Probably because those bands got big before the disco era, when tunes were the catchy hook that made them hits. The disco beat replaced tunes in ’76. Supremes hit #1 in ’64, Jackson 5 in ’67, Village People in ’73. From memory, which is becoming somewhat unreliable nowadays…
Wow Ad, that is probably unlikely for the present series here, and diminishes the performances of our team in Pakistan. Granted India will be an acid test.
Methane can be stabilised. The science appears clear that this only needs to reduce and stabilise over time, not achieve net zero. So, lets believe in this science as it is the best knowledge that we have as we head off on this path into unchartered territory.
There was no reference to support the statement.
Can anyone point to the appropriate research?
“Earlier this year, Frame and six other scientists published a paper that argued short-lived gases, like methane, should be accounted for differently in emission budgets because of their lesser warming potential over time.
Frame’s view – which he’s sticking to in the face of the IPCC report – is that cuts to methane can be made later, before global warming peaks. Carbon dioxide’s a “stock” pollutant while methane’s a “flow” pollutant – one builds up and the other dissipates. “I would wait on doing more on methane until you see that you’ve really got the CO2 under control.”
methane may well be able to be treated as a flow IF the atmospheric levels hadnt over doubled in the past 150 years or so (and are still increasing)….so logically before they can be treated as a flow the levels need to reduced.
All GHG gases can be treated as a flow as it actually is a flow.
In to the atmosphere >> removed from atmosphere >> In to the atmosphere
That’s happening even now.
The problem is that the ‘In to the atmosphere’ far exceeds the ‘removed from atmosphere’ and so we end up with an increase of those gases in the atmosphere which then changes the climate.
As it is, we need to radically reduce the amount of GHG emissions that we’re making and that’s going to require radical action. As far as farming goes – we need reduce the number of farms until we only produce enough food to support ourselves. Forget exporting of food – we just can’t afford it.
The letter saying methane could be stabilised. Lincoln University appear to have done a study. Perhaps that is what he is referring to?
His request for the Minister to give farming time to change was sad.
Shaw, with the best will in the world can not hold back the damage, and 12 years is 12 years.
To buy time, farming has to buy in big time, lower both carbon and methane , then they may get a little time relief.
He keeps mentioning emotion, and how decisions need to be made without emotion.
This letter is indicative of where sympathetic farmers are, and as Southland is so far right in politics, it is a step forward imo.
It is certainly an amazing shift from that farmer holding up the sign “She’s a pretty little Communist” in Te Aroha.
There are recognised stages of grief and some were evident in this letter.
Quite a shift since Jacinda stood up and said “Climate Change is the most important challenge we face”
Farming—especially the enormous dairy farms—in alliance with irresponsible and corrupt politicians, is a menace to this country.
JOHN KEY: Well that might be Mike Joy’s view, but I don’t share that view.
STEPHEN SACKUR: But he is very well qualified, isn’t he? He’s looked, for example, at the number of species threatened with extinction in New Zealand, he’s looked at the fact that half your lakes, 90% of your lowland rivers, are now classed as polluted.
KEY: Look, I’d hate to get into a flaming row with one of our academics, but he’s offering his view. I think any person that goes down to New Zealand …
SACKUR: Yeah but he’s a scientist, it’s based on research, it’s not an opinion he’s plucked from the air.
KEY: He’s one academic, and like lawyers, I can provide you with another one that will give you a counterview. Anybody who goes down to New Zealand and looks at our environmental credentials, and looks at New Zealand, then I think for the most part, in comparison with the rest of the world, we are 100% pure – in other words, our air quality is very high, our water quality is very high.
Probably only for your life – he will never wear out. In the future the situation will be that old bloggers never die; they will leave waiting algorithms to be triggered by particular words which will answer every reply drawing from a number of random sentences.
Yesterday was not exactly the Day of the Dumb Bastards. That infamous 24 hours occurred in September ’03. * No, yesterday was, as usual, just another Day of the Sad Gits.
Starting at 8:01 a.m. (Keeping Stock: “Hooray; no moderation!”—22 upvotes) all, or nearly all, their obsessions were covered. Those obsessions are:
1.) Māori privilege, Māori criminality, Māori culture; Māori identity. Paulus airs this carefully thought out thesis: “But of course the difference is that most Australian Aboriginals are 100%, whereas there are no pure 100% Maori.” A thinker called Tall Man joins in: “I’m ‘part aboriginal’. Just you wait when my ‘people’ get into the money I’ll be there tongue hanging out….. Yeah nah. What I have I made, what I will get is what I create. Why can’t maori think like that?”
2.) empathy for the beleaguered rich and condemnation of the lazy poor;
3.) hatred of “Cindy” (Jacinda Ardern) and murderous envy of “Jethro” (Clarke Gayford). calendar girl sneers at “our lightweight Ardern” and garners 21 upvotes. RW Capitalist chimes in: “Light weight … difficult to understand, how a mammal with so little brain function, could still be breathing. SLG may be a compliment.” (18 likes)
4.) contempt for the underperforming Simon Bridges;
5.) a Bob Jones level of disregard for rules and regulations. “The Herald is pushing the nonsense that it is unacceptable that to even have a wine with a meal,” fumes Chuck Bird, and slightlyrighty agrees: “I am observing high amounts of zealotry when it comes to alcohol and the enforcement of regulations.”
6.) veneration of the late Margaret Thatcher. Simon comments, in apparent high seriousness, on the sinking of the General Belgrano: “Great stuff. Overall the Falklands war helped defeat the genocidal left.” (23 upvotes). mikenmildagain, one of the sane people on this site—yes, there are a few—contests that remarkable view: “That’s the first time I’ve seen the Argentinean junta described as the genocidal left.” (26 downvotes) This dissenting view is smartly shot down by Tall Man: “Probably a lot of “firsts” for you on this blog. After all, you do seem to occupy the ignorant left side of the political spectrum.”
8.) veneration of Trump and his henchmen. Scott writes: “Yesterday in a fiery exchange presidential spokesperson Kelly Anne Conway tore into CNN “reporter” Jim Acosta. She called him a smart arse to his face! I love it when Trump and his administration call out the press. The news media for years and years have got away with their leftist propaganda. Trump and his associates are the only ones who stand up to the out-of-control press. If we only had politicians here on the right who would do the same!” (39 likes)
9.) “multiculturalism” —–> crime. Some taxi-drivers in Halifax, Ontario have been arrested on sex-assault charges. DigNap15 snarls: “The weak Canadians get what they deserve!” (20 likes) Then, eleven minutes later he has another thought and posts a follow-up: “And the weak Germans and Swedes and Poms” (19 likes.) kowtow agrees: “Yep , too many of them make a virtue of embracing “multiculturalism”. Now they can live with the consequences.” (16 likes)
10.) marijuana (general consensus: bad); Ben Shapiro; bureaucracy; oral sex; Mark Lundy; the Mongrel Mob; Pete George; vegans; Jair Bolsonaro (a hero, of course), cricket…..
Well, nobody can argue that rightist culture isn’t diverse. You’ve compiled overwhelming evidence against that. Too toxic for me. Wading through their swamp regularly in your thigh-high gumboots, eh? Preaching at the denizens within? Or just in the research spirit of the social ecologist, to learn what mass psychology motivates them? It would be better to draw some informative conclusions lest readers here see the listings as a form of cultural pollution…
Kiwiblog’s like going into One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest meets The Living Dead meets the Mongrel Mob wannabes who missed out because their IQ’s didn’t reach 67. Directed by the Voice of the Establishment, David Farrar.
Thanks very much, Tamati. I actually like the people over there. They’re not as bad as one might think on first contact. Yes, some of them say some shocking things, but I doubt they really believe most of the extreme things they say.
Similarly, there are some pretty hair-raising opinions voiced on this site.
That’s the point Morrissey, you have fingered an outstanding point: some of them say some shocking things, but I doubt they really believe most of the extreme things they say.
The are mostly blowhards who just want to pass an opinion, irritate, get superior. TS has a destiny to be a pretty serious discussion about our society, our environment, and what we can do about it. There isn’t time for too much fence sitting, and time-passing. Being on TS isn’t a replacement for a pub discussion.
That’s the difference between the RW, who are either ascetic in pursuit of profit, or hedonistic at the core, and the LW who can be ascetic in pursuit of higher wages etc and hedonistic, but can be dragged back by the remaining values to the people that they have, so that the betterment of society and compassion can be inserted in Slot B; and sometimes up to A.
The Loch Mess monster? Or one of those aliens from the swamp.
We might hope for a Yoda but i think it is the wrong swamp. We could learn good things from Yoda. He says use the Force. Then do, not say you’ll try. There is no try.
It’s clear that Aristotle thinks that slavery was good for those who were born natural slaves, as without masters they wouldn’t have known how to run their lives.
The Greek philosopher Plato thought similarly that it was right for the ‘better’ to rule over the ‘inferior’.
Thousands of years and the RWNJs haven’t changed their tune. They, of course, consider themselves the ‘betters’.
Wow – are you actually applying left/right to Aristotle and Plato?
I’ve done 3 years Classical Studies, 2 years Latin and over 5 years in political science and this is the very first time I have heard anyone apply left/right to BCE philosophers.
I highly doubt you are actually qualified enough to make such a statement (you have such hubris?) when it is one that no one qualified has suggested so, you know, [citation needed]
Secondly because the “attitudes and philosophies are the same” – what part of plato’s or Aristotles philosophy is/was right-wing? Which philosophers would you consider left-wing (from the same period please)
Interesting. looking at Plato’s Gorgias, the comment about slaves used in Draco’s link appears to be very much out of context.
Plato loved dialogues, where Socrates would debate with various archetypes of opponent and then masterfully (sometimes in a contrived way) demolishing naive philosophical positions or picking holes in categorical statements. The quote in the BBC link of DTB says Plato supported slavery, but the comment was actually made by one of Socrates’ foils (Callicas).
Now, the caveat on this comment is that the last time I read Plato, I studied a paper on that book a few months later and realised I’d understood almost nothing even though I’d thought I had a handle on it. So maybe Socrates ended up demonstrating that slavery was a fine thing indeed. But it looks to me on the surface of it that he’s completely ripping shit out of the ‘might makes right’ doctrine. I especially liked the bit about the doctor apportioning food.
The RW always resort to this minute discussion of crossed t’s or spelling or what are your credentials. Aligning themselves with superior philosophers from millenia ago. Democratic tendencies R’Out.
I highly doubt you are actually qualified enough to make such a statement (you have such hubris?) when it is one that no one qualified has suggested so, you know,
OMG, No on else has made the same comparison so you must be wrong.
Yes Draco, yes.
From WP – “The false dilemma fallacy can also arise simply by accidental omission of additional options rather than by deliberate deception. For example, “Stacey spoke out against capitalism, therefore she must be a communist”
From Draco – “Plato spoke in favour of slavery therefore he’s Right-Wing”
I’ve seen it in books several times. Usually called aristocrat, meaning conservative. This from the relevant wiki implies a benign elitism hierarchy:
“Plato lists three classes in his ideal society. Producers or Workers: The laborers who make the goods and services in the society. Auxiliaries/Soldiers: Those who keep order in the society and protect it from invaders. Guardians (Philosopher kings) — those who are the most intelligent, rational, self-controlled, in love with wisdom, and well suited to make decisions for the community, and who promote the interests of the society as a whole.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato%27s_political_philosophy
Pretty much every philosopher who envisioned an ideal society said that the most suited and capable people should rule, and they should rule for the benefit of society. That applies to everyone from monarchists to communists (where people suited to managing contribute according to their skillset). To flip it around, very few said “society should be ruled by a narcissist who serves only their own interests”. Ayn Rand, comes to mind, but with very little company. Hobbes and other monarchists of around that era asserted to some degree or other hereditary monarchy was a capable trade-off to prevent anarchy, and that the knowledge of imminent succession enabled training and a lifetime of preparation for the role – heavy on the implicit acceptance of noblesse oblige, and also that it was the work of God and therefore infallible (inbreeding politely ignored).
Plato’s PK wasn’t hereditary, nor were there generally proxies of wealth or strength (e.g. “I am rich, therefore I will be the best ruler” or “I am ruthless and killed my competitors, therefore I deserve to rule”) included, if I recall broadly correctly. And the philosopher king certainly wasn’t supposed to follow the Right wing thinking of “what is good for me and my rich and/or powerful friends is what is good for the society”.
Democracy is about the only one that allows some chance of periodically selecting an imbecile to rule, which is why its entire approach is to organise the transition away from particular rulers, rather than installing or justifying them. Even then, there’s usually some sort of faith in the ability of voters en masse to usually pick equivalently capable rulers, rather than focussing on the merits of a population simply being able to choose its own path to hell.
Yeah, that’s mostly my view too. With the possible exception of this bit: “the philosopher king certainly wasn’t supposed to follow the Right wing thinking of “what is good for me and my rich and/or powerful friends is what is good for the society”.”
Debatable, that. Historical evidence of such people is notable for the lack. Amongst Roman emperors, Marcus Aurelius is the obvious candidate. I doubt any examination of his rule would produce evidence of him serving anything other than the insitution of the patriarchy.
One could also go for my tribe’s emperor, Charlemagne. A successful warrior who ruled as that rarest of creatures, a genuine christian, and established an education system for his subjects that became the prototype for all public education since. However power-sharing was never on his agenda. Quite the contrary!
However, I do agree that the next king of England will fit the philosopher king description accurately. You only need to follow the money to see how he has implemented his philosophy, and in his book he explains why & how.
It’s possible that both “philosopher” and “king” have lost something in the translation. Plato was talking about a merit-based ruler who considered situations rationally and in great depth. And Plato made clear the ruler should rule in the interests of society.
Whether such an example has existed in history is irrelevant to whether Plato was even remotely “right wing”.
Inasmuch as Charles will not rule as king, you’re technically correct, but I’m confident that he will be an exemplar in combining the philosopher role with the status of king.
Having read the book, I’m better-informed about that. I won’t argue about your final statement – I can’t see any relevance. How right-wing any aristocrat may have been is pure conjecture. Won’t stop many from seeing a correlation though, and jumping to the general conclusion.
Read up the thread. The discussion is happening literally because Draco called Plato a RWNJ.
Kings, or any ruler, can be smart, dumb, cruel, kind, rational, impulsive, self-serving, or serve the public good. Then they die or are replaced in some other manner. The discussion was about whether a particular philosopher’s ideas constituted being “right wing”. I think most of Plato’s works could go either way – any right wing or left wing society could follow his political philosophy.
Oh, okay. In that case, I agree with you about Plato, inasmuch as left-wingers are inclined to operate within the context of a class hierarchy as often as not.
Pretty much every philosopher who envisioned an ideal society said that the most suited and capable people should rule, and they should rule for the benefit of society.
That’s pretty much what we have with the ideal cabinet of Donald J. Trump, isn’t it? Who could be more suitable, capable and beneficial rulers of any country than the esteemed forementioned Trump, ably backed up by such stratospheric talents as Giuliani, De Vos, Pence, Pompeo, Mnuchin, Bolton, Carson, Perry, Nielsen….
Actually it’s been pretty productive – did some reno, got a large item delivered and installed, did some chores. Then some jerk came along and talked about dolt45. for no reason whatsoever
I understand that dolt45 is an outstanding example of a bad ruler. Bringing him into a serious and actually quite interesting discussion of Plato and foundational political theory as a joke is like laughing about fatal haemorrhoid surgery at a keynote address on proctology. Timing is everything, and it’s one thing you don’t have in an asynchronous communication medium.
On the topic of climate change: I found this very interesting advertorial for Schneider Electric. It makes some good points about retrofitting:
“retrofitting is […] often forgotten: Typically, examples of “sustainable living” feature new buildings, new cars, and new city designs. But by 2050, it will neither be feasible nor economically wise to rebuild what is already put in place.”
