Life can be so unfair. Ask any toddler or child and they’ll tell you, passionately and with a earnestness that few adults can match.
When we grow up and become discerning adults with sound judgement we realise that good looks matter and that life still is unfair.
But not all is lost, it seems. Once we get past the first 2 crucial seconds for making a first impression and we get to know the other person, appearances take a step back:
If all of this sounds exhausting, the good news is the halo effect mostly applies to strangers, and loses its shine over time. Once you’ve proven your worth in person, the arbitrary physical cues don’t matter as much, and you can let it all hang out a bit more.
We tell students to work hard, go to uni, get a (real) degree, get a (real) job, work hard and you’ll have a (real) career and life will be sweet (as).
Somewhere between uni and landing that first career-defining job it becomes clear that it doesn’t matter what you know but that it’s (more) important whom you know.
So, we tell young ambitious people to build networks (no, Tinder doesn’t count) and use these to their advantage.
Once in the job we tell ambitious young colleagues that hard work is not enough to get promoted. It is not what you know or whom you know. No, it’s who knows you. In other words, we tell the career-minded that they need to be noticed in order to get promoted. We tell them to blow their own trumpet and embark on an orgy of narcissistic self-embellishment.
And then, after a fine long rewarding career that has been marked by personal development and growth, you can tell your grandchildren that life is unfair, passionately and with a earnestness that few toddlers or children can match 😉
I’ve often wondered if we’re rebellious in our teens because we felt betrayed by our peers. Most of us are brought up to be respectful of others, to not lie cheat or steal. It’s in our teenage years when we discover adults are everything we’re taught not to be, not really a surprise the young rebel when you look at it that way.
True. It’s only when you really become self-aware and take a good hard look at the world around you as a young adult that you realise how full of shit a lot of adults are. All those long years spent being told what not to do, only to realise everyone does exactly that all day long every day. The hypocrisy is mind-blowing. I proactively advise my teenagers that many adults are fucking charlatans and that respecting someone purely because they happen to be older than you is a steaming crock of shit. Respect is earned, not bestowed on you by virtue of your advanced years.
We tell students to work hard, go to uni, get a (real) degree, get a (real) job, work hard and you’ll have a (real) career and life will be sweet (as).
Hey, that was what I was told when young – didn’t work out that way though.
Somewhere between uni and landing that first career-defining job it becomes clear that it doesn’t matter what you know but that it’s (more) important whom you know.
Yep and WINZ has the figures to prove it. Most job placings are about who you know and not what you know.
Once in the job we tell ambitious young colleagues that hard work is not enough to get promoted. It is not what you know or whom you know. No, it’s who knows you. In other words, we tell the career-minded that they need to be noticed in order to get promoted. We tell them to blow their own trumpet and embark on an orgy of narcissistic self-embellishment.
Not my experience Draco, I new fk all people and came from very working class background, went to non event school etc, what I have learnt many people seek to externalise all their problems and failings, never taking accountability and often fail to realise the common factor in most of thier issues is themselves Saying that some people do just have bad luck
Oh Incognito…….the sadness of the circularity you depict……..”an orgy of narcissistic self-embellishment”…….very wry. Moreover, alarmingly accurate. The example which springs to mind at once……the regularity with which same name next generation individuals are glowingly hailed in the legal profession. Doors opened and pathways oftentimes quite gratuitously conferred by doorkeepers “who know you”.
The implied justification is that it’s all about DNA. Which in reality stands for “Do Not Ask” established Power not to reflexively perpetuate itself.
The neo-fashist right or alt-right for “free speech”? yeah… nah.
12 “far right” people in masks (one a Trump mask) attacked a London socialist bookshop. This is a chilling development. And why we don’t want them bringing their bile here.
The Independent reports that they chanted fashist songs, threatened bookshop staff, threw some books around, videoed it and uploaded it online:
The far-right group filmed their actions before swiftly deleting the video from their YouTube channel, however a copy was saved and uploaded again on the channel Far-Right Watch.
It shows protestors screaming abuse, tearing up signs on display in the shop, and brandishing books with titles they disapprove of.
“They attempted to intimidate staff and customers and to destroy books and materials.
…
The attackers also made threats to return to “show what they can do”.
…
“The normalisation of far right politics is already leading to chaos and vandalism on our streets. Fascist thugs attacking book shops is the logical conclusion to a political movement which rejects facts and experts,” said David Lammy, also a Labour MP.
Watched ‘Sunday’ last night, mum was over and knew nothing about s&m so it was interesting watching it with her. Thought it was fair coverage airing both view points.
Mum clued me up, smart lady my mum 🙂 She was laughing and aghast at the same time lolz. She explained to me that there were many great developed civilisations across the planet while the europeans were still being cave men. Such as the ancient egyptians. And with a masters in sociology, she has studied such things extensively, I really appreciate her knowledge on such topics. Then the IQ debate was brought up, far out mum was laughing hard by then.
I did discover that when I asked questions via the youtube and s&m channel, their supporters get really aggressive, was told to kill myself. Was thinking.. ok then that’s going to win me over. Super amusing.
Still puzzled as to why they would choose to come here in the first place, but then I remembered we live in an incredible country, of course people want to visit no matter their views.
Look at her now. A 23 year old with the skin of a new born baby and perfect features. Have a look at her in 30 years time – if she makes it. She will be a thin lipped old hag with sagging skin and red rimmed eyes and no-one will want to have a bar of her. Anyone with her beliefs and lifestyle is not going to stay looking young for long. Karma will get her years before it starts on the rest of us.
Sorry, Anne, but a few weeks ago I saw a photo of Lauren and her father, mother and sister – possibly on Twitter – on her father’s birthday. It was hard to tell her mother from Lauren and her sister. Actually a very normal happy middle class white family type photo – think there was also a dog or two.
I am not about to try to find it again – but from memory it may have been on her Twitter account befor she and Molyneux et al arrived in Australia, so about three or four weeks ago.
Hey Gosman….Will do a copy paste of one instance. Will refer to people as them and me for it….excuse the length of it lolz.
THEM: Prime Minister of ew Zealand. A woman–Jacinda Ardern. Women destroy society
ME: And women give birth, you wouldn’t be here without us. Wait, are women destroying society by giving birth to people like yourself? Ahhhh now I get where you are coming from. Could birth control for men be the answer?
THEM: You’re a brainwashed moron. Sad!
THEM: You see, women would not have been able to give birth without men. YOU wouldn’t be here without us (men) either. No one would, and no one is denying women’s high worth in a society. But women’s brains are completely different from men’s brains, and work and prioritize things differently from men. Things like emotions over facts, feelings over logic etc, are feminine traits in nature. If these traits are commonplace in politics, policies put into place will put more emphasis on people FEELING good, rather than it ACTUALLY being helpful or useful for the common people.
ME: Science has now debunked that narrative……Brains cannot be categorised into female and male, according to the first study to look at sex differences in the whole brain. The mix of male and female features in the brain suggests that stereotypical gender assumptions, such as women are better at multi-tasking and men will earn more money, are redundant.
THEM: Women always put the left parties in power
THEM: You also wouldn’t be able to turn on a light enjoy clean running water have a modern roof over your head or be able to eat if it were not for men. Your welcome.
THEM: Incorrect. Those MRI scans didn’t take into account both macro and micro neurological functions in endometamorphoses and metabolic functions; both are vital for distinguishing both male and female anatomy on a neurological level. Let’s not forget those physical anatomical private parts as a key to distinguishing.
Note…then i went onto google to find out more about the above
THEM: Rubbish, male and female brains are wired neurologically differently to produce different behavioral patterns. That is not even taking into account differences in the endocrine system. Not sure where you are getting your science but it is rubbish
ME: What are neurological functions in endometamorphoses for humans? Where could one learn more about it?
THEM: You’re a complete moron, go kill yourself.
ME: The endocrine system is about the control and release of hormones in the body and related brain messages, such as producing breast milk, or sweating. That’s about the physical body being different, it is not about males or females having different brains, just different bodies, which as a result send different messages to the brain.
THEM: I’m sorry but giving birth and incubating is a biological function. Just like taking a shit. You get no credit for that.
Still puzzled as to why they would choose to come here in the first place,
It’s not just NZ – they are on an international recruiting drive – I guess to Brit ex-colonies. They are particularly focusing on Aussie as fertile ground for their views and for fund raising, but adding Auckland into the schedule.
Unfortunately, it’s not over. Nigel Farage, of the UKIP party is doing the Aus-Auckland speaking tour next, and he is a pro-Brit, anti-“immigrant” far righter; then Pauline Hanson is planning a visit.
PS: Your mum sounds very smart and onto it, Cinny. Unfortunately, the TVNZ reporters, if they were truly doing their job, would’ve pointed out the fallacies of what S&M were saying.
Holy smoke Batman, Hanson is coming, dang. I wonder if all these alt rights are coming here to drum up support for national? Personally I’m not so sure that approach will work in NZ.
Yesah Carolyn, my mum is awesome, I’m very lucky indeed.
Good one. Yes their alt right arguments are childishly simplistic and idiotic. No better than propaganda really. And they don’t like the cold steel of facts, as you found out via their YouTube. Be safe cos they attract truly awful people to their cause and internet toxic scum can spill.
Hopefully. As I said yesterday, I have been wondering whether they were still here – and lo and behold, just 30 minutes or so ago, Molyneux tweeted this:
In a continued display of New Zealand’s endless hospitality, I was stopped and harassed by airport security for no apparent reason while leaving the country. Stay classy New Zealand!
Whether Southern is with him or not is not clear, no Tweets from her since yesterday.
Dave Pellowe, the Australian organiser of their tour appears to be back in Australia since about Sat and concentrating on other interests – catchup retweeting lots of other things and only one or two re the S&M show. EG apparently he is a strong Christian Pro-Lifer …
Caolan Robertson, the young (23 year old) twit that runs around videoing everything on his phone who was interviewed by Paddy Gower – as “an agent for Ms Southern” re the Powerhouse change of mind – is based in London SW3 (Chelsea) not Canada. Not clear whether he has left but yesterday he was madly tweeting insulting tweets re Gower. Caolan (pronounced Kay-Lin) is a bestie (aka leech) of Stephen Lennon aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – better known as Tommy Robinson. Built up quite a dubious reputation in his short young life after a cloistered private school upbringing in London by Irish parents.
[A bit of information you all were waiting for – Molyneux was actually born in Ireland, not Canada. Ireland saw sense early on.]
Molyneux has tweeted three more tweets since the one above – two are retweets of Robertson’s tweets dissing Gower. Poor Paddy. He’s pretty hopeless but doesn’t deserve that.
