This link was posted yesterday by one of the rw idiots who frequent this site.
It’s (in my opinion) one of the more perceptive and positive articles about combatting climate catastrophe, and was, predictably, described as a totalitarian hell hole by the poster.
But BAU will end in killing us all! At least this article offers a glimmer of hope, a possible way out of the mess we’ve created for ourselves.
First, we have to nationalize the fossil fuel industry and the energy companies, bringing them under public control, just like any other essential service or utility.
We need to focus the economy on what is required for human well-being and ecological stability, rather than on corporate profits and elite consumption.
Third, we need to tax the rich out of existence.
Fourth, we need a massive public mobilization to achieve our ecological goals.
Finally, we need a strong commitment to climate reparations. Rich countries have colonized the atmosphere for their own enrichment, while inflicting the majority of the costs onto the global South.
This article deserves wider readership and comment.
A final quote:
We cannot afford to just sit back and wait to see what happens. We have to capture political power where we can, or otherwise force incumbents to change course.
Yes. Its racing towards us…at horrifying pace. Well, horrifying to ..you, me and… how many others?
For most, the prime concern is fuel the car (not public transport)….buy heaps of food (incl fast food ! ), pay the rent (to landlord/gougers), and watch the rugby, (build a new stadium Fucks sake ! ) Oh also ditch your mask…because : selfish.
And of course Clustopher Luxon's blowing his Special Dog Whistle for all he's worth…
Years ago I read an insight…for some (most?) people, the pain of their cut finger…means more than the death of thousands…."somewhere else".
Anyway…I aint gonna stop doing my best…and trying to change this.
During the review two interviewees said when they were out in the field and radioed for immediate backup because they were at risk, bully officers failed to provide backup.
"The interviewees subsequently verified that these other officers had been in radio contact and not involved in any other urgent job," the IPCA added.
The senior officer went as far as to tell the prosecutor to call the complainant (the girlfriend) and tell her there was "little evidence of an assault," the IPCA report said.
I still see this as a Top Down problem. As in the toxic culture seeps down from “some” embedded toxic Police. I wonder what happened to the Senior Policeman who “advised” the Prosecutor ?
NZ SMEs are from this month going to have to find an additional 50 million (plus) a month for the next 3 years…..how do we think that additional income will be sourced?
The government has lent around 2 billion to SMEs to help them survive the covid demand crunch..those loans were over 5 years with a 2 year grace period…as of this month they have to begin repaying them (if they havnt already, though given the circumstances most will not have)…that equates to around 50 million a month that SMEs will have to find that they previously didnt have to.
The customers of those SMEs will ultimately be funding it.
Not that Ive seen….though I expect the likes of the RBNZ are well aware of it, Treasury will have advised on it when the Gov decided to implement the scheme.
We’re one of those SMEs and don’t see the repayments as an issue. We knew it was coming and have planned accordingly
We are also incredibly grateful to our Government for the assistance. Right through the COVID emergency the aupport for our business has been sufficient to allow us to continue and transition our business to a more sustainable model in the face of a very uncertain tourism market
Traditional sources of financial support just weren’t there, and without the Government support it would have got very ugly very fast
As for any inflationary impact of the repayment, it should be deflationary as the 2 billion is going out of the economy, just what we need right now. I seem to remember Grant Robertson saying pretty much the same thing in one of the 1:00 pm briefings at the time it happened.
Pat dealt with the 2B but it's money that's going to the government presumably to pay down the debt they incurred for the programme, rather than re-circulated in the economy on goods or services.
We managed to see out our lease at the end of March and moved the Gallery totally online with a proper full service web store. We didn't have a brick and mortar business post covid, that was bleeding 5-10K / month for the 2 years which support payments assisted but our retirement savings took a huge hit, and the customer dynamic had become so toxic around masks and scanning, along with just plain nastiness, that we were glad to be out of there. Another couple of months of it and it would have killed my partner, she had enough going on with her health without crap from the public, all that kept her going was preparing to get out.
The web store we built ourselves on an online platform (Shopify) with strategic advice and some implementation funding through the Tourism Regeneration programmes. We got 5K funding for strategy and another 5K to implement that strategy, but only ended up drawing down a fraction of that because we had the time and ability to do so much ourselves. Came across a lot of people who wanted to spend the funding but couldn't identify an outcome though.
The web store is going quite well, we're making sales and Shopify's metrics say we're in the top 20% of stores that launched in the same week as us (there must be some real fizzers in the e-commerce world). Site visitors are more than we had through the gallery, and engagement is probably similar, but you don't have the same interaction that drives sales. That's making it hard for some of our more tactile lines / artists which aren't doing so well online, others are doing as well, maybe better online. a huge learning curve and we're loving it.
Cashflow and profitability are much better without the brick and mortar expenses, we're saving money and have time and weekends. But it's hard to get out of the 7 day work habits but we're getting there, kinda…
Strategy is to go back into premises once things settle with covid, and we start seeing what the future of tourism holds and can put a value on leased premises. The online store will make that easier. Way too soon to be able to do that yet, think there's more pain for the sector yet. Maybe later this year at the soonest, but more like end of next year.
Right now really happy to be at home watching it all unfold. The way covid's going, the Queenstown tourism sector could get really messed up this winter.
We dont know that 2 billion will be removed from the economy…yes the original debt will be repaid but the Government may choose to leave the money in the economy in another form….i.e. not reduce gov debt by the 2 billion paid back…but meanwhile the businesses that have to pay it back still need to earn it.
I expect that when the decision was made there was no expectation that inflation was going to be a problem 2 years into reduced demand.
Well yes, no one has a crystal ball and international ‘Events’ are certainly supplying extra stresses, but such is life everywhere.
As Graeme stated above SME’s knew this was a loan, knew this had to be repaid and planned accordingly. That seems to me to be the bare minimum that anyone taking out credit is required to do.
Unless you are suggesting a Jubilee? In which case it should be for individual debts not commercial ones.
I think there was an acknowledgement by Robertson that Government didn't expect all the borrowers to be able to repay the loan. There's provision to talk about it if you can't repay, and I know of several businesses that have gone tits up and everyone's out of pocket, particularly the owners.
But SMEs that were severely affected got a lot of cash from Government by way of Support Payments etc, which generally went to meeting existing contractual payments, like lease and loan payments. Mass defaults wouldn't have been pretty and especially with lease payments would have cascaded badly and easily taken out the economy. Justifiable support for businesses and quite successful.
Sorry arkie…my reply was supposed to be to weka, however, im not advocating for a jubilee for SMEs (though I personally would benefit) I am simply pointing out that on top of all the other pressures on SMEs they from this month have to find collectively an additional 50 million a month for the next 3 years….and all that flows from that.
