Open Mike 15/12/2018

111 comments on “Open Mike 15/12/2018 ”

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1. Ad 1

   15 December 2018 at 6:28 am

   Finally, I can agree with Federated Farmers.

   They polled their membership and have submitted against the proposed sale of Alpine Energy by the Timaru District Council.

   https://i.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/109247554/federated-farmers-warns-against-alpine-energy-sale
   • cleangreen 1.1

     15 December 2018 at 7:05 am

     Hi Ad,

     Well said, – maybe you will also be interested in also learning this other selloff now of public assets happening in another region of Hawkes Bay which is not in time with Labour’s new “wellbeing budget’ policies is it because this selling of our public assets is not sustainable for us to save our own incomes from our assets because they are shrinking as we speak?

     https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/354080/council-considers-selling-stake-in-napier-port

     Now today 15th December 2018 the HB Regional Council have made the same stupid proposal of sale of their Napier Port, and others have submitted against the sale of their own public owned Port.

     The burning Question is; what is the new Labour lead Government doing to stop this rash of new right wing National party efforts to steal more assets from the public while under the Labour lead Government?????

     So the questions now is;

     “Why are Labour/NZ First coalition seeming to be comfortable under their watch over NZ politics,still allowing more robbing of NZ taxpayers assets by right wing overseas financial interests assets of public assets to be sold under their watch”?????

     John Key’s ‘NZ Inc” rorting manipulation is obviously still very alive under a labour lead Government it seems,

     Is there no end to stealing of our remaining assets?

     “Yet, while the rich are getting richer, those in the bottom 40 percent have not seen an increase in net worth in three years, from June 2015 to June 2018.”

     https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378268/the-richest-households-are-now-worth-1-point-75-million-survey

     https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378307/how-can-nz-close-the-gap-between-rich-and-poor
     • Ad 1.1.1

       15 December 2018 at 7:20 am

       If the Napier port doesn’t go to a referendum, or an LTP process, or both, then it will culminate in the local government elections next year. All to play for if your local activists want to have a crack CG.

       HBRC did not cover themselves in glory over the Ruitaniwha dam, and they have also failed to form a clear business plan for the Napier port which has well over capacity. If they had one they would not be in this undercapitalized dilemma.

       If I were Rick Barker I would be calling Shane Jones for some money before Shane Jones comes down and ritually humiliates them first.

       Hell if a tiny little poverty-stricken outfit like Ohope can come up with a plan and a funding application and get government to listen with tens of millions, why can’t Napier?
     • SaveNZ 1.1.2

       15 December 2018 at 7:29 am

       @Cleangreen, the government needs to reverse the profit/investment side of councils and public bodies and keep them focused on their main functions which have been lost and minimised.

       We would have less leaky building and better water quality and public transport and public services if councils were not always focused on personal building projects aka stadiums, Westfield malls and marina’s.

       Get rid of the COO’s and all that overhead and make the council asset COO’s work together not against each other like they used too.
       • Ad 1.1.2.1

         15 December 2018 at 7:37 am

         What structure would you have in mind, and how would that be better?
         • SaveNZ 1.1.2.1.1

           15 December 2018 at 7:51 am

           Remove the ‘shareholder profits’ being the most important from the COO’s and have them all under the council again. It is more important that all COO’s work together to make a better city and environment, not just short term profit. Long term stability should be equally important.

           Reform the salaries so that the executives get the same as the councillors and no more.

           Try and pay fair salaries for people who are very good at their job rather than have a lot of people who don’t know what they are doing or are bullies in a political fiefdom covering their asses all the time.

           Remove the bloodsucking private lawyers from the councils and get the council to employ a few top lawyers on salary whose job it is to actually make a fair city and increase social aims, not to bill as many private billing hours as possible and drag out litigation to make more profit, for bad outcomes. (Council had their own unitary plan removed because it was considered non compliant, they can’t even understand their own planning rules, nobody happy with leaky building outcomes).
           • Ad 1.1.2.1.1.1

             15 December 2018 at 7:59 am

             So let me float a boat out for you on a couple of ideas.

             I agree there’s too many entities. But.

             There’s an accountability v expertise balance to be had somewhere.

             You’re proposing something akin to one big single government department run by Cabinet, rather than Ministries with Ministers.

             That might be fine for a while, until you try and hold people accountable for something. Stuff always goes wrong, and you need to roast, wrinse, and repeat.

             On long term stability, I would argue that something like Christchurch Holdings or Dunedin City Holdings allows for more stability in the sustained dividends each year for Council policies and programmes than one agglomerated entity with multiple departments. Bureaucrats get to fudge the books more easily when they are covered from democratic scrutiny.

             Agree with your point about supporting in-house lawyers.
             • SaveNZ …

               15 December 2018 at 8:10 am

               @ Ad that’s exactly what is happening at present, aka council and their COO are NOT accountable, stuff always going wrong and it’s not getting any better under the current system.

               The council has to much bloat mostly because they have expanded well outside their capabilities aka private building, Westfield malls, cruise ships… They need to reign it all back to essential core services, have different departments, (on salaries like the Mayor and councillors not fat cats) like ports, transport or what have you but under the council umbrella and under democratic control.

               Personally think the Ports of Auckland needs to move out of central Auckland anyway, too much congestion and bottle neck to have it there with the prime land.
               • Ad …

                 15 December 2018 at 9:20 am

                 What do you define as “essential core services” for any Council?

                 Everyone has a different list.

                 To me, both local and central government need to be able to take more risks, not less, because the public need is so great.

                 Typical examples: Invercargill, Dunedin, and Christchurch Councils are all busily owning and rebuilding their town centres – as only the public sector can do. That means taking on a lot of property market risk.

                 There was a time when councils took on so much risk in real estate that they were able to manage much of the rental housing market including rental price – because they built and owned so many Council flats and houses.

                 There’s always limits to intervention – but this is the era to rebuild them not lessen them.
       • Draco T Bastard 1.1.2.2

         15 December 2018 at 11:04 am

         the government needs to reverse the profit/investment side of councils and public bodies and keep them focused on their main functions which have been lost and minimised.

         You’re channelling ACT there which means the result will be worse than you expect but exactly what ACT wants – the continued selling of state assets.
     • Draco T Bastard 1.1.3

       15 December 2018 at 11:00 am

       The ports need to be pulled into central government ownership and then run as a government service/department so as to get the best efficiency going. Having them competing with each other actually prevents efficiency as it encourages landing goods at the cheapest place rather than at the best place.
     • Wayne 1.1.4

       15 December 2018 at 11:11 am

       Cleangreen

       I doubt that more well off households have had much increase in the three years of June 2015 to June 2018. Virtually all the big increases in property values (the main store of value in NZ) had occurred by mid 2015. There has been no increases in Auckland since 2016, in fact probably some softening.

       So I imagine that pretty much everyones wealth has been pretty static in the last three years.
   • patricia bremner 1.2

     15 December 2018 at 8:06 pm

     Yes Good move. Finally they see selling Assets is a dumb move.
2. A 2

   15 December 2018 at 7:17 am

   Federal Reserve is now insolvent according to its own accounts released yesterday.

