Open mike 05/05/2023

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, May 5th, 2023 - 63 comments
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63 comments on “Open mike 05/05/2023 ”

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  1. tsmithfield 1
    5 May 2023 at 7:25 am

    Here is a good argument for why the drone attack was a false flag by the Russians.

    Firstly, it gives justification for the Russians to appear to be moving their forces back to Russia should the Ukrainian counter offensive be effective. The idea being that Russia needs its troops to protect the homeland, not that they are getting their teeth kicked in.

    Secondly, and most likely I think, is that apparently the Mayday parade has a part where family members who have lost family members in armed conflicts can march with a photo of their loved ones. However, this could be problematic for the Russians this time around if a lot of those who have lost loved ones in the Ukrainian conflict decided to march.

    So, the "security threat" gives a logical reason to cancel or limit the scope of the event.

  2. pat 2
    5 May 2023 at 8:32 am

    "National MP Simon Watts pushed further and asked whether Hawkesby could confirm that the 25% of loans stress tested in 2020-21 are now outside of their stress testing limits.

    Hawkesby said: "That’s what the data shows, yes."

    https://www.interest.co.nz/personal-finance/121055/reserve-bank-concedes-about-25-outstanding-mortgages-were-stress-tested

    Ouch

  3. ianmac 3
    5 May 2023 at 8:33 am

    Funny that there was no visible damage to the dome after such a "lethal" attack from a drone sent all the way across Russian territory?

    • Sanctuary 3.2
      5 May 2023 at 8:57 am

      All very peculiar, although it may be a very long time before we know the truth.

      For example, it seems NATO was aware all along that the Russians were the chief suspects for who blew up the Nordstream pipeline (I hope someone is ready to catch Seymour Hersh's rusk when it drops it in shock at the realisaation he was catfished).

      So the question is, why did NATO behave in such a strangely performative ignorant way? If they had photographic proof of Russian activity around the pipeline last September why didn't they just say so?

      The only reason I can come up with something similar to why the Allies didn't act on obvious Enigma decrptys in WW2 – they didn't want to reveal they knew who did it until they could plausibly say they knew it from sources other than the super secret one they knew it from. But that is a bit James Bondy, so I am a bit perplexed right now about it.

      • weston 3.2.1
        5 May 2023 at 9:34 am

        The only thing "perculiar " imo sanct is yr degree of cognitive dissonance !!

        Biden said in public right before the invasion " I promise you we will bring an end to it " ' it ' being NS

        Perhaps you have a rusk stuck firmly in each of your ears !!

      • RedLogix 3.2.2
        5 May 2023 at 11:37 am

        So the question is, why did NATO behave in such a strangely performative ignorant way?

        Sometimes it is smartest to just say what you really need to say. Anything beyond this tends to weaken your position.

  4. Ad 4
    5 May 2023 at 11:00 am

    With New Zealand electric etc vehicles going from 8% to 20% of sales in just one year, this has to be one of the most successful policies of this government.

    https://www.transport.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Comparison-of-Electric-Vehicle-and-Plug-In-Hybrid-marketshares-in-key-global-markets-2010-to-2022.pdf

    Now if they could just get Polestar to match the battery life of the new Tesla, I'd go for it.

  5. bwaghorn 5
    5 May 2023 at 12:12 pm

    Just on te 1 news.

    Rawiri Waititi just called the royal family war criminals!!!

    • tsmithfield 5.1
      5 May 2023 at 12:20 pm

      If the current royal family are war criminals on the basis of their history, then most Australians are criminals as well.

      • bwaghorn 5.1.1
        5 May 2023 at 12:27 pm

        Can a politician with not one ounce of diplomacy be of use in a democracy is more my thoughts on this,

        I'm sure that Charlie hasn't committed any way crimes, but Maori have long memories and hold grudges tightly, so is Charlie liable for his ancestors actions?

        • Craig H 5.1.1.1
          5 May 2023 at 3:05 pm

          Charlie the person – not really. King Charles III as the current Sovereign and personification of the Crown – probably some level of responsibility for past actions of the Crown in the sense of obligation to put them right.

      • Belladonna 5.1.2
        5 May 2023 at 1:47 pm

        Under those criteria – so are the leaders of every iwi in NZ today.
        There is zero doubt that the atrocities committed during the Musket wars would be counted as war cimes today.

    • Sanctuary 5.2
      5 May 2023 at 12:27 pm

      The Maori party seem intent on making sure the electorate gets to have a referendum on which set of unserious clowns they find the more repellent. You've got ACT on one side and the MP on the other.

      • bwaghorn 5.2.1
        5 May 2023 at 12:31 pm

        It's a shame top never got off the ground! !

        She's rock and a hard place for voters at the mo

        • Sanctuary 5.2.1.1
          5 May 2023 at 1:31 pm

          I can't stand TOP. Their brand of toxic nice guy anti-politics married to a smarty pants smugness and tarted up neoliberalism makes me want to vomit.

          • Tiger Mountain 5.2.1.1.1
            5 May 2023 at 2:29 pm

            Nicely put, TOP are public self pleasurers of the first order.