As is often noted the cure for high prices is high prices….read recession.
I assume that many (?) of those businesses that took a loan under this scheme may not have survived without it. Surely, businesses going belly-up is not good for the economy and wouldn’t this be inflationary?
Our unemployment would have been higher. Less tax and so it goes.
Pat it is scary to face a debt not anticipated before covid, but would you have coped without it?
Has it given you time to strengthen aspects of your business and pivot if you needed to?
Did it help cashfow, and are you now building that into your costs? Yes some inflation involved, but what would have been without it?
People have accepted we need to pay more to give people a better standard of life and to cope wth the stresses of covid.
People are making home more attractive, spending savings on what they see as essential to survive then thrive and at the same time build in a premium for borrowing and climate adjustments. You are not alone.
frankly it made no difference to my situation…like many I accepted it as I had no idea how the pandemic and its impact on the economy was going to play out. I'll also add my situation is not typical.
None of which changes the fact that there is 50 million additional dollars a month now needed within the SME sector.
I read Bowalley this morning. Rings a bell regarding Woke and Civil War. But hard to connect the dots re NZ.
"But there is one thing they will not tolerate: losing status in a place they believe is theirs. In the 21st century, the most dangerous factions are once-dominant groups facing decline.”
Think the rise of Trumpism and in NZ the Antivax crowd.
interesting read, thanks. Important to look at the other factions in NZ especially the loose collection of 'freedom' protest movements. Groundswell, the anti-mandate protests, rising white supremacy. In all of that, it's the people yet to be radicialised one way or the other that concerns me. The left/liberals appear to think that they can force people to like their values and beliefs. I don't believe this is true, and the biggest progress we could make at this point is how to engage with people who think differently from us and learn how to work with them.
"and the biggest progress we could make at this point is how to engage with people who think differently from us and learn how to work with them."
I posted this approach a couple of weeks ago, but don't know if you saw it. It was the process used in 1971 to resolve a school provision issue between a prominent black rights activist, and a Ku Klux Klan leader.
You would expect many of those on the left to possess such skills and be able to facilitate similar processes. However, I think those skills may have been undervalued and lost.
What needs to come first, is the desire to engage respectfully.
I read it, and I couldn't get past the fact that one of the most well known civil wars, the American Civl War, is described like this:
The central cause of the war was the status of slavery, especially the expansion of slavery into territories acquired as a result of the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican–American War. On the eve of the Civil War in 1860, four million of the 32 million Americans (~13%) were enslaved black people, almost all in the South.
I don't know a lot about it but presumably the super faction in that case is Lincoln and the Union demanding an end to slavery.
We'd all agree I hope that the American Civil war was inevitable and necessary because the Confederacy seceded and thankfully they and their ideologies were largely defeated.
What does Chris Trotter expect us to do in the case of New Zealand, not progress on Treaty partnership because it might offend the racists?
You can't placate these idiots. Best to make the changes and they will fall into line.
The crucial difference between the North and the South was that the economy of the plantations was essentially still pre-industrial – and like all such societies throughout history slavery was a regrettable but necessary part of life.
The northern states by contrast were too cold for the plantations and were compelled to industrialise in order to grow. And in that context the chattel slavery of the south was not necessary – burning coal in boilers replaced the raw muscle power of slaves very effectively.
It is unnecessary to introduce modern moral judgements into this. The US Civil War is best thought of as a conflict between two economic systems, one rooted in the old agricultural, sunshine based economies – and a new fossil fuel based one about to replace it.
I read a different explanation – that wages were suppressed in the South, by the availability of a cheaper alternative. This left little incentive for the kind of development that craftsmen had in the North.
Pretty sure it was here – sorry I don't recall the page.
Or you could equally argue that by industrialising the Northerners were making labour far more productive – and raising wages by comparison to the South.
I rest my argument on the simple observation that in pre-Industrial times almost all expansive societies depended on chattel slavery to succeed – because the only sources of energy available to them were essentially muscle power or burning wood or charcoal. And while domesticating animals like horses or cattle harnessed lots of useful power in a rural setting – anything indoors or complex needed humans to accomplish. The problem was not so much economic as thermodynamic.
By contrast once a society was able to harness steam power and to mechanise it – essentially the primal forms of automation – chattel slavery within several generations disappears and never returns.
Industrialisation in the South in the form of the cotton gin resulted in an explosion of slave labour.
The invention of the cotton gin caused massive growth in the production of cotton in the United States, concentrated mostly in the South. Cotton production expanded from 750,000 bales in 1830 to 2.85 million bales in 1850. As a result, the region became even more dependent on plantations that used black slave labor.
While it took a single slave about ten hours to separate a single pound of fiber from the seeds, a team of two or three slaves using a cotton gin could produce around fifty pounds of cotton in just one day. The number of slaves rose in concert with the increase in cotton production, increasing from around 700,000 in 1790 to around 3.2 million in 1850.
Because of its inadvertent effect on American slavery, and on its ensuring that the South's economy developed in the direction of plantation-based agriculture (while encouraging the growth of the textile industry elsewhere, such as in the North), the invention of the cotton gin is frequently cited as one of the indirect causes of the American Civil War.
For the first generation of cotton gins this would be true – but very quickly they became more sophisticated and mechanised, needing less and less labour to run. Modern textile machinery is almost completely automated to an astonishing extent. No slaves needed to operate them – indeed it will usually be skilled and rather well paid operators and maintenance techs.
The transition to industrialisation was complex and had many moving parts running on different timelines – and the resulting social and economic shifts were turbulent. But once you have gotten through it, no-one sane wants to revert back to the previous conditions.
Ok. I thought for a moment you were saying industrialisation ended slavery, but I pointed to an example where industrialisation actually increased slavery.
Also, Victorian Britain during the industrial revolution was about as exploitative of labour as you can get in modern times. Ever read Dickens?
It is not industrial revolution which ends practices like slavery and exploitation, it is social revolution.
I thought for a moment you were saying industrialisation ended slavery, but I pointed to an example where industrialisation actually increased slavery.
For a period yes – but the key to understanding slavery is that yes it harnesses muscle power – but unlike domesticated animals it also harnesses intelligence. So as I explained above the first generation of primitive machines did increase slavery for a period, but then very quickly after that it was eliminated once their mechanisms became more sophisticated and required less labour to run.
Modern highly automated textile machines requiring no direct labour – and certainly no slaves.
It is not industrial revolution which ends practices like slavery and exploitation, it is social revolution.
