Christ on a bike. The Greens and Labour and NZF have discussions and government policy comes out of that. That then ties all three parties to a line – that might be expressed by saying “Our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says”
It’s really not that hard, is it?
Not saying it’s good and not saying it’s healthy. I think coalitions are dog breakfast affairs and reckon we’d be far better served having a Fixed Term Parliament Act that did away with the need for coalitions.
But in the meantime, the Greens put forward their priorities in discussions and they get however far with them and then toe the agreed line afterwards.
“The Greens and Labour and NZF have discussions and government policy comes out of that. That then ties all three parties to a line – that might be expressed by saying ‘Our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says'”
In that regard, the thing is, with the Greens being merely a support partner, they don’t have to tow the party line. As shown by their opposing position on the TPP.
Therefore, if Government policy fails to live up to Green Party principle, should they really be spouting such a line (our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says)? And won’t doing so risk costing them support?
Well, I’m not sure where the different lines would run in terms of when they are expected to be more than merely a support partner in terms of public perception (in areas where they have ministerial positions?).
And sure, given the nature of coalitions, the smaller always winds up orbiting the larger. So NZF and the Greens will be being constantly eclipsed by NZ Labour.
Like I’ve been saying on and off for quite some time now, we’d be much better served having a Fixed Term Parliament Act that gave full voice and agency to smaller parties.
Prime Minister Ardern was weak on this herself even in late December.
She was clear that there is no process for differing from the Cabinet line – neither the media nor the public are ready for major dissent., managed or unmanaged. TBH neither would I be if it happened too often.
I think the left broadly will remain patient with Coalition dissent if they really roll out the goods consistently.
Actually this lot are far less racist than the last lot, so bit of a fail their Puckish Rouge.
Only real problem I’m seeing is the slowness of some tory mp’s in setting up electoral offices.
Did anyone tell Denise Lee she won the election months ago, and part of her job is to have an electorate office. Or do we have another local body politician transfer to being an MP who is going to do bugger all?
No like she cost the city of Auckland more money in a by election or anything….
I see Iceland has passed a law where companies are required to prove that there is equal pay for equal work to deal with the gender gap.
We could either talk about the gender gap for the next 20 years or just pass a similar law. It’s 2018 after all.
Should have no problem getting it passed – after all many deny it is an issue so they can see it as redundant legislation. And what better way to improve our economic performance
The bit that seems ironic to me is, if the NZ government bought that farm there would be great screams and outrage from the right about NATIONALISATION. But it is OK then for a foreign government to buy it, no doubt for the benefit of the people of that country.
Also not a worry, for the benefit of the people of that country they are planning to go ahead and pollute this country further by increasing the herd size by 400 cows.
All future land and asset sales should be bought by companies created by the NZ government,
“The bit that seems ironic to me is” that if this had happened in August last year it would have been reported immediately and the Labour, Green and New Zealand First parties would have been spraying bile all over the place.
Didn’t they promise that this was going to STOP?
No New Zealand land would be allowed to be sold to those bloody foreigners.
Now look how quiet they all are. Nothing to see here. Time to move on. Their only real complaint is going to be why this was announced at all.
Here is a scandal. …. Tiwai smelter toxic waste “stockpiled” around southland … “sold” to another company, went bust recievers walked away, tip of an iceburg it is thought.
Issue of rail transportation to lower the climate change emissions and make our truck gridlocked roads safer with far less truck accidents and deaths.
Just released today by our NGO to the Labour lead government today.
Public COMMUNITY letter;
16th January. 2018.
Dear Ministers, – IMPORTANT This was a social blog sent today for your consideration ahead of your first 100 days summary coming soon.
Labour Government in their last term in 2008 bought the rail back for us all to run an efficient rail service and to reduce truck freight and lower climate change affects while making the roads safer with less truck gridlocked roads and make our air quality cleaner ion our cities.
“Earlier, Robertson said the Government had identified a number of capital pressures that had built up over a significant number of years and it was looking at ways to fund urban infrastructure in Auckland, which would include rail, roading and housing infrastructure.” (QUOTE)
Bernard Hickey WHO is the Managing Editor of Newsroom Pro and writes about politics and economics from the Parliamentary Press Gallery in Wellington
Grant Robinson said;
“We have made it clear we are looking at a variety of funding instruments there — infrastructure bonds, partnership with the private sector to develop the transport and housing infrastructure that is required to allow us to make that growth sustainable,” he said.
“We are looking at some innovative financing mechanisms in those areas.”
So we call now on the new Labour coalition now since we are reaching our first 100 days we do need the Labour lead government to reopen all regional rail systems to begin making their safety and climate change policies realty to work for our health and welfare and our environment please!!!!!!
Use the evidence in the new found EY (Ernest Young) rail report on the ‘Value of rail in NZ’ as your evidence to complete the move back to rail now as we need this urgently.
We have seen or heard nothing about this very important study since that time when it was released by Labour to the press, so the time is now clearly to use this report national party had hidden to use to justify the funding of regional rail services urgently needed now.
She is, shes thought provoking but also writes in an entertaining and accessible manner.
But the whole thing with Hollywood is just a giant joke, how many of the same actors that are now talking (both male and female) knew all about whats going on but kept quiet
But look at who they go after, or rather who they don’t and ask yourself how is that Woody Allen is still adored and gets all the big names in his movies even though the allegations against him have a lot more substance than most
When an industry is run by predators who require silence, it’s hardly surprising that the people who work in it are those who can tolerate its conditions.
After all, this is how “free trade” is practised, eh: you remain silent about human rights abuses, and human rights abusers will buy your export goods.
This and that. There is safety in numbers, but also danger.
Safety for women to come forward, too many for the powerful in the industry to example for it, so they have to accept change.
But also risk, women will share their various Me Too stories and men will fear being named. So come forward the she for he brigade who do not want to see injustice to men/a man.
In most cases it is not a matter of allegation and investigation for a court case (even where it was a criminal matter it is time expired or difficult evidence wise). More a matter of unjust impact on the careers of accused men, an irony as for near a century women’s careers (and some younger males) have depended on not complaining.
And another irony, for the aging males involved, most would have been retired off years ago, if they were female.
The balanced view is that, Me Too results in women citing all sorts of experiences, but a blanket response to all those named would be unjust.
But I think most of the public realise that. Most of those coming forward realise that, and most of those named realise that.
And given this is America, the usual process will be to confess (to being a participant in an industry with a tradition of sexual harassment and abuse of power
in the workplace), and seek to change (rehab, the industry and personally).
Celebrate the death of the old regime by wearing black … and finance Times Up and take the victory across the workplaces of the world.
