Folks ought to check out the interview Kim Hill's doing at 9.05 with an online news expert. Buzzfeed was an epic success story.
In late 2011, BuzzFeed hired Ben Smith of Politico as editor-in-chief, to expand the site into long-form journalism and reportage.
By 2016, BuzzFeed had 20 investigative journalists. Chief executive Jonah Peretti announced the BuzzFeed News division will close on April 20, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BuzzFeed
This community-building insight from the wiki is transportable, generic…
On July 17, 2012, humor website McSweeney's Internet Tendency published a satirical piece entitled "Suggested BuzzFeed Articles", prompting BuzzFeed to create many of the suggestions.
BuzzFeed listed McSweeney's as a "Community Contributor". The post subsequently received more than 350,000 page views, prompted BuzzFeed to ask for user submissions, and received media attention. Subsequently, the website launched the "Community" section in May 2013 to enable users to submit content.
Users initially are limited to publishing only one post per day, but may increase their submission capacity by raising their "Cat Power", described on the BuzzFeed website as "an official measure of your rank in BuzzFeed's Community." A user's Cat Power increases as they achieve greater prominence on the site.
This interactive game no doubt entertains many players. Designers can exploit the generic dimensions of the design.
I included it in comment #1. I flagged that by reference to the wiki. Since wikis have featured in commentary & politics for the past couple of decades, I'm confident that readers can reach them easily when such pointers are included.
That was because the link I inserted was to her topic for the interview. The link you want wasn't available due to my posting the notice 55 mins prior to the interview actually occurring.
This makes it much easier for people to find the article and audio later.
Your link to Saturday Morning's page means people have to work more to find the relevant bit and in a week it will have dropped down the page, making it even harder to find.
The key point here is that we want the piece to be as easily available as possible, so that people have the context and can debate from that. All pieces, all the time.
Yeah sure, I'm aware of ideal practice – but as I just pointed out to Incognito, I see others onsite here regularly not providing such links when they comment, with no moderating consequently…
Fair enough, I withdraw and apologise for the lying bit.
This still leaves the Q why an intelligent commenter is being obnoxious about providing a link to an interview that hasn’t aired yet and “Folks ought to check out”. The first time (in this OM) he was asked was @ 10:25 am, after the interview had aired. And after that, it was pulling teeth. And then he starts digging in by making allegations about others who don’t link (it does happen) as if this should let him off the hook.
And there’s another instance last night of him not linking and making very little or no effort to show some courtesy and respect of the rules of engagement of this site.
I will admit I had to bite my tongue at the accusation that other people get away with it, given how much of our time is spent on this simple thing chasing up regulars who should know better.
If site owner/operator configures chatGPT into the system here as an autonomous module, best to give it the username Lefty.
I posted something last night noting that it had been found to have a leftist bias. That can be tweaked via consensus of moderators and owner/operator. You could, for instance, give it Che Guevara charisma to leverage the icon effect, Trotsy's tactical nous to get results in (ideological) warfare, Marx's class framing, Stalin's machiavellian expertise as shapeshifter. You'd have to include the integrative holism from Smuts for it to ground sensibly though.
A positional generator of generic leftist thought and advice would have a mentoring effect. It would also be oracular when prompted to opinionate on the likeliest outcome of situations, so it would have tactical application on a utility basis.
Some days I can’t decide if it’s better for a hard climate crash so nature takes this shit out of our hands once and for all. By our hands I mean tech culture run by men with little social or community or nature intelligence. Don't know why we do that, but I don't understand why we are allowing catastrophic CC either.
It's interesting, but. Uploading a brain scan while assuming one can thereby simulate a mind features at least conceptual flaw. You can indeed achieve mimesis by getting AI behind the simulation, but resemblance to an actual human is slight.
Thinking is mostly driven by feeling. Neuroscientists now collectively acknowledge this (paradigm shift in the 1990s). People evolve as individuals on that organic basis. Neuroplasticity is now proven. We evolve via interaction with circumstance. AI does that without feelings.
Now women have always known that due to their different organic connection to Gaia but men are mostly slow learners so the gnosis is still percolating through…
Sadly human nature puts us on a hard landing as far as climate change is concerned. On one hand we look at say farming and ruminant animals but at the same time our appetite for fossil fuels increases.
And Russia is planning to hold possibly thousands more. A Russian government document obtained by The Associated Press dating to January outlined plans to create 25 new prison colonies and six other detention centers in occupied Ukraine by 2026.
In addition, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in May allowing Russia to send people from territories with martial law, which includes all of occupied Ukraine, to those without, such as Russia. This makes it easier to deport Ukrainians who resist Russian occupation deep into Russia indefinitely, which has happened in multiple cases documented by the AP.
Many civilians are picked up for alleged transgressions as minor as speaking Ukrainian or simply being a young man in an occupied region, and are often held without charge. Others are charged as terrorists, combatants, or people who “resist the special military operation.” Hundreds are used for slave labor by Russia’s military, for digging trenches and other fortifications, as well as mass graves.
Deplorables are so infectious they can get in anywhere. They've gotten into Labour:
That the New Zealand Labour Party has meekly accepted the Captain’s Call of its Leader, Chris Hipkins, that his government will not introduce either a Wealth Tax or a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) while he’s the one in charge is deplorable. https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2023/07/14/captains-call/
Better get Hilary Clinton onto the situation, with her laser-like identification abilities she'll spot them & root them out. We can but deplore the contamination.
Ever since the political divisions unleashed in the 1980s, the strongest factions in the Labour Party (which Hipkins has been careful to cultivate) have thought it wiser to keep control of the losing side in the class war, than lose control of the winning side.
This appears to be the `suckers will always vote Labour' theory. Covert support for National is not really a leftist thing, and the PM does it to seem centrist instead.