   No news coverage which in itself is newsworthy.
   • vto 2.1

     15 December 2018 at 10:08 am

     Most of the financial sector is actually insolvent..

     ..we live in the time of The Great Con

     and the splatter will be immense when it finally caves in on itself
3. SaveNZ 3

   15 December 2018 at 7:24 am

   “Appalling news from the UK today, with a report from the TUC showing that the average worker is earning a third less in real terms than they did in 2008:”

   http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2018/12/torches-and-pitchforks-time.html

   Another reason Brexit happened and why the UK were negligent in deciding in 2004 not to impose any labour restrictions on the expanded EU like other countries in Europe did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_enlargement_of_the_European_Union

   When you have a big influx of workers, labour rates fall.

   NZ is facing increasing poverty because like the UK our government has welcomed in as many new workers as possible which benefited some people at the expense and long term stability of social and financial cohesion here and created a fragile economy that increasingly relies on Ponzi’s to function while at the same time rocketing up the cost of living from housing, transport, food, power, fuel, insurance, water, rates, services… Also hiding the figures by for example calling someone working 1 hour a week, ’employed’.
   • greywarshark 3.1

     15 December 2018 at 11:27 am

     Thanks savenz for that info. I thought that UK couldn’t do anything about influx of immigrants. Has Key been talking about his success in NZ in forcing down ages with substitute workers?

     And a great interchange with Ad and you discussing. Should be put up on a post of its own, hopefully? All of 1 and perhaps have the cheeky heading of Economics for Dummies etc. Everyone would read it then, to prove to themselves that they weren’t actually dummies. Hah.
4. WeTheBleeple 4

   15 December 2018 at 8:06 am

   Jobs, who needs jobs when you have the promise of robots.

   https://www.nzherald.co.nz/asurequality/news/article.cfm?c_id=1504636&objectid=12175723

   We can’t even grow food without polluting the place, and now we’re going to prove our incompetence by using robots to carry on with our shitty systems.

   Soon the robots will be growing peas. After around a dozen sprays of pesticide, fungicide and herbicide, the peas will be converted to stringy protein, then, magic – the peas are meat.

   It wont be country of origin you’ll need on the label, it will be organism of origin.

   Now eat your meat.

   “We are already industry leaders but my mandate is clear. It’s not about maintaining our position, it’s about defining and ensuring it in the future”

   The writing is on the wall that we require sustainable solutions and a return to biodiversity. AsureQuality has no intention of aligning with the needs of the planet or society. They’re living in lalaland. Robots to grow the food, people to…. fuck right off, actually, workers are so demanding.

   Profits, dear boy, we must consider the prophets.
   • SaveNZ 4.1

     15 December 2018 at 9:07 am

     When we do have all these robots doing cafes, restaurants, horticulture, farming, service work, wonder how we will afford all the unemployed people and retraining of people (if even possible) who have been bought into NZ and given permanent residency on the basis of low level skills that are about to be made redundant?
     • greywarshark 4.1.1

       15 December 2018 at 11:45 am

       There’ll be an easy fix via robots for unwanted population. This is the age of post-Holocaust, and we as a broad culture still have not learned from that trauma to our concept of ourselves. The concept of euthanasia by personal choice can’t be countenanced because that is people thinking and acting for their own and society’s benefit., and recalls the Holocaust. But the drive behind the Holocaust continues just in different ways. Killing people in wars, in skirmishes, by cunning devices – bombs, grenades, manufactured in their millions; if people are in the way of the small group who respond or initiate the vast powers’ requirements, that killing continues unabated by pleas, the UN, or simple respect for others’ lives, souls and rights.

       In the interim, neo lib has flowed into the cracks of our bewilderment with its cunning concepts of humans as simple push-button pigeons whose emotions override any semblance of rationality we delve for. We do everything for profit they say, either physical or to our mental state, our concepts of wellbeing, and are never really altruistic, we get a mental feelgood, a payoff.

       Under this concept we have no souls, so suggest everyone who wants a better future for people clutch their souls and keep ithem shiny and good, because the neolib-economic human robots versed in the black arts will try and steal them. And the way to keep our souls is to care and sacrifice something of ourselves for the sake of other people’s wellbeing and also that of animals lives and welfare, people and animals first, and in parallel with environmental nurture.
   • Robert Guyton 4.2

     15 December 2018 at 9:23 am

     There’s the acrid smell of Luddite in the air – and it’s very encouraging!
   • Ad 4.3

     15 December 2018 at 9:23 am

     There will always be workers, there will always be fewer and fewer low paid and shit jobs. Robotics is just the same as mechanization, which has been with us for a wee while and the sky has not fallen in.

     Headline unemployment at 3.6% and falling is going to force more investment in agricultural robotics. Great to see productivity being forced through labour shortages.

     That’s a good thing.
     • greywarshark 4.3.1

       15 December 2018 at 11:46 am

       I hear you little birdie Ad, chirpy-cheap-cheap.
     • WeTheBleeple 4.3.2

       15 December 2018 at 1:21 pm

       Actually, it’s how fewer people can control more land requiring fewer people. In this manner pesky health regulations regarding workers and cide applications can just be shelved, and spray operators can go away too. No witnesses, no lawsuits. No workers, more profit.

       It’s a brave new world in which robots roam a poisoned landscape. Some zap weeds with poison, others kill the bugs…

       People are moved into smart boxes in cities. They are completely dependent on everything being plugged in. They order the smart food on smart devices which gets delivered smartly by other smart devices. The media says they caught a criminal gang pinching water. The robots got them though.

       And now, sports.

       Unemployment should be higher. Start with social media influencers, advertising executives, electronic billboard manufacturers, portfolio advisers, corporate science mouthpieces, everything that is Hosking, industrial agriculture, the oil industry, and the Producer of City of 100 Lovers.
       • greywarshark 4.3.2.1

         15 December 2018 at 2:02 pm

         WTB
         You are so sharp, don’t cut yourself though, we need every drop of energy you have to keep churning out your vision of reality to mix with ours.

         And for others who want to arrive at their visions from outside the blog try reading John Wyndham and his stories that think about how people will cope and act in different situations rather than the more traditional War of the Worlds SF. John called his stuff ‘logical fantasy’ and had a few reject slips before his publishers decided to give his approach some page room.

         The Day of the Triffids is a good start. Read the book and let your mind create the scene, not just watch someone else’s version.

         At present on Trademe there is a good selection for $7 each plus post, a short story The Eternal Eve about being probably the last fertile woman in the human race and how an independent woman reacts to that – that’s in an anthology Time Untamed, good reading all of them $3, Pick 4 SF for $12 and three are John Wyndham’s. And that’s just from the used group, lots of new issues. Give yourself some reading, either new or a reprise, for Christmas. Now that’s an idea.

         Another idea – in Hastings? Hang out at ::
         The Little Red Bookshop -.
         Their huge collection of affordable books is a local treasure. As their website puts it, they are “proprietors of the best little second hand bookshop in Hastings, New Zealand. We may, on occasion, seem a touch irreverent, but hopefully in the nicest possible way”.
5. Sanctuary 5

   15 December 2018 at 8:22 am

   I knew it….

   https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-snorted-adderall-apprentice-tom-arnold-noel-casler-1257787%3famp=1
   • joe90 5.1

     15 December 2018 at 8:35 am

     @3:40
6. The Chairman 6

   15 December 2018 at 9:23 am

   Hold the Christmas ham.

