Interesting that a global slowdown is occurring right when the planet actually needs it to happen.
Of course, to economists this is BAD news. And rapid slowdown is actually very bad news, with banks likely to force all and sundry onto the street if they don’t get paid.
“Certainly there is a new message there that we are in a new ‘normal’ environment — getting used to lower rates of growth than we have been used to historically,” says Yetsenga.”
Watch this space. Blame for the effects of the global slowdown slowing down NZ will get thrown at the Coalition. Winston warned us of this pre-election.
Nothing wrong with slowing down. We could keep economic activity relatively busy on retrofitting to a more sustainable economy. No real pain required.
Except those poor rich folks, the free ride still being free and easy, but losing some impetus.
Brian Easton looks into the Health Care in NZ compared with the top 11 countries.
Health: “What has happened to healthcare is nicely illustrated by an international analysis of healthcare systems by the prestigious (American) Commonwealth Fund. It compares 11 countries (it always finds the US has the worst system). In 2017 it found New Zealand’s ranking was 8th (out of 11) on the equity dimension, ahead of France, Canada and the US. We were behind Britain, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Germany and Australia.”
And Education: “In contrast, the schooling system claims to be directly funded to offset inequity. However only 3 percent of the total resourcing (operational and staffing) provided to our schools is allocated on the basis of disadvantage. Comparable international jurisdictions allocate around 6 percent.”
Agrigeneration – putting solar generation onto the same land that’s used for agriculture can even increase the agricultural productivity of the land in hot dry regions. The shade can help reduce evaporation, and it seems if the plant growth is limited by other resources then getting too much sunlight reduces plant growth.
Putting wind turbines on farms happens pretty much all the time already. But I can’t see any major downsides to putting solar and wind generation and agriculture all on the same bit of land for even more productivity.
During the drought this summer it really troubled the girls and myself that many farms didn’t have shade for their stock. We would see animals sweltering in 30+ degree heat without a single tree casting shadow in the paddocks. It was upsetting to see.
Meanwhile at home the only green grass was under the trampoline.
Solar panels with cows would be a fantastic solution, providing shade and green grass for feed, power and food/dairy/meat. It’s like companion planting with different elements.
I’m trying to remember to transfer most of this #4 thread to How to get there tomorrow as it talks about the problem and ideas and anecdotes relating. Good thinking. I will miss stuff and if anyone else sees things that we should archive copying it over for the Sunday post would be good, checking that it isn’t already there. The Sunday post gets archived and Open Mike doesn’t. I hope that people will go fishing through past How to get theres when looking for ideas. It is something lasting that we have achieved from this dynamic blog.
Right lprent. I mis-spoke. What I am thinking is that the items that the How to get there post has will I hope be relevant for people looking for future-thinking ideas. Whereas in Open Mike they will be scattered and hard to find by keywords which would bring up individual items if the looker was lucky. Whereas accessing archived How to get theres will bring up a bumper bunch of informative ideas and topics in one place.
Gday wags, at what point can the word cruelty enter the conversation in regards to stock and shelter?
Not looking to wind you up, I am genuinely interested in yr response.
I feel at a basic level, it’s an animals ‘right’ to shelter. Even more so when commerce is involved.
As an abstract, planting of stock shelter belts could be a great way of helping meet the 1 billion trees target.
Subsidised by the state.
Imagine cockies potentially voting for Labour…..
Any cattle that have no shelter from the hot summer sun would be appriaching cruelty imo. They did a study in the hawkesbay a few years ago and the temps on a black beasts back approach 60degrees in the worst heat .
Spread trees would be my preference as shelter belts tend to bring mud . And mud means bugs especially in lactating animals .
Most councils help with pole planting costs but i believe scattered trees are not recognized for carbon capture i believe?
I don’t doubt most stock owners care for their animals but there seems to be a blind spot in regards shelter.
As mentioned up thread there is an increase in productivity with shelter, but… less pasture… mud around shelter belts… the neighbours don’t do it…
The mud effect from shelter belts would be less on dairy farms due to them really being in the same paddock twice in a row. There’s a plant called miscanthus? That is supposed to be very quick growng and the big rotorainers can brush over it .
Im pro famrimg but im no apologist for the madness that has gone on in Canterbury and down south .
I live rurally in the Manawatu, surrounded by dairy farms.
I am not anti farming.
I do not like a lot of common farming practices e.g.: the urea phosphate addiction, shelterless paddocks, stock in waterways, round-up between crop cycles.
To me it comes down to the $.
What are usually decent people, have a wilful blind spot when it comes to their ways.
As we all know it takes a lot of courage to step outside the flock and change a habit.
I would love to see the primary producers return to their rightful place of the food supply chain.
In my lifetime the tables have turned against them.
I’ve been off at school all day or I’d have chipped in earlier. Production losses come from heat stress – and wind chill. Shelter can make a big difference for temperature extremes at both ends of the scale. Scattered trees are difficult where stock may take them out, and fencing each tree could be considered a PITA. But I believe it’s worth it. Also, if your stock have access to mineral licks they’ll typically leave trees alone (cept the tasty leaves).
As weather patterns continue to deteriorate Farmers main defense against drought and subsequent bankruptcy is trees. Trees that double as fodder, and triple as nitrogen fixers.
We live in interesting times, where change, adapting and questioning what we have always done is imperative.
I have a mate who works for a company selling fertilizer.
They get soil samples from different parts of the property and mix a fertilizer containing the minerals that are deficient.
The idea is soil health is paramount. As opposed to going for the crack pipe habit of phosphate/urea.
Farmers are conservative (keen on status quo), but these other theories (organic/permaculture) are slowly becoming more popular.
Heaven forbid, they may become mainstream in our lifetime.
Of course with plant-based diets we wouldn’t have to shade animals Cinny because we wouldn’t be farming them. Animal agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gases and degrades our environment in other ways and needs to end.
Better for the animals and better for us, especially as it moving to plant-based diets increases the chances of humans actually surviving.
Not sure that is true Grey Area. Animals are an integral part of ecosystems and always have been. We could lower stocking rates, but eliminating stock is highly problematic. In NZ we had ridiculous numbers of birds that brought oceanic resources to land. On the land some moa species ‘took the place’ of cows grazing/browsing ground covers. These were then laid low, able to be composted through winters season adding nutrients for the next spring flush. Fungi too, have many species designed to work with both dung and plant matter.
Natures systems are not vegan, vegetarian, or even lactose intolerant.
The ability to find shade is absolutely necessary for the basic comforts of the animals as well. I’ve been increasingly dismayed by the removal of windbreaks in favour of vast irrigation networks. Could it be pasture growth is quantifiable, animal well-being is not?
About the killing of the ‘mocking bird Julian Assange;’
This is a history of sad repute by our leading ‘peace makers’.
It was shown that ‘the dirty tricks campaign’ had gone out to deliberately repeatedly “discredit” the whistle blowers again now beginning with Julian Assange.
Now on sex charges, so what else will they throw at him?
They will lock him up for life as Daniel Ellsberg On Assange Arrest: The Beginning of the End For Press Freedom video attest to; – a powerful video expression by Daniel.
Thank you for you and Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning for standing up for our freedom of expression.
The only cheering is TRP, Mcflock etc who think that abandonment of due process, extradition to the States and solitary confinement for life, for something that isn’t a crime, is appropriate.
The rest of us are capable of separating the public good, from wikileaks, from the fact that Sweden should have followed due process, and punished him only, for his actions that are a crime. If found guilty.
lol pretty much everything about your two main paragraphs was incorrect or probably incorrect.
Due process is being followed.
The sentence for the crimes which the yanks are trying to extradite him for isn’t life.
Hacking is a crime (albeit one he is probably innocent of).
The Swedes did and are following due process.
And I, for one, don’t think that the incorrect scenario you outlined would be appropriate.
Between you, who I thought was better than that, TRP, and a few other “black and white” non thinkers, who cannot comprehend that no one is all good, or all bad, are making this site a cesspit.
Making any reasoned discussion, uncomfortable.
Francesca, who you would justifiably expect to be tough on a rapist, has put forward reasoned points.
The replies have been an unthinking witch hunt.
I am disappointed at the low level of intelligent discussion displayed here.
If you actually really think that this has even the slightest thing to do with rape, then all I can say is that you must be a very naive person indeed.
I’m just glad that he looks like he might get to face the rape charges. Sad to see so many on here able to overlook that simply because of his political views.
This Video is about the recent history of Russia……
” Yeltsin went into the election campaign with a rating hovering between 3%-5%, reflecting what must be the single most disastrous presidency of the 20th century: Under Yeltsin, Russia’s economy collapsed some 60%, the male life expectancy plummeted from 68 years to 56, millions were reduced to living on subsistence farming for the first time since Stalin as wages went unpaid for years at a time. Russia was on its way to going extinct—but about 3-5% of the population (plus or minus 3%) was making out like bandits. Probably because they actually were bandits. “https://pando.com/2015/05/17/neocons-2-0-the-problem-with-peter-pomerantsev/
The music starts about 6 mins 48 secs
The Wolf and bears ….. 11 mins 55 secs
Iwould describe it as …. 2 minutes to midnight rock ……
You seem to making a habit of writing disparaging comments about other regular commenters here on TS as your single focus. Yesterday, you were targeting Wayne on OM @ 2 and now you are having a go at James. By doing so, you are setting a tone and creating an environment in which others find it o.k. to join your posse and chime in. I don’t think this is conducive to healthy debate or making others feel welcome, do you?
I have no posse Incognito ….. unless your talking a posse against me quite often.
Anyway ,,, surprise , surprise …. you missed the point of my post …. which I’ll repeat ….. as having a one eyed, opportunistic, inconsistent, rape apologist troll like james, ….. trying to scare people off and shut down the argument is worse than my being a bit rude to such types ….
james ….
….Who used sleazy rape culture posts to diminish the woman involved in the waikato cheifs sexual assault controversy.
….Who uses and advocates for the lawless rapey company ‘uber’.
….who advocated for public toilet sex … he did this when defending some other over-sexed rugby player.
….who thought it fair enough Oxfam should lose funding ……… for two sacked workers who allegedly used prostitutes
….He who who called right wing Brazilian leader and rape celebrator Jair Bolsonaro “charismatic”
James ….Who ran around with glee …. trying to smear Labour as ‘rape apologists’ …. over a drunk committing assults at a Labour youth event …
And has run around the Assange thread.. trying to label everyone ‘rape apologists’…
Same with Wayne Mapp … who should be shamed and reviled … until prompted into doing something good …. Like a apology and donation to his victims ….. the dead and maimed ones.
“We’ve heard the tragic tales of our murdered Christchurch Muslims bravely trying to protect their children / their wife / their husband — their mother / their father and their community ……
……The same brave sacrifices obviously took place multiple times …… in our SAS revenge raid on the Afghanistan village,,,,, under Wayne Mapp and John Key……
But we never heard of these brave people …… who we killed ,,,, and who were then dissapeared from existence.
Even though I feel they were more human than Wayne Mapp / Key are ….”
The problem is incognito ….. How do you propose to shame the blatantly reprehensible among us ….. without being blunt ??.
My politics is I want the truth …. and less wars.
Sorry if that offends you ——– I extend you my plausible sincerity
The problem is incognito ….. How do you propose to shame the blatantly reprehensible among us ….. without being blunt ??.
Is that what you’re trying to do here, shaming the blatantly (!) reprehensible? If I understand you correctly, your targets are reprehensible because, in your opinion, they have reprehensible opinions that you clearly object to. If so, you feel justified to play the man instead of the ball?