The third tweet is priceless – a selfie (or did LS take it?) of Molyneux holding a book in the bookshop entitled “Are you smarter than a chimpanzee?” by Ben Ambridge. In your case, Moly, the answer is a definite NO.
Dan Satherley on Newshub has now picked up on and written an article about Molyneux’ s “Critical Message” * on YouTube yesterday which I posted on yesterday on Open Mike. * a new title for begging for money.
I rather like Satherley’s turn of phrase through much of his article. His degree of cynicism seems to be close to mine when I watched it. A few tastes – or rather most of it minus videos and photos.
Mr Molyneux has now taken to YouTube, uploading a 12-minute video which oscillates between decrying the “demonic mob” that got their show cancelled, and asking for supporters to “like, subscribe and share” – and give him money.
“We lost a venue. Hundreds and hundreds of people who had come a long way and were very passionate to hear this conversation, to engage in what Lauren and I were going to discuss, we lost the venue and that’s costly. It’s very expensive, and I need your help,” he said, staring directly into the camera in a sparse room with white walls. “I would really, really appreciate it.”
He said the funding is necessary for him to keep speaking out against the “encroaching mob and horde of mindless violence the left seems to want to unleash on the failing remnants of civilisation”.
Without more money, Mr Molyneux fears “self-contempt, self-hatred and possibly incarceration or death itself”, because “that’s what happens when the left gains power”.
He then took a shot at Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who at the weekend said Kiwis were “hostile” to Mr Molyneux’s views.
“The Prime Minister was the head of a youth socialist organisation not a decade ago, so that’s what you get.”
Ms Ardern was indeed elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth in 2008, but since becoming Prime Minister in 2017 is yet to sentence anyone to “incarceration or death” based on their political views. [My Bold]
Mr Molyneux’s beliefs include that people of different races have different levels of intelligence – a view which has been widely rejected by geneticists.
Ms Southern’s most famous for trying to prevent the rescue of migrants on overloaded boats at risk of sinking in the Mediterranean Sea.
Mr Molyneux says unless “free speech” is kept alive, “we are going to end up with bayonets pointed at each other’s hearts”.
“I am trying with all of my might and all of my rhetoric and all of my energy and efforts to stop the war that is coming. This feral escalation of abuse and violence and threats and deplatforming is going to escalate into war. History is very clear on this point.
“I don’t know if the left knows how much it’s going to escalate, I don’t know if they want it, I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I’m telling you, it’s coming.” [Again my bold . LOL]
“I don’t know what the hell is going on”. He told the truth!! Okay, one swallow does not make a summer.
“I am trying with all of my might and all of my rhetoric and all of my energy and efforts to stop the war that is coming.” I suspect psychologists would diagnosis a hero complex at this point. He doesn’t explain how he knows a war is coming. A significant lapse. Why not claim he’s psychic? Or a prophet?
The video is not quite up to an Oscar nomination level but actually quite a laugh to watch particularly that section – or taking a different approach, a lesson in how to beg for money. 12 Mins long, but easy to skip through.
Dennis, your comment made me smile, he probably likes to think he is a prophet.
Now his supporters are now calling for arms, and bragging about their weapons stash to deal with the ‘violent left’. From where I’m standing they are the ones suggesting the violence in the first place.
marty, Molyneux claims to be a professional of sorts in psychological matters himself and he is married to a practising psychological therapist, Christina Papadopoulos – that is when she is not being disciplined by the Canadian professional board for malpractice (in conjunction with him).
Cinny I find if you going to do youtube be aware that most yanks who are on those pages are sexist, spiteful and full of hate. My response is either OTT on the love and hugs thing which pisses them off, or ask them sexually loaded questions, which they can’t handle. It rough and tumble world on youtube – you have to be prepared.
Adam, you are so correct. Was thinking before that I probably need to lose my female name and female looking avatar if I ever venture there again.
Did learn they do seem to go a bit psycho if you don’t get angry. Yes they don’t like women, crikey does that make them all gay. ROFL. I need to keep my cheeky side in check 🙂
Cheeky with love comments and hug comments winds them up the best. I use to go to certain sites, now gone, just to wind them up with love bombs 🙂 Or quotes from the bible that talk about the poor and love, they hate that as well. Especially if you don’t say where it’s from – you can led them on, and then say their not christians – watch the train wreck when you pull that one. But, just never mention your a Catholic if you are, they have a special place full of hate for Catholics.
To be fair Cinny I can’t really see the big issue here
All Southern was debating is merits of multiculturalism not saying I agree with her but is the debate so scary, on this topic I thought tv 1 was not impartial, she never got to explain her belief, and I am sure she was going to go down ethic ghettos, integration failure places like France , Germany uk etc
likewise the iq issue, again cut off very quickly , he waas quoting averages not individually as is the case for all social science, think prisons stats, likewise these stats that reflect US army enlistments so extensive data Why not debate the stats, ie whites where not on top, is iq a valid construct anyway, what we he intending to coney in these stats then judge accordingly
Overall I felt pretty dissapointrd with tv 1 effort I left no more enlightened than I at the start of show On western civilisation. We are talking what judo Christian ethics, Roman law, Greek democracy and the enlightenmen has created western civilisation today m, it’s pretty impressive, not to dis other civilisation s I don’t think they come close, just a view
Barry Soper has excelled himself. Yes, that hard-as-baked crust journo with the red rimmed eyes (see my 5.1) and the jaundiced ears saw a documentary last night and in the process found his long lost empathy for others less privileged than himself.
“Long may it last”
I wouldn’t bank on it @ Anne, and I’ll resist the link provided.
I wouldn’t have described him as a journo though. You must be feeling charitable.
More like one of those bad smells all plastered with Old Spice that hangs around members of the 4th Estate’s Press Gallery/Gang hoping to be taken seriously one day on the basis of his longevity and trophy woif.
In those olden days, they were referred to as ‘hacks’ for good reason
OnceWasTim is really missing out and obviously has not realised the subject – the dearly missed Celia Lashlie (1953 – 2015).
I really want to see that documentary. There was an excellent interview on Nine to Noon last Thursday pre the Film Festival launch of the documentary in Wellington. Here is the link to the 23 min audio, and the summary of the interview with Amanda Millar:
A new documentary about Celia Lashlie is screening as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival. The passionate social justice advocate, researcher, author, former prison officer and much loved parenting commentator on Nine to Noon died just over three years ago after – weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The feature length documentary is directed by her friend, journalist Amanda Millar, who interviewed Celia in her final days.
23 minutes of well worth listening. I did not realise how much I missed Celia’s voice, She was unique in more ways than one.
I’ll more than likely stumble on it anyway without the help of Barry Bloody Soper, but thanks – you’ve piqued my interest
There’s just no way I can take Bazza or his gorgeous wife seriously having come across him in a past life in the eastern suburbs
I understand having similarly come across him in a past life in the Wellington beltway. I am also wary about clicking links if I don’t know who or what it is about.
The desperate vermilion hamster is worried and he has increased everything. Expect big fireworks soon as the net tightens – watch out countries of the world.
“PGG Wrightson has agreed to sell its seed and grain business to Danish cooperative DLF Seeds for $421 million in cash and $18 of debt repayment, and signalled it may return up to $292 million to its shareholders.”
Yeah, it’s why I stopped using neo, and just call it liberalism these days. As for colonisation, it does feel a lot like version 2.0 when stuff like this goes off shore.
It started in 1825 under the New Zealand Company and has never stopped. The only material difference between then and today is that the country of origin of the corporate colonisation is no longer just Britain and the natives of New Zealand getting shafted are no longer just brown-skinned.
“signalled it may return up to $292 million to its shareholders.” – that is, we can’t think of anything to do with the money so we’re passing it on. Geniuses.
Twelve men invaded the shop … destroying displays, wrecking books and chanting Alt-right slogans. One was wearing a [US President] Donald Trump mask,” the central London store said in a Facebook post.
“They attempted to intimidate staff and customers and to destroy books and materials. Fortunately no one was hurt. We will not let this happen! Never Again!”
Great interview with Barrett Brown,about the rise of the power of the state to shut down the media. If you have the time, I was doing house work. 27 minutes long.
second that adam i didnt need an excuse to watch it though i was just avoiding the housework if anything !Mighty scary future we are all rushing toward
99% of NSW in drought, farms and their produce on the brink and ‘ no amount of money from the Federal government is going to solve that’…..spring and summer still to come.
Get away from it all on a cheap flight to Bali….maybe Fiji would be better at the moment.
Would love to see massive warehouses of indoor hydroponic gardens. With the climate changing so much, at least food wouldn’t be so weather dependent. Must be horrid for the farmers at present. Time to diversify and evolve.
Thing about hydroponics is it still requires water even though considerably less, and infrastructure that is every bit as susceptible to adverse weather….it is well past time to admit we are in serious strife.
All the water used for irrigating the crops is piped from the Spencer Gulf and converted into fresh water using a thermal desalination unit.
Mr Simkins has spent more than two decades running tomato greenhouses in Europe and North America and says the desalinated water is first-class.
“It’s almost the perfect water,” he said.
“You’re taking all the salt out of it, there’s no disease aspects, it’s very pure and then we’re able to enhance it with the nutrition that the plants require.”
Yes and thanks to that muppet Kennett when he privatised the water so they had to mothball it after they built it and the same happened up in SE Queensland, but for a different set of reasons aka we were saving more water than what was being used, recycling waste water and pumping it back into the dams and the drought broke aka the Brisbane floods.
Desalination is expensive. Although the price tag varies by region and is often obscured by corporate underestimates and government subsidies, it is more often two to four times as costly as traditional options.
Which is probably true if using fossil fuels. Probably not with ones that are solar powered.
Desalination is bad for the environment and human health. The by-products of desalination include coagulalants, bisulfates, and chlorines. When concentrated waste is dumped into the ocean as it is with desalination, it is harmful to marine life and environments. Furthermore, power plants’ intake mechanisms, which are often teamed with desalination plants, kill at least 3.4 billion fish and other marine organisms annually.
In the examples I used the water was going to be pure with no other chemicals in it and the power station was part of the farm. Proper design of the inlet can prevent damage to fish (although I’m not going to hold my breath about a private commercial operation doing that as it will be expensive to produce and Maintain).
Desalted water also puts drinking water supplies at risk because seawater contains chemicals such as boron, that freshwater does not. Boron, only 50 to 70 percent of which is removed through the desalination process
They found that boron begins to evaporate from solution at a temperature of around 55°C. As the temperature applied to the systems increased, the amount of boron evaporated from seawater also increased. “But even though boron is volatile at high temperatures, both desalination technologies were effective in reducing its concentrations in desalinated water to below the Saudi standard of 0.5mg/l, even at seawater temperatures exceeding 100°C,” says Alpatova.
