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)…
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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Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
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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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzGz7zTdv74
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07lXyl9-Rs0
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)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5OA1bo1h9g
…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.