Concerned Citizens presents:
Wellington fundraiser for the displaced people of Syria
Saturday 15 September 8pm @ 13 Garrett Street, Wellington
The Garret St party fundraiser is for the charitable foundation in Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, now a shelter for many internally displaced families.
Featuring the amazing bands:
The Body Lyre
All Seeing Hand
Hutt Old Boys
$10 donation. All proceeds to Jafra Foundation in Yarmouk, Damascus.
The refugee camp’s hospital was heavily attacked by the government for ignoring the government order not to treat the wounded from all sides of the dispute.
What next? F15’s and F18’s against SU30’s over Syria perfecting their latest weapons and upgrades? Attack helicopters circling like vultures ready to rain death and destruction on some poor bastard on the ground , Oh yeah that’s already happening. New war, new chance to test out some really secret shit. Probably in the surveillance area from the Yanks and death from a robot overhead. Yep welcome to the world, If I was an Alien I’d just keep going.
France may break with Western policy by providing Syria’s rebels with artillery and anti-aircraft guns, a diplomat has said.
France is seeking to identify trustworthy rebel commanders controlling “liberated” territory in the provinces of Deir al-Zor, Aleppo and Idlib, the diplomat said.
“All of these elements explain the reason behind the imperialists’s (east and west) scramble, as well as the reactionary Arab regimes, Turkey and Iran and their local allies in working hystericaly to corrupt and diverge the revolution that has not been avorted. But counter-revolutionariy forces have only face failure so far.”
Statement of the Syrian revo left | The scramble by the imperialists (East and West) to abort the popular revolution | http://syriafreedomforever.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/how-can-we-read-the-current-dynamics-of-the-syrians-popular-revolution-and-its-perspectives/
CV since you have been claiming for months that the West have been supplying weapons to the rebels, an unnamed “diplomat said”, “France may…”, does not count as evidence. In fact it barely counts as rumour.
The Syrian people in open revolt against the thieving murderers and torturers of the Assad regime that is oppressing them, are aware of the accusations made by Assad and his supporters in the West that they are the “infiltrators”. This is what they sing:
Bashar you’re an ass and all those who support you.
“It’s time for you to go Bashar”
Syria wants freedom.
There you have it Colonial Viper, the people of Syria have officially labeled you as an ass.
*(Maher Assad’s brother in law. Known as Syria’s banker who oversaw the neoliberal looting of the state which privatised an estimated 60% of the nations wealth delivering it into the hands of the elite around Assad)
Actually the Syrian people aren’t in open revolt; it is likely that at least half the rebels are foreign fighters/foreign jihadists with very little support from locals. And very little interest in the wellbeing of Syria going forwards.
The huge Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, which has also become a haven for many internally displaced Syrians. Is being bombarded by regime artillery again.
Syrian army mortar and artillery shelling of an area of southern Damascus where Palestinian refugees live has killed at least 20 people, said residents and local emergency workers.
Among the dead were seven Palestinians killed on Thursday in a bombardment of Yarmouk refugee camp, reported sources in the camp.
Forces loyal to president Bashar Assad bombed Safad and al-Jaouna areas and the al-Basel Hospital, local Yarmouk media reported, adding that residents of the camp would protest the shelling outside the al-Waseem Mosque after evening prayers.
ACC is spending millions of dollars flying doctors around New Zealand to assess long-term clients who have already been assessed by other doctors.
The policy has been slammed by John Miller – one of the country’s top lawyers specialising in ACC legislation – who said the so-called “independence” of some assessors was a sham.
ACC lawyers, advocates and claimant groups know those doctors as “hatchet men and women”, Mr Miller said.
“They are not independent, as a substantial part of their income comes from ACC,” he said.
“Mr Miller said the solution would be for ACC to start using a group of trusted assessors who could “be used by both sides.””
That says it all really. That there are now two sides demonstrates the failure of ACC to look after people in need.
What worries me is the people that get shunted off ACC onto WINZ. In the past at least they could get Invalid’s Benefit, but I suspect with the tightening up of IB rules, many are being put on SB long term. SB rates are set because it is meant to be a short/med term benefit.
There is the huge disparity between disability that comes from accident and disability that comes from illness. Accident means you get substantially higher support (which is why ACC is so focussed on getting people rediagnosed as chronically ill). Illness means often you get bugger all support.
It’s also a concern that the role and culture of ACC has been being changed for so long that for many people what ACC do now will be considered normal. The situation we are in now is a result of the failure of our political system.
I wonder how long before a complaint is made to the medical council and they get suspended for malpractice? ACC provides their paycheck, but the MC provides their accreditation…
This is not something that I am “campaigning” for, it is about real issues that sadly the mainstream media simply do not raise and adress much at all. I just recently was told by a NZ Herald journalist, that they are simply not given the time to do any proper research of topics and issues, they do generally more rely on press releases and the likes.
That is why there is almost “zilch” in reporting on social and health issues of this type, and too much consideration and respect is given to medical “experts” and the people running ACC and WINZ.
This whole ACC saga only came into the headlines, because a former National Party hot-shot like Bronwyn Pullar involved the media, and especially since she also involved her other top Nat. Party friend to try and get a settlement – using also the leaked information to push her case.
There are many stories where ordinary people are affected, but little or NO attention is given to them.
I also did primarily focus on what has been going on at WINZ. How would anybody feel, if they have to go and see a so-called “designated doctor” for a “second opinion”, when the fact is, that they have been “trained” in special course sessions by the Ministry of Social Development since 2008. How “independent” is that???
Anyway re ACC, it pays to have a closer look at the board member Dr Des Gorman, who has a very chequered and questionable background as frequently used, former “advisor” to ACC on individual claims and cases.
Dr Des Gorman as new board member of ACC, working alongside the new head of ACC, who is Paula Rebstock (former business operator, Commerce Commissioner, senior Welfare Working Group member), does sent serious warning signs. It does show anything else but a supposed “change of culture” at ACC:
http://healthworkforce.govt.nz/sites/all/files/Discussion Paper – Workforce Requirements for New Models of Service Delivery.pdf
(see especially the already commenced training program to enable GPs to complete some additional modules in training, equipping them with basic “mental health” qualification, to be used for treating and assessing mental health clients, also of course, for WINZ)
This man now wields so much influence and power in the whole health sector, it is extremely worrying to have that man sit next to Rebstock on the ACC Board for the next 3 years. I do not for one moment believe there will be a “culture change”, except perhaps more stringent privacy policies and more secrecy about what they get up to at ACC. I am extremely concerned about what is going on at ACC and WINZ!
“Meanwhile the property market in Auckland is back on the tax loophole-driven rollercoaster, with double-digit price increases over the last year locking more young New Zealanders out of homes and syphoning capital away from job-creating businesses.
“How bad does it have to get before the Government wakes up?
“Just this morning Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce claimed ‘we are not seeing growth in unemployment’. He must be blind. The Household Labour Force Survey is crystal clear that unemployment has gone up.
“The National Government promised a brighter future, but nothing has changed from their hands-off-and-hope approach of the early 1990s. They have no economic policy beyond tax cuts and salary increases for the wealthy, and wishful thinking about commodity prices in milk powder and raw logs.
“Meanwhile the property market in Auckland is back on the tax loophole-driven rollercoaster, with double-digit price increases over the last year locking more young New Zealanders out of homes and syphoning capital away from job-creating businesses.
This is an important issue,as the AK property market is presently being driven mostly by investors using leverage and historical low interest rates.
The sell of the CGT by labour was problematic,and confounded by unnecessary policy distractions such as gst on veges etc.
If the demand was constrained by CGT a more sustainable regime of low interest would be available to all New Zealanders and housing affordability would be more ubiquitous,
Household debt affordability (as a % of disposable income) has reduced significantly of its peak of 2009 driven solely by interest rates.If interest rates corrected upwards,the many would again pay for the few.
If the demand was constrained by CGT a more sustainable regime of low interest would be available to all New Zealanders and housing affordability would be more ubiquitous,
Needs more than a CGT to achieve that. Don’t know what more though.
CGT is a mechanism that constrains price growth, eg bubbles,it would tend to smooth price bursts.
Would not a more sustainable future with low interest rates allow both households and business to have more manageable forecasts.
Labours sell of CGT failed to some extent on the premis it would raise little funds in the short term.It does have a number of positive feedbacks such as diversifying investment and reducing funding costs.
Much more transparency needs to be brought into the benefits and costs of the policy,it is not necessarily a silver bullet,so to speak but it is a start.
CGT is a mechanism that constrains price growth, eg bubbles,it would tend to smooth price bursts.
In theory. Most of the OECD have one and yet housing price bubbles still eventuated bringing down the entire global financial system.
I’m all for a CGT but we’re going to need more to achieve a viable society. Stopping the banks from creating debt based money would be another needed policy.
In theory. Most of the OECD have one and yet housing price bubbles still eventuated bringing down the entire global financial system.
