Inventive tech works just like magic: it transforms reality. Green thinkers get uneasy about this, of course, since it's unnatural. Well, this ethical conundrum seems likely to feature in our trend towards a resilient global economy:
Kiwi scientists have helped discover a new gene described as a potential game-changer for cloning in global agriculture. The gene allows natural reproduction by cloning in plants, enabling highly desirable traits to be carried through to the next generation rather than lost when the plants reproduce through pollination. Named PAR, the new gene has been found to control parthenogenesis, a process whereby plant egg cells spontaneously grow into embryos without fertilisation.
For subsistence farmers in particular this would be revolutionary. Instead of always having to buy seed they would now be able to save their own and use it to grow plants with the same elite characteristics year on year without losing quality.
Normally, the PAR gene is triggered by fertilisation, but in plants that reproduce by apomixis – which does not require fertilisation – the PAR gene switches on spontaneously, so the egg cells are triggered to start dividing into a new embryo.
Framing to be deployed here is obvious: transcend the natural/unnatural binary. Both/and logic produces a third alternative between the binary. The third, novel, category is catalytic intervention.
Scientists in New Zealand have been working with scientists in the Netherlands – at research company KeyGene and Wageningen University & Research (WUR) – and Japan, at breeding company Takii, to identify ways to produce plant seeds that are genetically identical to the parent plant.
Plant of Food Research scientist Dr Ross Bicknell puts it like this…
"Now imagine being able to produce a whole crop made up of just those elite individuals. Cloning is not an unusual idea, we already use it for things like fruit trees, grapes and strawberries, but this will bring the advantages of cloning to the crops that support humanity".
Plants that naturally reproduce by apomixis were found to have a transposon – a small piece of DNA that can jump around the plant DNA – in the promoter of the PAR gene. The promoter regulates that gene's activity… The new findings have been published in the prestigious journal Nature Genetics.
the couple recently visited Robert and Robyn Guyton, who live in Riverton, Southland. After a Happen Films documentary on the Guytons' permaculture food forest five years ago, people flew across the world to visit the property
Watched the embedded 2016 video of Robyn's & Robert's Forest Garden. Very interesting.
Your place looks amazing, Robert. Beautiful creek too. Must be tremendously satisfying to see the place so well-developed after your years of hard yakker (that probably never felt like hard work) careful tending and experimentation.
I bet wild horses couldn't drag either of you away from such a wonderful, wild world home & self-sustaining environment.
What have you added to the property or forest garden since then?
Thanks Gazza; you are right, it'd take a meteor (don't look up!) to scoop me out of this comfy burrow!
We have expanded our boundary somewhat since that film was made; added a very large tunnel house for heat-loving plants (bananas, guava etc.) and extended the fruit-forest and shelter across the top of the rise. Mostly though, my planting "work" has happened off-site, on common-ground where I've quietly planted road, creek and estuary-sides with native trees, as well as groves of nut and fruit trees here and there. Also planted (with help) 14 apple orchards around the region, plus a few other regenerative projects. I've plans for several more in the near future. Oh, and planted a 100 metre "holloway" in the late winter – that's an exciting one for me – I've long wanted to create one of those 🙂 . There's the 6-hectare wetland also, Te Way Karori. That's 16 years old now. Plus the Community Forest Garden. I'm still adding fruit trees to that, though it's as jungly as our own home garden 🙂
Thanks, Dennis – I hadn't seen that article – Jordan & Antoinette are delightful people; we spent much of our time talking excitedly about the future 🙂
The Pope is calling people who choose not to have children selfish. I wonder if he's really more concerned about protecting his faith and Western civilisation from the far superior birth rate of Islam?
Interesting question about having children. I know people who hit middle age and wish they had had children. I know others who tell me if they had their life over again the last thing they'd want is children.
I had to grin about these quotes from Stuff's article on it:
Predicting that Francis’s criticism would upset a lot of people, one man joked: “Hey guys, check out the Vatican’s new atheism ad,” while another commented: “Childless virgin admonishes happy couples for their life choices.”
Crikey, I need to read more. The office of Pope certainly has had a few jibes thrown its way over the years. My favourite is the one about the Pope wearing his undies in the bath.
Pope Francis is obviously totally blinkered to the contradiction in his preaching on this subject while not being prepared to do away with the requirement that Catholic nuns and priests must be celibate.
The first Pope that has the gonads to abandon this ages-long dogmatic rule that seems to have no Biblical basis will probably be the one most worth listening to.
Its far better that people who aren't 100% keen on having kids ,dont have kids, nothings more damaging than being having parents that cant really be bothered with the long haul that parenting is.
Perhaps it is not the fact that they don't want children that makes them “selfish” (but “unselfish” in other respects), but that the fact that they are “selfish” makes them want to avoid the responsibility of parenting.
Maybe if they – the church, the politicians, and the pundits – who pontificate about the humans that don't want to have children, would advocate a regular payment – living wage for example – for people to have children, they would learn quickfast that 'selfish' is literally just short for 'can't afford'.
"CONCLUSION It is a shame that those who are most vocal about their loss of freedom almost invariably blame the loss on alleged conspiracies of persons in government. Our loss of freedoms are probably not the result of actions of evil people who are plotting the demise of democracy, but rather are due to negligent people in government (and it's nearly all of them) who willfully ignore the problem of overpopulation and the destructive consequences of this negligence. When people are denied their rights to participate in the decisions that affect their lives, they are predictably unpredictable, and history is full of examples of violence that has been precipitated by those who feel they have been disenfranchised. Such are some of the costs of overpopulation. Thus, several lines of evidence point to population growth as being a major causal factor in the decline of democracy in the United States, yet, as Garrett Hardin observes: (Hardin 1993) "No one ever blames it on overpopulation."
"The growth rate of Omicron is such that even if it is milder in most cases, cases can still rapidly add up and threaten the NHS. The UK has a healthcare system already struggling with decades of underinvestment and which was teetering on the brink after months of Delta. People seem to forget that nearly 20,000 people have already died from Covid in the UK since “freedom day” in July. The virus has been much more manageable, but that attrition has not been without consequence."
Kazakhstan's undergoing violent protests – but Russian paratroopers have been sent in as part of a 6-nation (former USSR country) peacekeeping force.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had appealed for the intervention of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a military alliance of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, blaming foreign-trained "terrorist" gangs for the violent protests.
Earlier, Kazakh police said forces had "eliminated" tens of rioters in the largest city of Almaty…
The unrest began as protests against the rising price of liquefied petroleum gas, a fuel used by the poor to power their cars, but has since turned into anti-government riots feeding off deep-seated resentment over three decades of rule by former president Nursultan Nazarbayev and his hand-picked successor.
Nazarbayev, 81, stepped down in 2019 but remains a political force and his family is believed to control much of the economy, the largest in Central Asia. He has not been seen or heard from since the protests began.
Nazarbayev's successor Tokayev said gangs were seizing buildings, infrastructure and weapons.
I think that some ancient part of us knows where our ancestors came from and sort of recognises it when we see it again in real life. I've always wanted to get to the Altai Mountains for some irrational reason – every time I see images I get an odd sense of deep familiarity.
Two books that include recipes and commentary on this part of the world that I have got out of our library several times each are
Kaukasis : a culinary journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan & beyond
by Olia Hercules
From the winner of the Observer's Rising Star Award and Fortnum & Mason Debut Food Book Award 2016 comes a celebration of the food and flavours of the Caucasus – bridging Europe and Asia and incorporating Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iran, Russia and Turkey. Olia Hercules introduces us to more than 100 recipes for vibrant, earthy, unexpected dishes from across the region such as Plum fruit leather, Chestnut plov with pumpkin crust, Quince stuffed with lamb & carmalised shallots, Vine leaf dolma, Village breakfast, Khachapouri, Armenian "cognac" profiteroles and Red basil sherbet.
and
Samarkand by Caroline Eden and Eleanor Ford.
Not that I am a great cook…..I just like looking at the pictures and reading the travel text!
Almaty (formerly Alma Ata) the capital of Kasakhstan has a very important world primary health declaration named for it. Very appropriate in our times when we see the importance both of primary health care (GP care etc) in a public health model.
No doubt about there being breakthrough cases in vaccinated cases. I have read about several of these dying but not on the scale of the numbers of unvaccinated people dying from Covid.
Simon B, just as bad as Paul G as finance spokesman?
via Gerald Otto via NZ Herald.
Luxon's biggest mistake – Simon the economic dunce
Ha ha ha ha at last a well informed opinion shoots down Simon Bridges about inflation in the NZ Herald. Somebody pinned this to my door …
G 🙂
NZ Herald
By Craig Renny
OPINION:
Simon Bridges has done well over the past year. He has survived a brazen attack from his leader, and emerged as the latest National Party finance spokesman.
What he's clearly not done over this time is any economic study. That's what we can take away from his current attack on government investment.
Bridges believes government is the key driver of the current increasing inflation. "The more cash from government, the higher inflation will be," he states unequivocally.
But there's one small problem with Bridges' blunt-spoken truth. There's little real-world evidence to support that claim in a developed economy like New Zealand.
Evidence from an exhaustive study examining the relationship between fiscal policy and inflation found little relationship across 44 countries and 60 years of data.
This was particularly true of countries with a Reserve Bank like New Zealand. 2016 evidence from the US Federal Reserve Bank of St.Louis states that "across the board, we found almost no effect of government spending on inflation".
In recent economic history, the evidence supporting Bridges gets even thinner. Within the last decade in response to the Global Financial Crisis trillions of dollars were provided to financial institutions to keep them solvent.
The result – inflation fell during the five years after the crisis. Is this money somehow different to the money that is being spent now? Perhaps money only causes inflation if it goes to the wrong sort of person in National's view?
So what is actually going on?
Economists like to think about inflation in two flavours. The first of these, "demand-pull" occurs when demand for goods and services rises more quickly than the ability to produce them.
Prices rise as demand outstrips supply. The second, "cost-push" occurs when increasing costs (like oil, energy, or transport) drive increased product prices.
Right now we've got a bit of both, but mostly the latter. Reducing government spending in New Zealand doesn't stop the ANZ Commodity Price Index being at a record high.
Reducing government investment won't undo the 50 per cent increase in the global oil price last year. Or the 850 per cent increase in global shipping prices since the start of the pandemic.
These increases, along with higher rental costs and building materials is what's driving current inflation. It's not government spending. In fact, well-targeted government spending – such as support for coastal shipping to buffer transport costs, or underwriting of affordable housing at scale, or building essential public transport can actually reduce future inflation.