My politics is I want the truth …. and less wars.
Not sure what you mean by that. Is wanting “the truth” politics? And “less wars” [sic]? How do you envisage your shaming strategy here on TS leads to “the truth” and “less wars”? Do you expect “the blatantly reprehensible among us” to go through some cathartic shaming ritual and become more like you, for example?
Or do you simply want them to shut up and go away?
Or do you want to punish them?
I’m honestly at a loss as to what you’re thinking and what you’re trying to achieve here. In any case, I don’t think it is working, do you?
Also Incog …James has smeared multitude people here at TS …. in multi threads ….
I’m quite specific to where my criticism is directed … and I try to make an informative point while doing it.
And Here’s a thing we both missed about James …. to quote the troll … ” Sad to see so many on here able to overlook that simply because of his political views”
How is it political to want democratic OPEN govt Incognito ?? ….Or is it political in the sense of Authoritarian versus open democratic ???
You’ll find I argue like a sticky gummy-bear … I use snipey posts at me to expand my argument ….
Also Incog …James has smeared multitude people here at TS …. in multi threads ….
So, for you it is personal, some kind of vendetta?
And Here’s a thing we both missed about James …. to quote the troll … ” Sad to see so many on here able to overlook that simply because of his political views”
Uhhhmmm, what exactly did we miss there? What blatantly reprehensive act was hiding in plain view?
How is it political to want democratic OPEN govt Incognito ?? ….Or is it political in the sense of Authoritarian versus open democratic ???
Is this “the truth” that you were referring to or have you moved the goal posts? Anyway, how does your shaming of so-called trolls here on TS pave a path to “democratic OPEN govt”?
You’ll find I argue like a sticky gummy-bear … I use snipey posts at me to expand my argument ….
You sound a tad defensive and you are quite evasive. Do you object to being queried about your motivations and conduct here on TS?
If you cannot argue a point in your own words, a video won’t help much either. People who cannot stand on their own two feet often use them as crutches …
Sorry incognito ….. when I meant sticky gummy-bear,,, in this instance I meant using your post to expand the case and Argument ,,,, that Julian Assange is hunted and persecuted for reasons that have nothing to do …. nothing to do with the smears james has been running around this site with.
He has not answered whether he Would use the gutter label and call ‘Amy goodman , Naiomei Shaei, Ranata Viella , Gleen Greenwald, edward snowden,’ and all the other people featured in the democracy now news item … ” rape apologists” ???
And how come the Democracy Now news item had a totally different weighting of content and information …. compared to james posts … which are pretty much 100% rape apologist finger pointing or other shit smeary accusations on this topic….
How come Amy Goodmans reporting and Denocracy now …. carry such a different story ,,, than those being spread by many TS posters… and others joining in with the James campaigns ???.
Neither smeary James or others speak of the best step forward if it truly were about two women … like take their views into consideration at a formal tribunal or something ….
And we could recognize Julian Assange has children and they are victims too…. of what has been quite a long sentence so far …
You and many others here on TS seem to have major problems separating the issue from the commenter. In fact, I think it’s lazy and possibly even deliberate because it suits you. In any case, it does not make for good discussion or debate. That is my point, which you have not addressed in a satisfactory way.
New Zealand World
‘Islam is peace’: Pakistani city shows support for victims of the Christchurch mosque terror attacks
9:08 am today
More than 20,000 people in a Pakistani city have created a striking visual tribute to the victims of the Christchurch mosque massacre.
More than 20,000 people in Shorkot, Pakistan created a striking visual tribute to the victims of the Christchurch mosque massacre.
Dressed in white, they stood in formation in front of a shrine to create a huge living image of the Al Noor Mosque in Deans Avenue, 13,000 kilometres away.
They lined up behind a large banner saying ‘Solidarity with Martyrs of Christchurch, from Pakistan’, and hundreds more formed the message ‘Islam Is Peace’ in English.
Spokesperson Asif Tanveer Awan says the event in the city of Shorkot was organised by a think-tank, the Muslim Institute, in order to send a strong message to the world that Muslims want peace and cooperation.
Two women telling how they have survived seeing their countries change in front of their eyes and being dislocated. And they have learned to adapt but are aware of the goodness they have in life but also I think both do not believe in getting too attached to institutions, and the need to be thinking about things, wary of change.
Which I think is a mindset we have to adopt.
It seems to me that we have come to a stop in our minds at the end of last century, and are slow to see how we have to change for the 21st century. Also have we appreciated what was good and valuable, and how we were, in the 20th century and carried our bundles of goodness to preserve them and share, in this century.
That will elp us to keep being potentially wonderful humans living in harmony yet individuality with each other and the planet, and not allow ourselves to be turned into machine and efficiency pawns, human resources being pushed around by powerful, mindless and soulless others – people and corporate conglomerates.
Yesterday was the saddest day I have ever witnessed on The Standard, one after another people came on to say that they were actually glad Assange had been arrested, I of course have always known that The Standard harbors a lot of reactionaries, but I honestly didn’t realize that it harbored so many stupid, short sighted reactionaries who are so easily sucked in by establishment propaganda…I was shocked, am shocked at the depth of stupidity that has been so proudly displayed by so many here..history will of course, and rightly, judge them cruelly.
The Standard via Te Reo Putake yesterday finally converged seamlessly with Mike Hosking…if that doesn’t give you pause to think..
There is much disdain for Assange from people who wouldn’t be prepared to expose themselves for a mass moral purpose as he did. A lot of people are guided in their direction by their own individual concerns or that of the general group they form part of.
An outlier like Assange acting for the principle of transparency of dark doings against the mass of u. He has used means that have been made illegal by the very people carrying out or enabling the dark doings. It is a rare and significant protest on the behalf of those who care that such machinations should be exposed. Thanks for that Julian, it takes determination, vision and inner strength to do such things which few have.
I wholeheartedly agree Adrian.
The display of cognitive dissonance is disturbing.
We all know that the facts are:
Julian Assange was not charged with rape or any other crime by the Swedish authorities.
Julian Assange has published information that has never been refuted that has caused considerable embarrassment to many.
Those feasting on the downfall of Juilan Assange seem to have little introspection, display even less logic and no empathy
What many seem not to appreciate is that the false accusation of rape is an extremely evil crime.
I passed comment yesty along those lines, but more from a fascination angle.
I am sure those who disappointed you, would see themselves as progressive.
My hunch is the sexual allegations is what tarnished most of their opinions.
Akin to trying to separate the art from the artist, eg Picasso, in time Assange will be seen separate to the deeds/allegations.
I find it frustrating that the ‘left’ saves the worst for its closest allies.
There was an enquiry some years ago about a plane taking off in conditions that were marginal and late in the day because there had been bad weather for some time.
I wonder how often that will happen in this area enclosed by high mountains as seen in the media image. The more planes, the more risk and the more unhappy stranded tourists who expect their bucks to buy them entry, quality experience, and exit as and when required.
Queenstown airport has been effectively running at over 100% for a couple of years and it’s only a matter of time before something breaks. Yesterday’s oops has been on the cards for a while with minimal atc staff cover combined with a town where people get sick a lot for the first 10 years they live here because there’s a new bug on every bus and plane. This affects every employer to varying degrees, but staff critical positions like atc, teaching and police are hard hit.
We are also getting very close to airspace limits with little space if aircraft have to go around, which happens a lot due to a very difficult airport. On Wednesday afternoon most flights (8 I think, can’t get back that far in flightradar) were diverted because of cloud to ground level with the front, which would have cost the airlines a packet. On a day with tricky cross winds there will be jets on hold all over the southern South Island waiting to get an approach slot.
Queenstown airport has also become the de-facto regional airport for the southern South Island. Passengers come from Southland, most of Otago outside Dunedin and South Westland to travel to Auckland, Wellington and Australia. There’s 26 jet aircraft going through ZQN today and 3 ATRs, that’s a typical day.
There’s a fairly solid consensus around the district that the airport’s at it’s limits and needs to move as the current location is beyond it’s capacity, but beyond that it gets tricky. Where does it go to do a better job? A new regional airport will need to be easily connected to it’s main markets, Queenstown and Wanaka, and not have noise or airspace issues.
Three options have been bandied around. First is a dual airport idea with expansion of the existing Wanaka airport which hasn’t gone down well with the good burghers of Wanaka, to say the least. Then there’s two options a new regional airport, Five Rivers, near Lumsden, and Tarras near Wanaka. Tarras is easier to connect with but has noise and airspace constraints, Five Rivers is an excellent site but expensive to connect to existing tourist infrastructure as it’s 100 km south Queenstown. Both would probably need a quick rail connection to avoid bus mayhem, and then you’d have high speed rail to Christchurch sneaking into the mix as well.
So a huge can of worms, vested interests with several airport companies and big operators trying to protect their turf, and locals who’ve had enough of the noise and congestion, but want their city connectivity, and local councils who want it in their patch.
This one’s going to need very strong leadership from Government, and very soon.
Yep, although in this case the airport is 75.1% local council (QLDC) and 24.9% AIA so local interests still have control. Where it gets bogged down is all the other “interested” parties trying to steer the ship in their direction.
A lot of the growth we’ve seen has been due to the demise of Christchurch as a visitor destination post earthquakes, that market space has been displaced to Wellington and Queenstown. There’s over twice the capacity ZQN – WLG than ZQN – CHC now and that won’t change back.
Bt any solution is going to need to be led by central government, not possible at a local level.
ANZ are starting direct flights NV – AA in August I think, which will very slightly reduce the load on Queenstown. Southlanders won’t need drive there to get to Auckland or further afield.
There will never be another airfield built. The aircraft numbers would have to be high to justify a completely new development. And Lumsden has too many fog days in winter anyway.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the NV-AA thing goes, hope it works for Invercargill’s sake, but don’t think it’ll make much difference to Queenstown. Just hope it doesn’t bugger the frequency of flights to Christchurch.
The weather issues are equal for all the options, and the airlines want the airport to be able to take wide body aircraft and be at least CAT II, preferably CAT III, so instrument landing. This wouldn’t be a problem at Five Rivers.
Biggest problem with Five Rivers is the 100 km to Queenstown. And that it may threaten the viability of Christchurch.
There will have to be another airport built, Queenstown is getting too difficult to sustain and sooner or later it’s going to break. Whatever the solution it’s going to be hard and expensive. Doing nothing and sticking with the existing airport is in category too.
Ok there will be a critical number of arrivals/departures that determines the financial viability of any new airport. Government funding would be required for such a large investment and I just can’t see it happening. I can’t see Queenstown interests funding it either. But I’m often wrong about things.
If the NV-AA Airbus link succeeds there will probably be one less ATR going out from NV first thing in the mornings.
Why build in Lumsden when NV is already large enough for big jets, slightly less than an hour further away less affected by fog/low cloud. Much less investment to bring up to standard, I’ll get Tim onto right away….
Newshub’s politica editor Tova O’Brien reports: The war between Simon Bridges and Jami-Lee Ross has gone up a notch. Credits: Newshub.
The war between Simon Bridges and Jami-Lee Ross has gone up a notch with yet more explosive allegations from the former National MP.
Ross has implied Bridges was told by intelligence agencies that a National MP was a Chinese spy.
Our top spies were asked about it at Parliament in their first outing since the Christchurch terror attack.
GCSB boss Andrew Hampton warns against local election online voting
Jami-Lee Ross brings more allegations against National’s Simon Bridges
GCSB, NZSIS concerned about foreign interference in New Zealand election
The leaders of New Zealand’s spy agencies are normally secretive when out in the great wide open.