            • bwaghorn 5.2.1.1.1.1
              5 May 2023 at 4:58 pm

              Well we need something new because the ones we got ain't achieving much other than slow the speed we're circling the bowl

          • mikesh 5.2.1.1.2
            5 May 2023 at 2:52 pm

            I can't stand TOP.

            Probably because you cannot find any way to rebut their policies. No party has ever made me "want to vomit", probably because once I've figured out what is wrong with a party's policies I get a feeling of righteous indignation. Toxic nice guy anti-politics etc. exists only in the eye of the beholder.

            • Sanctuary 5.2.1.1.2.1
              5 May 2023 at 3:35 pm

              Should have guessed you'd have a shrine to St. Jude in your living room.

      • RedLogix 5.2.2
        5 May 2023 at 1:54 pm

        The big difference between ACT and MP is that at least ACT doesn't want to privatise everything on the basis of skin colour.

        • tsmithfield 5.2.2.1
          5 May 2023 at 3:10 pm

          And sometimes not even skin colour. But rather a trace of genetics going back a few generations.

          My son's partner told me she has Maori ancestory in her past.(She had to tell me, so nothing to do with skin colour.) I am not sure if it is recent enough for her to qualify for benefits from her historical Iwi. But who knows. And she certainly doesn't need any help, nor is asking for any.

        • AB 5.2.2.2
          5 May 2023 at 3:48 pm

          True that and funny.

          But there are similarities too – if we go up a level and get more general for a moment. They both want to privatise everything based on their preferred hierarchies of worthiness. For ACT, people who have been successful in the market and become wealthy have deserved this success and deserve to keep increasing it by owning more stuff. For TMP, those with Maori ancestry are inherently more worthy through indigeneity.

          We must oppose all hierarchies of worthiness – recognising that while hierarchies of talent and knowledge and beauty do exist, they do not confer additional human worthiness. This is the starting point of a moral vision.

          • tsmithfield 5.2.2.2.1
            5 May 2023 at 3:54 pm

            recognising that while hierarchies of talent and knowledge and beauty do exist

            Yes they do. And in a lot of ways they are of a lot more value.

            Unfortunately, they don't always make much money.

            For example, someone can be average accountant and make a living. But it is a very small percentage of the most talented and/or lucky who will every make a living out of song-writing or art.

            • RedLogix 5.2.2.2.1.1
              5 May 2023 at 4:28 pm

              But it is a very small percentage of the most talented and/or lucky who will every make a living out of song-writing or art.

              Yes. This is the unsolved problem of all domains of creative enterprise, when extended across multiple trades. Put simply, success creates opportunity, which in turn creates more success.

              It does not matter whether we it is art, science, commerce, or sports you look at. It happens regardless of the economic model, although the more successful the model is in generating total wealth, the more amplified will be the unequal outcomes. (It being a trivial exercise to make everyone equal if everyone is dirt poor.)

              No-one has been able to demonstrate a convincing solution to this problem. Yet it is real; we know that once the inequality gradient exceeds some threshold, all the primary social indicators turn slowly to shit.

              All of which is made worse by the gradual dissolution of the family unit, which in my view is the primary means by which we buffer ourselves from a wider world, largely uncaring of the disadvantages and insults we all encounter. But the very notion of family entails responsibility, duty and sacrifice – and in a world in which institutions such as church and faith have been replaced by atomising ideologies such as neo-liberalism, neo-marxism and narcissistic hedonism, we find ourselves unmoored as adults.

              That isolation makes us feel our inadequacies and vulnerabilities, our apparently lowly spot on the economic ladder all the more keenly.

              I do not know that I can usefully articulate an answer, but this is the core problem that has occupied my political thought since I arrived here. I may have expressed it in different terms over time, but the question it poses still motivates me more than any other. The only thing I have to offer is that maybe the reason we struggle with inequality is that we frame the problem in purely materialistic measures – when in reality that is not the domain it truly exists in.

              • tsmithfield …
                5 May 2023 at 4:39 pm

                And the advent of Chat GPT. My son uses it in his job. He asked it to write a dark 100 word poem about me. The other inputs were: That I am autistic, illiterate, and colour blind (LOL).

                The first verse was:

                My dad is a puzzle, hard to solve,
                Autistic, illiterate, color blind and flawed
                He sees the world through a different lens,
                A broken filter, a twisted sense

                I was interested to see if it would churn out the same thing if he put the identical inputs back in. The second poem was a doozey.

                Autistic, illiterate, and blind
                In darkness, he stumbled and fumbled
                His love for me, hard to find.

                Colorless memories of my childhood
                No bedtime stories, no hugs or kisses
                Silent dinners, no laughter or smiles
                My heart, heavy with his misses

                He couldn't teach me to read or write
                Or tell me the colors of the rainbow
                But he tried to show me love in his way
                Through silence, his love did glow

                Now as I sit in the dark, alone
                I wonder if he ever knew
                How much I loved him in return
                And how much I missed him too

                I showed someone this who said they were feeling sorry for ChatGPT lol.

                • RedLogix …
                  5 May 2023 at 4:43 pm

                  Hah … how did that make you feel?

