Virtual reality has never pushed my buttons but I can see how it might appeal to escapist younger generations. There's even economic opportunity for young kiwis:
Kiwi-founded Non-Fungible Labs created Fluf World – 10,000 unique 3D digital artwork bunnies based on one of the project leaders' pets – in early 2021 and has since taken the world by storm. The ‘Flufs’ are stored as tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.
The original non-fungible tokens (NFT) sold for about $4 million to users around the world. A smart contract programmed in the platform allows the Kiwi entrepreneurs to make a 5 percent cut on every transaction.
Users have generated more than $100m worth of trading activity from buying and selling the NFTs. Its second avatar collection in December sold for $5 million in about 12 minutes.
Selling imaginary products online into the global marketplace boosts our economy without adding to global warming. Centrality chief executive and co-founder of Non Fungible Labs Aaron McDonald says
the two key components of how the metaverse differs from how the internet has operated so far is that the metaverse allows for individual ownership of content and assets and it also merges different sectors on one platform.
"Selling imaginary products online into the global marketplace boosts our economy without adding to global warming. "
Apparently not
'So what’s not to like? Surely it’s a good thing that artists who have had a hard time earning a crust in the pandemic can get paid? It is. But there is one small snag: the technology that ensures that the NFT you’ve bought is a blockchain similar to the ones that power cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or Ethereum. And the computation needed to provide the certification that is the USP of blockchains requires massive amounts of electricity, which comes with a correspondingly heavy carbon footprint. A single transaction on the Ethereum blockchain, for example, currently requires 232.51 kWh, which is equivalent to the power consumption of an average US household over 7.86 days."
I did wonder about that angle. I've reported energy-hungry bitcoin mining here before – just didn't want to assume same applied. So we will have to include that costing into the enterprise as you imply. I'll leave it to economists to quantify the comparison with conventional business but for now best to acknowledge the Green dimension of the enterprise is more apparent than real.
The appeal of NFTs in general however is a complete mystery to me, (aside from those taking the commissions and a few speculators) …burning banknotes would make as much sense and at least you could boil a billy.
Not really like copyright. An NFT is digital so many copies can be appreciated without the owner even being aware. And of course there can be examples of essentially duplicate NFTs being produced and sold. Similar things happen with prints in the art world where you are essentially taking the artists word that only a limited run of prints will be sold.
I think the 'decentralised' claims are a major selling point, the allure of an outsider exploit, of sticking it to the system à la the Gamestop affair.
it’s a broadly smart satire with some zinger one-liners and in my view the film pretty successfully used the impending doom of a scientifically indisputable planet-killing comet to draw parallels to the impending doom of the climate emergency, which we’re watching play out in real time. In the film, the world has six months and 14 days to save the planet from destruction but fails to do so because short-term political gain, corporate greed, misinformation, and utter stupidity divides America.
…
After 17 years of reporting on the climate crisis, I doubted at first that the film had much to tell me about the frustrations of communicating a hypothetical catastrophe. As the film’s scientists first struggled to clothe their data in sober, measured terms, then broke into swearing, arm-waving shrieks about provable imminent apocalypse, I nodded along. Yes, that’s what it feels like, and no, no one listens, not until it is too late.
…
The film wastes hours hand-wringing about celebrity culture, algorithms, memes and data privacy.
…
Perhaps for critics assessing the movie solely on artistic merit, but not for scientific communicators such as Neil deGrasse Tyson, who told his 14 million Twitter followers: “Everything I know about news-cycles, talk shows, social media, and politics tells me the film was instead a documentary.”
The public seems to be siding with the movie makers. In its first 11 days, Don’t Look Up became Netflix’s third most-viewed film ever, and 250,000 people on IMDb gave the film a strong average rating of 7.3, compared with a Metacritic review of just 50%.
Consciousness raising around global warming is always helpful so the movie is performing a public service. Not for me – I don't use Netflix. Too busy.
I added a series of ellipsis to the quote in your comment. These make it clear there are gaps in the quote, and make it easier to understand what is being said (there were some non-sequiturs when reading without the breaks) 👍
Good to see on Al Jazeera tv news that the James Webb Telescope, having successfully unfolded & fully deployed its multi-layered sunshade, has now also successfully unfolded & fully deployed its primary mirror comprised of multiple hexagonal mirrors that will work together as one single optical unit.
As someone who is intensely curious about the cosmos & has enjoyed seeing many of the fantastic images from the Hubble Telescope I look forward to the continuing success of the deployment, calibration testing, & the beginning of the many observation projects assigned to this telescope.
The launch went so well very few course corrections have been needed, which means an extended operation time for the JWT.
Here’s an excellent short explainer about the JWT deployment, & its upcoming work programme, that I’ve just watched, for anyone else interested.
I don't know if anyones been following the US Womens Football fight for 'equal pay' but this guy has been
Short version:
the women should have taken the mens deal, the men should have taken the womens deal and now the women want the guaranteed pay of their deal and the performance deal of the mens
Where is the media in all this? The media seems to be using something Biden said when he was a candidate when the situation with the employment agreement and the attitude of the women was a lot different that what it is today.\
U.S. women’s soccer games have generated more revenue than U.S. men’s games over the past three years.
That’s according to audited financial statements from the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) obtained by The Wall Street Journal. In 2016, women’s games generated $1.9 million more in revenue than men’s games. From 2016 to 2018, women’s games generated approximately $50.8 million in revenue, compared with $49.9 million for men’s games.
The Journal report notes that the “ability of the women’s team to generate gate revenues that equals or exceeds the men’s team is an important battleground,” and central to an ongoing lawsuit filed against the USSF by 28 members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team in March.
the thing is Rhonda is not incorrect in stating that the more money one brings the more money one should earn. However, we also know that in the real world that is not often the case. In this case the US American Ladies may bring the cash, but they don't get the rewards.
And Last but least, we are not talking about pay discrepancies in private Clubs, this is a dispute on a National Team level, and so far no one has given one good reason why the Male National Soccer Team should be paid better then the Non Male National Soccer Team, they are executing the same job, under the same conditions and they are both there to represent the country.
If you look at my comment you will find that i simply replied to your clip about rhonda stating that 'people who bring the money will be paid more'.
– No they do not. Not always.
Next, i stated that both teams Male and Non Male should be paid the same, as they are both playing soccer under the same cirumcstances for the glory of the Nation in the National team.
That means that both male and female are allowed maternity and paternity leave.
That means that both male and female are allowed the same health care benefits albeit centered around their biology. See maternity and paternity leave.
That means that both male and female are paid during Covid lockdowns.
and that means that both male and female are paid the same in wages and benefits – maybe a bit tweaked for their biology, maternity leave and paternity leave comes to mind.
But as for Rhonda, no just because someone should earn more because they are good income providers does not mean it happens. Sometimes they only have 'Sex' specific leave and a pay during Covid, that most likely comes about the fact that from the get go they actually earn a lesser wage then their male counterparts thus have a harder time staying on a team unpaid.
Last it also shows that there is true comradery in the female team if they actually demanded all be paid during the covid lockdowns, maybe the rep for the males should ask for the same. And keep in mind that that expenditure only appears when they actually have a covid lockdown and can't play.
However, the record stands, the Non Males made more buck for bang then the Males, and got lower pay, maternity leave and a covid payment for that effort. And Rhonda is somewhat wrong and somewhat right.
Well maybe they should be but they were given contracts and they both signed and even thought the courts ruled the women make money than the men they're still not happy.
‘Last it also shows that there is true comradery in the female team if they actually demanded all be paid during the covid lockdowns, maybe the rep for the males should ask for the same.’
No there isn’t true camradery in the womens team, there are a few high profile players (or recently retired players) that are setting the agenda and they get paid whether they play or not
FYI It was my clip, not PR's. And my point was to show that Ronda believes an athletes income should be based on revenue earned. From what PR is saying, that is what is happening, and that appears to have been the conclusion of the Judge in the equal pay case.
“Honestly, I hope it all gets sorted as soon as possible. For the sport, we need him here, it's that simple,” Nick Kyrgios.
"Yet he has now become one of his old foe's most unlikely and sympathetic backers, declaring that Djokovic hasn't been treated humanely and that tennis really needs its world No 1 back at the Australian Open."
"That letter stated Djokovic’s Australia Travel Declaration had been assessed and his responses “indicated that he met the requirements for a quarantine-free arrival into Australia where permitted by the jurisdiction of [his] arrival”."
Unless of course this is just a matter of 'unvaxxed = bad mmkay'.
you know the sport is a joke when one person is "needed". formula one is facing the same nonsense with "experts" claiming that lewis hamilton is "needed" to save it. rugby in aus went through the same bullshit with folau . no one person should be "needed" to save a sport. what happens if they step in front of a bus?
I agree with your wider point about individuals being larger than the game.
In the case of Folau and Djokovic, decisions are being made because lots of sticky beaks (folk with no 'skin in the game') can express howls of outrage and bring political pressure to bear. There were more than one or two teamates who shared Folau's attitude but were prudent or lacked the courage to voice them.
or knew how to honour a written contract . folau is now playing rugby in japan and you can bet that he is well aware of what will happen if he AGAIN fails to keep his word. as novax is finding out, no one person is bigger than their chosen sport.
