Morning all. Not usually up this early, so might as well do a shout out to Otago Museum lol
Te Papa seems to have let it slide (I’m sure it has nothing to do with reports over the last year about how resident museum experts of international standing were restructured out of a job).
DoC didn’t do anything because it wasn’t sure the footprints were of DoC land.
Otago Museum snaffled the Moa footprints 🙂
'On July 30, 2003, a team of Spanish and French scientists reversed time. They brought an animal back from extinction, if only to watch it become extinct again. The animal they revived was a kind of wild goat known as a bucardo,or Pyrenean ibex. '
Doubt it, tui cultural memory doesn't seem that long. It only took a couple of years for the local tuis to lose the default Nokia text alert and replace it with the Samsung.
Perhaps the thousands of years tui and Moa spent in each others company created a deeper grove in the tui's memory than the blip of time the Nokia was around?
Perhaps, just as we have made great leaps in our computational abilities through computer technology, the birds too, are adopting the new languages and modes of thought through interfacing with some of that technology.
"Our's have recently learnt a to do delightful rendition of an F&P washing machine start up."
Quite believe that Joe This is a short clip of the Lyrebird. It not only mimics other birds but also things like camera shutter releases and car alarms.
Na it would have been simple arrogance . How could a mere tractor driver know what hes on about . Every time ive dealt with doc thats the attitude ive meet.
you must admit simple tractor drivers have contributed to the loss of much and every farmer has their collection of historical taonga sitting in the cabinet along with the ivory carvings from Asia, or hidden in a box because they are scared. How many sites have been just pretended not seen and bulldozed over. You know this is true.
YOU are generalising about DOC you thick wanker – don't have a go at me for learning ya. And you know farmers have dug up all sorts of shit and not handed it in. But keep your cheap bigoted bullshit shots coming daggy and we'll sort that too eh cos YOU are the ONLY one bringing Māori into it.
They come in two types . Solid people with an understanding of how the world works and jumped up prats who wouls curl up and cry if their gps broke down in the bush . I know which one you are.
As for digging stuff up . Never have dont know any one who has but keep making up fantasies about m if it gets you hot .
Don't think he signed his query "tractor driver" when he sent it to the general DOC site. There is likely to be a lag especially these days when dealing using a general public channel with any organisation, especially any under-resourced government organisation. Best to have a direct line to a real person in my experience.
You're welcome, Francesca. The follow up, if you were interested enough, would be to search out information on morphic resonance. It's pretty astounding stuff, in my opinion. Some molecular biologists share similar views on that topic, with some highly respected theologians.
Follow the hippies! Yes, there is the resurgence you describe, across the board, young and old and it's not surprising, given the co-creative ideas that are at the source of the things Sheldrake et al said. A rapidly approaching, plain as the nose on your face crisis is helping to sharpen everyone's focus. Despite the distractions, many people are looking now, in a more useful direction. There's a lot of talk about the heart 🙂
"I've noticed a real resurgence of these ideas among the young, in line with living a more simple honest life."
Your not alone. And let's just hope as they grow older, they can do it a little more gracefully. Even despite mid-life crises, let's hope it's not a case Harley Davidson's, neo-liberal ideology and children as possessions and as extensions their ego. Although I think we could probably accommodate a pony tail or two – it may be all John Key has to satisfy himself in his dotage.
Currently I'm surrounded by students that have just graduated from Vic Uni – quite smart cookies (arts students as it happens), having survived 3 or 4 years of slum-landlord living, and all too aware of what they're faced with, and what it is they going to have to deal with.
They might not be able to replace a fuse (they're RCD devices these days anyway), but they can sure as hell tell bullshit when they see it no matter how hard the political elite and its administrative wing try to spin it.
They know all too well what they're faced with. AND they're working out ways to deal with it
Indeed. Inside of a chrysalis the old caterpillar literally dissolves; all trace of it's old structure literally vanishes into a undifferentiated gloop. The metaphor with our human polity has been drawn by many.
The human race is passing through an equally dramatic transition and the eventual outcome will be a "new race of men". The good news is that I sense we are already well into the process, at least 150 years or more of unprecedented, accelerating change places us very close to the crux, the point of maximal disintegration just prior to the new becoming visible.
But the disintegration of the old world order is noisy and dangerous; like the collapse of the WTC towers it captures the attention and mesmerises; yet at the same time there is this organic 'imaginal' process underway, gathering the components needed for the new. This is where our energies need to be.
The parallel with how we might solve a 9 billion piece jigsaw puzzle lacking the finished image comes to mind; we sift almost at random, finding small clumps that fit together building on each of them slowly, even when the connection between all the various incomplete clumps is unclear or contradictory even.
The parallel with how we might solve a 9 billion piece jigsaw puzzle lacking the finished image comes to mind; we sift almost at random, finding small clumps that fit together building on each of them slowly, even when the connection between all the various incomplete clumps is unclear or contradictory even.
The transformation of our general attitude towards people of Muslim origin since the ChCh massacre [in NZ and Australia in particular] is indicative of the process you have described.
Cripes RL. There aren't that many types of men – a change will be back to one of the older types, but with such obeisance to the acceptance of new machinery and technology and precision and efficiency, that anything natural and human will result in dissatisfaction and be described as historic, old system, last century and other epithets.
This is not my imagination; it can be seen now. People wearing grey and black, buildings and houses painted brown, beige and charcoal; the colours of the interiors of film sets about space travel. The withdrawal of persons as staff making decisions affecting people's lives as in ACC.
Imaginative, feeling people with kindly impulses. Not to be trusted to keep to the rules. That is more likely to form the basis of the new race of men; just like any authoritarian regime with bigger tech devices and bugger the peeps.
Yes, "People wearing grey and black, buildings and houses painted brown, beige and charcoal; "
Thats been bothering me for some while. To get grey all the colours are mixed together. Lost colour, lost diversity and difference, lost imagination, lost independence, lost freedoms, lost soul…
RedLogix – I don't think we are "sifting at random" nor do I think we are alone in our efforts. There are other living beings with an interest in our succeeding in putting together the puzzle and some of them are pretty smart! If, for example, trees could convey a message to us, through the fruits we eat, the wood we work with, the sound they make in the wind, the patterns they throw onto the macadam, they'd doubtless be nudging us toward a state of realisation that would result in a new, tree-friendly behaviour. Exploring that idea and extensions of it is, I reckon, worthwhile,
The making of the representative for planet 8 is likely to involve some loss of life. And the problem then becomes, how to remain enlightened while Malthusian processes are winnowing the population – there's no easy answer to that one.
"how to remain enlightened while Malthusian processes are winnowing the population" – that's what so many can't cope with.
We could move on to practical and moral ways but there is a kink in the pipeline; the main mind pipe is corroded and old, irrelevant matter swirls, catches, and builds into a mass until few new ideas can pass. Like a fatberg.*
We have to help those ideas get out and get discussed. Not every one is a goer. And some that are good can turn out badly if not properly implemented with a watcher to ensure that problems are dealt with fairly and quickly.
In my admittedly limited experience, these implementations work in phases. Now we are in the realm of no action, and a proliferation of innovations is highly desirable.
Once innovation is the norm, some culling for efficacy and sustainability is called for.
Then we reach the production plateau, in which bang for buck tends to predominate, in time, the best being the enemy of the good, the bulk focused methods must give way to long term enlightened best interest adaptations.
Finally 'the importance of dental health is filtering through to the Government' that dental care is actually part of our health treatments.
My Dentist warned me that teeth absess and gum diseases will poison my blood and give me multiple loss of mobility..
So Government needs to know that if dental repairs are not carried out the gum decay will cause toxic blood poisoning.
David Clark needs to make dental repair affordable again so the weak, old and all those suffering now are able to have dental repair made available to all.
Teeth and gum health is more important to our ealth than many seem to think.
My Dentist is one of NZ's main "holiistic" dentist in the country.
He tresatrs alll the body systems together so I am bloody fortunate to get him though I have to travel 300kms to get to him he is so worth it.
After my boating accident I damaged 7 of my teeth when the boat overturned and my face was hit by the side of the boat.
He treated my health carefully as I have a damaged immune system so he used materials that would not place more stress on mmy immune system.
The time from the accident to getting to a dentist was tricky as it happend over xmas and the ACC was very slow it establishing the case file so my gums were infected by then so he used his skill to lower the infections and save the teeth.
It was a learning curve for me as an older 74 yr old.
One Two yes Holistic Dentistry is the new model I am so happy to see come our way now as the treatment from my Dentist is so very good compared to the older system of 'drill and fill' that we grew up with.
My Holistic dentist cares about the patient in a special way that I had never experienced before as he takes interest in the whole health of the patient, that other dentists did not show before.
He often showed me in photos how my gum infections were leaving and tooth roots were becoming more healthy again.
Very comforting to know those things to know when you are on the right path again.
Hope to see more of this care for patient outcome.
Dentists have advised me to see the dental hygienist and I thought that it was a bit expensive and for the fussy. They have not given the information that you repeat in your comment Cleangreen. If the reasons and practical advantages are explained it becomes obvious that it is wise to include such visits on the 'maintenance' schedule. I have this problem now and just as a start am going to take small Vit C daily and eat more greens and spend some money on this important procedure.