   Superbugs resistant to antibiotics may be present in pork imported from Spain and Australia. However, because New Zealand does not test any products, no-one knows.

   To date, MPI had not tested imported products for antimicrobial resistance.

   MPI would not ban the import of the products because it was confident in New Zealand’s food safety systems. Note, a food safety system that doesn’t test for antimicrobial resistance.

   Additionally, no figures exist for how many New Zealanders die from superbugs.

   https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/109360391/animal-welfare-group-warns-of-potential-superbugs-in-imported-pork
   • greywarshark 6.1

     15 December 2018 at 11:48 am

     Thanks for the Heads-up The Chairman. And salient points.
7. joe90 7

   15 December 2018 at 9:31 am

   .

   AS YOU WATCH THIS👇🏽video of a Border Patrol agent pouring out water that was left for migrants, know that the body of a 7 year-old girl is lying on a table right now. SHE NEEDED WHAT HE POURED OUT. Her death is a direct result of the hateful policies of Donald Trump & the @GOP. pic.twitter.com/IJ5LC0MJAO— Chet Powell (@ChetPowell) December 14, 2018

   A 7-year-old Guatemalan girl died last week while in Border Patrol’s (CBP) custody. But a statement the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) released Thursday night about her death raises more questions than it answers.

   The Washington Post reported that CBP told them the girl “died of dehydration and shock after she was taken into Border Patrol custody last week for crossing from Mexico into the United States illegally with her father and a large group of migrants along a remote span of New Mexico desert.”

   According to CBP, the girl was traveling with a group of 163 migrants and was in CBP custody for more than eight hours before she started having seizures. She was transported to a hospital in El Paso, where she died. CBP says she “reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days.”

   The timeline raises questions about whether CBP provided the girl, identified by the Guatemalan foreign ministry as Jackeline Caal, with food or water during the hours she was in their custody. But instead of addressing that concern, DHS, which oversees CBP, initially released a statement about Caal’s death that appears to try to shift blame onto her and her father for making the trek to the US in the first place.

   https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/14/18140697/guatemalan-girl-dehydration-death-border-patrol-custody-dhs
8. cleangreen 8

   15 December 2018 at 9:32 am

   Gee The Standard; – thanks to all the supporters here for us to keep public ownership of our Napier Port , as we do not want it privatised as we need the HBRC to “protect our residential and wider environment from harm that privateers would do by using the port as a dirty industrial activity as seen in other places around the globe.

   we were given a tour of the tauranga Port and were impressed at the operations there as they are using far more rail freight whereas Napier needs to get Government support funding to restore the Rail services to Napier Port to encourage more rail freight again as should have happened years ago after the failed tragic sale of our public rail to privateers in 1993.

   Ad we are scheduled to meet the HBRC CEO James Palmer 25th January and will raise that issue thanks very much for that. – Appreciated.
9. Ankerrawshark 9

   15 December 2018 at 9:34 am

   Jacinda Ardern named politician of the year by Tracy Watkins. Watkins said it was no contest and gave her 9:5 out of 10

   Wishing Ms ardern a very merry Xmas and a restful holiday. Well earned, thank you jacinda
   • Puckish Rogue 9.1

     15 December 2018 at 9:46 am

     Just sayin’ 🙂

     Best overall front bench

     Too many of Labour’s front bench are yet to shine and they are leaning heavily on Ardern, Peters and Robertson. National’s front bench, in contrast, has been a machine, picking up in Opposition where they left off in government. They have consistently scored hits against the Government, have run hard on issues and scandals, and have made question time a ‘must watch’ again after years of irrelevance.

     In short, National is fielding the best Opposition front bench we have seen in years and if it wasn’t for the Jami-Lee Ross train wreck, would get a near perfect score. But it’s hard to look past the fact that Ross was a key member of the front bench. The only reason National hasn’t been docked more points is because of the speed with which the caucus has recovered and moved on.

     National 7.5/10. Labour 6/10

     Housing spokeswoman Judith Collins: The joke goes that Collins could count on one finger the number of votes for her in the last leadership contest. Twelve months on, she is seen as the most likely successor to Bridges if his leadership fails. That’s an extraordinary turnaround for the woman who has had more political revivals than Lazarus. Love her or hate her, people know who she is.

     8/10

     Cometh the hour cometh the woman…
     • Ad 9.1.1

       15 December 2018 at 10:07 am

       The most reliably robotic part of National is stabbing each other in the back, punching holes in their own waterline, and stammering in front of the camera.

       9/10 for self-harm.
     • Observer Tokoroa 9.1.2

       15 December 2018 at 10:28 am

       It’s not comical

       The National Party seems to attract and recruit persons of low IQ. Paula Bennett and Simon Bridges are but two who just don’t seem to cope with ordinary demands of everyday life. Let alone politics.

       So they rely on contrived fiction, and childlike cunning – constantly spewing a cloud of unknowing.

       There is not a single person in the National Caucus who has standing.

       On the recent Final Reading of the Bill to Decriminalise Medicinal Marijuana, not one National speaker mentioned the suffering and Pain of seriously ill persons.

       I can only put the callous behaviour of National as a Cluster of Low Intelligence. They have been incompetent for over a decade now.

       Their denial of housing crisis; their slovenly care of miners and loggers; their sales of Assets; their outrageous costs of Heating; their sickening slobering over wealthy friends – while hundreds of thousands live in Poverty …their cavalier approach to everything. Sir John Key has sold and is selling; everything that the people of New Zealand own.

       Sir John Key is for people destruction unlimited.

       That strange Judith Collins who somehow got a job as Minister of Police, and immediately forbade them to attend to home Burglary! For Petes Sake. She is the weird epitome of National.
       • greywarshark 9.1.2.1

         15 December 2018 at 11:57 am

         Observer Tokoroa
         You are saying what everyone is thinking, good one.
         • James 9.1.2.1.1

           15 December 2018 at 12:36 pm

           No they don’t.

           As for IQ I would bet observers is in the lower quadrant if compared with national caucus.
           • Antoine 9.1.2.1.1.1

             15 December 2018 at 2:06 pm

             Quartile
           • gsays 9.1.2.1.1.2

             15 December 2018 at 4:15 pm

             Hi James,

             “As for IQ I would bet observers is in the lower quadrant if compared with national caucus.”

             I am of the opinion that emotional intelligence and compassion are higher in the Labour front bench than the opposition’s.

             Both attributes are more important than intelligence in leaders.
             • James …

               15 December 2018 at 6:24 pm

               Opinions are like ….. etc
               • Gabby …

                 15 December 2018 at 6:48 pm

                 You’re talking out of your ….. etc jimbo.
           • Enough 9.1.2.1.1.3

             15 December 2018 at 6:36 pm

             James, Speaking of intellect – when I posted recently that CanTeen, the AYA cancer service, was about to axe most of their staff and close their regional offices, you accused me of “bullshit and spin”.
             Subsequent media coverage has shown my comment was 100% accurate.
             A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, James. On this forum you constantly exhibit a paucity of intellectual capacity. Could I suggest that, in future, you refrain from comment on subjects you are ignorant about?
             And, yes, I realise that will render you mute.
             • James …

               15 December 2018 at 6:55 pm

               You spin spin spin
               • Enough …

                 15 December 2018 at 6:59 pm

                 Can you read, James? Please try.

