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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBDB_cO7lpA
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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH-E6J5TJTY
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.
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.
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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYndqo_AJQQ
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.
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
The pressure is mounting on the Government as it finalises its Budget Policy Statement, but yet more predicted revenue ‘goes missing’. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Climate Commission has delivered another funding blow to the National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government’s tax-cutting plans, potentially carving $1.4 billion off the ‘climate ...
The Government now faces the prospect of having to watch another tax raise the price of petrol when, only six days ago, it abolished the Auckland Regional Fuel tax. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon argued that the regional fuel tax imposed costs on lower-income people with less fuel-efficient vehicles and that ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
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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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBDB_cO7lpA
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH-E6J5TJTY
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”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EvEGwzBFRM
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://twitter.com/_AlexHirsch/status/1083140191362048000
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trackdown-trump-character-wall/
Stranger than fiction.
https://twitter.com/jedshug/status/1083444172626018304
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://twitter.com/steve_lieber/status/910575231667806208
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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iXT9Kbw_XE
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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-p9kebsAL0
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYndqo_AJQQ
A Eco Maori Video for the minute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAB6aXOfUmU
A Eco Maori Video for the minute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQfetkoGrpU
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJlN9jdQFSc
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.