Desalination contributes to global warming and requires large amounts of energy.
Solar powered remember.
Desalination turns water into a commodity.
It’s not desalination that does that but capitalism and the profit drive.
Yeah, I think that article is worth ignoring for being simply wrong.
“The move falls in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which is based on diversifying its economy away from oil and gas. And with desalination and residential cooling set as the two largest uses of power, and desalinated water demand expected to double in the next decade, experts say that it is more profitable for the country to sell oil and gas while using alternative resources, such as nuclear, for water desalination.”
“Nuclear power is one of the options in the power mix that could also contain wind energy and solar, but these systems cannot take over the major role in the power mix. Moreover, these are also somehow much more vulnerable to damage, like sabotage, and even the effects of climate change.”
So renewables cannot meet the demand, 16 nuclear power stations mooted (all pumping heat into the ocean) for Saudi Arabia alone and we know how quickly they are designed and constructed (not to mention the growing sand shortage worldwide)…not
and then…..
“And studies have shown that the Gulf will only get saltier in the future. Raed Bashitialshaaer, a water resources engineer at Sweden’s Lund University, says that the growth of desalination plants in the region is happening far faster than his own estimated.”
So many of these ‘saviour’ solutions ignore the scale required and the impact at scale…..never mind the resources and timeframes involved…as Kevin Anderson says, we cant build our way out of this
Yes, will have to admit the the ME isn’t the best place to do it. Too many people and not enough water flow. Or, to put it another way, the ME is fucked.
I think you’ll find that it won’t apply quite so much to Australia with the worlds oceans surrounding them. Of course, that will be dependent upon if they only try to keep themselves going and not trying to export it all. Unfortunately, they’ll probably try exporting it for the money.
Still, there are many concerns that need to be looked at but these simply shouldn’t be thrown away because of one area where it simply won’t work.
And thats the point isnt it?…one region suffers a water/food shortage and the population (or a significant proportion of) moves and exacerbates the problem in other resource stressed regions…a domino effect.
I’ve been saying that for quite awhile with regards to climate change and refugees that will end up coming here and we will have to stop them. There’s no way that NZ could support any more than what we have now once the climate turns.
Great to see NZForest and Bird signing an MOU with Landcorp (PAMU) on researching, implementing and promoting agricultural practices that protect the natural world.
“At Pāmu, we’ve spent 130 years getting to know nature.
We are Kaitiaki – guardians – of nature. ”
Yeah nah.
Māori are kaitiaki and everything culturally that that means. Your group may be stewards, guardians, protectors or whatever but imo you can never be kaitiaki because that concept has cultural aspects which you can never reach.
Māori were the biggest destroyers of native life on this land of ours eliminating about 50% of the forest before the Europeans even got here. That’s true of almost all indigenous peoples around the world.
There was another paper I read recently, that spoke about the use of fire to clear vegetation, and suggested that it was used so that regeneration would occur, as opposed to the clearance of forests for agriculture. But I can’t find it. The one above is a good read though.
Forest and Bird have done a number of odd things of late, of which swallowing the koolaid on 1080 is not the most reassuring.
We do indeed need some cooperation between environmental and agricultural interests, but the areas of greatest need do not seem to be being addressed and we must be wary of invidious compromises.
Planting of trees on unstable slopes. Migration corridors. Steiner gravity water aerator/purifiers. Shelter belts and shade trees. Riparian planting.
Of course these are mostly required by the monocultural approach of previous farming models, so that at best they improve the current environment rather than restoring an ideal. They are still worthwhile however.
It does complicate issues like the Mackenzie however – however unsuitable intensive dairy may be with its unsustainable water demands, the tussock lands were in many cases geologically recently covered with broadleaf forest, and some restoration of that would tend to increase the diversity and robustness of the area, so the tussock is not necessarily the state to prefer, however much it may have become iconic of the area.
Thanks Stuart – my point, vaguely hinted at, was that the sorts of practices you list are responses to the harm caused by agriculture; agriculture can only protect, in a very small way, the natural world from…itself.
We are its destroyers, its replicators, and its generators.
We are also its guardians.
Pamu are not proposing tree forests.
They are proposing lower-harm and high value commercial agriculture.
And they are now working in concert as one of our largest state-run businesses with our largest conservation organization.
The Aussies have had 7 years of drought in some areas. Australians are talking “Climate Change” openly now. Although they are used to droughts, and burn offs are a way of life, the fact that this drought involves all states bar parts of Western Australia, has shaken the lucky country’s confidence.
As in California, the water tables are at all time lows, and winter temperatures are up to 7 deg higher than usual in some areas. They are dreading summer, fearful the seasonal rains will fail.
Many farmers have reached the end of their financial emotional and physical tethers. The larger outfits are now pressuring Government as all their “safety measures” are exhausted. Smaller outfits are trying to keep key stock and their land. A grant of $8000 per person on a farm each 6 months is paying for limited feedstuff, and they can claim “Job start”…. if their assets are not too high!!
It is sad and very grim. We are told food shortages and high prices are certain.
Lamb is A$40.00 a kilo right now, and wool is coming back into fashion. Those involved in cattle are not coping so well, as they require far more in water resources.
You know it is bad when politicians don’t point score over it too much.
And you can add (or subtract) the reduced yields from UK, Europe. Nth America to that….probably others that I havnt noticed in the past couple of weeks
Not sure if you have been following the ABC’s Landline while you have in Oz. This current Big Dry and why it has effected almost every farming community in particular those that don’t get effective by drought is because winter weather pattern has changed.
Since the start of the Big Dry, the weather boffins have noticed the usual high pressure systems which trends to stay up round the Northern part of Australia during winter are now a lot further South and covering most of Australia now. This led to the failure of the winter rains in the southern states which is now leading to all sorts of problems from livestock, winter and summer crops failing and the shortage of feed for livestock.
With these high pressure pushing even further south the usual winter rains are being push even further south hitting Tassie or worst missing Tassie altogether and hitting the West Coast/ Southern part of NZ. This year in the Northern Australian we are starting to notice a our build up weather system before the Wet Season kicks in around the December has arrived two mths early than normal as we usually expect to this type of weather around the end of September or the middle of October.
Just look at how people on the Standard responded to the Southern and Molyneux controversy here. There was a huge amount of publicity generated. Trump has a very similar style and you think the Media reported it more because the Democrats told them to?
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Last night on open mike I posted (32) a quote from “Who we are and how we got here: ancient DNA and the new science of the human past” by Harvard Professor of Genetics, David Reich. He asserted that the “long-held view about race has been proven wrong”.
I’m inclined to read this as invalidating any possible scientific basis for races, but we should await the emergence of a consensus of relevant experts. Aged 44, Reich graduated “BA in physics from Harvard University and a PhD in zoology from the University of Oxford”. He writes “I played an important role in the analyses that proved interbreeding between Neanderthals and some modern humans”. The term modern has a technical meaning to archaeologists (& geneticists) – he’s not referring to our normal meaning of modern.
Chapter 11 is entitled “The Genomics of Race and Identity”. Here’s a sample: “Compared to most academics, the politics of genome bloggers tend to the right… The Eurogenes blog spills over with sometimes as many as a thousand comments in response to postings on the charged topic of which ancient peoples spread Indo-European languages… The genome bloggers take pleasure in pointing out contradictions between the politically-correct messages academics often give about the indistinguishability of traits across populations and their papers showing that this is not the way the science is heading.”
Tell the truth or kowtow to the brain police? Scientists don’t get taught how to handle the interface between ethics and morality as part of their education. Understandable that they obfuscate. Truth hurts.
Had interesting chat with journo about the need for media systems to respond to the evidence that there is no ‘neutral’ way to present info & neither do people receive it neutrally. The rational weighter model, the neutral balance is a fiction based on the ideal of people 1/
2/Much like those in science believing they can present research neutrally, when all language frames a position whether you are aware or not, & all people filter it through the values & beliefs they have-if you draw on existing cultural narratives that is how info is framed…
3/so a ‘neutral platform’ to racist people is not neutral. Racism is a strong cultural narrative in western cultures. Unless clearly framed in the values & beliefs that reject racism then ‘neutral’ presentation of these people is de facto support of them & ideas. #amatteroffact
4/much like a neutral platform of climate change science opens the door for people to filter it through unhelpful values & beliefs, or indeed any research that needs strong collective action. You can read more about these ideas in my book
Yes, her concept of neutrality seems unworkable. During the decade I spent in the TVNZ newsroom, I was often evaluating how the journos & reporters were framing their stories to achieve balance. Usually it seemed reasonable enough but sometimes gross imbalance was obvious & made me angry. Their rule would have required them to give Hitler equal time during WWII.
What works better is to give credit where due, give both sides a share of the story so the viewer can weigh the pros & cons. So my disgust with our media mishandling of the Canadians is because it gave me no evidence upon which to evaluate their actual beliefs & opinions. Media who don’t inform people are a waste of time.
The question of balance is only one aspect. On TV news the message conveyed is also about how the story and views are framed – how people are filmed, how it’s edited, etc.
Also, “balance” suggests there are always 2 main sides of an issue and that they exist around a fixed centre. It’s important,a s you say, to be able to evaluate the evidence. And following the evidence can be as important as any half-arsed attempt at balance.
Sue Abel did research at TV One – observing how Maori were represented in the news. She concluded that bias crept in, partly because of the time pressure the newsrooms were operating under. So journalists, editors, etc just resorted to the same sorts of representations they used or had seen in the past, without a lot of reflection.
In these notes, she also points out that the notion of “balance” is a pakeha concept.
I don’t know what you mean by Berentson-Shaw’s concept of neutrality is unworkable. She’s saying that neutrality is not totally possible. So, it’s important for journalists to be aware that they will always be framing their writing in ways that are not totally neutral.
Also, journalists cannot predict how people will read their stories. So, again, they need to be explicit about the points they are making. It’s also why a news organisation should have journalists who come from a different perspective.
Scientists are not necessarily great communicators. But journalists reporting on research often don’t report it very well. And science journalism can be particularly poor. They just tend to take a main idea from the research, and lose the nuances and/or critique the methodologies or weaknesses in the research.
Often journalists don’t get enough time to really get to grips with a research topic these days. And news organisations have not helped the situation by focusing too much on infotainment,ratings and click bait – creates short attention spans.
There are few problems with P8 and it’s why I prefer the Japanese P1 over the P8, but selecting the P1 would’ve left us as the first overseas user and given what has happened with the NH90’s, Project Protector (aka the two OPV’s and the Canterbury), the up armoured LOV’s (which were quietly retired last yr and throughout this yr) they obviously judged the risk as being first overseas user to be not worth the risk given NZG, MoD and NZDF track record of late I can’t really blame them.