Me Too is not a threat to adult behaviour and social relations, sexual harassment and abuse of power, over the objections of a women is not flirting – displays of entitlement end in partner violence and the stalking of exes.
The issue is that before the election Twyford highlighted the issue and condemned then Associate Housing Minister Alfred Ngaro for not of helping Lilley.
But now hes in government he says he can’t get involved due to the conflict of interest
But its ok because but he hopes a solution could be found 🙂
given some of the comments of some of the meatless folk on here lately- here is a nice post (wIth citations) from sustainable table about the benefits of raising and slaughtering your own livestock
“No downsides”
Downsides for the cow.
Downsides for the planet.
And , (and this part will appeal to you) downsides for you too. A plant based diet is better for your health.
In How Not to Die, Dr. Michael Greger, the internationally-recognized lecturer, physician, and founder of NutritionFacts.org, examines the fifteen top causes of death in America—heart disease, various cancers, diabetes, Parkinson’s, high blood pressure, and more—and explains how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can sometimes trump prescription pills and other pharmaceutical and surgical approaches, freeing us to live healthier lives.
How not to die by Michael Greger, m.d. – animated summary
That was interesting PR. I thought this bit makes particular sense.
A mixed agricultural economy that uses meat thriftily and integrates arable and livestock farming – with the animals’ manure feeding the soil so that the crops will grow to feed the animals in turn – is efficient, sustainable and protective of the landscape. Moreover, the dependency of domesticated meat species on us would not end just because we stopped killing them. They would not revert to the wild; we would still have to be responsible for their welfare and demise. We could hardly abandon them to “tamelife parks”, as he puts it.
But our moral authority to kill animals for food can only be based on our offering them a better deal in life than they would get without our help. The prevailing system of intensive livestock farming is a complete abrogation of that responsibility. It is systematically abusive. Pain is routine, stress almost constant, disease widespread. We should raise and kill animals without cruelty and then do them the respect of eating every last bit of them, from crisp griddled pigs’ ears to slow-braised oxtails.
Perhaps we would buy a beast, as part of a food group or do-operative, and pay a farmer to raise it and kill it for us and take responsibility for our animal and know how it is treated, and how it is killed.
I very much agree with how heavy glossy paper is. The House and Garden mags that float around no doubt bought by women enslaved by capitalism, when gathered to be thrown out eventually for recycling, result in the banana carton being impossible to lift for one ordinary person.
Trouble is that everything has to be glossy these days, we deserve only the best style.
You did not even listen to or read Michael Greger.
I’d advise him not to bother. I only needed to read his appalling diabetes advice to realise he needs quote marks around the word “facts” in Nutrition”Facts”.org.
The Herald, to its credit is running a series of interview with scientists to look at the environmental challenges facing New Zealand (and the world). Yesterday they published the brief Q and A with Professor James Renwick.
In his answers to a few questions, Renwick outlined the severity of the threat facing the planet. It is not looking good…
The Herald
What has driven this (increases in greenhouse gas emissions) and does it tell us New Zealand has been poor at addressing climate change?
Professor James Renwick
The difference between gross and net is explained by cutting down trees, basically.
Our “sinks” of CO2 have decreased as forests have shrunk.
Our sources have grown mostly from transport and industry.
We have one of the highest car-ownership rates in the world and use a lot of fossil fuel to power industrial plant.
Both net and gross numbers tell us that New Zealand has done nothing to address the causes of climate change.
The Herald
What do you make of the oft-made argument that what actions we take here are relatively insignificant, given we contribute just around 0.15 per cent of global emissions and future climate depends on the big polluters. Is this true to any extent?
Professor James Renwick
Of course the global profile of emissions is dominated by the big emitters.
But on a per-capita basis, New Zealand is one of the big emitters. We are in the top 10 globally, per head of population, and there is as much of an onus on us as on the Chinese or the Americans to reduce our emissions.
Plus, there is the “soft power” angle of being a leader, showing others how it’s done, that would benefit us on the international stage.
The Herald
You toured the country recently to speak about climate change. Did the response suggest Kiwis are genuinely concerned about it? I note one survey a few years ago found only half of Kiwis agreed there was a scientific consensus human-driven climate change was actually happening, although more recent studies tell us awareness and acceptance of the science has been growing.
Professor James Renwick
Yes. We had full houses almost everywhere we went and the questions suggested strongly that those who came out to hear us are very interested and very concerned.
But, across the broader population, it’s harder to say. Because there’s been no political leadership, most people probably give it very little thought and are more apathetic than concerned or dismissive.
The Herald
That aside, does New Zealand still have a sceptic problem? Are there still too many Kiwis who reject the scientific consensus?
Professor James Renwick
There are some, but I suspect it’s a minority.
I receive regular emails telling me I have the science wrong, but they come from a very small number of individuals. I’d say the major issue is that most people don’t even think about it.
The Herald
So how hopeful are you, actually, that the world will avert the worst possible effects of climate change? Where do you place your optimism on a scale of one to 10?
Professor James Renwick
I am hopeful we can avoid the real worst-case scenario but I am pessimistic about the 1.5C or even 2C limit.
My gut feeling is that we won’t stop the warming until we are committed to 2.5C or even 3C of temperature rise.
That would lock in loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet, plus most of Greenland and part of the east Antarctic and would commit the globe to 10m or more of sea level rise.
Plus of course a big rise in extreme high temperatures, droughts, floods and crop failures.
Because of the delay time built into the climate system, it’s my feeling that we won’t take decisive action until a lot of change is baked in, so we’ll have a great deal of adapting to do.
On a scale of one to 10 for optimism, I’m about a three.
I would love to be pleasantly surprised.
The challenge for the Herald is follow through. One of John Campbell’s great features that singles him out in the New Zealand media landscape is that he and his team at Campbell Live ( and now Checkpoint) stuck with a story.
James Renwick clearly identified that
the major issue is that most people don’t even think about it (climate change).
The media have a lot to answer for on this.
We cannot control what John Roughan and the editors of the Herald do.
But we can certainly keep this issue prominent and endeavour to do all we can to confrontthe issue Renwick mentions – that
most people probably give it very little thought and are more apathetic than concerned or dismissive.
So what are you waiting for?
Let’s save what is left of life on our planet before it is too late. We have 10 years.
Ed
You have produced some great links and important points here on ts. I appreciate it enormously and I am sure most others do also, so keep on. But just as a health measure note the point in Thought of the Day how laughter is good too. I think you should give yourself one day in three off the computer and do something different or it will grind you down mentally. And you are a valuable fact finder and activist here, so we need you. Do this and conserve your energies physical and mental ready for the next lot of stuff. And remember to put up any good stuff you see will you, and vice versa. We need to keep our fighting spirits up. I hope you will be advised about this.