“We’re really happy to talk to you after the hearing,” Rebecca Kitteridge, director-general of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS), told Newshub outside Parliament on Thursday morning when she arrived.
Both Kitteridge’s agency and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) – of which Andrew Hampton is director-general – are being investigated as part of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the March 15 attack.
When asked why the alleged gunman wasn’t on NZSIS’s radar, Kitteridge told Newshub: “Well, I guess that’s what the [Royal Commission of Inquiry] will look into.”
The head of the GCSB said the agency needs a red flag before it can act, and there wasn’t one.
“Lots of people travel to Pakistan, lots of people have gun licences, unfortunately lots of people post not very nice stuff on dodgy websites,” he said.
The spy bosses at Parliament were there to warn MPs about foreign government interference in New Zealand politics. They said they’re not just using cash, but putting pressure on expat communities and even MPs.
When asked if she’s concerned a state might have tried to exert influence over New Zealand MPs, Kitteridge responded: “Yes.”
Tough article with some very hard lessons. It is hard work emotionally killing. I’ve worked on a farm and seen the calves die and/or be killed. I’ve seen the cows go down and the gun come out. We’ve got to reduce the pressure on people and reducing herd size and areas herds can be would really help. But of course this is about m.bovis and the havoc it has wrought.
Henk Smit could handle the bullet in the mail and the death threats.
It was when the dairy farmer had to shoot his newborn calves that the impact of Mycoplasma bovis finally hit him…
… “I think was a really bad call,” he says at his quiet Maungatautari property. “On the other farm, we had a contract milker and that sent him over the edge, killing the calves, and he tried to commit suicide in spring…
…Calving was always the highlight on the farming calender for Smit because he saw the next generation of his herd being born.
“Now I had to shoot them on a daily basis for weeks on end and I think the impact of that has definitely been underestimated, not only for me, but plenty of other farmers too.”
He staggered the culling to reduce the financial and emotional impact. He said the the final portion of his herd left the farm just three weeks ago.
How sad – poor young man committed suicide. I suppose he couldn’t get out of his contract which he entered innocently never thinking of such a situation. And as Smit noted it was awful work when he had to do it himself. If farmers actually worked at their own businesses, and were not encouraged by easy credit to buy numerous farms (think Crafar*) there would be less of this sort of result. The bad spongy brain spread of disease in Britain was exacerbated by industrial farming methods.
* In 2009 they owned 22 farms, 18 of which are dairy, and 20,000 cows,[3] making them New Zealand’s largest family owned dairy business.[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CraFarms
These are the consequences when you try to engineer your way to maximum profit and growth with scant regard for good practice.
It is to be hoped that this will be a lesson to others in this industry and other industries. They need to ask themselves whether profit and growth at any cost is worth the inherent risk.
First point, this salt reactor actually is capable of using the waste (spent fuel) from other nukes as fuel, thereby helping to deal with the problem of waste built up from existing reactors.
Second, it’s in the right power range for large ships. It’s also a pretty useful size for remote installations that are unsuitable for solar.
But yeah, for mainstream grid supply, wind and solar have got so cheap it’s hard to see any new nukes making the grade.
“First point, this salt reactor actually is capable of using the waste (spent fuel) from other nukes as fuel, thereby helping to deal with the problem of waste built up from existing reactors.”
It’s an example of the broader class of “fast neutron reactors”. Most of which can be configured to use as fuel the waste from most of today’s reactors.
While the ability to burn other reactor’s waste is attractive, there’s also downsides. The biggest being that burning the uranium238 (that’s a large part of the waste from more common reactors) requires turning most of it into plutonium239 along the way. There’s obvious concerns about military proliferation there.
Personally I’m more interested in thorium based reactors. Because the intermediate steps of the thorium reaction chain are much harder to turn into weapons (though not impossible). But probably just as attractive to terrorists wanting to build dirty bombs.
Agreed, although the thorium story and MSR’s while technically separate, are in reality very closely aligned. It’s pretty much the same people interested in both at this time.
It’s a good question; I’m a big fan of CSP power, it looks very cool and comes with built-in energy storage. Of all the renewable technologies it’s the one which I suspect has the brightest future.
But it’s important not to underestimate the scale of the challenge and the enormous amount of land and resources that will be consumed to make a serious contribution to the total global need.
These MSR reactors are nothing like your grandfather’s Pressurised Water Reactors. Some typical features:
1. All the safety engineering is ‘walk away’ passive. If something goes wrong the correct thing to do is nothing. The machine will stop and cool itself with no external power or intervention.
2. All the dangerous nucleides, cesium, strontium and iodine are stable compounds within the salt. Even if the plant was bombed, all that would happen is the released molten salt would solidify quickly, the nuclear reaction would stop and no gases would be released.
3. The internal operating pressures are very low, barely 2 -4 atmospheres. The engineering is far easier.
4. They are incredibly flexible with what fuel they use; and will cheerfully burn the waste from existing reactors. All current MSR designs are intended to have zero waste stream. Uranium, thorium, plutonium … gobble, munch, munch.
5. The manufacturing model will be similar to ship building or aircraft manufacture; everything is built and shipped from a single global site, and the sealed reactor units are shipped to wherever needed. Site assembly and certification is hugely reduced and they require almost no maintenance. No back up power, no emergency systems, no super complex control systems, no containment vessel, etc.
6. The cores are intended to have an operating life of about 5 – 10 years, after which the operator swaps to a new unit, shuts down the old one and lets it cool for 3 -5 years. Then ships the spent and empty unit back to the manufacturing site for refurbishment.
These things are just way easier to do, once you have the salt chemistry and fuel cycle sorted. The safety case is hugely less onerous and operating them is relatively simple. Homer Simpson might have trouble fecking with one.
The expectation is the costs will be about half that of new coal plant. These can be rolled out fast and located without huge infrastructure demands. All up I see these as being a faster and more certain route to de-carbonising than renewables on their own.
This could be the missing link in energy budgets to transform to a more resilient economy. We’ve not got the oil resources to do it without mucking up the planet.
Just yesterday I was daydreaming in class about how we might set up a block of renewable energy (using oil energy) and start from there to use less oil and more renewables as we ‘expand out’ to encompass more of industry/market/the globe.
Energy stuff is not my forte, but I do think we might progressively retrofit without too much pain if we work in a methodical manner always reducing consumable energy as we increase sustainable energy.
The issue is that large infrastructure projects require tremendous energy inputs. I’m trying to get my head around how we transition the transition period – if that makes any sense…
I also think they can test these reactors NIMBY. Heard too many false claims from companies posing as saviors. Swap some out for older more dangerous reactors maybe, as in those situations it might be seen as progress.
I’d vehemently oppose anyone testing any form of nuclear reactor here.
I would cheerfully have one in my backyard, indeed I’d love to have a crack at working in one. While the nuclear aspect would be pretty tame, there is real potential for innovative thermochemical downstream processing, the efficient production of bulk hydrogen for instance, that would be really interesting.
MSR’s are nothing like the massive nuclear plants we’re all accustomed to; they’re a fraction of the size. They have more in common with building a large ship than a massive plant.
ORNL successfully ran the first one in the 60’s for five years with no incidents of any kind.
It’s not a case of one company promising miracles. At present there are 6 -10 different private companies working towards a licensed design, and the Chinese have an impressive $500m program; leading the way on work being done in 10 different countries. MSR’s are not completely without technical challenges, but most of them appear to be a matter of funding and time, rather than needing to invent wheels. The biggest hurdles are going to be regulatory, and overcoming negative public sentiment toward anything nuclear.
It’s strongly arguable that if the Nixon administration had not shut the original ORNL program down in 1973 for purely political reasons, MSR’s would have likely become the dominant energy source by now … and global warming would never have become an issue.
Looking ahead to when transport is fully electrified, it’s not hard to imagine service stations wanting to have on-site generation in the range of tens of MW. That’s in the same range as what large ships need. It’s not hard to see substantial demand for mass-produced small reactors.
NZ probably won’t ever get there, but much of the rest of the world might. Personally I’d have no concerns about those being nukes, particularly if they were thorium. For military proliferation and terrorism reasons, not any kind of Chernobyl style fears.
Checkout the specs! They aren’t quite the holy grail as their energy density is about 2/3 standard Lithium chemistries, but for applications where weight doesn’t matter too much, like buses, boats, solar storage, etc they’re definitely the next leap forward. Full recharge is possible in 10 minutes!
Down the road a year or two we should see the next gen of solid state Lithiums. If they live up to the promise, then fully electric personal transport will happen very quickly. A huge amount of R&D is going on, but Tesla’s buyout of these guys recently shows concrete progress:
Professional. I’m using them to eliminate the travelling harness on a high speed shuttle. It recharges when parked for piece change-out, and allows easy 2D freedom of movement with no trailing power cables for the automation. All control data is via RF.
The 20,000+ cycle life is pretty attractive too. Cells like this were either not cost effective or unavailable 12 months ago.
even the tripe media ( 2nd behind finance as the biggest benefit industry on NZ economy) shouldn’t be reporting or broadcasting the contents of threats made to public figures
Peter Dutton has apologised for appalling comments he made about his Labor opponent (who happens to be an amputee) in his seat of Dickson. But not before 2 Labor heavyweights, Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek and Senator Kristina Keneally went to town on him and PM Morrison over the issue.
Keneally did not mince words – cut him right down. Called him a thug, and the ‘worst’ of the liberals. Which must have been a difficult decision to make because it’s a crowded field.
Plibersek was pretty much on message too, accusing Dutton of trying to ditch Dickson for a more glamorous seat closer to his mansion in the Gold Coast.
As late as Friday evening Dutton was doubling down on the accusations, by Saturday arvo he’d apologised. The optics were terrible and the overnight polling must have been diabolical for the Liberals.
This is bad and sad. My relatives have been teachers, and I have heard that principals can be more concerned about smooth running and meeting Board
requirements than actually fulfilling the requirements of looking after the pastoral care of students as well as the important keeping up on the league table of passes and success as expected.
Has anyone encountered a successful all-school effort to reduce bullying by discussing it and its detrimental effects on the pupil, the bully, and the school as model of a social group within the larger group of society? I wondered about an all-school meeting to discuss the problems and how they affect individuals and show lack of social abilities which are needed in a healthy society. Of course studies in philosophy, different cultures and how they handle the common human
condition should be mandatory but our society has never had deep enough thought to ask for this.
Kia ora R&R.
THE plastic waste should be legerslated so that the manufacturer and retailers pay a percentage to give the waste a valuation to make it profitable to recycle it.
I agree all the chemicals that leach out of our WASTE can and is causing bad side effects on our wildlife and US.
The plastic waste /WASTE problems is not to big to cured its a problem that has to be cured we just need smart simple laws a process to FIX this Problem. Ka kite ano
Eco Maori exzact thoughts the powerfull people don’t want the truth to get out THE TRUTH IS POWER trump is using all the dirty tricks in his puppets book to control OUR media he has use the power of the USA goverments power to suppress the biggest problem human kind is about to face CLIMATE CHANGE . With the sexual assult charges does one think that Julian would have made such a STUPID move knowing the USA goverment was after his ASS KNOW that acusation is the easyest set up they could come up with pay a girl $10 of thousands to stand up in court and lie I have seen the sandflys trying this move on ECO MAORI WTF.
The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is so disliked in journalism and political circles that many reporters and liberal politicians were publicly cheering on Thursday when the Trump administration released an indictment of Assange, which was related to his interactions with the whistleblower Chelsea Manning in the months leading up to the publication of Pentagon and state department cables in 2010.