If I can get a word in here in the Dennis Frank Open Mike, this is a weird article by Luke Malpass today. He takes a series of shots at Hipkins, Robertson, and Labour (as usual) but concludes that Hipkins got it right in ruling out a WT and CGT.
"But of concern was the weird competing mish-mash of objectives which the Treasury identified itself and said that Robertson prioritised. These included raising enough revenue, being considered fair and helping social cohesion. The system would also have to meet Robertson’s “distributional objectives for progressivity, horizontal equity and reducing inequality”, and “the revenue strategy needs to align with your economic goals (high wage, low emissions, economic security."
All of those objectives look entirely sensible to me and not in any way out of the ordinary. They are not a "mish-mash".
The below is particularly interesting, and should boost the Green's party vote:
"Polling seen by Stuff and commissioned by the Green Party before the revelation of Labour’s abandoned tax plans, did show potential Green voter reaction to a tax-free threshold. More than 87% of potential voters sitting on the fence whether to switch to Green were favourably inclined towards a tax-free threshold (or zone as Robertson called in on Thursday) and 68% of the same group were keen on a wealth tax."
But Malpass is off-beam below because TPM has ruled out going into a coalition that contained ACT. (The Coaltion of Cu*ts)
"What will be worrying Labour a lot more is the fact that Te Pāti Māori is now more or less assumed to need to be part of the mix for Labour to win power again in virtually all polls, while National and ACT will not necessarily need the party if the numbers fall the right way."
What's the theory about Labour worring about needing TPM? The kinds of concessions post-election? Or losing votes as the election campaign period shows TPM as necessary?
His main point is that past polls had given Labour hope that they would have been able to govern with just the Greens for support, but now the polls are showing that they will need both the Greens and TPM to govern.
Some people may prefer not to vote for a coalition that includes TPM, but then other people (just as many, if not more IMHO) will prefer not to vote for a coalition that includes ACT.
It is the nature of MMP that small parties get outsized influence on Government – think about NZ First’s three-time being the kingmakers.
National will be pressing hard on the fact that a vote for Labour is a vote for the Greens or Te Pāti Māori. This isn't a racist dog whistle, but recognises the fact that both of these parties sit at the political edges.
Labour and the Greens will be saying the same thing about ACT and National.
So Alan, you are by inference saying Act and National are more aligned? Tui
Luxon won’t want to share.
Black Adder(Luxon)” I am leader!!”
Baldrick (Seymour) “I have a cunning plan”.
Southern states of Australia, such as Victoria and South Australia, which already experience the country's hottest heatwaves, could see hot days become hotter by up to 4C. These conditions, which often occur during an El Niño, can lead to reduced rainfall, higher temperatures and a greater risk of bushfires. Across Europe, heatwaves may become hotter by up to 10C and some heatwaves will last up to two months by the end of this century. In just the next 20 years, the US will experience three to five more heatwaves every decade compared to the second half of the 20th Century.
A Royal Commission initiated after Australia's Black Summer fire disaster pointed to an urgent need to improve disaster management capabilities in order to respond to more frequent, intense, complex and costly fires under a changing climate. This can be done in all of three ways: first, limit the vulnerability of communities and ecosystems to fire; second, limit communities and ecosystems exposure to fire; third, limit the fire itself.
That's their operational triad strategy for firestorms. Reportage of these globally ought to hone in on an analytical framing based on regional vulnerability flagged by repetition.
Too soon, I assume. Think we're in the transitional phase, the switch-over of the oscillation. Remember that's driven by an immense ocean current. Inertial.
We're still in a bit of a limbo between La Nina and El Nino. Climactic changes on a world-wide scale take time to bed in.
What we can look forward to in NZ is a much drier summer than the last one (phew) but with slightly cooler temperatures and westerly quarter winds, The big stand out will be the west coast of the Sth. Island which will have a higher than normal rainfall.
Thanks Anne….my timing was probably off, though I could have sworn I heard El Nino would influence the weather and bring snow this year. Maybe they readjusted their forecasts.
BTW (you will hate me for this) it was an incredibly dry and lovely summer down here in Wanaka. Even the farmers aren't too bothered when it is so hot and dry these days as they have large-scale pivot irrigation in place.
I was one of the thousands of Aucklanders whose home was flooded. Fortunately I'm two-storied so was able to continue to live upstairs but it hasn't been pleasant – at times stressful. Finally after a six month wait the rebuild downstairs has begum in earnest and should be completed soon.
I can count myself lucky because the workload is so enormous they will still be repairing and rebuilding for another year or two – and that is just Auckland.
Periods of unusually warm air aloft in the mid latitudes have limited new snowfall and partially destroyed what has fallen earlier. Very poor for snowmaking as well. Forget trying to forecast by using historical seasonal snowfalls. It's a new paradigm.
Hope they get a couple of one-off events to get things going.
The levels detected in the new GNS study in groundwater and streams around Pukekohe and Bombay are as high as 19mg per litre, eight times the 'national bottom line' in rivers.
It also shows just how long nitrates hang around: Even if all polluting stopped tomorrow, they would not be gone from groundwater till as late as 2080.
Who will care for our water…if NAct get control? I fully get that things ARE bad now. I know some, are fighting to undo many generations of poisoning our water. A very hard road.
But, IMO, the Nats…led by Act (and Groundswill et al) will just ignore any and all danger signs. Climate Change, Nitrates in water, River Health…all will be dismissed as "unnecessary distractions" !
And on that….if those creeps do scrape in….who will care about this?
DOC managing over 300 contaminated sites on West Coast
Some of the identified landfills include old dumps previously used by the small communities scattered along the 650km West Coast.
A well known example is the former Westland District Council Fox Glacier dump which spilled into the Fox River in March 2019 during a weather bomb – sparking a major environmental disaster.