Dental orthodoxy is limiting and in many ways has become a failure with new roles such as hygenists are spurious in my opinion…
In recent times updated knowledge and techniques are coming through…
Human tooth enamel is made up of compounds for which we can modify or introduce food stuffs specifically to support and maintain, while lowering injestion of those foods and fluids which actively damage tooth enamel..
Of course there are other impacts on teeth such as clenching and grinding which negatively impact teeth and influence oral health…extractions orthodontics can also negatively impact oral health…
Brushing techniques, products used to clean can also have adverse effects…
Warm water with a pinch of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda rinsed with warm water is beneficial for oral health and is non abrasive on teeth and gums…
Have a look into eating for teeth and oral health, gw…if you're so inclined…
My infections were so advanced by the time my newly found 'holistic' dentist began work.
I had seen my Treating MD firstly and was undergiong Vitamin C IV's as my blood test showed that my markers of CRP "C reactive protien" https://www.healthline.com/health/c-reactive-protein – was climbing high showing severe infections were causing "inflamation" from the gum infections, and the Vitamin C IV's were slowing down the infections and joint pains.
Is simon ok? First he complains about the cost of fee's free tertiary ed.
Nek minute, he complains that not enough people have taken it up so the money budgeted for it will be redistributed. This is not a bad thing silly simon, people are still getting fee's free tertiary, and there's also money left over, that's a good thing.
And now, it appears national are going to come up with their own fee's free tertiary.
Does he know where he stands on fee's free tertiary?
Ahhhhh now I get it paula bennet appears to be their spokesperson on said subject, no bloody wonder. Care for an interview/debate on the subject paula? Didn't think so lololzz
Nek minute, he complains that not enough people have taken it up so the money budgeted for it will be redistributed. This is not a bad thing silly simon, people are still getting fee's free tertiary, and there's also money left over, that's a good thing.
the fact that there is money left over is that it did not deliver it’s desired effect.
Numbers are down – it’s just a failed policy.
How is is that a good thing – if it was actually setting out to solve a problem and not just a bite bribe?
the fact that there is money left over is that it did not deliver it’s desired effect.
Well, it might show that, I guess. Or it might show that the government budgeted for contingencies, eg the possibility that National's scare-mongering about the policy encouraging hordes of middle-class thickos to descend on the universities turned out to be correct, which it didn't.
Numbers are down – it’s just a failed policy.
Please show your working for this answer. The policy was to make it easier for people to attend University, particularly working-class and lumpenproletariat kids for whom fees were a major obstacle. Has it failed in that objective? We don't know from your answer. If overall student numbers are down, where has the fall occurred? For example, if the fall is in full-fee international student enrolments, that's bad news for universities but no reflection on the fees-free policy.
This is not a bad thing silly simon, people are still getting fee's free tertiary, and there's also money left over, that's a good thing…
the point of fees free was to increase enrolments and encourage more enrolments from students from lower socioeconomic households.
It was a failed policy.
The main beneficiaries are students who were going to study anyway.
Most of whom are young people with well resourced families who can afford to study with or without worrying about debt.
Which just goes to highlight how detached our politicians are from the struggling masses. Young people these days are used to debt, they seem resigned to the concept, the real problem is they simply can not afford to be not working.
That being said..education should be free. But while we are irrationaly burdened with austerity budgets..maybe that money would be better directed at policies that help strugglers take up training…housing subsidies, free transport etc.
Its like Kiwibuild..a policy that the strugglers probably thought was going to improve their lot..only to find out it was targeted, by design and or lack of thought, at the happy middle class voter, who was going to vote Labour anyway.
I'm one of that 20%. My scepticism re the prevalent ideology is due to never seeing evidence presented in the media to justify it, plus media reports that kauri die-back is occurring in trees distant from walking tracks.
When I lived up there I often walked the Waitakere tracks. Where are the cause & effect linkages explained by microbiologists?? I decided their absence was due to them being non-existent. I could be wrong, of course, but I prefer evidence-based public policy.
The confirmed dieback is concentrated around walking tracks. Yes, there are a few cases away from walking tracks. The organism is in the soil, and can be spread by vectors other than casual walkers, such as pigs and pig hunters.
Makes sense. Would be interesting to know the ecosystemic relations of the organism. Foreign invader? Native, but habitat & reproduction enhanced by climate change? I'm keen to have the microbiologists on the case enter the public arena. I know bipartisan govt policy is to muzzle scientists as much as possible, but I believe the public has a right to know. Also, public compliance is more likely if the govt stops treating the public with contempt.
Ten years ago when I first started learning about the phytophthora organism causing the kauri dieback, the strong consensus was that it was a very recent introduction. Based mostly on the very narrow genetic profile of all the samples gathered from the widespread locations where it had been found. And that lab testing indicated it actually was much more virulent in significantly warmer environments than where it was actually found in NZ.
Since then I'm aware of some work suggesting a wider genetic profile and that it has therefore been in NZ longer than originally thought. But the last time I talked to the boffins involved, they were still of the view that the overall evidence still pointed to it being a recent introduction.
There is a team of boffins that are actively working with property owners that have kauri dieback on their property, as well as working with the various government bodies. I've had a lot to do with them, and always found them very open, helpful and respectful. The biggest issue I've seen is simply under-resourcing, not any kind of info suppression or contempt towards the public.
Thanks for that informed appraisal, Andre. Good to know they have made partial progress in understanding the situation. If it gets more virulent in warm conditions, as the lab tests suggest, then global warming makes the spread inevitable and current public policy is futile. No mention of where the organism flourishes overseas?
Last I heard, no they hadn't identified anywhere overseas hosting the exact same organism. IIRC Queensland kauri host a similar phytophthora, but different enough to be excluded as the source, just like NZ kauri have long been known to host phytophthora cinnamomi (and early reports of kauri dieback were dismissed as being just cinnamomi).
I wouldn't describe current policy as futile. There is a treatment that helps the trees hold their own. I've treated all mine (48 of them). Prior to treatment, 2 or 3 would die every year on my place, and another 2 or 3 on the adjacent council reserve. In the 2 years since treating mine, none have died, but the 2 to 3 per year death rate on the adjacent reserve has continued.
It's not a cure, that'll probably have to wait a few decades until we understand stuff like phage treatments well enough to be able to engineer a biological counter-attack on the specific phytophthora causing the dieback.
I'm impressed! Is the treatment similar to vaccination – applied to tree rather than surrounding soil, and are councils and DoC using it also? I haven't noticed media reports on this good news. How does it work?
No, not really like vaccination. The active ingredient is phosphite or phosphorous acid. That's much too simple a molecule to provoke an antibody type response. However, it does seem to reinforce the usual tree response to insult of trying to wall off and self-amputate the part of the tree where the invader is gaining entry. One of the symptoms of die-back is gum bleeds erupting and travelling up and around the tree: on my trees with this, the bleeding and extending up and around the tree has stopped, and there's a lot of fresh bark growth around the bleeds.
It's applied by drilling a number of holes around the base of the tree, then screwing pre-loaded spring-activated syringes into the holes. It takes up to 20 minutes for the injection to complete (if it's taking longer, the tree's internal sap pressure is too high and it's going to backflow into the syringe and gunk it up).
The avocado industry do this to their trees every year, but it's still being determined how frequently it should be re-applied to kauri.
Yes. councils are doing it on their trees and I've heard mention of iwi doing it too. Haven't specifically heard of DOC doing it also, but I'd be surprised if they weren't by now.
I suspect there's some reluctance to try trumpeting it. When people hear about it, a common reaction is 'great, problem sorted, we don't need to worry about it anymore'. Which definitely is not the case, the treatment is definitely not a cure. At best it's a limited holding measure that hopefully helps keep the tree alive until an actual cure gets developed.
Cool, great to get that full explanation published, thanks. Yeah I take the point re public notification & complacency. Kind of ambulance at the bottom of the cliff parallel – best to maximise prevention.
There's a remedy available: deploy tree-huggers en masse to express their feelings to the tall old ones in the usual touchie-feelie way, but more organised. School outings for that purpose would help. The power of positive thinking ought never to be underestimated…
Their personal feelings. Gaian resilience is too sophisticated a notion for most folks. The organism killing them is as much a part of Gaia as the trees. Biochemical imbalance in an ecosystem is so subtle that only subtle countering influences are likely to succeed. At Findhorn, communicating with the devas worked wonders. I've never heard of similar workings in Aotearoa…
Oh fuck no. Given the way the organism is clearly spread by humans inadvertently carrying it, the last thing the kauri need is a whole lot more people travelling from tree to tree hugging them.
True. I was being flippant (mostly). However twenty years of science and preventation seem to have made not one iota of difference to the spread, eh? Which suggests soil biochemistry is driving it more than people.
There would be no need for people to gather under the trees; they could work from home. Those influences Dennis mentions are effective across time and space, according to the practitioners and the theory.
