Like fracking, drilling down for human resources gets more sophisticated.
Worried about unwittingly employing unionists?
Don’t trust leftists?
Hate gays?
Then digital strategists Contagion might be the recruitment agency for you.
Applying for a job, the recruiters at an employment agency may ask job seekers to “friend them” on facebook so that they can get a complete profile.
Tom Bates, the social influence director for digital strategists Contagion, said employers would look at a prospective employee’s social media presence to validate what the candidate was saying about their online profile.
Contagion Strategies, (such a meaningful name)
“When I am recruiting . . . I look first and foremost on LinkedIn. I look at the experience people have, their connections, because it gives a really open, transparent, easy way to source relevant people.
“I also look at all their other social media identities to get more of a sense of who they are, outside of the one-hour interview I may have with them. I look at their Facebook and Twitter and potentially Instagram and beyond to make sure there is a good cultural fit.”
“Culture”. Hmmm, another word imbued with meaning.
“Applying for a job, the recruiters at an employment agency may ask job seekers to “friend them” on facebook so that they can get a complete profile.”
I’d say whilst I’m happy to be judged by Facebook friends by a middle management type, I’d rather leave a fresh stool sample on the middle of your desk so you could get a proper, in depth look at my character.
Unfortunately, they’re making it their business. The world is turning into a very sick and controlled place.
I have the freedom to write what I think, because I’ll never have to apply for another job. If I did, I’d have to accept that such freedom may come at a cost. I like to think that I wouldn’t change.
thanks to “social media footprint” sniffing, I burned the online profiles of mine for a while, yet, i feel a road-trip a-comin on. Yeeha
“I am a shotgun rider on
For The Standard pinto line
The desert is my brother
My skin is crackd and dry
I was ridin’ on a folk coach
And everything was fine
Til’ we took a shorter route to save some time
The bankers only fired once
They shot us in the chest
They may have wounded us but
They’ll never get the best
Of better men…
We’ll ride again.
And we’re gonna ride, we’re gonna ride
Ride like the one-eyed Jack of diamonds
With the devil close behind
We’re gonna ride.
(I’m gonna find me a reckless woman
Razor-blades and dice in her eyes
Just a touch of sadness in her fingers
Thunder and lightnin’ in her thighs).
I fly a starship across the Universe divide
And when i reach the other side
I’ll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highwayman again
Or it may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I’ll be back again, and again, and again, and again…”
and Thats’ Country folks!
(still Georgia, paraphrased of course).
Patrick Strange (Transpower) clarifies on The Nation that transmission lines are essentially ready to carry electricity efficiently from Manapouri to the North Island.
Why has it taken this long for the media to get this info to us.
As recently as last Tuesday Matthew Hooten (Nine to Noon, Tuesday 2nd April) stated that we would lose 100% of Manapouri’s power in the transmission to the North Island.
There is something really hopeless about our mainstream media…all they had to do was ask Patrick Strange but preferred to take the lazy approach and guess.
Yes CW, I have responded to a comment by Matthew Hooten on that Post. The laziness of our media is beyond belief. So not only biased towards the Right but also lazy. The sad thing is that we dont know what is fact and what is fiction…Susan Wood states that China has a 100 new Aluminium Smelters…fact or fiction, we wouldnt know?
yes, I thought S.Wood was indeed deteriorated, thankfully we had Helen to ponder on before shifting the focus to another community of faith. sigh. man, that David Shearer sure is a hard man to be fond of.
ahhh. Figures. some of your writing is amazing (if not restrained) when you emerge from your den; i must get a computer attached to the cyborg cycle to keep in touch; gets a little lonely between worlds at times. Thank God for the internet (the rider reluctantly concedes). I also enjoyed Barry Lyndon (seen so many films, just watched Incendies; recommended).
Scottish heritage… so restraint is not something I can really manage naturally. I’m probably back in my den for a while – commitments and all that… Cheers.
Lovely column from Trotter. Imagine if there was a leader on either the Left or Right that was prepared to bring together a national development conference as both National and Labour did in t he early 1960s. To presume simply that there was a thing called the nation, that was developing, and that we were all in it. That would be leadership worth aspiring to have. It’s not a fascist impulse, just a way of unifying and organising us.
Further evidence that RNZ has become the govt’s soapbox, allowing hooten to do his shouty rant routines and push his backers lines is one reason i dont listen anymore.
Morning report is toothless and mora may as well be barbie it’s so vacuous, I find checkpoint the only section with any bite.
That supports LPrent’s argument last week that the electricity should be redistributed and the whole-of-New Zealand power price should be lowered. Certainly separates “how to support Southland” and “what to do with the potential electricity” more cleanly.
Yeah, it is all in the shuffling of supply and demand. The balance of power consumption where power gets produced compared to where gets consumed merely moves a few hundred kilometers further north on average. We lose a bit more in transmission on average, but have more power available to do what needs to be done more cheaply than would otherwise be possible.
I’m always surprised when I read people talking as if the power from a dam in the lower SI is carried all the way to Auckland. It isn’t as if the packets of power are dumped into the grid witha label attached and moved discretely in the grid as a block. Railways and trucks do that. Electricity does not.
The claim that there would be a huge glut of electricity just doesn’t stack up. Key
spent too long overseas and does not understand that Manapouri is at the other
end of the country from the demand junkie Auckland. Any new consumer of electricity
would have to be near the source of the supply, otherwise the cost of supplying the N.I
would force line prices up (due to the losses on the line).
Its pretty simple, growing the NZ economy requires taking advantage of cheap energy sources and that means passing on cheap prices to entrepreneurs and homes, so they can shift their
expenditure to more productive activities.
We don’t need to grow the economy, and to do so at this point in history is folly of the worst kind. We need to conserve energy and resources for the hard times ahead (PO, CC, GFC etc)
I agree the term is loaded. But we need to lower the center of gravity of the economy away from the heights of high finance and markets. This means that the roots, the people, in the economy need more wiggle room, lower energy prices would make it easier for them to use what savings they have or get to conserve more energy and resources. The old adage nothing ventured nothing gained, all new activity has a cost to it, money, energy. The GFC essentially is a market signal that what we are doing now is out of balance with real needs because essentially very people globally – the richest – have been handed the ability to change the world economy (and have no incentive to as its to their loss if they do).
What Key represents, proposes, wants, is not growth, he wants more waste, more imbalance, more veneer of control, of power.
No, I didn’t. I thought it was about 50%. Mike Williams said it was less than that. We settled on “substantial amount”. I would be interested in learning more about why Transpower now says it is zero. Sounds unlikely to me.
Translation: whoops, I got caught making shit up again… let’s see what Google can do for me…
Doesn’t justify your claim Hoots. Just another one of your lies then, and maybe Strange’s too. Word of advice: when you’re paid to lie, do it well to give your clients their money’s worth, otherwise they might not come back.
Oh, we’ll just see Hoots show what a money-grubbing coward he is… again. And Williams again will be sucking his dick, so he’ll be happy.
It’s amazing that “Labour” want to appease this arsewipe instead of actually representing the people they were founded to represent.
[lprent: you’re starting to walk over the edge between pointed abuse and pointless abuse. Read the policy. I can’t see anything in this comment explaining why the vitriol is required apart from a statement that is as meaningless as saying “of course everyone loves the queen” ]
You expect Hooton to actually justify something he says with real evidence? Never mistake his “reasonable” tone with actually being reasonable. The cockroach is going to scuttle under the fridge again when the light is turned on.
Thin end of the wedge Geoff, he’s been at this for years and the impacts of his tactics can’t be hidden easily anymore.
Plenty of pressure going on by Tony boy and his henchmen to spin harder…beware the quiet low key ones, Ryall, Findlayson, Joyce who appears to have slunk away again with Novopay still a shambles.
ahh the right wingers usually such a dreary lot – this rant from Marie Krarup, a right wing Danish politician who just recently visited here. is so over the top it is funny, I put in one paragraph for ease and enjoyment of reading
” …dubbing the powhiri an “uncivilised” ritual, and marae a “grotesque” mark of multicultural worship.” “When we came to a naval base, we were not received with a handshake or salute by uniformed men as usual,” she wrote. “No, we were welcomed with a Maori dance ritual, with a half-naked man in grass skirt, shouting and screaming in Maori.” and she said the man performed “strange rituals and poked his tongue out.”She said she felt like an “idiot” when giving a hongi, When it was time to sing, Krarup said the waiata sounded like a Danish children’s song about a happy ladybird. She said it was accompanied by a “kindergarten-teacher-guitar-accompaniment”.The marae, or “Maori temple”, was a form of cultural self-destruction, according to Krarup.”It was decorated with God-figures with angry faces and large erect penises,” she said.”It’s a mystery to me how the poor naval officers could endure both the ceremony and the surroundings.”
Because our own right wingers don’t have an idea to share between them – they source everything from overseas. You can see this in the way they salivate about gun control and the right to bear arms, not even stopping to think that it’s neither an issue nor relevant here. They also suffer from such an inferiority complex that they need to be patted on the head regularly by the likes of Krarup and Monckton.
Mrs Krarup is lucky that she’s not another Danish person receiving a fatwah – because NZs are too civilised to react to cultural slights like that.
She’s had a great overseas experience though, observed everything with eyes wide open, like carvings with erect penises, amongst other new sights. That’s what going abroad is about isn’t it – to broaden the mind – though in some people it’s just the behind that feels the expansion.
Irritating Cliché Watch
No. 1: “OPPORTUNITY” Insight, Radio New Zealand National, Sunday 7 April 2013
Presented by Chris Bramwell
Two and a half generations ago, speechwriter Arthur Schlesinger placed the following glib little homily into a speech he had prepared for John F. Kennedy: “The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger–but recognize the opportunity.”
Like so much else uttered by the Great Philanderer, this neat and trite little lesson was repeated and amplified for generations, and became a cliché taken up by school principals, business gurus, politicians and sports commentators—-rugby commentators especially. (I’ll write more on this last category in future.) If you hear someone using the word “opportunity” today—and you almost certainly will—he or she will almost certainly not be a critical or reflective or well read person, therefore he/she will be unaware of the provenance of the word, as well as being unaware of how utterly annoying it is.
The indiscriminate use of the word has been bothering me for many years now; I think the time has come to start a campaign to get rid of this cliché from public discourse.
Here’s a quick sample from this morning’s Insight programme, about New Zealand’s trading opportunities—sorry—in Latin America. By the way, note how the repeated use of the “opportunity” meme goes hand in hand with the repetition of official lies….
JOHN KEY: Y’ow, Latin America is a place full of opportunities for New Zea’and. Y’ow…”
MATTHEW O’MEAGHER: Well, let me clarify that not all countries are characterised as stable. I’m talking about the democratic ones. There are two blocs in Latin America. The stable ones have got on top of inflation. There is massive opportunity there….”
This “two blocs” idea was also used by Nevil Breivik Gibson, when he appeared on “The Panel” last month. O’Meagher did not explain, but by “stable and democratic”, he means countries like Colombia, which are notorious for their human rights violations, and are in fact ruthlessly undemocratic. In other words, Professor O’Meagher was repeating official black propaganda.
CHRIS BRAMWELL: Colombia has emerged from years of civil war, and is starting to open its doors to the world. President Santos says he’d like a free trade agreement with New Zealand.
MATTHEW O’MEAGHER: When I heard Colombia wanted a free trade agreement I just wanted to air-fist it. Hey there are many opportunities for New Zealand!”
NATHAN GUY: “There are many opportunities for New Zealand.”
MATTHEW O’MEAGHER: People feel safe, …political security…
MATTHEW O’MEAGHER: Under the military regime, Chile became open in their economy as we did. Pure. Completely different to across the Andes in Argentina, where they are just suspicious of free trade.
GLEN TYRELL: We just saw a great opportunity and the people we work with saw an opportunity…
NATHAN GUY: Opportunities to HELP these farmers with our Kiwi know-how and Kiwi knowledge is huge.
….ad nauseam, ad absurdum….
Insight, Radio New Zealand National, presented by Chris Bramwell.
The programme will be repeated night at 7:30 P.M.
Almost every person who appeared on this programme used the word “opportunity” continually and promiscuously.
It’s also ubiquitous in rugby commentaries. I will write more on that in future….
Thanx! – I’ve been looking for an explanation for John Key, Paula Bennett, Hekia Parata and quite a few others that have concocted a gathering of minds and called it the National Party.
I follow JMG and not just because he writes so well – his insights are really interesting. This one from the other day has been making me think a lot.
…the opening up of a chasm between those who are willing to face the reality of our situation and those who flee from that reality into fantasy and self-deception.
That chasm runs straight through the middle of the contemporary environmental movement, very much including the subset of that movement that concerns itself with climate change. It doesn’t run in the obvious place—say, between the techno-environmentalists who insist that everyone on the planet can have a lavish American middle class lifestyle powered by renewable energy, and the deep ecologists who see humanity as a gang of ecocidal apes yelling in triumph as they rush toward planetary dieoff. Both these extremes, and the entire spectrum of opinions between them, embrace the core presupposition that undergirds the conventional wisdom of our age.