The dump's contents were strewn down 21km of the Fox riverbed through the Westland Tai Poutini National Park and then along 64km of coastline.
The subsequent massive clean-up cost over $3.3 million.
It also shows just how long nitrates hang around: Even if all polluting stopped tomorrow, they would not be gone from groundwater till as late as 2080.
Buckets are not in Wayne’s job description, apparently.
His mandate is to ‘fix Auckland’. Indeed, he’s been very busy neutering local democracy reporting and slagging off democratically elected Councillors. Luckily, he’ll be gone long before those nitrates.
Please read the linked article before you pollute this site with your high levels of nonsense.
"It also talks about the fact that it is partly coming from horticultural land … and the Auckland Council itself says that those horticultural systems are often over-fertilised."
[…]
"We're obviously very aware that the urban development into the South Auckland area will also have a bearing on some of the sort of outcomes for water."
And those who eat that flesh pontificating about nitrate pollution..and ignoring what they do that directly causes that nitrate pollution..
You’re barking up the wrong tree.
And some of these nitrates comes from over fertilised councils parks..?
Who’s bleating on about cognitive dissonance? Read the article, the linked study in it, and the comments and switch on your brain!
The study said: "Market gardening dominates the Pukekohe and Bombay basalts, which are subject to nitrate loss into groundwater… High nitrates from the springs dominate nitrate concentrations in receiving streams."
The council was sending the study to mana whenua and growers, and Allen said it would help them discuss what to do together about it, including regulatory and non-regulatory responses to land use.
Take your hobby horse somewhere else instead of hijacking the conversations of others.
Julian Batchelor came to town yesterday, accompanied by provocateur Lee Williams, who stalked about trying to encourage bad behaviour amongst the counter protestors, shoving cameras into their faces and filming constantly .
Batchelor had a tiny audience, mostly elderly or getting there, probably NZ first supporters .Frail and worried , not sure whats going on , scared Mãori are taking over
The counter protest was orderly,gentle, fun with wonderful waiata , a brilliant wahine toa performing with actions
Lee Williams got into a scuffle and was I think arrested.Unbelievable that his level of racist toxicity has a following
Batchelor is an evangelical preacher, and claims to have been given 80 reasons by his god why most christians do not actively evangelise. (From LinkdIn profile). His self-published book and his Treaty lectures include some of his evangelical material.
Been reading Michener's Poland and came across his description of a woman being crowned king in the 14th century. Since he was an historical novelist, thought I'd check he got the history right, and he did: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jadwiga_of_Poland
Jadwiga was crowned king in Poland's capital, Kraków, on 16 October 1384.
Also, her sister likewise:
Mary, also known as Maria of Anjou, reigned as King of Hungary and Croatia between 1382 and 1385, and from 1386 until her death. She was the daughter of Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland, and his wife, Elizabeth of Bosnia.
Notice how the editors of Wikipedia have misrepresented this political reality by calling her Queen both in their page title and the link. Sexist!
If you read up on their mother you see she was daughter of a Bosnian king who became queen of three other countries when she married Louis the Great. Accession to the monarchy directly rather than via marriage is the difference between her and those two daughters, apparently. The English did that accession titling differently…
I read several of his novels as they drew on actual events and characters, but woven into an interesting read. eg "Hawaii."
I enjoyed Asimov as his stories are based on Science facts to build more credible Science fiction. A great discussion vehicle was the short story "The Sentinel." Cheers.
Look at the loads carried by Andrew Little Nanaia Mahuta Megan Woods Grant Robertson and our current PM.
The world is an even more complex and dangerous place. Confronting the French / Atomic age and making a good speech measured against…
how do we confront climate change covid billionaires arms merchants the financial tsunami and AI?
Labour have taken a lot of stick over the last few days over the decision to dump both a WT and CGT, deservedly so IMO.
But in the article below there is a key point of difference between the Nats and Labour on housing policy, where Labour deserves much praise. IMO Labour has it right, and has been successful, on taxes related to houses (bright line test, interest non- allowable), housing density and not permitting houses to be purchased by foreign buyers. (In fact the bright line test is effectively a CGT). This has led to a fairly gentle drop in house prices, though they are still way to high in international terms.
The Nats have committed to scrapping almost all of this, and they will probably scrap the lot. It just refuses say what its policy is on overseas house purchases.
Congratulations Dr Jacob Ngaha on being awarded your doctorate. He may be Aotearoa's very first Māori quantum physicist.
He doesn’t agree with his colleagues [in his own faculty at Auckland University] and says mātauranga Māori should be acknowledged.
“Mātauranga Maori has strong foundations in science. Our tupuna lived these experiences every day and were knowledgeable in areas like biology, genetics, and environmental science. These areas had a grounding in te ao Māori,” he says.
“At the end of the day, science is about knowledge and figuring things out. There’s not just one way to figure things out. Dismissing Māori teachings outright is not a scientific thing to do.”
He says that Māori come from a long line of natural scientists. For instance, their tupuna navigated the entire Pacific using the stars for direction. With the popularity of Matariki, people are learning more about how Māori used science to help them with every facet of their lives.
Absolutely true.
A big "boo" to the NZ academics who have publicly dismissed 'matauranga Maori' as a form of science. There is more than one way to express scientific material and they are to be respected not demeaned. Imo it indicates an elitist ignorance among those who should know better.
It takes interpretations of knowledge and treats them as universal truths.
Which is deliberately manipulative.
The equivalent of including the Methodist stricture of cleanliness being next to Godliness in med school, instead of determining the science around contamination, and teaching how to avoid it.