I've read about that sort of thing in the past. Derives from traditional shamanism, eh? No general rule applies, however, and effectiveness seems to vary according to expertise of practioners, and context…
Derives from pre-historical human behaviour and knowledge. It's our true relationship with non-human beings, of which trees and soil organisms are part. Shamans do many things; reminding the rest of their group of those relationships is one of their responsibilities.
There hasn't been twenty years of science and prevention, it was only about ten years ago that it was definitively concluded that kauri dieback was indeed a new problem.
It's only been in the last couple of years that the first immediately obvious step has actually been taken: stop people walking into infected areas and thereby inadvertently picking up the phytophthora organism and later spreading it elsewhere. And just look at the pushback that simple obvious step has received.
Up until the closures, the only measures had been pathetic: provision of brushes and spray bottles for people to make token attempts to clean their footwear. Which were mostly ignored.
Humans are the primary vector, and human behaviour likely to spread the disease didn't get changed, and the disease continued to spread. How does that suggest soil biochemistry is driving it more than people?
This from Radionz this morning on recent argy bargy about why, how, whether the figures are correct, whether it is indeed worse than before or better, what to do? This sort of thing is great fodder for the objector, the independent thinker, the anti-authoritarian, the intelligent arguer who can find fissures in a program and argue about them with authorities.
Indeed. Leaving the Grandmother trees in situ is becoming de rigueur for forestry companies. They've learned, some of them at least, about the role of the Old trees in supporting vulnerable members of their kind, even keeping cut stumps alive for decades, conveying substances to seedlings to support their establishment and growth and so on. The fungi play a part also, but the inter-tree connections, root-to-root, is also essential and fascinating. The web beneath the surface of the soil is a far more marvellous thing than we have been thinking it to be. Some very old cultures haven't lost their understanding of these things, it's mostly our "historical/civilized" culture that has gone stupid on it.
The two instances I've come across have been of the view that "it might be 1080, it might be glyphosate, it might be airplane emissions, it might be … ".
The two instances I've come across have been of the view that "it might be 1080, it might be glyphosate, it might be airplane emissions, it might be … ".
Originally put the comment in as a reply to the wrong person, then the formatting went bad when I moved it and didn't check it before moving on to another topic.
This a.m. at 10.05 a review of book on Benjamin N. Radionz. Sure to be interesting about this everlasting flower.
10:05 Being Bibi: The turbulent life of Israel's leader
Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into his fifth term as Prime Minister – but with the threat of indictments hanging over him. What price might his coalition partners extract for their support? And what might it mean for Palestinians living in the West Bank?
Kathryn speaks with Anshel Pfeffer, a journalist for Haaretz and author of the book 'Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu' who is in town for this week's Auckland Writers Festival.
How can the Supreme Court make a legal decision in 1973 and then 40+ years later have that ruling re-litigated and overturned because the make-up of the SC has changed?
I bet you were equally upset back in 1954 when the Court ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional because they breached the 14th Amendment. That was the Brown vs Board of Education case.
That decision overturned the 1896 decision in Plessey vs Ferguson which held that segregation was OK because the schools were substantially equal.
A lot of Southern politicians were just like you. They didn't want the old decision overturned. So welcome back to the fold Governor Faubus. I imagine you have Governor Wallace with you..
Its not comparable cases . The obscure current one mentioned has no new evidence to support a change of precedent. The Constitution doesnt mention the 'states immunity' , nor has the legal background changed.
No clause in the constitution mentions ststes immunity so the conservatives had to invent legal rasoning such as ' at the time of the writing of the constitution it was on their mind' or similar
What was different for separate but equal doctrine ( it also covered other state services like buses etc) was overwelhming evidence they werent equal and a specific clause of the constitution required 'equal protection'
Kevin's entire argument, as expressed, is "How can the Supreme Court make a legal decision in 1973 and then 40+ years later have that ruling re-litigated and overturned because the make-up of the SC has changed?" You can't plead that anything else is involved since he didn't plead any other reason to be concerned. I understand he is now to late to bring up any new arguments. Is that correct on what can be argued in an appeal case?
You regard them as different because you approve of one and disapprove of the other. The thing they do have in common is that the composition of the Supreme Court has changed.
You also consider that the current Alabama case is an obscure one. Like hell it is to the women of that benighted State. We can only hope that the Supreme Court don't back them.
The really odd thing about the 1896 case is the native states of the Judges who decided it. It was a 7-1 decision and the only 7 who said it was not in breach of the 14th amendment came from states that had been on the Union side. The one who said it was in breach was a former slave-holder from Kentucky.
By the way “Separate but Equal” was never mentioned in the 1896 decision.
Dont know where you got Alabama from, confused maybe
Yes Plessey didnt mention the name of the doctrine 'separate but equal' That was used used in Brown.
However they did rule for separate facilities. It wasnt schooling but a state law in Loiusiana requring separate railroad cars for blacks.
In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, which required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate railway cars.
The ed result was that states were free to legalise segregation. The state law used the phase "equal but separate" which has come down through the years but reversed.
In case you didn't notice the comment of mine that you were replying to was itself a reply to Kevin. His was at 8 above and mine is at 8.1. Did you see the link that he posted, and did you even look at it? It was Kevin who introduced the subject of the Alabama law. Why are you mentioning, for the first time here, an obscure case in California? I don't know, in the string of comments you are replying to where you got California from. I guess you are simply confused. Here is his link again. It is obviously about an Alabama law, isn't it?
Now if you still want to take part in this debate can you please stick to the subject which was the possibility of a Supreme Court reversing a decision by a previous incarnation and reversing of Roe vs Wade.
That of course simply becomes one about whether the SC should ever reverse a decision. Now if you want to discuss the subject you are welcome but if you are going to bring up other cases where a reversal is possible at least tell us what they are the first time you speak. Just as Kevin did with his case that might reverse Roe vs Wade and as I did where they reversed a case when they ruled on Brown vs Board of Education.
Yes the experience of rolling back the carpet we all could tread on to now excluding it from many who have to walk barefoot across stony ground is under way. Controls on mercenary behaviour fought for at great sacrifice is being lightly thrown away by the callous and self-interested. 'The mighty tree grows for a thousand years, and is felled in a day.' We will never be able to recover humane measures once they are wiped.
There has been a gradual loss of integrity and human values and respect that has altered society and washed away the ideas of enlightenment, just leaving the examples of its effect strewn on the beach at high water mark.
" Maduro's approval ratings hover at around 20%." [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47441642] So why are the 80% who disapprove so reluctant to join anti-govt protests? The explanation lies in the regime's use of controlled violence, via deployment of militia groups (rather than troops or police) to lend the regime a veneer of plausible deniability.
"When tear gas and rubber bullets did not seem to deter a group of some 600 government opponents on the Venezuela side of the border in San Antonio, National Guardsmen withdrew and cleared the way for the masked men on motorcycles. Immediately, people began running, terrified."
"The men fired at the crowd and at the adjacent buildings for at least two hours until the main street leading up to the Simon Bolivar Bridge looked like an abandoned war zone. It's unclear how many people were injured. I saw at least two people being dragged away, one with a gunshot wound to the head, while the masked men refused to let ambulances through."
"Venezuelan Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez claimed the armed civilians were "Colombian paramilitaries" – an argument that many on the border didn't buy."
The regime's chief propagandist pretending the masked motorized shooters were a Colombian invasion force is entertaining, and bound to bring smiles to the faces of Venezuelans everywhere.
"The opposition-controlled National Assembly has designated these civilian bands as "terrorist groups" that carry out "violent paramilitary actions, intimidation, murder and other crimes" described as "acts of state terrorism". But, despite an international outcry against the use of these groups in recent weeks, Maduro has come out firmly in their defence. And amid the continued attempts by his opponents to force him from office, he has called on the colectivos – without distinction – to take to the streets "to every corner to defend the Revolution"."
It's a sophisticated mix of control tactics by Maduro. His political support continues to ebb, however. When "a paramilitary group fired live rounds at demonstrators from a government building in the opposition stronghold of Altamira. State police unsuccessfully attempted to confront the "delinquents". The following day, the police director of operations who had commanded the operative was summarily dismissed for interfering with the gunmen." When the state starts eliminating its own enforcers, the end of that state seems inevitable.
So Maduro's tactics being effective is insufficient. His strategy is too inadequate to succeed in the long term. Partisan thinking isn't in the public interest, and he must rise above those ideological blinkers to win back support in the 80% disaffected majority.
From the guy who supports the last coup attempt. And actively supports the violent overthrow of a democratically elected government.
You might want to look to see what the opposition support is buddy, then you might just realise it is a crap situation, made worse by war mongers and imperialist thugs like yourself.
"Asked by CNN's Christiane Amanpour about mass shootings in the United States and whether other countries could learn from the actions of New Zealand and Australia, Ms Ardern said it was possible to "draw a line" and ban access to military style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles. "Australia experienced a massacre and changed their laws, New Zealand had its experience and changed its laws. To be honest with you I do not understand the United States."" https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/389215/jacinda-ardern-on-gun-law-changes-i-do-not-understand-the-us
Lack of similarity between Australasia & USA derives from an historical factor more influential in mass psychology than the cause & effect relation between massacres and military style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles. It is the Constitution. It defines US political culture and mass identity.
