Why is it our intelligence agencies cant tell us why when or who the NZX and Reserve Bank cyberattacks occurred but other 5Eyes partners can figure out theirs.
They need to join the dots between that 5Eyes support for Hong Kong protesters and against the Chinese government and the timing of the attacks on us.
On critical infrastructure failure we deserve more than a vacuum. 5 Eyes membership should give us that relevant analysis access. We have no reason to be the only silent agency in the group.
Ohh, you actually think the SIS doesn't have an idea of who is responsible?
They very probably do and any limitations are related to the traceability and security of the systems compromised, rather than the pervue of the SIS anyway.
Faith? I would suggest we can hardly trust who the security services choose to blame. That should apply even if we consider them on-side because its often in the attackers best interests to create miss direction.
You do realise all those 'Russian' attackers discussed don't actually use usernames with 'bear' in them don't you?
I don't see the benefits of the SIS being politically active.
A trump is facing a second impeachment there is talk that at least 3 members of congress where helping the rioters. One is said to have been involved in planning, another was live tweeting info on other members of congress the rioters where after and where they are being taken for their safety. Some of those that broke in went right to unmarked offices of certain members of congress they where targeting knowing exactly where to go as they had information they should not have known about the exact locations of those offices.
Also 2 members of the Capitol police force are reported to have been suspended and 10 more are under investigation for their alleged roles in the riot.
It will be interesting to see what happens to those members of congress and the police offices in the coming weeks.
No they did not borrow it, they did trial it here. They belong to the same rightwing thinktanks and tested some of the ideas here to work out some of the bugs before taking what they learned back to the thinktanks to implement slightly more polished versions in the US and UK.
The techniques dig out feelings of prejudice, fear, selfishness and hostility and spread these ideas throughout society. The idea is that both the positive image building and attack lines will be repeated and repeated until they're echoed by talkback hosts and political columnists and start to sound like truth.
This is how the manipulation works, which is almost undetectable because of its subtlety: start with innocent hobbies and activities that involve the hands and relax the brain and then the sub-liminal messages slowly, basket by basket, and carving by carving, chip away at your “Personal Responsibilit” until you’re a RWNJ. It is cunningly simple, really.
There is a link to Scott's book on top right which clicked on gives his personal preview of his book. He seems to argue that the SJW, social justice warriors, are too powerful in the fight against racism, sexism, homophobia. What is it about the Right with their attacks on people who espouse causes and advocate for the repressed minorities- SJWs and 'virtue signalling' being prime hates.
Personally, I think Mr Scott should stick to whittling.
It reminds me of the self description of the old-timey mountain man who said- "Sometimes I sets on the porch whittlin' and thinkin', and sometimes I jest sets there whittlin'……"
“New Zealanders' lacklustre Covid-19 tracer app use means contact tracers would not be able to do their job properly if an outbreak occurred today.
Ministry of Health data shows there were only 407,301 scans in the 24 hours from 1pm on Saturday, January 9 – the most recent day available.
University of Auckland research fellow with Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures Dr Andrew Chen says the numbers are not sufficient enough.”
Better people were no being asked to use their Covid-19 tracer app when there is no Covid in the community – because it feels pointless to be doing that – and the number of scans underlines that. Encourage people to have down loaded the app and be ready to use them immediately if an out-break occurs.
How then would you trace the initial spread of infection that is so important in limiting an outbreak? Though I guess you may have a point about highly motivated public health experts not getting the halfarsed complacency so prevalent in Aotearoa.
But just because something feels pointless doesn't mean that there isn't a point to it.
The nice thing is, if everyone acts like we'll go into lockdown in a few weeks, there's less likelihood we'll have to go into lockdown in the next few months.
But it's a function of probability: pick a period long enough and the odds of some problem leading to another outbreak are a practical certainty. Like the rest of life, all we can do is delay the inevitable.
what interests me is whether it's reasonable to expect most people to scan every time they go into a shop/business over the whole year. Being prepared is a whole range of things, and covid fatigue and scanning fatigue need to be taken into account in that.
