Is this really why marijuana got banned in the 30s? A prohibitionist bureaucratic empire-builder was about to lose his empire so he had to find a new reason to keep it alive, and marijuana was the most convenient new bogeyman?
I haven’t read the book, but the; Anslinger role in post-prohibition cannabis outlawing has been common knowledge since at least the 90s (when I became aware of it). I found the Lincata information in that article fascinating though:
Harry Anslinger became obsessed with one case in particular. In Florida, a boy called Victor Licata hacked his family to death with an axe. Anslinger explained to America: This is what will happen when you smoke “the demon weed.”…
Years later, somebody went and looked at the psychiatric files for Victor Licata.
It turns out there’s no evidence he ever used cannabis.
He had a lot of mental illness in his family. They had been told a year before he needed to be institutionalized — but they refused. His psychiatrists never even mentioned marijuana in connection to him.
2000 years ago, China’s whole civilisation was dependent on the Cannabis crop, interestingly, today they’re finding the medicinal benefits through science that the Chinese discovered thousands of years ago.
If it’s so bad for society, how come it’s legal in five states in the US and various other parts of the world, I would suggest that it’s a lot less harmful to society than cheap liquor and gambling.
Over the years I’ve read of many reasons why marijuana got banned. Racism and pressure from the cotton industry (hemp cloth is reportedly better and cheaper than cotton and grows pretty much everywhere) being the main ones.
TPP and The Commission
The TPP commission – executive body of TPP, chapter 27
Functions of commission reviews agreement, amends, establish the model rules for arbitral tribunals,
If another Democrat, be it Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, is president this time next year, we can expect that this surge of embittered right-wing radicalism isn’t going away. If anything, they’ll be even more aggravated after the loss of their great orange hope, Donald Trump. That means this kind of incoherent right-wing rage at losing “their” country is just going to keep on keeping on.
QFT
And we’ll see similar whinging here from the RWNJs when a Left leaning government gets in.
Bombshell Study Exposes Frightening Facts About Anti-Depressant Drugs & Pharmaceutical Companies
Big Pharma tactics: includes video with Dr Peter Rost, MD who “is a former vice president of Pfizer, and a whistleblower of the entire pharmaceutical industry in general. He is the author of The Whistleblower, Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman.” Visible text
This is the unprincipled pharmaceutical industry which is going to require PHARMAC to justify its choice of drugs!
TMM – is it just me but I linked into your article and its a teaser – many people are on anti-depressants and will be linking into this as well – it just doesn’t say what the “frightening facts” are – everything but, it does say its dangerous for teenagers but again, why are the side effects not disclosed so people can make an evaluated guess. I do not disagree with you, big PHARMA are a devious corrupt lot but the article again, to me, is not very helpful and we are left not knowing. Most people accept there are side effects to drugs and if they need to take stuff will sort out what suits them best with their doctor. Good that you expose this though and most readers will not be surprised by this at all. Depression is a clinical imbalance in the brain and people who take these pills usually are in a pretty bad state so this is bad news really for them unfortunately.
@ Whispering Kate
Research paper Suicidality and aggression during antidepressant treatment: systematic review and meta-analyses based on clinical study reports
In the summary trial reports on Eli Lilly’s website, almost all deaths were noted, but all suicidal ideation events were missing, and the information on the remaining outcomes was incomplete.
Conclusions Because of the shortcomings identified and having only partial access to appendices with no access to case report forms, the harms could not be estimated accurately. In adults there was no significant increase in all four outcomes, but in children and adolescents the risk of suicidality and aggression doubled. To elucidate the harms reliably, access to anonymised individual patient data is needed.
Thanks for that TMM – I think I’ve read sometime ago that teenagers were having suicidal tendencies and comitting suicide on anti depressants, this is terrible. Kids need to be cared for and research needs to be done to combat this. People I know who are on anti depressants (adults) say it has changed their whole lives, they can live their lives feeling like they once used to. I can see a huge difference in them.
I know that there are still a lot of people about who think, if you cannot tangibly see an illness – bandages etc, then “putting on some runners and going out and exercising” will be the cure, “buck up and get on with it” sort of advice. Depression has been with us forever and so has suicide, thankfully now for adults at least they can take something to balance out clinical imbalances occurring in the brain. John Kirwan did such a lot to advertise the seriousness of depression thankfully which has helped to change attitudes with Depression.
Not all depressions are the same and not all anti-depressants work the same way. It is often a process of ‘trial & error’ to match the ‘right’ anti-depressant to the ‘right’ patient; this involves a lead-in period.
The other thing to note with anti-depressants is that you cannot come off them suddenly (‘cold turkey’) without expecting a (strong) relapse. Taking these drugs at the right dose at the right time is fairly important and something that people don’t always stick to (compliance issues are a very common problem with pretty much all medication).
A combination of medication, counselling & support, and healthy life style (e.g. diet) is the way to effectively deal with depression. Lastly, it is thought that genetics do play a role in disposition to depression.
I temporarily worked for SKB (SmithKlineBeecham) in their customer purchase department, when Aropax was being marketed aggressively.
The strategy used to help promote sales was to allow the stocks of Stelazine to drop to near zero, and when pharmacies rang to order – say that Stelazine was out of stock and there was no confirmed production date, and direct them to Aropax.
There were many calls from irate GP’s and pharmacies, due to the fact that the transition from one drug to another was a minimum six weeks – if not more. Furthermore, many patients were successfully using Stelazine, and their supply was cut off suddenly and they had no choice but to change drugs. I’m guessing the patents on Aropax were more recent, and they were ensuring the crossover of as many patients as possible to this newer drug.
I agree with CV on this one. Depression has more to do with your life situation and surroundings more than chemicals in your brain.
I know someone who was on prozac for about 11 years. She was pretty much bedridden for most of that time. Then one day she flushed her pills down the toilet and started walking.
Never looked back.
Unfortunately it is cheaper for the government and the non-profit industrial complex it underwrites to give the mentally ill and chronically depressed a prozac script, dump them into a boarding house and pay them $200 a week, rather than actually help them overcome their depression.
Looks like they haven’t changed. I can still recall the treatment of the Aussie doctor who discovered stomach ulcers were caused by bacteria and could be cured with antibiotics. The drug companies did everything they could to prevent his discovery becoming an accepted treatment, they were making too much money out of the acid reducing drugs like Zantac that treated the symptoms but didn’t cure.
I developed an ulcer after taking anti-inflammatories, a common cause I didn’t know about at the time & discovered too late. For over a year I was prescribed the standard treatment, they alternated between different brands as each would lose it’s effectiveness after about a month. A very cosy deal for the drug companies, they all had a bite at the profit cherry. Then one day I found a doctor who’d been reading about the Aussie discovery. He prescribed antibiotics and the ulcer was gone in a week… never to return like it did with the old treatment.
This is one of the fundamental flaws with long patents. It removes a lot of the motive for developing new drugs. Why spend dosh on research for more effective treatments & cures when you can keep raking it in from old medicines that cost peanuts to manufacture.
Ahhh… no. The only impact on Pharmac is the potential extra costs involved with new Biologics that come online. But as you seem to be implying that Pharmacutical companies lie about the benefit of the drugs it seems we won’t have much to worry about if we don’t take them.
There you are again pretending to have a crystal ball. How about the profit boosting revenue generating recommendation that every American be screened for depression
” The only impact on Pharmac is the potential extra costs involved with new Biologics that come online”
Biologics are the current/most obvious example of expensive, innovative new drugs, not the sum of.
Because pharmaceuticals companies massage the data, doesn’t mean drugs don’t work – it means the model they are working under is not fit for purpose (if that purpose is to provide the best possible meds that have the least harmful side effects).
But the rivals share common ground in a key area of economic and trade policy which, if it comes to pass, could damage New Zealand’s interests.
Both men want to tear up free trade deals, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership which the US, along with 11 other nations around the region, signed in Auckland last week. New Zealand’s prosperity rests on the ability to get exports into markets with as few impediments as possible.
Sanders and Trump alike complain that trade deals signed by Washington over the years have come at the expense of American jobs. This has been an argument against trade liberalisation all along, but the political consensus that everyone benefits from free trade has prevailed.
Now this policy is under fierce attack, with Trump and Sanders accusing the US political establishment of opening up American markets without extracting equal concessions from trade partners.
Trump also proposes a steep tariff on Chinese imports – a move which would invite Beijing’s retaliation. The implications for the global economy – and for New Zealand – could be profound. The White House race clearly bears watching.
Not really. The Us can’t state that it hasn’t got the ability to send produce here because our barriers are already low. This means they can’t stonewall on these areas by claiming they will only lower their barriers if we lower ours.
I see Admin has posted a long article about the history of the 1951 Waterfront Strike.
Lots of detailed history but omits stating that the National Government which locked out the workers and brought in the Army to work the ships was led by Sidney George Holland who after being invited to join the war-time cabinet, left after only a short time and stayed out for the rest of the war.
He was a nasty piece of work in my opinion and our present PM reminds me of him in many ways.
Neither ever had to handle lampblack in paper bags.
On 2 Feb. my wife and I were only dispensed 1month’s supply of an essential , for us, drug rather than the 3 months supply that our Doctor had prescribed. The Pharmacy said they understood there was a shortage.
Here is the official statement from Pharmac to pharmacies.
Metoprolol succinate long-acting – stock shortage
From 11 December 2015, stat dispensing was removed from all strengths of metoprolol succinate long-acting tabs, 23.75 mg, 47.5 mg, 95 mg and 190 mg, with prescriptions presented needing to be dispensed in monthly lots due to a manufacturing and supply issue.
There is a potential lack of sufficient supply of some strengths over the next few months. PHARMAC anticipate that during January 2016 the 190 mg long-acting tabs supply will be exhausted and patients on the 190 mg long-acting tabs will need to be dispensed 2 x 95 mg long-acting tabs as a replacement. It will be important to ensure all patients are aware of the need to take more tablets than they are used to during this time and vice versa when reinstating the 190 mg tabs. Stat dispensing for this product should be reinstated 1 March 2016.