"Unless of course this is just a matter of 'unvaxxed = bad mmkay'."
Wouldn't hazard a guess what "mmkay" means but guess its a snide attack on anyone who believes the vaccination mandates are there for an excellent reason and must be upheld in the interest of all citizens.
But the first part is absolutely correct. It is a matter of whether a person is vaccinated. If they are well and good. If they're not then off you go.
Former senior figures have accused the Greens of jettisoning core principles as party discontent surfaces over its co-operation agreement in government.
Ex-MPs Sue Bradford and Catherine Delahunty say the agreement makes no sense and that the party’s position in government amounts to a failure of leadership.
Delahunty criticised her former colleagues for not pointing to an “unholy alliance between banks and the government” that accounted for record bank profits, inflated house prices and growing inequality.
Former co-leader and current head of Greenpeace New Zealand Russel Norman has also called Green minister James Shaw’s climate position “simply not credible”.
RNZ can reveal a number of activists have recently stepped away from the party, including former executive and policy branch members.
They accuse co-leader Shaw of having an autocratic style and complain that the party executive is not holding the caucus and leadership to account over policy decisions in government.
Delahunty criticised her former colleagues for not pointing to an “unholy alliance between banks and the government” that accounted for record bank profits, inflated house prices and growing inequality.
"Help! Mercy! I had thought (or hoped) that, as we turned into the New Year, the Herald would give us a break or put another record on. But, presumably because they have nothing new to say, the Herald has begun 2022 by re-publishing the columns written last year by their reliably anti-government columnists. As the French say “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.”
And, if the supply of these golden oldies runs out, they can always turn to some publicity-hungry, so-called “socialite” to regale us with her “expert” opinion on constitutional matters. Anything, it seems, is worth publishing, as long as it takes a pot-shot at the government.
We surely have a right to expect something better from our supposedly leading daily newspaper?"
But this is RNZ, which is generally very Woke & supportive of the government.
Could this be a signal that they are supportive of Labour, but not the Greens?
I note most of the info is about events that happened quite some time ago. So is it a hit piece – or media massaging what’s really a non-story into something bigger in the absence of current political activity in Parliament?
Not sure why you regard RNZ as “woke” whatever that actually means.
Just googled the definition of woke & got back lots of articles discussing how it’s become so extensively used & misused now that it’s lost its original meaning and is falling out of favour.
It originally meant (apart from its more obvious meaning as the past participle of wake) being aware of issues of racial & social injustice.
Perhaps I should have used the term politically correct – with which it is now seemingly becoming confused – or merging – in everyday usage?
And all I meant is, that whenever I listen to RNZ (e.g. Morning Report hosts like Suzy Fergusson, Corrin Dann, Guyon Espiner, or Kim Hill, Jim Mora, Kathryn Ryan, Jessie Mulligan … they all seem to me to be at the politically correct social & racial awareness Left or far Left end of the spectrum when it comes to their commentaries & interviews.
I realise I’ve become more conservative in my outlook on some issues as I’ve got older. Perhaps it’s just me. Others might get a different impression from listening to them?
many of those representing the Greens don't have a bio that is strongly Environmental or a history of, and that anything that they would include would seen as shallow tokenism to Climate change and the environment. But take some time to read and point out what I have missed Here are a few pointers as to a start on where to look.
And fro the link below from Weka, not lot "environmental". Yet that was the reason for some of us giving support but not seeing alot of action. Ad after reading David Attenborough – A life on Our plant and watching a few TV (The Age of Nature) and youtube docos not seeing a lot of gov lead response yet other countries appear to have greater commitment to the causer.
Excellent review of biodiversity within the GP by that journo! I especially appreciated his in-depth examination of the nuances around the various views. I decided not to renew my membership after the election due to the woke thing.
Way I see it, Gezza, it all boils down to the old divide between purists & pragmatists. Some of the complainers are oppositional by nature – perennial protestors in their own minds (tacitly so). Funny to see Sue Bradford hitting the nail on the head explaining that politics is a numbers game while being unaware that she was thereby defeating her own argument. Voters gave Labour the numbers!
I share the disquiet around lack of critique from the GP and suspect a culture divide between caucus & party has emerged. The caucus is more inclined to see themselves as in the tent with Labour.
Joel, a former branch organiser and executive member, has been a party activist for 10 years and is now thinking of letting his membership lapse. RNZ has agreed not to use his real name.
Joel said party delegates had supported the agreement in good faith, but there was now disenchantment over the party being effectively co-opted by Labour. "The idea was Marama and James would have kind of principled points of difference, and at the other MPs would basically function as an entirely separate oppositional party, against the labour Party," he said.
Well, that idea either was or was not included in the agreement, right? If it was, the caucus are at fault in not adhering to it. If it ain't there, who's likely to see a breach of verbal contract? Get it in writing, kid! Dunno the guy so if he's actually middle-aged I apologise in advance. 🙄
Reckon you’re probably right about the GP caucus vs members divide.
Sue Bradford seems to me to be a right old-fashioned soap box battler – & good on her for sticking to her principles on social justice issues. But I got the impression she got dumped becos her style was so in your face & uncompromising (she calls a spade a spade) she ended up irritating too many people – both inside & outside the party – so they decided to sideline her & get rid of an irritant before she cost them more votes than she gave them.
The Greens, in government & becoming more politically aware, are losing their original passion for green issues & their original brand.
[Sorry Mod. Dunno where my head was at. I typed Green instead of Gezza in a comment & it’s gone into moderation. Perhaps you could just delete instead of releasing it?]
Reckon you’re probably right about the GP caucus vs members divide.
Sue Bradford seems to me to be a right old-fashioned soap box battler – & good on her for sticking to her principles on social justice issues. But I got the impression she got dumped becos her style was so in your face & uncompromising (she calls a spade a spade) she ended up irritating too many people – both inside & outside the party – so they decided to sideline her & get rid of an irritant before she cost them more votes than she gave them.
The Greens, in government & becoming more politically aware, are losing their original passion for green issues & their original brand.
Sue's a likeable and smart person. The party didn't "get rid of an irritant" when they selected Meteria to be their female lead, they chose, from the two, the person they believed best fitted the future direction they saw for the party. Given Sue's strength of character, you'd hardly expect her to fade away altogether and, freed from the yolk of representation, she's now and since been commenting on all manner of issues she feels strongly about, I reckon.
I never interacted with her personally but we were in the same working group co-designing what eventually became the GP after the Gaia Conference in '89.
Everyone has the right of free speech & I'm not inclined to discourage using it, but I did wonder (again) what part of retirement her & Catherine don't yet understand. It's the second time those two have attempted to insert a metaphorical stick between the spokes of the metaphorical bike the younger generation leaders of the GP are riding in tandem.
I note Sue wasn’t on the Green Party List for the 2020 election.
Is that because she no longer puts her name forward or because the party decided to limit themselves to 24 candidates & the others all came in ahead of Sue?
Oh. Never mind, Robert. I see she actually left the Green Party in 2011. I’d forgotten.
Anti-poverty activist Sue Bradford has revealed she left the Green Party over what she saw as its shift toward right wing politics. Ms Bradford resigned as a Green MP in September 2009, months after missing out on party’s co-leadership to Metiria Turei.
Greens, in terms of identity politics, have usually identified more strongly with the global Green movement than any party that happens to form to attempt representing it in national politics.
That's always been the case from my generational perspective. The tendency to conflate the two is comprehensible if one considers that it is normally done by folks who don't belong in either category. Sue's critique emerges from this double context just like mine does, naturally. We aren't members, currently, but the option of rejoining is available in our minds.
A comment on another blog site goes some way to explain why discussions here have been a little tetchy at times:
Anti-mandaters exude “A sense of righteous zeal that makes them feel that they are at war, and so justified in the most extreme actions. They can harass, they can abuse, they can spread half-truths in the name of their holy mission. They believe they are doing this for the rest of us, fighting an injustice that nobody else can see.”
Any objective view of the 'discussions' here, can point to "righteous zeal", "They can harass, they can abuse," on both sides of the topic.
Pro plaguers, freedumb, anti-vax (a lazy epiphet often applied to anyone who questions the official narrative) were some of the more common labels tossed about.
Before the mandates started and coercion of medical treatment was legitimised, the level of opprobrium was definitely one sided 'round these parts.
It is only recently that more and more people are asking questions. About the framing of statistics (a broken leg that happens to have Covid is a 'hospitalised' statistic), vaccine efficacy – the initial two jabs giving 90 odd% coverage to this new booster regime. Which the state is urging us to take up at a rate not recommended by Pfizer 3months not 6months.
I believe I understand what you are saying/feeling, Tony, having experienced this first-hand in our local community. The "sense of righteousness" developed in the background – in their lounges and cafes where they met to support each others positions, well before any similar attitudes formed in the vax-willing population. That "mission-zeal" was rapidly shared across social media, initially through Facebook but that's long been abandoned as a forum but those folk (the younger ones, in any case) for other platforms (Telegram, etc…)
Probably a good idea to think of the teachers, midwives, health professionals, fire fighters who have given years, sometimes decades of service to the New Zealand public and lost their careers over this very issue, and then ask yourself if you're on the right side.