Reducing government investment won't undo the 50 per cent increase in the global oil price last year. Photo / Duncan Brown.
National's economic analysis is wrong. In order to restore some economic and fiscal credibility, National should be explicit about exactly what it intends to cut when they use terms like "rein it in a bit" or "pull it back a tad".
Using throwaway terms like these suggests that either they don't know what to cut or don't want the public to know. Either of these should worry New Zealanders. Treasury has identified an infrastructure deficit of $75 billion. What is National's plan to deal with that? Make it bigger?
We have had successive governments try to cut their way to prosperity – Labour in '84, National in '91 and 2008. All it has done is create bigger and more expensive problems for our people and for our economy.
Let's be clear here, Bridges would need to cut billions of dollars of investment to slow the economy down to achieve his inflation goal. That means fewer health workers. Fewer teachers. Fewer police officers. Fewer state houses.
At the end of his recent article, Bridge's used US President Reagan's famous quote "are you better off than you were four years ago?".
Compared to four years ago in New Zealand unemployment is lower, wages are higher in real terms, and fewer children are living in poverty. We have a government that is tackling the backlog of underinvestment in essential public services. So in comparison to when Bridges was last in government, yes the country is in many ways truly better off.
The New Zealand economy is by no means perfect. There's plenty more the government should be doing. From tackling housing to embedding a productive, sustainable, and inclusive future there is lots for an effective opposition to get stuck into.
But to criticise what the government has done to date is to ignore that we have had one of the best economic and public health responses to Covid-19 on the planet.
Under President Reagan, spending by the US government rose by an average of 9 per cent each year. Next year total government expenses in New Zealand will fall by 6 per cent. Fair enough, I suppose – Bridges' celebration of a Big Government spender in an essay about cutting government spending makes about as much sense as the rest of his arguments.
The positive New Zealand economic forecasts mean that now is the time to set out a long term vision of how we emerge from the shadow of Covid-19. That needs to be transparent about what National intends to cut, and what evidence it has that it will make any difference to prices today.
• Craig Renny is an economist and director of policy for the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions
A pity you did not put that last little note up at the beginning?
"Craig Renny is an economist and director of policy for the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions". By the way there is a second "e" in his name.
You don't think that Mr Renney may be just a tiny bit biased by any chance? I can think of a lot of economists that really don't think as highly of the Government performance as he does.
Thank you Stephen Doyle for making the text available to readers who reject the Herald's paywall. This is so good I am sending it to some relations who still believe 'The Economy' needs National.
Simon and his platoon seem driven to use the same tactic every time they try to breach the castle walls, by hurling busy volleys of weak arguments against the strongest, best defended corners of the fort. It's so splendidly Monty Pythonesque.
Very interesting to hear the F-35A Lightning II is now the cheapest available new buy Western fighter, coming in now at US$77.9 million each – that price including a complete EW suite that comes built in with the aircraft. It is now a cheaper fly-away price than the Hornet, Gripen, late build F-16s or the F-15EX and way, way cheaper than the Rafale or Typhoon and all six of those competitors also require expensive external pods to aid targetting and give them any hope of survivng a modern air defense environment. And of course, the F-35A is the only fifth generation fully stealth capable jet in service anywhere by a long shot.
On top of that the cost of operating the jet is dropping – to around US $25,000 per hour.
Combined with the "Loyal Wingman" – the new fully AI unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) being developed by Boeing Australia in collaboration with the Royal Australian Air Force specifically for use with the F-35 which will only cost around US$4-6 million each and suddenly you've got a a really cost effective package. For example, one F-35A could use it's loyal wingmen to engage 4th generation fighters fully autonomously, where the stealthy UAV could either easily shoot them down at long range or completely out dogfight manned platforms, or use the UAVs to destroy anti-aircraft missile systrms while staying undetected, once again using completely autonomous AI to do so, before the F-35A even comes under any sort of threat.
That might all sound huge amounts, and they are, but it puts the aircraft into the price range of a country like NZ should we chose to recreate a strike wing given the rising tensions with China under Xi and actually represents a gigantic leap in capability for the cash. We are already spending 2.3 billion NZ Dollars on the P-8 purchase with little or no public opposition. That sort of money would get us 18-20 F-35s plus two UAVs each. In fact, the main cost would be the ongoing operating costs of the jets of around NZ 200 million per annum.
Sounds a lot?
As Janes Defence points out, we are already increasing defense spending pretty much on the quiet – up 11% in just one year to 5.19 billion NZ for 2021-22 so paying for, say, 20 F-35As and forty UAVs over fifteen to twenty years would not require a huge increase in the defense budget in percentage terms per annum…
I am not saying we ought to buy F-35s but whether it is one thing or another, we are going to be spending a lot more on defense over the next 20-25 years so we should start to getting used to the numbers involved.
Interesting comment. Despite all the haters, the F-35 program has evolved to being a very good aircraft and now well liked by anyone who actually flies it.
Also missed in much of the Omicron noise is that Australia and Japan have just inked a full on Defense Treaty aimed at full interoperability and exchange between the two nations armed services. (How much the world changes eh!) And of course both Australia and Japan already fly F-35's.
Also included is an agreement to share technology in a number of non-military areas, which in the long term could be the most significant outcome. Strategically this Treaty is a big win for both countries.
Perhaps Aotearoa could get one on hire purchase & pay it off slowly? We could use it on search & destroy missions against foreign fishing boats invading our zone.
Well if your idea is to rename New Zealand to something else in order to confuse people – I think you'll find the PLAN will see through the ruse after a while.
As long as it fools some of the people all the time & all of the people some of the time, no problem.
You can imagine the Chinese ambassador: "Madame PM, we are concerned that some of our pirate fishing boats have inexplicably not returned home. Not that they were actually fishing in your zone, of course! But just outside of the boundary. Does your tracking system explain this phenomenon?"
PM: "I had our people research this issue when you sent your official request for this meeting, with specification of the topic. It turns out that one of our aircraft was actually in the vicinity at the time of one such disappearance. The eyewitness reported that the sea just seemed to open up & swallow the boat. Scientists report these belches of methane bubble up from the sea floor every now & then. Bit of a worry, eh?"
Sooner or later an Australia FM is going to ask his NZ opposite number the pointed question "whose side are you on, and when are you going to step up?"
And with an economy that's almost as large as the state of Victoria, pleading poverty will not cut mustard.
Might be some awkwardness at this moment, what with the China led RCEP trade agreement of which both Australia and NZ have signed up having come into effect on the 1st of this month
It's been a money sink for years, at least it's beginning to mature – even if it's expensive to operate.
The problem is that to justify the development costs and delays, they kept promising more capabilities – not to mention rabbit holes like ALIS.
The sensors+stealth concept is incredibly useful, and the loyal wingman / flying arsenal options to work with it massively add to its capabilities.
But its legs are too short for a lot of jobs, it's still too fragile and expensive to get down and dirty where A10s like to play, and the operating costs will hit an already limited budget for pilots to keep their training hours up.
Desperation strikes deep! With the current score running at Oz 60,000 vs NZ 17 he ought to take my advice from yesterday & promote it as a cricket score. Dumb aussies would get delirious at being so far ahead.
Failing that inspirational move, Hoots will have been racking his tiny wee brains trying spin something out of nothing. Hope someone will entertain us with the result…
from Matthew Hooton on smugness (which we have had quite a bit here on the Standard before Delta arrived)
We're at risk of doing our smug hermit kingdom thing again.
As New South Wales in particular and Australia generally struggle against Omicron, we're celebrating dodging a DJ Dimension outbreak and having fewer than 250 new Delta cases in the community over the last week. The way we're going, we could soon be Delta-free.
But we've been here before in late 2020 and the first half of 2021, after beating the original strain. We then spent too much time gloating rather than getting ready for the next phase. The Government's Delta plan never advanced beyond confirming there would be an immediate level 4 lockdown after one case………….
on PCR testing
Even earlier, in September 2020, Heather Simpson and Brian Roche formally advised Covid Minister Chris Hipkins that "all efforts should be made to introduce saliva [PCR] testing as soon as possible", alongside nasal PCR testing.
They lamented that "on current plans, widespread introduction is still more than 2 months off, even though in other jurisdictions saliva testing, involving large numbers of tests per day, has been well established for several months".
Yet, another fifteen months later, saliva PCR tests still remain limited to some workers at the Auckland-Northland and international borders, in MIQ hotels and in Auckland health-care facilities.
Similarly, business leaders and the Opposition lobbied through 2021 for rapid antigen tests (RATs) to become available, both nasal and saliva.
Only in November did the Government finally bow to pressure and lift its inexplicable ban on technology widely used in the rest of the world.
While much less accurate than PCR tests, RATs give faster results. They're useful to more quickly detect community spread and for people who want a daily test.
the sense of lack of urgency
This lack of urgency has the feel of last winter. We look hubristically across the Tasman as Omicron rips through NSW and Victoria and feel superior to the dim-witted Aussies. Yet everyone knows Omicron is coming.
closing borders / lockdown policies
Completely closing the border is off the Government's agenda. It says it remains committed to its "Reconnecting New Zealanders to the World" programme, albeit on a slower timeline than originally announced – causing further fury among the hundreds of thousands of Kiwis trapped abroad for nearly two years without DJ Dimension's triple MIQ-lottery success.
Also off the agenda are lockdowns. Hipkins specifically said before Christmas that the Government's response to Omicron would be the red traffic light, with anything else an absolute last resort.
shit happening in OZ, or what it would look like here
It is clear from NSW, with 93 per cent of people aged 12 or over now fully vaccinated, that vaccination doesn't stop spread. Yesterday, from a population of 8.2 million, it reported 34,994 new cases and 207,667 active cases, with 1609 in hospital, 131 in ICU, 38 on ventilators and six more deaths.
The equivalent New Zealand numbers would be 130,000 active cases, 1000 in hospital, 80 in ICU, 24 on ventilators and four deaths. Around 22,000 new positive tests would have been reported
finish
This is not Armageddon. In the scheme of things, very few of us will be hospitalised or die. But Omicron will change the political and economic context of Covid, just as it has everywhere else. In the short-term, all other health care except for immediately life-threatening conditions will need to be suspended.
We'll all know lots of people who are sick. We really will need to be kind to one another. Let's start by not being too smug towards our cousins in Australia and our other friends beyond.
left out are the bits of how many tests we can do now, how many more we can do in the future according to Minstry of Health, and such.
