I imagine that we’re going to get a delay to the election today. And probably it’s for the best, if only to shut the Opposition up. But part of me really wants Jacinda to call the bluff of all those losers. Especially Winston (he practically is part of the Opposition now) with his empty threats and posturing. Just had Judith on Morning Report acting like it’s up to her.
This Stuff piece goes into some of the details of what could come of the political silly buggers games Peters could play. In short, Peters could actually force a delay and trigger some weird shit by withdrawing confidence and bringing down the government. But that's in Winnie's hands, not Judthulhu's.
He said yesterday though that he wouldn’t withdraw confidence from the government. He can wave the threat around all he likes but it’s the nuclear option and will likely blow up in his face.
Welcome humour in these difficult times is Jane Bowron's column in DomPost today.
To quote "Brownlee as former Canterbury earthquake recovery minister went lower than a base isolator when he said he was puzzled….. and "Collins having to put her eyebrows into managed isolation after a bruising and brow-beating interview with Kim Hill on RNZ's Morning Report".
But what's the chance they got the PM in the numbers she's an Aucklander too – what's she going to have said "I love it, it's simply marvellous"? I doubt it she thinks it's anything other than a big pain in the butt like anyone else. I wonder how it was worded?
How many people actually believe that this latest outbreak came from frozen food? How many people believe that it came from a breach of the border measures? The revelation that 63% of those working on the border had NOT been tested was a real indication that despite fervent declarations that the borders were tighter than a duck's posterior, the "system" had failed. This, despite, a senior Labour MP installed as Minister of Border Control or Managed Isolation. And the problem is, if the borders are not tight, then this virus will spread like wildfire. We have been compromised and I get the real sense that there are a few people scrambling as hard as they can to cover up failings.
Pretty much no-one. FFS this dimwit seems to be using troll techniques that were old in 2008.
For starter in their breathless stupidity, they neglected to distinguish between front-facing border staff and those who have no realistic way to pick up the virus. Why stick a large swab up peoples noses when they have no realistic way of getting the virus – by that definition you'd want to do it to every person in NZ.
Of course with Goodgrief that would probably just find vacant space.
Sounds like a thick as pigshit troll – but hey everyone should have a chance to learn. I'd suggest educating the dimwit to the limits of their capabilities.
After all with this kind of antique breathless waffling, he is almost as amusing as Gerry Brownlee trying to do the same trick. Look that where it got him.
Essentially be dumb enough to think that simple insinuation with no details and no backing or links just means that everyone will ignore their ranting, except as an opportunity to play the comedian. Minless waffle like this simply isn’t a basis for robust debate.
Gee Lprent, it would be great if you were able to make a post occasionally that was not comprised of infantile abuse linked together to vaguely resemble a thought.
And you criticise Goodgrief? Goodgrief indeed.
[lprent: *sigh* Read the policy again, and read my reply to gsays further down this thread.
If you don’t like it, then leave. Next time I see you do this again – under any name, I’ll assume you’re trying to tell us how to run this site and I’ll ban you under any name until well after any possible election date. Your writing style is so consistent that it isn’t hard to recognize.
I’m getting a bit annoyed with dealing with someone who after all these years still can’t think rationally and is most noticeable for their considerable abilities at whining. ]
It’s called a “stress test” and sorts out genuine commenters who might be lacking adequate language skills from genuine trolls who lack in other departments.
It ain’t pretty, like a bowel dissection to remove a huge tumour, but it is effective and needs to be done from time to time.
Don’t watch it if you cannot stand the gore and don’t get involved is my advice 😉
This 'stress testing' has an awful lot in common with bullying.
From Bullyingfree NZ "Most widely-accepted definitions of bullying are based on four elements: bullying is deliberate, harmful, involves a power imbalance, and has an element of repetition."
Yeah, it carries a small risk but nobody is chasing this ‘victim’ on-line on this site. If they change their commenting behaviour, they will be left alone here, except for the ‘counter opinions’ from other commenters, of course, which can be equally if not more harmful.
I think we should leave this between the people involved.
You're correct in the intent. However it is a pretty specific tactic on my part. I just try to reflect the behaviour of whomever I am bullying, not only as they present themselves, but also as I expect them to continue. I've been in online forums for more than 40 years now – the tactics are pretty obvious after you've seen them tens of thousands of times.
I just do it harder, much more personally and in a exaggerated level to push the message home that the behaviour is both obvious and I'm perfectly willing to escalate it. This is a classic sysop ploy to get people to either shape up to the sites expectations or to leave the site without dumbarse flame wars.
In this case, if you read roughly through GG's comment and mine and bother to look past the obvious you'd see exactly what I did. I'll paraphrase the two sets of comments together, GGs sentence preface and my replacement assertion.
"How many people actually believe that…" GoodGrief is a "dimwit".
"The revelation that …" that GoodGrief is "thick as pigshit troll".
"This, despite …" the remote possibility that GoodGrief "should have a chance to learn".
"And the problem is …" "with this kind of antique breathless waffling, he is almost as amusing as Gerry Brownlee".
"… and I get the real sense that …" GoodGrief would be "dumb enough to think that simple insinuation with no details and no backing or links..".
In other words, I just played back GoodGrief's playbook – but I substituted them as the target and then pushed an extreme version of the kind of unsubstantiated assertion crap they were pushing into their comment directly back on to them. I made it immediately personal.
If you don't do this kind of approach then people using GG's tactics will try to take over the site in the comments section. The standard play is by making straight assertions that are in effect slogans with bothering to argue the basis of their opinion. Mostly anyone who does this will then proceed on to attacking anyone who argues against them – and they will do it personally. It then usually deteriorates into boring flame wars.
It is the standard playbook on online forums. I just abbreviate the process for a selected few who exhibit the boring predictable behaviours.
While bans will work – they are a lot of work. You also find that the whiners sit around revving each other up in their local sewer to try to count coup by occasional forays to get a ban.
With my approach, I find the reputation of what behaviour is expected on this site gets around and we have less moderation work. Also fewer bans.
I've been doing it since I saw that comments section here was going to the dogs after the first quarter of 2008. It took 2 years of work to get the message across and for the workload to diminish. I still pick the worst 'new' offenders out and demonstrate that the site hasn't changed that approach – if it needs to be handled that way.
peter chch There, there, dear, dear. We are all a bit overwrought what with the decline in political standards, our election looming, Covid 19 twisting our health system, stressing our relationships even in families and wrecking our economy. Better put up if you can stand the strain, it won't get better for some time to come. Otherwise take a powder, try sherbert.
…distinguish between front-facing border staff and those who have no realistic way to pick up the virus. Why stick a large swab up peoples noses when they have no realistic way of getting the virus – by that definition you'd want to do it to every person in NZ….
That is the point which has not been clearly outlined enough by Hipkins. If I deliver
Goodgrief – the saying actually is 'those who will not see', and it is an old saying from the times when 'will' meant 'want to', as it still does in modern German. (English and German come from the same roots.)
So, the point is that the person who does not want to see is blindest of all. It seems to me that it is you who have strong, naive, youthful visions, rather than the far more cultured Robert.
Refuse is a conscious decision, which ruins the saying. Not wanting to reflects the all too frequent practice of wishful thinking. To me you sound more wishful.