“Dallas County, the ninth largest county in the U.S., government spent $600,000 on 54 buildings for improvements including mechanical system upgrades, water conservation controls and fixtures, and lighting with motion sensors. The project is expected to reduce utility bills by 31 percent, ultimately saving $73 million over 10 years.”
How’s that for a return on investment.
And this:
“Schneider Electric is among the few companies who have a business case aligned with moving humanity out of ecological overshoot. With this, these companies have a baked-in economic advantage: On average they are aligned with the growing need of living within the means of our one planet. This exposes the companies to an expanding market, a feature that makes it much more likely for such companies to be successful in the long run compared to companies that are incompatible with one-planet prosperity and will inevitably face a shrinking demand.”
Companies that retrofit and actively support retrofitting the planet will gain loyal consumer bases. Sounds great right!
Schneider Electric have been naughty! There’s a 2016 $6.8M fine for breaching EPA standards, 16 bribery charges in 2014, and 2018 raids in France concerning alleged collusion and corruption.
So this company is keen to retrofit the planet, at cartel prices, while it’s factories continue to pollute, and if there’s an issue a little bribery can fix it.
And none of this comes as any surprise.
We can take the good from the advertorial however. Retrofitting buildings can make a significant difference. Also, for business, a significant economic difference.
Passive heating, passive cooling, natural lighting, sensor operated systems to minimize use… There’s a lot of good ideas out there to help turn your business or home into a more efficient space.
Even perpetual economic growth isn’t a fatal flaw in and of itself. It’s fully possible to envisage continuing growth from people providing services to each other accompanied by decreasing resource usage. Automation and efficiency improvements can do that if managed well.
It’s growth in consumption of finite resources that’s the problem. In fact, it’s ongoing consumption of finite resources that’s a problem, until that consumption of finite resources goes to zero and we’re fully renewable.
Quite right. However this nuanced view has failed to get traction in politics. Growth is good being a powerful complex meme, and addiction psychology being beyond the mental grasp of media operatives.
Russel Norman advocated Green growth when he was co-leader. I didn’t mind that, since he rationalised it as using tech to trend business towards sustainability. Biomimicry suggests using growth in nature as the new paradigm: businesses flourish like plants, then die in due course, while others emerge. Steady-state economics becoming the norm half a century after conception.
what you both describe is not growth….its continued activity with a diminishing resource use….the antithesis of growth, named Degrowth, and is the only viable option and the need for its implementation is exceedingly time constrained.
Yes, but growth in nature is a thing. It comes & goes. So framing it on that basis is a way to bridge the gap between the enterprise dimension of capitalism (growth-producing) and the Green fundamentalist view (growth kills nature). The bluegreens, I thought, would do this. Their failure doesn’t just damage their credibility, it operates as a handicap for all.
Growth in nature is indeed a thing….growth in the terms of a lifecycle which includes a natural limit , if those limits are exceeded what happens?….a forrest for example cannot continue to grow forever outside its environmental confines and the individual components of that environment require a balance that is controlled biologically……there is no endless growth in nature but our current economic model claims to have rewritten the laws of nature (physics)…..one hell of a marketing pitch but patently false as is increasingly evident.
His views arnt widely popular but his book title is accurate, nature does indeed bat last
There is no output without input and ALL activity requires input…existing requires resources…never mind the desire for ease. It is IMPOSSIBLE to continue to grow (anything) ad infinitum in a finite environment…and we have passed that point.
It would be worth considering that this finite environment dosnt need our existence , indeed it is in the process of ridding itself of us.
Not at all. But you have to base your systems on natural ecology, that which grows in production and complexity. When the waste of one is the food/fuel of the next a whole raft of products can be realised within a single system.
As systems develop biodiversity increases and more and more connections between species and processes become apparent.
Industry could learn much from natural systems. We have a lot of disconnected competitive entities all jostling to make money and in the process throwing it away – advertising, competition, proprietary rights yadda yadda. Work in isolation pumping out dollars and waste you are not part of an ecosystem you are kind of parasitic.
Good permacultural systems thinking. Cycles are a hard concept for rightists to grasp, but I think it unwise to dismiss the bluegreen trend as merely greenwash. Up to around a decade ago I would have agreed, but since then they’ve been on a convergence trajectory.
-every country pursing a growth in economic activity….so pretty much every country in the world (19 with negative growth but not necessarily by choice)
I realised that if you cut down ‘growth’ you might end up with ‘grot’. Here is a bit of Reggie Perrin in his store Grot, where you can get just the right thing to give to People you Hate.
And people who hate us have bought up just about everything in the shop to make little deals with, rather than give away (have I got a bridge for you!).
Ikea, destroyers of the environment…
“the key issue with IKEA from an environmentalist’s point of view is that the company encourages the mass-consumption of goods that generally need to be replaced after a few years, putting an increasing strain on the world’s natural resources. In her 2009 book, Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, Ellen Ruppel Shell argues that IKEA – by some measures the world’s third-largest consumer of wood – sells products with a limited lifespan and that, by claiming its products are ‘sustainable’ and come from ‘renewable’ sources, effectively encourage consumers to replace like with like, rather than spending more on longer-lasting products.”
( a funny article, because its trying to be pro ikea while telling us how flawed and destructive the basic business model is…it can’t be easy being a environmentally aware Capitalist.)
Cargo Cult mentality in full swing here. Most of what IKEA stocks can be found in The Warehouse anyway, just under a different brand name. But each to their own.
You may well think this isn’t relevant to the converted on the left, but given Carlson’s massive influence on Fox and his massive conservative influence, it bodes very well for the populist messaging that Warren already has down.
It also works surprisingly well read in a New Zealand context if you can mentally edit out the accent.
Carlson is not to be underestimated. He is the founder and editor of the often-misleading Daily Caller in addition to all of his other platforms. He knows how to communicate that’s for sure.
The irony of an heir to the Swanson frozen food fortune railing against capitalism, while earning millions as a Fox host, should not be lost on anyone.
I can appreciate that he is an opponent of laissez-faire, Libertarian and AnCap ideas but I still tend to agree with Jon Stewart in 2004; Carlson’s use of his platforms has been damaging to the political discourse.
These cases where he is closer to the political centre are countered by him promulgating the ‘white genocide’ myth.
Glasgow had the highest murder rate of any western European city: 63 victims per million. An innovative approach to gangs turned it into one of the safest cities in the UK.
Real discrimination against women comes largely I think because men resent women being the gender that can give life to a new person, and therefore is unwittingly powerful over all. Self-made men are particularly pissed about this!
And after looking at that it will probably have penetrated the minds of all as to how bodily appearance, looking ‘good’ and right, are embedded in female’s sensibilities from a very early age.
In ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood there is a quote something like ‘Men are afraid that women will laugh at them; and women are afraid that men will kill them.’
While the book/series is set in some Dystopian future, there are many parallels with the fundamentalist teachings and practices of today. Many christian women say nothing of their lot, for it is ‘not their place to’.
I posit that a large proportion of today’s misogyny originated with, and remains with, religions.
Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 1 Corinthians 14:34
He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 1 Kings 11:3
If, however the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. Deuteronomy 22:20-21.
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Ephesians 5:22-24.
That’s the mob I’m familiar with. The Torah and other ‘gospels’ are no better.
Which is why we need to get rid of religion. Even Judaism. The sooner the better.
Someone I know went back to the Jehovah’s Witnesses a while back and has gone from independent woman to totally buying into all that ‘women are inferior’ BS. Become a total prude too.
Real discrimination against women comes largely I think because men resent women being the gender that can give life to a new person, and therefore is unwittingly powerful over all. Self-made men are particularly pissed about this!
It’s a dead giveaway with any religion. If the magical superhero arrived in the world through something other than normal birth nine months after normal sex between a man and a woman, it’s a religion predicated on fear and hate of women, with all their slimy biological yuckiness.
So now also the “eco” plan now comes to grief as well here!!!!!!!!
Apparently now it seems that “air tight homes’ are now deemed as “dangerous” to us all too.
Time to open windows and let some ventilation in to expel the toxic VOC’s.
It seems that for ‘every benefit’ comes some ‘unintended consequences’ now.
Full marks to this NZ company ‘Tether’ and for their CEO Brandon Van Blerk for telling the truth about ‘sealed homes’ as not being fully safe, as they trap volatile organic chemicals (VOC’s) inside them, and dangerously poisoning the inside air and the residents.
Insulation can worsen unhealthy home issues
Tuesday, 18 December 2018, 11:41 am
Press Release: Tether
PRESS RELEASE
Tether Limited
18 December 2018
Kiwis cautioned that insulation can worsen unhealthy home issues
An air tight home does not equal a healthy home and may even exacerbate the damp, stagnant conditions that lead to mould, mildew and respiratory problems likes asthma and pneumonia among children and older adults in New Zealand.
CEO of healthy home monitoring technology company Tether, Brandon Van Blerk, said while Government making home insulation a priority is a good thing, over emphasis on insulation might actually make the problems worse.
“Good insulation should go hand-in-hand with adequate ventilation and air exchange because good insulation alone makes a home airtight, and that will lead to moisture problems and a build up of noxious gases, harmful particles like dust and mould spores and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).”
“A healthy home has the trinity of 1. Good insulation, 2. Adequate ventilation and 3. Efficient air exchange.”
Decades ago I remember it being argued that NZ homes were airy and uninsulated but that those who lived in them were healthier and had greater resistance to colds and flu, especially compared to those who lived in warm centrally heated airtight well-insulated homes. At the extremes I guess those who lived in tents would be healthier still. (Air conditioning can spread infections on warm humid air.)
We do like to be comfortable though don’t we?
Was just thinking on this yesterday, how climate change could put the air conditioning power demands really high, and the poor who can’t afford it.
We certainly need passive cooling and heating in our designs. Whether we can afford power or not, if we know how to do this (we do) not doing it is a waste of power for the buildings lifetime.
I have an air inlet for a cooling cupboard placed 5 feet up on a sun exposed brick wall – Just W.T.F…
Drop that same opening to ground level and shade it out with shrubs – huge improvement. Put a new opening on the shaded side of the house, add shrubs, and an outlet up high on the opposite hot side of the house and I got a breeze through the house.
I can’t afford a damn air conditioner. All buildings should have a breeze built in. See if you can fiddle round with windows on shaded and bright sides and get one running.
Decades ago I remember it being argued that NZ homes were airy and uninsulated but that those who lived in them were healthier and had greater resistance to colds and flu, especially compared to those who lived in warm centrally heated airtight well-insulated homes.
That sounds like bollocks put about to justify having cold, damp houses that were cheap to build and thus maximised profits for the developers.
If the UK has a problem with the new Eu border, while doesn’t Ireland? Why is Ireland choosing to scrap the peace agreement with the north and not even holding a referendum? Is Ireland waiting to see how the UK Eu agree the new relationship?
I can’t see the Eu, any more than the UK, rushing to build customs border control.
So why has May so successful put the eu off talking, it’s in the interest for the UK,Ireland, businesses all to continue working… ..only a hard brexit will work since nobody is accepting the reality that the UK is leaving. Until everyone affected is in tge room, the doors locked and not opened until its done.
I can’t see the Eu wanting people let into the uk crossing the border in Ireland and entering the eu, or vis vevia, Syria’s buying tickets to Ireland… ..so where is the eu commitment to the peace agreement?
The UK needs Europe more than Europe needs the UK. Europe doesn’t need to renegotiate its trade network from scratch. Europe is more open to immigration than the UK wants to be, so illegal immigration from UK into Europe won’t be a huge problem. Europe has much higher GDP than UK.
why then does the pound and eu buy roughly the same number of dollars.
And yes sure a dysfunctional multipolar collective of foreign languages should by the virtue of its larger population dominate the relationship but there’s the assumption, Britain is also a part of a dysfunctional trading English speaking block, the commonwealth.Germany has Turks and now Syrians, Britian has south Asians and caribbians…
The joke is that brexit exposes the Tories up for the incompetents they are. Instead of dealing with those left behind, it let itself believe the eu was the problem.
Sorry.Parts from the world going into the UK, to build cars say, for the eu market… …or other goods going to the UK… look I jus don’t aged with comparisons of the UK and Eu. Also UK germany are more comparable, since a lot of what germany exports takes parts from the uk, and cars, or wharever.
Even on a UK/germany comparison, as I pointed out before the UK is more reliant on exports to Germany than vice versa. And Germany can get parts from anywhere in the EU for cheaper than a trade deal with the UK.
So in the five years after a hard Brexit the UK will have barriers put on 10% of its export market. Germany can choose where else it buys from. British manufacturing gets bollocked unless the rest of the world suddenly open up to the UK – which it’s not going to do. Meanwhile, czech manufacturers supply the parts Germany wants. UK gets shut out of cooperative contracts like Typhoon and CERN. What will Europe or Germany weep over not getting from UK?
“The remarks drew online ridicule. Some say that if prayers work, the government should set up the Ministry of Magic and make Thailand a superpower. Others say that they also pray for the junta to leave politics but it did not work out.”
Magical thinking hasn’t been flavour of the month in western civilisation since the 17th century. Science replaced it. In the counter-culture, it flourished briefly again but so many interesting things happened that the generation born in the fifties got weirded-out, and scooted back to moronic conservatism.
The good news is that Lyall Watson books are still around, so anyone interested in the magical dimension of nature can get up to speed easily. As long as one becomes adept at not becoming captive to any delusion, Castenada still provides a model on the application side of things. Flawed, inasmuch as the guru thing ended up claiming him as victim. But we lack a useful model of how to apply shamanic practice in contemporary political contexts. When I raised this question at a political meeting of around 40 people around five or six years ago I got sustained applause, but no answer.
You didn’t notice? It was the previous sentence: how to apply shamanic practice in contemporary political contexts. I have a few clues on the topic due to my personal history as change-maker, but I was hoping for more. I noticed long ago that being a fast learner & fast mover is a problematic path (peer group drops off the pace).
Hmmmm… okay, I did notice, but…I could have drawn that inference/inferred that, but you didn’t ask, or state a question…so, now that you’ve asked and I’m not applauding without answering, here goes…”how do we apply shamanic practice in contemporary political contexts” – that’s it, just to be clear? Effectively, is my answer; effectively if you mean to effect change. I’m very interested in this discussion; would you care to elaborate a little so that I can getafix on your intent, I’d like to bat ideas back and forward…
Can do but probably more suitable for the weekend topic of how to get there, but the already mentioned theme is more important. The one that Andre suggested.
Changemaking involves catalysis. It involves shifting mass consciousness (which is where shamanic function comes in). It involves an orientation to the time axis, one that transcends passive acceptance of the current reality as predetermining the future by default.
Science hasn’t even yet accepted that we actually have an innate orientation to the time axis. Psychology is a barren field populated by folks with small minds. Post Jung, I mean. Minimal progress. Political psychology, the key arena, is devoid of content.
I tried that. Everyone sat down to the meal, I said “grace”, and everyone laughed. I suppose you could argue that I shifted mass consciousness for the group…
Too right Dennis. I don’t do grace now. I thought recently; why? We and I have taken everything too casually. Post war – what could go wrong? Now I am a bit sharper prior to my senescence.
No doubt taking a while to process the cognitive dissonance. “Huh? What did she just say?” I presume you were a child at the time. Kids are often inadvertent subversives, in those years before convention and group-think tighten their grip. I hope the lord didn’t punish you for disrespect.
Never heard of humans thinking bumblebees out of a house. But several times I’ve observed bumblebees successfully thinking humans out of their houses. Including once through an open window.
Ha! Funny, but now that you have heard of thinking them out, will you apply the scientific principle and test my hypothesis/proposal/claim?
Give it a go and get back to us with your findings.
Dunno about bees, but flies are usually pretty easy if you know their behaviour. I open the bathroom door ajar, and the bathroom window fully. Fly gets attracted into bathroom, can’t get back into rest of house, flies out window. Flies that come in window don’t get into rest of house, fly out window again. They usually like to go from dark to light.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that observing animal behaviour and using the knowledge to get rid of them is in the same ballpark as praying or thinking them away, though. If I do swat a sitting fly, I aim behind it to take advantage of its launch mechanism.