So what the main issues-
It’s a part of the US Special Projects Program ( F22, F35 JSF, Joint Rivet/ Air Seeker, Reaper aka UAV’s both Armed and unarmed etc).
Weight: Max Takeoff weight (MTOW)
Doubts over its Fatigue life aka the wings
Mission support systems,
The use of UAV’s to support the P8 on certain mission profiles to get the best out of P8 and the
dropping ASW ordnance from high attitude
The P8 being a part of the Special Project Program is going leave the NZG, MoD and the NZDF in knots, a) because of the Security that comes the P8 weather it’s passive or actived during non warlike or warlike or peace time operations, b) the US hold all the IP rights or any upgrades, replacement parts have to through the US. So what does this mean? Well we would have to pay top dollar as we can’t do what we have done to the P3’s of the last 10-15yrs etc IRT upgrades, deep level maintenance will more likely to be done by Boeing Australia not Safe Air as is the case atm. The Poms are finding this out the hard way already as some of the mission support systems on the Nimrod R1’s or R2 and the defunct MR4 Project had were in fact far better than US supplied ones.
So long term funding for upgrades is going to be an issue for sure given NZG track record for Defence funding.
Weight has pretty much dogged the P8 since the start in particular it’s all up MTOW. Half the cost of the P8s that NZ is buying is tried up building new infrastructure at Ohakea because of the MTOW as the runway at RNZAF base Auckland is short and the other reasons is the mandated security requirements of the P8 as required the US. The weight issue is going to be a major factor in where P8 can operate from within NZ and the Pacific Region in certain seasons.
Since the start of the P8 program Boeing has been a bit coy about the overall fatigue test IRT the wings and wing box as P8 wasn’t meant to do low flying from the start and since some of the mission and ordnance systems haven’t worked all that well at higher altitudes. This inturn has meant Boeing has spent time and money redesigning the wings etc, reduce the fatigue failure on the wings and wing box which has added a weight and range penalty as most wings are designed to flex within limits but low level flying this reduces the overall fatigue life of the wings etc. if you are ever flying to Wellington on a rough day have a look at how much wing movement there is.
The Mission Support Systems have been problematic as ASW and Anti Surface Warfare has been by tradition a low to medium level affair. But the USN and Boeing have taken a leap in faith of new technologies which hasn’t sorted of work, but incorporating UVA’s and Increment 1 systems include persistent anti-submarine warfare capabilities and an integrated sensor suite; in 2016, Increment 2 upgrades will add multi-static active coherent acoustics, an automated identification system, and high-altitude anti-submarine weapons.Increment 3 in 2020 shall enable “net-enabled anti-surface warfare”. This should be sorted out by the time NZ gets its first P8 as this wee problem has stuffed its range, time on station and fuel burn as it move fro me Hi to Low and to Hi etc.
Incorporating the use of UAV’s has allowed those limitations on certain missions to be overcome, but without it has led to some issues as the P8 has to then go low level which then effects range, TOS and fuel burn performance etc. To really get the best out of the P8 you really need to invest into UAV’s, but also they have issues as well and insuring that both RNZN ships and deployed NZ Army formations down to a tactical level are able to process data received from the P8 as it’s a truly a Joint Multi Mission Platform if all the bells and whistles are working and that’s a big if IRT NZG funding towards Defence in the past.
Now this should’ve been obvious to the muppets at Boeing that trying to drop a ASW weapon from a great height wasn’t to work from the start! At the moment to conduct ASW Warfare they have to go back to basics ie back to 250ft to 300ft off the deck (which btw out of all the tac flying I’ve of done, flying at 200ft – 250ft off the deck on 3 engines in P3 beats any show ride especially if you chasing something). Because of this obvious limitation this really bugged up a number problems already addressed and the long term effects are unknown or base on assumptions especially if Boeing has fudge the fatigue numbers. Boeing is hoping to have one sorted by the time the P8 enters RNZAF and if it doesn’t then any savings it was hoping achieved are well in truly kick into touch.
Is this right Aircraft for NZG, MoD and RNZAF? Well it’s depends on ones POV, if the NZG keeps maintaining P8 with regular updates/ upgrades then yes, if I was a on UN Chap 4-7 Mission with my troops in contact giving me a feed on what’s going on and able to me to support me with offence support if required then yes. NZ is a Maritime dependent and without secure Sea Lanes Of Communications then NZ economic wealth and overall it’s economy will suffer if it goes pear shape as the P8 a Maritime Platform then yes.
But if the NZG can’t be stuffed at maintaining the P8 like they usually do with the rest of Defence then don’t buy it. Like all Defences purchases there are pros and cons with the added factor of how much risk that you are prepared to accept or don’t accept which is really the $64 billion question rather like guessing this weeks Lotto or Powerball numbers.
Wisdom tooth Shearer wrenched out. Incisor Cunliffe prised out of our jaw, Goff reefed out and ‘you little beauty’ Little relinquished the top tooth role. What a bloody heart wrenching sweat soaked journey it has been.
The National party are just setting out on this journey.
Good morning The Am Show Duncan your word about our business confidence are a bit over the top business will be fine they will have to get use to minor tweaks that Labour are doing to the business environment the economy will grow fine don’t stress there is more money in the economy under a Labour lead government .
SME make over %97 of business in Aotearoa so its logical to support small exporters why should big business get all the toko these SME have more scope to grow ect.
Pharmac is a good model that keep’s the cost of meds low so more people can get there meds at a lower cost. With out it OUR health cost would blow out and end up like others were common people have to sell the house when they break a legg I’m sure more people break a leg than get caner .
Those big Drug companys would love for us to change Pharmac so they can bleed us dry did you see that Guy ramp up prices by %600 we don’t want to go there.
Pharmac mite need a tweek here and there but not a total change Pharmac is a organization that works really well for common people and tangata whenua The capitalist believe that Pharmac should be scraped they want to bleed more mone from tangata this is one thing we did not change for the capitalist in the 80’s .
What about that plant we have criminalized that helps cancer suffers with there pain we could be making laws that help with pain cheap as but we would rather import it at huge cost thats the law that needs logical attention .
Ka kite ano P.S Paddy good work lately
Many thanks to the Business that are reviewing there plastic wastes Ka pai that’s how Kiwi’s behave we were just lead in the wrong direction for a wee while Ka kite ano P.S ACC
Accident Compensation Corporation is another organization the neo capitalist want to scrap this is a good model that’ we kept from the 80s that provides for the common tangata and the wealthy it just need’s a few tweeks
There you go 17 a year old Kiwi Auckland teenager has been crowned the world’s Microsoft PowerPoint champion.
Fifteen-year-old Tristan Mona, an Avondale College student, beat more than 760,000 competitors from over 100 countries in a timed and graded exam to recreate a presentation put together by Certiport and Microsoft.
Since February he has been practising his PowerPoint skills 24 hours per week – around three hours per day, and undertaking 70 practice tests.
Students enter the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship to prove their master skills in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Ka pai mokopuna Kia kaha
Ka kite ano link is below
Many thanks to the Labour lead Coalition Goverment for putting more mone into electric vehicle transport Ka kite ano P.S the other outfit put all there eggs into carbon fools link below
These people who have the silver spoon in there mouths don’t like the truth about how there ancestors were lieing cheats and they did not conquer OUR tangata whenua tipuna .
They Lied once again making out there were a superior culture than they used this bullshit image they had caste of them selves to steal more land .
Any one with a brain knows money is not as valuable as property .
With inflation at 3% the way it works is your mone value goes down by 3% a year
Mean while whenua goes up by 15% a year can any one spot the problem.
Eco Maori would say keep your mone give my whenua back after all we are te tangata whenua with no whenua.Burn money its gone burn whenua it grows more crops next year
Yes I see foreign people come to Aotearoa and in 20 years they are set for life and there children .The thing is they have diffrent life styls to us kiwis there food and life stile is cheap and they save all there mone there white m8 will hire them before they hire a maori
he will give them a loan before Maori and the white person will be happy because the foreign person puts him up on a pedestal yes sir no sir there is no way this Maori is going to do that.
Have your heard that old joke you have a Irish Chinese Dutch and Maori in a bar the cops arrive there is a scuffle between the Maori and the Dutch guys the police arrest the Maori chuck him in there car they go back into the bar and ask the Chinese and Irish men were is the bar man we want to ask him what charges we can lay on that thieving Maori .
They say you got the bar man in your car it was the Dutch man you let go who we saw stealing drinks is that funny not when this kind of prejudice behavior keeps stuffing up your future A . Eco Maori see this all the time Ka kite ano
Link below
Good evening Newshub I’m not even going to waste my valuable time on gone brash.
Yes Tova O Brian I agree with your opinion we all know the capitalist think they are always correct Eco thinks te mone does something strange to there brain.
Thats the way Piri te tangata whenua will appreciate your apology that’s good move on now E hoa .
Yaa Our Nurse have come to a agreement with the health boards that’s a positive for all kiwis.
Ka kite ano P.S Ingrid it was fine and sunny this morning and next minute it rained on there heads some will know who that is for
The Crowd Goes Wild James and Mulls I new Joseph Parker would hang his gloves up Ka pai.
I remember when Phil Gule was running around the paddock playing Leauge back in
the day
Wairangi had a good yarn with Steve Kearney fingers crossed they can get past that Maori tane in Australia
Good to see te whaine Rugby getting more promotions with mone and the media
James you have to keep a sharp eye on Mulls Ka kite ano P,S he should know what Eco on about I see quite good
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Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
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Remember Hiroshima.
x
Life can be so unfair. Ask any toddler or child and they’ll tell you, passionately and with a earnestness that few adults can match.
When we grow up and become discerning adults with sound judgement we realise that good looks matter and that life still is unfair.
But not all is lost, it seems. Once we get past the first 2 crucial seconds for making a first impression and we get to know the other person, appearances take a step back:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/105979422/budget-buster-the-hotness-pay-gap
We tell students to work hard, go to uni, get a (real) degree, get a (real) job, work hard and you’ll have a (real) career and life will be sweet (as).
Somewhere between uni and landing that first career-defining job it becomes clear that it doesn’t matter what you know but that it’s (more) important whom you know.
So, we tell young ambitious people to build networks (no, Tinder doesn’t count) and use these to their advantage.
Once in the job we tell ambitious young colleagues that hard work is not enough to get promoted. It is not what you know or whom you know. No, it’s who knows you. In other words, we tell the career-minded that they need to be noticed in order to get promoted. We tell them to blow their own trumpet and embark on an orgy of narcissistic self-embellishment.
