i think to apply for a kiwi build home you must be on the electoral roll and have voted in the 2017 election because why should none voters get on the ballet ahead of those who got off there backsides and voted
You are clearly a believer in the Tammany Hall system of political corruption. Rather like the Labour Party here I suppose.
They did a lot of good in the first half century. After that they became notoriously corrupt and were finally destroyed. https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-tammany-hall-1774023
I see you have put this in twice.
I is equally as silly the second time as it was the first.
There is no connection between what I have said and what you are rambling on about.
How to get young people to enroll? Along with the carrots, a little bit of stick. Prosecute a dozen or so and fine them for not enrolling (it is a legal requirement), pour encourager les autres.
In my extended family is a person in their late 50s who’s not on the roll. Never has been. Doesn’t stop them posting, and commenting on, enthusiastically, most of National’s more extreme bullshit about Labour on their Facebook page. Irony is that their spouse, also rabid Nat, is an electoral officer.
Agree. We also know rabid politically engaged people who have never voted (democracy is for idiots), but who buy their economic framework by making massive donations to National.
come on labour pick this up , but make the farms lease only so they provide more than one young farmer a stepping stone,
oh and the greens appear to favour corporate farming Hmmmmm insert grumpy emogi
When I heard that thought it was a bit back to the future.
That’s how Landcorp / Lands and Survey used to operate. Farms were developed on pioneer / marginal land and then leased and sold to young farmers. I think a lot of Western Southland was developed like this.
Leasing only would be the way to go now. In today’s world it would just be very difficult for young farmers, without family support, to move into a Landcorp type farm at market price, due to the price pressure put on the market by overseas buyers.
Do you mean Landcorp buys marginal land and then leases it out? Or do you mean that the existing Landcorp farms get given out on permanent lease?
Having Landcorp involved in supporting young farmers into farming would be great especially where it was sustainable or climate change prep. Lots of potential for overlap with the Greens climate and ag policies.
oops i miss read it they favour the land staying in landcorp ownership , which i’m good with but it still could be leased out with rules around looking after the land .
they would be a stepping stone as a young farmer could leese till they own all the stock then move into ownership
come on labour pick this up , but make the farms lease only so they provide more than one young farmer a stepping stone
You do understand that there’s nowhere for the young farmers to step to don’t you? All the farming land has been used up and is owned by old farmers and city ‘farmers’.
That’s why National has decided to sell all the Landcore land – and it won’t be going to young farmers but those old and city ‘farmers’. The ones that can afford to buy it.
It will be like fishing quota.
In a few short years will be in the hands of corporates and the wealthy sqatters next door. “Tenure review” all over again.
Leasehold to beginning youngsters only would genuinely help young farmers who cannot afford the next step.
Every time national comes out with a new policy it has two sides (truth & lies) to it dressed up as a “progressive policy” for a group of ‘intersted parties’ and this time it is young farmers eh!!!
Not in your nellie’
it will be featered off to their mates in large packages not for the 10 acre farming block you can bet.
My dear departed mum was very wise when she told me “If it sounds to good to be true then it is a lie”.
National are good at lies, and this is another one.
Draco you are so right here, (meant 100 acre mininum farm not 10 acres, that’s only what I’ve got. ( toy farm.)
Every time national comes out with a new policy it has two sides to it dressed up as a “progressive policy” for a group of ‘intersted parties’ and this time it is young farmers eh!!!
Not in your nellie’
it will be featered off to their mates in large packages not for the 100 acre farming block you can bet.
My dear departed mum was very wise when she told me “If it sounds to good to be true then it is a lie”.
National are good at lies, and this is another one.
That is incorrect, there is a well established system for young dairy farmers to get into a farm, the sharemilking system has been working for over 50 years.
Starting off as contract Miller’s and finishing up owning the herd and getting 50% of the milk receipts, huilding up to a 1000 cows on a single large farm or multiple farms, selling off a large portion of their herd gives a deposite on first farm purchase.
Other than the few that may take over the family farm (but still have to buy out their sibblings) nearly every dairy farming family has used this route to farm ownership. The system operates as strongly today as it every has. You may be aware of the term gypsie day which is used to describe the mass movement of sharemilkers moving between farms on 1st June each year as they move up to bigger farms or into their first own farm
That is incorrect, there is a well established system for young dairy farmers to get into a farm, the sharemilking system has been working for over 50 years.
And this well established process creates land how?
Or, to put it other words: ZOMG, I didn’t know we had God working for us.
Everything else you say can be safety ignore until you prove we actually do have God on our payroll.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15092017/#comment-1384925on Not ready yet
Plenty of sharemilkers say they haven’t a chance of getting their own place.
They can’t catch up with prices. A quiet word to sharemilkers today on gypsy day may not get them talking about their reality. But away from the group I think the facts would be that for each one that is managing on his own behalf, there are five who have had to borrow excessively, or step back for another couple of years and some have given up because the present day system has killed off that 50 year opportunity.
And I haven’t forgotten the sharemilker struggling to keep up with his plan who found that the farmer he worked with just kept overstocking with his own beasts. The sharemilkers plan was to work the place up and introduce his own cows but every time there was the opportunity to do that the owner took the opportunity to boost his own herd. His wife said he got into the pattern of pushing himself and collapsed from overwork.
I can;t give you any sources for what I have said. I try to keep up with what is happening in the rural sector. I think I would know more about it than the rural sector knows about the non-primary sector.
There’s also a lot of “amalgamations” that could end up in the hands of liquidators once their capital is exhausted. I have a feeling it’s these syndicated operations that are leading the fight against resource charging. there’s probably not that many of them, but they were pushing the boundaries of viability from the start and 30 – 50K per annum for water is the least of their problems.
This is quite interesting to and points to the above
it is not so much the deal (appealing as it was0…it is the barefaced lies, and cover up including support from supposedly non political public servants and public oversight that National have maintained ….a party of moral and ethical bankrupts who have to go before they corrupt our systems beyond repair.
I think that’s because having your leaders lie somehow legitimises your own lying. I’ve noticed a huge increase in lying behaviour among rural and construction people in the last 10 years. It’s now almost accepted. The same people are beside themselves at the prospect of a change in government.
New Zealand is poorly informed about the scam being inflicted upon us ….If Labour will not speak up about the elephant in the room then the the Greens should highlight this tax injustice,….. it would probably help if they cooperate and network with their Aussie compatriots, who have done good work in this area ……. https://greens.org.au/tax-avoidance
Nationals tax policy is apprently for the ‘creative’ …..
John Key: …. “, if they want to be creative and work hard, to significantly reduce their tax liability but in a lawful way.” ….
“, Mr Rozvany said just because something is legal does not mean it is ethical.
“It’s an interesting thing, ‘within the law’,” Mr Rozvany said.
“Many things were once legal. Rape and paedophilia were once legal.
“If you set up a sham transaction in a tax haven with a view to shifting profits from a high tax jurisdiction to a low tax jurisdiction that should be considered unacceptable to the international community.” ……
The amounts of money looted by ‘creative’ accountants’ are huge … sly politicians make it all loophole legal … “In the three years to 2015, Shell had racked up around $60 billion in revenue (when it owned the petrol stations and the upstream business) and appeared to pay zero tax.” …. https://www.michaelwest.com.au/shell-tax-ripped-out-as-in-house-deals-double/
Creative accounting ??? ….. “Ebay Australia and New Zealand does it all: Tax Avoidance 101 – don’t recognise revenue with customers in Australia, and then, Tax Avoidance 102 – minimise the profits on any revenues you do happen to recognise.” …. https://www.michaelwest.com.au/ebay-scores-own-goal-on-tax/
The overseas company CKI, who brought Wellingtons electricity lines network/infrastructure …. and has run at a fictitious loss ( with a underinvestment in maintenance ) ever since …. “Of course, those losses are not real and CKI did not pay $785m for a duffer………Wellington Network is in fact highly profitable, with an earnings margin consistently around 30 per cent before interest and tax.”…..
And then we have ‘legal shell companies and ‘Trusts’……“Working hard at” buying up our land and homes ….
”owner of the former Crafar and Synlait farms in Waikato and Canterbury. Milk New Zealand Holding is wholly owned not by Shanghai Pengxin, but by Milk New Zealand Investment, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The ownership was disclosed to the Companies Office on August 13……….Chalkie reckons owning New Zealand farms through a Caribbean tax haven may have tax advantages “-
The big four accounting firms have been branded as aggressive, unethical, and accused of “perpetrating the greatest tax crimes in history” by a leading corporate tax authority.
If you gut the public service and slash regulation, that’s what you get from right wing governments. Looting the common wealth, privatising profits, and evading tax. Jail the white collar crooks.
Thanks Muttonbird & ropata ….. National are audacious liars to be attacking anyone over tax …..
The Greens should announce they will push for George Rozvany to be part of the tax review ….. They need to quickly raise awareness and illuminate the simple truth.
Being that We do not need new or more taxes ….. just collection of what is due from the richest company s and people in the world.
The greens are the natural party to make some noise about this injustice … the rest seem compromised …..
Not too hard to fix though as it’s closing loopholes, making retrospective changes which comes from 2 main drivers IMO.
1. The right people plugging the laws i.e. hire the architects of these schemes to take them down. They’re hired guns who will happily swap sides if the price is right.
2. Government with a will to tax the top end effectively and not be swayed by the expected PR howls of ‘the sky is falling’.
Lets not forget the banks in particular are dwindling employers with offshore profits, ownership and technology racing toward a fully self service model.
Harmful regulations created our tax segregation and revenue black hole…. Good regulations can fix it.
But it needs to be co-ordination with others i … and globally the Greens are the best political movement …… genuinely working against injustice and exploitation ……
Almost like a vast right wing conspiracy …..there has been a uniformity in the building of networks which has allowed enormous corrupt money flows …… with corresponding harms of homelessness and exploitation of ordinary citizens everywhere …
Its more than just corporate tax evasion …. they have also helped money laundering.
Canada ……. “An agency report suggested there is a close relationship between money laundering in real estate and the services provided by lawyers, such as placing wire transfers in legal trusts and creating investment vehicles that can shield true ownership of property.” http://vancouversun.com/storyline/ottawa-will-attempt-to-close-money-laundering-loophole
You hit the nail on the head reason.
That was the main objective of money puppet john key to create heaps of tax loopholes for his M8 that is the only way to explain wh ffat has happened to our tax systems.
One can donate any amount into a trust and avoid many taxes and there are lots more loopholes to what a sham. !!!!!!!😬
It’s is ridiculous that a person under the bridge will pay more tax than a multi million dollar company and don’t mention gst because the buyer pays that tax the seller is just the collector of gst.
