own understanding of itself and other entities. For Dasein tends to systematically misinterpret itself and it’s world, for example, regarding itself as a thing equivalent to other things leading to much of the vocabulary of traditional philosophy- ‘consciousness’, ‘subject-object’ to be infected with such misunderstandings. Thus H. , like analytical philosophers such as Wittgenstein, J.L. Austin and Ryle avoids such terminology, preferring more grounded terms such as ‘care’ ( Sorge ) which carry no burden of philosophical assumptions. (Bear in mind that H. holds that silence is an ‘essential possibility of discourse’). Like Husserl, he attempts to describe ‘the things themselves’ without the help of theories and preconceptions, yet unlike Husserl, he holds that this requires a determined rethinking of philosophical language.
cuppa time.
You’re letting Head-Gear off far too lightly in 1933. He never gave up his membership, and never repudiated them despite the length entreaties of many especially Marcuse.
You are correct. You went there. 😉 Nonetheless, it always comes up.
FYI
Auckland Councillor Penny Webster (Chair of the Auckland Council Strategy and Finance Committee) is standing again as a candidate in this election.
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/AboutCouncil/HowCouncilWorks/Elections/Documents/rodneywardcandidateprofiles.pdf
Should Penny Webster be disqualified under the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968, because she and her husband have entered into transactions with the Auckland Council Group, totalling $32,189 during 2012, for services provided by their jointly-owned private company, All Rural Fencing Limited ?
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/reports/annual_report/Documents/annualreport20122013volume3.pdf (Pg 80 ) ]
______________________________________________________________________________
All Rural Fencing Limited (NZ Companies Office)
http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/1512665/directors
______________________________________________________________________________
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1968/0147/latest/DLM390003.html#DLM390021
Disqualifying contracts between local authorities and their members
(1) Except as provided in subsection (3), no person shall be capable of being elected as or appointed to be or of being a member of a local authority or of any committee of a local authority, if the total of all payments made or to be made by or on behalf of the local authority in respect of all contracts made by it in which that person is concerned or interested exceeds $25,000 in any financial year.
______________________________________________________________________________
SHOULD PENNY WEBSTER BE ELIGIBLE TO STAND AS AN AUCKLAND COUNCIL CANDIDATE?
I have just rung the OAG (PA to Lynn Provost ) and asked if Penny Webster had applied for and received any dispensation, given that in 2012 All Rural Fencing Ltd had ‘entered into transactions with the Auckland Council Group totaling $32,189 for services provided by their jointly-owned private company, All Rural Fencing Limited .
The question that also needs to be asked is why Penny Webster, and ONLY Penny Webster was mentioned in the Auckland Council 2012 – 2013 Annual Report – 32 RELATED PARTIES ?
[ http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/reports/annual_report/Documents/annualreport20122013volume3.pdf (Pg 80 ) ]
32 RELATED PARTIES
Related parties
Related parties are defined in the group’s accounting policies.
The group enters into numerous transactions such as rates, water charges and the sale of goods or services with related parties in the ordinary course of business and on an arm’s length basis.
No disclosure has been made for these transactions.
Certain related parties have directorships and trustee positions in a number of entities to which the group transacts in the normal course of business, on standard terms. No disclosure is made for these relationships as the related parties do not have a controlling interest in the council or the entity that they are a director or trustee. The group transacts with entities that are related by virtue of related parties having a controlling interest in the related entity as detailed below:
The group entered into transactions totalling $32,189 with All Rural Fencing Limited during the year
(2012: $920). An amount of $4,313 was payable at balance date (2012: $nil).