So why then did 'social revolution' only occur after the industrial revolution? You had 10,000 years of known history for your social revolution to eliminate slavery – but either it never happened or in those few locations where it did fall out of favour, it never stuck for one reason or another.
The Wikipedia article I linked to says the cotton gin caused a massive increase in slave numbers from 700,000 in 1790 to 3.2 million in 1850. On the eve of the US civil war in 1860, 4 million of the 32 million inhabitants were enslaved (13%). When was it the more sophisticated machines eliminated slavery?
I imagine because the industrial revolution accelerated exploitation for private profit, as shown in the example of the cotton gin. Industry bosses would have carried on were it not for the demands of social conscience.
I know the point you are trying to make, that it is businessmen and engineers responsible for ending all the world’s ills.
I’m saying it social and political movements just like the ones Trotter is decrying in the article ianmac posted @ 4.
"Up to twelve times less risk of contamination in the classroom if there is air purifier" If there is an air purifier in the classroom, the chance of a child infecting another child with the coronavirus decreases by a factor of twelve.
This is evident from the first results of the project of engineer Bert Blocken (KU Leuven / TU Eindhoven), virologist Marc Van Ranst (KU Leuven) and Leen Peeters (Th! Nk E), in which air purifiers were placed in classrooms. Blocks gives the concrete example of a class with 25 students. If an infected student airborne the other 24 students in a class without an air purifier, he would only infect two if the class is equipped with a filter.
The engineer bases this calculation on an internationally recognized formula that determines the risk of infection. In order to be able to assess the risk of contamination with and without air purifiers even more accurately, additional data is needed, Blocken emphasizes.
The project therefore runs until the end of December this year. A total of 100 schools participate: 47 in Flanders, 3 in Wallonia and 50 in the Netherlands. A total of one thousand classrooms are monitored: 500 received a filter, 500 did not.
Ah. Marc Van Ranst. Famous he is as that guy hired to scare the Belgian population into compliance during the 2009 H1N1 epidemic. Cold, calculating and deeply cynical bastard who boasts about the importance of timing and the imperative of gaining and exploiting 100% capture of mainstream media.
A proud Big Pharma shill…he heavily promoted the new vaccine, and he jokes in this speech how many people protested that the new vaccine was unsafe and the pandemic response was over egged.
However….IN MARCH, 2012 A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE in the rate of childhood narcolepsy associated with the influenza vaccine Pandemrix (GlaxoSmithKline) was reported in Finland.1 ….
but …
...the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control commissioned two reports to investigate the rates of narcolepsy in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. The report concluded that:2
There was no increase in the rates of narcolepsy due to the 2009 pandemic itself
An increase in the rate of childhood narcolepsy in Finland and Sweden had occurred with Pandemrix vaccination
There was no detectable association between influenza vaccination and childhood or adult narcolepsy in the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, Norway* and Denmark**
A significantly increased risk of narcolepsy in adults, associated with Pandemrix vaccination did occur in France, although the risk of selection bias could not be excluded. This result should be interpreted with caution and is being investigated further. https://bpac.org.nz/bpj/2013/april/h1n1-vaccination.aspx
Despite inconsistencies across age groups and countries that tended to suggest the risk of childhood narcolepsy associated with Pandemerix was exaggerated, this vaccine is no longer given to under 20 year olds.
Van Ranst's contemptuous manipulation of the Belgian population during the 2009 epidemic, his overweening ego and his smug demeanor actually created a fertile breeding ground for a lack of trust in the responses to the current shit-show. People have long memories.
As is typical of such persons…he hasn't learned from his past blunders.
ok, so what's the connection between the Air Purifiers in Schools project and Joe's tweet?
Have you spent much time cooking over open fires or inside on smokey fires? It's hard on the lungs, eyes and skin, which improves with ventilation. Can't see the connection here either. Smoke and viruses are completely different challenges to the human body.
Its his name that leapt out at me when I scanned joe90's post. I'm pretty sure the expression 'mind-fuckery' was invented to describe his (Mr Van Ranst's) tactics during the 2009 pandemic. Some folks might think that the circumstances warranted such callous and unethical manipulation of the population, but it had such a negative effect at the time that it effectively (and ironically) inoculated a sizeable portion of the population against such campaigns. He did more harm than good (in some peoples opinion) with respect to uniting the nation against a killer virus. Folks don't like being manipulated and don't enjoy being treated like fuckwits. Unless they're of very nervous constitutions and fear has incapacitated their thought processes.
For him to speak as he did at the Chatham House gig in early 2019 … fwiw I found it almost obscene. A person with such obvious deep disdain of the population should not, in my opinion, be in charge of setting the tone and rallying the troops in the face of a national or worldwide health crisis. Yet there he is.
And speaking of inappropriate message delivery, there's another 'scientist' with a seeming fixation for treating the population like infants (and acting like a dork)…
…that has stepped up to terrify us out of breathing.
After that painful little effort you'd think a performer scientist would quietly fade away into the mists. Or the smoke. But no…here he is telling us that there's almost certain death or disability in every particle of someone else's breath we may inhale.
For goodness sakes. We human beings have been doing this cohabiting and breathing thing for eons. Rather than population annihilation we have a planet bulging at the seams. Metaphorically speaking. Surely we can collate and process the knowledge gathered over this time to issue some simple and suitably non-scary advice.
Open the windows and doors and let the fresh air circulate. In your home, your workplace, in a vehicle.
Cover coughs and sneezes you dirty buggers. Don't do that disgusting hoick and spit thing so beloved of sportspeople. And as for the blowing snot forcibly from the nostril onto the footpath or playing field….off with his head!!
If you feel you are at risk from Te Virus, or any virus, or any other nasty pathogen, then for heaven's sake wear a mask. Wear two. Mount a fan on your head to force the breath of others away from yourself. Wear gloves and goggles and a full body condom if that will make you feel safe.
But for the Goddess's sake…don't force healthy folk to do likewise.
Our immune systems are more efficient than we have been led to believe. Let the healthy get on with their lives. Let the children and young people breathe the air and exercise their immune systems. Or is the plan to actually weaken the population?
ok, so no connection between Joe's tweet and Marc Van Ranst other than something obscure about some dude you don't like.
Open the windows and doors and let the fresh air circulate. In your home, your workplace, in a vehicle.
This more than anything tells me you are way off base. We're getting regular snow on the hills and heavy frosts this winter. Suggesting that opening windows and doors is a replacement for masks and filtration is daft.
MHRV delivers outside filtered fresh air into your building without creating uncomfortable drafts and mitigates excessive demand on your heating and cooling systems.
The health benefits to the occupants cannot be understated.
Protects your internal building and furnishing investment.