Thought Standardistas might like to know. No reason for the shortage was given as far as I could see.
For years, Dr. Harry Lever, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, has been warning nearly anyone who would listen of his growing suspicions about generic versions of a widely used heart drug, Toprol XL.
Patient after patient, he said, would visit his office complaining of chest pains or other symptoms after switching from the brand-name version, made by AstraZeneca, to a generic product, often one made in India. When he switched them back to the brand — or to another generic — the symptoms disappeared, he said. Dr. Lever wrote a letter outlining his concerns to the Food and Drug Administration in 2012, and this year, he traveled to Washington to try to get the attention of Congress.
Dr. Lever could not prove that the generic drugs were to blame. “You see enough people and you get a feel, but it’s anecdotes,” he said in an interview Monday. “It’s not science.”
Now, Dr. Lever is feeling a sort of sad vindication. Two large Indian manufacturers, Wockhardt and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, have announced recalls over the last two months totaling more than 100,000 bottles because their products were not dissolving properly — therefore probably not working as they should. The drug is a beta blocker that treats high blood pressure and heart ailments.
@CV
So there is no confusion medically , metoprolol is the generic name for this medicine also known as Beta Blockers.
Here is the complete list of names used:-
Brand Names: Lopressor, Metoprolol Succinate ER, Metoprolol Tartrate, Toprol-XL
Generic Name: metoprolol (Pronunciation: me TOE pro lol)
CV & Alwyn are entitled to have their little political discussion about Pharmac but I was simply trying to bring this shortage situation to the attention of TS readers.
I presume you are talking about the 2008 story. I only picked it out to illustrate what has been going on ever since 1997 when we adopted the system. I wasn’t advocating for those drugs.
I think that it is completely impossible to provide ALL possible health care. I remember back about 1980 an economist I know showed that you could spend the entire health budget on providing maximum care for kidney disease. Every single cent. There is simply no upper limit on what health care could cost, and compromise is essential.
Sometimes politicians, catering to public demand, get it wrong. John Key admitted recently that their promise of 12 month treatments with Herceptin, although popular with the public, was wrong and that there was no advantage from the longer period.
Yes. He is about the only politician I can think of though who admitted it.
I cannot think of a single occasion when his predecessor ever ‘fessed up about one of her mistakes.
It is a real shame that Little hasn’t learned from that. Instead he is setting himself up as the arbiter in the case of Pembrolizumab. Why doesn’t he take the expert opinions of Pharmac?
He really is thick that fellow. Instead of learning from Key’s mistake in promising to go to Waitangi every year he is repeating the error.
Yes. He is about the only politician I can think of though who admitted it.
I cannot think of a single occasion when his predecessor ever ‘fessed up about one of her mistakes.
???
Turning bloody mindedness and ignoring advice into a virtue now?
Do you really think the PM has learnt not to ignore professional advice now?
He may be, at least as far as Pharmac goes, take their advice in the future.
Of course it wasn’t a virtue. It is not doing it in the future and learning from earlier mistakes by yourself or others that is the virtue.
“OK maybe, however I bet you that the PM will continue to ignore good advice whenever it suits him.
We already know his attitude: if he doesn’t like the advice that he gets, he’ll just go fishing for another opinion until he finds one he does like.”
These are the very points we (at ts) strive to educate the unsuspecting voter about, but it’s a hard job to get through to some of them.
It’s not only Key, it’s the whole lot of them, from the $6B man McCully (Leaky Home Syndrome) to Bennett, Collins, English the double dipper, the list just doesn’t stop, there are too many “sheeple” and not enough people in NZ to recognise this.
Andrew Geddis reports that amongst Republicans Trump has less than 30% support. No way he can get majority of Republican support in the long run.
I suppose while there were 12 nominees the apparent support was just because the votes were spread over so many. As the number of nominees drops the Trump ranking will drop. Cruz is much more dangerous than Trump.
Sanders has no chance of beating Clinton. The delegates and super delegates have him beaten before he starts.
I wouldn’t say that Sanders has no chance, but it is certainly an uphill battle. I’ve commented on the superdelegate issue before, but this is a good backgrounder from today’s Salon:
“Clinton has endorsements from more than 360 Democratic superdelegates, versus eight for Sanders. According to our back-of-envelope math, that means Sanders must win 54% of the remaining delegates to get to the magic number of 2,382 delegates to clinch the nomination., while Clinton needs to win just 46%. That is a huge advantage, especially when you consider that the 2008 Democratic delegate race between Barack Obama and Clinton was essentially a 52%-48% affair.”
The caveat to this, as NBC notes, is that the pressure on those superdelegates to switch will be considerable if Sanders manages to win the popular vote in their respective states. But there’s no guarantee of that, which highlights just how absurd and undemocratic this process is. When Clinton supporters insist the electoral math favors her, this is part of the reason why. And it’s also the reason Sanders supporters aren’t wrong when they say the establishment is in the tank for Clinton.
Me too Andre and Masupial. Still a faint hope for Sanders, though convention and staus quo is pretty powerful against him. At the very least maybe a significant message will be getting through to management signalled by Sander’s support.
The biggest reasons why the GOP hates the Clintons is that they implemented 80% of their agenda — ie welfare reform (love to know what happens when the 5 year limit is maxed out), NAFTA, zero tolerance low and order policies, etc. The republicans cannot take credit because the Clintons swiped their core planks. And they are mad as hell.
I think you’re misreading where Geddis was going with that. Trump could easily win the majority of delegates with only 35% support and hence win the nomination. At which point the majority of Republicans would be very unhappy, which is the point I think he was trying to make.
Yes. Clinton’s record as a foreign warmonger, agent of the bankster class and blatant dishonesty over her official and personal emails, will all hurt her.
The main thing which will put a hole in the side of her campaign however is the fact that she represents the status quo political establishment.
In short, Clinton can manipulate the Democratic Party hierarchy to win the party’s nomination, but she can’t use the same tricks on the general electorate.
although it is very early days in the nomination process and I am unconvinced Trump will end up with the nomination, if it came to Clinton Trump option for president the fact Clinton represents the old guard and the status quo won’t count for as much as the fear of a lunatic with the nuclear codes….the American system may be bizarre but I don’t believe the majority of the population are certifiable
I think the Deep State will swing in hard against Trump if he finally looks like getting the nomination.
Also, Trump supporters are not “lunatics” or “certifiable.”
As I said, Trump has been dead set against foreign wars during his campaign, and he will point out that Clinton has been for foreign wars, as well as assassinating foreign leaders (Gadaffi) and killing old sick men with extreme prejudice (Bin Laden).
In many ways, if you want to avoid a nuclear confrontation between the USA and China/Russia, Trump is the person to vote for, not Clinton.
Interesting article on large dam failure, with a pertinent point at the end about how if we build something industrial that we are reliant on and/or that is dangerous if it fails, we have to have the capacity to either dismantle it or look after it in perpetuity. The article suggests that the age of the large dams is over and ‘other’ renewables are now more competitive, but I think we should be applying the same general principles to solar, wind, wave etc as well. What is our capacity to maintain in perpetuity in a post-carbon age? This is at the crux of “green tech replacement to keep our current lifestyles”, vs “let’s learn to live within out limits”. At the moment we still far to focussed on the former and not paying attention to the latter.
On January 11th, the New York Times reported that Mosul Dam, the largest such structure in Iraq, urgently requires maintenance to prevent its collapse, a disaster that could drown as many as five hundred thousand people downstream and leave a million homeless. Four days earlier, the energy minister of Zambia declared that Kariba Dam, which straddles the border between his country and Zimbabwe, holding back the world’s largest reservoir, was in “dire” condition. An unprecedented drought threatens to shut down the dam’s power production, which supplies nearly half the nation’s electricity.
The World Bank and other international financiers like dams because they seem to offer large-scale solutions to energy and water shortages. Kariba is just one of more than two thousand large dams in Africa; Zimbabwe, one of the world’s poorest nations, has at least two hundred and fifty-four. But maintaining a dam is expensive—and much less popular than building one. Even in affluent countries such as the United States—whose dam infrastructure is in sufficient disrepair to have earned a “D” rating from the American Society of Civil Engineers, in 2013—maintenance is often neglected; it’s not likely to fare better in impoverished, corruption-ridden countries such as Zimbabwe or Iraq. Dams can’t be drained, and dismantling them can be as costly as building them. It’s the trap of Industrial Age technology: once mechanized systems supplant natural ones, they must be managed in perpetuity, or else they break down.
Yes, economics. And a social decision on what kind of risks are acceptable for the long term storage of hazardous waste. For example, the Yucca Mountain storage facility was canned partly because it couldn’t guarantee absolute containment for 10,000 years. In this particular case, it looks to me like the nuclear industry is being required to meet much much higher standards of long term safety than coal, mining, chemical…pretty much any other industrial activity.
Personally, I would be in favour of simply cordoning off large areas around nuclear plants and leaving them be. The wildlife around Chernobyl is apparently thriving.
Probably because humans get a bit more upset about radiation-induced mutations and diseases in human babies that they do see, compared to their reaction to radiation-induced mutations and diseases in wild animals that they never see (and that end up dying quickly anyway).
Right, so when people say the wild life are thriving the implication is that that it’s not that bad, but that is in fact very misleading. It’s also anathema to those of us who think in systems and can see the impact on the ecosystem rather than a few dead rabbit babies.
The lesson from Chernobyl’s exclusion zone (by comparison to the nearest wildlife reserves) appears to be that the presence of any humans at all (no matter how few) apparently has a more damaging effect on wild ecosystems than a small radiation load.
What is our capacity to maintain in perpetuity in a post-carbon age?