It just shows how unfair OUR society is and this needs to change.
And if the answer is ‘yes’ then you should now subject to the Proceeds of Crime Act and lose everything. After all, using a tax haven should be a crime.
I agree there defiantly needs to be some consequences for the creative types who work hard building the getaway ‘vehicles ‘ …. that make off with billions … and those who use them of course.
Its all reward and no risk at the moment …
Accountants and bankers make normal criminals or welfare fraud look like small chump change amateurs …..
“At least $US1 trillion in tax revenue is lost worldwide, and $50 billion in Australia, as a result of aggressive tax minimisation schemes established by the four giant firms who audit the books of nearly all the world’s major companies, said George Rozvany, a 32-year veteran of the corporate tax industry.”
“And I’m a conservative man, I think the figure is actually much higher,” he told the ABC.”
It is far from a victim-less crime…… “The people who are most affected are the most underprivileged in our society, those without a voice. The homeless, foreign aid programs.”
Where was the father. The rest of us fathers support our children so not sure why he should skip his duties
[You don’t get to interrogate people on their family situations. You want to attempt “doing a Metiria” on this poster and you’ll cop a permanent ban ] – Bill
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Although your comment was removed I would like to answer to help you understand.
The father got in trouble with the law and ended up in jail, after getting out he unfortunately got addicted to meth and is only recently clean and starting to rebuild his relationship with his son.
A relationship I feel is important and that I try to foster despite putting up with years of abuse from him while in his drug addled state.
Bill’s got that guy’s number. The only answer that would satisfy Notreadyet is “Yes, your implied accusation is absolutely correct, it’s my fault I’m living in poverty, I brought it on myself, I deserve it and the government bears no obligation towards me as a citizen to help me out of it.” Much better to leave people like that with an answer that satisfies you rather than them, something like “Fuck you,” perhaps.
Thankyou for filling in a gap in the story. Agree we definetly need safety nets to cover your situation. 5-10 years ago the country had to borrow billions so that the we could continue to give support to those like yourself that needed it. The squeeze you experienced came on because at the time it was all borrowed and precious/scarce $. A lot of people conveniently overlook or fail to remember the situation the whole world was in after 08 and we have generally(obviously not in your case) been better off than most
The amount by which “we” have been better off could easily have been directed to those who needed it most: the reason it wasn’t was a sadistic bad choice you made.
Greedy right wing idiots took bribes and let greedy right wing thieves destroy the global economy.
The squeeze you experienced came on because at the time it was all borrowed and precious/scarce $.
And that would be a load of BS as well. I seem to recall that National gave lots of tax cuts to the rich while increasing taxes upon the poor resulting in a lower tax take.
A lot of people conveniently overlook or fail to remember the situation the whole world was in after 08 and we have generally(obviously not in your case) been better off than most
Actually, we’re worse off because of all the same things that crashed the global economy – we just haven’t realised it yet. That’s the problem that happens when the incumbent government props up a housing bubble pushing a massive increase in private debt as their only economic idea of prosperity.
“…5-10 years ago the country had to borrow billions so that the we could continue to give support to those like yourself that needed it…..”
Oh my gawd! you are a special kind of stupid, aren’t you?
For your little brain, let me try to educate you….Billions were borrowed to BAIL OUT BANKS AND FINANCIAL ORGANIZATIONS, who CAUSED THE FINANCIAL CRASH.
THEY WERE BAILED OUT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE POOR, those who could LEAST afford to cu costs…JUST SO THE FILTHY, GREEDY *U*TS COULD KEEP THEIR BANK ACCOUNTS FAT!
If only IMO Labour had continued with the 2014 line, that any tax changes will not be implemented until after the next election. Then many who want a change of govt. but feel their personal wealth could be threatened by uncertainty (Nats scare tactics) could see that most of the scare mongering was unfounded, and that we have had 3 years that the Lab govt had build up trust in the voter. Then the Nats could have been thrown in disarray as they implode. And that Lab would have kept their integrity, instead of being seen by some as moving to with the mood of the polls.
No Herodotus – your ethical approach would not have worked – you seem to forget that National is a party of liars without memories. How much of a fuss was there when the GST was raised after Key’s assurance that it wouldn’t happen? A solution: Labour need to make sure the Greens get into Government with them then implement a ‘Captain’s call’ using the National line as a precedent – “we had to accommodate the policies of our support party in the coalition”. ACT were credited with Charter Schools on that basis, even though National clearly intended going down that track as they had employed the infamous Lesley Longstone on her UK implementation experience before the election.
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern has been greeted with a massive crowd at University of Otago this morning.
About 700 staff and students turned up to see her speak and pose for selfies on the university’s Union Lawn.
With room at a premium people packed on to the balconies above the University Union.
Any signs that Jacindamania had dimmed were not apparent as she was given rapturous applause and people posed for selfies and stopped to hug Ms Ardern.
and she had a huge reception on the Coast as well Marty, so I ear, I would love our electorate to swing the party vote back to Labour.
And Marty, do you get “The Leader” over your way?
If so check out the back pages for Maureens ad, at the bottom of it is the national “N” with a ticked circled placed next to it, looks like the word “NO” she’s had that ad running for 5 weeks now, cracks me up everytime I see it.
this piece from a writer who everytime he puts finger to keyboard in recent years has raised my blood pressure or had me shaking my head in disbelief at his wilful blindness …a proud supporter (and to me , one eyed) of our current administration appears to had an epithany while out mixing with ‘the common folk’ ….and he senses the winds of change….better late than never is all I will add
(In less than 2 days – this video has had over 45,000 views…)
NZ WHISTLE-BLOWER ALERT!
The TRUTH about the Tamaki ‘Regeneration’ – GENTRIFICATION $CAM!
“Penny Bright has been shining a light into the murky recesses of public/private partnerships in the Tamaki Regeneration scheme and revealed some disturbing details…”
When are mainstream media going to ‘pick up the ball’ on this apparently CENSORED story?
In FIVE years of this Tamaki ‘Regeneration’ project – there are more houses that have come down than gone up.
237 Tamaki State houses removed.
213 New houses built.
92 ‘social’ houses.
39 ‘affordable’ private sale houses for first home buyers.
82 private sale houses (high-end).
In an OIA reply from Tamaki Regeneration Ltd, dated 21 August 2017, information about the exact prices paid by private property developers for each and every former Housing NZ property was refused because of ‘commercial confidentiality’.
How disgraceful is that?
This is / was PUBLIC property!
Is the apparent ‘CENSORSHIP’ of this story, by mainstream media, because the paper trail goes straight to Bill English, Nick Smith and Steven Joyce?
Past and present Crown Shareholding Ministers in Tamaki Regeneration Ltd, to which 2,867 former Housing NZ properties were transferred on 31 March 2016?
Which, IMO, makes this Tamaki SCAM story – political dynamite?
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for Tamaki.
We are now in deep shit as CO2 levels have now stubbornly stayed above the critical 400ppm level now for over the last four years.
Increased CO2 levels now are scientifically confirmed as reducing our plant growth and their nutrient uptake levels causing our loss of minerals/vitamins avalable to us all during consumption. – Here are the facts;
“protein concentrations in grains of wheat, rice and barley, and in potato tubers, are decreased by 5–14% under elevated CO2 (Taub et al. 2008). Crop concentrations of nutritionally important minerals including calcium, magnesium and phosphorus may also be decreased under elevated CO2 (Loladze 2002; Taub & Wang 2008).”
Earth’s CO2 Home Page
Atmospheric CO2
2014 July 401.61ppm.
2015 july 404.50ppm.
2016 July 407.25ppm.
2017 Aug’405.07ppm.
August 2017
405.07
parts per million (ppm)
Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (NOAA-ESRL)
Preliminary data released September 11, 2017
We know that atmospheric CO2 has ranged between 172 and 300 part per million (ppm) for the past 1 million years. The earth cycled through cold glacial and warm inter-glacial periods without atmospheric CO2 exceeding 300 ppm.
The first time in human history that atmospheric CO2 exceeded 300 ppm was about the time the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912.
Now, the crossover to concentrations that stay above 400 ppm CO2 is nearly complete.
The other day on RNZ Phil Twyford told Susie Ferguson that under Labour rents would stabilise or go down, yet he wouldn’t guarantee it.
Do you think Phil will have to eat his words?
It was a bold and risky claim for Phil to make.
And while he didn’t guarantee it, if he’s wrong, not only will his credibility be damaged for asserting it, it will also damage the credibility of the Labour Party as it’s their policies and he is their housing spokesperson.
There’s been speculation that a number of landlords would sell up, thus freeing up more homes for sale and in turn reducing rental demand.
However, as landlords sell off their rentals and tenants move into home ownership, that will reduce the supply of rentals, thus merely offsetting the corresponding drop in rental demand. Hence, there would be no net difference in rental supply and demand from this shift.
Moreover, another aspect being overlooked is the growing trend of taking property off the rental market and setting them up as serviced apartments or Air BnB. Cashing in on our high tourist numbers and the shortage of hotel rooms whilst reaping a far higher nightly yield. Therefore, coming down too hard on landlords may result in further encouraging this shift. Resulting in reducing rental supply.
As for Phil’s claim that Labour will increase the housing supply, he’s overlooking it will take years for Labour’s Kiwibuild to meet current demand let alone get on top of it. Thus, in the meantime, Labour’s policies coupled with the overheated rental market will provide the scope landlords require to further increase rents.
Surely you’re not implying one has to critique National to be allowed to critique Labour?
Being from the left I don’t expect National to represent my left leaning views, hence I seldom waste my time pointing out their many flaws. I waste enough of my time dealing with the right within the left.
not a bad summation…couple of points…you have answered your own question re why he didnt guarantee it and as to eating his own words you will note as an experienced politician he never gave a timeframe so in effect it is neither bold nor risky and there will be no words consumed….however i suspect in their heart of hearts Labour expect the market to fall (not crash) due to a number of their announced policies and this is occurring on top of a faltering market already, so it is entirely possible there will be a rent reduction in the near term even if some investors quit the market , remembering that an investment property sold doesn’t disappear and still has function within the market.
In her attempt to secure a guarantee, Susie did set a time-frame when challenging him. And although he managed to talk his way out of committing to a guarantee (reasserting his reasoning and claim) he didn’t question the time-frame. Nor did he use it as an excuse for not committing when he had the opportunity too. Thus, the opportunity to lower first term voter expectation.
Therefore, he (through his continued assertion) has somewhat painted himself and the Party into a bit of a corner.