Modern airtight buildings need to ventilate to remove moisture, CO2 and dirty air more than ever before. For those who have investigated ventilation, understand that MHRV is not only the best option to ensure a clean environment, but also in achieving thermal comfort
The incoming air is filtered before it is introduced into the buildings. MHRV has two airflows (supply & exhaust) that pass one another parallel within the heat-recovery heat exchanger without mixing physically. The heat from "stale" extracted outgoing air is transferred to the "fresh" air introduced from outside.
The overall MHRV process exhausts moisture laden air from wet rooms such as bathrooms, kitchen, laundries and supplies fresh air into all habitable living areas and bedrooms. Thereby replacing the need for independent bathroom and laundry extraction fans.
I put an early version of one of these into one our rental units 20 years ago as an experiment. While I was local and able to service the filters it worked really well, but I turned it off when we came to Aus.
Basic systems are not terribly expensive and a tiny fraction of the total build cost. Essentially they allow you to 'open the windows' and get fresh air into the dwelling – without freezing your arse off.
In other words, you flip your lid at a research project that is still in progress in Belgium and the Netherlands aimed at reducing Covid-19 infections in classrooms through air purification because you recall something one of the three core members may have said/done in 2009.
And you flip your lid at an aerosol chemist from Auckland who’s trying to inform and educate us about the air we breathe. Are there no bounds to your bias and negativity and have you lost all sound perspective on causes that you choose to be upset by?
Have you ever seen the crap (aka soot) that they trap in filters in those measuring stations in downtown Auckland to measure air pollution? The outside air is not as ‘fresh’ as you seem to think it is.
And while we're on the topic of Pure Air….how on earth did we humans survive the caves? And smoked filled earth lodges through winter?
We developed respiratory diseases.
Here, we have argued that the extensive changes to human ecology and unprecedented physiological consequences brought about by the controlled use of fire in the Pleistocene created ideal conditions for the emergence of TB. It is possible that during this period of significant ecological and social change, range extensions leading to the consumption of novel food sources and altered energy requirements increased exposure of early humans to the natural reservoir of ancestral MTBC, likely the soil. This increased exposure brought about an increasing number of infections and stuttering transmission chains, both of which provided new opportunities for within-host adaptive evolution. Coupled with increasing host-susceptibility to mycobacterial infection attributable to biomass smoke-induced lung damage and the increased opportunities for transmission brought about by the developing social culture that fire use encouraged, we hypothesize that the MTBC precursor evolved an R0 greater than unity relatively quickly, almost guaranteeing MTBC's emergence as a specialized human pathogen.
Histological assessment of the lungs of ancient human mummies has shown that anthracosis was a regular disorder in many ancient societies, including the Egyptian, Peruvian, and Aleutian. The only human mummy recovered from ancient Rome (the so-called Grotta Rossa mummy) shows severe anthracosis despite the young age of the person at the time of death.
Thus, indoor pollution produced chronic reduction of the function of the ciliated respiratory epithelium with an increase in the incidence of inflammatory disease of the pulmonary tree. Therefore, the idea that air pollution and its effects is an exclusively modern phenomenon is probably incorrect.
what's the connection between Joe's tweet and Marc Van Ranst?
There's no connection. Just the usual extremist fuckery.
In the last months of 2020, several Flemish newspapers also published articles about Van Ranst’s 2019 lecture, commenting on how the video corresponds to how he managed communication in the event of a new health crisis.
Mid-December, former president of the Flemish extreme-right Vlaams Belang party, Filip Dewinter, posted a compilation video with excerpts from Van Ranst’s conference in London.
[…]
What actually happened?
On 22 January 2019, Van Ranst took part in a conference of the “Centre on Global Health Security” at Chatham House in partnership with the European Scientific Group on Influenza (ESWI).
The conference was held “to mark the 100th anniversary of the influenza pandemic and to discuss future challenges,” Chatham House told RTBF. “It was a full-day event with guest speakers, including Marc Van Ranst, who spoke about communication in the event of a pandemic.”
In his speech, which lasted just over 23 minutes and can be watched in full here, Van Ranst explained how he managed crisis communication during the outbreak of the swine flu in 2009.
Back then, the authorities were very concerned about the swine flu – the H1N1 virus – and they took great precautions, including the mass purchase of vaccines. However, the announced epidemic proved to be much less severe than initially feared.
In front of an audience of experts, Van Ranst explained how he made sure he was the reference point for various media during that period, using the slogan “one voice, one message.”
“You have to be omnipresent, the first day or days,” he said. “In order to attract the attention of the media, you make an agreement with them: you will tell them everything, and if they call you, you pick up the phone.”
He explained that, by doing so, there will be maximum coverage, and the media will not look for alternative voices. “If you do that, it will be much easier to convey the message.”
Falling over yourself to shoot a messenger while failing to do the research, again, because you’ve already found enough ammunition to blow the other sucker out of the water, metaphorically speaking.
Pandemrix (Pandemic Influenza Vaccine), suspension for injection GlaxoSmithKline (NZ) Ltd
Consent is given subject to the following restriction:
The vaccine may only be marketed, or distributed in accordance with the directives contained in the current version of the New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Action Plan.
An association was found in 2010 between narcolepsy and one H1N1 pandemic vaccine (Pandemrix, an adjuvanted vaccine not licensed or used in New Zealand). Data from various European countries support a temporal link.[118, 119, 120] The onset of narcolepsy may be confounded by other factors, such as genetic predisposition, A(H1N1)pdm09 influenza and/or other environmental factors.[121, 122, 123] A 2018 systematic review found that although the risk of narcolepsy type 1 increased in association with this particular vaccine, it remains a rare disease and the benefit of the influenza vaccination outweighs the risk.[124] [my italics]
The investigations led to a vaccine Pandemrix, that featured a specific adjuvant, which is a means to enhance the impact of the vaccine. It turned out that the vaccine was working as a trigger for young people in Scandinavia who had a genetic predisposition to narcolepsy.
Some comments do not age well. This from well known sports expert on Kiwblog, Kimbo. On the Irish Rugby TV You Tube site. On the comments section of the first test highlights.
Kimbo
13 days ago
You can clearly see NZ is the stronger and faster team. Ireland competitive but not close contest.
The key thing being Ireland were the better "team". They were clearly more organised on both attack and defence from set play. Thus they had better go forward (Sexton and Aki had it all over Barrett and Havili) – while we had individual athletes (ASavea AIoane and WJordan). And the MOM was Beirne for his breakdown disruption.