If you needed some help with what's right and what's wrong, I believe Council's rejecting unvaccinated people entry to public facilities is also immoral, and wrong.
A thought…..if this were a dispute over religious interpretation what would your position be?
Would we determine that say Protestants had the wrong interpretation and that only Catholics should be employed?…I think the Northern Irish did the reverse and were condemned for it.
It appears to me that the risk posed by the very small proportion of unvaccinated (not all anti vaccers) is greatly overshadowed by the disproportionate penalty….life carries risk, and none of us get out alive.
More than 150,000 people have died in the UK from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic…
two sentences later
…bringing the pandemic total to 150,057 people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid.
Anyone else utterly sick and tired of this bullshit?
Might almost think the goal was – oh, I dunno – having everyone hooked into a vaccine passport say, and then incrementally bolting on an ever expanding framework of reference that would enable ever more intrusive and immediate forms of social control at the personal level…Nah.
That only happens in the like of the joint venture between Alipay and Pfizer in China.
pretty major conspiracy that all the health systems in the world, those governments and statistical departments, are plotting to usher in a new age of control and authoritarianism.
Otoh, if this is the UK alone, then obviously it's already in a process of shifting to an authoritarian state, and that was/is happening independent of covid.
I've commented below on the 28 day thing. I agree it does need explaining. I just don't think we're going to get that explanation via a conspiracy theory.
Thanks for your explanation of the 28 day thing. Less, necessarily global conspiracy, more careful, deliberate language that leaves an impression.
Very effective nowadays when headlines or bylines are all that's read, the Twittersphere influence by using short, snappy often binary framings, diminished attention spans and the tribal nature the vaccines, mandates and passports nurture.
The best thing of course is to have not put out numbers. All the way along.
A bit disconcerting then for the True Blue 100% whingers. Their call would have been "Secrecy!! We deserve to have the numbers!!"
They get the numbers and they scream, "Scare mongering!" Or the media doesn't highlight the numbers and they say, "The Government's manipulating, the media is in cahoots playing things down!"
And naturally when there are numbers you're always going to get those whose familiarity and comfort with numbers has them struggling with 3+2.
I think the concern is that people with positive tests die from something else within 28 days. It's not explained though, it's just this rumour on the internet.
Sorry weka, I have been outside, laying up compost and brewing up biochar.
I feel the phrasing has been chosen very deliberately.
When the strategy became popping all the eggs in the pfizer basket, a narrative that reinforced the fear created by the virus was prudent. Doubly so, now that the response to the virus is a political one rather than a health one. tThe caution is very important now that a line has been stepped over with the mandates and passports.
As we have seen, a lot of the victims of the coercion were towards the bottom of the heap- young, poorly paid, largely powerlesss.
When the new licences were introduced, we were assured they would not be used for ID purposes… Sure, what businesses did after the licences were introduced has nothing to do with the state. Potentially the same with these passports/mandates. My previous employer could not say that once I was vaccinated they couldn't rule out requiring annual flu jabs nor boosters.
That govts (Tories in the UK, Republicans/Democrats in the US, and centre-right parties in Brazil) would inflate the number of Covid dead make no sense to me – that'd make them look even more incompetent.
Mortality estimates based on excess death analyses suggest the true pandemic death toll is at least double the reported 5.5 million figure.
Why excess deaths have varied so greatly around the world during the pandemic [10Dec. 2021] As you might expect, having many COVID deaths was linked to increased excess mortality. However, collectively across the 79 countries examined, excess deaths in 2020 were more than double the total officially registered as COVID fatalities (3.7 million to 1.5 million).
Some of that will be due to under-reporting, some due to compromised health services, and there will be other contributing factors. Otoh, a decreased number of deaths from other communicable diseases has likely contributed to NZ's negligible excess death estimates.
Whatever the true pandemic death toll, good data is important, now and in the future.
Covid 19: A strong pandemic response relies on good data [4 Nov. 2021] Will vaccine passports help, or are they a technological distraction from efforts to achieve global vaccination (doi:10.1136/bmj.n2571)? What more should we do to encourage vaccine uptake during pregnancy (doi:10.1136/bmj.n2377)? And how good are the data on deaths from covid? Before the pandemic, an estimated 40% of deaths worldwide were not registered, with under-reporting most marked in low income and fragile settings (doi:10.1136/bmj.n2239). The pandemic is unlikely to have made this better. Why does it matter? Because death numbers are the basis for evaluating the progress of the pandemic and the effectiveness of public health interventions. They are the basis for weighing up complex trade-offs in efforts to control transmission and for holding governments to account. And they are what drives allocation of resources, including vaccines, on the basis of accurate estimates of the global burden of disease.
If we are to achieve a scientifically robust and globally equitable response to the pandemic we must invest in good data.
They could have in fact died of Covid, or the effects of it ie lung problems, kidney problems.
On both the Sorry anti vaxxer and Hermann Cain sites there are instances where a person who seemed to be doing well after getting Covid suddenly dies. Covid passes from the body but leaves such ill effects as ARDs, lung weaknesses. Many leave the hospital with oxygen bottles. I have no problems counting such in with the Covid deaths. As after all the illness or disability they left the hospital with was a direct result of getting Covid. As people have mentioned there is Long Covid and people may die from this……well after 28 days.
Dying from Covid and dying a month after testing positive are two different things.
95% of the time, no they're not, really. Or at least the covid was related enough to mention on the individual's death certificate.
I suspect, now that testing is largely systematic and the scaling problems have been worked through, that the 28 day measure is actually still a bit of an undercount – albeit good enough for government work. If you look at table 1 of my link, 95% of deaths <29 days after a test still had covid19 on the death certificate, but they were only 88% of deaths with covid on the certificate. Even at 60 days, 30% of the deaths had covid on the death certificate.
The happy fact is that very few of us have our lives threatened multiple times by completely unrelated factors within a month, even in the UK.
A UK doctor's explanation on the BMJ website, Feb 2021
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the total number of deaths with covid-19 recorded on the death certificate in England and Wales has now passed 100 000.1 The government’s daily press releases, however, report “deaths within 28 days of a positive test result”—a definition repeated faithfully by broadcast and print journalists and on social media.2 This approach probably under-recognises the real number of deaths from covid-19 by around 20%.3
Having two parallel reporting methods is unfortunate as it plays into the “What are they not telling us?” narrative of covid denialists, conspiracy theorists, and lockdown sceptics.4
ONS data are based on what doctors responsible for a patient in their final illness write on the death certificate to the “best of [their] knowledge and belief,” and they do not take into account how recently the deceased had had a positive covid-19 test result.5 I would advise anyone therefore to trust ONS data above the government’s reporting tool. In 90% of certificates where covid-19 is recorded, it does so in part 1 as the cause contributing directly to death.6 The Nuffield Trust has issued a similar note of caution about covid-19 death statistics.7
Inference there, and I've seen this said before, is that the UK government wanted to under report deaths for political reasons, so they started using the 28 day thing.
Here's the UK ONS website page, I did a quick search but couldn't find the total number of deaths easily. They do update regularly,
In addition, the total number of deaths in the UK relative to pre-covid is shown, which is another way of looking at how many covid deaths there might be. Same ONS page I think.
The first link you provide underscores the contention that deaths from Covid are being promoted over deaths with Covid, and by extension, over death from any other cause.
The new coronavirus strain (COVID-19) should be recorded on the medical cause of death certificate for ALL decedents where the disease caused, or is assumed to have caused, or contributed to death.
[….]
….the immediate recommendation is to record COVID-19 in Part I of the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death.
[….]
Existing conditions, especially those which are chronic in nature, that may have also contributed to death should be certified in Part II of the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death. Chronic conditions may include but are not limited to: coronary artery disease, COPD, diabetes, cancer or disabilities
I'm saying a distinction ought to be made where Covid was merely present at the time of death, and where Covid was the cause of death.
In the US, there were 800 000 deaths attributed to Covid. 95% of that 800 000 had serious co-morbidities (an average of 4 per person), any number of which could have been the principal cause of death.
As reporting is being done now, I could have late stage cancer, catch a cold and die, and I would be reported as having died of the cold. ie, cold being in part one of the certificate and cancer in part two.
I'm going to go out on a limb and pick that's not how cancer fatalities are generally tallied, on the basis that many cancer patients likely die from secondary infection, and it would be absurd to elevate those secondary infections to prominence in official stats or on death certificates. (Except, for whatever mysterious reason, when we're talking Covid)
ta. Still doesn't tell me the total number of deaths in the UK since the pandemic started. Can't find it on ONS either. And I'm wondering why, not conspiratorially just that I find it odd and I’m curious.
Inference there, and I've seen this said before, is that the UK government wanted to under report deaths for political reasons, so they started using the 28 day thing.