                 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/109307641/youth-cancer-charity-calls-on-australian-counsellors-after-17-local-jobs-cut
     • bwaghorn 9.1.3

       15 December 2018 at 10:34 am

       National are so good at opposition I’m hoping they stay there for along time
     • gsays 9.1.4

       15 December 2018 at 1:57 pm

       If you have access to a teenager (no sniggering), they might be able to show you a sarcasm emoticon that your contribution is missing.
     • Kevin 9.1.5

       15 December 2018 at 9:59 pm

       You sound uncannily like Tracy Watkins…
     • Ankerrawshark 9.1.6

       15 December 2018 at 10:11 pm

       National good front bench, same about theleaks
   • ianmac 9.2

     15 December 2018 at 11:00 am

     Audrey Young will have to have stern words with Tracey. By her assessment Jacinda is not doing very well and:
     “Jacinda Ardern was forced to abandon her prime ministerial distance from the case of imprisoned Czech drug-smuggler Karel Sroubek.

     She admitted she had received a text from a mutual acquaintance of hers and Sroubek’s commending her on the decision to let him stay in New Zealand (since reversed).
     It confirmed a connection between her and the case, albeit a tenuous one, that National had clearly had a whiff of some weeks ago.”

     There you go. Naughty Jacinda’s phone received a text. Damned.

     “Simon Bridges trucked on in customary fashion, receiving no recognition for doing a reasonable job as Leader of the Opposition.” Good on yer Simon.
     “”It was the news that Education Minister Chris Hipkins had agreed to support a member’s bill by former Education Minister Nikki Kaye to advance second language teaching in primary schools…….

     ….But an Opposition MP winning the support of Labour for a bill with such momentous and positive outcomes….
     For that reason, Nikki Kaye is my Backbencher of the Year (runner-up is Maureen Pugh for her meteoric rise from obscurity).” (Not that any credit due the Government of course.
     Rubbish from Audrey.
     https://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=12177022
     • patricia bremner 9.2.1

       15 December 2018 at 12:40 pm

       Audrey is blinded by bitter rage and a loss of status.
       Her blue dye has entered her eyes and brain to such a degree it is impossible to be reasonable let alone kind.
       She bats for the National Cricket Club. (Thanks Mac1)
       • mac1 9.2.1.1

         15 December 2018 at 9:01 pm

         🙂 In cricketing parlance for batting she would be known as a ‘ferret’. They’re the ones who go in after the ‘rabbits’ .
       • Ankerrawshark 9.2.1.2

         15 December 2018 at 10:15 pm

         Yes what a load of crap from A Y.

         Anyone who thinks Simon is doing a reasonable job is deluded
   • alwyn 9.3

     15 December 2018 at 12:04 pm

     Watkins is simply being a realist.
     She works for Fairfax, and all their newspapers are going down the gurgler. Tracey, and probably all their “journalists”, will be out of a job by the end of 2019.

     There are, on the other hand a lot of current vacancies for press secretaries in ministerial offices at the moment. What better way to get on the approved list of appointees than sucking up to the boss of the area?

     Of course she is going to say nice things about the current lot of incompetents.
     I mean to say. Twyford, the walking disaster zone, gets 6.5?
   • Chris T 9.4

     15 December 2018 at 1:34 pm

     Not hard to get a good score when you hardly turn up
     • Ankerrawshark 9.4.1

       15 December 2018 at 10:16 pm

       Who is hardly turning up Chris T?
10. soddenleaf 10

    15 December 2018 at 9:46 am

    Are we there yet? The kid in the backseat being annoying. Collins boring triads against the govt, have you built them yet. Are they built yet…

    National were told to watch him, they so did not, worse a new govt was woefully misinformed. No remorse, they just keep blaming others.

    Have you noticed how absolutely silent Bennett is.
11. Herodotus 11

    15 December 2018 at 9:50 am

    Next time our beaches are closed from sewage
    Think of the leadership and build build build too bad about inadequate infrastructure
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11992287
    Ask yourself ,why all this development within the CBD when they haven’t solved the stormwater/Sewage issue – The Central Inceptor hasn’t commenced yet.
    https://www.watercare.co.nz/About-us/News-media/Central-Interceptor-one-step-closer-to-start-date
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12008976
12. SaveNZ 12

    15 December 2018 at 9:55 am

    In 45 years, we have killed 60% of Earth’s wildlife

    https://www.cntraveller.in/story/45-years-killed-60-earths-wildlife/?fbclid=IwAR0_fG50cNZfW-vpt4DZJ5JrCqnWCbi_qcko-6ObkDi_g8x0RQQAifeoY6Y
    • joe90 12.1

      15 December 2018 at 10:02 am

      And by century’s end, we’ll have killed the lot.

      https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/115/25/6506/F1.large.jpg?width=800&height=600&carousel=1

      Today, the biomass of humans (≈0.06 Gt C; SI Appendix, Table S9) and the biomass of livestock (≈0.1 Gt C, dominated by cattle and pigs; SI Appendix, Table S10) far surpass that of wild mammals, which has a mass of ≈0.007 Gt C (SI Appendix, Table S11).

      https://www.pnas.org/content/115/25/6506
13. Ad 13

    15 December 2018 at 10:03 am

    OMG Auckland after the thunderstorms last night it’s more like Brisbane it’s so humid.
    • RedLogix 13.1

      15 December 2018 at 11:37 am

      Reporting in from Cyclone Owen; it’s passed inland to the south of us but we surely had a wet, stormy night. Lots of lightening and rain, plenty of wind but not damaging.

      It’s dropped the temperature a into the mid-20’s so it’s not like working as a sauna attendant as it was last week.

      The interesting observation; cyclones have been relatively rare in the Gulf of Carpentaria

      http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/history/gulf.shtml

      Now we’ve had two good ones, two years running.

      Another cool cyclone story; about two months ago I was in Panama when Hurricane Michael hit Florida. That storm was so huge that it literally sucked all the rain out of the entire Caribbean afterwards. Where we were it was the middle of the wet season when it normally pisses down every day; but after Michael we had two whole weeks of dry weather.
      • alwyn 13.1.1

        15 December 2018 at 2:40 pm

        What is there about you that attracts these storms?
        Two of them when you were in the Gulf of Carpentaria and one when you were in the Caribbean, all within the last couple of years seems a bit more than a coincidence.

        I had heard about Typhoid Mary, who caused a number of outbreaks of the disease as she moved around the New York area about a hundred years ago but you are surely the first person who appears to cause cyclones.

        “Mary immigrated to the United States in 1883 and subsequently made her living as a domestic servant, most often as a cook. It is not clear when she became a carrier of the typhoid bacterium (Salmonella typhi). However, from 1900 to 1907 nearly two dozen people fell ill with typhoid fever in households in New York City and Long Island where Mary worked. The illnesses often occurred shortly after Mary began working in each household, but, by the time the disease was traced to its source in a household where she had recently been employed, Mary had disappeared.”