The balance of probabilities Robert it is the border. Americold manager tells us that order have not been shipped from their Vic site to Mt Wtgn for weeks. It may not be anybody’s fault, all it would take is a false negative on the last test Does any one know how reliable is the test re false positives and negatives Saying all of that inexcusable mistakes have been made
Americold manager tells us that order have not been shipped from their Vic site to Mt Wtgn for weeks
That would be useful to know if the genomic sequence said that this strain of the virus had come from Victoria. Since that hasn't been stated, then that would have to be considered as being irrelevant. Essentially the statement was issued because some mindless fools in the advance of data had been speculating wildly and irresponsibly.
What would be relevant would be a list of destinations from which freight had been received, when it was dispatched and what temperatures they were stored at.
Viable corona viruses have been detected years after being frozen. At low but not freezing temperatures, they have been detected as being viable more than a month (and even months) after being chilled.
The outbreak strain is called the B.1.1.1 strain, which is found in Oz and the UK, as well as places like Peru, Uruguay, Bangladesh etc. But not in the US or China or India.
It is going to be interesting if they can track it down. If it got picked up by a warm body handling chilled or frozen goods, they may find it on goods stored.
But it may also show up in an associated shipment without an infected warm body link back to the cold storage. Which hopefully that chain could show the link.
What doesn't seem likely at present is that it came from our warm body border protection system. But if that did happen, then we should see showing up in further infections already from the possible earlier index source than the one we know about already. They caught this cluster really early.
The worst case would be that no source was found. Then it means tat we're probably going to need to start testing cold imports and more intense warm body testing as well.
Well, suppose B.1.1.1 is found in Americold's Melbourne staff. Is that a smoking gun, or one that just feels maybe a bit warmish to the touch?
Suppose they find it on something in the cold store here. Is that a smoking gun, or maybe it's from our local staff that got infected and transferred it while pre-symptomatic?
I don't find it implausible it came through the border in self-propelled meat. Suppose patient zero got it in transit and the virus was a bit slow to take hold. So day 3 test is negative (quite reasonably). Then for whatever reason the day 12 test is a false negative (false negative rates for PCR testing have sometimes been stated as high as 5%). Now patient zero is out loose. Suppose patient zero then passes it on to someone that is asymptomatic/low symptom that doesn't get checked (maybe 50% of cases). Who then passes it on to our first known index case, with no traceability to the border.
Sure that's a longish chain of low probability bad-luck links so it's very unlikely, looking at it from the perspective of an individual. But looking at it from the perspective of the country with thousands of people coming through the border, it's a bit more plausible that something like that has happened once or more.
Let alone the possibility it came in on aircrew on the Oz run (who haven’t been routinely tested before now because Oz was allegedly safe) who passed it on while asymptomatic to an asymptomatic/low symptom link.
I kinda look at it as a heads up that there's a lot of gaps we've left for the virus to get through, including maybe a frozen goods gap we hadn't thought of. We're never going to plug them all, but we certainly can do a better job of plugging the biggest gaps.
And maybe the first person with it at Americold was asymptomatic and work was pretty much their only "close contact", that could add another full generation to the timeframe.
If "weeks" means "mid-March", that would make it doubtful because I'd have expected the phenomenon to have been discovered earlier as a source of multiple clusters around the world.
But if "weeks" means "a month", the math is close enough to keep it in mind as a slim but valid possibility when the cluster seems to heavily involve a freight agency.
People have an odd relationship with probability. If there's an 80% chance it was a border control issue, and a 20% chance it was imported food, then both have to be addressed given the nature of the risk.
They're actually excusable and understandable mistakes. Everyone is on a big learning curve here and as far as I can see nearly every time a mistake has been made, the relevant people have stepped up and remedied it. There are some exceptions to that. The MoH handling of PPE for disabled people and care workers being notable. But those came about because of systems that existed before covid that we were apparently happy enough to live with despite the negative impacts.
Not testing front line staff and been told by the MOH is inexcusable Weka. On the basis of it is hardly and unknown risk, likewise it is highly likely and a high risk so government a f ministry should have all over it. If this was an OSH case the managing and mitigating risk the kitchen sink works be thrown at you. The minister of health told us he was advised by the ministry this was happening and it wasn’t There is also a similar theme with PEP, flu vaccine distribution etc hence possibly a systemic issue her the needs to be addressed and some accountability as with our it, things won’t change
Not testing front line staff and been told by the MOH it is happening and it is not is inexcusable Weka. On the basis of it is hardly and unknown risk, likewise it is highly likely and a high risk so government and the ministry should have been all over it. If this was an OSH investigation re the managing and mitigating of risk, the kitchen sink would be thrown at you. There is also a similar theme with PEP, flu vaccine distribution etc hence possibly a systemic issue here that needs to be addressed and some accountability as with out it, things won’t change
If it's inexcusable, what should happen? All the people involved should be fired? How will that help?
As I said, there were pre-existing issues in our health system and people weren't jumping up and down about those before covid.
Not testing more at the border wasn't a high risk, or we would have had an outbreak much earlier. It's good they've looked at it and have tightened up. This is what we do when mistakes are made, we learn from them, remedy them and create more robust situations. It's all new, there are going to be mistakes and things people haven't thought about.
Red…my understanding is that the 37% of the workers that were tested on the border were the high risk people who had face to face (or close to) contact with incoming travellers.
The other 63% were not tested because they had no direct contact with travellers.
Approx 40% of cases need to be determined by medical observation and assessment of symptoms hence why our numbers are about 40% higher than that reported to WHO, Testing only gives assurance of incidence in about 63% of cases although I did hear a figure of 80% confidence yesterday by Bloomfield. The true front line staff have been getting daily temperature and symptom interviews since this shit fight stared.
The government might be making deliberate mistakes just to keep a heightened sense of anxiety and caution going to prevent complacency! Not likely; I think they felt they had done with that and were looking at the next thing, but leaky politics will turn up when new ways are being tried, just like leaky roofs.
Be still wild and woolly Gg, government is still here trying to get it right and watertight, not like the pesky private sector who could sail away on The Crimson Permanent Assurance.
Where'sthe border leak?
"50,468 vehicles had been stopped at checkpoints and of those 676 were turned around for undertaking non-essential travel". And these figures are only after the set up of road blocks around the Auckland region. Travellers' reasons at the border stops are taken at face value.
I don't see grounds for pointing the finger at any one of the several possibilities for how the new outbreak started. Nor do I see grounds to exclude that it got in through the coldstore or through the border somehow.
In all of the feasible scenarios, it's a very very small probability of something happening multiplied by a large number of times for that tiny probability to come through. Kinda like buying Powerball tickets, realistically you're almost certainly going to be better off just burning that cash for a bit of warmth on a cold day than buying the ticket, but dozens of people win multiple millions each year.
"Illusory knowledge" – had a good chat to the tweens about all this, beware of any "This is stuff THEY don't want you to know" statements, there's only a few amongst us (like GG above) that know the TRUTH!!!!
You're the type of person who, during a war, would complain that not all of our defence personnel have bullets flying at them aren't you?
To put that in context I once heard that it required 8 support personnel to put one front-line person on a battlefield. That was awhile ago admittedly and it may have changed since but there's still going to be more support personnel than soldiers.
Now, here's an important point: If all of our defence personnel actually had bullets flying at them there would only be one reason – that we'd lost.
Same goes with our quarantine facilities. If we need to have the support personnel tested its because the virus is rampant and we're all fucked.