The Assange prosecution threatens modern journalism
Please do not fall for this trap. It is exactly what the Trump administration is hoping for, as the Department of Justice (DoJ) moves forward with its next dangerous step in its war on journalism and press freedom.
The larger context surrounding this case is almost as important as the Assange indictment itself. Donald Trump has been furious with leakers and the news organizations that publish them ever since he took office. He complains about it constantly in his Twitter tirades. He has repeatedly directed the justice department to stop leaks, and he even asked former FBI director James Comey if he can put journalists in jail.
The justice department has responded by launching a record number of leak cases and have weighed changing the rules to make it easier to subpoena journalists
Ka kite ano links below P.S Julian let the Papatuanuku know that goverments are CHEATS.
I know Julian Assange is a wonderful friend of the Trolls on here. Through him they have discovered some nasty bits of what happens in War. As if that was ever an unknown.
They seem entirely unaware that Assange released what he called “timely information” (true or false) to obliterate Hilary Clinton’s chances of Presidency.
He is after all Mr Big. He did not try and destroy the Wealthy, of course. Just the needy. And of course Obama Care is a hanging offence in the Wealthy Troll households.
The most savage Wikileak thing to Date, is the release of Millions of pieces of personal Information belonging to Turkish Women. Home Address, Banking, Phone, and so on.
Neither ugly Wikileaks or Assange, has apologised to all those Women. Many of whom are now victims of Turkey Red Necks, former mongrel husbands, and Murder.
Like New Zealand, Turkey males do not value the women who bring them into the World.
The Internet, thanks to mongrels like Assange, is not worth a dime. It’s a dump, fit for dumpsters.
Eco Maori Agrees strongly with these comments we are PART OF THE ENVIROMENT we need to care for OUR enviroment like its our grandparents as Papatuanuku actually is OUR GRANDPARENT FOOLs
We need to coexist with the ecosystem because we’re part of it, and so are birds
Susan Elbin
Though the studies bear sad news about the effects cities have on birds, conservationists see them as opportunities to target their activism.
“Every time new scientific literature comes out, we learn more about the problem, and … we can pinpoint the best solutions using the science,” said Kaitlyn Parkins, a conservation biologist at NYC Audubon.
Turning out the lights in buildings at night for a few weeks during peak migration is a simple first step and would make a big difference, Parkins said. The National Audubon Society runs Lights Out, a coordinated effort with local chapters to advocate reducing light during migration. States such as New York and Minnesota have participated in the program, turning out lights in state-operated buildings during migration.
Conservationists also advocate that buildings adopt more “bird-friendly” designs, for example using patterned glass and dimmer lighting. San Francisco and Toronto have already adopted some bird-friendly guidelines, while city council members in New York and Chicago have introduced legislation to adopt similar measures. A bipartisan bill in Congress introduced in January, called the “Bird-Safe Building Act”, would require new federal buildings to adopt designs that keep migrating birds in mind.
“We need to coexist with the ecosystem because we’re part of it, and so are birds,” Elbin said. “What’s good for birds is good for people.”
This article was amended on 8 April 2019 to clarify the relative dangers different types of buildings pose for birds. Ka kite ano links below
Kia kaha you go and fight for your futures climate the neanderthals are to dumb to get the big picture
“The power that we have in numbers and the power that we have in coming together and taking action as a collective was something people were really keen to get back into.”
The plan was for other groups around the country to hold their own meetings in the coming weeks and months. Sophie said inclusivity was central to the movement, and they wanted everyone who had been involved in the strike so far to have their say in the next steps.
In Auckland, 17-year-old strike organiser Luke Wijohn said while things slowed down slightly, lots of new people have joined the movement in the weeks since March 15.
Sophie said the students wanted to make it clear the strike wasn’t a one-off and they were committed to holding the government to account.
The group was developing a national strategy and planned to create a youth climate action network. Campaigning to make climate change education a compulsory part of the curriculum was one of the aims on the cards.
Another global school climate strike was planned for September 27. Ka kite ano links below
Kia ora Newshub.
Condolences to Evet whanau.
Its cool that Our government is going to sort out the problems with the construction sector it needs sorting out as it been left in a Mess.
I see some puppet trying ride on ECO MAORI Coat Tails once again I stand by my Tau toko of Julian.
I Back Nagti Kuri call for a Tangaroa sanatorium we have to save Tangaroa for our MOKOPUNA.
Its a good idea that more people at school learn CPR for heart attack victims revival.
You no how it is they will never apologise for the atrocities that were carried out in India or to other indigenous cultures that’s the European way.
Its a good idea going around and getting knowledge from the kaumatua before they pass but studying war is a waste of time in my view someone has to record the indigenous cultures knowledge before our tangata whenua O Atoearoa kaumatua pass. Ka kite ano P.S Some are trying every dirty trick in their book to try stop the Eco Maori effect. YEA RIGHT
Kia ora The AM Show.
Ryan a capital gains tax is needed to stop all NZ capital flowing out to nation with no tax keep the capital in NZ for the Mokopuna allso it takes the burden off the paye tax payer’s.No simon the tax needs to be aimed at the people who pay next to KNOW TAX
The Australian Unicon sheep looks hard case mite be a new breed that will get the deniers to see reality with a little prodding.
I still see a lot of EGGS around if eggs get to expensive people will be able to grow their own with very little money and work.
Mark ther you go making statements that have to be retracted
That billion dollar hole was joice pridicting the extra cost that the government service industry has to spend to clean up the MESS HE MADE.
Bush you are frowning have you heard OF the TRUTH that I have been say about your organisation its the TRUTH.
A good free range egg is bright orange very good.
I think the way the government has aproched the construction industry is WIZE asking what needs to be done to fix some of the problems in the industry I can remember 28 years ago I got a house built the section price would have just payed for the prosess of council permits now days GO FIGURE why we have a housing shortage now.
My literacy is OK for someone’s who actually only learnt at school to the age of 9 after that Eco Maori is self taught my spelling is bad but I READ very well.
Now is the time to put heaps of effort into conserving OUR indanger WILD life like the Maui Dolphin Ka pai.
Ka kite ano P.S congratulations on the new jacket someone has given me a birthday present all ready Mike the leftys need to harden up and let everyone know as the ightys cheat when ever they can and the left let them hide their cheating ways if someone goes public they get what they deserve
The 21st century comunacation device was is a device that gets the TRUTH out to the masses of tangata. Social Media is the best way to inform the people that the RULEING CLASS are RIPPING the common tangata of they use there MONEY to try and hide the facts change the facts.
One exzample is salt and sugar one we need in OUR diet the other we don’t one can be obtained from tangaroa the other is controled by big busness.
Salt has heaps of infomation published about the negitive effects I say most of that is crap.
Sugar causes DIABETES obesity rotts teeth stuff you liver and many other bad side effects from sugar and up till a few months ago every story on sugar had the words would or could cause these bad side effects when the links between sugar and the bad health affects are clear to see you see this is just a small part of the story of the eelite CHEATING the 99.99 % out of the truth here are just a few on the topics that they are cheating tangata ABOUT.
Sugar
salt
we don’t know why the native poupulation’s are doing so bad /no discrimanation here don’t LOOK and you won’t see it.
Carbon is not causing climate change
nitrogin is not causeing our water ways/ AWA to die.
The trickle down effect when its clear the captialst system is being massaged to make the money flow to the TOP and stop any trickleing down to the poor people/COUNTRYS.
the justice systems being fair
The ruling class are hounest YEA RIGHT when do they admite lierability not even if there hand’s are caught in the cookie jar they will lies and say they were just cleaning the jar and take the lie to the highest COURT in the land to obmit liability the poor person could not even get it to a COURT but ha the justice system is fair YEA RIGHT .
This is why I back social media 100 % AS now we get to sift throught the information and find the FACT.s with social media Ka kite ano Links below P.S the ruling class laught to themselves that the common person is hounest.
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
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 Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
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. ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
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 ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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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 ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
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Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
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Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
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He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
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Interesting that a global slowdown is occurring right when the planet actually needs it to happen.
Of course, to economists this is BAD news. And rapid slowdown is actually very bad news, with banks likely to force all and sundry onto the street if they don’t get paid.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12221891
But right now it’s gradual.
“Certainly there is a new message there that we are in a new ‘normal’ environment — getting used to lower rates of growth than we have been used to historically,” says Yetsenga.”
Watch this space. Blame for the effects of the global slowdown slowing down NZ will get thrown at the Coalition. Winston warned us of this pre-election.
Nothing wrong with slowing down. We could keep economic activity relatively busy on retrofitting to a more sustainable economy. No real pain required.
Except those poor rich folks, the free ride still being free and easy, but losing some impetus.
Full agreement with you wethebleople.
Begs the question; “How much is enough”?
You are so right cleangreen. Some people have never sorted a need from a want, so they want everything.
I’m not sure if we have this in NZ yet, but with homelessness and foodbank patronage still pretty high it would not go amiss.
https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/korean/en/audiotrack/korean-migrant-volunteers-feeding-25000-homeless-people-year?fbclid=IwAR3iOTzWPTK2-Y1b5jm2L78TkHyoC9JZ4L6DaAGdTo6FN_cA25bqF6iqAZk
Equity in an “Egalitarian” society?
Brian Easton looks into the Health Care in NZ compared with the top 11 countries.
Health: “What has happened to healthcare is nicely illustrated by an international analysis of healthcare systems by the prestigious (American) Commonwealth Fund. It compares 11 countries (it always finds the US has the worst system). In 2017 it found New Zealand’s ranking was 8th (out of 11) on the equity dimension, ahead of France, Canada and the US. We were behind Britain, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Germany and Australia.”
And Education: “In contrast, the schooling system claims to be directly funded to offset inequity. However only 3 percent of the total resourcing (operational and staffing) provided to our schools is allocated on the basis of disadvantage. Comparable international jurisdictions allocate around 6 percent.”
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/have-we-abandoned-the-egalitarian-society
Take a bow team national, health and education plundered for ideological and political means.
Zero concern for the impacts on NZ as a whole as long as their backers are happy with team national.
Lest NZ forget at the next few general elections and local council ones which are full of national aligned stooges.
That’s team neoliberal, spanning both major parties since 1984.
1000% Sacha.
@Sacha +1, you can dress Labour up all you want with Ardern, but that dosn’t alter the fact that they are neoliberal.
Agrigeneration – putting solar generation onto the same land that’s used for agriculture can even increase the agricultural productivity of the land in hot dry regions. The shade can help reduce evaporation, and it seems if the plant growth is limited by other resources then getting too much sunlight reduces plant growth.
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/04/12/fraunhofer-reports-combining-farming-with-solar-186-more-efficient-in-summer-of-2018/
Putting wind turbines on farms happens pretty much all the time already. But I can’t see any major downsides to putting solar and wind generation and agriculture all on the same bit of land for even more productivity.
Andre, that’s really cool, what a great idea.
During the drought this summer it really troubled the girls and myself that many farms didn’t have shade for their stock. We would see animals sweltering in 30+ degree heat without a single tree casting shadow in the paddocks. It was upsetting to see.
Meanwhile at home the only green grass was under the trampoline.
Solar panels with cows would be a fantastic solution, providing shade and green grass for feed, power and food/dairy/meat. It’s like companion planting with different elements.
Thanks for sharing Andre.
Andre and Cinny,
I opened up our ‘stock pen’ as it had a roof over the top with open sides and our sheep always camped there i n the hottest days.
I had to keep the water troughs filled every two days as well.