                  • tsmithfield …
                    5 May 2023 at 4:48 pm

                    Well, my son said the second poem was nearly accurate lol.

                    But a bit worrying for me given that I pride myself on my ability to communicate in writing. Because, I am not sure I could write something better than that.

                    And it felt a bit weird, because this thing that (supposedly) has no appreciation or knowledge of the feelings it is trying to communicate was able to do so in such an emotive way.

                    Perhaps in the future, the creative side will be how to frame inputs to get the best response out of ChatGPT and its iterations. Because I have seen some outputs from what people have queried ChatGpt for, and it has been fairly average.

                    • RedLogix …
                      5 May 2023 at 5:01 pm

                      I look back and realise that as a generation we found parenthood a confusing role to play. The Silent generation of fathers before us left many of us wanting nothing more than to be different than them, yet mapping out a fresh course – often with little guidance or support – was a bumpy ride.

                      Especially given the radical distractions and messages of the sexual revolution and feminism we were surrounded by.

                    • tsmithfield …
                      5 May 2023 at 6:36 pm

                      What worries me is looking forward 20 years. For anyone who has young children now, or as I do, 2 year old twin grand children.

                      If Chat GPT is able to produce stuff at that level now, then what future is there for kids as they grow up?

            • bwaghorn 5.2.2.2.1.2
              5 May 2023 at 5:02 pm

              Unfortunately due modern technology those few talented singers etc are vastly over paid, given they are just the entertainment.

              You can chuck sports stars in there too

              • tsmithfield …
                5 May 2023 at 6:33 pm

                Yes, I don't criticise modern music because it just makes me sound like the boomer that I am. I think there is good music in any generation.

                But, yeah, auto-tune certainly takes away the need to sing in key.

                  • tsmithfield …
                    5 May 2023 at 7:40 pm

                    I hope so. But AI is even able to sing now. And it can sing without autotune, because, it is, well, autotune.

                    Just project this forward five or ten years. Will we all be sitting back being entertained by music written, produced, and sung by AI?

                    I dabble in a bit of this sort of stuff myself from the point of view of producing a bit of music as a hobby. I am producing a thing at the moment where I use the AI voices from this program for backing vocals.

                    • RedLogix …
                      5 May 2023 at 7:46 pm

                      I've gotten fond of Kaleo. Some smarty pants wrote in one of the comment threads "JJ's voice is stronger than most relationships these days".

                      AI can copy this, it can re-shuffle and simulate, it may even prove very useful – but I think ultimately it will prove a failed dream.

                      It cannot create.

                    • tsmithfield …
                      5 May 2023 at 8:01 pm

                      This guy is a music producer who has done a couple of videos on AI and the music industry.

                      Quite interesting. I wouldn't under-estimate AI's ability to create.

                      But, so long as there are humans controlling the inputs we are probably safe as we will have to have creativity at some level, even if it is creativity in designing the inputs to the AI.

                      But, if it gets to the point where AI is producing music to entertain itself, and gets on quite well without us, then we probably should be worried.

                    • mikesh …
                      6 May 2023 at 10:01 am

                      It cannot create.

                      Yes. To create it would need to be able to decide, unassisted, to create something, and also be able decide what to create.

            • Incognito 5.2.2.2.1.3
              5 May 2023 at 9:03 pm

              I can’t find any ACT policy re. Arts and the corresponding Portfolio page is missing. Enough said.

          • Incognito 5.2.2.2.2
            5 May 2023 at 9:02 pm

            yes

  6. Ad 6
    5 May 2023 at 1:34 pm

    For those who love rail and lament its demise, an elegant, elegiac longish piece from John Campbell.

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/05/04/john-campbell-why-wont-we-invest-in-the-rail-services-we-need/

    • Tiger Mountain 6.1
      5 May 2023 at 2:28 pm

      Campbell alright, and he is right. I am travelling on a Northern Explorer train to Wellington for a family event soon, so that I can spend some extended leisurely time with “my people” rather than airports and traffic.

    • Sanctuary 6.2
      5 May 2023 at 2:29 pm

      It is a good question though. I think it is partly because of the same anglosphere exceptionalism that leads us to shun townhouses and apartments, demand cheap flights everywhere and want to drive giant SUVs.

      • AB 6.2.1
        5 May 2023 at 4:04 pm

        I reckon it is because we hate our marketised existences and hate the way it requires us to live and work. So we try to live in a way that is a permanent state of semi-escape from it – suburbs, cars, frequent travel – the illusion of autonomy and freedom. And maybe the Anglosphere had the most extreme and crushing neoliberal revolution – and most of us want to get out of it somehow.

  7. Adrian 7
    5 May 2023 at 2:41 pm

    I thought white was a skin colour, or is that just Rich White.

  8. Peter 8
    5 May 2023 at 11:15 pm

    Kerekere has done a Sharma. Sounds like she used much the same recipe too.

    • Anne 8.1
      5 May 2023 at 11:44 pm

      Yes. And trying to drag down the Greens with her. She won't succeed just like Sharma didn't. We never hear a peep out of him now.