Not following that at all. If death within 28 days of +ve test result is counted as a Covid death, then how can that possibly lower the tally? It's counting in all deaths and assuming Covid is the cause of death.
e.g. Colin Powell is just one rather prominent example of being reported as having died because of Covid, yet suffering from an advanced morbidity (or two?).
The ridiculous reported instance of this happening in NZ was the Aucklander shot in his driveway who tested + ve and so was initially tallied as a Covid death as per WHO guidelines that NZ was following.
A death due to COVID-19 is defined for surveillance purposes as a death resulting from a clinically compatible illness, in a probable or confirmed COVID-19 case, unless there is a clear alternative cause of death that cannot be related to COVID disease (e.g. trauma). There should be no period of complete recovery from COVID-19 between illness and death.
A death due to COVID-19 may not be attributed to another disease (e.g. cancer) and should be
counted independently of preexisting conditions that are suspected of triggering a severe course of COVID-19.
It's pretty clear there that they're saying don't count non-covid deaths as covid.
The ridiculous reported instance of this happening in NZ was the Aucklander shot in his driveway who tested + ve and so was initially tallied as a Covid death as per WHO guidelines that NZ was following.
Really? So it was a mistake that was rectified? Sounds like the system working.
Not following that at all. If death within 28 days of +ve test result is counted as a Covid death, then how can that possibly lower the tally? It's counting in all deaths and assuming Covid is the cause of death.
I'd like to see some evidence of that last sentence.
It's pretty clear there that they're saying don't count non-covid deaths as covid.
Actually, the precise opposite if you read it carefully." …unless there is a clear alternative cause of death that cannot be related to COVID disease", then the cause of death is Covid.
I'd like to see some evidence of that last sentence.
If death within 28 days of a +ve test is recorded as a Covid death, then obviously deaths from other causes where a +ve Covid test was recorded within 28 days of death are relegated/dismissed, and the cause is death is attributed to Covid..
I don't even begin to fathom your apparent confusion.
The Auckland shooting wasn't a mistake. A gun death was initially recorded as a Covid death. The government, via Bloomfield, only rowed back in the face of the overwhelming absurdity being held up for them to explain. Hardly "the system working".
Counting the number of X that occurred in period Y after criteria Z were met is a perfectly normal public health measure, e.g. for deaths occurring during or related to a surgical procedure (although NZ's perioperative mortality review committee uses a 90-day period, rather than wikipedia's 30 day period). They're both an odometer for how we're doing and an indicator of what we might be missing (especially in conjunction with other measures, like excess death), but they're not meant to be exact. They are designed to be close enough to make policy decisions on, not perfect.
PHE chose 28 days under original-brand covid because that's when their auditing of records showed 95% of deaths had covid on the death certificate, and 88% of deaths occurred. So it's near enough, and reasonably precise. Initially they went out to 60 days in order to ensure they were getting the bulk of covid causes (because covid was new and unknown). That picked up too many unrelated deaths so they tightened it up – but then the 60 day mark was in the early days of the pandemic, when testing wasn't done so routinely, so could still be an undercount.
If long covid can contribute to deaths months down the line, the basic public health measure could well undercount not overcount. But that's not the point, either.
UK has ~150k deaths from covid, and growing each day. Does it matter to a govt or administrator if the true value is 135,555 deaths, or 168,907? No. It's the ballpark that dictates policy.
Unless the "with not from" crowd can come up with another cause of death that results in the inflated number of excess deaths in all countries that had massive numbers of "with not from" covid deaths, that duck quacks like covid.
And no, it's not the vaccines, because NZ is highly vaccinated with fuckall covid and has an embarrassingly low death toll compared to previous years.
thanks. I'll reread that when my brain is functioning better, but in the meantime can I assume this means,
the UK government didn't monkey wrench the stats for its own purposes
they are including deaths for other reasons than covid, but for people with covid positive test
it doesn't matter that the data gathering isn't tight, because a) it tells PHE other things in addition to hard death numbers and b) for public health purposes, close enough is near enough.
Table 1 shows the shift from a 60 day threshold to 28 days moved the covid-involved proportion of all deaths from 90% (i.e. 10% not mentioning covid on the death certificate) to 95% (5% not having covid mentioned on the death certificate). The cost of being that specific was not counting 2,000-odd deaths that did include covid on the death certificate.
All population statistics are approximations, and frequently involve tradeoffs between resources, precision, and delivering the results in a useful timeframe. Even if we conducted a census every night instead of every 5 years, the numbers would still be off. But that doesn't mean population statistics aren't usefully accurate.
Hart is included in New Zealand's Covid-19 figures because of a change in the way the Ministry of Health reports on deaths.
"The clinical criteria will continue to be guided by WHO definition which is basically to report any death where the person had an acute Covid-19 infection regardless of what the cause of death might be," Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told RNZ.
"We will be now publicly reporting confirmed deaths as those where the death documents or an investigation has shown that the cause was Covid-19 and we will report other deaths where the cause of death is not certain but the person has Covid-19.
"We will report them separately, and the latter group will be classified as 'under investigation' while we await further information from clinicians or a coroner's follow up."
That is coherent and logical. It also strikes me as an example of the difference in reporting for public health purposes vs reporting for the public. MoH will want to follow WHO guidelines (for obvious reasons of standardisation).
My reading of the above is that where it's unclear what the cause of death is, they can't discard the death from the count. Did Hart die because he had covid and couldn't survive what was otherwise a survivable wound? Or did he die of the gun shot and covid made no difference? Or both? The coroner will decide.
Maybe. But clearly neither "coherent" nor "logical" before the change in approach they speak of. "We will now… " blah blah clearly indicates that what they will do 'now' (as from that date/highlighted incident) was not what they were doing previously.
During the Christmas break I came across a 2009 NZ Geo mag with this article regarding the history into protecting Manapouri & Te Anau from being dammed, and how the Tawai/Comalco smelter has continually played all NZ governments. For all those out there I recommend this to understand the history and some amazing people, and to understand what went before regarding protecting the environment !!!!
The most barking obit you'll read this year. Or next…
Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff, Twins in an Uneasy Spotlight, Die at 72
In France they were science-loving TV celebrities (molded by plastic surgery) whose own research was suspect, maybe a hoax. They died within days of each other.
The tropical low that Scud mentioned near Darwin on 24th December (9.1.1),eventually drifted south east, developed into Cyclone Seth on the Queensland coast and then passed right over our boat (where we live) as a low in Sandy Strait 200 km north of Brisbane, dropping immense amounts of rain and wind. We are worried about an 88 year old friend in the Mary River who went to rescue his boat today in the floods at Maryborough. Typically, despite the fact that the rain event has been descibed as "once in a lifetime" by local media, climate change has not yet been mentioned. Cop26 only just over a month ago and almost forgotten!
…climate change has not yet been mentioned. Cop26 only just over a month ago and almost forgotten!
Yep. Its the same situation in NZ. At best, when there is a major weather event CC is only obliquely mentioned. Its almost as if there's an unspoken agreement among governments to avoid specifying direct links to CC in order to keep the masses from understanding the urgency to do something. I mean… its the next few generations who are going to cop it – not so much us – so let us let sleeping dogs lie. We'll be dead and gone by then. 😡
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
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Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
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My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
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A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
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Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
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Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
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One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
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The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
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Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
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The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
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Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
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This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
As a young gymnast, Aimee Didierjean was always conscious of making sure her underwear wasn’t showing on the competition floor. A peek of a bra strap, or briefs if a leotard rode up, would cost a gymnast points in her routines. “When I was growing and going through puberty, it ...
Jubi/West Papua Daily Repeated cases of Indonesian military (TNI) soldiers torturing civilians in Papua have been evident, as seen in the viral video depicting the torture of civilians in the Puncak Regency allegedly done by soldiers of Raider 300/Brajawijaya Infantry Battalion. There is a pressing need for stringent law enforcement ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In 2023, Anthony Albanese was shooting for the moon, his eyes on the Voice referendum. On one view, he looked like the idealist reflecting his left-wing roots. In 2024, we’re seeing a pragmatic, determined, ...
The House - The principle that all MPs are honourable and that they should be taken at their word has been tested multiple times this week in Parliament. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Dickinson, Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW Sydney Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock Since the review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) released its recommendations in December, there has been a series of Town Hall events to discuss them around the country ...
Asia Pacific Report Two of the global Freedom Flotilla ships are being prepared in Turkey and almost ready for the upcoming humanitarian mission to Gaza. It is expected that the flotilla will include a New Zealand medical team. Kia Ora Gaza is a member of the international Freedom Flotilla Coalition ...