These execs make 30 40 million a year – and one even saying publicly “ we’re just gonna wait ‘em out – you know till people get evicted loose their homes – we gonna bust the union “ THIS is who they are – They are trying to break you – ruin you – for having the temerity to ask for your fair share – they want to punish – grind your face in the dirt for even thinking about it –
This is not about the entertainment business – or the coffee business Or the retail business Or any specific business – it’s about all of them – This is about the class war from above – being waged against labor across the board-
It’s all the same thing – Writers actors Amazon workers Starbucks workers ,nurses ,airline workers – ( add list for another ten pages ) Everyone who’s striking – they want living wages – the system is so unbelievably insanely corrupt – Jamie Dimon can get 12 billion cash – 100 % cents on the dollars for the money he lost in his derivatives scam – he gets an absolute bailout – for his criminal banking disasters – So – one set of rules for elites – and another for workers – meaning normal people get the shaft – People who get sick or want an education – are fucked – the money lenders want you in debtors jail or bankrupt – you lend someone money and they rig it so you can never pay off the loan 3 4 5 6 10 times the principal – that’s USURY. Yet routinely They “ forgive“ billions to oligarchs – free money whenever they say so . And if people and workers just say stop the usury pay a living wage – healthcare is a human right – the same overlords and their hired bullshit – SAY WHAT ?? WHY THATS SOCIALISM ! Or spew out various other nonsensical bullshit – So socialism for the .oooo1 % Savage predatory capitalism for everyone else . That’s why we have to strike in solidarity with every worker – we need absolute solidarity on race gender issues So we can address CLASS. The oligarchs want more – they want it all –
The nature of political leadership is that sometimes you have to make unpopular calls for the greater good. As much as voters have a collective wisdom, they’re also human. They’re motivated by short-term incentives.
Everyone wants more for less. I suspect that many of those who vehemently oppose Three Waters, for example, have also railed for decades against the rates increases that might have gone some way to developing water infrastructure and removing the need for the reforms in the first place.
If you’re only prepared to make popular decisions, then what is the point in leadership? It’s not really leadership, is it? It’s just focus-grouping. Polling. Instead of laying out a platform, debating its merits and pursuing a distinct vision, you might as well just have a smartphone app or a website on which everyone votes on every little policy so that you can be sure you never fall afoul of the masses.
I’m not remotely surprised by Chris Hipkins’ captain’s call on tax this week. The Prime Minister has made it clear from day one that his absolute priority is winning the election. But I do wonder if somewhere on the ninth floor, at some point, Labour’s strategists find themselves in an existential bind. If the cost of winning an election means sacrificing your political vision, then what’s the point in winning?
To be a winner, obviously. It's a status thing. Nor is it a matter of the vision thing – a better world is only important to people who don't really matter. So the PM's gamble is based on assuming that his colleagues have faith in his ability to win, and won't deselect him as leader this close to the election, and he can win by citing the meagre achievements of this govt because the alternative is too unattractive to floaters.
and he can win by citing the meagre achievements of this govt because the alternative is too unattractive to floaters.
I actually don't think they are meagre.
From BG above
‘But in the article below there is a key point of difference between the Nats and Labour on housing policy, where Labour deserves much praise. IMO Labour has it right, and has been successful, on taxes related to houses (bright line test, interest non- allowable), housing density and not permitting houses to be purchased by foreign buyers. (In fact the bright line test is effectively a CGT). This has led to a fairly gentle drop in house prices, though they are still way to high in international terms.’
I agree that the alternative is too unattractive to voters……the ACT policy/critique on school lunches is typical of what we may be in for if a NACT government gets in.
Currently true. If the next poll shows Labour dropping further, below 30%, and/or Hipkins below Luxon as preferred PM, game on!
I reckon there's a divide between those within Labour who see it as a party for making progress in Aotearoa and those who see it as a place-holder for the Nats. Hipkins has revealed to us that he leads the latter group.
Three former high-ranking Fox executives are blasting Rupert Murdoch for Fox News' role spreading disinformation in the public discourse.
In a joint statement published Wednesday, the executives — Preston Padden, Ken Solomon, and Bill Reyner — expressed profound regret for their roles helping Murdoch build Fox in its early days. Padden was Fox's chief Washington lobbyist; Solomon was the vice president of network distribution; and Reyner was the lead outside counsel.
While none of the executives worked on Fox News, the work they did on behalf of Murdoch decades ago established Fox as a national television force and helped pave the way for the birth of the right-wing channel.
"At the time of our work in the 1990’s, we all greatly admired Rupert Murdoch and his vision and bold efforts," the trio said in their statement. "We genuinely believed that the creation of a fourth competitive force in broadcast television was in the public interest."
"We never envisioned, and would not knowingly have enabled, the disinformation machine that, in our opinion, Fox has become," they added.
Thanks for that. Definitely significant – indicating that even establishment slow-learners can figure things out eventually, given enough time.
When three people adopt a unified political position, that's a triad. Triads generate process, so there will be a helpful effect on like-minded others. Few moderate Republicans have opposed Trump thus far but I see this as a real indicator of an emerging trend (even if it's too late to stop him getting nominated).
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Police in Solomon Islands are on high alert ahead of the election of the prime minister today. The two candidates for the top job are former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele at the head of the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation, which is ...
He’s fine but it feels like I’m losing a friend and it’s making me bitter. How do I say ‘enough is enough’? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzHey Hera,I’ve recently moved in with a girlfriend, her partner Steve, and his friend. We all live in a lovely little house. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
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Folks ought to check out the interview Kim Hill's doing at 9.05 with an online news expert. Buzzfeed was an epic success story.
Why? No doubt Kim will elicit the answer…
This community-building insight from the wiki is transportable, generic…
This interactive game no doubt entertains many players. Designers can exploit the generic dimensions of the design.
[Link required]
I included it in comment #1. I flagged that by reference to the wiki. Since wikis have featured in commentary & politics for the past couple of decades, I'm confident that readers can reach them easily when such pointers are included.