As far as I am concerned, a broken watch is correct twice a day, and this is one of those times.
Thanks Sabine. Seems reasonable commentary to me. What, apart from all of it, do you really really disagree with?
For me, it's this little innocuous paragraph:
''Only in November did the Government finally bow to pressure and lift its inexplicable ban on technology widely used in the rest of the world.''
I have mused over this for ages and it just stumps me. The only rational answer I can come up with is Pfizer has us by the balls in some regard.
I, at one stage, thought Labour wanted full control over what Kiwis could and couldn't do regarding Covid – what I call the ''The Hive Mentality.' But I doubt even that explains things.
If someone can answer this question, all else about how this government operates regarding Covid will fall into place.
So he didn't actually end up getting to any point after all that beating around the bush. Bit of a fizzer, eh?
We really will need to be kind to one another.
Hoots is attempting one-upmanship on the PM. Notice how he carefully refrains from crediting her for her moral guidance. Instead he presents his endorsement as if it were a brilliant idea of his own. Not exactly plagiarism though. He's been careful to arrange the words articulating the sentiment differently.
No i don't think he is up-manning or anything the PM. He is however re-inforcing the idea that even a 'mild' omicron outbreak will break our health care sector and cause huge amounts of misery, and non of that will be offset by being jabbed once, twice, or even thrice.
And that maybe right now is the time to be nice, and courteous, not only as a slogan to shut others up, but as an active thing.
I went to see an emergency doctor today. call the clinic, all details over the phone, wait in car until called in, 30 second drive by appointment, script for stuff. Everyone stressed, fearful and apprehensive, so yeah, be kind to the people that are waiting for the shit to hit the fan, and maybe be less smug about the shit that we actually did not achieve, like keeping us covid free, returning our stranded citizens from overseas, building the houses we need for our homeless, feeding our hungry (thanks to volunteers and their foodbanks) and so on and so for.
but yeah, he surely must think what you think about him, because right, he is Matthew Hooton and thus he is on the right, and can only be kind and ask for kindness to upstage our dear Leader. Never mind, the health care sector that is underfunded, understaffed, under resourced, still, in fact is literally where it was when we first went into lockdown l4.
good grief. Seriously. Maybe the left needs to rediscover kindness and apply it generally and not only to those that it approves of. Who knows the doctor that is going to help you in the future might be someone from the right.
I've seen no evidence that boosters fail to work against omicron infection, Sabine, so dunno why you seem to believe that and if Hoots believes that too, he out to refer to evidence in what he writes.
While much less accurate than PCR tests, RATs give faster results. They're useful to more quickly detect community spread
If the govt didn't act on this basis, I presume Health dept advice disagreed with Hoots. I'm inclined to regard them as more credible than him. So he fails to score a point on that issue. Again, he offers no evidence.
People the world over are getting infected with Omicron, unjabbed, or double / triple jabbed. That is not to undermine the efficiancy of the jabs, i too am jabbed, this is a fact. So having a 90% vaccination rate will still have people get sick, will still see people in hospital. they will however not die or are likely not die. And that is what he is pointing out. Namely that the places in OZ that are currently suffering through and Omicron outbreak have high levels of vaccination.
We don't have the testing ability and the lab capacity to test everyone who would like to get tested – already. People at jobs that are high risk can not get as many tests as they like for that reason. We also dont' have the ability to self test in any shape or form due to lack of access to self tests. We can’t buy them, because we don't have them here in the country, yet they are used the world over. But i guess we are different to humans from the rest of the world so we need something more special, uniquely more suited to us Kiwis.
If you have tens of thousands of people get sick in no time all hitting the medical sector for tests, shit will hit the fan.
If you have tens of thousands of people getting sick in no time all hitting the hospitals shit will hit the fan.
If your hospitals are overflowing with people who have been jabbed but still got sick, and they are clogging your hallways, you better not think of dying of a heart attack.
But then, you can of course ignore what he says, and pretend it is a barely disguised hit job on our dear Leader, or you can have a look what is happening elsewhere and wonder if that too is just a hit job on their dear Leaders. See UK, See US, See France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, US and so on and so forth. And of course we can blame all that on the people who are Jab hesistant. Or we can simply get comfortable with the idea that our current government does the best it can, and maybe let others decide if they want to buy a self test or not. I personally would invest in self tests, my partner and I go regular to testing as my partner is a high risk essential worker. We would both love being able to buy self tests before i get in a queue several hours long.
Okay, thanks, there's some evidence that vaccination doesn't prevent omicron infecting some people. Wasn't evident to me that he had a point to make about public health policy from that though.
Political commentary to ought to acknowledge the usual basis for govt decision-making (advice from departmental heads &/or other experts). Rightists struggle to grasp this elementary point for some reason. Since I normally criticise leftists, nice to be able to switch targets…
Again, the jabs simply will keep you alive at best, and maybe (a big maybe) protect you from long term covid.
so mask up
keep physically distance
sanitze
don't go out in crowds,
and also, have your will done if you have need for one as people who have done all of the above and have been jabbed also die.
I don't care about the political affiliations of anyone to be honest, as i consider all of our beige suits to be the same irrespective of pretend believes and creeds and that includes our current lot, and fwiw, i also don't need any of the current lot to prechew the information they think I should consume. But then, i don't consider myself on the right or the left.
Yes, we have the same situations with local councils. It's time pollies started using their owns brains when necessary and remember bureaucrats have as a general rule lost touch with reality and are only interested in protecting their fiefdom.
Usually me that criticises bureaucrats so I'd better flip to balance that! The gist that I get from what you & Sabine have written is that there's a lag between the science around omicron & public health policy. Since it normally takes a while for replication to confirm scientific discoveries, no surprise.
The other dimension is that some folks are more vulnerable than others (for various reasons) so the public health norm of one policy fits all is questionable.
Could be that Labour is stuck in 2020 modus operandi. I mean, they are probably aware that each wave of the pandemic has different biochemistry as its basis, but they can only act on Health Dept advice (with some variation thrown in if academic experts dissent from that). So policy gets stuck in limbo.
I guess the numbers hospitalised by omicron will be the determinant and we aren't there yet with that info…
the gist that I took from the article is that we should not get smug again, and i agree with that point.
A mild virus that hospitalizes thousands in a few day is never the less a health crisis, albeit it a less deadly one. And we should treat it at that, all of us.
People never let the facts get in the way of their ideology, Dennis. Sabine has just given me a lesson in this dark art of multifaceted language manipulation.
To be fair, Hoots has also given his own side many good serves. He basically called Sir John corrupt, and called for an inquiry into the PMs office. I do believe there may have been some politics behind that outburst.
I grew up with right and left commentary at the end of the daily news in Germany. Every day. A commentator to the left and the right gave their opinion on the events of the day.
Maybe we really need to go back to such a thing, and maybe we need to start to listening to what is said, and maybe we need to consider that not everything comes from a point of partisan political membership, but rather from a point of 'personal opinion', and then we as readers can decide what makes sense for us and what not. And chances are we understand that everyone can be right or wrong on any given issue, be they on the left, the right or un-affiliated.
But yeah, please Blade, can you elaborate on my dark art of multifaceted language manipulation.
Dennis Frank @ 11.2.1.2
He operated the same way when he was on RNZ's Monday morning political forum. He would start off appearing to extol the virtues of the government (or the PM/Cabinet Minister) and after about 30secs would move on to a rousing diatribe – the decibel level increasing with every word – on how bad they are and how we're all going to go to hell in a handbasket.
Pfizer has us by the balls in some regard? Surely you can find someone to tell you it's because Bill Gates came to New Zealand last year and did a deal with Jacinda Ardern. As part of the deal she gets $5 for every vaccine shot.*
That had her worth recently move from $25 million* in one week to $36 million the next.
Pfizer's squeeze is nowhere near as significant as whatever it is that has people in the country who are ready to believe bullshit and spread it with religious fervour.
When the sort of bizarre notions mentioned are put out by someone who then gets in their tractor and drives to town to protest about 'freedom'? When they are prisoner to such fucked-in-the-head beliefs?
Absolute nonsense, Pete. Billy Gates, fresh from the UN's World Food Systems Summit, is cornering world food supply. He's buying up farmland; controls McDonalds potato supply farms; owns 23billion in Monsanto shares and is a major player in Gingko Bioworks.
He has his hands full -on one hand trying to help third world nations with their farming initiatives and health…while on the other hand introducing companies that will do away with third world nations culture and introduce his corporate model.
I doubt he knows where Aotearoa is…or cares. He may make a fleeting visit when he controls our means of survival.
Crikey, Fair Trade will be shaking in their boots,eh?
If your local libraries offers access to Pressreader, the NZ Herald print edition is available there. Have found that much of what goes up online opinion-wise is either from that day or the next's print edition.
But it also tells us that despite 13,000 hospo staff now apparently unemployed "…The staffing shortage was also unprecedented…"
Which, when taken alongside the extremely low unemployment rate at the moment, tells us that if given a choice in a tight labour market people will prefer to work almost anywhere else than in shitty, low paid hospo jobs with the long, unsociable hours that sort of work entails.
but cooks, waitresses, bar tenders, and the likes are actually skilled jobs anywhere on this planet but here in NZ. And it would even be harder to understand for some that not all of these jobs were badly paid, and not all of these jobs went to slave labour via slave masters.
Case in Point, dear Labour Doodah Tamati Coffey owns two hospitality venues in Rotorua, both a living wage employments, both have suffered/is suffering the same fate as many others in town. And this is repeated up and down the country,.
But yeah, that might be an inconvenient truth, as is the idea that people actually like working in the hospitality industry. But nevermind, just don't point out that especially in Auckland, lockdowns would have had way more to do with closures and people losing their jobs rather then people resigning to go be something else.
Last, no, not everyone can cook a good curry, or even just some proper Spaetzle, Knoedel und Schweinebraten. But i hear that a tin of spags on toast is a true NZ delicatessen, and you can make it for 2.50 NZD
Hospo is getting strangled from both sides of the balance sheet at present, and for the same reason on both sides.
No one wants to work there because what punters that are left can be difficult and you're a sitting duck for infection. The show's likely to be locked down at moments notice too, so not the most secure right now. So staff have found something else to do and are finding the better earnings, regular hours and not having to be public facing a much better life.