I was shocked at the image of all the little fish ankle deep on a beach in Chile. A fisherman is standing in and on them and no doubt thinking ruefully of his hungry family.
James Renwick condemns Doug Edmeades.
In my opinion, far too nicely.
There were people who denied the Final solution was going on, despite evidence, from 1942 onwards. Their ‘scepticism’ cost many lives.
Every time an Edmeades delays action by his sowing of doubt, he costs many lives.
Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress.
As the un-named tobacco executive said decades ago, when faced with hard scientific evidence of the link between smoking and cancer: “Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the mind of the general public.”
That tactic has been tried and tested many times, to throw doubt on smoking and cancer, air pollution and acid rain, CFCs and the ozone hole, and more recently fossil fuel burning and climate change.
The excellent book Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway documents in great detail how this has been done and how successful it has been over the years.
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the air has gone up over 40 per cent since we started burning oil and coal for fuel, the biggest change in the Earth’s atmosphere for over 3 million years.
In his recent op-ed piece Doug Edmeades is clearly looking to sow seeds of doubt, to undermine established science, and to argue that there’s nothing to worry about. He seems to understand the idea that “doubt is our product”…….
How Doug Edmeades thinks that the IPCC says there’s no connection between the two is a mystery to me.
Doug Edmeades’ other ideas (polar bears are doing great, models are no good, and so on) are easily shown to be false with a bit of googling.
None of us want the sorts of disruptions that the changing climate is bringing. But, if we are to get on top of this biggest of problems, we must get our heads around the fact that after thousands of years of stability, things are changing, sea levels are rising, and we must respond.
A pleasant morning watching the sun rising over Singapore this morning from the 21st floor of the hotel (holy vertigo!).
It is a completely different city to the one that I last looked at in 1990. Talking to my dad in Rotorua this morning and he was describing the city state of hovels and open drains that he first saw in 1975 and it is hard to see the downside.
I do like the fact that these days when I have to travel, I can call up without problems, and that I can still stay connected to this site and my servers. It makes a hell of difference.
Pity about the weather during the day. Way too hot and humid for me. It makes me look forward to winter or even summer in Auckland.
Time to finish the coffee, pack up my gear, and venture forth into the open humidity. Debugging software interactions with hardware in the field is a sweaty experience.
They live like battery hens in strange identical white block-like towers with numbers on the side. Singapore reminds me of a JG Ballard novel but without the fun.
If that’s your idea of housing success then I’m not sure what you were aiming for.
Enjoy – its a great place to work or relax for a bit.
The street food can be fantastic.
Having travelled a lot (waaaaay too much for waaaaay too long) as an IT guy I would say Singapore was always one of my favourite countries to be based for a week or two.
James, what a mess of a post, and it was only 5pm!
I think you’d struggle to find support here for any claim your barbecue comment was an innocent celebration.
The reaction you got showed that other commenters viewed it as trolling and that’s what right wing virtue-signalling is; trolling.
A lot of commenters here don’t have large family units to celebrate with (you probably haven’t noticed). Others enjoy their lives with their families without feeling the need to broadcast it, so why do you? My guess is you’re overcompensating.
Along with your virtue-signalling there’s a typical self-righteousness, a lack of awareness, and a lack of empathy.
In RWNJ culture it is normal to blather on about your trips around the world and all the hassles you are experiencing with your property portfolio. NZ is a two tier society and the wealthy are insulated/ignorant of the extreme privation that their behaviour has caused to the rest of NZ
What behaviour from the wealthy has caused this extreme privation to NZ and for that matter who are these wealthy you point the stick at and what is the extreme privation that the rest of NZ are suffering ?
Maybe you should pay attention to the news instead of ignoring the uncomfortable bits about homelessness, suicide, unemployment, pollution, exploitation
Good grief how pathetic, NZ discourse appears to be going down the USA route of knee jerk agreement/disagreement with anyone deemed to belong to the other team.
Yes, knock off 10 degrees and halve the humidity and it would be a lovely city/country!
(Although I’d happily say the same for Wellington right now…)
I’m really not sure how anyone can live in those equatorial countries- I still remember the 2 day Singapore stopover 14 years ago and being physically ill from the heat, spending most of the time indoors and keeping the hotel air conditioning set to 15C!
This really is frustrating. The full power of the state thrown at peaceful protesters who attempted to stop the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair.
I shall quote extensively from Martin Bradbury’s article today as it supports what I have been saying for quite a while on this site.
The spectre at the feast during the negotiations for the new Government last year was the deep seated belief that a serious economic collapse was coming.
It shaped the way Winston Peters approached the negotiations ands it’s the reason the agreement between him and Jacinda will never be released.
Almost everywhere now, alarm bells are ringing that the correction is coming.
The stratospheric asset markets pumped up by quantitate easing to try and fight off the 2007-2008 global financial recession are all starting to shake and shudder under the enormous weight of debt created wealth the current economic system must now try and carry……..
The reverberations will swamp us, and may already be impacting our real estate market and the sudden ratcheting up of a trade war between China and America could become a reality within weeks…
Looking to the future, if we go on with attitudes as are presently displayed, it seems to me that eventually we will become like the people in John Christopher’s the Tripods.
They were taken over by an overwhelming invasion and were encouraged to believe it was to their advantage to continue their lives as before, except just do what they were told. Life wouldn’t be difficult, but they needed to be calm and limit their emotions and to assist this they would have a ‘chip’ to limit their minds which was called a cap.
John Christopher wrote three adventure books for young adults around this idea, the first called The White Mountains. The trilogy were called The Tripods which were the metallic aliens in ships on three long movable legs. A TV series was made about it, very dramatic and aimed at teenagers and the young. But Christopher had thought about the way that reality would show in this scenario. I think the summary below expresses our situation well.
Like most of Christopher’s books for young readers, The White Mountains dramatizes painful truths about human nature and raises important questions about what makes life worth living.
Christopher believes that human beings are inevitably flawed, and that technological achievement is a mixed blessing in the hands of fallible people. Still, he holds out hope that strong individuals, bound together by a desire to protect freedom of thought and free will, may yet save humanity from its own worst impulses. http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-white-mountains/#gsc.tab=0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods
I looked at the various headings for The Tripods and it seems that the film rights were gained by someone about 2009 and then it didn’t go ahead. Then rumoured that it would 2011-12 and then something about it in 2015. But I couldn’t find more and thought I’d better stop.