I can't understand why people don't. It takes less than a second in most cases. Certainly after you have the app up and running. I've looked at my diary now and then and honestly am astonished at how many places I've been and there is no way I would be able to recall them all exactly and the time of day. I realise that not all people have the technology. But if you have then for goodness sake please use it.
I don't have the app, but I know that I don't always have my phone on me, and often I am just thinking about other things. I understand intellectually the rationale for doing it, but it just seems so outside of what many people can manage. My sense at the moment is that there should be a push to get people in populated areas to be keeping records, not just the app option, as well as everyone getting ready for the next outbreak. Trying to get everyone to use the app 24/7/365 just seems futile.
You could take a paper notebook everywhere with you I guess, Weka. I did that last year before I got a new phone able to host the app. It is a bit more fiddly and time consuming that way though. Also not so good in the rain (though less expensive to drop in a puddle).
I didn't bother writing down any place I had used eftpos after a while. Which was most places with a scan code really.
I rely on eftpos/credit card transactions. When we had community transmission I kind of ran a spreadsheet of contact points, but I'm not doing that now. But it's not about me. It's about creating a system that people will actually engage with and use. We don't have that yet, I think it needs adapting.
not sure. The push seems to be about getting everyone using the app, preferably the blutooth option, but that's not working. Maybe we need to work with the reality of that rather than the ideal.
If people aren't going to use the system now, run campaigns to get people ready for the next community outbreak? Do we know how many people are thinking it will all be over soon, the vaccine etc vs those that understand the long haul?
I'm outside the mainstream enough that I don't know what the current campaigns are in detail, but mostly I see people on twitter telling off people (generally) for not using the app and I just don't see this as a winning strategy. (yes I am conflating govt campaigns with social media reckons, but I think there is a relationship).
I guess that takes us back to the issue of whether the govt can afford to be blunt about our situation (and I'm sure they have their own levels of cognitive dissonance and denial).
There appears to be a fair old barney going on in the Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology about what vaccines to use.
The Society originally came out with a statement that AstraZeneca introduction should be paused because it does not appear to be effective enough to provide herd immunity. Then after comments by the Australian Virology Society that agreed with them there appears to have been a backdown. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines seem to be much more effective with 90+% effectiveness compared to the AstraZeneca 62%.
Does anyone know the effectiveness of the various vaccines New Zealand has ordered, apart from the 3 mentioned here?
NZ has ordered vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech, Janssen/Johnson&Johnson, AstraZeneca/Oxford, and Novavax. We have not ordered any from Moderna AFAIK.
Novavax and Janssen haven't yet completed any Phase 3 trials, so there's no data yet for efficacy.
I note one vaccine in trials in Canada is described as a plant-based virus-like particle. I wonder if that's a play to win over the vegan anti-vax natural products crowd?
Thank you. I do remember what you said earlier but when the professional bodies start expressing doubts one does start to wonder.
I hope that this story about the senior executives of Novavax doesn't mean any more than did the sell down by the CEO of Xero did when the company simply continued on its upward path.
I wouldn't take it as a signal one way or the other.
Moderna is in the same general class of company as Novavax – a smallish development-focused outfit, rather than a big-pharma giant, and Moderna's CEO sold off a whole lot of stock in November ahead of the emergency use authorisation. So far there does seem to be any dodginess behind that.
as an aside, can you or anyone please explain what 60% or 95% effective means with covid? (and how that is assessed/measured). I'm assuming they're not deliberately infecting people with covid to see what happens.
No they're not deliberately infecting anyone with covid.
What happens with a Phase 3 trial is the volunteers get split into two groups, one group getting the trial covid vaccine, and the control group getting something else (maybe just a saline solution, maybe some other vaccine, in some cases a meningococcal vaccine IIRC, don't want to say placebo because sometimes they got something active, just not something expected to be active against covid).
The volunteers don't know which they're getting, the people administering the injections don't know which they're giving, the people monitoring the volunteers post-vaccination don't know which was given, all that info is held by a different group.
Then the volunteers go about their daily lives. Some trials regularly tested volunteers for asymptomatic infections, some trials did not. After a predetermined number of the volunteers have suffered a covid infection, then the data is pulled to see how many of the infected got the trial vaccine and how many got the something else.