What is that presupposition? Total faith in the invincibility of technological progress.
JMG really hones in on that and lays it all out expertly. The quote above is part of his argument which really has to be read in full so check it out, well worth it.
In terms of his point about “Total faith in the invincibility of technological progress.” I agree and maybe that is why many continue to ignore the facts staring us in the face. It seems to be part of our western hubris and it’s not working very well.
Yep. Unshakeable belief in ongoing “growth” is just one aspect of this.
In fact, I think a point was recently made (either by JMG or by a commentator) that modern civilisation has created it’s own pervasive Church that most people inadvertently worship at – with Progress as the Father (omnipotent and all present), Growth as the Son (and saviour), and Science/Technology as the Holy Spirit (bringing benefits to all that it touches).
And the harder you question any one of these, the more likely you are to be singled out as a heretic or as ‘fringe’.
I think he’s wrong as far as technology goes. We may not be able to maintain the extravagant lifestyle we have now but we won’t be dropping back to grubbing in the dirt as he seems to think. Hell, it was the invention of farming that allowed us to start having surplus labour. Ok, so it also allowed the development of capitalism but that’s an unintended consequence that we can get rid of.
Places like NZ will be able to maintain a technological and machine based manufactory. That’s going to mean computers, trains, tractors and schools. As I’ve said time and time again – we have the resources to do all this and we can do it all without oil. We just won’t be able to do as much as today as we won’t have the same amount of energy available but that’s a far cry from not being able to do it at all.
“Hell, it was the invention of farming that allowed us to start having surplus labour. Ok, so it also allowed the development of capitalism but that’s an unintended consequence that we can get rid of.”
It also allowed us to start having mass warfare – if you aren’t settled you don’t have to defend resources in the same way, and the patriarchy.
I’m not sure about the surplus labour bit. If you mean societal constructs that enabled humans to have to work much harder, then I guess that is true. But the evidence suggests that in general hunter gatherer peoples had/have a surplus of time, allowing for the development of culture. Why we would want to trade that for a capacity to work harder I am not sure. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time.
Modern tech vs grubbing in the dirt is a false dichotomy. Without oil etc we still have our human knowledge and many technologies even where wind farms and electric trains are not possible. It’s also not true that people cannot live well without those things. Even with a full collapse, it would be several generations before we had no metal and plastics for instance, which is time to adapt. The big problem here is the human mind, and its inability to respond to the sheer scale of the problem we are facing.
If you mean societal constructs that enabled humans to have to work much harder, then I guess that is true.
It was capitalism that caused that. A few people started to take the wealth of the community as theirs and then to demand even more which meant more that everyone else had to work harder.
But the evidence suggests that in general hunter gatherer peoples had/have a surplus of time, allowing for the development of culture.
True but it doesn’t allow for the development of stable locations that can be used for serious research.
Why we would want to trade that for a capacity to work harder I am not sure.
Who said we traded it away? I’m sure it was more through dictatorship, violence and oppression.
Modern tech vs grubbing in the dirt is a false dichotomy.
True but I’ve been reading Greer for awhile and he really does believe that we’re all going to be busy grubbing down on the farm after the collapse. I think we can all work a hell of a lot less while maintaining a similar living standard and that the only reason why we have to work so hard is to keep the rich rich. As I’ve said before, the one thing that no society can afford is the rich.
It’s also not true that people cannot live well without those things. Even with a full collapse, it would be several generations before we had no metal and plastics for instance, which is time to adapt.
There won’t be a full collapse. That’s what I’m getting at. Especially in places like NZ where the infrastructure exists to maintain itself.
The big problem here is the human mind, and its inability to respond to the sheer scale of the problem we are facing.
That only applies if we keep working as individuals but if we work as a community then we can see the big picture.
True but I’ve been reading Greer for awhile and he really does believe that we’re all going to be busy grubbing down on the farm after the collapse.
That says more about your own interpretation than what Greer has actually been saying. Nevertheless, once you take the fossil fuel energy inputs away from modern farming, a whole lot more human (and animal) labour will be required. That’s just the way it is.
Further you have to remember that Greer is speaking from a largely US-centric perspective (and admits that). Yes you are correct in that NZ is better placed than most other countries to face the next 100 years. But Greer is not writing specifically for the NZ situation.
That says more about your own interpretation than what Greer has actually been saying.
No, it shows that Greer has a blanket generalisation about where civilisation is going and it’s all about industrialisation disappearing from the world. This is not going to happen.
Nevertheless, once you take the fossil fuel energy inputs away from modern farming, a whole lot more human (and animal) labour will be required.
Not necessarily. Sure, we can’t make electric cars with the same performance as today’s fuel powered ones but we could make electric tractors that will work just fine. Tractors, like trains, use the same routes all the time. Or we could make the farms (well, the ones that grow vegetables anyway) as fully automated buildings – no need for tractors then. Animal farms will probably still use a lot of muscle power – just as they do today.
Further you have to remember that Greer is speaking from a largely US-centric perspective (and admits that).
And as I’ve pointed out to him there’s a lot of renewable generation in the US as well and those locations will become centres of industrialisation. NZ is just be one place where industrialisation will continue.
No, it shows that Greer has a blanket generalisation about where civilisation is going and it’s all about industrialisation disappearing from the world. This is not going to happen.
Nah you’re wrong, and getting more wrong the deeper you dig.
Didn’t you read the posts on NZ’s losses in manufacturing jobs year on year? If that’s not de-industrialisation, what is it?
Have you seen the sites of old abandoned shipyards in the UK, the old abandoned car factories in Michigan?
De-industrialisation is not a process which starts in the future mate.
de-industrialisation is the removal of all industry. This is not going to happen. And from whatever base we end up with we’ll build up again. It’ll just build up to be more diverse than what we’ve ever had before but only making for what we use rather than the delusional export market.
If we had a government that actually was there for the people of this country and not just for the rich they’d be building that diversity now.
Actually, he has, his Eco-Technic future happens after de-industrialisation. As I’ve said, I’ve been reading his words for a long time.
De-industrialisation of the western world has been happening for decades. Haven’t you noticed?
Of course I have. You may have noticed that I’ve proposed building our manufacturing capability back up?
The point that you don’t seem to grok is that we won’t lose the knowledge – it’s written down and we have the education systems to rebuild it – and even with the closing of factories our industrial base still far exceeds what was available in the 19th century. On top of that we’re not reliant upon hydrocarbons to power said manufacturing.
We just won’t be able to do as much as today as we won’t have the same amount of energy available but that’s a far cry from not being able to do it at all.
Uh, you should read the Ecotechnic Future before you start making massively wrong assumptions as to what Greer reckons will be possible or not in the next couple of hundred years.
Hell, it was the invention of farming that allowed us to start having surplus labour.
Jeremy Paxman: “Kim Jong-un, a man with a more than passing resemblance to a haggis, after all”.
Imagine such personalised comments about Cameron, Blair, Obama, Netanyahu or any other Western leader. From “spiritual heir to Stalin” to “crackpot regime”, this is what passes for balanced presentation and incisive journalism from the BBC’s flagship Newsnight.
A skewed report from Robin Denselow, shaking the locked gates of the North Korean embassy, also has ex-US ambassador Nicholas Burns and the usual array of Western policy analysts warn of Pyongyang’s ‘imminent nuclear threat’, number its ‘international violations’ and probe the ‘problem of China’ in failing to bring this “unpredictable” regime to heel.
Paxman’s package also has a placatory interview with a North Korean defector, a non-contested message from David Cameron, a Tory MP using the North Korean ‘threat’ to defend Trident and a token, moderate counterview from a Lib Dem MP.
It’s not just the brazen bias, the unapologetic absence of balance, it’s the sheer embarrassment of ‘journalism’ from BBC icons like Paxman and Simpson.
And how does one report in a balanced way about the batshit insane clusterfuck that is North Korea? That’s like climate change denialists demanding balanced reportage on global warming – ie, you are a tinfoil hat wearing nutter who needs their meds checked. The BBC doesn’t have to make things up, NK’s own propoganda is readily available and would make me laugh hysterically if it wasn’t so frightening.
And how does one report in a balanced way about the batshit insane clusterfuck that is North Korea?
The same way that one reports about the batshit insane clusterfuck that is Israel; sympathetically and dishonestly. I detest North Korea, but unlike you, I don’t feel compelled to demonstrate that by declaring my support for worse, more violent regimes.
….you are a tinfoil hat wearing nutter who needs their [sic] meds checked.
There’s an intelligent and cutting insult. I am really, really wounded. Oh yes.
The BBC doesn’t have to make things up…
But it shamelessly recycles official lies, as we saw with its campaign against the Venezuelan “dictator” Hugo Chavez recently. After you review some of that coverage, have a look at some of the disgraceful stuff John Simpson has written to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Then come on here and say, with a straight face, that the BBC “doesn’t have to make things up.”
NK’s own propoganda is readily available and would make me laugh hysterically if it wasn’t so frightening.
As a dedicated recycler of state black propaganda yourself, you should cut the North Koreans a break, surely.
As far as I know, Israel hasn’t threatened a nuclear superpower, starved it’s citizens for enough generations that they are approximately 2cm shorter than their southern counterparts, or in some areas resorting to cannibalism. It’s so bad China apparently has contingency plans to invade in an effort to prevent a refugee crisis should the regime collapse. You are basically asking for the equivalent of Holocaust denial… Oh wait, I forgot antisemitic propoganda was one of your favorite hobbies…
It is a point of significant difference. It is more possible to leave, and get information out of Gaza than NK. They are not comparable, though I am not condoning Israel.
My point is that if you really wanted to highlight significant differences between Israel and NK – and of course there are differences you sanctimonious patronising twat – the very last thing you would look to would be human rights abuses.
As has been obvious every time you presume to comment, that’s not very far.
Israel hasn’t threatened a nuclear superpower, starved it’s citizens for enough generations that they are approximately 2cm shorter than their southern counterparts, or in some areas resorting to cannibalism.
Israel has systematically starved the imprisoned citizens of Gaza, and routinely cut off their water, for generations. The same criminal treatment is meted out in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank. Israeli officials recently laughed that they were “putting the Palestinians on a diet.” Not that you’d care about those facts, of course, even if you were not ignorant.
You are basically asking for the equivalent of Holocaust denial…
You know, if it hadn’t already been firmly established that you were a witless and desperate fellow, I might be offended by such nutty logorrhea.
Oh wait, I forgot antisemitic propoganda was one of your favorite hobbies…
Oh this is pr-r-r-r-r-riceless! In spite of everything, my sad friend, we have to hand it to you: there aren’t many people who, in the midst of a blitheringly incompetent, embarrassingly foolish attempt to swim out of their depth, actually come up with an entirely new rhetorical combat tool—the falsum ad self-discreditum. On behalf of every other Standardista, I congratulate you.
Oh you silly little man – I’ve never tried to implicate award winning comedians in a Zionist conspiracy. You are quite mad, such fun.
Gaza, while horribly brutalised by the Likudniks, is not actually part of Israel. Are you geographically challenged? No, just a fucking nut job.
“All I can tell you is the IMF is very supportive of what is being done by the Government in that respect.
IMF managing director Christine Lagarde was full of praise last night for the direction in which the New Zealand economy was headed.
After meeting Prime Minister John Key on the fringes of the Bo’ao Forum for Asia, in China, she talked to New Zealand reporters about the general health of the economy in light of a recent assessment of fiscal and monetary policy
Of course the IMF would be supportive, they peddle corruption, theft, death, all under the guise of austerity.
Just watched the worst display of television interviewing I can remember. Susan Woods was so biased and bad mannered on Q&A this morning that I had to switch channels, it was that bad.
I thought Duncan Garner and Paul Holmes were bad but this effort took the cake.
Yep ….. why she (i.e. her – the vacuous bimbo) even managed to provide ‘evidence’ of why investigative journalism is “alive and well” (NOT). Give her some slack though Morrissey – she’s probably still grieving over the loss of NZ’s journalistic foreskin in the Hawkes Bay
Lordy! I was coming on to say just that.Caught a bit of q&a online.Is she for real?If I was Shearer I would have just got up and walked out.Question and answer it wasn’t.Sack her,she’s useless.Another harpy shrieking for key.
Who do we write to to express our concern at the clear bias exhibited in this interview? I am not Labour and I worry for the future of New Zealand democracy if the media so clearly takes sides in a debate. That was not fair or balanced, especially when you compare it with the way Rawdon Christie and others interview the PM. And for some reason he complains about the press; in case he hasn’t noticed, the vast majority of the media supports him whole-heartedly.
Does anyone know of any reasons why Susan Wood is biased? Does she do work for Sky City or any other large corporate? Does she have an agenda? Or is she a puppet who does what her masters tell her to say?