I cannot see the alleged link to Kim Hill’s interview in your comment @ 1!?
That was because the link I inserted was to her topic for the interview. The link you want wasn't available due to my posting the notice 55 mins prior to the interview actually occurring.
However the interview is now available via their website player at https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday
why haven't you linked to the actual piece?
When I brought up the interview player, it didn't have a web address included. However I have just gone back into RNZ and found this page they've posted subsequently: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018898496/ben-smith-how-clicks-likes-and-shares-ruined-digital-news
thanks. By the time you commented at 11.26am, the page was available.
Earlier than that (ie before RNZ have the live link up), please link to the episode pages of the show and copy and paste the title. eg in this case,
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/20230715
This makes it much easier for people to find the article and audio later.
Your link to Saturday Morning's page means people have to work more to find the relevant bit and in a week it will have dropped down the page, making it even harder to find.
The key point here is that we want the piece to be as easily available as possible, so that people have the context and can debate from that. All pieces, all the time.
Yeah sure, I'm aware of ideal practice – but as I just pointed out to Incognito, I see others onsite here regularly not providing such links when they comment, with no moderating consequently…
go on then, show me three examples of other people posting without links, so we can hash out what is going on.
None evident today so far. I'll check later.
There was no link! Why do you continue lying about this?
You spend more time on spamming this site and editing/altering text copied & pasted from Wiki pages.
This is turning into an exercise in time-wasting because you act as an obnoxious little child.
The link Dennis is referring to is the wikipedia link in comment 1. This is the link to KH's topic before the interview was aired.
I don't see Dennis as lying here, more that the two of you are talking at cross purposes.
Fair enough, I withdraw and apologise for the lying bit.
This still leaves the Q why an intelligent commenter is being obnoxious about providing a link to an interview that hasn’t aired yet and “Folks ought to check out”. The first time (in this OM) he was asked was @ 10:25 am, after the interview had aired. And after that, it was pulling teeth. And then he starts digging in by making allegations about others who don’t link (it does happen) as if this should let him off the hook.
And there’s another instance last night of him not linking and making very little or no effort to show some courtesy and respect of the rules of engagement of this site.
I will admit I had to bite my tongue at the accusation that other people get away with it, given how much of our time is spent on this simple thing chasing up regulars who should know better.
Apparently we are in the election proper now with parties and candidates needing to put authorisation statements. Game on lefties 🔥
If site owner/operator configures chatGPT into the system here as an autonomous module, best to give it the username Lefty.
I posted something last night noting that it had been found to have a leftist bias. That can be tweaked via consensus of moderators and owner/operator. You could, for instance, give it Che Guevara charisma to leverage the icon effect, Trotsy's tactical nous to get results in (ideological) warfare, Marx's class framing, Stalin's machiavellian expertise as shapeshifter. You'd have to include the integrative holism from Smuts for it to ground sensibly though.
A positional generator of generic leftist thought and advice would have a mentoring effect. It would also be oracular when prompted to opinionate on the likeliest outcome of situations, so it would have tactical application on a utility basis.
You might enjoy this. It's a short short story about AI, humans and ethics.
https://qntm.org/mmacevedo
Some days I can’t decide if it’s better for a hard climate crash so nature takes this shit out of our hands once and for all. By our hands I mean tech culture run by men with little social or community or nature intelligence. Don't know why we do that, but I don't understand why we are allowing catastrophic CC either.
It's interesting, but. Uploading a brain scan while assuming one can thereby simulate a mind features at least conceptual flaw. You can indeed achieve mimesis by getting AI behind the simulation, but resemblance to an actual human is slight.
Thinking is mostly driven by feeling. Neuroscientists now collectively acknowledge this (paradigm shift in the 1990s). People evolve as individuals on that organic basis. Neuroplasticity is now proven. We evolve via interaction with circumstance. AI does that without feelings.
Now women have always known that due to their different organic connection to Gaia but men are mostly slow learners so the gnosis is still percolating through…
Sadly human nature puts us on a hard landing as far as climate change is concerned. On one hand we look at say farming and ruminant animals but at the same time our appetite for fossil fuels increases.
https://news.paxeditions.com/news/airline/radar-shows-record-breaking-number-flights-one-day#:~:text=That%20record%2Dsetting%20day%2C%20the,it%20tracked%20134%2C386%20commercial%20flights.
Poot's new Gulag Archipelago.
Thousands of Ukraine civilians are being held in Russian prisons. Russia plans to build many more.
[…]
Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are being detained across Russia and the Ukrainian territories it occupies, in centers ranging from brand-new wings in Russian prisons to clammy basements. Most have no status under Russian law
And Russia is planning to hold possibly thousands more. A Russian government document obtained by The Associated Press dating to January outlined plans to create 25 new prison colonies and six other detention centers in occupied Ukraine by 2026.
In addition, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in May allowing Russia to send people from territories with martial law, which includes all of occupied Ukraine, to those without, such as Russia. This makes it easier to deport Ukrainians who resist Russian occupation deep into Russia indefinitely, which has happened in multiple cases documented by the AP.
Many civilians are picked up for alleged transgressions as minor as speaking Ukrainian or simply being a young man in an occupied region, and are often held without charge. Others are charged as terrorists, combatants, or people who “resist the special military operation.” Hundreds are used for slave labor by Russia’s military, for digging trenches and other fortifications, as well as mass graves.
https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-russia-prisons-civilians-torture-detainees-88b4abf2efbf383272eed9378be13c72
Finally….the facts are beginning to be recognised.
https://thekaka.substack.com/p/matariki-special-interview-danyl#details
A brief discussion well worth the listen.