While Labour plan to introduce most of their housing policies rather smartly, their impact on house prices (if any at all) will take some time to eventuate, thus it will be market fundamentals and perhaps further Reserve Bank interventions that are more likely to cause a correction/fall.
And a fall in house prices doesn’t necessarily mean their will be a quick and widespread fall in rents. Some simply won’t sell in a depressed market and may decide to increase rents instead. Especially if rental demand remains strong.
beg to differ…the mere prospect or notice of their policies will impact the market …investors will not wait around and so the impact will precede the act….same with the building programme…as to how fast and widespread the impact is, well thats an unknown but the direction is not…and it aint upwards
As a number of their policies largely fall short, the impact you’re expecting may differ from the reality.
Take their so-called ban on offshore investors. The impact may initially result in a flurry (adding upward pressure) with offshore investors getting in before they are shutout.
Therefore, while they may act quickly, it’s not the in the manner you seem to be foreseeing.
Moreover, the ban doesn’t prevent offshore investors from buying new builds. Thus, prevent offshore demand driving upward pressure on land prices, building materials, etc… adding to the overall cost of a new home. Which, in turn, tends to pump up the price of older homes.
again i differ….the tenor and direction is increased restrictions and costs plus a reduction in demand (via migration )and the timing has been stated to be urgent(indeed the tendency may be to quit the market with the knowledge of the existing costs as opposed to the unknown, after all we are only one of many)….any last minute attempt to enter the market will be short lived…..all compounded by nervous banks reluctant to lend at current levels.
A reduction in immigration is not a total halt. And when you have a market that is already struggling to cope with current housing demand, any additional immigration is upward pressure.
Cost are generally passed on. Again, adding upward price pressure on rents. And restrictions (such as ring fencing losses) won’t impact all investors. And those impacted may restructure their affairs and increase rents to offset it.
A number of offshore investors don’t require the backing of our banks to purchase. And banks themselves are walking a fine line.
‘A number of offshore investors don’t require the backing of our banks to purchase. And banks themselves are walking a fine line.’
no they don’t, however those purchasing from them are likely to…part of the reason the banks are self imposing restrictions (over and above RBNZ requirements) is because existing rents are already unsustainable in the local market…as investors are aware any rent rise will simply increase defaults …on portfolios banks are already winding back.Costs cannot be passed on ad infinitum.
worst case most likely outcome would be that it competes with or otherwise extinguishes life forms that we could have learned from.
Like bacterial cane toads or rats.
Worst least likely outcome is that the bacteria is viewed as a declaration of war by an advanced society we hadn’t detected because they were all subspace fields and teleporting, and the species goes all Independence Day on us.
I’m reasonably certain that if there was life there we would have recognised it when Cassini first flew by. The lander would definitely have shown it up.
I’ll make it easy for you. An octopus is weird especially when compared to humans now imagine that weirdness multiplied by a million. A million, not 100 , not 1000, not 10000, and so on. Do you actually think your brain could conceive let alone recognise alien life. I know you do and I blame fucken star trek and their hunamoid aliens.
Do you actually think your brain could conceive let alone recognise alien life.
Yes, it can.
Or, to put in other words: Do you believe pakeha are human?
It’s really easy to recognise life:
1. They’re born
2. They move
3. They breed
4. They die.
All that’s been detected upon Titan id the possible precursor to life. IMO, there isn’t enough energy to go beyond that else it would already exist.
I know you do and I blame fucken star trek and their hunamoid aliens.
I’d say Fuck the humanoid aliens except that logic tells us that humanoid lifeforms are most likely what you’re going to get from an evolutionary process for an intelligent species.
If it is an intelligent being, and uses climate and interactions between organisms to form thoughts like we have neurons, then what thoughts would it have? And is humanity a planetary alzheimers?
Yeah, running back to a doom slogan kind of underlines the fact that you suggested on of humanity’s last acts should be barely a step removed from dumping cowshit in the streams of Titan just to see how bad the contamination will be.
the other point being is that your 5-point criteria that make it “really easy” to recognise life doen’t rule out Earth, which meets none of those points.
Mate your human centric view of the universe is quaint and illogical based on size alone – you cant even conceive how big it is or what is in it, yet your ego can write checks you cant cash and can’t even consider cashing – silly hu man.
And your plan is to leave a smear on a moon to see what happens – ffs come on.
Unless they end up like the dodo because our earth bacteria ate them all when we followed your plan.
And then we maybe never gain some revolutionary knowledge or medicine. Because we dumped a tonne of bacteria on a planet or moon we knew nothing about.
And that’s just the we’d be better off doing real science rather than assuming the universe is ours to shit all over argument, it’s not even the what if an entire ecosystem, of simple organisms maybe so, but an entire ecosystem grew and evolved over billions of years, creating an environment unique in the universe, right up until we came along – what does that say about us question.
Unless they end up like the dodo because our earth bacteria ate them all when we followed your plan.
Life’s a bitch and the you die.
And then we maybe never gain some revolutionary knowledge or medicine.
Extreme possibilities aren’t what makes life work.
hey, did you know that Mars had spent the last few billion years losing its magnetosphere and its atmosphere (in that order) and that the chances for life to survive that is between slim and none?
BTW, I suspect that the first Mars landing failed to have such restrictions in place. I doubt if the Soviets, or the USians immediately after them, had such concerns as you seem to have. Same as the first Europeans who visited NZ had such concerns.
I think you’ll find that even in the 1960s interplanetary probes were developed and constructed in clean rooms. Chances of taking extremophile bacteria to mars are therefore minimal. If only because bacteria would fuck up their chromatograph readings.
Hey, did you know that getting a few metres under Mars surface would provide thermal insulation, protection from cosmic rays, and maybe even water?
In 1991, as Apollo 12 Commander Pete Conrad reviewed the transcripts of his conversations relayed from the moon back to Earth, the significance of the only known microbial survivor of harsh interplanetary travel struck him as profound:
“I always thought the most significant thing that we ever found on the whole…Moon was that little bacteria who came back and lived and nobody ever said [anything] about it.”
“I always thought the most significant thing that we ever found on the whole…Moon was that little bacteria who came back and lived and nobody ever said [anything] about it.”
An interesting point about War of The Worlds was that it was the microbes that ‘won’ the war.
Voted Labour/Greens today and persuaded my friend to do the same, she was going to vote National….only one vote taken away from them, but it still felt good.
Who in their own sanity would vote for this National Party train wreck?
They are ending up selling everything in their next term if elected.
Also the National party will sign us up to corporte controlled trade deals that will control our Government and our lives from overseas for the next 75 yrs and we will loose our country along with our freedoms and democracy.
You mean Advance Voting is up 80k on the same time last election. Which the Electoral Commission was forecasting and doesn’t give anybody a steer on anything really.
Stuff.co is running a very unscientific poll that shows national ahead.
I gave my click to Labour but it looks like a few more clicks wouldn’t go astray to change this flawed poll.
I suppose everyone has commented on this but on the news about Oz the other day was that they had wiped their controls on every possible bit of media? sounds like, being able to be owned by one entity: Corporation Australia Ink I think. Inky dinky di etc. Wind back to flogging convicts on its way (sstart with NZs for practice).
Jian Yang will review his citizenship declaration! That’s nice.
Having listened to Yang speak in Parliament, in my opinion, he doesn’t seem to have a good grasp of the English language at all. Very hard to understand, even when I’m wearing my hearing aids! So now I’m wondering how was he able to teach the English language in the first place?
The police are still hanging around my ass I no that the police and national are blaming me for making them look like idiots well no they are doing fine fucking up there image with there own actions thanks very much.
Big upps for the number one song of the Worlds biggest count down of 1500 rock songs that is a awesome winning song.
Killing in the name
Rage Against The Machine.
Now my main message Fonterra Theo don’t you think It is time you clean up that mess in Mango. It would be wise if you did this because it would stain your image if I have to clean it up. Ka pai
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
I don’t know Taupō well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, I’m always on the way to somewhere else. Usually Taupō means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the ...
Frances Williams, King’s College LondonFor most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection – this has been dubbed “long COVID”. Scientists are ...
Last night, a British court ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US. Unfortunately, its not because all he is "guilty" of is journalism, or because the offence the US wants to charge him with - espionage - is of an inherently political nature; instead the judge accepted ...
Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or is it a regressive movement which undermines women’s liberation and promotes sexist stereotypes? Should biological males be allowed to play in women’s sport, use women-only spaces (public toilets, changing rooms, other facilities), be able to have access to everything ...
Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of BirminghamSpace exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth. The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of ...
Michael Head, University of SouthamptonThe UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK – following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government ...
So, Boris Johnson has been footering about in hospitals again. We should be grateful, perhaps, that on this occasion the Clown-in-Chief is only (probably) getting in the way and causing distractions, rather than taking up a bed, vital equipment and resources and adding more strain and danger to exhausted staff.Look at ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to ZeroThat’s one of several recent ...
The situation in the UK is looking catastrophic.Cases: over *70,000* people who were tested in England on 29th December tested positive. This is *not* because there were more tests on that day. It *is* 4 days after Christmas though, around when people who caught Covid on Christmas Day might start ...
by Don Franks For five days over New Year weekend, sixteen prisoners in the archaic pre WW1 block of Waikeria Prison defied authorities by setting fires and occupying the building’s roof. They eventually agreed to surrender after intervention from Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. A message from the protesting men had stated: ...
Lost Opportunity: The powerful political metaphor of the Maori Party leading the despised and marginalised from danger to safety, is one Labour could have pre-empted by taking the uprising at Waikeria Prison much more seriously. AS WORD OF Rawiri Waititi’s successful intervention in the Waikeria Prison stand-off spreads, the Maori ...
Dear friends, it’s been a covidious year,A testing time for all of us here—Citizens of an island nationIn a state of managed isolation,A team (someone said) five million strong,Making it up as we went along:Somehow in typical Kiwi fashion,Without any wild excess ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Dec 27, 2020 through Sat, Jan 2, 2021Editor's Choice7 Graphics That Show Why the Arctic Is in Trouble Arctic Sea Ice: NSIDC It’s no secret that the Arctic is ...
One of the books I read in 2020 was She, by H. Rider Haggard (1887). I thoroughly enjoyed it, as being an exemplar of a good old-fashioned adventure story. I also noted with amusement ...
Scottish doctor Malcolm Kendrick looks at the pandemic and the responses to it 30th December 2020 I have not written much about COVID19 recently. What can be said? In my opinion the world has simply gone bonkers. The best description can be found in Dante’s Inferno, written many hundreds of ...