My thinking doesn’t make it jump packwards, its reflexes do.
Owing to the stress and strain i haven’t wiped my cobwebs again. I have one at the base of a window that is near a corner, where the blowflies buzz over to. If they walk along the base of the window they will get caught in an arm of the web, buzz madly then I see some long legs arise and a mad dash for spider to get it while it’s hot. Watched a couple of flies go that way. Otherwise they get encouraged out. Swatting can knock them down and they may spill juveniles.
I once sat on a bumblebee that had overnighted in my pyjamas. Bugger bit me multiple times back side of my tenders but once the stinging subsided, I thought all would be well. Nope.
I arrived home mid morning after an early surf with things below feeling rather tight, so I dropped my strides and there they were, the pair of ’em were the size of oranges, and growing.
Eventually antihistamines calmed things down but oh dear, the pain and discomfort.
hehehe Reminds me of time I was riding my m’bike in a pair of shorts. A wasp went up the left leg. Ahhhhhhhhhh. I stood up on the foot rests and managed to bring the bike to a stop but ooooh I shall never forget that. Nor the time I sat on the sofa and there was a wasp sitting on it – I nearly hit the roof. lol
Reminds me of a story our psychology lecturer told us to demonstrate the nature of a phenomena.
A thistle – that is no phenomena
A bee – that is no phenomena
A horse – that is no phenomena
But a horse, sitting on a bee, sitting on a thistle – that is a phenomena.
We had a morris 8 with a wind out windscreen on a trip to the beach wearing only a sarong i meet with a wasp in the worst of spots, i was very pleased to get into the ocean
Oh yeah! I remember those. I had a Ford 10 and a mate and I shared a Standard when were at college. Used to drive it up the Akatarawas after school each day – until it ran its big end bearings. 🙁 His dad was a mechanic, and being wise to the after school drag racing up a very windy hill road decided that the best solution was that the car was unfixable. 😉 We sold it off as parts netting 15 quid which was 5 more than we paid for it! Paid for our petrol – which as I recall was around 2/6 a gallon in those days.
Probably works better when combined with action. I did this with a possum, after buying the old harbour-master’s villa, up on the hill overlooking the old jetty at Port Waikato.
For those who don’t know, it was a port for the coastal trade until the sixties. I’ve got a 10×8 photocopy of an old photo taken from the air, showing a tanker in port at that jetty. Then the farmers stripped the Waikato river hillsides for more farmland, the silt was deposited at the river mouth, and tankers could no longer get in.
Anyway a noise woke me one night, and I could tell it was in the kitchen area, so I came out cautiously, flicked on the light, and the biggest possum I’ve ever seen was sitting calmly on the middle of the dining table watching me. Size of a wallaby, in a similar stance. I thought for a few secs, then sidled carefully around it & opened the window on the far side, then sidled back again.
It must have observed this just as carefully, as it immediately, in leisurely fashion, exited. So the technique works if the creature observes the exit.
Portals are vital. A possum can’t usually exit where there is no point of exit. Usually. Bats, I’m not so sure 🙂
Animals sometimes have difficulty identifying open portals. I’ve noticed. I catch, in my hands, one or two blackbirds a day in my kitchen. They don’t seem to mind being exported.
I think that by our thoughts we create our own reality. I’ve never seen bumble bees as something to wish to move so have never tried.
Away from NZ I see people with quite a different view on supernatural forces and more accepting of their impacts , my natural inbuilt western cynicism is something I’m yet to conquer but i find my perceptions continualy challenged.
The progressive left has traditionally viewed human interaction as being about language and choice and the dynamics of sociality. Whereas the right view the world as something to control via science and prediction of human behaviour, which is impossible to do, therefore provides the wrong analysis.
Well ghosts or spirits, we have one in my NZ house ; my late wife far more open than me would talk about her, now I mix with mainly Thai people and all who visit mention her presence, without prompting. Hard to explain.
Here in Thailand every house has a small house outside for spirits of past family we leave food, It doesn’t dissapper, but my wife will often wake with story from someone who visited in the night and usually the message is relevent.
After a death and cremation about 90 days the family and friends gather, the ashes are collected from the crematorium and a bucket of water and the best clothes of the deceased are put by the gate, he washes himself and dresses and joins in the party, the amazing part is the water moves, who knows but I don’t think anyone can conjure earthquakes at will so I’m left believing it is the spirit that disturbs it.
“accidentally”???
The people who filter Kinder’s stuff – they’re charged with reality-checking, aren’t they??
Who could miss that?
No one.
They’re going for outrage as a marketing tool.
They didn’t know? Why not just have an extra balloon making two, to show how Kinder offers that bit more. But three? How about a bit of paper with a joke (yolk) on it or an offer, that would be doing something about plstic rubbish. Which that toy was. Neither useful or ornamental.
Career MAGA scammer scams MAGA fools, and swatts former employees, too.
Brian Kolfage, the decorated Iraq War veteran spearheading the massive, viral fundraising campaign to build President Trump’s border wall, who has a history of peddling right-wing misinformation on Facebook, pushed the limits of misleading content in pursuit of online traffic and profits until he was ultimately banned from the platform, according to multiple former employees and a review of internal communications.
The 37-year-old has spent more than a decade carefully crafting his public persona as an altruistic, conservative public figure, but people who have worked with the veteran told BuzzFeed News he can be vengeful and malicious, and that the pursuit of profits above all else fueled his behavior.
The veteran has also spearheaded other crowdfunding ventures over the years, raising thousands of dollars on GoFundMe with the promise of helping mentor fellow vets at military hospitals, but spokespersons for the medical centers said they have no record of Kolfage working at their facilities or donating any money.
Someone as deeply involved in the suppression of democracy and free speech as Obama was has no business commenting about “populist movements” or anything else.
Golf is what he should be doing—along with his equally irresponsible Kiwi financier chum.
Springsteen Apologizes for B. Obama Collaboration Singer expresses “regret that I was not both more informed and more discerning” when he sang for B. Obama in 2012
by Philip Lasmy and Mart Westhauss, chiPforkt, Jan. 11, 2019
Bruce Springsteen has apologized for collaborating with B. Obama in 2012. “I am deeply horrified by the irrefutable stories of mass killing surrounding B. Obama,” the rock legend said in a statement, posted on his Twitter. “I regret that I was not both more informed and more discerning when I worked with him previously. I fully support all victims of extrajudicial killings, and it’s my hope that there will be a path to justice.”
Springsteen sang to B. Obama worshippers in Wisconsin on the final day of campaigning in the 2012 US Election. The rock legend capped his appearance by playing the anthem “Land of Hope and Dreams.”
Springsteen’s apology follows Lady Oprah’s, who also worked with Obama in 2012. In a statement posted to Twitter last night, Oprah said that she intends to remove all traces of her collaborations with Obama from her mind. The apologies arrive as people continue to speak out publicly about B. Obama’s history of extrajudicial killing and his relentless persecution of journalists and whistle-blowers.
What was the fiction, Sacha? Are you trying to say that B. Obama was not involved in thousands of extrajudicial killings and did not relentlessly persecute journalists and whistle-blowers?
Really? Come on now—get serious.
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Oh, I SEE-E-E-E-EEEE! You think the average reader here is so thick that he/she won’t appreciate that it’s SATIRE. You want me to FLAG it for them, do you? Just in case they can’t work it out for themselves?
No, Sacha, that’s not going to happen. You can helpfully wave a flag marked “SATIRE” if you like, but I don’t think many people need such prompting.
Just saw an excellent story of how two old guys spent 15 years building a walking track in to the Koropuka Falls in the Caitlins, so everyone can go & see it fairly easily. Reminds us of the role voluntarism will play in maintaining & regenerating community in the non-monetarised part of society. It was on TV1. They got DOC approval to do it.
What the fresh hell. This is REAL. Filmed in 1958- about a conman who grifts a small town of suckers into building a wall. History not subtle enough for you? GUESS THE GRIFTER'S NAME (And watch until the end) pic.twitter.com/6FA3p6KC00
I retweeted this uncanny clip last night, and I had a thought: Is the villain fraudster "Trump" from a 1958 TV show based on the real life villain/real estate fraud *Fred* Trump? I have some reason to think it is… 1/ https://t.co/lT18lTWGB6
Peter Kuper did a comic about nationalist Trump coming to power on a build-a-wall platform. This was 27 years ago in Heavy Metal in 1990. pic.twitter.com/1cEZe5Hxnj
Very prescient, if not precognitive! A reporter brings this up at a Trump press conference… Trump: “Dude, I’m just living the dream. It’s because the Democrats voted for a fence. I knew it had to be a wall.”
I agree with Mere Berryman I have reshurched my Ngati Porou history and its totally diffrent to the storys I was told .I also see a lot of storys glorifying the english settlors and belittling Tangata whenua any true storys that show Maori mana are hidden. Everyone knows that this justice system is having a kaka on Eco Maori.
Mere Berryman: it’s time we did better by Māori students
From The Weekend, 9:05 am on 5 January 2019
New Zealand’s education system is failing Māori students by continuing to marginalise their culture, says Waikato University professor Mere Berryman, a 2017 New Zealander of the Year finalist.
The Treaty of Waitangi promised both Māori and non-Māori equal shares of all the benefits that the colonial government was going to provide, yet what we’ve found that education has provided is a very western perspective that is about one history rather than both our histories.”
‘[The teachers] ask the Chinese girl about her culture and they try and tell me about mine’, Berryman was told by one Māori student.
This one-sided storytelling not only disadvantages Māori New Zealanders, she says.
“Māori have missed out because their histories are not being told authentically, but so too have non-Māori because they haven’t learnt about Māori histories [alongside European colonial history]. They’ve learnt a particular version of those events.”
Berryman says she was shocked when a 2001 government report revealed that the experience of many Māori students still hadn’t improved since she and her siblings were in primary school, but wasn’t surprised when a 2017 report confirmed the depth and continuation of the problem
Racism is something that we’re not good at talking about in New Zealand, but we all need to acknowledge its existence … Until we all work to understand [racism], I don’t believe, as a society, we will be able to move forward.”
Currently, about 70 percent of students are served “exceptionally well” by the education system, Berryman says.
“But 20 percent are doing a lot less well with and many of them are Māori.”
The other 10 percent – which Berryman believes is a growing group – are impoverished immigrant and Pakeha students “often living in really risky situations”, she says.
trumps clinging to his toy wall is putting millions of peoples lives at risk and the poor people who don’t have the money to bounce back from disaster are going to pay the price of this tantrum
Beleaguered firefighters put on hold by government shutdown
“If you don’t do the hiring on time, then you can’t do the training on time, then you are not ready for the next fire season,” a nonprofit leader said.
Controlled burns have been put on hold. Fire training sessions have been canceled. The hiring of hundreds of seasonal firefighters has been delayed.
The nation’s wildland fire service — trying to regroup this winter after two of the biggest and deadliest fire seasons on record — has instead been cast into a state of anxiety by the three-week-old partial government shutdown. That’s because some firefighters with the Forest Service, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management are among the approximately 800,000 government employees either furloughed or working without a guarantee of pay.
The shutdown has affected hundreds of regular fire and support personnel at those agencies, along with seasonal “hotshots” and others who swell the fire lines during the forest and brush fire emergencies that have swept through the West with increasing
emergencies that have swept through the West with increasing intensity nearly every summer and fall, according to wildfire experts. A Senate Appropriations Committee report estimates that as many as 5,000 Forest Service firefighters may be working without pay.
Analysts say the sidelining of some firefighters comes at a difficult time because of the increasing length and arduousness of the fire calendar. After battling what was then the largest fire in California history in 2017, the Thomas Fire, and the deadliest fire in California history in November, the Camp Fire, firefighters do not appreciate going untrained and unpaid.
If you don’t do the hiring on time, then you can’t do the training on time, then you are not ready for the next fire season,” said Goulette of the Watershed Center, which is based in the Northern California town of Hayfork. “And with fire season expanding in California and across the West, you better be ready. Spring does not last as long as it used to.”
Fire experts and climate scientists say warmer and drier weather has prolonged recent fire seasons, making winter recovery time even more precious for firefighters to regroup. “There can be a little over 300 days a year now that someone is fighting a fire somewhere,” said Whittington, “compared to 200 or 250 days in the past. So the time to get over the last fire year and prepare for the next one is incredibly short.”
Ka kite ano links below
Interesting eco maori naming problems brought on to firefighters by lack of funding, poor systems, things not being done in a timely fashion,
A Senate Appropriations Committee report estimates that as many as 5,000 Forest Service firefighters may be working without pay.
And this at a time when the USA i confronted by terrible fires. Fat cats in politics, career politicians. It doesn’t work, and they need to have a set limit and then on their way.
Kia ora Newshub its not on tamariki are getting beat up for there shoes and the offenders get away with it WTF.
The scam of the deaf cards being sold as a charity te scam is the capitalist way no.
Ka pai to China sending the world pictures of the far side of te Marama.
Ka pai for the Winton rugby match for Blair Vining it was cool for Mils to play to for Blairs bucket list game all the best to Blair and his whano.
Good on Sea Shepherd for stopping the poachers by pulling up there illegal drift nets there actions are causing the extintion of Mexico ‘s Vaquita porpoise there are only 30 left we must protect all of our creatures from over exploitation.
There you go the Ice is melting very fast at the antartica Ross sea ice shelf the sea’s are warming and rising fast that will cause a lot of animals to die.
That show me how famous the All Blacks are the Theatre show getting big views in Amercia some people need tissues as they are crying about the All Blacks Mana & fame I say they should be thanking them for making Papatuanuku Rugby so Great. Ka kite ano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming
e.g.
Mixed-use skyscrapers
Mixed-use skyscrapers were proposed and built by architect Ken Yeang.[6] Yeang proposes that instead of hermetically sealed mass-produced agriculture, plant life should be cultivated within open air, mixed-use skyscrapers for climate control and consumption. This version of vertical farming is based upon personal or community use rather than the wholesale production and distribution that aspires to feed an entire city.
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The discussion on the quality of economic advice, which we reported last week, has spilled over into a discussion about whether so many senior appointments should be of non-New Zealanders. Recall I discussed the failure to develop career paths within ...
When Nicky Hager revealed US footage of the Operation Burnham raid, obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, one of the obvious questions was whether Ministers had seen it - and in particular, whether they'd been told that it ...
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There's a problem with "synthetic cannabis", and not just the one you think. It's the name.We're in the midst of a wave of news stories that link synthetic drugs to serious harm, through deadly road accidents and accidental overdoses (which ...
Ranjit Kauri, The Dancing Maharani and Other Stories, Swansea, Head and Heart, 2019, £6.99; reviewed by Don Franks Working people are not the same country to country. Our struggles for a better life take place in surroundings of very different ...
Let's Do Them! All Jacinda Ardern has to do to clinch the 2020 General Election is frighten the bejesus out of the electorate by describing in the most graphic terms imaginable what will happen to all the positive beginnings her ...
It may be that we have all misinterpreted the somewhat surprising “bromance” between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. It has been all too easy to assume that it is Kim who is cosying up to Trump rather than the ...
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From 1975 to 1989, the spy agencies of South America's right-wing military dictatorships cooperated in Operation Condor, a joint campaign of extermination against the continent's left. Roughly 400,000 people were imprisoned, 30,000 disappeared, and 60,000 murdered - kidnapped, tortured, executed, ...
When she was standing for office, Jacinda Ardern promised she would take abortion out of the Crimes Act. And to be fair, there was some early action on that, with an immediate referral of the issue to the Law Commission ...
When the government introduced the Zero Carbon Bill, people rightly asked what they planned to do to reduce transport emissions, which basicly had no policy at all other than the ETS. Today, they responded, announcing a "feebate" system which would ...
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The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...
I have been working my way through a 47,000 document tranche of declassified US government communications related to Argentina and the “Dirty War” of 1976-83. I grew up in Argentina in the period leading up to the March 24, 1976 ...