For Americans, the right to wear weapons shapes their self-image from childhood. Locked into that 18th-century mindset by the Constitution, they cannot progress. It creates a binding belief-system, and acts as a mental prison. In their primitive form of civilisation, violence is institutionalised by design.
And deeper than the Constitution, we tend to forget that America as a nation has it's founding origin in a citizen armed revolt against British colonialism.
You should also note that the people who revolted were the colonists.
It wasn't a revolt by the American Indians was it? It was by wealthy colonists like Washington, Jefferson, Adams and other gentleman of British descent.
The solution is to dry the marc to 25% of its original weight. The products are steam and a sultana smelling powder which could be a stock feed supplement, a soil conditioner or made into pellets which can then be a fuel.
The drying process thereby becomes a self-fuelling process. Presumably the process could take place at the place of crushing, obviating a lot of transport needs.
In March, another solution was publicised here. More traditional thinking but obviously viable.
bwaghorn The colonials made such a big deal out of huia feathers that they monetised it to extinction; the big bird nob having a breeding pair that were to be released in an island off shore, when the PM who was overseeing the transfer and release died, abandoned that. He took them home to his rich patron and greased up to him, by having the last of an extinct bird.
Lots of this sort of stuff and mm gets to be an angry little (or big or fat) man. It is the emotion that gets us off our backsides and doing something to improve, and makes us all a bit touchy. You are taking steps too – so we all get touchy with each other at times.
While I was googling on moa gastroliths earlier I found this article and the interesting idea that Maori hunting may not have been the primary reason for their extinction:
Maori have wrongly been accused of wiping out the moa, says Mr Platt.
Once kiore – Pacific rats – arrived moa were on the back foot because their food source of weta and lizards reduced, he says. "Hunting finished them off".
It's possibly the other way around, the sandfly is there to protect these places from hordes of people. Although over time I got quite used to them and they stop bothering you much.
What are a total pest are the 'no-seeum' sandflies that are common around water in Queensland. You can barely see them, you don't feel their bite, but reaction can last days and is intensely itchy. One night we got hammered by them and had to make a fast trip to the nearest chemist about 2 hrs drive away for some anti-histamine. The lass behind the counter could scarcely contain her smirk as we entered the shop …
Yes and no. It's also thought that many of our juvenile tree forms and shrub species, the hebe's especially, evolved their divaricating habit (tightly interwoven branches) as a defense against moa browsing that might tear plants with a more normal structure to shreds.
Right at the bottom that old drunkard Bill Ralston says,
To grow your audience in news, you have to break stories.
Of course what he meant in these modern times is, "To grow your audience in news, you have to manufacture outrage"
I’ve always been confused by the contrast between the AM show with its shameless right wing tabloidism, and New Shub 6pm news with the most boring man in presenting, straight-laced Mike McRoberts.
Get a load of this article, and the spin for E pollute. I would like to see the long term tend as this is going to get interesting. I never heard of such high pollution levels in Canterbury plains wells before I left CHCH in 1998 and even during my time in the farm/ horticulture Cadetship scheme before the “No Mates Party” stuffed that up along with apprenticeships in the early to mid 90’s.
Quote in Robert Goddard's book Sea Change 2000. Good read.
It has been judiciously observed that a commercial country has more to dread from the golden baits of avarice, the airy hopes of projectors and the wild enthusiastic dreams of speculators than from any external dangers.
John Miller, An Authentic Account of the South Sea Scheme (1845)
A "malicious and nasty" blogger, who was convicted of criminal harassment and breaching court orders, has now accused a former parliamentarian of perjury.
Dermot Gregory Nottingham was found guilty of five criminal harassment charges and two breaches of court suppression orders following a lengthy trial, in which he represented himself, during April and May last year.
…
Now, however, Nottingham wants the cellphone records, emails and medical notes of three of his victims. He claims they are guilty of perjury, having testified at his trial.
Court said no. However ..
The Solicitor-General has filed an appeal of Nottingham's sentence, arguing it was manifestly inadequate.
Nottingham, meanwhile, also appealed both his convictions and his sentence.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
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With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
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Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
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Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
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New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
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Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
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The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
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Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
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In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
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The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
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Morning all. Not usually up this early, so might as well do a shout out to Otago Museum lol
Te Papa seems to have let it slide (I’m sure it has nothing to do with reports over the last year about how resident museum experts of international standing were restructured out of a job).
DoC didn’t do anything because it wasn’t sure the footprints were of DoC land.
Otago Museum snaffled the Moa footprints 🙂
Moa had it sussed… leaving only footprints…
What we can learn from the birds and the beasts
Footprints and gastroliths
And DNA… Moa has to be top of list for bringing back from extinction – wish someone would hurry up and do it…
… likely has already been done, or at least attempted for some species, and we are just not aware
When they say they have DNA , it means small 'pieces' and even those are degraded. Thats why it 'hasnt been done'
This has been done , but used eggs of the 'last known' alive animal
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2013/04/species-revival-bringing-back-extinct-animals/
'On July 30, 2003, a team of Spanish and French scientists reversed time. They brought an animal back from extinction, if only to watch it become extinct again. The animal they revived was a kind of wild goat known as a bucardo,or Pyrenean ibex. '
Can't wait for a drumstick
The dawn chorus is when birds are advising us humans how to resolve the crisis we have created.
How did the Moa know not to walk on DoC land?
Why did the Moa cross the road?
Why did the Moa cross the road?
To wait for the humans to join it
Is it possible that the Moa vocals; grunts, flutings, whistles, whatever, are preserved in the song of the tui and bellbird?
Moa left their bones behind as well, and fragments of egg shell; skin too, feathers intact, in the Canterbury caves.
Doubt it, tui cultural memory doesn't seem that long. It only took a couple of years for the local tuis to lose the default Nokia text alert and replace it with the Samsung.
Perhaps the thousands of years tui and Moa spent in each others company created a deeper grove in the tui's memory than the blip of time the Nokia was around?
Our's have recently learnt a to do delightful rendition of an F&P washing machine start up.
Perhaps, just as we have made great leaps in our computational abilities through computer technology, the birds too, are adopting the new languages and modes of thought through interfacing with some of that technology.
"Our's have recently learnt a to do delightful rendition of an F&P washing machine start up."
Quite believe that Joe This is a short clip of the Lyrebird. It not only mimics other birds but also things like camera shutter releases and car alarms.
https://petapixel.com/2011/03/01/australian-lyrebird-mimics-the-sounds-of-camera-shutters/
"Our's have recently learnt a to do delightful rendition of an F&P washing machine start up."
Quite believe that Joe Here's a small clip of the Lyrebird mimicking not only other birds but also camera shutters and car alarms
alarms.https://petapixel.com/2011/03/01/australian-lyrebird-mimics-the-sounds-of-camera-shutters/
“How did the Moa know not to walk on DoC land?”
Being a ratite and knowing DoC's view on rats…
Na it would have been simple arrogance . How could a mere tractor driver know what hes on about . Every time ive dealt with doc thats the attitude ive meet.
you must admit simple tractor drivers have contributed to the loss of much and every farmer has their collection of historical taonga sitting in the cabinet along with the ivory carvings from Asia, or hidden in a box because they are scared. How many sites have been just pretended not seen and bulldozed over. You know this is true.
You are an idiot . Are all maori child beaters ?? Of course they aren't. But if i used you moronic thinking methods i would claim that .
YOU are generalising about DOC you thick wanker – don't have a go at me for learning ya. And you know farmers have dug up all sorts of shit and not handed it in. But keep your cheap bigoted bullshit shots coming daggy and we'll sort that too eh cos YOU are the ONLY one bringing Māori into it.
Ah now i see . You a doc worket are you ?
They come in two types . Solid people with an understanding of how the world works and jumped up prats who wouls curl up and cry if their gps broke down in the bush . I know which one you are.
As for digging stuff up . Never have dont know any one who has but keep making up fantasies about m if it gets you hot .
wtf?
I'm not nor ever have been a DOC worker.
If you haven't got artifacts you're a liar but you know – so fucken what – do I really care? nah.
I think you are doing your bit out there.
As for your original comment – well your self esteem is your business and I'll butt out. I wish I'd never bothered commented to ya.
How much loot have you ‘found’ from the land daggy waggy?
Don't think he signed his query "tractor driver" when he sent it to the general DOC site. There is likely to be a lag especially these days when dealing using a general public channel with any organisation, especially any under-resourced government organisation. Best to have a direct line to a real person in my experience.
what is it with te papa and hoarding treasures and refuting the validity of those it doesn’t own?
Is the Otago museum the one with the amazing butterfly biome?
Tuppence – I wonder if you've read of imaginal or liminal cells in relation to butterflies?
http://www.butterflymysteries.com/imaginal-cells.html
Well,I read it Robert
Beautiful!
thanks so much for that
You're welcome, Francesca. The follow up, if you were interested enough, would be to search out information on morphic resonance. It's pretty astounding stuff, in my opinion. Some molecular biologists share similar views on that topic, with some highly respected theologians.