Deplorables are so infectious they can get in anywhere. They've gotten into Labour:
Better get Hilary Clinton onto the situation, with her laser-like identification abilities she'll spot them & root them out. We can but deplore the contamination.
This appears to be the `suckers will always vote Labour' theory. Covert support for National is not really a leftist thing, and the PM does it to seem centrist instead.
If I can get a word in here in the Dennis Frank Open Mike, this is a weird article by Luke Malpass today. He takes a series of shots at Hipkins, Robertson, and Labour (as usual) but concludes that Hipkins got it right in ruling out a WT and CGT.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/132546724/changing-the-tax-system-was-not-an-electionwinning-strategy-for-labour
For instance:
"But of concern was the weird competing mish-mash of objectives which the Treasury identified itself and said that Robertson prioritised. These included raising enough revenue, being considered fair and helping social cohesion. The system would also have to meet Robertson’s “distributional objectives for progressivity, horizontal equity and reducing inequality”, and “the revenue strategy needs to align with your economic goals (high wage, low emissions, economic security."
All of those objectives look entirely sensible to me and not in any way out of the ordinary. They are not a "mish-mash".
The below is particularly interesting, and should boost the Green's party vote:
"Polling seen by Stuff and commissioned by the Green Party before the revelation of Labour’s abandoned tax plans, did show potential Green voter reaction to a tax-free threshold. More than 87% of potential voters sitting on the fence whether to switch to Green were favourably inclined towards a tax-free threshold (or zone as Robertson called in on Thursday) and 68% of the same group were keen on a wealth tax."
But Malpass is off-beam below because TPM has ruled out going into a coalition that contained ACT. (The Coaltion of Cu*ts)
"What will be worrying Labour a lot more is the fact that Te Pāti Māori is now more or less assumed to need to be part of the mix for Labour to win power again in virtually all polls, while National and ACT will not necessarily need the party if the numbers fall the right way."
What's the theory about Labour worring about needing TPM? The kinds of concessions post-election? Or losing votes as the election campaign period shows TPM as necessary?
His main point is that past polls had given Labour hope that they would have been able to govern with just the Greens for support, but now the polls are showing that they will need both the Greens and TPM to govern.
Some people may prefer not to vote for a coalition that includes TPM, but then other people (just as many, if not more IMHO) will prefer not to vote for a coalition that includes ACT.
From the article
both
If you are genuinely worried then you better vote labour so they don't need tpm,
Tpm will be a minor party under a strong leader with Hipkins so I'm not to worried 😉
But Labour and TPM are diametrically opposed on a number of key issues, good luck running that.
So Alan, you are by inference saying Act and National are more aligned? Tui
Luxon won’t want to share.
Black Adder(Luxon)” I am leader!!”
Baldrick (Seymour) “I have a cunning plan”.
Without doubt they are more aligned. Both know who they are there to look after.
Labour is closer to National than TPM and probably the greens as well.
Wot??? So National would have supported businesses and workers through covid lockdowns and the fallout? "Na mate ya dreaming"
They would most definetly supported business… workers not so much. But the point remains Nat and Act know who they are governing for.
Labour on the other hand seem conflicted hence Hipkins ruling out cgt wealth tax etc
Care to elaborate?
Here's a scientific appraisal of the new El Nino: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/climate-changes-dangerous-new-fires
That's their operational triad strategy for firestorms. Reportage of these globally ought to hone in on an analytical framing based on regional vulnerability flagged by repetition.
The experts were forecasting lots of snow down here in the Southern Lakes when El Nino took effect. Certainly not happening at the moment.
Too soon, I assume. Think we're in the transitional phase, the switch-over of the oscillation. Remember that's driven by an immense ocean current. Inertial.
Yes it seems to be taking longer than they predicted…the skifields will be tearing there hair out. Still, they sold masses of season passes.
17 degrees lurking round in the wellington sunshine yesterday, that can't be normal for july
15 here in Dunedin mid afternoon, barmy hot night too.
Too soon BG.
We're still in a bit of a limbo between La Nina and El Nino. Climactic changes on a world-wide scale take time to bed in.
What we can look forward to in NZ is a much drier summer than the last one (phew) but with slightly cooler temperatures and westerly quarter winds, The big stand out will be the west coast of the Sth. Island which will have a higher than normal rainfall.
Sorry Coasters, its your turn now.
Thanks Anne….my timing was probably off, though I could have sworn I heard El Nino would influence the weather and bring snow this year. Maybe they readjusted their forecasts.
BTW (you will hate me for this) it was an incredibly dry and lovely summer down here in Wanaka. Even the farmers aren't too bothered when it is so hot and dry these days as they have large-scale pivot irrigation in place.
I was one of the thousands of Aucklanders whose home was flooded. Fortunately I'm two-storied so was able to continue to live upstairs but it hasn't been pleasant – at times stressful. Finally after a six month wait the rebuild downstairs has begum in earnest and should be completed soon.
I can count myself lucky because the workload is so enormous they will still be repairing and rebuilding for another year or two – and that is just Auckland.
God's mill grinds slow but sure
(17th century proverb with its source in Plutarch)
Periods of unusually warm air aloft in the mid latitudes have limited new snowfall and partially destroyed what has fallen earlier. Very poor for snowmaking as well. Forget trying to forecast by using historical seasonal snowfalls. It's a new paradigm.
Hope they get a couple of one-off events to get things going.
Wait for when snow is not forecast-that is when we get the blizzards.
Don't be too hard on them
Wednesday.
Damn. Low enough but precipitation fizzed out, barely a few cm. No use to anyone, but at least colder for snow making.
Coronet Webcam:
https://www.queenstownairport.co.nz/WebCam/coronet.jpg?dt=2023-07-20-12-41
Who will care for our water…if NAct get control? I fully get that things ARE bad now. I know some, are fighting to undo many generations of poisoning our water. A very hard road.