To express concern about foreign ownership and control in New Zealand is often to invite accusations of xenophobia and economic illiteracy. It is worthwhile, therefore, to rehearse the grounds for that concern, and to explore the various forms it can ...
It must be a day ending in Y because the Guardian - remember when it used to be a good paper1 - is running another spurious story about Corbyn's leadership being threatened over anti-Semitism.The headline the Guardian runs is: "MPs tell ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jun 23 through Sat, June 29, 2019 Editor's Pick When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: 'Hope is contagious'Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and ...
When people slate the current Government for taking too long on certain issues, or not getting everything right, just check the outrage and quit helping National manufacture consent for their decade of Disaster Economics and much more. Bill couldn’t ...
Robots could soon replace many low-skill jobs, such as President of the United States. US Presidential hopeful and doomsday prophet Andrew Yang went to extreme lengths to make a point in the first round of Democratic primary debates today, replacing ...
More people have died in the shower this year than will die in a KiwiBuild home. KiwiBuild home owners are experiencing a surprise windfall this month, as the price of their houses have begun to rise dramatically, due to growing ...
First way – the state, Keynesian demand management, the working class as the base of support. Second way – free-market, reduce the scope of the state and cut taxes, relative indifference to social justice. Third Way – well that's the ...
E15 is a London-based housing campaign that arose from the eviction of a group of young working-class mothers from a homeless hostel in 2013. Cat Wiener, through her work with the Revolutionary Communist Group, helped get Focus E15 up and ...
Going Upstairs: If we accept the LGBTQI+ community’s untrammelled right to advance their understanding of love, then we must also accept Israel Folau’s right to articulate his own simplistic and inadequate interpretation of the Christian religion.ONE OF THE FIRST things ...
So, some Labour MPs and peers have written Corbyn a letter complaining about the re-admission of loudmouth MP Chris Williamson, who had been suspended over allegations he made anti-Semitic comments.Never mind the Guardian's typically biased headline that Corbyn is facing ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...
EDS has filed its submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The Bill sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions, provides for the government to set a series of carbon budgets, and sets up a new, independent, Climate ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has identified an absurd case of mission creep at Wellington City Council: the decision to spend $21,750 on two Consumer NZ investigations into different brands of bike lights. ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ welcomes the coalition Government’s endeavour to take action on reducing agricultural emissions but is disappointed at the weak stance that the Government has taken on the issue. ...
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has issued a formal warning under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act) to seven reporting entities within the Regus Management Limited (RNZML) designated business ...
The Northland Regional Council (NRC) has voted to exclude all GM/GE precautionary provisions in its regional plan, despite years of community engagement showing support for such protection. There is a sense of betrayal following the way the NRC Chairman ...
New Zealand’s ‘mission-driven’ charities working in international aid are showing early signs of changing the way they work, in particular prioritising building the capacity and resilience of local communities to do their own development. ...
Teachers will have to wait until 11 September for pay increases won as part of their collective agreement negotiations settled in June, according to an update sent to schools today from Novopay. ...
July 16 (BusinessDesk) - Energy Minister Megan Woods says the government “won’t die in a ditch” if its goal of 100 percent renewable electricity generation isn't reached by 2035. ...
The Electricity Networks Association (ENA) is welcoming the Government’s response to the Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) Report released today. Graeme Peters, chief executive of the ENA, said one of the key recommendations, endorsed by the ...
An article* published this month in the Journal of Health Organization and Management raises questions over the way health board members are elected and whether the boards are even needed. ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa's kindergarten teacher members will vote on a proposed settlement to their collective agreement after four days of negotiations with the Ministry of Education and kindergarten employers. ...
Vector has today welcomed the ICCC’s report on Accelerated Electrification . Vector agrees that accelerating the electrification of transport and process heat will play a major role in reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Initiatives to ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Porirua City Council to cancel its underwriting of a proposed Canadian-led privately owned adventure park slated for public land after a similar project created a huge liability for Christchurch ...
Youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero welcome the Interim Climate Change Committee’s (ICCC’s) reports: Accelerated Electrification and Action on agricultural emissions ; which were finally released by the Government today, almost three months ...
Fish & Game New Zealand notes the announcement today that the Government and the intensive agriculture leadership have reached a ‘historic consensus’ and are exploring using a formal sector-government agreement instead of bringing agriculture ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report on Accelerated Electrification was released today by the Minister for Energy and Resources, Hon Dr Megan Woods. ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report Action on agricultural emissions was released today by the Minister for Climate Change, Hon James Shaw and the Minister of Agriculture, Hon Damien O’Connor. ...
Please find attached embargoed copies of two media statements from the Interim Climate Change Committee http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1907/Embargoed_Interim_Climate_Change_Committee_Accelerated_electrification_MEDIA_STATEMENT.pdf ...
Greenpeace Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman, has reacted with disbelief that the Government’s latest climate proposal includes an option for dairy to voluntarily deal with their emissions over the next six years. ...
This week’s “Youth Parliament” is an expensive waste of time that promotes taxpayer-funded junketeering, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “We shouldn’t be training kids on the joys of the trough,” says Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones admitted on Q+A tonight that the state of New Zealand’s infrastructure planning is “dismal” and the government needs to get on with building “rather than writing more reports about it.” ...
DairyNZ has released its submission on the Zero Carbon Bill and is calling on the Government to revise the methane target in the Bill to one that does not put at risk New Zealand’s world-leading dairy sector. Farm profit could ...
July 15 (BusinessDesk) - Foreign Minister Winston Peters will have bi-lateral meetings with two of US president Donald Trump's most hawkish defence and security advisers in a five day trip to Washington D.C. ...
Youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero are calling for Members of Parliament to show political courage as the Zero Carbon Bill goes through the crucial Select Committee process. ...
Annual net migration was provisionally estimated at 50,200 (± 800) in the year ended December 2018 compared with 52,600 in the previous year, Stats NZ said today. ...
New Zealanders have the opportunity to contribute to the government’s Review of Retirement Income Policies, including questions around Superannuation and KiwiSaver. Submissions are now open for the Review, being run by the Commission for Financial ...
Yesterday at Mataatua Marae the Tamaki Makaurau Electorate of the Māori party congratulated Rangi Mclean who was appointed to the Vice president Tāne role of the party nation-wide executive. ...
The funding crisis facing the disability sector has become more urgent following the disturbing news that the Ministry of Health will not increase contract prices for providers this year, the New Zealand Disability Support Network said today. ...
The growing number of working poor is an alarming indicator that the regulatory Minimum Wage does not cut it said Closing the Gap spokesperson Peter Malcolm. ...
Historic hui gives overwhelming agreement for a Māori Inquiry The inquiry into state run Oranga Tamariki will be led by whanau, kaimahi and Māori leaders. ...
Drug infiltration into our maximum security prisons is putting prisoners and staff at unnecessary risk, and one tool that would be of huge benefit is a full body scanner. ...
The Socialist Equality Group is hosting a protest rally in Cuba Street, Wellington (at the intersection with Left Bank) on Sunday 14 July at 2:30pm to oppose the persecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning, and to ...
Simon Shepherd: The National Party proposed its own medicinal cannabis scheme last year. Its Health Spokesperson, Michael Woodhouse, says it shouldn’t have been ignored. So I began by asking him what his problem is with the government’s proposed regime. ...
Countries around the world are also dealing with medicinal cannabis. Britain legalised it last year, but the uptake has been slow. Neurologist Professor Mike Barnes wrote the report that convinced UK lawmakers it was a good idea. He's coming here ...
Simon Shepherd: Green MP Chloe Swarbrick’s name has become synonymous with drug reform, so following years of campaigning for safe, public access to medicinal cannabis, what does she think of the government’s new plan? Well, Chloe Swarbrick joins me ...
Social Credit is calling for a Government enquiry into the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board over it's handling of the Sarah Preece attack in 2017 and its subsequent report. ...
An overwhelming response sees Māori from across the country pouring into Māngere today. The call for action came from Māori leadership concerned with the practice of tamariki removals by the state. Whānau, experts, and highly skilled Māori from ...
Responding the announcement of a $2.37 million loan from the Provincial Growth Fund to a Northland berry farm, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “Why couldn’t this business get a loan from the bank? If no bank was ...
Multicultural NZ is delighted to congratulate former Gisborne Mayor, Meng Foon, who has been appointed as New Zealand’s Race Relations Commissioner. ...
Award-winning broadcaster, Waatea has been selected by North Island Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency to exclusively livestream the historic Māori-led Inquiry on Oranga Tamariki. ...
“The Peace Movement sends an urgent call to Winston Peters to reject any US demands for New Zealand participation in patrolling the Persian Gulf and Straits of Hormuz. New Zealand should have nothing to do with any war on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Paul Fisher, Head of Directing, Department of Film, Screen and Creative Media, Bond University Something incredible might be happening to James Bond: a separation, a personal Brexit of sorts. According to ...
Depending on which coalition party you ask, the Government is either introducing a new way to fund community wellbeing or using the same funds to tackle organised crime. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Hepburn, Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Law, Deakin Law School, Deakin University A freedom of information request has revealed Adani sought the names of CSIRO and Geoscience ...
For generations, women have done the heavy lifting in the fight for social change. What will it take to get more men to give a fuck about their children’s future?At every question and answer session I attend, I get a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney I Need to Know is an ongoing series for teens in search of reliable, confidential advice about life’s tricky questions. If you’re a teen, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katarina Miljkovic, ARC DECRA fellow, Curtin University Look up on a clear night and you can see some circular formations on the face of our lunar neighbour. These are impact craters, circular ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Wolpe, Non-resident senior fellow, United States Study Centre, University of Sydney The past three days in US politics have been very difficult – and ugly. President Donald Trump chosen to exploit ...
Today is the 5oth anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the first spaceflight to land humans on the Moon. Astronomer Richard Easther looks back. One of my earliest memories is standing with my father on the ...
In a world of racist tweeting presidents, climate crisis and cricketing travesty, what you need in your life is this palliative conversation about Dunedin’s Baldwin Street losing its crown as world’s steepest street to Ffordd Pen Llech in WalesThe slope ...
Last night on The Block NZ, something incredible happened: James Reid from The Feelers showed up. Every now and again, something completely unexpected happens on reality television that shakes you awake from your slack-jawed couch coma. It’s that jolt of electricity ...
Sam Brooks, lifelong gamer, lost himself on a virtual battlefield in the days after his mother’s death. Here, he reviews a book by a kindred spirit: Lost in A Good Game: Why We Play Video Games and What They Can ...
Laura Vincent reviews Golden Boy, a new sitcom from Three skewering small town New Zealand and the colourful characters who populate it.From Twin Peaks to all the shows that copied Twin Peaks, small towns have long been fertile ground for television ...
Bernard Hickey explains why New Zealand's housing market bubble has become armour plated and why it is proving almost impossible to burst, despite the predictions of overseas experts. ...
The government’s reluctance to front up about support for mentally traumatised mosque shooting survivors has shined a spotlight on the limitations of ACC, writes RNZ’s Veronica Schmidt.The difficulty with being held up as a symbol of empathy and compassion is ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Two school girls from East Java, Aeshnina Azzahra (alias Nina), 12, and Zahira Zade, 11, have sent hand-written protest letters to US President Donald Trump over the dumping of toxic plastic waste in Indonesia. The ...
Jacinda Ardern needs to make a stand for the things she says her Government believes in, despite the public preference for strong, dominant and often otherwise repugnant politicians. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentClimate change Zane Small (Newshub): Jacinda Ardern defends ‘laughable’ ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Options for getting agriculture into ETS unveiled, leading academic savages billion trees programme, and OIO approves Westland Milk sale. A historic day for climate change policy in New Zealand, with agriculture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sumeet Walia, Senior Lecturer and Vice Chancellor’s Fellow, RMIT University What better way to build smarter computer chips than to mimic nature’s most perfect computer – the human brain? Being able to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Twomey, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Sydney Debates about constitutional change in Australia inevitably raise the poor success rate of referendums. Only eight out of 44 attempts have ever succeeded ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Whitehouse, Bennett Chair of Autism, Telethon Kids Institute, Univeristy of Western Australia, University of Western Australia Therapies given to infants before they receive a diagnosis of autism may lead to important ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emily Fobert, Research Associate, Flinders University Clownfish achieved worldwide fame following Finding Nemo, but it turns out these fish don’t do so well in the spotlight. Our research, published in Biology Letters, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Pollack, Associate Professor, University of Sydney Someone we know recently told us about a team-building event that proved anything but. The chief executive who arranged it loved mountain biking. So he ...
Oskar Howell travels to Otorohanga to interview Danielle Hawkins, author of When It All Turns to Custard, over a delicious two-course home-cooked lunch. ...
Dreamed of traveling long term, but at a loss about how to afford it? Here’s how Kristin Hall and her partner managed it (spoiler: involves a lot of brown rice and cabbage).*Scroll to the end for an important note about ...
Daniel Ziffer’s rollicking account of Australia’s Royal Commission into banking is a jaw-dropping laundry list of scandals, heartbreaking stories, and ‘gotcha’ moments.The Haynes Commission was set up in 2017 to inquire into and report on misconduct in the Australian banking ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Harry Hobbs, Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad has announced that the state will begin a conversation about a pathway to treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mair Underwood, Lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Queensland Months after a public breakup with her husband, the politician Barnaby Joyce, Natalie Joyce made news when she displayed her “new” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brittany Huber, Postdoctoral researcher, Swinburne University of Technology Most (80%) Australian parents worry children spend too much time with screens. But what children are doing on and off screen matters more than ...
A local photographer has posted emails from Warner Brothers NZ requesting they work “unpaid” on Married At First Sight NZ. A wedding photographer has posted emails from Warner Brothers NZ on Reddit after the production company requested that they work for ...
How ANZ Bank fought for more than three years to keep its role in New Zealand’s biggest Ponzi scheme quiet and stop a regulator telling out-of-pocket investors the details. ...
Sam Brooks reviews Mean Mums, the new sitcom from Three that manages to make putting a great show together look easy.When it premiered as part of Three’s Pilot Week last year, I called Mean Mums the winner of the bunch. Nearly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Last week on this podcast we talked to Ken Wyatt about the government’s plan for a referendum – hopefully this parliamentary term – to recognise ...
Imagine if we treated our native birds with as little care as we do our precious fish stocks, writes ecologist Stella McQueen.Earlier this year, 900 at-risk native mudfish were relocated to make way for a wastewater development. But despite a ...
For when toast or cereal just doesn’t cut it, but you don’t have the time or inclination to do any actual cooking, try this. If I ever cook rice (or grains of any kind) for dinner, I often make extra to ...