Some parallels in winning both in rugby and politics:
1. It's not about hair styles, or posturing.
2. Choose a wise and charismatic leader as captain. Appoint good selectors who in turn should select good team players.
3 Get good advice and have a plan B. If plan B doesn't work, then going back to plan A probably won't either.
4, Safe hands. Don't drop the ball. Keep the opposition pinned well in their half. It's only a game of two halves if you are losing!
5. Discipline and commitment. Turn up, practise, maintain fitness.
6. Support, encourage, have self belief. Never underestimate the opposition.
7. Revisit your strategies, and try to please your fans. The role of the commentators and writers is fairest when neutral. While the referee is fair, learn and play by the rules. The public can be fickle, but you need their money, support and attendance.
8. Remember you will lose eventually. That's the time to relearn 1-7.
And business confidence will plummet, domestic abuse will rise and Mac1 will celebrate his fourth generation Irishness, to the dismay of his walking companions this morning.
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Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
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This link was posted yesterday by one of the rw idiots who frequent this site.
It’s (in my opinion) one of the more perceptive and positive articles about combatting climate catastrophe, and was, predictably, described as a totalitarian hell hole by the poster.
But BAU will end in killing us all! At least this article offers a glimmer of hope, a possible way out of the mess we’ve created for ourselves.
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/11/what-would-it-look-like-if-we-treated-climate-change-as-an-actual-emergency
Some selective quotes:
This article deserves wider readership and comment.
A final quote:
Yes. Its racing towards us…at horrifying pace. Well, horrifying to ..you, me and… how many others?
For most, the prime concern is fuel the car (not public transport)….buy heaps of food (incl fast food ! ), pay the rent (to landlord/gougers), and watch the rugby, (build a new stadium Fucks sake ! ) Oh also ditch your mask…because : selfish.
And of course Clustopher Luxon's blowing his Special Dog Whistle for all he's worth…
Years ago I read an insight…for some (most?) people, the pain of their cut finger…means more than the death of thousands…."somewhere else".
Anyway…I aint gonna stop doing my best…and trying to change this.
Stalin (I think) said: "One death a tragedy, a million deaths, a statistic!"
Which goes a long way to explaining why we simply cannot (yet) envisage an end to the human species!
1000+ Psycling Left. Always
I still see this as a Top Down problem. As in the toxic culture seeps down from “some” embedded toxic Police. I wonder what happened to the Senior Policeman who “advised” the Prosecutor ?
Back of the envelope thought for the day.
NZ SMEs are from this month going to have to find an additional 50 million (plus) a month for the next 3 years…..how do we think that additional income will be sourced?
details and context would help.
K.
The government has lent around 2 billion to SMEs to help them survive the covid demand crunch..those loans were over 5 years with a 2 year grace period…as of this month they have to begin repaying them (if they havnt already, though given the circumstances most will not have)…that equates to around 50 million a month that SMEs will have to find that they previously didnt have to.
The customers of those SMEs will ultimately be funding it.
Inflationary? (on top of everything else)
that doesn't sound good. Have MSM been talking about this?
Not that Ive seen….though I expect the likes of the RBNZ are well aware of it, Treasury will have advised on it when the Gov decided to implement the scheme.
We’re one of those SMEs and don’t see the repayments as an issue. We knew it was coming and have planned accordingly
We are also incredibly grateful to our Government for the assistance. Right through the COVID emergency the aupport for our business has been sufficient to allow us to continue and transition our business to a more sustainable model in the face of a very uncertain tourism market
Traditional sources of financial support just weren’t there, and without the Government support it would have got very ugly very fast
As for any inflationary impact of the repayment, it should be deflationary as the 2 billion is going out of the economy, just what we need right now. I seem to remember Grant Robertson saying pretty much the same thing in one of the 1:00 pm briefings at the time it happened.
how is the 2B going out of the economy?
What did you do re a more sustainable model if you don't mind sharing?
Pat dealt with the 2B but it's money that's going to the government presumably to pay down the debt they incurred for the programme, rather than re-circulated in the economy on goods or services.
We managed to see out our lease at the end of March and moved the Gallery totally online with a proper full service web store. We didn't have a brick and mortar business post covid, that was bleeding 5-10K / month for the 2 years which support payments assisted but our retirement savings took a huge hit, and the customer dynamic had become so toxic around masks and scanning, along with just plain nastiness, that we were glad to be out of there. Another couple of months of it and it would have killed my partner, she had enough going on with her health without crap from the public, all that kept her going was preparing to get out.
The web store we built ourselves on an online platform (Shopify) with strategic advice and some implementation funding through the Tourism Regeneration programmes. We got 5K funding for strategy and another 5K to implement that strategy, but only ended up drawing down a fraction of that because we had the time and ability to do so much ourselves. Came across a lot of people who wanted to spend the funding but couldn't identify an outcome though.
The web store is going quite well, we're making sales and Shopify's metrics say we're in the top 20% of stores that launched in the same week as us (there must be some real fizzers in the e-commerce world). Site visitors are more than we had through the gallery, and engagement is probably similar, but you don't have the same interaction that drives sales. That's making it hard for some of our more tactile lines / artists which aren't doing so well online, others are doing as well, maybe better online. a huge learning curve and we're loving it.
Cashflow and profitability are much better without the brick and mortar expenses, we're saving money and have time and weekends. But it's hard to get out of the 7 day work habits but we're getting there, kinda…
Strategy is to go back into premises once things settle with covid, and we start seeing what the future of tourism holds and can put a value on leased premises. The online store will make that easier. Way too soon to be able to do that yet, think there's more pain for the sector yet. Maybe later this year at the soonest, but more like end of next year.
Right now really happy to be at home watching it all unfold. The way covid's going, the Queenstown tourism sector could get really messed up this winter.
Ultimately deflationary….I suspect not so in terms of CPI.
Profit seeking knows no bounds.
We dont know that 2 billion will be removed from the economy…yes the original debt will be repaid but the Government may choose to leave the money in the economy in another form….i.e. not reduce gov debt by the 2 billion paid back…but meanwhile the businesses that have to pay it back still need to earn it.
I expect that when the decision was made there was no expectation that inflation was going to be a problem 2 years into reduced demand.
Events.
Well yes, no one has a crystal ball and international ‘Events’ are certainly supplying extra stresses, but such is life everywhere.
As Graeme stated above SME’s knew this was a loan, knew this had to be repaid and planned accordingly. That seems to me to be the bare minimum that anyone taking out credit is required to do.
Unless you are suggesting a Jubilee? In which case it should be for individual debts not commercial ones.
I think there was an acknowledgement by Robertson that Government didn't expect all the borrowers to be able to repay the loan. There's provision to talk about it if you can't repay, and I know of several businesses that have gone tits up and everyone's out of pocket, particularly the owners.