That is dependent upon our ability and propensity to recycle rather than anything else. Unfortunately, there’s a very good reason why we called a consumerist society. We consume without though for the future because consumption increases profits for the rich.
Very true, and it’s also driven at the production side, we’re in the age of planned obsolescence (bloody Apple are about the change the power port on their iphone to a new shape that no-one else uses including older iphones. That should be illegal), and let’s make things that break so people have to buy a new one. All that will have to go in a post-carbon world.
We can probably assume that windfarms are both less breakable and have less parts that are intentionally obsolete, but I still think that there is an issue here particularly around manufacture and distribution and the extent to which we can get those techs up and running closer to home and in a more resilient way. How much of replacement parts for critical infrastructure are currently manufactured overseas?
(bloody Apple are about the change the power port on their iphone to a new shape that no-one else uses including older iphones. That should be illegal
Yes it should be. Such things should be set by legal standard.
How much of replacement parts for critical infrastructure are currently manufactured overseas?
Again, wrong question. The question is actually Why aren’t we producing them here?
And the answer to that is our delusional financial system that has been designed to protect and enrich the already rich. A financial system that is designed to turn the majority of people into serfs of the few.
That’s an important question, but so is mine and here’s why. If we want to get to a position of being able to manufacture and maintain our own infrastructure, we have to understand the lack of resiliency we currently have, both at the system level and the engineering audit level. This is in the context of shifting awareness as much as anything.
At the system level, I think once people start thinking about what would happen if the filters on the waterpumps in their town’s water suppy system couldn’t be replace then the overall necessity becomes much more apparent.
At the audit level, how much of our current infrastructure is currently dependent on overseas sources, and where are the particular vulnerabilities.
We all know the story about how NZ only has 3 days worth of groceries in the supermarkets. After the Fukushima tsunami it was really hard to get parts for my Subaru for a while. But those examples are too isolated. When we have more stories like this across the board, people will be more willing to consider that we should be manufacturing more here.
Australian minister resigns for breaching code of conduct
Friday, 12 February 2016
The New Zealand Herald
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ” An embattled Australian government minister resigned on Friday for breaching ministerial standards through a business trip to China, clearing the way for the prime minister to announce a final Cabinet reshuffle ahead of elections due this year.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said an investigation found Stuart Robert had breached the government’s Code of Ministerial Standards through his 2014 trip to Beijing with a friend and donor to the ruling Liberal Party, Paul Marks. Marks made the trip to seal a mining deal between his company Nimrod Resources and Chinese government-owned Minmetals.
…
______________
After all, why do corporations and the super-rich pour money into campaigns and lobbying? Sometimes political convictions are at play. But far more so than small-scale donors, the biggest spenders are investing in favorable policy outcomes. Money doesn’t just give big spenders the chance to express a view or support a candidate; it gives them leverage to reshape the American economy in their favor. And as the richest have pulled away from the rest of America, the policies they want—extremely low tax rates on the wealthy at a time of record deficits, rampant underinvestment in our future, special treatment for corporations that are imposing major environmental costs and financial risks on our society—are increasingly at odds with the policies the country desperately needs.
It’s about the US but we see exactly the same workings here through National’s Cabinet Club and other money anonymising entities.
This sounds very dodgy to me. This occurred when there was a deadlock on cars, dairy etc.
3 hours ago
Japan denies snub of Canada in TPP side deal
OTTAWA — Japanese officials say they believed they were also negotiating with Canada and Mexico when they struck a controversial side agreement with the United States on automobiles last year during the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks.
They discussed that agreement with U.S., which angered Canada and Mexico, in a briefing ahead of a Friday meeting between Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion and his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida.
….
he Japan-U.S. deal on rules of origin in the auto sector would have allowed a higher percentage of Japanese parts in cars in North America’s highly integrated industry. The fallout stalled completion of the 12-country Pacific Rim deal by at least two months.
The Japanese officials say they were surprised to learn that they had negotiated a deal with only the United States.
Mexico’s former ambassador to Canada has said the side deal angered the Canadians and Mexicans and nearly drove the two countries from the bargaining table.
But the Japanese officials, who briefed journalists on the condition they not be named, said their government didn’t think they were doing anything to snub Canada and Mexico.
“We thought that the U.S. represented Canada and Mexico,” said one.
This is awesome, making scientific knowledge free. What needs to complement this is freely available education on how to be scientifically literate that is aimed at lay people (so not written by geeks, sorry geeks).
A researcher in Russia has made more than 48 million journal articles – almost every single peer-reviewed paper every published – freely available online. And she’s now refusing to shut the site down, despite a court injunction and a lawsuit from Elsevier, one of the world’s biggest publishers.
“Payment of $32 is just insane when you need to skim or read tens or hundreds of these papers to do research. I obtained these papers by pirating them,” Elbakyan told Torrent Freak last year. “Everyone should have access to knowledge regardless of their income or affiliation. And that’s absolutely legal.”
If it sounds like a modern day Robin Hood struggle, that’s because it kinda is. But in this story, it’s not just the poor who don’t have access to scientific papers – journal subscriptions have become so expensive that leading universities such as Harvard and Cornell have admitted they can no longer afford them. Researchers have also taken a stand – with 15,000 scientists vowing to boycott publisher Elsevier in part for its excessive paywall fees.
That’s where Sci-Hub comes into the picture. The site works in two stages. First of all when you search for a paper, Sci-Hub tries to immediately download it from fellow pirate database LibGen. If that doesn’t work, Sci-Hub is able to bypass journal paywalls thanks to a range of access keys that have been donated by anonymous academics (thank you, science spies).
Super awesome! I’m doing a bit of work for a non-profit at the moment and getting access to journal articles as an independent researcher is frustratingly difficult.
I’m very grateful for open access authors and publications, but this is amazing.
Let me know how you find it. I’m getting a few pages with short message in Russian that I assume say no results, but sometimes there is a download of the article?
It’s great. I got that sort of message when I put the journal name in.
I’m looking at papers I already have the references for – if you enter that (jnl/vol/issue etc) , it will bring a google scholar list and go from there… or if say, you’re browsing abstracts at a journal site, paste the url for the paper into Sci-Hub and it will open the article directly.
Yep, I think I got that. Mostly I’ve been able to access the papers I want (even the free ones, no subscribing thank-god). With some of the less mainstream ones I’m getting the Russian note that sometimes does nothing.
“At a time when millions of Americans cannot afford to purchase the prescription drugs they require, we need a leader at the FDA who is prepared to stand up to the drug companies,” Sanders said.
“We need someone who will work to substantially lower drug prices, implement rules to safely import brand-name drugs from Canada and hold companies accountable who defraud our government.”
Sen. Sanders’ decision to block Dr. Califf’s appointment to the FDA hardly comes as a surprise for those who saw the Vermont senator’s epic takedown of Dr. Califf during his confirmation hearings last November.
During Sen. Sanders’ heated exchange with him, Sanders forced Dr. Califf’s hand, pointing out that since he supports the importing of fish products and vegetables from around the world, but not the importing of prescription drugs in Canada.
Dr. Califf also refused to take an official position on whether or not he supports allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs on behalf of seniors.
1.6. Along with the privilege of serving as a Minister, there is some personal sacrifice in terms of the time and energy that must be devoted to official duties and some loss of privacy.
Although their public lives encroach upon their private lives, it is critical that Ministers do not use public office for private purposes.
In particular, Ministers must not use any information that they gain in the course of their official duties, including in the course of Cabinet discussions, for personal gain or the benefit of any other person.
…..
____________________
How long would have Judith Collins lasted as ‘Minister of Justice’ if New Zealand had the equivalent of the following Australian ‘Statement of Ministerial Standards operating at the time she participated in three ‘networking opportunities’ for her friends and husband’s private company, Oravida when she visited China in her (then) Ministerial capacity?
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A pre-Covid protest about medical staffing shortages outside the Beehive. Since then the situation has only worsened, with 30% of doctors trained here now migrating within a decade. File Photo: Lynn GrievesonMōrena. Long stories shortest: The news this morning is dominated by the crises cascading through our health system after ...
Bargaining between the PSA and Oranga Tamariki over the collective agreement is intensifying – with more strike action likely, while the Employment Relations Authority has ordered facilitation. More than 850 laboratory staff are walking off their jobs in a week of rolling strike action. Union coverage CTU: Confidence in ...
Foreign Minister Penny Wong in 2024 said that ‘we’re in a state of permanent contest in the Pacific—that’s the reality.’ China’s arrogance hurts it in the South Pacific. Mark that as a strong Australian card ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom/$3, NZ Herald/$, Stuff, BusinessDesk/$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT/$, WSJ/$, Bloomberg/$, New York Times/$, Washington Post/$, Wired/$, ...
In the past week, Israel has reverted to slaughtering civilians, starving children and welshing on the terms of the peace deal negotiated earlier this year. The IDF’s current offensive seems to be intended to render Gaza unlivable, preparatory (perhaps) to re-occupation by Israeli settlers. The short term demands for the ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 16, 2025 thru Sat, March 22, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. We are still interested ...
In recent months, I have garnered copious amusement playing Martin, chess.com’s infamously terrible Chess AI. Alas, it is not how it once was, when he would cheerfully ignore freely offered material. Martin has grown better since I first stumbled upon him. I still remain frustrated at his capture-happy determination to ...
Every time that I see ya,A lightning bolt fills the room,The underbelly of Paris,She sings her favourite tune,She'll drink you under the table,She'll show you a trick or two,But every time that I left her,I missed the things she would doSongwriters: Kelly JonesThis morning, I posted - Are you excited ...
Long stories shortest this week in our political economy:Standard & Poor’s judged the Government’s council finance reforms a failure. Professional investors showed the Government they want it to borrow more, not less. GDP bounced out of recession by more than forecast in the December quarter, but data for the ...