I seem to remember Rupert Sheldrake being required reading for us hippies back in the 80's
Rupert Sheldrake is/was fascinating. You might like to try Terrence McKenna, francesca:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8y-khMKIbU
Make yourself a big pot of tea and settle back into your chair for a wonderful watch 🙂
Thanks Robert
Very much my cup of tea these days!
I've noticed a real resurgence of these ideas among the young, in line with living a more simple honest life.There's a yearning to reconnect.
Uplifting and exciting!
Follow the hippies! Yes, there is the resurgence you describe, across the board, young and old and it's not surprising, given the co-creative ideas that are at the source of the things Sheldrake et al said. A rapidly approaching, plain as the nose on your face crisis is helping to sharpen everyone's focus. Despite the distractions, many people are looking now, in a more useful direction. There's a lot of talk about the heart 🙂
"I've noticed a real resurgence of these ideas among the young, in line with living a more simple honest life."
Your not alone. And let's just hope as they grow older, they can do it a little more gracefully. Even despite mid-life crises, let's hope it's not a case Harley Davidson's, neo-liberal ideology and children as possessions and as extensions their ego. Although I think we could probably accommodate a pony tail or two – it may be all John Key has to satisfy himself in his dotage.
I don't believe it is, OnceWasTim; I reckon it's game-on.
So do I @ Robert as it happens.
Currently I'm surrounded by students that have just graduated from Vic Uni – quite smart cookies (arts students as it happens), having survived 3 or 4 years of slum-landlord living, and all too aware of what they're faced with, and what it is they going to have to deal with.
They might not be able to replace a fuse (they're RCD devices these days anyway), but they can sure as hell tell bullshit when they see it no matter how hard the political elite and its administrative wing try to spin it.
They know all too well what they're faced with. AND they're working out ways to deal with it
McKenna is intriguing listening, for sure.
Both Terence and Dennis are.
Thanks for the link.
Indeed. Inside of a chrysalis the old caterpillar literally dissolves; all trace of it's old structure literally vanishes into a undifferentiated gloop. The metaphor with our human polity has been drawn by many.
The human race is passing through an equally dramatic transition and the eventual outcome will be a "new race of men". The good news is that I sense we are already well into the process, at least 150 years or more of unprecedented, accelerating change places us very close to the crux, the point of maximal disintegration just prior to the new becoming visible.
But the disintegration of the old world order is noisy and dangerous; like the collapse of the WTC towers it captures the attention and mesmerises; yet at the same time there is this organic 'imaginal' process underway, gathering the components needed for the new. This is where our energies need to be.
The parallel with how we might solve a 9 billion piece jigsaw puzzle lacking the finished image comes to mind; we sift almost at random, finding small clumps that fit together building on each of them slowly, even when the connection between all the various incomplete clumps is unclear or contradictory even.
The transformation of our general attitude towards people of Muslim origin since the ChCh massacre [in NZ and Australia in particular] is indicative of the process you have described.
Cripes RL. There aren't that many types of men – a change will be back to one of the older types, but with such obeisance to the acceptance of new machinery and technology and precision and efficiency, that anything natural and human will result in dissatisfaction and be described as historic, old system, last century and other epithets.
This is not my imagination; it can be seen now. People wearing grey and black, buildings and houses painted brown, beige and charcoal; the colours of the interiors of film sets about space travel. The withdrawal of persons as staff making decisions affecting people's lives as in ACC.
Imaginative, feeling people with kindly impulses. Not to be trusted to keep to the rules. That is more likely to form the basis of the new race of men; just like any authoritarian regime with bigger tech devices and bugger the peeps.
Yes, "People wearing grey and black, buildings and houses painted brown, beige and charcoal; "
Thats been bothering me for some while. To get grey all the colours are mixed together. Lost colour, lost diversity and difference, lost imagination, lost independence, lost freedoms, lost soul…
Janet I feel as you say…
Yes janet 100%![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
RedLogix – I don't think we are "sifting at random" nor do I think we are alone in our efforts. There are other living beings with an interest in our succeeding in putting together the puzzle and some of them are pretty smart! If, for example, trees could convey a message to us, through the fruits we eat, the wood we work with, the sound they make in the wind, the patterns they throw onto the macadam, they'd doubtless be nudging us toward a state of realisation that would result in a new, tree-friendly behaviour. Exploring that idea and extensions of it is, I reckon, worthwhile,
The making of the representative for planet 8 is likely to involve some loss of life. And the problem then becomes, how to remain enlightened while Malthusian processes are winnowing the population – there's no easy answer to that one.
Stuart M
"how to remain enlightened while Malthusian processes are winnowing the population" – that's what so many can't cope with.
We could move on to practical and moral ways but there is a kink in the pipeline; the main mind pipe is corroded and old, irrelevant matter swirls, catches, and builds into a mass until few new ideas can pass. Like a fatberg.*
We have to help those ideas get out and get discussed. Not every one is a goer. And some that are good can turn out badly if not properly implemented with a watcher to ensure that problems are dealt with fairly and quickly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatberg
In my admittedly limited experience, these implementations work in phases. Now we are in the realm of no action, and a proliferation of innovations is highly desirable.
Once innovation is the norm, some culling for efficacy and sustainability is called for.
Then we reach the production plateau, in which bang for buck tends to predominate, in time, the best being the enemy of the good, the bulk focused methods must give way to long term enlightened best interest adaptations.
But for now, we hope to proliferate innovations.
I hadn't. I must admit I'd always wondered about that process though. thanks
Thank you Robert. Lovely.
Joe Rogan with Tulsi Gabbard. Joe has this magical art of drawing people out; it gets more engaging as it goes on.
Finally 'the importance of dental health is filtering through to the Government' that dental care is actually part of our health treatments.
My Dentist warned me that teeth absess and gum diseases will poison my blood and give me multiple loss of mobility..
So Government needs to know that if dental repairs are not carried out the gum decay will cause toxic blood poisoning.
David Clark needs to make dental repair affordable again so the weak, old and all those suffering now are able to have dental repair made available to all.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12229595
NEW ZEALAND Health Minister David Clark considering dental care report as calls for free treatment grow
15 May, 2019 5:00am
The mouth is the primary point of love and nutrition at the first moments from birth.
Health and well being begins with what goes into our bodies through the mouth and what goes on inside our mouths
And what comes out of mouth via the brain.
Health begins and can be improved or diminished with nutritionally beneficial or detrimental injestion of foods and liquids.
That is how human beings complex system have evolved.
That is why good oral care is also important.
Yes One Two,
Teeth and gum health is more important to our ealth than many seem to think.
My Dentist is one of NZ's main "holiistic" dentist in the country.
He tresatrs alll the body systems together so I am bloody fortunate to get him though I have to travel 300kms to get to him he is so worth it.
After my boating accident I damaged 7 of my teeth when the boat overturned and my face was hit by the side of the boat.
He treated my health carefully as I have a damaged immune system so he used materials that would not place more stress on mmy immune system.
The time from the accident to getting to a dentist was tricky as it happend over xmas and the ACC was very slow it establishing the case file so my gums were infected by then so he used his skill to lower the infections and save the teeth.
It was a learning curve for me as an older 74 yr old.
Good news you were able to locate a holistic dentist who was able to provide necessary care for your circumstances…
Holistic dentistry is relatively recent and will continue to become standard as newer generations of dental professionals enter the field.
…And improved knowledge around ingerated (holistic health) squeezes out dental orthodoxy.
One Two yes Holistic Dentistry is the new model I am so happy to see come our way now as the treatment from my Dentist is so very good compared to the older system of 'drill and fill' that we grew up with.
My Holistic dentist cares about the patient in a special way that I had never experienced before as he takes interest in the whole health of the patient, that other dentists did not show before.
He often showed me in photos how my gum infections were leaving and tooth roots were becoming more healthy again.
Very comforting to know those things to know when you are on the right path again.
Hope to see more of this care for patient outcome.
That is great to hear and will have benefits also resulting from your sense of well being as a result..
Holistic Health.
As you say…drill fill and the extraction of perfectly healthy teeth is , the past…still practiced…but will regress into obscurity over coming years…
What does holistic dentistry involve? How is it different?
John See above.
That doesn't answer anything. What is the process? What tools are used? What medications? How does it differ from regular dentistry?
You've given broad descriptions but I am curious about what the specific differences are
Possibly like classical dentistry. Drill a hole in your tooth, fill it, make a hole in your wallet, rinse, repeat.
Dentists have advised me to see the dental hygienist and I thought that it was a bit expensive and for the fussy. They have not given the information that you repeat in your comment Cleangreen. If the reasons and practical advantages are explained it becomes obvious that it is wise to include such visits on the 'maintenance' schedule. I have this problem now and just as a start am going to take small Vit C daily and eat more greens and spend some money on this important procedure.
oral health care can take various forms..
Dental orthodoxy is limiting and in many ways has become a failure with new roles such as hygenists are spurious in my opinion…
In recent times updated knowledge and techniques are coming through…
Human tooth enamel is made up of compounds for which we can modify or introduce food stuffs specifically to support and maintain, while lowering injestion of those foods and fluids which actively damage tooth enamel..