It may have been a problem getting two personable young actors as leads, it may have been that it started off in the TV version in a quaint village with horse and carts and later one of the boys ends up in France with a Count’s friendship, but then he finds that the daughter who was nice, and the Count have both been capped and he decides to steer clear.
So there are problems for USA citizens who hardly know where some of their states are, if they have part film in France. And the romance line is fractured. And there are two friends so they need two young men. The future is uncertain, and ambiguous. The idea of the boys’ homeland being overtaken by aliens might be too scary for the survivalists in the USA.
I think they need to sell it to Disney, they can do dramatic darker stories than Princessy ones, or perhaps sell it for automation or comic-book treatment. There was a good one out on DVD recently drawn well, called Kubo and the Two Strings which took my fancy and this could be good like that one.
It’s apparently sort of a limbo where scripts/treatments/rights get flipped around, redrafted, never get just enough cash to start casting and filming, but get just enough interest that people keep trying to push it.
Jacinda is poised to handle the next coming GFC it seems as her words of wisdom are plain here.
November 8th 2017 – we received this email;
With the opening of Parliament today, the Government began our legislative agenda. This is where the real change begins.
I want the way this Government runs to be different.
It will be a Government of transformation.
We’ll put people right at the heart of our agenda.
Every decision will be assessed on its impact on people and at every turn, our Government will be guided by kindness and compassion.
As well as our values, we laid out our policy plans for the term today.
They’re firmly focused on making New Zealanders’ lives even better.
We will fix the housing crisis, build up our education system, ensure everyone can get the healthcare they need, take action on climate change, develop our regions and raise everyone’s incomes.
The GOP tax cut secured, the Pentagon campaign for a major increase in defence spending begins. The imperial regime of mammon and fortresses knows the importance of timing.
A debased (4T in QE) currency, a large budget deficit and growing debt, rising inequality at home (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid they cannot sustain), a coming trade with China but dependent on China for bond sales.
Struggling to cope in conventional capability (in both the European and East Asian theatres), because of the vast spend up modernisation of the Russian and Chinese forces (who are constantly exposing this to them. And then there is the whole nuclear arsenal renewal thing … .
This is what the end of an imperial power looks like.
Of course the arrogant bluster of the sociopathic bully distracts from this reality, showing why Trump is just the man for the job. A buffoon fronting another round of tax cuts and increased Pentagon spending, and why not when it worked for Reagan.
What was the relative size of the USA economy to Russia and China then, compared to now?
Of course there is soft power – something Trump squanders every time he tweets.
I try not to get all maudlin and crap on about the latest doomycult news, but the idea that Russia has been making consistent advances in nuclear weapons, and the Pentagon wants funding to catch up with them, is just so OH PUH-Leeeze.
I some how ended up watch this last night on the Australian ABC’s Foreign Correspondent were I was working on my reply to Ad’s thread on Climate Change and the NZDF before I head back into Hospital again for a possible Biopsy on Monday.
With the hard right in the US arming up and bearing firearms in open as they can do in a number of states for self protection. It appears that members of the hard left are taking up arms and bearing firearms in the open as well.
My neoliberal neighbour has done what everyone does and underestimated ECO Maori . You and the red head Idiot from Tokoroa have told everyone lies about me and told them you where going to LOCK UP that Maori yes they are racist bigots Im untouchable NOW sandflies. You are using all the tricks you can dream up to make me lose both my JOBS who cares about that Maoris Mokos future he can go on the dole and set a good example to his mokos of where a Maori should be broke .Well get stuffed I have done nothing wrong Im not giving in to your intimidation Im not leaving any job . You people are breaking the LAW breaching my rights everyone knows about this fact.
Nobby spends all his time trying to come up with a sceem to lock me up I found something in my wallet that i did not put there he sits in his garage with all the hardware and software to be able to hack my computer to stop me posting but you can’t stop me from posting using my Phone. Every time you get burned
you blame me your mates siren dont phase me nor do your hoddy m8 you have contracted to use againsts me. All your bullshit just slips off my back like water off a ducks back don’t blame me for your shit bigots. I’v done nothing wrong or I would be in jail with all the lying accusations you have made against me.
Ana to kai
Yes the sandflys are still dreaming that I’m going to wake up and turn into a idiot sorry not going to happen. They had 2 cops who looked like the chief of police pointing a speed camera at me on lakes boulevard Tauranga that article about the house being built in tauranga must have pissed them off well to me the people wellbeing comes first. They are pouring on there dum ass intimidation tactics today the can kiss my_______ LOL Ana to kai
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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 ...
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 ...
A nationwide poll has found majority support for the government to continue to closely monitor abortions in New Zealand and the reasons for it, despite the Ministry of Health recently suggesting that there is not a use for collecting much of this information. ...
The out-of-control growth in gangs, gun crime, and violent gang activity is exposing our communities to dangerous levels of violence that will inevitably end in tragedy, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The recent incidents of people being shot and ...
Successive governments have paid lip service to our productivity challenge but have failed to deliver. It's time to establish a Productivity Council charged with prioritising efforts. ...
Understanding the connection between chronic fatigue syndrome and ‘long Covid’ might be helpful in treating symptoms that doctors will find all too easy to dismiss.When people began to report signs of “long Covid”, characterised by a lack of full recovery from the virus and debilitating fatigue, I recognised their stories. ...
Nadine Anne Hura, who never considered herself an artist, reflects on what art and making has taught her.I couldn’t clean or cook or wash the clothes, but I could sew. That’s a lie, I’m a terrible sewer, but I left work early to fossick around in the $1 bin of ...
Summer reissue: In the final episode of this season of Bad News, Alice is joined by Billy T award winner Kura Forrester to look at how well we’re honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 2020.First published September 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The ...
Lucy Revill’s The Residents is a blog about daily life in Wellington that has morphed into a stylish, low-key coffee-table book featuring interviews and photographic portraits of 38 Wellingtonians. In this extract, Revill profiles Eboni Waitere, owner and executive director of Huia Publishers. The Residents features names like Monique Fiso ...
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 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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
“Our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says.”
Holding this position, can the Greens maintain their principles and distinctiveness, thus hold and grow their support?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/100569330/greens-risk-losing-ground-in-2020-as-labour-takes-their-share-of-votes
Why am I not surprised that you’re peddling a right-winger’s view of the Greens on this thread?
A right-winger’s view?
I’m merely asking a question.
Moreover, out of interest, can you tell us what exactly is it you think is the right-wing view being peddled here?
Christ on a bike. The Greens and Labour and NZF have discussions and government policy comes out of that. That then ties all three parties to a line – that might be expressed by saying “Our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says”
It’s really not that hard, is it?