The main reasons for the bubble, were deregulation of the financial systems in the US and too much liquidity eg Reavis 2012
At the same time that U.S. banking regulations were easing, the middle class in emerging markets such as China and India was growing at a phenomenal rate. As a result of this economic growth, the “global pool of money” doubled from $36 trillion in 2000 to $70 trillion in 2008. One economist observed, “The world was not ready for all this money. There’s twice as much money looking for investments, but there are not twice as many good investments.”What was once considered a safe and profitable investment, U.S. Treasury bonds, was no longer appealing as the federal funds rate that was 6.5% for much of 2000 dropped below 2% in 2003.35 Enter mortgage-backed securities.
As a result of this economic growth, the “global pool of money” doubled from $36 trillion in 2000 to $70 trillion in 2008.
This is assbackwards I’m afraid. Economic growth doesn’t ‘create money’. Central bank printing and investment bank debt creation creates money. Which in a real economy gets put to use for economic growth.
This suggests that the investment is not on fundamentals,such as a return on equity,but on future value ie speculation.This is more related to the AK market ,as say Wellington where housing inventory is around 1yr.retail and light commercial around 3 yrs and office around 5 years in surplus.(mostly due to strengthening requirements) and employment stagnation and uncertainty.
Clearly we need some innovative thinking,to redirect investment into sustainable and productive sectors.
Asset speculation bubbles are heavily predicated on access to ever increasing amounts of easy, cheap, bank debt.
A 15% CGT is going to do sweet FA if property speculators are anticipating that they can keep 85% of big gains from an overheating property market. And that those gains are better than what can be got from say, investing in a small business and hiring staff.
So much more needs to be done than just a CGT. A straight out asset tax is an option. As is Steve Keen’s idea – you limit the amount banks can lend for a property to a multiple of the rental income that property can generate.
So much more needs to be done than just a CGT. A straight out asset tax is an option. As is Steve Keen’s idea – you limit the amount banks can lend for a property to a multiple of the rental income that property can generate.
Indeed,not only in say property but in “revalued asset” returns as suggested by Gareth Morgan such as natural monopolies such as Energy generation,airports and ports etc.
The cost/plus mentality reduces the technological evolution for continuous improvement and efficiency.
If every poor person manages to get housed by HNZ, then it will be less tempting for a ‘mum and dad’ New Zealander to buy a block of flats on tick and rent it out at crippling prices to DPB mums and call it ‘saving for their retirement’.
Banks seems to be out of step with his focus groups such as The New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
The New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA) is encouraging political parties to support the RBNZ Amendment Bill to the select committee stage. The Bill proposes changing the wording on the primary function of the Reserve Bank.
This is the proposed wording:
“The primary function of the Bank is to formulate and implement monetary policy directed to the economic objective of maintaining stability in the general level of prices while maintaining an exchange rate that is conducive to real export growth and job creation.”
NZMEA Chief Executive John Walley says, “Across the political spectrum we have agreement that the New Zealand Dollar is too high and volatile. Supporting this Bill through to the select committee stage will create open debate on the issue and perhaps some action will follow. The world is a different place today than it was in2007 when monetary policy was last reviewed.”
“The changes to the Reserve Bank Act need to be debated – what are the targets, what are the mechanisms, how will the decisions be made, who will make those decisions and how will the Reserve Bank board be constituted. All political parties should support the Bill through to a select committee phase and front up to the arguments .What we have at the moment is not working.”
“A number of central banks around the world have taken action to prevent the overvaluation of their currency so there is now plentyof international evidence to call on. The United States Federal Reserve has just announced it is likely to have another round of quantitative easing, Canada has introduced loan to value ratios to prevent demand for household debt from pushing up their currency and Switzerland has been intervening for over a year to lower the value of their currency.”
“Lowering the exchange rate is the precursor to balancing the economy through export growth. Openly exploring options on how to achieve this has to start somewhere.”
Unfortunately toxic brands such as Banks (whose shelf life expired some time ago) still linger like a bad odour.
On a related note, I would like to see them spell out their intentions forthrightly. I would like to hear someone say something along the lines of, “We intend to divert investment away from property and into the kinds of productive industries that underpin employment. We intend to bring about affordable housing, whose affordability is not undermined by excessive travel costs. We intend that our cities are liveable cities, and that our provinces are not left to die from lack of investment. If our initial moves, like the capital gains tax etc, do not bring about the intended results, then we will try other methods, but we are absolutely determined to make real progress in these areas.”
In the 2000s, it was possible to believe that the market was maturing, and that incremental social gains could be made as it matured. That seems to be the thesis that underpinned the third way. Not any more. The market now stands revealed as a great predation machine. No progress can be made until it is treated as such.
If Procrustes had two iron beds upon which to stretch or truncate his victims, the current neoliberal establishment possesses two political parties to fend off any genuine ideological challenge. Both parties insist that New Zealand measures-up to the financial markets, and if it’s found wanting, both are ready to lop off a billion or two.
Over the last few centuries or so capitalism has been shown to be a failure and yet no parties seem willing to advocate for anything to replace it.
There has been evidence that the Scandinavian social democracies have been better positioned to survive the GFC. That is what is claimed in this article from 2009:
According to liberal thinkers, Scandinavian countries should have drowned in the current economic crisis with their bloated public sectors and a nanny-state mentality that stifles individual creativity.
But the opposite has happened. Sweden, Denmark and Norway, where many people pay 50% of their income in taxes – with some even paying 60% – are coping better than most, in particular better than Britain.
…
Not that these small, export-led economies have not been hit by the decline in global trade. All the Scandinavian governments have had to offer bank rescue plans and stimulus packages. Some manufacturers, such as the carmaker Saab, have gone bankrupt. Unemployment is on the rise too – 9.8% in Sweden, 3.8% in Denmark and 3.1% in Norway.
Overall, these countries’ high-tax, high-benefit welfare systems have been acting as stabilisers to their economies. If you lose your job in Sweden, you can expect to receive 80% of your wages for the first 200 days of inactivity, up to 680 kronor (£55) per day, dropping to 70% for the following 100 days. If you lose your job in Norway, you will receive 62% of your previous salary for up to two years.
But according to this piece of uni research from Denmark, the Scandinavian model is built on trust, that needs to be there before the development of a welfare state:
“Our research indicates the exact opposite,” says Bjørnson. “We’ve always had a great trust in other people in Scandinavia, and this trust is the cornerstone of our welfare state.”
Together with Andreas Bergh, of Lund University in Sweden, he has just published the article Historical Trust Levels Predict the Current Size of the Welfare State in the economic journal Kyklos.
…
Bjørnskov believes this trust can be explained with reference to the great internal stability in Denmark and Norway. These two nations have never really had any feuds, civil wars or general disagreements.
…
Bjørnskov argues that since the welfare state involves handing out money to people we don’t know, a general trust in our peers is essential.
…
The only other countries with the same trust levels are Canada and New Zealand. Bjørnskov thinks it would be impossible to introduce a welfare state in any other countries:
But in recent times we have seen both National and Labour (highlighted by Shearer’s roof painter story) doing their best to undermine and eradicate any such trust that still exists amongst Kiwis.
Interesting because the one that is having worse results than the other two, Sweden, has been praised recently by the Neo-Liberal right for abandoning “socialist” policies and becoming more economically “liberal” than the other Scandinavian countries.
Note the drop in Swedens OECD education rankings since they started charter schools, for example.
But according to this piece of uni research from Denmark, the Scandinavian model is built on trust, that needs to be there before the development of a welfare state:
And the entire neo-liberal system actively undermines that trust. People who are systematically exploited to benefit a few know that they’re being exploited and so trust is undermined in the normal working of the capitalist socio-economic system.
Roughly 100 years ago they discovered that particles smaller than atoms could be described in terms of a ‘quantum state’. A whole lot of characteristics which mainly apply to matter and energy on a tiny scale. Fairly easy to understand things like the frequency (colour to the human eye) of a photon of light and the voltage of an electron of electricity etc. but also many other characteristics.
What they also figured out is that two tiny particles which are associated (entangled) together somehow, like two photons of light (maybe they were from the same light source but you split them apart) stay somehow connected even when you physically separate them. In this case over 100km.
What these guys did, by using really sensitive detection equipment, is show that they could transfer the quantum state of one of the photons of light to the other one 143km away. With no known passing of information, signals or messaging between the two locations. Governments are interested in this stuff as it means that there is no known way to “intercept” such a transfer.
Or to use another example. It’s like one twin instantaneously knowing what the other is experiencing from the opposite side of the world.
Is the entanglement something that is known about in more detail, or is it assumed on the basis of the behaviour? ie what does entanglement mean?
Like typical scientific knowledge, its a theory which seems to fit and predict what has been observed over many decades. “Entanglement” to my mind means a connection via some past association. This is the kicker: the application of human consciousness can create and alter entanglement. In physics this is seen when the quantum state of a particle is set when – and only when – we decide to measure it.
But this happens in nature on its own too? (two entangled particles a distance apart).
Can they study it in nature, or are they looking solely at ones they create?
How can they separate two particles over a distance?