And then, after a fine long rewarding career that has been marked by personal development and growth, you can tell your grandchildren that life is unfair, passionately and with a earnestness that few toddlers or children can match 😉
I’ve often wondered if we’re rebellious in our teens because we felt betrayed by our peers. Most of us are brought up to be respectful of others, to not lie cheat or steal. It’s in our teenage years when we discover adults are everything we’re taught not to be, not really a surprise the young rebel when you look at it that way.
True. It’s only when you really become self-aware and take a good hard look at the world around you as a young adult that you realise how full of shit a lot of adults are. All those long years spent being told what not to do, only to realise everyone does exactly that all day long every day. The hypocrisy is mind-blowing. I proactively advise my teenagers that many adults are fucking charlatans and that respecting someone purely because they happen to be older than you is a steaming crock of shit. Respect is earned, not bestowed on you by virtue of your advanced years.
And the rich demand respect because they’re rich. Unfortunately, a lot of people actually believe them hence why we see so many voting National.
Hey, that was what I was told when young – didn’t work out that way though.
Yep and WINZ has the figures to prove it. Most job placings are about who you know and not what you know.
And that’s how we end up with brown-nosers.
Not my experience Draco, I new fk all people and came from very working class background, went to non event school etc, what I have learnt many people seek to externalise all their problems and failings, never taking accountability and often fail to realise the common factor in most of thier issues is themselves Saying that some people do just have bad luck
It’s a percentage game.
There was a time the study/work hard myth was mostly true here. Now it’s mostly untrue – social mobility is mostly negative.
you experience = anecdote with no foundation in reality.
On the other hand WINZ has figures showing that more than 70% of jobs are awarded based upon who people know.
Oh Incognito…….the sadness of the circularity you depict……..”an orgy of narcissistic self-embellishment”…….very wry. Moreover, alarmingly accurate. The example which springs to mind at once……the regularity with which same name next generation individuals are glowingly hailed in the legal profession. Doors opened and pathways oftentimes quite gratuitously conferred by doorkeepers “who know you”.
The implied justification is that it’s all about DNA. Which in reality stands for “Do Not Ask” established Power not to reflexively perpetuate itself.
The neo-fashist right or alt-right for “free speech”? yeah… nah.
12 “far right” people in masks (one a Trump mask) attacked a London socialist bookshop. This is a chilling development. And why we don’t want them bringing their bile here.
The Independent reports that they chanted fashist songs, threatened bookshop staff, threw some books around, videoed it and uploaded it online:
Al Jazeera reports:
Ah, so we’re seeing the return of book burning. IIRC, the last time that was popular was in Nazi Germany.
Of course, the RWNJs have been banning books they don’t like for a long time.
Watched ‘Sunday’ last night, mum was over and knew nothing about s&m so it was interesting watching it with her. Thought it was fair coverage airing both view points.
Mum clued me up, smart lady my mum 🙂 She was laughing and aghast at the same time lolz. She explained to me that there were many great developed civilisations across the planet while the europeans were still being cave men. Such as the ancient egyptians. And with a masters in sociology, she has studied such things extensively, I really appreciate her knowledge on such topics. Then the IQ debate was brought up, far out mum was laughing hard by then.
I did discover that when I asked questions via the youtube and s&m channel, their supporters get really aggressive, was told to kill myself. Was thinking.. ok then that’s going to win me over. Super amusing.
Still puzzled as to why they would choose to come here in the first place, but then I remembered we live in an incredible country, of course people want to visit no matter their views.
Glad that circus is over.
Tell you what Cinny:
Look at her now. A 23 year old with the skin of a new born baby and perfect features. Have a look at her in 30 years time – if she makes it. She will be a thin lipped old hag with sagging skin and red rimmed eyes and no-one will want to have a bar of her. Anyone with her beliefs and lifestyle is not going to stay looking young for long. Karma will get her years before it starts on the rest of us.
Sorry, Anne, but a few weeks ago I saw a photo of Lauren and her father, mother and sister – possibly on Twitter – on her father’s birthday. It was hard to tell her mother from Lauren and her sister. Actually a very normal happy middle class white family type photo – think there was also a dog or two.
I am not about to try to find it again – but from memory it may have been on her Twitter account befor she and Molyneux et al arrived in Australia, so about three or four weeks ago.
https://twitter.com/Lauren_Southern?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
So you’re saying people only listen to her because of her looks?
Have a look at some Blaire White youtube clips and see what you think of her then
What question/s did you adk that you got an aggressive response to?
They S&M fan brigade are aggressive towards left wingers generally on that channel, without anyone asking questions.
S&M wind them up by playing victim, and spinning their misinformation.
You are quite possibly right but that still doesn’t answer my querry about what questions were asked.
Why dont you just look?
Report back your thoughts – should be interesting.
Hey Gosman….Will do a copy paste of one instance. Will refer to people as them and me for it….excuse the length of it lolz.
THEM: Prime Minister of ew Zealand. A woman–Jacinda Ardern. Women destroy society
ME: And women give birth, you wouldn’t be here without us. Wait, are women destroying society by giving birth to people like yourself? Ahhhh now I get where you are coming from. Could birth control for men be the answer?
THEM: You’re a brainwashed moron. Sad!
THEM: You see, women would not have been able to give birth without men. YOU wouldn’t be here without us (men) either. No one would, and no one is denying women’s high worth in a society. But women’s brains are completely different from men’s brains, and work and prioritize things differently from men. Things like emotions over facts, feelings over logic etc, are feminine traits in nature. If these traits are commonplace in politics, policies put into place will put more emphasis on people FEELING good, rather than it ACTUALLY being helpful or useful for the common people.
ME: Science has now debunked that narrative……Brains cannot be categorised into female and male, according to the first study to look at sex differences in the whole brain. The mix of male and female features in the brain suggests that stereotypical gender assumptions, such as women are better at multi-tasking and men will earn more money, are redundant.
THEM: Women always put the left parties in power
THEM: You also wouldn’t be able to turn on a light enjoy clean running water have a modern roof over your head or be able to eat if it were not for men. Your welcome.
THEM: Incorrect. Those MRI scans didn’t take into account both macro and micro neurological functions in endometamorphoses and metabolic functions; both are vital for distinguishing both male and female anatomy on a neurological level. Let’s not forget those physical anatomical private parts as a key to distinguishing.
Note…then i went onto google to find out more about the above
THEM: Rubbish, male and female brains are wired neurologically differently to produce different behavioral patterns. That is not even taking into account differences in the endocrine system. Not sure where you are getting your science but it is rubbish
ME: What are neurological functions in endometamorphoses for humans? Where could one learn more about it?
THEM: You’re a complete moron, go kill yourself.
ME: The endocrine system is about the control and release of hormones in the body and related brain messages, such as producing breast milk, or sweating. That’s about the physical body being different, it is not about males or females having different brains, just different bodies, which as a result send different messages to the brain.
THEM: I’m sorry but giving birth and incubating is a biological function. Just like taking a shit. You get no credit for that.
Still puzzled as to why they would choose to come here in the first place,
It’s not just NZ – they are on an international recruiting drive – I guess to Brit ex-colonies. They are particularly focusing on Aussie as fertile ground for their views and for fund raising, but adding Auckland into the schedule.
Unfortunately, it’s not over. Nigel Farage, of the UKIP party is doing the Aus-Auckland speaking tour next, and he is a pro-Brit, anti-“immigrant” far righter; then Pauline Hanson is planning a visit.
PS: Your mum sounds very smart and onto it, Cinny. Unfortunately, the TVNZ reporters, if they were truly doing their job, would’ve pointed out the fallacies of what S&M were saying.
Yes they are well funded hate merchants – the big knobs at the top of society more conflict and hate to generate more money.
Holy smoke Batman, Hanson is coming, dang. I wonder if all these alt rights are coming here to drum up support for national? Personally I’m not so sure that approach will work in NZ.
Yesah Carolyn, my mum is awesome, I’m very lucky indeed.
Good one. Yes their alt right arguments are childishly simplistic and idiotic. No better than propaganda really. And they don’t like the cold steel of facts, as you found out via their YouTube. Be safe cos they attract truly awful people to their cause and internet toxic scum can spill.
“Glad that circus is over.”
Hopefully. As I said yesterday, I have been wondering whether they were still here – and lo and behold, just 30 minutes or so ago, Molyneux tweeted this:
Whether Southern is with him or not is not clear, no Tweets from her since yesterday.
Dave Pellowe, the Australian organiser of their tour appears to be back in Australia since about Sat and concentrating on other interests – catchup retweeting lots of other things and only one or two re the S&M show. EG apparently he is a strong Christian Pro-Lifer …
Caolan Robertson, the young (23 year old) twit that runs around videoing everything on his phone who was interviewed by Paddy Gower – as “an agent for Ms Southern” re the Powerhouse change of mind – is based in London SW3 (Chelsea) not Canada. Not clear whether he has left but yesterday he was madly tweeting insulting tweets re Gower. Caolan (pronounced Kay-Lin) is a bestie (aka leech) of Stephen Lennon aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – better known as Tommy Robinson. Built up quite a dubious reputation in his short young life after a cloistered private school upbringing in London by Irish parents.
[A bit of information you all were waiting for – Molyneux was actually born in Ireland, not Canada. Ireland saw sense early on.]
Molyneux has tweeted three more tweets since the one above – two are retweets of Robertson’s tweets dissing Gower. Poor Paddy. He’s pretty hopeless but doesn’t deserve that.
The third tweet is priceless – a selfie (or did LS take it?) of Molyneux holding a book in the bookshop entitled “Are you smarter than a chimpanzee?” by Ben Ambridge. In your case, Moly, the answer is a definite NO.
https://twitter.com/StefanMolyneux/status/1026233276824993793
“
Dan Satherley on Newshub has now picked up on and written an article about Molyneux’ s “Critical Message” * on YouTube yesterday which I posted on yesterday on Open Mike. * a new title for begging for money.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/08/stefan-molyneux-warns-war-is-coming-asks-for-likes-shares-and-money.html
I rather like Satherley’s turn of phrase through much of his article. His degree of cynicism seems to be close to mine when I watched it. A few tastes – or rather most of it minus videos and photos.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on”. He told the truth!! Okay, one swallow does not make a summer.
“I am trying with all of my might and all of my rhetoric and all of my energy and efforts to stop the war that is coming.” I suspect psychologists would diagnosis a hero complex at this point. He doesn’t explain how he knows a war is coming. A significant lapse. Why not claim he’s psychic? Or a prophet?
The video is not quite up to an Oscar nomination level but actually quite a laugh to watch particularly that section – or taking a different approach, a lesson in how to beg for money. 12 Mins long, but easy to skip through.