The council entered into transactions totalling $4,313 with All Rural Fencing Limited during the year
(2012: $920). An amount of $4,313 was payable at balance date (2012: $nil)
______________________________________________________________________________
“Rodney councillor Penny Webster says that at a time when household budgets are tight, the council cannot afford the $12 million to $15 million cost of mowing berms for the whole region. ..”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11133160
______________________________________________________________________________
The blinding hypocrisy of Auckland Councillor Penny Webster sickens me. Councillor Penny Webster, (Chair of the Auckland Council Strategy and Finance Committee), wants citizens and ratepayers to provide their lawn-mowing services free of charge, although there is no legal requirement to so do, while she and her husband have their snouts in the public through transactions with the Auckland Council Group, totalling $32,189 during 2012, for services provided by their jointly-owned private company, All Rural Fencing Limited.
In my considered opinion, this is a clear ‘conflict of interest’.
As an anti-corruption /anti-privatisation ‘Public Watchdog’, I am totally opposed to any elected representatives personally profiting from contracts with Council or Council-Controlled-Organisations (CCOs) .
I believe in the ‘public service model’, where people seek public office to look after the public and the public interest, not to ‘feather their own nests’, and enrich themselves from the public purse.
______________________________________________________________________________
I also asked why the statutory requirements of the Public Records Act 2005, (s.17) had not been met in the Auckland Council 2012 -2013 Annual Report, because there are no ‘devilish details’ provided regarding contracts with the private sector.
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2005/0040/latest/DLM345729.html
Recordkeeping requirements
Subpart 1—Key duties
17 Requirement to create and maintain records
(1)Every public office and local authority must create and maintain full and accurate records of its affairs, in accordance with normal, prudent business practice, including the records of any matter that is contracted out to an independent contractor.
______________________________________________________________________________
Here’s the 2012 – 2013 Auckland Council Annual Report:
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/reports/annual_report/Documents/annualreport20122013volume3.pdf
See if you can find the NAMES of the consultants/contractors ; SCOPE / TERM VALUE of contracts between Auckland Council / Auckland Council CCOs / Auckland Council Local Boards?
I couldn’t.
In my considered opinion, the problem with Auckland Council, as proven by this 2012- 2013 Annual Report – is that ‘the books’ are NOT open – and we are NOT given the ‘devilish detail’ which explains exactly where our public monies are being spent, invested or borrowed.
This is why, if and when I am elected Mayor pf Auckland Council, I will establish an Auckland Mayoral ‘Commission Against Corruption’, and will ‘open the books’, in order to find out where every dollar of citizen and ratepayer’s monies are being spent, invested and borrowed.
This Auckland Mayoral ‘Commission Against Corruption’ will be staffed by a small team of forensic investigators, (whom I shall appoint, and who will report directly to me), funded directly from the Mayoral Office, using the budget which is set aside in order to help achieve the Auckland ‘Mayoral Vision.’
My Auckland Mayoral Vision is – to stop the corrupt corporate control of the Auckland region.
Here is my ‘Action Plan’ to stop ‘white collar’ crime, corruption and ‘corporate welfare’:
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ANTI-CORRUPTION-WHITE-COLLAR-CRIME-CORPORATE-WELFARE-ACTION-PLAN-Ak-Mayoral-campaign-19-July-2013-2.pdf
For those who really want to know who is running the Auckland region, ‘like a business, by business, for business’ – check for yourselves http://www.committeeforauckland.co.nz (membership).
Penny Bright
What have you been paid for in the last term, working either for or against Council, in $$?
Also, what assets do you own, including addresses of properties?
I don’t get paid Ad.
I’m lucky enough to own a freehold home, from which I receive income from flatmates.
No pay – no benefit – effectively a ‘self-funded’ Public Watchdog, who CHOOSES to do what I do – full time.
Puts me in a rather unusual position.
Kind regards,
Penny Bright
It is essential to his procedure that H. in providing a correct or authentic term for, or account of, a phenomena (such as man, time or truth) he does not simply counterpose it to the degenerate term or account current, but attempts to explain why the degeneration occurred, for example, in demonstrating that Descartes was mistaken to regard man as res cogitans one must show, n the correct account of man, how the mistake arose.For misinterpretation is not sheer, unaccountable error, but a ‘possibility’ to which Dasein is essentially prone.
