As a folklorist, I'm aware of the origins of the long and interesting journey this mythical figure has taken from European prehistory to today.
In European traditions, the Easter Bunny is known as the Easter Hare. The symbolism of the hare has had many tantalizing ritual and religious roles down through the years.
Hares were given ritual burials alongside humans during the Neolithic age in Europe. Archaeologists have interpreted this as a religious ritual, with hares representing rebirth.
Over a thousand years later, during the Iron Age, ritual burials for hares were common, and in 51 B.C., Julius Caesar mentions that in Britain, hares were not eaten, due to their religious significance.
Caesar would likely have known that in the Classical Greek tradition, hares were sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Meanwhile, Aphrodite's son Eros was often depicted carrying a hare, as a symbol of unquenchable desire.
From the Greek world through the Renaissance, hares often appear as symbols of sexuality in literature and art. For example, the Virgin Mary is often shown with a white hare or rabbit, symbolizing that she overcame sexual temptation. But it is in the folk traditions of England and Germany that the figure of the hare is specifically connected to Easter. Accounts from the 1600s in Germany describe children hunting for Easter eggs hidden by the Easter Hare… One tradition, known as the "Hare Pie Scramble," was held at Hallaton, a village in Leicestershire, England, which involved eating a pie made with hare meat and people "scrambling" for a slice. In 1790, the local parson tried to stop the custom due to its pagan associations, but he was unsuccessful, and the custom continues in that village until this day.
In 1835, the folklorist Jacob Grimm, one of the famous team of the fairy tale "Brothers Grimm," argued that the Easter Hare was connected with… the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, that Bede, an Anglo-Saxon monk considered to be the father of English history, mentioned in 731. Bede noted that in eighth-century England the month of April was called Eosturmonath, or Eostre Month, named after the goddess Eostre. He wrote that a pagan festival of spring in the name of the goddess had become assimilated into the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Christ.
In spring, hares are about the first little critters that poor people in Europe were allowed to hunt. All other animals were regulated to royals and their quislings. Rabbits, hares, and other rodents, pigeons and such were good food for the poor and landless.
Also, hens finally started laying eggs again, so you have meat and you have eggs. No worries about dying of starvation anymore, and it is getting warmer.
Spring time, fertility festivals galore, have the babies by end of summer, nicely fattened up to be able to survive the coming cold month of the year.
Here is an interesting video discussing three new rules of modern warfare that the Ukrainians are applying very effectively against the Russian army at the moment, and rules that the Russian army seems not to have learned.
The assumption that the Russians appear to have made in this conflict is that they would be confronting the Ukranians in conventional warfare, and that their overwhelming material superiority would quickly defeat the Ukranians.
However, as the video points out, independent analysis of photographic evidence of material losses indicates, in terms of tank losses alone, that the Russians have lost 507 tanks compared to the Ukranians 112 tanks.
More than that, the Russian losses have included 201 tanks that the Ukranians have captured from the Russians. Hence, the Ukranians have substantially increased their own armoured strength courtesy of the Russians.
Note, that, as the video points out, these figures are likely to be underestimates as they are based on what has actually been visually authenticated.
The video then discusses three new rules for warfare that the Ukranians are applying.
The first rule is that small can defeat big.
What is meant by that is small groups of soldiers armed with modern effective weapons can defeat much larger forces by using ambushes and the like to attack in unexpected ways.
The second rule is that finding beats flanking.
So, rather than try and out-manoeuvre, flanking and encircling opponents as a larger army would traditionally do, the emphasis is on accurately finding the position of enemy forces so they can be targeted effectively. As the video points out, this not only includes detailed intelligence provided by the west in this conflict, but also drones, and civilians in various areas who can use their cellphones to report back to Ukrainian headquarters the position, size, and movement of Russian forces in various areas.
The third rule is that swarming is better than surging.
Surging refers to the conventional strategy of both sides massing forces and coming together in head-on conflict. But swarming refers to identifying enemy weak points and focusing resources on attacking those weak points rather than attempting to confront a larger enemy head-on. The example given in the video is to take out the lead and end vehicles in a convoy, effectively paralysing the convoy and leaving the whole convoy vulnerable to attack, as has happened quite a few times in this conflict.
So, it seems to me that the Russians, to date, anyway, have made some really bad assumptions, and are just not up with the times so far as modern warfare goes. They have now tried to direct their war into topography that suits their style of combat, so it will be interesting to see how the Ukrainians adapt to that. The weather gods aren't helping the Russians at the moment as the weather is terrible in that area of Ukraine turning ground in to mud making it difficult to move their armour off the roads onto open ground as they would prefer to do.
Sounds a bit like the Battle of Agincourt when the French knights on horseback got bogged down in the mud and the English archers won the day. History says the night before the battle Henry V asked one of his close associates what the day would be like and the associate said trust me it will be wet my knee is telling me so. Lovely story of old.
"The example given in the video is to take out the lead and end vehicles in a convoy, effectively paralysing the convoy and leaving the whole convoy vulnerable to attack, as has happened quite a few times in this conflict………..
The weather gods aren't helping the Russians at the moment as the weather is terrible in that area of Ukraine turning ground in to mud making it difficult to move their armour off the roads onto open ground as they would prefer to do."
This whole conflict has got a bit of a "WW2" feel to it. Or even WW1, or medieval city sieges.
Quite bizarre really. Despite the technological advances the Russians have supposedly made, this war is being largely fought with old Soviet era equipment.
While this conflict is a proxy war by Nato against Russia, it is like the might of the Russian military being fought against the might of Nato's little finger as the weapon systems supplied to Ukraine that have wreaked havoc on the Russians have been basic, person-mobile equipment such as anti-tank weapons.
Hence, the reason the Russian military would be absolutely and quickly annihilated were they to come up against NATO, in a conventional war anyway.
Absolute rubbish tsmithfield. Military experts know that the Russian war with Ukraine is already decided. American experts no less. When Russia attacks in the east the Ukraine will be toast, burnt toast. Zelenski is desperate for weapons, food and everything else to wage war, they have run out and cannot be re supplied.
So far the Ukraine army has only fought the "soft" version of Russian war and have been shutdown, almost unable to wage war. The stage is being setup in the east for an all out assault by Russia and I fear they will bring a lot more force to this offensive. If Zelenski has a care for his people he will cease fire and walk out.
It seems to me also that we have been fed a stinking pile of anti-Russian propaganda. I don't like Putin, but I distrust equally that 'angelic' Ukrainian leader with the strange surname. Our general news media are not informing us well about this war. Lots of reports of Russian atrocities, but no mention of even USA intelligence people later questioning the truth of them. Just more anti-Russian dross.
Here you have a corrupt despotic authoritarian regime with no redeeming features whatsoever, who have invaded their inoffensive neighbour, and are committing multiple atrocities there, and your primary concern seems to be that press coverage may not be evenhanded!
It oughtn't to need to be mentioned that, even were Ukrainian forces as ill-disciplined in terms of atrocities as their neighbours (and there is nothing to support that supposition) the opportunities for invaders to get up to mischief are much greater than they are for defenders. So that you should expect that to be reflected in media reports, and not leap (at least in the absence of evidence) to the presumption that the forces the Russians themselves refer to as Orcs, are misunderstood innocents impugned by a Machiavellian foreign press.
But swarming refers to identifying enemy weak points and focusing resources on attacking those weak points rather than attempting to confront a larger enemy head-on.
I think the Russians have just discovered a Ukranian weak point. Apparently they have shot down a Ukranian plane that was bringing in new weapons. Perhaps the fourth lesson, which the Ukranians may soon learn, is that you can't win a war without weapons.
So the Productivity Commission is calling for a full review of GM technology regulations – the first since 2001.
Currently, GM is found only in medicines and some ingredients in imported food, like the Impossible Burger. The plant-based patty from California contains a genetically-modified ingredient, soy leghemoglobin, which makes the patty taste and even bleed like the real thing.
If it bleeds, eat it. Become so macho even the Nats will look like wimps!
“Nature must be protected from this very powerful technology, people must be protected,” said Jon Carapiet, spokesperson for GE Free NZ.
He said the tight controls on GM have served New Zealand well. “We’ve actually had a very good reputation for safe food and that’s more important than ever before,” said Carapiet.
Farmers say GM would bring big gains for them and the environment. They’re keen to enter into the debate which they say has been sidelined since the 2005 general election. “We’re at risk of missing out if we sort of refuse to partake in what the rest of the world is doing quite frankly,” said Andrew Hoggard from Federated Farmers.
Great to see the rest of the world doing something quite frankly, long may the trend continue. Should farmers sort of refuse to participate? Fudging often works as a deceit strategy, so it could be a better strategy than definitely refusing. A bob each way, as it were. Sort of agreeing as well, just to spice up the mix. Labour & National have long been adept at this so farmers ought to be able to get leverage with it.
In response to the Productivity Commission, the Government said it’s “timely to start informed conversations around New Zealand’s use of GM technologies”. But now the Environment Minister David Parker says the debate will be restricted to just medicines, saying there is still a suspicion around genetically-modified food. “It’s actually something that I share….we’ve got to be very careful in that space so we are not contemplating anything there,” Parker said.
There's a real danger of someone pointing out to him that we swallow medicines same as we swallow food, eh? No worries. Parker, with his rocket-scientist razor-sharp intellect, is sure to be able to explain the critical difference.
Yeah, good point. Parker may think of it. Would only work for pragmatists though. Purists would freak out about tiny threats (as they normally do). I presume the Health Dept would specify a ballpark safety level even if (presumably) the WHO doesn't have one yet. Or the devil in the detail may prevail in the arm-wrestle…
"This is not a way to make money," Musk told TED chief Chris Anderson. "My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization."
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO railed against what he saw as a lack of free speech on Twitter, and said Twitter should open-source its algorithm to increase transparency in the company's content moderation decisions.
"The code should be on Github so people can look through it and say, 'I see a problem here,' 'I don't agree with this,' they can highlight issues, suggest changes," said Musk.