But, IMO, the Nats…led by Act (and Groundswill et al) will just ignore any and all danger signs. Climate Change, Nitrates in water, River Health…all will be dismissed as "unnecessary distractions" !
And on that….if those creeps do scrape in….who will care about this?
IMO it would be…"Nothing to see here, move along". The creeps ignore the fact…there is ALWAYS a cost. That Someone in the future has to pay.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/493742/high-levels-of-toxic-nitrates-in-water-moving-under-and-through-south-auckland-to-harbour-research-shows
Will Wayne Brown fix it?
How many buckets has he got?
Buckets are not in Wayne’s job description, apparently.
His mandate is to ‘fix Auckland’. Indeed, he’s been very busy neutering local democracy reporting and slagging off democratically elected Councillors. Luckily, he’ll be gone long before those nitrates.
Aye. Some people have a Greater Good thought …"I would like to make/have made, our Earth a better place, when I go ".
Wayne Brown…only fulfils the specific minimum of that sentiment.
I know there are many more who actually care for, and about, our Earth.
Why..are we ruled by the (very) small people who dont? I know…age old, unanswerable really.
A terrible fact…
Anyway…when i was looking for who cares… I found this? Anyone on the Standard know if they do?
I think he fulfils even less……in that sentence only one word applies 'I'.
People stopping eating animals/bye-products will 'fix it'..
But much easier to just point fingers elsewhere…eh..?
Please read the linked article before you pollute this site with your high levels of nonsense.
What exactly is 'nonsense' in my comment…
This whole country is a fucken toxic mess..as a direct result of animal/flesh farming..
And those who eat that flesh pontificating about nitrate pollution..and ignoring what they do that directly causes that nitrate pollution..
What would you call that..?
Some call it cognitive dissonance.. don't they..?
And some of these nitrates comes from over fertilised councils parks..?
Well that makes me an effing liar then doesn't it..
And/or it gives you an overlay of pedantry..on top of yr cog-diss..
..doesn't it..?
Your denial of what you do..
Makes what you say a 'nonsense'..
And he comes back with even more nonsense!
You’re barking up the wrong tree.
Who’s bleating on about cognitive dissonance? Read the article, the linked study in it, and the comments and switch on your brain!
Take your hobby horse somewhere else instead of hijacking the conversations of others.
Nice bit of denigration there…
And my 'hobby-horse'..?
You call my arguing against what is fucking our country/world/future a 'hobby horse'..?
Your disconnection from your own role as part of the problem is epic…
And I don't have a hobby-horse..
I have a stampeding fucken herd of hobby-horses..
How long have ya got..?
Whoa! You’re pissing in the wind so much that your nitrates seep into the groundwater of South Auckland.
I post a comment about nitrates coming from horticulture and you start accusing me of cannibalism and scorching the Earth.
Your ‘stampeding fucken herd of hobby-horses’ is heading for a Mod note. Just saying.
Where did I accuse you of cannibalism..?
And my initial comment was addressed to flesh eating/finger pointing readers of this thread..
It was not directed at you per se..
The first word was ‘people’…how is that in any way directed just at you..?
Appears to be from growing veges and fruit🥵 here's the embarresd emoji you'll be looking for
Being a vegan does not mean I support drenching fruit/veges in poisonous shit.
..save that emoji for yourself..
Julian Batchelor came to town yesterday, accompanied by provocateur Lee Williams, who stalked about trying to encourage bad behaviour amongst the counter protestors, shoving cameras into their faces and filming constantly .
Batchelor had a tiny audience, mostly elderly or getting there, probably NZ first supporters .Frail and worried , not sure whats going on , scared Mãori are taking over
The counter protest was orderly,gentle, fun with wonderful waiata , a brilliant wahine toa performing with actions
Lee Williams got into a scuffle and was I think arrested.Unbelievable that his level of racist toxicity has a following
Nasty stuff
Just about got me voting for TPM.
Was puzzled by the Christian interest in this horrible road show
Batchelor is an evangelical preacher, and claims to have been given 80 reasons by his god why most christians do not actively evangelise. (From LinkdIn profile). His self-published book and his Treaty lectures include some of his evangelical material.
Nasty type. The Harangue reminded me of someone.
Been reading Michener's Poland and came across his description of a woman being crowned king in the 14th century. Since he was an historical novelist, thought I'd check he got the history right, and he did: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jadwiga_of_Poland
Also, her sister likewise:
Notice how the editors of Wikipedia have misrepresented this political reality by calling her Queen both in their page title and the link. Sexist!
If you read up on their mother you see she was daughter of a Bosnian king who became queen of three other countries when she married Louis the Great. Accession to the monarchy directly rather than via marriage is the difference between her and those two daughters, apparently. The English did that accession titling differently…
Thanks for the prod. That goes on my list.
I read several of his novels as they drew on actual events and characters, but woven into an interesting read. eg "Hawaii."
I enjoyed Asimov as his stories are based on Science facts to build more credible Science fiction. A great discussion vehicle was the short story "The Sentinel." Cheers.
Anyone in this current iteration of the Labour Party worthy of inheriting the mantle of Norm Kirk?
Not a damn one, as far as I’m can see.
newsense-see my post below re house policies. Labour not too bad on this?
Look at the loads carried by Andrew Little Nanaia Mahuta Megan Woods Grant Robertson and our current PM.
The world is an even more complex and dangerous place. Confronting the French / Atomic age and making a good speech measured against…
how do we confront climate change covid billionaires arms merchants the financial tsunami and AI?
Labour have taken a lot of stick over the last few days over the decision to dump both a WT and CGT, deservedly so IMO.