Yes it happens in nature too. If it is indeed a fundamental characteristic of matter and energy then in fact our universe is dependent on “entanglement”. I believe they can study naturally occurring instances of entanglement but the mere action of studying something, changes it.
As to how you can separate two particles over a distance. Its really quite easy in principle. I don’t know how they did it in the experiment but using a mirror, prism or diffraction grating to split a single light source up in different directions is totally standard practice.
Ok, but does that mean that they make changes in one and the changes happen in the other for reasons we don’t know yet?
Yes. For instance they can set up two entangled particles where their “spin” (not actual spin like a ball, just another crazy quantum characteristic they named that way) of the particles has to be opposite to each other.
They can then separate the two particles. When they force one of the particles to change its spin guess what happens to its entangled partner? Yep…it changes too, to remain its opposite…and does so instantaneously.
Its about here that considerations of universal cause and effect become very interesting.
Thanks CV, that’s given me a refresher on quantum physics, and added a few things.
” “Entanglement” to my mind means a connection via some past association. ”
Curious name to have been chosen. Anyone know what the reason was?
Are all these experiments being done with photons?
“Its about here that considerations of universal cause and effect become very interesting”
Indeed. It’s one of the few areas of very expensive science that I think isn’t a waste of money in the face of resource depletion and CC.
As an aside, are they teaching quantum physics in schools now? It must be so much easier to be able to think outside newtonian physics if one learns it as one grows up.
Photons are the easiest to do these experiments with because entangled pairs can be created through a process known as parametric down conversion. This generally consists of a laser at a certain frequency shone into a nonlinear crystal. Some of the photons will change to two photons of a lower frequency inside the crystal. The easiest case to imagine is where each of these is at half the frequency of the original photon. They will then exit the crystal in different directions, with momentum conserved, and can be measured at spatially separated locations.
If the measurements violate certain inequalities which are usually developed from the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the two photons are shown to be entangled. One of the ways of understanding this without violating Special Relativity is that the two photons are described by the same wavefunction before measurement and that the measurements lead to a collapse of the wavefunction. This will collapse in different ways depending on which measurements are made. This is the explanation of the Copenhagen interpretation, with others being possible.
There is no reason why atoms and other things cannot also be entangled. In fact, experiments have already been done with atoms and even Bose-Einstein condensates. What we need to remember is that information cannot be transferred instantaneously using this mechanism, because this would violate Special Relativity. This was one of the points that made Einstein unhappy about quantum mechanics, with his claiming that it was an incomplete theory. Experiments much later on, measuring some quantities defined by Bell, showed that it wasn’t.
As far as teaching it in schools goes, I think entanglement is generally introduced in the 3rd year of university physics. Some of quantum mechanics could be taught in schools and I remember learning about the orbitals of the hydrogen atom in the 7th form, but in general understanding stuff like entanglement properly requires a reasonably high level of mathematical sophistication, which I doubt many schoolteachers would have, let alone the students.
The name came from Erwin Schrödinger, who called it verschränkung.
We should also remember that entanglement was not a theory developed to explain observations. It is a physical effect predicted by a theoretical extension of Quantum Mechanics into what Einstein considered ridiculous, but Schrödinger and others defended. It was only observed experimentally many years later.
Scientific theories are sometimes developed to explain things which have been measured already, but they can also be used to predict things which have never been observed, such as the Higgs boson. In this sense, entanglement is as much a theory as the road outside my flat is.
These pages explain quantum entanglement by way of pictures, analogies, but without math.
To understand quantum entanglement, several ideas and words must be explained, especially the idea of a photon. The photon is a key concept in physics, and so critical to entanglement that its behaviours must be fully understood. But before delving into the details of photons, let’s take a look at the world of the tiny, beginning with waves and atoms.
Clearly the current regime of ACC specialists declining people’s claims without justification and often contradicting existing medical assessments isn’t in the best interest of people’s rehabilitation…
But there again if you are treated like shit, and made to think you are lower than every one else, then really what do they expect? And then if you are lucky to actually get a part time job, Winz are there yet again, just to remind you that you are lower then whale shit, and tax you to the extent that it’s just not worth trying to get ahead. So if they want to stop the fraud then stop treating people like third class citizens. But as usual Puddin Benefit is not listening .
Some of those cases aren’t minor, though. We’re only playing Bennett’s game if we equate major organised fraudsters with people struggling on the sickness benefit. Lumping them all together in the public mind is exactly what the right are aiming for. The left shouldn’t fall into that trap.
What the left (looking at you, Shearer) should do is talk MORE about fraud, like this …
So, to put that into context, one “respectable” white-collar crim ripped off 5 million bucks, which is more than 200 people managed in the Stuff article linked by David H.
The finance companies and associated scams (either failed or fraudulent) have cost thousands of Kiwis countless millions, there are people in court every week, and if we want to talk about fairness and greed, it’s all there, ready for Labour’s next Grey Power speech. If only they could see it.
Stop the press, Audrey Young makes unjustifiable assertions:
If Maoridom were to unite behind a single and reasonable response to the Waitangi Tribunal report and the Government unreasonably ignored it, it could develop into a crisis.
But the chances of that happening are slim to zero and the Government is banking on that.
Yeah, no. I suspect that nationwide hui that are happening will, as a matter of fact, produce a united and reasonable response from Iwi.
and that stupidity was followed by:
The Government does not have a strategy of divide and rule.
Um, Audrey, all the bene bashing that has been coming out of this government is part of their divide and rule strategy.
I didn’t get any further than that as the ignorance she was spouting just wasn’t worth reading.
Dear Russia and/or Mr Putin,
Please keep him.
He was going to “challenge” you. Now he’s only going to “ask”. So no need for the knife in the side.
But if you could see it in you – we’d rather nor see him back anyway.Perhaps a position as Syrian gauche – iator? Suit us just fine.
Bronah’s busy weighing he options but a one bedroom flat would do.
…..more to follow
I don’t have the brains (sleep debt for the win) to completely go over this, but it now appears the non-coding regions of the human genome are full of regulatory elements, regulatory elements which are actively expressed in cells at levels beyond mere basal level of expression. Sure, there’s still non-coding DNA with no damn function and various transposons and other such parasites such as LINES, SINES etc, but damn.
Uh, basically, this makes gene expression control in eukaryotes even more interesting and potentially complex, but also explains why we see so many major issues caused by the lose of major non-coding areas of chromosomes. Especially given that these regulatory elements are interspersed through out the genome…
Oh, and this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_DNA has some of the basics of gene expression, it’s not a nice simple binary process typically, but a glorious, multi-factor monster that would drive a computer programmer mental (blame evolution, elements tacked on and recruited via accident and pressed into service via selection and whole systems re purposed blindly) and turn an engineer into a gibbering husk.
As for analogy? It’s a bit like having a mostly dark sky due to an interstellar dust cloud blocking the view, only when you develop the visual and radio astronomy tools do you find the sky is full of fucking stars. Everywhere. Even the darkest parts are full of light (r.e. the Hubble Deep Field) if you look closely and long enough.
But now, the geneticists, cell and developmental biologists get to drive themselves nuts trying to work out just what’s going on. Me? I’ll have to ponder this until I’m mentally fit enough to go back into study and delve into it in post grad work. And damnit, from an evolutionary developmental biology perspective this is utterly glorious stuff that’s going to make things _very_ interesting in terms of understanding phenotypes and breeding barriers :3
I was taught that all this non protein coding stuff was just “junk DNA”. That’s what really smart, yet simultaneously dumb, scientists taught the rest of us muppets for years.
RedLogix: look up the “Central Dogma” of molecular biology. Yes, they really called it that.
The human genome project was a have. Genes are just design blue prints. They control fuck all.
It is also worthwhile to view HS’s defence of conventionally accepted cancer treatments, and his detraction of everything else, when absolutely NONE of those cancer treatments were designed or proved with any knowledge of epigenetics in mind. Sorta important for working with tumours, one would have thought. If those treatments work for some patients, great, but they work from the standpoint of significant ignorance.
Pro-tip, I’ll keep 🙄 at you if you keep abusing the term epigenetics, with cancers it’s all down to gene expression patterns and epigenetic specific issues don’t dominate anywhere near compared to ye olde random DNA mutations, inherited dodgy genes and mutagenic chemicals. At least from what I know of the science, but by all means feel free to go a hunting through the actual peer reviewed, published cancer research literature.
As for conventional cancer treatments vs “new” ones, cancer is a fucking mosaic of causation and phenotypes, and at present, the older methods have a much broader coverage (bar the untreatable cancer types…) as they hit the basic stuff that most cancers share, rapid, uncontrolled cell growth. As gene expression profiling becomes more common in a medical settings (and _if_ iRNA tech gets anywhere) we may see more targeted approaches, but until then some of the newer biotech drugs only work for a subset of sufferers. So yes, sticking with the older, well tested treatments is not entirely irrational.
Especially given the failure rate of new drugs and treatments in clinical trials.