Each day at 4:30 my brother calls in at the rest home to see Dad. My visits can be months apart. Five minutes after you've left, he’ll have forgotten you were there, but every time, his face lights up and it’s a warm happy visit.Tim takes care of almost everything ...
On the 19th of March, ACT announced they would be running candidates in this year’s local government elections. Accompanying that call for “common-sense kiwis” was an anti-woke essay typifying the views they expect their candidates to hold. I have included that part of their mailer, Free Press, in its entirety. ...
Even when the darkest clouds are in the skyYou mustn't sigh and you mustn't crySpread a little happiness as you go byPlease tryWhat's the use of worrying and feeling blue?When days are long keep on smiling throughSpread a little happiness 'til dreams come trueSongwriters: Vivian Ellis / Clifford Grey / ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom/$3, NZ Herald/$, Stuff, BusinessDesk/$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT/$, WSJ/$, Bloomberg/$, New York Times/$, Washington Post/$, Wired/$, ...
ACT up the game on division politicsEmmerson’s take on David Seymour’s claim Jesus would have supported ACTACT’s announcement it is moving into local politics is a logical next step for a party that is waging its battle on picking up the aggrieved.It’s a numbers game, and as long as the ...
1. What will be the slogan of the next butter ad campaign?a. You’re worth itb.Once it hits $20, we can do something about the riversc. I can’t believe it’s the price of butter d. None of the above Read more ...
It is said that economists know the price of everything and the value of nothing. That may be an exaggeration but an even better response is to point out economists do know the difference. They did not at first. Classical economics thought that the price of something reflected the objective ...
Political fighting in Taiwan is delaying some of an increase in defence spending and creating an appearance of lack of national resolve that can only damage the island’s relationship with the Trump administration. The main ...
The unclassified version of the 2024 Independent Intelligence Review (IIR) was released today. It’s a welcome and worthy sequel to its 2017 predecessor, with an ambitious set of recommendations for enhancements to Australia’s national intelligence ...
Yesterday outgoing Ombudsman Peter Boshier published a report, Reflections on the Official Information Act, on his way out the door. The report repeated his favoured mantra that the Act was "fundamentally sound", all problems were issues of culture, and that no legislative change was needed (and especially no changes to ...
The United States government is considering replacing USAID with a new agency, the US Agency for International Humanitarian Assistance (USIHA), according to documents published by POLITICO. Under the proposed design, the agency will fail its ...
Hi,Journalism was never the original plan. Back in the 90s, there was no career advisor in Bethlehem, New Zealand — just a computer that would ask you 50 questions before spitting out career options. Yes, I am in this photo. No, I was not good at basketball.The top three careers ...
Mōrena. Long stories shortest: Professional investors who are paid a lot of money to be careful about lending to the New Zealand Government think it is wonderful place to put their money. Yet the Government itself is so afraid of borrowing more that it is happy to kill its own ...
As space becomes more contested, Australia should play a key role with its partners in the Combined Space Operations (CSpO) initiative to safeguard the space domain. Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States signed the ...
Ooh you're a cool catComing on strong with all the chit chatOoh you're alrightHanging out and stealing all the limelightOoh messing with the beat of my heart yeah!Songwriters: Freddie Mercury / John Deacon.It would be a tad ironic; I can see it now. “Yeah, I didn’t unsubscribe when he said ...
The PSA are calling the Prime Minister a hypocrite for committing to increase defence spending while hundreds of more civilian New Zealand Defence Force jobs are set to be cut as part of a major restructure. The number of companies being investigated for people trafficking in New Zealand has skyrocketed ...
Another Friday, hope everyone’s enjoyed their week as we head toward the autumn equinox. Here’s another roundup of stories that caught our eye on the subject of cities and what makes them even better. This week in Greater Auckland On Monday, Connor took a look at how Auckland ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking with special guest author Michael Wolff, who has just published his fourth book about Donald Trump: ‘All or Nothing’.Here’s Peter’s writeup of the interview.The Kākā by Bernard Hickey Hoon: Trumpism ...
Wolff, who describes Trump as truly a ‘one of a kind’, at a book launch in Spain. Photo: GettyImagesIt may be a bumpy ride for the world but the era of Donald J. Trump will die with him if we can wait him out says the author of four best-sellers ...
Australia needs to radically reorganise its reserves system to create a latent military force that is much larger, better trained and equipped and deployable within days—not decades. Our current reserve system is not fit for ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom/$3, NZ Herald/$, Stuff, BusinessDesk/$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT/$, WSJ/$, Bloomberg/$, New York Times/$, Washington Post/$, Wired/$, ...
I have argued before that one ought to be careful in retrospectively allocating texts into genres. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) only looks like science-fiction because a science-fiction genre subsequently developed. Without H.G. Wells, would Frankenstein be considered science-fiction? No, it probably wouldn’t. Viewed in the context of its time, Frankenstein ...
Elbridge Colby’s senate confirmation hearing in early March holds more important implications for US partners than most observers in Canberra, Wellington or Suva realise. As President Donald Trump’s nominee for under secretary of defence for ...
China’s defence budget is rising heftily yet again. The 2025 rise will be 7.2 percent, the same as in 2024, the government said on 5 March. But the allocation, officially US$245 billion, is just the ...
Concern is growing about wide-ranging local repercussions of the new Setting of Speed Limits rule, rewritten in 2024 by former transport minister Simeon Brown. In particular, there’s growing fears about what this means for children in particular. A key paradox of the new rule is that NZTA-controlled roads have the ...
Speilmeister:Christopher Luxon’s prime-ministerial pitches notwithstanding, are institutions with billions of dollars at their disposal really going to invest them in a country so obviously in a deep funk?HAVING WOOED THE WORLD’s investors, what, if anything, has New Zealand won? Did Christopher Luxon’s guests board their private jets fizzing with enthusiasm for ...
Christchurch City Council is one of 18 councils and three council-controlled organisations (CCOs) downgraded by ratings agency S&P. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories shortest:Standard & Poor’s has cut the credit ratings of 18 councils, blaming the new Government’s abrupt reversal of 3 Waters, cuts to capital ...
Figures released by Statistics New Zealand today showed that the economy grew by 0.7% ending the very deep recession seen over the past year, said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “Even though GDP grew in the three months to December, our economy is still 1.1% smaller than it ...
What is going on with the price of butter?, RNZ, 19 march 2025: If you have bought butter recently you might have noticed something - it is a lot more expensive. Stats NZ said last week that the price of butter was up 60 percent in February compared to ...
I agree with Will Leben, who wrote in The Strategist about his mistakes, that an important element of being a commentator is being accountable and taking responsibility for things you got wrong. In that spirit, ...
You’d beDrunk by noon, no one would knowJust like the pandemicWithout the sourdoughIf I were there, I’d find a wayTo get treated for hysteriaEvery dayLyrics Riki Lindhome.A varied selection today in Nick’s Kōrero:Thou shalt have no other gods - with Christopher Luxon.Doctors should be seen and not heard - with ...
Two recent foreign challenges suggest that Australia needs urgently to increase its level of defence self-reliance and to ensure that the increased funding that this would require is available. First, the circumnavigation of our continent ...
Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom/$3, NZ Herald/$, Stuff, BusinessDesk/$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT/$, WSJ/$, Bloomberg/$, New York Times/$, The Atlantic-$, The ...
According to RNZ’s embedded reporter, the importance of Winston Peters’ talks in Washington this week “cannot be overstated.” Right. “Exceptionally important.” said the maestro himself. This epic importance doesn’t seem to have culminated in anything more than us expressing our “concern” to the Americans about a series of issues that ...
Up until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of "Climate Fresk" and at a guess, this will also be the case for many of you. I stumbled upon it in the self-service training catalog for employees at the company I work at in Germany where it was announced ...
Japan and Australia talk of ‘collective deterrence,’ but they don’t seem to have specific objectives. The relationship needs a clearer direction. The two countries should identify how they complement each other. Each country has two ...
The NZCTU strongly supports the OPC’s decision to issue a code of practice for biometric processing. Our view is that the draft code currently being consulted on is stronger and will be more effective than the exposure code released in early 2024. We are pleased that some of the revisions ...
Australia’s export-oriented industries, particularly agriculture, need to diversify their markets, with a focus on Southeast Asia. This could strengthen economic security and resilience while deepening regional relationships. The Trump administration’s decision to impose tariffs on ...
Minister Shane Jones is introducing fastrack ‘reforms’ to the our fishing industry that will ensure the big players squeeze out the small fishers and entrench an already bankrupt quota system.Our fisheries are under severe stress: the recent decision by theHigh Court ruling that the ...
In what has become regular news, the quarterly ETS auction has failed, with nobody even bothering to bid. The immediate reason is that the carbon price has fallen to around $60, below the auction minimum of $68. And the cause of that is a government which has basically given up ...
US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats have dominated headlines in India in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Trump announced that his reciprocal tariffs—matching other countries’ tariffs on American goods—will go into effect on 2 April, ...
Hi,Back in June of 2021, James Gardner-Hopkins — a former partner at law firm Russell McVeagh — was found guilty of misconduct over sexually inappropriate behaviour with interns.The events all related to law students working as summer interns at Russell McVeagh:As well as intimate touching with a student at his ...
Climate sceptic MP Mark Cameron has slammed National for being ‘out of touch’ by sticking to our climate commitments. Photo: Lynn GrievesonMōrena. Long stories shortest:ACT’s renowned climate sceptic MP Mark Cameron has accused National of being 'out of touch' with farmers by sticking with New Zealand’s Paris accord pledges ...
Now I've heard there was a secret chordThat David played, and it pleased the LordBut you don't really care for music, do you?It goes like this, the fourth, the fifthThe minor falls, the major liftsThe baffled king composing HallelujahSongwriter: Leonard CohenI always thought the lyrics of that great song by ...
People are getting carried away with the virtues of small warship crews. We need to remember the great vice of having few people to run a ship: they’ll quickly tire. Yes, the navy is struggling ...