There's another lesson here as well that you need to learn. That lesson is just how important those support personnel are to have an effective front-line which is why, in any good organisation, there's more support personnel.
Those leaky borders will be a thing of the past….Hone Harawira is on the case. Iwi should in in charge of checkpoints….the army and the cops are just too soft, polite.
“The police, the army and Ngāti Whātua’s massive checkpoints just north of Te Hana, they’ve done a good job, a very bold effort. Unfortunately, because it’s driven by the police, with the support of iwi, rather than by iwi with the support of police, the tenor of the questions has been a little light. Not as demanding as they would be if we were running them,” he said.
Harawira says that plans are now being made on “how best to get rid of” those who shouldn’t be sheltering in Northland.
“We can put in the check points we had last time. We can work with the police as another option, with mobile patrols, or we might consider other action like a sweep right through Te Tai Tokerau, from the Cape [Reinga] all the way down. Basically call in at every tourist camp and holiday park and say ‘pack up you’re moving’.
Despite his reputation as a man of action, Harawira’s not looking to be a vigilante. “We’ve worked really well with the police and our aim is to maintain that good relationship with them. Our aim is not to be kicking down doors and throwing people out onto the road. But it is to be firm and positive and clear. Who cares what their reasons are, we really don’t care. They shouldn’t have come up in the first place.”
Many Kiwis who live in their campervans and caravans winter over up here…bringing steady income to the campgounds and a casual labour force for some of the local businesses. There must be a better way.
Interesting. I can see the point for L3 Aucklanders. Not sure about everyone else, and they presumably could to a 2 week self isolation with a bit of planning. Would be interested to see what other Māori are saying. I certainly went through a bit of a thing about the rumours that Aucklanders were escaping and flying south, so I get the impetus to close regional borders. I'd be good with that the other way too, if it had been my area that had an outbreak.
If you were the opposition or an opposition sympathiser, suffered from severe Jacinda Derangement Syndrome and was determined to sabotage her re-election chances by re-introducing Coronavirus to the country, how would you do it?
Q: What are the variables for how long the virus stays on certain surfaces?
Dr. Nasia Safdar: It depends on how wet the environment is. It tends to dry up pretty quickly. That's one reason why, in the case of a confirmed COVID-19 case, the recommendation is not to rush in to clean that right away, but actually to leave the room be for a little bit so the viral particles can dry out and be less infectious. Then, the individual can go in and clean. So a few days, I would say is the best we can say, but it's not a few weeks, by any means.
You must suffering from something much worse than “severe Jacinda Derangement Syndrome” to willingly and knowingly put the lives of fellow Kiwis at risk and cause huge economic damage. That said, drug smugglers/traffickers put their own lives at risk so those sorts of people are out there, tormented & desperate souls that are ripe for the picking by unscrupulous agents of death & doom 🙁
NZ is rife with conspiracy theories at the moment. Some spread by senior politicians no less, for political purposes. Thought I would just add another one, holding up a mirror to that.
But they, the authorities, still seem focussed on patient zero at the Mt Wellington cool-store. In the absence of a patient further down the tree, what else have they to go on?
It's been suggested by other conspiracy theorists that they are just covering up a MIQ breach but I don't think their behaviour so far supports this theory. MoH so far have been very careful to get as much information out there as possible, consistent with their Covid eradication approach throughout. I think they'd own up to a verified mistake if that is confirmed.
While the mystery around the August outbreak continues there will be speculation.
One other thing to note is the hardcore testing of port workers and truck drivers out of Tauranga…
There are two things here: 1) containing the outbreak; 2) finding the source and prevent it from happening again.
If it was an ‘accident’ then the chances of this happening again could be quite slim given that we enjoyed 102 days of no community outbreak.
Wider, more frequent, and less intrusive (and laborious!) testing might be a good way forward even if it comes with a slightly lower accuracy and sensitivity.
Whenever anyone takes time off because of symptoms – they inform the workplace and their colleagues are stood down until the test result is known. This would speed up people getting tests and reduce the risk of spread at the workplace (and related homes – partners workplaces and childrens schools). Thus we prevent cluster growth at the begining.
In addition to doubling sick leave to 2 weeks, the government should compensate business for the days staff are not at work while waiting for a colleageu's test result.
Another WTAF moment from Doltistan. After all the ranting from the Fanta Fascist about how fraudulent mail-in voting is, his campaign in North Carolina sends out forms for requesting mail-in ballots to voters. With the genital-grabbing gargoyle's mug plastered all over them.
It's an interesting question as to why Kim Jong Orange has any say whatsoever over the postal service. Article 1 section 8 clause 7 of the constitution specifically tells congress to set up a postal service, and doesn't say anything about the preznit having anything to do with it.
I'spose the likeliest explanation is congressional laziness and once they had set it up, they figured job done, and handed it over the the prez to run. That a prez might choose to sabotage it to try to gain electoral advantage would never have occurred to anybody.
There are some laws making it a felony to interfere with the postal service. It'll be worth a few tubs of popcorn if anyone tries to invoke those in the pushback against the vandalism that's happening.
Trump is desperate and he will use any tactic to increase his chance of being re elected. Postal interference from the Prez and everything was well thought out.
Our global leadership moment about Covid-19 hasn’t popped …….. yet.
ABC news puts it like this:
"For 102 days New Zealand stood out as the global poster child of the COVID-19 era.
It was a nation at one with its "elimination" strategy, with a leader who enlisted the cooperation of citizens while Facetiming in lockdown from the frontline of her family life, and in turn delivered a virus-free return to business-as-more-or-less-usual in record time.
There are plenty of experts who agree that the Ardern Government's approach to coronavirus offers a masterclass in the management of a public health crisis.
The urgent question now facing Jacinda Ardern and New Zealanders — as cases appear to be growing quickly in a nation with a population the size of Sydney — is what this second wave will reveal about the broader effectiveness of that strategy and perhaps most importantly, how sustainable it is — politically, as well as for public health.
Apart from the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, Covid-19 is just a mild illness, isn’t it? Think again. JUDITH GRANT, who was to have presented at this year’s Safeguard conference, outlines her personal experience.
In a review published online in JAMA Neurology, researchers from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut examined available case reports and clinical studies and found that the most commonly observed neurological effects in COVID-19 to date are headache, anosmia, and ageusia.5 Headache may affect up to one-third of patients, while prevalence rates of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction vary widely across settings. In addition, more severe events including impaired consciousness, seizure, stroke, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and encephalopathy have also been noted in COVID-19 patients.
The symptoms of ischaemia in a limb cannot be ignored and the sooner symptoms are reported the greater the chance of saving a limb. Blood clots else where can be missed.
Why blood clots form in Covid needs to be understood.
Why the blood clots form does need to be understood and it looks like inflammation is a major factor. Reassuringly, trials to explore treatment options for people at risk for covid-linked blood clots are underway.
"The triggers responsible for COVID-19–associated coagulopathy remain elusive. Potential triggers include cytokine-induced overexpression of tissue factor, endothelial dysfunction with loss of its antithrombotic phenotype, stasis, and hypoxia (see figure). This study confirms the correlation between markers of inflammation and coagulation and supports the concept that inflammation is a major driver of the hypercoagulable state. An inflammation-driven hypercoagulable state has also been reported in critically ill patients with viral pneumonia caused by H1N1 or SARS-CoV-1.7 The VTE rate in such patients ranged from 5% to 25%, which is similar to the rates observed in patients with COVID-19.8–10Although intensified anticoagulation regimens may reduce the risk of a thrombotic event, the results of this study raise the possibility that they may increase major bleeding rates to unacceptable levels in critically ill patients. As the world waits for the second wave of COVID-19, randomized trials comparing anticoagulation dosing strategies are urgently needed. Fortunately, several such trials are under way."