And the profitable customers aren't that keen on being in close contact with other people, so there's less turnover. Observing establishments near us they are much quieter and the customers are much quieter. People sitting on a beer and chips all afternoon. Even half price cocktails on a Saturday afternoon didn't liven the lace up, just got the same barflies more plastered quicker. Don't think they made much out of that exercise, but some spectacular wobbly boots late afternoon….All quiet and subdued however.
Some outfits are turning their businesses around and learning how to run with a different staffing model and work with what customers there are, others have packed it in.
And a lot aren't able to change and need a return to pre covid trade to survive.
"To get a visa at the moment, it’s incredibly tough, having to meet all the strict criteria," Mr Amos said.
"A border with Australia — it would be a fantastic start."
That, plus fast-tracking any potential visas that would bring workers into the region, would help.
"That’s working holiday, that’s the low essentials, you know, all those ones that can have people in tomorrow, picking up the slack that’s definitely needed."
Carl, having all the staff in the world isn't going to help you if you've got three times as many tables as punters, you're just going to lose money three times as fast.
Unfortunately the best thing that can happen for hospo profitability is to get the number of tables down to matching the number of punters that are out there, because punters aren't coming back until they feel safe. Which may not be in the foreseeable.
We're going to see a lot of hospo, entertainment / activity and discretionary retail business depart the scene this year. Just like their staff and customers.
We're going to see a lot of hospo, entertainment / activity and discretionary retail business depart the scene this year. Just like their staff and customers.
And chances are there will not be enough jobs to take up all these people – not everyone lives in Auckland, and chances are that Non Males will be the most affected. What i see here in Rotorua is a hunkering down mode by those that want to get through this, and a getting out quick for those that either are already down under or simply don't want to continue. Which is the right thing to do. But one of the most important things that i see is that those that would like to exit are still locked in leases that they can't break lest they loose even more money. And sadly we still have got nothing really there – legally speaking – for those that truly would want to get out.
Edit: If anyone thought that the fruit picking season was fucked beyond believe last year, hell, its gonna be a right shitshow when we are all more or less sick with Omicron. lol
I haven’t had time to have a deep think about this yet.
What happens in Chile and Latin America is a fascinating insight to the way other parts of the world are rejecting the economic policies of the last 40 years.
It's a very good insightful political analysis. Plenty of nuances to consider! My take is that this new leader, aged only 35, will succeed only if he has both vision & a coterie of competent establishment advisors. By vision I mean an overview of Chilean politics plus perception of a viable path into the future that can attract consensus.
One thing seems to be improving in the last few days.
Radio NZ appear to have stopped using their made up names for the main centres when doing the weather forecast on National Radio. They have gone back to Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin instead of the multi-syllable monstrosities they were using.
Come on, a simple test. How many of you can tell us, without asking google, what the made up Maori names were? And had anyone ever heard of any of them before they were stuck into the weather forecast.
The previous names (Maori) were for regions weren't they, rather than cities (there not being any, back in the day). I imagine some of those names were conferred by local Maori very early on in the piece, so I don't see why they aren't appropriate for use now and they sound great, to the un-jaundiced ear 🙂
Not to mention how many places have their Māori names alongside (or usually – er – under , because symbolism can be subtle, and not so subtle) the English names on signage etc. .
Pōneke is a transliteration of Port Nicholson, on RNZ I think they use Te Whanganui-a-Tara for Wellington.
There's some resistance to the name of Ōtautahi as it is named for an ancestor. Puāri was the name of another settlement on the Ōtākaro which is another good alternative
If you listen to the National program you will have heard all the names innumerable times but only 3 seem to have stuck. You don't seem to be a Pakeha who has been paying attention on that record, although I am sure you would be far ahead of most people.
I really don't believe that Maori had any names for the areas covered by the cities. Bits of them perhaps but nothing at all for the whole region. I have enquired whether people I know know what the names are. I don't find that anyone knew the names used for areas outside their own city.
Anyway, I hope RNZ continue with their recent practice and dump these made up names for good.
I really don't believe that Maori had any names for the areas covered by the cities. Bits of them perhaps but nothing at all for the whole region.
Good thing reality isn't based on your disbeliefs.
Ngāi Tahu have a very interesting atlas, Kā Huru Manu, where you can browse the original names for over 1,000 places in their rohe. Have a look and you might learn something:
I have, and it is very interesting. looking at the map of Christchurch all the items noted seem to be small features. There was nothing that covered the whole of Christchurch City however and most of the featured places in the area are around the harbour rather than in the city itself.
There was nothing that showed up on that map that is a fair representation of the whole city is there?
Correct, but if you were aware of even the European history of this land you would know many of the cities developed from multiple different settlements that later became joined, perhaps you've heard of suburb names, that's most often their origin.
As an old, white female, I'm happy that Maori names be used for place names. Just so long as old white people are not denigrated by others if they choose to stick with the English version because they're too old to change habits and find it all a bit confusing into anyway.
I think whichever order you do it you'd find yourself having missed the forecast for your area and be on to Wharekauri by the time you tune in/wake-up when you are waiting for an early morning forecast (4am or 5am) that lets you know if you can go round Te Taonui-a-Kupe (Kupe's big spear) while yachting.
The name Auckland first arose amongst the Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. It is derived from their having lived in or near a prominent grove of oak trees. The name Auckland literally means oak-land.
Just a quick thanks to everyone for their kind wishes regarding the cancer [A few Random Predictions Jan 1 post] … really appreciate the moral support.
Apologies for my late reply … Chemo unfortunately sometimes puts patients under what the oncology brigade colloquially call a "Chemo Fog" … essentially significant mental fatigue that lasts for a week or so … or sometimes on a more sporadic basis … a bit like being very absent-minded & having to summon all your mental energy just to think through otherwise very simple things … I've generally managed to avoid all that over the first 4 cycles, been in a surprisingly fit state … but definitely suffered from it since my last infusion on 31 Dec.
Just coming right over last few days … so apologies for delay.
I wish you all the best with your situation. Had a friend back in the '90s doing that (prednizone) & he got manic compulsively – when we visited it was like a different person. Dunno if natural options can help in such grim circumstances. Rosemary does clear brain fog normally though.
Do you know about herb Robert? I have plenty in my garden & render the leaves into tiny bits with a whizzer blade, keep them in a plastic bag in the freezer for food & green tea additive. Folks online testify to being healed from cancer by that.
ANZ senior economist tweets chart showing that current Melbourne & Sydney consumer spending is down to lockdown levels even though they've opened up and surrendered.
Opening up does not make things better, it makes things worse.
A Upper Harbour Local Board member has slammed the decision to remove 13,700 trees planted by the community in a North Shore reserve because of concerns they would obscure views.
Since 2018, local volunteers have contributed 3450 hours of their time, which equates to more than 443 days planting the trees at Sanders Reserve. The plants cost the council $16,813 and a sizeable number were provided by the Mayors Million Trees, Rotary, and Trees for Survival.
But following a local board decision, all 13,700 native trees planted on the upper and mid sections of the slope below the kiosk at the reserve were removed over the weekend by mowing.
The majority of the approximately 13,700 plants below the kiosk were planted in the 2019 and 2021 planting seasons.
The removal of the plants via mowing was done at a cost of $14,000.
Heard about this on talkback. We seem to be a country of unfathomable decisions.
I'm a lucky one, along with Gezza and Robert. I have a river and food forest…and a council that so far minds its own business. Which is just as well because two of my prized Paulowniatrees border council land.
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Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
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Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
MONDAYSheriff Seymour rode slowly down the main street of Dodge on his faithful white horse Atlas Network.He liked what he saw.Children were being fed free lunches prepared by kind people who collected the scraps from an offal rendering plant.“Very strongly flavoured liver, such as ox liver, can be soaked overnight ...
Once upon a time it was all about being an astronaut, a firefighter or doctor; but these days kids have their sights set on becoming vloggers or YouTubers.That’s according to a 2019 study by Lego that surveyed 3000 children between the ages of eight to 12 from the US, the ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. From the moment I started high school and realised almost every other girl in my year was at least partially interested in what the boys were up to, I realised that I would be single for life. The feeling wasn’t one of ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Selina Alesana Alefosio.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.On a bright Sunday morning from her grandparent’s home in Pito-one, I spoke with ...
The White Lotus star reflects on her life in TV, including the local ad reference that doesn’t work in Australia, and her bananas co-star on Neighbours.Morgana O’Reilly was scrolling her phone next to her sleeping son on an idle Saturday morning when she got the call confirming that she ...
Claire Mabey explores the pros and cons of puff quotes on book covers.In January, Publishers Weekly put out an article by Sean Manning – publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship US imprint – in which he said he’d “no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books”.The ...
New Zealand’s Entomological Society is hosting its annual bug of the year contest. Here are some of the insects in the running. For some reason – perhaps humans’ inherent competitiveness, the idealisation of democracy, the need to demarcate winners and losers – one of the best ways to get people ...
A journey along the border, with words and illustrations by Bob Kerr.The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members.The Sunset Limited leaves Union Station New Orleans on time at nine in the morning. We ...
Neville Peat is the 2024 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in nonfiction. He’s written 56 books, mostly on natural history; this excerpt is from The Falcon and the Lark: A New Zealand High Country Journal, first published in 1992. The falcon wintering on the Rock and ...
It was a light-hearted gesture Greta Pilkington will be forever grateful for – thanks to an Aussie rival who jumped in when the Olympic sailor couldn’t be at her own graduation.Pilkington, then 20, had been leading a double life – while qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the ILCA ...
I was born in the back of my grandfather’s ute, by an overgrown windbreak in a remote place called Wahi-Rakauyou can’t find on a map. I was born a girl but given the man’s name Harvey, as my dad always wanted a violent-minded boy to one day help him ...
“We’re not here to interfere in people’s property rights,” Ngāi Tahu’s Te Maire Tau has told the High Court.Tau, a historian, Upoko (traditional leader) of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, and a university professor of history, is the lead witness in a case designed to force the Crown to recognise the tribe’s rangatiratanga ...
Pacific Media Watch Trump administration officials barred two Associated Press (AP) reporters from covering White House events this week because the US-based independent news agency did not change its style guide to align with the president’s political agenda. The AP is being punished for using the term “Gulf of Mexico,” ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Presenter/Bulletin editor France’s top diplomat in the Pacific region says talks around the “unfreezing” of New Caledonia’s highly controversial electoral roll are back on the table. The French government intended to make a constitutional amendment that would lift restrictions prescribed under the Nouméa Accord, which ...