If the rate of infection among the volunteers that got the vaccine was only 5% of the rate among those that got the something else, then the vaccine is 95% effective. If the rate of infection among those that got the vaccine is 40% of those in the control group, then the vaccine is 60% effective.
What was also checked but not as widely reported is how many volunteers got severe cases of covid, often defined as needing hospitalisation. IIRC, the Moderna, Pfizer, and Oxfard/AstraZeneca vaccines all were 100% effective in preventing severe infection, but there were quite a few in the control groups that got severely ill. (note that 100% is among the 10,000 or so in the trial group, as the vaccine gets given to millions, that 100% will likely become 99.something%)
This graph shows really clearly the difference in outcomes for the Pfizer vaccine:
Then the volunteers go about their daily lives. Some trials regularly tested volunteers for asymptomatic infections, some trials did not. After a predetermined number of the volunteers have suffered a covid infection, then the data is pulled to see how many of the infected got the trial vaccine and how many got the something else.
If the rate of infection among the volunteers that got the vaccine was only 5% of the rate among those that got the something else, then the vaccine is 95% effective. If the rate of infection among those that got the vaccine is 40% of those in the control group, then the vaccine is 60% effective.
I don't get why they're comparing vaccinated people who got covid with people who got a different illness.
Its a comparison of Covid-19 contraction rates between a treated population and an untreated population. You are correct that any other treatment should have very minimal impact on Covid-19 for experimental validity. In general that would be known from knowing how the vacine works. There are also potential confounding factors which is why a 'fake' treatment is applied to one group. For example if one group knows they got the vacine they might choose to take more risks in public. The experiment relies on both treated and untreated groups responding similarly to treatment and the sample having enough participants that individual responses by some individuals to treatment don't much effect the experiment.
ok, so in Andre's explanation I can just ignore all the bits about other illnesses/vaccinations, and see it as the vax group and the control being non-vax?
Yes. For the other group is untreated (for Covid-19). No doubt the researchers are also considering the effects of the vacine on different strains. But they will work more broadly than one particular RNA sequence.
The 'virus' mutates meaning its specific RNA sequence can change when it reproduces. But hopefully the vacine still works for new mutated virus strains.
This doesn't have to be true however. Flu vacines for example don't seem to handle a wide range of flu variants.
There was nothing intended to be about other illnesses in what I wrote. Sacha and Nic both picked up where I explained the control group got something else other than the vaccine that might have more side effects that a pure placebo, which is why I didn't want to use placebo for what was given to the group. But what was given to the control group was different for the different trials. Hence the reason for using the words "something else".
A common mild side effect of the vaccines is a sore shoulder and feeling out of sorts for a day or two. Many vaccines have this as a mild side effect.
A lot of people in the vaccine trial would have thought "oh, I got a sore shoulder and felt a bit sick for a couple days, I must have got the vaccine, I don't need any more precautions". To have roughly the same numbers of people in the control group and vaccine test group of the trial thinking that, the better designed studies gave the control group a different vaccine to provoke roughly the same number of side effects. So that both groups would have roughly the same post-vaccination behaviour.
Also, a lot of people have no reaction to the vaccine. Again, the trial designers would want roughly the same numbers of people in the vaccine group and the control group to have no reaction.
At the simplest level, just focus on the graph. The red line is the group that got the vaccine, the blue line is the group that didn’t get the vaccine. Starting from about day 14 when the vaccine really starts to work, up to about day 110 when enough data had been collected for analysis, about 0.12% of the people that received the vaccine got covid, while about 2.4% of the people in the control group that didn’t get the vaccine got covid.
0.12 divided by 2.4 = 0.05 (5%). That is, 5% of the people in the vaccine group were not completely protected by the vaccine, so 95% of the people in the vaccine group were completely protected by the vaccine.
For every 240 people in the control group that got covid, only 12 vaccinated people (5%) got covid, and about 228 people (95%) that probably would have got covid without the vaccine were protected by the vaccine and did not get covid.
Hence efficacy is 95%.
Cumulative incidence is just adding up all the people in that group that got sick from covid (IIRC the Pfizer trial did not check for asymptomatic infections). It's explained in the linked Technology Review article that the graph came from. Every blue square or red circle is one more volunteer in the trial getting covid.