Virtual reality has never pushed my buttons but I can see how it might appeal to escapist younger generations. There's even economic opportunity for young kiwis:
Selling imaginary products online into the global marketplace boosts our economy without adding to global warming. Centrality chief executive and co-founder of Non Fungible Labs Aaron McDonald says
"Selling imaginary products online into the global marketplace boosts our economy without adding to global warming. "
Apparently not
'So what’s not to like? Surely it’s a good thing that artists who have had a hard time earning a crust in the pandemic can get paid? It is. But there is one small snag: the technology that ensures that the NFT you’ve bought is a blockchain similar to the ones that power cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or Ethereum. And the computation needed to provide the certification that is the USP of blockchains requires massive amounts of electricity, which comes with a correspondingly heavy carbon footprint. A single transaction on the Ethereum blockchain, for example, currently requires 232.51 kWh, which is equivalent to the power consumption of an average US household over 7.86 days."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/08/why-the-climate-wrecking-craze-for-crypto-art-really-is-beyond-satire
I did wonder about that angle. I've reported energy-hungry bitcoin mining here before – just didn't want to assume same applied. So we will have to include that costing into the enterprise as you imply. I'll leave it to economists to quantify the comparison with conventional business but for now best to acknowledge the Green dimension of the enterprise is more apparent than real.
I dont know how accurate his numbers are (he links to this site…https://digiconomist.net/ethereum-energy-consumption) but am sure someone will be along to correct it if invalid.
The appeal of NFTs in general however is a complete mystery to me, (aside from those taking the commissions and a few speculators) …burning banknotes would make as much sense and at least you could boil a billy.
The appeal of NFTs in general however is a complete mystery to me
The impression I get is that the system works similar to copyright. Ownership is the hook that pulls the buyers in…
Not really like copyright. An NFT is digital so many copies can be appreciated without the owner even being aware. And of course there can be examples of essentially duplicate NFTs being produced and sold. Similar things happen with prints in the art world where you are essentially taking the artists word that only a limited run of prints will be sold.
Don't screen-shot that NFT, you rascal!
You have no ill-gotten gains?
Let’s say Mark has $10 million in illegal profits from his scheme.
Step 1: Buy illiquid JPEG image (with clean money)
Step 2: Buy your own JPEG for $10M (with the illegal money)
Step 3: Claim $10 million in clean profits! Woo Hoo!
https://cryptowhale.medium.com/money-laundering-tutorial-how-to-launder-millions-with-nfts-7530b7079a78
K…that makes sense (appalling as it is)…however it still dosnt explain the wider appeal.
"A fool and his money are soon parted"…..are there really that many fools (who havnt already been parted from theirs)?
I think the 'decentralised' claims are a major selling point, the allure of an outsider exploit, of sticking it to the system à la the Gamestop affair.
This character has a dig at explaining…scratches head…
https://twitter.com/dt_chain/status/1477843627175038976
Biggest con since Charles Ponzi got going.
This guy exposes NFT and Crypto scams.
https://youtu.be/VNy5rdnGsLA
Critics haven’t been kind to Adam McKay’s eco-satire, but many climate experts are lauding it. Here four give their views: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/08/dont-look-up-four-climate-experts-on-the-polarising-disaster-film
Consciousness raising around global warming is always helpful so the movie is performing a public service. Not for me – I don't use Netflix. Too busy.
[formatting added for clarity]
The Poms would have done it better….satire or self parody?
I think it needed to be done badly (to reflect the real situation).
Yes if Armando Iannucci had made it it would have been much more subtle and funnier while still making the message clear. 3/5 stars from me.
Having said that, it was good to see the global warming message put forward in a mainstream film-it might make a few people think.
I added a series of ellipsis to the quote in your comment. These make it clear there are gaps in the quote, and make it easier to understand what is being said (there were some non-sequiturs when reading without the breaks) 👍
Cool, no problem. Aesthete applauds aethetics!
Good to see on Al Jazeera tv news that the James Webb Telescope, having successfully unfolded & fully deployed its multi-layered sunshade, has now also successfully unfolded & fully deployed its primary mirror comprised of multiple hexagonal mirrors that will work together as one single optical unit.
As someone who is intensely curious about the cosmos & has enjoyed seeing many of the fantastic images from the Hubble Telescope I look forward to the continuing success of the deployment, calibration testing, & the beginning of the many observation projects assigned to this telescope.
The launch went so well very few course corrections have been needed, which means an extended operation time for the JWT.
Here’s an excellent short explainer about the JWT deployment, & its upcoming work programme, that I’ve just watched, for anyone else interested.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pl749Dgx0A
I don't know if anyones been following the US Womens Football fight for 'equal pay' but this guy has been
Short version:
the women should have taken the mens deal, the men should have taken the womens deal and now the women want the guaranteed pay of their deal and the performance deal of the mens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6uAFAXbViE
So women want their cake…and eat it ..too=quelle surprise!
I find it more interesting in the use of media to get views across:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/02/us/biden-uswnt-equal-pay-trnd/index.html
'Joe Biden threatens to cut US Soccer's World Cup funding unless women get equal pay'
Yet the woman rejected equal pay with men and because of their contract they got paid during covid lockdowns whereas the men didn't
Where is the media in all this?
Where is the media in all this? The media seems to be using something Biden said when he was a candidate when the situation with the employment agreement and the attitude of the women was a lot different that what it is today.\
Heres a couple. Is it enough?
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/24/politics/megan-rapinoe-equal-pay-day-congress-testimony/index.html
http://www.newnownext.com/rachel-maddow-show-megan-rapinoe-world-cup-winner/07/2019/
“If you’re not down with equal pay at this point…you’re so far out of reality and the conversation that we can’t even go there,”
Side note: They just recently rejected equal pay because they make more than the men
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/soccer-star-megan-rapinoe-testifies-congress-gender-pay/story?id=76635386
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2895714-megan-rapinoe-discusses-protesting-racism-hope-for-progress-more
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/megan-rapinoe-transgender-sports-bills/
At the risk of incurring the wrath of all and sundry, here's Ronda Rousey.
Shes great, I have so much time for Ronda. The first female to headline a, major, combat sport fight card.
The first female to truly legitimise female fighting.
Shes a great.
She's a brute!
And a sell out – fancy doing it for the money 🙂
I don't think shes a sell out. Shes earned the right to make big money and good on her.
Her stash of cash might help her negotiate Alzheimers' when it arrives (early).
If Robert, its not like she's been going up against heavyweight men
Yeah, she'll be right!
I'm sure she will be
according to her words then the women in soccer in the US should outearn the men.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/19/us-womens-soccer-games-now-generate-more-revenue-than-mens.html
the thing is Rhonda is not incorrect in stating that the more money one brings the more money one should earn. However, we also know that in the real world that is not often the case. In this case the US American Ladies may bring the cash, but they don't get the rewards.
And Last but least, we are not talking about pay discrepancies in private Clubs, this is a dispute on a National Team level, and so far no one has given one good reason why the Male National Soccer Team should be paid better then the Non Male National Soccer Team, they are executing the same job, under the same conditions and they are both there to represent the country.
The men don't get those benefits
2. The women made more than the men
3. The women, thanks to their contract, got paid during the covid lock down
The men didn't
4. When offered the same contract as the men they rejected it because they didn't want to lose their benefits
If you look at my comment you will find that i simply replied to your clip about rhonda stating that 'people who bring the money will be paid more'.
– No they do not. Not always.
Next, i stated that both teams Male and Non Male should be paid the same, as they are both playing soccer under the same cirumcstances for the glory of the Nation in the National team.
That means that both male and female are allowed maternity and paternity leave.
That means that both male and female are allowed the same health care benefits albeit centered around their biology. See maternity and paternity leave.
That means that both male and female are paid during Covid lockdowns.
and that means that both male and female are paid the same in wages and benefits – maybe a bit tweaked for their biology, maternity leave and paternity leave comes to mind.
But as for Rhonda, no just because someone should earn more because they are good income providers does not mean it happens. Sometimes they only have 'Sex' specific leave and a pay during Covid, that most likely comes about the fact that from the get go they actually earn a lesser wage then their male counterparts thus have a harder time staying on a team unpaid.
Last it also shows that there is true comradery in the female team if they actually demanded all be paid during the covid lockdowns, maybe the rep for the males should ask for the same. And keep in mind that that expenditure only appears when they actually have a covid lockdown and can't play.
However, the record stands, the Non Males made more buck for bang then the Males, and got lower pay, maternity leave and a covid payment for that effort. And Rhonda is somewhat wrong and somewhat right.
Well maybe they should be but they were given contracts and they both signed and even thought the courts ruled the women make money than the men they're still not happy.
‘Last it also shows that there is true comradery in the female team if they actually demanded all be paid during the covid lockdowns, maybe the rep for the males should ask for the same.’
No there isn’t true camradery in the womens team, there are a few high profile players (or recently retired players) that are setting the agenda and they get paid whether they play or not
https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-megan-rapinoe-international-soccer-police-womens-soccer-7c772812b6f748bc9bea793c2711a2cb
https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/hope-solo-says-she-saw-megan-rapinoe-bully-players-into-kneeling-for-anthem-but-timeline-doesnt-add-up/
Now Ronda maybe somewhat right and somewhat wrong but for me she'll always be a legend
FYI It was my clip, not PR's. And my point was to show that Ronda believes an athletes income should be based on revenue earned. From what PR is saying, that is what is happening, and that appears to have been the conclusion of the Judge in the equal pay case.