But SMEs that were severely affected got a lot of cash from Government by way of Support Payments etc, which generally went to meeting existing contractual payments, like lease and loan payments. Mass defaults wouldn't have been pretty and especially with lease payments would have cascaded badly and easily taken out the economy. Justifiable support for businesses and quite successful.
I make no judgement on the effectiveness or need for the scheme and I have no trouble repaying the loan….the original point remains.
Sorry arkie…my reply was supposed to be to weka, however, im not advocating for a jubilee for SMEs (though I personally would benefit) I am simply pointing out that on top of all the other pressures on SMEs they from this month have to find collectively an additional 50 million a month for the next 3 years….and all that flows from that.
As is often noted the cure for high prices is high prices….read recession.
I assume that many (?) of those businesses that took a loan under this scheme may not have survived without it. Surely, businesses going belly-up is not good for the economy and wouldn’t this be inflationary?
Our unemployment would have been higher. Less tax and so it goes.
Pat it is scary to face a debt not anticipated before covid, but would you have coped without it?
Has it given you time to strengthen aspects of your business and pivot if you needed to?
Did it help cashfow, and are you now building that into your costs? Yes some inflation involved, but what would have been without it?
People have accepted we need to pay more to give people a better standard of life and to cope wth the stresses of covid.
People are making home more attractive, spending savings on what they see as essential to survive then thrive and at the same time build in a premium for borrowing and climate adjustments. You are not alone.
frankly it made no difference to my situation…like many I accepted it as I had no idea how the pandemic and its impact on the economy was going to play out. I'll also add my situation is not typical.
None of which changes the fact that there is 50 million additional dollars a month now needed within the SME sector.
ditto.
Think the rise of Trumpism and in NZ the Antivax crowd.
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2022/07/rumours-of-civil-war.html
interesting read, thanks. Important to look at the other factions in NZ especially the loose collection of 'freedom' protest movements. Groundswell, the anti-mandate protests, rising white supremacy. In all of that, it's the people yet to be radicialised one way or the other that concerns me. The left/liberals appear to think that they can force people to like their values and beliefs. I don't believe this is true, and the biggest progress we could make at this point is how to engage with people who think differently from us and learn how to work with them.
"and the biggest progress we could make at this point is how to engage with people who think differently from us and learn how to work with them."
I posted this approach a couple of weeks ago, but don't know if you saw it. It was the process used in 1971 to resolve a school provision issue between a prominent black rights activist, and a Ku Klux Klan leader.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/04/05/ann-atwaters-amazing-rise-poverty-teen-pregnancy-best-enemies-stardom/
You would expect many of those on the left to possess such skills and be able to facilitate similar processes. However, I think those skills may have been undervalued and lost.
What needs to come first, is the desire to engage respectfully.
There seems little evidence that this exists.
about to have a read, here's a free access version
https://archive.ph/BPV6C
Really moving reading about this. brought a tear to my eye. Thanks for posting Weka
good read. Both sides needed to change their approach, yeah?
would love to know what happened when they met with the kids. Have you watched the film?
Yes, on Netflix at the moment.
Had watched a documentary which had Ann Atwater and Claiborne Ellis on it a while ago and remembered the story.
The man called in to facilitate the charette is worth researching too:
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/the-inherent-value-of-a-charrette-a-discussion-with-bill-riddick
He's written a handbook of the process:
https://www.amazon.com/Charrette-Handbook-Bill-Lennertz/dp/1611901472
I think the recent work with marginalised groups was aimed at this, but "Soft on crime" is the meme which often derails it.
I think this is different. You are working with groups in opposition.
The work with gangs is analysis and solution oriented.
username typo
Thanks, late night phone fat finger syndrome.
I read it, and I couldn't get past the fact that one of the most well known civil wars, the American Civl War, is described like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
I don't know a lot about it but presumably the super faction in that case is Lincoln and the Union demanding an end to slavery.
We'd all agree I hope that the American Civil war was inevitable and necessary because the Confederacy seceded and thankfully they and their ideologies were largely defeated.
What does Chris Trotter expect us to do in the case of New Zealand, not progress on Treaty partnership because it might offend the racists?
You can't placate these idiots. Best to make the changes and they will fall into line.
The crucial difference between the North and the South was that the economy of the plantations was essentially still pre-industrial – and like all such societies throughout history slavery was a regrettable but necessary part of life.
The northern states by contrast were too cold for the plantations and were compelled to industrialise in order to grow. And in that context the chattel slavery of the south was not necessary – burning coal in boilers replaced the raw muscle power of slaves very effectively.
It is unnecessary to introduce modern moral judgements into this. The US Civil War is best thought of as a conflict between two economic systems, one rooted in the old agricultural, sunshine based economies – and a new fossil fuel based one about to replace it.
You call for us not to judge Confederates because they were too agricultural to know any better.
Future generations of Kiwis might call not to judge Groundswell & Co. for the same reason.
I read a different explanation – that wages were suppressed in the South, by the availability of a cheaper alternative. This left little incentive for the kind of development that craftsmen had in the North.
Pretty sure it was here – sorry I don't recall the page.
Or you could equally argue that by industrialising the Northerners were making labour far more productive – and raising wages by comparison to the South.
I rest my argument on the simple observation that in pre-Industrial times almost all expansive societies depended on chattel slavery to succeed – because the only sources of energy available to them were essentially muscle power or burning wood or charcoal. And while domesticating animals like horses or cattle harnessed lots of useful power in a rural setting – anything indoors or complex needed humans to accomplish. The problem was not so much economic as thermodynamic.
By contrast once a society was able to harness steam power and to mechanise it – essentially the primal forms of automation – chattel slavery within several generations disappears and never returns.
Industrialisation in the South in the form of the cotton gin resulted in an explosion of slave labour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_gin
For the first generation of cotton gins this would be true – but very quickly they became more sophisticated and mechanised, needing less and less labour to run. Modern textile machinery is almost completely automated to an astonishing extent. No slaves needed to operate them – indeed it will usually be skilled and rather well paid operators and maintenance techs.
The transition to industrialisation was complex and had many moving parts running on different timelines – and the resulting social and economic shifts were turbulent. But once you have gotten through it, no-one sane wants to revert back to the previous conditions.
Ok. I thought for a moment you were saying industrialisation ended slavery, but I pointed to an example where industrialisation actually increased slavery.
Also, Victorian Britain during the industrial revolution was about as exploitative of labour as you can get in modern times. Ever read Dickens?
It is not industrial revolution which ends practices like slavery and exploitation, it is social revolution.
I thought for a moment you were saying industrialisation ended slavery, but I pointed to an example where industrialisation actually increased slavery.