McConnell's purge of elected Republicans following the insurrection should help form the breakaway party needed to really fissure the US hard right in time for mid-terms.
This is an interesting article on CC which is happening down the rd (80-90km & plus another hr or so in the Bismarck down the Mary River) from me. It’s quite amazing at the change that is happening since I’ve started to head down Mary River in the 10yrs that I have been in the NT and the other major River Systems on the massive Kakadu flood plain. I haven’t down the Mary in the last two very dry seasons to due my other commitments, but watching this last night. It would appear we are getting very close to that tipping point where change will happen very quickly as the flood plain isn’t that high above the high tide mark.
Where the salt is in, they might be better to sow mangroves – get the successor ecosystem running strong as fast as possible. Mangrove swamp is super productive. When the climate hands you lemons, best learn to like 'em – not much you do individually will change it back.
Down in the lower reaches of the Mary River and the other major rivers on the flood plain are seeing self seeding Mangroves as the salt water is slowly moving inland over the flood plain which is amazing to see, but also sad when you realise just fragile the our unique environment is in the Nth’ern Australia. As some species will survive and others will eventually die out as the sea levels rise, the wet season becomes less reliable and likely to be more intense. Plus coupled with longer dry seasons which would lead to more intense fire as what happened last yr when we 3 reportable crown fires within one towards the tail end of the dry seasons which is unheard of up in this neck of woods.
open tweet, click whatever to View Image (not just open image). Cut URL. In TS comment box, use Image tag. Paste URL into the field, and if necessary change 'large' to 'small. Post.
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Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
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Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
Grant Robertson warns us/reminds us that we have our own homegrown Q-nuts.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/123922492/we-can-be-a-nation-of-sweet-moderation–but-only-if-we-keep-working-at-it
That photo of Robertson pretending to bat made me laugh for some reason.
Because he is aiming to 'edge' it straight back down the wicket?
A useful read for anyone doubting his deep centrism.
I'm not sure Billy Bragg would endorse his economics.
'the incrementalists flag is kinda red..
and there is some tory-blue.. too.
'do very little..and do it two years from now..!'.
is the rallying cry…
and if any change is glacial..
incrementalism is the why?..
(repeat chorus..)
And right on cue:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/434423/man-arrested-after-attack-on-parliament
Got lost on the way to Washington DC?
Why is it our intelligence agencies cant tell us why when or who the NZX and Reserve Bank cyberattacks occurred but other 5Eyes partners can figure out theirs.
They need to join the dots between that 5Eyes support for Hong Kong protesters and against the Chinese government and the timing of the attacks on us.
Do we suffer from a shortage of uncontestable accusations, in this regard?
We certainly don't suffer from a shortage of attacks.
In leau of being told you can feel free to make your own judgements. You seem to have a strong idea about who the spooks will blame anyway.
On critical infrastructure failure we deserve more than a vacuum. 5 Eyes membership should give us that relevant analysis access. We have no reason to be the only silent agency in the group.
Ohh, you actually think the SIS doesn't have an idea of who is responsible?
They very probably do and any limitations are related to the traceability and security of the systems compromised, rather than the pervue of the SIS anyway.
Your faith is touching but on their record unwarranted.
Every other 5Eyes participant regularly roasts their attackers. If we know, so should we. If we dont, we should state our pursuit.
Faith? I would suggest we can hardly trust who the security services choose to blame. That should apply even if we consider them on-side because its often in the attackers best interests to create miss direction.
You do realise all those 'Russian' attackers discussed don't actually use usernames with 'bear' in them don't you?
I don't see the benefits of the SIS being politically active.
A trump is facing a second impeachment there is talk that at least 3 members of congress where helping the rioters. One is said to have been involved in planning, another was live tweeting info on other members of congress the rioters where after and where they are being taken for their safety. Some of those that broke in went right to unmarked offices of certain members of congress they where targeting knowing exactly where to go as they had information they should not have known about the exact locations of those offices.
Also 2 members of the Capitol police force are reported to have been suspended and 10 more are under investigation for their alleged roles in the riot.
It will be interesting to see what happens to those members of congress and the police offices in the coming weeks.