        Can you control your powers? It would surely be incredibly useful if you could cause the rain without the wind. The farmers in the Murray/Darling area would pay you a fortune to break the drought there.
    • Robert Glennie 13.2

      15 December 2018 at 3:37 pm

      Did that warned thunderstorm earlier this afternoon near Rodney cause any problems?

      It looked quite big on the Metservice warning graphic a couple of hours ago.
      • Ad 13.2.1

        15 December 2018 at 3:50 pm

        Nothing reported, but in the Kaipara they breed em tough
14. Poission 14

    15 December 2018 at 11:06 am

    Brexit the movie.

    https://youtu.be/xH-oScnJXB0
    • Ad 14.1

      15 December 2018 at 11:12 am

      +10
    • ianmac 14.2

      15 December 2018 at 11:27 am

      I thought it was a straight faced satire but perhaps not Poission. Capturing the missing votes? Before the other side do.
      • Poission 14.2.1

        15 December 2018 at 11:41 am

        The unmobilized mass mobilized,

        https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2016-07-04/the-2-8-million-non-voters-who-delivered-brexit
    • joe90 14.3

      15 December 2018 at 11:31 am

      I guess there’s a sequel in the works, too.

      https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/12/benedict-cumberbatch-on-playing-my-husband-dominic-cummings/
15. bwaghorn 15

    15 December 2018 at 11:14 am

    https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/109281229/council-foils-grand-plans-for-head-hunters-headquarters-in-tokoroa

    Awesome bit of work by the council.
    This gang needs to be squashed like the toxic bug it is .
    • Draco T Bastard 15.1

      15 December 2018 at 3:11 pm

      Wonder what they did with the Black Power pad that was just round the corner from the police station.
      • gsays 15.1.1

        15 December 2018 at 5:38 pm

        Palmy’s Mothers pad has been swallowed up by the distribution hub build out Railway road.
      • bwaghorn 15.1.2

        15 December 2018 at 5:45 pm

        Not sure but these hh s are a growing force recruiting flat out . Nz will regret not going to war on them .
        • Draco T Bastard 15.1.2.1

          15 December 2018 at 7:30 pm

          Going to war on them won’t help.

          Getting them re-engaged with society will.
          • bwaghorn 15.1.2.1.1

            16 December 2018 at 8:26 am

            Mate I played rugby as a teen with a guy who is near the top in tauranga
            Was a nice guy good parents no reason to be a drug dealer going round with a bunch young thugs for his shadows . But he does
            There not lost boys they are people who have chosen the life they live .
            They are very different from your kid from a poor house looking to belong .
            • Draco T Bastard 15.1.2.1.1.1

              16 December 2018 at 9:01 am

              Still better to re-engage than an outright war.
16. joe90 16

    15 December 2018 at 11:42 am

    Meet the new guy.

    BREAKING: Pres. Trump has named Mick Mulvaney to be acting White House chief of staff upon John Kelly's departure. Sen. Elizabeth Warren tells you what you need to know about him in this video: pic.twitter.com/Bkvvv3W3UE— NowThis (@nowthisnews) December 14, 2018

    https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1073707029129117696
    • Puckish Rogue 16.1

      15 December 2018 at 12:37 pm

      Things like this make me glad I’m in NZ, you’ve got this guy or proven liar Elizabeth Warren

      What a choice
      • greywarshark 16.1.1

        15 December 2018 at 1:09 pm

        I thought Elizabeth Warren was a pretty good sort – what has she lied about?
        • Puckish Rogue 16.1.1.1

          15 December 2018 at 1:34 pm

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLI3SU33tIc

          Her native american background, saying her parents had to elope because of being native american and she also benefited by Harvard hiring her and being Harvards first women of colour

          When it turns out that she might be 1/64th and 1/1,024th, from 6 to 10 generations ago, and that that ancestry is actually Mexican, Peruvian, and Colombian

          You or I might have more native ancestry than she does
          • greywarshark 16.1.1.1.1

            15 December 2018 at 1:46 pm

            OOoh she has to have a blood test to prove what she feels she is and how The Whites (Pinks) treat her. You are a petty poop PR.
          • joe90 16.1.1.1.2

            15 December 2018 at 2:00 pm

            she also benefited by Harvard hiring her

            The Boston Globe debunked the lie that Warren was appointed on the back of her claimed heritage.

            The Globe closely reviewed the records, verified them where possible, and conducted more than 100 interviews with her colleagues and every person who had a role in hiring decisions about Warren who could be reached. In sum, it is clear that Warren was viewed as a white woman by the hiring committees at every institution that employed her.

            Warren’s political enemies have long pushed a narrative that her unsubstantiated claims of Native American heritage turbocharged her legal career. But it is clear that Warren was viewed as a white woman by the hiring committees at every institution that employed her.
            .

            Among the records were some never examined before by a newspaper, including one key form that a University of Pennsylvania professor kept tucked away for three decades.

            That previously undisclosed report reveals that the hiring committee at Penn, where Warren worked from 1987 to 1995, viewed her as a white female applicant. Moreover, the committee went to some pains to explain on this form why she was selected over several minorities to fill a faculty position.

            Not until she had been teaching at Penn for two years did she authorize the university to change her personnel designation from white to Native American, the records show.

            https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2018/09/01/did-claiming-native-american-heritage-actually-help-elizabeth-warren-get-ahead-but-complicated/wUZZcrKKEOUv5Spnb7IO0K/story.html

            btw, Warren was a Republican at the time she was hired and changed her affiliation when she ran for Senate in the mid 90’s
            • alwyn 16.1.1.1.2.1

              15 December 2018 at 2:48 pm

              How dare they treat her as a white person when she self-identifies as a native American.
              No wonder they hid that form away. They would all have been fired if that information had become known that they had treated her as being white!.

              On the other hand I can see why she would change her designation to the false one of being native-American at about the same time as she switched from registering as a Republican to being a Democrat. Both sorts of people are fantasists and derangement on her part was clearly setting in.
          • Draco T Bastard 16.1.1.1.3

            15 December 2018 at 3:17 pm

            Mexican, Peruvian, and Colombian

            Only the Peruvian wouldn’t be native American.
17. Puckish Rogue 17

    15 December 2018 at 12:28 pm

    https://www.iflscience.com/environment/organic-food-is-worse-for-the-climate-than-nonorganic-food/?fbclid=IwAR2NCjDTI866MK6-mohoVVP_4P9PthksJUDaeOJGG6Us0istpJzDxy3qP4o

    Pardon the expression but its food for thought 🙂
    • WeTheBleeple 17.1

      15 December 2018 at 1:49 pm

      Those figures are nonsense. Forcing organic systems to be grown like conventional fields and then saying see! – buy our fertiliser.

      Never mind the loss of soil structure and subsequent hardpan, erosion and flooding, never mind the loss of insects, fungi and other soil microbiota, never mind the loss of soil organic matter and carbon. Never mind the rivers, the dead patches in the oceans. Never mind the pollinators, the predators, the birds that eat them. Never mind the water cleansing, or the pathogen and toxin reducing activities of the soil. Never mind the ever increasing lawsuits. Never mind the ever increasing deserts.