Open Mike 11/01/2019 
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...5 hours ago
Yesterday the government released its discussion document on action on agricultural emissions. As sadly usual, it proposed enormous subsidies for farm emissions, including for nitrogen-based fertiliser. This is a huge mistake. In addition to being one of the chief drivers ...5 hours ago
10 hours ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...1 day ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...1 day ago
Later this month, thousands of people are expected to march to parliament as part of the #HandsOffOurTamaraki movement. At its heart, the movement is about preserving whānau and demanding that the state stop removing children from their whānau, hapū and iwi. ...2 days ago
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...3 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...6 days ago
1 week ago
1 week ago
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...2 weeks ago
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...2 weeks ago
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...2 weeks ago
I have been working my way through a 47,000 document tranche of declassified US government communications related to Argentina and the “Dirty War” of 1976-83. I grew up in Argentina in the period leading up to the March 24, 1976 ...2 weeks ago
Image Credit: Blog Writing Tips. I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the ... 2 weeks ago
When people slate the current Government for taking too long on certain issues, or not getting everything right, just check the outrage and quit helping National manufacture consent for their decade of Disaster Economics and much more. Bill couldn’t ...3 weeks ago
Robots could soon replace many low-skill jobs, such as President of the United States. US Presidential hopeful and doomsday prophet Andrew Yang went to extreme lengths to make a point in the first round of Democratic primary debates today, replacing ...3 weeks ago
More people have died in the shower this year than will die in a KiwiBuild home. KiwiBuild home owners are experiencing a surprise windfall this month, as the price of their houses have begun to rise dramatically, due to growing ...3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...1 day ago
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...6 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Paul Fisher, Head of Directing, Department of Film, Screen and Creative Media, Bond University Something incredible might be happening to James Bond: a separation, a personal Brexit of sorts. According to ...4 hours ago
Depending on which coalition party you ask, the Government is either introducing a new way to fund community wellbeing or using the same funds to tackle organised crime. ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Hepburn, Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Law, Deakin Law School, Deakin University A freedom of information request has revealed Adani sought the names of CSIRO and Geoscience ...4 hours ago
There's a bold push for Wellington's cricket ground to be renamed ‘Support Women’s Sport Basin Reserve’. ...5 hours ago
For generations, women have done the heavy lifting in the fight for social change. What will it take to get more men to give a fuck about their children’s future?At every question and answer session I attend, I get a ...5 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney I Need to Know is an ongoing series for teens in search of reliable, confidential advice about life’s tricky questions. If you’re a teen, ...6 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katarina Miljkovic, ARC DECRA fellow, Curtin University Look up on a clear night and you can see some circular formations on the face of our lunar neighbour. These are impact craters, circular ...7 hours ago
Co-working office space company Regus Management has been warned for not complying with anti-money laundering laws. ...7 hours ago
Today is the 5oth anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the first spaceflight to land humans on the Moon. Astronomer Richard Easther looks back. One of my earliest memories is standing with my father on the ...8 hours ago
Last night on The Block NZ, something incredible happened: James Reid from The Feelers showed up. Every now and again, something completely unexpected happens on reality television that shakes you awake from your slack-jawed couch coma. It’s that jolt of electricity ...9 hours ago
Sam Brooks, lifelong gamer, lost himself on a virtual battlefield in the days after his mother’s death. Here, he reviews a book by a kindred spirit: Lost in A Good Game: Why We Play Video Games and What They Can ...9 hours ago
Laura Vincent reviews Golden Boy, a new sitcom from Three skewering small town New Zealand and the colourful characters who populate it.From Twin Peaks to all the shows that copied Twin Peaks, small towns have long been fertile ground for television ...9 hours ago
Bernard Hickey explains why New Zealand's housing market bubble has become armour plated and why it is proving almost impossible to burst, despite the predictions of overseas experts. ...10 hours ago
The farming industry says it's more logical that it leads the transition to agricultural emission pricing than having a new centralised levy. ...10 hours ago
International dairy prices have risen for the first time in two months. ...10 hours ago
The government’s reluctance to front up about support for mentally traumatised mosque shooting survivors has shined a spotlight on the limitations of ACC, writes RNZ’s Veronica Schmidt.The difficulty with being held up as a symbol of empathy and compassion is ...10 hours ago
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Two school girls from East Java, Aeshnina Azzahra (alias Nina), 12, and Zahira Zade, 11, have sent hand-written protest letters to US President Donald Trump over the dumping of toxic plastic waste in Indonesia. The ...11 hours ago
Jacinda Ardern needs to make a stand for the things she says her Government believes in, despite the public preference for strong, dominant and often otherwise repugnant politicians. ...11 hours ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Options for getting agriculture into ETS unveiled, leading academic savages billion trees programme, and OIO approves Westland Milk sale. A historic day for climate change policy in New Zealand, with agriculture ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sumeet Walia, Senior Lecturer and Vice Chancellor’s Fellow, RMIT University What better way to build smarter computer chips than to mimic nature’s most perfect computer – the human brain? Being able to ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Whitehouse, Bennett Chair of Autism, Telethon Kids Institute, Univeristy of Western Australia, University of Western Australia Therapies given to infants before they receive a diagnosis of autism may lead to important ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emily Fobert, Research Associate, Flinders University Clownfish achieved worldwide fame following Finding Nemo, but it turns out these fish don’t do so well in the spotlight. Our research, published in Biology Letters, ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Pollack, Associate Professor, University of Sydney Someone we know recently told us about a team-building event that proved anything but. The chief executive who arranged it loved mountain biking. So he ...14 hours ago
Oskar Howell travels to Otorohanga to interview Danielle Hawkins, author of When It All Turns to Custard, over a delicious two-course home-cooked lunch. ...16 hours ago
Highland dancing's lone male competitor, Angus Hendry, dominated the sport's national championships in Marlborough. ...16 hours ago
Auckland's lava caves offer a glimpse of volcanic activity on this planet and others - but they may be at risk. ...16 hours ago
Jacinda Ardern’s comments jar with advice over extending ACC cover to mentally injured terror attack victims. ...16 hours ago
Dreamed of traveling long term, but at a loss about how to afford it? Here’s how Kristin Hall and her partner managed it (spoiler: involves a lot of brown rice and cabbage).*Scroll to the end for an important note about ...16 hours ago
Daniel Ziffer’s rollicking account of Australia’s Royal Commission into banking is a jaw-dropping laundry list of scandals, heartbreaking stories, and ‘gotcha’ moments.The Haynes Commission was set up in 2017 to inquire into and report on misconduct in the Australian banking ...16 hours ago
The latest immigration figures paint a picture of headaches and heartbreaks. ...16 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Harry Hobbs, Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad has announced that the state will begin a conversation about a pathway to treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ...1 day ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mair Underwood, Lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Queensland Months after a public breakup with her husband, the politician Barnaby Joyce, Natalie Joyce made news when she displayed her “new” ...1 day ago
The number of residency applications are outstripping the Government's lowered planning targets by thousands. ...1 day ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brittany Huber, Postdoctoral researcher, Swinburne University of Technology Most (80%) Australian parents worry children spend too much time with screens. But what children are doing on and off screen matters more than ...1 day ago
A local photographer has posted emails from Warner Brothers NZ requesting they work “unpaid” on Married At First Sight NZ. A wedding photographer has posted emails from Warner Brothers NZ on Reddit after the production company requested that they work for ...1 day ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Yau, Adjunct professor, College of Healthcare Sciences, James Cook University The Administrative Appeals Tribunal recently granted a woman with multiple sclerosis the right to have a sex therapist paid for under ...1 day ago
How ANZ Bank fought for more than three years to keep its role in New Zealand’s biggest Ponzi scheme quiet and stop a regulator telling out-of-pocket investors the details. ...1 day ago
Sam Brooks reviews Mean Mums, the new sitcom from Three that manages to make putting a great show together look easy.When it premiered as part of Three’s Pilot Week last year, I called Mean Mums the winner of the bunch. Nearly ...1 day ago
Imagine if we treated our native birds with as little care as we do our precious fish stocks, writes ecologist Stella McQueen.Earlier this year, 900 at-risk native mudfish were relocated to make way for a wastewater development. But despite a ...1 day ago
The Overseas Investment Office has approved the sale of the cash-strapped Westland Milk dairy co-operative to a foreign buyer. ...1 day ago
Consumer inflation increased on the back of higher petrol prices and rents in the past three months. ...1 day ago
Am I living under a rock or was this event poorly advertised?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503343&objectid=12188251
The Jacksons, The Supremes, The Village People, all here, and I had no idea.
Being a punk rocker of course it was stock standard position to hate disco, but reality is those tunes were so good I still remember a lot of them.
Probably because those bands got big before the disco era, when tunes were the catchy hook that made them hits. The disco beat replaced tunes in ’76. Supremes hit #1 in ’64, Jackson 5 in ’67, Village People in ’73. From memory, which is becoming somewhat unreliable nowadays…
Village people was 77.
Okay, so they actually were a disco band.
Kinda wondered why Sri Lanka were being such easy beats at cricket here.
And now we know.
A corruption probe so big the whole team is being offered amnesty.
https://www.icc-cricket.com/media-releases/970385
If you put a gun to my head, in the last two ODIs, NZs bowling attack looked like it had a wager or two.
Not that I think that happened.
Wow Ad, that is probably unlikely for the present series here, and diminishes the performances of our team in Pakistan. Granted India will be an acid test.
A Southland farmer’s climate change letter to Minister James Shaw https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/109853971/a-southland-farmers-climate-change-letter-to-minister-james-shaw
I was interested in the statement about methane,
That letter is barely literate, no wonder the scientific claims he makes are dubious.
“All farmers need to look at what small changes they can make to reduce their emissions.”
I suspect he is referencing this….
“Earlier this year, Frame and six other scientists published a paper that argued short-lived gases, like methane, should be accounted for differently in emission budgets because of their lesser warming potential over time.
Frame’s view – which he’s sticking to in the face of the IPCC report – is that cuts to methane can be made later, before global warming peaks. Carbon dioxide’s a “stock” pollutant while methane’s a “flow” pollutant – one builds up and the other dissipates. “I would wait on doing more on methane until you see that you’ve really got the CO2 under control.”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/10/08/269361/ipcc-report-intensifies-methane-battle
methane may well be able to be treated as a flow IF the atmospheric levels hadnt over doubled in the past 150 years or so (and are still increasing)….so logically before they can be treated as a flow the levels need to reduced.
Yeah, sounds like bollocks.
All GHG gases can be treated as a flow as it actually is a flow.
In to the atmosphere >> removed from atmosphere >> In to the atmosphere
That’s happening even now.
The problem is that the ‘In to the atmosphere’ far exceeds the ‘removed from atmosphere’ and so we end up with an increase of those gases in the atmosphere which then changes the climate.
As it is, we need to radically reduce the amount of GHG emissions that we’re making and that’s going to require radical action. As far as farming goes – we need reduce the number of farms until we only produce enough food to support ourselves. Forget exporting of food – we just can’t afford it.
The letter saying methane could be stabilised. Lincoln University appear to have done a study. Perhaps that is what he is referring to?
His request for the Minister to give farming time to change was sad.
Shaw, with the best will in the world can not hold back the damage, and 12 years is 12 years.
To buy time, farming has to buy in big time, lower both carbon and methane , then they may get a little time relief.
He keeps mentioning emotion, and how decisions need to be made without emotion.
This letter is indicative of where sympathetic farmers are, and as Southland is so far right in politics, it is a step forward imo.
It is certainly an amazing shift from that farmer holding up the sign “She’s a pretty little Communist” in Te Aroha.
There are recognised stages of grief and some were evident in this letter.
Quite a shift since Jacinda stood up and said “Climate Change is the most important challenge we face”
Methane “degrades” into C02, after a decade or so, but in the meantime warms like crazy! Shouldn’t we keep that stuff out of the atmosphere?
“His request for the Minister to give farming time to change ”
The selfish lazy feckers have had decades already. Successive govts have bent over backwards to coddle them. Time to pay the piper.
Farming—especially the enormous dairy farms—in alliance with irresponsible and corrupt politicians, is a menace to this country.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/10/one-does-have-to-ask-should-they-get.html
Don’t start doing an Ed will you Morrissey – emphatic opinions about things we already know and have well-thought-out opinions about.
Crikey! Thanks for the heads up, Mr Shark.
How IS Ed, by the way? Is he really banned FOR LIFE?
Probably only for your life – he will never wear out. In the future the situation will be that old bloggers never die; they will leave waiting algorithms to be triggered by particular words which will answer every reply drawing from a number of random sentences.
Say… I like the sound of that.
It would be dull compared to your protean approach.
Thank you Shark! You’re the bee’s knees, I tell you.
JK ain’t that smart even though a majority of New Zealanders thought he was at 3 x General Elections, 2008/2011/2014 ?
The “left wing” Argentine junta and the “fraud” Chomsky.
Welcome to Kiwiblog!
General Debate Jan. 10, 2019
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2019/01/general_debate_10_january_2019.html#comments
Yesterday was not exactly the Day of the Dumb Bastards. That infamous 24 hours occurred in September ’03. * No, yesterday was, as usual, just another Day of the Sad Gits.
Starting at 8:01 a.m. (Keeping Stock: “Hooray; no moderation!”—22 upvotes) all, or nearly all, their obsessions were covered. Those obsessions are:
1.) Māori privilege, Māori criminality, Māori culture; Māori identity. Paulus airs this carefully thought out thesis: “But of course the difference is that most Australian Aboriginals are 100%, whereas there are no pure 100% Maori.” A thinker called Tall Man joins in: “I’m ‘part aboriginal’. Just you wait when my ‘people’ get into the money I’ll be there tongue hanging out….. Yeah nah. What I have I made, what I will get is what I create. Why can’t maori think like that?”
2.) empathy for the beleaguered rich and condemnation of the lazy poor;
3.) hatred of “Cindy” (Jacinda Ardern) and murderous envy of “Jethro” (Clarke Gayford). calendar girl sneers at “our lightweight Ardern” and garners 21 upvotes. RW Capitalist chimes in: “Light weight … difficult to understand, how a mammal with so little brain function, could still be breathing. SLG may be a compliment.” (18 likes)
4.) contempt for the underperforming Simon Bridges;
5.) a Bob Jones level of disregard for rules and regulations. “The Herald is pushing the nonsense that it is unacceptable that to even have a wine with a meal,” fumes Chuck Bird, and slightlyrighty agrees: “I am observing high amounts of zealotry when it comes to alcohol and the enforcement of regulations.”
6.) veneration of the late Margaret Thatcher. Simon comments, in apparent high seriousness, on the sinking of the General Belgrano: “Great stuff. Overall the Falklands war helped defeat the genocidal left.” (23 upvotes). mikenmildagain, one of the sane people on this site—yes, there are a few—contests that remarkable view: “That’s the first time I’ve seen the Argentinean junta described as the genocidal left.” (26 downvotes) This dissenting view is smartly shot down by Tall Man: “Probably a lot of “firsts” for you on this blog. After all, you do seem to occupy the ignorant left side of the political spectrum.”
7.) clueless recycling of the most unhinged American fringe journals. harvey wilson and Maggy Wassilieff discuss, in tones of the most perfect seriousness, how Noam Chomsky is… (wait for it)…. a tool of the military.
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2019/01/general_debate_10_january_2019.html/comment-page-1#comment-2399074
8.) veneration of Trump and his henchmen. Scott writes: “Yesterday in a fiery exchange presidential spokesperson Kelly Anne Conway tore into CNN “reporter” Jim Acosta. She called him a smart arse to his face! I love it when Trump and his administration call out the press. The news media for years and years have got away with their leftist propaganda. Trump and his associates are the only ones who stand up to the out-of-control press. If we only had politicians here on the right who would do the same!” (39 likes)
9.) “multiculturalism” —–> crime. Some taxi-drivers in Halifax, Ontario have been arrested on sex-assault charges. DigNap15 snarls: “The weak Canadians get what they deserve!” (20 likes) Then, eleven minutes later he has another thought and posts a follow-up: “And the weak Germans and Swedes and Poms” (19 likes.) kowtow agrees: “Yep , too many of them make a virtue of embracing “multiculturalism”. Now they can live with the consequences.” (16 likes)
10.) marijuana (general consensus: bad); Ben Shapiro; bureaucracy; oral sex; Mark Lundy; the Mongrel Mob; Pete George; vegans; Jair Bolsonaro (a hero, of course), cricket…..
ad absurdum….
* https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/day-of-dumb-bastards-sept-26-2003.html
Well, nobody can argue that rightist culture isn’t diverse. You’ve compiled overwhelming evidence against that. Too toxic for me. Wading through their swamp regularly in your thigh-high gumboots, eh? Preaching at the denizens within? Or just in the research spirit of the social ecologist, to learn what mass psychology motivates them? It would be better to draw some informative conclusions lest readers here see the listings as a form of cultural pollution…
Kiwiblog’s like going into One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest meets The Living Dead meets the Mongrel Mob wannabes who missed out because their IQ’s didn’t reach 67. Directed by the Voice of the Establishment, David Farrar.
… or Head Hunter Prospects who weren’t accepted ?
Morrissey,
There you are, dear.
Whatever are you doing over here?