To be fair I just watched the following segment and she was just as bad interrupting Nikki Kaye about the food labelling legislation. Wood interviews like someone on amphetamines.
I think Susan Wood just has a preference for authoritarian bullies. She married a guy who’d been a prefect when I was at boarding school and he was an absolute shocker. He challenged a friend of mine (half his size) to a fight. When the guy refused, he was expelled for not obeying a prefect’s orders. I can easily see how she’d feel a deep and unrequited love for Key.
As far as I can remember, she married him sometime around 1990. (Google suggests 1989) I have no idea when the Flatley thing was, because I’ve spent a fair bit of time overseas.
Someone asked why Susan Wood would be so biased. I gave an opinion, based on some facts.
I always find it funny how it’s perfectly OK to say that right wingers in general are nasty, dumb, and lacking in empathy, with studies which supposedly show this, but not acceptable to say anything about any of them individually.
How about you come up with a picture with some geographic underlay, e.g can see the airport location, and be able to identify a directional header, thus being able to make some sense of the multitude of angles those trails are on…
Put it this way Joe, SFO is on the coast, which means the flight traffic and flight paths are not as prolific, as those trails appear to be!
You posted the link, was it purely for show, or was your intent something else?
Have a read of this nonsense explanation seeking to justify the awful state of the skies we see nowadays, as *exapanded contrail vapour*, widening/forming into clouds..
Interesting that contrails did not use to do anything such thing, now all of a sudden, they do, and there is a laughable attempt to explain this *new phenomenon*
Fascinating how contrails, have become necessary to explain away, with details of the *new behavior* – No one gave a thought to them previously (other than plane spotters etc), now they’re making cloud formations, and lingering in the sky, while simultaneously warming the air below them, and reflecting the sun above, thats incredible, just how do those ice crystals survive for extended periods of time while being wedged between warmer air temps, and the sun!
Amazing how a real contrail, (yes they still exist) does no such thing as described in the article, nor form into any such entity which resembles the picture associated with the article.
What “new behaviour”, you muppet?
Oh, and take a look at the temp display (or harass the aircrew for information again) for the outside air temp the next time you are in a jet. That might explain your question about the ice crystals.
And are you arguing that your hypothesised chemtrails are increasing climate change? A literally global conspiracy to increase sea levels and desrtification? Cui Bono?
Don’t know much about contrails do you, as if you did you would know what, *new behavior * referred to!
The hypothesizing was over long ago McFlock, by people much higher up the org chart than myself,. and I wish as much as you deny, that this was not happening, it is, and its got nowhere to go but come out, it already has, deep down you know it!
Its why there are so many documentaries, articles etc in the MSM (inc the BS I linked to above) talking about geo-engineering, global dimming and so on, and its ramped up in conjunction with global awareness of the programme to dump chemical substances and all manor of other crap, with who knows what consequences, into the planets life support system.
Perhaps the damage done to our atmospheric layers, stratosphere, ionosphere (mostly in the name of science), by nuclear detonations, into/through those layers, on the ground, nuclear reactor meltdowns, space programmes, ge-engineering programmes, and god knows what else, has caused so much damage, the only available option being considered, is to spray even more shit up there, and do it faster, and more frequently.
Again today from my building, high up in central AKL – heading south to north, over west akl, a nice long trail was laid, about 945. This dump was followed by another plane, flying the same heading, (non commercial flight path) only slighly higher, without leaving a trail. Neither plane was at an altitude which would have cool enough air temp to leave a vapour trail, so perhaps you can tell me what it created it at the lower altitude!
I know you want to be able to blow it off, along with those such as myself who understand these things are going on, and accept it (because WTF can we currently do anyway), it makes you hope you’re not going to proven wrong by people you would expect to be, *below you*, but that’s something you need to get over son, because its happening, that flight has departed, and its hosing down all over you, denial or not!
So YES, it could very well be a major contributer to CC, thats what geo-engineering is all about, weather modification/altering, or changing the climate!
Project Onan has an organsational hierarchy? And you’re not at the top of it ?
WHO DO YOU TAKE YOUR ORDERS FROM???
It’s the tibetans at the centre of the earth, isn’t it???
You managed to pick out the *org chart* reference, which was a tongue in cheek comment, well done.
Other than that you’re struggling McFlock, and I guess J90 has lost himself somewhere on the internet looking to make those trails in the link he posted make some sense.
SFO is located on the coast, so thats not going to be particularly easy for him, and I suspect thats also why he has not explained his intent behind the posting the photo.
Meantime, have a read of this….. Nuclear industry American style!
lol – the economic viability of fission stations is relevant to contrails how?
You’re a joke.
I figured maybe you’d think that vapour trails were a function of pressure, temperature and humidity, but you obviously think a column of air is identical all the way up. I guess in akl you don’t see many inversion layers.
“Project Onan has an organsational hierarchy? And you’re not at the top of it ?”
muzza’s role is primarily a research one.
btw, I saw some amazing chem/con trails over Taranaki on the weekend. What’s the most popular theory about the reason for spraying chemtrails over sparsely populated provincial areas?
Kenny is correct. Her aim was to rattle and disrupt Mr Shearer; so of course she could then complain he failed to clarify his aims. A touch difficult when you are continually interrupted I would have thought. To his credit Mr Shearer failed to take the bait.
Don’t be ridiculous – its standard technique to get pollies to let things slip. Cap’n Mumblefuck is quite capable of being a gibbering incompetent all on his lonesome.
You can’t let things slip when you are not allowed to speak.The last time I saw that done was on q&a by guyon espiner who did the same number on Phil Goff.I remember even Paul Holmes being stunned. wood/woods was avsolutely incoherent with rage when Shearer wouldn’t reveal his bank balance.I thought he did bruddy well not to punch her.
Jesus, she was shockingly bad. I think that is the worst, rudest and most partisan tv interview by an NZ interviewer I’ve seen. Wood should be working for Fox News. Shearer didn’t even get time to finish most sentences, and he wasn’t rambling for a change. He did surprisingly well IMO – especially never losing his cool. The two or three times he held up his hand and told her to let him answer, she did. He should be prepared to do more of that more often. In fact if he had just stopped, and said, “are you going to let me answer your questions, because if you’re not, why invite me here?”, he’d have won even more points with the viewer.
Agreed.Just watched rest.She said key “fessed up”FESSED UP! Do they read the same Boy’s Own Annuals or what.She also compounded key’s lie by saying he had checked back and “fessed up” to ringing Fletcher.She should check her facts because at last count he remembered at least three different scenario to Fletcher was shoulder tapped,all contradictory.Which one is true.It was a truly abominable,unprofessional,biased interview,if indeed it could be classed as an interview. Maybe Shearer should have asked her why she can’t keep a husband.
Just watched.
Susan Wood = psycho. She couldn’t hold back her sneering look at Helen Kelly and she was clearly relishing the bullying moments when all of them were having a go at Helen.
Wood was completely unaware of how repugnant her demeanour and behaviour were. Is that what radio live does to a person or does it just attract people like that?
Why now?
Why did Grant Robertson use the Ian Fletcher GCSB story now?
The story was being held in the armoury for use at the optimal politically effective moment.
Why now? Was it prematurely taken out of the arsenal and fired to distract attention from Shearer’s “brain fade” on the undeclared stash in the US Bank?
Shearer mentioned the signing of a ministerial certificate, I would have liked Wood to have asked Shearer if this would be one of the terms of reference were there to be an open inquiry into the GCSB.
“Its now come out that the order to “supress” the information about GCSB’s activities, signed by the acting prime minister Bill English (normally the finance minister) while Key was abroad, was the only such document in 10 years:”
It is my opinion that everything to do with Fletcher and Key and the illegal spying of Dotcom is being carefully orchestrated.
Key is the type of person who does not like open inquiries which can be confrontational especially when his integrity is being questioned. Were there to be an inquiry into Shearer not declaring his UN bank account nothing new would be learnt except for how many times the account was accessed; Shearer knew he did not declare it and rectified this and the public will either condemn him or overlook this.
Week after week the GCSB are in the news and Key is the minister in charge due to the classified issues which the GCSB operate under and this reflects on Key when it comes to the GCSB crossing the line or the minister in charge crossing the line.
Just as an aside:
“Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!” is usually/often an indication of the inadequacies in available badwidth [sic] and the manipulation of it by your nearest ISP.
Solution to welfare problem found. Hyundai Country last night had a family – of 11 kids – who had never needed welfare. Albeit they are young and may not of told their parents. But even so, imagine
a family of 11 kids in S.Auckland, Bennett has nightmares about them being caught in welfare.
So it got me wondering, why not just dump large families in rural areas and let them figure it out.
Okay, the run off might actually wipe out mussel farms, but the family in the show thinks its a
worthy cause to not need welfare, so they are eager to share the load and take the burden off S.Auckland, right.
Bennett should get off her behind, on her bike, down to the sounds and start building some council estates or something, I mean look at the place, fish, hunting, growing vegies and the local WINZ is
a days travel too, no wonder nobody needs welfare (or could get it if they tried).
If only we had more families like this, who had their own business, cheap labour, and subsidies of feral fish and meat, its got to be a winner for NZ, no welfare yippy.
Maybe the rural types, living the dream, should not be so eager to bring to the attention of city dwellers how their kids haven’t needed welfare.
TVNZ should also be wary, imagine filming a women who tells their viewers, they are boring people sitting watching the show. Does she want them to be out over the Cook strait fouling the water ways, and pushing another family into welfare when their mussel farm becomes contaminated?
As mussel farms else have when developers are given a heads up.
“So it got me wondering, why not just dump large families in rural areas and let them figure it out”
Maaaaaaaaate! They’re already doing that. The indigent are being force further and further ‘out’ by agencies of Neshnool Pardy State.
So far (in the southern North Izland) PerraPerraooomoo. Woikanoi is under threat. Fear not though, there’s a National MP at the ready to enusre they don’t threaten propitty vear uuuu’s. A guy called Nathan (Nafe to his maaaates). Pure and pristine
I noted that the “return to full employment” is primarily expressed by saying that no one will be allowed on the dole for more than two years, though he did add that they would be moved into “real jobs with real training.” However, the second part did come across as an afterthought rather than an expression of resolve. But if you look at the string of comments underneath, they are no happier with their lot than we are with ours. As real economies shrink, going into politics seems to mean having a cool job rather than having a chance to change things.
Cait Reilly succeeded in challenging the programme which required her to work unpaid so a retroactive bill was passed to avoid benefit repayments and Labour whipped their MP’s into abstaining from voting.
“Minister for Murdering Disabled People ( Via HIT agency ATOS) Esther Mcvey began the assault with a vile piece of propaganda in the Daily Mail on Saturday. Mcvey claims that many people who are “officially classed ‘disabled’ are no such thing”. Her nasty diatribe comes in advance of the changes to disability benefits which will see around a fifth of disabled people lose vital support.”
” Is it any wonder we are in such a mess whilst chinless gimps like Cameron, Osborne, Clegg and Mcvey run the country like a bunch of posh teenagers who have never understood what it is to stand on your own two feet?”
“And finally Iain Duncan Smith himself appeared in The Daily Telegraph with the ludicrous claim that he could live quite easily on just £53 a week. But then that’s because he sponges off his wife’s parents – living the high life in an inherited ancestral mansion whilst tax payers fund his lavish expenses. At least Esther Mcvey scrounges off her own parent.”
“Millions stare destitution in the face this month with ruthless and reckless cuts set to throw lives into chaos. Many claimants will be left with nothing at all to buy food after paying their bedroom tax, council tax benefits, water rates and other utility bills. Homelessness is already rising and about to soar as a direct result of this Government’s policies. With unemployment also back on the rise, particularly amongst the young, parts of the country may be unrecognisible in just a few month’s time as poverty not seen in decades returns to haunt the UK.
Not content with that however, this toff Government want to add insult to injury by slandering and abusing the victims of their policies in the national press.”
how much bullshit hides in your text?
PR-Experts, politicians, ad writers or scientists need to be strong here!
BlaBlaMeter unmasks without mercy how much bullshit hides in any text.
I put in a speech by Paraata
This was the result.
Your text: 15000 characters, 2640 words
Bullshit Index :0.33
Your text shows indications of ‘bullshit’-English. It’s still ok for PR or advertising purposes, but more critical audiences may be skeptical.
This is the result from Luther King
I have a dream
our text: 9317 characters, 1724 words
Bullshit Index :0.08
Your text shows no or marginal indications of ‘bullshit’-English.
Interesting Blabla meter DV. Tried putting bits from National Party website as well as various bloggers. The worst was from Nat website but none seriously in blabla trouble.
200 partygoers creating havoc. They have enough money to get themselves high so let them pay to get themselves out of prison. Lock ’em up after turning a high pressure fire hose on them. We have bred a bolder and undisciplined group of careless sh..ts and the controls on boozing hours are too lax. A tweak to bring balance is needed.