I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or the numbers seem very low please check this out. After correcting send me the URL for your ...
The deed is done, the doers undoneHad I been a Brit, I would have voted ‘Remain’ rather than Brexit (or ‘Leave’). Instead, I have been bemused by the comic theatre of British politics, fascinated by what the Brits actual think and professionally interested by the revelations of the complexity of ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. “The past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Year’s Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. “We are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Year’s Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Government’s investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. “COVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
New virus variants and ongoing high rates of diseases in some countries prompt additional border protections Extra (day zero or day one) test to be in place this week New ways of reducing risk before people embark on travel being investigated, including pre-departure testing for people leaving the United Kingdom ...
Pacific Media Watch correspondent The pro-independence conflict in West Papua with a missionary plane reportedly being shot down at Intan Jaya has stirred contrasting responses from the TNI/POLRI state sources, church leaders and an independence leader. A shooting caused a plane to catch fire on 6 January 2021 in the ...
“Last year ACT warned that rewarding protestors at Ihumātao with taxpayer money would promote further squatting. We just didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it is in Shelly Bay” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “The prosperity of all ...
Our kindly PM registered her return to work as leader of the nation with yet another statement on the Beehive website, the second in two days (following her appointment of Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council on Wednesday). It’s great to know we don’t have to check with ...
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past.Content warning: This article contains racist language and images.On a pub wall in ...
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why? Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that ...
You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide?In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on ...
Summer reissue: Prisoner voting rights are something that few in government seem particularly motivated to do anything about. Could a catchy charity single help draw attention to the issue?First published September 1, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago – some 124 days – since Mā’ohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planet’s lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
The Reserve Bank Governor’s apology and claim he will ‘own the issue’ is laughable given the lack of answers and timing of its release. Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union said: “It’s been five days since they came clean, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Kokshagina, Researcher – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT University Are too many online meetings and notifications getting you down? Online communication tools – from email to virtual chat and video-conferencing – have transformed the way we work. In many respects they’ve made ...
The Reserve Bank acknowledges information about some of its stakeholders may have been breached in a malicious data hack. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has commissioned an independent inquiry into how stakeholders' information was compromised when hackers breached a file sharing service used by the bank. “We ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland This story contains spoilers for Ammonite Palaeontologist Mary Anning is known for discovering a multitude of Jurassic fossils from Lyme Regis on England’s Dorset Coast from the age of ten in 1809. ...
A tribute to the sitcoms of old? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yup. Sam Brooks reviews the audacious WandaVision.Nothing sends a chill up my spine like the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Since launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has become a shambling behemoth, with over 23 films (not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University The alt-right, QAnon, paramilitary and Donald Trump-supporting mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 claimed they were only doing what the so-called “founding fathers” of the US had done in ...
The Point of Order Ministerial Workload Watchdog and our ever-vigilant Trough Monitor were both triggered yesterday by an item of news from the office of Conservation Minister Kititapu Allan. The minister was drawing attention to new opportunities to dip into the Jobs for Nature programme (and her statement was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Kupz, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is ...
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes.While you were partying I studied the bladeI your ever-loving edgelord God-emperorof the bot army & bitcoin mine subsistingon an IV drip of gamer girl bathwaterfinally my lonelinessis your responsibility………. you seeI need a girlfriend assigned to me by the ...
The arming of police officers in Canterbury was inevitable with the growing numbers and brazenness of the gangs across the country – this should be a permanent step, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is unfortunate that we have come to the point ...
Celebrations in Aotearoa New Zealand to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will begin on Thursday 21 January with ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand’s Wellington and online event, and continue on Friday ...
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change.As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer ...
On the East Coast, a group of Māori-owned enterprises is innovating to create new revenue streams while doing what they love.New Zealand’s remote and sparsely populated regions are typically not the best places to create thriving brick-and-mortar businesses. In small communities miles away from any major centres, there are so ...
As we reach the height of summer, it’s not too late to do a safety check on your gas bottle. The Environmental Protection Authority’s Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill. "If you’ve ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...
“We may as well knock on the gang headquarters around this country and tell them we all give up," says Darroch Ball co-leader of Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is simply outrageous that violent offender, James Tuwhangai, has been released from ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Ireland, Israel, and Lebanon. Chart by Keith Rankin. The countries with the most recent large outbreaks of Covid19 are those with large numbers of recent recorded cases, but yet to record the deaths that most likely will result. In this camp, this time, are Ireland, Israel ...
RuPaul is in Aotearoa, kicking back in managed isolation to await the filming of an Australasian version of her hugely popular reality show Drag Race. But not everyone is happy about, explains Eli Matthewson. The world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, is in New Zealand, the government confirmed earlier this week ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong What can we make of Clive Palmer? This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) would not contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. After a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seenmagpies play-fighting with one another, or rolling around in high spirits? Or an apostlebird running at full speed with a stick in its beak, chased by a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Jackson, Program Director, Centre for Policy Development, and Associate Professor of Education, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Childcare centres across Australia are suffering staff shortages, which have been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. Many childcare workers across Australia left when parents started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Rhetoric plays an important role in tax debate and therefore tax policy. If your side manages to gain traction in the public imagination with labels such as “death ...
*This article was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission* Whoever leads the Republican Party post-Trump will need to consider how they will maintain the rabid support of his “base”, while working to regain more moderate voters who defected from the party in the 2020 election. In a historic ...
Covid-19 fears accelerated banks’ moves towards cashless transactions. But the Reserve Bank is fighting to protect cash, and those who still use it. ...
Good morning and welcome to this one-off edition of The Bulletin, covering major stories from the last few weeks.A quick preamble to this: Today’s special edition of The Bulletin is all about filling you in on some of the stories you might have missed over the summer period. Perhaps you had ...
Summer reissue: In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate.First published August 27, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
The debate over cutting down a large macrocarpa to make way for a new residential development has highlighted a wider agreement between developers and protesters: that we also need to be planting far more trees. At the corner of Great North Road and Ash Street in Avondale, a 150-year-old macrocarpa stands its ground ...
The contrast between the words of John F Kennedy and today’s anti-democratic demagogue is inescapable, writes Dolores Janiewski I still remember three eloquent speeches by an American president. One happened in January 1961 and spoke about a “torch being passed to a new generation”. Two years later and one day apart, ...
More infectious variants of Covid-19 are increasingly being intercepted at the country’s borders, but the minister running New Zealand’s response is resisting pressure to accelerate vaccination plans despite demands from health experts as well as political friends and foes, Justin Giovannetti reports.New Zealand’s first Covid-19 jabs will be administered in ...
As CEO of her iwi rūnanga, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was on the frontline protecting her community during the first outbreak of Covid-19. Now that more virulent strains threaten to breach our borders, the Māori Party co-leader calls on the government to introduce much stricter measures.As we enter the New Year I ...
The Prada Cup challenger series starts today. Suzanne McFadden goes behind the scenes of the world's only live yachting regatta to see what's in store for the next five weeks. At 6am on race days, Iain Murray wakes up and immediately checks the weather outside his Auckland window. “It’s all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Raquel Peel, Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland This story contains spoilers for Bridgerton The first season of Bridgerton, Netflix’s new hit show based on Julia Quinn’s novels, premiered on December 25 last year. The show is set in London, during the ...
The New Zealand government believes its own negotiations with Rio Tinto will be resolved "fairly quickly" now there is certainty about the future of the Tiwai Point smelter. ...
Amanda Thompson and her family are attempting to cut back on the meat, so they gave all the vego sausies the local supermarket had to offer a hoon on the barbie. Here are the results.I was a vegetarian once. Even the best of us take a well-meaning wrong turn on ...
The Taxpayers’ Union welcomes the call by Wellington City Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons for a shift to land value based rates charges. Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, "Local government leaders across the country should join in Fitzsimons’s call ...
It’s been described as ‘pointless revenge’, but impeaching the president has a firm moral purpose, argues Michael Blake – setting a limit to what sorts of action a society will accept.A House majority, including 10 Republicans, voted today to impeach President Trump for “incitement of insurrection”. The vote will initiate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bryan Cranston, Lead Academic Teacher – Politics & Social Science (Swinburne Online), Swinburne University of Technology In a historic vote today, Donald Trump became the only US president to be impeached twice. By a margin of 232–197, the Democrat-controlled US House of ...
Hurrah. The PM is back to posting her announcements on the government’s official website, her deputy is back in the business of self-congratulation, Rio Tinto is back in the business of sucking up cheap electricity to produce aluminium at Tiwai Point, near Bluff. And overseas students (some, anyway) can come ...
The electricity sector, Government and people of Southland are rejoicing after Tiwai Point aluminium smelter owner Rio Tinto announced the major industrial would be open until the end of 2024, Marc Daalder reports Stakeholders in the electricity sector and across Southland are celebrating the extension of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter's ...
If you’ve been on social media this week, you may well have come across a surge in interest in sea shanties. We asked a veteran of the style why. In case you missed it, soon may the Wellerman come, to bring us sugar and tea and rum. If that sentence is even ...
“It is basic human decency to speak up and protect any vulnerable child from harm, so withholding information in child abuse cases and allowing the abuse to happen by not speaking up is, put simply, a cowardly move,” says Jess McVicar Co-Leader ...
Allowing 1,000 returning international students back to New Zealand is the right move by the Government, and hopefully we will be able to welcome more, says ExportNZ Executive Director Catherine Beard. "International education has contributed ...
A majority of the House of Representatives have voted to make Donald Trump the first US president ever to be impeached twice, formally charging him in his waning days in power with inciting an insurrection just a week after a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol. Follow the ...
The Youth of NZ will be standing up for climate action once again on January 26th outside of Parliament for School Strike 4 Climate NZ’s 100 Days 4 Action campaign rally. “We believe it is vital to hold our new Labour-led government to account ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Rotorua Lakes District Council to urgently release the engineering report on the public safety and structural integrity of the visible foundation-misalignment and lean of the City’s Hemo Gorge monument to government ...
Changes in income and movement in and out of poverty over time are only weakly associated with higher rates of child hospitalisation in New Zealand, according to a new University of Auckland study. Published today in PLOS ONE, the collaborative study led by Dr ...
With a long, hot summer upon us, pet owners are urged to be extra mindful of their pet’s health and safety. Unusually warm weather can quickly take its toll on furry family members, who aren’t well equipped for dealing with blazing heat. The National ...
The Council for Civil Liberties is challenging a claim by former National Party leader Simon Bridges that people should have total freedom of expression on Twitter. ...