The Academy Awards should just livestream Inauguration Day as Rise Of The Tribe of Bane.
Smile for the profilers team.
Old Roman meme:
"It's always the Praetorian Guard!"
that would be from the final years of the empire..
they fair ripped thru the emporers then.
and all of them were installed and uninstalled/executed by the praetorian guard..
who essentially ran rome in those dying decades of empire..
it was a dangerous gig..for emperors..
Explaining how truthiness is a deliberate ingredient of fascism – incredibly clear 1 minute clip:
https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1348284210352676864
Key trialled the method here.
His operators borrowed it from the US, yes.
No they did not borrow it, they did trial it here. They belong to the same rightwing thinktanks and tested some of the ideas here to work out some of the bugs before taking what they learned back to the thinktanks to implement slightly more polished versions in the US and UK.
Rove used it with Dubya. Doubt that was the first time in human history either.
You talking about Crosby Textor?
https://i.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/feature-archive/510105/Nats-secret-advisers-accused-of-dirty-tricks-across-Tasman
I think the technique of repeating bullshit often enough, until even those who know better start repeating it, is older than ancient Rome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero
Buy the book.
https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/on-tyranny-9781847924889
For balance reading
Brandon Scott
Social (In)Justice: The Left's Destruction of Personal Responsibilit
Followed your link, couldn't find anything on balances; all whittling, basketweaving, and making lots of money on twitter.
This is how the manipulation works, which is almost undetectable because of its subtlety: start with innocent hobbies and activities that involve the hands and relax the brain and then the sub-liminal messages slowly, basket by basket, and carving by carving, chip away at your “Personal Responsibilit” until you’re a RWNJ. It is cunningly simple, really.
From Scott's book preview (warning: not to be read while weaving baskets, & etc).
… chipping away!
There is a link to Scott's book on top right which clicked on gives his personal preview of his book. He seems to argue that the SJW, social justice warriors, are too powerful in the fight against racism, sexism, homophobia. What is it about the Right with their attacks on people who espouse causes and advocate for the repressed minorities- SJWs and 'virtue signalling' being prime hates.
Personally, I think Mr Scott should stick to whittling.
It reminds me of the self description of the old-timey mountain man who said- "Sometimes I sets on the porch whittlin' and thinkin', and sometimes I jest sets there whittlin'……"
"Cos I'm not sure about the thinking.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/123918113/its-not-over-trumps-psyche-cant-accept-defeat
I much prefer this man's thinking. Joe Bennett in today's Press.
Looks very interesting – thanks for the link.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/covid-19-coronavirus-tracer-app-use-not-high-enough-if-there-were-to-be-an-outbreak/R5RXWTHNFB5FWYYZNYV5P3QAPU/
“New Zealanders' lacklustre Covid-19 tracer app use means contact tracers would not be able to do their job properly if an outbreak occurred today.
Ministry of Health data shows there were only 407,301 scans in the 24 hours from 1pm on Saturday, January 9 – the most recent day available.
University of Auckland research fellow with Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures Dr Andrew Chen says the numbers are not sufficient enough.”
Better people were no being asked to use their Covid-19 tracer app when there is no Covid in the community – because it feels pointless to be doing that – and the number of scans underlines that. Encourage people to have down loaded the app and be ready to use them immediately if an out-break occurs.
Janet
How then would you trace the initial spread of infection that is so important in limiting an outbreak? Though I guess you may have a point about highly motivated public health experts not getting the halfarsed complacency so prevalent in Aotearoa.
But just because something feels pointless doesn't mean that there isn't a point to it.
how did they contact trace before the app?
slower.
Both my company and my key clients are expecting lockdowns this year.
Our preparedness is routinely grilled on big bids.
So we should all prepare for lockdowns this year.
That's advice I will take.
anyone who has not got a plan for another shut down is not paying attention.
The nice thing is, if everyone acts like we'll go into lockdown in a few weeks, there's less likelihood we'll have to go into lockdown in the next few months.
But it's a function of probability: pick a period long enough and the odds of some problem leading to another outbreak are a practical certainty. Like the rest of life, all we can do is delay the inevitable.
what interests me is whether it's reasonable to expect most people to scan every time they go into a shop/business over the whole year. Being prepared is a whole range of things, and covid fatigue and scanning fatigue need to be taken into account in that.