The majority of NZ citizens predicted this scenario would develop at the time the drinking age was lowered and the rules around drinking hours were relaxed too far. The politicians (nearly all of them) know damm well they were wrong but they won’t admit it. Political considerations transcend all else.
Yes halfcrown – I have been told off for saying what I think about liquor barons.
Them and their weasly lobby group the Hospitality? whatever. Why would we think they would say anything effective to prevent binge drinking like shorter hours, and whether it would ever happen is a moot point. What we are left with is hospital. And we are a sick society with so much alcohol dependence and living for parties.
Not only that.Anyone who has to take up precious A&E time at hospitals or even further medical attention should be paid for by themselves and they should not be eligible for ACC for any injuries while under the influence of alcohol.
Beginning in 1974, Pierre Trudeau’s Liberals and Manitoba’s first elected New Democratic Party government gave money to every person and family in Dauphin who fell below the poverty line. Under the program—called “Mincome”—about 1,000 families received monthly cheques.
Unlike welfare, which only certain individuals qualified for, the guaranteed minimum income project was open to everyone. It was the first—and to this day, only—time that Canada has ever experimented with such an open-door social assistance program.
I came to this blog today for a look after being banned.
I could be a troll and wind you up, but this place is scary, there are so many here who are bitter.
It seems you are on attack all of the time – when do you have fun?
I will look again but this is not a blog that happy people like. Smile and the World ….
Have you ever considered that just maybe there are quite a lot of people with a reason not to be happy and jolly all the time?
To question the status quo does not equal being bitter.
You yourself admit to being a troll.
Enough said.
Have to agree. Not a lot of humour in a leftie. Just resentment and blame. Although a lot of folk on this blog are funny, but I don’t think it’s intentional.
Aww .. I dunno. Maybe you’re just not in tune with some of the humour. A lot things the Nats say and do make them laugh. Not a lot to laugh about for some whose jobs have disappeared and who’re worried about how to meet their commitments and needs under this government, especially with the unparalleled debt it’s got us into. Not as easy for some of these people to switch lucrative careers perhaps as it was for you. Not because they’re a bunch of lazy slackers either. Can you see things from their perspective at all, out of interest?
“Calums List | This Welfare Reform Death Toll Has To Stop”
“VERY IMPORTANT
If you are one of the people affected by the Welfare Reforms to such an extent that you are feeling suicidal, PLEASE contact one of the following:- Samaritans UK: 08457 90 90 90 NHS UK: 08454 24 24 24 Breathing Space UK: 0800 83 85 87 Republic of Ireland: 1850 60 90 90. Or use the SEVEN DAY RULE. Whatever you are feeling now, the old saying that suicide is permanent holds true. PLEASE make a contract with yourself. Do nothing precipitous for SEVEN days. Many, many people have found that whatever psychological anguish occurs in the darkest depths of despair, just weathering the storm and holding off for seven days is sufficient to come through and recover enough not to go that way.”
John Yankee is intending the same for us here in N$Z 🙁
” Atos benefits bullies killed my sick dad, says devastated Kieran, 13
1 Nov 2012 08:34
THE devastated youngster believes the benefits assessors’ decision to deem his dad “fit for work” led to his death from a heart attack.”
Atos benefits bullies killed my sick dad, says devastated Kieran, 13
1 Nov 2012 08:34
THE devastated youngster believes the benefits assessors’ decision to deem his dad “fit for work” led to his death from a heart attack.
A GRIEVING boy of 13 has accused Atos of killing his disabled dad.
Kieran McArdle told the Daily Record in a harrowing letter how his father Brian, 57, collapsed and died the day after his disability benefits were stopped. He had been assessed by Atos and deemed “fit for work”.
The youngster said a previous stroke on Boxing Day last year had caused a blood clot on Brian’s brain.
He was left paralysed down his left side, unable to speak properly, blind in one eye and barely able to eat or dress.
But he was still summoned to an Atos “work capability assessment” – part of the Con-Dem Government’s drive to cut billions from the welfare bill.
Kieran says he had another stroke days before his appointment because of stress, but was still determined to attend.
A month later, former security guard Brian got a letter telling him he would lose his disability benefits on September 26.
Kieran said his dad’s health went rapidly downhill. He believes constant worry about how he would survive without the cash he needed robbed Brian of the will to live.
There are already 0800 helplines for mentally ill, suicidal, addicted and other people in crisis in NZ.
So by merely handing out phone numbers to ring, will this actually stop anyone from harming themselves if they are really desperate and suicidal? It may in some cases, but if a person is really desperate, they will not bother ringing a stranger late at night – or whenever, thinking that person will really make a difference in an acute crisis, brought on through unsympathetic welfare agencies, who would not give a damn about a client’s well-being unther the new system to be phased in.
If DWP in the UK or WINZ in NZ treat clients as crims, suspects of cheating and bludgers, while they are supposed to “assist” and “support” people in need, who the hell would any client or beneficiary have trust in?
Only welfare advocates may make a difference, but such agencies staffed by them are being closed one after another, because MSD cut their funding (see BIAS in Auckland)!
I’m sure the WhaleSpew Army would all volunteer. Key would no doubt send his sons if it weren’t for an important baseball game in the US and A.
Hopefully this sort of garbage will wake a few more people up to what an abject idiot the guy is. It’ll also be interesting to see Labour’s position on this stupid announcement.
South Korea and New Zealand are both close allies of the USA. If s**t went down and the USA went in aid of South Korea (as it would) then you can bet (being thats it close to both China and Japan) that Australia would support the USA which means NZ would as well
If not for trade reasons which are certainly a consideration) then for the humanitarian aspect of unifying Korea
Or did such intel only come to light in the last week or two? Co-incident with the threats from Nth Korea?
-Appeasment never works, it only encourages the same behaviour so if North Korea do decide to attack South Korea then it would be a perfect time to invade North Korea and reunify the country
However if I was the USA I’d make sure I was fully out of the middle east and afghanistan before doing anything
Of course if the USA dont do anything its because theres no oil and if they do something its because they’re trying to take over the world…
Yep, North Korea will be defeated with all the military might of staunch Kiwi soldiers. The South Koreans really need their loyal NZ friends if attacked. Re-deployment from Bamyan is on the agenda now, straight to the border between North and South Korea. That is what I expect to come from Key’s mouth tomorrow, after what he said to NZ TV media today.
I could not believe it either, that is the shit that NZ media report, and fall for, and nobody dares to ask, is this the newest distraction attempt, to divert away from questions about Fletcher’s selection for leading the GCSB??? Kiwi media, between at times amusing, at other times to be pitied, and furthermore to be truly pathetic.
– JT confirms Ferguson was Helen Clarks man (as I stated before and was asked for proof) and quite frankly Key sounds better on this topic then Robertson does…
Radio Live soundings have been clearly to the right of the political spectrum for years, and what, apart from some comment that Ferguson was perhaps appointed to lead GCSB under the last Labour government, do you have to prove he was selected in a manner Fletcher was contacted and suggested by Key???
Yes Willie Jackson that well known tory was also questioning John Key
JT who was in cabinet says yes Ferguson was Helen Clarks man and was shoulder tapped (which he says during the interview) then thats pretty good evidence right there
(except it doesn’t fit in with narrative Labour wants to put out so of course it will be disbelieved, chocolate fish to the first person who asks for “proof”…)
Chris73 says ,
‘JT who was in cabinet says yes Ferguson was Helen Clarks man and was shoulder tapped (which he says during the interview) then thats pretty good evidence right there’
But unlike John Key
Didnt lie about her involvement in parliament,when questioned .
Didn’t lie to journalists when given the 3rd or 4th chance to come clean.
Its the continual lying ,people dont like chris 73,
You do know what lying is , Chris73?
Its the continual lying ,people dont like chris 73,
– So explain why John Key is still one of the most popular leaders NZ has ever had
You do know what lying is , Chris73?
– Listen to the audio clip (where he explains what happened) and you decide if hes lying and make up your own mind
Willie Jackson is, JT not so much but rather then discuss my opinion (much as I’d like to) why not listen to the clip and form your own opinion (i know its a difficult concept for left-wingers but give it a go you might like it)
I didn’t make it up as that suggests it was deliberate on my part instead I thought JT had confirmed it but if you want me to apologize for being mistaken then no worries
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Tree sap can be a sticky, unsightly mess on your car’s exterior. It can be difficult to remove, but with the right techniques and products, you can restore your car to its former glory. Understanding Tree Sap Tree sap is a thick, viscous liquid produced by trees to seal wounds ...
The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
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 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 19 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, he stressed the rising danger posed by espionage and foreign interference. “In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed ...
Like fracking, drilling down for human resources gets more sophisticated.
Worried about unwittingly employing unionists?
Don’t trust leftists?
Hate gays?
Then digital strategists Contagion might be the recruitment agency for you.
Applying for a job, the recruiters at an employment agency may ask job seekers to “friend them” on facebook so that they can get a complete profile.
Contagion Strategies, (such a meaningful name)
“Culture”. Hmmm, another word imbued with meaning.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/8518739/Bosses-now-hunting-your-Twitter-raves
“Applying for a job, the recruiters at an employment agency may ask job seekers to “friend them” on facebook so that they can get a complete profile.”
I’d say whilst I’m happy to be judged by Facebook friends by a middle management type, I’d rather leave a fresh stool sample on the middle of your desk so you could get a proper, in depth look at my character.
Yup, they assume people have a social media foortprint.
The recruitment industry – Yes, one of the pillars of upstanding, professional behaviour!
Social influence director? Sheesh…What next?
This seems to be more about employers wanting to poke their nose in where they have no business than anything else.
What I write on my Facebook page (which is friends only), or anywhere else on the internet is none of my boss’s business.
Unfortunately, they’re making it their business. The world is turning into a very sick and controlled place.
I have the freedom to write what I think, because I’ll never have to apply for another job. If I did, I’d have to accept that such freedom may come at a cost. I like to think that I wouldn’t change.
thanks to “social media footprint” sniffing, I burned the online profiles of mine for a while, yet, i feel a road-trip a-comin on. Yeeha
“I am a shotgun rider on
For The Standard pinto line
The desert is my brother
My skin is crackd and dry
I was ridin’ on a folk coach
And everything was fine
Til’ we took a shorter route to save some time
The bankers only fired once
They shot us in the chest
They may have wounded us but
They’ll never get the best
Of better men…
We’ll ride again.
And we’re gonna ride, we’re gonna ride
Ride like the one-eyed Jack of diamonds
With the devil close behind
We’re gonna ride.
(I’m gonna find me a reckless woman
Razor-blades and dice in her eyes
Just a touch of sadness in her fingers
Thunder and lightnin’ in her thighs).
I fly a starship across the Universe divide
And when i reach the other side
I’ll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highwayman again
Or it may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I’ll be back again, and again, and again, and again…”
and Thats’ Country folks!
(still Georgia, paraphrased of course).
Patrick Strange (Transpower) clarifies on The Nation that transmission lines are essentially ready to carry electricity efficiently from Manapouri to the North Island.
Why has it taken this long for the media to get this info to us.
As recently as last Tuesday Matthew Hooten (Nine to Noon, Tuesday 2nd April) stated that we would lose 100% of Manapouri’s power in the transmission to the North Island.
There is something really hopeless about our mainstream media…all they had to do was ask Patrick Strange but preferred to take the lazy approach and guess.
People like Hooten have their own agenda beyond any journalistic intent, so I don’t think we can expect anything else from them.
The actual journos though, that is a worry. Did you see Trotter’s critique of Jane Clifton’s inability to do even basic research?
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/04/06/following-jane-clifton-down-the-memory-hole/
Yes CW, I have responded to a comment by Matthew Hooten on that Post. The laziness of our media is beyond belief. So not only biased towards the Right but also lazy. The sad thing is that we dont know what is fact and what is fiction…Susan Wood states that China has a 100 new Aluminium Smelters…fact or fiction, we wouldnt know?
Fiction. I watched her interviewing Shearer this morning. No Comment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aluminium_smelters
haha, spot on DH…Thirty f#$%#* Four smelters in China.
Susan Wood, just lie to make a point…shocking. Join Jane Clifton, Matthew Hooten…
yes, I thought S.Wood was indeed deteriorated, thankfully we had Helen to ponder on before shifting the focus to another community of faith. sigh. man, that David Shearer sure is a hard man to be fond of.
I’m amazed that anyone takes Hooton seriously. Christ, even Slater calls the smarmy slimebag a “corporate whore” and that’s saying something!
whose the “icon” architectural one? (just curious)
Stanley Kubrick at the moment
ahhh. Figures. some of your writing is amazing (if not restrained) when you emerge from your den; i must get a computer attached to the cyborg cycle to keep in touch; gets a little lonely between worlds at times. Thank God for the internet (the rider reluctantly concedes). I also enjoyed Barry Lyndon (seen so many films, just watched Incendies; recommended).
Scottish heritage… so restraint is not something I can really manage naturally. I’m probably back in my den for a while – commitments and all that… Cheers.