A century of sexual abuse of women in New Zealand is analysed in a University of Auckland study. The newly-published research looks back as far as 1922 by analysing interviews with thousands of women about their lifetime experiences. The study indicates ...
62,686 more native trees will be planted in New Zealand in 2021 thanks to generous Kiwis who chose to go green for Christmas gifting. <img src="https://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/2101/cf409712f141732a8543.jpeg" width="720" height="540"> Trees That Count, a programme ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By Arturo López-LevyOakland, CaliforniaUnfortunately, the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, encouraged by the Inciter-in-Chief, will not be the last act of mischief. Trump is insisting on causing as much damage as possible to the interests and values ...
The threatened Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will keep operating through to the end of December 2024, in a new deal just announced to the New Zealand stock exchange. Mining conglomerate Rio Tinto announced last year it was closing Tiwai due to high energy and transmission costs. Meridian Energy said that ...
The lack of Māori language or symbolism on the SuperGold Card isn’t just a design issue – it’s emblematic of the overwhelming whiteness of Aotearoa’s superannuant population, writes former race relations commissioner Joris de Bres.I’ve enjoyed the SuperGold Card since I retired eight years ago. I appreciate the free public ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Brumm, Professor, Griffith University The dating of an exceptionally old cave painting of animals that was found recently on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is reported in our paper out today. The painting portrays images of the Sulawesi warty pig (Sus ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Garrick, University Fellow in Law, Charles Darwin University Just over a year has gone by since the novel coronavirus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan and the world still has many questions about where and how it originated. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Young, Lecturer, Deakin University Medievalist references littered the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6th. Rudy Giuliani called for a “trial by combat”; the “Q Shaman”, Jacob Chansley (also known as Jake Angeli), was covered in Norse tattoos; rioters brandished ...
A Whakatāne therapist says the Whakaari eruption and Christchurch mosque shooting reveal a health system unable to deal with mass casualty events. Whakaari after its eruption in 2019. Photo: Supplied/Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust This comes amid calls for millions of dollars of promised mental health funding to be urgently re-routed to Canterbury ...
i think to apply for a kiwi build home you must be on the electoral roll and have voted in the 2017 election because why should none voters get on the ballet ahead of those who got off there backsides and voted
Shouldn’t be eligible if you voted National either!
You are clearly a believer in the Tammany Hall system of political corruption. Rather like the Labour Party here I suppose.
They did a lot of good in the first half century. After that they became notoriously corrupt and were finally destroyed.
https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-tammany-hall-1774023
If you voted National then you obviously do not agree with State housing.
Sticking to your principles, you would not accept one.
But, I note, like Ayn Rand, right wingers are quick to accept anything provided by those of us that pay taxes.
If you voted National then you obviously do not agree with State housing.
Sticking to your principles, you would not accept one.
But, I note, like Ayn Rand, right wingers are quick to accept anything provided by those of us that pay taxes. While dodging them, themselves.
I see you have put this in twice.
I is equally as silly the second time as it was the first.
There is no connection between what I have said and what you are rambling on about.
Forgot everything has to be explained to right wingers in words of less than one syllable. Sorry.
‘I is equally silly’… Chuckle chuckle.
Yes, he forgot to leave out the t in it too within that sentence. ☺
And i see that you’ve failed to comprehend it both times.
*Ballot*
How to get young people to enroll? Along with the carrots, a little bit of stick. Prosecute a dozen or so and fine them for not enrolling (it is a legal requirement), pour encourager les autres.
Change the law once in power.
Don’t prosecute those intending to vote lab/gr.
Don’t panic too much. The problem goes both ways.
In my extended family is a person in their late 50s who’s not on the roll. Never has been. Doesn’t stop them posting, and commenting on, enthusiastically, most of National’s more extreme bullshit about Labour on their Facebook page. Irony is that their spouse, also rabid Nat, is an electoral officer.
I just smile….
Agree. We also know rabid politically engaged people who have never voted (democracy is for idiots), but who buy their economic framework by making massive donations to National.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/96834696/national-to-offer-young-farmers-to-buy-landcorp-farms
come on labour pick this up , but make the farms lease only so they provide more than one young farmer a stepping stone,
oh and the greens appear to favour corporate farming Hmmmmm insert grumpy emogi
When I heard that thought it was a bit back to the future.
That’s how Landcorp / Lands and Survey used to operate. Farms were developed on pioneer / marginal land and then leased and sold to young farmers. I think a lot of Western Southland was developed like this.
Leasing only would be the way to go now. In today’s world it would just be very difficult for young farmers, without family support, to move into a Landcorp type farm at market price, due to the price pressure put on the market by overseas buyers.
Do you mean Landcorp buys marginal land and then leases it out? Or do you mean that the existing Landcorp farms get given out on permanent lease?
Having Landcorp involved in supporting young farmers into farming would be great especially where it was sustainable or climate change prep. Lots of potential for overlap with the Greens climate and ag policies.
How would leasing be a stepping stone?
“oh and the greens appear to favour corporate farming”
What does that mean?
oops i miss read it they favour the land staying in landcorp ownership , which i’m good with but it still could be leased out with rules around looking after the land .
they would be a stepping stone as a young farmer could leese till they own all the stock then move into ownership
Cheers, I didn’t realise the stock ownership would make the difference, that’s a good idea.
I put up a news post the other day but might do another one about the potential for Landcorp to do good without selling land,
You do understand that there’s nowhere for the young farmers to step to don’t you? All the farming land has been used up and is owned by old farmers and city ‘farmers’.
That’s why National has decided to sell all the Landcore land – and it won’t be going to young farmers but those old and city ‘farmers’. The ones that can afford to buy it.
It will be like fishing quota.
In a few short years will be in the hands of corporates and the wealthy sqatters next door. “Tenure review” all over again.
Leasehold to beginning youngsters only would genuinely help young farmers who cannot afford the next step.
Draco you are so right here,
Every time national comes out with a new policy it has two sides (truth & lies) to it dressed up as a “progressive policy” for a group of ‘intersted parties’ and this time it is young farmers eh!!!
Not in your nellie’
it will be featered off to their mates in large packages not for the 10 acre farming block you can bet.
My dear departed mum was very wise when she told me “If it sounds to good to be true then it is a lie”.
National are good at lies, and this is another one.
Draco you are so right here, (meant 100 acre mininum farm not 10 acres, that’s only what I’ve got. ( toy farm.)
Every time national comes out with a new policy it has two sides to it dressed up as a “progressive policy” for a group of ‘intersted parties’ and this time it is young farmers eh!!!
Not in your nellie’
it will be featered off to their mates in large packages not for the 100 acre farming block you can bet.
My dear departed mum was very wise when she told me “If it sounds to good to be true then it is a lie”.
National are good at lies, and this is another one.
That is incorrect, there is a well established system for young dairy farmers to get into a farm, the sharemilking system has been working for over 50 years.
Starting off as contract Miller’s and finishing up owning the herd and getting 50% of the milk receipts, huilding up to a 1000 cows on a single large farm or multiple farms, selling off a large portion of their herd gives a deposite on first farm purchase.
Other than the few that may take over the family farm (but still have to buy out their sibblings) nearly every dairy farming family has used this route to farm ownership. The system operates as strongly today as it every has. You may be aware of the term gypsie day which is used to describe the mass movement of sharemilkers moving between farms on 1st June each year as they move up to bigger farms or into their first own farm
And this well established process creates land how?
Or, to put it other words: ZOMG, I didn’t know we had God working for us.
Everything else you say can be safety ignore until you prove we actually do have God on our payroll.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15092017/#comment-1384925on Not ready yet
Plenty of sharemilkers say they haven’t a chance of getting their own place.
They can’t catch up with prices. A quiet word to sharemilkers today on gypsy day may not get them talking about their reality. But away from the group I think the facts would be that for each one that is managing on his own behalf, there are five who have had to borrow excessively, or step back for another couple of years and some have given up because the present day system has killed off that 50 year opportunity.
And I haven’t forgotten the sharemilker struggling to keep up with his plan who found that the farmer he worked with just kept overstocking with his own beasts. The sharemilkers plan was to work the place up and introduce his own cows but every time there was the opportunity to do that the owner took the opportunity to boost his own herd. His wife said he got into the pattern of pushing himself and collapsed from overwork.
I can;t give you any sources for what I have said. I try to keep up with what is happening in the rural sector. I think I would know more about it than the rural sector knows about the non-primary sector.
there are still smaller farms in reach and as with all things 1 action won’t solve everything but it will help
There’s also a lot of “amalgamations” that could end up in the hands of liquidators once their capital is exhausted. I have a feeling it’s these syndicated operations that are leading the fight against resource charging. there’s probably not that many of them, but they were pushing the boundaries of viability from the start and 30 – 50K per annum for water is the least of their problems.
This is quite interesting to and points to the above
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/election-2017/339524/water-tax-negligible-for-most-dairy-farms-industry-figures
hmm kind of proves my feeling that the water tax is just wedge politics , i may still vote labour but i will have to hold my nose to do i.
imagine if landcorp had of secured the crafer farms and put young kiwis on as a 10 year leasee ,
A flat-out straight-up lie from McCully and the government. And 2 years of trying to keep it out of the news.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/339438/saudi-sheep-deal-no-mfat-legal-advice-on-lawsuit-risk
Not as prominent as others within national it seems. Yet another dodgy deal the sheeple need reminding about.
it is not so much the deal (appealing as it was0…it is the barefaced lies, and cover up including support from supposedly non political public servants and public oversight that National have maintained ….a party of moral and ethical bankrupts who have to go before they corrupt our systems beyond repair.
sad thing is for good ole NZ is the electorate doesn’t seem to mind their lies based on the last fews GE’s.
I think that’s because having your leaders lie somehow legitimises your own lying. I’ve noticed a huge increase in lying behaviour among rural and construction people in the last 10 years. It’s now almost accepted. The same people are beside themselves at the prospect of a change in government.
lol..crap , just realised it reads ‘appealing’…..edit to ‘appalling’
For some reason Labour has chosen not to point out the enormous black hole in our Governments accounts and book keeping ….. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-11/corporate-tax-minimisation-costs-governments-1-trillion/7587092
New Zealand is poorly informed about the scam being inflicted upon us ….If Labour will not speak up about the elephant in the room then the the Greens should highlight this tax injustice,….. it would probably help if they cooperate and network with their Aussie compatriots, who have done good work in this area ……. https://greens.org.au/tax-avoidance
Nationals tax policy is apprently for the ‘creative’ …..
John Key: …. “, if they want to be creative and work hard, to significantly reduce their tax liability but in a lawful way.” ….