Pro-tip, I’ll keep 🙄 at you if you keep abusing the term epigenetics
Since I’m not in your narrow field, and have no need to be published by the journals representing your narrow field, I don’t have a particular need to abide by your narrow field’s narrow definition of jargon terms. Especially when the term has been defined and used in multiple other ways for 70 odd years.
To put it another way, you don’t get to define and capture the language.
Your statement
with cancers it’s all down to gene expression patterns and epigenetic specific issues don’t dominate anywhere near compared to ye olde random DNA mutations, inherited dodgy genes and mutagenic chemicals.
and
cancer is a fucking mosaic of causation and phenotypes
seem to directly contradict each other
but I suppose that may be accounted for if you are using the phrase “epigenetic specific issues” in your narrow field’s particularly narrow way.
Well, that was because it had no known function at the time.
Thing is in science, until you have evidence something is X, claiming it’s X without any evidence ranges from mere conjecture, to reasoned scientific hypothesis and all the way to outright pseudoscience.
Thing is in science, until you have evidence something is X, claiming it’s X without any evidence ranges from mere conjecture, to reasoned scientific hypothesis and all the way to outright pseudoscience.
So these scientists had evidence showing that those vast stretches of nucleotides were junk? Doubtful.
Instead of saying “it’s likely that those areas of DNA are junk” why didn’t they say “it’s likely that our understanding of those areas of DNA are junk”? Scientists more willing to junk nature than to junk themselves. Imagine that.
A whole generation of molecular geneticists have come and gone and finally the cogs of science can advance one more turn, I suppose.
BTW one generation’s “pseudoscience” often turns out to be the next generations “scientific consensus”. DDT being harmful, artificial food colourings bad for kids etc.
So these scientists had evidence showing that those vast stretches of nucleotides were junk? Doubtful.
/sigh
I should have included a bit of history of the term, namely that it was picked up in the pop-sci press and became entrenched, but suffice to say, the null hypothesis always applies first until you have evidence it’s wrongzors.
And yes, until recently we haven’t had the molecular biology tools to the work ENCODE has done here. Hell, 10 years ago DNA arrays weren’t readily available and took a lot of work to prepare, so western blot and similar electrophoresis gel systems were still the norm, except for very well funded labs. And so working out what genes were being expressed was rather fun and involved a hell of a lot of grunt work, and we didn’t have anywhere as much background as we do now.
BTW one generation’s “pseudoscience” often turns out to be the next generations “scientific consensus”. DDT being harmful, artificial food colourings bad for kids etc.
🙄
I feel the need to cluebat you, as you haven’t bothered doing teh research on the history and critical thinking it seems on either of those. Because if you had, I wouldn’t be 🙄 at you.
What about the arrogance of looking stuff up on the internet and thinking you know more about it than people who have actually devoted years of their life to studying and advancing the field? How many friends does that win?
Not sure where I have been arrogant here. Perhaps arrogant in attempting to challenge the narrow outlook of a narrow academic field? Subject area experts must always expect and be prepared to respond to generalist challenge IMO. Not all can.
NickS uses the term “epigenetic” is a way which is very particular to his field, but does not accept that the term predates his field by decades and has other longstanding definitions.
I also mention various cases where the science ‘flip flopped’ (you could be kind and say “advanced”) where lay people once demonised by the professionals eventually turned out to be way ahead of the game.
BTW in my view physics and mathematics are the two true sciences. The third I might add is in complex systems.
“I also mention various cases where the science ‘flip flopped’ (you could be kind and say “advanced”) where lay people once demonised by the professionals eventually turned out to be way ahead of the game.”
Epigenetics refers to non-DNA inherited changes, stuff like micro RNA’s carried over and patterns of histone and DNA methylation.
Where as ENCODE is looking at the genome 😉
So while there’s some epigenetic aspects involved with methylation patterns vis gene expression, this deals with genes*.
_______________________________
*Gene – any sequence of DNA, seriously. Type of gene depends on where the sequence is, and what the sequence is.
This is the very definition from the scientific literature.
With cancers, if it’s not mutational (random, viral, or mutagenic chemicals), it’s usually caused by chemical-induced changes in gene expression that become locked in via methylation pattern changes initially, though I’m not quite up-to-date with cancer biology vis epigenetic cancers.
Ahhhh thanks. I see that “modern” science has decided to narrow the definition down severely from the 1942 introduction of the term into something convenient for research, although not something I’m confident is necessarily useful for much else.
To quote the wiki entry more fully:
Robin Holliday defined epigenetics as “the study of the mechanisms of temporal and spatial control of gene activity during the development of complex organisms.”[8] Thus epigenetic can be used to describe anything other than DNA sequence that influences the development of an organism.
The modern usage of the word in scientific discourse is more narrow, referring to heritable traits (over rounds of cell division and sometimes transgenerationally) that do not involve changes to the underlying DNA sequence.
Thanks guys. This topic is way out of my zone, but it’s fascinating seeing science do what it eventually does best; building new insights on what has shown to be sound and discarding what is no longer useful.
I can only really speak about physics, but most of what we follow today is an extension of what went before. Good examples of this are Special Relativity, which extended Newtonian mechanics and classical electromagnetism to higher energies, and Quantum Mechanics, the development of which was necessary to understand the radiation emitted by hot bodies at high frequencies. Most theories develop from a need to understand nature in a regime where the old ones are inadequate. In that sense, Newtonian mechanics is perfectly adequate to design a car, but would be pretty hopeless at designing a GPS system.
When new theories do come up, the first thing they need to do is explain something better than the old ones, or they get rejected pretty quickly. In my view they should also be testable, and tested, by experiment.
In other disciplines, such as chemistry and medicine, for example, the systems worked with are not generally as “clean” or “simple” as in physics, so that absolute proof or disproof of a theory can be a bit harder.
Physics and medicine are not comparable types of science. At best, medicine is an applied science which has decided that sampling statistics will largely determine what it views as true and untrue.
Yeah right, given who the author is, I’d rather shove glass shards in my eyes…
Ignorant. You won’t read something because you don’t like the author? Seriously?
When we lived in Welly I read him regularly. Sometimes I agreed, sometimes I didn’t – but it’s juvenile to refuse to read a column by someone because they offended you once. (That being said, I don’t agree with this particular blog entry.)
An article by John Pilger where he expresses the logic that shows that liberalism is the most violent and warmongering ‘ism around.
In Anglo-American scholarship, influential theorists known as “liberal realists” have long taught that liberal imperialists – a term they never use – are the world’s peacebrokers and crisis managers, rather than the cause of a crisis.
They have taken the humanity out of the study of nations and congealed it with a jargon that serves warmongering power. Laying out whole nations for autopsy, they have identified “failed states” (nations difficult to exploit) and “rogue states” (nations resistant to western dominance).
Well, I have always seen “liberalism” as a fairly conservative philosophy – centrist. Its focus is on the individual’s rights & responsibilities. But, as far as I’m aware, it doesn’t include much analysis of power differences or they way some groups have more power or status than others.
US-ians refer to liberals as “left”, but that’s because several decades of reds-under-the-beds scaremongering has expunged socialism from the mainstream. Their “liberalism” promotes a (mythical) meritocracy, which is based on assumptions of a level playing field for all.
So, it doesn’t surprise me that liberalism opens the door to violent, and other forms of, dominance, conquest and suppression, by powerful elites.
Racist Islamaphobe Bruce Bawer declares his dismay that Anders Brevik is a great admirer of his. Brevik favorably cited Bawer’s name no less than 22 times in his racist anti-multicultural ‘manifesto’ justifying his massacre.
Bawer describes his anti-islamic policies as “liberal”, “leftist” even.
the classic liberalism has almost become an anachronism.
just like scientific marxism
it is time the world developed new philosophies to cope with the degradation of the planet and overpopulation.
just mouthing old words aint gonna do nothing.
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Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
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)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
http://www.facebook.com/events/376891172379944/
Concerned Citizens presents:
Wellington fundraiser for the displaced people of Syria
Saturday 15 September 8pm @ 13 Garrett Street, Wellington
The Garret St party fundraiser is for the charitable foundation in Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, now a shelter for many internally displaced families.
Featuring the amazing bands:
The Body Lyre
All Seeing Hand
Hutt Old Boys
$10 donation. All proceeds to Jafra Foundation in Yarmouk, Damascus.
http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/wellington-fundraiser-for-the-displaced-people-of-syria/
The refugee camp’s hospital was heavily attacked by the government for ignoring the government order not to treat the wounded from all sides of the dispute.
I hear France is now going to provide heavy artillery, other heavy arms, and financing directly to the rebels now.