Of course there are other impacts on teeth such as clenching and grinding which negatively impact teeth and influence oral health…extractions orthodontics can also negatively impact oral health…
Brushing techniques, products used to clean can also have adverse effects…
Warm water with a pinch of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda rinsed with warm water is beneficial for oral health and is non abrasive on teeth and gums…
Have a look into eating for teeth and oral health, gw…if you're so inclined…
Greywarshark;
My infections were so advanced by the time my newly found 'holistic' dentist began work.
I had seen my Treating MD firstly and was undergiong Vitamin C IV's as my blood test showed that my markers of CRP "C reactive protien" https://www.healthline.com/health/c-reactive-protein – was climbing high showing severe infections were causing "inflamation" from the gum infections, and the Vitamin C IV's were slowing down the infections and joint pains.
Yes you are so very correct there.
Was it you had some chemical 'interaction' some while ago? I know someone commenting here did. If so that would be having an affect.
Interesting comment 50 sec's in " It has made me realise that struggling is the norm" . For me this one line summarises daily living 🙁
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/good-sorts-tammy-schurmann-pays-forward-after-selfless-act?auto=6035618083001
Is simon ok? First he complains about the cost of fee's free tertiary ed.
Nek minute, he complains that not enough people have taken it up so the money budgeted for it will be redistributed. This is not a bad thing silly simon, people are still getting fee's free tertiary, and there's also money left over, that's a good thing.
And now, it appears national are going to come up with their own fee's free tertiary.
Does he know where he stands on fee's free tertiary?
Ahhhhh now I get it paula bennet appears to be their spokesperson on said subject, no bloody wonder. Care for an interview/debate on the subject paula? Didn't think so lololzz
Nek minute, he complains that not enough people have taken it up so the money budgeted for it will be redistributed. This is not a bad thing silly simon, people are still getting fee's free tertiary, and there's also money left over, that's a good thing.
the fact that there is money left over is that it did not deliver it’s desired effect.
Numbers are down – it’s just a failed policy.
How is is that a good thing – if it was actually setting out to solve a problem and not just a bite bribe?
quote marks are a good thing
Plus, money doesn't desire, at least I hope not.
"…it’s just a failed policy."
Yep, and the list is growing. But not to worry, Jacinda's engaged!
"the fact that there is money left over is that it did not deliver it’s desired effect."
Spot the flawed logic.
the fact that there is money left over is that it did not deliver it’s desired effect.
Well, it might show that, I guess. Or it might show that the government budgeted for contingencies, eg the possibility that National's scare-mongering about the policy encouraging hordes of middle-class thickos to descend on the universities turned out to be correct, which it didn't.
Numbers are down – it’s just a failed policy.
Please show your working for this answer. The policy was to make it easier for people to attend University, particularly working-class and lumpenproletariat kids for whom fees were a major obstacle. Has it failed in that objective? We don't know from your answer. If overall student numbers are down, where has the fall occurred? For example, if the fall is in full-fee international student enrolments, that's bad news for universities but no reflection on the fees-free policy.
it appears national are going to come up with their own fee’s free tertiary
Do you have a link Cinny?
I heard something on the wireless yesterday or the day before, will do my best to try and find a link
the point of fees free was to increase enrolments and encourage more enrolments from students from lower socioeconomic households.
It was a failed policy.
The main beneficiaries are students who were going to study anyway.
Most of whom are young people with well resourced families who can afford to study with or without worrying about debt.
Which just goes to highlight how detached our politicians are from the struggling masses. Young people these days are used to debt, they seem resigned to the concept, the real problem is they simply can not afford to be not working.
That being said..education should be free. But while we are irrationaly burdened with austerity budgets..maybe that money would be better directed at policies that help strugglers take up training…housing subsidies, free transport etc.
Its like Kiwibuild..a policy that the strugglers probably thought was going to improve their lot..only to find out it was targeted, by design and or lack of thought, at the happy middle class voter, who was going to vote Labour anyway.
I wonder if enrolments have dropped due to foreign student scam awareness?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/112711657/waitkere-ranges-reopening-plan-shows-conflict-between-recreation-and-kauri-protection
I wonder how those 20% view Climate Change.
They would probably have to check with Donald Trump before answering that
A simple 3:00 AM Tweet would do. After all, that’s when the mind is at its sharpest.
I'm one of that 20%. My scepticism re the prevalent ideology is due to never seeing evidence presented in the media to justify it, plus media reports that kauri die-back is occurring in trees distant from walking tracks.
When I lived up there I often walked the Waitakere tracks. Where are the cause & effect linkages explained by microbiologists?? I decided their absence was due to them being non-existent. I could be wrong, of course, but I prefer evidence-based public policy.
Here's a survey you may want to take a look at:
https://www.kauridieback.co.nz/media/1387/aerial-surveillance-jamieson-et-al-2014.pdf
The confirmed dieback is concentrated around walking tracks. Yes, there are a few cases away from walking tracks. The organism is in the soil, and can be spread by vectors other than casual walkers, such as pigs and pig hunters.
Makes sense. Would be interesting to know the ecosystemic relations of the organism. Foreign invader? Native, but habitat & reproduction enhanced by climate change? I'm keen to have the microbiologists on the case enter the public arena. I know bipartisan govt policy is to muzzle scientists as much as possible, but I believe the public has a right to know. Also, public compliance is more likely if the govt stops treating the public with contempt.
Ten years ago when I first started learning about the phytophthora organism causing the kauri dieback, the strong consensus was that it was a very recent introduction. Based mostly on the very narrow genetic profile of all the samples gathered from the widespread locations where it had been found. And that lab testing indicated it actually was much more virulent in significantly warmer environments than where it was actually found in NZ.
Since then I'm aware of some work suggesting a wider genetic profile and that it has therefore been in NZ longer than originally thought. But the last time I talked to the boffins involved, they were still of the view that the overall evidence still pointed to it being a recent introduction.
There is a team of boffins that are actively working with property owners that have kauri dieback on their property, as well as working with the various government bodies. I've had a lot to do with them, and always found them very open, helpful and respectful. The biggest issue I've seen is simply under-resourcing, not any kind of info suppression or contempt towards the public.
Thanks for that informed appraisal, Andre. Good to know they have made partial progress in understanding the situation. If it gets more virulent in warm conditions, as the lab tests suggest, then global warming makes the spread inevitable and current public policy is futile. No mention of where the organism flourishes overseas?
Last I heard, no they hadn't identified anywhere overseas hosting the exact same organism. IIRC Queensland kauri host a similar phytophthora, but different enough to be excluded as the source, just like NZ kauri have long been known to host phytophthora cinnamomi (and early reports of kauri dieback were dismissed as being just cinnamomi).
I wouldn't describe current policy as futile. There is a treatment that helps the trees hold their own. I've treated all mine (48 of them). Prior to treatment, 2 or 3 would die every year on my place, and another 2 or 3 on the adjacent council reserve. In the 2 years since treating mine, none have died, but the 2 to 3 per year death rate on the adjacent reserve has continued.
It's not a cure, that'll probably have to wait a few decades until we understand stuff like phage treatments well enough to be able to engineer a biological counter-attack on the specific phytophthora causing the dieback.
I'm impressed! Is the treatment similar to vaccination – applied to tree rather than surrounding soil, and are councils and DoC using it also? I haven't noticed media reports on this good news. How does it work?
No, not really like vaccination. The active ingredient is phosphite or phosphorous acid. That's much too simple a molecule to provoke an antibody type response. However, it does seem to reinforce the usual tree response to insult of trying to wall off and self-amputate the part of the tree where the invader is gaining entry. One of the symptoms of die-back is gum bleeds erupting and travelling up and around the tree: on my trees with this, the bleeding and extending up and around the tree has stopped, and there's a lot of fresh bark growth around the bleeds.
It's applied by drilling a number of holes around the base of the tree, then screwing pre-loaded spring-activated syringes into the holes. It takes up to 20 minutes for the injection to complete (if it's taking longer, the tree's internal sap pressure is too high and it's going to backflow into the syringe and gunk it up).
The avocado industry do this to their trees every year, but it's still being determined how frequently it should be re-applied to kauri.
Yes. councils are doing it on their trees and I've heard mention of iwi doing it too. Haven't specifically heard of DOC doing it also, but I'd be surprised if they weren't by now.
I suspect there's some reluctance to try trumpeting it. When people hear about it, a common reaction is 'great, problem sorted, we don't need to worry about it anymore'. Which definitely is not the case, the treatment is definitely not a cure. At best it's a limited holding measure that hopefully helps keep the tree alive until an actual cure gets developed.
Oh fuck – not fucking vaccines again!
Cool, great to get that full explanation published, thanks. Yeah I take the point re public notification & complacency. Kind of ambulance at the bottom of the cliff parallel – best to maximise prevention.
@JohnSelway – sorrrreeeee! Hope it hasn't lit the fuse.
Hopefully we can move on to something easier now like the moon landing or The Illuminati!!!!!1111!!!11!!!! OH NOES
It is a pity that traveleve succumbed to her illness. We could have restarted the great twin tower collapse debates again…
<duck when="now" />
I see a potential fluoride dust up developing…..