Not saying it’s good and not saying it’s healthy. I think coalitions are dog breakfast affairs and reckon we’d be far better served having a Fixed Term Parliament Act that did away with the need for coalitions.
But in the meantime, the Greens put forward their priorities in discussions and they get however far with them and then toe the agreed line afterwards.
“The Greens and Labour and NZF have discussions and government policy comes out of that. That then ties all three parties to a line – that might be expressed by saying ‘Our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says'”
In that regard, the thing is, with the Greens being merely a support partner, they don’t have to tow the party line. As shown by their opposing position on the TPP.
Therefore, if Government policy fails to live up to Green Party principle, should they really be spouting such a line (our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says)? And won’t doing so risk costing them support?
Well, I’m not sure where the different lines would run in terms of when they are expected to be more than merely a support partner in terms of public perception (in areas where they have ministerial positions?).
And sure, given the nature of coalitions, the smaller always winds up orbiting the larger. So NZF and the Greens will be being constantly eclipsed by NZ Labour.
Like I’ve been saying on and off for quite some time now, we’d be much better served having a Fixed Term Parliament Act that gave full voice and agency to smaller parties.
Prime Minister Ardern was weak on this herself even in late December.
She was clear that there is no process for differing from the Cabinet line – neither the media nor the public are ready for major dissent., managed or unmanaged. TBH neither would I be if it happened too often.
I think the left broadly will remain patient with Coalition dissent if they really roll out the goods consistently.
For some reason this seems appropriate:
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
Showing your age there Puckish.
Some things never go out of fashion 😉
“Some things never go out of fashion” 😉
PR – Like a lying foreign agent like john key?
Actually this lot are far less racist than the last lot, so bit of a fail their Puckish Rouge.
Only real problem I’m seeing is the slowness of some tory mp’s in setting up electoral offices.
Did anyone tell Denise Lee she won the election months ago, and part of her job is to have an electorate office. Or do we have another local body politician transfer to being an MP who is going to do bugger all?
No like she cost the city of Auckland more money in a by election or anything….
Someone with a chinese sounding name might disagree with you on that point
And your mate Denise?
?
PR you are simply wasting our time so find another branch to perch on and shit.
Quote, quote, quote of the week.
Thanks for the giggle cleangreen.
I see Iceland has passed a law where companies are required to prove that there is equal pay for equal work to deal with the gender gap.
We could either talk about the gender gap for the next 20 years or just pass a similar law. It’s 2018 after all.
Should have no problem getting it passed – after all many deny it is an issue so they can see it as redundant legislation. And what better way to improve our economic performance
Is this in our best interest? Or is it another step towards us becoming tenants in our own land?
The sale of a Canterbury dairy farm for more than $17 million to a company owned by the Canadian government has been approved by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO).
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/100543602/canterbury-farm-sold-for-17m-to-canadian-government-approved-by-overseas-investment-office
The short answer is to stop foreign land sales and wind up the OIO. It has not credibly served the public interest.
The bit that seems ironic to me is, if the NZ government bought that farm there would be great screams and outrage from the right about NATIONALISATION. But it is OK then for a foreign government to buy it, no doubt for the benefit of the people of that country.
Also not a worry, for the benefit of the people of that country they are planning to go ahead and pollute this country further by increasing the herd size by 400 cows.
All future land and asset sales should be bought by companies created by the NZ government,
“The bit that seems ironic to me is” that if this had happened in August last year it would have been reported immediately and the Labour, Green and New Zealand First parties would have been spraying bile all over the place.
Didn’t they promise that this was going to STOP?
No New Zealand land would be allowed to be sold to those bloody foreigners.
Now look how quiet they all are. Nothing to see here. Time to move on. Their only real complaint is going to be why this was announced at all.
It’s on the road to NZers becoming serfs – as planned by the capitalists.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018628288
Here is a scandal. …. Tiwai smelter toxic waste “stockpiled” around southland … “sold” to another company, went bust recievers walked away, tip of an iceburg it is thought.
Sounds like par for the course. Capitalists never take responsibility for their actions and always lump the costs upon society.
Issue of rail transportation to lower the climate change emissions and make our truck gridlocked roads safer with far less truck accidents and deaths.
Just released today by our NGO to the Labour lead government today.
Public COMMUNITY letter;
16th January. 2018.
Dear Ministers, – IMPORTANT This was a social blog sent today for your consideration ahead of your first 100 days summary coming soon.
Labour Government in their last term in 2008 bought the rail back for us all to run an efficient rail service and to reduce truck freight and lower climate change affects while making the roads safer with less truck gridlocked roads and make our air quality cleaner ion our cities.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/12/14/68554/analysis-debt-anchor-dragging-labour-into-ppps
“Earlier, Robertson said the Government had identified a number of capital pressures that had built up over a significant number of years and it was looking at ways to fund urban infrastructure in Auckland, which would include rail, roading and housing infrastructure.” (QUOTE)
Bernard Hickey WHO is the Managing Editor of Newsroom Pro and writes about politics and economics from the Parliamentary Press Gallery in Wellington
Grant Robinson said;
“We have made it clear we are looking at a variety of funding instruments there — infrastructure bonds, partnership with the private sector to develop the transport and housing infrastructure that is required to allow us to make that growth sustainable,” he said.
“We are looking at some innovative financing mechanisms in those areas.”
So we call now on the new Labour coalition now since we are reaching our first 100 days we do need the Labour lead government to reopen all regional rail systems to begin making their safety and climate change policies realty to work for our health and welfare and our environment please!!!!!!
Use the evidence in the new found EY (Ernest Young) rail report on the ‘Value of rail in NZ’ as your evidence to complete the move back to rail now as we need this urgently.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/99257012/rail-has-saved-new-zealand-15b-a-year-study-shows
We have seen or heard nothing about this very important study since that time when it was released by Labour to the press, so the time is now clearly to use this report national party had hidden to use to justify the funding of regional rail services urgently needed now.
Pretty interesting set of Twitter feeds around Margaret Attwood’s reasonably mild critique of #MeToo:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/15/margaret-atwood-feminist-backlash-metoo
Personally she is one of my favourite all time authors with a grand dystopian mind, so I found it important to see where she positions herself.
I just find it very hard to take anything seriously most actors have to say on this or others things tbh
Hollywood Studio District: last liberal enclave of the world.
http://www.hsdnc.org/
Actors?
Just finished Atwood’s The Penelopiad. Good book.
She is, shes thought provoking but also writes in an entertaining and accessible manner.