“The judge pointed out that the women’s team had actually earned more “on both a cumulative and an average per-game basis” than the men’s team during the years in the lawsuit.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2020/05/04/judge-dismisses-us-womens-soccer-equal-pay-case—heres-why/?sh=31bd8dcd728d
Looks like Novak Djokovic is going to get his come-uppance one way or another:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/novak-djokovics-unbelievably-irresponsible-behaviour-while-covid-positive-exposed/A4PZO7YSYYULP5WLN53EGPBG3I/
What a pathetic dick of a man.
And yet:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/tennis/300492398/we-need-him-here-nick-kyrgios-continues-role-as-unlikely-novak-djokovic-ally
“Honestly, I hope it all gets sorted as soon as possible. For the sport, we need him here, it's that simple,” Nick Kyrgios.
"Yet he has now become one of his old foe's most unlikely and sympathetic backers, declaring that Djokovic hasn't been treated humanely and that tennis really needs its world No 1 back at the Australian Open."
or:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/tennis/300492366/australias-home-affairs-told-djokovic-his-travel-declaration-met-requirements-lawyers-claim
"That letter stated Djokovic’s Australia Travel Declaration had been assessed and his responses “indicated that he met the requirements for a quarantine-free arrival into Australia where permitted by the jurisdiction of [his] arrival”."
Unless of course this is just a matter of 'unvaxxed = bad mmkay'.
you know the sport is a joke when one person is "needed". formula one is facing the same nonsense with "experts" claiming that lewis hamilton is "needed" to save it. rugby in aus went through the same bullshit with folau . no one person should be "needed" to save a sport. what happens if they step in front of a bus?
I agree with your wider point about individuals being larger than the game.
In the case of Folau and Djokovic, decisions are being made because lots of sticky beaks (folk with no 'skin in the game') can express howls of outrage and bring political pressure to bear. There were more than one or two teamates who shared Folau's attitude but were prudent or lacked the courage to voice them.
or knew how to honour a written contract . folau is now playing rugby in japan and you can bet that he is well aware of what will happen if he AGAIN fails to keep his word. as novax is finding out, no one person is bigger than their chosen sport.
"Unless of course this is just a matter of 'unvaxxed = bad mmkay'."
Wouldn't hazard a guess what "mmkay" means but guess its a snide attack on anyone who believes the vaccination mandates are there for an excellent reason and must be upheld in the interest of all citizens.
But the first part is absolutely correct. It is a matter of whether a person is vaccinated. If they are well and good. If they're not then off you go.
Bye bye Djokovic.
What’s going on here?
Former senior figures have accused the Greens of jettisoning core principles as party discontent surfaces over its co-operation agreement in government.
Ex-MPs Sue Bradford and Catherine Delahunty say the agreement makes no sense and that the party’s position in government amounts to a failure of leadership.
Delahunty criticised her former colleagues for not pointing to an “unholy alliance between banks and the government” that accounted for record bank profits, inflated house prices and growing inequality.
Former co-leader and current head of Greenpeace New Zealand Russel Norman has also called Green minister James Shaw’s climate position “simply not credible”.
RNZ can reveal a number of activists have recently stepped away from the party, including former executive and policy branch members.
They accuse co-leader Shaw of having an autocratic style and complain that the party executive is not holding the caucus and leadership to account over policy decisions in government.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/459250/green-party-discontent-members-walk-ex-mps-criticise-leadership
Serious internal dissension, or just a Silly Season media beat up story because nothing else is happening politically while parliament is in recess?
Or is this a media hit job on the Green Party? If so, who might’ve organised it – & who benefits? Labour would be my answer to the last question.
Valid criticism of our 'transformational Govt'-
Delahunty criticised her former colleagues for not pointing to an “unholy alliance between banks and the government” that accounted for record bank profits, inflated house prices and growing inequality.
Ho hum.
Not sure Labour would benefit….much Green support is disenchanted previous Labour supporters id suggest.
I imagine IF there is that level of disquiet it will result in a breakaway party or non participation
Bryan Gould's comment might help with your confusion:
BY BRYAN GOULD
PUT ANOTHER RECORD ON
"Help! Mercy! I had thought (or hoped) that, as we turned into the New Year, the Herald would give us a break or put another record on. But, presumably because they have nothing new to say, the Herald has begun 2022 by re-publishing the columns written last year by their reliably anti-government columnists. As the French say “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.”
And, if the supply of these golden oldies runs out, they can always turn to some publicity-hungry, so-called “socialite” to regale us with her “expert” opinion on constitutional matters. Anything, it seems, is worth publishing, as long as it takes a pot-shot at the government.
We surely have a right to expect something better from our supposedly leading daily newspaper?"
That would explain it if were The Herald.
But this is RNZ, which is generally very Woke & supportive of the government.
Could this be a signal that they are supportive of Labour, but not the Greens?
I note most of the info is about events that happened quite some time ago. So is it a hit piece – or media massaging what’s really a non-story into something bigger in the absence of current political activity in Parliament?
Not sure why you regard RNZ as "woke" whatever that actually means.
Not sure why you regard RNZ as “woke” whatever that actually means.
Just googled the definition of woke & got back lots of articles discussing how it’s become so extensively used & misused now that it’s lost its original meaning and is falling out of favour.
It originally meant (apart from its more obvious meaning as the past participle of wake) being aware of issues of racial & social injustice.
Perhaps I should have used the term politically correct – with which it is now seemingly becoming confused – or merging – in everyday usage?
And all I meant is, that whenever I listen to RNZ (e.g. Morning Report hosts like Suzy Fergusson, Corrin Dann, Guyon Espiner, or Kim Hill, Jim Mora, Kathryn Ryan, Jessie Mulligan … they all seem to me to be at the politically correct social & racial awareness Left or far Left end of the spectrum when it comes to their commentaries & interviews.
I realise I’ve become more conservative in my outlook on some issues as I’ve got older. Perhaps it’s just me. Others might get a different impression from listening to them?
Well Radio NZ isn't called 'red radio' for nothing.
I think it probably…is.. 🙂
RNZ is very left leaning , Robert. They dropped even a pretence of neutrality some time ago.
many of those representing the Greens don't have a bio that is strongly Environmental or a history of, and that anything that they would include would seen as shallow tokenism to Climate change and the environment. But take some time to read and point out what I have missed Here are a few pointers as to a start on where to look.
https://www.greens.org.nz/our_people
And fro the link below from Weka, not lot "environmental". Yet that was the reason for some of us giving support but not seeing alot of action. Ad after reading David Attenborough – A life on Our plant and watching a few TV (The Age of Nature) and youtube docos not seeing a lot of gov lead response yet other countries appear to have greater commitment to the causer.
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-green-party-list-2/
Excellent review of biodiversity within the GP by that journo! I especially appreciated his in-depth examination of the nuances around the various views. I decided not to renew my membership after the election due to the woke thing.
Way I see it, Gezza, it all boils down to the old divide between purists & pragmatists. Some of the complainers are oppositional by nature – perennial protestors in their own minds (tacitly so). Funny to see Sue Bradford hitting the nail on the head explaining that politics is a numbers game while being unaware that she was thereby defeating her own argument. Voters gave Labour the numbers!
I share the disquiet around lack of critique from the GP and suspect a culture divide between caucus & party has emerged. The caucus is more inclined to see themselves as in the tent with Labour.
Well, that idea either was or was not included in the agreement, right? If it was, the caucus are at fault in not adhering to it. If it ain't there, who's likely to see a breach of verbal contract? Get it in writing, kid! Dunno the guy so if he's actually middle-aged I apologise in advance. 🙄
Reckon you’re probably right about the GP caucus vs members divide.
Sue Bradford seems to me to be a right old-fashioned soap box battler – & good on her for sticking to her principles on social justice issues. But I got the impression she got dumped becos her style was so in your face & uncompromising (she calls a spade a spade) she ended up irritating too many people – both inside & outside the party – so they decided to sideline her & get rid of an irritant before she cost them more votes than she gave them.
The Greens, in government & becoming more politically aware, are losing their original passion for green issues & their original brand.
[Sorry Mod. Dunno where my head was at. I typed Green instead of Gezza in a comment & it’s gone into moderation. Perhaps you could just delete instead of releasing it?]
Reckon you’re probably right about the GP caucus vs members divide.
Sue Bradford seems to me to be a right old-fashioned soap box battler – & good on her for sticking to her principles on social justice issues. But I got the impression she got dumped becos her style was so in your face & uncompromising (she calls a spade a spade) she ended up irritating too many people – both inside & outside the party – so they decided to sideline her & get rid of an irritant before she cost them more votes than she gave them.
The Greens, in government & becoming more politically aware, are losing their original passion for green issues & their original brand.
Sue's a likeable and smart person. The party didn't "get rid of an irritant" when they selected Meteria to be their female lead, they chose, from the two, the person they believed best fitted the future direction they saw for the party. Given Sue's strength of character, you'd hardly expect her to fade away altogether and, freed from the yolk of representation, she's now and since been commenting on all manner of issues she feels strongly about, I reckon.
I never interacted with her personally but we were in the same working group co-designing what eventually became the GP after the Gaia Conference in '89.