Mōrena. Here’s my selection1 of scoops, breaking news, news, analyses, deep-dives, features, interviews, Op-Eds, editorials and cartoons from around Aotearoa’s political economy on housing, climate and poverty from RNZ, 1News, The Post-$2, The Press−$, Newsroom/$3, NZ Herald/$, Stuff, BusinessDesk/$, Politik-$, NBR-$, Reuters, FT/$, WSJ/$, Bloomberg/$, New York Times/$, The Atlantic-$, ...
US President Donald Trump’s hostile regime has finally forced Europe to wake up. With US officials calling into question the transatlantic alliance, Germany’s incoming chancellor, Friedrich Merz, recently persuaded lawmakers to revise the country’s debt ...
We need to establish clearer political boundaries around national security to avoid politicising ongoing security issues and to better manage secondary effects. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) revealed on 10 March that the Dural caravan ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have reiterated their call for Government to protect workers by banning engineered stone in a submission on MBIE’s silica dust consultation. “If Brooke van Velden is genuine when she calls for an evidence-based approach to this issue, then she must support a full ban on ...
The Labour Inspectorate could soon be knocking on the door of hundreds of businesses nation-wide, as it launches a major crackdown on those not abiding by the law. NorthTec staff are on edge as Northland’s leading polytechnic proposes to stop 11 programmes across primary industries, forestry, and construction. Union coverage ...
It’s one thing for military personnel to hone skills with first-person view (FPV) drones in racing competitions. It’s quite another for them to transition to the complexities of the battlefield. Drone racing has become a ...
Seymour says there will be no other exemptions granted to schools wanting to opt out of the Compass contract. Photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories shortest:David Seymour has denied a request from a Christchurch school and any other schools to be exempted from the Compass school lunch programme, saying the contract ...
Russian President Boris Yeltsin, U.S. President Bill Clinton, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, and British Prime Minister John Major signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in ...
Edit: The original story said “Palette Cleanser” in both the story, and the headline. I am never, ever going to live this down. Chain me up, throw me into the pit.Hi,With the world burning — literally and figuratively — I felt like Webworm needed a little palate cleanser at the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler(Image credit: Antonio Huerta) Growing up in suburban Ohio, I was used to seeing farmland and woods disappear to make room for new subdivisions, strip malls, and big box stores. I didn’t usually welcome the changes, but I assumed others ...
Myanmar was a key global site for criminal activity well before the 2021 military coup. Today, illicit industry, especially heroin and methamphetamine production, still defines much of the economy. Nowhere, not even the leafiest districts ...
What've I gotta do to make you love me?What've I gotta do to make you care?What do I do when lightning strikes me?And I wake up and find that you're not thereWhat've I gotta do to make you want me?Mmm hmm, what've I gotta do to be heard?What do I ...
Hundreds more Palestinians have died in recent days as Israel’s assault on Gaza continues and humanitarian aid, including food and medicine, is blocked. ...
National is looking to cut hundreds of jobs at New Zealand’s Defence Force, while at the same time it talks up plans to increase focus and spending in Defence. ...
It’s been revealed that the Government is secretly trying to bring back a ‘one-size fits all’ standardised test – a decision that has shocked school principals. ...
The Green Party is calling for the compassionate release of Dean Wickliffe, a 77-year-old kaumātua on hunger strike at the Spring Hill Corrections Facility, after visiting him at the prison. ...
The Green Party is calling on Government MPs to support Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence and illegal actions in Palestine, following another day of appalling violence against civilians in Gaza. ...
The Green Party stands in support of volunteer firefighters petitioning the Government to step up and change legislation to provide volunteers the same ACC coverage and benefits as their paid counterparts. ...
At 2.30am local time, Israel launched a treacherous attack on Gaza killing more than 300 defenceless civilians while they slept. Many of them were children. This followed a more than 2 week-long blockade by Israel on the entry of all goods and aid into Gaza. Israel deliberately targeted densely populated ...
Living Strong, Aging Well There is much discussion around the health of our older New Zealanders and how we can age well. In reality, the delivery of health services accounts for only a relatively small percentage of health outcomes as we age. Significantly, dry warm housing, nutrition, exercise, social connection, ...
Shane Jones’ display on Q&A showed how out of touch he and this Government are with our communities and how in sync they are with companies with little concern for people and planet. ...
Labour does not support the private ownership of core infrastructure like schools, hospitals and prisons, which will only see worse outcomes for Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is disappointed the Government voted down Hūhana Lyndon’s member’s Bill, which would have prevented further alienation of Māori land through the Public Works Act. ...
The Labour Party will support Chloe Swarbrick’s member’s bill which would allow sanctions against Israel for its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories. ...
The Government’s new procurement rules are a blatant attack on workers and the environment, showing once again that National’s priorities are completely out of touch with everyday Kiwis. ...
With Labour and Te Pāti Māori’s official support, Opposition parties are officially aligned to progress Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in Palestine. ...
Te Pāti Māori extends our deepest aroha to the 500 plus Whānau Ora workers who have been advised today that the govt will be dismantling their contracts. For twenty years , Whānau Ora has been helping families, delivering life-changing support through a kaupapa Māori approach. It has built trust where ...
Labour welcomes Simeon Brown’s move to reinstate a board at Health New Zealand, bringing the destructive and secretive tenure of commissioner Lester Levy to an end. ...
This morning’s announcement by the Health Minister regarding a major overhaul of the public health sector levels yet another blow to the country’s essential services. ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill that will ensure employment decisions in the public service are based on merit and not on forced woke ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ targets. “This Bill would put an end to the woke left-wing social engineering and diversity targets in the public sector. ...
Police have referred 20 offenders to Destiny Church-affiliated programmes Man Up and Legacy as ‘wellness providers’ in the last year, raising concerns that those seeking help are being recruited into a harmful organisation. ...
Te Pāti Māori welcomes the resignation of Richard Prebble from the Waitangi Tribunal. His appointment in October 2024 was a disgrace- another example of this government undermining Te Tiriti o Waitangi by appointing a former ACT leader who has spent his career attacking Māori rights. “Regardless of the reason for ...
The challenge now is to get the best possible outcome from the split Act model. We will be working closely with the Government over the course of this year to that end. We simply must have a more nuanced outcome from this process than from the Fast-track ...
The Free Speech Union has made two submissions advocating for more speech, not less, on the Media Reform Proposals and the Regulatory Systems (Occupational Regulation) Amendment Bill, says Jonathan Ayling, Chief Executive of the Free Speech Union. “Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Windholz, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University Last week, the Novak Djokovic-led Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) announced it was suing the sport’s governing bodies – the men’s (ATP) and women’s (WTA) tours, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the ...
The Children's Minister says Oranga Tamariki's breaching of confidential information of children and families could not be allowed to continue under this government's watch. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Alexander Donald, Professor of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney Irene Miller/Shutterstock Silicosis is an incurable but entirely preventable lung disease. It has only one cause: breathing in too much silica dust. This is a risk in several industries, including tunnelling, stone masonry ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Southern Cross, a French-hosted regional military exercise, is moving to Wallis and Futuna Islands this year. The exercise, which includes participating regional armed and law enforcement forces from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga every two years, is ...
“The Government has rightly decided to scrap Councils’ focus on social and cultural ‘wellbeings’ and get them back to getting the basics right first, and it’s time Dunedin Council followed suit.” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christina McCabe, PhD Candidate in Interdisciplinary Ecology, University of Canterbury Shutterstock/S Watson When we think about flood management, higher stop banks, stronger levees and concrete barriers usually come to mind. But what if the best solution – for people and nature ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – Like a relentless ocean, wave after wave of pro-Palestinian pro-human rights protesters disrupted New Zealand deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters’ state of the nation speech at the Christchurch Town Hall yesterday. A clarion call to Trumpism and Australia’s One Nation ...
Pacific Media Watch Paris-based global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has recalled that 20 journalists were killed during the six-year Philippines presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, a regime marked by fierce repression of the press. Former president Duterte was arrested earlier this week as part of an International Criminal ...
"The councillors were given tickets because they are councillors, at the very same time they're considering the future of the stadium. It's beyond belief that anyone is defending this." ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Saige England in Christchurch Like a relentless ocean, wave after wave of pro-Palestinian pro-human rights protesters disrupted New Zealand deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters’ state of the nation speech at the Christchurch Town Hall yesterday. A clarion call to Trumpism and Australia’s One Nation Party, the speech ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Morgan poll, conducted March 10–16 from a sample of 2,097, gave Labor a 54.5–45.5 lead by headline respondent preferences, a ...
Julie Hill reviews the Meta exposé written by the New Zealander who used to work there. Sarah Wynn-Williams begins to get a sense that she isn’t in for a normal life when, at 13, she is munched by a shark. The Christchurch teenager is at the beach, on holiday with ...
The proposal to remove the living wage requirement from public sector procurement rules turns back the clock on a progressive step towards valuing essential workers, argues Lyndy McIntyre.On April 1, workers on the minimum wage will get their annual pay rise, with their hourly rate moving from $23.15 to ...
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith recalls a serene week eating raw fish and swimming in Samoa.In June 2023, I travelled from Tāmaki Makaurau to Samoa with my (now) ex-boyfriend’s family (love (most of) you guys). We spent a beautiful nearly two weeks with sand stuck to our skin and salt water dripping ...