I won’t relink but the link is in my comment here
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-05-08-2018/#comment-1510199
Dennis, your comment made me smile, he probably likes to think he is a prophet.
Now his supporters are now calling for arms, and bragging about their weapons stash to deal with the ‘violent left’. From where I’m standing they are the ones suggesting the violence in the first place.
He read it in the entrails of a goat.
LMFAO !!!!
Wait – I’ve seen this before…
Yep this is the real guy – self loathing, self contempt and self hatred.
Sad that some people are so lost. I hope he gets the professional, not $$$, help he needs.
marty, Molyneux claims to be a professional of sorts in psychological matters himself and he is married to a practising psychological therapist, Christina Papadopoulos – that is when she is not being disciplined by the Canadian professional board for malpractice (in conjunction with him).
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/controversial-podcaster-listened-in-on-therapist-wife-and-clients-lawsuit-alleges/article22158708/
Lots more if you google him and/or his wife – eg here https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=stefan+Molyneux+wife&rlz=1C1LDJZ_enNZ499&oq=stefan+Molyneux+wife&aqs=chrome..69i57.20727j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Quite enjoyed flicking through this one.
http://www.fdrliberated.com/the-day-joe-rogan-discovered-the-real-stefan-molyneux/
Another one who found that starting a cult can make you rich. They have just left the “religious part out.
Cinny I find if you going to do youtube be aware that most yanks who are on those pages are sexist, spiteful and full of hate. My response is either OTT on the love and hugs thing which pisses them off, or ask them sexually loaded questions, which they can’t handle. It rough and tumble world on youtube – you have to be prepared.
Adam, you are so correct. Was thinking before that I probably need to lose my female name and female looking avatar if I ever venture there again.
Did learn they do seem to go a bit psycho if you don’t get angry. Yes they don’t like women, crikey does that make them all gay. ROFL. I need to keep my cheeky side in check 🙂
Cheeky with love comments and hug comments winds them up the best. I use to go to certain sites, now gone, just to wind them up with love bombs 🙂 Or quotes from the bible that talk about the poor and love, they hate that as well. Especially if you don’t say where it’s from – you can led them on, and then say their not christians – watch the train wreck when you pull that one. But, just never mention your a Catholic if you are, they have a special place full of hate for Catholics.
Good tips Sir 🙂 Was wondering which brand of christianity they are pro/anti, thanks for the heads up re catholics. Love how you roll.
A lot of them subscribe to Prosperity theology, a vial set of ideas. No better than the indulgence trade.
For a start on the topic the wiki page is not to bad. Gives you some pointers on how they think, plus the criticism section is well written.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology
“Money lenders in the temple”.
To be fair Cinny I can’t really see the big issue here
All Southern was debating is merits of multiculturalism not saying I agree with her but is the debate so scary, on this topic I thought tv 1 was not impartial, she never got to explain her belief, and I am sure she was going to go down ethic ghettos, integration failure places like France , Germany uk etc
likewise the iq issue, again cut off very quickly , he waas quoting averages not individually as is the case for all social science, think prisons stats, likewise these stats that reflect US army enlistments so extensive data Why not debate the stats, ie whites where not on top, is iq a valid construct anyway, what we he intending to coney in these stats then judge accordingly
Overall I felt pretty dissapointrd with tv 1 effort I left no more enlightened than I at the start of show On western civilisation. We are talking what judo Christian ethics, Roman law, Greek democracy and the enlightenmen has created western civilisation today m, it’s pretty impressive, not to dis other civilisation s I don’t think they come close, just a view
Barry Soper has excelled himself. Yes, that hard-as-baked crust journo with the red rimmed eyes (see my 5.1) and the jaundiced ears saw a documentary last night and in the process found his long lost empathy for others less privileged than himself.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12101706
Long may it last.
“Long may it last”
I wouldn’t bank on it @ Anne, and I’ll resist the link provided.
I wouldn’t have described him as a journo though. You must be feeling charitable.
More like one of those bad smells all plastered with Old Spice that hangs around members of the 4th Estate’s Press Gallery/Gang hoping to be taken seriously one day on the basis of his longevity and trophy woif.
In those olden days, they were referred to as ‘hacks’ for good reason
OnceWasTim is really missing out and obviously has not realised the subject – the dearly missed Celia Lashlie (1953 – 2015).
I really want to see that documentary. There was an excellent interview on Nine to Noon last Thursday pre the Film Festival launch of the documentary in Wellington. Here is the link to the 23 min audio, and the summary of the interview with Amanda Millar:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018656307/celia-lashlie-her-life-s-work-and-last-days
23 minutes of well worth listening. I did not realise how much I missed Celia’s voice, She was unique in more ways than one.
RNZ also has a really good archive of Celia’s interviews etc over the years here:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/collections/celia-lashie
I’ll more than likely stumble on it anyway without the help of Barry Bloody Soper, but thanks – you’ve piqued my interest
There’s just no way I can take Bazza or his gorgeous wife seriously having come across him in a past life in the eastern suburbs
I understand having similarly come across him in a past life in the Wellington beltway. I am also wary about clicking links if I don’t know who or what it is about.
Do say more ..
The desperate vermilion hamster is worried and he has increased everything. Expect big fireworks soon as the net tightens – watch out countries of the world.
“The frequency of the president’s mistruths has picked up, as well. The Washington Post Fact Checker found last week that Trump has now made 4,229 false or misleading claims so far in his presidency – an average of nearly 7.6 such claims per day, and an increase of 978 in just two months.”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/donald-trumps-america/106031468/trump-at-a-precarious-moment-in-his-presidency-privately-brooding-and-publicly-roaring
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/363412/trump-says-son-sought-info-on-clinton-from-russians
Globalisation as we speak?
“PGG Wrightson has agreed to sell its seed and grain business to Danish cooperative DLF Seeds for $421 million in cash and $18 of debt repayment, and signalled it may return up to $292 million to its shareholders.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12101889
Neo-colonisation
Thank the gods you didn’t use that misleading, although correct, term liberalism. Can’t stand that shit 😊
Yeah, it’s why I stopped using neo, and just call it liberalism these days. As for colonisation, it does feel a lot like version 2.0 when stuff like this goes off shore.
It started in 1825 under the New Zealand Company and has never stopped. The only material difference between then and today is that the country of origin of the corporate colonisation is no longer just Britain and the natives of New Zealand getting shafted are no longer just brown-skinned.
“signalled it may return up to $292 million to its shareholders.” – that is, we can’t think of anything to do with the money so we’re passing it on. Geniuses.
Ah, more bludging by those that don’t work on the hard workers of NZ.
Yup screw the long term strategic control of our supply side issues there’s cash to be had today.
Chump change to them and thanks for playing PGW.
“Never again”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2018/08/uk-bookstore-attacked-mask-wearing-fascists-180805133004016.html
Great interview with Barrett Brown,about the rise of the power of the state to shut down the media. If you have the time, I was doing house work. 27 minutes long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EVPBwrj3RI&ab_channel=RTAmerica
second that adam i didnt need an excuse to watch it though i was just avoiding the housework if anything !Mighty scary future we are all rushing toward
99% of NSW in drought, farms and their produce on the brink and ‘ no amount of money from the Federal government is going to solve that’…..spring and summer still to come.
Get away from it all on a cheap flight to Bali….maybe Fiji would be better at the moment.
Would love to see massive warehouses of indoor hydroponic gardens. With the climate changing so much, at least food wouldn’t be so weather dependent. Must be horrid for the farmers at present. Time to diversify and evolve.
Thing about hydroponics is it still requires water even though considerably less, and infrastructure that is every bit as susceptible to adverse weather….it is well past time to admit we are in serious strife.
Hydroponics removes plants from their Mother, Papatuanuku ; can’t be good, surely?
That would depend upon how it’s done. Where they get the resources to feed the plants from and where those resources go after use.
I dont know if its necessarily ‘bad’ but I seriously doubt its a viable replacement
https://cleantechnica.com/2015/01/22/worlds-largest-solar-powered-desalination-plant-under-way/
http://www.ecosmagazine.com/?act=view_file&file_id=EC134p4.pdf
This one is the most interesting:
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/ocean-desalination-no-solution-water-shortages
If memory serves Melbourne are building a massive plant at the moment off the back of their own water issues from previous years
Yes and thanks to that muppet Kennett when he privatised the water so they had to mothball it after they built it and the same happened up in SE Queensland, but for a different set of reasons aka we were saving more water than what was being used, recycling waste water and pumping it back into the dams and the drought broke aka the Brisbane floods.
sounds like its running now…at some cost m both financially and environmentally’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_Desalination_Plant
I was only down in that shit hole Melbourne for 3yrs from 2009 thank god.
Which is probably true if using fossil fuels. Probably not with ones that are solar powered.
In the examples I used the water was going to be pure with no other chemicals in it and the power station was part of the farm. Proper design of the inlet can prevent damage to fish (although I’m not going to hold my breath about a private commercial operation doing that as it will be expensive to produce and Maintain).
Which just seems to be wrong:
Solar powered remember.
It’s not desalination that does that but capitalism and the profit drive.
Yeah, I think that article is worth ignoring for being simply wrong.
You are getting ahead of yourself Draco
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/ocean-desalination-no-solution-water-shortages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Paterson_Desalination_Plant
Wishing wont solve this …and with the time/resource constraints nor will technology.
dismiss all the articles you like…were fucked
oops…wrong link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Paterson_Desalination_Plant
Did you have a point there?
You haven’t addressed anything I said.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1351311/saudi-arabia
“The move falls in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which is based on diversifying its economy away from oil and gas. And with desalination and residential cooling set as the two largest uses of power, and desalinated water demand expected to double in the next decade, experts say that it is more profitable for the country to sell oil and gas while using alternative resources, such as nuclear, for water desalination.”
“Nuclear power is one of the options in the power mix that could also contain wind energy and solar, but these systems cannot take over the major role in the power mix. Moreover, these are also somehow much more vulnerable to damage, like sabotage, and even the effects of climate change.”
So renewables cannot meet the demand, 16 nuclear power stations mooted (all pumping heat into the ocean) for Saudi Arabia alone and we know how quickly they are designed and constructed (not to mention the growing sand shortage worldwide)…not
and then…..
“And studies have shown that the Gulf will only get saltier in the future. Raed Bashitialshaaer, a water resources engineer at Sweden’s Lund University, says that the growth of desalination plants in the region is happening far faster than his own estimated.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/sep/29/peak-salt-is-the-desalination-dream-over-for-the-gulf-states
So many of these ‘saviour’ solutions ignore the scale required and the impact at scale…..never mind the resources and timeframes involved…as Kevin Anderson says, we cant build our way out of this
Yes, will have to admit the the ME isn’t the best place to do it. Too many people and not enough water flow. Or, to put it another way, the ME is fucked.