      Because science.
      • Macro 17.1.1

        15 December 2018 at 8:58 pm

        👍
      • Robert Guyton 17.1.2

        15 December 2018 at 9:20 pm

        Pucky’s link and his reasons for posting it leave me a little saddened. In some ways, he seems a thoughtful guy, in others, plain daft. WTB’s response is nuanced, well reasoned and accurately applied, but Pucky, through his non-response, will collect a dullard or two for his cause. So it goes, but we don”t have to admire such duplicity, such ingenuousness. Food for thought, Pucky?
        Nah.
        Just dum sh*t.
        ‘K?
        • Puckish Rogue 17.1.2.1

          15 December 2018 at 10:21 pm

          Blind adherence to anything is not good, unquestioning obedience is not good, all things should be questioned

          But mostly I just follow IFL on facebook because it generally has interesting topics
    • gsays 17.2

      15 December 2018 at 6:31 pm

      You seem to be good with the compost PR.
    • One Two 17.3

      15 December 2018 at 10:34 pm

      IFLS is as sub-par as sciblogs NZ…

      I personally will not click links to either site…

      I f-ken love science…

      The ‘quality’ is foreshadowed through the sites name…
18. joe90 18

    15 December 2018 at 1:07 pm

    heh

    YES!Lumembourg Prime Minister @Xavier_Bettel is literally all of us right now. (via @Channel4News)#Brexit #BrexitShambles pic.twitter.com/Ntxmb2ylOU— Carl Mullan (@CarlMullan) December 13, 2018

    https://twitter.com/CarlMullan/status/1073354704460099584
19. Andre 19

    15 December 2018 at 3:07 pm

    Seems Mick Mulvaney‘s been appointed acting Chief of Staff.

    Bugger. I’m gutted Chris Christie apparently turned it down. Never mind, maybe he’ll have a change of heart when they have to go through the process again in a few Scaramuccis.
    • joe90 19.1

      15 December 2018 at 3:25 pm

      Looks like a smockscreen to covfefe that nobody wants the job.

      WH clarifies Mulvaney and OMB. @PressSec says Mulvaney "will not resign" from OMB, "but will spend all of his time devoted to his role" as Acting WH Chief of Staff. She says OMB Deputy Dir Russ Vought will handle day to day operations and run OMB.— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) December 15, 2018
20. eco maori 20

    16 December 2018 at 8:33 am

    We all pay into this Aotearoa health insurance company shonky and joice turned it into a stock market trading toy for his rich m8 on the stock market to suck cash out of Kiwis in return for stuffed up service no service so his m8 had more money to trade.
    Here is how a neo capitalist runs OUR Accident Compensation Corporation shonky flips the actual function of services provided by ACC and makes the staff compete to keep people in poverty and hard ship all the fools backing national will feel the sharp end of the captilist stick if they get a long term INJURY. I see the CEO of the Rotorua hospital has resigned my 10 year old grand daughter is still in pain thanks to the sandflys &——-
    The $8m doctor: ACC pays for ‘wholly speculative diagnosis that does not accord with the clinical facts’, judge says The agency regularly calls in Christchurch’s Dr Bill Turner to reassess patients who have been granted ACC entitlements for chronic pain; court judgments show ACC consistently uses Turner’s opinions to cancel entitlements or cover.
    In some cases, Turner considers the pain is in the sufferer’s head. In most cases, there is no question the patients are in severe pain: the only question is whether the pain is caused by injury – or is a vague “syndrome” as Turner sometimes argues. On numerous occasions he has assessed the pain as a syndrome, and nothing to do with the pig hunting accidents, car crashes and other injuries the claimants suffered. A former ACC employee told Stuff that ACC branches across the country compete to “exit” clients off their books before they reach 70, 180 or 365 days of cover. A weekly “traffic light” report indicates how the branch is performing and managers encourage case managers to look for people to get off their books.

    “I’m one of the lucky ones,” Gordon said. “Although I’ve got this constant chronic pain to deal with, I can still do my job, and can avoid taking too many drugs. But some people would lose a life line with decisions like this and get totally crushed.”

    LIFE SENTENCE WITHOUT REVIEW

    Review decisions are final, often life-changing for the claimant and worth thousands of dollars in compensation and treatment. Ka kite ano link below

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/107963931/the-8m-doctor-acc-pays-for-wholly-speculative-diagnosis-that-does-not-accord-with-the-clinical-facts-judge-says
21. eco maori 21

    16 December 2018 at 9:25 am

    Kia ora from R&R Sugar is a man made substance in its natrual form its ok but the way it refined and bleached it’s not good. drop sugar out of your diet when is the government going to do the logical and sceneable thing and tax sugar out off reach of our mokopuna . The main goal in a good diet is unprocessed food as in prosessing food they put poison it the food to colour it and to stop bacteria growing in the food hence the poison stops food spoiling that’s a fact. Te Hakari was a really important phenomenon for the maori of old we made sure we put the best kai in the whenua in a hakari for the guest this was a thing of pride hence no whenua no good hakari no mana. The one food I have not seen since I was nine was steamed corn bread in tinfoil
    that was the best kai Eco Maori liked .
    Kina Paua Ika tuna koura. I agree that unless the doctor has stated you need a diet thats when you go on one the rest in the media are just fads to make some one money. Just eat less fatty foods IE cut the fat off and feed it to the pets no sugar grow your own organic vegetables as it the traces of chemicals in our food’s that slowly kill us causing cancer hence the cancer rate is rising fast in our Papatuanuku I love a good hangi the Papatuanuku waste 1 3rd of the food prouduced the logical and cheaps way to feed the Papatuanuku is to solve the waste problem not try and do gods work and grow synthetic meat that could have who nose what in it and big companys have shown they can not be trusted to do the good things
    Ka kite ano Happy new year to the R&R Team.
    • WeTheBleeple 21.1

      16 December 2018 at 10:04 am

      I disagree re fats but mostly love your post. the fats is a whole other argument, but basically, the natural ones got a bad rap so industry could sell you lots of cheap nasty vegetable based ‘healthy’ alternatives.

      I am now growing sugar cane in Auckland and so others might do the same. It needs full northern aspect, shelter, and plenty of water and compost. There are many types of crushers online I actually go to a restaurant he crushes it and keeps half. But crushers are available, or you can just make a traditional one out of bamboo – youtube is your friend. The sap can be rendered down to jaggery, or with fruit to make preserves, or just drunk. It’s great with vodka and a twist of lemon!

      Prepare and plant a patch in Autumn by laying sections of cane in a trench and burying. youtube it. It’ll pop in spring.

      Alternative sweeteners you can ‘grow’ are stevia, and honey. Stevia is a herb used in many drinks etc but has thousands of years of traditional use. It is not everyone’s cup of tea. I like using it in some things e.g. fruit, and not others e.g. hot drinks.
      Honey… If you have a section surrounded by plant life… Beekeepers may put a hive on your property and tend it and you get some of the honey. Sweet deal.