We’ve been searching for you for hours.
Did you lose you way?
Now come RIGHT back.
Thanks Maggy. I’ll be there, pronto. Give everyone a great big HUG for me, will you?
Except for that old rapscallion and nun-botherer Captain Mainwaring, of course.
Did you go to the Mental Asylum this morning for some entertainment, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a good description Like +100%
Thanks very much, Tamati. I actually like the people over there. They’re not as bad as one might think on first contact. Yes, some of them say some shocking things, but I doubt they really believe most of the extreme things they say.
Similarly, there are some pretty hair-raising opinions voiced on this site.
That’s the point Morrissey, you have fingered an outstanding point:
some of them say some shocking things, but I doubt they really believe most of the extreme things they say.
The are mostly blowhards who just want to pass an opinion, irritate, get superior. TS has a destiny to be a pretty serious discussion about our society, our environment, and what we can do about it. There isn’t time for too much fence sitting, and time-passing. Being on TS isn’t a replacement for a pub discussion.
That’s the difference between the RW, who are either ascetic in pursuit of profit, or hedonistic at the core, and the LW who can be ascetic in pursuit of higher wages etc and hedonistic, but can be dragged back by the remaining values to the people that they have, so that the betterment of society and compassion can be inserted in Slot B; and sometimes up to A.
Nicely put, my friend.
They hope we read and feel disturbed by them.
Throwing stones in the pond to see what rises.
The Loch Mess monster? Or one of those aliens from the swamp.
We might hope for a Yoda but i think it is the wrong swamp. We could learn good things from Yoda. He says use the Force. Then do, not say you’ll try. There is no try.
Philosophers justifying slavery
Thousands of years and the RWNJs haven’t changed their tune. They, of course, consider themselves the ‘betters’.
Wow – are you actually applying left/right to Aristotle and Plato?
I’ve done 3 years Classical Studies, 2 years Latin and over 5 years in political science and this is the very first time I have heard anyone apply left/right to BCE philosophers.
Have you actually got an argument as to why I shouldn’t?
The attitudes and philosophies are the same.
I highly doubt you are actually qualified enough to make such a statement (you have such hubris?) when it is one that no one qualified has suggested so, you know, [citation needed]
Secondly because the “attitudes and philosophies are the same” – what part of plato’s or Aristotles philosophy is/was right-wing? Which philosophers would you consider left-wing (from the same period please)
So many [citation needed]. Otherwise you are just – https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong
Interesting. looking at Plato’s Gorgias, the comment about slaves used in Draco’s link appears to be very much out of context.
Plato loved dialogues, where Socrates would debate with various archetypes of opponent and then masterfully (sometimes in a contrived way) demolishing naive philosophical positions or picking holes in categorical statements. The quote in the BBC link of DTB says Plato supported slavery, but the comment was actually made by one of Socrates’ foils (Callicas).
Now, the caveat on this comment is that the last time I read Plato, I studied a paper on that book a few months later and realised I’d understood almost nothing even though I’d thought I had a handle on it. So maybe Socrates ended up demonstrating that slavery was a fine thing indeed. But it looks to me on the surface of it that he’s completely ripping shit out of the ‘might makes right’ doctrine. I especially liked the bit about the doctor apportioning food.
The RW always resort to this minute discussion of crossed t’s or spelling or what are your credentials. Aligning themselves with superior philosophers from millenia ago. Democratic tendencies R’Out.
OMG, No on else has made the same comparison so you must be wrong.
/sarc
Yeah, I think the hubris lies with you.
[Citations needed]
Seriously – where are your citations?
Still no citations?
Figures
Also you fallacy is thus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma
Nope.
Yes Draco, yes.
From WP – “The false dilemma fallacy can also arise simply by accidental omission of additional options rather than by deliberate deception. For example, “Stacey spoke out against capitalism, therefore she must be a communist”
From Draco – “Plato spoke in favour of slavery therefore he’s Right-Wing”
Also [citations needed]
Yes we get that one almost all the time. Ed, et al are particularly fond of it.
I’ve seen it in books several times. Usually called aristocrat, meaning conservative. This from the relevant wiki implies a benign elitism hierarchy:
“Plato lists three classes in his ideal society. Producers or Workers: The laborers who make the goods and services in the society. Auxiliaries/Soldiers: Those who keep order in the society and protect it from invaders. Guardians (Philosopher kings) — those who are the most intelligent, rational, self-controlled, in love with wisdom, and well suited to make decisions for the community, and who promote the interests of the society as a whole.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato%27s_political_philosophy
Applying modern ideas of left and right in a historical context dating back nearly 3000 years is stupid and you should feel stupid
Since I was very careful not to do that, you should feel stupid for seeing something that isn’t there! To a hammer, everything looks like a nail…
Pretty much every philosopher who envisioned an ideal society said that the most suited and capable people should rule, and they should rule for the benefit of society. That applies to everyone from monarchists to communists (where people suited to managing contribute according to their skillset). To flip it around, very few said “society should be ruled by a narcissist who serves only their own interests”. Ayn Rand, comes to mind, but with very little company. Hobbes and other monarchists of around that era asserted to some degree or other hereditary monarchy was a capable trade-off to prevent anarchy, and that the knowledge of imminent succession enabled training and a lifetime of preparation for the role – heavy on the implicit acceptance of noblesse oblige, and also that it was the work of God and therefore infallible (inbreeding politely ignored).
Plato’s PK wasn’t hereditary, nor were there generally proxies of wealth or strength (e.g. “I am rich, therefore I will be the best ruler” or “I am ruthless and killed my competitors, therefore I deserve to rule”) included, if I recall broadly correctly. And the philosopher king certainly wasn’t supposed to follow the Right wing thinking of “what is good for me and my rich and/or powerful friends is what is good for the society”.
Democracy is about the only one that allows some chance of periodically selecting an imbecile to rule, which is why its entire approach is to organise the transition away from particular rulers, rather than installing or justifying them. Even then, there’s usually some sort of faith in the ability of voters en masse to usually pick equivalently capable rulers, rather than focussing on the merits of a population simply being able to choose its own path to hell.
Yeah, that’s mostly my view too. With the possible exception of this bit: “the philosopher king certainly wasn’t supposed to follow the Right wing thinking of “what is good for me and my rich and/or powerful friends is what is good for the society”.”
Debatable, that. Historical evidence of such people is notable for the lack. Amongst Roman emperors, Marcus Aurelius is the obvious candidate. I doubt any examination of his rule would produce evidence of him serving anything other than the insitution of the patriarchy.
One could also go for my tribe’s emperor, Charlemagne. A successful warrior who ruled as that rarest of creatures, a genuine christian, and established an education system for his subjects that became the prototype for all public education since. However power-sharing was never on his agenda. Quite the contrary!
However, I do agree that the next king of England will fit the philosopher king description accurately. You only need to follow the money to see how he has implemented his philosophy, and in his book he explains why & how.
No, he won’t.
It’s possible that both “philosopher” and “king” have lost something in the translation. Plato was talking about a merit-based ruler who considered situations rationally and in great depth. And Plato made clear the ruler should rule in the interests of society.
Whether such an example has existed in history is irrelevant to whether Plato was even remotely “right wing”.
Inasmuch as Charles will not rule as king, you’re technically correct, but I’m confident that he will be an exemplar in combining the philosopher role with the status of king.
Having read the book, I’m better-informed about that. I won’t argue about your final statement – I can’t see any relevance. How right-wing any aristocrat may have been is pure conjecture. Won’t stop many from seeing a correlation though, and jumping to the general conclusion.
Read up the thread. The discussion is happening literally because Draco called Plato a RWNJ.
Kings, or any ruler, can be smart, dumb, cruel, kind, rational, impulsive, self-serving, or serve the public good. Then they die or are replaced in some other manner. The discussion was about whether a particular philosopher’s ideas constituted being “right wing”. I think most of Plato’s works could go either way – any right wing or left wing society could follow his political philosophy.
In DtB’s world we’re all RWNJ’s.
Oh, okay. In that case, I agree with you about Plato, inasmuch as left-wingers are inclined to operate within the context of a class hierarchy as often as not.
To me it’s like calling the ancient Incas environmentalists because they didn’t use petrol or drive cars
Would you call them environmentalists, though, for their use of charcoal to create super-soil?
Then they must be right wingers.
lol totally, changing the land rather than using it according to what it can sustainably provide
Pretty much every philosopher who envisioned an ideal society said that the most suited and capable people should rule, and they should rule for the benefit of society.
That’s pretty much what we have with the ideal cabinet of Donald J. Trump, isn’t it? Who could be more suitable, capable and beneficial rulers of any country than the esteemed forementioned Trump, ably backed up by such stratospheric talents as Giuliani, De Vos, Pence, Pompeo, Mnuchin, Bolton, Carson, Perry, Nielsen….
wtf are you going on about now?
Jesus H. Christ—another humour failure from this perpetually foul-tempered former thespian.
It’s been another long and unhappy day for you, clearly. Cold shower time?
Actually it’s been pretty productive – did some reno, got a large item delivered and installed, did some chores. Then some jerk came along and talked about dolt45. for no reason whatsoever
“for no reason whatsoever”.
Really? You couldn’t see how the Trump cabinet might be the perfect illustration of what you called “the most suited and capable people”?
Or do I have to tag it like our friend Sacha wants, i.e., /sarc?
I understand that dolt45 is an outstanding example of a bad ruler. Bringing him into a serious and actually quite interesting discussion of Plato and foundational political theory as a joke is like laughing about fatal haemorrhoid surgery at a keynote address on proctology. Timing is everything, and it’s one thing you don’t have in an asynchronous communication medium.
Fair point. My timing was about as good as my taste, I guess.
I’ll get my coat.
A sensitive story for sensitive farmers and those supporting them. Up for a BAFTA this.
https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2018/10/09/73-cows/
Change can happen but it starts INSIDE.
On the topic of climate change: I found this very interesting advertorial for Schneider Electric. It makes some good points about retrofitting:
“retrofitting is […] often forgotten: Typically, examples of “sustainable living” feature new buildings, new cars, and new city designs. But by 2050, it will neither be feasible nor economically wise to rebuild what is already put in place.”
“Dallas County, the ninth largest county in the U.S., government spent $600,000 on 54 buildings for improvements including mechanical system upgrades, water conservation controls and fixtures, and lighting with motion sensors. The project is expected to reduce utility bills by 31 percent, ultimately saving $73 million over 10 years.”
How’s that for a return on investment.
And this:
“Schneider Electric is among the few companies who have a business case aligned with moving humanity out of ecological overshoot. With this, these companies have a baked-in economic advantage: On average they are aligned with the growing need of living within the means of our one planet. This exposes the companies to an expanding market, a feature that makes it much more likely for such companies to be successful in the long run compared to companies that are incompatible with one-planet prosperity and will inevitably face a shrinking demand.”
Companies that retrofit and actively support retrofitting the planet will gain loyal consumer bases. Sounds great right!
https://www.overshootday.org/energy-retrofit/
But, it’s much more interesting than that…
Schneider Electric have been naughty! There’s a 2016 $6.8M fine for breaching EPA standards, 16 bribery charges in 2014, and 2018 raids in France concerning alleged collusion and corruption.
So this company is keen to retrofit the planet, at cartel prices, while it’s factories continue to pollute, and if there’s an issue a little bribery can fix it.
And none of this comes as any surprise.
We can take the good from the advertorial however. Retrofitting buildings can make a significant difference. Also, for business, a significant economic difference.
Passive heating, passive cooling, natural lighting, sensor operated systems to minimize use… There’s a lot of good ideas out there to help turn your business or home into a more efficient space.
Desperately trying to continue a flawed model
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12188595
Spot the 6 letter flaw.
Even perpetual economic growth isn’t a fatal flaw in and of itself. It’s fully possible to envisage continuing growth from people providing services to each other accompanied by decreasing resource usage. Automation and efficiency improvements can do that if managed well.
It’s growth in consumption of finite resources that’s the problem. In fact, it’s ongoing consumption of finite resources that’s a problem, until that consumption of finite resources goes to zero and we’re fully renewable.
Quite right. However this nuanced view has failed to get traction in politics. Growth is good being a powerful complex meme, and addiction psychology being beyond the mental grasp of media operatives.
Russel Norman advocated Green growth when he was co-leader. I didn’t mind that, since he rationalised it as using tech to trend business towards sustainability. Biomimicry suggests using growth in nature as the new paradigm: businesses flourish like plants, then die in due course, while others emerge. Steady-state economics becoming the norm half a century after conception.
what you both describe is not growth….its continued activity with a diminishing resource use….the antithesis of growth, named Degrowth, and is the only viable option and the need for its implementation is exceedingly time constrained.
Yes, but growth in nature is a thing. It comes & goes. So framing it on that basis is a way to bridge the gap between the enterprise dimension of capitalism (growth-producing) and the Green fundamentalist view (growth kills nature). The bluegreens, I thought, would do this. Their failure doesn’t just damage their credibility, it operates as a handicap for all.
Growth in nature is indeed a thing….growth in the terms of a lifecycle which includes a natural limit , if those limits are exceeded what happens?….a forrest for example cannot continue to grow forever outside its environmental confines and the individual components of that environment require a balance that is controlled biologically……there is no endless growth in nature but our current economic model claims to have rewritten the laws of nature (physics)…..one hell of a marketing pitch but patently false as is increasingly evident.
His views arnt widely popular but his book title is accurate, nature does indeed bat last
+ 1 yep the law of diminishing returns seems to always clog the growth gears eventually and more often quite quickly nowadays.
Youve invented perpetual motion?
There is no output without input and ALL activity requires input…existing requires resources…never mind the desire for ease. It is IMPOSSIBLE to continue to grow (anything) ad infinitum in a finite environment…and we have passed that point.
It would be worth considering that this finite environment dosnt need our existence , indeed it is in the process of ridding itself of us.
Bluegreen is just greenwashed blue.
Sustainable growth – an oxymoron?
Not at all. But you have to base your systems on natural ecology, that which grows in production and complexity. When the waste of one is the food/fuel of the next a whole raft of products can be realised within a single system.
As systems develop biodiversity increases and more and more connections between species and processes become apparent.
Industry could learn much from natural systems. We have a lot of disconnected competitive entities all jostling to make money and in the process throwing it away – advertising, competition, proprietary rights yadda yadda. Work in isolation pumping out dollars and waste you are not part of an ecosystem you are kind of parasitic.
The waste of one industry feeds the next
e.g. Brewery -> aquaculture -> market garden -> worm farm -> orchard -> brewery…
e.g. Forestry -> Biochar and Mycology -> Market Gardens -> composters -> Forestry
e.g. Seafood Processing -> Farming -> Aquaculture – > Seafood processing
Treat every waste stream as potential income/input to another product and examine how to convert it.
Good permacultural systems thinking. Cycles are a hard concept for rightists to grasp, but I think it unwise to dismiss the bluegreen trend as merely greenwash. Up to around a decade ago I would have agreed, but since then they’ve been on a convergence trajectory.
and there is one unavoidable outcome of sustainability….a reduction in human population…which need not be a big problem but will likely be so.
Who’s desperately trying to continue a flawed model?
What is this flawed model?
What is the flaw?
Is this a typo hunt?
-every country pursing a growth in economic activity….so pretty much every country in the world (19 with negative growth but not necessarily by choice)
-growth
-growth
-no
I realised that if you cut down ‘growth’ you might end up with ‘grot’. Here is a bit of Reggie Perrin in his store Grot, where you can get just the right thing to give to People you Hate.
We had Grot running this country down from 2008 until 2017.
And people who hate us have bought up just about everything in the shop to make little deals with, rather than give away (have I got a bridge for you!).
Hahaha. This idea would probably work as an online store.
lol…i had forgotten about that great series
Sooooo good!
Reginald adapts in a flash!
And that’s the only bit you need to read to understand that what he’s saying is just more of the same failed financial system as we already have.
The public sector should never borrow money.