The Labour Party’s Tangi Utikere is Palmerston North’s biggest champion and an MP on the come-up. There’s an ancient adage familiar to Palmerstonians (as in, people from Palmerston North), uttered by a British explorer after a voyage through the land of the long white cloud: “if you wish to kill ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olivia Fisher, Senior Research Fellow, Applied Implementation Science, Charles Darwin University Seven million Australians live in rural and remote areas and many struggle to access the same quality of health care as those in metropolitan areas. More than 18,000 Australians have no ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Holland, Principal Research Scientist, Water Security, CSIRO A dry farm dam in Montacute, Adelaide Hills, March 2025. Ilan Sagi. The Adelaide Hills are experiencing severe water shortages. The root cause? A prolonged dry period and not enough water tankers to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin O’Brien, Associate Professor, School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University Getty Images When the United States starts a trade war with your country, how do you fight back? For individuals, one option is to wage a personal trade war ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Treasurer Jim Chalmers will bring down the federal budget on Tuesday. It’s likely most of the major spending initiatives have already been announced. An extra A$8.5 billion in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexis Weaver, Associate Lecturer in Music Technology, University of Sydney Shutterstock With artificial intelligence programs that can now generate entire songs on demand, you’d be forgiven for thinking AI might eventually lead to the decline of human-made music. But AI can ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justin Bergman, International Affairs Editor Both Labor and the Coalition are considering an increase to defence spending ahead of the federal election. Defence spending is currently at about 2% of gross domestic product (GDP), or around A$56 billion per year. The Coalition ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janeen Baxter, Director, ARC Life Course Centre and ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellow, The University of Queensland Australia has a gender problem. Despite social, economic and political reform aimed at improving opportunities for women, gender gaps are increasing and Australia is falling ...
Based on the 2023 and 2024 Budget Summary of Initiatives, CPAG refers to estimates of the cost of restoring school lunches to their 2024 standard, between $107-115 extra a year. ...
In a speech that channelled Trump-style rhetoric but stuck to old Peters themes, the NZ First leader mixed nationalism, culture war grievances and economic blame, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.An ‘outright litany’ of grievances Winston ...
The government is spending $2.7 billion on tertiary courses this year, but there are early signs it will not be enough to cover all the enrolments. ...
If you want to understand where this coalition Government is coming from, with its disdain for impoverished families and hungry children, Freddy the Frog, Te Tiriti, democratic conventions and other Kiwi decencies, George Monbiot’s The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism is illuminating.The book is short and vividly written, ...
Alice Robinson is slightly disoriented. It can’t be blamed on altitude, or the weight of the World Cup medals she’s hauled in this season.When LockerRoom caught up with the Kiwi giant slalom star by video call last week, she had to think for a moment where in the world she ...
Is this really why marijuana got banned in the 30s? A prohibitionist bureaucratic empire-builder was about to lose his empire so he had to find a new reason to keep it alive, and marijuana was the most convenient new bogeyman?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-influence/real-reasons-marijuana-is-banned_b_9210248.html
Yes -it’a an amazing book.
I haven’t read the book, but the; Anslinger role in post-prohibition cannabis outlawing has been common knowledge since at least the 90s (when I became aware of it). I found the Lincata information in that article fascinating though:
The ‘banning’ of hemp is a similar situation, involving the chemical companies who are poisoning the planet and its inhabitants
People will recognize the names invovled
Been working with a mate growing hemp – such an awesome plant, and so wrongly maligned
MM
2000 years ago, China’s whole civilisation was dependent on the Cannabis crop, interestingly, today they’re finding the medicinal benefits through science that the Chinese discovered thousands of years ago.
If it’s so bad for society, how come it’s legal in five states in the US and various other parts of the world, I would suggest that it’s a lot less harmful to society than cheap liquor and gambling.
Over the years I’ve read of many reasons why marijuana got banned. Racism and pressure from the cotton industry (hemp cloth is reportedly better and cheaper than cotton and grows pretty much everywhere) being the main ones.
Plus hemp does not destroy the soil like cotton does.
Has no natural insect enemies so no pesticides required which isn’t good business for big chemical/pharma interests.
Short videos on aspects of TPP
TPP and Sovereignty,
While the discussion is from the US point of view, the arguments all apply to NZ
http://video.thenewamerican.com/usnews/video/bill-jasper-christian-gomez-examination-tpp-pt-2
TPP and The Commission
The TPP commission – executive body of TPP, chapter 27
Functions of commission reviews agreement, amends, establish the model rules for arbitral tribunals,
TPP a living and evolving document
more members in, plus more powers…“integration” and “harmonisation”
eg harmonisation of health standards…
http://video.thenewamerican.com/usnews/video/bill-jasper-christian-gomez-examination-tpp-pt-4
missing link in post on TPP and the Commission
http://video.thenewamerican.com/usnews/video/bill-jasper-christian-gomez-examination-tpp-pt-3
Watched all 4 yesterday. Well worth the time TMA.
Y’all Qaeda rolls over and dies with barely a whimper.
Bonus: Cliven Bundy, the Osama of Y’all Qaeda, is finally arrested too.
http://www.salon.com/2016/02/12/dear_oregon_militia_men_heres_why_no_one_feels_sorry_for_you_and_rejects_your_mission_built_on_conservative_christian_rage/
Lots of details here.
https://twitter.com/jjmacnab
QFT
And we’ll see similar whinging here from the RWNJs when a Left leaning government gets in.
Except I think that populist rage in the US is very understandable and has very reasonable foundations.
It is mainly centred around the working class and the lower middle class being annhilated.
Bombshell Study Exposes Frightening Facts About Anti-Depressant Drugs & Pharmaceutical Companies
Big Pharma tactics: includes video with Dr Peter Rost, MD who “is a former vice president of Pfizer, and a whistleblower of the entire pharmaceutical industry in general. He is the author of The Whistleblower, Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman.”
Visible text
This is the unprincipled pharmaceutical industry which is going to require PHARMAC to justify its choice of drugs!
Link to article above
TMM – is it just me but I linked into your article and its a teaser – many people are on anti-depressants and will be linking into this as well – it just doesn’t say what the “frightening facts” are – everything but, it does say its dangerous for teenagers but again, why are the side effects not disclosed so people can make an evaluated guess. I do not disagree with you, big PHARMA are a devious corrupt lot but the article again, to me, is not very helpful and we are left not knowing. Most people accept there are side effects to drugs and if they need to take stuff will sort out what suits them best with their doctor. Good that you expose this though and most readers will not be surprised by this at all. Depression is a clinical imbalance in the brain and people who take these pills usually are in a pretty bad state so this is bad news really for them unfortunately.
@ Whispering Kate
Research paper
Suicidality and aggression during antidepressant treatment: systematic review and meta-analyses based on clinical study reports
http://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.i65
Thanks for that TMM – I think I’ve read sometime ago that teenagers were having suicidal tendencies and comitting suicide on anti depressants, this is terrible. Kids need to be cared for and research needs to be done to combat this. People I know who are on anti depressants (adults) say it has changed their whole lives, they can live their lives feeling like they once used to. I can see a huge difference in them.
I know that there are still a lot of people about who think, if you cannot tangibly see an illness – bandages etc, then “putting on some runners and going out and exercising” will be the cure, “buck up and get on with it” sort of advice. Depression has been with us forever and so has suicide, thankfully now for adults at least they can take something to balance out clinical imbalances occurring in the brain. John Kirwan did such a lot to advertise the seriousness of depression thankfully which has helped to change attitudes with Depression.
Not all depressions are the same and not all anti-depressants work the same way. It is often a process of ‘trial & error’ to match the ‘right’ anti-depressant to the ‘right’ patient; this involves a lead-in period.
The other thing to note with anti-depressants is that you cannot come off them suddenly (‘cold turkey’) without expecting a (strong) relapse. Taking these drugs at the right dose at the right time is fairly important and something that people don’t always stick to (compliance issues are a very common problem with pretty much all medication).
A combination of medication, counselling & support, and healthy life style (e.g. diet) is the way to effectively deal with depression. Lastly, it is thought that genetics do play a role in disposition to depression.
I temporarily worked for SKB (SmithKlineBeecham) in their customer purchase department, when Aropax was being marketed aggressively.
The strategy used to help promote sales was to allow the stocks of Stelazine to drop to near zero, and when pharmacies rang to order – say that Stelazine was out of stock and there was no confirmed production date, and direct them to Aropax.
There were many calls from irate GP’s and pharmacies, due to the fact that the transition from one drug to another was a minimum six weeks – if not more. Furthermore, many patients were successfully using Stelazine, and their supply was cut off suddenly and they had no choice but to change drugs. I’m guessing the patents on Aropax were more recent, and they were ensuring the crossover of as many patients as possible to this newer drug.
(Aropax (Paxil) was later found to be implicated in an increase in teenage suicide for it’s users, and SKB had hidden research papers which had these findings in order to ensure regulation.)
thanks for this first hand report of Big Pharma for-profit skullduggery
Nope, that’s how drug companies want to characterise the phenomenon, mainly because the solutions that they sell are chemical ones.
What is the alternative CV – sometimes therapy no matter how long just does not work.
I agree with CV on this one. Depression has more to do with your life situation and surroundings more than chemicals in your brain.
I know someone who was on prozac for about 11 years. She was pretty much bedridden for most of that time. Then one day she flushed her pills down the toilet and started walking.
Never looked back.
Unfortunately it is cheaper for the government and the non-profit industrial complex it underwrites to give the mentally ill and chronically depressed a prozac script, dump them into a boarding house and pay them $200 a week, rather than actually help them overcome their depression.
Spot on there Incognito.
Looks like they haven’t changed. I can still recall the treatment of the Aussie doctor who discovered stomach ulcers were caused by bacteria and could be cured with antibiotics. The drug companies did everything they could to prevent his discovery becoming an accepted treatment, they were making too much money out of the acid reducing drugs like Zantac that treated the symptoms but didn’t cure.
I developed an ulcer after taking anti-inflammatories, a common cause I didn’t know about at the time & discovered too late. For over a year I was prescribed the standard treatment, they alternated between different brands as each would lose it’s effectiveness after about a month. A very cosy deal for the drug companies, they all had a bite at the profit cherry. Then one day I found a doctor who’d been reading about the Aussie discovery. He prescribed antibiotics and the ulcer was gone in a week… never to return like it did with the old treatment.