Asked how he would change Twitter's content moderation, Musk explained that his test for whether a platform adheres to free speech principles is simple: "Is someone you don't like allowed to say something you don't like? And if that is the case, then we have free speech."
Cynics will doubt him of course, but there's a point in his favour suggesting it could be realistic to take his altruism at face value. Not born a yank. In fact, when it comes to citizenship, Musk wields a triad! An internationalist in outlook is the result.
Elon has 3 citizenships – South Africa, Canada, and the USA.
Elon Musk’s father Errol Musk was a South African citizen, and his mother Maye Musk was a Canadian citizen. In 1971, Maye Musk gave birth to her first child Elon Musk in Pretoria, South Africa. Therefore by birth, Elon is a South African citizen.
Elon got Canadian citizenship through his mother. Then he came to the US as a student from Canada. After completing a bachelor’s degree and deferring the Ph.D. for six months, Elon started an internet company – Zip2. When investors in Zip2 realized Elon does not have a green card, they helped Elon to get an EB-5 investor green card in 1997. In 2002, Elon became a US citizen through the naturalization process.
I think Ukraine is definitely winning the cost-benefit analysis of the war.
The sinking of the Moskva was probably the ultimate expression of that. It was a pretty good investment of a couple of cheap missiles to sink one of their best warships possibly valued at over a billion dollars, given that it has had quite a number of upgrades in its history despite being quite an old ship.
President Emmanuel Macron promised on Saturday to make France the "first great nation" to stop using oil, coal and gas as energy sources
Ahead of the April 24 runoff, the presidential race is being fought on the left, with both contenders seeking to attract voters who chose Melenchon in the first round last Sunday.
Macron said he would put his next prime minister directly in charge of what he called "green planning", appealing to left-wing voters' nostalgia for post-war Communist-inspired central planning while tapping into 21st century worries about climate change.
Framing that integrates past governance methods with future planning, anchoring the synthesis in a transitional present, is sophisticated politics. I suspect this triad macron is wielding will suffice to defeat his far-right opponent.
Macron can afford to take France down the Green path. About 70% of its electricity comes from Nuclear plants. He also had the sense to stop, or at least put back by many years, the program of closing the nuclear power plants down.
I'll bet the German Government are wishing that they had done the same instead of committing to closing all their nuclear stations down by the end of this year. What a shame that Angela Merkel will be remembered for that foolish path she chose to take, rather than increase the use of nuclear power in the country and be able to tell Putin where he could stick the Russian gas and oil production they send to Germany.
I'm agnostic. I reported here the pro-nuke stand of Green avatar Stewart Brand from his book some years back. Got some incoherent responses from Green fundies. However there's merit & quotable experts on both sides.
Sadly that article recycles the usual pack of talking point cards the fossil funding anti-nuclear crowd have been using for decades.
It uses out of date GenIII designs as the basis for all of its projections into the future – assuming that no progress in terms of cost and safety can ever be made.
It completely ignores that all new designs are explicitly required to take into account things such terrorist attack and cybersecurity into account. And that even if breached GenIV designs will fail safe and very local.
It falsely claims that nuclear power generates vast amounts on unmanageable radioactive waste – when the truth is that the actual volume is tiny compared to any other energy source and the current inventory is an ideal fuel for many next gen designs. Current solid fuel reactors consume barely more than 97% of the energy available and do not run to a full burn up. There are several Gen IV reactor types that can burn up almost all of this, reducing an already tiny volume of waste by a factor of 20 or more and reducing the dangerous half-life down to a few hundred years. This is readily managed by putting it down a suitable hole in the ground as the Finnish are about to do.
And finally it deliberately conflates 'next generation nuclear' with what are actually conventional PWR GenIII Plus designs like for example the APC1000. These come with no innate engineering advantages and are layered with even greater safety costs that are guaranteed to add huge cost. The article selectively picks a couple of 'first of a kind' projects as examples of cost overruns – ignoring that other nations are building similar repeat machines on budget and on-time.
And finally no mention of the rapid development already happening in the GenIV space. There are too many different types to mention here, but all of them are oriented around passive 'walk away safety', low cost factory built fabrication and a LCOE lower than coal, available on demand with no hidden requirement for massive storage and grid complexity.
This is just another weird, easily unpicked hit-piece which are a dime a dozen out there. It reminds me of the old adage that people who insist that something cannot be done, should keep out of the way of those who are doing it.
Thanks for that – it rings true. The problem with expert appraisals lies in flawed reasoning that isn't evident to anyone except the small group who have investigated to a deeper level.
When we last discussed the situation (a year ago?) I felt Gen IV was insufficiently developed. Perhaps that situation has changed in the interim.
Re your point about waste volume, I felt an internal query when I read the assertion from the Greenpeace analyst. I suspect differences on the topic depend on the framing used (total waste produced thus far vs amount produced by current optimal tech designs).
I felt Gen IV was insufficiently developed. Perhaps that situation has changed in the interim.
GenIV is progressing. The inside word I have is that we could run up a Molten Salt Reactor in less than a year if we wanted to. After all they got one running in the 1960's in less than three years as non-urgent experiment.
The big concern everyone has is that any tiny flaw or unexpected behaviour, regardless of whether it has any real safety impact, will be exploited ruthlessly by the anti-nuke lobby. For this reason the programs are progressing very cautiously. Whether you think this is a good thing or not depends on your perspective. Clearly the anti-nuke crowd may say one thing about CO2, but their actions demonstrate something different.
The German Greens being a prime example – they insist that Germany must close all of its perfectly functional nuclear reactors this year, while at the same time digging up even more coal and funding Putin's war machine with gas imports. Their words claim one thing, their actions another.
The other good news is that in just the past 18 months here has been a significant change within both the US DOE and NRC leadership with at least two very capable pro GenIV engineers – and both women to boot – appointed to senior roles. The old guard is passing.
Germany’s addiction to cheap Russian gas continues to be the first source of finance for the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. By conservative accounts, Germany is paying Moscow €50 billion a year for its energy, mostly gas.
Germany’s Green party is probably experiencing an episode of extreme cognitive dissonance right now. When the party was founded in the eighties, the Green ideology was rooted in the anti-nuclear and anti-war movement that followed World War II and the Cold War period.
Now, the Greens are finding themselves in a rather unpleasant position: Their anti-nuclear ideology is directly financing war crimes in a neighbouring country.
Green vice-chancellor Robert Habeck was seen bowing before the Emir of Qatar – a country the Germans have long decried for its human right violations – all for the sake of getting a few cargoes of climate-wrecking LNG to replace Russian gas. But the best is yet to come. Today, Habeck, who leads a super ministry combining the economy, climate and energy portfolios, will officially oversee a resurgence of coal in Germany. Yes, you heard this right.
On Wednesday (23 March), Habeck is expected to announce an agreement with Germany’s coal-producing states to mandate higher outputs of lignite – the worst-polluting form of coal – to compensate for an expected shortage of Russian gas in the coming months.
And worth linking to Thorcon again. This page gives a quick and easily understood overview of the basic ideas of Gen IV reactors in a practical form.
While Thorcon are likely to be one of the first cabs off the rank within 2 -3 years, they are not the only ones in the game. All the designs optimise for some specific set of attributes, and collectively will push the envelop forward.
How fast will depend mainly on how much funding they get.
Well the first thing I scanned for was waste disposal and I couldn't find anything. Did I miss it??
I mean from a pr pov it ought to be on the front page to engage the attention of sceptics. But when I checked this page I couldn't find it there either.
Anyone would think the website was designed by engineers to impress capitalists! Lots of focus on tech. No evident comprehension of how to change the minds of concerned citizens.
Been busy all day – only just got around to seeing this. A highly pertinent question.
As I said each developer is optimising for some specific attributes – in the case of Thorcon it is speed to market and low cost. For this reason their physics is a virtual copy of the 1960's ORNL MSRE reactor – in other words nothing fancy.
Their approach is for each station to have two reactor cans only one of which is in use. These are not pressure or containment vessels, and while manufactured to a high standard are not super expensive. The intent is that after something like 4 years they deem both the steel vessel and carbon moderator to have accumulated enough neutron damage to need replacing. (This is of course well before any serious weakening occurs.)
At that point the hot molten salt and fuel mix is simply pumped into the spare can and the old one allowed to sit for four years to allow all residual radiation to decay. At that point a specialised can ship arrives, removes the old can and drops in a new fueled one, and the process can repeat. The molten salt itself can be reused indefinitely.
The old can and moderator is returned to a dedicated reprocessing location to be recycled.
In the longer run there is a need to remove fission products from the salt, and these can be separated and returned along with the old cans. For the foreseeable future Thorcon plan to store this very small volume of material until such time as fast spectrum waste burners are available to reduce it to an absolute minimum.
Gen IV will not be just one design, it will be an eco-system of differing types. The community is generally cooperative and have annual conferences where a lot of data and progress reports are exchanged. Watching them in action is quite inspiring.
Sounds like a well thought out design. They just need to do a bit more on presentation of the recycling side of things to reassure the public & I expect it could satisfy non-involved experts, relevant govt officials, & consequently politicians.
Then there would have to be a sophisticated marketing campaign to steer the sheeple through the gate of progress.
Talking rubbish again Alwyn. You should know that if Boris supports something it can't be any good.
Energy Cost (and this is 3 years ago so solar will be much cheaper now):
Solar $36-44 mw/h
Onshore Wind $29-56 (but with high landscape wrecking costs)
Nuclear power $112-189 mw/h
“The report estimates that since 2009 the average construction time for reactors worldwide was just under 10 years, well above the estimate given by industry body the World Nuclear Association (WNA) of between 5 and 8.5 years.'
Over the past decade, the WNISR estimates levelized costs – which compare the total lifetime cost of building and running a plant to lifetime output – for utility-scale solar have dropped by 88% and for wind by 69%.
For nuclear, they have increased by 23%, it said.