This foreign powers proxy war is going to help the Syrian people no end.
pre scroll (scrabble to play)
ol’ FOX tele: chem weapons in 20 sites (U.S intell)
U.S personnel at Turkey/Syria border
FOX-what if, waht if, waht eef..weapons reach Hizbollah?
la la la la la…
What next? F15’s and F18’s against SU30’s over Syria perfecting their latest weapons and upgrades? Attack helicopters circling like vultures ready to rain death and destruction on some poor bastard on the ground , Oh yeah that’s already happening. New war, new chance to test out some really secret shit. Probably in the surveillance area from the Yanks and death from a robot overhead. Yep welcome to the world, If I was an Alien I’d just keep going.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9526239/France-may-send-anti-aircraft-guns-to-Syrian-rebels.html
“All of these elements explain the reason behind the imperialists’s (east and west) scramble, as well as the reactionary Arab regimes, Turkey and Iran and their local allies in working hystericaly to corrupt and diverge the revolution that has not been avorted. But counter-revolutionariy forces have only face failure so far.”
Statement of the Syrian revo left | The scramble by the imperialists (East and West) to abort the popular revolution | http://syriafreedomforever.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/how-can-we-read-the-current-dynamics-of-the-syrians-popular-revolution-and-its-perspectives/
CV since you have been claiming for months that the West have been supplying weapons to the rebels, an unnamed “diplomat said”, “France may…”, does not count as evidence. In fact it barely counts as rumour.
Indeed! It’s terrible…
The Syrian people in open revolt against the thieving murderers and torturers of the Assad regime that is oppressing them, are aware of the accusations made by Assad and his supporters in the West that they are the “infiltrators”. This is what they sing:
http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/syria-revolutions-mocking-bird-haunts-his-murderers/#more-19868
There you have it Colonial Viper, the people of Syria have officially labeled you as an ass.
*(Maher Assad’s brother in law. Known as Syria’s banker who oversaw the neoliberal looting of the state which privatised an estimated 60% of the nations wealth delivering it into the hands of the elite around Assad)
Actually the Syrian people aren’t in open revolt; it is likely that at least half the rebels are foreign fighters/foreign jihadists with very little support from locals. And very little interest in the wellbeing of Syria going forwards.
The huge Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, which has also become a haven for many internally displaced Syrians. Is being bombarded by regime artillery again.
http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/palestinian-area-of-damascus-blasted-by-assads-artillery/
If you are in Wellington next Saturday support the fundraiser for Yarmouk.
zetetic
Is this what xtasy @
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-05092012/#comment-517800
has been asking, or campaigning for? or at least a step on the way? or is xtasy referring more to WINZ and sickness and disabled beneficiaries?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7637014/ACC-pays-millions-to-send-its-hatchets
“Mr Miller said the solution would be for ACC to start using a group of trusted assessors who could “be used by both sides.””
That says it all really. That there are now two sides demonstrates the failure of ACC to look after people in need.
What worries me is the people that get shunted off ACC onto WINZ. In the past at least they could get Invalid’s Benefit, but I suspect with the tightening up of IB rules, many are being put on SB long term. SB rates are set because it is meant to be a short/med term benefit.
There is the huge disparity between disability that comes from accident and disability that comes from illness. Accident means you get substantially higher support (which is why ACC is so focussed on getting people rediagnosed as chronically ill). Illness means often you get bugger all support.
It’s also a concern that the role and culture of ACC has been being changed for so long that for many people what ACC do now will be considered normal. The situation we are in now is a result of the failure of our political system.
Agreed.
I wonder how long before a complaint is made to the medical council and they get suspended for malpractice? ACC provides their paycheck, but the MC provides their accreditation…
Would be interesting to know if any complaints are going to the HDC as well.
ATOS-“they come for ‘X’ “
Carol –
This is not something that I am “campaigning” for, it is about real issues that sadly the mainstream media simply do not raise and adress much at all. I just recently was told by a NZ Herald journalist, that they are simply not given the time to do any proper research of topics and issues, they do generally more rely on press releases and the likes.
That is why there is almost “zilch” in reporting on social and health issues of this type, and too much consideration and respect is given to medical “experts” and the people running ACC and WINZ.
This whole ACC saga only came into the headlines, because a former National Party hot-shot like Bronwyn Pullar involved the media, and especially since she also involved her other top Nat. Party friend to try and get a settlement – using also the leaked information to push her case.
There are many stories where ordinary people are affected, but little or NO attention is given to them.
I also did primarily focus on what has been going on at WINZ. How would anybody feel, if they have to go and see a so-called “designated doctor” for a “second opinion”, when the fact is, that they have been “trained” in special course sessions by the Ministry of Social Development since 2008. How “independent” is that???
Anyway re ACC, it pays to have a closer look at the board member Dr Des Gorman, who has a very chequered and questionable background as frequently used, former “advisor” to ACC on individual claims and cases.
Dr Des Gorman as new board member of ACC, working alongside the new head of ACC, who is Paula Rebstock (former business operator, Commerce Commissioner, senior Welfare Working Group member), does sent serious warning signs. It does show anything else but a supposed “change of culture” at ACC:
Dr Des Gorman’s appointment to the ACC Board, announcement National Party website:
http://www.national.org.nz/Article.aspx?articleId=39319
Dr Gorman’s qualifications, summarised background and reference to his senior position at the Medical School of the University of Auckland:
https://www.alumni.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/af-des-gorman
Dr Des Gorman’s controversial assessments and recommendations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCecwuwCHb4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QknNdOhOkr8&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCecwuwCHb4&feature=relmfu
Dr Des Gorman’s involvement in the appointment of the Health and Disability Commissioner:
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/11451-des-gorman-involved-in-appointment-of-health-and-disability-commissioner/
Dr Des Gorman as Executive Chair of Health Workforce New Zealand (a new business focused organisation set up within the Ministry of Health in 2009, by Tony Ryall):
http://www.healthworkforce.govt.nz/about-us/board-members
Health Workforce NZ’s Annual Plan for 2011-2012:
http://www.healthworkforce.govt.nz/sites/all/files/HWNZ%20Annual%20Plan%202011-12.pdf
http://www.healthworkforce.govt.nz/sites/all/files/HWNZ Annual Plan 2011-12.pdf
Health Worforce NZ’s influence on GP training by the Royal NZ College of GPs:
http://www.healthworkforce.govt.nz/our-work/gp-training-review
http://healthworkforce.govt.nz/our-work/gp-training-review/discussion-paper-and-feedback
http://healthworkforce.govt.nz/sites/all/files/Discussion Paper – Workforce Requirements for New Models of Service Delivery.pdf
(see especially the already commenced training program to enable GPs to complete some additional modules in training, equipping them with basic “mental health” qualification, to be used for treating and assessing mental health clients, also of course, for WINZ)
Dr Gorman’s involvement with the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners:
http://www.rnzcgp.org.nz/home/SearchForm?Search=Des+Gorman
Dr Des Gorman as member of the National Health Board:
http://www.nationalhealthboard.govt.nz/who-we-are/our-members
Dr Gorman’s attendance NZ Healthcare Congress 2012:
http://www.healthcarecongress.org.nz/page.php?ref=programme
This man now wields so much influence and power in the whole health sector, it is extremely worrying to have that man sit next to Rebstock on the ACC Board for the next 3 years. I do not for one moment believe there will be a “culture change”, except perhaps more stringent privacy policies and more secrecy about what they get up to at ACC. I am extremely concerned about what is going on at ACC and WINZ!
David Cunliffe made a cutting state of the (deteriorating) nation statement yesterday:
http://www.labour.org.nz/news/back-to-the-future-as-job-crisis-deepens
“Meanwhile the property market in Auckland is back on the tax loophole-driven rollercoaster, with double-digit price increases over the last year locking more young New Zealanders out of homes and syphoning capital away from job-creating businesses.
This is an important issue,as the AK property market is presently being driven mostly by investors using leverage and historical low interest rates.
The sell of the CGT by labour was problematic,and confounded by unnecessary policy distractions such as gst on veges etc.
If the demand was constrained by CGT a more sustainable regime of low interest would be available to all New Zealanders and housing affordability would be more ubiquitous,
Household debt affordability (as a % of disposable income) has reduced significantly of its peak of 2009 driven solely by interest rates.If interest rates corrected upwards,the many would again pay for the few.
Needs more than a CGT to achieve that. Don’t know what more though.
CGT is a mechanism that constrains price growth, eg bubbles,it would tend to smooth price bursts.
Would not a more sustainable future with low interest rates allow both households and business to have more manageable forecasts.
Labours sell of CGT failed to some extent on the premis it would raise little funds in the short term.It does have a number of positive feedbacks such as diversifying investment and reducing funding costs.
Much more transparency needs to be brought into the benefits and costs of the policy,it is not necessarily a silver bullet,so to speak but it is a start.
In theory. Most of the OECD have one and yet housing price bubbles still eventuated bringing down the entire global financial system.
I’m all for a CGT but we’re going to need more to achieve a viable society. Stopping the banks from creating debt based money would be another needed policy.
In theory. Most of the OECD have one and yet housing price bubbles still eventuated bringing down the entire global financial system.