Martyred Saint Julian will be feeling the sting of betrayal. Especially since Jules actually worked to help Twitterfinger J. Putinpussy and Snowden didn't.
OMG Ashley Bloomfield displaying the patience of a saint in answering the inane questions from the journos – intent on finding some fault in the government's management of the borders.
I feel like McFlock from the other day – a deep temptation to fell them to fuck off!
If you've ever had to deliver a difficult project, or recover one that was in a mess, then had to endure ignorant senior managers question your competence and integrity and demand impossible levels of certainty – you've had a tiny taste of what Ashley is enduring. (Disclaimer: my handle is only coincidentally the same Dr B's initials)
Something that I have not heard put forward as a possibility is the dumping of frozen shit from an aircraft. It used to happen but may have been contained in more modern systems.
Any aircraft experts about?
Mt Wellington off course close to the flightpath to Mangere
It'd been a very very long time since waste dumping from commercial aircraft was a routine thing. Nowadays it needs valves to fail and leak. So blue ice incidents are only a few per year worldwide.
Also there’s very few passengers on inbound flights these days, so well within the holding capacity of the aircraft’s systems. Those passengers are all being tested as well and that strain hasn’t come up in border testing. Still a possibility from crew but they wouldn’t be going to the loo over Auckland
Those dickhead reporters are trying hard to discredit Dr Bloomfield or trying to trip him up on the testing at the border, this seems to be their angle to help the Nats to make inroads for their election chances, but it's a bit boring listening to some of these reporters questions, lots of those questions have previously asked and answered, but still they persist on this line. Where is the quality of reporters at. Fn zero.
Government should note the questions with answers and present them at the start of every media show with the FAQ and if the same question comes up again, that person goes to the back of the queue – that'd larn them.
While it makes sense to delay I believe if labour werent forced by nzf with threats of a no confidence vote they would have stayed the course, Winston needs to be fired from Cabinet, he's been spreading conspiracy's to foreign media and threatening govt instability. We need an upper house (NZs parliament has far too much centralized executive power, do we really want the likes of a Nat/act coalition under Collins having unchecked power? Extend the parliamentary term by a year and add two extra boxes to tick (under MMP or STV ) Australia and USA can do it why not us?
A constitution (the fact that Winston could install Judith Collins if he really wanted to just because he doesn't like the election date needs to be a law, should he able to do that to a dying govt in the middle of a crisis or show the no Waka jumping extend to coalition partners , if a small party jumps ship should an election immediately be required? )
i believe jacinda was forced by Winston otherwise its interesting because The American left is busy trying to prove to the world that social distanced voting and postal voting is reliable, Jacinda one of the most popular world leaders inadvertently gave Trump a gift, Trump can now say "the kiwis delayed their election because they don't trust mail voting or social distancing voting during a pandemic, why should the USA"
What a mess. I just want the NZ election and the us election over. We've been hearing about both for years. Let's keep moving I guess.
Other countries have had elections in the last few months, some have delayed, it's really no big deal, at least now it's been delayed, we have a date, hopefully plans in place if further lockdown, the opposition want dissent and confusion, Adern once again shuts the trap.
Same if a time travel machine were possible, wouldn't one have popped up sometime in our past (unless, of course, it got stomped on by a dinosaur and is on an endless loop).
& here's proof we have slipped into a parallel universe, there are 5 Young Ones, not 4, in the first series there's another long haired hippy flatmate who just sits there and doesn't say anything, he pops up in every episode, it's bloody spooky!!! (Father Time has to step around him in the Time episode).
We are always thinking and watching the USA and Trump. Let's ignore Trump and replace him with Julian Assange. Now there is a martyred hero who deserves support.
US decision to file new charges against Julian Assange ‘astonishing and potentially abusive’
Lawyer for WikiLeaks founder slams US decision to serve a second indictment at the 11th hour alleging that Assange conspired with hackers, as a potential abuse of process
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The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Tree sap can be a sticky, unsightly mess on your car’s exterior. It can be difficult to remove, but with the right techniques and products, you can restore your car to its former glory. Understanding Tree Sap Tree sap is a thick, viscous liquid produced by trees to seal wounds ...
The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
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I imagine that we’re going to get a delay to the election today. And probably it’s for the best, if only to shut the Opposition up. But part of me really wants Jacinda to call the bluff of all those losers. Especially Winston (he practically is part of the Opposition now) with his empty threats and posturing. Just had Judith on Morning Report acting like it’s up to her.
This Stuff piece goes into some of the details of what could come of the political silly buggers games Peters could play. In short, Peters could actually force a delay and trigger some weird shit by withdrawing confidence and bringing down the government. But that's in Winnie's hands, not Judthulhu's.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300083701/election-2020-decision-day-looms-for-jacinda-ardern-as-winston-peters-threatens-retaliation-if-election-not-delayed
He said yesterday though that he wouldn’t withdraw confidence from the government. He can wave the threat around all he likes but it’s the nuclear option and will likely blow up in his face.
It is kind of irrelevent if the writ day was immediate.
He would effectively be withdrawing confidence in his own party as being part of the "Government"
Pretty silly idea on his part.
Welcome humour in these difficult times is Jane Bowron's column in DomPost today.
To quote "Brownlee as former Canterbury earthquake recovery minister went lower than a base isolator when he said he was puzzled….. and "Collins having to put her eyebrows into managed isolation after a bruising and brow-beating interview with Kim Hill on RNZ's Morning Report".
Tonight DPF will release his "exclusive scientific poll" (!!!) on what Aucklanders think of their lockdown. He's very excited!
DPF has some scientific ! That's funny, are we sure it's not scientology ?
But what's the chance they got the PM in the numbers she's an Aucklander too – what's she going to have said "I love it, it's simply marvellous"? I doubt it she thinks it's anything other than a big pain in the butt like anyone else. I wonder how it was worded?
Geddis on Morning Report just now picking Oct 17 for Election Day.
Lucky pick.
How many people actually believe that this latest outbreak came from frozen food? How many people believe that it came from a breach of the border measures? The revelation that 63% of those working on the border had NOT been tested was a real indication that despite fervent declarations that the borders were tighter than a duck's posterior, the "system" had failed. This, despite, a senior Labour MP installed as Minister of Border Control or Managed Isolation. And the problem is, if the borders are not tight, then this virus will spread like wildfire. We have been compromised and I get the real sense that there are a few people scrambling as hard as they can to cover up failings.
How many people actually believe Goodgrief's breathless scaremongery?
How many people believe Goodgrief's intentions here are good. Good grief!
Pretty much no-one. FFS this dimwit seems to be using troll techniques that were old in 2008.
For starter in their breathless stupidity, they neglected to distinguish between front-facing border staff and those who have no realistic way to pick up the virus. Why stick a large swab up peoples noses when they have no realistic way of getting the virus – by that definition you'd want to do it to every person in NZ.
Of course with Goodgrief that would probably just find vacant space.
Sounds like a thick as pigshit troll – but hey everyone should have a chance to learn. I'd suggest educating the dimwit to the limits of their capabilities.