Capital flows reflect that trend. In 2018, China invested $91 billion in renewables but just $6.5 billion in nuclear.”
There is a significant difference with France and Germany in terms of Carbon intensity in electricity alone.
L’Allemagne a presque 4 fois plus de renouvelables installées que la France (124GW contre 33), et émet 4 fois plus de CO2 par kWh pour son électricité. Peut-être que diminuer les émissions CO2 c’est un p’tit peu plus complexe que “investir-massivement-dans-les-renouvelables”?.:) pic.twitter.com/I8aisTNphV
I am not really sure that I should base my opinion of the benefits or otherwise of nuclear power based on what someone named Boris might have said. Still it is certainly no worse than assuming that anything Grant says about inflation's causes are total rubbish. The evidence would seem to justify that is a very good predictor so perhaps assuming that the world is also the opposite of what Boris says may not be any less accurate.
I also have my doubts about something so pretentiously named as "the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report' when I find that it is the personal views of an anti-nuclear power drum-beater rather than a genuine industry wide report which is what the name would seem to imply.
Rubbish on top of rubbish today Alwyn…..you are excelling yourself.
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report is written by:
"Seven interdisciplinary experts from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Lebanon/U.S. and the U.K., from top think tanks like Chatham House in London and prestigious universities like Harvard in Cambridge, Meiji in Tokyo and Technical University in Berlin, have contributed to the report, along with a data engineer, numerous proofreaders and two artistic designers. The foreword was provided by Frank von Hippel, Professor Emeritus of Princeton University, and Jungmin Kang, former head of the safety authority in South Korea."
But in my opinion the world would be far better off investing the hundreds of billions that will need to be spent on (very expensive and potentially dangerous) nuclear power instead on things like solar power (especially), better power/battery storage technology (especially), offshore windfarms, enhanced building techniques, building insulation, dedicated cycleways/tracks, EV's and so on.
The nuclear industry told us the first wave of nuclear power stations would sort out the world's power problems…look how that turned out.
Add to the KIAs the ones that have been relieved of their command / arrested / purged.
Admiral Igor Ossipov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet was arrested by the FSB in last couple of days.
FSB arrests the commander of the 🇷🇺 Black Sea fleet vice admiral Igor Ossipov. Obviously for the bad weather and an accidental fire on board of Moskva. 8th general out of commission by 🇺🇦 action in this war. pic.twitter.com/CU905jj9ai
"So who are the people receiving the bulk of the payments in these circumstances? Those with assets. Those with a working partner, who would not be eligible for support in the current system. Those who were previously receiving high incomes. And those who are able to rearrange their affairs with their employer in order to claim the payment – as a between work holiday or early retirement.
Now, the discussion document tries to tip-toe around these facts by acting as if the scheme is not really related to the safety net. This is patently absurd."
Final paragraph really lays out the risks of a 2 tier unemployment scheme (no matter what language you choose to use about it).
" If this gets passed, and in 10 years there is a loss of social licence for the benefit system – leading to lower unemployment benefits and greater hardship for the truly vulnerable in society – then this would be a real tangible cost."
If the working middle class perceive that the benefit system is no longer a safety net (even if a holey and uncomfortable one) for them and their children – and that, instead, they are protected by this new unemployment insurance; then what incentive is there for them to continue to fund the base level benefit – let alone support increases?
It makes it very easy to demonize those on benefits as those who 'won't work'.
While I can see the merits of an unemployment insurance scheme (not personally – I have a guaranteed job in my industry until I'm tottering on the edge of the grave) – I'm less than convinced that this is the one I could support.
Seemingly the only conclusion has to be they are no longer a workers party, they are a party of the PMC. This sarcastic rationale from the article rings true:
A 80% replacement rate, with someone on around $131,000 p.a. the largest recipient, with no test based on your partner's income, and no asset test, doesn’t really sound like a safety net – it sounds like an insurance mechanism to support public servants concerned about facing job loss following a change in government.
I see it as GR's "Kiwi Saver" legacy. He's designed something the middle class would accept so the National Party will leave it in place.
There will be those calling for different amount settings to reduce cost and therefore contribution levels and it may be trimmed back a bit …
Yes the risk is National Party will keep it, but bring in term limits and outsourced management of the lives of those on benefits (not just a lower payment regime). A workhouse and charity regime, involving second tier status of citizenship to the individual not self-reliant, working for capitalist profit or government (service/community sector).
I think the 'leave it in place' is a bit optimistic in the current climate. Bearing in mind that Robertson was planning for this in a less stressed financial environment.
Even middle-class families are struggling with price increases – yes, they have more opportunity to cut back expenditure, but they're feeling the pain right now. Many lower income workers have zilch in the way of disposable income – this levy will come out of what they can spend of food, housing, power, etc.
Of course, if Labour do secure another term – the economic climate may well be very different in 4 years – and therefore less at risk of legislative change.
But, if Labour lose the next election, then I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was dis-established.
Fortunately it has not yet been legislated ….and may well fail to be…certainly in anything like its current form.
"If a decision is made to introduce the proposed scheme, the Government would introduce legislation in 2022, and the scheme could start operating in 2023."
The benefit as the main form of social security made sense in an era of one-income households where full employment was heavily prioritised, but NZ has moved on from that, and now a lot of households are double income households that would be outside benefit entitlement if they lost one income. Since they are outside the scheme as it currently stands, the current safety net risks being outside social license now. Arguably, the attacks on social welfare and beneficiaries themselves of the past 30 years is an example of the serious reduction in license compared to the 1960s.
It's a bit like when parental leave was introduced, working women got money when they had children and at home mothers got nothing – later came WFF tax credits and then support for new mothers.
As it requires two incomes to meet rent or mortgage payments, it makes sense to provide for a non working partner between jobs (and it would have to be at a higher rate than benefits to get "middle class" contributions).
But when UI comes in, for reasons of equity, there should be the introduction of benefit payment support to existing non working partners of the employed – some of whom have sickness and disability issues not covered by ACC. Where these are at home mothers, the amount received would reduce access to tax credits received based on income and number of children.
As we have created the absurd situation where property prices are more than 10 times median income AND we deem it appropriate to protect that position then there are far more effective and equitable methods other than this proposal which fails to perform any of its listed objectives as well canvassed by Matt Nolan
To address these issues, the Forum has identified three objectives:
1. minimise the immediate financial impact of losing income and work for workers and their families
2. support workers back to good jobs
3. support the economy to adjust more rapidly to shocks or downturns.
As a trans person involved in politics, I do not need to be infantilised and nor do other trans people. We certainly must not be excused from normal safeguarding procedures. As has been explained many times, transwomen are male and we need to be subjected to the same checks as every other male. Otherwise the trans community risks becoming a magnet to men who want to avoid those checks.
Hayton is spot on there. This is good too,
The truth is that there are three vulnerable groups impacted by this debate. It’s not just about trans people – women have found themselves having to defend sex-based rights they thought were secure. Meanwhile some children who have been told that they can be the sex they want to be have have believed this, with profound consequences on their development. That is why we must keep the spotlight on the trans debate.
Made sense to me. However we need to wait & see if other experts can find a flaw. It would hinge on the notion that cereals produced hierarchy. Evidence for & against. The writer seems to feel the researchers have compliled sufficient evidence for.
Scepticism would be more likely to get traction on their inclusion of trade into the theory. Seems intuitively obvious that trade in items of mutual value would have operated independently. Inclusion would therefore depend on a separate ramping-up effect for viability…
Read this for a powerful sense of history happening since time began while we're not paying attention:
Tolstoy’s path to pacifism
No writer captures warfare in Russia more poignantly than Tolstoy, a former soldier turned Russia’s most famous pacifist. In his last work, “Hadji Murat,” which scrutinizes Russia’s colonial exploits in North Caucasus, Tolstoy showed how senseless Russian violence toward a Chechen village caused instant hatred of Russians.
Tolstoy’s greatest work about Russian warfare, “War and Peace,” is a novel that Russians have traditionally read during great wars, including World War II. In “War and Peace,” Tolstoy contends that the morale of the Russian military is the key to victory. The battles most likely to succeed are defensive ones, in which soldiers understand why they are fighting and what they are fighting to protect: their home.
[…]
In one of his most famous pacifist writings, 1900’s “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” Tolstoy presciently diagnosed the problem of today’s Russia.
“The misery of nations is caused not by particular persons, but by the particular order of Society under which the people are so bound up together that they find themselves all in the power of a few men, or more often in the power of one single man: a man so perverted by his unnatural position as arbiter of the fate and lives of millions, that he is always in an unhealthy state, and always suffers more or less from a mania of self-aggrandizement.”
🧵/link in last tweet. "C’mon there, rape Ukrainian women and don’t tell me anything. Just don’t forget about contraception!". People were shocked with this conversation between Russian soldier and his wife, tapped by SBU in Kherson region. Together with @cxemu we found them. pic.twitter.com/0IPCLnbSxu
Well this is one less for Kelvin's prisons which helps the statistics.
If he was " sentence in November last year of two years, six months in prison on charges including burglary, police chases, failing to stop, escaping custody and theft."
How the hell was he able to be out driving around?
Some good news last week with the Council confirming that Te Hā Noa – Victoria St Linear Park will go ahead and with construction starting on 11 April – though with a few fishhooks. Te Hā Noa, a renewed Victoria Street, is the next big project in Auckland Council’s Midtown ...
Stuart Nash’s assurances to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins that there were no further examples of him breaching the Cabinet Manual became meaningless with the release of emails from Nash sharing Cabinet discussions with business people. The Prime Minister had no choice but to sack Nash as a Minister with immediate ...
Hi,Just a quick online-only update after yesterday’s newsletter, How Michael Organ Weaponised the Family Court... and Sean Plunket. First up — wow. Thanks for all the support, and to all those who shared their own personal stories in the comments. And welcome to any new Webworm readers.I just wanted ...
Let that sink in for a moment - Christopher Luxon, who has spent the last year demonising Māori, wants Marama Davidson to apologise to white men.You will likely have seen the video, or read about it. Marama Davidson rushing along Princes St on Saturday evening, the road that runs between ...