I think you’ll find that it won’t apply quite so much to Australia with the worlds oceans surrounding them. Of course, that will be dependent upon if they only try to keep themselves going and not trying to export it all. Unfortunately, they’ll probably try exporting it for the money.
Still, there are many concerns that need to be looked at but these simply shouldn’t be thrown away because of one area where it simply won’t work.
And thats the point isnt it?…one region suffers a water/food shortage and the population (or a significant proportion of) moves and exacerbates the problem in other resource stressed regions…a domino effect.
If the ME is fucked then ultimately we all are.
I’ve been saying that for quite awhile with regards to climate change and refugees that will end up coming here and we will have to stop them. There’s no way that NZ could support any more than what we have now once the climate turns.
Great to see NZForest and Bird signing an MOU with Landcorp (PAMU) on researching, implementing and promoting agricultural practices that protect the natural world.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1808/S00063/forest-bird-and-pamu-announce-new-collaboration.htm
I hope it helps the environment.
I looked at pamu and got to this bit
“At Pāmu, we’ve spent 130 years getting to know nature.
We are Kaitiaki – guardians – of nature. ”
Yeah nah.
Māori are kaitiaki and everything culturally that that means. Your group may be stewards, guardians, protectors or whatever but imo you can never be kaitiaki because that concept has cultural aspects which you can never reach.
Māori were the biggest destroyers of native life on this land of ours eliminating about 50% of the forest before the Europeans even got here. That’s true of almost all indigenous peoples around the world.
So what?
So Māori don’t get to claim being the only people who have kaitiaki over NZ natural health. They really don’t have that tradition, that culture.
You don’t know what kaitiakitanga means I think. And that’s okay cos most don’t but it relates to mana.
Interesting link about fire and Māori if you care to read it: Māori Fire Use and the Southern Landscape
There was another paper I read recently, that spoke about the use of fire to clear vegetation, and suggested that it was used so that regeneration would occur, as opposed to the clearance of forests for agriculture. But I can’t find it. The one above is a good read though.
Marty. I have heard Maori, many times refer to DOC and other Pakeha as Kaitiaki. Not sure that all agree with you.
Yeah I know but it is strange to attribute personal qualities to organisations imo
Agree. Part of the adoption of Te Reo into NZ English??
Forest and Bird have done a number of odd things of late, of which swallowing the koolaid on 1080 is not the most reassuring.
We do indeed need some cooperation between environmental and agricultural interests, but the areas of greatest need do not seem to be being addressed and we must be wary of invidious compromises.
Which agricultural practices protect the natural world; can you describe one?
Planting of trees on unstable slopes. Migration corridors. Steiner gravity water aerator/purifiers. Shelter belts and shade trees. Riparian planting.
Of course these are mostly required by the monocultural approach of previous farming models, so that at best they improve the current environment rather than restoring an ideal. They are still worthwhile however.
It does complicate issues like the Mackenzie however – however unsuitable intensive dairy may be with its unsustainable water demands, the tussock lands were in many cases geologically recently covered with broadleaf forest, and some restoration of that would tend to increase the diversity and robustness of the area, so the tussock is not necessarily the state to prefer, however much it may have become iconic of the area.
Thanks Stuart – my point, vaguely hinted at, was that the sorts of practices you list are responses to the harm caused by agriculture; agriculture can only protect, in a very small way, the natural world from…itself.
We are the natural world Robert.
We dominate it, and have done for a while.
We are its destroyers, its replicators, and its generators.
We are also its guardians.
Pamu are not proposing tree forests.
They are proposing lower-harm and high value commercial agriculture.
And they are now working in concert as one of our largest state-run businesses with our largest conservation organization.
The Aussies have had 7 years of drought in some areas. Australians are talking “Climate Change” openly now. Although they are used to droughts, and burn offs are a way of life, the fact that this drought involves all states bar parts of Western Australia, has shaken the lucky country’s confidence.
As in California, the water tables are at all time lows, and winter temperatures are up to 7 deg higher than usual in some areas. They are dreading summer, fearful the seasonal rains will fail.
Many farmers have reached the end of their financial emotional and physical tethers. The larger outfits are now pressuring Government as all their “safety measures” are exhausted. Smaller outfits are trying to keep key stock and their land. A grant of $8000 per person on a farm each 6 months is paying for limited feedstuff, and they can claim “Job start”…. if their assets are not too high!!
It is sad and very grim. We are told food shortages and high prices are certain.
Lamb is A$40.00 a kilo right now, and wool is coming back into fashion. Those involved in cattle are not coping so well, as they require far more in water resources.
You know it is bad when politicians don’t point score over it too much.
And you can add (or subtract) the reduced yields from UK, Europe. Nth America to that….probably others that I havnt noticed in the past couple of weeks
Not sure if you have been following the ABC’s Landline while you have in Oz. This current Big Dry and why it has effected almost every farming community in particular those that don’t get effective by drought is because winter weather pattern has changed.
Since the start of the Big Dry, the weather boffins have noticed the usual high pressure systems which trends to stay up round the Northern part of Australia during winter are now a lot further South and covering most of Australia now. This led to the failure of the winter rains in the southern states which is now leading to all sorts of problems from livestock, winter and summer crops failing and the shortage of feed for livestock.
With these high pressure pushing even further south the usual winter rains are being push even further south hitting Tassie or worst missing Tassie altogether and hitting the West Coast/ Southern part of NZ. This year in the Northern Australian we are starting to notice a our build up weather system before the Wet Season kicks in around the December has arrived two mths early than normal as we usually expect to this type of weather around the end of September or the middle of October.
With Australia’s already existing artesian salination nightmare, I suspect high water use agriculture is not going to last for long.
Yes, especially for those Southern States in the Murray Darling river basin.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12101966
“Fletcher Tabuteau, the deputy leader of New Zealand First, comes from Waiteti Marae in Ngongotaha near Rotorua, of which Haumaha is the chairman.
They are both Ngāti Ngāraranui and Tabuteau referred to Haumaha as a member of his whānau in his maiden speech to Parliament in 2014.
Tabuteau’s uncle Tommy Gear – a close friend of Winston Peters – is a trustee of the Ngāti Ngāraranui Hapu Trust along with Haumaha.”
Its looking murkier and murkier
A shocker – two Māori related!!! What nek? fish mostly swim.
Nothing to see here, move along
You do know how 2 Degrees gets it’s name right?
We could probably see the exact same situation in National or any party for that matter.
Terrible things happening over there
“Saudi Arabia freezes Canada trade ties, recalls envoy”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-45079682
Just look at how people on the Standard responded to the Southern and Molyneux controversy here. There was a huge amount of publicity generated. Trump has a very similar style and you think the Media reported it more because the Democrats told them to?
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
There was a huge range of opinion expressed on this blog over aspects of Southern and Molyneux’s attempted speaking engagement.
That, and neither Molyneux nor Southern were political candidates contesting a selection process for a political party.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign team decided to (their words) “tell the press to take them [the pied piper candidates] seriously“.
Unless you believe that political parties have no media influence, then that gets taken at face value.
Oh. And trolling. Not going to go down well with me today Gosman.
It just doesn’t stop ffs!
This http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2018/08/just-wrong.html
and this https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/363428/immigration-nz-forced-to-address-privacy-concerns-with-realme
and this : The process of repressing public sector remuneration (except at the top) has been going on for three decades ( in https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/%E2%80%98business-opinion%E2%80%99-is-falling-does-it-matter )
All in the space of 24 hours
Last night on open mike I posted (32) a quote from “Who we are and how we got here: ancient DNA and the new science of the human past” by Harvard Professor of Genetics, David Reich. He asserted that the “long-held view about race has been proven wrong”.
I’m inclined to read this as invalidating any possible scientific basis for races, but we should await the emergence of a consensus of relevant experts. Aged 44, Reich graduated “BA in physics from Harvard University and a PhD in zoology from the University of Oxford”. He writes “I played an important role in the analyses that proved interbreeding between Neanderthals and some modern humans”. The term modern has a technical meaning to archaeologists (& geneticists) – he’s not referring to our normal meaning of modern.
Chapter 11 is entitled “The Genomics of Race and Identity”. Here’s a sample: “Compared to most academics, the politics of genome bloggers tend to the right… The Eurogenes blog spills over with sometimes as many as a thousand comments in response to postings on the charged topic of which ancient peoples spread Indo-European languages… The genome bloggers take pleasure in pointing out contradictions between the politically-correct messages academics often give about the indistinguishability of traits across populations and their papers showing that this is not the way the science is heading.”
Tell the truth or kowtow to the brain police? Scientists don’t get taught how to handle the interface between ethics and morality as part of their education. Understandable that they obfuscate. Truth hurts.
Reminds me of a Twitter thread by Jesse Berentson-Shaw about her latest book last night:
Yes, her concept of neutrality seems unworkable. During the decade I spent in the TVNZ newsroom, I was often evaluating how the journos & reporters were framing their stories to achieve balance. Usually it seemed reasonable enough but sometimes gross imbalance was obvious & made me angry. Their rule would have required them to give Hitler equal time during WWII.
What works better is to give credit where due, give both sides a share of the story so the viewer can weigh the pros & cons. So my disgust with our media mishandling of the Canadians is because it gave me no evidence upon which to evaluate their actual beliefs & opinions. Media who don’t inform people are a waste of time.
The question of balance is only one aspect. On TV news the message conveyed is also about how the story and views are framed – how people are filmed, how it’s edited, etc.
Also, “balance” suggests there are always 2 main sides of an issue and that they exist around a fixed centre. It’s important,a s you say, to be able to evaluate the evidence. And following the evidence can be as important as any half-arsed attempt at balance.
Sue Abel did research at TV One – observing how Maori were represented in the news. She concluded that bias crept in, partly because of the time pressure the newsrooms were operating under. So journalists, editors, etc just resorted to the same sorts of representations they used or had seen in the past, without a lot of reflection.
I see some of Sue’s lecture notes are on the NZ Herald site (2010)
In these notes, she also points out that the notion of “balance” is a pakeha concept.
I don’t know what you mean by Berentson-Shaw’s concept of neutrality is unworkable. She’s saying that neutrality is not totally possible. So, it’s important for journalists to be aware that they will always be framing their writing in ways that are not totally neutral.
Also, journalists cannot predict how people will read their stories. So, again, they need to be explicit about the points they are making. It’s also why a news organisation should have journalists who come from a different perspective.
Scientists are not necessarily great communicators. But journalists reporting on research often don’t report it very well. And science journalism can be particularly poor. They just tend to take a main idea from the research, and lose the nuances and/or critique the methodologies or weaknesses in the research.