This is one of the fundamental flaws with long patents. It removes a lot of the motive for developing new drugs. Why spend dosh on research for more effective treatments & cures when you can keep raking it in from old medicines that cost peanuts to manufacture.
Ahhh… no. The only impact on Pharmac is the potential extra costs involved with new Biologics that come online. But as you seem to be implying that Pharmacutical companies lie about the benefit of the drugs it seems we won’t have much to worry about if we don’t take them.
There you are again pretending to have a crystal ball. How about the profit boosting revenue generating recommendation that every American be screened for depression
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/01/26/all-adults-screened-for-depression/79347926/
Tell us some more about Venezuela…
bollocks
” The only impact on Pharmac is the potential extra costs involved with new Biologics that come online”
Biologics are the current/most obvious example of expensive, innovative new drugs, not the sum of.
Because pharmaceuticals companies massage the data, doesn’t mean drugs don’t work – it means the model they are working under is not fit for purpose (if that purpose is to provide the best possible meds that have the least harmful side effects).
Try http://www.badscience.net/category/big-pharma/ for a pretty conventional medical research pov on this topic if you’re really interested, much as I doubt that.
So – why the rush in New Zealand to ratify the TPPA?
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11588779
Editorial: US elections take adverse turn for NZ
…..
But the rivals share common ground in a key area of economic and trade policy which, if it comes to pass, could damage New Zealand’s interests.
Both men want to tear up free trade deals, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership which the US, along with 11 other nations around the region, signed in Auckland last week. New Zealand’s prosperity rests on the ability to get exports into markets with as few impediments as possible.
Sanders and Trump alike complain that trade deals signed by Washington over the years have come at the expense of American jobs. This has been an argument against trade liberalisation all along, but the political consensus that everyone benefits from free trade has prevailed.
Now this policy is under fierce attack, with Trump and Sanders accusing the US political establishment of opening up American markets without extracting equal concessions from trade partners.
Trump also proposes a steep tariff on Chinese imports – a move which would invite Beijing’s retaliation. The implications for the global economy – and for New Zealand – could be profound. The White House race clearly bears watching.
_____________________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
There is no problem with getting concessions on Trade related matters with NZ.
Indeed. And that’s the problem.
Not really. The Us can’t state that it hasn’t got the ability to send produce here because our barriers are already low. This means they can’t stonewall on these areas by claiming they will only lower their barriers if we lower ours.
I see Admin has posted a long article about the history of the 1951 Waterfront Strike.
Lots of detailed history but omits stating that the National Government which locked out the workers and brought in the Army to work the ships was led by Sidney George Holland who after being invited to join the war-time cabinet, left after only a short time and stayed out for the rest of the war.
He was a nasty piece of work in my opinion and our present PM reminds me of him in many ways.
Neither ever had to handle lampblack in paper bags.
Who or what is “Admin”?
A link would be nice for anyone who is interested in following up the comment.
Shortage of Medicines.
On 2 Feb. my wife and I were only dispensed 1month’s supply of an essential , for us, drug rather than the 3 months supply that our Doctor had prescribed. The Pharmacy said they understood there was a shortage.
Here is the official statement from Pharmac to pharmacies.
Metoprolol succinate long-acting – stock shortage
From 11 December 2015, stat dispensing was removed from all strengths of metoprolol succinate long-acting tabs, 23.75 mg, 47.5 mg, 95 mg and 190 mg, with prescriptions presented needing to be dispensed in monthly lots due to a manufacturing and supply issue.
There is a potential lack of sufficient supply of some strengths over the next few months. PHARMAC anticipate that during January 2016 the 190 mg long-acting tabs supply will be exhausted and patients on the 190 mg long-acting tabs will need to be dispensed 2 x 95 mg long-acting tabs as a replacement. It will be important to ensure all patients are aware of the need to take more tablets than they are used to during this time and vice versa when reinstating the 190 mg tabs. Stat dispensing for this product should be reinstated 1 March 2016.
Thought Standardistas might like to know. No reason for the shortage was given as far as I could see.
Generic version of Toprol XL recalled
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/health/warning-unheeded-heart-drugs-are-recalled.html?_r=0
More info here: “serious flaws” with FDA testing and approvals process
http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2014/05/15/metoprolol-mess-toprol-xl-reveals-serious-flaws-with-fdas-generic-process/
@CV
So there is no confusion medically , metoprolol is the generic name for this medicine also known as Beta Blockers.
Here is the complete list of names used:-
Brand Names: Lopressor, Metoprolol Succinate ER, Metoprolol Tartrate, Toprol-XL
Generic Name: metoprolol (Pronunciation: me TOE pro lol)
CV & Alwyn are entitled to have their little political discussion about Pharmac but I was simply trying to bring this shortage situation to the attention of TS readers.
There was a long story in the DomPost last weekend about it.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/76439113/patients-regularly-face-medicine-shortages-as-new-zealand-struggles-to-secure-supply
You will have to choose for yourself which side of the argument you prefer about the effects of the Pharmac purchasing model.
It has been around for a long time and people have been forever complaining about it. Here is another story from 2008
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/740504/A-bitter-pill-10-drugs-you-can-t-have
Are these the same rich pricks who refuse to pay more taxes to pay for our health system?
Perhaps you should call on Key and English not to drop tax rates further.
I presume you are talking about the 2008 story. I only picked it out to illustrate what has been going on ever since 1997 when we adopted the system. I wasn’t advocating for those drugs.
I think that it is completely impossible to provide ALL possible health care. I remember back about 1980 an economist I know showed that you could spend the entire health budget on providing maximum care for kidney disease. Every single cent. There is simply no upper limit on what health care could cost, and compromise is essential.
Sometimes politicians, catering to public demand, get it wrong. John Key admitted recently that their promise of 12 month treatments with Herceptin, although popular with the public, was wrong and that there was no advantage from the longer period.
He was told that by health sector analysts way back then so it’s not like he didn’t know from the start.
Yes. He is about the only politician I can think of though who admitted it.
I cannot think of a single occasion when his predecessor ever ‘fessed up about one of her mistakes.
It is a real shame that Little hasn’t learned from that. Instead he is setting himself up as the arbiter in the case of Pembrolizumab. Why doesn’t he take the expert opinions of Pharmac?
He really is thick that fellow. Instead of learning from Key’s mistake in promising to go to Waitangi every year he is repeating the error.
???
Turning bloody mindedness and ignoring advice into a virtue now?
Do you really think the PM has learnt not to ignore professional advice now?
He may be, at least as far as Pharmac goes, take their advice in the future.
Of course it wasn’t a virtue. It is not doing it in the future and learning from earlier mistakes by yourself or others that is the virtue.
OK maybe, however I bet you that the PM will continue to ignore good advice whenever it suits him.
We already know is attitude: if he doesn’t like the advice that he gets, he’ll just go fishing for another opinion until he finds one he does like.
Cv Absolutely correct.
Hey CV
“OK maybe, however I bet you that the PM will continue to ignore good advice whenever it suits him.
We already know his attitude: if he doesn’t like the advice that he gets, he’ll just go fishing for another opinion until he finds one he does like.”
These are the very points we (at ts) strive to educate the unsuspecting voter about, but it’s a hard job to get through to some of them.
It’s not only Key, it’s the whole lot of them, from the $6B man McCully (Leaky Home Syndrome) to Bennett, Collins, English the double dipper, the list just doesn’t stop, there are too many “sheeple” and not enough people in NZ to recognise this.
Andrew Geddis reports that amongst Republicans Trump has less than 30% support. No way he can get majority of Republican support in the long run.
I suppose while there were 12 nominees the apparent support was just because the votes were spread over so many. As the number of nominees drops the Trump ranking will drop. Cruz is much more dangerous than Trump.
Sanders has no chance of beating Clinton. The delegates and super delegates have him beaten before he starts.
I wouldn’t say that Sanders has no chance, but it is certainly an uphill battle. I’ve commented on the superdelegate issue before, but this is a good backgrounder from today’s Salon:
http://www.salon.com/2016/02/12/sign_of_a_broken_system_bernies_biggest_problem_may_not_be_hillary_clinton_its_the_anti_democratic_superdelegates_in_her_corner/
A lot of states have winner-take-all primaries. So Clinton’s 15% starting advantage from superdelegates is not insurmountable.
Superdelegates are allowed to change their minds. A large enough popular vote swing to Sanders might be enough to persuade them to do so.
thanks Andre and Pasupial for those more encouraging analyses. I’d been wondering what was possible.
Me too Andre and Masupial. Still a faint hope for Sanders, though convention and staus quo is pretty powerful against him. At the very least maybe a significant message will be getting through to management signalled by Sander’s support.
The Clintons are partners with the banksters and the transnational corporates against the working class. That’s the starting point of this discussion.
The biggest reasons why the GOP hates the Clintons is that they implemented 80% of their agenda — ie welfare reform (love to know what happens when the 5 year limit is maxed out), NAFTA, zero tolerance low and order policies, etc. The republicans cannot take credit because the Clintons swiped their core planks. And they are mad as hell.
No, I don’t think that’s it, unless you are talking about the Republican elite/senior hierarchy.
WTF kind of analysis is this.
Trump has more support than the no.2 no.3 no.4 and no.5 candidates put together.
How does Geddis think that any of them are going to get “majority support in the long run” when they are well behind Trump???
I think you’re misreading where Geddis was going with that. Trump could easily win the majority of delegates with only 35% support and hence win the nomination. At which point the majority of Republicans would be very unhappy, which is the point I think he was trying to make.
Ahhh. Trump will roll all over Hilary and win the White House. I think most Republicans will like that.
😆 🙄
Now you speak for US citizens too.
*Shrug*
Happy to be proven wrong by you when Trump loses the nomination race.
assuming you are right and Trump wins the Rep. nomination do you genuinely believe he would be elected President ahead of Clinton?