Stuart Nash, the great-grandson of former Prime Minister Sir Walter Nash, has lost his political career. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Stuart Nash was sacked for telling donors what happened in Cabinet. Wellington’s City and Regional Councils are going cold on light rail plans. Wayne Brown is under ...
NZ First Leader Winston Peters is sympathising with Stuart Nash and defending him but dodging questions on whether he would be welcome in New Zealand First. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins last night sacked Nash from the Cabinet after an email he had sent to two of his campaign donors ...
So, after interfering with the police, and then interfering with immigration decisions, Stuart Nash has finally been sacked: Stuart Nash has been sacked as a minister, after Stuff revealed he had emailed business figures, including donors, detailing private Cabinet discussions. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the people Nash emailed ...
Nearly 25% of mortgages in Auckland are deemed at risk in a 1-in-100 year flood event. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Once a year, every year, from now on, in our not-so-slow-cooking climate crisis, there will be a moment when the most important number in Aotearoa’s own personal, national ...
Item One: About a confected crisis Please bear with me for a moment, readers outside Auckland, I wish to sound the klaxon. Auckland, we have until 11pm today to have our say. About what? About this, as copied and pasted from Pippa Coom’s Facebook page:The "austerity" budget is built on ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet again, the statement we were looking for could not be found on the Beehive website. Nor was it on the Scoop or Green Party websites. But – come to think of it – we are probably wasting our time by searching. Our quest is for the ...
The following is from a speech given by Arundhati Roy at the Swedish Academy on March 22, 2023, at a conference called Thought and Truth Under Pressure and reprinted from Literary Hub. I thank the Swedish Academy for inviting me to speak at this conference and for affording me the privilege ...
After almost two decades of racism, Australia is finally getting off its "stop the boats" bullshit. But don't worry, racists - Michael Wood has your back!The Government wants to increase the time it can detain without a warrant people seeking asylum en masse from four days to 28 ...
Last year, the Education and Workforce Committee recommended that the government legislate for pay transparency to prevent employers from secretly discriminating. This ought to be a bread and butter issue for Labour - discrimination sees women (and particularly Māori and Pasifika women) paid significantly less than men. But since then ...
Thomas Cranmer writes – ———— An unruly mob in Albert Park has catapulted New Zealand into the global headlines with ugly images that may become iconic in the debate about the dangers of transgenderism. ———— Bravo Kellie-Jay Keen. She did the job that needed to be done. For all the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global warming is melting the Arctic ice cap, and that’s having unforeseen effects on the world’s weather — even thousands of miles away from the North Pole. Some climate scientists have begun to link increasingly common heat waves in Europe to what is ...
Hot on the heels of the demotion of former police Minister Stuart Nash for breaching the Cabinet Manual, Radio New Zealand has revealed the close links between lobbyists and politicians- an area of New Zealand politics that is completely unregulated. The evidence in Guyon Espiner’s series Mate, Comrade, Brother, the ...
At the Auckland Transport board meeting today a series of papers really highlight the cost of sprawl. For the last few years, the Supporting Growth work has been looking at designing the strategic transport networks for future greenfield areas in the South, Northwest, North (around Dairy flat) and in Warkworth. ...
Hi,Today’s newsletter is something I’ve wanted to report for ages, but I have been waiting on a New Zealand judge to make a ruling. That ruling has been made — so here we go.Enjoy.A scene from Mister Organ.Two Police Officers Knock on My DoorOn November 4 last year, I was ...
Only three days after Nanaia Mahuta had dinner with China’s Foreign Minister, New Zealand’s intelligence chiefs were talking about state actors interfering in New Zealand politics and using ethnic communities here for espionage purposes. Neither GSCB Director (and new SIS director) Andrew Hampton nor acting SIS CEO Phil McKee ...
In what has been one of her most important diplomatic mission, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has opened the door for a visit to Beijing by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins later this year. Such a mission is regarded as vital with a new Prime Minister Li Qiang settling into office. ...
Saturday morning, we went to Albert Park.We were there to show support, to challenge words of demonisation.To repeat those words from Michèle A’Court:Making them sound “other” is a technique used by racists and homophobes to dehumanise whole groups of people who “aren’t like them”. If you dehumanise people, it is ...
Too Strong For The Law’s Web: But, if the USA is too big to punish, why isn’t the Russian Federation? Russia’s economy may be roughly the size of Italy’s, but it’s nuclear arsenal is more than capable of laying human civilisation to waste. Threatening to arrest Vladimir Putin - especially when ...
Nobody likes a fascist, except other fascist’s of course. Thankfully they were completely outnumbered in Auckland last Saturday when a supposed advocate for women’s rights, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull aka Posie Parker, tried to give a public speech about how transgender people are worthy of persecution.You can understand why Parker and her ...
On Friday I sent out a newsletter called Posie Parker vs Transgender Rights to provide information about the visit to our shores of Ms Parker. I attempted to show there were multiple points of view but on balance my sympathies were strongly with the counter protest group standing up for ...
Brian Easton writes – Evaluating the recent crashes of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and Credit Suisse in Switzerland plus two other banks (perhaps more by the time you read this) needs to begin with a review of the inevitable instability in the financial sector. The financial sector ...
Oh, the irony. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull has made a career out of inciting public hostility against the trans community, only to find herself on the receiving end of public hostility at her Auckland rally. In a further case of karmic justice, the people who brought her into the country ended up ...
In 1972, British soldiers tortured a false confession out of Liam Holden, resulting in him being given Britain's last death sentence. While it was commuted to life imprisonment, Holden was wrongly imprisoned for 17 years. Now, the courts have finally recognised that it was torture: In 1973 Liam Holden ...
Taxpayers are not only subsidising already-very-profitable private banks via the cheap ‘Funding For Lending’ loans that helped pumped up house prices in 2021, but are also paying the banks upwards of $2 billion a year in interest for cash kept with the Reserve Bank. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: ...
This weekend saw a showdown between two tribes of contemporary gender politics: those in favour of progressing transgender rights versus women wishing to defend their spaces. It’s a debate with huge passion, outrage and consequences. The figure at the centre of the clash was the British “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” Posie ...
Tomorrow the Auckland Transport board meet again. Here are some of the highlights from their board papers. The open session starts at 9am and can be watched on this Teams link. Closed Session The closed session is typically where the most interesting items are discussed. Items for Approval ...
Mutual Support: Democracy in New Zealand will not be saved by pitting Pakeha against Māori, but by joining together with every other citizen who still understands the meaning of working together to build something good that will last. Call that co-governance if you like, or call it something else – ...
Imagine being a great big business success enjoying your lavish Waiheke island property with infinity pool and ballroom and riparian rights and heli-pad. Sweeeet. But imagine, also, having to take orders from some little bureaucratic oik about how often you can land a chopper on it.I can’t, really, but it ...
Hi,New Zealand’s Life megachurch has confirmed to Webworm it was paid $10,000 by Hillsong for investigating Brian Houston’s sexual misconduct allegations.Following Webworm publishing this piece about the $10,000 payment, Life’s Corporate Communications Manager Phil Irons has confirmed what it was for:Paul [de Jong] was engaged by Hillsong to assist in ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 19, 2023 thru Sat, Mar 25, 2023. Story of the Week Q&A: IPCC wraps up its most in-depth assessment of climate change The final part of the world’s most comprehensive assessment of ...
by Daphna Whitmore I thought the #LetWomenSpeak meeting would be a good time to talk about free speech and why it is important for the left. Then the mob stampeded the open-air gathering and no one got to speak. Here’s what I was had prepared. Today I want to talk ...
By Don Franks Today my friend Ani O’Briien went to a meeting in Auckland and wrote: “No sooner had Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull arrived at the Rotunda, a protestor (who had managed to get past the barrier) ran at her and threw a red substance all over her and a security ...
Jonathan Milne, managing editor for Newsroom Pro, has expressed his indignation about the outcome of a court decision yesterday in an article headed Posie Parker wins the beautiful freedom to make an ugly argument.Newsroom Pro laments: High Court Justice David Gendall has regretfully allowed an outspoken anti-trans activist to enter New ...
imagine my surprise this week when the National Party, in their infinite wisdom, decided to release an education policy. As you can imagine, this got us so riled up here in the office that we dusted off our Windows XP laptop, waiting 17 hours for all the updates to be ...
Come on Jess thought Mr Evans come on. He watched the large clock on the wall tick closer to 8:40am. Come on girl.In two minutes he had to submit the class attendance report and with Jess having already been late once that term it’d mean an automatic visit from the ...
This week’s UN IPCC report warned climate emissions will need to be cut by almost half by 2030, if warming is to be limited to 1.5°C. Bronwyn Hayward points out in The Hoon podcast how far behind NZ’s government and councils are now on climate action compared to the rest ...
Chris Hipkins, after he became prime minister, committed to defeating the cost-of- living crisis. He proceeded to make a bonfire of policies that were at the heart of Jacinda Ardern’s administration. But, as Richard Prebble pointed out this week, “the government has not just U-turned, it has repudiated the ...
There are some wellness, crystal-gazing, holistic spiritual guidance types in my disaster-hit coastal community who insist that the power of positive thinking will overcome the physical and material damages incurred by the community. They object to restrictions on road travel … Continue reading → ...
Evaluating the recent crashes of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and Credit Suisse in Switzerland plus two other banks (perhaps more by the time you read this) needs to begin with a review of the inevitable instability in the financial sector. The financial sector is inherently unstable, like military ...
1. We see here new police minister Ginny Andersen. Which larger than life NZ political figure was her great-uncle?a. Rob Muldoonb. Bill Andersenc. Richard John Seddond. Norman Kirk2. We see here archival footage of Ginny Andersen coming out of her electorate office to ask ex-tobacco lobbyist Chris Bishop if he ...