I can't understand why people don't. It takes less than a second in most cases. Certainly after you have the app up and running. I've looked at my diary now and then and honestly am astonished at how many places I've been and there is no way I would be able to recall them all exactly and the time of day. I realise that not all people have the technology. But if you have then for goodness sake please use it.
Admittedly I am not wrangling kids or anything but I also do not understand what people are complaining about. Piss easy.
It's the app users that are complaining 😉
I don't have the app, but I know that I don't always have my phone on me, and often I am just thinking about other things. I understand intellectually the rationale for doing it, but it just seems so outside of what many people can manage. My sense at the moment is that there should be a push to get people in populated areas to be keeping records, not just the app option, as well as everyone getting ready for the next outbreak. Trying to get everyone to use the app 24/7/365 just seems futile.
Kind of like brushing our teeth – no immediate payback, yet many people remember to do it.
people's fear of the murder house is much more visceral than their fear of covid.
You could take a paper notebook everywhere with you I guess, Weka. I did that last year before I got a new phone able to host the app. It is a bit more fiddly and time consuming that way though. Also not so good in the rain (though less expensive to drop in a puddle).
I didn't bother writing down any place I had used eftpos after a while. Which was most places with a scan code really.
I rely on eftpos/credit card transactions. When we had community transmission I kind of ran a spreadsheet of contact points, but I'm not doing that now. But it's not about me. It's about creating a system that people will actually engage with and use. We don't have that yet, I think it needs adapting.
Adapting how?
not sure. The push seems to be about getting everyone using the app, preferably the blutooth option, but that's not working. Maybe we need to work with the reality of that rather than the ideal.
If people aren't going to use the system now, run campaigns to get people ready for the next community outbreak? Do we know how many people are thinking it will all be over soon, the vaccine etc vs those that understand the long haul?
I'm outside the mainstream enough that I don't know what the current campaigns are in detail, but mostly I see people on twitter telling off people (generally) for not using the app and I just don't see this as a winning strategy. (yes I am conflating govt campaigns with social media reckons, but I think there is a relationship).
I guess that takes us back to the issue of whether the govt can afford to be blunt about our situation (and I'm sure they have their own levels of cognitive dissonance and denial).
In regards your last paragraph, how about practice makes perfect.
I have made a conscious effort to scan since I have upgraded my phone about 4 months ago. I notice often, someone else doing so after me.
I think it is an example of leadership to do so.
I also thrive when lockdown happens. Full pay, a couple of hobbies, empty nest, elderly Mum nearby, great support.
There appears to be a fair old barney going on in the Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology about what vaccines to use.
The Society originally came out with a statement that AstraZeneca introduction should be paused because it does not appear to be effective enough to provide herd immunity. Then after comments by the Australian Virology Society that agreed with them there appears to have been a backdown. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines seem to be much more effective with 90+% effectiveness compared to the AstraZeneca 62%.
Does anyone know the effectiveness of the various vaccines New Zealand has ordered, apart from the 3 mentioned here?
https://www.theage.com.au/national/scientists-call-for-pause-on-astrazeneca-vaccine-rollout-20210112-p56tjt.html
NZ has ordered vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech, Janssen/Johnson&Johnson, AstraZeneca/Oxford, and Novavax. We have not ordered any from Moderna AFAIK.
Novavax and Janssen haven't yet completed any Phase 3 trials, so there's no data yet for efficacy.
We have previously discussed the inadvisability of comparing the headline efficacy numbers for the different vaccines, because of the different levels of checking and reporting of asymptomatic infections. https://thestandard.org.nz/without-the-handbrake-what-should-this-government-do/#comment-1773071
I note one vaccine in trials in Canada is described as a plant-based virus-like particle. I wonder if that's a play to win over the vegan anti-vax natural products crowd?
British American Tobacco also moving into the Covid vaccine gamehttps://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/dec/16/british-american-tobacco-approval-test-covid-vaccine-humans
Capitalism at its best in reallocating resources 😊
Thank you. I do remember what you said earlier but when the professional bodies start expressing doubts one does start to wonder.