" the great twin tower collapse debates again… "
Oh god lord no
Oh feck. I thought we'd at least get a break until September, but that comment might raise
PaulEdJinxTammyMilly up out of the crypt.…..or whether Bashar Assad is a gentle eye doctor.
It might be that the mauri of kauri is so traumatised by human behaviour that they've succumbed.
There's a remedy available: deploy tree-huggers en masse to express their feelings to the tall old ones in the usual touchie-feelie way, but more organised. School outings for that purpose would help. The power of positive thinking ought never to be underestimated…
How many treehuggers do you think there are, Dennis? I'm one.
edit: and what would you have them express?
Their personal feelings. Gaian resilience is too sophisticated a notion for most folks. The organism killing them is as much a part of Gaia as the trees. Biochemical imbalance in an ecosystem is so subtle that only subtle countering influences are likely to succeed. At Findhorn, communicating with the devas worked wonders. I've never heard of similar workings in Aotearoa…
Oh fuck no. Given the way the organism is clearly spread by humans inadvertently carrying it, the last thing the kauri need is a whole lot more people travelling from tree to tree hugging them.
True. I was being flippant (mostly). However twenty years of science and preventation seem to have made not one iota of difference to the spread, eh? Which suggests soil biochemistry is driving it more than people.
There would be no need for people to gather under the trees; they could work from home. Those influences Dennis mentions are effective across time and space, according to the practitioners and the theory.
I've read about that sort of thing in the past. Derives from traditional shamanism, eh? No general rule applies, however, and effectiveness seems to vary according to expertise of practioners, and context…
Derives from pre-historical human behaviour and knowledge. It's our true relationship with non-human beings, of which trees and soil organisms are part. Shamans do many things; reminding the rest of their group of those relationships is one of their responsibilities.
There hasn't been twenty years of science and prevention, it was only about ten years ago that it was definitively concluded that kauri dieback was indeed a new problem.
It's only been in the last couple of years that the first immediately obvious step has actually been taken: stop people walking into infected areas and thereby inadvertently picking up the phytophthora organism and later spreading it elsewhere. And just look at the pushback that simple obvious step has received.
Up until the closures, the only measures had been pathetic: provision of brushes and spray bottles for people to make token attempts to clean their footwear. Which were mostly ignored.
Humans are the primary vector, and human behaviour likely to spread the disease didn't get changed, and the disease continued to spread. How does that suggest soil biochemistry is driving it more than people?
Soil biochemistry and humans are intimately linked.
This from Radionz this morning on recent argy bargy about why, how, whether the figures are correct, whether it is indeed worse than before or better, what to do? This sort of thing is great fodder for the objector, the independent thinker, the anti-authoritarian, the intelligent arguer who can find fissures in a program and argue about them with authorities.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018695115/waitakere-woes-re-open-plan-fails-to-impress-public
Robert up there above
Ive read that sort of thing too
We have a concept of insular individualism , when in fact trees are an integrated community
Clear felling in the past has destroyed the integrity of the underground support systems of Kauri.
That weakened community is now succumbing
Back to the old mycelial magic?
Indeed. Leaving the Grandmother trees in situ is becoming de rigueur for forestry companies. They've learned, some of them at least, about the role of the Old trees in supporting vulnerable members of their kind, even keeping cut stumps alive for decades, conveying substances to seedlings to support their establishment and growth and so on. The fungi play a part also, but the inter-tree connections, root-to-root, is also essential and fascinating. The web beneath the surface of the soil is a far more marvellous thing than we have been thinking it to be. Some very old cultures haven't lost their understanding of these things, it's mostly our "historical/civilized" culture that has gone stupid on it.
The two instances I've come across have been of the view that "it might be 1080, it might be glyphosate, it might be airplane emissions, it might be … ".
Comment cleaned up:
The two instances I've come across have been of the view that "it might be 1080, it might be glyphosate, it might be airplane emissions, it might be … ".
Originally put the comment in as a reply to the wrong person, then the formatting went bad when I moved it and didn't check it before moving on to another topic.
Hackers now inside "whats App"
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3394582/the-iphone-users-guide-to-the-whatsapp-hack-attack.html The iPhone user's guide to the WhatsApp hack attack Update your app and iPhone immediately
Israel = rogue state
This a.m. at 10.05 a review of book on Benjamin N. Radionz. Sure to be interesting about this everlasting flower.
10:05 Being Bibi: The turbulent life of Israel's leader
Israel's leader Benjamin Netanyahu into his fifth term as Prime Minister – but with the threat of indictments hanging over him. What price might his coalition partners extract for their support? And what might it mean for Palestinians living in the West Bank?
Kathryn speaks with Anshel Pfeffer, a journalist for Haaretz and author of the book 'Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu' who is in town for this week's Auckland Writers Festival.
A piece from The Daily Blog with comment about a very warm declaration by a National MP as a Zionist believer.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/05/04/can-god-be-racist/
To me it indicates the resurgence of religion pushing into our supposed secular and even-handed approach as a nation. That is concerning.
The USA is one seriously sick country.
How can the Supreme Court make a legal decision in 1973 and then 40+ years later have that ruling re-litigated and overturned because the make-up of the SC has changed?
The process has started…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/14/it-goes-after-roe-directly-alabamas-abortion-bill-set-to-go-before-state-senate
I bet you were equally upset back in 1954 when the Court ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional because they breached the 14th Amendment. That was the Brown vs Board of Education case.
That decision overturned the 1896 decision in Plessey vs Ferguson which held that segregation was OK because the schools were substantially equal.
A lot of Southern politicians were just like you. They didn't want the old decision overturned. So welcome back to the fold Governor Faubus. I imagine you have Governor Wallace with you..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education
Its not comparable cases . The obscure current one mentioned has no new evidence to support a change of precedent. The Constitution doesnt mention the 'states immunity' , nor has the legal background changed.
No clause in the constitution mentions ststes immunity so the conservatives had to invent legal rasoning such as ' at the time of the writing of the constitution it was on their mind' or similar
What was different for separate but equal doctrine ( it also covered other state services like buses etc) was overwelhming evidence they werent equal and a specific clause of the constitution required 'equal protection'
Of course they are comparable.
Kevin's entire argument, as expressed, is "How can the Supreme Court make a legal decision in 1973 and then 40+ years later have that ruling re-litigated and overturned because the make-up of the SC has changed?" You can't plead that anything else is involved since he didn't plead any other reason to be concerned. I understand he is now to late to bring up any new arguments. Is that correct on what can be argued in an appeal case?
You regard them as different because you approve of one and disapprove of the other. The thing they do have in common is that the composition of the Supreme Court has changed.
You also consider that the current Alabama case is an obscure one. Like hell it is to the women of that benighted State. We can only hope that the Supreme Court don't back them.
The really odd thing about the 1896 case is the native states of the Judges who decided it. It was a 7-1 decision and the only 7 who said it was not in breach of the 14th amendment came from states that had been on the Union side. The one who said it was in breach was a former slave-holder from Kentucky.
By the way “Separate but Equal” was never mentioned in the 1896 decision.
The current case where precedent was reversed was A litigant suing a Minor California government entity in Nevada court
'Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt'
Dont know where you got Alabama from, confused maybe
Yes Plessey didnt mention the name of the doctrine 'separate but equal' That was used used in Brown.
However they did rule for separate facilities. It wasnt schooling but a state law in Loiusiana requring separate railroad cars for blacks.
In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, which required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate railway cars.
The ed result was that states were free to legalise segregation. The state law used the phase "equal but separate" which has come down through the years but reversed.
In case you didn't notice the comment of mine that you were replying to was itself a reply to Kevin. His was at 8 above and mine is at 8.1. Did you see the link that he posted, and did you even look at it? It was Kevin who introduced the subject of the Alabama law. Why are you mentioning, for the first time here, an obscure case in California? I don't know, in the string of comments you are replying to where you got California from. I guess you are simply confused. Here is his link again. It is obviously about an Alabama law, isn't it?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/14/it-goes-after-roe-directly-alabamas-abortion-bill-set-to-go-before-state-senate
Now if you still want to take part in this debate can you please stick to the subject which was the possibility of a Supreme Court reversing a decision by a previous incarnation and reversing of Roe vs Wade.
That of course simply becomes one about whether the SC should ever reverse a decision. Now if you want to discuss the subject you are welcome but if you are going to bring up other cases where a reversal is possible at least tell us what they are the first time you speak. Just as Kevin did with his case that might reverse Roe vs Wade and as I did where they reversed a case when they ruled on Brown vs Board of Education.
Yes the experience of rolling back the carpet we all could tread on to now excluding it from many who have to walk barefoot across stony ground is under way. Controls on mercenary behaviour fought for at great sacrifice is being lightly thrown away by the callous and self-interested. 'The mighty tree grows for a thousand years, and is felled in a day.' We will never be able to recover humane measures once they are wiped.
There has been a gradual loss of integrity and human values and respect that has altered society and washed away the ideas of enlightenment, just leaving the examples of its effect strewn on the beach at high water mark.