“son of Robert” me cannie self. so Feasgar math, slainte mhath.
“Christ, even Slater calls the smarmy slimebag a “corporate whore” and that’s saying something!”
Yeah but Slater is just jealous because he’s generally relegated to being a small-to-medium-sized-enterprise whore.
Lovely column from Trotter. Imagine if there was a leader on either the Left or Right that was prepared to bring together a national development conference as both National and Labour did in t he early 1960s. To presume simply that there was a thing called the nation, that was developing, and that we were all in it. That would be leadership worth aspiring to have. It’s not a fascist impulse, just a way of unifying and organising us.
Further evidence that RNZ has become the govt’s soapbox, allowing hooten to do his shouty rant routines and push his backers lines is one reason i dont listen anymore.
Morning report is toothless and mora may as well be barbie it’s so vacuous, I find checkpoint the only section with any bite.
That supports LPrent’s argument last week that the electricity should be redistributed and the whole-of-New Zealand power price should be lowered. Certainly separates “how to support Southland” and “what to do with the potential electricity” more cleanly.
Yeah, it is all in the shuffling of supply and demand. The balance of power consumption where power gets produced compared to where gets consumed merely moves a few hundred kilometers further north on average. We lose a bit more in transmission on average, but have more power available to do what needs to be done more cheaply than would otherwise be possible.
I’m always surprised when I read people talking as if the power from a dam in the lower SI is carried all the way to Auckland. It isn’t as if the packets of power are dumped into the grid witha label attached and moved discretely in the grid as a block. Railways and trucks do that. Electricity does not.
The claim that there would be a huge glut of electricity just doesn’t stack up. Key
spent too long overseas and does not understand that Manapouri is at the other
end of the country from the demand junkie Auckland. Any new consumer of electricity
would have to be near the source of the supply, otherwise the cost of supplying the N.I
would force line prices up (due to the losses on the line).
Its pretty simple, growing the NZ economy requires taking advantage of cheap energy sources and that means passing on cheap prices to entrepreneurs and homes, so they can shift their
expenditure to more productive activities.
We don’t need to grow the economy, and to do so at this point in history is folly of the worst kind. We need to conserve energy and resources for the hard times ahead (PO, CC, GFC etc)
I agree the term is loaded. But we need to lower the center of gravity of the economy away from the heights of high finance and markets. This means that the roots, the people, in the economy need more wiggle room, lower energy prices would make it easier for them to use what savings they have or get to conserve more energy and resources. The old adage nothing ventured nothing gained, all new activity has a cost to it, money, energy. The GFC essentially is a market signal that what we are doing now is out of balance with real needs because essentially very people globally – the richest – have been handed the ability to change the world economy (and have no incentive to as its to their loss if they do).
What Key represents, proposes, wants, is not growth, he wants more waste, more imbalance, more veneer of control, of power.
No, I didn’t. I thought it was about 50%. Mike Williams said it was less than that. We settled on “substantial amount”. I would be interested in learning more about why Transpower now says it is zero. Sounds unlikely to me.
It’s not that interesting.
You’ll probably find that they don’t really factor your pronouncements into their calculations at all.
Cite or retraction for “Transpower now says it is zero” please.
Didn’t you know? You can fully trick Mother Nature and the laws of physics with PR spin.
Isn’t that what Strange was saying on Q&A? That they can get all the power to Auckland? I haven’t seen it yet.
Ah, so you made it up.
Well I never.
Correction: it looks like it was The Nation. Didn’t see that either but did see this report: http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/if-tiwai-point-smelter-shuts-no-problem-getting-power-auckland-ck-138278
Correction
Translation: whoops, I got caught making shit up again… let’s see what Google can do for me…
Doesn’t justify your claim Hoots. Just another one of your lies then, and maybe Strange’s too. Word of advice: when you’re paid to lie, do it well to give your clients their money’s worth, otherwise they might not come back.
So you don’t have a cite then.
Just admit it ffs. Or are you waiting for everyone to forget what you actually said?
Turn on the light, watch the cockroach run. Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle…
so we can expect a retraction on next Monday’s “from the Right, and from the Right” can we?
Oh, we’ll just see Hoots show what a money-grubbing coward he is… again. And Williams again will be sucking his dick, so he’ll be happy.
It’s amazing that “Labour” want to appease this arsewipe instead of actually representing the people they were founded to represent.
[lprent: you’re starting to walk over the edge between pointed abuse and pointless abuse. Read the policy. I can’t see anything in this comment explaining why the vitriol is required apart from a statement that is as meaningless as saying “of course everyone loves the queen” ]
You expect Hooton to actually justify something he says with real evidence? Never mistake his “reasonable” tone with actually being reasonable. The cockroach is going to scuttle under the fridge again when the light is turned on.
Hi Hoots, got a good dead baby joke to tell?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/8518743/Three-big-hospitals-practices-under-fire
I take this as evidence that Tony Ryall’s brownshirt tactics are starting to show their real effects.
Thin end of the wedge Geoff, he’s been at this for years and the impacts of his tactics can’t be hidden easily anymore.
Plenty of pressure going on by Tony boy and his henchmen to spin harder…beware the quiet low key ones, Ryall, Findlayson, Joyce who appears to have slunk away again with Novopay still a shambles.
Unite and big fast food chains say no to Youth Rates
This is impressive.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8516283/Thumbs-down-by-fast-food-chains-to-youth-rates
That’s good news – but New World and Pak n Save are not getting with the (fairness) programme, though.
Just more evidence for National to say trumpet and say “look, it’s purely optional, so the system works”.
To which the reply is: the evidence shows that unions work. 🙂
ahh the right wingers usually such a dreary lot – this rant from Marie Krarup, a right wing Danish politician who just recently visited here. is so over the top it is funny, I put in one paragraph for ease and enjoyment of reading
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8517466/Danish-politician-slams-Maori-welcome
http://mars2earth.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/instead-of-handshake.html
It is also useful to know that these extreme right wing funny thinking people are in many countries not just here.
Mrs Krarup copied and pasted those words from an article by Neville Breivik Gibson or “Sir” Paul Holmes or “Dame” Susan Devoy.
Marie Krarup + hate and look at what turns up as the first result.
I want to know why this well funded NZ think tank is importing Danish cryptofacsists here. Havn’t we enough of our own?
Because our own right wingers don’t have an idea to share between them – they source everything from overseas. You can see this in the way they salivate about gun control and the right to bear arms, not even stopping to think that it’s neither an issue nor relevant here. They also suffer from such an inferiority complex that they need to be patted on the head regularly by the likes of Krarup and Monckton.
Mrs Krarup is lucky that she’s not another Danish person receiving a fatwah – because NZs are too civilised to react to cultural slights like that.
She’s had a great overseas experience though, observed everything with eyes wide open, like carvings with erect penises, amongst other new sights. That’s what going abroad is about isn’t it – to broaden the mind – though in some people it’s just the behind that feels the expansion.
Irritating Cliché Watch
No. 1: “OPPORTUNITY”
Insight, Radio New Zealand National, Sunday 7 April 2013
Presented by Chris Bramwell
Two and a half generations ago, speechwriter Arthur Schlesinger placed the following glib little homily into a speech he had prepared for John F. Kennedy: “The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger–but recognize the opportunity.”
Like so much else uttered by the Great Philanderer, this neat and trite little lesson was repeated and amplified for generations, and became a cliché taken up by school principals, business gurus, politicians and sports commentators—-rugby commentators especially. (I’ll write more on this last category in future.) If you hear someone using the word “opportunity” today—and you almost certainly will—he or she will almost certainly not be a critical or reflective or well read person, therefore he/she will be unaware of the provenance of the word, as well as being unaware of how utterly annoying it is.
The indiscriminate use of the word has been bothering me for many years now; I think the time has come to start a campaign to get rid of this cliché from public discourse.
Here’s a quick sample from this morning’s Insight programme, about New Zealand’s trading opportunities—sorry—in Latin America. By the way, note how the repeated use of the “opportunity” meme goes hand in hand with the repetition of official lies….
JOHN KEY: Y’ow, Latin America is a place full of opportunities for New Zea’and. Y’ow…”
MATTHEW O’MEAGHER: Well, let me clarify that not all countries are characterised as stable. I’m talking about the democratic ones. There are two blocs in Latin America. The stable ones have got on top of inflation. There is massive opportunity there….”
This “two blocs” idea was also used by Nevil Breivik Gibson, when he appeared on “The Panel” last month. O’Meagher did not explain, but by “stable and democratic”, he means countries like Colombia, which are notorious for their human rights violations, and are in fact ruthlessly undemocratic. In other words, Professor O’Meagher was repeating official black propaganda.
CHRIS BRAMWELL: Colombia has emerged from years of civil war, and is starting to open its doors to the world. President Santos says he’d like a free trade agreement with New Zealand.
MATTHEW O’MEAGHER: When I heard Colombia wanted a free trade agreement I just wanted to air-fist it. Hey there are many opportunities for New Zealand!”
NATHAN GUY: “There are many opportunities for New Zealand.”
MATTHEW O’MEAGHER: People feel safe, …political security…
MATTHEW O’MEAGHER: Under the military regime, Chile became open in their economy as we did. Pure. Completely different to across the Andes in Argentina, where they are just suspicious of free trade.
GLEN TYRELL: We just saw a great opportunity and the people we work with saw an opportunity…
NATHAN GUY: Opportunities to HELP these farmers with our Kiwi know-how and Kiwi knowledge is huge.
….ad nauseam, ad absurdum….
Insight, Radio New Zealand National, presented by Chris Bramwell.
The programme will be repeated night at 7:30 P.M.
Almost every person who appeared on this programme used the word “opportunity” continually and promiscuously.
It’s also ubiquitous in rugby commentaries. I will write more on that in future….
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
Bertrand Russell
An apposite choice of quote, my friend. Well done.
Thanx! – I’ve been looking for an explanation for John Key, Paula Bennett, Hekia Parata and quite a few others that have concocted a gathering of minds and called it the National Party.
IS Mighty River Power a ‘good’ investment?
Electricity demand in New Zealand.
https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/?ui=2&ik=18afffb768&view=att&th=13de0ed793e9b5dc&attid=0.1&disp=inline&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P-I5Cd-lIWIP7LzmJSi9erv&sadet=1365283886419&sads=UWgha5Vz4OMfZnQYWeqzzvPMx08
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
2013 Auckland Mayoral Candidate
I follow JMG and not just because he writes so well – his insights are really interesting. This one from the other day has been making me think a lot.
JMG really hones in on that and lays it all out expertly. The quote above is part of his argument which really has to be read in full so check it out, well worth it.
In terms of his point about “Total faith in the invincibility of technological progress.” I agree and maybe that is why many continue to ignore the facts staring us in the face. It seems to be part of our western hubris and it’s not working very well.
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2013/03/the-illusion-of-invincibility.html
Yep. Unshakeable belief in ongoing “growth” is just one aspect of this.
In fact, I think a point was recently made (either by JMG or by a commentator) that modern civilisation has created it’s own pervasive Church that most people inadvertently worship at – with Progress as the Father (omnipotent and all present), Growth as the Son (and saviour), and Science/Technology as the Holy Spirit (bringing benefits to all that it touches).
And the harder you question any one of these, the more likely you are to be singled out as a heretic or as ‘fringe’.
I think he’s wrong as far as technology goes. We may not be able to maintain the extravagant lifestyle we have now but we won’t be dropping back to grubbing in the dirt as he seems to think. Hell, it was the invention of farming that allowed us to start having surplus labour. Ok, so it also allowed the development of capitalism but that’s an unintended consequence that we can get rid of.
Places like NZ will be able to maintain a technological and machine based manufactory. That’s going to mean computers, trains, tractors and schools. As I’ve said time and time again – we have the resources to do all this and we can do it all without oil. We just won’t be able to do as much as today as we won’t have the same amount of energy available but that’s a far cry from not being able to do it at all.
“Hell, it was the invention of farming that allowed us to start having surplus labour. Ok, so it also allowed the development of capitalism but that’s an unintended consequence that we can get rid of.”
It also allowed us to start having mass warfare – if you aren’t settled you don’t have to defend resources in the same way, and the patriarchy.
I’m not sure about the surplus labour bit. If you mean societal constructs that enabled humans to have to work much harder, then I guess that is true. But the evidence suggests that in general hunter gatherer peoples had/have a surplus of time, allowing for the development of culture. Why we would want to trade that for a capacity to work harder I am not sure. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time.
Modern tech vs grubbing in the dirt is a false dichotomy. Without oil etc we still have our human knowledge and many technologies even where wind farms and electric trains are not possible. It’s also not true that people cannot live well without those things. Even with a full collapse, it would be several generations before we had no metal and plastics for instance, which is time to adapt. The big problem here is the human mind, and its inability to respond to the sheer scale of the problem we are facing.
It was capitalism that caused that. A few people started to take the wealth of the community as theirs and then to demand even more which meant more that everyone else had to work harder.