All public sector spending should be government created money. No borrowed money and no interest to pay. Government bonds should not exist.
IKEA is coming – 200 new jobs! But……
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ikea-unions/unions-accuse-ikea-of-undermining-workers-rights-in-three-markets-idUSKCN1M721G
Ikea, destroyers of the environment…
“the key issue with IKEA from an environmentalist’s point of view is that the company encourages the mass-consumption of goods that generally need to be replaced after a few years, putting an increasing strain on the world’s natural resources. In her 2009 book, Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, Ellen Ruppel Shell argues that IKEA – by some measures the world’s third-largest consumer of wood – sells products with a limited lifespan and that, by claiming its products are ‘sustainable’ and come from ‘renewable’ sources, effectively encourage consumers to replace like with like, rather than spending more on longer-lasting products.”
https://theecologist.org/2011/oct/19/behind-brand-ikea
( a funny article, because its trying to be pro ikea while telling us how flawed and destructive the basic business model is…it can’t be easy being a environmentally aware Capitalist.)
Ikea the tax dodgers..
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/18/eu-probes-ikea-after-dutch-deals-reduce-tax-bill-by-1bn
Cargo Cult mentality in full swing here. Most of what IKEA stocks can be found in The Warehouse anyway, just under a different brand name. But each to their own.
Ikea who wants to assemble it? Can’t see the attraction myself and Aussies love it.
Tucker Carlson rails against US capitalism.
OK Sure this is Tucker Carlson on Fox News.
Now that you’ve got over that, have a watch as he rails against capitalism and rule by capitalists elites. It’s causing some stir over in Fox land.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-mitt-romney-supports-the-status-quo-but-for-everyone-else-its-infuriating
It’s like he’s ingested a fair amount of Elizabeth Warren’s book, and he expands a bit with the Vox people.
https://www.vox.com/2019/1/10/18171912/tucker-carlson-fox-news-populism-conservatism-trump-gop
You may well think this isn’t relevant to the converted on the left, but given Carlson’s massive influence on Fox and his massive conservative influence, it bodes very well for the populist messaging that Warren already has down.
It also works surprisingly well read in a New Zealand context if you can mentally edit out the accent.
Carlson is not to be underestimated. He is the founder and editor of the often-misleading Daily Caller in addition to all of his other platforms. He knows how to communicate that’s for sure.
The irony of an heir to the Swanson frozen food fortune railing against capitalism, while earning millions as a Fox host, should not be lost on anyone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Caller
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucker_Carlson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swanson
Interesting person. His wiki link points out he bulk buys nicotene gum from NZ.
I can appreciate that he is an opponent of laissez-faire, Libertarian and AnCap ideas but I still tend to agree with Jon Stewart in 2004; Carlson’s use of his platforms has been damaging to the political discourse.
These cases where he is closer to the political centre are countered by him promulgating the ‘white genocide’ myth.
Ann Coulter
@AnnCoulter
Ocasio-Cortez wants a 70-80% income tax on the rich. I agree! Start with the Koch Bros. — and also make it WEALTH tax.
only income taxes don’t work anymore because there are so many loopholes to reduce it or use tax havens
Better to have a tax like transaction taxes and get the money as it moves around the world
Also taxes that use that model aka Robin Hood taxes rampant consumption which we need to nip in the bud before the planet is destroyed.
Glasgow had the highest murder rate of any western European city: 63 victims per million. An innovative approach to gangs turned it into one of the safest cities in the UK.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/glasgow-crime?utm_source=More%20Stories&utm_medium=internal
Outstanding. Thank you.
Real discrimination against women comes largely I think because men resent women being the gender that can give life to a new person, and therefore is unwittingly powerful over all. Self-made men are particularly pissed about this!
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/379893/nepal-woman-and-children-die-in-banned-menstruation-hut
I understand that in the Jewish religion, menstruating women have to sit in
a separate position in their religious space.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/jewish-women-on-menstruation
And after looking at that it will probably have penetrated the minds of all as to how bodily appearance, looking ‘good’ and right, are embedded in female’s sensibilities from a very early age.
In ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood there is a quote something like ‘Men are afraid that women will laugh at them; and women are afraid that men will kill them.’
While the book/series is set in some Dystopian future, there are many parallels with the fundamentalist teachings and practices of today. Many christian women say nothing of their lot, for it is ‘not their place to’.
I posit that a large proportion of today’s misogyny originated with, and remains with, religions.
Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 1 Corinthians 14:34
He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 1 Kings 11:3
If, however the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. Deuteronomy 22:20-21.
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Ephesians 5:22-24.
That’s the mob I’m familiar with. The Torah and other ‘gospels’ are no better.
Which is why we need to get rid of religion. Even Judaism. The sooner the better.
Someone I know went back to the Jehovah’s Witnesses a while back and has gone from independent woman to totally buying into all that ‘women are inferior’ BS. Become a total prude too.
Real discrimination against women comes largely I think because men resent women being the gender that can give life to a new person, and therefore is unwittingly powerful over all. Self-made men are particularly pissed about this!
It’s a dead giveaway with any religion. If the magical superhero arrived in the world through something other than normal birth nine months after normal sex between a man and a woman, it’s a religion predicated on fear and hate of women, with all their slimy biological yuckiness.
Yes, separating menstrating women being an example of “yuckiness”.
So now also the “eco” plan now comes to grief as well here!!!!!!!!
Apparently now it seems that “air tight homes’ are now deemed as “dangerous” to us all too.
Time to open windows and let some ventilation in to expel the toxic VOC’s.
It seems that for ‘every benefit’ comes some ‘unintended consequences’ now.
Full marks to this NZ company ‘Tether’ and for their CEO Brandon Van Blerk for telling the truth about ‘sealed homes’ as not being fully safe, as they trap volatile organic chemicals (VOC’s) inside them, and dangerously poisoning the inside air and the residents.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE1812/S00078/insulation-can-worsen-unhealthy-home-issues.htm
Insulation can worsen unhealthy home issues
Tuesday, 18 December 2018, 11:41 am
Press Release: Tether
PRESS RELEASE
Tether Limited
18 December 2018
Kiwis cautioned that insulation can worsen unhealthy home issues
An air tight home does not equal a healthy home and may even exacerbate the damp, stagnant conditions that lead to mould, mildew and respiratory problems likes asthma and pneumonia among children and older adults in New Zealand.
CEO of healthy home monitoring technology company Tether, Brandon Van Blerk, said while Government making home insulation a priority is a good thing, over emphasis on insulation might actually make the problems worse.
“Good insulation should go hand-in-hand with adequate ventilation and air exchange because good insulation alone makes a home airtight, and that will lead to moisture problems and a build up of noxious gases, harmful particles like dust and mould spores and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).”
“A healthy home has the trinity of 1. Good insulation, 2. Adequate ventilation and 3. Efficient air exchange.”
This has been known for so long. WTF is wrong with designers?
Design college…
lol look at who issued the press release – a company targeting their home monitoring devices at landlords so the they can “educate tenants”.
It’s a bit like the research that said dishcloths can cross-contaminate – sponsored by a paper towel company.
Beating up a known and manageable problem in order to sell their stuff – in the latest case, big brother monitoring of tenants for their landlords.
Exactly.
hotcakes.
Decades ago I remember it being argued that NZ homes were airy and uninsulated but that those who lived in them were healthier and had greater resistance to colds and flu, especially compared to those who lived in warm centrally heated airtight well-insulated homes. At the extremes I guess those who lived in tents would be healthier still. (Air conditioning can spread infections on warm humid air.)
We do like to be comfortable though don’t we?
Was just thinking on this yesterday, how climate change could put the air conditioning power demands really high, and the poor who can’t afford it.
We certainly need passive cooling and heating in our designs. Whether we can afford power or not, if we know how to do this (we do) not doing it is a waste of power for the buildings lifetime.
I have an air inlet for a cooling cupboard placed 5 feet up on a sun exposed brick wall – Just W.T.F…
Drop that same opening to ground level and shade it out with shrubs – huge improvement. Put a new opening on the shaded side of the house, add shrubs, and an outlet up high on the opposite hot side of the house and I got a breeze through the house.
I can’t afford a damn air conditioner. All buildings should have a breeze built in. See if you can fiddle round with windows on shaded and bright sides and get one running.
Dig
a
hole.
Sitting in a hole is no fun. Just ask the residents of Massey.
That sounds like bollocks put about to justify having cold, damp houses that were cheap to build and thus maximised profits for the developers.
Ah, so good of a CEO to come out and justify us having cold, damp houses killing us.
Everyone who’s done 3rd form science knows that we need to actually breath and so we don’t build airtight homes. That’d just be stupid.
If the UK has a problem with the new Eu border, while doesn’t Ireland? Why is Ireland choosing to scrap the peace agreement with the north and not even holding a referendum? Is Ireland waiting to see how the UK Eu agree the new relationship?
I can’t see the Eu, any more than the UK, rushing to build customs border control.
So why has May so successful put the eu off talking, it’s in the interest for the UK,Ireland, businesses all to continue working… ..only a hard brexit will work since nobody is accepting the reality that the UK is leaving. Until everyone affected is in tge room, the doors locked and not opened until its done.
I can’t see the Eu wanting people let into the uk crossing the border in Ireland and entering the eu, or vis vevia, Syria’s buying tickets to Ireland… ..so where is the eu commitment to the peace agreement?
Syria is buying tickets to Ireland?
Got any links to confirm that statement?
The UK needs Europe more than Europe needs the UK. Europe doesn’t need to renegotiate its trade network from scratch. Europe is more open to immigration than the UK wants to be, so illegal immigration from UK into Europe won’t be a huge problem. Europe has much higher GDP than UK.
why then does the pound and eu buy roughly the same number of dollars.
And yes sure a dysfunctional multipolar collective of foreign languages should by the virtue of its larger population dominate the relationship but there’s the assumption, Britain is also a part of a dysfunctional trading English speaking block, the commonwealth.Germany has Turks and now Syrians, Britian has south Asians and caribbians…
The joke is that brexit exposes the Tories up for the incompetents they are. Instead of dealing with those left behind, it let itself believe the eu was the problem.
I don’t get what you’re going for: what has the exchange rate got to do with GDP?
And what do you mean by “dealing with those left behind”?
UK has a large non European market. Comparing the UK singularly with the whole of EU is remarkable. Better to compare with Germany surely.
Germany doesn’t negotiate its own export deals. Merkel had to explain this to dolt45 a wee while ago.
around 54% of UK exports go to European trade partners.
16% of EU exports go to the UK.
EU has to renegotiate 16% of its export markets.
UK has to renegotiate all of its export markets.
Germany negotiates no export markets.
UK gets only 7% of Germany’s exports. Germany gets 10.6% of UK exports.
Sorry.Parts from the world going into the UK, to build cars say, for the eu market… …or other goods going to the UK… look I jus don’t aged with comparisons of the UK and Eu. Also UK germany are more comparable, since a lot of what germany exports takes parts from the uk, and cars, or wharever.
Everyone loses from Brexit, the Tories the most.
Even on a UK/germany comparison, as I pointed out before the UK is more reliant on exports to Germany than vice versa. And Germany can get parts from anywhere in the EU for cheaper than a trade deal with the UK.
So in the five years after a hard Brexit the UK will have barriers put on 10% of its export market. Germany can choose where else it buys from. British manufacturing gets bollocked unless the rest of the world suddenly open up to the UK – which it’s not going to do. Meanwhile, czech manufacturers supply the parts Germany wants. UK gets shut out of cooperative contracts like Typhoon and CERN. What will Europe or Germany weep over not getting from UK?
Possible solution to all our climate problems.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30361993
“The remarks drew online ridicule. Some say that if prayers work, the government should set up the Ministry of Magic and make Thailand a superpower. Others say that they also pray for the junta to leave politics but it did not work out.”
Magical thinking hasn’t been flavour of the month in western civilisation since the 17th century. Science replaced it. In the counter-culture, it flourished briefly again but so many interesting things happened that the generation born in the fifties got weirded-out, and scooted back to moronic conservatism.
The good news is that Lyall Watson books are still around, so anyone interested in the magical dimension of nature can get up to speed easily. As long as one becomes adept at not becoming captive to any delusion, Castenada still provides a model on the application side of things. Flawed, inasmuch as the guru thing ended up claiming him as victim. But we lack a useful model of how to apply shamanic practice in contemporary political contexts. When I raised this question at a political meeting of around 40 people around five or six years ago I got sustained applause, but no answer.
What, Dennis, was your question? I’m up for it (depending on what it was 🙂
You didn’t notice? It was the previous sentence: how to apply shamanic practice in contemporary political contexts. I have a few clues on the topic due to my personal history as change-maker, but I was hoping for more. I noticed long ago that being a fast learner & fast mover is a problematic path (peer group drops off the pace).
Hmmmm… okay, I did notice, but…I could have drawn that inference/inferred that, but you didn’t ask, or state a question…so, now that you’ve asked and I’m not applauding without answering, here goes…”how do we apply shamanic practice in contemporary political contexts” – that’s it, just to be clear? Effectively, is my answer; effectively if you mean to effect change. I’m very interested in this discussion; would you care to elaborate a little so that I can getafix on your intent, I’d like to bat ideas back and forward…
Can do but probably more suitable for the weekend topic of how to get there, but the already mentioned theme is more important. The one that Andre suggested.
Changemaking involves catalysis. It involves shifting mass consciousness (which is where shamanic function comes in). It involves an orientation to the time axis, one that transcends passive acceptance of the current reality as predetermining the future by default.
Science hasn’t even yet accepted that we actually have an innate orientation to the time axis. Psychology is a barren field populated by folks with small minds. Post Jung, I mean. Minimal progress. Political psychology, the key arena, is devoid of content.
Sunday it is then!
Today shamanic thinking is saying grace before a meal.
I tried that. Everyone sat down to the meal, I said “grace”, and everyone laughed. I suppose you could argue that I shifted mass consciousness for the group…
Too right Dennis. I don’t do grace now. I thought recently; why? We and I have taken everything too casually. Post war – what could go wrong? Now I am a bit sharper prior to my senescence.
“Blessings on the blossoms,
Blessings on the fruits;
Blessings on the leaves and stems,
And blessing on the roots.”
Nice, simple, humble and not preachy or academic.
Thank you Robert.
The Selkirk Grace, is a prayer said afore eatin that’s attreebute tae Robert Burns:
“Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be Thankit!”
The only time I was ever asked to say “grace” I said:
For what we are about to receive may the Lord be truly thankful.
Everyone was too polite to laugh.
No doubt taking a while to process the cognitive dissonance. “Huh? What did she just say?” I presume you were a child at the time. Kids are often inadvertent subversives, in those years before convention and group-think tighten their grip. I hope the lord didn’t punish you for disrespect.
I was about 18 yrs old. I think the lord gave up on me around that time. Mind you it was mutual separation.
I’ve heard you can “think” bumblebees out of your house through an open window.
Bruce. Have you tried this (in order to debunk the idea?)
Never heard of humans thinking bumblebees out of a house. But several times I’ve observed bumblebees successfully thinking humans out of their houses. Including once through an open window.
Ha! Funny, but now that you have heard of thinking them out, will you apply the scientific principle and test my hypothesis/proposal/claim?
Give it a go and get back to us with your findings.
Dunno about bees, but flies are usually pretty easy if you know their behaviour. I open the bathroom door ajar, and the bathroom window fully. Fly gets attracted into bathroom, can’t get back into rest of house, flies out window. Flies that come in window don’t get into rest of house, fly out window again. They usually like to go from dark to light.
Easier than trying to swat them.
Yes.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that observing animal behaviour and using the knowledge to get rid of them is in the same ballpark as praying or thinking them away, though. If I do swat a sitting fly, I aim behind it to take advantage of its launch mechanism.
My thinking doesn’t make it jump packwards, its reflexes do.