For a period yes – but the key to understanding slavery is that yes it harnesses muscle power – but unlike domesticated animals it also harnesses intelligence. So as I explained above the first generation of primitive machines did increase slavery for a period, but then very quickly after that it was eliminated once their mechanisms became more sophisticated and required less labour to run.
Modern highly automated textile machines requiring no direct labour – and certainly no slaves.
It is not industrial revolution which ends practices like slavery and exploitation, it is social revolution.
So why then did 'social revolution' only occur after the industrial revolution? You had 10,000 years of known history for your social revolution to eliminate slavery – but either it never happened or in those few locations where it did fall out of favour, it never stuck for one reason or another.
I know the point you are trying to make, that it is businessmen and engineers responsible for ending all the world’s ills.
I’m saying it social and political movements just like the ones Trotter is decrying in the article ianmac posted @ 4.
The article you linked to answers your question.
Blame whoever you like for high fuel prices but oil companies know demand for their product is waning.
https://twitter.com/climate/status/1546955682225819648
If Ian Foster is still All Black Coach next year please, please schedule the election before the Quarter Finals start.
1000+ Barfly.
Masks and filtration work.
"Up to twelve times less risk of contamination in the classroom if there is air purifier" If there is an air purifier in the classroom, the chance of a child infecting another child with the coronavirus decreases by a factor of twelve.
This is evident from the first results of the project of engineer Bert Blocken (KU Leuven / TU Eindhoven), virologist Marc Van Ranst (KU Leuven) and Leen Peeters (Th! Nk E), in which air purifiers were placed in classrooms. Blocks gives the concrete example of a class with 25 students. If an infected student airborne the other 24 students in a class without an air purifier, he would only infect two if the class is equipped with a filter.
The engineer bases this calculation on an internationally recognized formula that determines the risk of infection. In order to be able to assess the risk of contamination with and without air purifiers even more accurately, additional data is needed, Blocken emphasizes.
The project therefore runs until the end of December this year. A total of 100 schools participate: 47 in Flanders, 3 in Wallonia and 50 in the Netherlands. A total of one thousand classrooms are monitored: 500 received a filter, 500 did not.
google translation
https://www.hln.be/wetenschap-en-planeet/tot-twaalf-keer-minder-risico-op-besmetting-in-de-klas-als-er-luchtreiniger-is~a82b2594/
The Belgian/Dutch Air purification in the classroom project in English.
https://www.aircleaningintheclassroom.eu/
edit:
We need to protect youngsters if we’re to break the cycle.
https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1546907336526237698
https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1546907353437585408
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1546907336526237698.html
Can we have ads like this?
https://twitter.com/JohnSnowProject/status/1546245019702640641
https://johnsnowproject.org/
Ah. Marc Van Ranst. Famous he is as that guy hired to scare the Belgian population into compliance during the 2009 H1N1 epidemic. Cold, calculating and deeply cynical bastard who boasts about the importance of timing and the imperative of gaining and exploiting 100% capture of mainstream media.
A proud Big Pharma shill…he heavily promoted the new vaccine, and he jokes in this speech how many people protested that the new vaccine was unsafe and the pandemic response was over egged.
However….IN MARCH, 2012 A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE in the rate of childhood narcolepsy associated with the influenza vaccine Pandemrix (GlaxoSmithKline) was reported in Finland.1 ….
but …
...the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control commissioned two reports to investigate the rates of narcolepsy in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. The report concluded that:2
Despite inconsistencies across age groups and countries that tended to suggest the risk of childhood narcolepsy associated with Pandemerix was exaggerated, this vaccine is no longer given to under 20 year olds.
Van Ranst's contemptuous manipulation of the Belgian population during the 2009 epidemic, his overweening ego and his smug demeanor actually created a fertile breeding ground for a lack of trust in the responses to the current shit-show. People have long memories.
As is typical of such persons…he hasn't learned from his past blunders.
what's the connection between Joe's tweet and Marc Van Ranst?
Van Ranst is one of the folks involved in the 'Air Purifiers in Schools' project.
With his unashamed connections to Those Who Profit from Pandemics, I'd be suspicious of any project he is involved with.
And while we're on the topic of Pure Air….how on earth did we humans survive the caves? And smoked filled earth lodges through winter?
Are we not supposed to be evolving?
We died at 30.
ok, so what's the connection between the Air Purifiers in Schools project and Joe's tweet?
Have you spent much time cooking over open fires or inside on smokey fires? It's hard on the lungs, eyes and skin, which improves with ventilation. Can't see the connection here either. Smoke and viruses are completely different challenges to the human body.
Marc Van Ranst.
Its his name that leapt out at me when I scanned joe90's post. I'm pretty sure the expression 'mind-fuckery' was invented to describe his (Mr Van Ranst's) tactics during the 2009 pandemic. Some folks might think that the circumstances warranted such callous and unethical manipulation of the population, but it had such a negative effect at the time that it effectively (and ironically) inoculated a sizeable portion of the population against such campaigns. He did more harm than good (in some peoples opinion) with respect to uniting the nation against a killer virus. Folks don't like being manipulated and don't enjoy being treated like fuckwits. Unless they're of very nervous constitutions and fear has incapacitated their thought processes.
For him to speak as he did at the Chatham House gig in early 2019 … fwiw I found it almost obscene. A person with such obvious deep disdain of the population should not, in my opinion, be in charge of setting the tone and rallying the troops in the face of a national or worldwide health crisis. Yet there he is.
And speaking of inappropriate message delivery, there's another 'scientist' with a seeming fixation for treating the population like infants (and acting like a dork)…
…that has stepped up to terrify us out of breathing.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/470690/whose-breath-are-you-breathing
After that painful little effort you'd think a
performerscientist would quietly fade away into the mists. Or the smoke. But no…here he is telling us that there's almost certain death or disability in every particle of someone else's breath we may inhale.For goodness sakes. We human beings have been doing this cohabiting and breathing thing for eons. Rather than population annihilation we have a planet bulging at the seams. Metaphorically speaking. Surely we can collate and process the knowledge gathered over this time to issue some simple and suitably non-scary advice.
But for the Goddess's sake…don't force healthy folk to do likewise.
Our immune systems are more efficient than we have been led to believe. Let the healthy get on with their lives. Let the children and young people breathe the air and exercise their immune systems. Or is the plan to actually weaken the population?
ok, so no connection between Joe's tweet and Marc Van Ranst other than something obscure about some dude you don't like.
This more than anything tells me you are way off base. We're getting regular snow on the hills and heavy frosts this winter. Suggesting that opening windows and doors is a replacement for masks and filtration is daft.