      Gardens. Because exercise, health, diet, sun, community, medicine, life.
22. eco maori 22

    16 December 2018 at 10:27 am

    Lets get this straight the #METO movement is not anti Men Its all about treating wahine with the respect they deserve the neo’s of the world are scared about losing contro and power hence they are trying to BRAND the #METO movement as anti Men

    There’s nothing like a daughter to make Dad see the world differently
    Barbara Ellen
    While many men miraculously manage not to be chauvinists all by themselves, for others a daughter could prove a wake-up call that is stronger, more visceral than any number of #MeToo campaigns. At which point, big and small inequalities that may have passed almost unnoticed regarding women they’ve known and even loved (mothers, sisters, friends) are thrown into unprecedented sharp focus. As I say, an education – that “man’s world” could start looking very different when a father’s “mighty girl” has to navigate it.
    My eldest child is a wahine my eldset mokopuna is a wahine 70 % of my whano are wahine what really convinced me to back the #METO movement was Eco Maori’s challenges our male dominant society has thrown at me and the BIG MESS this male dominated society is making of OUR World at the minute hence I figured out that man has been deliberately suppressing mana wahine for thousands of years as some new that Wahine would kick there asses in the board room into doing the humane thing and put people’s welbeing before there profit. Ka kite ano links below.
    P.S having beautiful daughters and granddaughters did open my EYE’s to one never stops learning .

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/15/nothing-like-a-daughter-to-made-dad-see-the-world-differently
23. eco maori 23

    16 December 2018 at 11:50 am

    All our Coral Reef’s around the world are dying because off climate change and 30% of Australia Great Barrier Reef dyed of in a heat wave in 2016 and thats a crying shame . The Reef of the world are the nursery of the Oceans no reef no fish no fish masse human starvation we have to forget about politicians and make changes to our life styles to save our grandchildren future ourselves My carbon foot print has dropped a lot in the last six months .

    Dr Pillans hoped despite the gloom and doom about the reef’s future, her story would give children hope that they could do something to help.

    Her key message was greenhouse gas emissions had to be cut now.

    “I don’t think it’s too late, but we have to start now. We can’t keep saying ‘tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow’,” she said.

    “There are ways to save energy (such as turning off lights, walking instead of driving) and help the planet which will then help the reef.”

    It has taken her six years to get the story right.

    “It’s not as easy as people think. You have to make sure, when you are an author/illustrator, the words and pictures have to be as one,” she said.

    “There has to be highs and lows and resolution and problems.

    “All that has to be there in a big adventure to keep children’s attention.

    “I had many iterations of this book and each publisher would say ‘we really love the idea of it, however you can’t tell children there is no hope’.

    “It was really hard for me to provide a publisher with a story of hope and solutions.
    Ka kite ano links below.

    https://www.centralnorthburnetttimes.com.au/news/marine-biologist-pens-book-to-inspire-children-to-/3599059/
24. Eco Maori 24

    16 December 2018 at 1:43 pm

    No fish the sandfly is stuffing with my other computer the little churchy boy who thinks he is perfect is not getting his way is brating out
    
25. Eco Maori 25

    16 December 2018 at 4:11 pm

    I love my Crayfish but like I have stated the Quota management system is a system set up for the neo bankers it does not preserve our fishes razing and lowering the Quoter at the wim of the bankers it looks like shonky and his m8 new that CRA2 has nearly collapsed and chose to ignore the situation to keep the dollars flowing into there economy .Eco Maori backs the calls to ban fishing in CRA2 of at the very least drop the recreational take to 2 fish pre person as CRA 2 has the highest population in Aotearoa hence the over fishing every man and his dog has a boat and crayfish are so easy to catch with a pot. Cleaning up shonkys mess once again is Our coalition Government
    Environmentalists want to take crayfish off the menu this summer, with a three-year ban on catching the delicacy in the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Plenty.

    Stocks of the Kiwi favourite were once prolific in the waters that stretch between Waipu and the East Cape.

    But Forest and Bird say the crustaceans – also known as rock lobster – are now “functionally extinct” in the area.

    The Government is currently considering whether to slash the daily allowance for recreational fishers from six to three crayfish.

    READ MORE:
    * Big cuts to crayfish catch limits from Auckland to East Cape
    * Hauraki Gulf marine life has fallen by more than half since 1925, report finds
    * Crayfish ‘functionally extinct’ in the Hauraki Gulf “Crayfish in this area are in very serious trouble,” Forest and Bird marine advocate Katrina Goddard said. “The population has basically collapsed.

    “In 2017, they estimated there is just 20 per cent of the population left.”

    When stocks drops below ten per cent, the fishery must close – and Goddard says that threshold may have been reached in some areas.

    It follows huge enforced cuts to the commercial catch in April, down from 200 tonnes to 80 tonnes. Ka kite ano links below

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/109355321/dwindling-crayfish-numbers-sparks-call-for-fishing-ban P.S We all want OUR mokopunas to be-able to see and taste crayfish or that matter any fish.
26. eco maori 26

    16 December 2018 at 6:31 pm

    Kia ora Newshub I say the government’s plan to make the roads safer with the wire rope safty barriers is cool ka pai July .
    Many thanks to all the people at the UN Climate meeting in Poland who hammered out a agreement Ka pai as Jamie Shaw said trying to get 200 od people to come to a agreement is a hard task on its own.
    Ka pai to the Wellington company for plans to get a electric Ferry that’s the way of the future and I am sure you will get heaps of passengers because of the ferry being green energy powered .
    Going over the Alps for Africans refugees is a hard way to get to a good life in France and dangerous journey its just shows how desperate they are .
    The Bhutanese conjoined twins look happy all the best to them Good on the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne .
    Ka kite ano
27. Eco Maori 27

    16 December 2018 at 8:29 pm

    I see Peter Williams from TV1 News is retiring ka pai E hoa you have been a good kiwi role male role model for our youth all the best 40 years A There has to be some major changes in how we live our lives in the next few years ka kite ano
    
28. eco maori 28

    16 December 2018 at 10:53 pm

    Some Eco Maori Music for the minute
    
29. eco maori 29

    17 December 2018 at 11:29 am

    I have China to thank for Solar panels price dropping faster than anyone predicted .
    The cost $100 for a 100 watt panel to set up a small 2000 watt off grid solar system will only cost me $4000 and with gas power hot water and cooking that size system wold be ok for 2 people . It is now cheaper to build a solar powered power station than it is to burn Coal fools who back as in the past when some one has backed the wrong Horse will lose there ASS.
    Shenzhen’s silent revolution: world’s first fully electric bus fleet quietens Chinese megacity
    All 16,000 buses in the fast-growing Chinese megacity are now electric, and soon all 22,000 taxis will be too Y
    ou have to keep your eyes peeled for the bus at the station in Shenzhen’s Futian central business district these days. The diesel behemoths that once signalled their arrival with a piercing hiss, a rattle of engine and a plume of fumes are no more, replaced with the world’s first and largest 100% electric bus fleet.
    Shenzhen now has 16,000 electric buses in total and is noticeably quieter for it. “We find that the buses are so quiet that people might not hear them coming,” says Joseph Ma, deputy general manager at Shenzhen Bus Group, the largest of the three main bus companies in the city. “In fact, we’ve received requests to add some artificial noise to the buses so that people can hear them. We’re considering it.” The benefits from the switch from diesel buses to electric are not confined to less noise pollution: this fast-growing megacity of 12 million – which was a fishing village until designated China’s first “special economic zone” in the 1980s – is also expected to achieve an estimated reduction in CO2 emissions of 48% and cuts in pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, non-methane hydrocarbons and particulate matter. Shenzhen Bus Group estimates it has been able to conserve 160,000 tonnes of coal per year and reduce annual CO2 emissions by 440,000 tonnes. Its fuel bill has halved.
    Ka kite ano links below