After all with this kind of antique breathless waffling, he is almost as amusing as Gerry Brownlee trying to do the same trick. Look that where it got him.
Essentially be dumb enough to think that simple insinuation with no details and no backing or links just means that everyone will ignore their ranting, except as an opportunity to play the comedian. Minless waffle like this simply isn’t a basis for robust debate.
Gee Lprent, it would be great if you were able to make a post occasionally that was not comprised of infantile abuse linked together to vaguely resemble a thought.
And you criticise Goodgrief? Goodgrief indeed.
[lprent: *sigh* Read the policy again, and read my reply to gsays further down this thread.
If you don’t like it, then leave. Next time I see you do this again – under any name, I’ll assume you’re trying to tell us how to run this site and I’ll ban you under any name until well after any possible election date. Your writing style is so consistent that it isn’t hard to recognize.
I’m getting a bit annoyed with dealing with someone who after all these years still can’t think rationally and is most noticeable for their considerable abilities at whining. ]
It’s called a “stress test” and sorts out genuine commenters who might be lacking adequate language skills from genuine trolls who lack in other departments.
It ain’t pretty, like a bowel dissection to remove a huge tumour, but it is effective and needs to be done from time to time.
Don’t watch it if you cannot stand the gore and don’t get involved is my advice 😉
Despite the advice in yr last sentence…
This 'stress testing' has an awful lot in common with bullying.
From Bullyingfree NZ "Most widely-accepted definitions of bullying are based on four elements: bullying is deliberate, harmful, involves a power imbalance, and has an element of repetition."
Deliberate check.
Power imbalance check.
Repetition check.
I can't speak for the harm in this case.
https://www.bullyingfree.nz/about-bullying/what-is-bullying/
Yeah, it carries a small risk but nobody is chasing this ‘victim’ on-line on this site. If they change their commenting behaviour, they will be left alone here, except for the ‘counter opinions’ from other commenters, of course, which can be equally if not more harmful.
I think we should leave this between the people involved.
Roger, wilco.
Just planting seeds.
You're correct in the intent. However it is a pretty specific tactic on my part. I just try to reflect the behaviour of whomever I am bullying, not only as they present themselves, but also as I expect them to continue. I've been in online forums for more than 40 years now – the tactics are pretty obvious after you've seen them tens of thousands of times.
I just do it harder, much more personally and in a exaggerated level to push the message home that the behaviour is both obvious and I'm perfectly willing to escalate it. This is a classic sysop ploy to get people to either shape up to the sites expectations or to leave the site without dumbarse flame wars.
In this case, if you read roughly through GG's comment and mine and bother to look past the obvious you'd see exactly what I did. I'll paraphrase the two sets of comments together, GGs sentence preface and my replacement assertion.
"How many people actually believe that…" GoodGrief is a "dimwit".
"The revelation that …" that GoodGrief is "thick as pigshit troll".
"This, despite …" the remote possibility that GoodGrief "should have a chance to learn".
"And the problem is …" "with this kind of antique breathless waffling, he is almost as amusing as Gerry Brownlee".
"… and I get the real sense that …" GoodGrief would be "dumb enough to think that simple insinuation with no details and no backing or links..".
In other words, I just played back GoodGrief's playbook – but I substituted them as the target and then pushed an extreme version of the kind of unsubstantiated assertion crap they were pushing into their comment directly back on to them. I made it immediately personal.
If you don't do this kind of approach then people using GG's tactics will try to take over the site in the comments section. The standard play is by making straight assertions that are in effect slogans with bothering to argue the basis of their opinion. Mostly anyone who does this will then proceed on to attacking anyone who argues against them – and they will do it personally. It then usually deteriorates into boring flame wars.
It is the standard playbook on online forums. I just abbreviate the process for a selected few who exhibit the boring predictable behaviours.
While bans will work – they are a lot of work. You also find that the whiners sit around revving each other up in their local sewer to try to count coup by occasional forays to get a ban.
With my approach, I find the reputation of what behaviour is expected on this site gets around and we have less moderation work. Also fewer bans.
I've been doing it since I saw that comments section here was going to the dogs after the first quarter of 2008. It took 2 years of work to get the message across and for the workload to diminish. I still pick the worst 'new' offenders out and demonstrate that the site hasn't changed that approach – if it needs to be handled that way.
Thanks for shining a light on yr motives and intent.
peter chch There, there, dear, dear. We are all a bit overwrought what with the decline in political standards, our election looming, Covid 19 twisting our health system, stressing our relationships even in families and wrecking our economy. Better put up if you can stand the strain, it won't get better for some time to come. Otherwise take a powder, try sherbert.
None so blind as those that refuse to see Robert.
That is the point which has not been clearly outlined enough by Hipkins. If I deliver
cabbages to a hotel need I be tested?
Goodgrief – the saying actually is 'those who will not see', and it is an old saying from the times when 'will' meant 'want to', as it still does in modern German. (English and German come from the same roots.)
So, the point is that the person who does not want to see is blindest of all. It seems to me that it is you who have strong, naive, youthful visions, rather than the far more cultured Robert.
Refuse is a conscious decision, which ruins the saying. Not wanting to reflects the all too frequent practice of wishful thinking. To me you sound more wishful.
The balance of probabilities Robert it is the border. Americold manager tells us that order have not been shipped from their Vic site to Mt Wtgn for weeks. It may not be anybody’s fault, all it would take is a false negative on the last test Does any one know how reliable is the test re false positives and negatives Saying all of that inexcusable mistakes have been made
That would be useful to know if the genomic sequence said that this strain of the virus had come from Victoria. Since that hasn't been stated, then that would have to be considered as being irrelevant. Essentially the statement was issued because some mindless fools in the advance of data had been speculating wildly and irresponsibly.
What would be relevant would be a list of destinations from which freight had been received, when it was dispatched and what temperatures they were stored at.
Viable corona viruses have been detected years after being frozen. At low but not freezing temperatures, they have been detected as being viable more than a month (and even months) after being chilled.
The outbreak strain is called the B.1.1.1 strain, which is found in Oz and the UK, as well as places like Peru, Uruguay, Bangladesh etc. But not in the US or China or India.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/08/it-s-b-1-1-1-kiwi-scientists-identify-virus-family-of-mystery-covid-19-outbreak.html
It is going to be interesting if they can track it down. If it got picked up by a warm body handling chilled or frozen goods, they may find it on goods stored.
But it may also show up in an associated shipment without an infected warm body link back to the cold storage. Which hopefully that chain could show the link.
What doesn't seem likely at present is that it came from our warm body border protection system. But if that did happen, then we should see showing up in further infections already from the possible earlier index source than the one we know about already. They caught this cluster really early.
The worst case would be that no source was found. Then it means tat we're probably going to need to start testing cold imports and more intense warm body testing as well.
Well, suppose B.1.1.1 is found in Americold's Melbourne staff. Is that a smoking gun, or one that just feels maybe a bit warmish to the touch?
Suppose they find it on something in the cold store here. Is that a smoking gun, or maybe it's from our local staff that got infected and transferred it while pre-symptomatic?
I don't find it implausible it came through the border in self-propelled meat. Suppose patient zero got it in transit and the virus was a bit slow to take hold. So day 3 test is negative (quite reasonably). Then for whatever reason the day 12 test is a false negative (false negative rates for PCR testing have sometimes been stated as high as 5%). Now patient zero is out loose. Suppose patient zero then passes it on to someone that is asymptomatic/low symptom that doesn't get checked (maybe 50% of cases). Who then passes it on to our first known index case, with no traceability to the border.