“, Mr Rozvany said just because something is legal does not mean it is ethical.
“It’s an interesting thing, ‘within the law’,” Mr Rozvany said.
“Many things were once legal. Rape and paedophilia were once legal.
“If you set up a sham transaction in a tax haven with a view to shifting profits from a high tax jurisdiction to a low tax jurisdiction that should be considered unacceptable to the international community.” ……
The amounts of money looted by ‘creative’ accountants’ are huge … sly politicians make it all loophole legal … “In the three years to 2015, Shell had racked up around $60 billion in revenue (when it owned the petrol stations and the upstream business) and appeared to pay zero tax.” …. https://www.michaelwest.com.au/shell-tax-ripped-out-as-in-house-deals-double/
Creative accounting ??? ….. “Ebay Australia and New Zealand does it all: Tax Avoidance 101 – don’t recognise revenue with customers in Australia, and then, Tax Avoidance 102 – minimise the profits on any revenues you do happen to recognise.” …. https://www.michaelwest.com.au/ebay-scores-own-goal-on-tax/
More Local examples of Hard and creative work as defined by John key and the Nacts …., “Five big banks face about $2.4 billion of disputed tax assessments for 22 structured finance transactions.” http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/2946334/Westpac-expected-to-appeal-961m-tax-ruling ……
Or
The overseas company CKI, who brought Wellingtons electricity lines network/infrastructure …. and has run at a fictitious loss ( with a underinvestment in maintenance ) ever since …. “Of course, those losses are not real and CKI did not pay $785m for a duffer………Wellington Network is in fact highly profitable, with an earnings margin consistently around 30 per cent before interest and tax.”…..
“Wellington Network is owned by an entity in the Bahamas, where, like BVI, the tax system is a warm bath for companies to float in the dark and listen to the sound of money – no company tax, no withholding tax, no capital gains tax, nothing.” http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/10400785/We-need-to-talk-about-that-red-carpet-rollout
And then we have ‘legal shell companies and ‘Trusts’……“Working hard at” buying up our land and homes ….
”owner of the former Crafar and Synlait farms in Waikato and Canterbury. Milk New Zealand Holding is wholly owned not by Shanghai Pengxin, but by Milk New Zealand Investment, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The ownership was disclosed to the Companies Office on August 13……….Chalkie reckons owning New Zealand farms through a Caribbean tax haven may have tax advantages “-
Fixing our broken tax system and stopping corrupt money flows will benefit all taxpayers who are not using tax havens…. http://ctj.org/pdf/offshoreshellgames2016.pdf
Its a pretty simple message …….
Do you use a tax haven ?, …..If the answer is no …… then you will be better off under a fair tax system …….
Stopping the legal cheating of loop-holes would not qualify as a new tax either …. would it ???
If that doesn’t make you angry there is something wrong with you.
+100 great comment and links.
If you gut the public service and slash regulation, that’s what you get from right wing governments. Looting the common wealth, privatising profits, and evading tax. Jail the white collar crooks.
Thanks Muttonbird & ropata ….. National are audacious liars to be attacking anyone over tax …..
The Greens should announce they will push for George Rozvany to be part of the tax review ….. They need to quickly raise awareness and illuminate the simple truth.
Being that We do not need new or more taxes ….. just collection of what is due from the richest company s and people in the world.
The greens are the natural party to make some noise about this injustice … the rest seem compromised …..
Not too hard to fix though as it’s closing loopholes, making retrospective changes which comes from 2 main drivers IMO.
1. The right people plugging the laws i.e. hire the architects of these schemes to take them down. They’re hired guns who will happily swap sides if the price is right.
2. Government with a will to tax the top end effectively and not be swayed by the expected PR howls of ‘the sky is falling’.
Lets not forget the banks in particular are dwindling employers with offshore profits, ownership and technology racing toward a fully self service model.
Agreed…. tc & Eco maori
Harmful regulations created our tax segregation and revenue black hole…. Good regulations can fix it.
But it needs to be co-ordination with others i … and globally the Greens are the best political movement …… genuinely working against injustice and exploitation ……
Almost like a vast right wing conspiracy …..there has been a uniformity in the building of networks which has allowed enormous corrupt money flows …… with corresponding harms of homelessness and exploitation of ordinary citizens everywhere …
Its more than just corporate tax evasion …. they have also helped money laundering.
New Zealand …. “a contentious exemption of professional services firms – mostly lawyers, accountants and real estate agents – from being covered by anti-money laundering laws passed in 2009.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11706741
Austrailia …“Australia’s anti-money laundering law does not cover real estate agents, lawyers and accountants, despite promises when the law was enacted in 2006 that the legislation would be widened.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-13/should-australias-anti-money-laundering-laws-be-extended/8703354
Canada ……. “An agency report suggested there is a close relationship between money laundering in real estate and the services provided by lawyers, such as placing wire transfers in legal trusts and creating investment vehicles that can shield true ownership of property.” http://vancouversun.com/storyline/ottawa-will-attempt-to-close-money-laundering-loophole
U.s.a Funny money’
In Miami, secretive buyers often purchase expensive homes using opaque legal entities such as offshore companies, trusts and limited liability corporations.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article69248462.html#storylink=cpy
Britain …”Foreign investors are using illicit wealth to buy up property in luxury developments across London, out-pricing locals, according to a new anti-corruption report.”… “”This has resulted in an oversupply of prime property whilst Londoners are in desperate need of affordable homes,” https://www.dezeen.com/2017/04/25/overseas-investors-london-housing-market-crisis-faulty-towers-report-property-transparency-international-uk/
Its time to reverse the race to the bottom National have us on ……it’s a harmful world wide failure.
You hit the nail on the head reason.
That was the main objective of money puppet john key to create heaps of tax loopholes for his M8 that is the only way to explain wh ffat has happened to our tax systems.
One can donate any amount into a trust and avoid many taxes and there are lots more loopholes to what a sham. !!!!!!!😬
It’s is ridiculous that a person under the bridge will pay more tax than a multi million dollar company and don’t mention gst because the buyer pays that tax the seller is just the collector of gst.
It just shows how unfair OUR society is and this needs to change.
And if the answer is ‘yes’ then you should now subject to the Proceeds of Crime Act and lose everything. After all, using a tax haven should be a crime.
I agree there defiantly needs to be some consequences for the creative types who work hard building the getaway ‘vehicles ‘ …. that make off with billions … and those who use them of course.
Its all reward and no risk at the moment …
Accountants and bankers make normal criminals or welfare fraud look like small chump change amateurs …..
“At least $US1 trillion in tax revenue is lost worldwide, and $50 billion in Australia, as a result of aggressive tax minimisation schemes established by the four giant firms who audit the books of nearly all the world’s major companies, said George Rozvany, a 32-year veteran of the corporate tax industry.”
“And I’m a conservative man, I think the figure is actually much higher,” he told the ABC.”
It is far from a victim-less crime…… “The people who are most affected are the most underprivileged in our society, those without a voice. The homeless, foreign aid programs.”
found this
https://battletothebeehive.co.nz/
a good thing?
bad thing?
Where was the father. The rest of us fathers support our children so not sure why he should skip his duties
[You don’t get to interrogate people on their family situations. You want to attempt “doing a Metiria” on this poster and you’ll cop a permanent ban ] – Bill
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Was he managing the Reserve Bank of America, and deregulating banking, perhaps.
Or maybe he was the one who cancelled the training incentive allowance.
No, I get it, he must’ve been the one who defunded mental health services.
Or perhaps he’s the one who fostered the poisonous misogynist idea that women should be reliant on men in the first place. No, wait, that was you.
That’s your policy? Blame someone, case closed.
Should the National Party be allowed to breed?
No.
Their children grow up to use much more common resources than ours.
And try and take even more off the rest of us.
“The rich are so envious of the poor, they take what little the poor have left”.
Although your comment was removed I would like to answer to help you understand.
The father got in trouble with the law and ended up in jail, after getting out he unfortunately got addicted to meth and is only recently clean and starting to rebuild his relationship with his son.
A relationship I feel is important and that I try to foster despite putting up with years of abuse from him while in his drug addled state.
Bill’s got that guy’s number. The only answer that would satisfy Notreadyet is “Yes, your implied accusation is absolutely correct, it’s my fault I’m living in poverty, I brought it on myself, I deserve it and the government bears no obligation towards me as a citizen to help me out of it.” Much better to leave people like that with an answer that satisfies you rather than them, something like “Fuck you,” perhaps.
Thankyou for filling in a gap in the story. Agree we definetly need safety nets to cover your situation. 5-10 years ago the country had to borrow billions so that the we could continue to give support to those like yourself that needed it. The squeeze you experienced came on because at the time it was all borrowed and precious/scarce $. A lot of people conveniently overlook or fail to remember the situation the whole world was in after 08 and we have generally(obviously not in your case) been better off than most
How magnanimous of you to give Michelle your approval.
What kindly wank you are.
The amount by which “we” have been better off could easily have been directed to those who needed it most: the reason it wasn’t was a sadistic bad choice you made.
Greedy right wing idiots took bribes and let greedy right wing thieves destroy the global economy.
What’s your excuse?
Disgusting that your brain is stuck in the late 19th century, with your vile self-serving “deserving poor” rhetoric.
What’s your excuse for your disgusting behaviour? Your amygdala got too large?
There’s only one gap in the story that ever needed filling – the gap between what the benefit grants and what is needed to live in dignity.
No we didn’t. The government doesn’t have to borrow – ever. And, in fact, it shouldn’t.
And that would be a load of BS as well. I seem to recall that National gave lots of tax cuts to the rich while increasing taxes upon the poor resulting in a lower tax take.
Actually, we’re worse off because of all the same things that crashed the global economy – we just haven’t realised it yet. That’s the problem that happens when the incumbent government props up a housing bubble pushing a massive increase in private debt as their only economic idea of prosperity.
“The country had to borrow billions”. To give tax cuts to those who didn’t need them! So National could bribe their way into power.
Fixed it for you.
We have to borrow billions to pay landlords. How about you spend your time fixing that rather than attempted to stuff a child back into the womb.
“…5-10 years ago the country had to borrow billions so that the we could continue to give support to those like yourself that needed it…..”
Oh my gawd! you are a special kind of stupid, aren’t you?
For your little brain, let me try to educate you….Billions were borrowed to BAIL OUT BANKS AND FINANCIAL ORGANIZATIONS, who CAUSED THE FINANCIAL CRASH.