By bringing these global voices to the fight for free expression in New Zealand, we’ll continue to protect and expand our culture of free speech, says Nathan Seiuli, the Free Speech Union's Events Manager. ...
The issue is no longer a hypothetical one. US President Donald Trump will not explicitly suggest death camps, but he has already consented to Israel’s continuing a war that is not a war but rather a barbaric assault on a desolate stretch of land. From there, the road to annihilation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cecelia Cmielewski, Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University To be selected as the artist and curator team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale is considered the ultimate exhibition for an artistic team. To have your selection rescinded, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia is bearing down on the northwest coast of Australia and is likely to make landfall early Friday evening. It’s a monster storm of great concern to Western Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University A Victorian government decision to allow dingo culling in the state’s east until 2028 has reignited debate over what has been dubbed Australia’s most controversial animal. Animals Australia, an animal welfare ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Overnight, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was confirmed as the secretary of the US Health and Human Services Department. Put simply, this makes him the most influential figure in overseeing the health and wellbeing of more ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard eight hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.It was another work from home day for the Justice Committee, the only people in Room 3 being security guards, committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Juris Teivans/Shutterstock In Australia, fatal road crashes are climbing again, especially since the pandemic, and despite years of attempts to reduce road trauma, the numbers ...
In its eagerness to appease supporters of Israel, the media is happy to ride roughshod over due process and basic rights. It’s damaging Australia’s (and New Zealand’s?) democracy.COMMENTARY:By Bernard Keane Two moments stand out so far from the Federal Court hearings relating to Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking by the ...
“The reality is we’re getting poorer. The government this year is leaning heavy on chasing economic growth, which is absolutely the right thing to do.” ...
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 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Granta, $28) Han Kang’s astounding novel was based on an ...
This new docuseries about two single comedians looking for love is also a joyful celebration of female friendship. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. “How many people do you think are boning right now?” Kura Forrester asks Brynley Stent as the bright ...
A new poem by Freya Turnbull. Hunger Song – After Kaveh Akbar (Untitled With Hunger And Matcheads) I hold my age in ripped fishnet hold an empty vessel oldyoung body cracks like gunshot like killa i was a father ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominik Koll, Honorary Lecturer, Australian National University View of the Pacific Ocean from the International Space Station.NASA Earth must have experienced something exceptional 10 million years ago. Our study of rock samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has found ...
Troy Rawhiti-Connell reviews Kia Tupu Te Ara, a documentary chronicling the meteoric rise of Aotearoa’s groundbreaking metal band. “Two brothers attempt to storm the world of thrash metal with the Māori language, despite the fact they’re both still teenagers,” reads the synopsis of Kent Belcher’s documentary, Kia Tupu Te Ara. ...
Three freelance writers have been awarded grants to work on their ambitious journalism projects. In January, The Spinoff announced the Vince Geddes In-Depth Journalism Fund, supported by the Auckland Radio Trust (ART). The fund was established to provide much-needed financial and editorial support to talented freelance journalists, empowering them to ...
Inventive tech works just like magic: it transforms reality. Green thinkers get uneasy about this, of course, since it's unnatural. Well, this ethical conundrum seems likely to feature in our trend towards a resilient global economy:
Framing to be deployed here is obvious: transcend the natural/unnatural binary. Both/and logic produces a third alternative between the binary. The third, novel, category is catalytic intervention.
Plant of Food Research scientist Dr Ross Bicknell puts it like this…
The EU and Monsanto will not like this.
"For subsistence farmers in particular this would be revolutionary. Instead of always having to buy seed they would now be able to save their own …"
Why do subsistence farmers have to buy seed?
Why can't they save their own already?
Blade hints at the answer.
How on earth did horticulturalists manage pre-corporation??? *sarc/question
Seems a very risky thing to tinker with, could end up stuck in a monoculture type situation eventually. That has disastrous consequences.
Great feature story on media spreading resilience lifestyles globally: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/459148/happen-films-how-a-couple-are-making-documentaries-to-change-the-world
Also including a cameo…
Watched the embedded 2016 video of Robyn's & Robert's Forest Garden. Very interesting.
Your place looks amazing, Robert. Beautiful creek too. Must be tremendously satisfying to see the place so well-developed after your years of hard yakker (that probably never felt like hard work) careful tending and experimentation.
I bet wild horses couldn't drag either of you away from such a wonderful, wild world home & self-sustaining environment.
What have you added to the property or forest garden since then?
Thanks Gazza; you are right, it'd take a meteor (don't look up!) to scoop me out of this comfy burrow!
We have expanded our boundary somewhat since that film was made; added a very large tunnel house for heat-loving plants (bananas, guava etc.) and extended the fruit-forest and shelter across the top of the rise. Mostly though, my planting "work" has happened off-site, on common-ground where I've quietly planted road, creek and estuary-sides with native trees, as well as groves of nut and fruit trees here and there. Also planted (with help) 14 apple orchards around the region, plus a few other regenerative projects. I've plans for several more in the near future. Oh, and planted a 100 metre "holloway" in the late winter – that's an exciting one for me – I've long wanted to create one of those 🙂 . There's the 6-hectare wetland also, Te Way Karori. That's 16 years old now. Plus the Community Forest Garden. I'm still adding fruit trees to that, though it's as jungly as our own home garden 🙂
Spellcheck made "Gezza" into "Gazza", sorry, and "Te Wai Korai" into "Way". For some reason, "edit" wouldn't work.
No worries, Robert. I just thought it was a chance slip of the keys. No apology needed.
Thanks, Dennis – I hadn't seen that article – Jordan & Antoinette are delightful people; we spent much of our time talking excitedly about the future 🙂
https://i.imgur.com/VRWuL3T.gif
Ooooh run way fast but I am brave!
The Pope is calling people who choose not to have children selfish. I wonder if he's really more concerned about protecting his faith and Western civilisation from the far superior birth rate of Islam?
Interesting question about having children. I know people who hit middle age and wish they had had children. I know others who tell me if they had their life over again the last thing they'd want is children.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/pope-calls-people-who-choose-to-have-pets-over-children-selfish/HR7SRKLHYQIWJ224PP46UO5TYM/
Stuff covered this yesterday too:
.https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-06-01-2022/#comment-1849101
I had to grin about these quotes from Stuff's article on it:
Crikey, I need to read more. The office of Pope certainly has had a few jibes thrown its way over the years. My favourite is the one about the Pope wearing his undies in the bath.
So where does that place the celibate church???
Pope Francis is obviously totally blinkered to the contradiction in his preaching on this subject while not being prepared to do away with the requirement that Catholic nuns and priests must be celibate.
The first Pope that has the gonads to abandon this ages-long dogmatic rule that seems to have no Biblical basis will probably be the one most worth listening to.
The 1st Pope that says , hay why cant woman be popes might be worthy of listening to. Till then fuckimm.
Its far better that people who aren't 100% keen on having kids ,dont have kids, nothings more damaging than being having parents that cant really be bothered with the long haul that parenting is.
Agree 100%.
Perhaps it is not the fact that they don't want children that makes them “selfish” (but “unselfish” in other respects), but that the fact that they are “selfish” makes them want to avoid the responsibility of parenting.
Maybe if they – the church, the politicians, and the pundits – who pontificate about the humans that don't want to have children, would advocate a regular payment – living wage for example – for people to have children, they would learn quickfast that 'selfish' is literally just short for 'can't afford'.
"CONCLUSION It is a shame that those who are most vocal about their loss of freedom almost invariably blame the loss on alleged conspiracies of persons in government. Our loss of freedoms are probably not the result of actions of evil people who are plotting the demise of democracy, but rather are due to negligent people in government (and it's nearly all of them) who willfully ignore the problem of overpopulation and the destructive consequences of this negligence. When people are denied their rights to participate in the decisions that affect their lives, they are predictably unpredictable, and history is full of examples of violence that has been precipitated by those who feel they have been disenfranchised. Such are some of the costs of overpopulation. Thus, several lines of evidence point to population growth as being a major causal factor in the decline of democracy in the United States, yet, as Garrett Hardin observes: (Hardin 1993) "No one ever blames it on overpopulation."
https://rewilding.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/DemocracyOverpopulation.pdf
6 pages of pertinent observation…..democracy is certainly in peril.
A counterpoint to the wishful thinking nonsence, some including on TS, are indulging in.
Omicron is spreading at an alarming rate, and there’s no solid evidence it’s ‘milder’ | William Hanage | The Guardian
"The growth rate of Omicron is such that even if it is milder in most cases, cases can still rapidly add up and threaten the NHS. The UK has a healthcare system already struggling with decades of underinvestment and which was teetering on the brink after months of Delta. People seem to forget that nearly 20,000 people have already died from Covid in the UK since “freedom day” in July. The virus has been much more manageable, but that attrition has not been without consequence."
Kazakhstan's undergoing violent protests – but Russian paratroopers have been sent in as part of a 6-nation (former USSR country) peacekeeping force.
Earlier, Kazakh police said forces had "eliminated" tens of rioters in the largest city of Almaty…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/459159/russia-sends-paratroopers-to-kazakhstan-to-put-down-uprising
News clip from Al Jazeera:
Yes. Dramatic events. Another analysis if you're interested.
Fascinating, a very important but virtually unknown part of the world.
a stunning part of this planet. Friends of mine travelled there by motorbike a few years back and came back with some stunning images.
I think that some ancient part of us knows where our ancestors came from and sort of recognises it when we see it again in real life. I've always wanted to get to the Altai Mountains for some irrational reason – every time I see images I get an odd sense of deep familiarity.
And they are very beautiful:
https://russiatrek.org/blog/nature/amazing-natural-beauty-of-the-altai-mountains/
https://www.vortexmag.net/en/altai-mountains-the-heart-of-russia/
It's where apples originated.
Their bread baking and ovens do it for me.
https://www.shutterstock.com/es/search/bread+kazakhstan
Two books that include recipes and commentary on this part of the world that I have got out of our library several times each are
Kaukasis : a culinary journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan & beyond
by Olia Hercules
and
Samarkand by Caroline Eden and Eleanor Ford.
Not that I am a great cook…..I just like looking at the pictures and reading the travel text!
Caroline Eden has written another book
https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel/2020/11/three-recipes-from-caroline-edens-new-central-asian-cookbook-red-sands
Almaty (formerly Alma Ata) the capital of Kasakhstan has a very important world primary health declaration named for it. Very appropriate in our times when we see the importance both of primary health care (GP care etc) in a public health model.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_Ata_Declaration
Like Red this part of the world has always called to me.