But the whole thing with Hollywood is just a giant joke, how many of the same actors that are now talking (both male and female) knew all about whats going on but kept quiet
But look at who they go after, or rather who they don’t and ask yourself how is that Woody Allen is still adored and gets all the big names in his movies even though the allegations against him have a lot more substance than most
https://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/
Or how Roman Polanski still has supporters that want him back in Hollywood and charges dropped
http://www.indiewire.com/2009/09/over-100-in-film-community-sign-polanski-petition-55821/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/23/roman-polanski-marianne-barnard-allegations
When an industry is run by predators who require silence, it’s hardly surprising that the people who work in it are those who can tolerate its conditions.
After all, this is how “free trade” is practised, eh: you remain silent about human rights abuses, and human rights abusers will buy your export goods.
But a lot of them are also standing up in support of #metoo
Given the opportunity, of course some of them took it, only to be sneered at as a “giant joke”.
By their actions they are known
Hollywood is run by corporate money & greed.
They (actors) are now simply just ‘stool pigeons’ for the corporate propaganda machinery..
https://pics.me.me/or-hard-young-rex-the-moment-you-realise-oprah-didnt-bring-30109510.png
Here’s the link to her full piece in The Globe and Mail for those who prefer source material over interpretations.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/am-i-a-bad-feminist/article37591823/
This and that. There is safety in numbers, but also danger.
Safety for women to come forward, too many for the powerful in the industry to example for it, so they have to accept change.
But also risk, women will share their various Me Too stories and men will fear being named. So come forward the she for he brigade who do not want to see injustice to men/a man.
In most cases it is not a matter of allegation and investigation for a court case (even where it was a criminal matter it is time expired or difficult evidence wise). More a matter of unjust impact on the careers of accused men, an irony as for near a century women’s careers (and some younger males) have depended on not complaining.
And another irony, for the aging males involved, most would have been retired off years ago, if they were female.
The balanced view is that, Me Too results in women citing all sorts of experiences, but a blanket response to all those named would be unjust.
But I think most of the public realise that. Most of those coming forward realise that, and most of those named realise that.
And given this is America, the usual process will be to confess (to being a participant in an industry with a tradition of sexual harassment and abuse of power
in the workplace), and seek to change (rehab, the industry and personally).
Celebrate the death of the old regime by wearing black … and finance Times Up and take the victory across the workplaces of the world.
Me Too is not a threat to adult behaviour and social relations, sexual harassment and abuse of power, over the objections of a women is not flirting – displays of entitlement end in partner violence and the stalking of exes.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/western-leader/99337178/resident-says-mp-phil-twyford-used-him-for-preelection-publicity-stunt
Well thats a tad embarrassing
Yes, imagine being so ignorant of governance that you don’t understand Ministerial conflicts of interest.
The issue is that before the election Twyford highlighted the issue and condemned then Associate Housing Minister Alfred Ngaro for not of helping Lilley.
But now hes in government he says he can’t get involved due to the conflict of interest
But its ok because but he hopes a solution could be found 🙂
Ngaro was too busy threatening people.
100% OAB.
Just biased reporting, really – although the reporter gave all sides of the argument the headline is a right-wing shocker
Jan, 7.2 exactly what we would expect from a right wing rag. They know most read headlines only.
Exactly!
given some of the comments of some of the meatless folk on here lately- here is a nice post (wIth citations) from sustainable table about the benefits of raising and slaughtering your own livestock
http://www.sustainabletable.org/248/sustainable-livestock-husbandry
No downsides – and you don’t have to become a boring repetitive vegan to do some good for the environment.
Your problem is you lack imagination.
Vegans eat healthy and interesting food.
https://www.thekitchn.com/17-of-the-most-delicious-vegan-recipes-we-know-231625
“No downsides”
Downsides for the cow.
Downsides for the planet.
And , (and this part will appeal to you) downsides for you too. A plant based diet is better for your health.
How not to die by Michael Greger, m.d. – animated summary
Wrong again.
You can eat meat without harming health.
The cows were already here – so no downside for the planet.
The cow leads a healthy happy life – no downside for the cow / or chicken / or sheep etc.
You did not even listen to or read Michael Greger.
It is amazing how set in their ways people can become.
You should read this book, it changed how i view things and it might do the same for you https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/19/highereducation.houseandgarden
Thanks for the link – looks like a good book. Ill order off Amazon this afternoon.
That was interesting PR. I thought this bit makes particular sense.
A mixed agricultural economy that uses meat thriftily and integrates arable and livestock farming – with the animals’ manure feeding the soil so that the crops will grow to feed the animals in turn – is efficient, sustainable and protective of the landscape. Moreover, the dependency of domesticated meat species on us would not end just because we stopped killing them. They would not revert to the wild; we would still have to be responsible for their welfare and demise. We could hardly abandon them to “tamelife parks”, as he puts it.
But our moral authority to kill animals for food can only be based on our offering them a better deal in life than they would get without our help. The prevailing system of intensive livestock farming is a complete abrogation of that responsibility. It is systematically abusive. Pain is routine, stress almost constant, disease widespread. We should raise and kill animals without cruelty and then do them the respect of eating every last bit of them, from crisp griddled pigs’ ears to slow-braised oxtails.
Perhaps we would buy a beast, as part of a food group or do-operative, and pay a farmer to raise it and kill it for us and take responsibility for our animal and know how it is treated, and how it is killed.
I very much agree with how heavy glossy paper is. The House and Garden mags that float around no doubt bought by women enslaved by capitalism, when gathered to be thrown out eventually for recycling, result in the banana carton being impossible to lift for one ordinary person.
Trouble is that everything has to be glossy these days, we deserve only the best style.
I’ll be looking at a beast myself later this year (in partnership with my sister in law) and animal welfare is top of my list
“It is amazing how set in their ways people can become”
I assume you are trying to be ironic.
Give this cynical shit a bloody rest James as you have simply overdone the ‘meat’ issue, as t has become so ‘overcooked’ (literately)
Howabout you talk about ‘real public affairs issues’ can you!!!
And suggest some positive outcomes issues as we guide the new government to make our lives better can you.
You did not even listen to or read Michael Greger.
I’d advise him not to bother. I only needed to read his appalling diabetes advice to realise he needs quote marks around the word “facts” in Nutrition”Facts”.org.
Being deaded is a bit of a downside jimbo. Do you limit your gnawing to the bones of the ones that die of old age?
Did Bill English refer to Māori as “someone else’s language” this morning? Heard a rumour.