For Heidegger, unlike Descartes, Dasein is essentially in the world and is inseparable from it: In understanding the world, Being-in is always understood along with it, while understanding of existence ( Existenz like the movie ) as such is always an understanding of the world. The world is not primarily the world of the sciences, but the everyday lifeworld (Husserl).It is disclosed to us not by scientific knowledge per se, but by pre-scientific experiences, by care and by emotions. Entities in the world are not primarily objects of theoretical cognition, but tools that are ‘ready to hand’ ( zuhanden ) such as a hammer ,to be used rather than studied and observed. Theoretical cognition, like when observing a hammer disinterestedly (or a RWNJ) is a secondary phenomenon, which occurs more readily when a tool fails to give satisfaction. Tools are not independent of each other but belong to ‘context of significance’ in which items such as hammers, nails and IT ‘refer’ to each other and ultimately to Dasein and it’s purposes.
Just as Dasein is in the world, so it essentially ‘with’ others of the same type as itself. It does not first exist as an isolated subject and then subsequently acquire knowledge of and relations to others; it is with others from the start. However, it’s integrity is threatened by others, as being together with others Dasein is ‘captured’ by others. Itself, it is not; others usurp it’s being. The self of everyday Dasein is the ‘they-self’, as distinct from the authentic self, the self that possesses itself. ‘They’ is the German man (one, you: we ) :the they-self does and believes what one does and believes rather than what it has independently and authentically decided upon.(This theory of the ‘they’ or ‘one’ is influenced by Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Illyich : Ivan’s carefully redecorated house seems quite exceptional to him, yet it contains “all the things people of a certain class have in order to resemble other people of that class’ ). To summarize, thus far, the account of everyday life that H. first presented as a neutral account of the bedrock condition of man, becomes an account of man’s fallenness’ and inauthenticity.
The primary form of discourse, for H. is not explicit assertion, for example, “This hammer is heavy” but such utterances as “Too Heavy! Give me a lighter one” made in a work situation. Truth too, is not a primarily the correspondence between an assertion or proposition and a state of the world but the disclosure of the world to and by Dasein , unmediated by concepts, propositions or inner mental sates; ultimately, truth is ‘ Dasein’s disclosedness (supported by an appeal to the Greek word for truth aletheia which he claimed means ‘unconcealment’.) Meaning, like truth, is extruded from the mind- “Mill’s verbal propositions cannot be completely severed from the beings they intend.Names, words in their broadest sense , have no a priori fixed measure in their significative content. Names, or again, their meanings, change with transformations in our knowledge of things, and the meanings of names and words always change according to the predominance of a specific line of vision toward the the thing somehow named by the name. All significations, including those that appear mere verbal meanings, arise from reference to things”. ( The basic Problems of Phenomenology : 1927; tr, Bloomington, 1982).
Time, for a shower and some exercise.
Turn yourself more to the post WWII works; more relevant, less wilfully obscurantist, more suitably damaged in response to worlding.
I like the way you put that, “worlding”.
Will just finish with some reference, death, the wonderful Time , decline , Holderlin and some thought (not on Friday afternoon though, took most of the morning as I had not been back to the highlighting for about two weeks 😉 ) Highlighting is then blended with the overlooked carefully.
Man, it’s 20C today, the same predicted for the next week, although with some rain. The forecast for temperature is generally consistent, however the rainfall can vary widely from that predicted. Some of us are anticipating another warmer summer.
Anyway, Ad, many of these “obscurantist” suggestions may well capture the lived experience of pre-technological peoples arisng at present. Many are essentially narratives of the decline or return of Western civilization.
grounded narratives : Gotta love them., very helpful. 😀
furthermore, building upon McFlock’s suggestion and evidence of the roles of traders, pirates and brigands (my terms) in the expansion and establishment of nation-states, there may be an analogy at present , in a period of continued globalization, mercantile expansion , particularly by China , information-connectivity and flows under threat from piracy (and the authoritarian State ) the world-wide web of organised crime and the amorality of many of the wealthy… through to corporate rapacity ,establishing pan-continental entities.