Everyone has the right of free speech & I'm not inclined to discourage using it, but I did wonder (again) what part of retirement her & Catherine don't yet understand. It's the second time those two have attempted to insert a metaphorical stick between the spokes of the metaphorical bike the younger generation leaders of the GP are riding in tandem.
Seems rather uncool of them really. Ageist, even.
Possibly the same part that you don't understand.
I'm not a retired politician, dude, but you ain't totally wrong.
I note Sue wasn’t on the Green Party List for the 2020 election.
Is that because she no longer puts her name forward or because the party decided to limit themselves to 24 candidates & the others all came in ahead of Sue?
https://www.greens.org.nz/green_party_unveils_its_candidate_list_for_the_2020_election
Oh. Never mind, Robert. I see she actually left the Green Party in 2011. I’d forgotten.
Anti-poverty activist Sue Bradford has revealed she left the Green Party over what she saw as its shift toward right wing politics. Ms Bradford resigned as a Green MP in September 2009, months after missing out on party’s co-leadership to Metiria Turei.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/green-party-abandoned-principles-bradford/3DY6XEE67KI4NR5NHXT6BHZ37A/
Greens, in terms of identity politics, have usually identified more strongly with the global Green movement than any party that happens to form to attempt representing it in national politics.
That's always been the case from my generational perspective. The tendency to conflate the two is comprehensible if one considers that it is normally done by folks who don't belong in either category. Sue's critique emerges from this double context just like mine does, naturally. We aren't members, currently, but the option of rejoining is available in our minds.
A comment on another blog site goes some way to explain why discussions here have been a little tetchy at times:
The Daily Blog.
Any objective view of the 'discussions' here, can point to "righteous zeal", "They can harass, they can abuse," on both sides of the topic.
Pro plaguers, freedumb, anti-vax (a lazy epiphet often applied to anyone who questions the official narrative) were some of the more common labels tossed about.
Before the mandates started and coercion of medical treatment was legitimised, the level of opprobrium was definitely one sided 'round these parts.
It is only recently that more and more people are asking questions. About the framing of statistics (a broken leg that happens to have Covid is a 'hospitalised' statistic), vaccine efficacy – the initial two jabs giving 90 odd% coverage to this new booster regime. Which the state is urging us to take up at a rate not recommended by Pfizer 3months not 6months.
I believe I understand what you are saying/feeling, Tony, having experienced this first-hand in our local community. The "sense of righteousness" developed in the background – in their lounges and cafes where they met to support each others positions, well before any similar attitudes formed in the vax-willing population. That "mission-zeal" was rapidly shared across social media, initially through Facebook but that's long been abandoned as a forum but those folk (the younger ones, in any case) for other platforms (Telegram, etc…)
Probably a good idea to think of the teachers, midwives, health professionals, fire fighters who have given years, sometimes decades of service to the New Zealand public and lost their careers over this very issue, and then ask yourself if you're on the right side.
There's a right and wrong side???
There always is in a western.
If you needed some help with what's right and what's wrong, I believe Council's rejecting unvaccinated people entry to public facilities is also immoral, and wrong.
Wrong council, right?
A thought…..if this were a dispute over religious interpretation what would your position be?
Would we determine that say Protestants had the wrong interpretation and that only Catholics should be employed?…I think the Northern Irish did the reverse and were condemned for it.
It appears to me that the risk posed by the very small proportion of unvaccinated (not all anti vaccers) is greatly overshadowed by the disproportionate penalty….life carries risk, and none of us get out alive.
Another interesting read about world wide house price rises. A lot of it applicable to Aotearoa.
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/how-long-can-the-global-housing-boom-last/21807002
Ugh. Project Fear just keeps arollin'…
More than 150,000 people have died in the UK from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic…
two sentences later
…bringing the pandemic total to 150,057 people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid.
Anyone else utterly sick and tired of this bullshit?
Might almost think the goal was – oh, I dunno – having everyone hooked into a vaccine passport say, and then incrementally bolting on an ever expanding framework of reference that would enable ever more intrusive and immediate forms of social control at the personal level…Nah.
That only happens in the like of the joint venture between Alipay and Pfizer in China.
"Anyone else utterly sick and tired of this bullshit?"
Why are you seeking it out and exposing yourself to it?
If you've already established, in your own mind, that such reporting is bullshit, why not move on to seeking out and proposing, solutions?
Without wanting to speak for Bill, I, for one, am grateful to have this 'anomaly' pointed out.
Dying from Covid and dying a month after testing positive are two different things.
To ignore or dismiss this, is cognitive dissonance popularly attributed to them anti-vaxxers.
pretty major conspiracy that all the health systems in the world, those governments and statistical departments, are plotting to usher in a new age of control and authoritarianism.
Otoh, if this is the UK alone, then obviously it's already in a process of shifting to an authoritarian state, and that was/is happening independent of covid.
I've commented below on the 28 day thing. I agree it does need explaining. I just don't think we're going to get that explanation via a conspiracy theory.
Thanks for your explanation of the 28 day thing. Less, necessarily global conspiracy, more careful, deliberate language that leaves an impression.
Very effective nowadays when headlines or bylines are all that's read, the Twittersphere influence by using short, snappy often binary framings, diminished attention spans and the tribal nature the vaccines, mandates and passports nurture.
My guess is that the confusion about death numbers results from a combination of these:
The best thing of course is to have not put out numbers. All the way along.
A bit disconcerting then for the True Blue 100% whingers. Their call would have been "Secrecy!! We deserve to have the numbers!!"
They get the numbers and they scream, "Scare mongering!" Or the media doesn't highlight the numbers and they say, "The Government's manipulating, the media is in cahoots playing things down!"
And naturally when there are numbers you're always going to get those whose familiarity and comfort with numbers has them struggling with 3+2.
I would add to your bullet points from a view from the other side of the bridge
*plenty of folk have lost their jobs
*lots of us are trying to repair fissures in families and trying to stop new ones forming
those things affect how death numbers are discussed?
(what's the other side of the bridge?)
The lenses through which these numbers are viewed.
The bridge refers to the gap between thars with passports and thars without.
Or in the case of this subthread, both.
People who've lived for years with their comorbidities test positive for Covid.
That they then die within the month has nothing to do with their Covid infection, right?
I think the concern is that people with positive tests die from something else within 28 days. It's not explained though, it's just this rumour on the internet.
"That they then die within the month has nothing to do with their Covid infection, right?"
Who knows? Most importantly it is recorded, reported and attributed to Covid.
Do you really believe that there is widespread fraud going on in most countries reporting covid deaths?
Sorry weka, I have been outside, laying up compost and brewing up biochar.
I feel the phrasing has been chosen very deliberately.
When the strategy became popping all the eggs in the pfizer basket, a narrative that reinforced the fear created by the virus was prudent. Doubly so, now that the response to the virus is a political one rather than a health one. tThe caution is very important now that a line has been stepped over with the mandates and passports.
As we have seen, a lot of the victims of the coercion were towards the bottom of the heap- young, poorly paid, largely powerlesss.
When the new licences were introduced, we were assured they would not be used for ID purposes… Sure, what businesses did after the licences were introduced has nothing to do with the state. Potentially the same with these passports/mandates. My previous employer could not say that once I was vaccinated they couldn't rule out requiring annual flu jabs nor boosters.
making biochar is an infinitely better activity than arguing on the internet 👍
That govts (Tories in the UK, Republicans/Democrats in the US, and centre-right parties in Brazil) would inflate the number of Covid dead make no sense to me – that'd make them look even more incompetent.
Mortality estimates based on excess death analyses suggest the true pandemic death toll is at least double the reported 5.5 million figure.
Some of that will be due to under-reporting, some due to compromised health services, and there will be other contributing factors. Otoh, a decreased number of deaths from other communicable diseases has likely contributed to NZ's negligible excess death estimates.
Whatever the true pandemic death toll, good data is important, now and in the future.
They could have in fact died of Covid, or the effects of it ie lung problems, kidney problems.
On both the Sorry anti vaxxer and Hermann Cain sites there are instances where a person who seemed to be doing well after getting Covid suddenly dies. Covid passes from the body but leaves such ill effects as ARDs, lung weaknesses. Many leave the hospital with oxygen bottles. I have no problems counting such in with the Covid deaths. As after all the illness or disability they left the hospital with was a direct result of getting Covid. As people have mentioned there is Long Covid and people may die from this……well after 28 days.
95% of the time, no they're not, really. Or at least the covid was related enough to mention on the individual's death certificate.
I suspect, now that testing is largely systematic and the scaling problems have been worked through, that the 28 day measure is actually still a bit of an undercount – albeit good enough for government work. If you look at table 1 of my link, 95% of deaths <29 days after a test still had covid19 on the death certificate, but they were only 88% of deaths with covid on the certificate. Even at 60 days, 30% of the deaths had covid on the death certificate.
The happy fact is that very few of us have our lives threatened multiple times by completely unrelated factors within a month, even in the UK.
A UK doctor's explanation on the BMJ website, Feb 2021
https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n352
Inference there, and I've seen this said before, is that the UK government wanted to under report deaths for political reasons, so they started using the 28 day thing.