For every other year since 2005 I never had to do this, so climate change is now with us for sure.
I’m trying to remember to transfer most of this #4 thread to How to get there tomorrow as it talks about the problem and ideas and anecdotes relating. Good thinking. I will miss stuff and if anyone else sees things that we should archive copying it over for the Sunday post would be good, checking that it isn’t already there. The Sunday post gets archived and Open Mike doesn’t. I hope that people will go fishing through past How to get theres when looking for ideas. It is something lasting that we have achieved from this dynamic blog.
?? They all get archived.
Right lprent. I mis-spoke. What I am thinking is that the items that the How to get there post has will I hope be relevant for people looking for future-thinking ideas. Whereas in Open Mike they will be scattered and hard to find by keywords which would bring up individual items if the looker was lucky. Whereas accessing archived How to get theres will bring up a bumper bunch of informative ideas and topics in one place.
Shade for cattle is a no brainer . Its been proven they produce more plus its a good thing to do .
Gday wags, at what point can the word cruelty enter the conversation in regards to stock and shelter?
Not looking to wind you up, I am genuinely interested in yr response.
I feel at a basic level, it’s an animals ‘right’ to shelter. Even more so when commerce is involved.
As an abstract, planting of stock shelter belts could be a great way of helping meet the 1 billion trees target.
Subsidised by the state.
Imagine cockies potentially voting for Labour…..
Any cattle that have no shelter from the hot summer sun would be appriaching cruelty imo. They did a study in the hawkesbay a few years ago and the temps on a black beasts back approach 60degrees in the worst heat .
Spread trees would be my preference as shelter belts tend to bring mud . And mud means bugs especially in lactating animals .
Most councils help with pole planting costs but i believe scattered trees are not recognized for carbon capture i believe?
Thanks mate I appreciate that.
I don’t doubt most stock owners care for their animals but there seems to be a blind spot in regards shelter.
As mentioned up thread there is an increase in productivity with shelter, but… less pasture… mud around shelter belts… the neighbours don’t do it…
The mud effect from shelter belts would be less on dairy farms due to them really being in the same paddock twice in a row. There’s a plant called miscanthus? That is supposed to be very quick growng and the big rotorainers can brush over it .
Im pro famrimg but im no apologist for the madness that has gone on in Canterbury and down south .
I live rurally in the Manawatu, surrounded by dairy farms.
I am not anti farming.
I do not like a lot of common farming practices e.g.: the urea phosphate addiction, shelterless paddocks, stock in waterways, round-up between crop cycles.
To me it comes down to the $.
What are usually decent people, have a wilful blind spot when it comes to their ways.
As we all know it takes a lot of courage to step outside the flock and change a habit.
I would love to see the primary producers return to their rightful place of the food supply chain.
In my lifetime the tables have turned against them.
I’ve been off at school all day or I’d have chipped in earlier. Production losses come from heat stress – and wind chill. Shelter can make a big difference for temperature extremes at both ends of the scale. Scattered trees are difficult where stock may take them out, and fencing each tree could be considered a PITA. But I believe it’s worth it. Also, if your stock have access to mineral licks they’ll typically leave trees alone (cept the tasty leaves).
As weather patterns continue to deteriorate Farmers main defense against drought and subsequent bankruptcy is trees. Trees that double as fodder, and triple as nitrogen fixers.
Shelter belts that grow fence posts, nuts, fruit, stock food, honey…
The limits are imagination.
Thanks WTB, it all makes sense.
We live in interesting times, where change, adapting and questioning what we have always done is imperative.
I have a mate who works for a company selling fertilizer.
They get soil samples from different parts of the property and mix a fertilizer containing the minerals that are deficient.
The idea is soil health is paramount. As opposed to going for the crack pipe habit of phosphate/urea.
Farmers are conservative (keen on status quo), but these other theories (organic/permaculture) are slowly becoming more popular.
Heaven forbid, they may become mainstream in our lifetime.
Of course with plant-based diets we wouldn’t have to shade animals Cinny because we wouldn’t be farming them. Animal agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gases and degrades our environment in other ways and needs to end.
Better for the animals and better for us, especially as it moving to plant-based diets increases the chances of humans actually surviving.
Not sure that is true Grey Area. Animals are an integral part of ecosystems and always have been. We could lower stocking rates, but eliminating stock is highly problematic. In NZ we had ridiculous numbers of birds that brought oceanic resources to land. On the land some moa species ‘took the place’ of cows grazing/browsing ground covers. These were then laid low, able to be composted through winters season adding nutrients for the next spring flush. Fungi too, have many species designed to work with both dung and plant matter.
Natures systems are not vegan, vegetarian, or even lactose intolerant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI
I guess we’ll see. Or maybe we won’t.
Nature’s systems look nothing like the horror show we’ve created.
The ability to find shade is absolutely necessary for the basic comforts of the animals as well. I’ve been increasingly dismayed by the removal of windbreaks in favour of vast irrigation networks. Could it be pasture growth is quantifiable, animal well-being is not?
Detention camps run by the military. I think there’s a name for those.
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1116704314725163008
https://www.facebook.com/DoctorWho/photos/a.182096918471010/3084745078206165/?type=3
Looking even closer!
https://talk.whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/uploads/default/original/2X/e/e1bcb3f7d50528c3204d2620230eb6a5f605766d.jpeg
A chinese gentleman showed me an image today of old style chinese charcoal burners. All the holes look like the photo of the black hole.
Can’t find it on the local web yet but chinese social media is full of it.
About the killing of the ‘mocking bird Julian Assange;’
This is a history of sad repute by our leading ‘peace makers’.
It was shown that ‘the dirty tricks campaign’ had gone out to deliberately repeatedly “discredit” the whistle blowers again now beginning with Julian Assange.
Now on sex charges, so what else will they throw at him?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw8yf6Luwo4
They will lock him up for life as Daniel Ellsberg On Assange Arrest: The Beginning of the End For Press Freedom video attest to; – a powerful video expression by Daniel.
Thank you for you and Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning for standing up for our freedom of expression.
Hero’s you all are to us.
Will you still be cheering him if he’s found guilty on the rape charges ????
Who is cheering him on?
The only cheering is TRP, Mcflock etc who think that abandonment of due process, extradition to the States and solitary confinement for life, for something that isn’t a crime, is appropriate.
The rest of us are capable of separating the public good, from wikileaks, from the fact that Sweden should have followed due process, and punished him only, for his actions that are a crime. If found guilty.
lol pretty much everything about your two main paragraphs was incorrect or probably incorrect.
Due process is being followed.
The sentence for the crimes which the yanks are trying to extradite him for isn’t life.
Hacking is a crime (albeit one he is probably innocent of).
The Swedes did and are following due process.
And I, for one, don’t think that the incorrect scenario you outlined would be appropriate.
Between you, who I thought was better than that, TRP, and a few other “black and white” non thinkers, who cannot comprehend that no one is all good, or all bad, are making this site a cesspit.
Making any reasoned discussion, uncomfortable.
Francesca, who you would justifiably expect to be tough on a rapist, has put forward reasoned points.
The replies have been an unthinking witch hunt.
I am disappointed at the low level of intelligent discussion displayed here.
OK, so let’s start from item 1:
How is due process being “abandoned”?
If you actually really think that this has even the slightest thing to do with rape, then all I can say is that you must be a very naive person indeed.
+100
Describing James as naive is very kind Adrian.
I’m just glad that he looks like he might get to face the rape charges. Sad to see so many on here able to overlook that simply because of his political views.
If it wasn’t for his political embarrassment of war criminals, the rape charges would have been sorted long ago.
And James. I know you don’t give a flying fuck, about women being kept in poverty, or disadvantaged.
So. What’s with all the holier than thou?
This post is for Wild Katipo …. who noted James was like a shitty wolf …. who didn’t give a shit
She nailed him ….. as he is a one eyed, opportunistic, inconsistent, rape apologist troll
james ….
….Who used sleazy rape culture posts to diminish the woman involved in the waikato cheifs sexual assault controversy.
….Who uses and advocates for the lawless rapey company ‘uber’.
….who advocated for public toilet sex … he did this when defending some other over-sexed rugby player.
….who thought it fair enough Oxfam should lose funding ……… for two sacked workers who allegedly used prostitutes
….He who who called right wing Brazilian leader and rape celebrator Jair Bolsonaro “charismatic”
James ….Who ran around with glee …. trying to smear Labour as ‘rape apologists’ …. over a drunk committing assults at a Labour youth event …
And has run around the Assange thread.. trying to label everyone ‘rape apologists’…
In reality James is a troll and if Assange played for the NZ allblacks he’d be defending him.
**************************************************
This Video is about the recent history of Russia……
” Yeltsin went into the election campaign with a rating hovering between 3%-5%, reflecting what must be the single most disastrous presidency of the 20th century: Under Yeltsin, Russia’s economy collapsed some 60%, the male life expectancy plummeted from 68 years to 56, millions were reduced to living on subsistence farming for the first time since Stalin as wages went unpaid for years at a time. Russia was on its way to going extinct—but about 3-5% of the population (plus or minus 3%) was making out like bandits. Probably because they actually were bandits. “https://pando.com/2015/05/17/neocons-2-0-the-problem-with-peter-pomerantsev/
The music starts about 6 mins 48 secs
The Wolf and bears ….. 11 mins 55 secs
Iwould describe it as …. 2 minutes to midnight rock ……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMMwBrlwmzI
the link I posted incorrectly
https://pando.com/2015/05/17/neocons-2-0-the-problem-with-peter-pomerantsev/
You seem to making a habit of writing disparaging comments about other regular commenters here on TS as your single focus. Yesterday, you were targeting Wayne on OM @ 2 and now you are having a go at James. By doing so, you are setting a tone and creating an environment in which others find it o.k. to join your posse and chime in. I don’t think this is conducive to healthy debate or making others feel welcome, do you?
I have no posse Incognito ….. unless your talking a posse against me quite often.
Anyway ,,, surprise , surprise …. you missed the point of my post …. which I’ll repeat ….. as having a one eyed, opportunistic, inconsistent, rape apologist troll like james, ….. trying to scare people off and shut down the argument is worse than my being a bit rude to such types ….
james ….
….Who used sleazy rape culture posts to diminish the woman involved in the waikato cheifs sexual assault controversy.
….Who uses and advocates for the lawless rapey company ‘uber’.
….who advocated for public toilet sex … he did this when defending some other over-sexed rugby player.
….who thought it fair enough Oxfam should lose funding ……… for two sacked workers who allegedly used prostitutes
….He who who called right wing Brazilian leader and rape celebrator Jair Bolsonaro “charismatic”
James ….Who ran around with glee …. trying to smear Labour as ‘rape apologists’ …. over a drunk committing assults at a Labour youth event …
And has run around the Assange thread.. trying to label everyone ‘rape apologists’…
Same with Wayne Mapp … who should be shamed and reviled … until prompted into doing something good …. Like a apology and donation to his victims ….. the dead and maimed ones.
“We’ve heard the tragic tales of our murdered Christchurch Muslims bravely trying to protect their children / their wife / their husband — their mother / their father and their community ……
……The same brave sacrifices obviously took place multiple times …… in our SAS revenge raid on the Afghanistan village,,,,, under Wayne Mapp and John Key……
But we never heard of these brave people …… who we killed ,,,, and who were then dissapeared from existence.
Even though I feel they were more human than Wayne Mapp / Key are ….”
The problem is incognito ….. How do you propose to shame the blatantly reprehensible among us ….. without being blunt ??.
My politics is I want the truth …. and less wars.