Buzz from the Beehive Stuart Nash, speaking as Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, one of his remaining portfolios after he was dropped down the Hipkins Government batting order, has drawn attention to the blue economy and its potential. Nash says the government is investing in the blue economy, or – ...
Photo by Josh Mills on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:The runs on Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank on the west coast of the United States that forced the ...
Roundup is back! We skipped last week’s Friday post due to a shortage of person-power – did you notice? Lots going on out there… Our header image this week shows a green street that just happens to be Queen St, by @chamfy from Twitter. This week (and last) in ...
After threatening Prime Minister Chris Hipkins of consequences if he dared to bar her entry, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull has been given her visa, regardless. This will enable her to hold rallies in Auckland and Wellington this weekend, and spread her messages of hostility against an already marginalised trans community. Neo-Nazis may, ...
* Bryce Edwards writes – The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as ...
Boomers voted him in, but Brown’s Trumpish moments might spook Aucklanders worried about what a change to National nationally might mean. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR:Auckland MayorWayne Brown has become our version of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, except without any of the insatiable appetite for media appearances. He ...
The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as part of its Aukus pact with the ...
Recently you might have heard of a person called Posie Parker and her visit to Aotearoa. Perhaps you’re not quite sure what it’s all about. So let’s start with who this person is, why their visit is controversial, and what on earth a TERF is.Posie Parker is the super villain ...
The chair of Parliament’s Select Committee looking at the Government’s resource management legislation wants the bills sent back for more public consultation. The proposal would effectively kill any chance of the bills making it into law before the election. Green MP, Eugenie Sage, stressing that she was speaking as ...
Open access notables The United States experienced some historical low temperature records during the just-concluded winter. It's a reminder that climate and weather are quite noisy; with regard to our warming climate,, as with a road ascending a mountain range we may steadily change our conditions but with lots of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The Nanny State has scored some wins (or claimed them) in the past day or two but it faltered when it came to protecting Kiwi citizens from being savaged by one woman armed with a sharp tongue. The wins are recorded by triumphant ministers on the ...
Sometimes you see your friends making the case so well on social media you think: just copy and share.On acceptance and decency, from Michèle A’CourtA notable thing about anti-trans people is they way they talk about transgender women and men as though they are strangers “over there” when in fact ...
Not that long ago, things were looking pretty good for climate change policy in Aotearoa. We finally had an ETS, and while it was full of pork and subsidies, it was delivering high and ever-rising carbon prices, sending a clear message to polluters to clean up or shut down. And ...
Comparing (and switching) electricity providers has become easier, but bundling power up with broadband and/or gas makes it more challenging. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā TL;DR: The new Consumer Advocacy Council set up as a result of the Labour Government’s Electricity Price Review in 2019 has called on either ...
Hokitika-based Westland Milk Products has put the heat on dairy giant Fonterra with a $120m profit turnaround in 2022, driven by record sales. Westland paid its suppliers a 10c premium above the forecast Fonterra price per kilo, contributing $535m to the West Coast and Canterbury economies. The dairy ...
* Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public ...
New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public office and becoming lobbyists and ...
This is a guest post by accessibility and sustainable transport advocate Tim Adriaansen It originally appeared here. A friend calls you and asks for your help. They tell you that while out and about nearby, they slipped over and landed arms-first. Now their wrist is swollen, hurting like ...
Floating offshore wind turbines offer incredible opportunities to capture powerful winds far out at sea. By unlocking this wind energy potential, they could be a key weapon in our arsenal in the fight against climate change. But how developed are these climate fighting clean energy giants? And why do I ...
Over the past two or three weeks, a procession of Maori iwi and hapu in a series of little-noticed appearances before two Select Committees have been asking for more say for Maori over resource management decisions along the co-governance lines of Three Waters. Their submissions and appearances run counter ...
The decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue war crimes arrest warrants for the Russian President and the Russia Children Ombudsman may have been welcomed by the ideologically committed but otherwise seems to have been greeted with widespread cynicism (see Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants ...
Let’s say you’re clasping your drink at a wedding, or a 40th, or a King’s Birthday Weekend family reunion and Drunk Uncle Kevin has just got going.He’s in an expansive frame of mind because we’re finally rid of that silly girl. But he wants to ask an honest question about ...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon may be feeling glum about his poll ratings, but he could be tapping into a rich political vein in describing the current state of education as “alarming”. Luxon said educational achievement has been declining, with a recent NCEA pilot exposing just how far it has ...
Way Beyond Reform: Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have no more interest in remaining permanent members of “New Zealand’s” House of Representatives than did Lenin and Trotsky in remaining permanent members of Tsar Nicolas II’s “democratically-elected” Duma. Like the Bolsheviks, Te Pāti Māori is a party of revolutionaries – not reformists.THE CROWN ...
Buzz from the Beehive Auckland was wiped off the map, when Education Minister Jan Tinetti delivered her speech of welcome as host of the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers “here in Tāmaki Makaurau”. But – fair to say – a reference was made later in the speech to a ...
Morning mate, how you going?Well, I was watching the news last night and they announced this scientific report on Climate Change. But before they got to it they had a story about the new All Blacks coach.Sounds like important news. It’s a bit of a worry really.Yeah, they were talking ...
The Government’s decision to introduce ‘mass arrivals’ legislation goes against the values we all share of Aotearoa as a place where all people are treated fairly, the Green Party says. ...
MINISTER DAVIDSON MUST RESIGN AFTER 'VIOLENCE' COMMENTS Marama Davidson should stand down as ‘Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence’ for the clear and outrageous statement she made at the Posie Parker protest that ‘white straight men’ are the cause of violence. Her offensive, racist, and sexist remarks ...
In response to Newshub and Amelia Wade’s obvious and ham-fisted attempt at a typical and predicted political hit job. As any politically aware reporter would know, any Cabinet subcommittee has a duty and obligation as a part of any government to respond to any UN declaration, in this case ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today and in your busy lives turning up to this meeting. Forty five years ago, in Howick, often described as racist, and where few Maori lived because it had been a ‘Fencible’ settlement at the time of the Anglo-Maori ...
The Green Party has marked the National Party’s new education policy and given it a fail, especially for its failure to address the underlying drivers of school performance. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
“Cabinet needs to do better - and today has shown exactly why we need Green Ministers in cabinet, so we can prioritise action to cut climate pollution and support people to make ends meet,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. ...
Biggest increase in food prices for over three decades shows the need for an excess profit tax on corporations to help people put food on the table. ...
The Government today announced far-reaching changes to the way we make, use, recycle and dispose of waste, ushering in a new era for New Zealand’s waste system. The changes will ensure that where waste is recycled, for instance by households at the kerbside, it is less likely to be contaminated ...
New legislation passed by the Government today will make it harder for gangs and their leaders to benefit financially from crime that causes considerable harm in our communities, Minister of Justice Kiri Allan says. Since the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 came into effect police have been highly successful in ...
This evening I have advised the Governor-General to dismiss Stuart Nash from all his ministerial portfolios. Late this afternoon I was made aware by a news outlet of an email Stuart Nash sent in March 2020 to two contacts regarding a commercial rent relief package that Cabinet had considered. In ...
Legislation to enable more build-to-rent developments has passed its third reading in Parliament, so this type of rental will be able to claim interest deductibility in perpetuity where it meets the requirements. Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods, says the changes will help unlock the potential of the build-to-rent sector and ...
A law passed by Parliament today exempts employers from paying fringe benefit tax on certain low emission commuting options they provide or subsidise for their staff. “Many employers already subsidise the commuting costs of their staff, for instance by providing car parks,” Environment Minister David Parker said. “This move supports ...
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Closer Economic Relations (CER), our gold standard free trade agreement between New Zealand and Australia. “CER was a world-leading agreement in 1983, is still world-renowned today and is emblematic of both our countries’ commitment to free trade. The WTO has called it the world’s ...
The Government is making procedural changes to the Immigration Act to ensure that 2013 amendments operate as Parliament intended. The Government is also introducing a new community management approach for asylum seekers. “While it’s unlikely we’ll experience a mass arrival due to our remote positioning, there is no doubt New ...
The Government welcomes progress on public sector pay adjustment (PSPA) agreements, and the release of the updated public service pay guidance by the Public Service Commission today, Minister for the Public Service Andrew Little says. “More than a dozen collective agreements are now settled in the public service, Crown Agents, ...
The Government has introduced the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill to further support the recovery and rebuild from the recent severe weather events in the North Island. “We know from our experiences following the Canterbury and Kaikōura earthquakes that it will take some time before we completely understand the ...
Further assistance is now available to businesses impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle, with Customs able to offer payment plans and to remit late-payments, Customs Minister Meka Whaitiri has announced. “This is part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to assist economic recovery in the regions,” Meka Whaitiri said. “Cabinet has approved the ...
More than 41,000 sole parent families will be better off with a median gain of $20 a week Law change estimated to help lift up to 14,000 children out of poverty Child support payments will be passed on directly to people receiving a sole parent rate of main benefit, making ...
A major investment by Government-owned New Zealand Green Investment Finance towards electrifying the public bus fleet is being welcomed by Climate Change Minister James Shaw. “Today’s announcement that NZGIF has signed a $50 million financing deal with Kinetic, the biggest bus operator in Australasia, to further decarbonise public transport is ...
A world-leading payments system is expected to provide a significant cash flow boost for Kiwi innovators, Minister of Research, Science, and Innovation Ayesha Verrall says. Announcing that applications for ‘in-year’ payments of the Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI) were open, Ayesha Verrall said it represented a win for businesses ...
Minister of Transport Michael Wood joined crowds of keen cyclists and walkers this morning to celebrate the completion of the Te Awa shared path in Hamilton. “The Government is upgrading New Zealand’s transport system to make it safer, greener, and more efficient for now and future generations to come,” Michael ...
Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little has delivered the Crown apology to Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua for its historic breaches of Te Tiriti of Waitangi today. The ceremony was held at Queen Elizabeth Park in Masterton, hosted by Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua, with several hundred ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta has concluded her visit to China, the first by a New Zealand Foreign Minister since 2018. The Minister met her counterpart, newly appointed State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Qin Gang, who also hosted a working dinner. This was the first engagement between the two ...