    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/dec/12/silence-shenzhen-world-first-electric-bus-fleet
30. eco maori 30

    17 December 2018 at 11:49 am

    A Eco Maori video for the moment
    
31. eco maori 31

    17 December 2018 at 12:42 pm

    Eco Maori trys his best not to waste anything we need to change the way we live to preserve the future

    Why 2m kilos of Christmas cheese will end up in the bin … and how to cut back on your household’s waste in UnitedKingdom .
    But for many households the Christmas cheeseboard has become an elaborate affair – often resulting in a vast amount of waste. Now, as a new survey estimates that 2.2m kilograms of cheese from the festive dining table will be chucked in the bin this year, specialists are urging shoppers to aim for a “zero waste” cheeseboard. “If you buy cheese that tastes amazing you’re far less likely to waste it,” said Dominic Coyte of Borough Cheese Company. “In my house I tend to end up with lots of small bits left, so I grate and freeze it. Freezing can affect the texture so it loses its rigidity, but it’s still good to use for cheese on toast or in sauces or gratins. The remainders of a boxed soft cheese can also be baked in the oven with garlic, rosemary and white wine – day-old bread with a bit of bite is ideal for dipping in it.”
    The new research from Borough Market shows that the average seasonal platter will be heaving with up to five pieces of cheese, yet six in 10 consumers surveyed (57%) admitted they will throw much of it away. According to the findings, two-thirds (63%) are planning to serve at least one cheeseboard over the festive period, while one in five (22%) will push the boat out and offer three or more. links below Ka kite ano.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/16/cheese-uk-waste-mountain-christmas-borough-market
32. eco maori 32

    17 December 2018 at 3:13 pm

    Trillions of dollars of investments are being taken out of carbon-intensive companies. Governments must now take notice
    Eco Maori is calling on the Vaticain Bank to drop its investments in carbon for the future. If they don’t it will be there money lost as shares slid in value the writing on the wall
    Here is were the people can stop the carbon barrons in there tracks everyone demand that there saving not to be invested in carbon companys the will go broke and slid into OUR History books. Ana to kai/ take that.

    We can’t count on governments alone to do the work necessary – governments, from Canada and America to Russia and Saudi Arabia to China and India, are still too often beholden to the fossil fuel companies. We need to keep pushing hard on those companies – and we will.The list of institutions that have cut their ties with this most destructive of industries encompasses religious institutions large and small (the World Council of Churches, the Unitarians, the Lutherans, the Islamic Society of North America, Japanese Buddhist temples, the diocese of Assisi); philanthropic foundations (even the Rockefeller family, heir to the first great oil fortune, divested its family charities); and colleges and universities from Edinburgh to Sydney to Honolulu are on board, with more joining each week. Forty big Catholic institutions have already divested; now a campaign is urging the Vatican bank itself to follow suit. Ditto with the Nobel Foundation, the world’s great art museums, and every other iconic institution that works for a better world.Thanks to the efforts of groups such as People & Planet (and to the Guardian, which ran an inspiring campaign), half the UK’s higher education institutions are on the list. And so are harder-nosed players, from the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (at a trillion dollars, the largest pool of investment capital on Earth) to European insurance giants such as Axa and Allianz. It has been endorsed by everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio to Barack Obama to Ban Ki-moon (and, crucially, by Desmond Tutu, who helped run the first such campaign a generation ago, when the target was apartheid).Now the contagion seems to be spreading to the oil and gas sector, where Shell announced earlier this year that divestment should be considered a “material risk” to its business. That’s how oil companies across the world are treating it – in the US, petroleum producers have set up a website designed to discredit divestment,. and for a while had me under round-the-clock public surveillance. The pressure is not preventing anyone from acting: when Yale arrested 48 brave students who were occupying its investment offices last week, they left chanting: “We’ll be back Eco Maori know what thats like lol Links below ka kite ano P.S Kiwis can demand that our Kiwisave not be invested in carbon to.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/16/divestment-fossil-fuel-industry-trillions-dollars-investments-carbon
33. eco maori 33

    17 December 2018 at 4:35 pm

    This forest is a rear phenomenon and is being negatively affected by climate change like the Great reefs and Ice cap’s at a much faster rate than scientists’ pridicted
    “All of us scientists, not just in America but around the world, know that climate change is being exacerbated. Being caused by human activities, by overconsumption, by use of fossil fuels. And for our leadership to take exactly the wrong turn, to remove ourselves from the Paris treaty, to encourage coal mining …
    “What I feel I need to do is to bring my science, bring my understanding of what’s going on in the tropical cloud forest and other ecosystems to the people, to policymakers.
    “I think that scientists are becoming more political. We have become less afraid to speak out against the political regimes that are making these wrong decisions. In the past, even ten years ago, my fellow scientists would not be making these statements.”
    Nadkarni reflects on the change. “You know each species that moves or disappears has repercussions in terms of the ecosystem as a whole. Now the plants are a little bit harder to see. But I know when I climb in the forest, that compared with when I started here 39 years ago, the canopy dwelling plants – the mosses, the filmy ferns – they were much more abundant, much more plush, much more … just wet, than they are now.”
    For millenium the WEALTHY have silenced the TRUTH TELLER’s OUR scientist to protect there power now we have the 21 century communication device the internet and social media now the game is changing mostly for the better for human kind
    Links below the sandflys are stuffing with my computer once again Eco Maori will never give up the fight for a good future for OUR grandchildren ka kite ano

    https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/dec/16/head-in-the-clouds-climate-change-nalini-nadkarni-costa-rica-monteverde
34. Descendant Of Smith 34

    17 December 2018 at 5:02 pm

    Cheeseboards – the modern equivalent of the fondue.
35. eco maori 35

    17 December 2018 at 6:46 pm

    Kia ora Newshub That is awsome busting those men who were importing Meth into Aotearoa many thanks to all involved in the bust 25 years jail.
    Colndolences to the whano of the people who dyed in the plane crash in Raglan .
    To much to the 84 year Kiwi lady who survived being losed in Australia outback desert.

    There you go the slave labour in Hawkes bay apple picking industry they will have displaced hundreds of kiwi workers. Is this some one elses mess once again.
    One has to respect Tangaroa and creatures climate change and over fishing will cause more of these shark attack incident’s all around Papatuanuku.

    We got gift cards for Chrismas presents so easy and the mokopunas get to chose there presents

    Its good that Pharmac is getting the medicine for Hep C Ka pai many people will have a much better life because of this move.

    Rocketlab that is good news for Peter Beck his team Aotearoa and Mahia

    Eco Maori seen the story in the stuff website I support the cut the ban some people are more worryed about the putea lost instead of the loss of the fishes.

    Its about time the Lawsociety change the law profession system to hold powerful lawers to acount for the way the treat wahine or anyone.

    Printed veins and body parts is the way of the future its exciting times in the health profession . Ka kite ano

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