THEY WERE BAILED OUT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE POOR, those who could LEAST afford to cu costs…JUST SO THE FILTHY, GREEDY *U*TS COULD KEEP THEIR BANK ACCOUNTS FAT!
Thank you for telling us your story Michelle.
People like you are an inspiration, and your child can grow up, justly proud, of their mother.
Kia kaha Michelle, we did not have these problems in earlier times. Good wishes to you all. Remember to get yourself a little treat now and then xx
Perhaps this was run out of Chris Bishop’s office?
I note he hasn’t condemned the tweets nor denied involvement.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/09/hutt-valley-chamber-of-commerce-gets-facts-wrong-in-twitter-attack-on-jacinda-ardern.html
Grant hart, of husker du has died.
He was 56 and had liver cancer.
Amazing to me that the Media has made very little fuss about the Labour “U-turn” over taxes. That is a relief!
Splashed across the front page of the DomPost today so not quite.
OK Grey but Stuff online have “Editorial: Labour’s tax clarity is welcome” so not condemning anyway.
If only IMO Labour had continued with the 2014 line, that any tax changes will not be implemented until after the next election. Then many who want a change of govt. but feel their personal wealth could be threatened by uncertainty (Nats scare tactics) could see that most of the scare mongering was unfounded, and that we have had 3 years that the Lab govt had build up trust in the voter. Then the Nats could have been thrown in disarray as they implode. And that Lab would have kept their integrity, instead of being seen by some as moving to with the mood of the polls.
No Herodotus – your ethical approach would not have worked – you seem to forget that National is a party of liars without memories. How much of a fuss was there when the GST was raised after Key’s assurance that it wouldn’t happen? A solution: Labour need to make sure the Greens get into Government with them then implement a ‘Captain’s call’ using the National line as a precedent – “we had to accommodate the policies of our support party in the coalition”. ACT were credited with Charter Schools on that basis, even though National clearly intended going down that track as they had employed the infamous Lesley Longstone on her UK implementation experience before the election.
Identity theft shows that “National Party criminal” is a tautology.
nice
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/massive-crowd-greets-ardern-otago-uni
we WILL change this government and kick the gnats out and we will ALL be better off on that day.
and she had a huge reception on the Coast as well Marty, so I ear, I would love our electorate to swing the party vote back to Labour.
And Marty, do you get “The Leader” over your way?
If so check out the back pages for Maureens ad, at the bottom of it is the national “N” with a ticked circled placed next to it, looks like the word “NO” she’s had that ad running for 5 weeks now, cracks me up everytime I see it.
yeah we do – I’ll have a look and a laugh
Thank you Marty Mars. Great post. The labradoodle? knows a great human!!
OMG. Even the woolly wee dog was smitten. 🙂
Just had a coffee at Muffin Break in the Central ChCh Bus Station, and, of course, popped my bean in one of the columns.
Green column had slightly more beans than the Red column, with the Blue column third.
All looking good!
What’s the story with the Eminem case seems to have vanished?
this piece from a writer who everytime he puts finger to keyboard in recent years has raised my blood pressure or had me shaking my head in disbelief at his wilful blindness …a proud supporter (and to me , one eyed) of our current administration appears to had an epithany while out mixing with ‘the common folk’ ….and he senses the winds of change….better late than never is all I will add
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/96824698/martin-van-beynen-a-changing-of-the-guard-is-on-the-way
Amazing for a dreadful Nat man Pat. He must be getting out and about and out of his protective shell. Good eh!
might have been the trip up north…Christchurch has been somewhat internally focused in recent times
(In less than 2 days – this video has had over 45,000 views…)
NZ WHISTLE-BLOWER ALERT!
The TRUTH about the Tamaki ‘Regeneration’ – GENTRIFICATION $CAM!
“Penny Bright has been shining a light into the murky recesses of public/private partnerships in the Tamaki Regeneration scheme and revealed some disturbing details…”
When are mainstream media going to ‘pick up the ball’ on this apparently CENSORED story?
In FIVE years of this Tamaki ‘Regeneration’ project – there are more houses that have come down than gone up.
237 Tamaki State houses removed.
213 New houses built.
92 ‘social’ houses.
39 ‘affordable’ private sale houses for first home buyers.
82 private sale houses (high-end).
In an OIA reply from Tamaki Regeneration Ltd, dated 21 August 2017, information about the exact prices paid by private property developers for each and every former Housing NZ property was refused because of ‘commercial confidentiality’.
How disgraceful is that?
This is / was PUBLIC property!
Is the apparent ‘CENSORSHIP’ of this story, by mainstream media, because the paper trail goes straight to Bill English, Nick Smith and Steven Joyce?
Past and present Crown Shareholding Ministers in Tamaki Regeneration Ltd, to which 2,867 former Housing NZ properties were transferred on 31 March 2016?
Which, IMO, makes this Tamaki SCAM story – political dynamite?
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for Tamaki.
We are now in deep shit as CO2 levels have now stubbornly stayed above the critical 400ppm level now for over the last four years.
Increased CO2 levels now are scientifically confirmed as reducing our plant growth and their nutrient uptake levels causing our loss of minerals/vitamins avalable to us all during consumption. – Here are the facts;
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/effects-of-rising-atmospheric-concentrations-of-carbon-13254108
“protein concentrations in grains of wheat, rice and barley, and in potato tubers, are decreased by 5–14% under elevated CO2 (Taub et al. 2008). Crop concentrations of nutritionally important minerals including calcium, magnesium and phosphorus may also be decreased under elevated CO2 (Loladze 2002; Taub & Wang 2008).”
https://www.co2.earth/
Earth’s CO2 Home Page
Atmospheric CO2
2014 July 401.61ppm.
2015 july 404.50ppm.
2016 July 407.25ppm.
2017 Aug’405.07ppm.
August 2017
405.07
parts per million (ppm)
Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (NOAA-ESRL)
Preliminary data released September 11, 2017
We know that atmospheric CO2 has ranged between 172 and 300 part per million (ppm) for the past 1 million years. The earth cycled through cold glacial and warm inter-glacial periods without atmospheric CO2 exceeding 300 ppm.
The first time in human history that atmospheric CO2 exceeded 300 ppm was about the time the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912.
Now, the crossover to concentrations that stay above 400 ppm CO2 is nearly complete.
https://www.co2.earth/co2-past-present-future-article
The other day on RNZ Phil Twyford told Susie Ferguson that under Labour rents would stabilise or go down, yet he wouldn’t guarantee it.
Do you think Phil will have to eat his words?
It was a bold and risky claim for Phil to make.
And while he didn’t guarantee it, if he’s wrong, not only will his credibility be damaged for asserting it, it will also damage the credibility of the Labour Party as it’s their policies and he is their housing spokesperson.
There’s been speculation that a number of landlords would sell up, thus freeing up more homes for sale and in turn reducing rental demand.
However, as landlords sell off their rentals and tenants move into home ownership, that will reduce the supply of rentals, thus merely offsetting the corresponding drop in rental demand. Hence, there would be no net difference in rental supply and demand from this shift.
Moreover, another aspect being overlooked is the growing trend of taking property off the rental market and setting them up as serviced apartments or Air BnB. Cashing in on our high tourist numbers and the shortage of hotel rooms whilst reaping a far higher nightly yield. Therefore, coming down too hard on landlords may result in further encouraging this shift. Resulting in reducing rental supply.
As for Phil’s claim that Labour will increase the housing supply, he’s overlooking it will take years for Labour’s Kiwibuild to meet current demand let alone get on top of it. Thus, in the meantime, Labour’s policies coupled with the overheated rental market will provide the scope landlords require to further increase rents.
The Chairman
I am looking for how many National Ministers statements that you have held to such a high standard as this.
Can you advise me please?
I just want examples of the National Ministers mistakes by example as this, (like mcCully for example) just to log into our data base please.
Surely you’re not implying one has to critique National to be allowed to critique Labour?
Being from the left I don’t expect National to represent my left leaning views, hence I seldom waste my time pointing out their many flaws. I waste enough of my time dealing with the right within the left.
Easy sleazy out: You are not from the left – you fake that rubbish.
not a bad summation…couple of points…you have answered your own question re why he didnt guarantee it and as to eating his own words you will note as an experienced politician he never gave a timeframe so in effect it is neither bold nor risky and there will be no words consumed….however i suspect in their heart of hearts Labour expect the market to fall (not crash) due to a number of their announced policies and this is occurring on top of a faltering market already, so it is entirely possible there will be a rent reduction in the near term even if some investors quit the market , remembering that an investment property sold doesn’t disappear and still has function within the market.
In her attempt to secure a guarantee, Susie did set a time-frame when challenging him. And although he managed to talk his way out of committing to a guarantee (reasserting his reasoning and claim) he didn’t question the time-frame. Nor did he use it as an excuse for not committing when he had the opportunity too. Thus, the opportunity to lower first term voter expectation.
Therefore, he (through his continued assertion) has somewhat painted himself and the Party into a bit of a corner.
While Labour plan to introduce most of their housing policies rather smartly, their impact on house prices (if any at all) will take some time to eventuate, thus it will be market fundamentals and perhaps further Reserve Bank interventions that are more likely to cause a correction/fall.
And a fall in house prices doesn’t necessarily mean their will be a quick and widespread fall in rents. Some simply won’t sell in a depressed market and may decide to increase rents instead. Especially if rental demand remains strong.
beg to differ…the mere prospect or notice of their policies will impact the market …investors will not wait around and so the impact will precede the act….same with the building programme…as to how fast and widespread the impact is, well thats an unknown but the direction is not…and it aint upwards
As a number of their policies largely fall short, the impact you’re expecting may differ from the reality.
Take their so-called ban on offshore investors. The impact may initially result in a flurry (adding upward pressure) with offshore investors getting in before they are shutout.
Therefore, while they may act quickly, it’s not the in the manner you seem to be foreseeing.
Moreover, the ban doesn’t prevent offshore investors from buying new builds. Thus, prevent offshore demand driving upward pressure on land prices, building materials, etc… adding to the overall cost of a new home. Which, in turn, tends to pump up the price of older homes.
again i differ….the tenor and direction is increased restrictions and costs plus a reduction in demand (via migration )and the timing has been stated to be urgent(indeed the tendency may be to quit the market with the knowledge of the existing costs as opposed to the unknown, after all we are only one of many)….any last minute attempt to enter the market will be short lived…..all compounded by nervous banks reluctant to lend at current levels.
A reduction in immigration is not a total halt. And when you have a market that is already struggling to cope with current housing demand, any additional immigration is upward pressure.