The main reasons for the bubble, were deregulation of the financial systems in the US and too much liquidity eg Reavis 2012
At the same time that U.S. banking regulations were easing, the middle class in emerging markets such as China and India was growing at a phenomenal rate. As a result of this economic growth, the “global pool of money” doubled from $36 trillion in 2000 to $70 trillion in 2008. One economist observed, “The world was not ready for all this money. There’s twice as much money looking for investments, but there are not twice as many good investments.”What was once considered a safe and profitable investment, U.S. Treasury bonds, was no longer appealing as the federal funds rate that was 6.5% for much of 2000 dropped below 2% in 2003.35 Enter mortgage-backed securities.
Nice link.
This is assbackwards I’m afraid. Economic growth doesn’t ‘create money’. Central bank printing and investment bank debt creation creates money. Which in a real economy gets put to use for economic growth.
Central bank printing and investment bank debt creation creates money. Which in a real economy gets put to use for economic growth.
The NZ market did not correct ,the real estate investments are still significantly higher then their income and rents eg Bollard.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/7426164/Accumulated-debt-stymied-economy-says-RB-governor
This suggests that the investment is not on fundamentals,such as a return on equity,but on future value ie speculation.This is more related to the AK market ,as say Wellington where housing inventory is around 1yr.retail and light commercial around 3 yrs and office around 5 years in surplus.(mostly due to strengthening requirements) and employment stagnation and uncertainty.
Clearly we need some innovative thinking,to redirect investment into sustainable and productive sectors.
Asset speculation bubbles are heavily predicated on access to ever increasing amounts of easy, cheap, bank debt.
A 15% CGT is going to do sweet FA if property speculators are anticipating that they can keep 85% of big gains from an overheating property market. And that those gains are better than what can be got from say, investing in a small business and hiring staff.
So much more needs to be done than just a CGT. A straight out asset tax is an option. As is Steve Keen’s idea – you limit the amount banks can lend for a property to a multiple of the rental income that property can generate.
So much more needs to be done than just a CGT. A straight out asset tax is an option. As is Steve Keen’s idea – you limit the amount banks can lend for a property to a multiple of the rental income that property can generate.
Indeed,not only in say property but in “revalued asset” returns as suggested by Gareth Morgan such as natural monopolies such as Energy generation,airports and ports etc.
The cost/plus mentality reduces the technological evolution for continuous improvement and efficiency.
Simple really. Increase state housing by 100 to 200% — if impractical to build, then properties should be purchased on the open market.
Flooding the market with low-rent, decently built, secure rentals will do more to dampen down housing speculation than any CGT ever will.
Look at what happened when the state housing system was first started…
You also need to control the availability of bank debt fuelling house price increases.
Can be controlled with my solution above.
If every poor person manages to get housed by HNZ, then it will be less tempting for a ‘mum and dad’ New Zealander to buy a block of flats on tick and rent it out at crippling prices to DPB mums and call it ‘saving for their retirement’.
How about we hear Cunliffe start addressing things such as the monetary supply in NZ, then perhaps real conversations can happen.
Until that is addressed, its nothing more than empty words!
How about we hear Cunliffe start addressing things such as the monetary supply in NZ, then perhaps real conversations can happen.
Indeed a more open discussion on monetary policy is important,especially if ACT disagree.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1209/S00081/nz-first-snake-oil-no-cure-for-high-dollar.htm
Banks seems to be out of step with his focus groups such as The New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
The New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA) is encouraging political parties to support the RBNZ Amendment Bill to the select committee stage. The Bill proposes changing the wording on the primary function of the Reserve Bank.
This is the proposed wording:
“The primary function of the Bank is to formulate and implement monetary policy directed to the economic objective of maintaining stability in the general level of prices while maintaining an exchange rate that is conducive to real export growth and job creation.”
NZMEA Chief Executive John Walley says, “Across the political spectrum we have agreement that the New Zealand Dollar is too high and volatile. Supporting this Bill through to the select committee stage will create open debate on the issue and perhaps some action will follow. The world is a different place today than it was in2007 when monetary policy was last reviewed.”
“The changes to the Reserve Bank Act need to be debated – what are the targets, what are the mechanisms, how will the decisions be made, who will make those decisions and how will the Reserve Bank board be constituted. All political parties should support the Bill through to a select committee phase and front up to the arguments .What we have at the moment is not working.”
“A number of central banks around the world have taken action to prevent the overvaluation of their currency so there is now plentyof international evidence to call on. The United States Federal Reserve has just announced it is likely to have another round of quantitative easing, Canada has introduced loan to value ratios to prevent demand for household debt from pushing up their currency and Switzerland has been intervening for over a year to lower the value of their currency.”
“Lowering the exchange rate is the precursor to balancing the economy through export growth. Openly exploring options on how to achieve this has to start somewhere.”
Unfortunately toxic brands such as Banks (whose shelf life expired some time ago) still linger like a bad odour.
How about we hear Cunliffe start addressing things such as the monetary supply in NZ, then perhaps real conversations can happen.
He’s not the Finance spokesman. He has to leave that to David Parker.
Don’t blame Cunliffe for the allocation of other portfolios, or the performances in them.
Parker, will utter no such words, he is as under control as Bill English, and any finance minister before him.
Cunliffe needs to break ranks and speak out, if he is to be a force for good, then at some stage, someone is going to have to break ranks!
Perhaps they don’t quite fancy the consequences of speaking against the money changers, can’t say I would blame them, given the track record….
The reality still remains, no convo about monetary control, makes everything else oxygen theft!
On a related note, I would like to see them spell out their intentions forthrightly. I would like to hear someone say something along the lines of, “We intend to divert investment away from property and into the kinds of productive industries that underpin employment. We intend to bring about affordable housing, whose affordability is not undermined by excessive travel costs. We intend that our cities are liveable cities, and that our provinces are not left to die from lack of investment. If our initial moves, like the capital gains tax etc, do not bring about the intended results, then we will try other methods, but we are absolutely determined to make real progress in these areas.”
In the 2000s, it was possible to believe that the market was maturing, and that incremental social gains could be made as it matured. That seems to be the thesis that underpinned the third way. Not any more. The market now stands revealed as a great predation machine. No progress can be made until it is treated as such.
Chris Trotter makes an interesting observation about economics and parties:
Over the last few centuries or so capitalism has been shown to be a failure and yet no parties seem willing to advocate for anything to replace it.
There has been evidence that the Scandinavian social democracies have been better positioned to survive the GFC. That is what is claimed in this article from 2009:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2009/aug/05/scandinavia-recession-welfare-state
But according to this piece of uni research from Denmark, the Scandinavian model is built on trust, that needs to be there before the development of a welfare state:
http://sciencenordic.com/trust-creates-welfare-state-%E2%80%93-not-vice-versa
But in recent times we have seen both National and Labour (highlighted by Shearer’s roof painter story) doing their best to undermine and eradicate any such trust that still exists amongst Kiwis.
Interesting because the one that is having worse results than the other two, Sweden, has been praised recently by the Neo-Liberal right for abandoning “socialist” policies and becoming more economically “liberal” than the other Scandinavian countries.
Note the drop in Swedens OECD education rankings since they started charter schools, for example.
And the entire neo-liberal system actively undermines that trust. People who are systematically exploited to benefit a few know that they’re being exploited and so trust is undermined in the normal working of the capitalist socio-economic system.
Google has as its feature the 46th anniversary of star trek.
ESA (The European space agency) has set a new record for “quantum teleportation”
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMLWO7YJ6H_index_0.html
Any chance someone could give a lay explanation of that article?
Roughly 100 years ago they discovered that particles smaller than atoms could be described in terms of a ‘quantum state’. A whole lot of characteristics which mainly apply to matter and energy on a tiny scale. Fairly easy to understand things like the frequency (colour to the human eye) of a photon of light and the voltage of an electron of electricity etc. but also many other characteristics.
What they also figured out is that two tiny particles which are associated (entangled) together somehow, like two photons of light (maybe they were from the same light source but you split them apart) stay somehow connected even when you physically separate them. In this case over 100km.
What these guys did, by using really sensitive detection equipment, is show that they could transfer the quantum state of one of the photons of light to the other one 143km away. With no known passing of information, signals or messaging between the two locations. Governments are interested in this stuff as it means that there is no known way to “intercept” such a transfer.
Or to use another example. It’s like one twin instantaneously knowing what the other is experiencing from the opposite side of the world.
Cool, thanks. More questions of course:
Is the entanglement something that is known about in more detail, or is it assumed on the basis of the behaviour? ie what does entanglement mean?
“maybe they were from the same light source but you split them apart)”
But this happens in nature on its own too? (two entangled particles a distance apart).
Can they study it in nature, or are they looking solely at ones they create?
How can they separate two particles over a distance?
” they could transfer the quantum state of one of the photons of light to the other one 143km away”
Ok, but does that mean that they make changes in one and the changes happen in the other for reasons we don’t know yet?
Like typical scientific knowledge, its a theory which seems to fit and predict what has been observed over many decades. “Entanglement” to my mind means a connection via some past association. This is the kicker: the application of human consciousness can create and alter entanglement. In physics this is seen when the quantum state of a particle is set when – and only when – we decide to measure it.