Sure that's a longish chain of low probability bad-luck links so it's very unlikely, looking at it from the perspective of an individual. But looking at it from the perspective of the country with thousands of people coming through the border, it's a bit more plausible that something like that has happened once or more.
Let alone the possibility it came in on aircrew on the Oz run (who haven’t been routinely tested before now because Oz was allegedly safe) who passed it on while asymptomatic to an asymptomatic/low symptom link.
I kinda look at it as a heads up that there's a lot of gaps we've left for the virus to get through, including maybe a frozen goods gap we hadn't thought of. We're never going to plug them all, but we certainly can do a better job of plugging the biggest gaps.
also, "weeks" might well be in the right timeframe for this outbreak.
Why? Because of the B.1.1.1 divergence? I thought that was a reasonably early strain.
Long survival time on a frozen surface plus long incubation period in the index case.
And maybe the first person with it at Americold was asymptomatic and work was pretty much their only "close contact", that could add another full generation to the timeframe.
If "weeks" means "mid-March", that would make it doubtful because I'd have expected the phenomenon to have been discovered earlier as a source of multiple clusters around the world.
But if "weeks" means "a month", the math is close enough to keep it in mind as a slim but valid possibility when the cluster seems to heavily involve a freight agency.
Not sure what you consider a “reasonably early strain”. It is a few sub-lineages down from the main trunk, obviously.
From the Feeds, I happened to read this: https://sciblogs.co.nz/code-for-life/2020/08/17/covid-19-sequence-the-viral-genomes-of-all-border-cases/
In there, some links to tweets that contained these links to info on B.1.1.1:
https://nextstrain.org/ncov/oceania/2020-08-11?c=pangolin_lineage&d=tree&label=clade:20A [click on Pangolin lineage under Phylogeny in the top LH corner of the interactive graph to highlight B.1.1.1]
https://cov-lineages.org/lineages/lineage_B.1.1.1.html
BTW, the tweets themselves are informative too, not the usual Twitter ‘banter’.
Have fun 😉
Ah I see what you mean. On the timeline, it was pretty early.
For some reason, I usually look at the mutational divergence. That B1.1.x is one of the branches with quite a lot of generic divergence for covid-19.
People have an odd relationship with probability. If there's an 80% chance it was a border control issue, and a 20% chance it was imported food, then both have to be addressed given the nature of the risk.
They're actually excusable and understandable mistakes. Everyone is on a big learning curve here and as far as I can see nearly every time a mistake has been made, the relevant people have stepped up and remedied it. There are some exceptions to that. The MoH handling of PPE for disabled people and care workers being notable. But those came about because of systems that existed before covid that we were apparently happy enough to live with despite the negative impacts.
Not testing front line staff and been told by the MOH is inexcusable Weka. On the basis of it is hardly and unknown risk, likewise it is highly likely and a high risk so government a f ministry should have all over it. If this was an OSH case the managing and mitigating risk the kitchen sink works be thrown at you. The minister of health told us he was advised by the ministry this was happening and it wasn’t There is also a similar theme with PEP, flu vaccine distribution etc hence possibly a systemic issue her the needs to be addressed and some accountability as with our it, things won’t change
Sorry tidied above up
Not testing front line staff and been told by the MOH it is happening and it is not is inexcusable Weka. On the basis of it is hardly and unknown risk, likewise it is highly likely and a high risk so government and the ministry should have been all over it. If this was an OSH investigation re the managing and mitigating of risk, the kitchen sink would be thrown at you. There is also a similar theme with PEP, flu vaccine distribution etc hence possibly a systemic issue here that needs to be addressed and some accountability as with out it, things won’t change
If it's inexcusable, what should happen? All the people involved should be fired? How will that help?
As I said, there were pre-existing issues in our health system and people weren't jumping up and down about those before covid.
Not testing more at the border wasn't a high risk, or we would have had an outbreak much earlier. It's good they've looked at it and have tightened up. This is what we do when mistakes are made, we learn from them, remedy them and create more robust situations. It's all new, there are going to be mistakes and things people haven't thought about.
Red…my understanding is that the 37% of the workers that were tested on the border were the high risk people who had face to face (or close to) contact with incoming travellers.
The other 63% were not tested because they had no direct contact with travellers.
Approx 40% of cases need to be determined by medical observation and assessment of symptoms hence why our numbers are about 40% higher than that reported to WHO, Testing only gives assurance of incidence in about 63% of cases although I did hear a figure of 80% confidence yesterday by Bloomfield. The true front line staff have been getting daily temperature and symptom interviews since this shit fight stared.
Please try to keep up.
The government might be making deliberate mistakes just to keep a heightened sense of anxiety and caution going to prevent complacency! Not likely; I think they felt they had done with that and were looking at the next thing, but leaky politics will turn up when new ways are being tried, just like leaky roofs.
Be still wild and woolly Gg, government is still here trying to get it right and watertight, not like the pesky private sector who could sail away on The Crimson Permanent Assurance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYac8ngF1vg
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSO9OFJNMBA
+100 Robert.
Where'sthe border leak?
"50,468 vehicles had been stopped at checkpoints and of those 676 were turned around for undertaking non-essential travel". And these figures are only after the set up of road blocks around the Auckland region. Travellers' reasons at the border stops are taken at face value.
How is nearly 50000 vehicles of passengers as potential virus carriers crossing lock down borders to travel widely not a concern? If a person is an essential traveller presumably the Covid19 virus leaves them alone.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/122465088/two-auckland-men-crossed-checkpoints-to-visit-skycity-hamilton-casino?cid=app-android
I don't see grounds for pointing the finger at any one of the several possibilities for how the new outbreak started. Nor do I see grounds to exclude that it got in through the coldstore or through the border somehow.
In all of the feasible scenarios, it's a very very small probability of something happening multiplied by a large number of times for that tiny probability to come through. Kinda like buying Powerball tickets, realistically you're almost certainly going to be better off just burning that cash for a bit of warmth on a cold day than buying the ticket, but dozens of people win multiple millions each year.
The system has failed! and the virus is now pouring through the border. The public is panicing… Not!
Gerry GoodGrief . A concerned citizen with no ulterior motives. Just asking questions.
"Illusory knowledge" – had a good chat to the tweens about all this, beware of any "This is stuff THEY don't want you to know" statements, there's only a few amongst us (like GG above) that know the TRUTH!!!!
You're the type of person who, during a war, would complain that not all of our defence personnel have bullets flying at them aren't you?
To put that in context I once heard that it required 8 support personnel to put one front-line person on a battlefield. That was awhile ago admittedly and it may have changed since but there's still going to be more support personnel than soldiers.
Now, here's an important point: If all of our defence personnel actually had bullets flying at them there would only be one reason – that we'd lost.
Same goes with our quarantine facilities. If we need to have the support personnel tested its because the virus is rampant and we're all fucked.
There's another lesson here as well that you need to learn. That lesson is just how important those support personnel are to have an effective front-line which is why, in any good organisation, there's more support personnel.
Od Dear Old Jerry. What have you done lad? The first part of a poem by Victor Billot on Newsroom
There's poetic licence abounding. In The Press Jeff Bell calls on Dr Seuss's type of plain speaking, with rhyme and reason.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/114832270/jeff-bell-cartoons
Those leaky borders will be a thing of the past….Hone Harawira is on the case. Iwi should in in charge of checkpoints….the army and the cops are just too soft, polite.