Sorry if that offends you ——– I extend you my plausible sincerity
enjoy another video ….
https://www.bitchute.com/video/hUaWa8L9YPXL/
Is that what you’re trying to do here, shaming the blatantly (!) reprehensible? If I understand you correctly, your targets are reprehensible because, in your opinion, they have reprehensible opinions that you clearly object to. If so, you feel justified to play the man instead of the ball?
Not sure what you mean by that. Is wanting “the truth” politics? And “less wars” [sic]? How do you envisage your shaming strategy here on TS leads to “the truth” and “less wars”? Do you expect “the blatantly reprehensible among us” to go through some cathartic shaming ritual and become more like you, for example?
Or do you simply want them to shut up and go away?
Or do you want to punish them?
I’m honestly at a loss as to what you’re thinking and what you’re trying to achieve here. In any case, I don’t think it is working, do you?
Also Incog …James has smeared multitude people here at TS …. in multi threads ….
I’m quite specific to where my criticism is directed … and I try to make an informative point while doing it.
And Here’s a thing we both missed about James …. to quote the troll … ” Sad to see so many on here able to overlook that simply because of his political views”
How is it political to want democratic OPEN govt Incognito ?? ….Or is it political in the sense of Authoritarian versus open democratic ???
You’ll find I argue like a sticky gummy-bear … I use snipey posts at me to expand my argument ….
Like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HJq0WxoK0c
So, for you it is personal, some kind of vendetta?
Uhhhmmm, what exactly did we miss there? What blatantly reprehensive act was hiding in plain view?
Is this “the truth” that you were referring to or have you moved the goal posts? Anyway, how does your shaming of so-called trolls here on TS pave a path to “democratic OPEN govt”?
You sound a tad defensive and you are quite evasive. Do you object to being queried about your motivations and conduct here on TS?
If you cannot argue a point in your own words, a video won’t help much either. People who cannot stand on their own two feet often use them as crutches …
Sorry incognito ….. when I meant sticky gummy-bear,,, in this instance I meant using your post to expand the case and Argument ,,,, that Julian Assange is hunted and persecuted for reasons that have nothing to do …. nothing to do with the smears james has been running around this site with.
He has not answered whether he Would use the gutter label and call ‘Amy goodman , Naiomei Shaei, Ranata Viella , Gleen Greenwald, edward snowden,’ and all the other people featured in the democracy now news item … ” rape apologists” ???
And how come the Democracy Now news item had a totally different weighting of content and information …. compared to james posts … which are pretty much 100% rape apologist finger pointing or other shit smeary accusations on this topic….
How come Amy Goodmans reporting and Denocracy now …. carry such a different story ,,, than those being spread by many TS posters… and others joining in with the James campaigns ???.
Neither smeary James or others speak of the best step forward if it truly were about two women … like take their views into consideration at a formal tribunal or something ….
And we could recognize Julian Assange has children and they are victims too…. of what has been quite a long sentence so far …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFRV7r7kxCE
You and many others here on TS seem to have major problems separating the issue from the commenter. In fact, I think it’s lazy and possibly even deliberate because it suits you. In any case, it does not make for good discussion or debate. That is my point, which you have not addressed in a satisfactory way.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/386984/islam-is-peace-pakistani-city-shows-support-for-victims-of-the-christchurch-mosque-terror-attacks
New Zealand World
‘Islam is peace’: Pakistani city shows support for victims of the Christchurch mosque terror attacks
9:08 am today
More than 20,000 people in a Pakistani city have created a striking visual tribute to the victims of the Christchurch mosque massacre.
More than 20,000 people in Shorkot, Pakistan created a striking visual tribute to the victims of the Christchurch mosque massacre.
Dressed in white, they stood in formation in front of a shrine to create a huge living image of the Al Noor Mosque in Deans Avenue, 13,000 kilometres away.
They lined up behind a large banner saying ‘Solidarity with Martyrs of Christchurch, from Pakistan’, and hundreds more formed the message ‘Islam Is Peace’ in English.
Spokesperson Asif Tanveer Awan says the event in the city of Shorkot was organised by a think-tank, the Muslim Institute, in order to send a strong message to the world that Muslims want peace and cooperation.
Two women telling how they have survived seeing their countries change in front of their eyes and being dislocated. And they have learned to adapt but are aware of the goodness they have in life but also I think both do not believe in getting too attached to institutions, and the need to be thinking about things, wary of change.
Which I think is a mindset we have to adopt.
It seems to me that we have come to a stop in our minds at the end of last century, and are slow to see how we have to change for the 21st century. Also have we appreciated what was good and valuable, and how we were, in the 20th century and carried our bundles of goodness to preserve them and share, in this century.
That will elp us to keep being potentially wonderful humans living in harmony yet individuality with each other and the planet, and not allow ourselves to be turned into machine and efficiency pawns, human resources being pushed around by powerful, mindless and soulless others – people and corporate conglomerates.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018690860/go-went-gone-the-asylum-seeker-experience-in-germany
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018690863/ella-al-shamahi-neanderthals
Yesterday was the saddest day I have ever witnessed on The Standard, one after another people came on to say that they were actually glad Assange had been arrested, I of course have always known that The Standard harbors a lot of reactionaries, but I honestly didn’t realize that it harbored so many stupid, short sighted reactionaries who are so easily sucked in by establishment propaganda…I was shocked, am shocked at the depth of stupidity that has been so proudly displayed by so many here..history will of course, and rightly, judge them cruelly.
The Standard via Te Reo Putake yesterday finally converged seamlessly with Mike Hosking…if that doesn’t give you pause to think..
A very dark day for the progressive Left.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYdDp4mHDRY
There is much disdain for Assange from people who wouldn’t be prepared to expose themselves for a mass moral purpose as he did. A lot of people are guided in their direction by their own individual concerns or that of the general group they form part of.
An outlier like Assange acting for the principle of transparency of dark doings against the mass of u. He has used means that have been made illegal by the very people carrying out or enabling the dark doings. It is a rare and significant protest on the behalf of those who care that such machinations should be exposed. Thanks for that Julian, it takes determination, vision and inner strength to do such things which few have.
Well put, thanks.
I wholeheartedly agree Adrian.
The display of cognitive dissonance is disturbing.
We all know that the facts are:
Julian Assange was not charged with rape or any other crime by the Swedish authorities.
Julian Assange has published information that has never been refuted that has caused considerable embarrassment to many.
Those feasting on the downfall of Juilan Assange seem to have little introspection, display even less logic and no empathy
What many seem not to appreciate is that the false accusation of rape is an extremely evil crime.
The great news is now he isn’t hiding like a coward they can conclude their investigation and charge him with rape if they think so.
Nice to see that statue of limitations hasn’t come in.
I passed comment yesty along those lines, but more from a fascination angle.
I am sure those who disappointed you, would see themselves as progressive.
My hunch is the sexual allegations is what tarnished most of their opinions.
Akin to trying to separate the art from the artist, eg Picasso, in time Assange will be seen separate to the deeds/allegations.
I find it frustrating that the ‘left’ saves the worst for its closest allies.
I think it’s sader that people would not want him to see justice for crimes committed.
Apart from the Swedish sexual complaints what are the other crimes you see him culpable of James?
What else would you honestly have expected…
Queenstown is wanting to expand its tourism, yet there is so much reliance on air traffic that it may have reached capacity. The idea that where there is money to be made, something to sell, and that capital is invested until the collapse of the resource is the uppermost attitude of business and the uncaring NZ money accreters.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/386994/queenstown-flight-cancellations-due-to-sick-air-traffic-control-staff
There was an enquiry some years ago about a plane taking off in conditions that were marginal and late in the day because there had been bad weather for some time.
I wonder how often that will happen in this area enclosed by high mountains as seen in the media image. The more planes, the more risk and the more unhappy stranded tourists who expect their bucks to buy them entry, quality experience, and exit as and when required.
Queenstown airport has been effectively running at over 100% for a couple of years and it’s only a matter of time before something breaks. Yesterday’s oops has been on the cards for a while with minimal atc staff cover combined with a town where people get sick a lot for the first 10 years they live here because there’s a new bug on every bus and plane. This affects every employer to varying degrees, but staff critical positions like atc, teaching and police are hard hit.
We are also getting very close to airspace limits with little space if aircraft have to go around, which happens a lot due to a very difficult airport. On Wednesday afternoon most flights (8 I think, can’t get back that far in flightradar) were diverted because of cloud to ground level with the front, which would have cost the airlines a packet. On a day with tricky cross winds there will be jets on hold all over the southern South Island waiting to get an approach slot.
Queenstown airport has also become the de-facto regional airport for the southern South Island. Passengers come from Southland, most of Otago outside Dunedin and South Westland to travel to Auckland, Wellington and Australia. There’s 26 jet aircraft going through ZQN today and 3 ATRs, that’s a typical day.
There’s a fairly solid consensus around the district that the airport’s at it’s limits and needs to move as the current location is beyond it’s capacity, but beyond that it gets tricky. Where does it go to do a better job? A new regional airport will need to be easily connected to it’s main markets, Queenstown and Wanaka, and not have noise or airspace issues.
Three options have been bandied around. First is a dual airport idea with expansion of the existing Wanaka airport which hasn’t gone down well with the good burghers of Wanaka, to say the least. Then there’s two options a new regional airport, Five Rivers, near Lumsden, and Tarras near Wanaka. Tarras is easier to connect with but has noise and airspace constraints, Five Rivers is an excellent site but expensive to connect to existing tourist infrastructure as it’s 100 km south Queenstown. Both would probably need a quick rail connection to avoid bus mayhem, and then you’d have high speed rail to Christchurch sneaking into the mix as well.
So a huge can of worms, vested interests with several airport companies and big operators trying to protect their turf, and locals who’ve had enough of the noise and congestion, but want their city connectivity, and local councils who want it in their patch.
This one’s going to need very strong leadership from Government, and very soon.
We have been told for the last 30 years that the market will sort these things out ….
market failure again
privatise the airports they said
useless
Yep, although in this case the airport is 75.1% local council (QLDC) and 24.9% AIA so local interests still have control. Where it gets bogged down is all the other “interested” parties trying to steer the ship in their direction.
A lot of the growth we’ve seen has been due to the demise of Christchurch as a visitor destination post earthquakes, that market space has been displaced to Wellington and Queenstown. There’s over twice the capacity ZQN – WLG than ZQN – CHC now and that won’t change back.
Bt any solution is going to need to be led by central government, not possible at a local level.
ANZ are starting direct flights NV – AA in August I think, which will very slightly reduce the load on Queenstown. Southlanders won’t need drive there to get to Auckland or further afield.
There will never be another airfield built. The aircraft numbers would have to be high to justify a completely new development. And Lumsden has too many fog days in winter anyway.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the NV-AA thing goes, hope it works for Invercargill’s sake, but don’t think it’ll make much difference to Queenstown. Just hope it doesn’t bugger the frequency of flights to Christchurch.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/380920/direct-invercargill-auckland-flights-set-to-launch
The weather issues are equal for all the options, and the airlines want the airport to be able to take wide body aircraft and be at least CAT II, preferably CAT III, so instrument landing. This wouldn’t be a problem at Five Rivers.
Biggest problem with Five Rivers is the 100 km to Queenstown. And that it may threaten the viability of Christchurch.
There will have to be another airport built, Queenstown is getting too difficult to sustain and sooner or later it’s going to break. Whatever the solution it’s going to be hard and expensive. Doing nothing and sticking with the existing airport is in category too.