True but it doesn’t allow for the development of stable locations that can be used for serious research.
Who said we traded it away? I’m sure it was more through dictatorship, violence and oppression.
True but I’ve been reading Greer for awhile and he really does believe that we’re all going to be busy grubbing down on the farm after the collapse. I think we can all work a hell of a lot less while maintaining a similar living standard and that the only reason why we have to work so hard is to keep the rich rich. As I’ve said before, the one thing that no society can afford is the rich.
There won’t be a full collapse. That’s what I’m getting at. Especially in places like NZ where the infrastructure exists to maintain itself.
That only applies if we keep working as individuals but if we work as a community then we can see the big picture.
That says more about your own interpretation than what Greer has actually been saying. Nevertheless, once you take the fossil fuel energy inputs away from modern farming, a whole lot more human (and animal) labour will be required. That’s just the way it is.
Further you have to remember that Greer is speaking from a largely US-centric perspective (and admits that). Yes you are correct in that NZ is better placed than most other countries to face the next 100 years. But Greer is not writing specifically for the NZ situation.
No, it shows that Greer has a blanket generalisation about where civilisation is going and it’s all about industrialisation disappearing from the world. This is not going to happen.
Not necessarily. Sure, we can’t make electric cars with the same performance as today’s fuel powered ones but we could make electric tractors that will work just fine. Tractors, like trains, use the same routes all the time. Or we could make the farms (well, the ones that grow vegetables anyway) as fully automated buildings – no need for tractors then. Animal farms will probably still use a lot of muscle power – just as they do today.
And as I’ve pointed out to him there’s a lot of renewable generation in the US as well and those locations will become centres of industrialisation. NZ is just be one place where industrialisation will continue.
Nah you’re wrong, and getting more wrong the deeper you dig.
Didn’t you read the posts on NZ’s losses in manufacturing jobs year on year? If that’s not de-industrialisation, what is it?
Have you seen the sites of old abandoned shipyards in the UK, the old abandoned car factories in Michigan?
De-industrialisation is not a process which starts in the future mate.
/facepalm
de-industrialisation is the removal of all industry. This is not going to happen. And from whatever base we end up with we’ll build up again. It’ll just build up to be more diverse than what we’ve ever had before but only making for what we use rather than the delusional export market.
If we had a government that actually was there for the people of this country and not just for the rich they’d be building that diversity now.
That’s how you’ve defined it. Greer has never defined it in that way.
De-industrialisation of the western world has been happening for decades. Haven’t you noticed?
Actually, he has, his Eco-Technic future happens after de-industrialisation. As I’ve said, I’ve been reading his words for a long time.
Of course I have. You may have noticed that I’ve proposed building our manufacturing capability back up?
The point that you don’t seem to grok is that we won’t lose the knowledge – it’s written down and we have the education systems to rebuild it – and even with the closing of factories our industrial base still far exceeds what was available in the 19th century. On top of that we’re not reliant upon hydrocarbons to power said manufacturing.
Uh, you should read the Ecotechnic Future before you start making massively wrong assumptions as to what Greer reckons will be possible or not in the next couple of hundred years.
Or was it the other way around.
PROPAGANDA WATCH
Beware the British State broadcaster
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01rql0b/Newsnight_04_04_2013/
Jeremy Paxman: “Kim Jong-un, a man with a more than passing resemblance to a haggis, after all”.
Imagine such personalised comments about Cameron, Blair, Obama, Netanyahu or any other Western leader. From “spiritual heir to Stalin” to “crackpot regime”, this is what passes for balanced presentation and incisive journalism from the BBC’s flagship Newsnight.
A skewed report from Robin Denselow, shaking the locked gates of the North Korean embassy, also has ex-US ambassador Nicholas Burns and the usual array of Western policy analysts warn of Pyongyang’s ‘imminent nuclear threat’, number its ‘international violations’ and probe the ‘problem of China’ in failing to bring this “unpredictable” regime to heel.
Paxman’s package also has a placatory interview with a North Korean defector, a non-contested message from David Cameron, a Tory MP using the North Korean ‘threat’ to defend Trident and a token, moderate counterview from a Lib Dem MP.
It’s not just the brazen bias, the unapologetic absence of balance, it’s the sheer embarrassment of ‘journalism’ from BBC icons like Paxman and Simpson.
by John Hilley
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1365154487.html
And how does one report in a balanced way about the batshit insane clusterfuck that is North Korea? That’s like climate change denialists demanding balanced reportage on global warming – ie, you are a tinfoil hat wearing nutter who needs their meds checked. The BBC doesn’t have to make things up, NK’s own propoganda is readily available and would make me laugh hysterically if it wasn’t so frightening.
And how does one report in a balanced way about the batshit insane clusterfuck that is North Korea?
The same way that one reports about the batshit insane clusterfuck that is Israel; sympathetically and dishonestly. I detest North Korea, but unlike you, I don’t feel compelled to demonstrate that by declaring my support for worse, more violent regimes.
….you are a tinfoil hat wearing nutter who needs their [sic] meds checked.
There’s an intelligent and cutting insult. I am really, really wounded. Oh yes.
The BBC doesn’t have to make things up…
But it shamelessly recycles official lies, as we saw with its campaign against the Venezuelan “dictator” Hugo Chavez recently. After you review some of that coverage, have a look at some of the disgraceful stuff John Simpson has written to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Then come on here and say, with a straight face, that the BBC “doesn’t have to make things up.”
NK’s own propoganda is readily available and would make me laugh hysterically if it wasn’t so frightening.
As a dedicated recycler of state black propaganda yourself, you should cut the North Koreans a break, surely.
As far as I know, Israel hasn’t threatened a nuclear superpower, starved it’s citizens for enough generations that they are approximately 2cm shorter than their southern counterparts, or in some areas resorting to cannibalism. It’s so bad China apparently has contingency plans to invade in an effort to prevent a refugee crisis should the regime collapse. You are basically asking for the equivalent of Holocaust denial… Oh wait, I forgot antisemitic propoganda was one of your favorite hobbies…
Israel hasn’t starved its own citizens for generations, oh lordy no perish the thought.
It is a point of significant difference. It is more possible to leave, and get information out of Gaza than NK. They are not comparable, though I am not condoning Israel.
So what?
My point is that if you really wanted to highlight significant differences between Israel and NK – and of course there are differences you sanctimonious patronising twat – the very last thing you would look to would be human rights abuses.
ffs
As far as I know,
As has been obvious every time you presume to comment, that’s not very far.
Israel hasn’t threatened a nuclear superpower, starved it’s citizens for enough generations that they are approximately 2cm shorter than their southern counterparts, or in some areas resorting to cannibalism.
Israel has systematically starved the imprisoned citizens of Gaza, and routinely cut off their water, for generations. The same criminal treatment is meted out in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank. Israeli officials recently laughed that they were “putting the Palestinians on a diet.” Not that you’d care about those facts, of course, even if you were not ignorant.
You are basically asking for the equivalent of Holocaust denial…
You know, if it hadn’t already been firmly established that you were a witless and desperate fellow, I might be offended by such nutty logorrhea.
Oh wait, I forgot antisemitic propoganda was one of your favorite hobbies…
Oh this is pr-r-r-r-r-riceless! In spite of everything, my sad friend, we have to hand it to you: there aren’t many people who, in the midst of a blitheringly incompetent, embarrassingly foolish attempt to swim out of their depth, actually come up with an entirely new rhetorical combat tool—the falsum ad self-discreditum. On behalf of every other Standardista, I congratulate you.
Oh you silly little man – I’ve never tried to implicate award winning comedians in a Zionist conspiracy. You are quite mad, such fun.
Gaza, while horribly brutalised by the Likudniks, is not actually part of Israel. Are you geographically challenged? No, just a fucking nut job.
“Gaza, while horribly brutalised by the Likudniks, is not actually part of Israel.”
Yeah, ‘cos that’s the important bit about human rights abuses.
You are out of your depth, Populuxe. Have you ever heard of the concept of “face-saving withdrawal”?
Yoink:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/04/06/about-a-girl-assorted-thoughts-on-bioshock-infinite
If you have teh time + the money, Bioshock Infinite is very definitely worth playing.
Also:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera
:3
IMF apparently likes where NZ is headed,
we must be in even greater trouble than we thought 🙂
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10875936
“All I can tell you is the IMF is very supportive of what is being done by the Government in that respect.
Of course the IMF would be supportive, they peddle corruption, theft, death, all under the guise of austerity.
Lagarde is a sock puppet, executing the orders!
Just watched the worst display of television interviewing I can remember. Susan Woods was so biased and bad mannered on Q&A this morning that I had to switch channels, it was that bad.
I thought Duncan Garner and Paul Holmes were bad but this effort took the cake.
It’s Susan Wood, not Woods. Show the vacuous bimbo some respect by getting her name right, please.
Yep ….. why she (i.e. her – the vacuous bimbo) even managed to provide ‘evidence’ of why investigative journalism is “alive and well” (NOT). Give her some slack though Morrissey – she’s probably still grieving over the loss of NZ’s journalistic foreskin in the Hawkes Bay
Lordy! I was coming on to say just that.Caught a bit of q&a online.Is she for real?If I was Shearer I would have just got up and walked out.Question and answer it wasn’t.Sack her,she’s useless.Another harpy shrieking for key.
Who do we write to to express our concern at the clear bias exhibited in this interview? I am not Labour and I worry for the future of New Zealand democracy if the media so clearly takes sides in a debate. That was not fair or balanced, especially when you compare it with the way Rawdon Christie and others interview the PM. And for some reason he complains about the press; in case he hasn’t noticed, the vast majority of the media supports him whole-heartedly.
Does anyone know of any reasons why Susan Wood is biased? Does she do work for Sky City or any other large corporate? Does she have an agenda? Or is she a puppet who does what her masters tell her to say?
To be fair I just watched the following segment and she was just as bad interrupting Nikki Kaye about the food labelling legislation. Wood interviews like someone on amphetamines.
I think Susan Wood just has a preference for authoritarian bullies. She married a guy who’d been a prefect when I was at boarding school and he was an absolute shocker. He challenged a friend of mine (half his size) to a fight. When the guy refused, he was expelled for not obeying a prefect’s orders. I can easily see how she’d feel a deep and unrequited love for Key.
She married a guy who’d been a prefect when I was at boarding school and he was an absolute shocker.
Did she marry that guy before or after her mortifyingly gauche live on-air flirtation with Michael Flatley?
As far as I can remember, she married him sometime around 1990. (Google suggests 1989) I have no idea when the Flatley thing was, because I’ve spent a fair bit of time overseas.
This is none of our business.
Such intrusive, meaningless and ugly commentary is not acceptable on The Standard.
Keep such garbage to yourself.
Such “ugly” commentary would indeed be unacceptable if it was directed at a decent, hard-working, honest journalist.
However, Mr Olsen’s target was one Susan Wood, who is none of the above. Maybe you are unfamiliar with the vileness of Ms. Wood’s oeuvre.
Someone asked why Susan Wood would be so biased. I gave an opinion, based on some facts.
I always find it funny how it’s perfectly OK to say that right wingers in general are nasty, dumb, and lacking in empathy, with studies which supposedly show this, but not acceptable to say anything about any of them individually.
When your laws your culture and your very voice have been taken from you
your body is the only tool left with which to speak
http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/296828.html
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=9936
http://rt.com/news/41-prisoners-gitmo-strike-440/
wise words
http://postimg.org/image/dm9n4o1c3/
tidy link kept getting corrupted somehow
Con trails.
https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/status/320622512289484800/photo/1
You may find this interesting.
http://www.flightradar24.com/
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/
A fascinating visit. Fantastic number of planes in the air at this moment worldwide. Thanks BM
Where is the rest of the context Joe?
Edit: Such as;
Flight altitudes, headings etc, air pressure, temp, humidity readings etc…
You can’t even tell if thats San Fran or not!
His tweet is time stamped so work it out.
http://www.isstracker.com/historical
How about you come up with a picture with some geographic underlay, e.g can see the airport location, and be able to identify a directional header, thus being able to make some sense of the multitude of angles those trails are on…
Put it this way Joe, SFO is on the coast, which means the flight traffic and flight paths are not as prolific, as those trails appear to be!
You posted the link, was it purely for show, or was your intent something else?
Joe was just showing how many people are in on the conspiracy. Did he contaminate your social experiment muzz ?
Was he really, I’ll wait until Joe confirms his intent if its all the same to you…waiting Joe
And the geographic locational context Joe, so we can have a discussion about why that link is one of your worst yet!
You’re just the tinfoil hat that keeps on giving…
It makes no difference what you, or I actually think McFlock, its going on either way regardless.
The immature jibes are becoming a feature for you now hey!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/4825779/Aircraft-contrails-stoke-warming-cloud-formation
Have a read of this nonsense explanation seeking to justify the awful state of the skies we see nowadays, as *exapanded contrail vapour*, widening/forming into clouds..