Hmmmm.
If we reduce the possible Harrison/Gibson mega-corp into its component parts (capitalist shareholders), and those parts become beholden to patronage and nepotism, it might be regarded as a social devolution back to hereditary monarchies. After all, it was loyalty to one’s lord and liege that preceded cohesive “national” identity, by and large. Different brand on the armour, but the game stays the same (preservation of personal and hereditary power).
Personally, I reckon that the main way to avert that dystopia is to strengthen international structures that have a democratic foundation – e.g. give the UN more power and self-determination, remove the veto, and then start looking at ways to have as few representative tiers between an individual and the top of the UN as possible.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/9244730/Driver-jailed-for-fatal-crash
So let’s just send him to prison. Great stuff.
Anyone know how i can find out a list of major lenders to the USA?
Fuck you guys need to get the chip off your shoulder about the USA.
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt
More Corporate Welfare from this corrupt Government.
Joyce has just promised to borrow more money today to bankroll a team of 3-peat losers in the next instalment of the Billionaires Piss-up on San Francisco Bay.
Can someone please bring some reality to this outrageous waste of our money.
The America’s Cup does absolutley nothing for the hungry kids in this country.
Can someone in Wellington please stand up and scream NO MORE CORPORATE WELFARE.
Fuck off Team New Zealand. Stop crying and go fund your own rich boys wank-fest.
+1
Vote the fuckers out!
And you feed your own fucking kids.
and you go fuck yourself. No one else will. 🙂
That’s cool, I will do that. You and your ilk just make sure as parents you feed your fucking kids. Don’t send them to school hoping I will pay to feed them.
I , I , I , me , me, me, blah fucking blah blah blah me, me me……..dumbest arse
Yacht race for millionaires ≈ feeding hungry children.
Sigh.
Here’s a hint: a normal human being does not feel compelled to help a millionaire win a yacht race.
Lprent,
The feed headings on the right of the page appear to be out of whack.
The field denoting which blog the feed is from appears below the .
Makes it look like “Statistics show Government action needed on gender pay gap” is from the Skeptical Science blog.
I’m viewing the page on Chrome Version 29.0.1547.76 m
Yes. There is meant to be a thumbnail image in there that has the required sizing. Unfortunately the generation of the thumbnail has a bug in it that makes the CPU usage at the server go up dramatically when the site is under load. So it is currently turned off and waiting for either the plugin author to fix, or me to find some unencumbered time to debug and recode.
I suppose I could patch the CSS with a min-height. But at present it is a nice reminder for me to fix it.
min-height: 8am seems to work ok.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11134352
Phil Goff and Helen Clarks finest moment (the Greens and NZfirst didn’t want it to happen)
Nah. Their finest moment was when they kept us out of that stupid invasion of Iraq, (National and Act didn’t want it to happen).
Good Article
When China Rules The World
couple a points:
-7.9B exports, year to August, dominated by commodities not ‘value-added’.
– China Exports to NZ have grown to 8.2B
-“worry SMEs may have all their eggs in one basket”- Finny
whereas, as any critic of corporate globalization might argue, The TPPA is Corporate Protectionism before Sovereignty Protectionism
Thanks for the link cv. Brett far from having a chip I was looking for facts about who holds the us debts. You have spent half a thread complaining about what a poster on a blog said. On the evidence of this thread it is you who needs to get some perspective.
15,000 litres of diesel flowed into town’s water supply
Yes, but are they going to be charged the millions of dollars to clean it up or is it going to be another example of socialised loss and privatised profits?
Yes, I heard of that tragic leak yesterday Draco;
check out the link below.
From the ABC
US Treasury warns debt stoush could spark Financial Crisis
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-04/us-treasury-warns-debt-ceiling-stoush-could-spark-financial-cri/4998370
If no Safe haven in US Treasury Bills.