I hope that this story about the senior executives of Novavax doesn't mean any more than did the sell down by the CEO of Xero did when the company simply continued on its upward path.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-novavax-executives/novavax-bosses-cash-out-for-46-million-with-covid-19-vaccine-trials-still-under-way-idUSKBN29G1A2
I wouldn't take it as a signal one way or the other.
Moderna is in the same general class of company as Novavax – a smallish development-focused outfit, rather than a big-pharma giant, and Moderna's CEO sold off a whole lot of stock in November ahead of the emergency use authorisation. So far there does seem to be any dodginess behind that.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/moderna-ceo-sold-million-stock-company-emergency-use-vaccine-filing-2020-11?r=US&IR=T
Just claim on Twitter that organic marijuana cigarettes cure Covid. Easy.
Where should they best be inserted?
wherever you prefer..
as an aside, can you or anyone please explain what 60% or 95% effective means with covid? (and how that is assessed/measured). I'm assuming they're not deliberately infecting people with covid to see what happens.
No they're not deliberately infecting anyone with covid.
What happens with a Phase 3 trial is the volunteers get split into two groups, one group getting the trial covid vaccine, and the control group getting something else (maybe just a saline solution, maybe some other vaccine, in some cases a meningococcal vaccine IIRC, don't want to say placebo because sometimes they got something active, just not something expected to be active against covid).
The volunteers don't know which they're getting, the people administering the injections don't know which they're giving, the people monitoring the volunteers post-vaccination don't know which was given, all that info is held by a different group.
Then the volunteers go about their daily lives. Some trials regularly tested volunteers for asymptomatic infections, some trials did not. After a predetermined number of the volunteers have suffered a covid infection, then the data is pulled to see how many of the infected got the trial vaccine and how many got the something else.
If the rate of infection among the volunteers that got the vaccine was only 5% of the rate among those that got the something else, then the vaccine is 95% effective. If the rate of infection among those that got the vaccine is 40% of those in the control group, then the vaccine is 60% effective.
What was also checked but not as widely reported is how many volunteers got severe cases of covid, often defined as needing hospitalisation. IIRC, the Moderna, Pfizer, and Oxfard/AstraZeneca vaccines all were 100% effective in preventing severe infection, but there were quite a few in the control groups that got severely ill. (note that 100% is among the 10,000 or so in the trial group, as the vaccine gets given to millions, that 100% will likely become 99.something%)
This graph shows really clearly the difference in outcomes for the Pfizer vaccine:
from: https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/12/10/1013914/pfizer-biontech-vaccine-chart-covid-19/
followed all of that, except for this bit,
I don't get why they're comparing vaccinated people who got covid with people who got a different illness.
"the something else" is the placebo/control, not a different illness.
yeah, that was confusing.
Its a comparison of Covid-19 contraction rates between a treated population and an untreated population. You are correct that any other treatment should have very minimal impact on Covid-19 for experimental validity. In general that would be known from knowing how the vacine works. There are also potential confounding factors which is why a 'fake' treatment is applied to one group. For example if one group knows they got the vacine they might choose to take more risks in public. The experiment relies on both treated and untreated groups responding similarly to treatment and the sample having enough participants that individual responses by some individuals to treatment don't much effect the experiment.
ok, so in Andre's explanation I can just ignore all the bits about other illnesses/vaccinations, and see it as the vax group and the control being non-vax?
Yes. For the other group is untreated (for Covid-19). No doubt the researchers are also considering the effects of the vacine on different strains. But they will work more broadly than one particular RNA sequence.
What do you mean with that?
The 'virus' mutates meaning its specific RNA sequence can change when it reproduces. But hopefully the vacine still works for new mutated virus strains.
This doesn't have to be true however. Flu vacines for example don't seem to handle a wide range of flu variants.
There was nothing intended to be about other illnesses in what I wrote. Sacha and Nic both picked up where I explained the control group got something else other than the vaccine that might have more side effects that a pure placebo, which is why I didn't want to use placebo for what was given to the group. But what was given to the control group was different for the different trials. Hence the reason for using the words "something else".