Interesting that contrails did not use to do anything such thing, now all of a sudden, they do, and there is a laughable attempt to explain this *new phenomenon*
Fascinating how contrails, have become necessary to explain away, with details of the *new behavior* – No one gave a thought to them previously (other than plane spotters etc), now they’re making cloud formations, and lingering in the sky, while simultaneously warming the air below them, and reflecting the sun above, thats incredible, just how do those ice crystals survive for extended periods of time while being wedged between warmer air temps, and the sun!
Amazing how a real contrail, (yes they still exist) does no such thing as described in the article, nor form into any such entity which resembles the picture associated with the article.
lol
What “new behaviour”, you muppet?
Oh, and take a look at the temp display (or harass the aircrew for information again) for the outside air temp the next time you are in a jet. That might explain your question about the ice crystals.
And are you arguing that your hypothesised chemtrails are increasing climate change? A literally global conspiracy to increase sea levels and desrtification? Cui Bono?
Don’t know much about contrails do you, as if you did you would know what, *new behavior * referred to!
The hypothesizing was over long ago McFlock, by people much higher up the org chart than myself,. and I wish as much as you deny, that this was not happening, it is, and its got nowhere to go but come out, it already has, deep down you know it!
Its why there are so many documentaries, articles etc in the MSM (inc the BS I linked to above) talking about geo-engineering, global dimming and so on, and its ramped up in conjunction with global awareness of the programme to dump chemical substances and all manor of other crap, with who knows what consequences, into the planets life support system.
Perhaps the damage done to our atmospheric layers, stratosphere, ionosphere (mostly in the name of science), by nuclear detonations, into/through those layers, on the ground, nuclear reactor meltdowns, space programmes, ge-engineering programmes, and god knows what else, has caused so much damage, the only available option being considered, is to spray even more shit up there, and do it faster, and more frequently.
Again today from my building, high up in central AKL – heading south to north, over west akl, a nice long trail was laid, about 945. This dump was followed by another plane, flying the same heading, (non commercial flight path) only slighly higher, without leaving a trail. Neither plane was at an altitude which would have cool enough air temp to leave a vapour trail, so perhaps you can tell me what it created it at the lower altitude!
I know you want to be able to blow it off, along with those such as myself who understand these things are going on, and accept it (because WTF can we currently do anyway), it makes you hope you’re not going to proven wrong by people you would expect to be, *below you*, but that’s something you need to get over son, because its happening, that flight has departed, and its hosing down all over you, denial or not!
So YES, it could very well be a major contributer to CC, thats what geo-engineering is all about, weather modification/altering, or changing the climate!
Lol
“Higher up the org chart”?
Project Onan has an organsational hierarchy? And you’re not at the top of it ?
WHO DO YOU TAKE YOUR ORDERS FROM???
It’s the tibetans at the centre of the earth, isn’t it???
You managed to pick out the *org chart* reference, which was a tongue in cheek comment, well done.
Other than that you’re struggling McFlock, and I guess J90 has lost himself somewhere on the internet looking to make those trails in the link he posted make some sense.
SFO is located on the coast, so thats not going to be particularly easy for him, and I suspect thats also why he has not explained his intent behind the posting the photo.
Meantime, have a read of this….. Nuclear industry American style!
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43556350/
lol – the economic viability of fission stations is relevant to contrails how?
You’re a joke.
I figured maybe you’d think that vapour trails were a function of pressure, temperature and humidity, but you obviously think a column of air is identical all the way up. I guess in akl you don’t see many inversion layers.
So really, all there is left is to laugh at you.
“Project Onan has an organsational hierarchy? And you’re not at the top of it ?”
muzza’s role is primarily a research one.
btw, I saw some amazing chem/con trails over Taranaki on the weekend. What’s the most popular theory about the reason for spraying chemtrails over sparsely populated provincial areas?
Kenny is correct. Her aim was to rattle and disrupt Mr Shearer; so of course she could then complain he failed to clarify his aims. A touch difficult when you are continually interrupted I would have thought. To his credit Mr Shearer failed to take the bait.
Don’t be ridiculous – its standard technique to get pollies to let things slip. Cap’n Mumblefuck is quite capable of being a gibbering incompetent all on his lonesome.
You can’t let things slip when you are not allowed to speak.The last time I saw that done was on q&a by guyon espiner who did the same number on Phil Goff.I remember even Paul Holmes being stunned. wood/woods was avsolutely incoherent with rage when Shearer wouldn’t reveal his bank balance.I thought he did bruddy well not to punch her.
Jesus, she was shockingly bad. I think that is the worst, rudest and most partisan tv interview by an NZ interviewer I’ve seen. Wood should be working for Fox News. Shearer didn’t even get time to finish most sentences, and he wasn’t rambling for a change. He did surprisingly well IMO – especially never losing his cool. The two or three times he held up his hand and told her to let him answer, she did. He should be prepared to do more of that more often. In fact if he had just stopped, and said, “are you going to let me answer your questions, because if you’re not, why invite me here?”, he’d have won even more points with the viewer.
Agreed.Just watched rest.She said key “fessed up”FESSED UP! Do they read the same Boy’s Own Annuals or what.She also compounded key’s lie by saying he had checked back and “fessed up” to ringing Fletcher.She should check her facts because at last count he remembered at least three different scenario to Fletcher was shoulder tapped,all contradictory.Which one is true.It was a truly abominable,unprofessional,biased interview,if indeed it could be classed as an interview. Maybe Shearer should have asked her why she can’t keep a husband.
Just watched.
Susan Wood = psycho. She couldn’t hold back her sneering look at Helen Kelly and she was clearly relishing the bullying moments when all of them were having a go at Helen.
Wood was completely unaware of how repugnant her demeanour and behaviour were. Is that what radio live does to a person or does it just attract people like that?
Remember the pivotal wikileaks video showing an Apache attack on Iraqi civilians and journalists
This PTSD destroyed former infantry man attended the scene afterwards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=mgAoUEbJLVk&feature=endscreen
And every day 22 veterans commit suicide.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/01/veterans-suicide/1883329/
Why now?
Why did Grant Robertson use the Ian Fletcher GCSB story now?
The story was being held in the armoury for use at the optimal politically effective moment.
Why now? Was it prematurely taken out of the arsenal and fired to distract attention from Shearer’s “brain fade” on the undeclared stash in the US Bank?
Yes. Next question?
Shearer’s UN bank account is now declared.
Shearer mentioned the signing of a ministerial certificate, I would have liked Wood to have asked Shearer if this would be one of the terms of reference were there to be an open inquiry into the GCSB.
“Its now come out that the order to “supress” the information about GCSB’s activities, signed by the acting prime minister Bill English (normally the finance minister) while Key was abroad, was the only such document in 10 years:”
http://www.techdirt.com/blog?tag=gcsb
It is my opinion that everything to do with Fletcher and Key and the illegal spying of Dotcom is being carefully orchestrated.
Key is the type of person who does not like open inquiries which can be confrontational especially when his integrity is being questioned. Were there to be an inquiry into Shearer not declaring his UN bank account nothing new would be learnt except for how many times the account was accessed; Shearer knew he did not declare it and rectified this and the public will either condemn him or overlook this.
Week after week the GCSB are in the news and Key is the minister in charge due to the classified issues which the GCSB operate under and this reflects on Key when it comes to the GCSB crossing the line or the minister in charge crossing the line.
Just as an aside:
“Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!” is usually/often an indication of the inadequacies in available badwidth [sic] and the manipulation of it by your nearest ISP.
Solution to welfare problem found. Hyundai Country last night had a family – of 11 kids – who had never needed welfare. Albeit they are young and may not of told their parents. But even so, imagine
a family of 11 kids in S.Auckland, Bennett has nightmares about them being caught in welfare.
So it got me wondering, why not just dump large families in rural areas and let them figure it out.
Okay, the run off might actually wipe out mussel farms, but the family in the show thinks its a
worthy cause to not need welfare, so they are eager to share the load and take the burden off S.Auckland, right.
Bennett should get off her behind, on her bike, down to the sounds and start building some council estates or something, I mean look at the place, fish, hunting, growing vegies and the local WINZ is
a days travel too, no wonder nobody needs welfare (or could get it if they tried).
If only we had more families like this, who had their own business, cheap labour, and subsidies of feral fish and meat, its got to be a winner for NZ, no welfare yippy.
Maybe the rural types, living the dream, should not be so eager to bring to the attention of city dwellers how their kids haven’t needed welfare.
TVNZ should also be wary, imagine filming a women who tells their viewers, they are boring people sitting watching the show. Does she want them to be out over the Cook strait fouling the water ways, and pushing another family into welfare when their mussel farm becomes contaminated?
As mussel farms else have when developers are given a heads up.
Let’s film it as well and provide cheap entertainment to the masses. Most of our broadcasters would wet their pants at a ratings winner like that.
“So it got me wondering, why not just dump large families in rural areas and let them figure it out”
Maaaaaaaaate! They’re already doing that. The indigent are being force further and further ‘out’ by agencies of Neshnool Pardy State.
So far (in the southern North Izland) PerraPerraooomoo. Woikanoi is under threat. Fear not though, there’s a National MP at the ready to enusre they don’t threaten propitty vear uuuu’s. A guy called Nathan (Nafe to his maaaates). Pure and pristine
Labour UK: Party considers building stronger incentives to work into welfare system
Radical moves planned to make sure that people who put more into the system, get more back in benefits.
Happy happy joy joy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/06/labour-plans-shift-welfare-payouts
I noted that the “return to full employment” is primarily expressed by saying that no one will be allowed on the dole for more than two years, though he did add that they would be moved into “real jobs with real training.” However, the second part did come across as an afterthought rather than an expression of resolve. But if you look at the string of comments underneath, they are no happier with their lot than we are with ours. As real economies shrink, going into politics seems to mean having a cool job rather than having a chance to change things.
Cait Reilly succeeded in challenging the programme which required her to work unpaid so a retroactive bill was passed to avoid benefit repayments and Labour whipped their MP’s into abstaining from voting.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/feb/12/poundland-ruling-government-work-schemes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/mar/24/labour-mps-abstain-welfare-bill
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/15/dwp-law-change-jobseekers-poundland?
Hi CV
USK Government Declares War on Disabled People and the Poor
http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/government-declares-war-on-disabled-people-and-the-poor/
“Minister for Murdering Disabled People ( Via HIT agency ATOS) Esther Mcvey began the assault with a vile piece of propaganda in the Daily Mail on Saturday. Mcvey claims that many people who are “officially classed ‘disabled’ are no such thing”. Her nasty diatribe comes in advance of the changes to disability benefits which will see around a fifth of disabled people lose vital support.”
” Is it any wonder we are in such a mess whilst chinless gimps like Cameron, Osborne, Clegg and Mcvey run the country like a bunch of posh teenagers who have never understood what it is to stand on your own two feet?”
“And finally Iain Duncan Smith himself appeared in The Daily Telegraph with the ludicrous claim that he could live quite easily on just £53 a week. But then that’s because he sponges off his wife’s parents – living the high life in an inherited ancestral mansion whilst tax payers fund his lavish expenses. At least Esther Mcvey scrounges off her own parent.”
“Millions stare destitution in the face this month with ruthless and reckless cuts set to throw lives into chaos. Many claimants will be left with nothing at all to buy food after paying their bedroom tax, council tax benefits, water rates and other utility bills. Homelessness is already rising and about to soar as a direct result of this Government’s policies. With unemployment also back on the rise, particularly amongst the young, parts of the country may be unrecognisible in just a few month’s time as poverty not seen in decades returns to haunt the UK.
Not content with that however, this toff Government want to add insult to injury by slandering and abusing the victims of their policies in the national press.”
Here is an interesting tool
The BlaBlameter
HT Homepaddock
http://www.blablameter.com/index.php
BlaBlaMeter –
how much bullshit hides in your text?
PR-Experts, politicians, ad writers or scientists need to be strong here!
BlaBlaMeter unmasks without mercy how much bullshit hides in any text.
I put in a speech by Paraata
This was the result.
Your text: 15000 characters, 2640 words
Bullshit Index :0.33
Your text shows indications of ‘bullshit’-English. It’s still ok for PR or advertising purposes, but more critical audiences may be skeptical.
This is the result from Luther King
I have a dream
our text: 9317 characters, 1724 words
Bullshit Index :0.08
Your text shows no or marginal indications of ‘bullshit’-English.
At a guess, I’d say that the test itself is BS.
Probably DT, but fun.
Interesting Blabla meter DV. Tried putting bits from National Party website as well as various bloggers. The worst was from Nat website but none seriously in blabla trouble.
200 partygoers creating havoc. They have enough money to get themselves high so let them pay to get themselves out of prison. Lock ’em up after turning a high pressure fire hose on them. We have bred a bolder and undisciplined group of careless sh..ts and the controls on boozing hours are too lax. A tweak to bring balance is needed.