Here's the UK ONS website page, I did a quick search but couldn't find the total number of deaths easily. They do update regularly,
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19latestinsights/deaths
In addition, the total number of deaths in the UK relative to pre-covid is shown, which is another way of looking at how many covid deaths there might be. Same ONS page I think.
this btw, is the guidance for NZ doctors on certifying deaths due to covid-19
https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/1205.0.55.001?OpenDocument
from here https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/regulation-health-and-disability-system/burial-and-cremation-act-1964/completing-death-documents/covid-19-deaths
The first link you provide underscores the contention that deaths from Covid are being promoted over deaths with Covid, and by extension, over death from any other cause.
The new coronavirus strain (COVID-19) should be recorded on the medical cause of death certificate for ALL decedents where the disease caused, or is assumed to have caused, or contributed to death.
[….]
….the immediate recommendation is to record COVID-19 in Part I of the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death.
[….]
Existing conditions, especially those which are chronic in nature, that may have also contributed to death should be certified in Part II of the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death. Chronic conditions may include but are not limited to: coronary artery disease, COPD, diabetes, cancer or disabilities
Please explain how. Because what I see is them saying record it as a covid death where covid was a direct contributory factor to the death.
Are you suggesting they only record deaths where covid is the sole factor?
I'm saying a distinction ought to be made where Covid was merely present at the time of death, and where Covid was the cause of death.
In the US, there were 800 000 deaths attributed to Covid. 95% of that 800 000 had serious co-morbidities (an average of 4 per person), any number of which could have been the principal cause of death.
As reporting is being done now, I could have late stage cancer, catch a cold and die, and I would be reported as having died of the cold. ie, cold being in part one of the certificate and cancer in part two.
I'm going to go out on a limb and pick that's not how cancer fatalities are generally tallied, on the basis that many cancer patients likely die from secondary infection, and it would be absurd to elevate those secondary infections to prominence in official stats or on death certificates. (Except, for whatever mysterious reason, when we're talking Covid)
Heres the Uk stats for excess mortality (click on the weekly stats then left hand all persons)
Covid numbers mentioned on death statistics fits the excess deaths nicely (cusum)
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/excess-mortality-in-england-weekly-reports
ta. Still doesn't tell me the total number of deaths in the UK since the pandemic started. Can't find it on ONS either. And I'm wondering why, not conspiratorially just that I find it odd and I’m curious.
Inference there, and I've seen this said before, is that the UK government wanted to under report deaths for political reasons, so they started using the 28 day thing.
Not following that at all. If death within 28 days of +ve test result is counted as a Covid death, then how can that possibly lower the tally? It's counting in all deaths and assuming Covid is the cause of death.
e.g. Colin Powell is just one rather prominent example of being reported as having died because of Covid, yet suffering from an advanced morbidity (or two?).
The ridiculous reported instance of this happening in NZ was the Aucklander shot in his driveway who tested + ve and so was initially tallied as a Covid death as per WHO guidelines that NZ was following.
Speaking of WHO guidelines,
https://www.who.int/classifications/icd/Guidelines_Cause_of_Death_COVID-19.pdf
It's pretty clear there that they're saying don't count non-covid deaths as covid.
Really? So it was a mistake that was rectified? Sounds like the system working.
I'd like to see some evidence of that last sentence.
It's pretty clear there that they're saying don't count non-covid deaths as covid.
Actually, the precise opposite if you read it carefully." …unless there is a clear alternative cause of death that cannot be related to COVID disease", then the cause of death is Covid.
I'd like to see some evidence of that last sentence.
If death within 28 days of a +ve test is recorded as a Covid death, then obviously deaths from other causes where a +ve Covid test was recorded within 28 days of death are relegated/dismissed, and the cause is death is attributed to Covid..
I don't even begin to fathom your apparent confusion.
The Auckland shooting wasn't a mistake. A gun death was initially recorded as a Covid death. The government, via Bloomfield, only rowed back in the face of the overwhelming absurdity being held up for them to explain. Hardly "the system working".
Counting the number of X that occurred in period Y after criteria Z were met is a perfectly normal public health measure, e.g. for deaths occurring during or related to a surgical procedure (although NZ's perioperative mortality review committee uses a 90-day period, rather than wikipedia's 30 day period). They're both an odometer for how we're doing and an indicator of what we might be missing (especially in conjunction with other measures, like excess death), but they're not meant to be exact. They are designed to be close enough to make policy decisions on, not perfect.
PHE chose 28 days under original-brand covid because that's when their auditing of records showed 95% of deaths had covid on the death certificate, and 88% of deaths occurred. So it's near enough, and reasonably precise. Initially they went out to 60 days in order to ensure they were getting the bulk of covid causes (because covid was new and unknown). That picked up too many unrelated deaths so they tightened it up – but then the 60 day mark was in the early days of the pandemic, when testing wasn't done so routinely, so could still be an undercount.
If long covid can contribute to deaths months down the line, the basic public health measure could well undercount not overcount. But that's not the point, either.
UK has ~150k deaths from covid, and growing each day. Does it matter to a govt or administrator if the true value is 135,555 deaths, or 168,907? No. It's the ballpark that dictates policy.
Unless the "with not from" crowd can come up with another cause of death that results in the inflated number of excess deaths in all countries that had massive numbers of "with not from" covid deaths, that duck quacks like covid.
And no, it's not the vaccines, because NZ is highly vaccinated with fuckall covid and has an embarrassingly low death toll compared to previous years.
thanks. I'll reread that when my brain is functioning better, but in the meantime can I assume this means,
That middle one is the cruncher.
They are also excluding deaths from covid.
Table 1 shows the shift from a 60 day threshold to 28 days moved the covid-involved proportion of all deaths from 90% (i.e. 10% not mentioning covid on the death certificate) to 95% (5% not having covid mentioned on the death certificate). The cost of being that specific was not counting 2,000-odd deaths that did include covid on the death certificate.
All population statistics are approximations, and frequently involve tradeoffs between resources, precision, and delivering the results in a useful timeframe. Even if we conducted a census every night instead of every 5 years, the numbers would still be off. But that doesn't mean population statistics aren't usefully accurate.
Re the man shot in the driveway,
https://www.1news.co.nz/2021/11/11/new-lynn-shooting-victim-was-positive-for-covid-19/
That is coherent and logical. It also strikes me as an example of the difference in reporting for public health purposes vs reporting for the public. MoH will want to follow WHO guidelines (for obvious reasons of standardisation).
My reading of the above is that where it's unclear what the cause of death is, they can't discard the death from the count. Did Hart die because he had covid and couldn't survive what was otherwise a survivable wound? Or did he die of the gun shot and covid made no difference? Or both? The coroner will decide.
That is coherent and logical
Maybe. But clearly neither "coherent" nor "logical" before the change in approach they speak of. "We will now… " blah blah clearly indicates that what they will do 'now' (as from that date/highlighted incident) was not what they were doing previously.
when you click on all persons on the new screes upper lefthand side purple box with cusum
I used this one,
https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiYmUwNmFhMjYtNGZhYS00NDk2LWFlMTAtOTg0OGNhNmFiNGM0IiwidCI6ImVlNGUxNDk5LTRhMzUtNGIyZS1hZDQ3LTVmM2NmOWRlODY2NiIsImMiOjh9
then All Persons
https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiYmUwNmFhMjYtNGZhYS00NDk2LWFlMTAtOTg0OGNhNmFiNGM0IiwidCI6ImVlNGUxNDk5LTRhMzUtNGIyZS1hZDQ3LTVmM2NmOWRlODY2NiIsImMiOjh9
cool, got it.
During the Christmas break I came across a 2009 NZ Geo mag with this article regarding the history into protecting Manapouri & Te Anau from being dammed, and how the Tawai/Comalco smelter has continually played all NZ governments. For all those out there I recommend this to understand the history and some amazing people, and to understand what went before regarding protecting the environment !!!!
https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/manapouri-damning-the-dam/
And this amazing song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nkPI6BDZsE
The most barking obit you'll read this year. Or next…
Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff, Twins in an Uneasy Spotlight, Die at 72
In France they were science-loving TV celebrities (molded by plastic surgery) whose own research was suspect, maybe a hoax. They died within days of each other.
https://archive.li/dhb0L (nyt)
The tropical low that Scud mentioned near Darwin on 24th December (9.1.1), eventually drifted south east, developed into Cyclone Seth on the Queensland coast and then passed right over our boat (where we live) as a low in Sandy Strait 200 km north of Brisbane, dropping immense amounts of rain and wind. We are worried about an 88 year old friend in the Mary River who went to rescue his boat today in the floods at Maryborough. Typically, despite the fact that the rain event has been descibed as "once in a lifetime" by local media, climate change has not yet been mentioned. Cop26 only just over a month ago and almost forgotten!
Yep. Its the same situation in NZ. At best, when there is a major weather event CC is only obliquely mentioned. Its almost as if there's an unspoken agreement among governments to avoid specifying direct links to CC in order to keep the masses from understanding the urgency to do something. I mean… its the next few generations who are going to cop it – not so much us – so let us let sleeping dogs lie. We'll be dead and gone by then. 😡