Yep
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/09/bill-english-numbers-man-but-not-in-m-ori.html
I have posted about it
The Herald, to its credit is running a series of interview with scientists to look at the environmental challenges facing New Zealand (and the world). Yesterday they published the brief Q and A with Professor James Renwick.
In his answers to a few questions, Renwick outlined the severity of the threat facing the planet. It is not looking good…
The Big Read: Climate change – the best and worst for NZ
The challenge for the Herald is follow through. One of John Campbell’s great features that singles him out in the New Zealand media landscape is that he and his team at Campbell Live ( and now Checkpoint) stuck with a story.
James Renwick clearly identified that
The media have a lot to answer for on this.
We cannot control what John Roughan and the editors of the Herald do.
But we can certainly keep this issue prominent and endeavour to do all we can to confrontthe issue Renwick mentions – that
So what are you waiting for?
Let’s save what is left of life on our planet before it is too late. We have 10 years.
I found the article at:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11962099
Thank you
I tried to put links in the comments cleanly on FAQ and must have made a mistake.
Ed
You have produced some great links and important points here on ts. I appreciate it enormously and I am sure most others do also, so keep on. But just as a health measure note the point in Thought of the Day how laughter is good too. I think you should give yourself one day in three off the computer and do something different or it will grind you down mentally. And you are a valuable fact finder and activist here, so we need you. Do this and conserve your energies physical and mental ready for the next lot of stuff. And remember to put up any good stuff you see will you, and vice versa. We need to keep our fighting spirits up. I hope you will be advised about this.
And while I think of it I will just put up something again that we need to keep thinking about, which you yourself might have originally put up here.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/04/oceans-suffocating-dead-zones-oxygen-starved
Oceans suffocating as huge dead zones quadruple since 1950, scientists warn.
I was shocked at the image of all the little fish ankle deep on a beach in Chile. A fisherman is standing in and on them and no doubt thinking ruefully of his hungry family.
James Renwick condemns Doug Edmeades.
In my opinion, far too nicely.
There were people who denied the Final solution was going on, despite evidence, from 1942 onwards. Their ‘scepticism’ cost many lives.
Every time an Edmeades delays action by his sowing of doubt, he costs many lives.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/
Climate change and climate sceptics
Edmeades trashing his own credibility again. Looks like there’s a gap in the NZ soil science market 😈
Rachel Stewart on Twitter
Pithy as ever.
“Doug Edmeades: Why I’m a global warming sceptic.
I already know the two answers to that. He loves money, and is a moron. “
Very good review of Wolff’s book on Trump’s madhouse.
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/01/14/in-review-fire-and-fury-inside-trumps-madhouse/
A pleasant morning watching the sun rising over Singapore this morning from the 21st floor of the hotel (holy vertigo!).
It is a completely different city to the one that I last looked at in 1990. Talking to my dad in Rotorua this morning and he was describing the city state of hovels and open drains that he first saw in 1975 and it is hard to see the downside.
I do like the fact that these days when I have to travel, I can call up without problems, and that I can still stay connected to this site and my servers. It makes a hell of difference.
Pity about the weather during the day. Way too hot and humid for me. It makes me look forward to winter or even summer in Auckland.
Time to finish the coffee, pack up my gear, and venture forth into the open humidity. Debugging software interactions with hardware in the field is a sweaty experience.
I think Jacinda Adern would describe Singapore as classic example of failed capitalism, especially in the area of housing.
Always wanted to visit Singapore, seems like an interesting place and this must be one helluva meal
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/singapore/articles/singapore-street-food-stalls-get-michelin-star/
They live like battery hens in strange identical white block-like towers with numbers on the side. Singapore reminds me of a JG Ballard novel but without the fun.
If that’s your idea of housing success then I’m not sure what you were aiming for.
Enjoy – its a great place to work or relax for a bit.
The street food can be fantastic.
Having travelled a lot (waaaaay too much for waaaaay too long) as an IT guy I would say Singapore was always one of my favourite countries to be based for a week or two.
I meant to comment on this sort of behaviour last time you showed it. The need to promote ones own ‘success’ is virtue signalling for the right wing.
The barbecue gloating incident was another example.
You see – you call it virtue signalling – I call it commenting on a thread on ones own experiences.
And the BBQ – ‘gloating’ fuck your life must be miserable if you find someone commenting that they are having a BBQ with friends or family.
I hope you still have the former, but would not shock me if you were lacking in the later based on your miserable attitude to everything.
And portly.
James, what a mess of a post, and it was only 5pm!
I think you’d struggle to find support here for any claim your barbecue comment was an innocent celebration.
The reaction you got showed that other commenters viewed it as trolling and that’s what right wing virtue-signalling is; trolling.
A lot of commenters here don’t have large family units to celebrate with (you probably haven’t noticed). Others enjoy their lives with their families without feeling the need to broadcast it, so why do you? My guess is you’re overcompensating.
Along with your virtue-signalling there’s a typical self-righteousness, a lack of awareness, and a lack of empathy.
In RWNJ culture it is normal to blather on about your trips around the world and all the hassles you are experiencing with your property portfolio. NZ is a two tier society and the wealthy are insulated/ignorant of the extreme privation that their behaviour has caused to the rest of NZ
What behaviour from the wealthy has caused this extreme privation to NZ and for that matter who are these wealthy you point the stick at and what is the extreme privation that the rest of NZ are suffering ?
Maybe you should pay attention to the news instead of ignoring the uncomfortable bits about homelessness, suicide, unemployment, pollution, exploitation
I didn’t have a problem with his post, in fact i was a envious because it sounded like a good time is had by all
That’s because you are a fellow RWNJ and to you his virtue-signalling was like a mating call.
Yup no major envy going on here at all
Good grief how pathetic, NZ discourse appears to be going down the USA route of knee jerk agreement/disagreement with anyone deemed to belong to the other team.
Muttonbird
Oh no, not more RWNJays.
Very good 🙂
You quite elderly then jimbo.
Yes, knock off 10 degrees and halve the humidity and it would be a lovely city/country!
(Although I’d happily say the same for Wellington right now…)
I’m really not sure how anyone can live in those equatorial countries- I still remember the 2 day Singapore stopover 14 years ago and being physically ill from the heat, spending most of the time indoors and keeping the hotel air conditioning set to 15C!
This really is frustrating. The full power of the state thrown at peaceful protesters who attempted to stop the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair.
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/first-46-activists-trial-protesting-government-backed-dsei-arms-fair-found-guilty/12/01/
More court cases to come.
Time to stand up for peace.
I shall quote extensively from Martin Bradbury’s article today as it supports what I have been saying for quite a while on this site.
Read the whole article here.
Buckle up. This is going to be a rough ride.