Best statement of the day Greywarshark;
This deserves three smillies.![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
" Maduro's approval ratings hover at around 20%." [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47441642] So why are the 80% who disapprove so reluctant to join anti-govt protests? The explanation lies in the regime's use of controlled violence, via deployment of militia groups (rather than troops or police) to lend the regime a veneer of plausible deniability.
These groups have deep historical roots, detailed in this report from Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/americas/2019/05/venezuela-colectivos-190506163125345.html Here's a report of how they operate:
"When tear gas and rubber bullets did not seem to deter a group of some 600 government opponents on the Venezuela side of the border in San Antonio, National Guardsmen withdrew and cleared the way for the masked men on motorcycles. Immediately, people began running, terrified."
"The men fired at the crowd and at the adjacent buildings for at least two hours until the main street leading up to the Simon Bolivar Bridge looked like an abandoned war zone. It's unclear how many people were injured. I saw at least two people being dragged away, one with a gunshot wound to the head, while the masked men refused to let ambulances through."
"Venezuelan Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez claimed the armed civilians were "Colombian paramilitaries" – an argument that many on the border didn't buy."
The regime's chief propagandist pretending the masked motorized shooters were a Colombian invasion force is entertaining, and bound to bring smiles to the faces of Venezuelans everywhere.
"The opposition-controlled National Assembly has designated these civilian bands as "terrorist groups" that carry out "violent paramilitary actions, intimidation, murder and other crimes" described as "acts of state terrorism". But, despite an international outcry against the use of these groups in recent weeks, Maduro has come out firmly in their defence. And amid the continued attempts by his opponents to force him from office, he has called on the colectivos – without distinction – to take to the streets "to every corner to defend the Revolution"."
It's a sophisticated mix of control tactics by Maduro. His political support continues to ebb, however. When "a paramilitary group fired live rounds at demonstrators from a government building in the opposition stronghold of Altamira. State police unsuccessfully attempted to confront the "delinquents". The following day, the police director of operations who had commanded the operative was summarily dismissed for interfering with the gunmen." When the state starts eliminating its own enforcers, the end of that state seems inevitable.
So Maduro's tactics being effective is insufficient. His strategy is too inadequate to succeed in the long term. Partisan thinking isn't in the public interest, and he must rise above those ideological blinkers to win back support in the 80% disaffected majority.
From the guy who supports the last coup attempt. And actively supports the violent overthrow of a democratically elected government.
You might want to look to see what the opposition support is buddy, then you might just realise it is a crap situation, made worse by war mongers and imperialist thugs like yourself.
Hey dickhead, since I haven't supported any military coup anywhere in my entire life, you know you're full of shit. 🙄
"Asked by CNN's Christiane Amanpour about mass shootings in the United States and whether other countries could learn from the actions of New Zealand and Australia, Ms Ardern said it was possible to "draw a line" and ban access to military style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles. "Australia experienced a massacre and changed their laws, New Zealand had its experience and changed its laws. To be honest with you I do not understand the United States."" https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/389215/jacinda-ardern-on-gun-law-changes-i-do-not-understand-the-us
Lack of similarity between Australasia & USA derives from an historical factor more influential in mass psychology than the cause & effect relation between massacres and military style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles. It is the Constitution. It defines US political culture and mass identity.
For Americans, the right to wear weapons shapes their self-image from childhood. Locked into that 18th-century mindset by the Constitution, they cannot progress. It creates a binding belief-system, and acts as a mental prison. In their primitive form of civilisation, violence is institutionalised by design.
And deeper than the Constitution, we tend to forget that America as a nation has it's founding origin in a citizen armed revolt against British colonialism.
Good point. Although I'd prefer the arch-conservatives to be a little more authentically 18th-century and wear swords as well. Wigs too.
You should also note that the people who revolted were the colonists.
It wasn't a revolt by the American Indians was it? It was by wealthy colonists like Washington, Jefferson, Adams and other gentleman of British descent.
Clever science and thinking. 46,000 tonnes of grape marc have caused problems in Marlborough.Today this appeared in the media.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/112579373/pacrimenviro-trials-potential-solution-for-marlboroughs-grape-marc-problems
The solution is to dry the marc to 25% of its original weight. The products are steam and a sultana smelling powder which could be a stock feed supplement, a soil conditioner or made into pellets which can then be a fuel.
The drying process thereby becomes a self-fuelling process. Presumably the process could take place at the place of crushing, obviating a lot of transport needs.
In March, another solution was publicised here. More traditional thinking but obviously viable.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/111527346/the-beast-waging-war-and-laying-waste-to-marlboroughs-grape-marc-problem
@mm .
Reply functions on the fritz again .
Considering your kin wiped the moa out you might wont to get off your high horse you angry little man.
Did mm's kin even have horses?
the great mental prowess of the farm jerker exhibit a – a daggy waggy – so cute but keep fingers away cos they bite when ruffled
bwaghorn The colonials made such a big deal out of huia feathers that they monetised it to extinction; the big bird nob having a breeding pair that were to be released in an island off shore, when the PM who was overseeing the transfer and release died, abandoned that. He took them home to his rich patron and greased up to him, by having the last of an extinct bird.
Lots of this sort of stuff and mm gets to be an angry little (or big or fat) man. It is the emotion that gets us off our backsides and doing something to improve, and makes us all a bit touchy. You are taking steps too – so we all get touchy with each other at times.
This music gets me going Carl Orff – O Fortuna
The above is I believe, pretty factual. But anyone who knows the more correct factual version is welcome to update mine.
While I was googling on moa gastroliths earlier I found this article and the interesting idea that Maori hunting may not have been the primary reason for their extinction:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/north-shore-times/660809/Stones-of-the-moa
Although as a keen tramper in my earlier years I often thought that it wasn't such a bad thing that moa were extinct.![surprise surprise](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/omg_smile.png)
You're missing the main moa predator there – sandflies. Trampers need to know why the little buggers are so hungry.
It's possibly the other way around, the sandfly is there to protect these places from hordes of people. Although over time I got quite used to them and they stop bothering you much.
What are a total pest are the 'no-seeum' sandflies that are common around water in Queensland. You can barely see them, you don't feel their bite, but reaction can last days and is intensely itchy. One night we got hammered by them and had to make a fast trip to the nearest chemist about 2 hrs drive away for some anti-histamine. The lass behind the counter could scarcely contain her smirk as we entered the shop …![blush blush](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/embarrassed_smile.png)
Moa would have, I think, made tramping easier, through their browsing habits, clipping and pruning the shrubby layers like a parkland. Perhaps. Maybe.
Yes and no. It's also thought that many of our juvenile tree forms and shrub species, the hebe's especially, evolved their divaricating habit (tightly interwoven branches) as a defense against moa browsing that might tear plants with a more normal structure to shreds.
Cost-cutting to improve quality is the order of day at New Shub. Sounds a bit like the John Key government, doesn't it?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12231068
(note this article is not behind the paywall 😆)
Right at the bottom that old drunkard Bill Ralston says,
Of course what he meant in these modern times is, "To grow your audience in news, you have to manufacture outrage"
I’ve always been confused by the contrast between the AM show with its shameless right wing tabloidism, and New Shub 6pm news with the most boring man in presenting, straight-laced Mike McRoberts.
"you have to threaten to break lefties" – I think that's what he really means.
I think we have a new role model!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/112731813/vegan-no-more-is-the-fashion-for-plantbased-diets-beginning-to-wilt
I fear that all the goodness of that item has been used up in the headline.
The 2020 US election could indeed actually be stolen. Here's how Repugs could actually deliver Needy Amin a second term:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/13/2020-election-contested-donald-trump-226869
The Republicans stole the 2016 election. The Democrats' "leadership" has spent two years pushing the fantasy that the RUSSIANS did it.
No one with a brain believes them.
Five and a half more years of Trump coming up.
True that is.![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
Hillary used corporate money to set up the "Russia Russia Russia hoax" and it all has now blown up in her wicked face.
Get a load of this article, and the spin for E pollute. I would like to see the long term tend as this is going to get interesting. I never heard of such high pollution levels in Canterbury plains wells before I left CHCH in 1998 and even during my time in the farm/ horticulture Cadetship scheme before the “No Mates Party” stuffed that up along with apprenticeships in the early to mid 90’s.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/112695269/environmentalists-alarmed-but-environment-canterbury-says-water-survey-results-expected
Could be about USA.
Quote in Robert Goddard's book Sea Change 2000. Good read.
It has been judiciously observed that a commercial country has more to dread from the golden baits of avarice, the airy hopes of projectors and the wild enthusiastic dreams of speculators than from any external dangers.
John Miller, An Authentic Account of the South Sea Scheme (1845)
Court refuses serial scumbag's latest attempt to try it on:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12231170
Court said no. However ..
@lprent may have thoughts to add, or not.
Yes. I'm looking forward to lprent's take on the story. 🙂
Literal or figurative, who can tell anymore?
Figurative meat. It’s a thing: Real meat, masquerading as cultured meat, pretending to be real meat.
Amaze your vegetarian friends. “I can’t believe it’s not meat. I mean literally.”
(meaning figuratively)
Just don't tell them. Yes it is.
Now we really know that the sheep and beef people are in trouble