World-class satellite positioning services that will support much safer search and rescue, boost precision farming, and help safety on construction sites through greater accuracy are a significant step closer today, says Land Information Minister Damien O’Connor. Damien O’Connor marked the start of construction on New Zealand’s first uplink centre for ...
Attorney-General David Parker has announced the appointment of Christopher John Dellabarca of Wellington, Dr Katie Jane Elkin of Wellington, Caroline Mary Hickman of Napier, Ngaroma Tahana of Rotorua, Tania Rose Williams Blyth of Hamilton and Nicola Jan Wills of Wellington as District Court Judges. Chris Dellabarca Mr Dellabarca commenced his ...
Tēnā koutou katoa. Can I begin by thanking Gary Taylor, Raewyn Peart and others in the EDS team for their herculean work in support of the environment. I’d also like to acknowledge Hon Simon Upton, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, my parliamentary colleagues, and the many activists here who strive ...
A new Government-backed project will help ocean-related businesses in the Nelson Tasman region to accelerate their growth and boost jobs. “The Nelson Tasman region is home to more than 400 blue economy businesses, accounting for more than 30 percent of New Zealand’s economic activity in fishing, aquaculture, and seafood processing,” ...
After three years of COVID-19 disruptions schools are finally settling down and National want to throw that all in the air with major disruption to learning and underinvestment. “National’s education policy lacks the very thing teachers, parents and students need after a tough couple of years, certainty and stability,” Education ...
People aged over 50 with innovative business ideas will now be able to receive support to advance their ideas to the next stage of development, Minister for Seniors Ginny Andersen said today. “Seniors have some great entrepreneurial ideas, and this programme will give them the support to take that next ...
A cross government target for relevant government procurement contracts for goods and services to be awarded to Māori businesses annually will increase to 8%, after the initial 5% target was exceeded. The progressive procurement policy was introduced in 2020 to increase supplier diversity, starting with Māori businesses, for the estimated ...
77,000 fewer children living in low income households on the after-housing-costs primary measure since Labour took office Eight of the nine child poverty measures have seen a statistically significant reduction since 2018. All nine have reduced 28,700 fewer children experiencing material hardship since 2018 Measures taken by the Government during ...
Deputy Prime Minister Kamikamica; distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Tēnā koutou katoa, ni sa bula vinaka saka, namaste. Deputy Prime Minister, a very warm welcome to Aotearoa. I trust you have been enjoying your time here and thank you for joining us here today. To all delegates who have travelled to be ...
$2.9 million convertible loan for Scapegrace Distillery to meet growing national and international demand $4.5m underwrite to support Silverlight Studios’ project to establish a film studio in Wanaka Gore’s James Cumming Community Centre and Library to be official opened tomorrow with support of $3m from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery ...
[CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā tangata katoa, o moana-nui-a-kiwa, E ngā mate, haere, haere, haere atū ra, manuia lau Malaga. Thank you for the kind introduction and opportunity to join you this morning. It is always good to be here in Aukilani, where I ...
E nga mana, e nga reo, e nga iwi, tēnā koutou katoa. Talofa lava and thank you Catherine, for the warm welcome. I’m sorry that I can’t be there in person today but it’s great for the opportunity to contribute virtually. I’d like to start by acknowledging: Alzheimers New Zealand, ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has today launched the first national EV (electric vehicle) charging strategy, Charging Our Future, which includes plans to provide EV charging stations in almost every town in New Zealand. “Our vision is for Aotearoa New Zealand to have world-class EV charging infrastructure that is accessible, affordable, ...
Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment Priyanca Radhakrishnan has today launched the Love Better campaign in a world-leading approach to family harm prevention. Love Better will initially support young people through their experience of break-ups, developing positive and life-long attitudes to dealing with hurt. “Over 1,200 young kiwis told ...
Hon Rino Tirikatene, Minister for Courts, welcomes the Ministry of Justice’s appointment of Dr Garry Clearwater as New Zealand’s first Chief Clinical Advisor working with the Coroners Court. “This appointment is significant for the Coroners Court and New Zealand’s wider coronial system.” Minister Tirikatene said. Through Budget 2022, the Government ...
The Government via the Cyclone Taskforce is working with local government and insurance companies to build a picture of high-risk areas following Cyclone Gabrielle and January floods. “The Taskforce, led by Sir Brian Roche, has been working with insurance companies to undertake an assessment of high-risk areas so we can ...
E te huia kaimanawa, ko Ngāpuhi e whakahari ana i tau aupikinga ki te tihi o te maunga. Ko te Ao Māori hoki e whakanui ana i a koe te whakaihu waka o te reo Māori i roto i te Ao Ture. (To the prized treasure, it is Ngāpuhi who ...
113,400 exits into work in the year to June 2022 Young people are moving off Benefit faster than after the Global Financial Crisis Two reports released today by the Ministry of Social Development show the Government’s investment in the COVID-19 response helped drive record numbers of people off Benefits and ...
The Government’s priority to keep New Zealand at the cutting edge of food production and lift our sustainability credentials continues by backing the next steps of a hi-tech vertical farming venture that uses up to 95 per cent less water, is climate resilient, and pesticide-free. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visited ...
E nga mana, e nga iwi, e nga reo, e nga hau e wha, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou kātoa. Warm Pacific greetings to all. It is an honour to host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers here in Tāmaki Makaurau. Aotearoa is delighted to be hosting you ...
The new renal unit at Taranaki Base Hospital has been officially opened by the Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall this afternoon. Te Huhi Raupō received around $13 million in government funding as part of Project Maunga Stage 2, the redevelopment of the Taranaki Base Hospital campus. “It’s an honour ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has marked the arrival of the country’s second P-8A Poseidon aircraft alongside personnel at the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Base at Ohakea today. “With two of the four P-8A Poseidons now on home soil this marks another significant milestone in the Government’s historic investment in ...
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Australia has drawn closer to traditional allies the US and UK by inking its nuclear submarine deal. Meanwhile our foreign minister's just returned from China where some delicate diplomacy has been deployed. The geopolitical chess game in the Indo-Pacific has become increasingly complicated in recent weeks. In the latest ...
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Mandating domestic violence training for family court judges to ensure they have the evidence-based expertise to do their jobs appropriately does not threaten judicial independence - it enhances it, argues Carrie Leonetti Opinion: Since their inception about 50 years ago, family courts around the world have been subject to the nearly universal ...
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By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Private security companies are currently holding Papua New Guinea together with the largest workforce of 29,445 and supporting the police in managing law and order issues. There are only 6832 policemen and women serving the country currently, according to reports. Internal Security Minister Peter ...
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Just in case of grandchildren asking where did it come from…
In spring, hares are about the first little critters that poor people in Europe were allowed to hunt. All other animals were regulated to royals and their quislings. Rabbits, hares, and other rodents, pigeons and such were good food for the poor and landless.
Also, hens finally started laying eggs again, so you have meat and you have eggs. No worries about dying of starvation anymore, and it is getting warmer.
Spring time, fertility festivals galore, have the babies by end of summer, nicely fattened up to be able to survive the coming cold month of the year.
That makes me wonder if the British religious aversion to eating hares that Caesar wrote about was pre-Celtic, pre-Bronze Age. Indigenous.
But yeah, I take the point about economic resilience. Survival skills.
Here is an interesting video discussing three new rules of modern warfare that the Ukrainians are applying very effectively against the Russian army at the moment, and rules that the Russian army seems not to have learned.
The assumption that the Russians appear to have made in this conflict is that they would be confronting the Ukranians in conventional warfare, and that their overwhelming material superiority would quickly defeat the Ukranians.
However, as the video points out, independent analysis of photographic evidence of material losses indicates, in terms of tank losses alone, that the Russians have lost 507 tanks compared to the Ukranians 112 tanks.
More than that, the Russian losses have included 201 tanks that the Ukranians have captured from the Russians. Hence, the Ukranians have substantially increased their own armoured strength courtesy of the Russians.
Note, that, as the video points out, these figures are likely to be underestimates as they are based on what has actually been visually authenticated.
The video then discusses three new rules for warfare that the Ukranians are applying.
The first rule is that small can defeat big.
What is meant by that is small groups of soldiers armed with modern effective weapons can defeat much larger forces by using ambushes and the like to attack in unexpected ways.
The second rule is that finding beats flanking.
So, rather than try and out-manoeuvre, flanking and encircling opponents as a larger army would traditionally do, the emphasis is on accurately finding the position of enemy forces so they can be targeted effectively. As the video points out, this not only includes detailed intelligence provided by the west in this conflict, but also drones, and civilians in various areas who can use their cellphones to report back to Ukrainian headquarters the position, size, and movement of Russian forces in various areas.
The third rule is that swarming is better than surging.
Surging refers to the conventional strategy of both sides massing forces and coming together in head-on conflict. But swarming refers to identifying enemy weak points and focusing resources on attacking those weak points rather than attempting to confront a larger enemy head-on. The example given in the video is to take out the lead and end vehicles in a convoy, effectively paralysing the convoy and leaving the whole convoy vulnerable to attack, as has happened quite a few times in this conflict.
So, it seems to me that the Russians, to date, anyway, have made some really bad assumptions, and are just not up with the times so far as modern warfare goes. They have now tried to direct their war into topography that suits their style of combat, so it will be interesting to see how the Ukrainians adapt to that. The weather gods aren't helping the Russians at the moment as the weather is terrible in that area of Ukraine turning ground in to mud making it difficult to move their armour off the roads onto open ground as they would prefer to do.
Rewriting history, Russian style:
Sounds a bit like the Battle of Agincourt when the French knights on horseback got bogged down in the mud and the English archers won the day. History says the night before the battle Henry V asked one of his close associates what the day would be like and the associate said trust me it will be wet my knee is telling me so. Lovely story of old.