All the canaries in the minefield are dead – the looming economic correction
Gold prices are turning up, but they’re nowhere near recent highs. If a bust is in the wings it’s probably a wee way off.
Looking to the future, if we go on with attitudes as are presently displayed, it seems to me that eventually we will become like the people in John Christopher’s the Tripods.
They were taken over by an overwhelming invasion and were encouraged to believe it was to their advantage to continue their lives as before, except just do what they were told. Life wouldn’t be difficult, but they needed to be calm and limit their emotions and to assist this they would have a ‘chip’ to limit their minds which was called a cap.
John Christopher wrote three adventure books for young adults around this idea, the first called The White Mountains. The trilogy were called The Tripods which were the metallic aliens in ships on three long movable legs. A TV series was made about it, very dramatic and aimed at teenagers and the young. But Christopher had thought about the way that reality would show in this scenario. I think the summary below expresses our situation well.
Like most of Christopher’s books for young readers, The White Mountains dramatizes painful truths about human nature and raises important questions about what makes life worth living.
Christopher believes that human beings are inevitably flawed, and that technological achievement is a mixed blessing in the hands of fallible people. Still, he holds out hope that strong individuals, bound together by a desire to protect freedom of thought and free will, may yet save humanity from its own worst impulses.
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-white-mountains/#gsc.tab=0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods
I always wondered why, considering the adaptions coming out these days, The Tripods wasn’t made for the big screen
I looked at the various headings for The Tripods and it seems that the film rights were gained by someone about 2009 and then it didn’t go ahead. Then rumoured that it would 2011-12 and then something about it in 2015. But I couldn’t find more and thought I’d better stop.
It may have been a problem getting two personable young actors as leads, it may have been that it started off in the TV version in a quaint village with horse and carts and later one of the boys ends up in France with a Count’s friendship, but then he finds that the daughter who was nice, and the Count have both been capped and he decides to steer clear.
So there are problems for USA citizens who hardly know where some of their states are, if they have part film in France. And the romance line is fractured. And there are two friends so they need two young men. The future is uncertain, and ambiguous. The idea of the boys’ homeland being overtaken by aliens might be too scary for the survivalists in the USA.
I think they need to sell it to Disney, they can do dramatic darker stories than Princessy ones, or perhaps sell it for automation or comic-book treatment. There was a good one out on DVD recently drawn well, called Kubo and the Two Strings which took my fancy and this could be good like that one.
“development hell”.
It’s apparently sort of a limbo where scripts/treatments/rights get flipped around, redrafted, never get just enough cash to start casting and filming, but get just enough interest that people keep trying to push it.
I can vaguely recall the series so time to watch it again.
https://archive.org/details/TheTripodscomplete
Jacinda is poised to handle the next coming GFC it seems as her words of wisdom are plain here.
November 8th 2017 – we received this email;
With the opening of Parliament today, the Government began our legislative agenda. This is where the real change begins.
I want the way this Government runs to be different.
It will be a Government of transformation.
We’ll put people right at the heart of our agenda.
Every decision will be assessed on its impact on people and at every turn, our Government will be guided by kindness and compassion.
As well as our values, we laid out our policy plans for the term today.
They’re firmly focused on making New Zealanders’ lives even better.
We will fix the housing crisis, build up our education system, ensure everyone can get the healthcare they need, take action on climate change, develop our regions and raise everyone’s incomes.
The GOP tax cut secured, the Pentagon campaign for a major increase in defence spending begins. The imperial regime of mammon and fortresses knows the importance of timing.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11976004
A debased (4T in QE) currency, a large budget deficit and growing debt, rising inequality at home (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid they cannot sustain), a coming trade with China but dependent on China for bond sales.
Struggling to cope in conventional capability (in both the European and East Asian theatres), because of the vast spend up modernisation of the Russian and Chinese forces (who are constantly exposing this to them. And then there is the whole nuclear arsenal renewal thing … .
This is what the end of an imperial power looks like.
Of course the arrogant bluster of the sociopathic bully distracts from this reality, showing why Trump is just the man for the job. A buffoon fronting another round of tax cuts and increased Pentagon spending, and why not when it worked for Reagan.
What was the relative size of the USA economy to Russia and China then, compared to now?
Of course there is soft power – something Trump squanders every time he tweets.
I try not to get all maudlin and crap on about the latest doomycult news, but the idea that Russia has been making consistent advances in nuclear weapons, and the Pentagon wants funding to catch up with them, is just so OH PUH-Leeeze.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11976004
It doesn’t surprise me, it’s just a minor maudlin moment.
OK I’m fine now.
As you were.
Yep, that’s the shit that’ll kill us all.
I some how ended up watch this last night on the Australian ABC’s Foreign Correspondent were I was working on my reply to Ad’s thread on Climate Change and the NZDF before I head back into Hospital again for a possible Biopsy on Monday.
With the hard right in the US arming up and bearing firearms in open as they can do in a number of states for self protection. It appears that members of the hard left are taking up arms and bearing firearms in the open as well.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-15/redneck-revolt-and-the-hard-lefts-call-to-arms/9303758
“If Oprah’s the best we’ve got, this is the end of politics.”
Pye is brilliant.
My neoliberal neighbour has done what everyone does and underestimated ECO Maori . You and the red head Idiot from Tokoroa have told everyone lies about me and told them you where going to LOCK UP that Maori yes they are racist bigots Im untouchable NOW sandflies. You are using all the tricks you can dream up to make me lose both my JOBS who cares about that Maoris Mokos future he can go on the dole and set a good example to his mokos of where a Maori should be broke .Well get stuffed I have done nothing wrong Im not giving in to your intimidation Im not leaving any job . You people are breaking the LAW breaching my rights everyone knows about this fact.
Nobby spends all his time trying to come up with a sceem to lock me up I found something in my wallet that i did not put there he sits in his garage with all the hardware and software to be able to hack my computer to stop me posting but you can’t stop me from posting using my Phone. Every time you get burned
you blame me your mates siren dont phase me nor do your hoddy m8 you have contracted to use againsts me. All your bullshit just slips off my back like water off a ducks back don’t blame me for your shit bigots. I’v done nothing wrong or I would be in jail with all the lying accusations you have made against me.
Ana to kai
Yes the sandflys are still dreaming that I’m going to wake up and turn into a idiot sorry not going to happen. They had 2 cops who looked like the chief of police pointing a speed camera at me on lakes boulevard Tauranga that article about the house being built in tauranga must have pissed them off well to me the people wellbeing comes first. They are pouring on there dum ass intimidation tactics today the can kiss my_______ LOL Ana to kai