Yes it happens in nature too. If it is indeed a fundamental characteristic of matter and energy then in fact our universe is dependent on “entanglement”. I believe they can study naturally occurring instances of entanglement but the mere action of studying something, changes it.
As to how you can separate two particles over a distance. Its really quite easy in principle. I don’t know how they did it in the experiment but using a mirror, prism or diffraction grating to split a single light source up in different directions is totally standard practice.
Yes. For instance they can set up two entangled particles where their “spin” (not actual spin like a ball, just another crazy quantum characteristic they named that way) of the particles has to be opposite to each other.
They can then separate the two particles. When they force one of the particles to change its spin guess what happens to its entangled partner? Yep…it changes too, to remain its opposite…and does so instantaneously.
Its about here that considerations of universal cause and effect become very interesting.
Thanks CV, that’s given me a refresher on quantum physics, and added a few things.
” “Entanglement” to my mind means a connection via some past association. ”
Curious name to have been chosen. Anyone know what the reason was?
Are all these experiments being done with photons?
“Its about here that considerations of universal cause and effect become very interesting”
Indeed. It’s one of the few areas of very expensive science that I think isn’t a waste of money in the face of resource depletion and CC.
As an aside, are they teaching quantum physics in schools now? It must be so much easier to be able to think outside newtonian physics if one learns it as one grows up.
Photons are the easiest to do these experiments with because entangled pairs can be created through a process known as parametric down conversion. This generally consists of a laser at a certain frequency shone into a nonlinear crystal. Some of the photons will change to two photons of a lower frequency inside the crystal. The easiest case to imagine is where each of these is at half the frequency of the original photon. They will then exit the crystal in different directions, with momentum conserved, and can be measured at spatially separated locations.
If the measurements violate certain inequalities which are usually developed from the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the two photons are shown to be entangled. One of the ways of understanding this without violating Special Relativity is that the two photons are described by the same wavefunction before measurement and that the measurements lead to a collapse of the wavefunction. This will collapse in different ways depending on which measurements are made. This is the explanation of the Copenhagen interpretation, with others being possible.
There is no reason why atoms and other things cannot also be entangled. In fact, experiments have already been done with atoms and even Bose-Einstein condensates. What we need to remember is that information cannot be transferred instantaneously using this mechanism, because this would violate Special Relativity. This was one of the points that made Einstein unhappy about quantum mechanics, with his claiming that it was an incomplete theory. Experiments much later on, measuring some quantities defined by Bell, showed that it wasn’t.
As far as teaching it in schools goes, I think entanglement is generally introduced in the 3rd year of university physics. Some of quantum mechanics could be taught in schools and I remember learning about the orbitals of the hydrogen atom in the 7th form, but in general understanding stuff like entanglement properly requires a reasonably high level of mathematical sophistication, which I doubt many schoolteachers would have, let alone the students.
The name came from Erwin Schrödinger, who called it verschränkung.
We should also remember that entanglement was not a theory developed to explain observations. It is a physical effect predicted by a theoretical extension of Quantum Mechanics into what Einstein considered ridiculous, but Schrödinger and others defended. It was only observed experimentally many years later.
Scientific theories are sometimes developed to explain things which have been measured already, but they can also be used to predict things which have never been observed, such as the Higgs boson. In this sense, entanglement is as much a theory as the road outside my flat is.
😯
:we’re not worthy:
Diagrams:Richard Feynman
A simple analogy is Le Chatelier’s principle.
Any change in status quo prompts an opposing reaction in the responding system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Chatelier%27s_principle
In the ESA case the measurement produced the anti correlation.
This bloke has a go at explaining it all.
http://www.davidjarvis.ca/dave/entanglement/
These pages explain quantum entanglement by way of pictures, analogies, but without math.
To understand quantum entanglement, several ideas and words must be explained, especially the idea of a photon. The photon is a key concept in physics, and so critical to entanglement that its behaviours must be fully understood. But before delving into the details of photons, let’s take a look at the world of the tiny, beginning with waves and atoms.
Thanks joe, nice site.
ACC’s corrupt specialists
Clearly the current regime of ACC specialists declining people’s claims without justification and often contradicting existing medical assessments isn’t in the best interest of people’s rehabilitation…
And here’s another thing for the Bene bashers to have a go at..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/7638430/Welfare-fraud-exceeds-4m-in-five-years
But there again if you are treated like shit, and made to think you are lower than every one else, then really what do they expect? And then if you are lucky to actually get a part time job, Winz are there yet again, just to remind you that you are lower then whale shit, and tax you to the extent that it’s just not worth trying to get ahead. So if they want to stop the fraud then stop treating people like third class citizens. But as usual Puddin Benefit is not listening .
Some of those cases aren’t minor, though. We’re only playing Bennett’s game if we equate major organised fraudsters with people struggling on the sickness benefit. Lumping them all together in the public mind is exactly what the right are aiming for. The left shouldn’t fall into that trap.
What the left (looking at you, Shearer) should do is talk MORE about fraud, like this …
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/115320/former-director-admits-defrauding-investors
So, to put that into context, one “respectable” white-collar crim ripped off 5 million bucks, which is more than 200 people managed in the Stuff article linked by David H.
The finance companies and associated scams (either failed or fraudulent) have cost thousands of Kiwis countless millions, there are people in court every week, and if we want to talk about fairness and greed, it’s all there, ready for Labour’s next Grey Power speech. If only they could see it.
she too busy in her own pipe dream!
They won’t magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster.
Hell yeah, If only I had the courage or intellect to compose something similar to my local MP Lotu-Iiga.
Stop the press, Audrey Young makes unjustifiable assertions:
Yeah, no. I suspect that nationwide hui that are happening will, as a matter of fact, produce a united and reasonable response from Iwi.
and that stupidity was followed by:
Um, Audrey, all the bene bashing that has been coming out of this government is part of their divide and rule strategy.
I didn’t get any further than that as the ignorance she was spouting just wasn’t worth reading.
“Stop the press, Audrey Young makes unjustifiable assertions, again”
fify.
(she also wrote that crap about accommodation supplement a while back).
Yes I didn’t get much further than this quote:
Because it indicated her article had NO credibility!
Some amazing photos from battle in Syria
That’s the most awful thing I’ve seen. Most of the men in the first photo dead in the seconds afterwards.
More.
Syrian rebels: Too fragmented, unruly.
Al-Qaeda’s Specter in Syria.
The Prophet’s Curse: Islam’s Ancient Divide Fuels Middle East Conflicts.
ahhh..the Caliphate
Dear Russia and/or Mr Putin,
Please keep him.
He was going to “challenge” you. Now he’s only going to “ask”. So no need for the knife in the side.
But if you could see it in you – we’d rather nor see him back anyway.Perhaps a position as Syrian gauche – iator? Suit us just fine.
Bronah’s busy weighing he options but a one bedroom flat would do.
…..more to follow
Hard Case!
for Putin et al, the nz FTA is seen as a pilot project (u could not make this up-pilot)
Key-effectively “if it is what Putin wants, it will be what Putin gets” ffffftt.
yet
Romney-effectively “Russia is the U.S’s #1 Enemy, go figure…
RONS-“flat lining….provincial funding” Yep! over 50 tonnes on collapsing shoulders and rising water tables
Creative work: Hebrew ‘yosah’ -modelling from previous material, as a potter modelling clay
and ‘bara’ sans microns/macrons-event
‘eres a couple a comebacks for the fasci fissures
-mehr sein als scheinen-they will fall in love with that one
-endogenous retroviral insertion
-sans FOXP2 (even in the gut)
Holy Fucking Shit:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v489/n7414/pdf/nature11247.pdf
I don’t have the brains (sleep debt for the win) to completely go over this, but it now appears the non-coding regions of the human genome are full of regulatory elements, regulatory elements which are actively expressed in cells at levels beyond mere basal level of expression. Sure, there’s still non-coding DNA with no damn function and various transposons and other such parasites such as LINES, SINES etc, but damn.
Uh, basically, this makes gene expression control in eukaryotes even more interesting and potentially complex, but also explains why we see so many major issues caused by the lose of major non-coding areas of chromosomes. Especially given that these regulatory elements are interspersed through out the genome…
Oh, and this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_DNA has some of the basics of gene expression, it’s not a nice simple binary process typically, but a glorious, multi-factor monster that would drive a computer programmer mental (blame evolution, elements tacked on and recruited via accident and pressed into service via selection and whole systems re purposed blindly) and turn an engineer into a gibbering husk.
As for analogy? It’s a bit like having a mostly dark sky due to an interstellar dust cloud blocking the view, only when you develop the visual and radio astronomy tools do you find the sky is full of fucking stars. Everywhere. Even the darkest parts are full of light (r.e. the Hubble Deep Field) if you look closely and long enough.
But now, the geneticists, cell and developmental biologists get to drive themselves nuts trying to work out just what’s going on. Me? I’ll have to ponder this until I’m mentally fit enough to go back into study and delve into it in post grad work. And damnit, from an evolutionary developmental biology perspective this is utterly glorious stuff that’s going to make things _very_ interesting in terms of understanding phenotypes and breeding barriers :3
Is this epigenetics?