Grim reaper eliminates antivax Republican activist: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/06/kelly-ernby-california-prosecutor-dies-covid
Shot the dems are going to win the next election ,just because theres not enough Republicans left alive to vote them out.
Talk about the most cunning conspiracy ever. !!!
I'm irked by these gloating posts over unvaxxed people dying of COVID. They've always been selective little morality tales.
Because it's not like it's ONLY the unvaxxed who can die.
No doubt about there being breakthrough cases in vaccinated cases. I have read about several of these dying but not on the scale of the numbers of unvaccinated people dying from Covid.
The point is what would you think if the anti-vaxxers openly gloated about it?
Simon B, just as bad as Paul G as finance spokesman?
via Gerald Otto via NZ Herald.
Luxon's biggest mistake – Simon the economic dunce
Ha ha ha ha at last a well informed opinion shoots down Simon Bridges about inflation in the NZ Herald. Somebody pinned this to my door …
G 🙂
NZ Herald
By Craig Renny
OPINION:
Simon Bridges has done well over the past year. He has survived a brazen attack from his leader, and emerged as the latest National Party finance spokesman.
What he's clearly not done over this time is any economic study. That's what we can take away from his current attack on government investment.
Bridges believes government is the key driver of the current increasing inflation. "The more cash from government, the higher inflation will be," he states unequivocally.
But there's one small problem with Bridges' blunt-spoken truth. There's little real-world evidence to support that claim in a developed economy like New Zealand.
Evidence from an exhaustive study examining the relationship between fiscal policy and inflation found little relationship across 44 countries and 60 years of data.
This was particularly true of countries with a Reserve Bank like New Zealand. 2016 evidence from the US Federal Reserve Bank of St.Louis states that "across the board, we found almost no effect of government spending on inflation".
In recent economic history, the evidence supporting Bridges gets even thinner. Within the last decade in response to the Global Financial Crisis trillions of dollars were provided to financial institutions to keep them solvent.
The result – inflation fell during the five years after the crisis. Is this money somehow different to the money that is being spent now? Perhaps money only causes inflation if it goes to the wrong sort of person in National's view?
So what is actually going on?
Economists like to think about inflation in two flavours. The first of these, "demand-pull" occurs when demand for goods and services rises more quickly than the ability to produce them.
Prices rise as demand outstrips supply. The second, "cost-push" occurs when increasing costs (like oil, energy, or transport) drive increased product prices.
Right now we've got a bit of both, but mostly the latter. Reducing government spending in New Zealand doesn't stop the ANZ Commodity Price Index being at a record high.
Reducing government investment won't undo the 50 per cent increase in the global oil price last year. Or the 850 per cent increase in global shipping prices since the start of the pandemic.
These increases, along with higher rental costs and building materials is what's driving current inflation. It's not government spending. In fact, well-targeted government spending – such as support for coastal shipping to buffer transport costs, or underwriting of affordable housing at scale, or building essential public transport can actually reduce future inflation.
Reducing government investment won't undo the 50 per cent increase in the global oil price last year. Photo / Duncan Brown.
National's economic analysis is wrong. In order to restore some economic and fiscal credibility, National should be explicit about exactly what it intends to cut when they use terms like "rein it in a bit" or "pull it back a tad".
Using throwaway terms like these suggests that either they don't know what to cut or don't want the public to know. Either of these should worry New Zealanders. Treasury has identified an infrastructure deficit of $75 billion. What is National's plan to deal with that? Make it bigger?
We have had successive governments try to cut their way to prosperity – Labour in '84, National in '91 and 2008. All it has done is create bigger and more expensive problems for our people and for our economy.
Let's be clear here, Bridges would need to cut billions of dollars of investment to slow the economy down to achieve his inflation goal. That means fewer health workers. Fewer teachers. Fewer police officers. Fewer state houses.
At the end of his recent article, Bridge's used US President Reagan's famous quote "are you better off than you were four years ago?".
Compared to four years ago in New Zealand unemployment is lower, wages are higher in real terms, and fewer children are living in poverty. We have a government that is tackling the backlog of underinvestment in essential public services. So in comparison to when Bridges was last in government, yes the country is in many ways truly better off.
The New Zealand economy is by no means perfect. There's plenty more the government should be doing. From tackling housing to embedding a productive, sustainable, and inclusive future there is lots for an effective opposition to get stuck into.
But to criticise what the government has done to date is to ignore that we have had one of the best economic and public health responses to Covid-19 on the planet.
Under President Reagan, spending by the US government rose by an average of 9 per cent each year. Next year total government expenses in New Zealand will fall by 6 per cent. Fair enough, I suppose – Bridges' celebration of a Big Government spender in an essay about cutting government spending makes about as much sense as the rest of his arguments.
The positive New Zealand economic forecasts mean that now is the time to set out a long term vision of how we emerge from the shadow of Covid-19. That needs to be transparent about what National intends to cut, and what evidence it has that it will make any difference to prices today.
• Craig Renny is an economist and director of policy for the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions
A pity you did not put that last little note up at the beginning?
"Craig Renny is an economist and director of policy for the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions". By the way there is a second "e" in his name.
You don't think that Mr Renney may be just a tiny bit biased by any chance? I can think of a lot of economists that really don't think as highly of the Government performance as he does.
No more or less they way some commentators lap up anything written by Kirk Hope, Don Brash or Oliver Hartwich.
Simon and his platoon seem driven to use the same tactic every time they try to breach the castle walls, by hurling busy volleys of weak arguments against the strongest, best defended corners of the fort. It's so splendidly Monty Pythonesque.
Just nicked it from Facebook.
Very interesting to hear the F-35A Lightning II is now the cheapest available new buy Western fighter, coming in now at US$77.9 million each – that price including a complete EW suite that comes built in with the aircraft. It is now a cheaper fly-away price than the Hornet, Gripen, late build F-16s or the F-15EX and way, way cheaper than the Rafale or Typhoon and all six of those competitors also require expensive external pods to aid targetting and give them any hope of survivng a modern air defense environment. And of course, the F-35A is the only fifth generation fully stealth capable jet in service anywhere by a long shot.
On top of that the cost of operating the jet is dropping – to around US $25,000 per hour.
Combined with the "Loyal Wingman" – the new fully AI unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) being developed by Boeing Australia in collaboration with the Royal Australian Air Force specifically for use with the F-35 which will only cost around US$4-6 million each and suddenly you've got a a really cost effective package. For example, one F-35A could use it's loyal wingmen to engage 4th generation fighters fully autonomously, where the stealthy UAV could either easily shoot them down at long range or completely out dogfight manned platforms, or use the UAVs to destroy anti-aircraft missile systrms while staying undetected, once again using completely autonomous AI to do so, before the F-35A even comes under any sort of threat.
That might all sound huge amounts, and they are, but it puts the aircraft into the price range of a country like NZ should we chose to recreate a strike wing given the rising tensions with China under Xi and actually represents a gigantic leap in capability for the cash. We are already spending 2.3 billion NZ Dollars on the P-8 purchase with little or no public opposition. That sort of money would get us 18-20 F-35s plus two UAVs each. In fact, the main cost would be the ongoing operating costs of the jets of around NZ 200 million per annum.
Sounds a lot?
As Janes Defence points out, we are already increasing defense spending pretty much on the quiet – up 11% in just one year to 5.19 billion NZ for 2021-22 so paying for, say, 20 F-35As and forty UAVs over fifteen to twenty years would not require a huge increase in the defense budget in percentage terms per annum…
I am not saying we ought to buy F-35s but whether it is one thing or another, we are going to be spending a lot more on defense over the next 20-25 years so we should start to getting used to the numbers involved.
Interesting comment. Despite all the haters, the F-35 program has evolved to being a very good aircraft and now well liked by anyone who actually flies it.
Also missed in much of the Omicron noise is that Australia and Japan have just inked a full on Defense Treaty aimed at full interoperability and exchange between the two nations armed services. (How much the world changes eh!) And of course both Australia and Japan already fly F-35's.
Also included is an agreement to share technology in a number of non-military areas, which in the long term could be the most significant outcome. Strategically this Treaty is a big win for both countries.
Perhaps Aotearoa could get one on hire purchase & pay it off slowly? We could use it on search & destroy missions against foreign fishing boats invading our zone.
Well if your idea is to rename New Zealand to something else in order to confuse people – I think you'll find the PLAN will see through the ruse after a while.
You can imagine the Chinese ambassador: "Madame PM, we are concerned that some of our pirate fishing boats have inexplicably not returned home. Not that they were actually fishing in your zone, of course! But just outside of the boundary. Does your tracking system explain this phenomenon?"
PM: "I had our people research this issue when you sent your official request for this meeting, with specification of the topic. It turns out that one of our aircraft was actually in the vicinity at the time of one such disappearance. The eyewitness reported that the sea just seemed to open up & swallow the boat. Scientists report these belches of methane bubble up from the sea floor every now & then. Bit of a worry, eh?"
Sooner or later an Australia FM is going to ask his NZ opposite number the pointed question "whose side are you on, and when are you going to step up?"
And with an economy that's almost as large as the state of Victoria, pleading poverty will not cut mustard.
It may happen, but unwise to adopt a stance until circumstances necessitate us doing so. Then the usual weighing of pros & cons will kick in…
Might be some awkwardness at this moment, what with the China led RCEP trade agreement of which both Australia and NZ have signed up having come into effect on the 1st of this month
https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20220102-asia-looks-to-china-centred-trade-bloc-for-virus-recovery
It's been a money sink for years, at least it's beginning to mature – even if it's expensive to operate.
The problem is that to justify the development costs and delays, they kept promising more capabilities – not to mention rabbit holes like ALIS.
The sensors+stealth concept is incredibly useful, and the loyal wingman / flying arsenal options to work with it massively add to its capabilities.
But its legs are too short for a lot of jobs, it's still too fragile and expensive to get down and dirty where A10s like to play, and the operating costs will hit an already limited budget for pilots to keep their training hours up.
Matthew Hooten is getting talkback going with his article in the Herald titled:
''Matthew Hooton: NZ Covid defences no more ready for Omicron than we were for Delta''
Unfortunately a paywall is stopping us being privy to this excellent commentary from the Right.