Yes. Clinton’s record as a foreign warmonger, agent of the bankster class and blatant dishonesty over her official and personal emails, will all hurt her.
The main thing which will put a hole in the side of her campaign however is the fact that she represents the status quo political establishment.
In short, Clinton can manipulate the Democratic Party hierarchy to win the party’s nomination, but she can’t use the same tricks on the general electorate.
although it is very early days in the nomination process and I am unconvinced Trump will end up with the nomination, if it came to Clinton Trump option for president the fact Clinton represents the old guard and the status quo won’t count for as much as the fear of a lunatic with the nuclear codes….the American system may be bizarre but I don’t believe the majority of the population are certifiable
I think the Deep State will swing in hard against Trump if he finally looks like getting the nomination.
Also, Trump supporters are not “lunatics” or “certifiable.”
As I said, Trump has been dead set against foreign wars during his campaign, and he will point out that Clinton has been for foreign wars, as well as assassinating foreign leaders (Gadaffi) and killing old sick men with extreme prejudice (Bin Laden).
In many ways, if you want to avoid a nuclear confrontation between the USA and China/Russia, Trump is the person to vote for, not Clinton.
http://news.groopspeak.com/bookies-right-91-of-the-time-in-elections-next-president-will-be/
Interesting article on large dam failure, with a pertinent point at the end about how if we build something industrial that we are reliant on and/or that is dangerous if it fails, we have to have the capacity to either dismantle it or look after it in perpetuity. The article suggests that the age of the large dams is over and ‘other’ renewables are now more competitive, but I think we should be applying the same general principles to solar, wind, wave etc as well. What is our capacity to maintain in perpetuity in a post-carbon age? This is at the crux of “green tech replacement to keep our current lifestyles”, vs “let’s learn to live within out limits”. At the moment we still far to focussed on the former and not paying attention to the latter.
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/one-of-africas-biggest-dams-is-falling-apart
an inability to properly decommission the dozens of aging nuclear reactors around the world is what is going to screw us.
It’s the gorilla in many corners about Europe that were part of the old soviet block.
“an inability to properly decommission the dozens of aging nuclear reactors around the world is what is going to screw us.”
Is that an economic issue rather than a tech one?
Yes, economics. And a social decision on what kind of risks are acceptable for the long term storage of hazardous waste. For example, the Yucca Mountain storage facility was canned partly because it couldn’t guarantee absolute containment for 10,000 years. In this particular case, it looks to me like the nuclear industry is being required to meet much much higher standards of long term safety than coal, mining, chemical…pretty much any other industrial activity.
Personally, I would be in favour of simply cordoning off large areas around nuclear plants and leaving them be. The wildlife around Chernobyl is apparently thriving.
If the wildlife are thriving around Chernobyl why would it be a problem for humans to live there?
Probably because humans get a bit more upset about radiation-induced mutations and diseases in human babies that they do see, compared to their reaction to radiation-induced mutations and diseases in wild animals that they never see (and that end up dying quickly anyway).
Right, so when people say the wild life are thriving the implication is that that it’s not that bad, but that is in fact very misleading. It’s also anathema to those of us who think in systems and can see the impact on the ecosystem rather than a few dead rabbit babies.
The lesson from Chernobyl’s exclusion zone (by comparison to the nearest wildlife reserves) appears to be that the presence of any humans at all (no matter how few) apparently has a more damaging effect on wild ecosystems than a small radiation load.
yeah, but we didn’t need a nuclear melt down to know that 😉
I think you are sidestepping my point.
Because of the extra harm that would do to the wildlife.
“The net positive effect of removing humans from the exclusion zone therefore appears to exceed the negative impacts of radiation.”
That is dependent upon our ability and propensity to recycle rather than anything else. Unfortunately, there’s a very good reason why we called a consumerist society. We consume without though for the future because consumption increases profits for the rich.
Very true, and it’s also driven at the production side, we’re in the age of planned obsolescence (bloody Apple are about the change the power port on their iphone to a new shape that no-one else uses including older iphones. That should be illegal), and let’s make things that break so people have to buy a new one. All that will have to go in a post-carbon world.
We can probably assume that windfarms are both less breakable and have less parts that are intentionally obsolete, but I still think that there is an issue here particularly around manufacture and distribution and the extent to which we can get those techs up and running closer to home and in a more resilient way. How much of replacement parts for critical infrastructure are currently manufactured overseas?
Yes it should be. Such things should be set by legal standard.
Again, wrong question. The question is actually Why aren’t we producing them here?
And the answer to that is our delusional financial system that has been designed to protect and enrich the already rich. A financial system that is designed to turn the majority of people into serfs of the few.
That’s an important question, but so is mine and here’s why. If we want to get to a position of being able to manufacture and maintain our own infrastructure, we have to understand the lack of resiliency we currently have, both at the system level and the engineering audit level. This is in the context of shifting awareness as much as anything.
At the system level, I think once people start thinking about what would happen if the filters on the waterpumps in their town’s water suppy system couldn’t be replace then the overall necessity becomes much more apparent.
At the audit level, how much of our current infrastructure is currently dependent on overseas sources, and where are the particular vulnerabilities.
We all know the story about how NZ only has 3 days worth of groceries in the supermarkets. After the Fukushima tsunami it was really hard to get parts for my Subaru for a while. But those examples are too isolated. When we have more stories like this across the board, people will be more willing to consider that we should be manufacturing more here.
Where’s New Zealand’s ‘Code of Ministerial Standards’?
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11588739
Australian minister resigns for breaching code of conduct
Friday, 12 February 2016
The New Zealand Herald
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ” An embattled Australian government minister resigned on Friday for breaching ministerial standards through a business trip to China, clearing the way for the prime minister to announce a final Cabinet reshuffle ahead of elections due this year.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said an investigation found Stuart Robert had breached the government’s Code of Ministerial Standards through his 2014 trip to Beijing with a friend and donor to the ruling Liberal Party, Paul Marks. Marks made the trip to seal a mining deal between his company Nimrod Resources and Chinese government-owned Minmetals.
…
______________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Interesting interview.
How Big Money Corrupts the Economy
It’s about the US but we see exactly the same workings here through National’s Cabinet Club and other money anonymising entities.
This sounds very dodgy to me. This occurred when there was a deadlock on cars, dairy etc.
3 hours ago
Japan denies snub of Canada in TPP side deal
http://www.guelphmercury.com/news-story/6305987-japan-denies-snub-of-canada-in-tpp-side-deal/
Heads up to the admins – the site currently won’t load for me when visiting from a mobile device.
Works fine on desktop.
This is awesome, making scientific knowledge free. What needs to complement this is freely available education on how to be scientifically literate that is aimed at lay people (so not written by geeks, sorry geeks).
http://www.sciencealert.com/this-woman-has-illegally-uploaded-millions-of-journal-articles-in-an-attempt-to-open-up-science
Shoutout to Aaron Swartz who died trying to make this happen.
Super awesome! I’m doing a bit of work for a non-profit at the moment and getting access to journal articles as an independent researcher is frustratingly difficult.
I’m very grateful for open access authors and publications, but this is amazing.
Let me know how you find it. I’m getting a few pages with short message in Russian that I assume say no results, but sometimes there is a download of the article?
It’s great. I got that sort of message when I put the journal name in.
I’m looking at papers I already have the references for – if you enter that (jnl/vol/issue etc) , it will bring a google scholar list and go from there… or if say, you’re browsing abstracts at a journal site, paste the url for the paper into Sci-Hub and it will open the article directly.
Yep, I think I got that. Mostly I’ve been able to access the papers I want (even the free ones, no subscribing thank-god). With some of the less mainstream ones I’m getting the Russian note that sometimes does nothing.
you had trouble getting searches to work in past day or so?
Yeah – the last one I tried took a a few attempts, I eventually got in using the doi number – after 2 attempts with that I got it in the end!
Bernie Sanders stands up to BIG PHARMA:
http://usuncut.com/politics/bernie-sanders-blocks-obamas-fda-pick-over-ties-to-big-pharma/
“At a time when millions of Americans cannot afford to purchase the prescription drugs they require, we need a leader at the FDA who is prepared to stand up to the drug companies,” Sanders said.
“We need someone who will work to substantially lower drug prices, implement rules to safely import brand-name drugs from Canada and hold companies accountable who defraud our government.”
Sen. Sanders’ decision to block Dr. Califf’s appointment to the FDA hardly comes as a surprise for those who saw the Vermont senator’s epic takedown of Dr. Califf during his confirmation hearings last November.
During Sen. Sanders’ heated exchange with him, Sanders forced Dr. Califf’s hand, pointing out that since he supports the importing of fish products and vegetables from around the world, but not the importing of prescription drugs in Canada.
Dr. Califf also refused to take an official position on whether or not he supports allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs on behalf of seniors.
…
__________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
In my opinion, as an anti-corruption campaigner, New Zealand has a LOT to learn from the Australian ‘Statement of Ministerial Standards’:
https://www.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/statement_ministerial_standards.docx
” …Integrity
1.6. Along with the privilege of serving as a Minister, there is some personal sacrifice in terms of the time and energy that must be devoted to official duties and some loss of privacy.
Although their public lives encroach upon their private lives, it is critical that Ministers do not use public office for private purposes.
In particular, Ministers must not use any information that they gain in the course of their official duties, including in the course of Cabinet discussions, for personal gain or the benefit of any other person.
…..
____________________
How long would have Judith Collins lasted as ‘Minister of Justice’ if New Zealand had the equivalent of the following Australian ‘Statement of Ministerial Standards operating at the time she participated in three ‘networking opportunities’ for her friends and husband’s private company, Oravida when she visited China in her (then) Ministerial capacity?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
NZ’s equivalent is the Cabinet Manual. We’ve seen how effective that is in the hands of a corrupt shit like Key.
Remind me again which party in NZ has had people actually found guilty of corruption charges?
Cabinet manual was not useful then, either.