Ok there will be a critical number of arrivals/departures that determines the financial viability of any new airport. Government funding would be required for such a large investment and I just can’t see it happening. I can’t see Queenstown interests funding it either. But I’m often wrong about things.
If the NV-AA Airbus link succeeds there will probably be one less ATR going out from NV first thing in the mornings.
Why build in Lumsden when NV is already large enough for big jets, slightly less than an hour further away less affected by fog/low cloud. Much less investment to bring up to standard, I’ll get Tim onto right away….
Well here we go again.
Spy bosses dragged into Jami-Lee Ross-Simon Bridges saga
11/04/2019
Tova O’Brien
Newshub’s politica editor Tova O’Brien reports: The war between Simon Bridges and Jami-Lee Ross has gone up a notch. Credits: Newshub.
The war between Simon Bridges and Jami-Lee Ross has gone up a notch with yet more explosive allegations from the former National MP.
Ross has implied Bridges was told by intelligence agencies that a National MP was a Chinese spy.
Our top spies were asked about it at Parliament in their first outing since the Christchurch terror attack.
GCSB boss Andrew Hampton warns against local election online voting
Jami-Lee Ross brings more allegations against National’s Simon Bridges
GCSB, NZSIS concerned about foreign interference in New Zealand election
The leaders of New Zealand’s spy agencies are normally secretive when out in the great wide open.
“We’re really happy to talk to you after the hearing,” Rebecca Kitteridge, director-general of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS), told Newshub outside Parliament on Thursday morning when she arrived.
Both Kitteridge’s agency and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) – of which Andrew Hampton is director-general – are being investigated as part of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the March 15 attack.
When asked why the alleged gunman wasn’t on NZSIS’s radar, Kitteridge told Newshub: “Well, I guess that’s what the [Royal Commission of Inquiry] will look into.”
The head of the GCSB said the agency needs a red flag before it can act, and there wasn’t one.
“Lots of people travel to Pakistan, lots of people have gun licences, unfortunately lots of people post not very nice stuff on dodgy websites,” he said.
The spy bosses at Parliament were there to warn MPs about foreign government interference in New Zealand politics. They said they’re not just using cash, but putting pressure on expat communities and even MPs.
When asked if she’s concerned a state might have tried to exert influence over New Zealand MPs, Kitteridge responded: “Yes.”
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/04/spy-bosses-dragged-into-jami-lee-ross-simon-bridges-saga.html?ref=ves-nextauto
Meanwhile down on the farm…
Tough article with some very hard lessons. It is hard work emotionally killing. I’ve worked on a farm and seen the calves die and/or be killed. I’ve seen the cows go down and the gun come out. We’ve got to reduce the pressure on people and reducing herd size and areas herds can be would really help. But of course this is about m.bovis and the havoc it has wrought.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/111871137/owner-of-m-bovisinfected-farm-who-had-to-shoot-newborn-calves-you-just-learn-to-grit-your-teeth-and-do-it
How sad – poor young man committed suicide. I suppose he couldn’t get out of his contract which he entered innocently never thinking of such a situation. And as Smit noted it was awful work when he had to do it himself. If farmers actually worked at their own businesses, and were not encouraged by easy credit to buy numerous farms (think Crafar*) there would be less of this sort of result. The bad spongy brain spread of disease in Britain was exacerbated by industrial farming methods.
* In 2009 they owned 22 farms, 18 of which are dairy, and 20,000 cows,[3] making them New Zealand’s largest family owned dairy business.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CraFarms
Poor bastards. That’d break my heart too.
These are the consequences when you try to engineer your way to maximum profit and growth with scant regard for good practice.
It is to be hoped that this will be a lesson to others in this industry and other industries. They need to ask themselves whether profit and growth at any cost is worth the inherent risk.
I doubt they will heed that lesson.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/04/climate-change-risks-to-be-assessed-as-new-zealand-s-emissions-labelled-disturbing.html
Climate change is here.
The greens are in government why again?
to be able to say
‘we have been telling you guys for long long time’?
Molten Salt Reactors. If I was at the start of my career this is where I would head right now. Here is one variation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=R4GSDRqah-0
very interesting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stable_salt_reactor
We can’t handle our plastic waste responsibly. Maybe this might be better than thousands of nuclear power plants.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16012018/csp-concentrated-solar-molten-salt-storage-24-hour-renewable-energy-crescent-dunes-nevada
First point, this salt reactor actually is capable of using the waste (spent fuel) from other nukes as fuel, thereby helping to deal with the problem of waste built up from existing reactors.
Second, it’s in the right power range for large ships. It’s also a pretty useful size for remote installations that are unsuitable for solar.
But yeah, for mainstream grid supply, wind and solar have got so cheap it’s hard to see any new nukes making the grade.
“First point, this salt reactor actually is capable of using the waste (spent fuel) from other nukes as fuel, thereby helping to deal with the problem of waste built up from existing reactors.”
You have my attention now.
It’s an example of the broader class of “fast neutron reactors”. Most of which can be configured to use as fuel the waste from most of today’s reactors.
While the ability to burn other reactor’s waste is attractive, there’s also downsides. The biggest being that burning the uranium238 (that’s a large part of the waste from more common reactors) requires turning most of it into plutonium239 along the way. There’s obvious concerns about military proliferation there.
Personally I’m more interested in thorium based reactors. Because the intermediate steps of the thorium reaction chain are much harder to turn into weapons (though not impossible). But probably just as attractive to terrorists wanting to build dirty bombs.
http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/fast-neutron-reactors.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power
Agreed, although the thorium story and MSR’s while technically separate, are in reality very closely aligned. It’s pretty much the same people interested in both at this time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbx_gFT0v7k
It’s a good question; I’m a big fan of CSP power, it looks very cool and comes with built-in energy storage. Of all the renewable technologies it’s the one which I suspect has the brightest future.
But it’s important not to underestimate the scale of the challenge and the enormous amount of land and resources that will be consumed to make a serious contribution to the total global need.
These MSR reactors are nothing like your grandfather’s Pressurised Water Reactors. Some typical features:
1. All the safety engineering is ‘walk away’ passive. If something goes wrong the correct thing to do is nothing. The machine will stop and cool itself with no external power or intervention.
2. All the dangerous nucleides, cesium, strontium and iodine are stable compounds within the salt. Even if the plant was bombed, all that would happen is the released molten salt would solidify quickly, the nuclear reaction would stop and no gases would be released.
3. The internal operating pressures are very low, barely 2 -4 atmospheres. The engineering is far easier.
4. They are incredibly flexible with what fuel they use; and will cheerfully burn the waste from existing reactors. All current MSR designs are intended to have zero waste stream. Uranium, thorium, plutonium … gobble, munch, munch.
5. The manufacturing model will be similar to ship building or aircraft manufacture; everything is built and shipped from a single global site, and the sealed reactor units are shipped to wherever needed. Site assembly and certification is hugely reduced and they require almost no maintenance. No back up power, no emergency systems, no super complex control systems, no containment vessel, etc.
6. The cores are intended to have an operating life of about 5 – 10 years, after which the operator swaps to a new unit, shuts down the old one and lets it cool for 3 -5 years. Then ships the spent and empty unit back to the manufacturing site for refurbishment.
These things are just way easier to do, once you have the salt chemistry and fuel cycle sorted. The safety case is hugely less onerous and operating them is relatively simple. Homer Simpson might have trouble fecking with one.
The expectation is the costs will be about half that of new coal plant. These can be rolled out fast and located without huge infrastructure demands. All up I see these as being a faster and more certain route to de-carbonising than renewables on their own.
This could be the missing link in energy budgets to transform to a more resilient economy. We’ve not got the oil resources to do it without mucking up the planet.
Just yesterday I was daydreaming in class about how we might set up a block of renewable energy (using oil energy) and start from there to use less oil and more renewables as we ‘expand out’ to encompass more of industry/market/the globe.
Energy stuff is not my forte, but I do think we might progressively retrofit without too much pain if we work in a methodical manner always reducing consumable energy as we increase sustainable energy.
The issue is that large infrastructure projects require tremendous energy inputs. I’m trying to get my head around how we transition the transition period – if that makes any sense…
I also think they can test these reactors NIMBY. Heard too many false claims from companies posing as saviors. Swap some out for older more dangerous reactors maybe, as in those situations it might be seen as progress.
I’d vehemently oppose anyone testing any form of nuclear reactor here.
I would cheerfully have one in my backyard, indeed I’d love to have a crack at working in one. While the nuclear aspect would be pretty tame, there is real potential for innovative thermochemical downstream processing, the efficient production of bulk hydrogen for instance, that would be really interesting.
MSR’s are nothing like the massive nuclear plants we’re all accustomed to; they’re a fraction of the size. They have more in common with building a large ship than a massive plant.
ORNL successfully ran the first one in the 60’s for five years with no incidents of any kind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Salt_Reactor_Experiment
It’s not a case of one company promising miracles. At present there are 6 -10 different private companies working towards a licensed design, and the Chinese have an impressive $500m program; leading the way on work being done in 10 different countries. MSR’s are not completely without technical challenges, but most of them appear to be a matter of funding and time, rather than needing to invent wheels. The biggest hurdles are going to be regulatory, and overcoming negative public sentiment toward anything nuclear.
It’s strongly arguable that if the Nixon administration had not shut the original ORNL program down in 1973 for purely political reasons, MSR’s would have likely become the dominant energy source by now … and global warming would never have become an issue.
Looking ahead to when transport is fully electrified, it’s not hard to imagine service stations wanting to have on-site generation in the range of tens of MW. That’s in the same range as what large ships need. It’s not hard to see substantial demand for mass-produced small reactors.
NZ probably won’t ever get there, but much of the rest of the world might. Personally I’d have no concerns about those being nukes, particularly if they were thorium. For military proliferation and terrorism reasons, not any kind of Chernobyl style fears.
Incidentally I’ve just gotten my hands on a bunch of these:
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/2-3v40Ah-66160-LTO-Lithium-titanate_60842282887.html
Checkout the specs! They aren’t quite the holy grail as their energy density is about 2/3 standard Lithium chemistries, but for applications where weight doesn’t matter too much, like buses, boats, solar storage, etc they’re definitely the next leap forward. Full recharge is possible in 10 minutes!
Down the road a year or two we should see the next gen of solid state Lithiums. If they live up to the promise, then fully electric personal transport will happen very quickly. A huge amount of R&D is going on, but Tesla’s buyout of these guys recently shows concrete progress:
https://www.maxwell.com/
Fun stuff. Professional project or homer?
Professional. I’m using them to eliminate the travelling harness on a high speed shuttle. It recharges when parked for piece change-out, and allows easy 2D freedom of movement with no trailing power cables for the automation. All control data is via RF.
The 20,000+ cycle life is pretty attractive too. Cells like this were either not cost effective or unavailable 12 months ago.
Cool. I fukn hate cables running around the place. That 10C charge rate really does open up a whole lot of opportunities.
even the tripe media ( 2nd behind finance as the biggest benefit industry on NZ economy) shouldn’t be reporting or broadcasting the contents of threats made to public figures
Peter Dutton has apologised for appalling comments he made about his Labor opponent (who happens to be an amputee) in his seat of Dickson. But not before 2 Labor heavyweights, Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek and Senator Kristina Keneally went to town on him and PM Morrison over the issue.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-13/peter-dutton-apologises-to-dickson-rival-ali-france/11000532
Has either of these two “Labor heavyweights” spoken out for their fellow Australian Julian Assange?
And if not, why not?