Heat Recovery Ventilation Systems
I put an early version of one of these into one our rental units 20 years ago as an experiment. While I was local and able to service the filters it worked really well, but I turned it off when we came to Aus.
Basic systems are not terribly expensive and a tiny fraction of the total build cost. Essentially they allow you to 'open the windows' and get fresh air into the dwelling – without freezing your arse off.
In other words, you flip your lid at a research project that is still in progress in Belgium and the Netherlands aimed at reducing Covid-19 infections in classrooms through air purification because you recall something one of the three core members may have said/done in 2009.
https://www.aircleaningintheclassroom.eu/over [in English]
And you flip your lid at an aerosol chemist from Auckland who’s trying to inform and educate us about the air we breathe. Are there no bounds to your bias and negativity and have you lost all sound perspective on causes that you choose to be upset by?
Have you ever seen the crap (aka soot) that they trap in filters in those measuring stations in downtown Auckland to measure air pollution? The outside air is not as ‘fresh’ as you seem to think it is.
We developed respiratory diseases.
Here, we have argued that the extensive changes to human ecology and unprecedented physiological consequences brought about by the controlled use of fire in the Pleistocene created ideal conditions for the emergence of TB. It is possible that during this period of significant ecological and social change, range extensions leading to the consumption of novel food sources and altered energy requirements increased exposure of early humans to the natural reservoir of ancestral MTBC, likely the soil. This increased exposure brought about an increasing number of infections and stuttering transmission chains, both of which provided new opportunities for within-host adaptive evolution. Coupled with increasing host-susceptibility to mycobacterial infection attributable to biomass smoke-induced lung damage and the increased opportunities for transmission brought about by the developing social culture that fire use encouraged, we hypothesize that the MTBC precursor evolved an R0 greater than unity relatively quickly, almost guaranteeing MTBC's emergence as a specialized human pathogen.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1603224113
Histological assessment of the lungs of ancient human mummies has shown that anthracosis was a regular disorder in many ancient societies, including the Egyptian, Peruvian, and Aleutian. The only human mummy recovered from ancient Rome (the so-called Grotta Rossa mummy) shows severe anthracosis despite the young age of the person at the time of death.
Thus, indoor pollution produced chronic reduction of the function of the ciliated respiratory epithelium with an increase in the incidence of inflammatory disease of the pulmonary tree. Therefore, the idea that air pollution and its effects is an exclusively modern phenomenon is probably incorrect.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)71971-1/fulltext
In NZ?
There's no connection. Just the usual extremist fuckery.
In the last months of 2020, several Flemish newspapers also published articles about Van Ranst’s 2019 lecture, commenting on how the video corresponds to how he managed communication in the event of a new health crisis.
Mid-December, former president of the Flemish extreme-right Vlaams Belang party, Filip Dewinter, posted a compilation video with excerpts from Van Ranst’s conference in London.
[…]
What actually happened?
On 22 January 2019, Van Ranst took part in a conference of the “Centre on Global Health Security” at Chatham House in partnership with the European Scientific Group on Influenza (ESWI).
The conference was held “to mark the 100th anniversary of the influenza pandemic and to discuss future challenges,” Chatham House told RTBF. “It was a full-day event with guest speakers, including Marc Van Ranst, who spoke about communication in the event of a pandemic.”
In his speech, which lasted just over 23 minutes and can be watched in full here, Van Ranst explained how he managed crisis communication during the outbreak of the swine flu in 2009.
Back then, the authorities were very concerned about the swine flu – the H1N1 virus – and they took great precautions, including the mass purchase of vaccines. However, the announced epidemic proved to be much less severe than initially feared.
In front of an audience of experts, Van Ranst explained how he made sure he was the reference point for various media during that period, using the slogan “one voice, one message.”
“You have to be omnipresent, the first day or days,” he said. “In order to attract the attention of the media, you make an agreement with them: you will tell them everything, and if they call you, you pick up the phone.”
He explained that, by doing so, there will be maximum coverage, and the media will not look for alternative voices. “If you do that, it will be much easier to convey the message.”
https://www.brusselstimes.com/155486/how-to-sell-an-epidemic-a-marc-van-ranst-conspiracy-theory-explained-chatham-house-pandemic-vlaams-belang-h1n1
QFT
Falling over yourself to shoot a messenger while failing to do the research, again, because you’ve already found enough ammunition to blow the other sucker out of the water, metaphorically speaking.
https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/riss/restrict.asp
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/immunisation-handbook-2020/11-influenza
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2022/01/24/global-guardian-for-vaccine-surveillance.html
Astute as ever.
https://twitter.com/lailaharre/status/1548165963484647424
lol
https://twitter.com/LouisHenwood/status/1548047108363628548
Some comments do not age well. This from well known sports expert on Kiwblog, Kimbo. On the Irish Rugby TV You Tube site. On the comments section of the first test highlights.
"Yeah that aged like milk"
The key thing being Ireland were the better "team". They were clearly more organised on both attack and defence from set play. Thus they had better go forward (Sexton and Aki had it all over Barrett and Havili) – while we had individual athletes (ASavea AIoane and WJordan). And the MOM was Beirne for his breakdown disruption.
It was shocking, the amount of AB passes, Smith included, that went above the shoulder, behind the shoulder, below the knee…
There were very few players running onto the ball and catching it at pace – a la league.
Far too many handling errors.
Cane still looks a little underdone for test rugby.
Then there are some selection issues, too many players playing out of their position and a roster that looks to be creaking with age.
Great performance from Ireland, their competitiveness at the breakdown and the never say die attitude even with the occasional momentum swing.
Congrats to Andy Farrell, Johnathon Sexton, coaches and players for their series win.
Some parallels in winning both in rugby and politics:
1. It's not about hair styles, or posturing.
2. Choose a wise and charismatic leader as captain. Appoint good selectors who in turn should select good team players.
3 Get good advice and have a plan B. If plan B doesn't work, then going back to plan A probably won't either.
4, Safe hands. Don't drop the ball. Keep the opposition pinned well in their half. It's only a game of two halves if you are losing!
5. Discipline and commitment. Turn up, practise, maintain fitness.
6. Support, encourage, have self belief. Never underestimate the opposition.
7. Revisit your strategies, and try to please your fans. The role of the commentators and writers is fairest when neutral. While the referee is fair, learn and play by the rules. The public can be fickle, but you need their money, support and attendance.
8. Remember you will lose eventually. That's the time to relearn 1-7.
As you well know Mac, all failures on the sporting field are down to the government.
And business confidence will plummet, domestic abuse will rise and Mac1 will celebrate his fourth generation Irishness, to the dismay of his walking companions this morning.