Often journalists don’t get enough time to really get to grips with a research topic these days. And news organisations have not helped the situation by focusing too much on infotainment,ratings and click bait – creates short attention spans.
Mike Smith ask me question a while back and my apologies for a late reply to your question which was back around the 25th of July I think?
Anyway here’s the link https://thestandard.org.nz/brexiting-the-eu/#comment-1506480 for anyone who wants to read back.
There are few problems with P8 and it’s why I prefer the Japanese P1 over the P8, but selecting the P1 would’ve left us as the first overseas user and given what has happened with the NH90’s, Project Protector (aka the two OPV’s and the Canterbury), the up armoured LOV’s (which were quietly retired last yr and throughout this yr) they obviously judged the risk as being first overseas user to be not worth the risk given NZG, MoD and NZDF track record of late I can’t really blame them.
So what the main issues-
It’s a part of the US Special Projects Program ( F22, F35 JSF, Joint Rivet/ Air Seeker, Reaper aka UAV’s both Armed and unarmed etc).
Weight: Max Takeoff weight (MTOW)
Doubts over its Fatigue life aka the wings
Mission support systems,
The use of UAV’s to support the P8 on certain mission profiles to get the best out of P8 and the
dropping ASW ordnance from high attitude
The P8 being a part of the Special Project Program is going leave the NZG, MoD and the NZDF in knots, a) because of the Security that comes the P8 weather it’s passive or actived during non warlike or warlike or peace time operations, b) the US hold all the IP rights or any upgrades, replacement parts have to through the US. So what does this mean? Well we would have to pay top dollar as we can’t do what we have done to the P3’s of the last 10-15yrs etc IRT upgrades, deep level maintenance will more likely to be done by Boeing Australia not Safe Air as is the case atm. The Poms are finding this out the hard way already as some of the mission support systems on the Nimrod R1’s or R2 and the defunct MR4 Project had were in fact far better than US supplied ones.
So long term funding for upgrades is going to be an issue for sure given NZG track record for Defence funding.
Weight has pretty much dogged the P8 since the start in particular it’s all up MTOW. Half the cost of the P8s that NZ is buying is tried up building new infrastructure at Ohakea because of the MTOW as the runway at RNZAF base Auckland is short and the other reasons is the mandated security requirements of the P8 as required the US. The weight issue is going to be a major factor in where P8 can operate from within NZ and the Pacific Region in certain seasons.
Since the start of the P8 program Boeing has been a bit coy about the overall fatigue test IRT the wings and wing box as P8 wasn’t meant to do low flying from the start and since some of the mission and ordnance systems haven’t worked all that well at higher altitudes. This inturn has meant Boeing has spent time and money redesigning the wings etc, reduce the fatigue failure on the wings and wing box which has added a weight and range penalty as most wings are designed to flex within limits but low level flying this reduces the overall fatigue life of the wings etc. if you are ever flying to Wellington on a rough day have a look at how much wing movement there is.
The Mission Support Systems have been problematic as ASW and Anti Surface Warfare has been by tradition a low to medium level affair. But the USN and Boeing have taken a leap in faith of new technologies which hasn’t sorted of work, but incorporating UVA’s and Increment 1 systems include persistent anti-submarine warfare capabilities and an integrated sensor suite; in 2016, Increment 2 upgrades will add multi-static active coherent acoustics, an automated identification system, and high-altitude anti-submarine weapons.Increment 3 in 2020 shall enable “net-enabled anti-surface warfare”. This should be sorted out by the time NZ gets its first P8 as this wee problem has stuffed its range, time on station and fuel burn as it move fro me Hi to Low and to Hi etc.
Incorporating the use of UAV’s has allowed those limitations on certain missions to be overcome, but without it has led to some issues as the P8 has to then go low level which then effects range, TOS and fuel burn performance etc. To really get the best out of the P8 you really need to invest into UAV’s, but also they have issues as well and insuring that both RNZN ships and deployed NZ Army formations down to a tactical level are able to process data received from the P8 as it’s a truly a Joint Multi Mission Platform if all the bells and whistles are working and that’s a big if IRT NZG funding towards Defence in the past.
Now this should’ve been obvious to the muppets at Boeing that trying to drop a ASW weapon from a great height wasn’t to work from the start! At the moment to conduct ASW Warfare they have to go back to basics ie back to 250ft to 300ft off the deck (which btw out of all the tac flying I’ve of done, flying at 200ft – 250ft off the deck on 3 engines in P3 beats any show ride especially if you chasing something). Because of this obvious limitation this really bugged up a number problems already addressed and the long term effects are unknown or base on assumptions especially if Boeing has fudge the fatigue numbers. Boeing is hoping to have one sorted by the time the P8 enters RNZAF and if it doesn’t then any savings it was hoping achieved are well in truly kick into touch.
Is this right Aircraft for NZG, MoD and RNZAF? Well it’s depends on ones POV, if the NZG keeps maintaining P8 with regular updates/ upgrades then yes, if I was a on UN Chap 4-7 Mission with my troops in contact giving me a feed on what’s going on and able to me to support me with offence support if required then yes. NZ is a Maritime dependent and without secure Sea Lanes Of Communications then NZ economic wealth and overall it’s economy will suffer if it goes pear shape as the P8 a Maritime Platform then yes.
But if the NZG can’t be stuffed at maintaining the P8 like they usually do with the rest of Defence then don’t buy it. Like all Defences purchases there are pros and cons with the added factor of how much risk that you are prepared to accept or don’t accept which is really the $64 billion question rather like guessing this weeks Lotto or Powerball numbers.
It was like having teeth extracted.
Wisdom tooth Shearer wrenched out. Incisor Cunliffe prised out of our jaw, Goff reefed out and ‘you little beauty’ Little relinquished the top tooth role. What a bloody heart wrenching sweat soaked journey it has been.
The National party are just setting out on this journey.
Good morning The Am Show Duncan your word about our business confidence are a bit over the top business will be fine they will have to get use to minor tweaks that Labour are doing to the business environment the economy will grow fine don’t stress there is more money in the economy under a Labour lead government .
SME make over %97 of business in Aotearoa so its logical to support small exporters why should big business get all the toko these SME have more scope to grow ect.
Pharmac is a good model that keep’s the cost of meds low so more people can get there meds at a lower cost. With out it OUR health cost would blow out and end up like others were common people have to sell the house when they break a legg I’m sure more people break a leg than get caner .
Those big Drug companys would love for us to change Pharmac so they can bleed us dry did you see that Guy ramp up prices by %600 we don’t want to go there.
Pharmac mite need a tweek here and there but not a total change Pharmac is a organization that works really well for common people and tangata whenua The capitalist believe that Pharmac should be scraped they want to bleed more mone from tangata this is one thing we did not change for the capitalist in the 80’s .
What about that plant we have criminalized that helps cancer suffers with there pain we could be making laws that help with pain cheap as but we would rather import it at huge cost thats the law that needs logical attention .
Ka kite ano P.S Paddy good work lately
Many thanks to the Business that are reviewing there plastic wastes Ka pai that’s how Kiwi’s behave we were just lead in the wrong direction for a wee while Ka kite ano P.S ACC
Accident Compensation Corporation is another organization the neo capitalist want to scrap this is a good model that’ we kept from the 80s that provides for the common tangata and the wealthy it just need’s a few tweeks
There you go 17 a year old Kiwi Auckland teenager has been crowned the world’s Microsoft PowerPoint champion.
Fifteen-year-old Tristan Mona, an Avondale College student, beat more than 760,000 competitors from over 100 countries in a timed and graded exam to recreate a presentation put together by Certiport and Microsoft.
Since February he has been practising his PowerPoint skills 24 hours per week – around three hours per day, and undertaking 70 practice tests.
Students enter the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship to prove their master skills in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Ka pai mokopuna Kia kaha
Ka kite ano link is below
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12101951
Many thanks to the Labour lead Coalition Goverment for putting more mone into electric vehicle transport Ka kite ano P.S the other outfit put all there eggs into carbon fools link below
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12102623
These people who have the silver spoon in there mouths don’t like the truth about how there ancestors were lieing cheats and they did not conquer OUR tangata whenua tipuna .
They Lied once again making out there were a superior culture than they used this bullshit image they had caste of them selves to steal more land .
Any one with a brain knows money is not as valuable as property .
With inflation at 3% the way it works is your mone value goes down by 3% a year
Mean while whenua goes up by 15% a year can any one spot the problem.
Eco Maori would say keep your mone give my whenua back after all we are te tangata whenua with no whenua.Burn money its gone burn whenua it grows more crops next year
Yes I see foreign people come to Aotearoa and in 20 years they are set for life and there children .The thing is they have diffrent life styls to us kiwis there food and life stile is cheap and they save all there mone there white m8 will hire them before they hire a maori
he will give them a loan before Maori and the white person will be happy because the foreign person puts him up on a pedestal yes sir no sir there is no way this Maori is going to do that.
Have your heard that old joke you have a Irish Chinese Dutch and Maori in a bar the cops arrive there is a scuffle between the Maori and the Dutch guys the police arrest the Maori chuck him in there car they go back into the bar and ask the Chinese and Irish men were is the bar man we want to ask him what charges we can lay on that thieving Maori .
They say you got the bar man in your car it was the Dutch man you let go who we saw stealing drinks is that funny not when this kind of prejudice behavior keeps stuffing up your future A . Eco Maori see this all the time Ka kite ano
Link below
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/105477615/do-treaty-of-waitangi-settlements-lead-to-better-social-outcomes-and-should-they P.S If the bank had given me that loan 30 years ago I had saved $20 k the house was $90 k its worth $600 k now me and my whano would have been set up to
Good evening Newshub I’m not even going to waste my valuable time on gone brash.
Yes Tova O Brian I agree with your opinion we all know the capitalist think they are always correct Eco thinks te mone does something strange to there brain.
Thats the way Piri te tangata whenua will appreciate your apology that’s good move on now E hoa .
Yaa Our Nurse have come to a agreement with the health boards that’s a positive for all kiwis.
Ka kite ano P.S Ingrid it was fine and sunny this morning and next minute it rained on there heads some will know who that is for
The Crowd Goes Wild James and Mulls I new Joseph Parker would hang his gloves up Ka pai.
I remember when Phil Gule was running around the paddock playing Leauge back in
the day
Wairangi had a good yarn with Steve Kearney fingers crossed they can get past that Maori tane in Australia
Good to see te whaine Rugby getting more promotions with mone and the media
James you have to keep a sharp eye on Mulls Ka kite ano P,S he should know what Eco on about I see quite good