Desperation strikes deep! With the current score running at Oz 60,000 vs NZ 17 he ought to take my advice from yesterday & promote it as a cricket score. Dumb aussies would get delirious at being so far ahead.
Failing that inspirational move, Hoots will have been racking his tiny wee brains trying spin something out of nothing. Hope someone will entertain us with the result…
Bowled for a duck you reckon, Dennis?
here let me lend you a helping hand.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/matthew-hooton-nz-covid-defences-no-more-ready-for-omicron-than-we-were-for-delta/YUAIYIQZVPKFEDZNOIF2OB3DXY/
from Matthew Hooton on smugness (which we have had quite a bit here on the Standard before Delta arrived)
on PCR testing
the sense of lack of urgency
closing borders / lockdown policies
shit happening in OZ, or what it would look like here
finish
left out are the bits of how many tests we can do now, how many more we can do in the future according to Minstry of Health, and such.
As far as I am concerned, a broken watch is correct twice a day, and this is one of those times.
Thanks Sabine. Seems reasonable commentary to me. What, apart from all of it, do you really really disagree with?
For me, it's this little innocuous paragraph:
''Only in November did the Government finally bow to pressure and lift its inexplicable ban on technology widely used in the rest of the world.''
I have mused over this for ages and it just stumps me. The only rational answer I can come up with is Pfizer has us by the balls in some regard.
I, at one stage, thought Labour wanted full control over what Kiwis could and couldn't do regarding Covid – what I call the ''The Hive Mentality.' But I doubt even that explains things.
If someone can answer this question, all else about how this government operates regarding Covid will fall into place.
i don't disagree, as i said twice a day…..
you said :
Unfortunately a paywall is stopping us being privy to this excellent commentary from the Right.
so i helped. Over and out.
Yes, and thanks again. Very well done.
So he didn't actually end up getting to any point after all that beating around the bush. Bit of a fizzer, eh?
Hoots is attempting one-upmanship on the PM. Notice how he carefully refrains from crediting her for her moral guidance. Instead he presents his endorsement as if it were a brilliant idea of his own. Not exactly plagiarism though. He's been careful to arrange the words articulating the sentiment differently.
No i don't think he is up-manning or anything the PM. He is however re-inforcing the idea that even a 'mild' omicron outbreak will break our health care sector and cause huge amounts of misery, and non of that will be offset by being jabbed once, twice, or even thrice.
And that maybe right now is the time to be nice, and courteous, not only as a slogan to shut others up, but as an active thing.
I went to see an emergency doctor today. call the clinic, all details over the phone, wait in car until called in, 30 second drive by appointment, script for stuff. Everyone stressed, fearful and apprehensive, so yeah, be kind to the people that are waiting for the shit to hit the fan, and maybe be less smug about the shit that we actually did not achieve, like keeping us covid free, returning our stranded citizens from overseas, building the houses we need for our homeless, feeding our hungry (thanks to volunteers and their foodbanks) and so on and so for.
but yeah, he surely must think what you think about him, because right, he is Matthew Hooton and thus he is on the right, and can only be kind and ask for kindness to upstage our dear Leader. Never mind, the health care sector that is underfunded, understaffed, under resourced, still, in fact is literally where it was when we first went into lockdown l4.
good grief. Seriously. Maybe the left needs to rediscover kindness and apply it generally and not only to those that it approves of. Who knows the doctor that is going to help you in the future might be someone from the right.
I've seen no evidence that boosters fail to work against omicron infection, Sabine, so dunno why you seem to believe that and if Hoots believes that too, he out to refer to evidence in what he writes.
If the govt didn't act on this basis, I presume Health dept advice disagreed with Hoots. I'm inclined to regard them as more credible than him. So he fails to score a point on that issue. Again, he offers no evidence.
https://www.deseret.com/coronavirus/2022/1/4/22866563/omicron-variant-evades-covid-19-vaccines-delta
https://www.dailysabah.com/life/science/omicron-evades-covid-19-vaccine-immunity-better-than-delta-study
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/omicron-evades-immunity-better-than-delta-danish-study-finds-2022-01-03/
But then, you can of course ignore what he says, and pretend it is a barely disguised hit job on our dear Leader, or you can have a look what is happening elsewhere and wonder if that too is just a hit job on their dear Leaders. See UK, See US, See France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, US and so on and so forth. And of course we can blame all that on the people who are Jab hesistant. Or we can simply get comfortable with the idea that our current government does the best it can, and maybe let others decide if they want to buy a self test or not. I personally would invest in self tests, my partner and I go regular to testing as my partner is a high risk essential worker. We would both love being able to buy self tests before i get in a queue several hours long.
Okay, thanks, there's some evidence that vaccination doesn't prevent omicron infecting some people. Wasn't evident to me that he had a point to make about public health policy from that though.
Political commentary to ought to acknowledge the usual basis for govt decision-making (advice from departmental heads &/or other experts). Rightists struggle to grasp this elementary point for some reason. Since I normally criticise leftists, nice to be able to switch targets…
Honestly i am not sure what you are reading and such, but if you did not know that Omicron is not stopped by the jabs, i suggest that you look over your reading materials as this has been touted absolutly everywhere. This here is from a month ago. https://www.wsj.com/articles/omicron-expected-to-be-dominant-strain-in-parts-of-europe-within-weeks-11638889781
Again, the jabs simply will keep you alive at best, and maybe (a big maybe) protect you from long term covid.
so mask up
keep physically distance
sanitze
don't go out in crowds,
and also, have your will done if you have need for one as people who have done all of the above and have been jabbed also die.
I don't care about the political affiliations of anyone to be honest, as i consider all of our beige suits to be the same irrespective of pretend believes and creeds and that includes our current lot, and fwiw, i also don't need any of the current lot to prechew the information they think I should consume. But then, i don't consider myself on the right or the left.
Even 30-40% effectiveness against infection means that omicron is prevented 30-40% of the time.
Not as high as against OG Covid, maybe, but a good hit for public health nonetheless.
Yes, we have the same situations with local councils. It's time pollies started using their owns brains when necessary and remember bureaucrats have as a general rule lost touch with reality and are only interested in protecting their fiefdom.
Usually me that criticises bureaucrats so I'd better flip to balance that! The gist that I get from what you & Sabine have written is that there's a lag between the science around omicron & public health policy. Since it normally takes a while for replication to confirm scientific discoveries, no surprise.
The other dimension is that some folks are more vulnerable than others (for various reasons) so the public health norm of one policy fits all is questionable.
Could be that Labour is stuck in 2020 modus operandi. I mean, they are probably aware that each wave of the pandemic has different biochemistry as its basis, but they can only act on Health Dept advice (with some variation thrown in if academic experts dissent from that). So policy gets stuck in limbo.
I guess the numbers hospitalised by omicron will be the determinant and we aren't there yet with that info…
@ Dennis Frank
the gist that I took from the article is that we should not get smug again, and i agree with that point.
A mild virus that hospitalizes thousands in a few day is never the less a health crisis, albeit it a less deadly one. And we should treat it at that, all of us.
People never let the facts get in the way of their ideology, Dennis. Sabine has just given me a lesson in this dark art of multifaceted language manipulation.
To be fair, Hoots has also given his own side many good serves. He basically called Sir John corrupt, and called for an inquiry into the PMs office. I do believe there may have been some politics behind that outburst.
What have i done?
I grew up with right and left commentary at the end of the daily news in Germany. Every day. A commentator to the left and the right gave their opinion on the events of the day.
Maybe we really need to go back to such a thing, and maybe we need to start to listening to what is said, and maybe we need to consider that not everything comes from a point of partisan political membership, but rather from a point of 'personal opinion', and then we as readers can decide what makes sense for us and what not. And chances are we understand that everyone can be right or wrong on any given issue, be they on the left, the right or un-affiliated.
But yeah, please Blade, can you elaborate on my dark art of multifaceted language manipulation.
Dennis Frank @ 11.2.1.2
He operated the same way when he was on RNZ's Monday morning political forum. He would start off appearing to extol the virtues of the government (or the PM/Cabinet Minister) and after about 30secs would move on to a rousing diatribe – the decibel level increasing with every word – on how bad they are and how we're all going to go to hell in a handbasket.
Anne
absolutely.
Pfizer has us by the balls in some regard? Surely you can find someone to tell you it's because Bill Gates came to New Zealand last year and did a deal with Jacinda Ardern. As part of the deal she gets $5 for every vaccine shot.*
That had her worth recently move from $25 million* in one week to $36 million the next.
Pfizer's squeeze is nowhere near as significant as whatever it is that has people in the country who are ready to believe bullshit and spread it with religious fervour.
When the sort of bizarre notions mentioned are put out by someone who then gets in their tractor and drives to town to protest about 'freedom'? When they are prisoner to such fucked-in-the-head beliefs?
*A farmer to me in our kitchen..
Absolute nonsense, Pete. Billy Gates, fresh from the UN's World Food Systems Summit, is cornering world food supply. He's buying up farmland; controls McDonalds potato supply farms; owns 23billion in Monsanto shares and is a major player in Gingko Bioworks.
He has his hands full -on one hand trying to help third world nations with their farming initiatives and health…while on the other hand introducing companies that will do away with third world nations culture and introduce his corporate model.
I doubt he knows where Aotearoa is…or cares. He may make a fleeting visit when he controls our means of survival.
Crikey, Fair Trade will be shaking in their boots,eh?
Regrettably consistent practise with NZ agriculture for 150 years. Except we were even faster going from forest to burn to agribusiness.
Our ag economy has one of the fewest number of major buyers in the world.
"Our ag economy has one of the fewest number of major buyers in the world."
Assume you mean we rely on a very few markets?….is that so uncommon?
With a GDP per capita ranking of around 20 that dosnt really provide too many options….Africa would love our produce…they just cant afford it.
And thats a problem thats likely to increase.
Not sure your correct there, cant find the video i watched yesterday, but this gives a hint on who is cornering food supplies.
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3154982/china-food-security-why-it-important-and-what-caused
Well yes.
Manure is still spread by such voices, but their hands are always out for subsidies or help with disasters. ” personne and moi” really separated.
If your local libraries offers access to Pressreader, the NZ Herald print edition is available there. Have found that much of what goes up online opinion-wise is either from that day or the next's print edition.