Owing to the stress and strain i haven’t wiped my cobwebs again. I have one at the base of a window that is near a corner, where the blowflies buzz over to. If they walk along the base of the window they will get caught in an arm of the web, buzz madly then I see some long legs arise and a mad dash for spider to get it while it’s hot. Watched a couple of flies go that way. Otherwise they get encouraged out. Swatting can knock them down and they may spill juveniles.
I keep the house full of cobwebs through the summer to catch the flies, cheaper than toxic fly spray and use’s less energy than a fly swat.
Not gonna risk it. My self-esteem wouldn’t survive losing a brainpower battle with a bumblebee.
I once sat on a bumblebee that had overnighted in my pyjamas. Bugger bit me multiple times back side of my tenders but once the stinging subsided, I thought all would be well. Nope.
I arrived home mid morning after an early surf with things below feeling rather tight, so I dropped my strides and there they were, the pair of ’em were the size of oranges, and growing.
Eventually antihistamines calmed things down but oh dear, the pain and discomfort.
hehehe Reminds me of time I was riding my m’bike in a pair of shorts. A wasp went up the left leg. Ahhhhhhhhhh. I stood up on the foot rests and managed to bring the bike to a stop but ooooh I shall never forget that. Nor the time I sat on the sofa and there was a wasp sitting on it – I nearly hit the roof. lol
Reminds me of a story our psychology lecturer told us to demonstrate the nature of a phenomena.
A thistle – that is no phenomena
A bee – that is no phenomena
A horse – that is no phenomena
But a horse, sitting on a bee, sitting on a thistle – that is a phenomena.
Have you read/watched “Ferdinand”?
We had a morris 8 with a wind out windscreen on a trip to the beach wearing only a sarong i meet with a wasp in the worst of spots, i was very pleased to get into the ocean
Oh yeah! I remember those. I had a Ford 10 and a mate and I shared a Standard when were at college. Used to drive it up the Akatarawas after school each day – until it ran its big end bearings. 🙁 His dad was a mechanic, and being wise to the after school drag racing up a very windy hill road decided that the best solution was that the car was unfixable. 😉 We sold it off as parts netting 15 quid which was 5 more than we paid for it! Paid for our petrol – which as I recall was around 2/6 a gallon in those days.
Probably works better when combined with action. I did this with a possum, after buying the old harbour-master’s villa, up on the hill overlooking the old jetty at Port Waikato.
For those who don’t know, it was a port for the coastal trade until the sixties. I’ve got a 10×8 photocopy of an old photo taken from the air, showing a tanker in port at that jetty. Then the farmers stripped the Waikato river hillsides for more farmland, the silt was deposited at the river mouth, and tankers could no longer get in.
Anyway a noise woke me one night, and I could tell it was in the kitchen area, so I came out cautiously, flicked on the light, and the biggest possum I’ve ever seen was sitting calmly on the middle of the dining table watching me. Size of a wallaby, in a similar stance. I thought for a few secs, then sidled carefully around it & opened the window on the far side, then sidled back again.
It must have observed this just as carefully, as it immediately, in leisurely fashion, exited. So the technique works if the creature observes the exit.
Portals are vital. A possum can’t usually exit where there is no point of exit. Usually. Bats, I’m not so sure 🙂
Animals sometimes have difficulty identifying open portals. I’ve noticed. I catch, in my hands, one or two blackbirds a day in my kitchen. They don’t seem to mind being exported.
Like potty training children ?
I think that by our thoughts we create our own reality. I’ve never seen bumble bees as something to wish to move so have never tried.
Away from NZ I see people with quite a different view on supernatural forces and more accepting of their impacts , my natural inbuilt western cynicism is something I’m yet to conquer but i find my perceptions continualy challenged.
Let’s talk more about these things…
The progressive left has traditionally viewed human interaction as being about language and choice and the dynamics of sociality. Whereas the right view the world as something to control via science and prediction of human behaviour, which is impossible to do, therefore provides the wrong analysis.
Well ghosts or spirits, we have one in my NZ house ; my late wife far more open than me would talk about her, now I mix with mainly Thai people and all who visit mention her presence, without prompting. Hard to explain.
Here in Thailand every house has a small house outside for spirits of past family we leave food, It doesn’t dissapper, but my wife will often wake with story from someone who visited in the night and usually the message is relevent.
After a death and cremation about 90 days the family and friends gather, the ashes are collected from the crematorium and a bucket of water and the best clothes of the deceased are put by the gate, he washes himself and dresses and joins in the party, the amazing part is the water moves, who knows but I don’t think anyone can conjure earthquakes at will so I’m left believing it is the spirit that disturbs it.
That’s good stuff, Bruce…getting challenged…breaking it down…becoming open…
Human senses operate within a narrow band…yet ego and hubris operate in broadband…
Doubtless, there is copious activity going on outside our senses and egos capability to handle…
Another toymaker accidentally makes another offensive toy by mistake.
They need to have people reality check these toys sometimes.
Hateful surprise: Offensive toy found inside Kinder chocolate egg
11 Jan, 2019 9:54am
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12188639
“accidentally”???
The people who filter Kinder’s stuff – they’re charged with reality-checking, aren’t they??
Who could miss that?
No one.
They’re going for outrage as a marketing tool.
They didn’t know? Why not just have an extra balloon making two, to show how Kinder offers that bit more. But three? How about a bit of paper with a joke (yolk) on it or an offer, that would be doing something about plstic rubbish. Which that toy was. Neither useful or ornamental.
Hmmm… it looks like the Maggie Barry Affair is not over yet:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/01/department-of-conservation-confirms-staff-member-removed-from-maggie-barry-s-office.html
Career MAGA scammer scams MAGA fools, and swatts former employees, too.
Brian Kolfage, the decorated Iraq War veteran spearheading the massive, viral fundraising campaign to build President Trump’s border wall, who has a history of peddling right-wing misinformation on Facebook, pushed the limits of misleading content in pursuit of online traffic and profits until he was ultimately banned from the platform, according to multiple former employees and a review of internal communications.
The 37-year-old has spent more than a decade carefully crafting his public persona as an altruistic, conservative public figure, but people who have worked with the veteran told BuzzFeed News he can be vengeful and malicious, and that the pursuit of profits above all else fueled his behavior.
The veteran has also spearheaded other crowdfunding ventures over the years, raising thousands of dollars on GoFundMe with the promise of helping mentor fellow vets at military hospitals, but spokespersons for the medical centers said they have no record of Kolfage working at their facilities or donating any money.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/briannasacks/veteran-trump-wall-brian-kolfage-immigration-facebook
Previously on TS
What type of ‘populist’ are you?
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jan/10/we-the-people-the-battle-to-define-populism
Interesting piece, well written. However, the alarm bells should go off when you encounter a sentence like this:
The rise of “populist movements”, Barack Obama said in a speech last summer,…
Obama was not, and is not, a credible or serious commentator.
is anyone?….besides his contribution was only as an example
Someone as deeply involved in the suppression of democracy and free speech as Obama was has no business commenting about “populist movements” or anything else.
Golf is what he should be doing—along with his equally irresponsible Kiwi financier chum.
Springsteen Apologizes for B. Obama Collaboration
Singer expresses “regret that I was not both more informed and more discerning” when he sang for B. Obama in 2012
by Philip Lasmy and Mart Westhauss, chiPforkt, Jan. 11, 2019
Bruce Springsteen has apologized for collaborating with B. Obama in 2012. “I am deeply horrified by the irrefutable stories of mass killing surrounding B. Obama,” the rock legend said in a statement, posted on his Twitter. “I regret that I was not both more informed and more discerning when I worked with him previously. I fully support all victims of extrajudicial killings, and it’s my hope that there will be a path to justice.”
Springsteen sang to B. Obama worshippers in Wisconsin on the final day of campaigning in the 2012 US Election. The rock legend capped his appearance by playing the anthem “Land of Hope and Dreams.”
Springsteen’s apology follows Lady Oprah’s, who also worked with Obama in 2012. In a statement posted to Twitter last night, Oprah said that she intends to remove all traces of her collaborations with Obama from her mind. The apologies arrive as people continue to speak out publicly about B. Obama’s history of extrajudicial killing and his relentless persecution of journalists and whistle-blowers.
https://pitchfork.com/news/phoenix-apologize-for-r-kelly-collaboration/
Can you please label fiction appropriately.
What was the fiction, Sacha? Are you trying to say that B. Obama was not involved in thousands of extrajudicial killings and did not relentlessly persecute journalists and whistle-blowers?
Really? Come on now—get serious.
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Oh, I SEE-E-E-E-EEEE! You think the average reader here is so thick that he/she won’t appreciate that it’s SATIRE. You want me to FLAG it for them, do you? Just in case they can’t work it out for themselves?
No, Sacha, that’s not going to happen. You can helpfully wave a flag marked “SATIRE” if you like, but I don’t think many people need such prompting.
Don’t give up your day job.
Just saw an excellent story of how two old guys spent 15 years building a walking track in to the Koropuka Falls in the Caitlins, so everyone can go & see it fairly easily. Reminds us of the role voluntarism will play in maintaining & regenerating community in the non-monetarised part of society. It was on TV1. They got DOC approval to do it.
Pardon for what? Just drop
the bogus charges against him.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/01/julian-assanges-living-conditions-are-more-akin-to-a-dissident-in-stasi-era-germany-than-an-award-winning-publisher-with-asylum/
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trackdown-trump-character-wall/
Stranger than fiction.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1083444172626018304.html
In the same way, Ian Fleming modelled his villain Goldfinger on the real life architect Ernő Goldfinger, who Fleming detested.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-wall-comic-strip/
Very prescient, if not precognitive! A reporter brings this up at a Trump press conference… Trump: “Dude, I’m just living the dream. It’s because the Democrats voted for a fence. I knew it had to be a wall.”
Trump is just upping the anti, “it’s the Art of the Deal”, it’s just negotiating, Trump does not lose.
This one really pissed me off just now:
https://twitter.com/ropata/status/1083678283563118593
Someone else jumped in: *sigh*
https://twitter.com/ropata/status/1083681792819744769
We need to start a “Bring Back Ed Campaign” I am missing his sarcasim.
I agree with Mere Berryman I have reshurched my Ngati Porou history and its totally diffrent to the storys I was told .I also see a lot of storys glorifying the english settlors and belittling Tangata whenua any true storys that show Maori mana are hidden. Everyone knows that this justice system is having a kaka on Eco Maori.
Mere Berryman: it’s time we did better by Māori students
From The Weekend, 9:05 am on 5 January 2019
New Zealand’s education system is failing Māori students by continuing to marginalise their culture, says Waikato University professor Mere Berryman, a 2017 New Zealander of the Year finalist.
The Treaty of Waitangi promised both Māori and non-Māori equal shares of all the benefits that the colonial government was going to provide, yet what we’ve found that education has provided is a very western perspective that is about one history rather than both our histories.”
‘[The teachers] ask the Chinese girl about her culture and they try and tell me about mine’, Berryman was told by one Māori student.
This one-sided storytelling not only disadvantages Māori New Zealanders, she says.
“Māori have missed out because their histories are not being told authentically, but so too have non-Māori because they haven’t learnt about Māori histories [alongside European colonial history]. They’ve learnt a particular version of those events.”
Berryman says she was shocked when a 2001 government report revealed that the experience of many Māori students still hadn’t improved since she and her siblings were in primary school, but wasn’t surprised when a 2017 report confirmed the depth and continuation of the problem
Racism is something that we’re not good at talking about in New Zealand, but we all need to acknowledge its existence … Until we all work to understand [racism], I don’t believe, as a society, we will be able to move forward.”
Currently, about 70 percent of students are served “exceptionally well” by the education system, Berryman says.
“But 20 percent are doing a lot less well with and many of them are Māori.”
The other 10 percent – which Berryman believes is a growing group – are impoverished immigrant and Pakeha students “often living in really risky situations”, she says.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-weekend/audio/2018677651/mere-berryman-it-s-time-we-did-better-by-maori-students
Yeah I heard part of that interview on RNZ, it was good stuff. This captured the heart of the issue:
Berryman also mentioned that 170 years of colonisation is a huge factor in Maori underperformance.
trumps clinging to his toy wall is putting millions of peoples lives at risk and the poor people who don’t have the money to bounce back from disaster are going to pay the price of this tantrum
Beleaguered firefighters put on hold by government shutdown
“If you don’t do the hiring on time, then you can’t do the training on time, then you are not ready for the next fire season,” a nonprofit leader said.
Controlled burns have been put on hold. Fire training sessions have been canceled. The hiring of hundreds of seasonal firefighters has been delayed.
The nation’s wildland fire service — trying to regroup this winter after two of the biggest and deadliest fire seasons on record — has instead been cast into a state of anxiety by the three-week-old partial government shutdown. That’s because some firefighters with the Forest Service, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management are among the approximately 800,000 government employees either furloughed or working without a guarantee of pay.
The shutdown has affected hundreds of regular fire and support personnel at those agencies, along with seasonal “hotshots” and others who swell the fire lines during the forest and brush fire emergencies that have swept through the West with increasing
emergencies that have swept through the West with increasing intensity nearly every summer and fall, according to wildfire experts. A Senate Appropriations Committee report estimates that as many as 5,000 Forest Service firefighters may be working without pay.
Analysts say the sidelining of some firefighters comes at a difficult time because of the increasing length and arduousness of the fire calendar. After battling what was then the largest fire in California history in 2017, the Thomas Fire, and the deadliest fire in California history in November, the Camp Fire, firefighters do not appreciate going untrained and unpaid.
If you don’t do the hiring on time, then you can’t do the training on time, then you are not ready for the next fire season,” said Goulette of the Watershed Center, which is based in the Northern California town of Hayfork. “And with fire season expanding in California and across the West, you better be ready. Spring does not last as long as it used to.”
Fire experts and climate scientists say warmer and drier weather has prolonged recent fire seasons, making winter recovery time even more precious for firefighters to regroup. “There can be a little over 300 days a year now that someone is fighting a fire somewhere,” said Whittington, “compared to 200 or 250 days in the past. So the time to get over the last fire year and prepare for the next one is incredibly short.”
Ka kite ano links below
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/beleaguered-firefighters-put-hold-government-shutdown-n957456
Interesting eco maori naming problems brought on to firefighters by lack of funding, poor systems, things not being done in a timely fashion,
A Senate Appropriations Committee report estimates that as many as 5,000 Forest Service firefighters may be working without pay.
And this at a time when the USA i confronted by terrible fires. Fat cats in politics, career politicians. It doesn’t work, and they need to have a set limit and then on their way.
Just had a strange visit I smell some thing the cheats will bring bad waiura to there whole whano and I will be watching saying ana to kai.
A Eco Maori Video for the minute
A Eco Maori Video for the minute
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute
Kia ora Newshub its not on tamariki are getting beat up for there shoes and the offenders get away with it WTF.
The scam of the deaf cards being sold as a charity te scam is the capitalist way no.
Ka pai to China sending the world pictures of the far side of te Marama.
Ka pai for the Winton rugby match for Blair Vining it was cool for Mils to play to for Blairs bucket list game all the best to Blair and his whano.
Good on Sea Shepherd for stopping the poachers by pulling up there illegal drift nets there actions are causing the extintion of Mexico ‘s Vaquita porpoise there are only 30 left we must protect all of our creatures from over exploitation.
There you go the Ice is melting very fast at the antartica Ross sea ice shelf the sea’s are warming and rising fast that will cause a lot of animals to die.
That show me how famous the All Blacks are the Theatre show getting big views in Amercia some people need tissues as they are crying about the All Blacks Mana & fame I say they should be thanking them for making Papatuanuku Rugby so Great. Ka kite ano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming
e.g.
Mixed-use skyscrapers
Mixed-use skyscrapers were proposed and built by architect Ken Yeang.[6] Yeang proposes that instead of hermetically sealed mass-produced agriculture, plant life should be cultivated within open air, mixed-use skyscrapers for climate control and consumption. This version of vertical farming is based upon personal or community use rather than the wholesale production and distribution that aspires to feed an entire city.