As Shakespeare wrote in Henry V (who led the English at Agincourt
"That's a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion."
"The example given in the video is to take out the lead and end vehicles in a convoy, effectively paralysing the convoy and leaving the whole convoy vulnerable to attack, as has happened quite a few times in this conflict………..
The weather gods aren't helping the Russians at the moment as the weather is terrible in that area of Ukraine turning ground in to mud making it difficult to move their armour off the roads onto open ground as they would prefer to do."
Those are WW2 lessons lol
This whole conflict has got a bit of a "WW2" feel to it. Or even WW1, or medieval city sieges.
Quite bizarre really. Despite the technological advances the Russians have supposedly made, this war is being largely fought with old Soviet era equipment.
While this conflict is a proxy war by Nato against Russia, it is like the might of the Russian military being fought against the might of Nato's little finger as the weapon systems supplied to Ukraine that have wreaked havoc on the Russians have been basic, person-mobile equipment such as anti-tank weapons.
Hence, the reason the Russian military would be absolutely and quickly annihilated were they to come up against NATO, in a conventional war anyway.
Absolute rubbish tsmithfield. Military experts know that the Russian war with Ukraine is already decided. American experts no less. When Russia attacks in the east the Ukraine will be toast, burnt toast. Zelenski is desperate for weapons, food and everything else to wage war, they have run out and cannot be re supplied.
So far the Ukraine army has only fought the "soft" version of Russian war and have been shutdown, almost unable to wage war. The stage is being setup in the east for an all out assault by Russia and I fear they will bring a lot more force to this offensive. If Zelenski has a care for his people he will cease fire and walk out.
It seems to me also that we have been fed a stinking pile of anti-Russian propaganda. I don't like Putin, but I distrust equally that 'angelic' Ukrainian leader with the strange surname. Our general news media are not informing us well about this war. Lots of reports of Russian atrocities, but no mention of even USA intelligence people later questioning the truth of them. Just more anti-Russian dross.
It was unfair of Ukraine, hosting this war going into summer, negating Russia's only reliable move – "Retreat until the winter snows come".
May I remind you it was Russia that determined when this war would start, not the Ukraine?
Or maybe you just wanted to add to the russophobe avalanche with a weak joke?
It's a curious construction, your 'Russophobia'.
Here you have a corrupt despotic authoritarian regime with no redeeming features whatsoever, who have invaded their inoffensive neighbour, and are committing multiple atrocities there, and your primary concern seems to be that press coverage may not be evenhanded!
It oughtn't to need to be mentioned that, even were Ukrainian forces as ill-disciplined in terms of atrocities as their neighbours (and there is nothing to support that supposition) the opportunities for invaders to get up to mischief are much greater than they are for defenders. So that you should expect that to be reflected in media reports, and not leap (at least in the absence of evidence) to the presumption that the forces the Russians themselves refer to as Orcs, are misunderstood innocents impugned by a Machiavellian foreign press.
But swarming refers to identifying enemy weak points and focusing resources on attacking those weak points rather than attempting to confront a larger enemy head-on.
I think the Russians have just discovered a Ukranian weak point. Apparently they have shot down a Ukranian plane that was bringing in new weapons. Perhaps the fourth lesson, which the Ukranians may soon learn, is that you can't win a war without weapons.
So the Productivity Commission is calling for a full review of GM technology regulations – the first since 2001.
If it bleeds, eat it. Become so macho even the Nats will look like wimps!
Great to see the rest of the world doing something quite frankly, long may the trend continue. Should farmers sort of refuse to participate? Fudging often works as a deceit strategy, so it could be a better strategy than definitely refusing. A bob each way, as it were. Sort of agreeing as well, just to spice up the mix. Labour & National have long been adept at this so farmers ought to be able to get leverage with it.
There's a real danger of someone pointing out to him that we swallow medicines same as we swallow food, eh? No worries. Parker, with his rocket-scientist razor-sharp intellect, is sure to be able to explain the critical difference.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/04/16/genetic-modification-review-being-called-for-reigniting-debate/
"There's a real danger of someone pointing out to him that we swallow medicines same as we swallow food, eh?"
How's this for a danger? There's several orders of magnitude different in the volume involved eh?
You know one part per hundred versus one part per million et cetera.
Yeah, good point. Parker may think of it. Would only work for pragmatists though. Purists would freak out about tiny threats (as they normally do). I presume the Health Dept would specify a ballpark safety level even if (presumably) the WHO doesn't have one yet. Or the devil in the detail may prevail in the arm-wrestle…
Already got enough.
Cynics will doubt him of course, but there's a point in his favour suggesting it could be realistic to take his altruism at face value. Not born a yank. In fact, when it comes to citizenship, Musk wields a triad! An internationalist in outlook is the result.
Turkey says they plucked 54 out of the briny but hey, let's take Moscow's word because it's not like they lie about absolutely every fucking thing.
Russia has said all of the 500 crew were rescued after the blast late on Wednesday.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/head-russian-navy-meets-crew-sunken-missile-cruiser-tass-2022-04-16/
I think Ukraine is definitely winning the cost-benefit analysis of the war.
The sinking of the Moskva was probably the ultimate expression of that. It was a pretty good investment of a couple of cheap missiles to sink one of their best warships possibly valued at over a billion dollars, given that it has had quite a number of upgrades in its history despite being quite an old ship.
Dennis Frank, you don't mean this, do you? "Great to see the rest of the world doing something quite frankly, long may the trend continue." Very good!
The ole double-entendre (deployed with non-risqué intent) to be frank. But thanks to the farmer rep for providing the basis.
Something else to be factored into our new health management paradigm.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/16/vaccines-long-covid-science?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Macron goes Green:
Framing that integrates past governance methods with future planning, anchoring the synthesis in a transitional present, is sophisticated politics. I suspect this triad macron is wielding will suffice to defeat his far-right opponent.
Macron can afford to take France down the Green path. About 70% of its electricity comes from Nuclear plants. He also had the sense to stop, or at least put back by many years, the program of closing the nuclear power plants down.
I'll bet the German Government are wishing that they had done the same instead of committing to closing all their nuclear stations down by the end of this year. What a shame that Angela Merkel will be remembered for that foolish path she chose to take, rather than increase the use of nuclear power in the country and be able to tell Putin where he could stick the Russian gas and oil production they send to Germany.
Perhaps, but a careful examination of the pros & cons suggests it isn't really a clear-cut choice: https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/52758/reasons-why-nuclear-energy-not-way-green-and-peaceful-world/
I'm agnostic. I reported here the pro-nuke stand of Green avatar Stewart Brand from his book some years back. Got some incoherent responses from Green fundies. However there's merit & quotable experts on both sides.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Discipline
Sadly that article recycles the usual pack of talking point cards the fossil funding anti-nuclear crowd have been using for decades.
This is just another weird, easily unpicked hit-piece which are a dime a dozen out there. It reminds me of the old adage that people who insist that something cannot be done, should keep out of the way of those who are doing it.
Thanks for that – it rings true. The problem with expert appraisals lies in flawed reasoning that isn't evident to anyone except the small group who have investigated to a deeper level.
When we last discussed the situation (a year ago?) I felt Gen IV was insufficiently developed. Perhaps that situation has changed in the interim.
Re your point about waste volume, I felt an internal query when I read the assertion from the Greenpeace analyst. I suspect differences on the topic depend on the framing used (total waste produced thus far vs amount produced by current optimal tech designs).
I felt Gen IV was insufficiently developed. Perhaps that situation has changed in the interim.
GenIV is progressing. The inside word I have is that we could run up a Molten Salt Reactor in less than a year if we wanted to. After all they got one running in the 1960's in less than three years as non-urgent experiment.
The big concern everyone has is that any tiny flaw or unexpected behaviour, regardless of whether it has any real safety impact, will be exploited ruthlessly by the anti-nuke lobby. For this reason the programs are progressing very cautiously. Whether you think this is a good thing or not depends on your perspective. Clearly the anti-nuke crowd may say one thing about CO2, but their actions demonstrate something different.
The German Greens being a prime example – they insist that Germany must close all of its perfectly functional nuclear reactors this year, while at the same time digging up even more coal and funding Putin's war machine with gas imports. Their words claim one thing, their actions another.
The other good news is that in just the past 18 months here has been a significant change within both the US DOE and NRC leadership with at least two very capable pro GenIV engineers – and both women to boot – appointed to senior roles. The old guard is passing.
Green political dreams vs the real world:
Ah, the cruelty of fate…
And worth linking to Thorcon again. This page gives a quick and easily understood overview of the basic ideas of Gen IV reactors in a practical form.
While Thorcon are likely to be one of the first cabs off the rank within 2 -3 years, they are not the only ones in the game. All the designs optimise for some specific set of attributes, and collectively will push the envelop forward.
How fast will depend mainly on how much funding they get.
Well the first thing I scanned for was waste disposal and I couldn't find anything. Did I miss it??
I mean from a pr pov it ought to be on the front page to engage the attention of sceptics. But when I checked this page I couldn't find it there either.
https://thorconpower.com/environment/
Anyone would think the website was designed by engineers to impress capitalists! Lots of focus on tech. No evident comprehension of how to change the minds of concerned citizens.
Been busy all day – only just got around to seeing this. A highly pertinent question.
As I said each developer is optimising for some specific attributes – in the case of Thorcon it is speed to market and low cost. For this reason their physics is a virtual copy of the 1960's ORNL MSRE reactor – in other words nothing fancy.
Their approach is for each station to have two reactor cans only one of which is in use. These are not pressure or containment vessels, and while manufactured to a high standard are not super expensive. The intent is that after something like 4 years they deem both the steel vessel and carbon moderator to have accumulated enough neutron damage to need replacing. (This is of course well before any serious weakening occurs.)
At that point the hot molten salt and fuel mix is simply pumped into the spare can and the old one allowed to sit for four years to allow all residual radiation to decay. At that point a specialised can ship arrives, removes the old can and drops in a new fueled one, and the process can repeat. The molten salt itself can be reused indefinitely.