Cost are generally passed on. Again, adding upward price pressure on rents. And restrictions (such as ring fencing losses) won’t impact all investors. And those impacted may restructure their affairs and increase rents to offset it.
A number of offshore investors don’t require the backing of our banks to purchase. And banks themselves are walking a fine line.
‘A number of offshore investors don’t require the backing of our banks to purchase. And banks themselves are walking a fine line.’
no they don’t, however those purchasing from them are likely to…part of the reason the banks are self imposing restrictions (over and above RBNZ requirements) is because existing rents are already unsustainable in the local market…as investors are aware any rent rise will simply increase defaults …on portfolios banks are already winding back.Costs cannot be passed on ad infinitum.
I see your red door, I want it painted black, no colors any more, I want them to turn black…
Best response, Marty!
A major builder has just announced his intentions to exit the residential building industry… So an already under strained industry is about to lose some of its capacity. And this after ONLY 7,200 homes last year were built in Auckland.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1709/S00468/horncastle-downsizes-as-retirement-looms.htm
Horncastle Homes is taking a new business direction and exiting the volume home building business in both Auckland and Christchurch.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1709/S00468/horncastle-downsizes-as-retirement-looms.htm
https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/horncastle-shuts-down-owner-eyes-retirement-vy-207731
If you need a laugh, still political, but a laugh. 14.17 length
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzNOy7v_4wA&ab_channel=SomeDecentVideos
So it wasn’t the IRD, it wasn’t the MSD.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11922751
Paula, Anne, Wayne …. we’re looking at ya!
So, if it wasn’t the staff at MSD or IRD then it must have been the minster.
Simple process of deduction really. Holmes would have been horrified that we didn’t get it.
Stuff poll has Natz way ahead!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96897026/were-curious-who-are-you-going-to-vote-for
#letsdothis
Bogus as, can vote multiple times by opening up a new window on your browser, also depends on who reads Stuff #nzpol
Opening it up in a new window on my browser didn’t allow me to vote twice.
Not that I wanted too. Merely testing your assertion.
It’s Stuff – no surprises there, if you’ve looked a the usual tone of the comments that appear on that site.
goodbye friend – you have shown us so much, I’m going to miss you, your photos, your insights, safe travels to the end
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grand-finale/overview/
For sure, it seems unfair after all Cassini has done. Couldn’t they have let it hurtle off into space to keep doing what it does?
No, not enough fuel.
To escape Saturn’s gravity well you mean?
Yep. It was going to crash eventually. Better to have that in a time and place where we could watch.
Integration with the planet is such a human action, I wonder what Cassini would want, to fly free forever would surely be high on the list.
And here’s me thinking that the best thing we could do is dump a thousand kilos or so of bacteria across Titan and see WTF happens.
I dunno that seems pretty irresponsible sorta like interplanetary littering.
worst case most likely outcome would be that it competes with or otherwise extinguishes life forms that we could have learned from.
Like bacterial cane toads or rats.
Worst least likely outcome is that the bacteria is viewed as a declaration of war by an advanced society we hadn’t detected because they were all subspace fields and teleporting, and the species goes all Independence Day on us.
I’m reasonably certain that if there was life there we would have recognised it when Cassini first flew by. The lander would definitely have shown it up.
Ever looked at an octopus? Well times that by a million – you’d recognise it when it wanted you to.
Nope, NFI WTF you’re implying. An octopus is easily recognisable as living.
I’ll make it easy for you. An octopus is weird especially when compared to humans now imagine that weirdness multiplied by a million. A million, not 100 , not 1000, not 10000, and so on. Do you actually think your brain could conceive let alone recognise alien life. I know you do and I blame fucken star trek and their hunamoid aliens.
Yes, it can.
Or, to put in other words: Do you believe pakeha are human?
It’s really easy to recognise life:
1. They’re born
2. They move
3. They breed
4. They die.
All that’s been detected upon Titan id the possible precursor to life. IMO, there isn’t enough energy to go beyond that else it would already exist.
I’d say Fuck the humanoid aliens except that logic tells us that humanoid lifeforms are most likely what you’re going to get from an evolutionary process for an intelligent species.
Is the planet earth an intelligent being?
Still to be decided. The actions of the organisms, except humanity, do seem to act as a single organism though.
If it is an intelligent being, and uses climate and interactions between organisms to form thoughts like we have neurons, then what thoughts would it have? And is humanity a planetary alzheimers?
Humanity would be a disease that it needs to be rid of and is in the process of doing so by making the climate uninhabitable for it.
Yeah, running back to a doom slogan kind of underlines the fact that you suggested on of humanity’s last acts should be barely a step removed from dumping cowshit in the streams of Titan just to see how bad the contamination will be.
the other point being is that your 5-point criteria that make it “really easy” to recognise life doen’t rule out Earth, which meets none of those points.
Mate your human centric view of the universe is quaint and illogical based on size alone – you cant even conceive how big it is or what is in it, yet your ego can write checks you cant cash and can’t even consider cashing – silly hu man.
And your plan is to leave a smear on a moon to see what happens – ffs come on.
>95% of all life on Earth is now extinct.
I don’t have Human Centric view. My view is reality as it is and not how people would like it to be.
Sure ‘mr my view is reality’ – the funny thing is you are so silly and arrogant you can’t see the idiocy of your arrogance. I feel sorry for you.
really? Which instrument would have detected it?
We’re not even sure there’s no life on Mars yet.
And maybe complex life lives underground.
It’s doubtful there are Klingons living there, but nothing is certain from a pinprick of a single probe.
Well, so far indications are that it still only hosts the possibility of life.
If there ever was life on Mars, it’s been irradiated by now.
Some fungi eat radiation. Sure, it isn’t solar radiation, but subsurface extremophiles are definitely possible.
I’m going to have to point out that I’m not really concerned about fungi – they’ll adapt fast enough.
Unless they end up like the dodo because our earth bacteria ate them all when we followed your plan.
And then we maybe never gain some revolutionary knowledge or medicine. Because we dumped a tonne of bacteria on a planet or moon we knew nothing about.
And that’s just the we’d be better off doing real science rather than assuming the universe is ours to shit all over argument, it’s not even the what if an entire ecosystem, of simple organisms maybe so, but an entire ecosystem grew and evolved over billions of years, creating an environment unique in the universe, right up until we came along – what does that say about us question.
Life’s a bitch and the you die.
Extreme possibilities aren’t what makes life work.
hey, did you know that Mars had spent the last few billion years losing its magnetosphere and its atmosphere (in that order) and that the chances for life to survive that is between slim and none?
BTW, I suspect that the first Mars landing failed to have such restrictions in place. I doubt if the Soviets, or the USians immediately after them, had such concerns as you seem to have. Same as the first Europeans who visited NZ had such concerns.
I think you’ll find that even in the 1960s interplanetary probes were developed and constructed in clean rooms. Chances of taking extremophile bacteria to mars are therefore minimal. If only because bacteria would fuck up their chromatograph readings.
Hey, did you know that getting a few metres under Mars surface would provide thermal insulation, protection from cosmic rays, and maybe even water?
So?
Was that because they were concerned with pollution upon another world or because it was necessary for the electronics to continue to work?
I think you’ll find it as the latter.
[citation needed]
And what difference does that make to life there?
In 1991, as Apollo 12 Commander Pete Conrad reviewed the transcripts of his conversations relayed from the moon back to Earth, the significance of the only known microbial survivor of harsh interplanetary travel struck him as profound:
“I always thought the most significant thing that we ever found on the whole…Moon was that little bacteria who came back and lived and nobody ever said [anything] about it.”
https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/1998/ast01sep98_1
An interesting point about War of The Worlds was that it was the microbes that ‘won’ the war.
Limited contamination might have occurred, but NASA was looking at sterilization in 1963.
Martian life might exist in some form. Your confidence exceeds the available data.
As for War of the Worlds, that’s another reason to avoid just dropping a tonne of bacteria on every rock we manage to reach.
There’s reasonably strong support for extraterrestrial origins of life on earth – nothing cinematic – just protists in cometary ice.
Voted Labour/Greens today and persuaded my friend to do the same, she was going to vote National….only one vote taken away from them, but it still felt good.
Well done Nick,
Who in their own sanity would vote for this National Party train wreck?
They are ending up selling everything in their next term if elected.
Also the National party will sign us up to corporte controlled trade deals that will control our Government and our lives from overseas for the next 75 yrs and we will loose our country along with our freedoms and democracy.
Psychopaths and sociopaths do, as a matter of fact, think that they’re sane.
Nick, if she had voted National then she shouldn’t be your friend.
Great work!!
Voter turnout is 80,000 up according to RNZ news.
Bodes well.
OMG Ad !!! Don’t go there girlfriend …. It’s far too soon !
Let it go honey-child
Could be the ‘can’t wait til this shocker of an election is over so I’m getting it out of the way’ vote.
You mean Advance Voting is up 80k on the same time last election. Which the Electoral Commission was forecasting and doesn’t give anybody a steer on anything really.
Elections.org.nz advance voting stats.
Updated at 2pm weekdays and Saturdays.
Stuff.co is running a very unscientific poll that shows national ahead.
I gave my click to Labour but it looks like a few more clicks wouldn’t go astray to change this flawed poll.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96897026/were-curious-who-are-you-going-to-vote-for
I gave mine to ACT 😀
But, I guess if Stuff are going to take it as an indicator maybe I should give another to Labour… and another to Greens.
I just voted 3 times on the Stuff poll. Once each on Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. I think they counted.
They chose the worst picture that they could find for Ardern.
Great work!!
I suppose everyone has commented on this but on the news about Oz the other day was that they had wiped their controls on every possible bit of media? sounds like, being able to be owned by one entity: Corporation Australia Ink I think. Inky dinky di etc. Wind back to flogging convicts on its way (sstart with NZs for practice).
Jian Yang will review his citizenship declaration! That’s nice.
Having listened to Yang speak in Parliament, in my opinion, he doesn’t seem to have a good grasp of the English language at all. Very hard to understand, even when I’m wearing my hearing aids! So now I’m wondering how was he able to teach the English language in the first place?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11922788
The police are still hanging around my ass I no that the police and national are blaming me for making them look like idiots well no they are doing fine fucking up there image with there own actions thanks very much.
Big upps for the number one song of the Worlds biggest count down of 1500 rock songs that is a awesome winning song.
Killing in the name
Rage Against The Machine.
Now my main message Fonterra Theo don’t you think It is time you clean up that mess in Mango. It would be wise if you did this because it would stain your image if I have to clean it up. Ka pai
All the Kings Horses and all the Kings men couldn’t put Humpty to gather again