“The police, the army and Ngāti Whātua’s massive checkpoints just north of Te Hana, they’ve done a good job, a very bold effort. Unfortunately, because it’s driven by the police, with the support of iwi, rather than by iwi with the support of police, the tenor of the questions has been a little light. Not as demanding as they would be if we were running them,” he said.
Harawira says that plans are now being made on “how best to get rid of” those who shouldn’t be sheltering in Northland.
“We can put in the check points we had last time. We can work with the police as another option, with mobile patrols, or we might consider other action like a sweep right through Te Tai Tokerau, from the Cape [Reinga] all the way down. Basically call in at every tourist camp and holiday park and say ‘pack up you’re moving’.
Despite his reputation as a man of action, Harawira’s not looking to be a vigilante. “We’ve worked really well with the police and our aim is to maintain that good relationship with them. Our aim is not to be kicking down doors and throwing people out onto the road. But it is to be firm and positive and clear. Who cares what their reasons are, we really don’t care. They shouldn’t have come up in the first place.”
https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/17-08-2020/iwi-leaders-are-hoping-for-the-best-and-preparing-for-the-worst/
Many Kiwis who live in their campervans and caravans winter over up here…bringing steady income to the campgounds and a casual labour force for some of the local businesses. There must be a better way.
Interesting. I can see the point for L3 Aucklanders. Not sure about everyone else, and they presumably could to a 2 week self isolation with a bit of planning. Would be interested to see what other Māori are saying. I certainly went through a bit of a thing about the rumours that Aucklanders were escaping and flying south, so I get the impetus to close regional borders. I'd be good with that the other way too, if it had been my area that had an outbreak.
With a nod to Gerry.
If you were the opposition or an opposition sympathiser, suffered from severe Jacinda Derangement Syndrome and was determined to sabotage her re-election chances by re-introducing Coronavirus to the country, how would you do it?
Through a frozen goods logistics firm?
Something in the post – same as calici. But introduced to South Auckland to benefit from the disparagement that end of town routinely suffers.
If that happened, the DNA testing must be scaring the pants off the perpetrator.
You'd have to have specialist temperature controlled transport rather than normal post..?
I wouldn't count on that – a little moisture could probably keep it viable long enough.
https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/sars-calculator
Nice. Or, for the less technical:
Q: What are the variables for how long the virus stays on certain surfaces?
Dr. Nasia Safdar: It depends on how wet the environment is. It tends to dry up pretty quickly. That's one reason why, in the case of a confirmed COVID-19 case, the recommendation is not to rush in to clean that right away, but actually to leave the room be for a little bit so the viral particles can dry out and be less infectious. Then, the individual can go in and clean. So a few days, I would say is the best we can say, but it's not a few weeks, by any means.
https://www.wpr.org/where-does-novel-coronavirus-hang-out-how-long-does-it-stay-and-how-do-i-get-rid-it
You must suffering from something much worse than “severe Jacinda Derangement Syndrome” to willingly and knowingly put the lives of fellow Kiwis at risk and cause huge economic damage. That said, drug smugglers/traffickers put their own lives at risk so those sorts of people are out there, tormented & desperate souls that are ripe for the picking by unscrupulous agents of death & doom 🙁
The outbreak strain was a new one in NZ.
NZ is rife with conspiracy theories at the moment. Some spread by senior politicians no less, for political purposes. Thought I would just add another one, holding up a mirror to that.
But they, the authorities, still seem focussed on patient zero at the Mt Wellington cool-store. In the absence of a patient further down the tree, what else have they to go on?
It's been suggested by other conspiracy theorists that they are just covering up a MIQ breach but I don't think their behaviour so far supports this theory. MoH so far have been very careful to get as much information out there as possible, consistent with their Covid eradication approach throughout. I think they'd own up to a verified mistake if that is confirmed.
While the mystery around the August outbreak continues there will be speculation.
One other thing to note is the hardcore testing of port workers and truck drivers out of Tauranga…
There are two things here: 1) containing the outbreak; 2) finding the source and prevent it from happening again.
If it was an ‘accident’ then the chances of this happening again could be quite slim given that we enjoyed 102 days of no community outbreak.
Wider, more frequent, and less intrusive (and laborious!) testing might be a good way forward even if it comes with a slightly lower accuracy and sensitivity.
On the issue of our past complacency.
It's time for a new workplace policy.
Whenever anyone takes time off because of symptoms – they inform the workplace and their colleagues are stood down until the test result is known. This would speed up people getting tests and reduce the risk of spread at the workplace (and related homes – partners workplaces and childrens schools). Thus we prevent cluster growth at the begining.
In addition to doubling sick leave to 2 weeks, the government should compensate business for the days staff are not at work while waiting for a colleageu's test result.
Another WTAF moment from Doltistan. After all the ranting from the Fanta Fascist about how fraudulent mail-in voting is, his campaign in North Carolina sends out forms for requesting mail-in ballots to voters. With the genital-grabbing gargoyle's mug plastered all over them.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/16/politics/postal-service-trump-absentee-ballot-request-mail-usps/index.html
If Trump cannot provide a postal service which is capable of handing postal votes, he does not deserve to be a nominated candidate for President.
It's an interesting question as to why Kim Jong Orange has any say whatsoever over the postal service. Article 1 section 8 clause 7 of the constitution specifically tells congress to set up a postal service, and doesn't say anything about the preznit having anything to do with it.
I'spose the likeliest explanation is congressional laziness and once they had set it up, they figured job done, and handed it over the the prez to run. That a prez might choose to sabotage it to try to gain electoral advantage would never have occurred to anybody.
There are some laws making it a felony to interfere with the postal service. It'll be worth a few tubs of popcorn if anyone tries to invoke those in the pushback against the vandalism that's happening.
Trump is desperate and he will use any tactic to increase his chance of being re elected. Postal interference from the Prez and everything was well thought out.
25 deaths overnight in Victoria. Jesus.
Scott…at least the case numbers are falling slowly…285 yesterday.
The fatalities obviously lag the case numbers.
There’s still over 2000 active cases in Victoria’s aged care sector. Sadly there will be many more deaths before this is over there.
There’s still over 2000 active cases in Victoria’s aged care sector. Sadly there will be many more deaths before this is over there.
When we do the right thing.
https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1294722809621553152
going to be really interesting to see what the world makes of us getting a second outbreak under control (assuming that we do).
Our global leadership moment about Covid-19 hasn’t popped …….. yet.
ABC news puts it like this:
"For 102 days New Zealand stood out as the global poster child of the COVID-19 era.
It was a nation at one with its "elimination" strategy, with a leader who enlisted the cooperation of citizens while Facetiming in lockdown from the frontline of her family life, and in turn delivered a virus-free return to business-as-more-or-less-usual in record time.
There are plenty of experts who agree that the Ardern Government's approach to coronavirus offers a masterclass in the management of a public health crisis.
The urgent question now facing Jacinda Ardern and New Zealanders — as cases appear to be growing quickly in a nation with a population the size of Sydney — is what this second wave will reveal about the broader effectiveness of that strategy and perhaps most importantly, how sustainable it is — politically, as well as for public health.