The old can and moderator is returned to a dedicated reprocessing location to be recycled.
In the longer run there is a need to remove fission products from the salt, and these can be separated and returned along with the old cans. For the foreseeable future Thorcon plan to store this very small volume of material until such time as fast spectrum waste burners are available to reduce it to an absolute minimum.
Gen IV will not be just one design, it will be an eco-system of differing types. The community is generally cooperative and have annual conferences where a lot of data and progress reports are exchanged. Watching them in action is quite inspiring.
Sounds like a well thought out design. They just need to do a bit more on presentation of the recycling side of things to reassure the public & I expect it could satisfy non-involved experts, relevant govt officials, & consequently politicians.
Then there would have to be a sophisticated marketing campaign to steer the sheeple through the gate of progress.
Fair point. Overcoming the PR problem is a far harder problem than the tech.
Talking rubbish again Alwyn. You should know that if Boris supports something it can't be any good.
Energy Cost (and this is 3 years ago so solar will be much cheaper now):
Solar $36-44 mw/h
Onshore Wind $29-56 (but with high landscape wrecking costs)
Nuclear power $112-189 mw/h
“The report estimates that since 2009 the average construction time for reactors worldwide was just under 10 years, well above the estimate given by industry body the World Nuclear Association (WNA) of between 5 and 8.5 years.'
Over the past decade, the WNISR estimates levelized costs – which compare the total lifetime cost of building and running a plant to lifetime output – for utility-scale solar have dropped by 88% and for wind by 69%.
For nuclear, they have increased by 23%, it said.
Capital flows reflect that trend. In 2018, China invested $91 billion in renewables but just $6.5 billion in nuclear.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-energy-nuclearpower-idUSKBN1W909J
There is a significant difference with France and Germany in terms of Carbon intensity in electricity alone.
I am not really sure that I should base my opinion of the benefits or otherwise of nuclear power based on what someone named Boris might have said. Still it is certainly no worse than assuming that anything Grant says about inflation's causes are total rubbish. The evidence would seem to justify that is a very good predictor so perhaps assuming that the world is also the opposite of what Boris says may not be any less accurate.
I also have my doubts about something so pretentiously named as "the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report' when I find that it is the personal views of an anti-nuclear power drum-beater rather than a genuine industry wide report which is what the name would seem to imply.
To each his own though.
Rubbish on top of rubbish today Alwyn…..you are excelling yourself.
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report is written by:
"Seven interdisciplinary experts from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Lebanon/U.S. and the U.K., from top think tanks like Chatham House in London and prestigious universities like Harvard in Cambridge, Meiji in Tokyo and Technical University in Berlin, have contributed to the report, along with a data engineer, numerous proofreaders and two artistic designers. The foreword was provided by Frank von Hippel, Professor Emeritus of Princeton University, and Jungmin Kang, former head of the safety authority in South Korea."
https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/-World-Nuclear-Industry-Status-Report-2020-.html
I do accept that there is a wider debate here.
But in my opinion the world would be far better off investing the hundreds of billions that will need to be spent on (very expensive and potentially dangerous) nuclear power instead on things like solar power (especially), better power/battery storage technology (especially), offshore windfarms, enhanced building techniques, building insulation, dedicated cycleways/tracks, EV's and so on.
The nuclear industry told us the first wave of nuclear power stations would sort out the world's power problems…look how that turned out.
And another one bites the dust.
Major General Vladimir Frolov just announced as being killed in Ukraine this week.
This conflict must be some sort of world record for generals killed in a war. Up to eight now.
Stalin purged the Russian military just before WW2, which helps explain why they did so badly against the German onslaught.
Maybe Putin is getting the Ukrainians to do his purging for him?
Given the top-down nature of the Russian military, purging the military leaders is not a recipe for success.
Military toast
Add to the KIAs the ones that have been relieved of their command / arrested / purged.
Admiral Igor Ossipov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet was arrested by the FSB in last couple of days.
An outsider casts an eye over Labours proposed unemployment insurance scheme….and is unimpressed.
https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/115343/matt-nolan-argues-governments-push-unemployment-insurance-scheme-should-be
"So who are the people receiving the bulk of the payments in these circumstances? Those with assets. Those with a working partner, who would not be eligible for support in the current system. Those who were previously receiving high incomes. And those who are able to rearrange their affairs with their employer in order to claim the payment – as a between work holiday or early retirement.
Now, the discussion document tries to tip-toe around these facts by acting as if the scheme is not really related to the safety net. This is patently absurd."
Final paragraph really lays out the risks of a 2 tier unemployment scheme (no matter what language you choose to use about it).
If the working middle class perceive that the benefit system is no longer a safety net (even if a holey and uncomfortable one) for them and their children – and that, instead, they are protected by this new unemployment insurance; then what incentive is there for them to continue to fund the base level benefit – let alone support increases?
It makes it very easy to demonize those on benefits as those who 'won't work'.
While I can see the merits of an unemployment insurance scheme (not personally – I have a guaranteed job in my industry until I'm tottering on the edge of the grave) – I'm less than convinced that this is the one I could support.
That is indeed a risk…..and I see no merit in the proposal whatsoever and am confounded how a supposed workers party could come up with such a scheme.
Outsourcing is hardwired into the neoliberal pysche
Tweedledum and Tweedledee….aka Hobsons choice.
Seemingly the only conclusion has to be they are no longer a workers party, they are a party of the PMC. This sarcastic rationale from the article rings true:
Time for a name change?
It would at least be honest.
I see it as GR's "Kiwi Saver" legacy. He's designed something the middle class would accept so the National Party will leave it in place.
There will be those calling for different amount settings to reduce cost and therefore contribution levels and it may be trimmed back a bit …
Yes the risk is National Party will keep it, but bring in term limits and outsourced management of the lives of those on benefits (not just a lower payment regime). A workhouse and charity regime, involving second tier status of citizenship to the individual not self-reliant, working for capitalist profit or government (service/community sector).
I think the 'leave it in place' is a bit optimistic in the current climate. Bearing in mind that Robertson was planning for this in a less stressed financial environment.
Even middle-class families are struggling with price increases – yes, they have more opportunity to cut back expenditure, but they're feeling the pain right now. Many lower income workers have zilch in the way of disposable income – this levy will come out of what they can spend of food, housing, power, etc.
Of course, if Labour do secure another term – the economic climate may well be very different in 4 years – and therefore less at risk of legislative change.
But, if Labour lose the next election, then I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was dis-established.
Fortunately it has not yet been legislated ….and may well fail to be…certainly in anything like its current form.
"If a decision is made to introduce the proposed scheme, the Government would introduce legislation in 2022, and the scheme could start operating in 2023."
https://www.mbie.govt.nz/dmsdocument/18666-a-new-zealand-income-insurance-scheme-a-discussion-document
page 13
The benefit as the main form of social security made sense in an era of one-income households where full employment was heavily prioritised, but NZ has moved on from that, and now a lot of households are double income households that would be outside benefit entitlement if they lost one income. Since they are outside the scheme as it currently stands, the current safety net risks being outside social license now. Arguably, the attacks on social welfare and beneficiaries themselves of the past 30 years is an example of the serious reduction in license compared to the 1960s.
It's a bit like when parental leave was introduced, working women got money when they had children and at home mothers got nothing – later came WFF tax credits and then support for new mothers.
As it requires two incomes to meet rent or mortgage payments, it makes sense to provide for a non working partner between jobs (and it would have to be at a higher rate than benefits to get "middle class" contributions).
But when UI comes in, for reasons of equity, there should be the introduction of benefit payment support to existing non working partners of the employed – some of whom have sickness and disability issues not covered by ACC. Where these are at home mothers, the amount received would reduce access to tax credits received based on income and number of children.
As we have created the absurd situation where property prices are more than 10 times median income AND we deem it appropriate to protect that position then there are far more effective and equitable methods other than this proposal which fails to perform any of its listed objectives as well canvassed by Matt Nolan
To address these issues, the Forum has identified three objectives:
1. minimise the immediate financial impact of losing income and work for workers and their families
2. support workers back to good jobs
3. support the economy to adjust more rapidly to shocks or downturns.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-scottish-greens-are-in-cloud-cuckoo-land-on-trans-rights
An excellent article written by transgender science teacher Debbie Hayton from the UK.
it’s in response to the Scottish Green Parties stance on standing transgender candidate in local elections
Hayton is spot on there. This is good too,
For those of us fascinated by how societies evolved.
https://www.sciencealert.com/there-s-a-new-hypothesis-for-how-human-civilizations-first-got-started
Not sure I go along entirely with their elite appropriation theory. But interesting nevertheless.
Made sense to me. However we need to wait & see if other experts can find a flaw. It would hinge on the notion that cereals produced hierarchy. Evidence for & against. The writer seems to feel the researchers have compliled sufficient evidence for.
Scepticism would be more likely to get traction on their inclusion of trade into the theory. Seems intuitively obvious that trade in items of mutual value would have operated independently. Inclusion would therefore depend on a separate ramping-up effect for viability…
Read this for a powerful sense of history happening since time began while we're not paying attention:
https://theconversation.com/how-should-dostoevsky-and-tolstoy-be-read-during-russias-war-against-ukraine-179932
Russian war mentality.
"If you don't defend yourselves we will slaughter you.
If you defend yourselves we will slaughter you because you pissed us off.."
Has a similarity to the creed of a certain Teutonic war monger of the 1930s.
Russian war mentality.
google translation
Latest Caspian Report, The Siloviki – the Men who own Russia. Remarkably pertinent to the comments above:
Well this is one less for Kelvin's prisons which helps the statistics.
If he was " sentence in November last year of two years, six months in prison on charges including burglary, police chases, failing to stop, escaping custody and theft."
How the hell was he able to be out driving around?
Fatal police shooting in New Plymouth: Victim Kaoss Price has been described as 'one-man crime wave' – NZ Herald