A common mild side effect of the vaccines is a sore shoulder and feeling out of sorts for a day or two. Many vaccines have this as a mild side effect.
A lot of people in the vaccine trial would have thought "oh, I got a sore shoulder and felt a bit sick for a couple days, I must have got the vaccine, I don't need any more precautions". To have roughly the same numbers of people in the control group and vaccine test group of the trial thinking that, the better designed studies gave the control group a different vaccine to provoke roughly the same number of side effects. So that both groups would have roughly the same post-vaccination behaviour.
Also, a lot of people have no reaction to the vaccine. Again, the trial designers would want roughly the same numbers of people in the vaccine group and the control group to have no reaction.
At the simplest level, just focus on the graph. The red line is the group that got the vaccine, the blue line is the group that didn’t get the vaccine. Starting from about day 14 when the vaccine really starts to work, up to about day 110 when enough data had been collected for analysis, about 0.12% of the people that received the vaccine got covid, while about 2.4% of the people in the control group that didn’t get the vaccine got covid.
I don't understand what cumulative incidence is, so the graph isn't much help I'm afraid.
Two groups (vaxed and control), once a certain number get covid, they count efficacy by what? This is the bit I don't get yet.
.12% of vax group got covid, 2.4% of control group got covid, what's the effectiveness %?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/13/learning/what-does-95-effective-mean-teaching-the-math-of-vaccine-efficacy.html
0.12 divided by 2.4 = 0.05 (5%). That is, 5% of the people in the vaccine group were not completely protected by the vaccine, so 95% of the people in the vaccine group were completely protected by the vaccine.
For every 240 people in the control group that got covid, only 12 vaccinated people (5%) got covid, and about 228 people (95%) that probably would have got covid without the vaccine were protected by the vaccine and did not get covid.
Hence efficacy is 95%.
Cumulative incidence is just adding up all the people in that group that got sick from covid (IIRC the Pfizer trial did not check for asymptomatic infections). It's explained in the linked Technology Review article that the graph came from. Every blue square or red circle is one more volunteer in the trial getting covid.
McConnell's purge of elected Republicans following the insurrection should help form the breakaway party needed to really fissure the US hard right in time for mid-terms.
What are you talking about? McConnell doesn't really have the power to do anything much to any other Republican.
You misunderstand his position, both formally and informally.
The initial splits are occurring today and tomorrow as impeachment and other censures are debated.
This is an interesting article on CC which is happening down the rd (80-90km & plus another hr or so in the Bismarck down the Mary River) from me. It’s quite amazing at the change that is happening since I’ve started to head down Mary River in the 10yrs that I have been in the NT and the other major River Systems on the massive Kakadu flood plain. I haven’t down the Mary in the last two very dry seasons to due my other commitments, but watching this last night. It would appear we are getting very close to that tipping point where change will happen very quickly as the flood plain isn’t that high above the high tide mark.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-13/rising-sea-levels-visible-in-kakadu-national-park/12292646
Where the salt is in, they might be better to sow mangroves – get the successor ecosystem running strong as fast as possible. Mangrove swamp is super productive. When the climate hands you lemons, best learn to like 'em – not much you do individually will change it back.
Down in the lower reaches of the Mary River and the other major rivers on the flood plain are seeing self seeding Mangroves as the salt water is slowly moving inland over the flood plain which is amazing to see, but also sad when you realise just fragile the our unique environment is in the Nth’ern Australia. As some species will survive and others will eventually die out as the sea levels rise, the wet season becomes less reliable and likely to be more intense. Plus coupled with longer dry seasons which would lead to more intense fire as what happened last yr when we 3 reportable crown fires within one towards the tail end of the dry seasons which is unheard of up in this neck of woods.
test image png
open tweet, click whatever to View Image (not just open image). Cut URL. In TS comment box, use Image tag. Paste URL into the field, and if necessary change 'large' to 'small. Post.
Ah, thanks. Did not notice that @lprent had implemented the full WordPress editor now.
still trying to figure it out, and why some images work differently than others. I will try and write it up somewhere that stays visible.
I edited your comment in the other thread to set the image to the right size and then deleted the rest of the tests to tidy up under Micky's post.