But in the article below there is a key point of difference between the Nats and Labour on housing policy, where Labour deserves much praise. IMO Labour has it right, and has been successful, on taxes related to houses (bright line test, interest non- allowable), housing density and not permitting houses to be purchased by foreign buyers. (In fact the bright line test is effectively a CGT). This has led to a fairly gentle drop in house prices, though they are still way to high in international terms.
The Nats have committed to scrapping almost all of this, and they will probably scrap the lot. It just refuses say what its policy is on overseas house purchases.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/132544493/national-refuses-to-say-if-party-will-scrap-foreign-homebuyers-ban-if-elected
I think that this is an election issue Labour is on the right side of with most of the public, and so should be milked.
Congratulations Dr Jacob Ngaha on being awarded your doctorate. He may be Aotearoa's very first Māori quantum physicist.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/rising-stars/audio/2018898111/rising-star-quantum-physicist-dr-jacob-ngaha
From the link:
Absolutely true.
A big "boo" to the NZ academics who have publicly dismissed 'matauranga Maori' as a form of science. There is more than one way to express scientific material and they are to be respected not demeaned. Imo it indicates an elitist ignorance among those who should know better.
Brilliant work and oration.
I disagree
Me also.
It takes interpretations of knowledge and treats them as universal truths.
Which is deliberately manipulative.
The equivalent of including the Methodist stricture of cleanliness being next to Godliness in med school, instead of determining the science around contamination, and teaching how to avoid it.
Mr Cusack's on fire.
@johncusack
These execs make 30 40 million a year – and one even saying publicly “ we’re just gonna wait ‘em out – you know till people get evicted loose their homes – we gonna bust the union “ THIS is who they are – They are trying to break you – ruin you – for having the temerity to ask for your fair share – they want to punish – grind your face in the dirt for even thinking about it –
https://twitter.com/johncusack/status/1679980757874274305
@johncusack
This is not about the entertainment business – or the coffee business Or the retail business Or any specific business – it’s about all of them – This is about the class war from above – being waged against labor across the board-
https://twitter.com/johncusack/status/1680033522788990979
(mastadon should be available to all)
@stevenrosenthal@mastodon.online
John Cusack is tweeting out some of the dirty secrets of Hollywood accounting — and it's pretty illuminating.
https://mastodon.online/@stevenrosenthal/110713265829641262
·
Jack Tame discusses the existential lesson to be taken from the PM's pragmatism: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/jack-tame-three-waters-wealth-tax-is-labour-sacrificing-its-political-vision-to-try-and-win-an-election/6I6LXUAA3BHGHFLWOTOQHXTQSE/
To be a winner, obviously. It's a status thing. Nor is it a matter of the vision thing – a better world is only important to people who don't really matter. So the PM's gamble is based on assuming that his colleagues have faith in his ability to win, and won't deselect him as leader this close to the election, and he can win by citing the meagre achievements of this govt because the alternative is too unattractive to floaters.
I actually don't think they are meagre.
From BG above
‘But in the article below there is a key point of difference between the Nats and Labour on housing policy, where Labour deserves much praise. IMO Labour has it right, and has been successful, on taxes related to houses (bright line test, interest non- allowable), housing density and not permitting houses to be purchased by foreign buyers. (In fact the bright line test is effectively a CGT). This has led to a fairly gentle drop in house prices, though they are still way to high in international terms.’
I agree that the alternative is too unattractive to voters……the ACT policy/critique on school lunches is typical of what we may be in for if a NACT government gets in.
There is zero chance of Hipkins getting rolled Dennis.
Currently true. If the next poll shows Labour dropping further, below 30%, and/or Hipkins below Luxon as preferred PM, game on!
I reckon there's a divide between those within Labour who see it as a party for making progress in Aotearoa and those who see it as a place-holder for the Nats. Hipkins has revealed to us that he leads the latter group.
Bit late, fellas.
/
Three former high-ranking Fox executives are blasting Rupert Murdoch for Fox News' role spreading disinformation in the public discourse.
In a joint statement published Wednesday, the executives — Preston Padden, Ken Solomon, and Bill Reyner — expressed profound regret for their roles helping Murdoch build Fox in its early days. Padden was Fox's chief Washington lobbyist; Solomon was the vice president of network distribution; and Reyner was the lead outside counsel.
While none of the executives worked on Fox News, the work they did on behalf of Murdoch decades ago established Fox as a national television force and helped pave the way for the birth of the right-wing channel.
"At the time of our work in the 1990’s, we all greatly admired Rupert Murdoch and his vision and bold efforts," the trio said in their statement. "We genuinely believed that the creation of a fourth competitive force in broadcast television was in the public interest."
"We never envisioned, and would not knowingly have enabled, the disinformation machine that, in our opinion, Fox has become," they added.
https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/1689210125470ca4240ec3efd/raw
Thanks for that. Definitely significant – indicating that even establishment slow-learners can figure things out eventually, given enough time.
When three people adopt a unified political position, that's a triad. Triads generate process, so there will be a helpful effect on like-minded others. Few moderate Republicans have opposed Trump thus far but I see this as a real indicator of an emerging trend (even if it's too late to stop him getting nominated).
Maybe it's because of genuine fear of letting an Opposition in power ready to dismantle the country for harvesting by the rich.
Yes and this is a genuine fear from me, having been around when this was last done in the time of Douglas/Richardson.
We sold much of the family silver after low ball offers, the ones who gained either on-sold or asset stripped.
I agree we don't need this again tWiggle.
Interesting, for anyone who is interested in the problems associated with letting corporations run medicine.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eci.13998
Lest we forget
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/02/22/there-is-a-worrying-amount-of-fraud-in-medical-research
Sorry pay walled, but the first two paragraphs which are not, offer a good insight to the whole piece.
Economist article has been archived:
https://archive.ph/p6eu9
Thanks for that Molly