This is an interesting story for two reasons. One, it puts number on the total number of jobs lost in hospo in the pandemic –
"…The Restaurant Association said late last year that an estimated 13,000 jobs in the sector had gone after about 1000 businesses shut…"
But it also tells us that despite 13,000 hospo staff now apparently unemployed "…The staffing shortage was also unprecedented…"
Which, when taken alongside the extremely low unemployment rate at the moment, tells us that if given a choice in a tight labour market people will prefer to work almost anywhere else than in shitty, low paid hospo jobs with the long, unsociable hours that sort of work entails.
i know it is really hard to understand for some,
but cooks, waitresses, bar tenders, and the likes are actually skilled jobs anywhere on this planet but here in NZ. And it would even be harder to understand for some that not all of these jobs were badly paid, and not all of these jobs went to slave labour via slave masters.
Case in Point, dear Labour Doodah Tamati Coffey owns two hospitality venues in Rotorua, both a living wage employments, both have suffered/is suffering the same fate as many others in town. And this is repeated up and down the country,.
But yeah, that might be an inconvenient truth, as is the idea that people actually like working in the hospitality industry. But nevermind, just don't point out that especially in Auckland, lockdowns would have had way more to do with closures and people losing their jobs rather then people resigning to go be something else.
Last, no, not everyone can cook a good curry, or even just some proper Spaetzle, Knoedel und Schweinebraten. But i hear that a tin of spags on toast is a true NZ delicatessen, and you can make it for 2.50 NZD
Hospo is getting strangled from both sides of the balance sheet at present, and for the same reason on both sides.
No one wants to work there because what punters that are left can be difficult and you're a sitting duck for infection. The show's likely to be locked down at moments notice too, so not the most secure right now. So staff have found something else to do and are finding the better earnings, regular hours and not having to be public facing a much better life.
And the profitable customers aren't that keen on being in close contact with other people, so there's less turnover. Observing establishments near us they are much quieter and the customers are much quieter. People sitting on a beer and chips all afternoon. Even half price cocktails on a Saturday afternoon didn't liven the lace up, just got the same barflies more plastered quicker. Don't think they made much out of that exercise, but some spectacular wobbly boots late afternoon….All quiet and subdued however.
A lot of management of small / mid sized outfits are having to fill in, watched the owner next door waiting tables the other day and realise just how hard it is to do well, he totally fucked the orders up and had to get some pointers off his staff how to do it.
Some outfits are turning their businesses around and learning how to run with a different staffing model and work with what customers there are, others have packed it in.
And a lot aren't able to change and need a return to pre covid trade to survive.
Carl, having all the staff in the world isn't going to help you if you've got three times as many tables as punters, you're just going to lose money three times as fast.
Unfortunately the best thing that can happen for hospo profitability is to get the number of tables down to matching the number of punters that are out there, because punters aren't coming back until they feel safe. Which may not be in the foreseeable.
We're going to see a lot of hospo, entertainment / activity and discretionary retail business depart the scene this year. Just like their staff and customers.
And chances are there will not be enough jobs to take up all these people – not everyone lives in Auckland, and chances are that Non Males will be the most affected. What i see here in Rotorua is a hunkering down mode by those that want to get through this, and a getting out quick for those that either are already down under or simply don't want to continue. Which is the right thing to do. But one of the most important things that i see is that those that would like to exit are still locked in leases that they can't break lest they loose even more money. And sadly we still have got nothing really there – legally speaking – for those that truly would want to get out.
Edit: If anyone thought that the fruit picking season was fucked beyond believe last year, hell, its gonna be a right shitshow when we are all more or less sick with Omicron. lol
Nice wee thread on a suffragette. Perspective on climate action. Harder to hide out or be on the run these days.
https://twitter.com/goodybcampbell/status/1479063400491765765?s=21
Who needs rights when you can just declare yourself a male and be done being that other thing that everyone can be?
I haven’t had time to have a deep think about this yet.
What happens in Chile and Latin America is a fascinating insight to the way other parts of the world are rejecting the economic policies of the last 40 years.
http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2022/01/indigenous-socialism-with-a-chilean-face/
It's a very good insightful political analysis. Plenty of nuances to consider! My take is that this new leader, aged only 35, will succeed only if he has both vision & a coterie of competent establishment advisors. By vision I mean an overview of Chilean politics plus perception of a viable path into the future that can attract consensus.
One thing seems to be improving in the last few days.
Radio NZ appear to have stopped using their made up names for the main centres when doing the weather forecast on National Radio. They have gone back to Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin instead of the multi-syllable monstrosities they were using.
Come on, a simple test. How many of you can tell us, without asking google, what the made up Maori names were? And had anyone ever heard of any of them before they were stuck into the weather forecast.
Can’t hold two ideas in your head at the same time. Says it all really.
The previous names (Maori) were for regions weren't they, rather than cities (there not being any, back in the day). I imagine some of those names were conferred by local Maori very early on in the piece, so I don't see why they aren't appropriate for use now and they sound great, to the un-jaundiced ear 🙂
Kirikiriroa for Hamilton – lived there twenty years ago and would see the name around the city
Tāmaki Makaurau
Hamilton?
Pōneke
Ōtautahi
Ōtepoti
Had to check the macrons, got the mostly right by ear.
"And had anyone ever heard of any of them before they were stuck into the weather forecast."
Good grief man, does your anyone include Māori? Pākehā who've been paying attention? Anyone that's learned a smattering of te reo?
Not to mention how many places have their Māori names alongside (or usually – er – under , because symbolism can be subtle, and not so subtle) the English names on signage etc. .
Pōneke is a transliteration of Port Nicholson, on RNZ I think they use Te Whanganui-a-Tara for Wellington.
There's some resistance to the name of Ōtautahi as it is named for an ancestor. Puāri was the name of another settlement on the Ōtākaro which is another good alternative
https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/te-reo-maori/122813289/tautahi–the-story-behind-christchurchs-informal-te-reo-name
Well they certainly don't use Poneke.
If you listen to the National program you will have heard all the names innumerable times but only 3 seem to have stuck. You don't seem to be a Pakeha who has been paying attention on that record, although I am sure you would be far ahead of most people.
I really don't believe that Maori had any names for the areas covered by the cities. Bits of them perhaps but nothing at all for the whole region. I have enquired whether people I know know what the names are. I don't find that anyone knew the names used for areas outside their own city.
Anyway, I hope RNZ continue with their recent practice and dump these made up names for good.
Good thing reality isn't based on your disbeliefs.
Ngāi Tahu have a very interesting atlas, Kā Huru Manu, where you can browse the original names for over 1,000 places in their rohe. Have a look and you might learn something:
https://www.kahurumanu.co.nz/atlas
I have, and it is very interesting. looking at the map of Christchurch all the items noted seem to be small features. There was nothing that covered the whole of Christchurch City however and most of the featured places in the area are around the harbour rather than in the city itself.
There was nothing that showed up on that map that is a fair representation of the whole city is there?
It's almost like Māori had their own reasons for how they named places that didn't included cities that didn't even exist.
Lol 'made up names'. What do you think Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin are?
Correct, but if you were aware of even the European history of this land you would know many of the cities developed from multiple different settlements that later became joined, perhaps you've heard of suburb names, that's most often their origin.
As an old, white, male, Pakeha, I’d be happy to have Aotearoa as our country name. Also use all Māori names where appropriate. (Everywhere)
As an old, white female, I'm happy that Maori names be used for place names. Just so long as old white people are not denigrated by others if they choose to stick with the English version because they're too old to change habits and find it all a bit confusing into anyway.
"Auckland" isn't a "made up name"?
Let's dump it, if it turns out to be!
and when that's been done, we need the weather forecast to start with te taitonga and work its way up ngā motu. It makes sense.
I think whichever order you do it you'd find yourself having missed the forecast for your area and be on to Wharekauri by the time you tune in/wake-up when you are waiting for an early morning forecast (4am or 5am) that lets you know if you can go round Te Taonui-a-Kupe (Kupe's big spear) while yachting.
English made it up via mispronunciation:
Ironic given Auckland has more than its fair share of tree murderers.
I don't listen to RNZ news very often 😇
Hamilton – Kirikiriroa
Tauranga – Tauranga
Rotorua – Rotorua
Whanganui – Whanganui
Hastings – Heretaunga
to name a few
.
Just a quick thanks to everyone for their kind wishes regarding the cancer [A few Random Predictions Jan 1 post] … really appreciate the moral support.
Apologies for my late reply … Chemo unfortunately sometimes puts patients under what the oncology brigade colloquially call a "Chemo Fog" … essentially significant mental fatigue that lasts for a week or so … or sometimes on a more sporadic basis … a bit like being very absent-minded & having to summon all your mental energy just to think through otherwise very simple things … I've generally managed to avoid all that over the first 4 cycles, been in a surprisingly fit state … but definitely suffered from it since my last infusion on 31 Dec.
Just coming right over last few days … so apologies for delay.
I wish you all the best with your situation. Had a friend back in the '90s doing that (prednizone) & he got manic compulsively – when we visited it was like a different person. Dunno if natural options can help in such grim circumstances. Rosemary does clear brain fog normally though.
Do you know about herb Robert? I have plenty in my garden & render the leaves into tiny bits with a whizzer blade, keep them in a plastic bag in the freezer for food & green tea additive. Folks online testify to being healed from cancer by that.
Herb Robert's bound to clear brain fog and improve inner-eye sight at the same time (just my reckon 🙂
Wiki gives this saint as origin of the name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_of_Molesme
but that's not the same as the herbalists's source which I researched years ago – an Archbishop of Paris in the 13th century.
You hang in there and keep commenting here Swordfish you're a good unit.
Goodluck hope you knock the bugger off.
ANZ senior economist tweets chart showing that current Melbourne & Sydney consumer spending is down to lockdown levels even though they've opened up and surrendered.
Opening up does not make things better, it makes things worse.
Humans, the dumbest, most violent, idiotic, self destructive thing this planet created. We really don't deserve anything nice.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/13700-native-trees-planted-in-north-shore-reserve-destroyed-to-keep-view/T572GUDSO357JUF553TEEFDX74/
You can add this to the list of moronic human behaviour.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/127434869/frustration-levels-huge-as-dumping-continues-to-plague-op-shops
absolutely bonkers.
Don't know if the Herald is being slack or the council, but I'm not seeing a reason given in that article.
more here,
https://twitter.com/JonTurnerNZ/status/1478876078001188864
Heard about this on talkback. We seem to be a country of unfathomable decisions.
I'm a lucky one, along with Gezza and Robert. I have a river and food forest…and a council that so far minds its own business. Which is just as well because two of my prized Paulownia trees border council land.