The inmates are running the asylum
and that’s Cronkite turning over tonight. 😀
“Glorh-reee , Glorh-ree , Hal-ley-looo -yah…Glorh-ree , Glorh-ree Hal-ley-looo -yah…” 😀
time for the garden now. Cooler!
Lynn, my name and email keeps dropping out of the Name/Mail boxes when I go to make a post. Intermittently (sometimes it seems to retain them). You are probably aware of this, but thought it worth mentioning again just in case.
They come via cookies from your browser. Try another browser and see if it does the same thing. I will look at it later.
Doing a few tests now. Before I was posting in Firefox…
Posting now in Safari.
Ok, seems to be ok in Safari. Have dumped all the Firefox cookies (there were a huge amount from ts, is that normal?) and restarted. Testing again.
ok, seems to be all good now, back in Firefox.
Cool
Problem is re-occuring in Firefox this morning.
Oh, and my avatar has reverted back to the normal one. Last night I got a new one after I dumped all the standard cookies. See here http://thestandard.org.nz/vote-2/#comment-705758
Is that weird? Something loading out of the cache?
I have a similar problem, using Chrome – but once I enter name/email details they remain – even if I close the browser or logout of windows and come back. But if I power off the computer the name/email details have disappeared next time I come back.
What browser? It sounds like a setting….
Sounds like I should figure out how to handle the loghin registration problem—-
Browser is Chrome…
Yeah, I thought it might be a setting too, which is why I’ve not bothered about it until others have been saying about disappearing formfill, but I can’t figure out which setting it might be…
Probably an chrome update. But I will check the cookie timeouts after I recover my car. Too many beers to drive last night.
A walk after a night out is a good thing….
Seems that if I leave The Standard open for awhile the name/email disappears too – could be cookie-related.
poltergeist
The Health and Disability Commissioner and unresolved “mental health” complaints – a desperate protester:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7nBukTQcDA
I was not sure if I should post this comment here, but since this “protest” by an apparently desperate, aggrieved complainant in the foyer of the HDC Office in Wellington is freely available via You Tube, it should be OK to do so.
There seem to be a fair number of complaints the office is not addressing to the satisfaction of the affected.
Not long ago there was also a brief news article on the 1ZB website on 24 July, stating that HDC face funding issues, are having too high a workload, and would face deficits for years to come.
Annette King then appealed to Minister of Health Tony Ryall to listen to the HDC Office and provide the funding they need.
I have heard nothing more on that.
So we seem to be having a shocking state of affairs, getting worse by the day under this horrible government, leaving sick and disabled with incapacity not only exposed to biased WINZ doctors, who assist in throwing them off benefits and forcing them into insecure, often unsuitable jobs, we also have mentally ill not getting treatment they need, and getting bumped off by HDC.
Mr Ryall, you are facing a “state of emergency” soon!
“The Health and Disability (Complaints) Concealer” –
using the police to trespass a disgruntled complainant and protester, You Tube video with “part 2”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgrXLbAWt2I
Welcome to supposedly “transparent”, “just” and “uncorrupted” New Zealand, where your rights are claimed to be “respected”, and where your concerns are meant to be “listened” to by such offices!?
Shame, shame, shame on you – HDC Office!
Highest ALERT!!!
To ALL sick, disabled and with incapacity for work – on WINZ benefits: Download and read the PDF submission to be found via this link, and READ IT, please!
http://www.nzma.org.nz/sites/all/files/sub-WorkAbilityAssessments-Providers.pdf
MSD’s Principal Health Advisor Dr Bratt and his team seem to be preparing new ways of outsourcing Work Capability Assessments, to be done by selected professionals!
This smells too much like the “stench” that has been attached to the involvement of Atos Healthcare as the private assessor for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in the UK.
I have not heard or read anything about MSD’s plans in this direction yet, but it sounds extremely worrying, hence the serious concerns also, the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) expresses.
Something is being prepared to involve people to make assessments for WINZ, who are not even proper medical experts.
I will try to keep you posted, but this is a must read, and must be taken very seriously!