I was taught that all this non protein coding stuff was just “junk DNA”. That’s what really smart, yet simultaneously dumb, scientists taught the rest of us muppets for years.
RedLogix: look up the “Central Dogma” of molecular biology. Yes, they really called it that.
The human genome project was a have. Genes are just design blue prints. They control fuck all.
It is also worthwhile to view HS’s defence of conventionally accepted cancer treatments, and his detraction of everything else, when absolutely NONE of those cancer treatments were designed or proved with any knowledge of epigenetics in mind. Sorta important for working with tumours, one would have thought. If those treatments work for some patients, great, but they work from the standpoint of significant ignorance.
🙄
Pro-tip, I’ll keep 🙄 at you if you keep abusing the term epigenetics, with cancers it’s all down to gene expression patterns and epigenetic specific issues don’t dominate anywhere near compared to ye olde random DNA mutations, inherited dodgy genes and mutagenic chemicals. At least from what I know of the science, but by all means feel free to go a hunting through the actual peer reviewed, published cancer research literature.
As for conventional cancer treatments vs “new” ones, cancer is a fucking mosaic of causation and phenotypes, and at present, the older methods have a much broader coverage (bar the untreatable cancer types…) as they hit the basic stuff that most cancers share, rapid, uncontrolled cell growth. As gene expression profiling becomes more common in a medical settings (and _if_ iRNA tech gets anywhere) we may see more targeted approaches, but until then some of the newer biotech drugs only work for a subset of sufferers. So yes, sticking with the older, well tested treatments is not entirely irrational.
Especially given the failure rate of new drugs and treatments in clinical trials.
Since I’m not in your narrow field, and have no need to be published by the journals representing your narrow field, I don’t have a particular need to abide by your narrow field’s narrow definition of jargon terms. Especially when the term has been defined and used in multiple other ways for 70 odd years.
To put it another way, you don’t get to define and capture the language.
Your statement
and
seem to directly contradict each other
but I suppose that may be accounted for if you are using the phrase “epigenetic specific issues” in your narrow field’s particularly narrow way.
Well, that was because it had no known function at the time.
Thing is in science, until you have evidence something is X, claiming it’s X without any evidence ranges from mere conjecture, to reasoned scientific hypothesis and all the way to outright pseudoscience.
So these scientists had evidence showing that those vast stretches of nucleotides were junk? Doubtful.
Instead of saying “it’s likely that those areas of DNA are junk” why didn’t they say “it’s likely that our understanding of those areas of DNA are junk”? Scientists more willing to junk nature than to junk themselves. Imagine that.
A whole generation of molecular geneticists have come and gone and finally the cogs of science can advance one more turn, I suppose.
BTW one generation’s “pseudoscience” often turns out to be the next generations “scientific consensus”. DDT being harmful, artificial food colourings bad for kids etc.
Why is that?
/sigh
I should have included a bit of history of the term, namely that it was picked up in the pop-sci press and became entrenched, but suffice to say, the null hypothesis always applies first until you have evidence it’s wrongzors.
And yes, until recently we haven’t had the molecular biology tools to the work ENCODE has done here. Hell, 10 years ago DNA arrays weren’t readily available and took a lot of work to prepare, so western blot and similar electrophoresis gel systems were still the norm, except for very well funded labs. And so working out what genes were being expressed was rather fun and involved a hell of a lot of grunt work, and we didn’t have anywhere as much background as we do now.
🙄
I feel the need to cluebat you, as you haven’t bothered doing teh research on the history and critical thinking it seems on either of those. Because if you had, I wouldn’t be 🙄 at you.
Go read up grasshopper and think.
Funny how scientific arrogance (and being condescending/smarmy/superior) doesn’t seem to win many friends or influence many people.
What about the arrogance of looking stuff up on the internet and thinking you know more about it than people who have actually devoted years of their life to studying and advancing the field? How many friends does that win?
Not sure where I have been arrogant here. Perhaps arrogant in attempting to challenge the narrow outlook of a narrow academic field? Subject area experts must always expect and be prepared to respond to generalist challenge IMO. Not all can.
NickS uses the term “epigenetic” is a way which is very particular to his field, but does not accept that the term predates his field by decades and has other longstanding definitions.
I also mention various cases where the science ‘flip flopped’ (you could be kind and say “advanced”) where lay people once demonised by the professionals eventually turned out to be way ahead of the game.
BTW in my view physics and mathematics are the two true sciences. The third I might add is in complex systems.
“I also mention various cases where the science ‘flip flopped’ (you could be kind and say “advanced”) where lay people once demonised by the professionals eventually turned out to be way ahead of the game.”
What are some examples CV?
Already mentioned some. But NickS discounted them saying I didn’t know my history about them and he did.
Epigenetics refers to non-DNA inherited changes, stuff like micro RNA’s carried over and patterns of histone and DNA methylation.
Where as ENCODE is looking at the genome 😉
So while there’s some epigenetic aspects involved with methylation patterns vis gene expression, this deals with genes*.
_______________________________
*Gene – any sequence of DNA, seriously. Type of gene depends on where the sequence is, and what the sequence is.
No it doesn’t.
And who exactly here has teh experience in genetics? Right, that’s me.
And referring to teh wiki:
This is the very definition from the scientific literature.
With cancers, if it’s not mutational (random, viral, or mutagenic chemicals), it’s usually caused by chemical-induced changes in gene expression that become locked in via methylation pattern changes initially, though I’m not quite up-to-date with cancer biology vis epigenetic cancers.
Ahhhh thanks. I see that “modern” science has decided to narrow the definition down severely from the 1942 introduction of the term into something convenient for research, although not something I’m confident is necessarily useful for much else.
To quote the wiki entry more fully:
Science terminology is always refined via how it’s used in the published research 😛
Ain’t that the truth bro.
Thanks guys. This topic is way out of my zone, but it’s fascinating seeing science do what it eventually does best; building new insights on what has shown to be sound and discarding what is no longer useful.
I can only really speak about physics, but most of what we follow today is an extension of what went before. Good examples of this are Special Relativity, which extended Newtonian mechanics and classical electromagnetism to higher energies, and Quantum Mechanics, the development of which was necessary to understand the radiation emitted by hot bodies at high frequencies. Most theories develop from a need to understand nature in a regime where the old ones are inadequate. In that sense, Newtonian mechanics is perfectly adequate to design a car, but would be pretty hopeless at designing a GPS system.
When new theories do come up, the first thing they need to do is explain something better than the old ones, or they get rejected pretty quickly. In my view they should also be testable, and tested, by experiment.
In other disciplines, such as chemistry and medicine, for example, the systems worked with are not generally as “clean” or “simple” as in physics, so that absolute proof or disproof of a theory can be a bit harder.
Physics and medicine are not comparable types of science. At best, medicine is an applied science which has decided that sampling statistics will largely determine what it views as true and untrue.
Then you should probably go play games. 😈
http://karldufresne.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/one-in-eye-for-neo-wowsers.html
Interesting, food for thought…
🙄
Yeah right, given who the author is, I’d rather shove glass shards in my eyes…
Ignorant. You won’t read something because you don’t like the author? Seriously?
When we lived in Welly I read him regularly. Sometimes I agreed, sometimes I didn’t – but it’s juvenile to refuse to read a column by someone because they offended you once. (That being said, I don’t agree with this particular blog entry.)
An article by John Pilger where he expresses the logic that shows that liberalism is the most violent and warmongering ‘ism around.
Well, I have always seen “liberalism” as a fairly conservative philosophy – centrist. Its focus is on the individual’s rights & responsibilities. But, as far as I’m aware, it doesn’t include much analysis of power differences or they way some groups have more power or status than others.
US-ians refer to liberals as “left”, but that’s because several decades of reds-under-the-beds scaremongering has expunged socialism from the mainstream. Their “liberalism” promotes a (mythical) meritocracy, which is based on assumptions of a level playing field for all.
So, it doesn’t surprise me that liberalism opens the door to violent, and other forms of, dominance, conquest and suppression, by powerful elites.
The “leftist liberal” admired by Anders Brevik.
Racist Islamaphobe Bruce Bawer declares his dismay that Anders Brevik is a great admirer of his. Brevik favorably cited Bawer’s name no less than 22 times in his racist anti-multicultural ‘manifesto’ justifying his massacre.
Bawer describes his anti-islamic policies as “liberal”, “leftist” even.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903999904576465801154130960.html
Thanks, DtB – Pilger’s always good!
the classic liberalism has almost become an anachronism.
just like scientific marxism
it is time the world developed new philosophies to cope with the degradation of the planet and overpopulation.
just mouthing old words aint gonna do nothing.
Great work Viper and Draco
(u know my thoughts on specialization, credentialism and hubris) Rock On!
husk? yes; gibber? well that is in the eye of the beholder
(dude put me off my breeze)
there is always one, is there not