Keneally did not mince words – cut him right down. Called him a thug, and the ‘worst’ of the liberals. Which must have been a difficult decision to make because it’s a crowded field.
Jesus. We’re lucky we only have Collins and Bennett who are capable of that kind of evil.
Plibersek was pretty much on message too, accusing Dutton of trying to ditch Dickson for a more glamorous seat closer to his mansion in the Gold Coast.
As late as Friday evening Dutton was doubling down on the accusations, by Saturday arvo he’d apologised. The optics were terrible and the overnight polling must have been diabolical for the Liberals.
Called him a thug, and the ‘worst’ of the liberals.
That ugly fuck and his party are “liberal” to the same extent that I’m “conservative,” ie not even when hung over.
STOP THE PRESS!!!!!
In breaking news:
Labour uses Facebook ‘thumbs up’ logo on website !!!!!!!!!!!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/111975909/labour-uses-facebook-thumbs-up-logo-on-website
A Lee Kenny exclusive no doubt.
Need to sort some support for this Muslim family who’s son is receiving threats and being beaten at school. Grrrr
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12219785
This is bad and sad. My relatives have been teachers, and I have heard that principals can be more concerned about smooth running and meeting Board
requirements than actually fulfilling the requirements of looking after the pastoral care of students as well as the important keeping up on the league table of passes and success as expected.
Has anyone encountered a successful all-school effort to reduce bullying by discussing it and its detrimental effects on the pupil, the bully, and the school as model of a social group within the larger group of society? I wondered about an all-school meeting to discuss the problems and how they affect individuals and show lack of social abilities which are needed in a healthy society. Of course studies in philosophy, different cultures and how they handle the common human
condition should be mandatory but our society has never had deep enough thought to ask for this.
Kia ora R&R.
THE plastic waste should be legerslated so that the manufacturer and retailers pay a percentage to give the waste a valuation to make it profitable to recycle it.
I agree all the chemicals that leach out of our WASTE can and is causing bad side effects on our wildlife and US.
The plastic waste /WASTE problems is not to big to cured its a problem that has to be cured we just need smart simple laws a process to FIX this Problem. Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OFpfTd0EIs
Eco Maori exzact thoughts the powerfull people don’t want the truth to get out THE TRUTH IS POWER trump is using all the dirty tricks in his puppets book to control OUR media he has use the power of the USA goverments power to suppress the biggest problem human kind is about to face CLIMATE CHANGE . With the sexual assult charges does one think that Julian would have made such a STUPID move knowing the USA goverment was after his ASS KNOW that acusation is the easyest set up they could come up with pay a girl $10 of thousands to stand up in court and lie I have seen the sandflys trying this move on ECO MAORI WTF.
The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is so disliked in journalism and political circles that many reporters and liberal politicians were publicly cheering on Thursday when the Trump administration released an indictment of Assange, which was related to his interactions with the whistleblower Chelsea Manning in the months leading up to the publication of Pentagon and state department cables in 2010.
The Assange prosecution threatens modern journalism
Please do not fall for this trap. It is exactly what the Trump administration is hoping for, as the Department of Justice (DoJ) moves forward with its next dangerous step in its war on journalism and press freedom.
The larger context surrounding this case is almost as important as the Assange indictment itself. Donald Trump has been furious with leakers and the news organizations that publish them ever since he took office. He complains about it constantly in his Twitter tirades. He has repeatedly directed the justice department to stop leaks, and he even asked former FBI director James Comey if he can put journalists in jail.
The justice department has responded by launching a record number of leak cases and have weighed changing the rules to make it easier to subpoena journalists
Ka kite ano links below P.S Julian let the Papatuanuku know that goverments are CHEATS.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/13/julian-assange-indictment-wikileaks-trump-administration-war-on-press-freedom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbeOCKZFfQ
Some Eco Maori musci for the minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4DFXUndvbw
Heart Throb
I know Julian Assange is a wonderful friend of the Trolls on here. Through him they have discovered some nasty bits of what happens in War. As if that was ever an unknown.
They seem entirely unaware that Assange released what he called “timely information” (true or false) to obliterate Hilary Clinton’s chances of Presidency.
He is after all Mr Big. He did not try and destroy the Wealthy, of course. Just the needy. And of course Obama Care is a hanging offence in the Wealthy Troll households.
The most savage Wikileak thing to Date, is the release of Millions of pieces of personal Information belonging to Turkish Women. Home Address, Banking, Phone, and so on.
Neither ugly Wikileaks or Assange, has apologised to all those Women. Many of whom are now victims of Turkey Red Necks, former mongrel husbands, and Murder.
Like New Zealand, Turkey males do not value the women who bring them into the World.
The Internet, thanks to mongrels like Assange, is not worth a dime. It’s a dump, fit for dumpsters.
Thanks for nothing Heart Throbs.
Eco Maori Agrees strongly with these comments we are PART OF THE ENVIROMENT we need to care for OUR enviroment like its our grandparents as Papatuanuku actually is OUR GRANDPARENT FOOLs
We need to coexist with the ecosystem because we’re part of it, and so are birds
Susan Elbin
Though the studies bear sad news about the effects cities have on birds, conservationists see them as opportunities to target their activism.
“Every time new scientific literature comes out, we learn more about the problem, and … we can pinpoint the best solutions using the science,” said Kaitlyn Parkins, a conservation biologist at NYC Audubon.
Turning out the lights in buildings at night for a few weeks during peak migration is a simple first step and would make a big difference, Parkins said. The National Audubon Society runs Lights Out, a coordinated effort with local chapters to advocate reducing light during migration. States such as New York and Minnesota have participated in the program, turning out lights in state-operated buildings during migration.
Conservationists also advocate that buildings adopt more “bird-friendly” designs, for example using patterned glass and dimmer lighting. San Francisco and Toronto have already adopted some bird-friendly guidelines, while city council members in New York and Chicago have introduced legislation to adopt similar measures. A bipartisan bill in Congress introduced in January, called the “Bird-Safe Building Act”, would require new federal buildings to adopt designs that keep migrating birds in mind.
“We need to coexist with the ecosystem because we’re part of it, and so are birds,” Elbin said. “What’s good for birds is good for people.”
This article was amended on 8 April 2019 to clarify the relative dangers different types of buildings pose for birds. Ka kite ano links below
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/07/how-many-birds-killed-by-skyscrapers-american-cities-report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbQgu0ilg8U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWkFhl2KBwo
Kia kaha you go and fight for your futures climate the neanderthals are to dumb to get the big picture
“The power that we have in numbers and the power that we have in coming together and taking action as a collective was something people were really keen to get back into.”
The plan was for other groups around the country to hold their own meetings in the coming weeks and months. Sophie said inclusivity was central to the movement, and they wanted everyone who had been involved in the strike so far to have their say in the next steps.
In Auckland, 17-year-old strike organiser Luke Wijohn said while things slowed down slightly, lots of new people have joined the movement in the weeks since March 15.
Sophie said the students wanted to make it clear the strike wasn’t a one-off and they were committed to holding the government to account.
The group was developing a national strategy and planned to create a youth climate action network. Campaigning to make climate change education a compulsory part of the curriculum was one of the aims on the cards.
Another global school climate strike was planned for September 27. Ka kite ano links below
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/111942869/school-climate-strikers-grieving-after-christchurch-shootings-but-planning-for-future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4H1N_yXBiA
P.S The neanderthals are stuffing with my devices
Kia ora Newshub.
Condolences to Evet whanau.
Its cool that Our government is going to sort out the problems with the construction sector it needs sorting out as it been left in a Mess.
I see some puppet trying ride on ECO MAORI Coat Tails once again I stand by my Tau toko of Julian.
I Back Nagti Kuri call for a Tangaroa sanatorium we have to save Tangaroa for our MOKOPUNA.
Its a good idea that more people at school learn CPR for heart attack victims revival.
You no how it is they will never apologise for the atrocities that were carried out in India or to other indigenous cultures that’s the European way.
Its a good idea going around and getting knowledge from the kaumatua before they pass but studying war is a waste of time in my view someone has to record the indigenous cultures knowledge before our tangata whenua O Atoearoa kaumatua pass. Ka kite ano P.S Some are trying every dirty trick in their book to try stop the Eco Maori effect. YEA RIGHT
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=RDEM8AaBNgoazrrdHfwxQ-zAow
Kia ora The AM Show.
Ryan a capital gains tax is needed to stop all NZ capital flowing out to nation with no tax keep the capital in NZ for the Mokopuna allso it takes the burden off the paye tax payer’s.No simon the tax needs to be aimed at the people who pay next to KNOW TAX
The Australian Unicon sheep looks hard case mite be a new breed that will get the deniers to see reality with a little prodding.
I still see a lot of EGGS around if eggs get to expensive people will be able to grow their own with very little money and work.
Mark ther you go making statements that have to be retracted
That billion dollar hole was joice pridicting the extra cost that the government service industry has to spend to clean up the MESS HE MADE.
Bush you are frowning have you heard OF the TRUTH that I have been say about your organisation its the TRUTH.
A good free range egg is bright orange very good.
I think the way the government has aproched the construction industry is WIZE asking what needs to be done to fix some of the problems in the industry I can remember 28 years ago I got a house built the section price would have just payed for the prosess of council permits now days GO FIGURE why we have a housing shortage now.
My literacy is OK for someone’s who actually only learnt at school to the age of 9 after that Eco Maori is self taught my spelling is bad but I READ very well.
Now is the time to put heaps of effort into conserving OUR indanger WILD life like the Maui Dolphin Ka pai.
Ka kite ano P.S congratulations on the new jacket someone has given me a birthday present all ready Mike the leftys need to harden up and let everyone know as the ightys cheat when ever they can and the left let them hide their cheating ways if someone goes public they get what they deserve
The 21st century comunacation device was is a device that gets the TRUTH out to the masses of tangata. Social Media is the best way to inform the people that the RULEING CLASS are RIPPING the common tangata of they use there MONEY to try and hide the facts change the facts.
One exzample is salt and sugar one we need in OUR diet the other we don’t one can be obtained from tangaroa the other is controled by big busness.
Salt has heaps of infomation published about the negitive effects I say most of that is crap.
Sugar causes DIABETES obesity rotts teeth stuff you liver and many other bad side effects from sugar and up till a few months ago every story on sugar had the words would or could cause these bad side effects when the links between sugar and the bad health affects are clear to see you see this is just a small part of the story of the eelite CHEATING the 99.99 % out of the truth here are just a few on the topics that they are cheating tangata ABOUT.
Sugar
salt
we don’t know why the native poupulation’s are doing so bad /no discrimanation here don’t LOOK and you won’t see it.
Carbon is not causing climate change
nitrogin is not causeing our water ways/ AWA to die.
The trickle down effect when its clear the captialst system is being massaged to make the money flow to the TOP and stop any trickleing down to the poor people/COUNTRYS.
the justice systems being fair
The ruling class are hounest YEA RIGHT when do they admite lierability not even if there hand’s are caught in the cookie jar they will lies and say they were just cleaning the jar and take the lie to the highest COURT in the land to obmit liability the poor person could not even get it to a COURT but ha the justice system is fair YEA RIGHT .
This is why I back social media 100 % AS now we get to sift throught the information and find the FACT.s with social media Ka kite ano Links below P.S the ruling class laught to themselves that the common person is hounest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Dg-g7t2l4
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOFvJVroAJE
Eco Maori know that I am going to bring these cheating lieing rednecks sandflys to heal .Then everyone will know of my mana maui
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWoDSGfSu6o
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/34Na4j8AVgA
I see the sandflys are trying to pin more bullshit on Eco Maori