The majority of NZ citizens predicted this scenario would develop at the time the drinking age was lowered and the rules around drinking hours were relaxed too far. The politicians (nearly all of them) know damm well they were wrong but they won’t admit it. Political considerations transcend all else.
“A tweak to bring balance is needed.”
You can’t do that, think of the damage it would do to the breweries bottom line.
Yes halfcrown – I have been told off for saying what I think about liquor barons.
Them and their weasly lobby group the Hospitality? whatever. Why would we think they would say anything effective to prevent binge drinking like shorter hours, and whether it would ever happen is a moot point. What we are left with is hospital. And we are a sick society with so much alcohol dependence and living for parties.
Not only that.Anyone who has to take up precious A&E time at hospitals or even further medical attention should be paid for by themselves and they should not be eligible for ACC for any injuries while under the influence of alcohol.
They’re only modelling parliamentary behaviour at street level.
My new favourite word is mincome.
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/4100
Beginning in 1974, Pierre Trudeau’s Liberals and Manitoba’s first elected New Democratic Party government gave money to every person and family in Dauphin who fell below the poverty line. Under the program—called “Mincome”—about 1,000 families received monthly cheques.
Unlike welfare, which only certain individuals qualified for, the guaranteed minimum income project was open to everyone. It was the first—and to this day, only—time that Canada has ever experimented with such an open-door social assistance program.
Key on 3: “we could be at war with North Korea” (allies).
Meanwhile, economically, China does “the telling”.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10875936
so some good news
Lagarde waltzes like Strauss-Kahn
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21858531
I came to this blog today for a look after being banned.
I could be a troll and wind you up, but this place is scary, there are so many here who are bitter.
It seems you are on attack all of the time – when do you have fun?
I will look again but this is not a blog that happy people like. Smile and the World ….
… continues doing the same old thing.
Have fun with your fluffy kitten blogs.
Have you ever considered that just maybe there are quite a lot of people with a reason not to be happy and jolly all the time?
To question the status quo does not equal being bitter.
You yourself admit to being a troll.
Enough said.
Obviously haven’t had a look at the dark side then.
Have to agree. Not a lot of humour in a leftie. Just resentment and blame. Although a lot of folk on this blog are funny, but I don’t think it’s intentional.
Aww .. I dunno. Maybe you’re just not in tune with some of the humour. A lot things the Nats say and do make them laugh. Not a lot to laugh about for some whose jobs have disappeared and who’re worried about how to meet their commitments and needs under this government, especially with the unparalleled debt it’s got us into. Not as easy for some of these people to switch lucrative careers perhaps as it was for you. Not because they’re a bunch of lazy slackers either. Can you see things from their perspective at all, out of interest?
A U$K website showing the death toll of the war on the poor instigated by the Tory scum:
http://calumslist.org/
“Calums List | This Welfare Reform Death Toll Has To Stop”
“VERY IMPORTANT
If you are one of the people affected by the Welfare Reforms to such an extent that you are feeling suicidal, PLEASE contact one of the following:- Samaritans UK: 08457 90 90 90 NHS UK: 08454 24 24 24 Breathing Space UK: 0800 83 85 87 Republic of Ireland: 1850 60 90 90. Or use the SEVEN DAY RULE. Whatever you are feeling now, the old saying that suicide is permanent holds true. PLEASE make a contract with yourself. Do nothing precipitous for SEVEN days. Many, many people have found that whatever psychological anguish occurs in the darkest depths of despair, just weathering the storm and holding off for seven days is sufficient to come through and recover enough not to go that way.”
John Yankee is intending the same for us here in N$Z 🙁
“Sick? Who gives Atos?”
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2011/02/sick-who-gives-atos.html
” Atos benefits bullies killed my sick dad, says devastated Kieran, 13
1 Nov 2012 08:34
THE devastated youngster believes the benefits assessors’ decision to deem his dad “fit for work” led to his death from a heart attack.”
Atos benefits bullies killed my sick dad, says devastated Kieran, 13
1 Nov 2012 08:34
THE devastated youngster believes the benefits assessors’ decision to deem his dad “fit for work” led to his death from a heart attack.
A GRIEVING boy of 13 has accused Atos of killing his disabled dad.
Kieran McArdle told the Daily Record in a harrowing letter how his father Brian, 57, collapsed and died the day after his disability benefits were stopped. He had been assessed by Atos and deemed “fit for work”.
The youngster said a previous stroke on Boxing Day last year had caused a blood clot on Brian’s brain.
He was left paralysed down his left side, unable to speak properly, blind in one eye and barely able to eat or dress.
But he was still summoned to an Atos “work capability assessment” – part of the Con-Dem Government’s drive to cut billions from the welfare bill.
Kieran says he had another stroke days before his appointment because of stress, but was still determined to attend.
A month later, former security guard Brian got a letter telling him he would lose his disability benefits on September 26.
Kieran said his dad’s health went rapidly downhill. He believes constant worry about how he would survive without the cash he needed robbed Brian of the will to live.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/atos-killed-my-dad-says-boy-1411100
Yankee John intends the same here for our disabled. 🙁
johnm
There are already 0800 helplines for mentally ill, suicidal, addicted and other people in crisis in NZ.
So by merely handing out phone numbers to ring, will this actually stop anyone from harming themselves if they are really desperate and suicidal? It may in some cases, but if a person is really desperate, they will not bother ringing a stranger late at night – or whenever, thinking that person will really make a difference in an acute crisis, brought on through unsympathetic welfare agencies, who would not give a damn about a client’s well-being unther the new system to be phased in.
If DWP in the UK or WINZ in NZ treat clients as crims, suspects of cheating and bludgers, while they are supposed to “assist” and “support” people in need, who the hell would any client or beneficiary have trust in?
Only welfare advocates may make a difference, but such agencies staffed by them are being closed one after another, because MSD cut their funding (see BIAS in Auckland)!
WTF?!
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/132202/pm-suggests-nz-could-help-defend-south-korea
I’m sure the WhaleSpew Army would all volunteer. Key would no doubt send his sons if it weren’t for an important baseball game in the US and A.
Hopefully this sort of garbage will wake a few more people up to what an abject idiot the guy is. It’ll also be interesting to see Labour’s position on this stupid announcement.
Its good to support your allies when needed
So which “alliance” of a defence nature is there between South Korea and New Zealand?
South Korea and New Zealand are both close allies of the USA. If s**t went down and the USA went in aid of South Korea (as it would) then you can bet (being thats it close to both China and Japan) that Australia would support the USA which means NZ would as well
If not for trade reasons which are certainly a consideration) then for the humanitarian aspect of unifying Korea
You’re an idiot.
War on the Korean peninsula is not a humanitarian cause.
And you’re a fool
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/8715146/Red-Cross-appeal-for-2.7m-emergency-aid-as-North-Korean-bread-basket-hit-by-floods.html
http://rokdrop.com/2011/09/16/red-cross-raises-money-for-north-korean-flood-victims/
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-worried-readers-guide-to-north-korea-8563111.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/21/un-investigate-human-rights-abuses-north-korea
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/12/north-korean-children-malnutrition-un
chris73 pls.
If any of that were relevant we would’ve been in there a long time ago.
Or did such intel only come to light in the last week or two? Co-incident with the threats from Nth Korea?
How strange.
Or did such intel only come to light in the last week or two? Co-incident with the threats from Nth Korea?
-Appeasment never works, it only encourages the same behaviour so if North Korea do decide to attack South Korea then it would be a perfect time to invade North Korea and reunify the country
However if I was the USA I’d make sure I was fully out of the middle east and afghanistan before doing anything
Of course if the USA dont do anything its because theres no oil and if they do something its because they’re trying to take over the world…
lolwut?
Fuck off with your conspiracy theories chris.
funny how we never see Chris73 linking to the human rights abuses committed by the USA,
Chris73, what are your wise learnings teaching you about Guantanamo for example ?
Yep, North Korea will be defeated with all the military might of staunch Kiwi soldiers. The South Koreans really need their loyal NZ friends if attacked. Re-deployment from Bamyan is on the agenda now, straight to the border between North and South Korea. That is what I expect to come from Key’s mouth tomorrow, after what he said to NZ TV media today.
I could not believe it either, that is the shit that NZ media report, and fall for, and nobody dares to ask, is this the newest distraction attempt, to divert away from questions about Fletcher’s selection for leading the GCSB??? Kiwi media, between at times amusing, at other times to be pitied, and furthermore to be truly pathetic.
Well lets see what units would be of use…SAS seem to do quite well, medics are always useful, engineers are respected
Of course recent war experience would be gulf war one and two and afghanistan amongst the most well known conflicts
It also helps that our troops train with other countries that are likely to be involved which makes things easier for integration
No ones suggesting we have the man power to match other countries but equally we have resources that are useful in battles
Do what you can with what you have
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/John-Key-defiant-Ian-Fletchers-GCSB-hiring-appropriate/tabid/506/articleID/34521/Default.aspx
– JT confirms Ferguson was Helen Clarks man (as I stated before and was asked for proof) and quite frankly Key sounds better on this topic then Robertson does…
Radio Live soundings have been clearly to the right of the political spectrum for years, and what, apart from some comment that Ferguson was perhaps appointed to lead GCSB under the last Labour government, do you have to prove he was selected in a manner Fletcher was contacted and suggested by Key???
Yes Willie Jackson that well known tory was also questioning John Key
JT who was in cabinet says yes Ferguson was Helen Clarks man and was shoulder tapped (which he says during the interview) then thats pretty good evidence right there
(except it doesn’t fit in with narrative Labour wants to put out so of course it will be disbelieved, chocolate fish to the first person who asks for “proof”…)
“yes Ferguson was Helen Clarks man”
Give us the actual quote on that.
Its there in the audio clip, JT confirms (and Willie Jackson agrees)
Can you tell us the actual words as said rather than your interpretation please?
I’m not going to transcribe the words when the audio clip is there to listen to.
Ok I’ll do it for you. But seeing as you’re the one claiming it says xyz, you really should do this yourself.
Seeing as it’s half an hour of audio, would you be kind enough to point me to the relevant part?
Ok chris I’ve listened to the entire segment of the interview that relates to the Key scandal, and I haven’t heard anything about Helen Clark’s man.
Unless you can provide the quote, I’m calling bullshit.
See below but feel free to call bullshit as I made a bullshit call
Well once again I have to apologize for getting it wrong (again) I put two and two together and got 5
In other words I was wrong so you don’t need to listen to the audio clip, all it mentions is Helen Clark shoulder tapping but not Ferguson especially
So I’m wrong again and I apologize
Probably be better if you apologised for making it up.
Where did you get “Helen Clark’s man” from? Whaleoil?
Does the interview even mention Helen Clark? Or just “other PMs”?
Do you understand now why people ask for quotes when you make these claims, and would you be able to be a bit less of a cock about it next time?
Chris73 says ,
‘JT who was in cabinet says yes Ferguson was Helen Clarks man and was shoulder tapped (which he says during the interview) then thats pretty good evidence right there’
But unlike John Key
Didnt lie about her involvement in parliament,when questioned .
Didn’t lie to journalists when given the 3rd or 4th chance to come clean.
Its the continual lying ,people dont like chris 73,
You do know what lying is , Chris73?
Its the continual lying ,people dont like chris 73,
– So explain why John Key is still one of the most popular leaders NZ has ever had
You do know what lying is , Chris73?
– Listen to the audio clip (where he explains what happened) and you decide if hes lying and make up your own mind
Yep thanks.
He’s lying
“Radio Live soundings have been clearly to the right of the political spectrum for years”
Yep, demonstrated by the observation that chris thinks his sarcasm needs no explanation.
It’s such an extreme right-wing environment that within it, Willie and JT appear to be far to the left.
Willie Jackson is, JT not so much but rather then discuss my opinion (much as I’d like to) why not listen to the clip and form your own opinion (i know its a difficult concept for left-wingers but give it a go you might like it)
I heard it last week, didn’t hear anything like what you say is in it. Listening again right now, still can’t find your reference.
Be a good trool and tell me whereabouts in the 36 minutes it occurs, won’t you?
Particularly “Fergeson was Helen Clark’s man” or words to that effect.
I still haven’t come across it and I’m well over half way through.
I didn’t make it up as that suggests it was deliberate on my part instead I thought JT had confirmed it but if you want me to apologize for being mistaken then no worries
I apologize for being wrong
“I thought JT had confirmed it”
Confirmed what? Something no-one said?
Hey I still think Clark shoulder tapped Ferguson but I got it wrong saying JT confirmed it
So you thought JT confirmed something you made up.
So you thought JT confirmed something you made up
No, I got it wrong and unlike the majority of posters here I can admit when I’m wrong
lolz, you admit you were “wrong” because you got caught out making shit up.
John Key “is smoking dope on that one” according to Bruce Ferguson. He calls Key’s statement “outrageous.”
Former GCSB head Ferguson is now at war with John Key! Dynamite!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10876297
This morning the NZ Herald quickly pushed this piece off the front pages of its website. Read it!