Australia must watch closely."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-15/new-zealand-coronavirus-new-cases-elimination-ardern/12559070
it most certainly is nothing like the flu
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/doctors-see-rise-in-limb-threatening-blood-clots-during-19-crisis/
Indeed, it's frightening AF.
Apart from the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, Covid-19 is just a mild illness, isn’t it? Think again. JUDITH GRANT, who was to have presented at this year’s Safeguard conference, outlines her personal experience.
https://www.safeguard.co.nz/databases/modus/sgfree/sgmagfree/JRNL-182-SG-56?
In a review published online in JAMA Neurology, researchers from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut examined available case reports and clinical studies and found that the most commonly observed neurological effects in COVID-19 to date are headache, anosmia, and ageusia.5 Headache may affect up to one-third of patients, while prevalence rates of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction vary widely across settings. In addition, more severe events including impaired consciousness, seizure, stroke, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and encephalopathy have also been noted in COVID-19 patients.
https://www.neurologyadvisor.com/topics/general-neurology/critical-insights-into-the-neurologic-effects-of-covid-19/
The symptoms of ischaemia in a limb cannot be ignored and the sooner symptoms are reported the greater the chance of saving a limb. Blood clots else where can be missed.
Why blood clots form in Covid needs to be understood.
Why the blood clots form does need to be understood and it looks like inflammation is a major factor. Reassuringly, trials to explore treatment options for people at risk for covid-linked blood clots are underway.
"The triggers responsible for COVID-19–associated coagulopathy remain elusive. Potential triggers include cytokine-induced overexpression of tissue factor, endothelial dysfunction with loss of its antithrombotic phenotype, stasis, and hypoxia (see figure). This study confirms the correlation between markers of inflammation and coagulation and supports the concept that inflammation is a major driver of the hypercoagulable state. An inflammation-driven hypercoagulable state has also been reported in critically ill patients with viral pneumonia caused by H1N1 or SARS-CoV-1.7 The VTE rate in such patients ranged from 5% to 25%, which is similar to the rates observed in patients with COVID-19.8–10Although intensified anticoagulation regimens may reduce the risk of a thrombotic event, the results of this study raise the possibility that they may increase major bleeding rates to unacceptable levels in critically ill patients. As the world waits for the second wave of COVID-19, randomized trials comparing anticoagulation dosing strategies are urgently needed. Fortunately, several such trials are under way."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7378461/
Trump raises the issue of a pardon for Snowden
One way to divide the neo-liberal multi-lateral global market Deep State from patriots – divide the opposition to the regime.
https://twitter.com/RachBlevins/status/1295004785003749376
i don't think anyone not planning on voting for the orange shitshow will do so because of this.
Martyred Saint Julian will be feeling the sting of betrayal. Especially since Jules actually worked to help Twitterfinger J. Putinpussy and Snowden didn't.
OMG Ashley Bloomfield displaying the patience of a saint in answering the inane questions from the journos – intent on finding some fault in the government's management of the borders.
I feel like McFlock from the other day – a deep temptation to fell them to fuck off!
If you've ever had to deliver a difficult project, or recover one that was in a mess, then had to endure ignorant senior managers question your competence and integrity and demand impossible levels of certainty – you've had a tiny taste of what Ashley is enduring. (Disclaimer: my handle is only coincidentally the same Dr B's initials)
Bloomfield is smart enough to know that the media would love it if he rose to the bait.
Tova, in particular, is a legend in her own mind.
Something that I have not heard put forward as a possibility is the dumping of frozen shit from an aircraft. It used to happen but may have been contained in more modern systems.
Any aircraft experts about?
Mt Wellington off course close to the flightpath to Mangere
It'd been a very very long time since waste dumping from commercial aircraft was a routine thing. Nowadays it needs valves to fail and leak. So blue ice incidents are only a few per year worldwide.
Also there’s very few passengers on inbound flights these days, so well within the holding capacity of the aircraft’s systems. Those passengers are all being tested as well and that strain hasn’t come up in border testing. Still a possibility from crew but they wouldn’t be going to the loo over Auckland
Those dickhead reporters are trying hard to discredit Dr Bloomfield or trying to trip him up on the testing at the border, this seems to be their angle to help the Nats to make inroads for their election chances, but it's a bit boring listening to some of these reporters questions, lots of those questions have previously asked and answered, but still they persist on this line. Where is the quality of reporters at. Fn zero.
In the US the health experts (Fauci etc) all need armed guards, get hate mail & death threats, heaps of them are quitting.
Government should note the questions with answers and present them at the start of every media show with the FAQ and if the same question comes up again, that person goes to the back of the queue – that'd larn them.
While it makes sense to delay I believe if labour werent forced by nzf with threats of a no confidence vote they would have stayed the course, Winston needs to be fired from Cabinet, he's been spreading conspiracy's to foreign media and threatening govt instability. We need an upper house (NZs parliament has far too much centralized executive power, do we really want the likes of a Nat/act coalition under Collins having unchecked power? Extend the parliamentary term by a year and add two extra boxes to tick (under MMP or STV ) Australia and USA can do it why not us?
A constitution (the fact that Winston could install Judith Collins if he really wanted to just because he doesn't like the election date needs to be a law, should he able to do that to a dying govt in the middle of a crisis or show the no Waka jumping extend to coalition partners , if a small party jumps ship should an election immediately be required? )
i believe jacinda was forced by Winston otherwise its interesting because The American left is busy trying to prove to the world that social distanced voting and postal voting is reliable, Jacinda one of the most popular world leaders inadvertently gave Trump a gift, Trump can now say "the kiwis delayed their election because they don't trust mail voting or social distancing voting during a pandemic, why should the USA"
What a mess. I just want the NZ election and the us election over. We've been hearing about both for years. Let's keep moving I guess.
Other countries have had elections in the last few months, some have delayed, it's really no big deal, at least now it's been delayed, we have a date, hopefully plans in place if further lockdown, the opposition want dissent and confusion, Adern once again shuts the trap.
Finally some good news for all those hard working citizens who have been gouged for decades by these non-performing troughers.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12357124
Just Wondering
If Judith Collins visited 51 Muslim deaths on mid March in Christchurch ?
A lot of Injuries. It would have been nice if Judith Collins had acknowledged the proceedings on Friday 15th March 2019, and its Awful carnage.
A very good restatement of the Fermi Paradox
Same if a time travel machine were possible, wouldn't one have popped up sometime in our past (unless, of course, it got stomped on by a dinosaur and is on an endless loop).
& here's proof we have slipped into a parallel universe, there are 5 Young Ones, not 4, in the first series there's another long haired hippy flatmate who just sits there and doesn't say anything, he pops up in every episode, it's bloody spooky!!! (Father Time has to step around him in the Time episode).
I always thought The Young Ones needed a science nerd as well.
Wouldn't you travel to the future?
We are always thinking and watching the USA and Trump. Let's ignore Trump and replace him with Julian Assange. Now there is a martyred hero who deserves support.
US decision to file new charges against Julian Assange ‘astonishing and potentially abusive’
Lawyer for WikiLeaks founder slams US decision to serve a second indictment at the 11th hour alleging that Assange conspired with hackers, as a potential abuse of process
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252487666/US-decision-to-file-new-charges-against-Julian-Assange-astonishing-and-potentially-abusive-court
https://7news.com.au/news/crime/lawyers-call-for-julian-assange-release-c-1243830
Trump is doing this (looking at pardoning Assange) to take the heat off the postal fiasco.